//------------------------------//
// Winter Wrap-Up 
// Story: The Everlasting Hope 
// by Plasmadon 
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Chapter 10: Winter Wrap Up

Four months. Four months is how long I stayed in Equestria when the weirdest thing ever to grace my ears was heard:
“Come on, gals! It’s time to clean up winter!”
What the bloody nine freaking hells.
I mean, who cleans up winter? I know the ponies take care of the weather around here, but that’s just ridiculous. Besides, why don’t they make it a gradual process instead of a one-day thing? Doing it all at once; it’s like homework. When you’re done, you’re nothing but cranky and irritable and people have a hard time approaching you without getting their eyeballs gouged out by dull pencils.
Yeah, I wasn’t that great in school.
So anyways, I was off to help the ponies clean up all the snow in Ponyville. As the mayor gave the whole “winter cleaned up on time” speech, I ran the ideas through my head. We could simply shovel away all the snow and use a big lens to melt it, thus providing clean water that we could drink and use to feed the plants and animals. We could, in theory, use all of the clouds for this too, or we could just recycle the clouds for the next few months. The earth ponies could simply use all of the free space that the snow had taken up to grow more food, so we wouldn’t run low.
These ponies didn’t know anything about recycling, did they? Then again, they didn’t exactly have dwindling resources and pollution to worry about.
So, off it went. Since neither Twilight nor I had figured out what we were good at, we stuck together. But you know what has to happen beforehand…

(Please note: I will be writing this script-style because there are way too many parts to handle the way I normally do songs.)

Rainbow: “Three months of winter coolness, and awesome holidays.”
Pinkie: “We’ve kept our hoovsies warm at home, time off from work to play.”
Applejack: “But the food we’ve stored is running out and we can’t grow in this cold.”
Rarity: “And even though I love my boots, this fashion’s getting old.”

Twilight: “The time has come to welcome spring and all things warm and green
But it’s also time to say goodbye, it’s winter we must clean
How can I help? I’m new you see. What does everypony do?
How do I fit in without magic? I haven’t got a clue!”

All: “Winter Wrap Up, Winter Wrap Up! Let’s finish our holiday cheer.
Winter Wrap Up, Winter Wrap Up!
(‘Cause tomorrow spring is here) ‘Cause tomorrow spring is here!”

Rainbow: “Bringing home the southern birds, a pegasus’ job begins
And clearing all the gloomy skies, and let the sunshine in!
We move the clouds and we melt the white snow
When the sun comes out its warmth and beauty will glow!”

All: “Winter Wrap Up, Winter Wrap Up! Let’s finish our holiday cheer.
Winter Wrap Up, Winter Wrap Up!
‘Cause tomorrow spring is here
Winter Wrap Up, Winter Wrap Up!
‘Cause tomorrow spring is here, ‘Cause tomorrow spring is here!”

Rarity: “Little critters hibernate under the snow and ice.”
Fluttershy: “We wake up all their sleepy heads, so quietly and nice.”
Rarity: “We help them gather up their food, and fix their homes below!”
Fluttershy: “We welcome back the southern birds,”
Rarity and Fluttershy: “So their families can grow!”

All: “Winter Wrap Up, Winter Wrap Up! Let’s finish our holiday cheer.
Winter Wrap Up, Winter Wrap Up!
‘Cause tomorrow spring is here
Winter Wrap Up, Winter Wrap Up!
‘Cause tomorrow spring is here, ‘Cause tomorrow spring is here!”

Applejack: “No easy task to clear the ground, plant our tiny seeds!
With proper care and sunshine, everyone it feeds.
Apples, carrots, celery stalks, colorful flowers too!
We must work so very hard, it’s just so much to do!”

Andrew: “Been playin’ my music all three months, just me and Vinyl Scratch
Octavia and Lyra too, but I never liked orchestra crap.
So it’s time for me and Scratch to make up some new tunes
Some rockin’ songs and heartbreak, and maybe dubstep too!”

All: “Winter Wrap Up, Winter Wrap Up! Let’s finish our holiday cheer.
Winter Wrap Up, Winter Wrap Up!
‘Cause tomorrow spring is here
Winter Wrap Up, Winter Wrap Up!”
Pinkie: “’Cause tomorrow spring is here!”
All: “’Cause tomorrow spring is here!”

