“Aah!” Twilight shouts, her escape attempt foiled by her hooves trying to push through the snow. Unbalanced by the crates, just the slight and unexpected resistance is enough for her to topple over, rolling onto her back.
A bit of gray appears from underneath the white, snow shaken off to reveal a gray and white wolf. His maw curls, revealing long lines of wickedly sharp teeth, a tiny wisp of water vapor escaping. He slowly advances, seeming to glide over the snow without effort or trail.
“Hello!” Twilight shakily calls as the tan eyes trace over her. Like he is trying to decide if she is included with the meals fallen into the snow behind her. Or if the ponies would notice if one of them went missing. “I-I’m here to deliver your Winter Wrap Up meals!”
A pair of unblinking eyes meet her statement, broken only by another twitch of vapor.
“Sooo… here you go!” Twilight awkwardly rolls over, trying to get out from between the wolf and his meals.
His eyes merely track her, blinking once, head turning slightly.
“Do you… need anything else?”
The wolf’s eyes slowly trace over her flanks again, then back to Twilight’s own eyes. Then they flick to the two crates.
“You want me to carry the crates?” Twilight hesitantly backs up another step.
A snort, derisive. The wolf crouches down, as if to pounce.
Twilight is ready this time, mentally preparing herself. Wolves hunt in packs, right? And if one of them is spotted, then they can serve as a distraction for the others! Who would be circling around, getting to her blind spots! She prances back a few steps, now in the somewhat more clear path. Her head whips back and forth, scrolls threatening to leap out of her saddlebags as she madly scans about!
Nothing. Just the single wolf, still crouching, with what she swears is a mocking grin.
“Right.” Twilight nods to herself as she takes a step forwards. “You’re just a nice, cuddly, friendly wolf!”
His menacing growl is enough to stop Twilight dead in her tracks.
“Or you’re a fierce, vicious predator who nopony should think of messing with!”
He sneers, almost approvingly. But when he steps forward and looks at the crates, Twilight senses hesitation. His jaws open, wide enough to grab hold of one crate but it looks at the very least uncomfortable, if not downright painful. Twilight hesitates; but, sometimes all it takes is showing a little kindness, right?
“Here!” Twilight unhooks the straps of her cart, slipping them around the curious wolf’s shoulders. She remarks, “Glad these fit you nearly as well as a pony!” as she tightens them down, then ties the loose ends around both boxes. It wouldn’t hold for long, but as long as he’s just dragging the crates through the snow it should work.
He turns, slinking off into the woods, leaving only a trail of slightly compacted snow.
“A thank you would have been nice,” Twilight grumbles to herself as she looks at the cart. Well, she’ll just have to get more straps and come back here for it. She returns to town, walking along the plowed roads. Applejack seems to be arguing with both Blue pegasi and Green earth ponies, but too far away to hear. “You know,” Twilight says to herself, “it would have been nice recording what happened.” She stops to do just that, wishing Spike had been there with her, though the bright sun feels nice during her short break.
Her latest scroll complete and tucked away, and Twilight quickly finds Amethyst Star. The Gold Leader takes one look at Twilight, a large smile breaking out. “You managed to deliver all the crates? That’s great! I’ve got a couple more places for you to go, then!”
“I don’t know, Amethyst Star,” Twilight says, somewhat reluctantly. “I kind of wanted to see what some of the other jobs were like.”
Amethyst Star tries to smile encouragingly. “You sure? You could be waking up critters like snakes! They’re very cuddly!”
Twilight manages to keep her smile intact.
“Or bats! Aren’t they the cutest?”
Twilight finds her conviction fading fast.
“Or skunks! I think you’ll find them quite friendly!”
Twilight shakes her head. “While that sounds, um, great, I think I’m going to try something else. Thanks, though!” She spots Spike as Amethyst Star sighs, several unicorns rushing over to frantically inform with the Gold Leader of some crisis or another.
The dragon comes over, “Hey, Twilight! You wouldn’t believe how easily dragon breath cuts through snow! I just have to be careful with it, but those cute little geckos loved it! Woke ‘em right up!”
“I’m glad to hear it, Spike. My trip went well, too! I certainly learned a lot.” Twilight sloshes through a bit of melted snow, having to skip from awning to awning as a few pegasi work to shovel snow off the roofs. She frowns as she spots Rainbow Dash arguing with a few tan and green jacketed ponies. “I wonder what their problem is?”
“Always seems like there’s something going wrong,” Spike says with a frown.
Rainbow Dash throws her hooves into the air. “I can’t spare anypony else! We’re too hard at work clearing out the clouds! You’re just going to have to move those seeds yourself!” She turns from the earth pony to the unicorn. “And we need somepony who can-” She cuts herself off as she spots Twilight. “Hey! Just the pony I was hoping to see!”
“Me?” Twilight says, holding a hoof to her chest. “Why me?”
“Well,” Rainbow says, looking up at the sky, “Pinkie Pie’s a little behind on cutting up the ice on all the lakes into manageable sizes. You know, pieces that’ll melt uniformly, so we don’t have big chunks of ice remaining after everything is supposed to be cleaned up?” Twilight nods. “So, if you aren’t doing anything else, think you can go help her out?”
