A/N: Fic of the month! I do have an update for those who don't follow my world of god blog. I moved to Sacramento. I'm happy here and I'm no longer homeless... I think emotionally I'm getting better soon. So here's hoping for 2018 to be a good year for me! Also if you haven't voted in this month's poll, please do.
Enjoy!
Chapter 10: Winter Wrap-up
It was time for Winter Wrap-up! The time of years where they end winter for the year, and this was Twilight's first Winter-Wrap up.
She was very excited about it and after the annual big musical number about wrapping up winter.
So of course with the exception of Twilight, everyone had assigned jobs.
"Hey Derpy! It's your job to get the birds from the south!" said Sparkler who in charge of animals.
"All right!" said Derpy who flew up to get the birds.
She flew away however Everlasting and Carrot Top both noticed something.
"She's flying the wrong way." Said Everlasting.
"Not my problem I have farms to help regrow." Said Carrot Top.
Everlasting shrugged and left to do her thing.
Derpy continued to fly while saying "Hey Birdy! Birdy! Birdy!"
She noticed a couple arguing on the ground below. One was a pale yellow unicorn stallion while the other was a lavender earth pony.
"Stop lying to me!" cried the mare, "You've barely been around!"
"That's not true!" cried the stallion, "I've been with all those times."
"There you go again… why can't you be honest with me!" cried the mare.
The mare then ran off crying her eyes out.
Derpy knew she should be looking for the birds but couldn't help getting involved.
"Hey there!" said Derpy.
"Oh hello." Said the Stallion.
"What wrong?" she asked.
"We got into a fight. She keeps saying I'm missing spending time with her but that's not true." Said the Stallion, "I just want to convince her that not true but I don't know how…"
"I'll help… I know I'm supposed to be finding the birds right now, but I think I have time!" said Derpy.
"Thank you…" said the Stallion, "Pepper Ghost."
"Derpy Hooves." Said Derpy.
The two shook hooves.
"Oh nice vest." Said Pepper.
"I'm from Ponyville, by the way have you seen the birds, they flew south for the winter and I'm trying to find them." Said Derpy.
Pepper looked at Derpy unsure how to respond.
"You know how about we work on my problem first, then your problem." Said Pepper.
"Okay!" said Derpy.
Meanwhile back at Ponyville Twilight was trying to make a bird nest. But she was failing very badly.
She finished the bird nest, which looked really bad compared to Rarity's.
"Oh that's nice…" said Rarity trying to be nice about it, "It could be used for the birds…"
"Outhouse?" asked Spike.
"Spike!" scolded Twilight.
"No… no this can be fixed." Said Rarity.
She began to try to fix it.
The key word being try.
Both of them left when she started to break down.
Back with Derpy she was getting more information from Pepper.
"I was fighting with my mare friend, Honeysuckle Lavender." Said Pepper. "We've been getting into fights lately. But I'm confused why."
"Uh-huh…" said Derpy.
"You se I've been spending a lot of time with Honeysuckle lately." Said Pepper, "But she says that I haven't for some mysterious reason. But I haven't'! I've been spending time with her and… and…"
Suddenly Pepper was about to collapse but Derpy caught him.
"You okay?" asked Derpy.
"I'm fine…" said Pepper shrugging it off.
"But that is strange." Said Derpy getting a certain feeling from him.
"What is it?" asked Pepper.
"I used to travel around with someone a long time ago." Said Derpy, "I used to encounter things like this…"
Before Pepper could react his mare friend Honeysuckle showed up.
"Hey there sweetie!" said Honeysuckle.
"Hi Honeysuckle." Said Pepper suddenly entering a trance.
"Oh there's my sweet little guy!" said Honeysuckle hugging him.
"Yeah…" laughed Pepper.
Derpy sensed something from Honeysuckle and narrowed her eyes.
"Who's your friend." Said Honeysuckle.
"Oh none important, just looking for birds that flew south!" said Derpy who then flew away.
Honeysuckle narrowed her eyes.
Back in Ponyville, Twilight was ice-skating at a way to cut up the ice alongside Pinkie.
The problem was she wasn't that good at ice-skating. She was very wobbly and kept crashing into things.
"Don't' worry Twilight, the first time I was ice skating I was just as wobbly as you." Said Pinkie.
"Really?" asked Twilight.
"No…" admitted Pinkie.
Twilight sighed.
Derpy was flying around when she spotted Honeysuckle crying under a tree.
Hey!" yelled Derpy flying down.
"hello… " cried Honeysuckle.
"You're Honeysuckle Lavender, right? The real Honeysuckle Lavender?" asked Derpy.
