//------------------------------// // Winter Wrap Up, Winter Wake Up // Story: Umbreka // by Armanico Vita //------------------------------// There wasn't anymore dialogue left to be heard. With that last sentence, "I'm ready," her hearing was no longer distorted and she was back to enjoying her time off in this blissful world she created. There was only one mare left to see so she can call this experience complete. Pinkie Pie had to be somewhere nearby, it shouldn't be too hard to spot her. Fluttershy opened her eyes and focused her attention back towards the ground. Sure enough, she spotted her friend running along, pulling her crazy antics. With a Sherlock Hooves hat resting on her crown, and magnifying glass in hoof, Pinkie scurried around the plains, taking the time to stop and scrutinize each different molehill dug into the grassy earth. Who knew what she was up to this time. It's commonly agreed upon that there's never a dull moment to be found when Pinkie's around; she's always having fun in her own unique ways and intentional or not, it rubs off on everpony else. The pink party pony skid to a stop mid-way to her next target. Her head swung around from left to right before relaxing in Twilight's direction. A wide grin reached across her face, ear-to-ear as she inched her way closer to Twilight, trying not to make any noise. It didn't take long for them to be within an outstretched hoof's distance of each other and it definitely wasn't long before Pinkie coiled her back legs and prepared to launch. Without warning, she snapped up off of the ground and propelled herself forward, colliding into a mess of feathers and flying pages. Before Twilight could react, Pinkie used one hoof to plug her mouth up, and the other to tell her to shush. She lifted her face up away from her friends, looking around frantically before stopping to look at a mound of dirt next to them. By now she had attracted the attention of everypony playing in the plains. Whatever it was she wanted to do, she was probably going to want to do it soon. She slowly crawled her way off of Twilight, who was currently immobile from shock, and inched herself closer to her next target. Once she was within reach, she sprung off of the ground and dove straight into the hole, barely fitting the top half of her body inside of the ground. Pinkie's antics caused a flurry of dust to pick up in the winds as she kicked dirt up into the air in her efforts to plant her hooves in the ground. Fluttershy searched hard, but she lost her friend in the brown-fog that concealed Pinkie and whatever had piqued her interest. Curious as to what her friend was up to, she slowly rose up from her hill-top point and walked over to the edge. Realizing that Angel was still left sleeping on her back, she gently lifted him up in her mouth and set the lazy rabbit down in the relaxing bed of grass she was previously in. After taking care of her dear pet, she took her first step in descending the slope, trying hard not to stumble downwards. Without fault, she made it to the bottom, beside Twilight. Just like everypony else, she had gotten up closer to check up on Pinkie with the exception of Rarity who watched from afar. With confused looks plastered on their faces, they sat and awaited an end to the dirt cloud. Once the spring breeze caught wind, it wasn't long before the plain was clear again. Sure enough, Pinkie's distinct outline began to appear as the air was cleansed of earth and her motives began to clear up as she bounced her way outside the translucent brown veil into the sun's glare. From head to hoof she was smothered in mud, more than enough to make her look like a chocolate-covered pony while something odd dangled, limply from her mouth. She shook herself clean, sending dirt flying in all directions and making Rarity, despite her distance, cry out in terror. Now that their friend was back to normal they could see what antics she was up to now. From her mouth, her pet alligator, Gummy, hung completely oblivious to its surroundings. Everypony laughed as they realized her whole, ridiculous plight was just a game of hide-and-seek. Fluttershy loved seeing her friends all having fun and enjoying themselves, for the time being. She joined in on a group hug and embraced her friends, this moment was the closest she's been to them in weeks and she loved it. "Alright everypony, who's ready for some food?" Applejack was the first to speak up. "Food?! Count me in, I've been starving all morning." Rainbow Dash blurted to which everypony agreed. Fluttershy looked back up to where Angel was resting, she was thinking about going to get him to come eat. He might not take kindly to her interfering with his sleep though. Angel only sleeps at noon when he's had a big breakfast and he was probably stuffed. Her stomach growled as she thought over what she should do, solidifying the decision to stay with her friends. "You coming Fluttershy?! C'mon I'm starving," Rainbow Dash said, dragging out the last syllable of her sentence. "I'll be right there. I was just checking to make sure Angel would be alright for a bit." Fluttershy walked up to the picnic area Rarity had set up and found herself a nice spot on the fabric between Twilight and Pinkie. "Alright everypony chow down, and feel free to help yourself to seconds. I brought a whole bushel of apples so there's plenty to be passed around." Rainbow Dash was the first to reach forward, pulling two hooves full of apples out of the barrel and back to her spot. Twilight and Rarity used their magic to levitate a few apples towards themselves, taking small, reasonable bites in comparison to Dash who swallowed chunks of apples in gulps. Pinkie, in an unusually calm manner, reached up into her mane, keeping a straight face as she pulled an apple out and bit down into its juicy flesh. Fluttershy looked into the mound of red fruit before her. It definitely looked delicious, and real just like everything around her. Maybe it tasted real too, she thought as memories of her friend's old apples filled her mind. Their smell filled her nose with delight and coated her already watery mouth. Applejack and her family grew the best apples in Equestria, how could they be anything less than perfect? "You just going to sit there and stare Fluttershy? Everypony's eating except