Winter Wrap Up: Animal Team

[Pretzelparty]

“This is no time to be on the shoot, greenhorns,” Mrs. Mane instructed as the trio got closer to the outlying bear cave; “Keep your voices down, keep behind me, and when I start ringing the bell, send the bears our fish. Don’t do anything stupid, and this’ll be a piece of cake.”

"Yes, Ma'am!" Said the mare in an excited but hushed tone. Despite how excited Presteza was at the chance to do something Dangerous that had sewed doubt in Miss mane's mind that this mare was right for the job, she seemed to be able to keep herself calm when the situation called for it. There was a simple smile upon her muzzle as she approached the cave with her close friend icy and her new acquaintance... actually she hadn't gotten her name yet. "Y'know, Ma'am." she began while lowering her voice to a whisper,"I don' think I got ya name, Ma'am. Would ya mind tellin' me once we'rd one here?"

As the large cave loomed ominously over the trio, Presteza felt a slight chill go down her spine. If she wasn't already so accustomed to this feeling she would've wondered if icy was to blame. Lucky For her snow-cone making friend, Presteza had come to know this feeling quite well; the feeling of adrenaline mixed with fear.

Once the trio made it into the cave, Pressy's nose gave a scrunch as she expected her nostrils to be assaulted by an incredibly pungent odor. Obviously she knew fairly little about bears as the cave actually smelled rather clean. It wasn't like the occasional fresh scent that a pony who made sure to regularly clean their house with scented soaps and the like but still the air was breathable to even the most prudent of noses.

Soon the three ponies came to what appeared to be massive mound of brown fur in the dark cave. Loud sonorous snoring seemed to echo out from the piles of fur before the brave little trio of mares. Looking forward To Miss Mane, She waited for the ringing of the bell to signal her to slide the fish toward the sleeping creatures.

[Zeig]

Oooh…no wonder he'd been having trouble. 'Kind' and 'gentle' weren't exactly his forte.

Inkbrand watched the yellow Pegasus with an almost dispassionate look in his eyes, one eyebrow raised up, even as surprise and disbelief racketed around through his brain at the sight of the two bunnies timidly peering out of the den. Why in Equestria were they only willing to come out with a certain tone and attitude? They were dumb animals, they couldn't tell the difference. Inkbrand really didn't see why his early calling hadn't worked - sure if voice wasn't as wispy and fragile as Fluttershy's, thank buck for that, but he hadn't been overly loud or rough. Except when he'd called for help. Maybe he needed to pitch his voice downward a bit?

"That's right you little squirts," the tattoo-clad stallion crooned in a low tone, scooting forward on his belly a bit to bring his muzzle down lower to the slowly emerging rabbits, "come out and see all what you're - missing." Quick as thought, the rabbits had retreated back into the den mid-sentence, allowed Inkbrand a moment to stare at the again silent den for a moment, before rearing up into a sitting position with an aggrieved sigh. "'Ya know, I'm starting to think they just don't like me," he observed in an exaggeratedly hurt voice as he turned back to Fluttershy with a grin, only to catch sight of yet another amusing spectacle careening straight towards them.

…Oh. That's probably why the rabbits had high-tailed it back underground, not because of him. Inkbrand had all of a second to preen proudly for his accomplishment, before the squirrel sporting deer crashed straight into the nearby tree, followed closely by the flame-colored pony from earlier.

It all happened so quickly that Inkbrand couldn't even find it in himself to get up, instead staring down at the now upside deer who was giving him quite a show with her lean belly and limber legs displayed for all eyes to see. Inkbrand automatically let his eyes take in their fill, idly wondering if he'd ever gotten rough and rowdy with a deer in his life, before Fluttershy's fluttering about snapped him out of his trance. Giving his head a mental shake, Inkbrand clambered onto his feet, casting a leer down at the pretty doe even as the yellow Pegasus beat him to it, indadvertedly denying him a chance to play the chivalrous stallion and possibly get in a girl's good graces. The grey stallion let out a small sigh, but meandered around the pair towards the fallen stallion.

