An Unending Chill

by Kaptein

Chapter 1: First Winds

Celestia’s sun was shining beautifully, birds sang cheerfully and - judging by the cheerful sounds of ponies outside - everypony seemed to be about their usual business.

That couldn’t explain why it was so blisteringly cold.

Twilight Sparkle shook off the three extra blankets she had put on the night before, her body giving a small shiver at the chilled morning air nipping at her. The frigid nights for the past week resulted in her needing the extra insulation.

Going downstairs, she started on breakfast, leaving Spike to sleep his morning away. The poor tyke - after yesterdays bi-monthly reshelving, he deserved a bit of a rest.

A simple and warm meal of hot oats helped push the cold away and put a smile on Twilight’s face - despite the cold, it was going to be a good day, she could just feel it.

Wrapping a thick scarf around her neck, she headed outside to start her morning errands.

She was not alone in wearing some kind of warm garment - others were adorned with scarves or coats and even some had winter boots. The sight was odd considering it was the middle of autumn.

She didn’t get a chance to ponder as a heavy weight knocked into Twilight’s side, almost pushing her off her hooves. “Oof!” she grunted, turning to look at what pushed her.

“Watch where you’re going!” an angry-looking stallion growled, causing Twilight to take a guarded step away from him. He stalked off, shooting heated glances back at Twilight.

“I wonder what his problem is…?” Twilight asked herself under her breath, before turning and resuming her trip to the market stands.

“Hey Applejack,” she greeted, making her way to her friend’s applecart, giving a warm smile to the farmer. Applejack gave a weary smile back, tired rings under her eyes.

“Mornin’ Twilight,” she greeted back. Her voice was as tired as her eyes, her body slumping slightly.

“Is everything alright?” Twilight took a step forward, her brow furrowed in worry. Applejack was usually cheerful this time of morning. What possibly could have her troubled like this?

Applejack’s eyes darted to the side, searching for a lie before she simply looked down at the ground, heaving a resigned sigh. “I swear, winter is supposed to be two months away and it feels like its first chills are comin’ in already.” She looked up at the sky. “This cold is leavin’ more than I care of my crop damaged to the morning frost, and it’s been pushing back the amount of harvesting we can get done. I’ve been up all night worrying ‘bout it!”

“Oh my. That sounds bad,” Twilight said sympathetically. It didn’t bode well for Ponyville if the Apples’ harvest was struggling. She looked up at the sky as well. Clouds were slowly gathering overhead - Rainbow must have had rain planned for that day.

Saying her goodbyes to Applejack, Twilight turned to do her morning shopping - she still felt a bit chipper this morning and wanted something fresh for lunch.

A cold tingle touched her nose, a wrinkle chasing the smile off her face. “Snow…?”

Twilight looked back up at the sky, an unsettling churn building up in her stomach. No - that couldn’t be right; they were still in the middle of autumn! But, sure as it was, snowflakes lazily drifted down from the darkening clouds overhead.

Slowly, ponies came to a stop as they glanced upwards, more snowflakes falling down. The entire plaza came to a grinding halt, everypony practically dropping what they were doing to stare at this oddity.

Twilight didn’t have time to join them - galloping at full speed back towards her library, she found a very nervous Rainbow Dash there. Her hooves were prancing on the spot, droplets of cold sweat beginning to form on her brow. Aviator goggles swung wildly around her neck.

Rainbow immediately rushed to Twilight and gripped her shoulders tightly. “Twilight! you’ve got to help me out here! The weather’s gone crazy!”

Twilight levitated the pegasus off of her. “Easy there, Rainbow Dash. We’re still two months from winter - why’s it snowing?”

Rainbow’s eyes were wide, the panic slowly building up in them. “That’s exactly it, Twilight,” she said, “It’s not supposed to be snowing! Cloudsdale’s entire weather team is out there trying to push back the rogue clouds but they just keep coming! Nopony even knows where they’re coming from. We’ve already had six fights break out in weather HQ about this whole mess!”

Twilight took a bewildered step back. “I’m - I’m not sure how I’m supposed to help right now, Dash,” she said, Rainbow’s panic seeding uneasiness into her.

“Maybe your magic can help out - I don’t know! We’ve spent the entire day just trying to find out where they’re coming from!”

A firm knock on the library door snapped them both out of their argument. Twilight walked up to it and opened it. A pegasus stallion wearing a pair of aviator goggles, akin to the ones Rainbow Dash and other high-altitude weather pegasi wore, stood at the door, peering past her into the library.

“Rainbow Dash!” he called out. “You’re needed back at Weather HQ - pronto. Every available pegasus is being called up there.”

