Storm of the Century

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Twilight Sparkle awoke in the same manner as she did every morning. Stirring herself awake just as the light from Celestia's sun peeked through her bedroom window. She always was an early riser, though she was not entirely sure as to why. Nonetheless, she sat up and draped her hind legs over the side of the bed, before sliding off onto all four hooves. Just as she did every morning, she groggily walked over to her mirror that hung on the other side of the room, used her magic to levitate a brush, and brushed out the mess that had formed in her mane during the night.

Having given herself the once-over in the mirror and being satisfied with her appearance, she began her trek down the stairs, into the main foyer of the library, and into the kitchen, where a certain purple dragon was already cooking breakfast. She never figured out how Spike managed to wake up before her to start cooking breakfast, but she liked it so much that she never bothered to question it.

"Heya Spike," Twilight quietly called out, still partially asleep.

"Oh, hey Twilight! I got up early today and made your favorite breakfast! Haycakes!" Spike responded, obviously very awake and very excited.

"Aw thanks Spike. It smells delicious!" Twilight's stomach gave out a loud gurgle just as she said that. "Heh, let's eat then?" Twilight added with a smile.

After a hearty breakfast, Twilight used her magic to grab her to-do list for the day that had been sitting on her desk.

Wake up. Check. Brush mane. Check. Eat breakfast. Check. Check on the well-being of Ponyville. Not checked.

As Ponyville's resident princess, she had a duty to look after her humble little town. Every morning she would take a stroll outside to assure that nothing had happened overnight. Ever since the Everfree Forest invaded Ponyville, she kept an eye out for anything out of the ordinary.

"I'll be back in a little while, Spike," Twilight said as she made her way to the front door.

"Ok, Twilight!" Spike responded from the kitchen.

Twilight enveloped the door in her magic and opened it with ease. She was still looking back into the kitchen as she was making her way past the door and out of the house, when suddenly something very hard and very cold stopped her in her tracks. What the hay? Twilight turned to face the object, only to realize it wasn't an object at all.

"Uhh, Spike?"

"What's up Twilight?" Spike called out from the kitchen.

"Do you remember hearing about a snowstorm from the weather team?"

"Huh?" Spike made his way out of the kitchen and into the main foyer of the library, where Twilight stood staring at something. His gaze followed hers to the open doorway, just as his jaw dropped to match Twilight's. Apparently, a rather large storm had hit Ponyville overnight, as the front door was almost completely blocked off by several feet of snow.

Something is wrong here. Twilight thought to herself, knowing that if a storm this large had been scheduled by Ponyville's weather team, the pegasi would have informed the town.

"What do you think could have caused this?" Spike said, still staring at the enormous wall of white.

"I don't know, but I'm going to find out." Twilight had already began climbing back up the stairs to her bedroom. Knowing she couldn't leave through the front door, she decided to use Rainbow Dash's favorite door. The window. With a quick stretch of her alicorn wings, she was propelled through the open window that was located just above her bed and into the bitter cold that was the outdoors.

The short flight to Rainbow Dash's cloud house proved to be slightly more difficult than the many times before, as Twilight was still getting used to the bitter cold nipping at her fur mid-flight. Just as quickly as it began, the flight was over, as Twilight spotted another one of her best friends, Applejack, standing just below the cloud house looking upward. Twilight redirected herself to join her friend. No doubt Applejack was there for the same reason as her.

"Hey Applejack!" Twilight called out as she was approaching the ground for a landing. Even from a distance, Twilight could tell that the orange earth pony was worried. "What's going on?"

"Oh hey ya there, Twilight. I was hopin' that one of you could tell me that. I jus' woke up this mornin' to check on the fields and saw that they were all covered in snow!"

"Something strange is definitely going on here. Why would the weather team schedule such a powerful storm?"

The two agreed on the last point, and both mares knew exactly who had the answers that they were looking for. If anyone knew what was going on, it would have to be the team's captain.

The two nodded at each other and looked up simultaneously before yelling at the top of their lungs, "Rainbow Daaaaaash!"

Rainbow Dash was never an early riser, a direct contrast to her good friend Twilight Sparkle. She always preferred to sleep the day away as long as she could before having to face the responsibilities that came with being captain of the Ponyville weather team. As much as she loved cloud busting, she would rather find a cloud to curl up on for a nap. A well-deserved nap, but a nap nonetheless.

