Twilight hummed, looking over the charts and shaking her head. “Really? This… this is the issue?”
“Yep,” Moondancer mumbled, glancing out the window. There were a few shadows, but nothing very detailed. “Not sure why Nightmare Moon is sending me, though...”
“… I’m with you. How bad was it last year?”
The unicorn glanced over. “Well… considering their Winter Wrap Up was supposed to be done ages ago… Last year I think they were… a month past due?”
Twilight nodded. It hadn’t even been that cold a winter, though. How bad could it b--
“Holy BUCK!” Spike said, his mouth falling open when the town came into view of the train. Twilight glanced out and froze.
“H-holy buck...” she whispered.
“Yeah, that’s about right...” Moondancer mumbled, unable to take her eyes off the scene.
The town was blanketed entirely in snow. She could see ponies running around, shoveling it up, fixing what they could. But it was an obvious disaster.
“How?” Twilight asked.
“Finish reading the report,” Moondancer offered, giving another shake of her head.
The earth pony read through it, humming softly. Then froze, her mouth falling open. “You’ve got to be kidding me...” she muttered. “How could they be so… so...”
“I know, right?!” Moondancer said with a shake of her head.
Canterlot, in the last week of winter, had held a great blizzard. Lots of school days off, an enjoyable period of relaxation. Apparently a lot of the run off had filtered down and ended up hitting Ponyville. By the time that Ponyville was able to send in a request to stop it, it was too late. The town had been covered from gate to gate in thick layers of snow. It covered EVERYTHING. Even the train tracks were surrounded by heaps of snow when they came closer.
“This all needs to be melted...” Twilight muttered, staring out at it. They needed the sun for something THIS extreme. She then paused and looked back through the notes one more time, before face hoofing. Of course. The village had a tradition of no magic. At all. Apparently the fact it was an EARTH pony village was a point of pride for them. She let out a light growl. “They need magic. We just… ugh.” The train came to a stop and she got to her hooves, walking towards the exit.
She’d expected to meet the mayor at the exit of the train. She did not, however, expect to meet Trixie with her.
“Ugh, FINALLY! A pony who has reason. Twilight, will you tell this overpaid bureaucrat that I’m right?” the unicorn asked, motioning to the mayor.
“Twilight, will you tell this over paid and under qualified librarian that we have a rich and noble history that cannot, will not, be tarnished over something like this?” the mayor asked, shaking her head.
Twilight stared at the pair, her mouth falling open and unable to process how to continue. Unfortunately, within a few moments the two started yelling over each other, trying to get their opinion heard over the other’s. She just stared, struggling to process what was going on.
“QUIET!” Moondancer finally yelled. “Now then, one at a time.” Unsurprisingly, they both started talking at once. “NO!” she snapped, silencing them both. “I’ll speak, then. I swear. You’re both grown mares and you’re acting like foals. Ahem. We are aware of the situation. Ponyville has too much snow, not enough hooves to deal with it. Earth pony village, won’t use magic. Now then, this mess is just--”
“The most delightful of snafus,” a voice called over her, making all of them freeze. They slowly looked up at the hanging sign with an outline of a train carved into it. Inside the ‘train’ was Discord, leaning out of a window of the carved train. “No, no, don’t mind me. I’m just enjoying the show.”
Twilight let out a groan. “Please tell me he’s not making things worse.”
“Me? Make things worse? Of course not. Why, I even offered to snap my fingers and get rid of all this snow. But--”
“NO!” the mayor yelled, lifting a hoof. “Don’t. Just… come on. Come to my office, please. We can discuss everything. Discord, please, go talk with Fluttershy or something. DON’T use your magic!”
The spirit merely chuckled, before disappearing.
Twilight shook her head, following after the mare. If Discord was here, she wondered just how much of an ‘accident’ the snow had been in the first place. Still, she didn’t understand why ponies were so against using a bit of magic. It was understandable in a normal situation. But this was a disaster. There was snow everywhere.
She gave a soft sigh when they walked down the streets. Bonfires and torches were lined up and down the streets, trying to help melt some of the snow. It wasn’t doing much good, though. It looked like they’d be heating things up for months at this point.
