• Published 25th Jan 2015
  • 1,194 Views, 45 Comments

Thaw - Hap



Twilight discovers that the Windigo is not what the history books say. Can the power of friendship thaw a frozen heart, or will memories of the past keep her in the cold?

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3: Binge

“Hey there, Twi, Windy. What brings y’all out to the farm?”

“I’m giving Windy the grand tour of Ponyville.” Twilight turned her head to look at the silvery pony hiding behind her legs. “How do you like it so far?”

Windy remained quiet as her wide eyes swept over the hills overflowing with ripe red and green apples. She even ventured to move a step or two away from Twilight to get a better view.

Twilight turned back to Applejack and gave a half smile. “She still hasn’t spoken a word.”

“Don’t worry about it. I reckon she’ll talk when she’s ready.” Applejack squatted down to look Windy in the eyes. “Ain’t that right? Say, I was about to make myself lunch. You wouldn’t happen to be hungry, wouldja?”

Twilight groaned. “No way. We just came from Sugarcube Corner. Pinkie had us try literally every single flavor of cake, to find out which kind Windy likes best. Her ‘Welcome to Ponyville’ party is tomorrow, and…”

Applejack nodded her head toward the grinning filly. “She certainly seems to like the idea of lunch.”


“... apple spice cake, apple fritters, applesauce, apple butter, apple dumplings, and apple salad.”

Windy stared at the table with a wide smile, blinking rapidly and breathing in short gasps. She glanced at Applejack.

“Well, don’t just look at it. Dig in!”

Crumbs flew across the table as Windy stuck her face directly into a plate of apple pastries. Applejack chuckled while she scooped various morsels onto a plate of her own. “She sure has an appetite, doesn’t—”

Applejack glanced up to notice that Windy had nearly climbed onto the table, her forehooves planted firmly on the wooden surface. Big Mac and Granny Smith were both standing in the doorway, watching Windy lap applesauce out of a ceramic serving bowl. Applejack gave her family a nervous, toothy smile, and slid the bowl closer to the young pony. “Why don’t you just, uh, keep that bowl. We’ll open another jar if anypony else wants applesauce.”

Twilight leaned over to Big Mac and whispered, “Rarity is planning to teach her some table manners.”

“Eeyup.”

After filling their own plates, the Apples sat around the table. Although Windy didn’t take part in the conversation, Twilight noticed that she paid close attention to every word that was said, even after Twilight had lost interest in farm business, weather schedules, and the upcoming zap apple season.

The conversation was interrupted by a gurgling noise. Everypony looked at Windy, who hugged herself and whimpered even as the rumbling continued. Applejack briefly examined the little alicorn and said, “You’re lookin’ a bit green around the gills. Why don’t we get you some fresh air?”

Twilight reached out a wing to guide Windy toward the door. “I think that’s a good idea. Why don’t we call it a day, and walk back to the castle?” She glanced back up at Applejack. “Thanks for lunch!”

Applejack tipped her hat. “Thanks for stoppin’ by, Windy. I hope you feel better soon.”

Windy nodded with a weak smile as she and Twilight stepped out onto the porch.


Twilight levitated a tiny cup of steaming tea into Windy’s waiting hooves. “This is the same tea that my mom used to make for me when I ate too many cookies. My big brother showed me how to unlock the cabinet where mom and dad kept the cookie jar, and, well, let’s just say that I had poor decision-making skills at the time.”

Windy grimaced as she took a sip of the dark liquid. Twilight sat on the rug and tucked her legs up underneath her body. “Yeah, I used to wonder if she made it taste that way on purpose, to keep me from eating so many cookies. But it really does help. In fact—” she illuminated her horn, pulling a book from one of the shelves across the room “—I’ve got a book on pharmaceutical botany that explains what each of the ingredients do…”

The look on Windy’s face was somewhere between amused and unsure. Twilight grinned. “Or how about I read you a book about a little filly going on an adventure? Now, this one is a book my mom used to read to me when I was your age.”

Twilight lifted her wing as the little filly next to her snuggled into her side. Windy looked up at Twilight and smiled before closing her eyes and leaning her head against the princess’ soft purple fur.


The last traces of indigo had already snuck out of the sky when Twilight turned the last page of their fifth book. Dim light dancing across the walls made the room feel cozy, and the evening breeze carried just enough chill to make the fireplace a source of comforting warmth. Twilight yawned and tried to stand up, but Windy clung to her foreleg, pulling her back to the soft rug.

Twilight used her wing to tousle Windy’s mane. “It’s bedtime. You’ve got your own bed waiting for you right around the corner.”

