• Published 2nd Dec 2022
  • 438 Views, 5 Comments

Snow Day Tales - bookhorse125



When Sunny and her friends wake up to find the Crystal Brighthouse buried in drifts of an unexpected snow, they gather around the fireplace and tell tales of their Wishday, Wishentine, or Wishiehoof traditions.

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When You Wish Upon A Star

“It was when I was just a filly, back when I still celebrated Wishday with my dad. We didn’t have many fancy traditions - just exchanging gifts under the Wishing Star that night.”

“Is this another present story?” Zipp asked, groaning. “About how you had to find the perfect gift and no matter how hard you tried you just couldn’t find it?”

“HEY! Finding the perfect gift is important!” Izzy retorted, and Hitch nodded along with her. The unicorn dropped her voice to a whisper and continued, “If you don’t you get jinxies. I remember when somepony got a gift that wasn’t perfect, they-”

“Izzy! This is Sunny’s storytime,” Pipp reprimanded, frowning at her friend.

“Oops! Sorry, Sunny,” Izzy apologized.

“It’s okay, Izzy,” Sunny promised. “But, anyways, this was the last Wishday that I celebrated with my father before… before he… you know…” She cleared her throat. “It was our last Wishday together, and I’ll never forget it. We had just finished exchanging gifts under the Wishing Star, and I remember that he got me a stuffed dragon toy, and it instantly became my favorite. I remember holding it in my lap when I was sitting next to him, and I asked to hear a story.

“‘A story?’ he said. ‘Well, once upon a time, there was a very special unicorn-’

“‘Not that story, Dad,’ I told him. ‘A new story. A Wishday story. Please?’”

Sunny sighed contentedly as the memories rushed back to her. “I remember his eyes sparkling, just like they always do when he’s about to tell a story. ‘A Wishday story?’ I remember him saying, his voice teasing. ‘Well, there aren’t many of those.’

“‘There must be one,’ I said. ‘You always know the stories that they don’t tell us in school.’

“He laughed at that, and hugged me closer. ‘Well,’ he said, ‘you’re right about that, my little pony.’ He thought for a bit more before saying, ‘How would you like to hear the story of the Wishing Star?’”

“The story of the Wishing Star?” Hitch said, looking confused. “But everypony knows that story. There’s a scientific explanation for it now - it’s really just a comet that has this weird orbit, so it only appears in the sky on the night of Winter Wishday. Something about the colder air of wintertime and the heat of the comet creates that rainbow light. For ages, ponies have thought that it provides wishes if you wish on it, but nowadays, ponies only do it for the sake of tradition. The Wishing Star doesn’t really grant wishes, but ponies decided to have a party whenever the Star did appear, where they exchanged gifts and tried to make others’ wishes come true themselves. And that’s how Wishday got its name.”

“Hey, we have something like that, too!” Pipp piped up. “One of the old Wishentine stories that we were told as fillies was about a pony who wanted to make other ponies happy, but the snow and cold that alway came around Wishentine was too much for most ponies. One year, the snow was so bad that ponies were trapped inside their homes, so he delivered gifts to ponies all across the city in the dead of night and brought everypony their gifts. Nopony knows who it was, but it inspired our tradition of giving our Wishentine gifts for each other in secret.”

Izzy gasped. “Amazing! There’s a Wishiehoof story just like that!” she exclaimed. “A story about a super bad snowstorm that was going to freeze everything, and all of ponykind with it. But Wishiehoof legend goes to say that a very special unicorn was born during Wishiehoof who would save us from that storm… and they did. They cast a magic spell through the crystals that would keep Bridlewood safe from such a storm again, and that after they did so, ponies celebrated by giving them gifts of all sorts. But the unicorn wouldn’t accept the presents knowing that they came from fellow unicorns, so they had to be given in secret on the last day of Wishiehoof!” She gasped. “Wait! Does this mean that all of our holidays are connected?”

“Maybe,” Zipp said, munching on a cookie. “We may never know.”

“My dad did,” Sunny said quietly, looking down at her hooves. “That was the story that he told me, actually. The true story of Wishday - of Wishiehoof, too, and Wishentine.” She looked at each of her friends as she said their tribe’s holiday. She closed her eyes as she remembered the tale that he told her.

“Once upon a time, long, long ago, ponies were separated as they were now. Their hatred for each other was so cold that it created creatures of wind and snow that cursed the land, making it freeze over and trapping everypony in a devastating, eternal winter. Ponies only grew more angry at each other, and the storm only worsened. Eventually, the leaders of the tribes decided that they needed to go find a new land to call home, because everywhere was so frozen.”

“But that’s silly!” Izzy interrupted, looking confused. “Why couldn’t ponies just get along, and the snowstorm would go away? That’s much easier than finding a new land!” Sparky cooed in agreement, and Izzy lifted the baby dragon into her lap, where he curled up contentedly.

“Why didn’t ponies get along before?” Zipp asked, brushing cookie crumbs off her hooves. “We don’t know. We may never know, really.”

Sunny cleared her throat, and all ponies diverted their attention back to her as she continued the story. “The leaders of the three pony tribes set off in all different directions, searching for the perfect land to call home. But by coincidence, or perhaps by fate, they all ended up in the same place. Naturally, they began arguing with each other over which tribe should have the land, and unintentionally brought the winter storm to the new land as well.

“The leaders and their number-twos took shelter in a cave together - the only shelter they could find - in an attempt to wait out the storm. But as the leaders continued to fight with each other, the ice inside their hearts froze each leader in place and threatened to consume the entire cave! Luckily, the tribes’ number-twos came together and realized that, no matter what kind of pony you were, they were all ponies, and that it was just silly to keep fighting like this. The warmth and friendship that they created was enough to dispel the winter storm entirely and eventually thaw the ice on their leaders! The three tribes then united and came together to form a new land in which they could live together harmoniously - Equestria! The day that they put their differences aside and worked together became known as Hearth’s Warming Eve and was celebrated by ponies across Equestria in celebration of ponykind coming together all those moons ago, and standing as a reminder of how important it was to remain friends.

