//------------------------------//
// Spring Comes How? 
// Story: Starlight Glimmer and Friends:  Adventures in Equestria (Season 1) 
// by StormLuna 
//------------------------------//

It was still dark when Starlight and Spike were woken up by a knock on their door.  Naturally this did not sit well with the two.  Starlight headed to the door and was greeted by Applejack and Lemon Hearts.  She wiped her eyes and asked, "Don't you know what time it is?  Why are you waking me up so early?"

Applejack replied, "Well today is Winter Wrap Up day and everypony gets up early so they can help clean up winter and bring in spring."

This was a completely foreign concept to Starlight as in not just Canterlot, but her hometown, magic was used.  She grumbled, "Clean up winter?  How the hay do you do that?"

Spike had woken up by this time and joined in on the conversation, "Don't you just use magic to change the seasons like everypony else does?"

Lemon Hearts replied, "No, Ponyville was founded by earth ponies and it has never needed magic to change the seasons."

Starlight got a scowl on her face and snapped, "Look, whatever it is you do to 'clean up winter', if you want me to be at my best you'll let me sleep until dawn, alright?"

Starlight slammed the door and headed back to bed.  She grumbled, "Change the seasons without magic?  How the hay do you do that and WHY would you want to do it that way?"

Spiked sighed, "I don't know."





Three hours had passed and everypony was gathered outside the town hall, except for two.  Starlight and Spike were finishing eating and realized that they were late.  While Starlight loathed tardiness, she dreaded heading to this meeting.  After a minute of hesitation her and Spike headed to this meeting and joined their friends.  While most of them seemed enthusiastic about the activity, one did not.  Starlight stepped up by Moondancer and saw a scowl on her face.  She asked, "Were you woke up early too?"

Moondancer replied, "Unfortunately yes.  Lemon Hearts should know that neither one of us likes being woke up early and this whole cleaning up winter thing, it makes no sense!"

Starlight added, "Tell me about it.  I haven't heard anything about how they clean up winter but all I know is that they don't use magic."

A pony nearby said, "Shhhh" as the mayor began her speech.

The mayor began, "Hello everypony and good morning.  I want to thank you in advance for helping us clean up winter and bring in spring!"

Most of the ponies cheered while Starlight grumbled, "Well I guess we're about to see what this is all about."

Moondancer added, "Why is it I have a bad feeling about this?"

The mayor continued, "Now in previous years we have fallen behind and spring has always been late but this year let's do our best to bring spring in on time."

Again most of the ponies cheered and the mayor finished, "Now find your teams everypony and let's get working."

Most all of the ponies had team vests on except for three, Starlight, Moondancer and the mayor.  This caused Moondancer to grunt, "What about the mayor?  Does she take part in this or does she sit in her office and do nothing?"

Starlight looked around and said, "Well I guess we better get going."  Moondancer began to follow her and Starlight continued, "I'm thinking we better check on separate things and see if we can help."

Moondancer sighed, "Yeah, you're right."  She pointed her hoof to her left and said, "I'll go see if anypony needs help this way" she pointed her hoof to her right and continued, "and you see if anypony needs help that way."





The two parted ways and it would not be long until Starlight ran into Rarity making nests.  She approached her and asked, "Rarity is it?"

Rarity replied, "Yes, I'm Rarity."

Starlight asked, "Rarity, what are you doing?"  She took a closer look and continued, "Are you making birds nests?"

Rarity proudly held up the nest she had made and replied, "Why yes darling.  You see when the birds come home they'll need somewhere to lay their eggs."  Rarity saw Starlight glaring at the elegance of the nest and continued, "And I want to make sure they have the finest nests."

Starlight did a facehoof and asked, "Why in Equestria are you making birds nests?  Don't they make their own?"

Spike, who had been mostly quiet added, "Are they really that lazy that they have to have ponies make them for them?"

