Winter Wrap Up
Golden Oak Library: Night's POV
Night was sound asleep having a really good dream when he felt something shaking him awake. "Night. Night, wake up" the voice said. As Night opened his eyes he saw something purple in front of him, the image cleared to reveal Twilight wearing her winter gear. Night then jumped out of bed in surprise.
"Twilight! What are you doing in my room?" Night asked nervously.
"Just waking your sleepy butt up," Twilight answered.
"Okay, so what's up?" Night asked, as Twilight normally didn't wake him.
"It's Winter Wrap Up day," Twilight said excitedly.
"Winter what?" Night said confused. Twilight was clearly not expecting that response, hence why she dawned a look of annoyance.
"Winter Wrap Up. It's where everypony works to clean up winter and get ready for spring," Twilight explains. She then grabs him by the ear and brings him downstairs as he struggles in vain. "You'd better get your winter stuff on."
"Yes mom," Night says sarcastically much to Twilight's annoyance. "So, are we just shoveling snow or something?"
"What do you mean?" Twilight asked confused.
"I mean are we just helping nature with spring?" Night clarifies.
"No, we're literally turning the season to spring," Twilight explains.
"Just like that?" Night was now really confused.
"Yeah, didn't you have something like that on Earth?" Twilight asked.
"I lived on a world whose people could only predict the day's weather, remember?" Night responded. That's when it seemed to click in for Twilight.
"Right," she muttered. Twilight then grabbed Spike and the three headed for the town square to see everypony gathered there. Night noticed that everypony seemed to be wearing a vest. "Those must be the vests that Rarity designed," Twilight said, seemingly reading Night's mind. "Blue for the weather team, green for the plant team, and tan for the animal team. I wonder which team vest we'll wear Night."
"I hope for a teal vest. The same color as my blanket, which I think I can hear calling my name," Spike says grumpily at being up so early.
"Thank you everypony, and thank you," Mayor Mare said. "We need everypony's help to wrap up winter, and bring in spring." As the ponies cheered, Night just thought it would be easier on everypony if they just let the sun take care of everything. "Now all of you have your vests and have been assigned to your teams. So let's do better than last year, and bring in the quickest Winter Wrap Up ever!" Mane finishes her speech and the ponies cheer again. Twilight, however, looks confused as she doesn't seem to have an assignment. Come to think of it, neither did Night. The two wander around for a bit and see everypony getting on with their assignments. It seemed that Night and Twilight really weren't needed. Rainbow then flies overhead and tells some of her team their good to go and they fly off.
"Rainbow Dash!" Twilight called out.
"Oh, hey Twilight, Night, what's up?" Rainbow asks.
"What are you doing?" Twilight asked.
"Just sending one of my flight teams to get some of the birds that flew south," Rainbow answers as she monitors the rest of her team's progress.
"Oh, can I help?" Twilight asks eagerly.
"As much as Rainbow would appreciate the help, you're missing a little something," Night says, opening his wings. Twilight hoof palms as she realizes her mistake.
"Right" she murmured. Rainbow then flies off and helps continue her work. "Now what are we going to do?" Twilight asks Night.
"I don't know about you two, but I'm going to be napping," Spike says as he tries to fall asleep in a bush.
"Come on Spike. This is serious business. Winter needs to be wrapped up, and I'm determined to do my part. Right, Night?" Twilight tells Spike and turns to Night, who merely shrugged.
Twilight's POV
The group made their way to Rarity's home where she was working on nests for the birds. Twilight did notice that they had bits of ribbon in them, likely from Rarity's near obsession to making everything fashionable. "Rarity, please tell me there is something, anything, I can help you with?" Twilight asks with a hint of desperation.
"Well, how about you help me make Ponyville's finest birds nests?" Rarity asks.
"Wow Rarity, that one's really beautiful," Twilight comments, seeing a bird's nest that was recently completed.
"Oh, why thank you most sincerely," Rarity responds. "Would you like to try your hoof at a nest?"
