They weren’t in pitch darkness anymore. This time, Discord and Fluttershy were standing on the top of the lighthouse in Maretime Bay. Around them, snow was falling down as ponies below happily cheered and went on their way.
Discord had read in a postcard from Izzy that one Winter Wishday, there had been an especially strong blizzard. Apparently, the unicorns had accidentally activated it with an old spell they thought was just a simple festive greeting, meaning that places normally not associated with cold weather like Maretime Bay were getting caked in snow. Fortunately, Sunny and friends had found ways to stop the spell. This snowfall was nowhere near as bad though. Maybe the unicorns had decided to use the spell to bring it back but were being more careful this time?
It was nice seeing the ponies having fun from above, but Discord wanted to take a closer look, as did Fluttershy. He took Fluttershy’s hoof and leapt off the top of the lighthouse with her.
Any jump like that would have severely injured a normal pony without wings, but not them. Instead, they flapped their wings about to slow down their descent, before softly landing in the snow. Then they got to work exploring the area and looking in the windows of the houses.
In one of the windows, an earth pony was curled up by the fire without any decorations inside the room. Likely one who didn’t like to celebrate it much, Discord thought. However, instead of being the grumbling anti-festive type that one would expect, he was surprised to notice that she was happily snuggled up with her cats while drinking hot cocoa. Another earth pony came in together and they snuggled up with each other, watching the flames dance and crackle. The cats meowed softly.
Discord was reminded of how Fluttershy used to avoid Nightmare Night. Instead, she would stay at home and read stories under the bed with her animal friends.
In another window, a mother pony and her son were happily baking cookies together. In the same room, a picture of the two ponies with an adult male pony, likely the father, hung on the wall next to the window. The mother gave it a wistful smile briefly, before getting back to baking and laughing with her son, who was getting very excited about putting chocolate chips into the mixing bowl and had poured in more than necessary.
This one got Discord a little teary-eyed. Here was a pony who’d lost her partner like he had, and yet was still choosing to celebrate the day anyway with her remaining loved one.
Discord and Fluttershy reached a third house. Here, a ginger-haired earth pony with freckles covering her whole face had just taken a whole batch of cookies out of the oven. The smell spread through the air, and she smiled warmly at how wonderful it was. As she set them down on the table, there was a knock at the door.
Discord almost started. He hadn’t realised that a white pegasus with black hair with a purple streak in it had been standing next to him clad in black trying to get in. The earth pony opened the door.
“Come in, Midnight!” she said eagerly as the pegasus took off her beret and scarf and left them on hooks in the hallway. “Yeah, leave them there and come into the kitchen!”
Midnight entered and gasped in amazement at the cookies on the table. Some had snowflakes, some had holly berries and some had shooting stars.
“Oh, Icing Sugar! They look amazing!” She reached for one and immediately took a bite, the crumbs coating her black lipstick. “And they taste just as amazing too!”
“Thank you!” Icing Sugar responded. “So, how’s the shopping trip been going?”
“Not great,” Midnight sighed. “There wasn’t anything that good in store. But I did find some good craft materials.” She opened up a satchel that she’d been carrying with her the whole time and handed Icing Sugar a gorgeous painting of snowflakes falling down in a moonlit forest, with the frame decorated in ribbons and rhinestones.
“You made that with the craft materials?”
“Yep, all of it!” Midnight replied. “So maybe the shopping trip wasn’t so bad after all!”
“It’s brilliant! Thank you so much!” gushed Icing Sugar as she took the painting in her hands. She went over to one of the walls and hung it up, proudly gazing at it once she was done.
“You noticed that it’s been snowing again this year?” she inquired to Midnight.
“Yeah! The unicorns probably brought it back with that spell. Honestly, I wish that we had experienced snow beforehand. Then we would have been able to appreciate it more.”
“Speaking of unicorns, you know Marshmallow S’more?”
“Yeah, what about her?”
“Well, the unicorns do a Secret Canter for their Wishiehoof celebrations, so I decided to get in on the fun myself.”
Discord remembered that Wishiehoof was what the unicorns called Winter Wishday, while the pegasi called it Wishentine. He’d refused to acknowledge that though before tonight. All it had done before was yet again remind him of the divides between ponykind. Izzy had acknowledged that, despite knowing it as Wishiehoof herself.
“So…” Icing Sugar said while blushing. “I left her a secret batch of cookies outside her door, and I so hope that she likes them. If she figures out I’m the one who left them, great! If not, I still think that it will make her holiday.”
