Winter's Howl

by 71NYL-5CR4TCH

Chapter 4: Catching Snowflakes on Her Tongue

Winter’s Howl

Chapter 4: Catching snowflakes on her tongue

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The walk back to Snowstorm’s hotel was a mile, at least. Not to mention it went through the heart of a sleepy, but still fairly crowded town. Snowstorm walked it in a daze, wearing a dumb smile. He had finally done something with a mare, and not only that, but the mare of his dreams. He wondered briefly if it could be considered a date, as a million emotions swirled through his dumbfounded head. He awoke from his trance suddenly, realizing he was at the lobby of the hotel, with no recollection of how he got there.

“At least my legs have a good auto-pilot…” He said quietly to himself. The lobby was empty, and lit by only a few candles, providing just enough light for Snowstorm to find his way to his room. He unlocked the door and stepped inside, looking around the room. It was exactly as he had left it, and he stared at the welcoming bed. He began to walk towards it when he saw a note on his nightstand.

Snowstorm,

I remembered Dash telling you to be at weather duty by 9, so I’ll be by your room to wake you by 8:30, just in case you don’t have an alarm.

-WH

“That mare is a saint…” Snowstorm said to himself, reading Warmhearth’s note. She was right, he had no alarm, nor any real way to wake himself up. All was taken care of, and with that, he slumped into his bed. He laid still and stared up at the ceiling. While he was tired physically, his mind was far to abuzz with these new developments in his life to allow him to simply drift into sleep.

Millions of questions buzzed through his head. Does Rainbow like me back? Of course she does, why else would she dance with me? She could just be being polite. For 3 hours? Was this a date? Should I ask if it was? Should I ask for another? Was tomorrow a date, or work? His mind waged war within itself and Snowstorm calmly closed his eyes. He gave a final thought before falling into a dreamless sleep. Only time would tell the answers to his questions, and that time started tomorrow at 9.

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Snowstorm tussled from his sleep at the sudden knocking at his door. He cracked open his eyes and gave a moan

“No mom, five more minutes….”
A voice from the other side of the door chuckled and continued knocking. Snowstorm opened his eyes now. This wasn’t his bedroom. Where am I?! His heart skipped a beat.

Oh…the hotel…right.

“Coming, coming.” Snowstorm mumbled grumpily, wiping the sleep from his eyes. He opened the door and the friendly grin of Warmhearth greeted him.

“Good morning dear! Don’t want to be late for your first day on the job do you?” Warmhearth gave him a wink.

“No, no, certainly don’t.” Snowstorm responded, half asleep.

“Well, here’s a nice cup of coffee for you to help you wake up. And take a shower dear, you look a mess!”

Snowstorm took the coffee and glanced over himself. Sure enough, he was extremely messy. He’d worked up quite a sweat the night before, and hadn’t taken a shower before he'd crashed in bed. He downed the cup of coffee quickly and hopped in the shower.

Snowstorm stepped out of his shower and looked at his towels. No point in getting them wet if he could air dry, and he liked the wind-swept style it gave his tail and mane. He stepped out of his hotel room and checked the clock; 8:48. Perfect, he thought, I’ll be a little early.

Snowstorm flew straight up into the light cloud cover over Ponyville. By the time he had breached the surface of the clouds he was already dry. There was only a light overcast, and today appeared as though it was going to be an easy day of cloud clearing. Suddenly, a blue bolt shot out of the clouds and into the sky. Snow storm watched in awe as he settled on a nearby patch of cloud. The blue bolt with a rainbow tail raced across the sky, leaving behind a perfect rainbow across a clear blue sky. Rainbow slowed down and landed next to Snowstorm on a cloud.

“Well, I’m glad to see you made it on time!” Rainbow exclaimed

“Wouldn’t miss it for the world!” Snowstorm announced.

“So, I bet your wondering about your pay,” Rainbow began.

Pay, how have I not thought about pay through all of this? It's what I needed the job for.

“and I don’t think it’s too bad,” She continued. Well that's a good sign. He listened intently. “Obviously fair is fair so I’ll split the pay for the day with you 50/50. On one condition…”

Snowstorm raised an eyebrow. “What condition..?”

“What were you talking about being able to whip up an entire blizzard? No pony can just make them, each flake has to be hoof made.” Rainbow questioned.

“Oh really?”” He gave an enormous smirk. He loved it when someone questioned his ability. While he wasn’t much of a braggart, he could barely resist showing off when challenged. “then watch this.” He took off into the sky and reached a stopping point before gathering his breath. Rainbow watched on from the clouds with growing curiosity. Snowstorm focused on a point in the horizon, and took off as fast as he could. He’d accomplished what he’d hoped, a trail of storm clouds began to follow him as he passed over Rainbow. Suddenly he stopped and began his decent. He arrived to Rainbow Dash giving a questioning look.

“That’s it? You can leave a storm cloud trail? Hate to break it to you Snowstorm but the Wonderbolts do that all the time, and while doing amazing tricks.” Rainbow Dash was unimpressed.

Snowstorm smiled. “Hold out your tongue.”

“Excuse me?”

“Stick out your tongue.”

