//------------------------------// // -04 Christmas Special // Story: Raising a Storm // by WonderboltWing //------------------------------// -04 Christmas Chapter "Waaakkeee uuuuuuuuppppppppppppp!" Cloudburst whined as he jumped up and down on Hail's bed, jostling the mare. She let out her own whine, and rolled over, pulling a pillow over her head. "Come oonnnn! It's Hearth's Warming todaaayyyy!" "...Can I please sleep for five more minutes, Cloud?" She pleaded, curling up under the blankets. "I'll be counting," He said after a few second's deliberation. He sat down right where he was on the bed, and began to do so. "One... Two... Three... Four... Five... Six..." She groaned and pulled the pillow closer to her, attempting to muffle his voice to no avail. "...Two hundred and ninety six, two hundred and ninety seven, two hundred and ninety eight, two hundred and ninety nine, three hundred!" He returned to jumping on the bed. "It's been five minutes Ma, get up!" She sat up in her bed, the pillow falling off her face and onto the blankets.. "fine, I'm awake, Cloud." "Yay!" He jumped off the bed and with a few flaps of his wings flew to the door. "I'm going to get Dusk!" "M'kay," She mumbled, shaking her head to get rid of the fog. "Wait..." She threw the covers off and rolled out of bed gracelessly, limbs and feathers going everywhere. She got up and ran to the front door, already finding it ajar. On the other side of the hall was Cloudburst, knocking rapidly on the apartment numbered '38'. She let out a sigh and approached him slowly, just in time for the two to pull open to reveal a rather festive looking Dusk. He looked down to Cloudburst, then up at Hail. "Nice mane," she commented, referring to the mass of tinsel that was in his mane. "It was Umbra's idea," he said firmly. "Anyway, you coming in or not?" Cloudburst ducked under Dusk and went inside quickly, a "Happy Hearth's Warming Umbra!" a few moments after. "Apparently he is, but I need to freshen up quickly," she said. "Mind looking after him for me?" "You already know the answer," He nodded. "Do hurry back though." In apartment 38 there was a total of four ponies. Two mares, one stallion and one colt. Hail exited the kitchen with a plate of cookies on her back, her wings flared to stabilise them. "...Hail, this foal must be cheating," Dusk whined, gesturing to Cloudburst. While Hail had been slaving over a hot oven making cookies (And reading a book while waiting), Dusk, Umbra and Cloudburst had been playing some board games Dusk found in the corner at the top of a closet he never used. Specifically, Mareopoly at the moment. "Either Cloudburst's read the cosmic signs and the stars have aligned causing him to gain massive luck, or this dice is loaded," Dusk went on. "...or he's just really good, Dusk," Umbra laughed softly. "Actually it's because I picked the chariot piece," Cloud said with a giggle, poking said piece with a wing. The two twins looked at him with raised eyebrows, causing him to fall into a fit of giggles. Hail looked on, amused, before sliding the plate of cookies onto the coffee table. "Well, either way, cookies." Her words made Cloudburst stop laughing immediately and sit up. "Cookies?" He asked simply, trotting over to the table, the other two not far behind. "Cookies," She confirmed with a nod, grabbing one then fluttering onto the couch and only then began nibbling on it. After Cloudburst grabbed a hooffull, Dusk snagged a few in his magic before hopping onto the couch next to Hail, Umbra doing the same but sitting on the opposite couch. Hail smiled softly, leaning on Dusk rather heavily, her wings curling around herself. In response, Dusk wrapped an arm around her loosely, pulling her closer. She let out a content sigh, finishing off her cookie post haste then snuggling into his side. Across from them, Umbra looked on, letting out a "awwww". Hail looked up at her, then poked her tongue out at the mare. Dusk glanced between the two before returning to eating his cookie. "Aw. There're no more cookies," Cloudburst pouted, wiping about a dozen or so cookie's worth of crumbs off his muzzle. Umbra glanced at him, an eyebrow raised. "I wonder why," she deadpanned. "Me too," He nodded, sitting down on the floor at the foot of Dusk and Hail's spot on the couch. Hail stared down at