//------------------------------//
// Spandex Does Nothing Against the Cold 
// Story: The Reason to Smile 
// by Onomonopia 
//------------------------------//

"I might be able to help with that."

All eyes in the room looked up to Princess Luna, who was entering alongside her sister. All Might's eyebrows went up as he recognized the pony from his dreams, but she winked at him before smiling at everypony in the room.

"I've been doing a lot of dream watching lately, partly due to actually having time now to keep up on it and partly due to retirement being as boring as watching paint dry. And just last night, two very interesting things happened. The first is that I got to see a human's dream for the first time. Thanks, All Might," she said with another wink.

"I am...glad to have helped?"

"And the second is that after meeting with Twilight, I reached out across Equestria to see if there were any other dreams that matched the similar...wavelength?...that his had. And I found seven."

"Excellent! Can you lead us to them?" All Might asked.

"That, sadly, is where things get complicated. Yes, I could lead you to them. The problem is that where they are located is a place that might be a bit of trouble," Luna explained. "There is also a dark power there, one that even I cannot identify."

"What my sister is trying to say is that the criminals, if this is them, have locked themselves in the Eternal Tundra, a land consumed by ice since long before we were given our crowns," Celestia cut in. "It is nearly inaccessible, even with our magic. Not to mention there are large packs of ferocious yeti that have made their home there. It will be nothing short of a challenge to reach where they hide."

HA HA! A challenge you say? Well have no fear, for there is no challenge I have come up against that has stood in my way for long," All Might boasted. "I have bested the heat, so why not the cold as well? And these yeti's cannot be much tougher than Monstro and Twilight saw what happened to him."

"I am glad that you are confident. We will need all of that confidence if we are to prevail," Luna warned. "If you have anything you need to do or pack, do it now. For once we go, we go to fight." All Might chuckled at her words before he glanced back at the other ponies.

"Any of you have anything you need to do?" he asked. When all he was faced with was smiles, he chuckled before looking to Luna.

"It seems that we are all ready. Take us there."

"One sec," Twilight said. "Spike, I want you to go to Ponyville while we're away. Get into contact with Starlight and have here see if she can learn anything about that dark power Luna sensed. While it might just be the aura given off by the villains, I would rather not take that risk. If an old foe of ours has popped back up, I want to know about it."

"On it, Twilight. You can count on me," Spike said. He saluted Twilight before taking to the air and flying out of the room. Twilight's horn glowed and a moment later everypony and All Might had winter coats covering them. 

"Ready."

Luna and Celestia activated their magic together and a moment later the party found themselves standing in the middle of a blizzard. The ponies held up hooves or created magical shields to protect themselves from the oncoming storm, all except for All Might, who shivered heroically in place. 

"That is...quite the blizzard," All Might chattered.

"Oh yes, the blizzards in Equestria are nothing like the ones on Earth. Here, they are fueled by the very magic of the world itself," Luna said, still slightly cold despite her shield. "The magical aspect allows it to somewhat penetrate our spells and defenses. That is why exploring up here is so hard."

"i had no idea this place even existed," Twilight muttered. The blizzard made it hard for her to see and her tracker spell wasn't working either. But it wasn't because of the storm. Something else was stopping her.

"It is not a place we talk about often. Every year it claims a few fools who come to it seeking riches and treasure," Celestia grunted. Even with her magic being solar based and melting the snow around her, the strength of the blizzard still pushed her back. "The less we speak of it, the less lives are claimed by its cold."

"I-I-I c-c-can see why," Rarity chattered. "My cloak is doing nothing against this wind."

"Come on, you guys call this cold? Wonderbolts...are trained...to face way worse," Dash laughed. Yet one look at her showed that her normally rainbow mane was now solid white.

"Twi, can't yer magic do anything against this wind?" Applejack asked. "Ah can take the cold, but the wind is going to put me in the ground!"

"Hang on, I've got an idea," Twilight said. She focused her magic, aimed it up and fired a bolt into the sky. A moment later the storm began to swirl around them, creating a tornado of snow around the party. But the wind died down and only a few specks of snow fell to where the party was.

"Clever," All Might said as he looked at the swirling storm. "You created an eye for this storm, one that will keep us safe from the elements. That's some quick thinking, princess."

"That's my former student. Quick on the fly and as creative as any artist," Celestia beamed. 

"Please, it's far from the most clever thing I've done," Twilight smiled. "Now come on. I've used my magic to make sure that the eye of the storm moves with us. But I don't know how long it will last."

"Aw, couldn't you have waited a bit longer. I almost had ice cream made for everypony," Pinkie sighed. She held out ice cream sticks to her friends, who all slightly wondered how she made them different flavors. "Don't be shy now, I made some for everypony."

"Sorry Pinkie, but it's a bit too cold for ice cream," Fluttershy passed. The rest of Pinkie's friends did the same, Celestia considered it, and All Might took the one that Pinkie had made to look like him. The group moved on through the tundra, with All Might and the alicorn's leading the way as their magic was key in locating where the villains were sensed. Luna walked slightly behind All Might, narrowing her eyes after ten minutes of silence went by.

