Chapter 54 - Winter Wrap Up
I awoke with a start; I’d been sleeping fitfully as it was. The importance of today’s date had kept me in a permanent state of excitement. I think altogether, I’d only gotten about five hours of sleep, and even less of that was true REM sleep.
It was still dark outside, but in the east the faint glow of the dawn could be seen. The day was about to begin. A day that any self-respecting brony ought to be able recognize, and more importantly, sing about. Today was Winter Wrap Up day. And the song was already in my head.
I tried in vain for about twenty minutes to get sleep to return and give me another hour of rest. Eventually though, I just gave in and got out of bed. Opening the curtains in my room completely, I could make out the snow still sitting outside. What had once been a pristine whiteness was now more of a slush, having been steadily trod into the ground over time. The sky was dull and overcast and had been for over a fortnight now, since Strong Shield got himself found out. I hadn’t had a chance to speak to him since that day in Canterlot. Twilight had suggested writing to him, but I needed to talk to him face to face.
Winter was almost over, soon the snow would be gone, the animals would emerge from hibernation or return from their temporary homes and everything would bloom again with life. This, aside from the Summer Sun Celebration, had to be one of the most important traditions in the Equestrian calendar. Annoyingly, my mind offered up the old cry of ‘Tradition!’ at that.
I headed downstairs and made myself a pot of coffee, forgoing the usual apple juice and taking the caffeine full force. If I was to be deprived of sleep I was going to stay awake. Much to my surprise, I heard hoofsteps on the stairs; it was still only half five too. Oddly, it Apple Bloom who trotted into the kitchen. Like me she appeared excited to the point of Pinkie Pie levels.
“Ain’t it a bit early for you to be up, little lady?” I asked as the filly yawned. She was obviously still on autopilot. “Are ya excited?” She nodded at that.
“Big Macintosh says Ah can help plantin’ the seeds this year. Ah don’t know what Caramel’s gonna do though.” She pawed at the ground. Ah yes, Caramel, to Big Mac’s mind, losing the seeds twenty-seven times was one time too many. This year, the stallion would be in charge of simply watching AB rather than actually doing anything.
Big Mac himself would be putting his herculean strength behind the snow plough to clear the fields, whilst I would be one of the ones actually turning the soil. Applejack of course had for a number of years been the head of the Plant team which we’d all be serving on and would be doing her best to keep an eye on the bigger picture. Though of course she still reported to the organisational demigod that was the All-team Organiser; Twilight Sparkle.
Honestly, it would be good to just get back to work again. While a break was a welcome change of pace, three months of snow and cold had gotten tedious really quickly. I’d always like spring back home; it meant lambs, calves, house martins, and occasionally a nice sunny day.
Apple Bloom and I chatted quietly to ourselves until the rest of the family woke up. She’d gotten disheartened with astronomy lately. The bad weather had made stargazing of any kind difficult and over a month with no sign of a cutie mark had been enough for the Crusaders. They were now again looking for a new idea; though of course as the Equestria Games drew nearer, more of their time was taken up practicing for the opening ceremony.
Everypony else was up and about by six o’clock. Everypony was supposed to muster at Town Hall by seven for their assignments to be finalised and to receive their armbands which marked out their team. Mayor Mare would give her little inspirational speech and then we’d be off. One day to literally wrap up winter. My inner brony began to sing again, much to my annoyance.
Granny Smith set us up with a larger than usual breakfast of grits, toast, eggs, cereals, anything that would keep us working all the live long day. We had a bit of time to chat as we ate.
“Ah wonder what Twi’s gonna assign Lizzie and my folks to,” I wondered out loud. Winter Wrap Up was certainly one of the more unusual events in Ponyville, aside from events necessitating the use of the Elements. They’d all come to accept the idea of pegasi controlling the weather, but watching everypony literally change the season would still probably throw them.
With plenty of hot food in our bellies, we all set out for Ponyville. The exception of course, was Granny Smith, who would be on hand all day with food and drink for everypony working on or near the farm.
