Okay, new chapter time. Let's do this.
BaconLettuceTomatoSweg: Yes, you must. (No, I'm kidding)
graysean86: The inner mechanations of my mind are an enigma.
Wolvmbm: Oh yeah, it will be. And yes, I have ways of doing so.
Cornell AKA Blue Crescent Moon: Hehehe…
321abe: As do I.
SubZPhantomX: He's not, but good guess. And the waiting is over!
Sonic fan: Yup.
Thatdudethere789: Yeah.
ash the pokevenger: I suppose I am.
zerothehedgehog477: She is. And you don't mean… him, do you?
mayrosethehedgehog: Harsh indeed.
Globe Troter: Thank you for the compliments, and you need not worry about this continuing, because it will!
werewolf99: It's not just me. Everyone hates them. Everyone. And if you don't stop spamming me, I WILL ban you and all the other guests from reviewing. I'm not kidding.
zebraslap: Don't worry, I will.
Sonic fan: Indeed she may be.
spisaacman: Miles is about as tall as the other colts the age of the CMC, so just slightly taller than the CMC themselves, but much smaller than an average sized stallion.
Collin Thomas: Not entirely for romantic tension. You'll see what I mean.
chaos frostlass: It'll all be explained in good time.
"Ooh! I can't wait for the Hearth's Warming Eve play!" Pinkie Pie burst out, doing a little happy leap into the air.
The seven (I think you know who that refers to by now) and Spike were currently on a train heading for Canterlot. Princess Celestia had personally invited them to be actors in the annual Canterlot Hearth's Warming Eve play. The train ride was slow, so Applejack had set up a game of Ponopoly (Puns!), and was currently wiping all the others out of their plastic bits.
Rarity rolled a seven and muttered a very naughty word under her breath as she landed on one of Applejack's many hotels, shoved the rest of her plastic bits into Applejack's face, and walked off muttering angrily.
"What do those words mean?" Spike asked Twilight in a whisper. Twilight gave him a sideways glance and shook her head to let him know that she wouldn't tell him that. Rainbow Dash, who was on Spike's other side, narrowed her eyes and whispered the meanings of the words in very explicit and over-detailed terms.
Spike suddenly acquired a shocked expression and stared at the board uncomprehendingly, not noticing that it was his turn.
Twilight glared at her friend. "Rainbow Dash!"
Rainbow responded by crossing her forelegs and turning so that her back was to Twilight. The message was clear: I'm not talking to you.
Fluttershy cleared her throat. "Um, Spike? The game?" she waved a hoof in front of Spike's face, but was unable to elicit any response, save for Spike's eyes crossing.
Pinkie rose up slowly, like something out of a horror movie, behind the dragon, dressed in a snowman costume that she'd procured from who-knows-where and shouted, "HAPPY BIRTHDAY!"
"Gah!" Spike jerked in shock and nearly fell out of his chair. "Pinkie!"
Cobalt rolled his eyes. "Your turn."
After the game had returned to a normal pace, Twilight cast a worried glance over at Cobalt, who had started to close his eyes tightly every so often and grimace as if he had a headache. He glanced up and gave her a reassuring smile, then made a silly face and pointed at his head. Twilight giggled a little at this, at least knowing that he was okay for now, and still able to make jokes.
Fluttershy moved the rabbit piece to the utilities space, and winced when she realized that she was going to be bankrupt after this. "I'm out." She murmured, putting her bits back in the bank and walking over to look out the window.
"Applejack, you are the champion of all Ponopoly." Spike announced, holding up his one last bit and inspecting it. "In the next twelve spaces I can move, I will lose on each. I forfeit." He flipped the bit like a coin and landed it in the bank pile.
Applejack gave a confident smile. "All right, Twilight. Ah propose a trade. Your property for twice what ya paid for it."
Twilight folded her hooves in front of her and rested her chin on them, studying her options carefully. "I can't believe this. My strategy failed."
"And that is why you don't strategize against the AJ." Cobalt advised her.
"Deal or no deal?" Applejack asked again.
"Like the game?" Pinkie asked, popping up once more out of nowhere.
Rainbow Dash gently pushed the pink pony back down. "Can we just get on with it already?" she asked impatiently.