This particular morning, Rainbow Dash was feeling especially lazy. It was her day off, after all. She hadn't planned anything to keep her busy until much later in the day, when she was planning on meeting Pinkie Pie at Sugarcube Corner to taste a new recipe that she was working on. So she decided to spend her morning snuggling her pillow as tightly as she could, trying to keep warm.

Rainbow could hear many noises originating from outside, the wind being the most prominent. The wind was always the most prominent, given the fact that her house was parked high above the town. She pulled the pillow up closer to her face and covered her ears so as to drown out the noise that was keeping her awake.

That was, of course, until the faintest of shouts reached the ears of the barely-awakened pony.

Who in Celestia would be calling my name this early? And more importantly, why? Rainbow thought to herself. At this point she was rather irritated at having been kept awake on her day off.

Annoyed by the sound of her own name, she crawled out of bed with her eyes only half-opened, and made her way over to her window to see who was calling up at her from below her house. She opened the window with a quick push and called out, "What do y--" The last words catching in her throat as her eyes shot open at the sight of nothing. Nothing, that was, but white. The rooftops? White. The grass? White. The dirt? White. But it wasn't the color that shocked her the most. It was the sheer quantity. The snow appeared to be very deep, topping off at about half way up the flag poles that were strung up in the middle of town.

Quickly awoken by the sight of the unscheduled amount of snow, Rainbow darted out the window to find out what exactly was going on. She glided slowly down towards the ground, being sure to take a good look at the situation around her. She had scheduled a light overnight snowfall, but the amount that was currently surrounding her was anything but light. She landed gracefully in front of her friends, who both wore looks of confusion on their faces.

"Uh, hey guys. What's up?" Rainbow started, knowing very well the reason for their presence.

"Uh, Rainbow, what's up with all this snow? I couldn't even use my front door this morning!" Twilight responded.

"I don't know. I told the guys to make a light snowfall, but..."

Just as she trailed off in thought, she noticed a figure that was walking towards them out of the corner of her eye. As the figure drew closer, she was able to see that it was a pony. A grayish stallion with a black mane and dark glasses, to be exact. At the sight of him, she suddenly shot up to attention and brought her right hoof to her forehead in salute to her superior officer, Thunder Clap. He was a fairly simple looking stallion. Most of the male officers from Cloudsdale looked the same: Medium build, clean-kept, and a very commanding presence.

"At ease, Captain Dash." Thunder Clap said as he approached the cyan pegasus. He then took a quick glance over at the two other mares that were with Rainbow, and noticing the presence of Princess Twilight Sparkle, he offered her a respectful bow of his head.

"Do you bring news, commander?" Twilight questioned, acknowledging the gray pegasus.

"I do. It appears that a storm made by the Trottingham weather team got a little out of hand. It seems to have combined with the storm that Ponyville's weather team made, and created, well," he raised his right hoof and swung it from left to right. "this."

Rainbow Dash stood fairly still as her superior was talking. She seemed to be focusing more intently on his words than any of her friends had seen before. She appeared to be waiting for an order.

Before any of the mares could speak up, he continued. "Captain Dash, it appears that your assistance will be necessary. You and your team have been assigned to clear up this snow. Restore it to the levels that you had planned. Understood?"

"Yes sir!" Rainbow Dash said as she quickly snapped to attention and raised her right hoof to her forehead once again. With that, she flared her wings and took off, leaving only a translucent rainbow trail in her wake.

Red-hoofed

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The profound levels of snow turned the normally bustling town into a white wasteland. Miss Cherilee had decided to close the school for the day, and most of the business ponies decided to call it a snow day as well. It seemed that everypony would rather spend time indoors by the fire than brave the frozen tundra. Everypony, except for Rainbow Dash, who had been forced to work on her day off. While most of the population was indoors, she scoured the town, searching for her next-in-command, Cloudchaser. Cloudchaser was not your typical pony, as she would rather be outdoors than stuck inside on a day like this. At least that was what Rainbow Dash hoped.

