Heart of the Cards

by AspirantWriter

Episode 11 [Part 1] - Winter Mischance

It was currently winter season all across Equestria and Ponyville was no exception.

Snow covered the ground, trees and roofing of all the buildings; the roads remained clear to ensure easy passage and to prevent delays. As for the animals, the birds have migrated to warmer areas while the rest entered hibernation.

For Dusk, it was during this season that he learned something new about the the ponies of Equestria, which was their impressive tolerance to the cold. While some of them wore scarves, hats and clothing, it appeared to him that it was merely for fashion instead of staying warm. He wasn’t sure if it was due to their coating or physiology, but it was nevertheless something that his fellow humans on Earth love to have.

As what he was doing right now, Dusk was fast asleep in his room yet he wasn’t going to enjoy it for long for something knocked on his door

“Yah!”

Startled by the knocking, Dusk quickly opened his eyes as he rose up from his pillow. He would be both groggy and grumpy from being woken up abruptly if not for the fact he went to bed early.

“Oh yeah. Today is Winter Wrap Up Day.” He muttered as he got off his bed and went towards the door.

Winter Wrap Up was self-explanatory in its purpose. Apparently, Ponyville was founded by earth ponies and as a result, the inhabitants have to clean up everything related to winter and bring forth spring without magic. Despite there are now unicorns living in Ponyville, they chose to follow that very tradition.

As absurd as the event was to him, Dusk knew it was best for him not to question it since the pegasuses have already manipulated the weather and likely only Celestia knows how long that been happening.

Upon opening the door, he saw it was Twilight and she has bright smile on her. She was apparently prepared for she was wearing a pink scarf, a saddle and a set of yellow boots.

“Ah Dusk. You are up for Winter Wrap Up Day like you promise.” She greeted happily.

“That I am.” He greeted back. “Not really sure how this Winter Wrap Up is going to work though.”

Twilight in particular was excited for this would be the first time participating in the event as well as see the tradition in action. While Dusk wasn’t as enthusiastic as the unicorn, he was nevertheless interested in seeing how the ponies actually clean up winter and decided to join in as well.

“Surely you and your kind must have done something like this?” Twilight asked as went to the stairs with Dusk following behind.

“Twilight, the best that we humans can do in winter is just clear the snow and ice off our roads.” Dusk replied. “For everything else, we have to wait and let our world’s nature takes it course.You already know that we cannot control the weather like pegasuses.”

“I know, but I still find it hard that your kind is able to live in such conditions. To deal with unpredictable weather...”

“And that is why humans are able to adapt and innovate to suit our needs.”

“Well, I bet you are going to be impressed when we take part in the Winter Wrap Up.” Twilight said as she opened the library’s door. Especially since we are bright and early...”

Twilight stopped talking for she and Dusk notice that it was still nighttime outside; the sun was yet to dawn over Ponyville.

“Twilight... It’s too early.” Dusk mumbled in annoyance, which the unicorn only made a nervous chuckle at her mistake.

---

After the two went back inside and got themselves a couple more hours of sleep, the morning sun then arose and it was time for the Winter Wrap Up.

Twilight and Dusk were making their way to the town hall where everypony were suppose to meet up. On the former’s back was Spike, who was still groggy and wanted nothing more to go back to bed.

By the time they got sight of the town hall, they saw practically everypony in town gathered in front of the building. Most notable, they were all wearing vests of various colours; blue, green and tan.

“What are those vests for?” Dusk questioned.

“Oh, those must be the team vests Rarity designed.” Twilight answered. “Blue for the weather team, green for the plant team, and tan for the animal team. I wonder which team vest we’ll be wearing.”

“I'll take a blue vest, same color as my blanket.” Spike grumbled out. “Which I think I hear calling my name...”

‘That I can imagine.’ Dusk thought as he listens to the baby dragon complain that it is too early today.

By the time that he and Twilight arrived at the meeting, Mayor Mare was already in the process of finishing her speech to everypony present.

“Thank you everypony, for being here bright and early. We need every single pony's help to wrap up winter and bring in spring.”

She said as the ponies gathered in front of her cheered loudly.Twilight however was jumping up several times and appeared like she was trying to get her attention. The mayor didn’t notice however since she continued on her speech.

“Now, all of you have your vests and have been assigned to your teams. So, let's do even better than last year and have the quickest Winter Wrap Up ever.”

As the ponies once again cheered, Twilight was quick to express her excitement on taking part of the event. “Oh, this is so exciting!”

“All right everypony, find your team leader and let's get galloping!”

Mayor Mare called out as she gestured to the ponies in charge of their respective teams, which concluded her speech to everypony. Before long, they all begun to disperse and gather around their team leaders.

Dusk was a bit surprised to see that Applejack and Dash were respectively in charge of the plant team and weather team. For the animal team though, he doesn’t recognize the pony in charge, who had a light magenta coat, a violet mane and her cutie mark was a trio of round-cut diamonds shown from the side.

