Pinkie Pie peered outside at the dark and gloomy sky, watching the snow fall around in a flurry. Pulling a large and rather fluffy blanket tighter around herself, she sighed.

"It's super duper cold out today!! I don't think it's been this cold for a while..."

She felt a strange tremor coming within her, causing her to randomly shake about. She frowned, unsure what it meant. Never before had she had such a strange thing happen to her with her Pinkie sense... It made her all the more cautious about everything around her.

She eyed a loaf of bread suspiciously, before giggling softly to herself. "Oh Pinkie you silly filly!! The bread isn't going to hurt you!!" Pausing in her giggles, she inspected the bread, checking for anything that could possibly be wrong with it.

“I’ve got my eye on you BREAD!” Pinkie gave the loaf of bread her best sinister look before devolving into a fit of laughter.

Sighing happily, she continued to stare out the window with a strange combination of relaxed alertness as she silently observed the storm steadily become worse.

*****
Rainbow Dash pumped her strong, powerful wings, struggling to maintain her normal flight pattern of her patrol. Several pegasi soldiers attempted to talk her out of patrolling today, including Fluttershy. According to the weather pegasi; the clouds that had formed were too dangerous to tamper with and many pegasi should avoid attempting any kind of flight. Nopony was sure what could happen with such strange and dangerous snow clouds.

Dash, of course, had scoffed at the idea of a little snow storm getting the better of her. After all, she was Rainbow Dash! Nothing could ever dream to get the better of her!

The winds, however, had other ideas, and were howling and increasing in force; easily blowing the lightweight mare off course. The snow began coming down in globs, making vision nearly impossible.

"What the heck...?" she grumbled to herself, quickly rubbing her face free of the snow. "I thought snow was supposed to come down in flakes, each all nice and pretty and NOT globby!! What IS this stuff!?"

Becoming even more determined then she initially was, she pushed herself to fly into the strong winds, in order to retain her normal patrol path. She was starting to make progess when a rock sized object slammed into her helmet, knocking her backwards.

“What the HAY?!” Touching where the object connected; Dash felt another collide with her foreleg. Yelping in surprise and mild pain, she finally saw what had been hitting her.

“...Oh horseapples...” Large balls of ice were dropping rapidly from the sky along with the large amounts of snow.

Cursing under her breath she began dodging the icy projectiles as best as she could. She had never been so happy to have learned all the complex evasive maneuvers that Hurricane had taught her; no matter how tedious it was to master. Dash was able to successfully avoid most of the hail; the few that made contact only striking her armor. She could practically feel the bruises beginning to form...

Finally, the hail ceased falling from the sky. Dash groaned, feeling completely exhausted, battered, and above all, cold. She had exerted much more energy than she had planned just to maintain a steady flight. Adding the icy projectiles to the mix just made it even harder. Ice started to form along her armor and wing-blades. Dash could feel herself getting heavier and heavier as she struggled to maintain her flight. Every inch of her body was trembling; attempting to warm itself back to normal body temperature.

Blind fear struck her. Her wings had seized up, and she found that she was falling rapidly to the ground. Struggling to maintain her flight, Dash attempted to beat her wings, hoping to move them enough to keep going; every attempt was met with failure. Squeezing her eyes in panic, she let out a frustrated scream.

A blizzard... She thought, struggling to pull herself out of her dizzying fall. A stupid blizzard took me out... Not by another warrior, a freakin’ blizzard....

She landed with a soft plop in a large snow bank, the snow cushioning the impact of her fall. Her limbs seemed to lose all feeling as she lay in the cold, her mind slowly going blank.

"A....... Stupid blizzard....." she grumbled, her vision slowly going black.
*****
It had become nearly impossible to see out of her window as the storm became nightmare-ish. Pinkie had become fascinated with the storm; pressing her face into the glass in awe as she watched it evolve into the horror of a blizzard that it seemed to be.

She sat unafraid of the ice, whizzing rapidly toward the ground, and even striking her home. No matter how close one got to smashing the window she was squashing her face against, she remained where she was.

Once the ice stopped falling, Pinkie almost stopped watching the storm; quickly becoming distracted with other thoughts. Suddenly her Pinkie sense ripped through her; causing ripples and twitches to form in her mane and tail as her whole body trembled uncontrollably along with them.

