WinterHaven, a small town mostly forgotten about on the northern border of Equestria. Here, the cold and harsh winter prevails eight months out of the year. It is for this reason that it is mostly populated by earth ponies, as their natural hardiness allows them to withstand the winter more than unicorns or pegasi.
Despite this, there is still a healthy population of both, with unicorns making up a fifth, and pegasi a quarter of the population. Most of the time, the pegasi can be found trying to calm the ferocious storms that occur weekly, while the unicorns use their magics to help the buildings remain standing during the worst of times, where the others can rest and have a warm home to return to.
Due to the nature of their location, they rarely get aid from the outside world, meaning that they must fight the elements to produce everything they need on their own. This has driven them to have a fairly small diet of plants that can grow in the harshness of the winter. If it wasn't for the effort and teamwork of every pony that lives in this little village, it would quickly be wiped away and abandoned to the elements.
The faint glow of magenta magic disappeared and. with a small disturbance, the quill dropped down to the old desk. The young grey unicorn foal read his paper over, checking for errors. He was only tasked with a short paper that was to describe a little part of the village and how they survived. He was fairly certain what he wrote would pass as he climbed out of the chair and headed to the closet, digging out his scarf, some boots, and an old jacket.
He sighed as he looked into the stand up mirror, his short and fiery mane standing out from his ash grey coat and light blue eyes.
His head snapped to the door as it opened, his father earth pony father walking in. “Winter Blast, are you ready? It's almost time for you to get goin’ to school.”
Winter took a moment to take in his father's beige coat and his short, curly light blue hair. Deep down, Winter was quite glad that his hair took more after his mother's, being straight and easier to brush out.
With a nod, Winter responded. “Yeah. I'm ready. I think I'll have my paper on the village done on time.” He said as they walked out of the lone bedroom in the house, and into the kitchen.
He wondered about adding in the reasoning for why they all lived in small houses, but decided it was best if he didn’t. The paper was supposed to be short and adding the explanation would have made it too long. He thought back to the night he learned the reason as he grabbed his saddlebags.
“Dad? Why is our home so small?” A younger Winter asked, curled up in the main living space of the house.
“That's an easy question to answer. But also a very important one. It's easier to make a smaller home warm, than some of the bigger homes that hold more ponies.” His father replied quietly, watching yet another blizzard pass through.
“Then why don't we move into one of the bigger homes with one of the other families?” To Winter, this seemed like an easy answer to the problem. The more ponies and magic concentrated in one area, the bigger the home that could be warmed.
“We could, but those homes not only take a very long time to build, but they also require more upkeep than our simple little home that we have here.” He replied, glancing around the room.
“Not to mention that your mother and her father have spent years laying heating glyphs into each stone to help keep our home warm even when no one is here.”
Exiting the home, Winter quietly thought to himself on when he would be expected and able to add his own magic to the glyphs to help them last longer. The only answer he ever got was “When you're older” and then the topic quickly would change.
He barely registered the strong flurry of snow that threatened to bowl him over as his father blocked most of it with his larger size. Not that it would have bothered him anyways. Growing up in this area had strengthened his sense of balance and allowed him to somewhat detect when the gusts would come.
A few minutes passed with only the soft crunching of snow and the howling wind. He knew that in just a few more he would be in the school house, preparing for yet another day of classes.
To any other foal anywhere else, it would have been just another day of lessons of math, science, history, and geography. But here in WinterHaven, schooling was different. Here, the focus of school was to help grow the skills of foals with theory and practice to help them better understand what they would be contributing to the community when they were old enough.
Winter wasn't sure what his group would be studying today, as they had just finished yet another week of core basics and now it was time for two weeks of practicals. He was sure though they would be studying homes and the foundations of safe living this time for sure, but he always thought that.
Nodding a goodbye to his father, he ran up the steps into the large common room of the schoolhouse. Easily the biggest building in town, it was built only three generations ago to provide a safe place for all the foals to learn and practice their magic. The high ceiling allowed plenty of space for young pegasi to practice their flight skills while the earth ponies and unicorns used the ground below to practice theirs.
Winter shrugged off his clothing, briefly wondering when the older students were going to use the common room again for one of their joint exercises, where all three would have to complete a series of tasks that the teachers would put together for them. Usually, this meant allowing the outside elements indoors, and would always mean it was a study day, where the younger foals would be left to their own devices, so long as they didn't interrupt or get in the way.
Suddenly, everypony in the common room stopped. To Winter, it felt as if a wave of pressure just suddenly passed by him, forcing him to remain still. With a glance, he looked at some of the others, and they all shared the same frightened expression that he wore at the unusual sensation. The next thing anyone knew, the storms had come inside.