“Oh, she’ll love them, for sure.” Midnight responded with a grin. “You know how much she adores her sweet treats.”
Almost as if on cue, Discord suddenly found himself teleported away from this scene in a flurry of sparkles. Instead, he found himself outside Marshmallow’s door in Bridlewood as she opened it up and found the parcel on her doorstep.
Curiously, she opened it up. To her delight, she discovered that she had received several cookies with hearts in different shades of red and pink icing sugar sitting pretty on top of them. Next to them was a message saying “Happy Wishiehoof from a secret admirer!”
She giggled excitedly as she dashed out of her house while still carrying her box towards a giant tree in the middle of Bridlewood. Several unicorns were surrounding it, getting ready to decorate it with all sorts of ornaments. They were laughing and chatting away, excited to be carrying out an important tradition of theirs.
A pink unicorn with bright red curls, similar in shape to Pinkie Pie’s, was bringing out a box of baked goods when she caught sight of a grey earth pony with orange pigtails hurriedly dashing through the snow while carrying a bag in her mouth. The earth pony skidded to a halt and dropped the bag out of her mouth while panting in exhaustion.
“Well, that was quite a mad rush from you, Snail Mail!” the unicorn chuckled. “Here, these cakes should give you some energy back.”
“Thanks,” Snail Mail was finally able to utter while still panting, taking a cupcake decorated to look like a plum pudding that the unicorn handed to her. “Speaking of which, Cherry Bakewell, I’ve brought these cookies for you.”
She handed the bag to Cherry, who eagerly reached in and was delighted to be looking at a cookie decorated with a white snowflake made from icing sugar in her hoof.
“Oooh, thank you!” she cooed enthusiastically before biting into them. “Mmm, mmm, these are so yummy! Do you mind if I share the cookies with some of the unicorns here?”
“Sure, go ahead!” Snail Mail replied with her mouth full of cupcake. “Your cakes taste delicious too!”
“And while you’re here, do you want to help decorate the tree with us!”
“Yeah! If you don’t mind!”
Though some unicorns were wary, others were more accepting. One of them even passed a glittery horse-shaped ornament over to Snail Mail that she hung on one of the tree branches. Cherry grinned as she clapped her hooves.
Discord wondered if Cherry was some sort of descendent to Pinkie. They seemed to have quite a few similarities - their hair styles, their baking skills, their cheerful demeanour…the only main difference being their species. Maybe somepony in Pinkie’s line of descendents had married a unicorn, or maybe it was like with the Cake family and two earth ponies had just managed to give birth to a unicorn. Either way, Discord couldn’t help thinking how wonderful it would be if Pinkie and Cherry could meet each other and share baking tips with one another. They would get along well for sure.
While he was pondering over this matter, the scene changed again in another flurry of sparkles. Now he and Fluttershy were in Zephyr Heights, inside a magnificent room with a stage.
It was the Winter Wishentine gala that the pegasi held every year. Discord hadn’t always been a big fan of galas themselves. He often found them to be a bit too formal for his tastes, so he’d always tried to make them a little more exciting with his chaos. Not all of the ponies had been happy with his antics, though Princess Celestia had always found them amusing for some reason. That said, he did love to socialise with his friends at these events, and especially with Fluttershy.
It seemed to be the same here. Pegasi were dressed up in fancy clothes and either dancing or sitting with drinks glasses. Queen Haven, whom Discord had been told was Pipp and Zipp’s mother, was talking to her guards.
“They just won’t come this year,” she tutted. “They say they’re too busy with friends. Even when I changed the schedule for the gala to nighttime, they still couldn’t come.” She glanced warily at a giant ornate jukebox on the stage. “How is this supposed to be a good replacement for them performing for our guests anyway?”
Discord chuckled at the queen’s expense, knowing fully well that she was talking about her daughters. Looking back at the room, he rolled his eyes at how stuffy it all seemed, but then something caught his eye. He turned round and looked on with excitement and hope over what he was seeing.
A brown unicorn with white curly hair in a bob cut and a holly hairclip nervously crept through the entrance while wearing a sleeveless yellow dress with sparkles on the skirt. She caught a glimpse of the green pegasus with pink curls tied up in a wavy bun adorned with white lilies, and wearing a silver minidress.
“Um, Rocky Road? Hi there,” the unicorn said while shyly waving a hoof at her.
Rocky Road turned round, and gave an overjoyed gasp.