"Are you alright, All Might?" Luna asked the hero. "You've been uncharacteristically quiet on this mission. Normally you're loud and boisterous. Is the cold getting to you? Or are you preparing yourself for the oncoming fight?"

All Might turned back to look at Luna and she found that the ice cream that Pinkie had given him was completely frozen to his tongue. "Did you seriously try to eat that in the middle of a snowstorm?"

"Well, Pinkie gave it to me and seemed so excited to see me try it that I couldn't turn her down," All Might explained, though his explanation was a bit more garbled thanks to the ice version of him wrestling with his tongue. Luna rolled her eyes before grabbing the ice cream with her magic, ripping it off with a yank. "Ow. Thank you."

"Are we heading the right way?" Dash asked after a bit. "I would really like to stretch my wings, but with how much ice is on them I'm afraid they'll break off if I try."

"We're going the right way. I know that to be certain," Luna said, before she narrowed her eyes. "But it seems that we are no longer alone. Elements, we have company!"

The snow exploded around the group as over a dozen creatures covered head to toe in white fur emerged. The creatures had red, beady eyes that were barely visible beneath their hair, but the claws that extended on their hands were obvious enough for the party to get ready. 

"Yeti's, we are not here to fight you. We are here to-"

Twilight never got to finish. With a guttural roar, the pack of yetis charged the ponies. Celestia, Luna and Twilight fired out bolts of magic in unison, knocking three yeti's out of the air. The other ponies backed into a circle and prepared to fight, until a loud laugh echoed throughout the area.

"Have no fear, ponies. For I! AM!-" All Might leapt into the middle of the fight and sunk right up to his waist in the snow. "Stuck in the snow. Uh, hold on a moment, I'll be right out of here in a...no, now my hand is sinking. Hmm, this might be a problem."

The yeti's bellowed as they lunged towards the stuck All Might. Twilight and Luna spun around as their horns began to glow, planning on helping out the hero. But as they quickly found out, he didn't need their help.

"Montana...SMASH!"

All Might's arms exploded out of the snow, creating an avalanche of snow and ice that quickly buried the oncoming yeti's. The ones that hadn't been caught in the avalanche turned to face All Might, who had managed to pull himself out of the snow. They let out a bellow and took at step towards the hero. They would take no more.

Faster than anypony aside from Rainbow Dash could register, All Might rocketed towards the yeti. With a flurry of punches, All Might struck each yeti in their joints before swinging one mighty fist upwards. The updraft created by this punch ripped the yeti off of their feet and hurled them into the sky.

Rainbow Dash was the only one who had seen what had happened. For the rest of the ponies, it looked like All Might suddenly appeared with a fist raised in the air and then the yeti's rained down from the sky. All Might placed his hands on his hips as he looked over his shoulder at the yeti, who were either passed out on the ground or scrambling to get away from him. Twilight used her magic to scoop out the yeti that had been buried and they quickly scrambled off back into the storm.

"Well that was a nice warm up. Now that we're all nice and toasty, how about we find the real villains?" All Might asked.

"Wow," was all Celestia could say. "That speed and power...I can see how he would be the greatest hero on his world. He dealt with those creature's effortlessly."

"Yeah, but I hope he wasn't too rough on them," Fluttershy muttered. She looked over at her shoulders at where the yeti had taken off. "They didn't seem like bad creatures. I think they were just protecting their territory. You might have been a bit hard on them, All Might."

"Do not worry, Fluttershy. I made sure to hold back against them," All Might promised with a thumbs up. He then looked up at the sky and narrowed his eyes. "And I know I didn't punch hard enough to be rid of that blizzard. Anyone care to tell me what happened to it?"

Every eye snapped towards the sky and found that All Might was right. The storm was simply gone. The group began to look around nervously, while Luna nodded her head. "We're close. I can sense it. The place that we are looking for...where they vanished to...is here."

She placed a hoof against a giant sheet of ice and permafrost, one that shined in the sun. Twilight and Celestia walked up next to it as well, their eyes narrowing as they felt what Luna had felt. "I see what you mean, sister. This wall has a magical enchantment on it, one that is stronger than any I have felt in a long time."

"What does that mean, princess?" Rarity asked.

"It means that it has wards on it that will make it hard for us to get inside using magic," Luna said. Then she smiled and looked to All Might. "If only there was a strapping young man who could knock on this door to see if we could be let in?"

"Why, I would love to," All Might said. He walked up to the wall, cracked his knuckles, before drawing back his fist and smiling. "Knock knock."

All Might then threw a massive punch into the ice wall, crashing through the ice with his fist and blasting away the rest. He then stepped back to see what was behind it, his smile growing wider when he saw a tunnel that led down into darkness. 

"Who's there?" Pinkie asked.

"That's what we're going to find out," All Might said. And then he dove in.