Twilight: “Now that I know what they all do, I have to find my place
And help with all of my heart, tough task ahead I face.
How will I do without my magic, help the earth pony way?
I wanna belong, so I must do my best today
Do my best today”

All: “Winter Wrap Up, Winter Wrap Up! Let’s finish our holiday cheer.
Winter Wrap Up, Winter Wrap Up!
‘Cause tomorrow spring is here
Winter Wrap Up, Winter Wrap Up!”
Twilight: “‘Cause tomorrow spring is here
‘Cause tomorrow spring is here
‘Cause tomorrow spring is here!”

Okay, even I, the sarcastic and upbeat demon, will admit that the song we just sang was quite possibly the most insanely AWESOME song on the face of Equestria.
“What did you mean by ‘playing your music’?” Twilight asked as she, Vinyl and Octavia congregated in the square. I gave her an incredulous look.
“You mean all, and absolutely ALL, of the background music we’ve been playing for you ponies for the past ten chapters has been completely ignored?” I asked. Octavia huffed and trotted off. Vinyl muttered a quick “not cool, Twi”, and followed her. Pinkie popped up out of nowhere.
“You mean that was you guys?” she bubbled. “Oh, that was sooo cool!”
“Yes, it was, Pinkie, though Twilight here seems not to appreciate it very much,” I mumbled. Twilight looked half confused, half guilty.
“Sorry, guys,” she said.
“No problem, Twi,” I muttered. “Let’s just find our places in this whole ‘winter’ thing.” We trotted along the path, me sulking and her trying to apologize for something she didn’t recognize she had done.
As we walked, I reviewed the spots I was most adept at. Pinkie was an obvious choice; I’d spent many a winter with Dominic and a few other friends tearing up a lake in speed skating contests. Applejack? No. as much as I like her, I had absolutely zero skill with plants. Fluttershy was a maybe, since I wasn’t usually bad with animals and had twenty one wolves backing me up. Then again, maybe little forest critters wouldn’t take kindly to multicolored predators waking them up. Rarity was again a no, mostly because I wouldn’t stand to hear her drone on about her newest fashion line for the next seven hours. So that left… 
Dear God, not Rainbow Dash.
You see, I hadn’t exactly been on the best terms with her, what with me scaring Gilda away, making fun of her name, shouting at her when she wanted those thrice-damned tickets back in chapter 2, etc. Basically, she and I were pissed with each other, and continued the feud for no good reason. And I absolutely refuse to be on her team for the weather brigade.
Besides, I’m not a pegasus, but meh.
So, I was left with either Pinkie or Fluttershy. Out of the two, I’m going with Pinkie. But only because she hands out free cupcakes every ten minutes. 
And so, after Twilight completely forgetting she didn’t have wings and therefore couldn’t fly, we headed on down to the lake where Pinkie was skating. She was humming a jolly tune that sounded like “Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer” as she slid expertly on the ice. I whistled.
“Dang, Pinkie. I knew you were good when it came to skating, but that’s the best I’ve ever seen.” She grinned and tossed me a pair of skates.
“Well, from what I’ve heard, you’re not bad yourself.” She gave me a sly wink. “Catch me if you can, Andy!” she cackled as she zoomed off. Laughing, I raced after her. I zoomed past her, blowing a raspberry, before sharply turning and leaving her in a pile of snow. I whisked across the lake, carving thin, curving lines into the snow and ice as I curled inwards to pile up my mass into one spot. Several minutes of spins, tricks and all around speed, I laid against the cold snow, panting. Pinkie had somehow managed to get into her huge balloon and was staring at the lake. She suddenly burst out laughing.
“Andy… you’ve gotta see this!” she shrieked.  I twisted up and used a teleport spell to pop up at the top of the balloon. 
I doubled over. I swear, it was just too damn hilarious. I had accidentally carved- and get this –a troll face. A goddamn troll face, in the middle of a lake. Take that, Celestia! Problem?
After my fit, Pinkie and I landed on a very sad Twilight. She had tried to skate, but apparently Sparkles weren’t good when it came to anything icy. Or skatey. 