“Figgy Pudding! What are you doing here?” she asked excitedly.
“I, well, I just wanted to see how you were doing.”
“Did you get an invite too?”
“Um, yeah,” was Figgy’s quick reply.
“Well, as long as you’re here, I know I’ll be having fun tonight!” Rocky Road said, grinning as she took Figgy’s hoof and led her to the dancefloor.
It was like what happened in Bridlewood. Some of the pegasi gave Figgy suspicious glances, but others were more welcoming. She and Rocky Road proceeded to twirl about on the dancefloor together before leaning together for a romantic kiss.
Everypony else seemed to be having a good time too despite Figgy’s surprise appearance. Some were dancing as well, while others just sat at the tables, talking to each other and dining on fancy food and drinks. A couple of pegasi got overwhelmed by all of the noise and chatter, so they headed off. Discord and Fluttershy followed them outside.
When the couple were finally outside, they could get a glance of the moon together in peace, smiling up at it. They too kissed each other on the lips, with Discord just managing to catch a glimpse of this.
Watching this, Discord closed his eyes and thought back to when he used to dance at Canterlot’s Grand Galloping Gala with Fluttershy and her friends. He remembered wearing his flashy orange tuxedo and top hat as he swirled around the dancefloor with Fluttershy while she wore the most splendid dresses imaginable. One resembled a peacock, another one reminded him of a forest waterfall, all of them were beautiful. Then they would go outside together to look up at the moon and stars, before gazing into each other’s eyes and then…
“I’m sorry, he won’t be here this Winter Wishday.”
Discord was taken by surprise by the sound of nervous chattering behind him, causing him to open his eyes. He turned round and soon found himself in the same field he had played his first game of Power Pass in. Strangely enough, it was broad daylight again. Time just seemed to be going back and forth without rhyme or reason.
The field looked unrecognisable under the blanket of snow, but what wasn’t unrecognisable was the circle of ponies in the middle. He recognised this group immediately. It was Izzy and the rest of her friends - Sunny Starscout, Hitch Trailblazer, Pipp Petals and Zipp Storm. There were some new faces there too - a blue unicorn with lavender ringlets and a baby dragon. Discord had been told by Izzy that they were named Misty Brightdawn and Sparky Sparkeroni respectively.
Unlike the other ponies he’d seen, they didn’t seem to be in the festive spirit at all. Instead, they seemed anxious and even despondent.
“So he said he wasn’t coming?” Sunny asked.
“No,” Izzy replied meekly, shaking her head. “He said he didn’t like how ponykind seems to celebrate Winter Wishday separately. That it lacks the same meaning of unity that Hearth’s Warming had.”
“He said all this before!” Zipp exclaimed, throwing her hooves up in the air in frustration. “Everytime the holiday gets brought up, he keeps going on about how Hearth’s Warming was so much better because ponies celebrated it together but now each species of pony has different traditions!”
“Except that’s not true!” Sunny started. “My dad Argylle used to tell me all sorts of stories about Hearth’s Warming. About how everypony had their own traditions while still celebrating the core ones. Some ponies exchanged gifts on Hearth’s Warming Eve while others waited until Hearth’s Warming Day. The ponies that worked on the rock farms used to have rock soup-”
“Urgh!” was Pipp’s disgusted reply as she stuck out her tongue and winced.
“-And they would carve Hearth’s Warming Dolls out of rocks. Other ponies would crotchet the dolls instead. Even with the raising of the flag on Hearth’s Warming Day, whoever raised it in each family changed. In some families, it was the youngest. In others, they had scavenger hunts and the winner of them would raise the flag.”
“It’s nostalgia that does it,” Hitch said morosely. “He’s so hung up on the differences between Hearth’s Warming and Winter Wishday that he can’t figure out the similarities.”
“He’s also still sad he can’t celebrate it with Fluttershy, isn’t he?” Misty inquired.
“I asked him that,” Izzy responded, “and he claimed he wasn’t. But I think he is.”
“Even though he has new friends to celebrate it with now?”
“There are probably traditions he had with her that he can’t celebrate anymore. That’s why he thinks it will be better not to join in with any new ones.”
“Either way, he’s missing out!” Pipp complained. “We could have had snowball fights with him, built a snow draconequus with him, played Power Pass with him in the snow! It could at least distract him from his depression for a while!”
“And we rarely get to see him at any time of year, let alone Winter Wishday!” Sunny lamented. “He’s been travelling all over the world for the past few years to find himself, and then when he returns to Equestria, he still stays in his cave. It just scares me to think of how lonely he is there! And it’s not always easy to reach those caves either!”