“Huh, I was expecting Fluttershy.”

He muttered to himself since he assumed that the said pegasus was in charge of the animal team due to her incredible skill with animals. Then again, her own timidness would hamper her efforts as a leader.

As for Twilight, she was anxious since she wasn’t sure which team she should join. “Oh gosh, where should I go? I'm not sure where I fit in... What exactly does everypony do?”

Before Dusk could say anything to her, he notice Dash singing a few lines before Pinkie, Applejack and Rarity joined in; respectively singing out their own lines. The stallion wasn’t sure if his eyes were playing tricks with him, but he swore that he briefly saw spotlights shining upon the mares.

“Looks like it is happening again.”Dusk muttered to himself as he knew what was going to happen. From what he know during his time in Equestria, most ponies tend to have a fondness for singing, whenever it is for an important event or if they are just in a good mood.

Despite now being a pony, Dusk is still human at heart and unlike ponies, not all humans have a fondness for singing or have the natural talent to do it well.

While he enjoys songs every now and then, the stallion is not much of a singer and instead kept quiet as everypony including Twilight begun to partake in the singing. It was quite an awkward to be the only one not participating in the singing like everypony else.

Even so, he nevertheless listened to their song, which apparently explained the purpose that each team does on Winter Wrap-up Day.

The purpose of the weather team was to clear the sky of clouds and allow the sun to shine through, which in turn would melt both the snow and ice. Regarding the animal team, they were to wake up all the animals from hibernation and fix up their homes; going as far as making nest for the birds returning from the south. As for the plant team, they focus on clearing the ground of snow, which would let them plant their seeds to grow both vegetables and flowers.

When Dusk then turned his attention to Twilight, he saw that she was singing about her concerns of which team to join up with and that she has to do her work without magic. As daunting as it may be, the stallion knew that the unicorn would manage somehow.

Soon enough, the song reached its end and everypony went off with their respective teams to fulfill their task for Winter Wrap-up Day.

“Everypony belongs to a team. What should I do? Where should I go?” Twilight said anxiously.

“Easy now Twilight...” Dusk was about to ease her worries, but he was interrupted by Dash calling out to her team in the sky from the ground.

“All right team, you're clear for takeoff.”

As she watches her team fly off to do their duties, Dash heard Twilight call out her name and turned to see the said unicorn approaching her along with Dusk.

“Oh, hey Twilight, Dusk, what's up?”

“What are you doing?” Twilight asked.

“Sending off one of my flight crews to retrieve the birds that have flown south for the winter.”Dash replied, which made Dusk raise an eyebrow.

Back on Earth, bird migrations are a natural part of nature and humans play no role in it. Here in Equestria however, birds appear to be quite dependent on the ponies, which is quite the same for rest of the animals. Despite being in Equestria for almost a year now, he still have some trouble getting use to the culture here.

‘Is it me or did these ponies play around with laws of nature for too long?’

As for Twilight and Dash, they were more focused on each other and failed to notice his prior action.

“Oh, can I help? How about if I help clear out the clouds?” Twilight requested to Dash, who made an awkward expression in response.

“Um...” After she raised her wings upwards, the unicorn soon got the message why she couldn’t be part of the weather team.

“Right... No wings.”

“Sorry, Twilight.” After apologizing, Dash flew up to the sky to regroup with her team.

“Great, now what do we do?” Twilight sighed in disappointment.

“I don't know about you, but I'm gonna be napping.” Spike tiredly said as he laid down on a bush and dozed off.

“Really Spike?” Dusk shook his head at the sleeping baby dragon. He knows that Spike is tired and all, but to go to sleep like that was absurd.

“Come on Spike, this is serious business.” Twilight obviously wasn’t pleased at Spike as she tried to shake him awake. “Winter needs to be wrapped up and I'm determined to do my part. Somehow...”

“I’m sure you will.”

Turning their attention to one who said that, Dusk and Twilight were very surprised to see a familiar face. Somepony that they haven’t seen for several months and was easily recognizable due to his dual-coin cutie mark.

“Half Coin?” Dusk said in surprise. “What are you doing here in Ponyville?”

“Oh, I’m just here to see how this Winter Wrap-Up Day is like.” The said pegasus replied. “I first read about it in the library when I first visited Ponyville and was interested to see how it goes since then.”

“Well, you are here just in time. We’ve just started.” Dusk told Half Coin before looking at Twilight. “We should check on the others throughout town. I’m sure they would have something for us to do.”

“That sounds like a good idea Dusk.” Twilight said as she picked up Spike and put him on her back. “Care to join us Half Coin?”

“I don’t mind. But know that I’m just here to observe and not participate.”