“Um, I’ve never skated before, but I did want to go talk to Pinkie Pie.” Twilight nods to herself. “I can do that!”
Rainbow grins, pointing towards one of the ponds. “Great! I think she even has a spare set of skates for, I dunno, skate based emergencies or something. Stay safe!” She turns to Fluttershy. “What’s this you’re saying about the animals waking up too fast? How can anything be too fast? We’re running out of time as it is!”
Twilight trots to the pond, a few of the smaller lakes she passes already cut up and melting into tiny pieces. Pinkie Pie is hard at work scoring lines on the pond when she arrives, the spare set of skates laid out as if Pinkie was expecting Twilight to come. Twilight laces up the skates, a little awkward especially for her first time both with skates and with her hooves.
Pinkie Pie zooms back and forth, her skates cutting deep lines in the ice. “Hi, Twilight! Come… to help? It’ll be… great to have somepony… here with me!” She waves as Twilight unsteadily makes her way onto the frozen pond. Twilight tries to wave back, but lifting her hoof off the ice for even the brief moment sends her toppling down.
Pinkie Pie skids to a stop, sending a shower of ice arcing over Twilight’s body. She offers a hoof, “You okay?”
Twilight accepts the help, shakily getting to her hooves again. “I think so! So, you’re cutting lines into the pond?”
“Yup!” Pinkie Pie nods as she releases Twilight, beginning to skate again. “That way when the weather team comes, the ice will break up into nice chunks. Easy as pie!” She glances over as Twilight slowly starts skating along the edge of the pond. “I hope you’re a fast learner, Twi!” She zooms past the unicorn, nearly knocking her down. “Because if you want to score deep enough, you’ll need to pick up the pace!”
Twilight grimaces as she compares the light lines through the ice she made against the deep lines of Pinkie Pie. She coasts to the bank, unsure of her ability to turn. She starts again, doing her best to match the wavering line she made before. As she glides along, her smile slowly gets bigger; she’s getting the hang of this! She glances over as Rainbow Dash flies to where Tank is buried, an exasperated huff at the tortoise still not being awake, then going back to the pegasi following her.
She stops where she started, skidding to a stop at the intersection of deeply cut lines. Where to go next? She studies Pinkie Pie’s design; it is… to put it nicely, freeform. Big, looping arcs and curves with no discernable rhyme or pattern. Except that Pinkie Pie will later come through the same area and with a zigzag or curlicue divide it perfectly!
Twilight marvels at the sight; to keep the entirety of the surface in your head, and be able to quickly and flawlessly divvy up? Incredible! She starts to build a mental picture of her own, of the different methods of organizing such a task; a grid system is certainly the easiest to keep track of, and include others as they come and go. But Pinkie Pie has been doing this for years. She probably got bored of something so routine, and just does this to mix it up!
Her amazement turns to puzzlement as Pinkie Pie skates directly towards her, ruining every shape in the way.
“Twilight!”
Twilight cocks her head to the side, only for the thin and broken ice she is standing on to creak and groan under her weight. Her eyes go wide in panic, lifting one hoof only for the others to shift from the increased pressure, threatening to send her into the icy depths! And then she’d get hypothermia, if not worse, and that’s if they managed to rescue her at all! Hitting the cold water without a chance to acclimate could put a pony into shock, which meant that-
All the air escapes Twilight’s lungs as Pinkie Pie charges her, bodily knocking her onto a more solid chunk of ice. Twilight slides along her side while Pinkie Pie gets her skates under her, dragging the two to a stop.
“Nice inelastic collision, Pinkie,” Twilight says as she catches her breath, rubbing her sore side. “Thanks.”
“No problem!” Pinkie Pie says, though she loses a little of her cheer as she looks back over the pond. The deep line cutting through the center of the pond is starting to break everything up, yet a good portion remains unscored. “Oh. Maybe it is a little bit of a problem.”
“Don’t worry, Pinkie!” Twilight says optimistically. “We’ll be able to finish this off!”
“Twilight.” Pinkie Pie hedges for a few seconds, obviously conflicted about what she is about to say. Twilight seems to sense this, a bit of her cheer disappearing. “I… I’m sorry, Twilight. But I’m too worried about you sinking into the weak ice to do a good job. It’s slowing us both down, and we don’t have that much time before the ice melts, or you fall in and we have a bad day.” She pulls Twilight’s eyes directly next to her. “And I don’t have bad days.”
Twilight sighs, a bit of resignation seeping through her voice. “I know, Pinkie Pie. Thanks for giving me a chance. I’m only sorry I didn’t do better.” She strips off the skates, leaving them by the edge of the pond.
Pinkie Pie nearly frowns, but it could be a look of grim determination instead. She begins skating about, faster than before. “And now I’m even more behind… oh, if only there were more of me helping out!”
“Hey, maybe I can help there!” Twilight looks towards Sweet Apple Acres. “I can send Doug over to help with the skating!”
“Oh, that’d be great! Thanks, Twilight!” Pinkie Pie pronks along behind her, despite continuing to wear the skates. Behind her the remaining large chunks break into the perfectly sized portions. “And if there are other ponies without much to do, we can get them to help, too!”