Soarin followed Starlight as they traveled down Ponyville, heading towards the snowy part of the town. He looked around to see the pegasi, unicorns, and earth ponies hard at work, but still enjoying each other's company. To him, it was a nice town. Everyone just seemed to get along. Something he wished happened in every part of Equestria.
I guess that's the reason why the Cutie Map tells the girls to go everywhere else
They eventually stopped at the border of the snow now lying on the ground. Starlight turned around to face Soarin.
"Okay," she began, "your group is up there."
She motioned up to the sky above, where three pegasi gently pushed clouds into certain spots before flying away to collect more.
"What you're gonna do is go to the weather ponies, take the cloud and move it right next to the last cloud placed," Starlight explained.
Soarin nodded confidently. "Alright, that seems easy enough."
"That's the first part," Starlight continued, "After enough clouds are placed, you have to get the jars of winds from the weather ponies and follow the wind directors. They'll take care of it from there. Then after that, you have to jump on the clouds to start the snow..."
Starlight continued to explain everything that Soarin will have to do. He was used to a lot of work, but this was insane. How did Dash do this every year?
"Lunch break is in two hours, so come back to the castle then. If you need me, I'll be helping Rarity with the birds," she waved goodbye and left Soarin to begin his work.
"Finally!" Soarin exclaimed as he placed the final cloud in position. For a small town, there was a lot of sky to cover. He turned around to collect the first jar of wind.
"Okay, Soarin, you're gonna give this jar to that mare in the uniform. Be extremely careful, one small crack can cause a tornado," the weather pony warned.
"Yes, sir," Soarin carefully held the jar as if it was his own foal. He looked at the mare and flew slowly but progressively enough to get to her on time and not harm the jar.
He handed the jar over to mare, who looked for a good direction to open it.
"I'll take it from here, Soarin," the mare said as she continued to look around.
Soarin jumped slightly at the voice. There was something familiar about it.
It couldn't be...
He brushed off the strange thought before continuing on with his work.
"Alright, everypony! Let's all go get lunch and rest for a while. Meet back here in thirty minutes so we can get the snow falling in the area," Mayor Mare yelled.
Soarin flew back to the castle just as Starlight instructed. In all honesty, he was getting tired. Most of Ponyville was finished, so he was glad majority of the work was done. He eventually made it to the castle and walked into the Cutie Map room, where Dash and Twilight seemed to be all day.
Dash seemed more awake now, as in she was able to keep her eyes open for once. She smiled as Soarin walked in.
"Hey, Soar!" She greeted happily.
"Hey, how are you feeling?" He walked over to her to give her a kiss on the cheek before sitting beside her.
"I'm feeling okay, still a little drowsy I guess," she shrugged.
"She has definitely woken up since you left, but her fever is still the same," Twilight stated.
"I hope you get better soon, Dash, it's lonely out there. I don't exactly know a lot of ponies here," Soarin smiled sheepishly before a memory entered his train of thought.
"That reminds me, have you guys heard from Blaze since Canterlot?"
Starlight walked into the room as Soarin asked his random question while Twilight and Dash stared at the Wonderbolt in silence. No one has really mentioned Blaze since that day.
"Blaze," Starlight began, "was that the girl who tried to ruin your relationship?"
Dash nodded before looking back at Soarin. "Why bring her up?"
"I swear I heard her earlier when we were bringing the jars of wind down."
"That's ridiculous, someone would've noticed her in a town like this," Starlight said.
"Maybe you've been working too hard today. Take a load off," Dash suggested.
"Fluttershy, Rarity, Applejack, and Pinkie will be here soon, and Applejack is gonna bring some food from her farm. I'm sure she'll bring one of those apple pies you seem to love," Twilight added, laughing lightly at the end.
Soarin rolled his eyes when, as if on cue, Applejack walked in with a wagon filled with food, followed by the rest of the friends.
"Hiya, everypony!" Pinkie greeted happily as she bounced her way into her throne.
"Hey, girls. What took so long?" Dash asked.
"Well, SOMEPONY decided to use the first ten minutes of her lunch break to finish a whole section of Sweet Apple Acres while we waited on her!" Rarity announced, being her dramatic self.
"You could've gone ahead without me. I'd catch up," Applejack defended.
"Alright, you two. Let's just enjoy our break while we can," Twilight said.
"You're right," Applejack looked through the wagon, "I brought over some caramel apple, apple fritter, apple fries, and apple pie."
"Can I have the apple pie?" Soarin asked excitedly.
"Of course, Soarin, made it just for you," Applejack handed him over the pie, which he happily ate.
After everyone had finished eating Applejack's delicious food, they left the castle to get back to work.
Dash, who was wide awake at this point, began to fly out the castle as well before being stopped by Soarin.
"You know what Twilight said. You have to relax," Soarin ordered, to which Dash rolled her eyes.
"I'm feeling fine. Plus there's not much left to finish, so why can't I just help for an hour or something?" She asked.
"Because the cold weather could make you sicker! And I don't want that."
"You're so protective! If I can handle all our stunts in the Wonderbolts and sonic rainbooms I can handle cold weather," Dash defended.
"Fine," Soarin sighed in defeat, "but the second you start to slow down you have to go home and rest until I get back."
"Deal."