However, most startling of all were the dirty looks they were getting. Ponies working their hooves off kept glaring at them and the hostility was so thick she could almost taste it. Once they were inside the mayor’s office, she gulped. “So… ummm… everypony seems...”
“Ready to murder you guys?” Spike offered.
“Yeah...”
Trixie shrugged. “I didn’t notice.”
“You wouldn’t,” the mayor muttered, rolling her eyes. “This has devolved far, far worse than I’d believed it could,” she said flatly, trotting to a map of Ponyville. She pointed to it. “The fact is, we’re over burdened and--”
“There’s no way we can do this without magic,” Trixie snapped, shaking her head. “It’s too much snow! You’re lucky I was here at all, if not for me you’d have been in twice as much danger!”
Twilight blinked a few times, glancing back to the mare. “Err… come again?”
The blue mare grinned her showpony grin. “Why, you haven’t heard the story? Allow me to recount you the tale of how I, the Great and Powerful Trixie, saved the harvest fields!” she said proudly, puffing out her chest.
The mayor rolled her eyes. “Her, Zecora and Crimsonwing.”
“Who?” Twilight asked.
“My assistant and the weatherpony,” Trixie answered, cutting off the mayor before she could speak. “Now, when the first snow began to fall, it didn’t seem to be too much of a bother. However, it soon turned into a raging blizzard! Ponies were in a panic and, worst of all? Their fields which they must grow food in were becoming covered! Crimsonwing was trying to clear the skies, but alas, he was but one pegasus. I immediately moved into action,” Trixie said proudly. “With my great magics, and a smidgen of help from my assistant--”
“Zecora made a special powder that Trixie and Crimsonwing spread on the clouds,” the mayor said with a roll of her eyes. “It wasn’t fast, but they managed to stop the fields from getting too covered. We started there the moment the disaster was over, managed to get them actually ready before Winter Wrap-up,” the mare said before shaking her head. “We had been planning to start earlier this year anyway. But with this snow storm coming in on us like it did, we’re buried under it. It’ll be the middle of summer before we finally get it all cleared!” she said, the panic evident in her voice.
“Oh, that’d incredibly unlikely. Likely by the end of spring at the latest,” Twilight offered. “Once the heat from spring starts, even here the heat will rise enough that the remaining snow will melt. Your primary issue will be that...” She trailed off. “This happened last year, too, didn’t it?”
“Not to this… level, but yes. We’d kept a low snow winter this year. But...” Once again the mare shook her head.
“That’s why I’m telling you, we need magic for this,” Trixie snapped. “Nopony had any issue preventing it with magic. Why not fix it with magic?”
“It’s not that easy!” Mayor snapped, stomping her hoof down. “The tradition--”
“Is out dated!” Trixie yeleld back. “You didn’t used to have pegasi, either! But you still let them handle the skies!”
“Yes! Because even during the founding, the skies were managed by Canterlot pegasi! Many of who ended up moving here and becoming official Ponyville citizens! But we’ve NEVER used magic before! Do you have ANY idea what that will do to morale if we do?” the mayor asked, resting a hoof on her forehead.
Twilight glanced towards the window. Outside, she could see all the snow and the ponies working their hardest to clear it. It was just too much. They’d never be able to clear it like this. Finally, she sighed. “What would happen?”
The mayor closed her eyes. “The last few years have not been easy at all, Twilight. There’s more than a little anti-Nightmare Moon sentiment here. But ponies have made do. Last year? We did manage it on our own. It wasn’t easy, but we got through it. Somehow.”
“It was a disaster...” Trixie muttered.
“Yes, but it was OUR disaster! This, though? This is something we’ve always done. It’s a point of pride for our home. Ponies are blaming Canterlot for this. Not just Nightmare Moon, but Canterlot itself. The ponies up there. There’s been talk of… ponies have been talking about… the town defecting.”
Twilight paused, her mouth falling open. “Defecting?” she asked softly.
“How would that even work?” Spike asked. “She’d tear all of you apart.”