Twilight blinked at the stallion in confusion. “Why? What’s going on?”

The pegasus stallion sighed, pulling the goggles off to hang loosely around his neck. “Snows have been hitting every major town and city in Equestria,” he replied, the words sending a chill down Twilight’s spine. “We’re scrambling as many teams as we can to try and do damage control.”

The chill along Twilight’s spine spread very quickly to her stomach. “Wait, what?” she whispered, her voice sounding very small. “H - how bad is it?”

A bleak sigh escaped the stallion, no hope behind his eyes. “Fillydelphia and Manehatten are already snowed in. Cold fronts are hitting all along the western banks of Equestria, and we’re even getting reports of snowstorms blowing in down past Appleloosa.”

“...how come none of us have heard about this?” Twilight asked weakly.

The smile faded from his face. “Too much panic - every pony in every town has been too focused on trying to figure out what’s going on. The rogue storms only started a week ago - Ponyville is one of the last to be hit.”

Twilight Sparkle stood, a numbing feeling spreading up from her hooves. She turned to look at Rainbow Dash, eyes filled with worry. Understanding flooded into her - no wonder Rainbow Dash was in such a state. She knew, even if partly, just how badly things were going.

The stallion continued, “We didn’t think it was that serious up until a few days ago. We’re scrambling every spare pegasus to try and find out what’s going on.”

Twilight looked between the two. The resigned look on the stallion and the weary look on Rainbow’s face were both final nails in the coffin of quiet panic building up in her. “But - it’s been a week! How come nopony even knows about this!?”

“I - I’m not too sure. Weather HQ is keeping quiet and something seems to be disrupting the normal mail routes. I really wish I could tell you more, but I don’t know any more to tell.”

Twilight simply stared in disbelief at the stallion. She tried forming a coherent argument but words kept failing her.

The stallion finally spoke. “Come on, Rainbow Dash. We’re running out of time.”

With a resigned sigh, the multi-coloured mare trotted nervously up to the door. She gave Twilight one last look, two dark pink pools of fear and worry behind the confident mask that was Rainbow Dash. She closed her eyes, pulling up the goggles over them. “I’ve gotta go, Twilight,” she said, her voice deflated. “Please - maybe one of your books has something. We’re at a loss here.”

Together with the stallion, they took wing towards Cloudsdale as Twilight could only look up at the still-darkening sky.

After a few moments, she turned, closing the door behind her. “Spike!” she called out.

The baby dragon walked up to her. “Yes, Twilight?”

“I need you to send a letter to Princess Celestia.”

He nodded, fetching a quill and parchment.

Dear Princess Celestia.

I’ve just heard from the weather pegasi that snow is falling all throughout Equestria. Do reports detail on how bad it is? Is everything in Canterlot okay? This is all catching me off-guard and I’m surprised at the lack of news.

Please respond soon, Princess. I’m worried.

Your Faithful Student

Twilight Sparkle.

With a puff of green dragon-flame, the scroll was off to its intended recipient. All she could do was wait for the Princess’ reply.

She turned to go to the main library section - hopefully there was something in there that could shed some light on the freak weather.

Twilight stopped and stared out her library’s window at the town outside. A layer of snow was beginning to form.

Comments

[Fillyphil]

Hey there DarkStarZN, I'm coming in from Reddit. Let me start by saying that you've got some good foundation skills as just a beginner. Out of curiosity, have you done a bit a writing before your Fimfiction submissions? I ask because I was absolutely terrible when I first started, due entirely to that I had no writing skill or experience to start with whatsoever.

But on to the story: The over all feeling of the story so far is alright. It's not fantastic or even very good, but it's good enough to arouse interest.

I just deleted a wall of text I wrote because I took another good look and decided that you really didn't need a lecture on the specifics. The story is good overall with some stumbles, most of which I think can be recovered through some simple revision. I think you'll do just fine in the coming future as you gain experience and read plenty, and you don't really need someone who's not very good themselves to tell you what you've done right or wrong. So all I'll say is that it's interesting and I'll leave it at that. And since I'm so interested, I'll be watching to see where this goes. Good luck.

[Kaptein]

3615771 Thank you very much for your time.

Yes, I have done quite a bit of writing before Fimfiction - but nothing published or even completed, really. I tried a FiM fanfic a while back, but realised that the story overall just wouldn't work (Wasn't refined enough).

The general story line in this one, however, is far more defined. (And has actually been in 'developement' if you will, for over a year now). My general lack of writing experience (and proof-readers/editors) is what's hampering my writing at this stage, I think.

I will try my best to improve my writing, and again thank you for your time.