Windy refused to let go.

Twilight sighed. “I don’t know what you want unless you talk to me.” She could feel Windy’s chest expand against her own as the filly took a deep breath.

“C-can we stay here? This is my favorite thing we did all day.”

“It’s mine too.” Twilight pulled Windy in tighter against her side, then squeezed her eyes shut and teleported a blanket from out of her linen closet.

The blast of lavender light reflected in Windy’s sparkling eyes. Starswirl’s constellation-covered blanket settled over the pair, its corners tucking underneath to protect against drafts. Twilight looked at the little pony under her wing. Windy returned her gaze with a tiny smile.

Twilight let out a contented hum. “Goodnight, Windy.”

“Twilight?”

“Yes, Windy?”

“Can you read me another book?”

Twilight threw her head back and laughed, then had to pull the blanket back up to her shoulders. “You don’t know how dangerous that is. I’ve been known to read all night.”

“I’d like that.”

A trio of books, all the same size though in different colors, floated off the nearest shelf. “I like your style.” She set the trilogy on the rug, and propped up the first book against the other two. “Milk Toast was a very, very boring pony. And that’s the way she liked it. In light of this, it was probably a bad idea…”


“Hi, Windy!”

“Heya, Windy!”

“What’s up, Windy?”

Windy looked up from a heavy tome and blinked at the Crusaders. “Is it that time already?” She bit her lip and watched the fillies nod, then started tossing books into a pair of saddlebags. “I’m going to be late for my lesson with Pinkie! I just got so caught up in my reading. Did you know that Starswirl the—”

“Aaaaaugh!” Sweetie Belle groaned, and fell over backward.

“Oh, gosh. Not you, too,” Scootaloo said. “Please tell me you’ve got a cooler Nightmare Night costume than being Twilight’s twin Starswirl.”

Apple Bloom cleared her throat and shifted her eyes off to the side. “I, um, actually think Starswirl’s kinda cool, I just don’t wanna hear about him all the time.” She eyed the overstuffed saddlebags that Windy had tossed over her back. “Where you goin’ with all those books? You’re not gonna need ‘em for Pinkie’s lessons.”

Windy rubbed one foreleg with the other as she looked at the floor. “Yeah, I know.” She looked up and scanned the bookshelves with a sigh. “But I might have a few minutes to spare, and I’d like to catch up on some reading.”

Spike walked into the room with a stack of books in his arms, already rolling his eyes. “You and Twilight, yeesh. I don’t know which one of you is more lucky that you found each other.”

Windy held her head high and grinned, showing all her teeth, as she trotted out the door.


Pinkie’s blue eyes bore down intently on the young alicorn. “Just like that. Perfect. Now hold it steaaaaaaaaady.”

Windy sweated, straining to hold perfectly still. She looked at Pinkie and said, “Uh don ummaftad wuh dif haf—”

“Aaaaand you ruined it.” Pinkie dumped the entire batch into a giant shiny sink. “We have to start over.”

“But... But I followed your recipe exactly.” Windy watched the last of the viscous mixture slide down the drain.

Pinkie pulled a cupcake out of her hair and hoofed it to her despondent trainee. “That’s the problem. You can follow a recipe exactly, but the ponies who eat your food are different—” she pulled another cupcake out of her mane “—every—” and a third cupcake “—day.”

“Wait,” Windy said through a mouthful of three different flavors of cupcake. She swallowed. “You’re saying that I have to adjust the recipe, for each batch, based on the ponies who are… are predestined to eat the desserts, and what they will need on that day?”

“Eeeeeeeee!” Pinkie grinned and clopped her forehooves together. “You understand!”

“What? No!” Windy held a hoof against her forehead and pinched her eyes shut. “I’m saying that there’s nothing about it that makes sense.”

Pinkie pushed a large bag of sugar across the counter toward Windy. “Are you willing to try it anyway?”

Windy took a deep breath, then let it out in a sigh. She stuck out her tongue and held it in the proscribed configuration as she glanced at her teacher for approval. Upon receiving the nod, she lifted a carton of cream in her magic, and poured it into a giant measuring bowl.

Ten minutes later, she stepped back and pulled her tongue into her mouth. Pinkie held up a magnifying glass, but ignored the white mixture and instead examined Windy’s face. Windy leaned backward, but Pinkie only leaned in closer and closer. “Did you follow the recipe?”

“N-no.” Windy glanced at the bowl, then back to Pinkie.

“Hmmmmm. What did you do differently?” Pinkie reached up and tugged on Windy’s tongue, stretching it out to examine it under the magnifying glass.

“Waniwwa.”