"Yes… why?" asked Honeysuckle confused.
"I met your Stallion Friend and I figured out why he keeps telling you why you're spending time together." Said Derpy.
"What? Really?" asked Honeysuckle.
"Yep! A shape sifter is impersonating you." Said Derpy like it was nothing.
"Why do you ay like it's a completely normal thing?" asked Honeysuckle.
"Uh…" sighed Derpy, "Let's go find your stallion friend!"
She picked up Honeysuckle.
"Um… okay." Said Honeysuckle.
Meanwhile with Twilight she as trying to help Fluttershy wake up the animals that were hibernating.
However the animals she tried to wake up turned out to be snakes.
"Why did it have to be snakes!" cried Twilight running way from them.
This led to a series of accidents where got spayed by skunks and punctured by porcupines.
Back with Derpy she flew Honeysuckle to where Pepper was.
Honeysuckle looked at Derpy.
"Was I just here?" asked Honeysuckle.
Yes… you were." Said Pepper confused.
"I knew it!" yelled Derpy, "A shape sifter is involved!"
"What?" asked Pepper.
Before Derpy could explain another Honeysuckle showed up and tackled her.
"So you figured it out." Said the other Honeysuckle, "I don't know how… but you found out."
"Who are you!" demanded Honeysuckle.
"It's not important… I guess I just have to get rid of her and then suck him dry… it's a shame… the more you got upset…. The more I was able to spend time with him…"
"What?" asked Honeysuckle.
However Derpy tackled the fake.
"You barely hit." Said Derpy.
And so the fake and Derpy began to fight.
Back in Ponyville, Twilight was trying to help at Sweet Apple Acres by helping plow the snow, but she used magic to plow the snow. Causing a horrible set of disasters that caused more snow to land on the farm.
Applejack scowled Twilight who ran off in years.
Back with Derpy and her fight.
The fake Honeysuckle winked at Pepper who once again collapsed.
"Pepper!" cried the real one who started to hug him.
"Oh I get what you are!" said Derpy, "I've encountered quite a few of you."
"So you know I'm a changeling." Said the fake.
"What? What's a changeling." Said Derpy.
The fake Honeysuckle stared at Derpy.
"Wait… you don't' know what a changeling is?" asked the fake.
"I thought you were a type of alien that I once encountered… so never mind." Said Derpy, "Now that I think about it though, it makes sense as I met them in the future and they had no ability to space travel."
The fake Honeysuckle just started at her.
"Fine… let's make things interesting!" said the fake.
The fake turned into Derpy and the two started fighting.
"Changelings…" whispered Pepper, "I've heard of them."
"You have?" asked Honeysuckle.
"They transform into ponies and steal love from their victim. It's been stealing from me." Explained Pepper.
"Oh no!" said Honeysuckle.
"I have a plan but I need your help." Said Pepper.
Back in Ponyville Twilight was depressed, everything had gone wrong…
That was when she saw Everlasting instructing Gilda, a unicorn wearing a strange things on her hooves and a purple earth pony with a brown mane and tail it a shooting star for a cutie mark digging snow into a cart.
Everlasting was bound up tight still with a sweater and scarf was the first tight she noticed.
"All right keep going Sweet Bowl still needs 10 pounds!" said Everlasting, "Oh hey Spike Twilight…"
"Hey there Evy." Sighed Twilight.
"What are you doing?" asked Spike.
"Oh I'm in charge of getting the snow to ski resorts, since you know they can last through the spring. Since we don't use magic we sell it to them at a cheaper price than Cloudsdale." She explained.
"Do you need any help?" asked Twilight.
"Sorry… this the last shipment." Sighed Everlasting.
"Oh…" said Twilight disappointed.
Everlasting sighed but decided to try to cheer up Twilight.
"Any ways this my team, of course you know Gilda and Lyra." Said Everlasting.
"Hey Twilight! Sorry I've been busy with my friend." Said Lyra.
"Yeah…" said Twilight.
"Twilight…" hissed Spike who was very disappointed in Twilight.
"It's okay Spike, you know how busy she gets, of course she pretty much forgotten me." Sighed Lyra.
Twilight blinked.
"Anyways I don't think you've met May Belle." Said Everlasting.
"No I haven't." said Twilight going to meet the purple earth pony.
"Nice to meet you!" said May Belle cheerfully then got in Twilight's face, "So do you know what make Celestia's mane! Is it magic? I've always wanted to k now!"
"I'll tell you another time." Said Twilight.
"So I take can tell you're trying not figure out what to do for Winter Wrap up." Sighed Everlasting.
"Yeah." Said Twilight.