“Fair enough.”Dusk said before he, Half Coin and Twilight with the Spike napping on her back begun to look around for anypony that would give something to do for Winter Wrap-up Day.

---

The group walked around town, they caught sight of Rarity working on something at a table in front of Carousel Boutique and without using her magic. Since she was wearing a tan vest, which means that she is part of the animal team.

“Hey Rarity.” Dusk called out to her with Half Coin, Twilight and Spike behind him; the latter woke a few minutes before. “Is there anything me and Twilight can help you with?”

“Yes. Please tell me there's something, anything we can help you with.” Twilight followed up.

“Well yes, I...” Before she could finish, Rarity then notice the pegasus. “Oh, hello Half Coin. I wasn’t expecting you to be in Ponyville in such an occasion.”

“Good to see you as well Rarity. I’m here to see how this Winter Wrap-up goes.” Half Coin then notice what the fashion unicorn was working on and saw it was a bird nest. “You’re making bird nests?”

“Why yes. During Winter Wrap-up, the weather team guides the birds back north for the spring. When they do, they'll need a place to live and lay their eggs.”

“I see...” As Dusk did his best not to express his shock of the possibility of having to making hundreds of nests in one day, Twilight went up to examine the one that Rarity just made.

“Wow, Rarity, that one's really beautiful.” She complimented.

“Oh why, thank you most sincerely.” Rarity replied. “Would you and Dusk like to try your hoof at a nest?

“Would I? Yes!” Twilight agreed with utmost enthusiasm. “What about you Dusk?”

“I don’t have any experience in making bird nests, but I’ll give a try.” Despite his doubts that he would make a good nest, Dusk nevertheless joined in.

As the two ponies grabbed everything they would need to make a nest, Rarity would then provide the instructions while Spike and Half Coin would watch.

“Where do we begin?” Twilight eagerly asked with all stuff neatly organized.

“Okay now, take some of that straw and hay over there, and a little bit of branch. Now, weave them through there, yes...” As Rarity was providing instructions to Twilight and Dusk, she started to notice that things are not going as she hoped. “Uh, take some ribbon, yes, oh uh, n... not there. Oooh, yes, uh, tuck it in over there, uh but be careful not to... I don't know I guess that would do... oh dear.”

Spike and Half Coin couldn’t say a word as they watch the two ponies make their nest. In their eyes, the nests’ design and quality leaves a lot to be desired.

“Well I’m finished. I guess...”

Dusk said as he looked upon his nest, which was essentially a mess of badly-weaved straw, poorly positioned sticks and hastily-tied ribbons. Despite having the advantage that came from the special properties of his hooves, it would have done little due to his lack of experience in building nests.

When turned to see the Twilight’s attempt at a nest, it was pretty much as bad as his own besides the fact that her nest appeared to be flattened by something.

‘I don’t whose nest is worse. Twilight’s or my own...’

Dusk thought to himself as Twilight remain oblivious to how bad her nest was and felt she did a good job. Too bad that even with the ability “grip” onto things with her hooves due to her Number, she knows very little about nest-building like Dusk.

“There! It looks just like... yours.” She soon realizes the vast difference between her nest and Rarity’s. “Oh my...”

“Those nests need to be condemned.” Spike spoke at the quality of the nests that Dusk and Twilight made, which only made Rarity and Half Coin glare at him.

“Spike, it is their first time making a nest and I say it is not a bad attempt on their part.” The pegasus scolded him. “I’m sure that the birds wouldn’t mind using them...”

“As outhouses?”

“Spike.” Rarity scolded the baby dragon before checking on the nests. “They’re just fine. They’re just a little rough around the edges. Let me lend you two a hoof.”

She soon begun to remake on the nests while mumbling out what is doing every now and then.

Twilight was feeling down at seeing how poorly she made her nest. Dusk however wasn’t daunted and gave a few pats on the back to reassure her.

“Don’t let it get to you. We did our best in making our nests. Right Rarity?”

He didn’t hear a single reply from the fashion unicorn for she was completely absorbed on their poorly-designed nests.

“I think we lost her.” Spike whispered to the rest of the group.

“Let us check on the other teams. They must have a task that you two would do well in.” Half Coin said which the others agreed and they left Rarity to do her work.

---

Deciding to check on the rest of animal team, they were at the outskirts of Ponyville and were passing by a frozen lake when a familiar voice called out to them.

“Hellooooooo, Twilight! Hellooooooo, Dusk!”

The group saw it was Pinkie and she was skating across the lake with uncanny skill. She wore a blue vest which signify that she is part of the weather team.

“Hellooooooo... Half Coin!” Pinkie gasped upon seeing the pegasus and skated towards him until they were face-to-face. “I didn’t know you were back in Ponyville! I would have prepared a party for you!”

“As much as I would like that, it would have to wait until Winter Wrap-up is done.” Half Coin replied. “Never knew you could skate that good.”