As soon as the shudders stopped, Pinkie noticed a large figure slam into a snowbank, forcing the surrounding snow to explode out every which way. She rushed outside with a mixture of curiosity and worry for whatever collapsed just outside of her home. Oh, She thought suddenly, as she saw a metal wing-blade sticking out of the snow bank, covered in ice. I hope nopony got hurt....

Upon reaching the figure, Pinkie gasped in shock. A battered and nearly frozen pegasus lay shaking on the snow pile; slowly becoming covered in snow and ice. She rushed over to the unconscious pegasus and placed a careful hoof on her forehead.

“You’re frozen,” She looked around in shock and worry searching for any sign if other pegasi that could be around to help her. Once she was absolutely sure nopony was around, Pinkie looked down at the fallen figure, concern etched in her face “I need to get you inside, quick!”

Inspecting the cyan ponies face, a feeling of recognition washed through her.

I don’t know any Pegasi... She thought dismissively and then looked down sadly as more memories came back to her. And none of them like me.....

Shaking her head again, she pushed herself underneath the pegasus’ freezing form and lifted her onto her back carefully. Without another thought on the matter, she raced back into the safety of her home and lowered the shivering pegasus onto her bed. “Don’t worry, nopony’s gonna freeze when Pinkie Pie’s on the case.”

The pegasus only shivered more, curling into herself to keep warm. Smiling softly, the pink pony draped a blanket over the trembling body and went to fetch some firewood she kept for emergencies.

Pinkie had many opportunities to practice making fires, so now, when it really counted, she made the biggest fire she could and brought the pegasus over to it. The pegasus was still unconscious, but it apparently didn’t stop her from rubbing her hooves over her chest in a weak attempt to keep herself warm.

Pinkie knew that hypothermia could become quite severe if nothing was done, and thankfully she knew how to prevent it from getting worse. Her father had almost had it last winter and Pinkie was the one that looked after him while the others worked on the fields. He never did thank her for it, though...

Thinking quickly, the earth pony removed the blanket from the pegasus, revealing the multitude of armor casing around her cyan body and wings. She had decided to remove the armor from her forelegs first, placing them near the fire to melt the ice that formed on it, then went to remove the leg-blades. As she removed the weapons from the shaking pegasus, she remembered back to that day when the pegasi and the unicorns came for their yearly harvest.

The pegasus she landed on top of could have easily cut her in two, but instead she looked like she purposely tried to not do that. It was odd to Pinkie that such a mean-looking pony could take so much trouble to avoid cutting her; however, she couldn’t worry about that now. She diligently placed the blades down next to the leggings and went for the stomach straps next.

Pinkie brought her hooves to rest on the pegasus’ chest and felt a warmness spreading from it and into her body. She quickly pulled away and blushed slightly before un-clipping the three straps, careful to avoid anymore contact than necessary.

Having placed the heavy armour sheet from the pegasus’ back and chest down near the fire as well, she moved over to the back of the cyan-coloured pony and took a wing in her hooves. Absentmindedly feeling the warmth coming from the trembling feathery appendages, the pink pony unbuckled the straps that kept the blades in place on them.

As she removed the first blade she hesitated. The pegasus had slowed in her shivering and rolled over, closer to Pinkie, while stretching her wings tiredly.

Pinkie could tell that the pegasus was still firmly asleep, but it didn’t stop the heat from spreading across her face at how cute the cyan pony looked. Shaking her head to rid her mind of such things, Pinkie quickly took the other wing-blade off and placed them both around the fire.

With her job done, the pink pony carefully lifted the slumbering pegasus onto her back again and lowered her into bed, carefully wrapping the blanket back around her tightly.
She smiled at the relaxed facial expression that crossed the cyan ponies face, until she noticed that she forgot to remove the helmet.

It was a study-looking helmet; mostly black tinted, but with a strand of gold around the casing of the metal. Ear holes at the tip were also laced with the shiny metal and on top, in between the two ears, was a plum of magenta-coloured hair, standing straight and proud, out of the helmet.

Pinkie almost didn’t want to remove it out of respect and awe, but she knew that frozen armour would surely quicken the spread of hypothermia to the whole entire body.

