It was a bright and sunny day in Ponyville.

At least, that’s what the forecast had originally specified. Due to an unexplained phenomenon, most of Equestria was covered in a blanket of ice and snow. Within the Cloudsdale Weather Factory itself, voices elevated and blame and accusations were tossed all around. The pegasai yelled back and forth just outside the cloud-crafted board room, arguing the current issue as they awaited the call of their commanding officer.

“Are you seriously blaming this on me?” shouted an angry rainbow-maned pegasus.

“I don’t see anypony else who could have screwed up this badly!” returned another, his mane a deep blue and his coat teal. “You’re always lazing about, it’d be no surprise if you forgot the weather forecast!”

The cyan pegasus began moving toward her accuser, glaring daggers. “Why you little-”

“Easy, you two,” a soothing voice called out. The owner of the voice, a crimson-maned gold-coated mare, stepped forward between the two. “Now, Night Sky, you have no right to pin the blame on anypony, especially not Rainbow Dash.”

“Yeah!” exclaimed a cross-eyed blond pegasus. “Rainbow Dash is the best the Weather Factory has!”

Night Sky grumbled angrily. “As much as I wish I could deny it, Ditzy and Sunslammer are right. Despite how lazy she is, Rainbow Dash has the highest work rate out of all of us.”

He turned back to Rainbow Dash, half-bowing his head. “Sorry for blaming you.”

Rainbow waved a hoof dismissively, knowing full well the Weather Factory Commander would be listening from the board room, and not even she would dare invoke his wrath. “It’s all right. We’re all just messed up by this unusual weather. It’s not normal, not even by Everfree Forest’s standards.”

“Weather Factory staff, board meeting, now!” boomed a voice from within the room. The door was bucked open from the inside and without question, the pegasai shuffled in one after the other. Standing at the front of the large board room was an exceptionally strong-looking red pegasus with a brown mane and a pair of fiery wings as his cutie mark. One after the other, each pegasus saluted the stallion as they took their positions around the table.

The stout stallion stood at an intimidating six foot two, taller than even Big Macintosh. He was a force to be reckoned with, and all the Weather Factory pegasai knew why. Though not as quick in the air as Rainbow Dash, not only was he descended from the pegasus ponies who established the factory to begin with, but he had also trained with Celestia's royal pegasus guard. He was a hardened stallion, and not one pegasus, unicorn or earth pony that ever crossed his path would dare challenge his word.

“I’m certain you all know why I’ve called you in here,” spoke the pegasus stallion. “This weather isn’t under our control. Do any of you have an idea as to what may be the cause of this bizarre blizzard?”

Rainbow Dash was the first to raise a hoof. “It might be caused by magic, Crimson Skies, sir. It’s nothing like Everfree’s weather, which regulates itself naturally, and nor is it caused by a pegasus.”

“Not one we’d know of, at least,” Night Sky injected. “It could be a pegasus from a land outside Equestria.”

“But why would somepony from outside Equestria come here just to cause a snowstorm?” Dash asked in reply, earning a shrug from Night Sky.

“There’s no way to be sure unless we find and interrogate them, should they still be around. And considering the storm is still spreading out toward Canterlot, we have to assume he or she is still around.”

“Then those are your missions,” Crimson Skies continued. “Night Sky, you rally as many pegasai as you can and have them scour the skies from here to Canterlot. Try to find out if a pegasus is truly the cause of this. Rainbow Dash, you head down to Ponyville and ask around about any magic-caused storms such as this. As you can probably already guess, I’d suggest you go to your friend Miss Sparkle first. Being Ponyville’s librarian, she would be the first to have information on this phenomenon.”

The pegasai throughout the room saluted. “Yes sir, Captain Crimson!”

One by one in uniform order, the pegasai shuffled out of the room, heading off for their specified missions. Rainbow Dash rocketed down through the icy clouds toward Ponyville, which was, despite the chilling weather, rather active.

----

Even though nopony expected the snow, the entire town had adapted quite well and was now taking advantage of this phenomenon. Ponies of all ages and genders were out in the snow, crunching through the white blanket. As Rainbow Dash touched down, the first to notice her were two of her closest friends.

“Dashie’s here to make snowponies with us!”

As if out of nowhere, as always, a curly-maned pink blur bolted over to the cyan pegasus, nearly tackling her into the ten inches of snow.

“Careful, Pinkie! We would’ve both gone down if you ran into me!” Dash exclaimed with a slight laugh. Although sometimes careless, she knew Pinkie meant well in everything she did. Walking up behind Pinkie was Fluttershy, Dash’s first friend in Flight School. She wore a scarf with a butterfly pattern, one of six that Rarity custom-made for herself and her friends for days just like today. The shy pegasus flushed slightly as she took notice to Dash’s arrival.

“So, Dashie, what’s up with all this snow? I mean, the weather forecast said sunshine, right? Not that I really mind! Snow is super fun!”

“Actually, that’s why I’m down here,” Dash replied. “I’m thinking this is some kind of magic, so Captain Crimson has me headed over to the library to see Twilight and find out if she knew anything about this.”

“So you’re gonna get rid of all the snow?” Pinkie said, dejected and frowning.

“Don’t worry, Pinkie,” Dash reassured her party-loving friend, “when winter comes around again, I promise you even more snow than this! I’m sure we can balance out a schedule after we deal with the current problem.”

Pinkie bounced up into the air, floating there for several seconds as she emitted shouts of excitement, landing and bolting back off toward a cluster of snowponies she and Fluttershy were working on. The shy pegasus slowly walked toward Rainbow Dash.