him. "You ate all my cookies?" "Mmhhmm," he nodded. "They were tastey." She blew a raspberry at him, then snuggled back into Dusk's fur, her gaze trailing out the window. The city had a thin layer of white covering it, reflecting the sun's light, causing it to appear to shine a slightly painful bright white. There were quite a few ponies milling about in the streets, all wrapped up in scarves and coats. "We should go out there soon," she thought aloud, shifting in place momentarily. Dusk shrugged gently as to not jostle the mare in his arms too much. "I'm all for it." "Snow?" Cloudburst looked up at them, hope in his eyes. Umbra got up off the couch, stretching like a cat. "Shall we? Or do you two lovebirds wanna cuddle a bit longer?" Hail blushed and blew a raspberry in a quite dignified manner. "A bit longer?" She asked, looking to Dusk, who nodded softly after a moment. She let out a quiet 'yay', and hugged him, resting her head on his shoulder, her breathing gentle. Dusk smiled and watched Umbra wander into the kitchen, seeming to begin washing up by the sounds of water running and pots and pans getting moved about. After a moment more of that, he gave Hail a soft affectionate squeeze, hugging her a little tighter as he nuzzled the top of her head. Hail shivered, and pressed her side into Dusk's in an attempt to steal his warmth, with moderate success. Her wings bristled up, fluffing out, before settling back down on her back. "I'm starting to regret this," She said casually to Dusk, watching Cloudburst running amok with Umbra ahead of them. "The cold?" Dusk 'guessed', giving her a sidelong look. She nodded in response, pulling the striped grey and blue scarf around her neck a little tighter. "I thought pegasi were supposed to be more resistant to colder then the other tribes," Dusk grinned ever so slightly, only half attempting to mask the playfully mocking tone in his voice. She blew a raspberry at him in response, whacking him in the back of the head with a wing tip. He laughed, only to cut himself off with a yelp from the somehow unexpected hit, then to laughed even harder. She glared at him, huffed, and stomped off, her nose held high. Then she lost it and started laughing, returning to his side. Fwump "Oh dear," Dusk said, looking at Hail, specifically the remnants of the snowball that were covering her muzzle. Fwump Dusk growled softly, wiping the snow off his face, then sending a glare towards Umbra and Cloudburst, the smaller of which was priming another snowball while the larger was creating a snow fort as fast as possible, slight panic on her face. "Hail?" He asked, his horn lighting up to copy Umbra, but with a slightly higher quality craftsmareship^. "Yes?" "I don't suppose you'd mind joining me in kicking some flank, snowball fight style?" He looked to her with a rather menacing grin on face. She gave a simple nod, the tips of her feathers reaching down to touch the snowy ground. "Sounds wonderful." Umbra let out a yelp as a snowball impacted the left side of her head, falling over out of surprise. "Cloud! Deploy countermeasures!" About twenty or so small snowballs launched from behind cover a second after she shouted it, causing Hail to blink in surprise, then yelp and duck behind the walls. "They've got us pinned down, Dusk!" "I noticed!" He said back, also up against the wall, his horn glowing as several snowballs lifted up and got flung over the top of their fort. A small yelp from the other side of the park informed the two of a successful hit, though Hail winced. "Sorry Cloud!" "It's fine Ma!" Both Dusk and Umbra shared a laugh, only to be cut off by a Simultaneous Snowball Strike(TM) from Cloudburst and Hail Storm respectively, much to their amusement. Hail let out a snicker as she watched some snow melt down Dusk's unamused face, wiping it off for him with a wing. "Thanks," he mumbled in a none too sarcastic tone, half heartedly throwing a lump of snow towards the other's fort. "Welcome~," She replied with a grin, quickly nuzzling him on the cheek, though regretting it moments later, taking a moment after that moment to wipe a small bit of slush off her face. "We don't have team names," Cloudburst's voice rang out over No Pony's Land. "This is a very big problem." Dusk gasped, and facehooved. "I forgot, somehow." He looked to