"It's understandable… they gave me this job because when I first moved here I wasn't good with Winter." Said Everlasting.
"Really? Why?" asked Twilight.
"I'm from San Franciscolt. Because of their natural fog is someone no pony wants to mess with they have unique seasons: Cold and foggy summers, hot Autumns, Rainy Winters and Spring." She explained.
"They don't 'mess with spring?" asked Spike.
"Nope." Said Everlasting, "Anyways for my first Winter Wrap-up I was the opposite of you."
"What do you mean by that?" asked Twilight.
(Flashback)
Carrot Top and Derpy got to Everlasting's house.
"Evy! Time to wrap up winter!" said Derpy.
They opened the door and found Everlasting surrounded by five heaters and bundled up.
"Shut the door! You're letting in the cold!" she yelled.
(End of Flashback)
"So they me a job where I can just sit and try to keep warm. And it helps that May Belle's a sweater designer." Said Everlasting, "And since my second winter wrap-up I've been in charge of forming the team. I chose Lyra because of her obsession."
"Come Twilight I know you heard my stories about humans and their wonderful hands many times." Said Lyra, "I invited these special socks to replicate them!"
Twilight stared at Lyra.
"I have something similar." Said Gilda rolling her eyes.
"What about May Belle?" asked Twilight who seemed to shoveling without the weird socks.
"I gave Evy a free sweater!" laughed May Belle.
"I'm still not used to the cold." Sighed Everlasting.
Twilight nodded in understanding.
"A free sweater?" asked Spike.
"I run the other boutique in town!" said May Belle, "I'm not Rarity's rival though! We're too different!"
"I see…" said Spike.
"Anyways Twilight, I'm sure you'll be able to find something to do involing Winter-Wrap soon, after all it's no where over yet… trust me…"
Twilight nodded and left to look for other things.
"Why didn't you tell her for the past four years you're the only one who gets things done on time?" asked May Belle.
"Because she needs to know on her own." Said Everlasting.
"Whatever." Muttered Gila, "The sooner we end this the better."
"Yeah!" cheered Lyra.
Back with Derpy the fight continued.
However as they were fighting a ghost appeared.
"Why did you do it?" asked the ghost.
"What?" asked bot how them.
"Why did you steal my love?" asked another.
"Why did you take the form of my wife?" asked the ghost of a stallion.
"Why did you break my heart?" asked another ghost.
"Why?" asked the ghosts as they continued to multiply.
The fake Derpy began to tremble to the next that it turned to it's true form… that of black insect like pony.
The Changeling found itself surrounded by ghosts and then flew away in fear.
Derpy looked at the ghost which suddenly vanished.
"You did great!" said Honeysuckle to Pepper.
The tow nuzzled each other.
"Wait… those ghosts?" asked Derpy.
"And illusion." Said Pepper.
Derpy finally noticed Peppers cutie mark which was a in the shape of a ghost.
"My special talent is creating fake ghosts." He explained, "It did drain me however."
"It will be fine." Said Derpy, "So… do you know where the birds are?"
The two looked at each other and sighed.
"Ponyville is south of here." Said Pepper.
"Yeah!" said Derpy.
"Meaning we're not south of Ponyville." Said Honeysuckle.
"Oh no! I went the wrong way!" yelled Derpy who began to fly south.
"Wait!" said Honeysuckle.
She stopped.
"Thank you…" said Honeysuckle, "For everything."
"You saved our relationship, if it wasn't' for you I don't know what would have happened." Said Pepper.
Derpy smiled and flew off.
Back in Ponyville, Twilight watched as everything was going to Tartaros.
Turned out year after year Winter-Warp up was always late!
She realized she did have a place in it after all.
Thanks to organizational skills she got Winter-Up up to end on time.
Durring this time Derpy managed to come in time and bring back the birds.
And so the next day they were celebrating the first success in long time.
"We award Twilight the official title of Winter-Wrap up organizer." Said the Mayor.
Everyone in town cheered.
"during this time, Derpy talked to an old friend.
"So what do you know about Changelings?" asked Derpy.
"Wait… you encounter a changeling on your trip?" the her old friend.
"Yeah…" said Derpy.
"I really shouldn't say anything about them… only that you will encounter them again soon." Said her old friend.
"Really?" asked Derpy.
"Sorry…" said her old friend.
Derpy shrugged and sighed, "It's fine…"
Her old friend laugh, knowing what was going to happen in the future.
And so everything turned out well for Winter Wrap-up… expect Spike caught a cold after walling asleep on the last piece of ice in a lake…
Next Time: Everlasting is suffering from writer's block... very badly... will she be able to get over it? Or will she go crazy? Find out next time!