Yet Another Human In Equestria Story

by Bardic_Knowledge


Chapter 30: March 20, Winter Wrap Up

Yet Another Human in Equestria Story

By: Bardic Knowledge

Chapter 30: March 20, Winter Wrap Up

I lay under the covers, staring at my watch apprehensively. Since the incident at Sugarcube Corner a month ago, I had done research on heart songs. One of the main things I made note of was the fact that Scootaloo hadn't joined in on “Rainbow Connection,” and I wanted to see how that worked. Apparently, heart songs can only affect those who would actually sing that song (hence why she was able to join in during the Hearts and Hooves Day episode, despite not actually singing). As well, some songs had a cumulative effect, where the more ponies that sang it could potentially get more ponies singing it as the area in which it was being sung expanded.

I was apprehensive because I would be glad to see winter gone, but the song would most likely be happening in the morning and I don't know if the song would wake me up and force me to sing along, possibly moving me outside in my pyjamas while it was still cold out.

Twilight has probably gotten up and realized she was too early by now. I thought. I closed my eyes, forcing my thoughts away from the impending song. I really should get to sleep.

---

I was walking along the road in my old neighbourhood, snow covering the lawns. I was bundled up such that, of my head, only my eyes were visible. As I passed the house across the street from my Aunt Linda's house, a thin tornado, the size of my head in diameter, touched down a few feet from me, swirling about for a few seconds before lifting back up with a patch of snow going with it. As I continued my walk, more snow-vacuum-tornadoes touched down and lifted.

As I passed the Browns', the house across from my gramma's, I noticed they had trucks and vans moving about their yard, some driving into their garage and vanishing. I paused, then turned to see a house between Aunt Linda's and her neighbour, Glenn. I knew that house. It only existed in my dreams.

“We presume that this is thy home world?” said a voice to my right, standing in the street.

“Princess Luna?” I turned to see the Princess. More snow-vacuum-tornadoes were cleaning up my grandparent's yard. “As I thought, I'm dreaming. This marks the second time I've realized I was dreaming before I awake.”

“Oh? And what was the first?”

I leaned back in my chair, taking a sip of my dream-tea, before replying. “I was playing around with a friend in a playground that doesn't exist, so far as I know, and when we entered a concrete tunnel that was longer and larger on the inside, I noticed the odd dimensions and realized I was in a dream. But just before I could manipulate the dream, like I just did here, I woke up.”

Luna's form seemed to waver between the humanized form I had tried to grant her (based on John Joseco's art) and her natural pony form. “We see. Thou shows remarkable clarity and control over thy mind.”

I smiled, then swivelled the office chair from my dad's old office, gesturing to the computer before me. “I've always been able to read in my dreams, where most see only gibberish. I guess it's just an extension of my linguistic aptitude.” I hefted the book in my hands before placing it on a shelf. “However, it seems I don't have as much control as you credit me. We've been shifting at the whim of my thoughts, rather than any effort on my part.”

“Such is the immaterium of dreams.”

“Though, a question arises. Why art thou in our dreams this morn?”

“I am practicing my admittedly rusty skills-” Luna frowned, then reached out and switched our mouths back around. “We have not been doing more than raising the moon and painting the sky thus far since our return, and we hoped that we had regained enough of our former strength to accomplish dream-walking. As thy sleep cycle is different than our own, it seemed prudent to try with thee so if we became exhausted, we wouldst already be ready for sleep.”

I nodded in understanding, then quickly stood up from my ex-girlfriend's bed, leaving the small room for my house's front porch. “You know, this is a good place to impart secrets. I doubt Discord can exert enough power to see into dreams while he's petrified.”

“Discord? Why dost thou bring him up?” Luna's hoof-steps accompanied me onto the porch, placing her hands on the porch railing as she looked at me askance.

“Because within the next year, he's going to break free. Celestia already knows, though I gave him the code-name 'Q' so he wouldn't realize it was him we spoke of.”

Luna looked at me from Counsellor Troi's chair. “So, thou hast made plans for his release?”

“I intend to let the Elements deal with him, as they did in the show.” Which had just started playing on the view screen. “Though, I do have plans of my own, involving a bit of a game...”

I snapped awake in my room. That was probably a dream I'll remember the most vividly out of all the dreams I've had. I glanced at the wall clock.

“Noon-thirty. Bit early for my tastes, but I'm wide awake anyways.” I walked over to my window, dancing around the books I tended to leave laying on the floor, and peeked through the blinds, just in time for a thump to herald a pegasus shovelling snow off my roof. “Winter Wrap-Up's still not complete. Guess I'll go lurk at town hall until Twilight takes charge of things.”

Putting truth to words, I got dressed and stepped out into the patchy and slightly mushy snow. Pegasi were swirling the clouds around in the sky, clearing some areas just to murk them up again a few moments later, much like the earth ponies and physically stronger unicorns screwed each other up while plowing. It was rather like art, in a way. A moving painting or something.

I had to skirt around a few members of the animal team as they tried to place unnecessarily fancy nests in trees still laden with slush, where they would undoubtedly slip out before the day was done.