“Rainbow...are you sure you can fix this?”

Dash smiled at her. “I’m sure. Don’t worry, Shy. I promise I’ll get this taken care of.”

The cyan pegasus leaned in and planted a quick kiss on Fluttershy’s lips before taking off toward the library, leaving the shy pony standing there with a fierce blush across her face. Pinkie looked back at the petrified Fluttershy and bolted over to her.

“C’mon, Fluttershy! We’ve got snowponies to build!” the ecstatic pink pony exclaimed before pulling the cream-coated pegasus away, mentally and physically.

----

Moments later, Rainbow Dash arrived at the library. She knocked on the door three times before it opened, revealing Spike, Twilight’s number-one assistant, standing there, bundled in more scarves and blankets than she’d ever seen on anypony else before. Though her mission was important, her instincts got the better of her and she couldn’t help but laugh at the young dragon wound up in a mountain of cloth.

“I-it’s not f-funny, Rainbow Dash!” Spike shouted through his shivering stutters. “Young d-dragons don’t handle this much c-cold as well as p-ponies do!”

“Right, right, sorry,” Dash chuckled, bringing her laughter to a stop. “Is Twilight in? I need to ask her a few questions.”

“S-she’s downstairs in her lab. C-come on in so I can c-close the door.”

Rainbow Dash did as requested, shuffling in quickly allowing Spike to frantically close the door with a heavy and relieved sigh. The library was as organized as usual. No matter what she did, if Twilight wasn’t organized, she’d completely lose her mind. No book was out of place, papers sat in an even pile on Twilight’s desk, and a faint grumbling could be heard through the door to the basement. Dash pushed the door open and carefully made her way down the stairs into Twilight’s lab where immediately she saw the lavender unicorn mare at work with something underneath a microscope. Not having silent hoofsteps whatsoever, Twilight was quickly notified of Dash’s arrival, glancing up to greet her.

“Oh, Rainbow! Thank Celestia, you’re here! I think you of all ponies would want to see this.”

Confused, Dash walked over to the table where Twilight stepped aside from the microscope, motioning for the pegasus to look inside. Dash placed her eye against the scope and saw what immediately appeared to be an isolated snowflake. The icy flake seemed to be made up of a unique pattern of overlapping symbols that Dash could not recognize. The symbols were that of lines pieced together in the form of some character, almost like a letter, but not one the cyan pegasus had ever seen.

“This...isn’t one of ours,” Dash noted in a whisper. “All of Ponyville’s snowflakes are hoof-made, and none of them have ever looked like this. This is like...some kinda pattern of letters.”

“That’s exactly what I thought,” Twilight stated. “But I did some research on old Equestrian dialect and I couldn’t find these characters anywhere, not even in the years before Celestia and Luna came to power.”

“So what does that mean?” Rainbow asked, looking up at her friend expectantly.

“It means this isn’t the work of anypony from Equestria,” Twilight replied. “Whoever did this is from another world.”

The statement earned a disbelieving stare from Rainbow Dash, followed by a roaring laughter and the sound of the cyan pegasus falling back onto the floor, laughing too hard to keep her balance.

“Another world?” Dash continued to laugh. “Are you listening to yourself, Twi? That’s totally ridiculous!”

“Why do you think this is so impossible?” Twilight yelled back.

“You actually think that there could be a whole other world full of ponies?” Rainbow asked, calming down once again.

“I never said it was a world of ponies,” Twilight replied.

Rainbow stared at her as if she had three extra heads. “Don’t tell me you’re starting to believe in those ‘human’ things that Lyra mare is always going on about.”

“I didn’t say humans either,” the lavender mare continued. “We all know the tale of Hearth’s Warming, and it involves those creatures, the Windigoes. Those are spirits. Even though this can’t be the work of the Windigoes, this storm is definitely, to some extent, magical in origin.”

“Well, can you track the source using the snow?” asked the cyan pegasus.

“I’m not sure,” Twilight mused. “It could be possible, but I need some time to get the spell going. In the meantime, I need you to try and gather the townsponies up and get them to a safe place.”

Rainbow Dash’s expression turned to one of concern. “Why?”

“As you probably know, this storm started only a few hours ago, and we’ve already got ten inches of snow. Even if I can track the source, the snowstorm will only continue. What do you think that means?”

Dash’s eyes widened. “Ponyville will be completely buried by the day’s end!”

Twilight nodded. “And Princess Celestia can’t just hold the sun in the middle of the sky to melt it. It won’t be quick enough with the increasing ferocity of this storm. Go find Pinkie and Fluttershy. I saw them playing out in the snow when I went out before. Get them to help you. I’d say here, Sugar Cube Corner and Carousel Boutique would be the safest and most spacious places for everypony to stay until we can end the storm.”

Rainbow Dash gave a swift nod. “Right. I’ll get to work.”

“And be careful out there,” Twilight continued. “The storm’s starting to get much worse. With the temperature continually dropping, the next thing to start is hail.”

“C’mon, Twi, you know me! When am I not care-”

Dash was cut off by a deadpan stare from the unicorn scholar.

“...Right. I’ll be careful.”

Rainbow Dash took off up the stairs and out of the library, nearly knocking Spike over as she bolted out the door. In a rush, the baby dragon slammed the door closed and slid down against it, curling up into his mountain of warmth.

“P-please...hurry, Rainbow D-Dash...”