“Yeah, probably the best skater I've ever seen.” Twilight followed up.

“Thanks you two, I've been doing this since I was an itty-bitty little-wittle Twinkie-Pinkie.” She then started to skate again and did a few yet impressive tricks. “Just comes natural. Which is probably why they designated me the lake scorer.”

“Lake scorer?” Dusk asked.

“I cut lines in the lakes with my skates. That way, when the rest of the weather team comes here to break the ice, it'll be easy as pie.”

“I see... When the ice begins to melt, it will break on the lines and become smaller pieces, which in turn would melt faster. Clever...”

Deep down, Dusk found the task to be rather absurd since there wasn’t such a job back on Earth. Even so, he didn’t let it get to him and remain polite when chatting with Pinkie.

“Indeed.” Twilight said. “Well, you sure have a lot of work ahead of you. There's quite a few lakes in Ponyville.”

“Ha, tell me about it.” It was then an idea came into Pinkie’s head. “Hey, Twilight, Dusk, wanna help me out?”

“Would I?”

The unicorn enthusiastically agreed, which made the party pony smile before turning to Dusk, hoping for a similar response.

“Can’t say I’m as much as a skater as you, but I can help.”

Seeing that her two friends agreed to help her, Pinkie then pointed to two sets of skates that were sitting on the edge of the lake.

“Great! Come on, put on those skates over there. I bet you two will be naturals like me.”

In a few moments, the two ponies put on their skates and went onto the frozen lake. However, they soon found themselves having trouble keeping their balance on the ice.

‘Maybe this was a bad idea after all.’

While Dusk actually had some experience skating while back on Earth, it was back in his childhood and he hasn’t done it again since then. Even so, he managed to propel himself forward while Twilight ended up slipping and went face first onto the ice.

Unfortunately for the stallion, he wasn’t able to sheer himself properly and begun to lose control; skating on four legs ended up being more of a hindrance to him as he skidded around uncontrollably.

“Steer, Dusk! Steer!”

Pinkie called out to him after noticing his predicament. Spike however found the scene to be funny and did his best to hide his chuckles.

“What do you think I’m doing!” Dusk cried out as he struggled to change directions and ended up skating straight into a mound of snow sitting at one edge of the lake.

“Ugh...”

His voice muffled by the snow for his head and upper half of his body became lodged into the mound. The only thing sticking out was his lower half and he was wiggling in a manner that would be found in most cartoons.

“Hold still.”

Despite the snow covering his ears, Dusk could tell that was Half Coin’s voice and stopped struggling to get out. The pegasus then carefully pulled him out of the snow, who made a sigh of relief of being freed.

“Thanks Half Coin.”

“No problem.”

“Twilight, steer! Steer!” The two stallions turned their attention to Pinkie, who was now calling out to unicorn skidding uncontrollably on the ice.

Like Dusk, Twilight was unable to steer and collided with Pinkie who wasn’t able to evade in time. Sliding quickly across the ice, the two mares screamed as they ended up collided with Spike. In the aftermath, they were all covered with snow and became something like a snowman with multiple eyes and has hooves for limbs.

“Ha ha, you are a natural Twilight!” Spike laughed after breaking free from the snow and landed on the ice. “A natural disaster like Dusk!”

“Not funny Spike.” The said stallion scolded him as he walked towards him along with Half Coin on the outskirts of the lake. “Somepony could have gotten hurt.”

“Twilight, you did a great job your first time around.” Pinkie said to the unicorn. “I'm sure my first time was just as wobbly and bobbly and crasheriffic as yours.”

“Really?” Twilight asked in a hopeful tone.

Pinkie hesitated for a few moments before replying with an awkward look on her face. “No.”

Once again, Twilight felt a bit upset that she messed up on another task for Winter Wrap-up day. It gained some relief though from Dusk, who wasn’t daunted of his skating mishap as he patting on her back again.

“Don’t worry. There is still plenty to do for Winter Wrap-up.” He reassured her before looking at Pinkie. “Know anypony that could use an extra hoof?”

“Let’s see...” She made a thoughtful expression for a moment before she had somepony in particular in her head. “I know, Fluttershy could probably use your help with the critters.”

“Sounds good to me. What do you think Twilight?”

“Well, I'm pretty good with little animals. Yeah, we’ll go help her!”

Twilight agreed and was about to move if not the fact she was on the ice with her skates on. Once more, she skated uncontrollably across the ice until she became lodged in the same mound of snow like Dusk before.

Spike could only laugh at the poor unicorn’s mishap as both Dusk and Half Coin came to her aid. After pulling her out, the group then left Pinkie to do her work as they look for Fluttershy.

Hopefully the task that she would provide Dusk and Twilight would go well compared to the last two.

Hopefully...

Comments

[zachary12]

nice work.

[Windy0]

Yay Half Coin!