"Sweet Luna, and I thought I was bad," he snarked, spying the stallion's fallen sunglasses in the snow a little bit aways. Inkbrand whipped them up with his mouth and tossed them onto his own head, admiring their make for a moment, before turning to hook a hoof inside the crook of the stallion's foreleg, effectively trying to hoist him back onto his hooves. "What'd you guys do, threaten to lead the bears over to their tree if they didn't wake up?"

[Corsair]

As Fluttershy moved to help Brooke, she wondered at the behavior of the squirrels and rabbits. Bunnies were naturally timid... well most of them were. But they seemed especially scared, and she didn't think it had to do with the tattooed stallion. And the way those two squirrels had gotten spooked was also not normal.

Just as she made this realization, a white streak shot over the ground toward her. Angel skidded to a halt in front of her, and began jumping up and down to get her attention. "Angel? What's the matter?" Fluttershy asked him. Before she got an answer, Fluttershy suddenly found herself surrounded by animals! All of the poor things seemed terrified. Some were clinging to her legs, while others leaped to her back. "What is wrong with all of you?" she asked, becoming concerned. From the babble of the animals, she finally got one word. "Storm? What Storm?" she asked, confused. With a paw, Angel pointed toward the Everfree Forest.

Fluttershy gasped loudly at what she saw: The bundle of dark clouds she had seen earlier was now racing across the sky! Many pegusii have an innate ability to sense changes in the weather. Fluttershy's weather sense was never very strong, especially after she had begun living on the ground. However, even she could tell that this storm was not natural. The winds were picking up rapidly. The temperature in the area was already dropping noticeably. To make things worse, she could see huge amounts of snow dropping from the clouds as they moved.

Fluttershy was momentarily gripped by terror. What was happening? What could they do?? Then, she looked down in the the scared faces of the creatures around her. These animals were her responsibility. She HAD to take care of them! Her protective instincts roused, she lost all of her fear. Scooping up a skunk in one foreleg and a ferret in the other, she flapped her wings to get a bit of altitude. Then, in a voice louder than anypony had ever heard from her, she shouted, "Everypony! We need to get to shelter, NOW!"

​
A wild blizzard has struck Ponyville during Winter Wrap Up! Refer to the Rules Post for details.

[Bellosh]

The orange-coated assistant was right; Calamity Mane never did provide the two younger mares with her name. In never really occurred for the champion of rodeos to do so; most ponies in Calamity’s circles tended to easily recognize her. But this place was a Heartland village, far from the rolling plains and steppes of the West. That made it more likely for the older mare to go around unrecognized. As a simple response, Calamity nodded, indicating she’d introduce herself properly at the right time.

Slipping into the darkness of the cave, Calamity Mane The Pony With No Name paused momentarily to let her eyes adjust to the lack of light. The mare crouched as she got a sense of the underground layout, setting her hat down on the rocky ground. All that the cowgirl heard around her were deep snores from within, the apprehensive breathing of the unicorn assistants, and the faint ringing of a bell; presumably far away.

Mrs. Mane crept along as far as she could, knowing that the bears weren’t going to be particularly alert. Using her eyes as her primary guide, the elder of the three extended her forelegs to block the others when she felt they got close enough to the hibernating predators. Calamity had done this exact waking up procedure before, and she knew that the sleuth of bears wouldn’t mind the disturbance as long as they smelled their scheduled fish immediately. Delicately, the Vaquero of Dodge reached for her bell at last and started to shake it without creating a loud racket. Too loud, and the cave occupants would immediately go into “flight or fight” mode... and apex predators rarely withdrew when their territory was concerned.

Time for the others to send the bears their fish.....

[starswirlthebearded]

Trekker and Crome finally reached the area where the bats were thanks in no small part to Chrome's keen sense of smell. The maze like caves would have been impossible for even Trekker to navigate in any reasonable amount of time. Make no mistake, she would have done it, but she was not confident she could have done it in time for spring. Oddly enough, she never did see any of the bears, they probably weren't in the entrance she went through, but that worked out for the better. She hadn't any fish and she knew that a waking bear after hibernation would want food and fast, and she'd rather not wish to become a bear's waking meal.