So, that’s one down, one to go. I stuck with Twi when she trotted off, only because I wanted to be a good friend and she was… well, to put it bluntly, depressed. Her first two ideas totally messed up, and I doubted she was going to be good at the others. I mean, she’s afraid of snakes, bats, badgers, etc. and she was never the best when it came to crafts. Nevertheless, she pushed forward with the determination of a pilot breaking the air-speed record. I traced along, making light conversation with the rest of the ponies. I passed the Doctor and Lyra dragging piles of seed down to Sweet Apple Acres, where AJ was directing ponies in the distance. Colgate was trying, unsuccessfully, to clear the path without magic. Poor unicorns. Wait, strike that. I’m a unicorn, aren’t I?
We finally made our way to Rarity’s, where she was measuring the size of a branch with a tape and a magnifying glass.
“Rarity, it doesn’t have to be to exact measurements. They’re birds; anywhere other than Equestria, and they’d be complete idiots.” Rarity glared at me.
“Of course they have to be perfect!” she said. “These birds are finally coming home after three months, and I want to have their nests in top condition.”
“While you’re at it, you might as well add a walk-in closet,” I snickered. Something in Rarity’s eyes told me she was going to take my idea seriously. Why do I hang out with these girls again? Oh, right. The whole “Elements of Harmony” thing.
“Alright, Danny boy, what’s next?” I asked. Danny, who had appeared to give me angst, as usual, was holding a notepad in between his teeth.
“You know, you still never explained this guy to me,” Twilight said, gesturing to Danny. He growled and dropped the pad.
“Calling me ‘this guy’, Miss Sparkle, is like calling you a horse,” he said softly. Twilight recoiled at the word “horse”. “For your information, I am a sentient form of energy recreated from the Element of Hope, as well as the second in command for Brenner’s Wolves, the alien’s personal guard.”
“Call me ‘the alien’ again, and I’ll sic Cat on you,” I said. Danny raised an eyebrow and laughed.
“Who’s Cat?” Twilight asked.
“Friend from home,” I said shortly. I idly pulled my Keyblade out of thin air and flipped it about with magic. Well, until I almost gave Derpy an accidental mane cut. She stomped past me, holding her wings close as she took to the skies, heading south.
“Sorry!” I yelled, only to receive a cloud to the face. I licked it off.
“Mmm, tastes like chicken,” I whispered to myself. Danny roared with laughter, scaring Twilight. We trotted on, heading towards Sweet Apple Acres, with AJ leading the others in the distance. I stopped a few yards away and called her over. She grinned as she approached, nuzzling me as she passed.
“Howdy there, stranger,” she said. I tipped an imaginary hat. Twilight stared at AJ for a second, desperation in her eyes. I noticed her silent pleas.
“No magic, Twi,” I warned. She turned and nodded quickly before looking back to AJ. The cowpony sighed.
“Fine,” she said. “Just no magic, ya hear?” Twilight nodded again. As she rushed out to the farms, AJ turned towards me. “Now, why haven’t ya come to visit me sooner?”
“Well, I never was the best with plants,” I murmured. “Seems the only thing I can do related to farming is applebucking.”
“Now, ya know that ain’t what ah meant,” she said softly, nuzzling me again. She leaned her head softly against my shoulder and stared ahead at the apple orchards, a soft sigh escaping her lips. The orchard was beautiful in the snow. Of course, apple trees bore fruit all year long here, and the bloody reds and spring greens made the soft snow seem like it had infinite texture. To put it simply, the moment was simply… magical.
After several minutes, I broke the soft embrace and trotted down the road. “AJ, please take care of Twilight. I know she can be a little… overzealous at times.” We both chuckled. “Just promise that if she fails, you won’t get too mad at her.” I facehoofed. “Oh, listen at me. I sound like a worried parent. Well, see ya.” I trotted off just to hear a massive bang from the middle of the fields. Great, it looks like Twilight has discovered the explosive effects of mismanaged spells. Streaking past the curious ponies, I raced to get away from the farm in case any more accidents happened. Besides, Applejack had been acting slightly more explosive with her emotions over the past few days. Do ponies get periods? That may explain much.
“Pinkie!” I shouted. She was there in a flash.
“You called, Gold?” she said seriously. I choked.