Rainbow's stark suspicions turned out fruitful, as she roamed the many back alleys of Ponyville and spotted the lilac-colored mare talking with her sister, Flitter. The two were always together, after all. Rainbow Dash quickly leaped into the air, and with a powerful flap of her wings, hurriedly closed the distance between her and the other two mares.

"Hey, Cloudchaser!" Rainbow called out as she approached the two.

Cloudchaser paused her conversation with her sister to turn and see who was calling her name.

"Oh, hey Rainbow! What's up?"

"We've got to clear some of these clouds out to let some sunshine through ASAP," Rainbow said in a clamorous tone. "If we don't, who knows what we'll wake up to tomorrow morning! I need you to gather the rest of the team and meet me over at Town Hall in 15 minutes."

"No problem. I'll see ya' there," Cloudchaser said as she and her sister took off and headed to round up the rest of the team.

"Some day off," Rainbow said to herself as she, too, took to the skies.

As the town's fillies began to tire of the indoor prisons that kept them from a day of fun, Twilight began to observe several ponies trying to dig their way out of their homes. Noticing their near futile attempts, she resolved to go and help the townsponies. In the past, the residents of Ponyville swore not to use magic to clean up winter, but this appeared to be the one exception to the oath.

Little by little, ponies from all across town could be seen jumping and playing in the winter wonderland. It seemed that all the little fillies in town had joined together for a snowball fight near Town Hall, as forts and ammunition began to take form amongst the various groups. One of the groups happened to catch Twilight's eye, as blurs of white, orange, and yellow could be seen behind one of the walls that had formed. She had always admired those three young fillies for their endearing and passionate determination, even in the face of adversity. She could imagine the chant now: Cutie Mark Crusaders Snowball Fighters! Yay!

"Hey, Twilight! Over here!"

Twilight turned to find her overly-animated pink friend jumping up and down while motioning for her to join her and their friends. Twilight quickly directed herself towards her friends and cantered over to join them.

As she approached her friends, she noted the presence of all of her best friends; all except for Rainbow Dash, who could be seen above flying from cloud to cloud. "Hiya girls!" Twilight beamed.

"We're making a super fantabulous snow pony!" Pinkie Pie quickly blurted out. "Wanna join?"

Twilight cocked her head slightly to the right. "A...what now?" Twilight asked, adorning a very confused look on her face.

"A snow pony, silly! Y'know, a pony made of snow?"

Twilight appeared equally as confused as the first time that Pinkie Pie had said it.

Applejack was the first to speak up. "Haven't y'all made a snow pony before? Ah mean, it's pretty common round this time of year. Surely y'all made 'em as a filly..."

Twilight shook her head in response. "No, I haven't. Not much 'fun in the snow' happens in Canterlot. Besides, I was always too busy studying spells. Can you show me?"

"Duh! It's really easy! It's like eating apple pie! Yummy, yummy apple pie..." Pinkie Pie trailed off in thought, drool pouring out of her mouth at the thought of a warm, fresh-baked treat.

Twilight simply rolled her eyes at the unpleasant, yet rather amusing, sight before her. As she did so, a cyan streak in the sky caught her eye, and she watched as Rainbow Dash rushed across the sky, busting most, if not all, of the dark, dreary clouds that obstructed the sun's vibrant rays. She had always been very envious of that remarkable mare, particularly for her dexterous flying skills, her radiant confidence, and her aesthetic elegance. She remembered back to her very first encounter with the daring pegasus, watching in awe as her own skepticism was wiped away in no more than ten seconds. It was then that her admiration for Rainbow Dash began, and her admiration had only grown with time.

In fact, lately Twilight had noticed that whenever Rainbow Dash was around, her mind seemed to go blank. No worries, no stress. Nothing but...her.

While Twilight's admiration had gone unnoticed by most ponies, her distraction was obvious to others. Others, including Rarity. While her friends began gathering snow for the snow pony, she noticed that somepony was missing. Turning her head to look behind her, she noticed the lavender alicorn sitting on her haunches staring at the sky.

What could she possibly be looking at? Rarity thought to herself, her eyes tracing Twilight's gaze upward. As she scanned the skies, she half-expected some amazing anomaly, but her eyes could only spot one thing in the massive gray sky: a cyan blur followed by a rainbow trail. Rarity, with a look of slight confusion adorning her face, turned to look once again at Twilight, whose gaze was still averted upwards.