Outside town hall, everypony in Ponyville had gathered together to collect their assignments. At this point it was fairly routine; almost everypony had done the same job for a few years now under Twilight’s direction. Applejack had been able to get me a job on the farm easily enough, but I was interested to see what jobs the rest of my family got.
After picking up my green armband, which Rarity said clashed horribly with my grey coat. I headed over to Applejack and all the other Plant team members. Sweet Celestia, it was like sports day all over again; there’s a flashback I don’t need. Much to my surprise, I found that we also had Dad assigned to us, since he had a bit of experience with farm work from our old smallholding.
“Mornin’ Dad,” I said as he walked over to us, still trying to get the pony sized armband to go over his duffle coat.
“Hey Bones, good morning Applejack,” he replied. “So what’s on the agenda then?”
“Listen up and you’ll see,” she replied, gesturing to Twilight, who had just gotten onto the stage in front of the town hall.
“Alright everypony,” she called. “You all have your assignments tasked and timetabled. We now have...” She paused to confer with Time Turner. “We now have seventeen hours to completely wrap up winter. Get to it everypony!” With a quick cheer we all began to head off on our way. In my case, back to the farm to begin clearing the fields of snow and then making the seedbed for the next crop. I saw Lizzie going with Fluttershy on the Animal team, while Mum was with Pinkie, ice skates in hand and on the Weather team, Dad meanwhile followed the rest of us assigned to the plant team back to Sweet Apple Acres. With such a scene, my inner brony inevitably started up again; I was getting close to killing the twit.
We’d been working for a few hours now, clearing the fields and orchards of Sweet Apple Acres. In the past, there would at this point still be a great deal of work to do before we were finished. However, Twilight put forward the suggestion that instead of everypony on the team using snowploughs and then switching to cultivators and then tilling the seed bed, we should do everything at once. So, we all worked in teams of three, each doing a section of ground. At the head was the snowplough, which cleared the snow and slush off of the ground; this was Big Mac’s job, since the snowplough was such a heavy thing (I could barely move it without magic). This was followed by the cultivator, my job, which tilled the soil and created the seedbed. Finally, a pony followed behind with the new seeds and distributed them evenly.
Thus everything was done at a noticeably faster pace. It meant doing each individual job with fewer ponies, but it avoided the need to swap everypony out, which took time. According to Applejack, we were saving about three hours compared to the old system.
We were all noticeably sweating; even the toughest of us like Big Mac found the going hard. Still, it kept us warm in the cold weather and we had an ample supply of liquids and a couple rest periods. And, since we were all working in small groups, we were able to get conversations going as we worked. Much to my surprise, as we’d set off I found the pony behind me to be Time Turner. We’d been chatting for a fair while now.
“So you think it was a rift like the Cardiff one?” I asked as we turned round for another go. He nodded.
“The way Twilight described it to me, and from what I saw, I’d say so. You didn’t happen to see where it came out did you?”
“Stonehenge,” I replied. The old Timelord paused mid step, blinking for a moment.
“Seriously?” he asked in his ‘Trottingham’ accent. “That’s a bit clichéd isn’t it? I mean an inter-dimensional rift across time and space just happens to open over a historical monument that’s supposed to be able to open portals to other worlds? What’s wrong with a back alley behind a chippy or something?”
“Hey, come on,” I chided. “That’s even worse, and it wasn’t there when Ah left. We were all at home before we woke up here.” He conceded that.
“Well, doesn’t really matter I suppose. Whatever you lot did destabilised it and blasted it halfway to Raxacoricofallapatorius. Still, another twenty years and we can try again I suppose.” He laughed at his own joke. It would be interesting when we finally ‘caught up’ with the TARDIS. “You should drop by my shop if you get a chance. Twilight’s always turning up looking for pointers.” Well, far be it from me to turn down a chance to talk with The Doctor.