"Would I!? Yes! Where do I begin?" Twilight says excitedly.
"Okay, take some of that straw and hay over here and a little bit of branch," Rarity instructs as Twilight quickly organizes the materials. Twilight then tries to follow Rarity's instructions, but her nest doesn't turn out as lovely as Rarity's.
"That nest needs to be condemned," Spike tells Rarity before getting immediately zapped by Night.
"Too far Spike," Night tells him. Rarity then proceeds to do the nest for Twilight and the group just walks away while she works. They then find Pinkie skating on one of the lakes, carving lines into the ice.
"Hello, Twilight, Night" Pinkie calls out as they get close.
"Pretty impressive skating Pinkie," Night comments.
"Thanks! I've been doing this since I was an itty bitty, little-little, twinkly Pinkie. It just comes naturally," Pinkie explains in her usual way. Pinkie then does a few skating moves before continuing. "Which is probably why they designated me as the line scorer. I cut lines in the ice with my skates, that way when the rest of the weather team comes here to break the ice, it'll be easy as pie."
"How clever, when the thick ice begins to melt, it'll break along the lines," Twilight says.
"You've certainly got your work cut out for you," Night says.
"Tell me about it. And was the pun intentional?" Pinkie asked as Night shook his head. "Hey, wanna help me out?" Pinkie asks.
"I think I'd better pass, I've got two left hooves on the ice," Night explains. Twilight, however, quickly volunteers and puts on a pair of spare skates Pinkie had. Once on the ice, Twilight found herself slipping.
"On second thought…" Twilight started.
"Oh come on! You said you wanted to be helpful. Now get out there," Spike says and pushes Twilight so she gets moving. Twilight quickly found herself being unable to control herself on the ice and heading for the snowbank. She then sees a flash of lightning before she suddenly finds herself on solid snow.
"Oh thank goodness. Thanks, Night," Twilight says as Spike, who is laughing, and Pinkie head over.
"You are a natural, Twilight: a natural disaster" Spike laughs. Twilight merely looked at the ground as another flash of lightning goes off. She then hears Spike let out a shout of surprise.
"It's okay Twilight. My first and only attempt on the ice pretty much ended the same way," Night reassured her. This made Twilight feel a little better.
"You know, Fluttershy could use some help with the critters," Pinkie tells the group. They thank Pinkie for the help and head over to where Fluttershy is. They find her head in a burrow calling out for the animals inside to come out. She then pulls her head out to reveal two porcupines climbing out.
"Aw, how cute," Twilight comments.
"Aren't they? This is my favorite task of the whole season. When I get to see all my little animal friends again," Fluttershy tells the group. "I'm just worried I won't be able to wake every creature up before spring gets here."
"Well, I'll help Fluttershy," Twilight says.
"Oh, you will? That would be wonderful" Fluttershy says and gives Twilight a bell.
"Let's start over there," Twilight says, heading over to one of the dens and rings the bell. "Wake up little friends, wherever you are, spring is coming." As Twilight wonders what creature she just woke up three snakes slither out of the den. Twilight jumps in surprise and backs into a den of bats that startle her again before running into a tree and having a beehive get on her head. Unable to see, she unknowingly ran into a den of skunks.
Golden Oak Library: Night's POV
Night and Spike quickly got Twilight into a tomato bath to get rid of the smell, trying not to smell it. "Oh, all this Winter Wrap Up stuff is a lot harder than it looks," Twilight complained.
"Right, because there's no magic," Spike tells her.
"Yeah, why aren't you using magic? It seems like it would go a lot easier if you did," Night points out.
"No, I have to do it the traditional way. Ponyville has never needed magic to wrap up winter," Twilight tells them.
"First of all, Ponyville didn't have two powerful magic users before. And second, just because Ponyville has never needed magic before, doesn't mean it will stay that way," Night tells her.