Rarity sighed, "Well we want them to be comfortable when they arrive.  We certainly can't have the poor dears with no place to live."

Starlight narrowed her eyes and saw that she was alone.  She continued, "And why are you doing this alone?  Shouldn't somepony be helping you?"

Rarity looked around and asked, "Well would you like to try it?  You could always help!"

Despite thinking this was ridiculous agreed, "Oh alright, I'll help you.  Mine may not be fancy but they'll be sufficient."

Before Rarity could say anything Starlight began grabbing hay and started making nests left and right.  Rarity was shocked and not pleased about this.  She smacked Starlight's horn and asked, "Starlight, what are you doing?  You're supposed to do this by hoof!  We don't use magic for this!"

Starlight looked at her pile of fifty nests and suggested, "Well maybe you should.  You just barely finished one and I made fifty of them in nothing flat!"

Rarity added, "And look at your nests, they are hideous!  They are so plain."

Spike chimed in, "They may not be elegant but they are practical."

Rarity sighed, "I'm thinking maybe nest making isn't your thing.  I'm sure somepony else could use your help, WITHOUT USING MAGIC!"





Starlight and Spike headed off, neither one of them happy.  Spike said, "I don't get it.  You made fifty great nests and she doesn't even thank you!"

Starlight grunted, "Well perhaps somepony else will be more appreciative of my help."

Soon they would run into Twinkleshine and Fluttershy trying to wake up animals.  When she saw the two simply ringing a bell outside of their nests, sticking their heads in telling them to get up and ringing the bell again, she couldn't help but sigh over the inefficiency.

She walked up to Twinkleshine and asked, "Twinkleshine, what are you two doing?"  She saw some animals come out of a burrow that Fluttershy just handled and asked, "Are you waking up animals?"

Twinkleshine replied, "Yes."  She pointed over towards Fluttershy and continued, "Fluttershy is teaching me how.  She said that if you don't wake them up slowly that it may startle them and we don't want them to be scared."

Starlight glared at all the burrows in the hillside and sighed, "You know, the method you two are using is horribly inefficient."  She raised her voice and continued, "At the rate you're going, you won't get them all woke up until The Summer Sun Festival!"

Fluttershy heard Starlight's comment and yelled, "Starlight, I get most of them woke up on time every year and with Twinkleshine's help, we'll have them awake on time!"

Starlight couldn't help but laugh over the comment and then something came to her mind.  She said, "You know, I know exactly how to get these little beasts up on time!"

Spike asked, "How will you do it."

Starlight, without responding, began firing bolts of energy at the hill.  While this did cause all the animals to go rushing out of their burrows, it also caused the hillside to collapse and destroy all the burrows.  Starlight had a sheepish grin on her face and said, "Uh, well maybe it wasn't the best way but it did wake them up!"

While Twinkleshine gave her a look of disgust, Fluttershy, who is usually calm, went into a rage, "Starlight Glimmer, that is not how we do it around here!"  She pointed her hoof at the hill and yelled, "And thanks to you, all my poor critter friends are going to have to rebuild their burrows!"

Starlight gave her a smile and replied, "Well I could use my magic to fix the hill and dig their burrows for them!"

Twinkleshine gave her a glare, "Starlight, I know this Winter Wrap Up thing is foreign to all of us, but we have to do things the earth pony way.  They have never used magic for this and we need to stick to tradition."

Starlight sighed, "Well Spike, shall we go see if anypony else, somepony who will actually appreciate us, needs our help."

Spike replied, "Yeah, we should."

As they were leaving Fluttershy yelled, "Maybe you just aren't cut out for doing things without magic.  Maybe you need to just leave everypony alone."

Starlight grunted in frustration and sighed, "You know something, maybe she's right.  Maybe we should just let them bungle their way through this and be late like they are every year."





Spike nodded and they headed back towards the library where they would be met by Moondancer, who had a less than thrilled look on her face.  In unison they asked, "I take it they didn't appreciate your help?"

