It had been a long and dark winter for everypony in Equestria, but spring approached quickly. In that early morning, Princess Twilight Sparkle awoke from her bed, excited for Winter Wrap-Up. She jumped out of her bed and rushed to the closet, gathering heavy equipment for warmth. After a few minutes, she turned to see her little assistant, still asleep from a long night. She walked over to him and rubbed his head with her snout. Spike turned on his side, refusing to wake up at such an early hour. Twilight giggled.
“Oh come on, Spike. We gotta get ready for another great Winter Wrap-Up,” she said in excitement.
Spike groaned.
“Ahhh... Come on, Twilight. We do this every year... Can’t you wait until later?” he mumbled, turning on his side.
Twilight used her magic to levitate Spike out of bed and onto her back.
“Later? If we wait any longer, spring will be late and I can assure you, nopony wants to go through another cold and dark winter,” she replied, smiling.
Spike dropped his head and went back to sleep.
Soon Twilight hurried outside, walking all of Ponyville to greet its citizens as they gathered for Winter Wrap-Up.
---
While the ponies began their yearly Winter Wrap-Up, high above Equestria, in the deepest depths of space, a star went supernova, creating a massive explosion. As the explosion lit up the sky, it soon amalgamated into an odd looking creature: a creature in the form of an Alicorn. It let out a fearsome roar, so loud that it shook nearby moons. With that, a mysterious magic was released from his armor and horn as meteors flashed, firing in all directions. At intensive speed, thousands of flares showered into smaller meteors firing through space, marking the Alicorn’s next location.
---
Back in Equestria, Twilight watched many of her fellow neighbors continue, cleaning up what remained of snow and planting seeds for flowers and vegetables to grow. Spike, still sleeping on her back, finally awoke, looking around to see what was happening. Twilight turned to him.
“About time you wake up,” she said.
Spike yawned.
“I know... I know. I’m just so tired,” he mumbled.
Walking to Sweet Apple Acres, Twilight met up with Applejack, leading a team of ponies to plow the snow out, and another team behind them, planting rows of seeds. She turned to Twilight.
“Mornin’, Twilight! How’s it going?” she asked happily.
“Hey, Applejack. It’s been great. Well, almost great... If someone can wake up.” She giggled. “How’s your progress with the snow?”
Applejack turned her head as she watched her team cleaning up what had remained on the fields.
“Everything is going great."
She seemed satisfied.
“Hey, Big Mac, gonna need ya to push that heavy stack from the barn. Think ya can handle it?” she yelled out.
Big Macintosh, a hard working red stallion as well as Applejack’s older brother, turned his head.
“Eeyup,” he quickly replied, and went to complete his task.
“Yup, big bro Mac always there…” Applejack said, speaking quickly as she ran back to her task. “Anywho... Gotta get back and finish up. Don’t wanna see Spring come late.”
“Okay. See you later, AJ,” Twilight replied.
Spike turned to Twilight.
“Is the day over already...? I want to go back to my warm bed,” he mumbled softy.
On the way, they traveled throughout Ponyville, still monitoring progress, until they stopped at Rarity’s house. Out in the yard Rarity, alongside her sister, Sweetie Belle, prepared small bird’s nest for the Animal Team to place in trees. However, Twilight noticed the progress was a little slow. She turned to Rarity.
“Hey, Rarity.” She smiled. “Do you need any help?”
Rarity lifted her head.
“Oh... Good Morning, darling. Well, for the time being, we could use some help...” Rarity said.
Spike jumped up in excitement.
“Help?” he quickly responded, darting next to Rarity.
“Anything you ask, I'll get it,” he said with a grin.
Twilight smiled.
“Alright. What do you need help with, Rarity?” she asked.
“Well,” Rarity replied, looking all over the table, “I should have something for you... Ah, here it is!”
She used her blue magic to levitate a roll of fabric towards Twilight.
“Would you be so kind as to hold this for me while I'm cutting it? It would make it easier for me to measure the right size to add for each bird nest.”
Twilight smiled and nodded, and then grabbed the fabric tight. She was happy to help.
As they worked, Fluttershy walked over with the Animal Team, taking the finished birds nest and placing them onto the trees. After two hours, Twilight, Rarity, and Sweetie Belle constructed more than five hundred nests, finishing their duties. In thanks, Rarity gave Twilight a nest as a personal souvenir and Spike, a gemstone, which left him in trance.
“Oh, Rarity...! It's beautiful. Thank you,” he said, beaming.
“Of course, Spike-Wikey,” Rarity replied.
After they were finished, they parted ways and Twilight and Spike headed to SugarCube Corner, planning to meet up with Pinkie Pie. On the way, Twilight saw Rainbow Dash directing ponies with bringing in the birds. Twilight called out to her.
"Hi, Rainbow Dash!"
“Morning, Twilight! How’s it hanging?” Rainbow Dash asked.
“Well, we just finished working with Rarity on the bird’s nests, so I gotta say we got a lot of work done. How 'bout you?” Twilight asked.
“We’re in the process of getting the southern birds up for the new season and their new home. Gonna see if--”
She was interrupted as Cloud Chaser flew up to her with a message. Rainbow Dash smacked her face with her hoof in frustration.