“What… how do you know that name?!” I asked, a mixture of trepidation and anxiety seeping into my soul. I know you readers want to know what I have to do with this “Gold”, right? Well, I’m not telling! Just wait. All will be revealed eventually.
“Well, I was walking along today when I got a combo! It was ear flop, tail twitch, achy shoulder, lazy eye, and shuffly hooves, and that means somepony named Gold is nearby!” not going to ask. Not. Going. To. Ask.
“Pinkie,” I said slowly, “Please, whatever you do, don’t mention that name again. Just Pinkie Promise me, I’m begging you.” Pinkie looked confused, but made the Promise. “Oh, speaking of which, I need a triple chocolate cupcake with two shots of pure caffeine.” Out of nowhere, she handed one out to me. Thanking her, I swallowed it in one quick gulp. Wait for it… wait for it…
Holyshitthiscupcakemakesmefeelincredible!
So, after the initial caffeine rush, I set about with waking up the animals. You might think this is normal, right? Except I was going approximately seventy miles per hour. Fluttershy finally had to send me off because I’d woken up a family of snakes too fast, and well… you get the picture.
“This sucks!” I shouted. “I’ve got nothing to do, I’m on a sugar/caffeine rush, and if I don’t move soon, I think my heart is gonna explode!” Heart… now why did that give me an idea? Two hearts… TIME LORD!
Well, it’s official. Come on, everypony, let’s go annoy the crap out of the Doctor!
I shot down to Ponyville at near-inpony speeds, abruptly stopping at a small flat with an hourglass overhead. I knocked four times, in quick succession. Another four knocks. And another. And another.
The Doctor burst out of the door, pointing his sonic at me with murder in his eyes. His expression softened only slightly when he saw me.
“Let me guess, you thought I was the Master?” I asked. He nodded, and I hoof pumped. “Yes!”
“What are you doing here, Andrew?” he sighed.
“Well, I’m on a sugar high, and I thought the best place to be would be a Time Lord’s house.” He facehoofed. 
“Well, you might as well come in,” he said. I trotted in, my brain taking in information like an extremely hyper computer. There was an abundance of random knick-knacks: a timey-wimey detector here, half-finished blueprints there. I could’ve sworn I saw The One Ring in there somewhere, but I got distracted by our favorite blue box before I could take a closer look. The Doctor unlocked the TARDIS and flung her doors open.
“It’s bigger on the inside,” I said in faux awe, just to humor him.
“I know. Brilliant, isn’t it?”
“Oh, Doctor. I have one thing to say before I go mayhem.” I grinned. “Still not ginger.” He looked like he was going to explode with a combination of laughter and resignation. Poor Doctor. He’s never gonna be ginger, is he?
“Oh, by the way, Doctor. Since you technically changed forms when you entered this universe, does that mean you’ve used one of your regenerations?” I asked. He cocked his head.
“You know, I’m not sure,” he admitted. “I was unconscious when I came through the gap, so I might have regenerated without knowing.”
“Whoa, wait a minute. How did you get knocked out in the middle of the TARDIS? Did it have something to do with the Weeping Angels?”
He nodded. “I had just dropped Martha off back home. It turns out the Angels Sally Sparrow defeated were moved. It had something to do with a cult ritual or something. naturally, the second they weren’t staring at each other, the lock broke and they killed all of the cultists. They decided, against better judgment, they still wanted the TARDIS, and traced it forward to the 2200’s. I was zipping around when they somehow managed to get on the TARDIS and wrecked the bathroom. I managed to subdue them, but then I got the distress signal you were inadvertently sending. When I turned back to the controls, I set the course, but then an Angel bashed a pot over my head.”
“Hold on, that still leaves too many questions. Why would the Angels just knock you out, instead of sending you back and feeding on your potentials? Why would they not feed off the TARDIS control matrix?” 
“Well, if the Angels sent me back in time and I died beforehand, they would have to absorb all my existence at once, which would undoubtedly kill them. As for the control matrix, I have no idea…”