So the pink pony slowly took the helmet in her fore-hooves and slid it off the pegasus’ head. She gasped suddenly, unable to look away from the pony before her.

Pinkie stared dumbstruck at the sleeping cyan pegasus with the bright rainbow-colored mane. She had never seen such a beautiful pegasus in all her life - well she had never seen one at all before this, but still.

Breaking out of her trance, Pinkie rushed over to the discarded weapons and hid them just in case the pegasus attempted to attack her. Pinkie shuttered at the small reminder of how hostile everypony was to her.

Returning to the shivering pegasus, she carefully placed her hoof over the cyan-colored pony’s forehead and frowned. She felt warmer to Pinkie than before, but not nearly warm enough to escape severe hypothermia.

Calming her nerves the pink pony climbed under the covers next to the pegasus and pressed herself against her to warm her as best as possible. Body heat is the best way to warm another up.
*****
Dash woke up the next day feeling groggy and weak. Her eyes fluttered open to unfamiliar surroundings. A sudden movement next to her caused her to forcefully shove away whatever was next to her and stand up in a defensive position.

A sudden wave of nausea forced her to collapse bonelessly onto the bed. Feeling the blanket against her exposed fur made Dash freeze in horror. Slowly looking down at her body her jaw dropped; bright cyan fur greeted her.

She heard a yawn and a bright and bubbly voice suddenly began flowing into her ears, “Hi I’m Pinkie Pie!” Pinkie looked down to where Rainbow was staring and looked back up in realization. She started lightly bouncing on the bed as she continued, “You know, that armor’s super heavy; I don’t know how you wear that stuff all the time. But don’t worry, I got you out of that freezy stuff and all roasty and toasty again!”

Dash jerked her head toward Pinkie, fury blazing in her magenta eyes, “HOW DARE YOU REMOVE MY ARMOR YOU WORTHLESS EARTH PONY!”

Throwing whatever objects she could get her hooves on, she chased Pinkie out of the room in a fit of rage. Noticing the armor resting next to the fire place, she quickly slid every piece on as fast as possible, including her helmet, before the adrenaline wore off.

Collapsing from her sickness, Dash began violently shivering as she slowly dragged herself onto the bed and under the warm blankets. Shame flowed through her; how could she let an earth pony remove her armor? Nopony has seen her without her armor in years!

Pinkie slowly poked her head into the room and looked worriedly over to the shivering pegasus, “I’m sorry if I scared you. I found you outside all frozen, like a pegacicle!” Smiling brightly again, the magenta-maned pony bounded back into the room and landed softly beside the bed.

Weak and nauseous from her outburst, Dash just laid on the bed, giving the excitable pink pony a deadpanned expression. She did NOT want any part of this; even if she did saved her from freezing to death.

A loud rapping noise came from the main room of the house. Pinkie jumped up in excitement and gasped, “AJ is here!”

Bouncing excitedly for the door, Pinkie pulled it open and quickly rushed the orange pony inside.

“Jus’ what n’ tha hay is goin’ on Pinkie Pie? Why didja have t'yank me inside like that?” Applejack carefully straightened her hat as she gave Pinkie a stern inquisitive look.

"Oh Aj you'll be soo surprised! I just NEED you to promise me you won't freak out and stuff, okay...?" Pinkie begged, worry filling her eyes as she looked at her friend.

"Ah promise, Pinkie. Jus' what in th' HAY is goin' on?"

Pinkie gave her a suspicious glance, rubbing her chin with her hoof. "Hmmm....." She began, before giggling to herself. "Okay! I believe you! Come on in!"

Cheerfully, Pinkie bounced through the room to the Pegasus, humming happily to herself. Applejack followed her, shaking her head in confusion.

"Ah sure do wonder where y'all git yer energy from, Pinkie Pie..." She commented, watching as the pink pony bounced into the bedroom.

"Oh that's easy! It comes from inside me, silly!" Pinkie replied, spinning around quickly to give her a huge grin.

"I don’t want anything to do with you stupid dirt ponies!!" A gruff voice reached Applejack’s ears.

Applejack's eyes grew wide. "Who in tarnation is THAT!?"

"A Pegasus that fe-"

Pushing Pinkie aside, Applejack stormed into the room. Rainbow was still curled up on the bed, glaring daggers at the intruder. "Who in tarnation are y'all!?"