By mid-afternoon we had all finished with our section of the fields. While there were still some areas to clear, they were under the jurisdiction of other groups in the Plant team; we would only be called up again if somepony fell behind and needed a few extra hooves. Since that seemed fairly unlikely, I decided to head out and look for the rest of my family and see how they were fairing.
Dad of course, was in another section of the farm. Like me, he’d pretty much completed his jobs for the day and was on standby. Unfortunately for him though, the lead in his section had been Bulk Biceps. I think the continuous repetition of the word ‘yeah’ was starting to get to him. He jumped at the chance to go somewhere, anywhere but where that steroid filled equine was.
Returning to Town Hall, I asked Twilight where the remaining two members of my family had been sent. Twilight quickly began to speed read through all her timetables and plans.
“It looks like Lizzie’s waking up some of the animals at Whitetail Wood, and you mom is still with Pinkie Pie. They should be still breaking up the ice on the lake in Ponyville Park.” Since Mom was closer, we decided to head there first. If nothing else, it would be funny as anything to see her trying to ice skate.
Pinkie, as you may or may not know, is extremely adept at ice skating. Hay, if she wasn’t busy at Sugarcube Corner, as well as being Equestria’s greatest party planner and have the whole Element of Laughter thing going on, she’d probably be a pretty decent figure skater. My mother on the other hand, is not so gifted. As much as I hate to say this of the woman who raised me, she has all the grace of an angry Minotaur. And dear Celestia did it show.
When Dad and I reached the large lake that dominated the centre of the park, we found Pinkie Pie contentedly skating around, neatly cutting up the ice, whilst my mother was rocketing about with no apparent control or direction. Okay, I’m no better, but it was still funny as hay.
“Ahhh! Pinkie! Help me!” she cried as she continued to criss cross her own meandering path. Pinkie continued her own skating routine.
“Don’t worry, Margaret! You’re doing fine! Just ease out of that uncontrollable wobble you’ve got going on,” she replied. Ah yes, as many have said before me ‘Pinkie Pie, you are so random’.
Eventually the inevitable happened and my mother fell down on her rear, sliding unceremoniously to a stop at the edge of the lake. My father walked over to her and bent down to help her up.
“Having fun, dear?” he asked, a smile on his face. Mom shot him a look but eventually was overcome by giggles herself. With effort, she was able to get back on her feet. While her path may have been haphazard at best, she’d still managed to cut through a fair portion of the ice. As the Weather team cleared away the clouds, the sun would do the rest.
A similar scheme was going on at the farm; the beavers would take down their temporary dams, which would weaken the water’s surface enough to start the flow again. I just hoped we didn’t have a repeat of last year, when the debris from the demolished dams all combined together and blocked the river. Worse, the beavers decided to use the massive construct as their home. That led to a bit of a falling out between beaver and pony. Still, that was before my time as I like to put it.
We watched Mum and Pinkie, who helped Mum a few times for a few minutes more, before the pair left the ice. Almost as soon as they stepped off, the cracks began to connect together. The whole surface shattered like broken glass, separating into small pieces that would quickly melt in the sunlight.
“Woo! Wasn’t that fun? Fun, fun, fun.” Pinkie asked as she bounced around. “And don’t worry, my first time was just as wobbly and bobbly and crasherific as yours.” The unsettling echo of the word ‘fun’ kicked off a ‘Too Many Pinkie Pies’ flashback. I honestly wonder if she has liquid sugar in her veins instead of blood. Still, she was being sincere, and Mum did seem to enjoy herself towards the end, in spite of her constant falling.
All that remained was to check up on Lizzie and Fluttershy up in Whitetail Wood. I thought back to the race I’d run through these trees, I chuckled to myself at the mental image of Dad desperately trying to cheer Dash on to win his bet.
Fluttershy’s job was something that came naturally to her; waking up animals from their hibernation. Now, I remember frequently being told as a lad not to bother hibernating creatures, usually for my own good if nothing else. Fluttershy though, with her innate ability was able to keep them relaxed and happy as they stumbled out of their winter homes.