“Why does that bird brain always do that?” she said under her breath.
She turned to Twilight.
“Sorry Twilight. Derpy decided to go out west to bring the Western birds. Catch you later!” she called as she flew away.
“Later, Dash,” Twilight replied.
As they arrived at SugerCube Corner, Twilight walked in and noticed the stack of ice skates, and snowboards. She giggled.
“Pinkie, are you going skiing or something?”
Pinkie Pie hopped over the counter, carrying ice skates.
“Silly Twilight! Just getting some extra skates, for ponies who want to break the ice. Wanna try it again?” she asked.
Twilight backed away.
“Oh no, Pinkie. Remember what happened last time?” she replied.
Pinkie Pie thought back that moment, Twilight's first Winter Wrap Up where, still a unicorn at the time, she had slipped knocked the pink pony over, creating a massive snowball and crashing into a tree.
“Oh yeah! I remember that! Hilarious!” she laughed. “Well, if you are not gonna help with breaking, do you mind if you can help me carry all this to the lake?”
“Of course,” Twilight responded.
Two more hours passed as Twilight watched Ponyville’s progress. It was about three quarters finished. Going through the checklist, she marked down all the completed work and skimmed down, running into the last job: to attend the Main Hall for a “Winter Wrap-Up Completion Meeting”. Feeling satisfied with the day's work, she continued patrolling Ponyville, monitoring progress.
---
However, out in space, hundreds of meteors continued traveling at such extreme speed, almost as fast as light, exploded, creating an entire cloud of meteor showers. In sight of the explosion light years away, it marked Equestria brightly and the great Alicorn in the stars knew that was where it must head.
---
At that same moment, Ponyville witnessed the explosion in the sky and became speechless by the beauty of it. However, that moment of fascination soon turned to panic, as the meteors came crashing down like miniature bombs, creating small craters as far as the eye could see. Everypony ran in such terror in different directions, evading and taking cover, avoiding the crashing rocks as they blasted through structures. After several minutes, the meteors had ceased, leaving everypony shaking in fear on what had just occurred.
Twilight hurried back to her castle with Spike and quickly ran to the podium in her room.
“Spike! Take a letter immediately,” she decreed.
Spike instantly grabbed the pen and paper.
“I’m ready, Twilight," Spike responded.
Twilight viewed the damage in Ponyville and spoke.
“Dear Princess Celestia,
I am writing to you in an emergency. We have just experienced a catastrophic phenomenon which has apparently destroyed half of Ponyville and unfortunately has delayed our yearly Winter Wrap-Up. As of now, I am about to ask everypony to immediately assist on cleaning up the wreckage. I fear this problem is more widespread than just Ponyville and I worry it has effected the rest of Equestria as well. I will try my best to attend to the care of ponies here and hope you are all okay.
Your faithful student,
Twilight Sparkle”
Once Twilight finished speaking, Spike rolled up the parchment and sent it to Princess Celestia in a burst of green fire, hoping to get a response. Just before they walked out the doorway, Spike burped up the letter and immediately opened it.
“To my faithful student and Princess Twilight Sparkle,
I have just received your message and want to confirm that we are alright. It appears that you are correct that this unusual meteor shower crashed all over Equestria and nearly destroyed several of its cities. Canterlot had suffered some damage, but we can manage in the meantime. My sister will be assisting as well and try to figure out what caused such a disaster. I wish you good luck, Princess.
- Princess Celestia”
Spike placed the message down on the podium. Twilight rubbed her chin, puzzled by the event, when suddenly, Rarity, Applejack, Rainbow Dash, Fluttershy, and Pinkie Pie rushed in. Twilight turned.
“Girls! Are you alright?” she asked in concern
The ponies, breathing heavily from evading the meteors, looked concerned themselves.
“We’re alright. But we...” Applejack panted; tried to catch her breath.
“We were more worried about you,” Rarity continued Applejack’s sentence.
“I’m alright. I just received a letter from the Princess, herself. She said that this meteor shower has effected all of Equestria. But, she also mentioned that this was a very unusual turn of events. Let’s try to relax for a little and help the other ponies clean up the damage,” she said.
Rainbow Dash raised her eyebrow.
“What about Winter Wrap-Up?” she asked.
“Yes... and Spring is only a few days away,” Fluttershy whispered.
Twilight nodded.
“Unfortunately, we need to put Winter Wrap-Up on hold. As much as we want spring to come, I’m worried that, if another meteor shower occurs, I don’t want ponies to get hurt. If you know what I mean,” she replied.
Applejack walked forward.
“Well... Even though we have a lot of work to do for Winter Wrap-Up, you definitely have a point. And we’re with you all the way. Just tell us what to do and we’ll get on it!” she said, smiling.
Rainbow Dash flew around in excitement.
“You betcha, Twilight. We’ll be here every step of the way,” she said.
Rarity, Fluttershy, and Pinkie Pie nodded their heads in agreement. Twilight then turned to Spike, as he smiled.
“Alright! Let’s do this... TOGETHER!” Twilight said proudly.
Cheers came out from the ponies within the library as they prepared for their duties.