----

The icy clouds loomed toward Canterlot, carrying the same threat it held over Ponyville along with it. Night Sky and Sunslammer hovered just above the moving storm, trying to spy its origin within the clouds.

“See anything, Sky?” Sunslammer asked, looking over to the teal pegasus.

“Nothing, Sun,” he replied, sighing deeply. “Nothing at all.”

The two pegasai had been searching for over an hour and had no luck whatsoever. The most they managed to do was catch up with the head of the storm, but even at the blizzard’s front, they could not find out what was leaving this vicious weather in its wake.

“...What if it’s not above the clouds?” Sunslammer inquired, saying it almost as a suggestion rather than a question.

Night Sky looked over at Sunslammer, head tilted in confusion. “Pardon?”

“What if the source,” Sunslammer continued, “is on the ground, rather than above or inside the storm?”

“...There’s a thought that never crossed my mind. Let’s dive.”

The two dove down through the storm’s cloud layer and began scanning the path into Canterlot. At first, their lack of luck continued, neither one of them spotting any sign of anything. After several minutes, Night Sky called for Sunslammer to join him, and the golden pegasus bolted over. The two stared at a section of the path that was now completely frozen over. Trees and shrubs were entrapped in frost crystals and the ground had been coated in a thin layer of ice.

“No storm Equestria has ever seen is capable of something like this,” Sunslammer thought aloud. “What kind of weather is this?”

“I don’t know,” Night Sky returned, “but we’d better report it to Crimson Skies before-”

From within the wooded area, a burst of icy magic seemed to fire out, grazing Night Sky’s back. The residue from the attack began to expand, growing across the pegasus’ back down to his legs and hooves in the form of solid ice.

“W-what’s going on?!” he yelled in panic as the ice began to trap the remainder of his body.

“Fufufu...no silly ponies can defeat the strongest!”

“Who’s there?” Sunslammer shouted angrily. “Show yourself!”

Out of the shadows of the forest stepped a humanoid figure with icy blue hair and a bow to match, a blue dress with white short sleeves and tiny blue shoes. A set of icy wings, each wing itself made up of three levitating crystals, formed on her back directly behind her torso. She held her hand up and aimed it at Sunslammer.

“Eye said, no silly ponies are going to defeat me! Eye will take this world and freeze it like a frog!”

“What in the-”

Sunslammer’s words were cut off by a direct hit from the strange girl’s magic, which quickly began to envelop her in icy crystal, just as it did Night Sky. It wasn’t long before the two pegasai were completely trapped, and the girl laughed dramatically at her encased prey.

“Eye told you that you couldn’t beat me! Eye’m Cirno! Eye’m the strongest in Gensokyo, and soon to be this world as well!”

The arrogant ice fairy took off down the path towards Canterlot, carrying the snowstorm overhead in her wake. With her recent excitement from freezing two new targets that were much larger than the frogs she usually tormented, the blizzard had kicked up into full force, now dropping hail the size of eyeballs onto the land. The upper-class mares and stallions rushed through the streets in a panic trying to avoid the oncoming icy projectiles. Despite the Canterlot Guard’s best effort to bring ponies to safety in an orderly manner, chaos almost equivalent to that of Discord himself reigned, even all the way to the palace itself, where a seething Celestia stared out the window from her throne room.

“I can’t believe it’s come to this,” she muttered aloud. “I’ve actually got to go out there myself and deal with this...troublemaker fairy.”

“Sister? Art thou ready?”

The alicorn princess’ head jerked back to meet her sister’s eyes. The midnight blue princess of the night stood wearing a silver body plate, gauntlet-like sleeves on her legs and a helmet embossed with a white crescent moon resembling the princess’ cutie mark.

“Almost, Luna. I just need to get my Solar Raiment.”

“Quickly, sister. We’ve not much time before Equestria enters an ice age beyond what even windigoes are capable of creating.”

Celestia nodded and bolted for her throne, tapping her horn against it and lighting the entire seat up in a golden aura. With little effort, the sun princess slid the throne aside and lifted up a cabinet of sorts. Inside sat golden armor similar to Luna’s, but its helm had a sun engraved into it that bore resemblance to Celestia’s own mark. With another flash of the alicorn’s magic, the armor warped from its case and onto Celestia’s body. She moved each part of her body somewhat rigidly. The armor was sort of a tight fit, but she would make it work. She knew she’d only have to wear it until the mischievous fairy causing this turmoil was punished.

“I am ready. Let’s go.”

Princess Luna took off out the window, Celestia trailing close behind. Despite the weight of their armor, the alicorn sisters were not hindered. They’d been used to wearing this aged steel long ago when the war against Discord’s chaos first ensued. Luckily for the two, their strength had carried on to this very day, allowing them to glide through the air with great ease regardless of the hefty load of their protective garbs.

“Stay sharp, Luna,” Celestia cautioned, lining up alongside her sister. “If this strange fairy can conjure a storm like this, we don’t know just how powerful she is.”

“Perhaps, dear sister, we may not even have to fight,” Luna suggested.

“What do you mean, Luna?”

“It may be possible to reason with this young one,” the alicorn princess continued. “We could give her most anything her heart doth desire.”

“As always,” said Celestia, “you know how much I’d rather avoid a fight in a situation such as this. Facing a child...it would simply feel wrong if I didn’t know why she is acting this way.”