“But… the harmony didn’t last. Ponykind eventually separated again, and instead of generating a freezing winter storm, ponies lost all of their magic as a consequence of their actions. Hearth’s Warming Eve was lost to history, but ponies found new reasons to celebrate when winter came around, usually centered around some kind of wish. My dad thinks that it used to be because they all secretly wish that they could have their magic back, and that ponies could be friends again, but weren’t sure how to do it. As life went on, ponies stopped thinking about the reasoning behind their holidays too much and forgot that they ever came from ponies working together once.”

“Wow, Sunny,” Pipp said as the story came to a close, a sleepy look in her eyes, “that was a really good story. Your dad told you that?”

Sunny grinned. “Yup! And I think he would have told me more, but I think I fell asleep.” She looked a bit sheepish. “Anyway, I still have the toy that he gave me that Wishday, and I remember that story every time I see it.”

“You never told me that story,” Hitch said. “You always tell me all of the stories that your dad tells you.”

“Well, frankly, I thought I should convince you of the other stories’ truth before I told you any others,” Sunny said lightly, standing up and stretching. “And in any case, we still have to find a way to get out of here-”

“Wait! I’ve got it!” Izzy suddenly said excitedly, sitting up as an idea came to her. “Everypony, we need to work together to get out of here! Like the ponies in Sunny’s story!”

“Really, Iz?” Zipp asked, tilting her head at the unicorn as Izzy bounced to her hooves ran over to Sunny. “I don’t think that’s going to work-”

“Well, we have to try something, don’t we?” Izzy huffed as she grabbed Sunny and Hitch’s hooves, holding them in her own as she shut her eyes and turned her face towards the ceiling in reverence. “Oh, great spirits of unicorn past, have mercy on us here below! Grant us freedom and help us escape this frozen prison-”

“Uh, Izzy? What are you doing?” Pipp asked, looking a bit concerned as she reluctantly sat up and held hooves with Zipp and Hitch. Zipp sighed and grabbed Sunny’s hoof, completing the circle.

“Come on, ponies!” Izzy said excitedly. “Wish us out of here!”

All five ponies (and Sparky) shut their eyes in concentration as they thought of the snow melting away, of trotting down the path to Maretime Bay in the glorious sunshine… together.

After several failed attempts, Sunny sighed and opened her eyes, looking around at each of her friends. As she did, she realized something. “I don’t need to wish for anything more,” she said aloud, all of her friends looking up, startled, as she did so. “Because I have all of you! My best friends in the whole world. There isn’t anything more that I need.”

“Aw, me, too, Sunny!” Pipp said brightly.

“Ditto, sis,” Zipp laughed.

“Totally!” Izzy grinned, squeezing Sunny’s hoof.

“Well, I wouldn’t say nothing else,” Hitch started to say, but when his friends all said “HITCH!”, he conceded and stammered, “I mean, yes! Definitely. You guys are the best friends I’ve ever had.”

Sunny smiled as all of her friends warmed her heart.

Up above, the Unity Crystals began to glow brighter and strangely… pink? before they exploded into a massive blast of warm air that pushed away all of the snow trapping the ponies inside the Brighthouse and sending it swirling away where it would never trap anypony again.

“Woohoo!” Zipp cried as she flung open the doors and spread her wings, flying out into the sunshine with a massive grin on her face, her sister right behind her. Hitch leaped out the door, laughing as Sparky ran down the path towards Maretime Bay as fast as his little dragon legs could take him. Izzy cried, “Wait up, Sparky!” and began to chase after him.

Sunny grinned and looked up at the top of the Brighthouse… and paused.

“Sunny?” Hitch looked back when he realized that his friend wasn’t following him and the rest of their friends back to Maretime Bay. “Are you okay?”

“Hm?” Sunny looked over at him, jerking out of a trance. “Oh, yes, sorry, Hitch. I’m fine.”

But she could have sworn, just for a minute, that she saw a glowing pink fire in the shape of a heart dancing at the top of the Brighthouse…


Opaline growled and slammed her hoof down on the floor of her castle. The image of the Crystal Brighthouse sank back into her pool as the alicorn whirled around and stormed back to her throne in a rage.

How in Equestria did they manage to get free?” she snarled to the only other pony in the room - a pitifyingly small, quiet, and anxious unicorn named Misty. Misty winced as Opaline turned her rage on her, trying to become one with the wall. So far, it wasn’t working. “There’s no way they should have been able to get rid of all that snow so fast! What other kind of powers do they have?”

Misty swallowed, having no answer, and Opaline scoffed.

“Of course, now that I’ve seen that… I can’t help but wonder what else these ponies can do.” A new idea grew in Opaline’s mind, and she smiled. “I bet those ponies haven’t even realized their full potential yet. Well, I’m not a brainless snail like them. I’ll figure it out for myself, so that I know exactly what I’ll be taking from them.”

Uh, oh, Misty thought as she thought of Sunny and Izzy and Zipp and Pipp and Hitch and poor Sparky in Maretime Bay. They really didn’t deserve to be on the receiving end of Opaline’s ambition…

Opaline stared into her pool, a cruel smile coming to her lips.

“It won’t be much longer, little ponies,” she whispered softly. “Soon, everything you have will be mine.”

Author's Note:

And here's the end. Sorry it took me so long! But 40 Years is now out, and that's going to be my big project for the rest of the year, so please try to check that out!

Constructive criticism is appreciated. Thank you for reading!

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