Looking up she saw the bats, moving so slightly that it looked like the very ceiling of the cave was living. She and Chrome slowly cantered in, to about where she felt the center of the bat congregation was. "Alright Chrome, whenever you are ready, run up the wall and ring the bell as close to the ceiling as you can." she wispered to her foxy companion. No sooner did Trekker finish giving her instruction did Chrome bolt up the wall to ring the bell. Trekker quickly dropped the basket knowing she didn't have much time to get the jars of insects ready. Once the bats woke she'd have to be ready to open up the treats for the waking bats.

*ding ding ding* Chrome rang the bell, and like a wave the bats released from their perch and started flying AWAY from Trekker towards another entrance of the cave. Trekker facehooved herself. 'Of course! I should have gone to the cave opening and waited at the entrance and signaled Chrome with a whistle! Most bats head to the cave opening for food.' Trekker thought lamenting to her short sighted thought to this plan. Regardless Trekker gave chase carrying the basket with the insects and fruit. Trekker released one of the jars by throwing it with a swinging motion from her basket. *CRASH* And insects flew out, but only some of the bats came back to grab some food.

Just then Trekker saw something. She squinted her eyes... and saw... "Oh no..." Trekker muttered to herself. "Dear Celestia help us..." It was a large brown bear stretching, clearly waking up, and a couple of ponies just there. Knowing what was likely to happen, and remembering her vow to not use magic, she shouted out "BATS ARE COMING!" True, the shouting probably wouldn't help the matter with the bear and bat mix, but at the very least the ponies would be prepared, if they could get prepared... At the very least they would have some warning...

[CaptainMcDerp]

"Whoa..." Brooke watched in awe as Fluttershy calmed the creatures down with a certain stare of sorts. After providing them each with an acorn, Fluttershy returned to her and extended a hoof. Brooke blinked in realization. She grew quite accustomed to the upside-down world and almost forgot about her predicament. She accepted the assistance and stood to her hooves, idly brushing the dirt from her hair as she spoke. "That was very impressi-

Her words fell silent as her eyes met several chipmunks standing on the ground by her hooves. She glanced up to see a crowd of animals have surrounded Fluttershy, chattering rapidly.

"Storm? What Storm?"

A white bunny quickly pointed to the sky. Brooke's eyes drifted upwards. A low gasp escaped her muzzle at what she saw. Unnatural storm clouds were drifting their way at a fast pace The temperature was dropping and the wind had picked up. But worse than that was the snow that poured from the clouds like a waterfall!

Fluttershy had scooped a skunk and ferret into her arm and was flying towards shelter. "Everypony! We need to get to shelter, NOW!"

"Mother of Celestia..." Brooke whispered under her breath. She glanced from the animals to the cottage near by as a plan mapped out in her head. She scooped two squirrels and a chipmunk into her arms before glancing back towards the sea of animals. "Follow me and I'll lead you to shelter!" Most of the creatures were too scared to move, but a gopher and a few skunks found enough courage to follow behind her.

She limped as fast as she could towards the house. The experience was surreal. Things had turned from peaceful to chaotic and in just moments her concerns veered from waking animals to saving them from a storm. When she got to the door, she opened it with her free hoof and entered the living room. After the rest of the creatures followed her in, she eased the small rodents to the ground. "Stay here where it's safe while I go get the others.

Brooke exited the cottage, closed the door, and bounded over to Pyro Blaze.

"I know Ponyville doesn't employ magic during Winter Wrap Up, but this is an emergency. " She pointed her hoof towards the house. "I need you to levitate as many animals as you can into the cottage."

[PyroBlaze]

Pyro continued to lay there with his eyes closed until he heard a stallion's voice addressing him. he gave a small grunt in reply to the first comment, then opened his eyes to see the tattooed stallion wearing his sunglasses. He sighed inwardly as he stared at the stallion admiring his sunglasses. Then the stallion hooked his foreleg into Pyro's and pulled him upright.

He stood with no trouble. Thankfully, his fall hadn't seemed to injure him all that much, just sore now. At least it wasn't as bad as the changeling invasion during Nightmare Night, he felt much worse after that than he did now. After shaking some snow off of him that had gotten stuck, he gazed again at the stallion.