For the most part, the streets were cleared. Ponies still lingered, but not by choice. As Cirno marched along on her path of destruction, she froze each and every mare and stallion that failed to escape her wrath. Each one was petrified in crystal either attempting to run away or standing strong, too stubborn to leave their homes behind. Dozens of ponies remained frozen in the streets, and Celestia could do naught to help them yet. She had to take down the cause of the problem before she could reverse the freezing effect, otherwise they’ll just be frozen again.

The alicorn princesses landed on the street and walked up to meet Cirno, who stopped as well, sensing great power in these individuals, but clearly not as powerful as she was, but she couldn’t leave anything to chance. As Celestia and Luna approached her, the storm seemed to settle into merely an array of clouds high above her, lingering as if they were waiting for Cirno to give them a command.

“Who are you two?” the ice fairy asked.

“I am Princess Celestia,” the sun princess declared.

“I am Princess Luna,” added the moon princess.

“What is your name, young one?” Celestia asked.

“Eye’m Cirno! The strongest being in all of Gensokyo!” the ice fairy shouted proudly.

“Well, you do seem quite powerful,” Celestia chuckled. “But I have to ask you something. Why is it you’re doing this?”

“Why not? It’s fun!”

“But don’t you see what you’re doing, Cirno?” Celestia inquired.

“Eye...don’t understand,” Cirno said with a confused tilt of her head.

“You’ve turned my people into ice sculptures,” Celestia said, eyes locked deadpan on Cirno. “You don’t see a problem with this? These ponies were simply living their everyday lives when you showed up and began freezing them. I’m sorry, but your ‘fun’ has to stop.”

An icy wind began to pick up as the clouds above began to rumble and roar. Cirno glanced down at the ground beneath her feet, which slowly began to freeze.

“You’re just like them.”

It was Celestia left baffled now. “What do you mean, Cirno?”

“You’re exactly like the ones who wanted me to be banished here!” Cirno cried angrily, throwing her arms out in frustration. “Just like the shrine maiden and black and white magician! They said my ‘fun’ was hurting the youkai, but they don’t understand it! Nobody understands it! They could never understand my power! But Eye will show them all! Eye’m going to prove my power to this world, and then Gensokyo! Eye’ll win the border witch’s ultimate game and prove myself!”

Cirno raised her hands up and the hail and snow began to fall again. An icy blue aura surrounded the fairy as she concentrated her power into her palms.

“Perfect Freeze!”

A blue surge swirled around above Cirno’s hands, crashing down onto the ground and flying toward the alicorn princesses. Celestia was quick to dodge, but the same could not be said for Luna. The moon princess failed to evade the ice fairy’s spell in time and found herself frozen from head to hoof with an expression of rage plastered across her face.

“Luna!” Celestia screamed, rushing at Cirno with her magic flaring around her.

“You can’t beat me, Celestia!” Cirno proclaimed, charging up another spell. “You and Luna are the sun and the moon, and Eye blocked them both out with my storm! You’re powerless against me!”

Cirno was right. For an unknown reason, the ice fairy’s storm was not only blocking Celestia’s access to the sun, it was keeping her from tapping into its power. She was marginally weaker without it, but she had to keep fighting for Equestria’s sake. With all the magic she could muster, Celestia charged at Cirno enveloped in a golden glow. As the ice fairy’s spell finished, the royal alicorn charged all her magic to the tip of her horn and launched it forth in a concentrated burst of energy. Celestia’s only mistake was allowing Cirno to see it coming, and the fairy managed to jump high out of the way and aim her strike.

“Time for another Perfect Freeze!”

Cirno unleashed another burst of cold blue magic toward the solar alicorn, who, after using such a powerful spell, couldn’t hope to dodge as quickly as Cirno had. The blast hit its mark and Celestia began to freeze, albeit much more slowly than Luna. As the ice crept up her legs to her body, Cirno about-faced from the alicorn and began walking back in the direction of Ponyville.

“This is boring!” the ice fairy declared. “Eye’m gonna go find some new players!”

Celestia struggled to shatter Cirno’s ice to no avail. The crystal shell continued to crawl along her frame until it reached her neck, where at this point the struggle was no longer worth it. There was nothing she could do. She couldn’t even attempt to send a letter to Twilight, warning her of the approaching threat. As her last thoughts rested on the fate of her faithful student and her friends in Ponyville, the ice finished its job, encapsulating the solar princess completely, leaving her as solid a statue as Discord.

Back in Ponyville, Rainbow Dash had done as instructed, and all of the townsponies had been escorted to Twilight’s library, Sugar Cube Corner or the Carousel Boutique. Among the smaller population, there was much less panic than in Canterlot, possibly only because the threat was still unknown to them.

“Rainbow, quick! Come down to the lab!”

Twilight’s voice managed to echo up out of the basement, and Dash maneuvered through the crowd to meet her friend’s request. Three wooden tables with the strange characters on the snowflake inscribed into them surrounded the unicorn scholar. Beneath her feet was another symbol that Dash hadn’t seen before. She assumed Twilight knew what it meant, though, and walked over to her.

“Watcha need, Twi?”

“I need you to stand in this magic circle,” Twilight stated plainly. “I’m going to put the tracking spell on you, considering you’re better suited to handle harsh weather like this.”

“Are you nuts?” Dash asked brashly. “No way I’m gonna be your test dummy for this!”

“Rainbow, please!” Twilight begged. “You’re the only pony who could go out into this snowstorm. Nopony else, not even the others on the weather team, are as determined as you.”

Rainbow Dash grinned, enjoying this shower of praise. “Go on.”