Rainbow looked beyond confused, but did as she was told, sticking her tongue outside of her mouth.

"Like thith?"

A single snowflake quietly danced from the sky, and landed quietly on her tongue. Rainbow’s tongue shot back into her mouth and she closed her eyes softly. She shivered, feeling the snowflake melt on her tongue. She shuddered, chills rocketing through her body, her mane standing on end. The feeling was not that of a normal snowflake, but a cold electric shock against her warm tongue. She let out a slow, breath which somehow became visible in the warm air and gradually opened her eyes. She looked around and realized that thick snowflakes falling around her surrounded her. She looked to her left, and just a few feet away were clear, empty, warm skies. To her left, the same thing greeted her vision. But directly in front of her, the snow continued to fall, and in its midst stood Snowstorm. He smiled as he realized Rainbow Dash was in complete awe of what she was witnessing.

“How…but…you…” Dash fumbled over her words as she searched for the right question. Snowstorm simply chuckled. The snow quietly faded, and Rainbow stared into his eyes. Rainbow Dash finally found her question. “That was…SO AWESOME! But...how?”

“No pony knows. Even I don’t know. But it happens when I fly at just the right speed and think of something beautiful.” It sounded cheesier than he meant, but it was true. Normally he thought of a serene, snow–covered mountaintop. This was the first time he’d thought of anything different.

“Why isn’t it like normal snow?” Rainbow asked.

“What do you mean? I’ve never heard anyone call it different.” He asked. This was a first.

“The snowflake I caught on my tongue…it was...not normal snow. It tasted…I don’t know…electric. Minty too…” Rainbow tried to describe the sensation that had just overcome her entire body.

“Hm…I don’t know why, I’ve never heard anyone describe it as anything other than normal snow.” Snowstorm brought a hoof to his chin, giving a pondering look.

“Well, regardless, I’m impressed. You kept up your end of the bargain, so I guess I have to keep up mine. You get half the pay of the day…” Rainbow gave a somewhat seductive grin, “if you can keep up!”

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Snowstorm wiped his brow. He had worked up quite a sweat, but they got the job done quickly and efficiently. It was only 11 o’clock, and they had completely cleared the sky. Rainbow Dash landed next to Snowstorm and grinned.

“You got some MOVES boy! I can’t even remember the last time somepony kept up with me that well!”

“I’m glad you thought so, cause I ‘m beat.” Snowstorm plopped on the purposefully posed cloud beneath him.

“Oh…” Rainbow felt a sudden sinking in her chest. She was planning on asking Snowstorm to ‘hang out’ for a while after work. She went against some her better logic and asked anyway. “That’s a shame, I was going to ask you if you wanted to hang out for a while, now that we have the day off…”

"Hang out", Snowstorm thought, please let that be code for something. He sat upright and looked at Rainbow. “Well, I guess I could do something…what did you have in mind?”

Rainbow beamed, “Well, we’ve got 200 bits to blow, what did you have in mind?”

Snowstorm coughed, “WE EACH GET A HUNDRED BITS?!” he looked at Rainbow in disbelief.

“Heh, no man…” Rainbow said between laughs.

“Oh, ok. Then where did you get 200 bits? You got a bunch saved up?”

“No, we get 200 bits EACH.”

Snowstorm coughed again, ‘WHAT?! THAT’S INSANE!!!!”

“Yeah, as I said, the pay’s not bad…” Rainbow rolled her eyes away from Snowstorm, knowing she’d under exaggerated quite a bit. (Pun intended)

“I don’t think I’ve ever even had that much money in my life…” Snowstorm stared down in disbelief.

“Believe me, it goes faster than you could ever believe.” Rainbow said through laughs.

“We’ll see…anyway, I don’t know what to do around here. I’ve only been around for a day…”

“Come with me, I have an idea!”

Comments

[71NYL-5CR4TCH]

Hey guys! Sorry to end this at a bit of a cliff hanger, but more will come soon, I promise! Let me know what you think of Snowstorm, Warmhearth, and any other character's whom I create. Happy Holidays everypony!

[Katanauser]

Please continue Asap??

[Oatz]

Two words and one symbol, track+email
Keep it up.

[Starfall]

I'm very much enjoying it so far! There are a few spelling and grammar hitches, but the story itself is interesting and you tell it very well.

[TheWattsMan]

42946
They all seem to be interesting characters and it's a good story so far. Only 2 errors I've found, but I posted those in the relevant chapters (none in this one obvious enough for me to notice)

[Magical Trevor]

Wow... That... But... HUH?! 200 BITS?! HOLY *! No WONDER Dashie has such an awesome house!

[Sonicbrony66]

That explains the fort of bejeebus inspiring awesome made of cloud...

[Sargey]

Nice pay... i wouldn't mind it
62463 no kidding!

[sillyfillybowilly]

"Catching snowflakes on her tongue."
I know what you guys are thinking.

[Oatz]

knowing she’d under exaggerated quite a bit. (Pun intended)
AFTER 24 WEEKS AND ONE DAY I FINALLY GOT THAT PUN! this is why i love re reading stuff.

[Patashnik]

1758150
"Quite a bit?" As in currency.