The return of the eternal winter

by Amethyst Quill

First published

Ponyville had a great Winter Wrap Up under the guide of Twilight, but unfortunately… those cold days in the past had returned, with the creature that Equestria once feared: Windigos!

Thanks to Rainbow Dash's sabotage in the weather factory, the ponies of Ponyville thought that this Winter Wrap Up is going to be early. Until they realize some certain wind storm full of snow brought back the creature of the cold breeze, the Windigos. How can they live back over thousands of years?

Winter Unwrap Up

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“Spike! Spike!” Twilight shouted, “Wake your scales up! I don’t want to be late for the Winter Wrap Up meeting again!”
“Urgh… not this day again…” Spike yawned; he hated Winter Wrap Up because he often fell asleep at the end of the event. Every time he took a little nap, those friends of Twilight would tease him.

“There’s no time to complain, I told you yesterday that you need to sleep early, didn't I?” Twilight stared in front of Spike, forcing him to wake up. Spike went to Twilight’s desk, took out a quill and an inkwell gave it to Twilight. She stepped outside of her castle in Ponyville which was covered in snow.

“Hopefully this Winter Wrap Up going to end earlier than before, this winter wasn’t that snowy!” Twilight trotted on her pony hooves and said, Spike didn't pay to what was she talking about, he was just there to check everything on the checklist.
In the town square, everypony gathered around, listening to the Mayor Mare’s speech: “We’re gathering here today for this year Winter Wrap Up. As almost everypony knows, our Ponyville wasn’t as snowy as the other years. I hope that everypony will all have fun and work much better than before, under the guide of the pony we all love: Princess Twilight Sparkle!”
Twilight walked up the stage, as the ponies clopped for her great contribution for the event since she came.
“Good morning everypony! I’m Twilight Sparkle. I hope that this year, my plan for the Winter Wrap Up will runs smoothly. As an All Team Organizer, no pony should feel more grateful to me to see so many ponies wanting to clear up the snow,” Twilight spoke to the crowds, just like usual. Everypony, except for the Mayor and Twilight, put on their team’s jacket color: Tan for the Animal Team, Blue for the Weather Team and Green for the Plant Team. Twilight’s jacket color is a mix of all team jacket colors, like her what she normally organizes all teams to do their duties.

The ponies started to get to work. The Earth ponies were usually in the Plant Team, where they clear the snow piles to plant crops, the Pegasi mostly in the Weather Team to clear the skies, call the southern birds, clear the snow, skate on the frozen lakes to make it easier to melt the ice, the Unicorns in the Animal Team to call the animals to rise up and welcome the spring, and also make nests for the southern birds. The ponies worked very well under Twilight's order, in fact it was so organized that she proved Ponyville how well she was at orgainizing back at her first Winter Wrap Up. Without her help, Winter Wrap Up would never be right.

"Hey! Applejack! Need some help from me?" Rainbow Dash flew to Applejack and asked. They're both are friends and also the leaders of Weather and Plant Team respectively.

"We're all fine, we're all strong as buffaloes," AJ replied, she looked at Rainbow Dash's sigh and ask "What's wrong, partner?"
"Nothing, it's just that this Winter Wrap Up is just so boring! There isn't much snow for us to clear!" Rainbow Dash raised her raspy voice.

"Wasn't the snow that much because you messed up with Cloudsdale's weather factory?" AJ giggled, as Rainbow Dash glanced at to her. Twilight came across their conversation, she told them with a smile, "Hold up your chit chat girls, you got plenty of time to chat later on."

"You sure about that?" Amethyst Star, the Animal Team leader, jumped in, "We can clean this winter quickly, so don't be too confident." she held out her hooves and gave AJ a bag of seeds, she thanked her gratefully, "Thank you Amethyst, those seeds are what I wanted, good thing you did you hoof them over to that clumsy hooves Caramel."

"Uh, huh... "Amethyst Star walked away, before she left, she said, "See you soon, leaders. Winter can't go away by itself... but it can be bigger at anytime."

"I'm will make sure that everything is okay. See you guys later!" Twilight Sparkle walked away, as she faded away into the snowy landscape.

"I'm just hanging out here for a bit, I've asked Rainbowshine to keeping the team, let me help those ponies, I have quite a lot of strength today!" Rainbow Dash said.

"If you want to..." AJ replied.

"Twilight! How was Winter Wrap Up? Is it fine?" Mayor Mare trotted up and asked.

"It was alright, there isn't much snow left now, and this may be the earliest spring ever!" Twilight answered.

"Hopefully everything is fine..." Mayor said.

"Mayor! Look what's coming from the south!" Rainbowshine, came from afar, she said "A huge... huge snowstorm! You must come!"

Listening to Rainbowshine's tired voice, Mayor and Twilight quickly ran to the snowstorm. It was an enormous, colossal snowstorm, which brought down lots of massive icy breeze. Looking at the storm, the Mayor's eyes didn't wanted to believe what it was saw. "How... how can there be a snowstorm? The Pegasus ponies from Cloudsdale shouldn't be bringing this storm to Ponyville! Rainbowshine! Hae you told Rainbow Dash about it?" the Mayor asked

"I... I haven't... I tried to... but..." Rainbowshine faltered.

"What happened? Spit it out!" Twilight shouted within the strong winds.

"She... sh-she... look! What's that?" Rainbowshine pointing at the bright brown pony in the blizzard, he walked towards them and breathed heavily, "The leaders... are gone! They were disappeared in the snowstorm!"

"H-How? Caramel, do you know how this snow storm came?" Mayor Mare asked.

"It's no ordinary snow storm..." Twilight glanced up to the sky "... It's... the Windigoes!" she shouted.