"When did you become so irritable?" Applejack asked.
Rainbow glanced over at Twilight and Cobalt, who were sitting just a little too close to be just friends, and suddenly the red that rimmed her eyes became much more prominent. "I think you know."
Applejack followed her line of sight and let out a small, "Ah."
"I can't believe I'm about to say this." Twilight sighed, interrupting. "I accept your deal."
"Okay then!" Applejack slid a small pile of bits over to Twilight as she levitated a few cards over to her. The game quickly progressed so that Twilight was bankrupt in three turns due to her lack of ways to gain income.
"Fine." Twilight groaned, going over to join the other losers.
At that moment, the train car door opened and a pure white pony with no mane and a crazed grin ran through the aisle, laughing crazily. He exited through the other car door as another two ponies burst through the first door mentioned and skidded to a halt. One was brown with an hourglass cutie mark, and the other was gray with a strange cutie mark of bubbles. "Sorry about that!" the brown one apologized, apparently for the white pony. "Just a little bit of a… well, you wouldn't like it!"
"Doctor, it's getting away!" the gray one reminded him.
"Ah, right!" the two started galloping after the white pony once more, with the gray one throwing only two words of parting over her shoulder: "Hi Cobalt!"
Cobalt's face lit up and he waved after them. "Hi Doctor! Hi Derpy!" he turned to Rainbow. "Remember, I told you about them!"
Rainbow muttered something probably not nice under her breath and glared at him, scooting her chair a little farther away and studying the game board.
"What was that?!" one of the other passengers in the car asked loudly.
"Nothing to worry about!" Cobalt reassured whoever it was. "They've got it under control!"
"Well you've got somethin' to worry about." Applejack announced smugly. "With this Community Chest card, you're both bankrupt!"
LATER, BACKSTAGE
"Oh… I can't do this!" Fluttershy wailed, hiding behind the racks of costumes. "I don't want them looking at me!"
"Come now, Fluttershy!" Rarity used her magic to pull her friend out of her hiding space. "This is the opportunity of a lifetime! There will be hundreds of ponies watching!"
"H-hundreds?" Fluttershy gulped nervously.
"Maybe even thousands!" Rarity revised, with an ecstatic grin.
"Th-thousands?!" the yellow pegasus asked incredulously, fainting on the spot.
Suddenly the window blew open with a large gust, and started blowing all over everypony. Rarity desperately tried to shield her face, and called out to Applejack, who was closer to the window, "Applejack! Be a dear and close the window, will you?"
Meanwhile Twilight set about trying to wake up Fluttershy in time for curtain. "Fluttershy, you have to wake up."
By a miracle Twilight heard Fluttershy whimper in the tiniest voice possible, "Idonwanna…" which let her know that her yellow friend was indeed awake and only faking being passed out.
"Fluttershy, open your eyes." She said exasperatedly.
Fluttershy opened one eye and kept the other one shut tightly. "Is it over yet?"
Pinkie Pie bounced in, already dressed in her costume. "If we say yes, will you get up?"
"Um… yes?" Fluttershy started to haul herself to her hooves.
"It's not even started yet." Twilight informed her, but since the yellow pegasus was already up and moving, there was no excuse for her not to get on with the show.
While that was happening, Applejack was just getting to the window. She glared at Rainbow Dash, who was staring dully into the mirror, and happened to be right next to the window, which was currently blowing cold night air upon the inhabitants of the room. "Why can't you do it, Rainbow Dash?" the orange mare asked irritatedly.
Rainbow whipped around to return the glare. "Why didn't you just ASK me?!"
"Because Rarity asked me to do it!"
"Oh! And just because you decided to take all the responsibility for yourself gives you the right to make me feel more terrible than I already feel?!" the cyan pegasus could feel that she was about to start crying, but held back her tears. She didn't even know why she felt like crying. She didn't have any issues anymore. It didn't make sense.
"That's… a valid argument…" Applejack conceded.
"Will someone close the window already?!" Rarity asked loudly.
"I'll do it!" came a voice, and a blue blur shot past the window, leaving it closed when it passed. Cobalt came to a skidding halt. "The guy's bathroom is awesome! It's really fancy!"
"We wouldn't kno~ow!" Pinkie reminded him in a singsong voice.