"Twilight, darling, are you alright?" Rarity questioned with a concerned tone.

At the sound of her name, Twilight quickly snapped out of the trance that she was in. "What- huh? Sorry. Did you say something?"

Rarity walked closer to Twilight and sat beside her. "I asked if you were alright, dear. You seem rather...distracted. Is something wrong?"

"What do you mean?" Twilight responded.

"Twilight, please, you were staring at the sky for several minutes before I said anything."

Twilight took a swift glance around her. She spotted her other friends several yards away and noted that the body of the snow pony had already been constructed, making her realize just how long she had been incoherent. "I- I was, uh, making sure that Rainbow had everything under control. I- If she clears too many clouds, then too much sunlight will get through and winter will be wrapped up ea " Twilight blurted out before being cut off by a white hoof meeting her muzzle.

"If that were true, darling, then you wouldn't have that obvious blush on your cheeks."

Twilight dropped her head and looked directly at the ground, pondering what she was going to say next.

Rarity, noticing the embarrassed look upon Twilight's face, spoke up first. "Why Twilight, it's nothing to be ashamed of. Love is a completely natural feeling."

"L-Love? Who said anything about love?" Twilight frantically responded.

"Your face, dear. Your words may deceive, but your eyes most definitely do not. I, for one, think it is absolutely marvelous that you have a little crush on our dear friend Rainbow Dash."

"B-But love isn't real! I-It's nothing more than hormones and pheromones that cause the brain to be attracted to anoth " Twilight was once again cut off by Rarity's hoof.

"Twilight," Rarity said with a sigh and a downward glance, keeping her hoof in place over Twilight's mouth, "You are the most intelligent pony that I know. And that's wonderful, it truly is. But love is not a thing of science or math. Love is a matter of the heart. And the longer you try to explain it through means of logic, the longer you will be unable to truly understand it."

As Rarity finished speaking, she lowered the hoof that was thrown over Twilight's mouth. The two sat quietly for several minutes, until they noticed that Rainbow Dash was flying toward them. Rarity stood up and began walking toward the rest of the group, who had already finished the snow pony.

"Rarity!" Twilight called after her.

Rarity turned back to look at Twilight, who was already walking towards her. "Hm?"

"Thanks."

"Of course, dear," Rarity said with a smile and a wink, as the two went off to join the rest of their friends.

As they approached their friends and the recently completed snow pony, they noticed that Rainbow Dash had joined them and was talking to Fluttershy.

Rainbow Dash saw Twilight and Rarity heading towards her, and called out to them. "Oh, hey guys! We were just talking about heading over to Sugarcube Corner for some hot chocolate. Wanna come?"

"Oh that sounds absolutely delightful. Let's go!" Rarity responded.

As the six began to direct themselves towards Sugarcube Corner, Twilight began slipping into the profound, voluminous depths of her own mind once more, the words that Rarity spoke repeating themselves in her head over and over again. Am I really in love with Rainbow? Twilight thought to herself. Love had always been a confusing word to her. She had done extensive research on the subject, but her studies had always resulted in inconclusive results. Up until this point, she was vaguely convinced that love was just a coping mechanism.

However, once Rarity spoke that one word, the one word that could change a pony's life forever, things started to make sense to Twilight. All the times her heart would race when Rainbow Dash got close to her. All the pent up nerves that would drive her insane. All the dreams that she had. All the times she caught herself staring at Rainbow Dash's perfect form as the cyan pegasus walked ahead of her this being one of those times. What am I doing? Why can't I get her out of my head?! Twilight violently shook her head trying to snap herself out of the reverie that she had unknowingly slipped into once more.

Before too long, the six had arrived at Sugarcube Corner, their favorite place to go on a chilly day like this. As they entered into the small, yet somehow rather large bakery, the overwhelming aroma of freshly-baked muffins and warm hot chocolate struck each of them. Each of them grabbed their own cup of the steaming, delicious, chocolatey goodness; then they took small, periodic sips, and a symphony of yum's was heard.

Twilight's mind, however, was not focused on the hot chocolate, for she, once again, began to slip into her own secluded world, the loud conversations and bubbling laughter coming from her friends slowly fading away to nothing more than hushed undertones. What do I do? Do I tell her? What if she thinks I'm weird? What if...

