Winter Wrap Up
Continues With
Pink and Blue Ice Cubes.
Ice skates cut through the ice of ponds and lakes around Ponyville. With such a large number of them there were now five groups of two to three ponies that would handle scoring. Five to seven of the smaller lakes and pools with all five groups followed by lunch, then, all groups would tackle Saddle Lake together. The leader of the lake scorers was a tan stallion with a brown slicked back mane and tail, a pair of green eyes, and a cutie mark of a quill and a sofa; his name was Davenport. He had divided up the lakes shortly after Twilight had told everypony to get started. The job was never very fulfilling for some, but for one bright pink earth pony it was one of her favorite parts of Winter Wrap Up. Pinkie Pie had always loved skating, however, getting to skate with her special somepony this year only made the experience all the more enjoyable.
Currently, Pinkie Pie and Soarin were having some fun at Saddle Lake just enjoying the other pony's company, skating gracefully about in a semi-private pony skating ballet. They had finished their lakes, quickly criss-crossing them with sharp straight lines. Soarin had to help keep Pinkie on task. The two of them went together on skates even better than they had on the ground. They were just having fun making light grooves in the ice right now, knowing until the rest of the teams caught up to them for the actual scoring of the lake they could have some simple wonderful fun together.
Twilight Sparkle had received a list of lakes that Pinkie and Soarin were supposed to score from Davenport. Big Mac and Twilight had been checking off the list of them for about an hour. Each of lake had been crossed perfectly, ready to break apart when the sun shone down. Pinkie had never been this efficient with her skating, soon Twilight and Big Mac reached the last lake on the list. They noticed an off-white pegasus mare with a pink and green striped mane. She had a pair of blue eyes, and her cutie mark a pair of pink flowers. Twilight managed to call out to the mare recognizing her from Tornado Duty as Blossomforth, whom was just making slow circles over the lake. She came down in a slow spiral to land in front of Twilight, soon asking, “What do you need, Twilight?”
“Did you manage to see where Pinkie and Soarin went after scoring this lake?” Twilight looked over at her hopefully; she didn't want to have spend another thirty minutes looking for Pinkie.
“Actually I saw them right as they were leaving. They headed in the direction of Saddle Lake. They're likely waiting for the rest of the lake team,” Blossomforth responded.
“Thanks, Blossomforth. Let's get going, Big Mac.”Twilight offered a wave before she started to head in the direction of Saddle Lake.
Big Mac just shook his head thinking, 'If Miss Sparkle had thought about it more, she would've realized they would be at Saddle Lake waiting for the others.' He just started to follow her not wanting to be left behind. After all, his job this year was assisting Miss Sparkle even if she had decided it no matter what. Big Mac still had to act dutifully as her assistant, after all he wouldn't let it be said an Apple didn't help a friend in need.
Rainbow Dash had seen them fail to find Pinkie Pie or Soarin at every stop, upon approaching the last stop she saw Blossomforth. Rainbow Dash maintained her distance in ear shot not wanting to spoil her cover. She heard them talking about going to Saddle lake, and flew over to the lake with her cloud cover much quicker than it would take the pair she was following. In doing this she was given a sight of Soarin holding Pinkie in his hooves as they danced on the ice with only their back-hooves like it was a ballroom floor. Rainbow Dash soon came to a stop at the edge of the icy lake. Looking down at the happy couple, she could feel there still wasn't anyone for her. Rainbow Dash had mixed feelings about the pair of skaters below and thought, 'You better not hurt her like you did me, Soarin.'
“Hey, Rainbow Dash!” said a particularly happy Pinkie pie. While Rainbow Dash had been lost in her thoughts Pinkie Pie had uncoupled her self from Soarin moved right under the cloud that was just off to the side. “On another spy mission? Oooh, can I help you this time? Who is it Applejack, Thunderlane, Twilight?”
“Pinkie, calm down. I... I guess you can. Just don't tell Twilight or Big Mac I'm following them,” Rainbow Dash said this and soon the pair of ponies stated were starting to come over a slight incline at the edge of the lake. Pinkie gave her friend a gentle nod of her head and a wink.
“Hellooo, Twilight!” said Pinkie Pie as she skated back out to Soarin. He caught her pulling her into a tender kiss after which they did a dizzying spin on the ice. Pinkie broke off from the spin skating right up in front of Twilight and Big Mac. Pinkie then said, “I'm sure you can see we're ahead of schedule. Having pairs of ponies do sets of lakes all over Ponyville and then do our biggest lake last all together is one of your best improvements to Winter Wrap Up. Twilight, I'm sure the other teams will be meeting up with us just after lunch. Oooh, that reminds me. Hey, Soarin, What Do You Want For Lunch!?” She shouted the last bit as Soarin had skated over to the side of the lake with the cloud with Rainbow Dash was on.