"Uh, right… hehe." Cobalt shrugged. "So… what's my character's name again?"
"Corporal Rush." Fluttershy told him.
"Cool, thanks."
Twilight glanced over at Rainbow Dash. "You're going to have to talk to us at some point. We're all in the same play."
Rainbow narrowed her eyes, still turned away from the lavender unicorn. "I'll talk to you when I have to."
"So, you have to now?" Twilight raised an eyebrow.
Rainbow growled and shoved Twilight away, stalking away before Twilight could retaliate. Twilight grimaced and ran after her. "Wait!" Rainbow froze and whipped around with her teeth bared. "What?!"
Twilight skidded to a halt and thought hard about what she was going to say. "You're trying to hide it, but I know you really do care about what's going on between me and Cobalt."
Rainbow let out a shrill, false laugh. "Care?! Who cares anymore?!"
"Curtain in two!" Spike called out.
AT THE START OF THE SHOW
Spike stepped out from behind the stage as the curtain rose. "Greetings and good tidings on this day of celebration, fillies and gentlecolts." He said in a sort of British accent. "The story told here today is of the time before Equestria, the time before Princess Celestia's peaceful rule, when ponies were torn apart… by hate!"
A collective gasp went up from the audience, even though most of them had heard this tale hundreds of times before.
"Now at the time our story begins, the three tribes of pegasi, unicorns, and earth ponies lived in a grudging agreement. The earth ponies grew the food that fed the three, and in return, the unicorns raised the sun and moon, and the pegasi controlled the weather." Spike went on, setting the stage for the play. "After time, the relations between the tribes turned sour, and the weather turned colder, and the leaders and their advisors saw no other solution other than to hold a peaceful meeting, in which they would discuss the newest developments."
The purple dragon bowed his way offstage to let the actual acting begin.
QUICK TRANSITION TO A REAL VERSION OF THE EVENTS IN THE PLAY
A high-pitched howling sounded as several pale pony-shaped figures hovered in the sky above a frigid cold plain. They flew away toward a square building as if they were swimming in water.
Okay, I was too lazy to watch the episode, and my cat-writer is on vacation, so I'm just going to improvise on the interaction and character personalities. I read the summary, so I hope this is satisfactory.
"Business first!" Chancellor Puddinghead (hah… that name…) announced, slamming her hoof on the table. "You all have been complaining that our bad farming is starving you!" the other leaders and advisors nodded before Puddinghead went on. "However! You have forgotten one important fact!" she flourished her hoof before pointing it at Commander Hurricane. "Our farming relies on the weather manipulation of the pegasi!"
"Hey!" Hurricane snarled. "It's not our fault! We've been doing exactly what we're supposed to do! It must be the unicorns with their freaky magic!"
"And what is that supposed to mean?" Princess Platinum scoffed. "If we unicorns have been doing anything wrong, it's only because we're being starved by their bad farming!" she pointed a hoof at Puddinghead.
"It appears we've reached an impasse." Corporal Rush said calmly, flying up in between the three leaders. "The only logical conclusion from this circle of blame is that the cold weather is being caused by outside interv–"
"SHUT UP, CORPORAL!" Puddinghead, Platinum, and Hurricane shouted, causing Rush to frown and sink back down to the ground with a defeated look. The other advisors glanced at each other as the 'negotiations' between their leaders resumed, and collectively trotted over to join Rush.
"What you were about to say makes sense." Clover the Clever admitted. "We can't all be causing this."
"Ah would support the idea of somethin' else causin' this." Smart Cookie agreed with a nod. "All this shoutin' hurts mah head."
"Anything that can let this have a peaceful solution." Private Pansy nodded.
As if in answer to that, Commander Hurricane yelled. "If you want a war, you can have one!"
"I will not have any violence!" Platinum argued. "Such things are undignified!"
"Yeah, Hurricane! Don't you care about dignity?" Puddinghead pressed, glaring at the pegasus leader.
"I care about not letting my people freeze to death!" Hurricane retaliated. "And if you can't see that, then maybe we won't negotiate!" she kicked her chair out of the way and shouted, "Private! Corporal! We're leaving!" she turned around and stalked out of the building
"Aww… it was just getting interesting…" Rush whined, following his leader with his head down. Pansy glanced left and right as if worried there might be hidden unicorn and earth pony assailants hiding in thin air, then took off at a gallop out of the building.