The two began to laugh in unison, "No they didn't!"

Starlight headed into the library and suggested, "Come in Moondancer, let's get out of the cold."

Moondancer followed her in and they began to discuss how things went.  Moondancer began, "You know, I just don't get these ponies!  Get this, they had ONE pony trying to score all the lakes and there are a lot of lakes here!"

Starlight gasped, "Seriously, one pony?  Who was this pony?"

Moondancer replied, "It was that one that Minuette gets along with so well, Pinkie Pie."

Starlight asked, "So how well was she doing?"

Moondancer snapped, "Horrible!  She was out there acting like a figure skater so I used my magic to start melting the ice and she got mad at me!  She told me that I was only making matters worse and I melted the ice of four of the lakes!  She should be thanking me instead of yelling at me!"

Starlight said, "And you don't even want to know what happened with me."

Moondancer replied, "Actually I would.  What happened?"

Starlight said, "Get this, they had ONE pony making birds nests!  For some odd reason, they don't think the birds should have to make their own nests!  To make matters worse, I tried helping Rarity make these nests and she got mad at me!  I made fifty of them in nothing flat and it took her hours just to make one fancy nest!  She ran me off and didn't even thank me for making those nests!"

Moondancer was shocked.  She asked, "You made fifty of them in nothing flat and Rarity got mad?"

Starlight replied, "Yes, she did.  She claimed that not only should I have made them by hoof, but that my nests looked hideous!"

Spike added, "Yeah, Starlight's nests were practical and well made but she insults her like that."

Moondancer added, "And you don't even want to know what happened on the farm."  She took a breath and continued, "Ok, they have stallions plowing the snow away and good grief, if it hadn't been for me, they'd never get it done!  I started using my magic to melt the snow and both Lemon Hearts and Applejack yelled at me for making things more efficient!"

Starlight replied, "You know, I thought Applejack would appreciate you trying to speed things up.  She always reminded me of the type that would want things done on time."

Moondancer said, "Well the Apple Family is very traditional and I can tell Lemon Hearts is part of that family, she is suddenly big on sticking to the earth pony way with things like this."

Starlight finished, "Well after angering Rarity I thought I would go over and see if Twinkleshine and Fluttershy needed help."  She rolled her eyes and continued, "Get this, they were ringing a bell outside individual burrows, sticking their heads in telling them it was time to get up and then rang the bell again.  At that rate, it would have been time for The Summer Sun Celebration before they got all those little beasts woke up!"

Moondancer couldn't help but laugh, "Seriously?  They were using that time consuming method?"

Starlight replied, "Yes, they were.  I figured I would help out by speeding up the process so I fired some energy at the hill and I'll tell you something, that got those little beasts awake and out of their burrows in nothing flat!"  She got a sheepish grin on her face and continued, "Unfortunately, that caused the hill to collapse and all their burrows were destroyed."

Moondancer asked, "Did that upset those two?"

Starlight replied, "Yes, Twinkleshine is really mad at me and I've probably made a mortal enemy out of Fluttershy."  She threw her hooves up in frustration, "You know, I really think we need to talk to Celestia.  I have a feeling that even some of our friends are mad at us."

Moondancer asked, "Are you suggesting we go up to Canterlot?"

Starlight replied, "Yes and besides, this would be a great chance for me to get my lock box since we had to leave on such short notice when we came here."

Moondancer said, "Well, I'll join you."

Spike suggested, "I think it would be great for you."  He yawned and continued, "But could I stay here?  I'm really tired."

Starlight replied, "Yes, you stay here and get some rest."  She headed towards the door and continued, "Well Moondancer, shall we?"

Moondancer nodded and they headed off towards the train station. 





As soon as they disembarked from the train they headed immediately to the palace to talk to Celestia.  When they arrived Celestia asked, "Starlight, Moondancer, shouldn't you be helping out with Winter Wrap Up down in Ponyville?"