Pinkie narrowed her eyes. “I’ve never heard of ‘waniwwa.’”

Windy pulled her head to the side, freeing her tongue, then worked it around her mouth until she could talk again. “Vanilla. I added extra vanilla. And I rubbed some nutmeg shavings into it.” She bit her lip.

The liquid in the bowl wiggled as Pinkie tapped the side with a thoughtful frown on her face. She bent down and rummaged in a drawer for a few seconds before sitting up with an egg beater in her hooves. The beater made a clacking noise as Pinkie spun the lever, a smile growing across her muzzle. “There’s only one way to find out.”

“And that is?”

Pinkie plunged the mixer into the bowl, spraying greasy droplets across the table. “We get it to the ponies who need it. Now, gimme some ice, girl!”

Windy pointed her stubby horn at the bowl and fired a shimmering beam of blue magic into the swirling cream. A few minutes later, both ponies were panting as they tired of their respective efforts, but the mixture was quickly thickening into proper ice cream. At last, Pinkie leaned back and pulled the mixer out of the bowl, covered with black-speckled and glistening ice cream.

Pinkie held out the beater to Windy, who took it in her magic and gave the ice cream a lick. “I thought that the whole tongue thing was supposed to make it better? It’s okay, but it’s not anything special.”

“That’s okay, it’s not for you. Let’s go outside and see if it worked!” Pinkie grabbed the bowl of ice cream, a stack of waffle cones, an ice cream scoop, and a briefcase. She trotted outside and flopped the briefcase on the ground. Then, while still balancing the rest of the items on her back, mane, tail, and one hoof, she gave the briefcase a firm kick.

Windy hopped backward as the briefcase popped open with a clatter and a burst of confetti, unfolding into an improbably-large cart. As the last bits came to rest, a pair of vertical poles sprung up and unfurled a sign between them with “FREE ICE CREAM!” painted in blue across its sagging length. Ponies in Ponyville must have been used to things like this, because it didn’t take long for a line to accumulate.

A gentle nudge from Pinkie maneuvered Windy behind the cart. She glanced down at the giant bowl full of fluffy ice cream, then back up. A dozen ponies looked at her with expectant smiles and warm words.

“Did you make this? It looks delicious!”

“...gotta be good if Pinkie’s giving it away…”

“...can smell it from here!”

Windy lifted the metal scoop in her magic and hefted it, feeling its weight. She reached out with a hoof and grabbed a waffle cone. The scoop dipped down and carved a trough through the ice cream, releasing a fresh burst of the pungent nutmeg. The ball of ice cream fit perfectly into the cone.

A pale Earth pony was first in line, dancing eagerly from her left hooves to her right. She watched Windy’s hooves with wide eyes, waiting for the filly to hoof over the ice cream cone. As the seconds ticked past, the mare licked her lips and looked from Windy to Pinkie and back.

Pinkie cleared her throat, prompting Windy to blink herself out of her trance and look up. She sighed, then haltingly reached out her hoof toward the other pony. Her hoof stopped a mostly symbolic distance away from her body, but the mare took that as a sign of her offer and swiped the cone from her hoof.

Windy’s heart beat faster, pounding against her ribs as she watched the mare walk away munching happily on the cone that, just a moment ago, had been in her own hooves. Another pony stepped up, but Windy’s hooves were shaking too much to grab another cone. She clenched her jaw and tried to keep her lip from trembling as she blinked away the tears before they could show up.

Pinkie stepped behind the cart and ushered Windy off to the side, taking her place behind the bowl. As she scooped another serving of ice cream into a cone, she smiled and said, “Look at their faces, Windy. This is what you did today.”

Ponies pranced away cradling waffle cones in their hooves or magic, eating ice cream with smiles on their faces. Eating her ice cream. Windy watched the bowl become increasingly empty as more and more ponies walked away with her food. Her breaths came faster and faster, until she leapt forward with a scream, shoving ponies away from the cart.

Panicked cries filled the air as ponies scattered, galloping in all directions. Windy grabbed cones out of ponies’ hooves, throwing them back into the bowl until she was left alone on the street, grasping the bowl of melting ice cream and soggy cones. Pinkie sat down behind her and put a hoof on her shoulder, but Windy cringed away and hunched protectively over her bowl.

Windy didn’t know how long she cried, but at some point, Twilight had come up and surrounded her in a big feathery hug. Windy allowed the bowl to slip from her grasp and clatter to the street as she returned the hug, clutching onto Twilight. When the tears had run out and there was nothing left inside of her to push the wailing sobs out of her throat, she collapsed and let Twilight scoop her up.