For smaller beasts, she and Twilight had devised a system of connected bells, allowing whole warrens and dens to be woken at the same time. But Whitetail Wood contained a few somewhat larger specimens that needed a little more than just the tinkling of a bell.
As we threaded our way between the trees the calm and peace of the newly created spring was shattered by the bellow of a wild animal. And boy did he sound cranky. It was a loud deafening roar that made the very earth beneath my hooves to shake. For a horrible moment, I feared a return of the Ursa Minor, or worse yet its mother. But, I quickly reminded myself that the only one known to exist was in the Everfree, with all the other dangerous animals.
“What the hell was that?!” my mother demanded, fearing for her daughter’s safety. We quickly set of at a run to find the source of the noise.
I was expecting a multitude of things to greet us when we reached the area the roar came from. A mountain lion, manticores, maybe even a fearsome hydra. What I did not expect was the scene that greeted us.
Standing just outside a small cave were Fluttershy and my sister, and not two feet from them a large, and I mean very large grizzly bear. It reared up on its back legs, towering over the both of them. Its huge claws glinted in the returning sunlight; it looked mad, it was going to strike them.
Without thinking, I teleported myself to a spot just in front of the two animal caretakers. I charged my horn up with a stun spell and fired a warning shot just over the bear’s shoulder.
“Back! Leave them alone!” I bellowed, charging my horn to stun it. Much to my surprise though, I felt a hand quickly grasp my tail and pull me back out of the way.
“Don’t hurt him; he’s just cranky,” my sister said as she released me from her grip. I turned back to the bear to find Fluttershy hovering around it, reminding it that it needed to stretch its back legs before standing on them. The roar I had heard had been one of pain, not aggression; the poor thing just had stiff muscles from sleeping for so long.
I looked back and forth between the two groups, blushing furiously at my rash actions. Both my parents were giggling to themselves; Mom probably saw this as karma for me laughing at her on the ice. Dad probably just found it funny. On the other side Lizzie looked vaguely annoyed with me, while Fluttershy was busy fussing over the bear. It meanwhile, regarded me with a curios look. I splayed my ears and pulled my hat forward in an effort to hide my embarrassment.
“Err, sorry everypony,” I said sheepishly.
Fortunately for me, my embarrassment was short lived. The bear, along with its small family, was the last group of creatures that needed waking. Even better, according to Twilight’s timetable, which was written down to the nanosecond, it was one of the last jobs to be completed. So, as the bears contentedly lumbered off back to their homes, we prepared to return to ours for the closing ceremony.
We walked back through the park to reach town hall and the fruits of our labour were clear to see. All the snow was now gone, in its place fresh, green grass. The skies were clearer, some clouds would remain just in case they were needed, but these were few and far between. Birds chirped and tweeted, flittering from tree to tree, all following a grey pegasus that was erratically zooming around the local airspace.
Wait a minute.
Said grey pegasus was being pursued by a cyan counterpart with a rainbow mane and tail. It made for an odd tail chase; a flock of small birds (possibly swallows or house martins) bracketed by two pegasi. I could make out Dash yelling.
“No Derpy, those ones belong in the north, you need to take them back!” she complained, her famously limited patience wearing thin.
“Okay Rainbow Dash!” the muffin obsessed mail mare replied. She turned about ninety degrees to starboard. A direction which, incidentally, took her on a southern bearing. Dash continued after her.
“You’re heading south, Derpy! Turn around!” She tried to cut across her and force her to turn to avoid a collision, but Derpy simply dodged her and kept going. A moment later she turned again. She was now heading west. Dash paused to hover in the air as well as facehoof.
“Ahhh! This way! North! Do you see?! North! Not south, not east, not west! North! Go north, Derpy!” The rest of us now began to chip in to help in the unfolding spectacle. None of us wanted to see RD go down for murder in any case.
“Derpy, turn to your left!” I called up, hoping simpler directions would help. She promptly waved at me and turned right. I couldn’t imagine how confused the birds she was supposed to be directing were right about now. My mother then tried.