"Thanks for the help, but can I have those back?" Pyro asked, indicating his sunglasses on the stallion's head. Then he looked around, and spotted Brooke being helped by the team leader. He sighed again, remembering the stallion's question from earlier.

"No, we didn't threaten the squirrels. They just kinda freaked after she sneezed." Pyro said, waving a hoof towards Brooke. His head whipped back over to the leader as she told everypony to get to cover. He could see why, that storm did not look fun. "C'mon dude, we need to get into shelter. You can give those back after we're safe." He said, trotting away towards some shelter and checking to make sure the stallion was following. Before he got too far, Brooke came back over and told him to levitate as many animals as he could into the cottage. He nodded to the doe before speaking.

"My main concern is the safety of everyone here, but I'll save as many of the animals as I can." He said, picking up a group of animals in a red cloud of levitation magic and carrying them with him into the cottage. He set them down inside and went back out to get more. If he really needed to, he could probably use his magic to protect him from the storm.

[IceStorm]

The trek to the bear's cave was, in all honest, took a lot longer than Ice Storm would have preferred. Not only because she wanted to spend more time talking with Pressy, but also because of the fact that she really wasn't too keen on waking up a bear. Bears were a lot larger than ponies were, and were normally very violent. Both of those things were something that she didn't really look forward in having to dealing with. In the back of her mind, something was just telling her that something was going to go wrong, and that they shouldn't be here. She couldn't place what was causing the feeling, but in her gut, she knew that something wouldn't be right. She stood back by the entrance of the cave as the more experienced mare moved in to attempt to wake the bear. "Alright... no mistakes, no sudden movements..." she said to herself quietly as she felt something.... very odd. The winds around her began to pick up substantially, and she could feel the temperature plummeting. "What in the hay.... if we're in the process of wrapping up winter, shouldn't it..... be...." she said, losing her entire train of thought as she saw the massive blizzard starting to roll in over the top of them. Her eyes momentarily shrank to about the size of a quill tip as she saw the mountains of snow that were being deposited in the wake of the storm.

Just then from behind her, she heard a loud echoing coming from within the cave as well a lot of screeching. This did nothing to calm Ice Storm's nerves as she turned around. A pony that loud in side of a cave was a recipe for disaster. At this point she could see the bear starting to become roused and to make matters worse, it was being surrounded by bats. That wasn't the only problem though. Along the roof of the cave were many stalactites that could now begin falling at any moment. Thanks to the mare's shout deep in the cave, this was no longer a safe shelter as if those started falling, they run the risk of at the very least entrapping a pony if not impaling one. Ice Storm was now uncertain of what she should do. There were ponies outside that needed shelter, but she couldn't just leave Pressy and the other two mares here to deal with the bears and now the cave. Ice looked back to the ponies outside as the blizzard was getting closer and closer.

"For all that is Equestria, We are not losing anypony or animal today," She moved further into the cave next to the brown mare. "You and Pressy get out of the cave, now," she said pointing to the stalactites. "This cave is a time bomb now with all of the noise that is currently in it, and will be in it once those bears are fully awake. However, you won't be able to stay outside. There's a massive blizzard rolling in from the Everfree Forest. I need you to get yourself, and Pressy to shelter, I will go into the cave after the mare that's deeper in it and try to guide her out," she stated looking and faintly seeing a couple of outlines deeper in the cave. "I also apologize in advance, but the no magic rule is out the window. This is an emergency, and I will forsake tradition to insure that we do not lose anything in this event. I will be out to do what I can to help combat the blizzard, and if you haven't found one by the time I get out, I will make a shelter for us," she said not taking time to wait for a response as she ran towards the figured in the deeper part of the cave and past the bears. Hopefully once the bear was fully awake, the bats would have it distracted enough for her and the other one to get around them. "Normally, I would introduce myself," she proclaimed before sliding to a stop in front of the mare and pointing at the ceiling. She could already see a few cracks in some of the weaker stalactites. "All it takes is one to fall and the entire thing is coming in. We need to get out of here, now!"

[Zeig]

Oh.

Buck.

Him.

One thing was for certain - winter was in no way, shape, or form, ready to be wrapped up quite yet.