The gears whirred in my head, and slowly things fell into place. As a kid, I’d convinced the CEO of the BBC to loan me all of the original Doctor Who seasons for a day. Don’t ask me how. Well, I copied them all onto DVD format. If the Seventh Doctor was right…
“I’ve got it!” I shouted. “Doctor, they couldn’t get to the main power source because it isn’t in the control matrix!” he stared at me for a second, before motioning me to continue. “Well, what if the control matrix was only a conduit for the power?” The Doctor cocked his head.
“Then where would the power… come… from…” he looked at me with a mix of astonishment and incredulity. I grinned.
“The Eye of Harmony!” we both shouted. The Doctor raced through the TARDIS with me close behind. Soon, we reached a small observation room with a thick steel cube set into the floor. I put my eye up to a scanner. After a moment, the top of the cube opened to reveal a black hole, suspended in space.
“But this can’t be the real one!” the Doctor shouted, shaking his head.
“That’s the thing; it isn’t,” I explained. “I theorize that somehow, Rassilon (greatest Time Lord of legend) managed to start a never-ending nuclear energy mine in the real Eye: the balance of Gallifrey against the Eye would split the atoms already absorbed by the black whole, releasing massive amounts of energy. Meanwhile, the Eye itself would force them back together. But that still leaves the output with nowhere to go.” The Doctor eyed me, somewhat impressed. “So, I’m guessing that each of these replica Eyes are receivers: they capture and harness the energy released by the main Eye and send it to the control matrix to run the TARDIS. Only now that this is the only functioning TARDIS left in existence, the power from the Eye is supercharging it. That’s why the Angels want it so badly; they can smell it from across galaxies, Doctor.”
“But that leaves only one problem: Gallifrey is stuck in a time-lock.”
“Oh, Doctor. Poor, naïve little Doctor. What is time but motion? And what is motion but heat? And what is heat but energy?” At this, the Doctor got a goofy grin on his face. “The energy is escaping by using the time-lock against itself; the time-lock is expelling all of the energy from Gallifrey the day it happened. Energy takes the path of least resistance; in this case, to the receiver around the Eye. That means the Time Lords literally created an endless fuel supply for the last TARDIS in existence.” I finished my rant with a flourish and a bow. The Doctor looked like he was going to hug me, but dashed around and checked the buttons and screens that dotted the room.
“Andrew, you are a bloody genius!” he yelled. I tossed him a pear, in hopes that his hate for the fruit would calm him, but he bit into it cheerfully. I groaned and made my way out of the TARDIS and the house.
“Alright, now what’s going on here?” I asked myself, rubbing my hooves together. Rainbow Dash, AJ and Fluttershy were arguing in the middle of the square.
“Rainbow, move those clouds pronto!” AJ yelled. “We gotta melt this here snow so we can plant the crops.”
“Oh no, we can’t do that,” Fluttershy murmured. “If we melt the snow too fast, it will flood the little animals’ homes.”
“Then wake up the critters faster!” AJ shot back.
“No, we need to wake them up slowly.”
“Ugh!” Rainbow said. “Will you guys make up your minds?”
“Ladies, please,” I said as I approached. “I think I have a solution to all your problems.” I tell you, going on theoretical rants with madly brilliant aliens limbers up your mind so quickly.
“Now what the hay does that mean?” AJ asked. I grinned.
“TWILIGHT!!!” I shouted to the sky.
“Right behind you.” True to her word, the lavender unicorn trotted up beside me. “I see you came to the same conclusion I did.”
I nodded. “Now, I guess I’ll let you get to it. Right now, I have to rest my brain. You have no idea how hard interdimensional energy transmission theories are to keep track of.” Before anypony could question me, I raced back to the farm. As I jumped through the barn window and onto the hay, I fell asleep with a single thought:
How the fuck did Pinkie know about my past?



A/N
Hello everypony! Plasma here. I'm sorry it took me a full five days to write this out. School and all. Speaking of which, i actually have my physics and algebra teachers to thank for that rant above. Also, evil mean meanie pants author refuses to tell you how Andrew and this "Gold" are linked. but as i said earlier, all will be revealed in time.
Peace!