Soarin called out a response over the distance, “I thought you said, you had a Pink Pie ready and waiting for us at Sugarcube Corner, Pinks.”
“Oh, Yeah! Sorry about that, Twilight. You always make Winter Wrap Up go down without hardly any mistakes any more. The only delays we get are when somepony gets hurt, but everypony knows their jobs so well there are hardly any injuries either. I'm sure AJ's got more of a progress report than I do Twilight. Make sure she doesn't overexert herself, Big Mac. Now back to my regularly scheduled special somepony.”Finishing the statement quickly. Pinkie skated back to the middle of the lake and beckoned Soarin to follow her lead, and soon the blue and pink pony had resumed their spectacular ice ballet. One spectacular pair together every motion in unison right down to gentle kisses shared in between the more difficult tricks.
Twilight just smiled as Pinkie skated off to have fun with her special somepony. 'I'd already have a special somepony, if I didn't mess it up.' thought Twilight. She sighed a bit and turned back from the lake saying, “Lets go see your sister then. I guess this must be terribly boring for you.”
“She musta had a fit with ya taking me away from helping the farm. Could be worse though, Twilight, not like any Timberwolves are around.”He said with a chuckle remembering when his sister tried to take care of an entire applebuck season by herself. 'Come to think of it Miss Sparkle and Miss Dash had been there to help sis out when she had gotten in over her head. Now that I think about it more Miss Dash was the only one to come by after and tell me to feel better.' Big Mac thought. Soon they started to head towards Sweet Apple Acres.
Big Mac could only put one hoof in-front of the other as he made his way with Twilight towards his biggest challenge of the day. Applejack was going to ask if he had apologized to Twilight. Right now he didn't know what to tell her and then a plan started to form in his mind. He'd have to show her he apologized. There would be only one way to prove that to his sister and it wouldn't make Dash too happy. 'Could I be certain Dash wasn't there...' Big Mac began to think, 'No, Dash never had much to do till the clearing of the skies since Twilight took over. Dash could be anywhere up there right now.' He sighed a bit to himself uncertain about what was going to happen at the farm today.
Rainbow Dash continued her air surveillance of the situation, following behind the two slowly in her cloud. She could tell Big Mac was starting to feel disturbed but the thought of upsetting AJ didn't exactly sit well in her mind either. The two below had to go through the entire town again just to get back to the road to Sweet Apple Acres. So Rainbow knew she could follow them easily and see what they did from her vantage point high above.
The pair seemed to stop again around the snack carts, this time the both grabbed a few bottles of water before taking a short break on a bench. Twilight pointed her hoof over at a group of three ponies. The first was a beige coated earth stallion, with a dark brown spiky mane and tail, a pair of sky blue eyes, and an hourglass shaped cutie mark. The second was a deep bluish gray coated pegasus mare, with a flowing light blonde mane and tail, a pair of golden eyes which were slightly off set, and a set of bubbles for her cutie mark. The last member of this trio was a light purple coated unicorn filly, with a flowing blonde mane and tail, another pair of golden eyes, and no cutie mark just yet. To most of Ponyville these three together was not an uncommon sight. Time Turner, Ditzy “Derpy” Doo, and Dinky Doo were almost always at the center of some kind of gossip or another. Whether that Derpy always calling Time Turner, “The Doctor,” or the controversy of who exactly Dinky's father was.
No matter what word around town was it never seemed to splinter the group. Twilight was pointing over at them since they were one of the groups working on knocking down snow and carting it off from the trees. Twilight soon beckoned them closer to converse a bit. “How goes the snow-cart hauling this year Time Turner?”
“Well... miss, uh, Sparkle was it? Might go a bit faster after lunch. Steady going all morning though. Feel free to mark that on your checklist. Always glad to have the help of the brilliant, ladies Doo. Pleasant company as always and during my favorite time of year, here in Ponyville. Such a quaint and enjoyable custom I dare say a lot of other planets in the universe would be better off if they shared it,” responded a very happy Time Turner, whom in all honesty couldn't imagine having the day go any better.
“Yes it is Sparkle, Twilight Sparkle as a matter of fact. You do seem to get along better with Ditzy than almost any pony else. Most tend to find her rather clumsy, but you two get along like best friends so I hope you didn't mind working with her this year,”said Twilight in a matter of fact tone. She had heard Time Turner speak of other planets and the universe as a whole before. So as normal she just ignored it since she could never get him to tell her anything more on the subject.
“An absolute joy to work with her, Twilight. Most don't realize just what a special mare she really is.” Time Turner shook his head at this saying quickly, “Bonds of mother and child are always beautiful. I don't think I've seen one quite as strong as theirs in a while.”