Inkbrand was vaguely aware that his jaw was hanging open in a rather unattractive manner as the clouds, which had been milling peacefully if ominously in the background, suddenly appeared to spring up in full and unrelenting force, a maelstrom of broiling grey and black clouds. Sheets of snow fell as quickly and thickly as a waterfall - he could almost picture the land behind the clouds being cleanly laid to rest under a brand new sheet of pure white - and showed no signs of stopping their path.

This storm couldn't be natural, could it? He'd heard of sudden rainstorms sure, but for a snowstorm this powerful to roll in without any sort of warning…

Inkbrand had no more time to ponder the issue, as animals attuned to nature started panicking every which way, most of them clambering all over Fluttershy in their efforts to find safety and security. The tattoo-clad stallion was finally able to shut his mouth when the flame-colored stallion he'd helped up spoke to him, indicating a need to get to safety. "Don't got to tell me twice, brother," Inkbrand murmured fervently, tossing his head up to push the sunglasses onto the top of his head, before turning to see a small clutch of animals nearby. Inkbrand sneered slightly - saving the lives of everypony sounded a lot more important than saving the lives of woodland critters - but even he wasn't stupid enough to start an argument with, you know, a massive snowstorm baring down on them all.

"Come on, move it, you little - " Inkbrand snarled at the trembling group, and when that failed to motivate them, swept forward to clutch at as many as he could get his hooves around. Sensing a ride, two rabbits, three birds, and a very fat hedgehog all jumped onto his back and head, causing Inkbrand to stumble a bit at the sudden weight and almost loose his hold on the animals he was carrying in his hooves. "Can't believe we're not getting paid for this," he grunted as he - barely - regained his balance, and ran over in the direction the doe had just come from. Sure enough, Fluttershy's cottage appeared in his sights, slightly obscured by the grey and white precursor of the true storm. Kicking open the door and causing the animals already inside to scramble for cover, Inkbrand unceremoniously dumped his baggage onto the floor, before turning around, shutting the door firmly behind himself, and heading back towards the other ponies.

A hint of cream and brown flashed through Inkbrand's memory, causing him to slow his pace slightly as he looked towards the caves. The cream-colored mare that had given him a tongue-lashing, Presteza…

Most of the ponies were continuing herding the animals this way and that, but there was no sign of the unicorn, or the brown mare that had lassoed her into helping with…with bears. The caves would be shelter enough from the storm, wouldn't they? So long as the bears stayed amiable and dormant. But if those ponies got blocked in by the snowy aftermath, it would take large amounts of magic to dig themselves out. Inkbrand grit his teeth slightly, but after a moment, continued on his path towards Fluttershy. One bucking crisis at a time.

It seemed to take a small millennia to wade through the sea of animals surrounding the yellow Pegasus, but Inkbrand was finally able to break through, reaching up to grab at Fluttershy's foreleg and attempt to tug the hovering Pegasus. "C'mon, let's go," he yelled over the wind that was beginning to pick up, "they're all going to follow you!" It certainly seemed that way at least - many of the animals seemed determined to stay by the yellow Pegasus' side, maybe because they knew her personally. Whatever the reason, Inkbrand figured they would follow after Fluttershy's lead, far faster than any attempt by him to pick up the struggling, panicked animals.

[PedestrianWolf]

"Everypony! We need to get to shelter, NOW!"

Snickerdoodle looked up suddenly when she heard Fluttershy holler. At first she was confused, then she saw the storm bearing down on them, hard.

"Oh Shhh..." suddenly aware of the little ears in close proximity, she hastily modified the epithet as it escaped her lips. "Shhh...ugar plums! Those clouds do not look good." Turning towards Apple Susie, she said "Sorry, little one, it looks like waking the animals has to wait for awhile longer." The pegasus mare scooped up the little earth filly and dashed back towards the group at the nest making station. "Here, you stay with Rarity and the others. I've got to go see what I can do to help with the storm."