Twilight gave her a serious glare. “Rainbow, we don’t have time for this!”

“All right, all right, fine. I’ll do it. But if I burst into flames or something, I’m haunting you!”

Twilight stepped out of the circle, allowing Dash to enter. Immediately, she felt a tingling sensation across her torso. It felt slightly cold yet at the same time soothing. Before another word could be said, Twilight was quick at work with her magic, the energy surging around the three tables with the foreign letters. Each table lit up with a sky blue, and with one final flash from her horn, the runic symbol Dash stood on began to glow with a violet light. The blue magic seeped into the violet aura around the cyan pegasus, the energies mixing with one another and sinking into her body. A quick jolt flew through her body from her hooves to the tip of her snout, leaving her mane and tail standing on end. The glowing on the tables and symbol faded away and the aura left Dash completely.

“Well? Do you feel...different?” asked Twilight.

“I...I don’t know,” Dash replied. “How am I supposed to tell if-”

Suddenly, Dash could see a light blue mist emanating from the three tables. She blinked twice and rubbed her eyes, not sure if what she saw was real or not. It was no illusion, though. The mist lingered and seemed to lead up the stairs.

“Is something the matter, Rainbow?”

“Twi...do you see the mist?” Dash asked, moving toward the steps to examine it further.

“No I...wait. You see a mist? Coming from the tables?”

Dash nodded, and the unicorn mare leapt up in excitement. “It worked! The tracking spell worked! Now you can find the source of this storm!”

“How long do I have?”

“The spell will last only for an hour,” Twilight replied. “The mist will come only from freshly-falling flakes, and it will be much thicker around the origin.”

“Right then.” Rainbow Dash gave a nod and began heading up the stairs.

“And Rainbow?”

Dash turned back to the lavender mare. “Yeah, Twi?”

“Be careful out there. Please.”

The pegasus nodded again. “I will.”

----

Dash took off through the perilous storm, following the blue mist that only she could see. The blizzard had begun to produce hail and powerful icy winds, which hindered the cyan blur only slightly. She muscled through the torrential blitz of snow and ice as she continued to track the storm’s origins. Her body slowly began to struggle against the raging elements, but her mind refused to let her fail now. This wasn’t something she could let herself give up on.

She flew for what felt like hours, but she knew that couldn’t be true. The spell would have faded if that were the case. The snow was almost blinding her completely. She pounded her way through mound after mound of snow, which at this point had almost piled up to six feet. The piles seemed to be growing as she progressed, which could only mean she was getting ever closer to the storm’s origin.

At last, she spied a figure off in the distance, standing at about five feet tall. Wait...standing? On two legs? Without hooves? Surely, she was imagining things. The snow blurred her vision, so perhaps it was merely a trick of the light, or lack thereof. Despite this, Dash could clearly see the heaviest mist emanating from this figure, whatever it may be. She knew what she had to do, or attempt to do.

With a kick off from the snow, Dash charged at the figure. As she approached, she took notice to the fact that her eyes did not deceive her. This girl was not a pony in any way, shape or form. It was unlike anything she’d ever seen, and the idea that some being such as this could conjure a blizzard of this magnitude scared her.

“Another pony for me to freeze? They’re just coming to me today!”

‘Another pony? What does she mean?’ Dash thought. It baffled her until she realized where the ice fairy had just come from. ‘This is the path to Canterlot...which means...’

Just as it came to her, the blue mist faded from her vision. The spell had done its job and its time was up. Without a second thought, Rainbow Dash immediately turned around and took off with all her might back toward Ponyville.

“Don’t run from me, pony! Eye just want to play Freeze Tag with all of you!”

Dash’s wings beat rapidly through the barrage of snow and hail. It was an endless assault of pins and needles flying into all parts of her body, holding nothing back against the cyan pegasus. In turn, Dash did not hold anything back against the storm. She flew as fast as she could, but a Sonic Rainboom wasn’t going to happen in this blizzard. Despite having this knowledge, she kept up her Rainboom-level speed all the way back to Ponyville with only one thought on her mind.

‘What the hay is that thing?’

----

Back at the library, Twilight marked the intended end of the spell, worry filling her mind and nerves tingling throughout her body.

“We can only hope Rainbow comes back soon,” she muttered silently, heading up the stairs into the main room where ponies were huddled together for warmth. No level of magic heating would be able to help them now. With the seemingly-endless blizzard still raging outside, it wouldn’t be long until they would all freeze. “I’m glad Pinkie Pie and Fluttershy made it safely over to Sugar Cube Corner. The little ones need them there.”

Like a beacon of hope, a rapid series of knocks struck the library door. Twilight broke into a gallop and rushed toward it, swinging it open with a surge of her magic. Standing before her in total panic was Rainbow Dash, her entire body sore from the buffeting hail.

“Rainbow, why is it still snowing? Did you not find the source?”

“The source is on its way here! It’s not a pony! I don’t know what it is!” Dash yelled in a panic. “All I know is that it was walking. Walking! On two legs! No hooves! And it was wearing clothes!”

“Rainbow, are you absolutely certain this is what you saw?” Twilight asked skeptically. “Are you sure you’re not just a bit out of it from the cold?”

“What?” Rainbow asked before she glared at Twilight angrily. “This isn’t a joke, Twilight! It’s coming here right now! It’s following me, and when it gets here, it’s gonna-”

Rainbow Dash was not allowed to finish her sentence. In a quick, white flash, her entire body was encased in ice, and floating directly behind her was Cirno, looking into the library with a pleased grin.