The mayor nodded. “I imagine so. I’ve been trying to keep it down. I was hoping by sending in a request for pony aid, NON-unicorn pony aid, Canterlot would send in some pegasi or earth ponies to help. I did NOT expect them to send a unicorn. Err, no offense, Miss Moondancer.”
The unicorn sighed and shook her head. She already felt pretty offended by a lot of this, what was one more?
“Things are riling up here, Twilight. If we’re forced to break this tradition? There’s bound to be a riot.”
“Ponies can’t actually think that’ll be a good idea,” Twilight muttered. “If there’s a riot, Nightmare Moon might...” She glanced out the window again.
“Here lies the crater formerly known as Ponyville?” Spike offered.
The earth pony nodded. It wasn’t right or fair. Ponies were upset. But if the traditions of the town caused them to hate the ruler, then she wouldn’t put it past the alicorn to destroy the town itself and force the ponies in it to relocate. The entire thing would be a disaster. How many ponies would lose their homes, everything they’d worked their whole lives for?
She walked to the window and stared out it, eyeing the ponies working. They looked exhausted, but proud.
“I think we should use magic,” Trixie said with a shake of her head. “Even if it’s not tradition, there are a few unicorns in town. If we all pooled our magic, we could get rid of the worst of it. At least then WE’D be doing it. That’s still something we could take pride in.”
Twilight blinked a few times, glancing back towards Trixie. We? She eyed the unicorn. The magician really had found a home here. In her own way, she was even trying to protect it. She finally gave a sigh. “Moondancer, Spike? Any ideas?”
The unicorn shook her head. “We’d need the sun for that. Lots and lots of sun,” she muttered. “The only other way would be with magic. Even that would take ages, though.”
Spike shrugged. “A big fire? I don’t know. It might burn the town down, then.”
Twilight sighed, before pausing. She whipped around and leveled her eyes on the mayor. “So magic isn’t allowed, right?”
“Of course not. If it was, we’d have a riot on our hands.”
“But… the sun is okay. Correct?”
“… Yessssss?” Mayor Mare asked, cocking her head to the side. “But I don’t think Nightmare Moon is going to be willing to raise it for this.”
“Of course not...” Twilight mumbled, tapping her chin. “But… what about an artificial sun?” she asked.
“An artificial sun? What in Equestria are you--” The mayor stopped mid sentence, before glancing to Trixie, the two sharing a wide eyed look.
“Ohhhhh...” the two said in unison.
“I… do suppose that could work,” the mayor said before turning to look Twilight in the eye. “I mean… even if it was powered by magic, the sun has always been pivotal in our methods. There’s nothing wrong with that. But the artificial sun of the Flim Flam brothers was destroyed.”
Twilight nodded. “But maybe we could reverse engineer it. It would require a lot of work, though. I might be able to do it. No...” She glanced to Moondancer and Spike. “I know we can do it. I’ve got two of the best minds here with me to help.” She turned back to the mayor. “Would letting the unicorns of the city power that, work?”
The mayor nodded. “I… think so. But… I don’t know if our unicorns can--”
“We can!” Trixie said proudly, giving a disgruntled hmph. “Don’t think for a moment we’ll allow ourselves to be upstaged. If you can make it, then the Great and Powerful Trixie will power it herself if she has to!”
The mayor chuckled, relief coating her features for the first time since Twilight had arrived. “Then, yes. I think we can do it. But the big issue is, how do we stop Nightmare Moon from finding out?”
“Miniature sun,” Twilight said firmly. “We’ll just have to distract her. Moondancer. You know some of the magic, right? Shadow weaving?”
“Err, yes?”
“Can you stop the shades from being here? Stop them from spying?”
Moondancer blinked, before giving a nod. “I… think I can. I can at least give ponies a big warning.”
“Good,” Twilight said, lightly tapping her hoof while she thought. It wouldn’t be easy at all. But if they could pull this off, they could give Ponyville exactly what it wanted, without using any ‘magic’. However, that still left one important issue.
Even if they could stop the shades from coming by, how would they stop Nightmare Moon from noticing with it right under her nose?