Starlight replied, "Yeah, about that.  We did help them but they yelled at us and they didn't even say thank you for the help."

Moondancer added, "We just did what any unicorn would do and tried to speed things up!"

Celestia gave them a half smile, "Let me guess, you two used magic to try and speed things up?"

Starlight replied, "Yes, we did.  I will admit, I can make great nests and do it in nothing flat but apparently that isn't good enough....."

Celestia interrupted, "Look, I know you two meant well and simply wanted to help, but most small towns don't take kindly to magic being used in things like this."

Starlight said, "Well back home that's how we did it!  We used magic!"

Celestia giggled, "Starlight, that's how it is in Unicornville.  Your hometown was founded by unicorns so of course it will be that way.  Ponyville was founded by earth ponies so for hundreds of years they've never used magic or needed to."

Moondancer said, "But their mayor said they are always late and we wanted to help fix that!  We wanted to help them get it done on time."

Celestia's look became more stern as she continued, "Like I said, I know you meant well but when you live in an earth pony community, you need to follow their customs for things like this."

Both her students finally realized that what they did was wrong prompting Starlight to ask, "What are we going to do?  I know Twinkleshine and Lemon Hearts are mad at us and I have a feeling the whole town is not pleased with us."

Moondancer asked, "What do we do to make it to where they won't want to run us out of town?"

Celestia replied, "Well the first thing I would do is try and help them with this their way and then apologize to the whole town and let them know that you're sorry for everything you did."

The idea of doing things the earth pony way made both of them cringe given the slow nature of it but knew it had to be done.  Starlight said, "Well then, that's what we'll do."  She looked at Moondancer and suggested, "Well shall we get going?"

Moondancer nodded and they headed out of the palace.  Before leaving town they headed up to Starlight's study tower to retrieve her lock box.  When they got in Starlight looked around and said, "You know, I really wish we still lived up here.  I miss this place so much."

Moondancer replied, "I can only imagine.  You had such a wealth of knowledge up here and the library down there is so small."

Starlight said, "Well this is what Celestia had in store for us."  Her voice became more intense as she continued, "I'll admit, I don't like what Celestia did, making us all leave everything we had up here behind but I suppose it beats getting tossed from being her protege."

Moondancer nodded in agreement as Starlight headed into her old bedroom and retrieved her lock box.  Moondancer saw that Starlight was holding it in a stronger than normal aura.  She asked, "Starlight, I don't mean to pry or anything but why are you so protective of that thing?  What's in it?"

This caused Starlight to intensify her hold on it and reply, "What is in it is classified.  Nopony but me knows and can ever know what is in it."

Moondancer asked, "Not even Celestia or Spike?"

Starlight, despite knowing Moondancer had no bad intentions snapped, "Like I said, NOPONY can know.  I will guard this thing with my life if I have to."

Moondancer replied, "I'm sorry Starlight, I didn't mean to upset you."

Starlight realized that perhaps she shouldn't have been so snappy in her response.  She calmed down and replied, "It's alright Moondancer."  She headed towards the door and sighed, "Well, as much as I would love to just stay here for a few decades, oops, I mean hours, think we better get going?"

Moondancer replied, "Yeah we probably better."

Despite not being in the best of moods, the two returned to Ponyville hoping that they could make amends with the town so they would not only be forced out of town, but potentially upset Celestia as well. 





When they arrived back in Ponyville the ponies were arguing over things not being done and the fact that the sun was lowering towards the horizon only made matters worse.  Moondancer saw this and asked, "Starlight, don't you think we better go over and try to calm them down?"

Starlight replied, "Not until I get my lock box locked up in my safe."

Moondancer asked, "You have a safe?"

Starlight replied, "Yes, I do and nopony but me knows how to get into it."

Moondancer knew that that was Starlight's way of saying that she didn't want her knowing about anything that was in there.  When they headed into the library Starlight said, "Moondancer, you wait up here?  I'm going downstairs." 

