"Thanks, everypony!" exclaimed Snowflake, "Bye, and thanks for the dress!" "Bye, Snowflake!" the rest of the CMC chorused. Nopony got their cutie marks, but they had a ton of fun, and currently, on a black hanger, Snowflake held an icy blue dress. It had a bunch of ruffles, but not too many, and they were on the skirt, but nowhere else. There was a sash of Sweetie Belle's white coat color, and it was tied in the back with a huge bow, as Apple Bloom had suggested. The stockings were sky blue, like Rainbow Dash's coat, so were the gloves. Those hung from the hanger as well. There was the same silver chain necklace, but, hanging from it, was a little snowflake charm that Sweetie Belle had dug up.
Snowflake shut the door to the clubhouse behind her and walked down the ramp. Her Crusader cape flapped in the breeze with her brown, bob-cut hair. She smiled, she'd always loved the wintertime, and it was growing winter now. But she had to catch her train, so she couldn't look around much longer before she ran back to the train station, just in time to catch the train back to Canterlot.
When she arrived back in Canterlot, Snowflake was greeted by Luna. "Hi, mum!" she exclaimed. "How was your trip to Ponyville?" asked Luna. "Good," said Snowflake, "The Crusaders and I made this dress!" She held up her dress. "Wow," said Luna, admiring it, "Very nice!" "I'm also a Crusader now!" exclaimed Snowflake, demonstrating her cape. "Wow," said Luna, turning the cape over, "Is that gold silk?" "Yep!" Snowflake said happily, "We got it from Rarity!"
~Several months later, in Ponyville
Twilight and Snowflake had just gotten off the train at the station in Ponyville. The snow was all over the ground. "I've been sent to check on the snowflake making in Cloudsdale," said Twilight, "Want to come with?" "Sure!" exclaimed Snowflake, "Let's find that old balloon of yours!" "It's over here, kid!" exclaimed Rainbow, pointing. She was right. "Thanks, Rainbow Dash!" exclaimed Snowflake. She ran over and climbed into the balloon. "I can pull this thing up to Cloudsdale, nice and fast, for ya both, Twilight!" exclaimed Rainbow. "Thanks, Rainbow," said Twilight, "You know as well as anypony else that I can't fly nearly as fast as you, or for that matter, any natural pegasus." "I know," said Rainbow, hooking herself up to the balloon via a rope. Twilight secured the rope and soon after, the balloon took off. "To Cloudsdale, here we come!" exclaimed Rainbow. "I'll cast a spell on you so you can walk on the clouds up there," said Twilight to Snowflake. "Okay," Snowflake replied, getting perfectly still.
Twilight cast her spell, and soon they arrived in Cloudsdale. Rainbow landed, parking the balloon, then she took off the apparatus. It wasn't snowing up here, they were above the clouds, after all. "Whoa," said Snowflake, never having been in the air before. "Whoa is right, kiddo," said Rainbow Dash, "Welcome to the home of the pegasi!" "Let's go to the weather factory," said Twilight, "Thanks, Rainbow." "Not a problem, 'Twi!" exclaimed Rainbow, saluting before trotting off. "Where's she going?" asked Snowflake. "No idea," said Twilight with a shrug, "But we should get going."
So they walked to the weather factory. Now, it's one odd thing to have a human walking around. It's an odder thing to have a princess AND a human walking around. And it's yet another to have a human and a princess walking around in Cloudsdale. And so you might expect them to receive multiple shocked looks from the ponies there. When they arrived in the weather factory, everypony was busy making snowflakes, then Twilight walked in. "Princess on deck!" exclaimed one of the ponies, and everypony faced her and bowed. Snowflake looked confused. She didn't know that pegasi had this custom, not unlike most militaries. But Twilight was calm and collected about it, and she said, "As you were. I have simply come to check on the snowflake production." "It's coming well, your highness," said a pink-maned, lavender-coated pegasus with a cutie mark of a sunflower, "We require some assistance, though." "I saw all the 'help wanted' posters around, and I came to help," said Twilight. "Your highness, you can't be suggesting…" said the pony. "Sunny Flower," said Twilight, "I came for that reason specifically. I also brought along Princess Luna's daughter, Snowflake." "Snowflake! Please, come in," said Twilight.