“Sweet darkness,” I murmured. “There were only hints at the disorder in the show, but this...”

I shook my head and continued onward. As I passed into Ponyville, I glanced into the sky in time to see a grey-and-purple pegasus flying off to my right. That must have been Ditzy Doo, heading north. She was actually Derpy's cousin, and while Derpy had some vision issues, Ditzy had Ryoga-level directional problems: tell her to go left and she'll make a right turn; tell her to go straight and she'll keep going that way, even through obstacles.

Twilight taking control of Winter Wrap-Up was a long time coming.

As I arrived at the town hall, I found that the argument was already under way between Applejack and Fluttershy about the rate of snow-melt.

Mayor Mare interceded... sort of, “Oh! What in Equestria are all you arguing about? This sort of silliness is why we were late for spring last year, and the year before that, and the year before that!” She rubbed her forehead with a hoof before continuing. “I was hoping my amazingly inspirational speech would urge everyone to do better than last year, but now it looks like we're going to be later than ever. I mean just look at this catastrophe. The ice scorers made the ice chunks too big to melt; the nest designer is horrendously behind, we need several hundred, and she's only made one! At least her assistant has made a few or we'd be even worse off! And don't get me started on all the clouds in the sky, the icicles on the trees... This isn't good, not at all!”

I paused out of sight of everypony else, looking for the bush containing a purple unicorn. Upon sighting her, I tried to sidle my way over to her without attracting attention. The argument continued in the background.

“And it's gonna be all to pieces disastrous if we can't get our seeds all planted,” chimed Applejack.

“Chillax Applejack,” Rainbow assured her, “we're bustin' our chops as fast as we can.”

Fluttershy gasped before replying, “No, not fast, we have to wake animals slowly.

Big Mac approached them, Caramel standing to one side. “Uh, AJ?

AJ took one look before groaning. “Oh good gravy, Caramel lost the grass seeds again, didn't he?”

“Eeyup.”

A weather team pegasus flew up to Dash, “Ditzy Doo accidentally went north to get the southern birds!“

Dash groaned as well, “Oh that featherbrain. Didn't she learn her lesson last year when she went west?

“An even more pressing concern,” I muttered to Twilight, who jumped at my sudden arrival, “is why they chose her to get them after she messed up that badly the first time.”

“Stop this at once,” the Mayor said. “We don't have time to argue. Spring is going to be late again. Another year of scandal and shame. If only we could be more organized!”

Twilight gasped, and I nodded at her glance, “Spike! Get my checklist template and two clipboards, STAT!”

“Eh, yes, ma'am,” Spike saluted, then zipped off to the library at a dead run. I was briefly puzzled by the request for two clipboards.

“Stop, everypony!” Twilight said. They ignored her. “Stop!”

Taking pity on the bird she would otherwise squeeze, I took a deep breath and shouted with my faux-TRCV, “HEAR YE, HEAR YE!” Everypony stopped and looked my way. “Thank you! Twilight has a solution! Twilight?”

Twilight stepped forward, “Thank you, Joe. I know you all want to complete your jobs on time, but arguing is no way to go about it. What you need is organization, and I'm just the pony for the job.” Immediately after she finished speaking, Spike returned from the library, panting. “Along with my assistant supervisors, Spike and Joe.”

Assistant supervisor? I thought, then shrugged. I didn't much care for positions of authority, but I could probably handle that.

Spike handed me a clipboard, a fresh paper with blank squares lining the left side.

“Joe, you will watch over the plant team,” Twilight commanded, writing appearing on my clipboard giving a priority to the things the plant team \needed to do. “Spike, you and I will start with the animal team and then we'll clear the weather team for sunlight, okay?”

Spike and I saluted and we set about our tasks. First step, clear out the snow. I assembled the plant team at one end of the fields, opposite the Everfree.

“Alrighty, snowplow ponies! I need you all to line up along this edge in two straight lines! First row, I want all of you facing the same direction with a full two feet between your plows. Row two, stand so that you can see between the plows of row one! Understood?”

With a unified sound of agreement, they arranged themselves as instructed. I told row one to go ahead, and after a minute, sent row two out to get the snow row one left behind. As they moved forward, I checked the first line off the checklist, then I addressed the crowd of farming-plow ponies and the seeders.

“You lot will follow directly behind the first row of snow plows, plowing then seeding. This is the carrot field, so only carrot seeds are to be planted this run.” There was another sound of agreement, and I sent them off on their task. After another check, one more group went along behind the seeders and folded the furrows over into mounds, but not flat earth. If I had everything timed right...

Sure enough, a few moments later, the drill formation of pegasi tore through the cloud layer, pulling the grey skies away and letting the sun melt the snow left by the second row of snowplows for the seeds' first watering.

The process was repeated in other fields with other crops, until almost all the seeds had been used up. Once every field had been completed, I gathered everypony and we headed for the rendezvous point just outside of town, where every team was meeting. Just as the sun began to set, I looked out over the fields, hands in my coat pockets. Winter's end. Felt good.

Oh, and for a nice departure from canon, Spike and I got All-Team vests, too.

Still not sure how Rarity managed to get it under my coat without taking it off.