Snickerdoodle was not a weather pony. Yes, she was a pegasus, and she did work at the weather factory in Cloudsdale. But she was a rainbow maker, not a cloud wrangler. Still, she had the basic safety training that all pegasi at the factory got in cases of emergency, and this certainly qualified. This storm looked bad, and since it was coming from the Everfree, it was probably very bad. Busting the clouds outright probably wouldn't work, but maybe she could herd the snowstorm away from town. Flying towards the oncoming squall, he wished fervently that her mother, Snowsera, was not currently on vacation in the Gallopicus Islands right now. She would definitely know how to handle a runaway winter storm.

EDIT: probably moving this character to the weather team thread for the duration of the blizzard.

[Pretzelparty]

*ding... ding... ding...*

There was the signal. Slowly, Presteza slide the pail of fish towards the sleeping bears. Making sure that she was quiet as possible as the bears began to yawn, their noses twitching as they smelled the delicious fish. The mare began to slowly back up as the bears growled, they seemed pretty drowzy but their noses were able to guide them to the buckets and soon their claws grasped and pulled the buckets in. Just as they started to chow down there was a loud shout from deeper inside the cave.

"BATS ARE COMING!"

"Wot? Bats?" ,asked the mare to nopony before, the voice from within the cave's prophetic warning came true and all three of our brave mare (and one's foxy companion) were surrounded by the loud flapping of webbed wings and panicked squeaks. Needless to say, the bears didn't take very kindly to the sudden raucous entrance of these winged creatures just as they woke. With a powerful roar that filled the cave. Suddenly the bears began to swipe wildly, claws up to try and swat down the flying pests. This was not good at all, to make matters worse their seemed to be a sudden influx of snow! THe cave mouth was quickly being sealed by a heavy pile of snow building up outside!. If nopony acted fast enough they may windup stuck in here with disgruntled bears and panicked bats seeing as if this entrance was being swiftly covered then any others mig. Speaking of the bears and bats, they had to be taken care of too! Their job was to wake the animals for this Wrap up but now this would have to extend to making sure they didn't hurt eachother or get injured... this was goinf to be a challenge.

It seems that Ice storm was more than willing to rise up to that challenge though. Swiftly the cyan unicorn moved to the mare with no name and gave her some orders. A little surprising as most of what pressy had seen of Icy was her gentle side since befriending her. This was at the very least an interesting change.

"For all that is Equestria, We are not losing anypony or animal today, You and Pressy get out of the cave, now," she said pointing to the stalactites. "This cave is a time bomb now with all of the noise that is currently in it, and will be in it once those bears are fully awake. However, you won't be able to stay outside. There's a massive blizzard rolling in from the Everfree Forest. I need you to get yourself, and Pressy to shelter, I will go into the cave after the mare that's deeper in it and try to guide her out," she stated looking and faintly seeing a couple of outlines deeper in the cave. "I also apologize in advance, but the no magic rule is out the window. This is an emergency, and I will forsake tradition to insure that we do not lose anything in this event. I will be out to do what I can to help combat the blizzard, and if you haven't found one by the time I get out, I will make a shelter for us,"

Presteza suddenly felt something land right on her muzzle, followed by several more impacts. With a wiggle of her muzzle the mare took a step back and looked up. One of the Stalactites above her was starting to crumble at the base! Like Icy said, the cave was a time bomb and now it looked like it was beginning it's countdown. Before the mare would say anything to her friend she zipped off to confront the mare deeper in the cave. After a moment's pause the mare looked to Miss Mane and spoke up, "Well... I'm only half on 'er side. I think this kinda calls for a break from tradition... but we can't leave 'er ta take care o' these animals on 'er own and I don't know if she can calm em without freezin' em... Right now I think we should focus..."

*SWIPE!*

A powerful claw came through and almost hit both Mane and pressy but with some quick reflexes on the artists part, she manged to pull the elder mare to the ground with her and duck the powerful bear claw. Gasping in relief she looked to Calamity and continued,"On calmin' these animals while she takes care o' that pony."

[Mojo]

When Mojo ventured further into the cave and saw the situation, he knew he had to act fast. Seeing his friend Presteza nearly get grabbed by an angry bear prompted the Paint stallion to quickly reached for his wooden flute pipe.