"No no no! I'm going to find some way to help out if it kills me!" Twilight shouts. Night couldn't help but think that Twilight was going about this the wrong way. Once Twilight is smelling better, the three head back out to find Applejack and her team getting rid of the snow on the fields. "Hey Applejack. How's everything going?"
"Oh just dandy. A little slow startin', but peachy all the same. There's a lot of ground to carry here. We can't even start the plantin' and the waterin' till we get this heap of snow high tailed and out of here" Applejack tells them.
"Well, I'd like to help," Twilight tells her. Night is skeptical about this since moving those plows look like they would require a lot of physical strength, something Twilight lacked in. Applejack seemed to have the same thought.
"Well, I-I don't know" Applejack responds.
"Just give me a chance," Twilight said with desperation.
"Well, I've never turned down a hard worker but…" Applejack starts, but Twilight wasn't listening as she got herself set up on one of the plows.
"She's been like this all day. I honestly don't know what the big deal is about," Night tells Applejack. He then notices that Twilight, as predicted, couldn't move the cart. Strangely enough, it started moving and accelerating.
"Well, she sure is strong for just a little pony," Applejack said with suspicion. Discreetly, Night activated a magic detection spell that he learned and found a clear identification of magic from Twilight.
"That's my girl, following my advice," Spike suddenly says out of the blue.
"And what in tarnation does that mean?" Applejack asked him before looking at Night. However, Night was more focused on Twilight as the plow was accelerating faster than Twilight could keep up and starts to form a snowball at the front, which was heading straight for Applejack, Night, and Spike. Night activates his lightning which turned himself into a bunch of bolts and charges right threw the massive snowball, destroying it and knocking out the plow. He then turns back to his normal self and lands, exhausted. "The nerve of you. You used magic, didn't you Twilight?!" Applejack accuses the unicorn.
"The nerve," Spike comments, but Applejack glares at him.
"And you Night. What was up with you using your lightning? Don't you know we don't use magic to clean up winter in Ponyville!" Applejack yells at him. Night was too exhausted to respond. He tried to talk, but nothing seemed to come out as he collapsed. "Whoa, Night. Are you alright?" Applejack asks concerned.
"Not… really…" Night gets out before he lets out a heavy cough.
"What was that?" Applejack asks Spike.
"I don't know. I've never seen him do that before," Spike answers. If they said anything else, Night couldn't hear it as the darkness took its hold.
Twilight's POV
Twilight saw Night collapse and ran up to him. "Night, are you alright?" Twilight asked. Night didn't respond.
"Look Twilight, using magic isn't how we do it around here. Especially on my farm," Applejack told Twilight with a restrained voice. Twilight merely got Night to his room, as she put him on the bed, the full guilt of what she did clicked in.
"What happened?" Night asked as he woke up.
"You did something with your lightning and… well… I'm so sorry!" Twilight told him. "It was my fault. Me and my obsession to help out almost—"
"Shut up," Night said.
"What?" Twilight asked confused.
"I said shut up. This wasn't your fault. It's my fault for underestimating my own power," Night told her.
"But I—" Twilight started but Night put his hoof on her mouth.
"Just let me talk," Night told Twilight and she nodded. "You've been going at this whole thing the wrong way. Instead of finding something you're good at to help with, you've been trying to do what you can't do. So, maybe you should help out in a way that you are good at doing. Magic is out of the question, so find something else." They then hear a commotion outside and the two go and investigate. In the square, they find Applejack and Fluttershy arguing about how fast Rainbow and her team need to clear the clouds.
"Oh, what in Equestria are you all arguing about? This sort of silliness is the reason spring has been late for so many years," Mayor Mare scolded. "I was hoping my amazingly inspirational speech would encourage everypony to do better. But now it looks like we're going to be later than ever. I mean just look at this catastrophe. The ice scorers made the ice chunks too big to melt. The nest designer is terribly behind, she needs to make several hundred and she's only made one. And don't get me started on the clouds still in the sky and the icicles on the trees."
"And it's all going to be disastrous if we can't get all our seeds planted," Applejack adds.