“You say that like you can see the bond as though it were a tangible force.”said Twilight with an eyebrow raised as she looked over at him.
"With those two there are times where even a mare like yourself could see it. I'm sure the ties that bond us all together must be of some importance to your friendship studies. Though I imagine the Princess has had you learn all about them," he said rather nonchalantly
.
While Twilight and Time Tuner continued talking, Big Mac had taken to smiling and picking up the filly onto his back. Soon starting a conversation with her mother. “Howdy, Miss Doo. Having a good day so far?”
“Sure am, Mac. Nothing's gone wrong today so far. The Doctor has really built my confidence. He's also always so kind to me.” Derpy responded to Big Mac very politely he was one of a few ponies around Ponyville who had always not let her mistakes cloud who she was.
“Momma, really likes him, Mister Mac,”said an overconfident Dinky Doo from behind Big Mac's Neck.
“Dinky! Well I guess that's true, yet, It's really hard to get through to him. I'm just glad to have him call me his brilliant assistant.” Derpy had started to blush a bit at this last statement.
“Well he's pretty lucky to get to spend so much time with the both of ya. Ya'll a very special set of ponies. He'd be quite foalish to not want to spend all the time he could with ya. Well Ah think Miss Sparkle wants us to get going. So have a good day,”while Big Mac said this Twilight had motioned to him for them to get going. He just smiled letting Dinky off his shoulders, giving her a gentle nuzzle before letting her get back to her mother.
Soon Twilight and Big Mac were back on the route to Sweet Apple Acres. A cloud with wings still following them from behind. Rainbow Dash couldn't help but smile at how Big Mac had handled the situation she had just seen. He was a big strong tenderhearted stallion. 'He's more than almost any mare deserves in a stallion' thought a slightly bemused Rainbow Dash. She continued to follow them along the trail to Sweet Apple Acres. Just as they were nearing Fluttershy's House though Twilight noticed another pair of lake-scorer ponies stopping to converse with them as well.
The first pony was an orchid coated earth mare, with a flowing blonde mane and tail with curled tips, a pair of forest green eyes, and a cutie mark of an hourglass. The second pony was a light aqua coated unicorn mare, with a flowing spiky two toned mane and tail the top tone a light bluish gray the bottom tone a deep sapphire blue, a pair of ocean blue eyes, and a cutie mark of an hourglass as well. This pair of ponies were called Romana and Minuette respectively, both were carrying their skates around their necks and moving towards their next target for scoring.
“Hello, Ladies. How have you been doing with your lake scoring today?”Twilight said as both sets of ponies slowed to converse for a moment.
“Oh it's been going fine. Hasn't it Minuette. We should be ready for scoring up Saddle lake just in time.”Romana waved her hoof like it was the easiest thing in the world.
“Sure, I love skating. I just hope Pinkie won't be late like last year.”said a slightly frustrated Minuette who had earned a cold from waiting around for Pinkie Pie last year.
“Should be no problem with that this year Minuette. In-fact Pinkie and her partner are already finished and having some fun. Free skating on Saddle Lake.”responded a very factual Twilight Sparkle.
“Eeyup,” stated the stoic stallion in his regular fashion.
Minuette suddenly had a shocking realization that Pinkie was already finished saying.“Come on Romana shake a hoof we don't want to be the late ones this year.” Upon saying this Minuette picked up the pace and her partner moved to match her strides leaving the other two behind.
Twilight and Big Mac both shook their heads and continued their trek towards Sweet Apple Acres. There wasn't much further to go now and Big Mac was starting to dread more and more what his sister would do when she likely found out he hadn't apologized to Twilight. Every thought filled with unfortunate disaster in his immediate future. Big Mac just moved forward at his regular pace though he wasn't going to back down from his sister. He had told her many a time he didn't have to apologize to Twilight, and he had no intention of stopping now that she thought he had. After all she was the one jumping to conclusions.
Rainbow Dash watched as Twilight and Big Mac continued to move towards the Apple family orchard. She still followed the duo diligently steadily to make sure they never suspected a thing. The lines of dirt and snow noticeable from the sky that AJ had been working the stallions on the farm pretty hard to make sure they got things done proper. Rainbow Dash couldn't really tell how much they had done. It did look like they were working on schedule though it wasn't really her job to know if that was the case. She did however feel the sheer amount of boredom Spike must have felt being Twilight's assistant for last year. 'At least if you're working one the jobs you feel like you're doing something. As Twilight's assistant you're just following her around listening to her check up on the ponies on her checklist. Big Mac must be bored out of his skull,' thought a slightly concerned Rainbow Dash. 'Maybe I can help him out with talking AJ down. She's going to to have a fit when she finds out he hasn't apologized to Twilight.'