The search for Rainbowshine

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“Caramel, do you know anything more about this storm?” Mayor asked.

“I just know that when we plowing the field, the storm suddenly came and it got bigger then bigger each moment. Soon that it reached the leaders on the mountain, they were twisted in the storm.” Caramel answered.

“So Rainbow Dash, Applejack and Amethyst were all gone, what would we do now?” Mayor Mare questioned.

Twilight looked up at the storm, and then put her hoof under her chin, mumbled to herself, “The Windigoes only appear when they sense the strong disharmonies of the ponies in a place, but Ponyville was a place where ponies live well with each other in harmony, there must be another reason for them to come. What was it?”

“A great question, my dear,” A soft voice from the sky flew in the ponies’ heads.

The citizens of Ponyville looked up at the snowy sky and gasped, “Princess Celestia!”

Princess Celestia put her hooves on the ground, everypony bowed after her, she said to Twilight, “I may not know what caused them to come here, but I do know that they need to be stopped,” Celestia said, as she blast a dark magic beam to the Windigoes, this is the first time other pony beside Twilight to see her using dark magic. Celestia's eyes turned into a tone of evil, she charged to the Windigoes and pushed them away, the Windigoes screamed loudly, trying to galloped toward Celestia. The princess' spell was strong, but the Windigoes' strength was no less, Celestia hooves dug deeper and deeper to the snow ground, put all her energy on the spell. Finally, the Windigoes were tired, the spell pushed them back in to the sky, over the thick cloud layers. Celestia sat down, she breathed heavily, Twilight came to help her, asked her if she was alright.

"I'm alright, Twilight..." She answered softly. Twilight started to smile, but then she asked Celestia another question.

"But princess... Did you use DARK magic to punish the Windigoes?" Twilight shocked.

"Yes, my student, only dark magic can control these creatures, there's no other way to tell off them..." Celestia answered, then looked at Twilight, she saw her thinking about something.

Mayor Mare glanced up the sky, she saw a new storm came in.

"Everypony! It isn't over yet!" Mayor warned the citizens.

Celestia confused, even she have the most powerful magic in Equestria, but the Windigoes still can stood up against her. They blew an icy wind, dashed through the clouds and charged at Celestia. Celestia fell down the cold snow, while the ponies around shocked by the scene they just saw.

"Mayor! Take Celestia to the hospital! Quick!" Twilight demanded.

Mayor quickly called the pegasus ponies come to help, they came as fast as they could to help the princess. Twilight, after that had happened, she told the ponies to get in the town hall, and made a barrier to help them. The Windigoes conquered the sky, the weather of Ponyville, there was no hope to clean up winter for the ponies.

Inside the town hall, Twilight shook off the snow on her coat, and confused to what had happened. She questioned herself, how didn't Celestia magic worked? The Windigoes only can be punish by dark magic, as Celestia said, Twilight tried to find the answer, while other ponies suffered from the cold.

Luckily, the Windigoes only came to Ponyville, which is questionable. The snow storm have been waiting outside of the town hall, nopony dare to go out in the freezing wind. How was Applejack and Rainbow Dash? Twilight questioned herself as she nearly cried out when she thinking about her friend is lost.

"Is everypony here?" Mayor Mare asked.

"Wait... where's Rainbowshine?" Caramel shocked.

The ponies were now noticed the opened door of the town hall, they realized that she had left to the snow storm. Everypony was scared, Twilight quickly ran to the windy snow storm to find Rainbowshine.
The Windigoes noticed Twilight, they followed her all the way. Twilight was trying to shot them without wasting to much time. Then, she thought of a simple idea: buried herself in the snow to keep them away. Twilight quickly used her freezing hooves to dug up a large hole and burie herself in. The Windigoes were now couldn't find her and left. The sound of the Windigoes were no more, Twilight raised up and continue her quest to find Rainbowshine, as she felt like she was being watched by somepony...

On the high mountain of Ponyville, a shade of black was hiding under the snow wind, that shade was a pony with a dark cloak, waiting for somepony. Rainbowshine was flying to the mountains, she then landed and brushed off the snow on her wings.

"Amethyst Star? Are you there?" She screamed.

"You're here... Just as we appointed." That cloaked pony said, as she was walking up to her.

"Why do you want to see me? I mean, in this place? And why are you wearing like that?" Rainbowshine asked.

Amethyst Star breathed heavily, she was staying still for a little time then answered,

"I'm wearing like this so nopony can see me." She grinned her mouth. "Also, I told you to come here so nopony can see you, too..."

"What do you mean by that?" Rainbowshine confused.

"You're now know that I'm still here, haven't caught by the storm. But if you tell anypony about me, my plan will be ruin," Amethyst said.

Rainbowshine relized that she just got herself in trouble, her senses were telling her to run away, but the Windigoes were right behind her.

"What's exactly is your plan?" Rainbowshine asked for answers.

"To revenge for my name!" Amethyst Star shouted. "The name and the glory that have been took by that new princess! Those Windigoes are the perfect weapons for me to indirectly attack her, so I've used dark magics to summon them, and buried Ponyville in a deep white snow. There's no way Twilight gonna clean up this winter now, and I'll be the one in charge to clean up this mess!"

"But... what you're doing effects Ponyville,... and Equestria! You must stop this before you harm anypony!" Rainbowshine convinced her.

"Silence!" Amethyst Star screamed at Rainbowshine, she controlled the Windigoes to create a storm and twisted Rainbowshine away with Rainbow Dash and Applejack. Her mind was now corrupted by the thoughts of vengeance, and Twilight still haven't knew that she was the one the Windigoes was aiming for...