"Chillax, Applejack. We're busting our chops as fast as we can," Rainbow tells her.
"No! Not fast. We have to wake animals slowly," Fluttershy tells Rainbow.
"Um, AJ," Big Mac says as he comes up with Caramel.
"Oh, good gravy. Caramel lost the grass seeds again didn't he?" Applejack asked.
"Yep," Big Mac answered.
"Derpy just went north to get the southern birds," a pegasus reported to Rainbow.
"Oh, that featherbrain. Didn't she learn her lesson last year when she went west?" Rainbow complained. As more ponies started arguing, Mayor Mare finally put a stop to it.
"Stop this at once! We don't have time to argue! It's almost sundown. Spring's going to be late again!" Mane tells everypony. "If only we could be more organized." That's when Twilight gets an idea.
"Spike, get my checklist and clipboard, stat," Twilight commands as Spike salutes and sprints to the library. She then tries to get everypony's attention, but she can't seem to. She looks at Night, who nods in understanding, and lightning strikes in the middle of the arguing ponies, which gets their attention. "I know you want to complete your jobs on time, but arguing in no way to go about it. What you need is organization, and I'm just the pony for the job." Twilight quickly got to work on a schedule. The nests for the birds got done first, then got Pinkie and the rest of the line scorers to carve the ice into squares. She then had Applejack's team plow the snow and dirt with ponies right behind them with seeds for the food they need and rigging up bells in front of all the dens then pulling on a rope that connected them all to awaken all of the animals at once. Fluttershy then had a bird call out to Rainbow Dash and the pegasi who cleared all the clouds and snow, allowing the sun to shine and melt the ice. As night came, they were still working on planting everything. By daybreak, the birds arrived as the ponies were finishing up the last bits of their work. In the mix of all the birds, she and Night see a familiar black and white pattern.
"Zera!" Night calls out. Zera quickly alters her course toward Night and lands on his back. "Good to see you girl. Enjoy the warm weather?" Zera responds with a happy squawk.
"I can't believe it. Spring is here, on time!" Mayor Mare comments as she looks around. "And we have you to thank for that. If it weren't for your organization skills, we'd still be arguing," Mayor Mare tells Twilight.
"It was a team effort," Twilight points out.
"And since you helped every team, we have an official vest for you. We give you the title, All Team Organizer," Mane tells Twilight as she reserves a vest consisting of the colors from all three teams.
"I don't even know what to say. Thank you everypony," Twilight responds.
"I hereby declare, that winter is wrapped up, on time!" Mayor Mare shouts to the ponies who cheer in celebration.
"Spike is going to be in for a hog sized surprise when that last piece of ice melts," Applejack comments as Twilight follows her gaze to see Spike sleeping on one of the last pieces of ice. However, Zera saves him the trouble and brings him ashore. Back at the Library, Twilight started writing a note to Celestia.
'Dear Princess Celestia, Winter Wrap Up has been one of the most special things I've been a part of in Ponyville. It helped me to learn that we all have hidden talents, and if we're patient and diligent, we're sure to find them. And as always with good friendship and teamwork, ponies can accomplish anything.' Twilight notes and turns to Spike to see him asleep.
"Okay, are you going to do it?" Night asks out of the blue.
"Huh?" Twilight asks.
"The 'I told you so' speech," Night says grumpily.
"No. I'm going to do something better," Twilight responds with a sinister smile and Night immediately tries to make a break for it.
Hello everyone I am back and Happy 2020 to you all. Before I end this chapter I have two announcements to make. First is that I am starting a new series which I will be posting the first chapter on Friday. And yes, I know I said earlier that I wouldn't be starting anything else till this story was finished but I just couldn't resist the temptation any longer. Now I will say that I only will work on two stories at any given time and will alternate between them. Second is that I've not been ideally sitting on my butt while after the previous chapter and have already made more chapters for both stories. And I do hope you enjoyed this chapter. Have a good [time insert].