“Other way!” A simple direction which was amazingly obeyed. Derpy was now heading east rather than west.
“Now go left,” Lizzie called, I was about to try reverse psychology to prevent her right turn when Dad made his contribution.
“Texas left, Derpy!” he called up. Amazingly she went left, the birds still managing to follow her. “Okay, just head that way, drop off the birds and come back here.”
“Okay!” She flew off into the distance. If that had been any other pegasus, except perhaps Fluttershy, I’d have been pretty mad. But it is a scientific fact that no being can be mad at Derpy for more than a few minutes. Except pc-ness obsessed helicopter parents.
A short while later, everypony’s favourite, and I must say most reliable mailmare returned from her trip to the Frozen North. Dash meanwhile had gone and fetched the southern birds which completed all tasks that had been set for Winter Wrap Up. We were done. Returning to Town Hall, Mayor Mare and Twilight, along with Time Turner, who was faffing with his oversized sand glass, prepared to give a speech.
“Fillies and Gentlecolts,” the Mayor began. “It is with great pride that I am able to announce that Winter has been officially wrapped up with…” She paused and turned to confer with the disguised Timelord. “One hour and seventeen minutes to spare!” Everypony cheered. It had taken a long time for Ponyville to shake the scandal of wrapping everything up late in earlier years.
With the clouds gone we could make out Canterlot, unlike Ponyville it had a unicorn majority population, rather than an earth pony one, and so they tended to do everything with magic rather than the old-fashioned way. In one large magical pulse the snow vanished from the city as did the clouds and everything instantly bloomed. Very quietly I heard my father mutter to himself.
“Lazy bastards.”
Proofread by Sidetrack.
Southern accents checked by Grayfire.
And just in case it wasn't in your head already:
Another interlude next, but other events have already been set in motion.
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I think I got this song in my head already. No need for another copy.
Also, I got this on the Pony Drama Generator and couldn't stop thinking of you and your opinions on Cadance. https://twitter.com/rcmero/status/512692135829577728
I agree...
5024950 *Looks at link*
Good old Dave, met him at BUCK, came off as a decent guy. Now I know for sure. 
I don't remember if Twilight's ascended or not at this point yet, but if she has that statement's probably more true than he meant it to be...
[youtube=X0sW8KrZF5s]
5029550 I take the same approach as the show does to EQG. It happened, but we will never, ever discuss it, mention it, or overtly acknowledge it.
And to be fair, we look significantly different to the 'humans' 
Twilight encountered previously.
5044550 Just a glitch, try reloading the page.
5054290 I take your criticisms on board. First let me assure you, yes it does get better; much better.
These early chapters, even in their revised form, represent my first foray into writing. 
The clichés you identified are somewhat necessary to move the story along from the initial starting point I'm afraid. As the story progresses, you'll encounter interlude chapters from the POV of the other family members, which flesh out the various characters. 
If you want my advice, I'd suggest skipping to chapter 7 or 8, as this is where the story truly begins and the clichés begin to die off.
For some reason I have A true true friend stuck in my head and not winter wrap up... Weird...
Don't think I didn't catch that 'Fiddler on the Roof' reference. XD Masterfully played.
Dang, y'all are bigoted against unicorns. "Lazy?" YOU try pushing stuff with nothing but your BRAIN.
No Mr. Blade Star I will not have that song stuck in my head! I will have this one instead thank you very much
.
I think you meant to say "Down to Planck time". AKA the smallest possible amount of time before two points in time are the same point in time.
117 minutes.
John-117 reference
I think he should have been replaced way before now!!
Ah, that episode was a good one. Such a stupid beginning with Harkness on the TARDIS being nearly thrown off, but thank god it did happen - that jump to 50,000,000,000,000 is the second-most important event in the series. Just shy of Donna's last companionship episodes The Stolen Earth and Journeys End. But yea, he was not alone.
Anybody see that 117 reference there? Master Chief!