"So it's just you and me…" Puddinghead narrowed her eyes at the unicorn leader, who returned the gesture. Suddenly Puddinghead reared up and slammed down a poker card from out of nowhere down on the table. "Touchdown! I win!"
Platinum raised an eyebrow. "But our negotiation has nothing to do wi–"
"Nmph!" Puddinghead turned away and held up a hoof.
"Why you–"
"Nmph!"
"I swear if you–"
"NMPH!"
"That is IT!" Platinum rose out of her chair and left the building as well, with Clover following quickly after.
"We won!" Puddinghead cheered.
Smart Cookie gave her a confused look. "Chancellor, Ah don't think we won."
"Aww…" Puddinghead frowned.
"So… whaddo we do now?"
Puddinghead looked thoughtful for a few seconds before looking up with a huge grin and a wild look in her eyes. "Hold everything! I am about to be brilliant!"
"That'll be a first." Smart Cookie rolled her eyes. "So what's the plan?"
"We go somewhere else!"
SCENE CHANGE SO THAT I DON'T HAVE TO WRITE THE SAME CONVERSATION THREE TIMES
"And what do you mean by that?" Hurricane demanded.
"We go somewhere other than here." Rush stated simply.
"I don't want your humor, Corporal." The pegasus leader growled.
"He means we find another, warmer land to settle in without the other tribes." Pansy explained.
ONE MORE SCENE CHANGE
"And where would we find that?" Platinum asked.
"Further south." Clever explained.
"Then that's it!"
ALL THREE SCENES IN ONE
"We'll find a new land!"
ONE JOURNEY LATER
"Here!" Hurricane stopped at a slightly less snowy patch of earth miles away from the original home of the three tribes. "I hereby declare this land to be called Pegasia!" she planted a flag bearing the emblem of the pegasus tribe in the snow and dirt.
ONE ABUSE OF VISUAL ELEMENTS LATER (OTHERWISE KNOWN AS A SCENE CHANGE)
"This land shall be Unicornia!" Platinum planted a flag of her own.
ONE LAST ONE
"I will call this land… uh… Cleveland?" Puddinghead declared hesitantly, holding her own flag over the ground.
"Uh, how about 'Earth'." Smart Cookie suggested.
"Earth it is!"
"Who said that?" the two earth ponies heard a voice call out. A voice, they realized with a sinking feeling, which was all too familiar.
"Oh please don't tell me–" two figures crested two hills on opposite sides of the valley where the earth ponies were at the same time.
"Oh great!" the three leaders groaned at the same time.
"What are you doing here?!" Puddinghead demanded as the three leaders and their advisors closed in on each other.
Rush shrugged. "Maybe something different, maybe the same thi–"
"SHUT UP, RUSH!" the three leaders chorused again.
(Italics are Spike's narration)
And as hatred grew stronger, so did the blizzard.
All of a sudden a large gust of wind nearly blew the seven off their hooves.
"As much as I regret saying this," Platinum shielded her eyes against the snow and biting wind with a foreleg. "We're going to have to work together in order to just survive!"
"There's a cave over there!" Hurricane pointed out. "We can shelter there until the blizzard dies down!"
The seven ran over to the cave and huddled inside the small area.
"What now?" Clover asked the group.
"I don't know." Pansy shrugged. "What do you think, Commander?"
But Hurricane couldn't answer, since she, Platinum, and Puddinghead had been frozen, encased in a thick layer of ice.
"Oh no!" Pansy cried, running over to her leader and knocking on her side. "She's frozen solid!"
"Ooh!" Rush exclaimed in delight, pulling out a marker. "I've always wanted to do this!" he zipped over at high speeds, drew a moustache on Hurricane's frozen face, and flew back in the space of about three seconds. "There."
High-pitched wails came from outside the cave as the four advisors began to discuss matters.
"So it's agreed, no fightin'?" Smart Cookie clarified.
"Yeah, where would that get us?" Clover asked rhetorically, glancing over at the leaders in an answer to her own question.