"I don't have to answer to you!!" the cyan mare spat, glaring hatefully at the orange earth pony.

"Aaww, but we really need to know your name! How ELSE are we gonna be able to help you, silly?" Pinkie cheerfully smiled, trotting over to plant her rump beside the bed.

Rainbow Dash glared at her, snarling furiously. "Leave me alone, or I'll sli- MY WEAPONS!?" Dash looked about her body frantically, her mind renewed in panic. First she wakes up in no armor, now she has no weapons. "WHAT DID YOU DO TO MY BLADES!?"

Applejack jumped, shocked at the outburst. Pinkie just smiled calmly at her patient, her bright blue eyes sparkling.

"Well I had to hide them, silly! I don't want you to go slicey-dicey on all my stuff!!" Pinkie looked thoughtful a moment. "There was another super duper mega important reason, too, but I can't think of it...."

Fury sprung up within Rainbow Dash. "You stupid...! You had NO right to remove my armor, and NO right to take away my blades!"

"What's so important about it?" Pinkie tilted her head curiously at her guest.

"I.... Never mind!! You just had no right!" Rainbow spun around furiously, burying herself into the many blankets on the bed. She hated this feeling of weakness. It wasn't something she was used to...

Applejack wheeled on Pinkie in annoyance, “Why an’ tha hay do yew want to help her?!”

“Because it’s the right thing to do, Applejack. DUH!” Pinkie patted Applejack’s head gently, as if she was teaching a small foal.

Shooting Pinkie another grumpy look, Applejack returned her attention to the bedridden pegasus. She was trembling violently under the covers, yet maintained an air of defensive hostility. She began to feel a little sorry for her. It must not be easy to be sick and weak among those you were supposed to hate. At least the pegasus couldn’t hurt her or Pinkie because of the severe condition she was in.

Sighing, Applejack gave Pinkie a small smile, “What kin ah do ta help, sugarcube?”

Jumping excitedly, Pinkie pulled Applejack into a tight hug. “OH THANK YOU APPLEJACK! I just need you to bring a whooole buncha medicine for hypothermia. I wasn’t sure how I would get the medicine without your help but since you are going to help this is soooooo much easier!”

Laughing awkwardly, Applejack pulled away from the embrace, “O’course sugarcube, Ah'll bring yeh all tha medicine yew'll need.”

A small grunt of annoyance came from the bedridden pegasi. Rainbow Dash did NOT want to be nursed to health by an earth pony, let alone TWO earth ponies! This day just became so much worse now. If anypony from her tribe found out about this she would be ruined! Horrifying images began filtering through her mind after that thought, causing her to twitch uncomfortably.

Applejack was about to snap at the pegasus for being ungrateful when Pinkie bowled her over while bounding swiftly to the side of the bed.

“Don’t worry too much! I still have just enough medicine here to last until Applejack brings everything I need to help you!” Pinkie exclaimed proudly.

Rainbow Dash rolled her eyes, rolling over to her side to stare at the wall. "I don't need any help from you dirt ponies. I need to go back to base. Away from you freaks."

Pinkie felt her ears droop a little, before shaking her head. "If I help you, you'll be on your way home lickity split! Hmm...” She placed a hoof to her chin in thought. “I wonder if lickity splits taste good..... Probably not better then-"

"Ahem." Pinkie jumped to look at Applejack, who was giving her a "get to the point" look.

"Oooh. Right. So I Pinkie Pie Promise you'll get home as soon as possible!! Cross my heart and hope to fly, stick a cupcake in my eye!!"

A nearly inaudible grumble was the pegasus’ reply.

Applejack sighed, turning to her pink friend. "Ah'll bring y'all sum medicine tomorrow, alraght? Just make sure that there vermin stays wrapped up in them blankets an' eats something nace 'n warm, all right sugarcube?"

Pinkie jumped up, comically saluting. "Okie doki Loki Applejackeroki!! I'll make my super duper yum-"

"Ah mean no cupcakes, Pinkie Pie." Applejack gave Pinkie a stern look.

"Aaaawwww...." Pinkie pouted, disappointed.