“Yay! So many ponies to play freeze tag with!”

Each and every pony in the room stared at the icy fairy in pure horror, not having ever seen anything like her before. Panicking, they all began rushing either up to the second floor or down into Twilight’s laboratory. Twilight could do nothing to stop them as she was occupied with Cirno slowly approaching her.

“W-who...what are you?” the lavender unicorn mare asked, stumbling backwards.

“Eye’m Cirno, the strongest youkai in Gensokyo! Eye’m going to prove myself as the strongest in Equestria now too by winning my ultimate Freeze Tag game!”

“Are you crazy?!” Twilight screamed. “This isn’t a game! You’re hurting innocent ponies with all this snow!”

“Oh, is that it? Just the storm? That’s not a problem at all!” Cirno exclaimed. in an instant, the storm had been silenced as if willed by Cirno’s thought alone. Twilight glanced outside and saw that the sun was shining bright again, or was at least working its way toward it. Before she could speak another word, she felt a sudden chill envelop her entire body. Without even realizing it, Cirno had frozen her solid just like she had Rainbow Dash.

“I’m winning!” Cirno exclaimed happily. “Eye froze the brainy one, the fast one and the really powerful ones, just like the border witch told me to do! Now Eye just need to get the shy one, the fashion one, the party one and the strong one that’s not as strong as me! And if they’re not here, Eye know exactly where to go next! That bakery Eye saw on the way here!”

Cirno bolted out into Ponyville, leaving the library door opened.

“Miss Rainbow? Miss Twi...light...?”

A blond cross-eyed pegasus mare poked her head down the stairs and looked into the room to see Twilight and Dash frozen solid at the door. She slowly crept down to investigate, lightly tapping the frozen mares. The ice surrounding them was too solid to break without causing severe damage.

“I have to do something! But what can I do? I’m just a...derpy pegasus...”

Ditzy didn’t have much confidence in herself, and it didn’t seem to her that anypony else did either. That’s how she got the nickname ‘Derpy’, after all. Still, she couldn’t just let Cirno continue her rampage without at least trying to stop her. Ignoring the cold, Ditzy took off after the ice fairy, having a good idea where she was headed.

----

Sugar Cube Corner had been quickly cleared of the surrounding snow. Pinkie’s party cannon went to good use in resolving that issue. Now, inside the confectionery sat the Cutie Mark Crusaders, the Cake’s twin foals, Pipsqueak and Dinky Doo, along with Pinkie Pie, Fluttershy and the Cakes themselves. Pinkie cradled Pound and Pumpkin Cake close, doing her best to keep them as warm as she could.

“Pinkie’s gotten really good with those two,” Fluttershy said in her usual whisper.

“Absolutely,” added Mr. Cake.

“She’s become quite the caregiver,” Mrs. Cake also added. “She’s like a big sister to them.”

The Cutie Mark Crusaders, along with their two newer members, Pip and Dinky, were all crowded at the window, looking outside at what they thought couldn’t be possible.

“Did it really stop?” Dinky asked.

“Looks like it, but how could it be possible?” Pip added in question.

“Ah dunno, but if it’s stopped, y’all know what that means!” Apple Bloom exclaimed.

“Rainbow Dash did it!” Scootaloo shouted excitedly.

“Wait a minute, you guys,” Sweetie Belle stated, pointing out to a figure in the distance. “What’s that?”

The strange shape was unlike anything the group had ever seen before. Its strange icy wings were not attached to its body, but they still moved in a flapping motion every so often. The figure appeared female, but it was no pony. Its body was standing straight up with arms and legs, hands and feet and fingers and toes. It would be a lie to say they weren’t terrified of this alien creature.

“Cutie Mark Crusaders, get clear of the window,” Sweetie Belle cautioned, stepping back herself. The other Crusaders quickly followed the unicorn filly’s orders as the strange figure landed.

Cirno eyed Sugar Cube Corner, cupping her hands over her mouth. “Come out, ponies! Come and play Freeze Tag with Cirno!”

Cirno’s calls received no response. The bake shop was as silent as the now-sunny skies.

“Cirno will count to nine, and if you don’t come out, Eye’m freezing the whole building! One...”

“What do we do?” Scootaloo asked in a whisper. “If we stay here, we’re goners!”

“Same thing’s gonna happen if we go out there!” Apple Bloom whispered in reply.

“Why is she counting to nine?” Sweetie asked, earning a glare from her friends.

“Ah don’t think that matters right now, Sweetie Belle!” Bloom whisper-yelled.

“I know what to do,” Dinky said in less of a whisper. “Cover me, guys.”

“Dinky, no!” Pip yelled silently. “Don’t do it!”

“Two...”

“Wait!”

The door of the bakery burst open and Dinky Doo bolted forth, staring down Cirno with a determined expression.

“Oh, so one of the little ones decides to come out and play with me! This is gonna be fun!”

Cirno held the staff forward, charging up a blue aura around herself. The filly shuddered in fear but stood her ground.

“You’ll make a pretty sculpture!” the ice fairy shouted, her aura glowing strong.

The filly shut her eyes as Cirno sent her aura surging through her body, to the tip of the staff and straight at the young unicorn in the form of an orb of ice. The blast hit its mark, freezing the unicorn instantly. Just as she froze, Ditzy arrived on the scene, now snarling angrily at the ice fairy, which caused her to turn to the cross-eyed pegasus.