"To be honest, I actually hate Commander Hurricane more than I hate you all." Pansy admitted, causing the other three to laugh. The yellow pegasus frowned and then revised her statement. "Well, hate is a strong word. It's more like I really, really, really, really, really dislike her."
Smart Cookie nodded. "Ah can somewhat agree. Our leaders have been a bit… dumb about the situation."
"I think Rush had a point when he talked about outside intervention." Clover nodded toward the dark blue pegasus.
"Thank you!" Rush exclaimed, boldly giving the unicorn a quick kiss. Clover blushed and covered her mouth with a hoof, a look of shock on her face. "And nopony even told me to shut up!" Rush went on with an ecstatic grin.
"That could be considered treason, ya know." Smart Cookie reminded him. "Kissin' a member of another tribe."
Another high-pitched wail came from outside the cave, causing Pansy to dive behind the frozen form of Hurricane and cower there, while the others shuddered at the sound, which was so eerie it was almost as disturbing as metal on metal.
"Okay, that sounds like outside intervention to me." Clover decided. "And also like something I've heard about before."
"Well what is it?!" Pansy demanded panickedly, flying forward and shaking the unicorn, before realizing what she'd done and backing away with a sheepish grin.
"A long time ago, I was told about strange creatures called Windigoes, who fed on hatred and whose eternal snowstorm got more violent the stronger the hate became."
"Ah've heard of that before." Smart Cookie realized. "Back when Ah was a little filly."
"How do we fight 'em, though?" Rush asked, eyeing the snowstorm outside with a little more respect than before.
"There's only one spell that can combat them, but all those in proximity to the caster have to be in perfect harmony!" Clover explained.
"M-meaning?" Pansy asked, looking at the snowstorm with wide, fearful eyes.
Clover sighed, putting it into simpler terms. "We've all got to be friends for it to work."
"Easy." Smart Cookie shrugged. "We've kept on good terms until now, how hard can jumpin' from there to friends be?"
"Try it then!" the lavender unicorn squeezed her eyes shut and gritted her teeth and focused all her energy on casting the spell as the wailing grew louder.
BLAH BLAH BLAH, SKIPPING THE SINGING AND DANCING
Clover's spell had managed to thaw out the leaders, who had now joined the group effort to become friends (through said untranscribed song and dance), and slowly a giant pink-purple heart started to form above them, either burning up the windigoes that had entered the cave or driving those outside of it away into the sky.
ONE PLAY RESOLUTION LATER
"And that is how Equestria was founded." Spike concluded his narration and the play entirely.
The audience burst into raucous applause as the curtain lifted once more and the seven main actors and the supporting actors bowed and waved to the audience.
LATER, BACKSTAGE
"That was great!" Spike congratulated the seven, who were in the middle of a sort of afterparty. "Nice acting, you all!"
"Thanks! Awesome narration, by the way." Cobalt returned the compliment.
"I liked having pudding on my head!" Pinkie exclaimed, eating a bowl of the stuff as she said so.
All of a sudden, the window from before blew open again, blasting cold wind through the room.
"Ugh, Applejack, could you shut that please?" Rarity asked again.
"Ah don't want to." Applejack whined. "Why me again, anyway?"
"Because you're closest." Rainbow Dash told her.
"Rainbow, you could get there a lot faster." Twilight reasoned, sighing exasperatedly as Rainbow folded her forelegs and looked away.
"Well somepony has to, or else we'll all freeze to death." Pinkie said, saying the last three words in an overdramatic manner, accompanied by dramatic lighting, which she provided with a flashlight.
"Now guys, let's not argue–" Fluttershy put in, but was cut off by a cascade of… arguing.
A few seconds later an odd sound overpowered all the arguing voices, and the seven and Spike stiffened, for that sound sounded uncannily like a windigo.
"You know what?" Rainbow asked, flying slowly over to the window and shutting it. "I got it."
The others burst out in laughter.
There, that's another chapter done!
Now for an important announcement, the next thing I post will be the prologue chapter of Wind Warrior, so keep an eye out for that around next weekend.
I will also be resuming the ASK on the weekends, so if you have any questions that didn't get answered before, ask them in the reviews for that. But keep that for your silly questions. I'll answer your serious ones in the normal story chapters.
As always, follow, favorite, and review!
Radicool223 out!