Despite knowing that she had to hurry up and get out there so she could help, as she was locking her box up, she held it in her hooves, kissed it and said, "Oh it is so good to have you back with me again!"  She lowered her voice and continued, "Don't worry, I'm never leaving you alone like that ever again!"

Moondancer heard her talking and asked, "Starlight, are you alright?  I heard you talking to somepony."

Starlight locked her box up and rushed back upstairs.  She replied, "Oh, I'm alright.  Well we better get back to trying to help them."  





Once they left the library they rushed over to the town hall to find that the yelling between ponies had become much more intense and that Rainbow Dash was on the receiving end of all the yelling.  While Starlight was there trying to figure out what to do, Moondancer knew what they needed.  She yelled, "Stop with the arguing, that won't get anything done!"

The crowd went silent and turned to her.  Moondancer continued, "Look, I know you want to get your jobs done on time but arguing ain't going to get it done."  She got a smile on her face and continued, "What you need is organization and Starlight and I can help you out with that!"

Everypony headed back to do their jobs and Starlight would aid one group and Moondancer would aid the other.  Despite her still thinking it was an antiquated way of doing things, Starlight had gathered multiple ponies to work on the nests so that it would get done on time. 

Moondancer headed over to join Pinkie in the lake scoring.  While she couldn't stand on skates to save her soul, she was able to convince many, many ponies to join Pinkie in this endeavor.  Much to Moondancer's delight, her plan worked perfectly and the lakes were scored. 

Lemon Hearts, while she was doing things the Apple Family way, had her own way of speeding things up.  She suggested that the seeds be planted right behind the snow plow and much to Applejack's delight, it worked and sped things up significantly.  

After a full night of non-stop work the ponies of Ponyville were able to get winter cleaned up on time.  As the mayor announced this and stated that if it weren't for Starlight and Moondancer, that they would not have got it done.  The ponies began to cheer the two and this was the time the two knew they needed to follow Celestia's advice. 

Starlight began, "Well thank you everypony but there is something I need to say."  The crowd gave her a curious look as she continued, "For those I tried to help yesterday, I'm very sorry.  I know I shouldn't have used magic to help with the nests and Fluttershy, I'm very sorry I ruined the burrows of your critter friends."

While Fluttershy was unsure as to whether she should accept the apology or not, Twinkleshine nudged her prompting her to say, "It's alright Starlight, I know you meant well."

Moondancer added, "I too am sorry for using magic when I tried to help."  She cast her gaze towards Applejack and continued, "And especially you, I shouldn't have done what I did on your farm.  I know now that I was wrong in doing so.  I just hope you can find it in your heart to forgive me."

Applejack walked up to her, hugged her and replied, "Alright, I forgive you.  I can tell you're sorry."





After all the ponies had dispersed and headed home to relax after cleaning up winter, Starlight, Moondancer and Spike were meeting in the library.  Starlight said, "You know, this may surprise you but I actually feel good that we were able to help them get this done without using magic."

Moondancer added, "Yeah, I as well.  I always thought that to do something like this that magic was necessary but I guess the ponies here proved us wrong."

Spike asked, "So, are you two going to get them organized at the very beginning next year?"

Despite feeling good about helping them get it done, neither one of the two were exactly looking forward to any further Winter Wrap Ups.  Starlight replied, "You know, I think I have some sort of festival I need to be at in Las Pegasus during the next Winter Wrap Up."

Moondancer added, "You know something Starlight, I think I'm planning on going to the same festival."  She turned towards Spike and continued, "You know, maybe you could get them organized since we won't be available."

Spike shook his head knowing the two were already planning ways to get out of this next year.  He replied, "Oh you two, what am I going to do with you?"

The three began to laugh knowing that what they were talking about likely wouldn't come to pass, although Starlight was planning ways for her and Moondancer to get out of this in the future.