“Another one Eye missed? Oh well! More fun for me!” Cirno exclaimed excitedly, dismissing the staff and holding out both arms toward Ditzy.

“You froze my little muffin,” Ditzy growled. “Nopony, not even a bully like you, hurts my little muffin!”

“Yeah, whatever, time to get frozen no-”

Cirno’s speech and spell were cut off by a rage-fueled Ditzy charging full-throttle at her, knocking her into one of the many remaining snow piles.

“Ow! How dare you hurt the great Cirno! Eye will make you pay!”

Ditzy rushed into another tackle, not allowing the ice fairy to even contemplate a counterattack. Cirno was baffled by the pegasus’ actions. Why was she not afraid like the rest of them? What could this lack of cowardice mean? At this time, Cirno was reminded of home, where not a single youkai would fear her, not even her fellow fairies, even after she defeated them. Ditzy must be driven by something, but what? Cirno’s gaze turned to the frozen unicorn as she remembered the cross-eyed pegasus’ words.

‘You froze my little muffin.’

Cirno broke down into total panic, unable to read any of Ditzy’s attacks. ‘Stupid border witch!’ she yelled in her mind to nobody in particular. ‘She didn’t tell me about this one! How can I even tell where she’s coming from? She’s not as fast as the blue one, but every time she hits me, the sun gets in my...ack! I stopped the storm! Why’d I do that?!’

With a final charge, Ditzy knocked Cirno to the ground, sending a strange object flying from within the folds of her skirt and landing in the snow. The grey pegasus mare looked over at it, identifying it to be some sort of card with a picture of a crystal on it. Cirno pulled her face up out of the snow and looked over, realizing what the card was, and began to crawl toward it.

“Don’t touch that! That’s a powerful weapon that does not belong in your hands! Er...hooves!”

Ditzy’s gaze moved to Cirno, to whom she shot a devious smirk. Cirno’s crawl ceased and her eyes widened when she realized what she’d just done. In her last moments, she could think of but one thing to say.

“Oh, no.”

Ditzy quickly picked the card up in her mouth. With a sudden jerk of her neck, she tossed it straight at Cirno. The ice fairy was too trapped in thought about where she went wrong to react quickly enough and the card made contact with her forehead. The card crackled as its spell activated, and within moments, Cirno was trapped within one of her own icy prisons.

‘When Eye get out of here, you’re going to pay, pony!’ Cirno raged in thought, sighing in her own mind as another thought came to her. ‘Oh, why can’t Eye unfreeze myself?! Stupid border witch! She ruined everything by even making that card!’

With Cirno sealed in ice, her own Perfect Freeze spells began to revert one by one, starting with her most recent victim, Dinky Doo. When the crystal coating faded from the young unicorn, Ditzy rushed over and pulled her daughter into a hug.

“M-mommy?”

“Oh, my little muffin, I’m so glad you’re all right!” Ditzy cried, holding Dinky close.

“Mommy...what happened?” Dinky asked, still shivering from the chill of the ice prison.

“A meanie tried to hurt you, but don’t worry. You’re safe now. Everypony is.”

“And it is all thanks to you, Ditzy Doo,” echoed a voice Ditzy had rarely heard but knew well enough.

Ditzy and Dinky turned to this familiar voice to see Princess Celestia and Princess Luna, still clad in their armor, walking towards Sugar Cube Corner, but more specifically, toward her.

“Your actions against Cirno to protect your daughter have saved all of Equestria from an eternal ice age. We are truly grateful.”

Luna walked up to the frozen Cirno, tapping the tip of the crystallized ice fairy’s head. “And what are we to do with this frozen fly, sister? Dost thou wish to send her to the moon, or perhaps the bottom of one of the planet’s oceans?”

“We can’t risk letting her get free,” Celestia replied, keeping her eyes on Ditzy and Dinky. “If she managed to come to Equestria from her ‘Gensokyo’, there must be a middleman somewhere that got her here. Her powers seemed centered around ice, not dimensional travel.”

Celestia turned to her sister. “We will keep her in the dungeon for now, until we can determine where Gensokyo is and how she managed to get here from there. Return to the palace and lock her up tight. I will call a meeting of Equestria’s brightest to begin research on this as soon as I can.”

Luna gave a nod and Cirno’s frozen form became engulfed in the moon princess’ midnight blue magic aura. Luna’s majestic flowing hair developed into a spiraling nebula and warped her and the frozen fairy away.

“And as for you, Miss Ditzy,” Celestia continued, turning back to the cross-eyed mare. “There’s one last thing I need from you.”

“Yes, Princess?” Ditzy asked, giving a one-leg salute while she kept her daughter close with the other.

“I need you to get yourself cleaned up and meet me at my palace for your award ceremony.”

----

Having cleared the unnatural snow from Canterlot to Equestria, everypony met at Canterlot castle as requested by Princess Celestia. The throne room had been set up similarly to when Twilight and her friends had bested Discord, but instead of six good friends sharing the red carpet, this time Ditzy Doo took the spotlight. As she walked toward the solar princess, the crowds of ponies throughout the room shouted cheers of congratulations and praise.

“Way to go, Ditzy!”

“You rock, Ditzy!”

“You’re so cool! You saved us all!”

Beaming from the continuous praise, she almost didn’t notice herself being stopped in her tracks by Rainbow Dash, greeting the wall-eyed mare with a smile.

“Hey, uh...Der...I mean, Ditzy...I just wanted to say...you...”

“Yeah, Rainbow Dash?” Ditzy asked.