Twilight's train of thought was disrupted by the sound of her name, and the sudden realization that everypony was looking directly at her. The problem, however, was the fact that, in her trance, she had been staring wide-eyed at the object of her desire: Rainbow Dash.

"H-huh? Did you say something?" Twilight blurted out.

"You alright there sugarcube? Y'seem a little..." Applejack trailed off, trying to think of a fitting word.

"...Distracted?" Rarity offered.

Applejack turned to look at Rarity, and offered a nod of approval. "Exactly."

"Yeah, uh, everything is just fine. Nothing wrong here," Twilight said with an unconvincing smile.

"Y'sure? You've been staring off at nuthin' all day long. What's the matter?" Applejack said.

"It's nothing, really. Just...princess stuff. That's all," Twilight responded, happy that she didn't represent the element of honesty.

"If you say so..." Applejack trailed off, then starting once again with the previous conversation.

Rainbow Dash, however, was not as convinced as the others. She knew Twilight. She knew that when Twilight zoned out this many times in one day, there was something significant going through the egghead's brain. What's going on with her? Rainbow wondered to herself.

Rainbow decided to do a little bit more prying than Applejack. She slowly started in the direction where Twilight stood. Making sure to keep her voice down, she whispered, "Hey, Twi, can I talk to you for a sec?"

At that moment, that very moment, Twilight felt like a piano had just fallen from the sky above and crushed her. She felt the immense nervous pressure quickly overtake her entire body. Oh no, oh no, oh no. This cannot be happening! Twilight repeated to herself. She felt her limbs become numb, and pretended to give out under her weight. She felt her heart begin to race uncontrollably, causing her mind to go blank. The only words that she could mutter were, "Y-y-yeah. O-of c-course."

The two headed to the opposite side of the room from where the rest of their friends were.

As soon as they were sure that nopony could hear them, Rainbow Dash spoke up. "Why have you been staring at me all day?"

What?!?! She noticed?! Twilight thought to herself, her limbs threatening to betray her at any moment. "W-what do you mean, Rainbow?"

"Come on, Twi. You're the one who showed me how I learn. You know that I notice everything when I'm flying. That's how I noticed that you watched me almost the entire time I was clearing out those clouds."

Twilight's face instantly turned a bright shade of crimson at the realization. She averted her eyes, directing them towards anything that wasn't Rainbow Dash. "Oh," was all that Twilight could mutter.

Rainbow placed her right forehoof under Twilight's chin, and lifted her head to match her eye level. "What's going on, Twi? Talk to me." She said with a rather concerned tone in her voice.

As soon as Twilight's eyes met Rainbow Dash's, a war sprung out in her mind. She battled between running away, or facing her desires. Love is not a matter of science or math. The words ran through her mind like a tornado, clearing away all her extraneous thoughts. ...the longer you will be unable to understand it.

Those words struck her harder than anything she had felt before. For just one split second, she had no thoughts, no worries. The only thing that she could see was the object of her desire standing directly in front of her, eyes locked on hers.

And then, it happened.

Twilight sprang forward and pressed her lips against Rainbow's. Twilight could feel how dry and cracked Rainbow's lips were, no doubt caused by flying at high speeds in the cold winter air. She could smell the condensation that remained on Rainbow's cyan coat from busting clouds. Then, just as quickly as it began, it was over. Rainbow pulled away from the kiss, and adorned a very confused face.

"What was that all about?" Rainbow questioned.

"Oh my gosh, I'm so sorry Rainbow! I-it's just, w-when...I-I like..." Twilight sported a look equivalent to a deer in headlights. "I'm really sorry!" Twilight turned to run out the door, tears blurring her vision. Before she could reach the door, however, a rainbow blur appeared in front of her.

Before Twilight had a chance to say anything, her mouth was forced shut by another pair of lips. Those same lips that she had kissed just seconds ago. The same dewy smell, the same dry, cracked lips. Twilight was the first to pull away this time, a dumbfounded look upon her face.

Rainbow noticed the look upon Twilight's face, and let out a giggle. "I like you too, egghead."

One Cold Winter's Day

by scuba12

Storm of the Century

Red-hoofed