for you, is everything alright?" Applejack broke her out of her daze. "You really should try these, they're simply marvelous." Rarity added. "Yeah, I was just waiting for everypony to eat first before I grabbed one myself." "Are you sure? You've been acting strange lately, sitting up on top of the hill all by yourself." Rainbow Dash said between each chew of her full mouth." "Don't worry about me guys, I was just up top looking after Angel bunny to make sure he didn't fall down and hurt himself." She definitely wasn't the Element of Honesty. Her stomach began to growl again, this one being louder than the last. "It's alright sweetie, your stomach is screaming at you to eat though. I'd say you better chow down soon before Rainbow eats the whole bin." Applejack looked over to the blue pegasus who was helping herself to another helping of apples. "Ahem!" she cleared her throat. Realizing this was directed towards her, Rainbow Dash put the collection of apples she had amassed in her arms back in the center of the group. "Hehe, sorry." Fluttershy watched her friend as she stared into the last apple she was holding on to. "Here Fluttershy, I was saving this one for later, but maybe you should have it. It's the biggest one I found and it definitely looks like it's the best." She set the apple down onto the blanket it and rolled it Fluttershy's way. Fluttershy opened her mouth in protest, but the sound of her stomach overpowered her. "Thanks Rainbow, this one looks very good." Fluttershy stared into its glossy skin examining her clear reflection as if it was a mirror. She lifted the apple up to her mouth and took her first bite of the succulent fruit and just like it's smell, the fruit's juices coated the inside of her mouth. In comparison to that apple she had a few weeks back, this one was simply immaculate in taste. She happened to be more hungry than she thought. She bit off each piece in moderation, taking care not to stuff her mouth full. By the time she finished the first apple, she was already reaching forward to grab another one. This one didn't last very long either. "Whoa there Fluttershy, you keep on eating apples at this rate and you're gonna give yourself and awful tummy ache." Applejack reached her hoof into the barrel and pulled herself an apple out. She raised it up into her mouth and took a bite, chewing off half of it in one snap. "Fluttershy, I do say, you might want to hold back on eating so much. Our spa date is today and I don't want you getting sick on me an hour before." Rarity chimed in. "I know guys, I just think it would be rude of me to not eat any of this delicious food brought here for all of us." Fluttershy said finishing off a third and final apple. "Don't worry about me eating everything though. That was the last one for a while, I'm too full to eat anything else." She laid back, closing her to relax and let her food settle in. ~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~* "Ok, I'm going to start counting down, be ready to snap it straight. One..." Wait, what? Fluttershy thought. Those strange ponies from before, whoever they were, were carrying on with their initial plans set into motion. She tried to hold onto her silence for fear that a single misspeak would most likely raise her friends' suspicions. "Two..." She remembered their intentions to help what she believed to be a bird and how they were going about fixing it the wrong way. "Hold on everypony!" one of the ponies stalled. "Are we sure it's a good idea for us to be doing this, what if we mess up? And I don't mean mess up as in permanent scarring either. I mean, what if we completely botch her wing up and she can't use it anymore? We should probably think everything over before we do this." "Look Banter, I really wish we had other options, but look at all of this grime mixed up into her cut. She'll die of an infection if we don't do anything." "I don't think we should be doing this operation though, none of us even have the experience or the equipment to help her out completely. We should just clean her up for now, just so we can stop the bleeding. When everything is wrapped up, we can take her back to Catarina. I'm pretty sure there are a few tents set up with doctors that can do more to help her than we can right now." Fluttershy began to grow a little suspicious. How bad could things actually be for them that they would need to take it to this Catarina place? It didn't help soothe her anxiety knowing that none of them were actually trained. "Catarina's a full day's walk away for five healthy ponies. Having an injury with us is only going to make this even longer than it should be. Plus, all this blood is going to draw out any unwanted visitors, we really should get it done right here." "Sonnet's right about the blood, Banter. We're probably going to attract more creatures than needed if we bring her back like this. I may not be a doctor, but I know enough that she's just going to keep bleeding all over us if we don't close it up properly." "Well..." He paused momentarily, "Fine I'll go along with you two." he sighed. "Wow, that was a lot easier convincing you than usual. You aren't going soft on us now, are you?." "Oh yeah?" "Yup, you aren't going soft on us now, are you?" the mare teased. "Don't get too excited, I might have kept going if chief Ironhoof over there wasn't giving me 'the look' again." "Oh Banter, you're so generous," she said in a sarcastic tone. "What would we ever do without your help?" "From the looks of things, I wouldn't be able to call you Snow White anymore, Blood Red would be more fitting. Here, let me clean some of this up for you." "Alright guys come on we have to do this quickly. Sonnet, I'm not going to count down any more, just pull when you're ready and Banter you hold her down incase she starts to squirm. Once it is straightened out, let me step in and get things wrapped up for her." Following the orders was a short pause. Under the current circumstances, the few seconds she sat through felt much longer and more drawn out to her. Then, shattering the silence, a loud cracking noise rang out. Fluttershy shot up straight, her eyelids opened wide, and her eyes rolled out from the back of her head. She was back to normal, except now she was greeted by the presence of five new, unfamiliar ponies.