As soon as Applejack left, Pinkie began cooking a warm soup for the ill pegasus. Carefully carrying the bowl on her head; Pinkie trotted into the room; where she was greeted by the brooding pony’s back.

“I got some yummy soup to help you feel all better, Crashy!”

Dash visibly tensed at the nickname. “Don’t. You. DARE. Call me that!” There was a dangerous edge in her voice that froze Pinkie in place.

“But I don’t know what to call you... You never told me your name.” Pinkie’s ears and mane drooped. She didn’t mean to offend her after all.

Grumbling, Dash turned and faced Pinkie with a stern glare, “My name is Rainbow Dash.”

Pinkie immediately brightened, “Okie dokie lokie Dashie!”

Eye twitching, Dash turned away from the eccentric earth pony in annoyance. At least she wasn’t calling her Crashy anymore.

“Aren’t you going to eat your soup Dashie?” Pinkie carefully placed the soup on the end table before giving Dash a happy yet expectant look.

“I’m not eating anything you dirt ponies give me.” Dash grumbled “And don’t call me Dashie.”

Pinkie paused for a moment, tilting her head while looking at the sick Pegasus. "You don't like Dashie? I thought it was cute. A cute name to match somepony as pretty as you!"

Dash froze at the praise. Did she just call her pretty? She never had somepony else compliment her before on anything other than her military work. It left a rather odd feeling within her. Shaking the feeling off, Dash snorted, “Flattery will get you nowhere, dirt pony. I don’t need to hear your lies.”

"What lies? I'm super-duper serious!" Pinkie shrugged. "If you think I'm lying then that’s okie dokie!!" She smiled brightly at the cyan mare. "But you really do look pretty!"

Dash wheeled on the earth pony in anger, “STOP TELLING ME LIES! Look if it stops you from saying junk like that then fine...Call me Dashie.” She cringed after saying the word.

"But I'm not....!” Looking down, the pink earth pony sighed. Oh.... N-Never mind, Dashie." She felt her heart hurt a little... She didn't like being called a liar.

Dash felt a little pang in her heart as well; she didn’t mean to hurt Pinkie that bad. Looking away from the suddenly docile mare, Dash hardened her resolve before speaking.

“I’m not eating any of your filth, earth pony.” Dash made a face of disgust at the soup, inching away from it.

"But..... Its really yummy!" the pink mare stated, holding up a spoon with some of the soup in it. "Just like Granny Pie used to make!! Ooohhh, but maybe it was your Granny Dash instead? I wonder if they made soup the same way, ooohhh I bet it was super-duper delicious!!"

Dash’s face contorted at the thought of having a granny. She never knew what it was like to have parents; let alone grandparents. A depressed feeling washed through her turning her voice flat and distant.

“No, Pinkie.”

Sensing the emptiness in Dash's voice, Pinkie decided it would be well to drop the subject of "Granny Dash". Instead, she cheerfully pushed the bowl as close to her unwilling companion as she could without disrupting its contents. "Okie dokie lokie Dashie Washie!"

“HEY, I cross the line at Dashie Washie. Just Dashie or you won’t get to use any nicknames at all!” Dash latched onto her irritation at Pinkie’s nickname, using it to pull herself into a more familiar territory of anger.

"Oh, okie doki Loki Miss Dashie, warrior Goddess of the Pegasi!!" Pinkie grinned at her, smiling brightly.

Feeling her mane stand on end in frustration, Dash grabbed a nearby vase and chucked it at Pinkie.

“Knock off the stupid compliments, alright!” She clenched her jaw, hoping the vase would hit it’s target.

"EEK!!" Startled, the pink pony fell backwards just as the vase was about to collide with her face. She spun around quickly to catch it, just seconds away from smashing into the floor.

"Ooohhh, okay! No compliments for miss grouchy armor then!!" Pinkie’s voice had a multitude of emotions swimming through it.

“Good...” Dash felt her emotions raging inside her. This strange warm feeling seemed to rush into her at the compliment, making her feel queasy. She both liked and disliked the feeling. Noticing the bowl of soup, she shoved it away from her before turning to face the wall.

"Aaawww, no soup.....?" Pinkie stared at Dash’s back in disappointment.

“No soup, ever.” With the air of finality in her voice, Dash pulled the blanket over her head; completely obscuring herself from view.