“If he wants to mourn, I guess we’ll let him,” Izzy said, a sad smile on her face. “I don’t want to force him into anything if it will just make him more miserable. I still want to give him his gift at some point though.” She glanced at the bag she had with her as she said this.
“I would still love to meet him though,” Misty said. “You told me that he can be a bit sour, but deep down he’s a big softie.”
“Yeah,” Izzy replied, with a slightly more sincere grin. “Discord’s great. He’s like the big brother that I’ve never had. And sometimes like a little brother as well.”
“And an uncle figure too,” Sunny added.
“Come on, let’s take a group pic together,” Pipp said with a cheerful tone, albeit one that didn’t seem entirely right. “Then we can discuss more on the matter later on and see what we can do.”
They all smiled together as the photo was taken, but Discord could tell that the smiles were forced. In their eyes, he could sense a strong feeling of wistfulness, as if they knew that something was missing.
A pang surged in Discord's heart. He felt truly bad to see them this way, feeling despondent over his situation and him not being there to celebrate with them. He was also touched that despite his crankiness towards Izzy, she and the others still considered him a friend and were willing to compliment him. Thinking about it caused his eyes to prickle and he sniffled slightly.
However, just then the sound of cheerful laughter grabbed his attention and distracted him from the group. Now he was seeing a group of fillies happily playing in the snow. This was a different field though, with conifer trees in the distance.
Some of the fillies were engaging in a playful snowball fight together. A pastel pink earth pony with a birthmark on her face and a tangerine pegasus with blonde curls were up against a lilac unicorn with a striped horn and a turquoise earth pony with orange freckles. They threw snowballs in any way they could - at each other’s cutie marks, at each other’s hooves, but never so hard that they hurt each other. Every time a filly was hit and splattered in snow, they would all start giggling away until finally they all collapsed in the snow, too busy laughing to continue.
Another group of fillies, consisting of a cherry red pegasus, a lime green earth pony and a candy pink unicorn were busy building a snowpony together and were almost done. It was just as big as a real pony, if not bigger.
The group looked at their finished work in delight, but the earth pony looked unsure. They then got some more snow and placed it onto the sides of the pony, smoothing it out until it resembled the wings of a pegasus almost perfectly.
“There! Now it’s finished!” they said with a chuffed grin.
But now it was the pegasus’ turn to not be happy with the result. “No no no, not like that!” they exclaimed quickly, before they got some more snow and shaped it, placing it on the pony’s head so that it resembled a unicorn’s horn.
“A snow alicorn!” the unicorn cheered.
Part of the horn crumbled off, leaving half of it behind. The fillies didn’t mind though. In fact, they all giggled together.
“Maybe it’s an alicorn that lost part of its horn in a great battle against evil, but doesn’t let it hold them back and still protects Equestria from those who dare threaten it!” the unicorn said as she merrily bounced up and down.
“Yeah!” the other two responded.
“So, does it have a name?” asked the earth pony.
“How about Princess Snowflake?” suggested the pegasus.
“Great idea!” cheered the others, as they all started bouncing and giggling around the snow alicorn.
Discord watched the fillies playing together with an emotional smile, holding his hands to his chest. A single tear welled up in his eye and dropped down onto his lion paw, leaving a small splash resembling a snowflake on it.
“Now that’s a sight that warms the heart,” he said in a dreamlike tone. He then felt the tear on his paw. He lifted it up to see it.
“Well, would you look at that!” he told Fluttershy as he happily gazed upon it. “Just like a snowflake!” Fluttershy got a closer look at it too.
At that moment, Discord noticed that more snow was starting to fall from the sky. He looked up and paid attention to each snowflake gracefully tumbling down.
“Fluttershy, it’s just like you said!” he proclaimed with delight, turning towards her. “Every snowflake is unique and special. Just like ponykind.” He started pointing at various ones. “Look, that snowflake there is different from the one falling next to it. And that one is more of a spherical shape than the hexagonal one above it!”
Something about seeing these snowflakes made Discord feel like a child again. He stuck his tongue out to see if he could catch any of them on it, but as these were merely shadows of what could be and he was but a spirit like Fluttershy in this realm, they simply passed through. Even when he held out the skirt on his gown to see if they would collect on it, they vanished through the material as if it was just thin air.