“You...you did good,” the rainbow-maned pegasus managed, placing her leg over Ditzy’s neck in a partial embrace. “I panicked when I saw that ‘Cirno’ girl. You fought back and you won.”

Ditzy simply gave Dash a smile. “I fought for my little muffin. I think you would have fought too if she froze Fluttershy.”

“Y-yeah...” Dash couldn’t hold back a blush, and the shy pegasus behind her joined in the flushed expression. “You’re right...Well, don’t let me keep you any longer. Celestia’s waiting for you.”

Ditzy nodded and continued along the red carpet until she stood before the princess, humbly bowing her head.

“Citizens of Equestria!” exclaimed the sun princess. “Today we honor Ditzy Doo, the brave pegasus who fought the strange girl named Cirno in defense of both her daughter and her fellow ponies!”

Celestia levitated a golden medal forward that bore the symbol of the Elements of Harmony. She carefully slipped it around Ditzy’s neck and released it from her aura.

“I hereby present Ditzy with the Medal of Harmony, given to those who strive to uphold that which represent the Elements of Harmony throughout all of Equestria! Ditzy has demonstrated loyalty to her friends and family, and for that, we thank her!”

The crowds cheered loudly as Ditzy looked around, smiling at everypony. From within the crowd, Dinky came running up and embraced her mother, who returned the hug as she remained utterly speechless. This was her moment, and she was glad she could share it with her daughter...her friends...her Ponyville family.

----

Deep in the depths of Canterlot castle, Luna moved through a hallway with the ice fairy hovering overhead, still frozen and wrapped in her horn’s aura. As she progressed, nearby guards bowed to her, opening any doors she had to go through.

“Thou hast been more trouble than thou wast worth, foolish fly,” Luna said accusingly to the frozen ice fairy, knowing full well she couldn’t hear her. She didn’t care, though. It felt good to mock the unmoving Cirno for some reason.

The lunar princess finally arrived at a large door with a great lock at its center and runic inscriptions of the Elements of Harmony decorating it. Luna inserted her horn into the lock and her eyes flashed white for a moment. A quick blue aura surged from her horn throughout the rune inscriptions and the door mechanisms began to grind and slide about. Within five seconds, the last part of the lock slid away, and the door swung open slowly.

“This is where thou shalt stay until we can properly dispose of thee back in thine own world. Not that thou art capable of hearing mine voice in thine frozen state, We do wish that thou hath a pleasant stay in thine cell until that time.”

The moon princess continued forward past the large gate into an isolated cell which bore many additional runic symbols. Luna carefully slid the cell door open and placed the frozen fairy within, sliding it closed again and firing quick bolts of magic energy at each symbol. The runes glowed with Luna’s blue magic aura and an ethereal veil of light encapsulated the cell in a box shape.

“And in case thou somehow manages to thaw, this will keep thee sealed within no matter what thine magic is capable of.”

Luna’s ears twitched suddenly as she jerked her head backwards. All she could see was a hallway filled with nothing but guards and empty cells. She began walking through, now disconnected from reality as her mind began to wander.“...Every time we are down here...why do we feel as if we are being watched?”

----

In another section of time and space entirely, a blond woman in a purple dress watched Luna walk back through the dungeon hallway through a black rift in the boundary of reality. Towering behind her sat a large shrine with an empty donation box. The shrine’s miko, wearing the appropriate red-white shrine maiden garb, walked up behind the border witch and gazed into the portal.

“Yukari, what are you doing this time?” she asked. “Is this about Cirno?”

“As a matter of fact, it is, Reimu,” Yukari replied. “This is the world I sent her to.”

Reimu did a double take as she looked into the rift, trying to make sure what she saw was definitely there. “...Horses. It’s an entire world of horses.”

“Ponies, Reimu,” Yukari corrected. “And one of these ponies managed to defeat Cirno, even after I gave her the ability to conjure that special snowstorm. Of course, she was arrogant and canceled the storm out, believing she could have actually won without it.”

“Was it really a good idea to send her there in the first place?” the shrine maiden asked. “I mean, everyone in Gensokyo knows what she’s like. She was bound to be beaten.”

“Ah, but that was the plan,” Yukari continued. “You see, I needed her to lose. I knew she would stop the snow, be defeated by that cross-eyed pegasus pony and wind up frozen in the palace dungeon. With her there, still in possession of one of my Border Butterflies, I can go directly to her.”

“What could you possibly be thinking now, Yukari?” Reimu inquired. “If you’re planning on going to this place, there is no way I’m going with you. Not a chance.”

“Well, why not, Reimu?” Yukari asked, turning to the shrine maiden with a slight pout. “Are you going to make me travel to this mysterious world of ponies all by myself?”

“First of all,” Reimu began, “I’ve got work to do. I’m still a shrine maiden, and I’m expected to protect Gensokyo, even if there’s nothing to fight. Second, you can bend reality to your will. Why do you need me?”

Yukari smirked as she floated toward Reimu, bringing her face as close to the shrine maiden’s as possible. “Because it wouldn’t be as fun without you there with me.”

Reimu shuddered and backed away. “All right, jeez. As long as you don’t do anything that creepy again.”

“I make no promises,” Yukari stated with a chuckle. She peered into the rift once again as it seemed to consciously zoom in on Princess Luna as she joined her sister at Ditzy's ceremony. The border witch grinned with sadistic anticipation as she gazed upon these demigod princesses.

“All aboard the Youkai Express. Next stop...Equestria.”