Snowflake walked inside.
Everypony bowed.
"At ease," said Snowflake, having watched Twilight, "I've simply come to assist Princess Twilight and the rest of you with the snowflake production." "Thank you," said Sunny, "It pleases us greatly that you two would come all this way, just to help us out." "Don't' worry 'bout it," said Snowflake, "Now, you guys wanna start with this snowflake-making?" The other ponies, obviously dumbstruck at how incredibly unofficial this person, this Princess, was acting, simply nodded. "Okay then," said Snowflake, "Somepony tell me what to do." "I'll do it," said Sunny Flower.
They walked over into a large room, it was incredibly frigid in there and the whole place was filled with ice. "This is our storage place for the frozen water needed to make the snowflakes," Sunny explained. "Okay, cool!" said Snowflake, "Literally!" Sunny didn't laugh, she simply rolled her eyes and continued into another room, where ponies were chopping the gigantic ice blocks into smaller ice blocks, then into ice sheets, and then finally sticking the sheets of ice onto conveyor belts which went through a hole in the wall and into the main room. "This is where the ponies take the blocks of ice and chop them down into the sheet sizes needed to make the snowflakes," Sunny explained. "Wow," said Snowflake.
"We use ponies to make these because we cannot simply make all snowflakes the same. That would be… destroying the gift of winter. Do you recall the Legend of Snowdrop?" said Sunny. "Yes," said Snowflake, "One of my favorite stories, actually, and it's true!" "Well, she believed that we should make every snowflake special, and that's how it has been ever since," Sunny explained, "So, are you ready to get to work?" "Yep!" exclaimed Snowflake. "Okay then," said Sunny, "Grab a sheet from that pile over there, and get to work. You'll be able to make twenty or thirty snowflakes out of each sheet."
Snowflake picked up a sheet, it was a square with about half a foot on each side. She gently brought it over and placed it under the microscope. She took the tool there, and she started carving intricate patterns into it. The whole time, she bit her tongue, trying to make sure that it wasn't messed up. In the end, it was a very oddly shaped thing indeed, tons of strangely placed holes everywhere. She picked up her snowflake gently in one hand. It began to melt. She instantly set it down again, and she put on a pair of gloves. Then she picked it up again on her fingertip and looked at it. The intricate designs didn't change one bit from the melting, although it was a little bumpy. She picked it up and showed it to Sunny. "It… it's…" said Sunny. "Dumb looking?" sighed Snowflake. "Gorgeous!" exclaimed Sunny, "Go put it in the pile, over there." She pointed to a pyramid-like tower of snowflakes. Snowflake placed hers on top, it completed the pyramid perfectly, sitting atop the rest on some sort of metaphorical throne. Then Twilight saw something, as did the rest of the ponies there.
A short, relatively dim flash of white light. Twilight trotted up to Snowflake. "Great work," said Twilight. "On what?" said Snowflake, confused. "Well, making that impressive snowflake," said Twilight, "That and getting your cutie mark." "I got my cutie mark?!" exclaimed Snowflake. She looked down. On her lower hip was a snowflake, exactly designed like the one she'd just made. "Congratulations, Snowflake," said Twilight. "My name and my cutie mark are the same thing!" exclaimed Snowflake with a giggle.
Snowflake got better and better at it, and soon she made so many snowflakes that they were no longer behind. "Thank you both," said Sunny as the two left, "Especially you, Snowflake." "Thanks, Sunny Flower," said Snowflake, waving before hopping into the balloon. Rainbow Dash was back, hooked up to the rope and everything. Twilight was already in the balloon. "Bye!" exclaimed Sunny. "Bye!" exclaimed Snowflake.