A thought then planted itself in Discord’s mind, and he courteously held his hand out to Fluttershy. She let him take her hoof and he began a spritely dance with her, twirling her round under his arm and then holding her close to his chest as he spun around on the spot, the snowflakes surrounding them and whirling around in perfect synchronisation with their moves.
They continued dancing until they came across a frozen pond, and then Discord decided to take it a step further. He did a little leap onto the ice and started to glide across it, still continuing to spin around with Fluttershy in his arms. He even swung her out while holding her hooves, being careful not to accidentally let go of her and send her flying. Her hair whipped about in the wind as she gave him an excited smile and he grinned in return.
When they finally danced their way off the ice, they brought their dance to an end, Discord giving Fluttershy a curtsey while holding the skirt of his gown and Fluttershy giving him a modest bow while blushing.
“You remember, don’t you?” Discord said. “We used to sometimes dance on the ice together on Hearth’s Warming Day.” He blushed a bit while smiling, twirling a lock of his hair around his eagle talon. “I’m surprised I’m still able to do the moves we used to do back then.”
He took Fluttershy’s hooves as she fluttered up toward him. They said nothing for a moment, simply gazing into each other’s eyes and holding each other’s hands with smiles on their faces. However, the silence was broken by the sound of nearby voices.
“Come on Willow Herb, we can’t be late for the Wishing Star!” said one cream coloured earth pony cheerfully, dashing through the snow as if it had never held them back before.
“Okay, okay, I’m coming, Custard Pie,” Willow Herb, an earth pony with conifer green ringlets and pink fur, replied with an exasperated smile as she struggled to keep up with her energetic friend.
“It’s a good thing that the snow’s starting to settle down a bit,” said a pale blue unicorn with dark purple hair wearing a pink scarf and matching earmuffs. “It means that we get to see the comet more clearly.”
It was late sunset now. Either time had skipped forward like with the previous visions, or Discord and Fluttershy had been dancing for so long that they had lost track of the time completely. It wasn’t a big deal though. What was a big deal to Discord was these two earth ponies and one unicorn uniting for an earth pony tradition together.
With a sense of curiosity, Discord decided to see where these ponies were heading off to in order to see the comet, with Fluttershy by his side.
This particular group of ponies had made their way to the outside of the Maretime Bay lighthouse, where several other earth ponies were converging.
“This is your second time viewing the star, isn’t it Magenta Cloud?” Willow Herb asked the unicorn.
“Yep,” was Magenta’s satisfied reply. “I loved watching it so much last year that I decided to come and see it again.”
Custard Pie couldn’t stop bouncing away. They were so excited over what they were about to see whizzing across the sky.
“Hey guys!” called a mint green pegasus with pink and blue striped hair and wearing a red scarf, flying over as she spoke before coming to land. “Hope I’m not late for the Wishing Star!”
Willow Herb seemed surprised by this appearance. “You came too? We thought you’d be at your gala!”
“Nah, it’s not really my thing. Too formal for my liking.” The pegasus looked up at the sky in wonder. “Besides, you only get to see this once a year.”
“Want a cookie to keep you going while we wait?” Custard Pie asked, holding one out for her. “You are called Cookie Crumble after all!” They glanced at her chocolate chip cutie mark as they said this.
“Ooh, don’t mind if I do!” Cookie happily responded as she took the cookie and bit a large chunk out of it. “You never fail to make good ones, you know that?”
“Well, my name is Custard Pie, and baking is my talent.” They proudly glanced at their custard pie cutie mark as soon as they said this.
“Okay folks, we need to keep a good eye out now,” called Magenta. “Let’s not get distracted by anything in case we miss the star going pass.”
The group talk ceased then as the ponies excitedly gazed up at the sky, waiting for the comet.
At long last, the Wishing Star arrived. It whooshed between the other stars, the brilliant gleam of it standing out against the darkness of the night sky. It was Discord’s first time seeing it, and it didn’t fail to impress him. He loved the idea of riding it across the stars, getting glimpses of space up there. He held his hands to his chest as he closed his chest and made a secret wish, before getting back to looking at the ponies watching the comet with him.
The majority of bystanders were still earth ponies. There were only a couple of unicorns and pegasi among the crowd. Yet there was still a sense of unity. Nobody seemed to be out to cause trouble, or giving dirty looks to ponies of different races. Instead, they watched the comet in pure joy, wide genuine smiles spreading across their faces.
“It’s not perfect. It could be better,” Discord thought to himself, a small smirk on his face. “But it’s good enough for now.”
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