Hail. "...Grey Ponny Industries?" He randomly suggested. She pondered this for a moment, sitting down on the cold snow. "No, that won't do..." "We're Green Team!" Umbra yelled, ignoring Dusk's heckle of 'How original'. "Hmm," Hail looked up to the skies for inspiration, a hoof rubbing her chin contemplatively. "Dusky Skies?" She suggested, looking down to Dusk hopefully. He chuckled quietly, and pet her on the head twice. "Rising Storm!" He called to the other side, winking at you casually, pointing out the similarities between the team name and the story's title for a moment, before getting socked in the face by a snowball. There was a moment of pause. "That came from above?" Hail sounded confused, and for a good reason. "But we haven't researched ground-to-air SnowBall-istic Missiles yet!" Cloud also sounded confused, and he, too, for a good reason. There was a moment of silence. "Fire main guns!" Dusk yelled, magicing a somewhat hefty snowball towards them, then peppering 'em with a few smaller-than-average sized ones. "Deploy flares!" Cloud yelled, throwing a few cylinder shaped bits of snow into the air that somehow attracted a few of the frozen projectiles towards them, crashing together in a rather spectacular manner, not that anypony was really paying attention. "Hail, the troops on the front lines are running out of supplies! We need those .97cal rounds delivered ASAP!" "Speak something I understand please!" "More snowballs!" "That I can do!" While the fight was most impressive and ended up drawing the attention of a nearby homeless pony (who made his own fort and completely and utterly kicked flank despite the 1 to 2 to 2 ratio), it was lost to all records, much like three player tic-tac-toe. (Which was totally a thing, by the way.) Hail groaned softly as she nursed a bruised foreleg, looking at Cloud, pouting. "That last one really hurt." "...sorry ma..." He mumbled. "Not my fault you got in the way of the snowball though," he shrugged, grinning. She blinked, then laughed quietly, petting him affectionately on the head with her good leg. "You amuse me sometimes." "He's taking after one of you, I can assure you that much," Umbra commented from the doorway of the kitchen, exiting with four mugs of warm Milo Cocoa Milo Cocoa in her magical grip. Hail chuckled gently, glancing over to Dusk, who was sleeping on his back, limbs in the air, snoring gently. "Sometimes I feel like that's a bad thing," She joked, gesturing to the stallion. His sister snorted back a few laughs, setting the drinks down on the table carefully before sitting down next to Hail. "Sometimes I have to agree with you, H," Umbra said with a soft chuckle, taking a sip of her drink. "'H'?" She asked, picking up her own cup and drinking from it. "Eeyup, 'H', H." The pegasus shrugged. "I guess," she said softly, watching Cloudburst wander up next to Dusk, then snuggle up against him and go to sleep. It brought a smile to her face, suffice to say. "Aren't they cute?" She murmured, glancing to Umbra after a probably a bit longer than moment or so. "Yeah... I remember when Dusk and I were just foals. We'd do the same thing with our parents..." Her voice took a melancholy tone, and she sighed. "The good ol' days." Hail nodded softly, not asked any more. "Oh, and Happy Hearth's Warming, Umbra." "And to you too, Hail," She responded with a slight chuckle in her voice. Dusk's eye flicked open. "And Merry Christmas, readers. Hope I don't break the meta too much." Cloudburst giggled at him. "Enjoy yourselves." A/N Merry Christmas! This might be a little late, but I’m writing this at like 01:53 AM on whatever we call the day after Christmas. I think it's 'Boxing Day'? Probably. Either way! Hope you enjoyed reading this little (for the most part) non-canonical chapter that I spent more time and effort in then the actual chapter four! This is my gift to you, I suppose. Felt like I should do it, so I did. Also the whole 'might be late' part is a bit iffy because I still have to beg ask to use Ma's hotspot to get it sent off to get proofread and stuff. And to finish in the same way I started, Merry Christmas! ~Hail Storm, Cloudburst, Dusk Cobalt and Umbra Cobalt. I still can't decide if they're Twins or just siblings. Twins works out so much better though... And also Happy Holidays, forgot that one.