"Time to play the tune of peace an' get this big shaggy bear ta chill out," Mojo said as he began to play. The tune he played has a very soothing affect on the bear, who began to sway back and forth with the music. This isn't the first time the Paint stallion had dealt with angry animals. He hoped his music would eventually fall to sleep so all the ponies in the cave would be safe as the storm continued to rage outside.

[starswirlthebearded]

Finally Trekker and Chrome made it to the area where the bear and the bats collided. A strange brown pony with a flute seemed to calm the bear... at least for a time. However... When Trekker looked up he saw something else that was disturbing... The bats... the brown pony seemed to have forgotten the other animals that were in the cave, the bats, and their super sensitive hearing. Instead of calming them they instead were put into a frenzy by the flute playing, some even colliding into the calming bear. Finally an annoyed bat rushed towards the brown pony and grabbed the flute from his mouth. The music now stopped and the bear's eyes widened and started flailing wildly at the bats now bothering it.

In the midsts of all of this, a blue unicorn came galloping towards Trekker and her foxy compatriot. She said she didn't have time to introduce herself and said something about things falling... but... what could fall? She had been in these caves for some time and saw nothing to suggest lack of integrity... it would take several extremely large bears (or an Ursa) or... magic... to do something. Hopefully this unicorn was following the same no magic rule as everypony else. Trekker looked around "It doesn't seem we are in danger of anything falling on us, but that bear doesn't look all too pleased. We should go help those ponies." Trekker said as she dashed off, with the blue unicorn behind her.

Trekker and Chrome rendezvoused with the other ponies in the cave. Looking at the situation at hand she felt partly responsible... After all... it was her waking the bats that caused this unfortunate collision. And this was the situation she wished to avoid... She looked at the other ponies "Uh... hi... I had hoped that the bats would have vacated the cave before you ponies arrived.... But apparently they are now annoying the bear. I think we should vacate the cave before somepony gets hurt..." Trekker made the wayward suggestion to the ponies around her, one of which looked familiar, it wasn't until she noticed the badge on her cloak that she realized the origin of the familiarity... Spellbound! Surely having another mag... wait... no magic...right... Well hopefully she was one who too loved adventure and learned something in her travels of how to deal with situations like this...

((OOC: Icestorm has permitted my actions of having Ice Storm follow Trekker))

[Bellosh]

It was all going so routinely. The bears were woken to the smells of fish and were about to end their long stay in this cave to an end. First it was the thousands of squeaks swiftly growing louder, which thanks to an unknown voice, allowed Calamity & Company to figure out that they were cave bats. Geez, thanks voice; the group totally didn’t know who was screeching in the darkness before, and now the bears got more agitated in the process.

Just like in Calamity Mane’s worst case scenarios, the ice unicorn lost her nerve, rambling about how the cave would collapse at any second, something about falling stalactites. Calamity had a good sense of what the young mare must surely be going through; face with an uncontrollable situation, the ice pony was giving in to her sense of blind panic, envisioning grim fates for them all. Well frankly, Calamity knew these caves better than the girl who already admitted to never partaking in Winter Wrap Up before. Stalactites had never fallen on anypony in the past, and the rancher didn’t need to look to feel in her gut that there was no way they’d fall now; at least not in a way that’d bring the whole lot of them crashing down on everything inside.

“Nopony’s going anywhere,” Calamity stubbornly ordered; “If we run, the bears will think of us as prey to chase after. We DO NOT WANT to be chased by bears. We have to corral together and get on our hind legs until everything calms down!” Standing on the hind legs was important; bears tended to be less likely to attack ponies that make themselves look bigger. As for the ice mare, she went on deeper into the chaotic mess, probably to save that lone voice from earlier. Bad move; one of the bears took notice and eyed the unicorn hungerly, and was liable to go off after her once the bat commotion died down. There wasn’t much Calamity could do for the unicorn, unless she wanted to bring the entire den down after then.

And for that matter, Calamity Mane had her own problems; another grizzly bear around apparently decided to blame her and the other assistant for all their troubles. With the assistant's quick reflexes, the Rodeo Queen safely ended up pushed to the ground. Not one to stay put and forced to think fast, Calamity bucked the unicorn out of the way, swiftly stood up and slowly backed away from the bear, rearing up on her hind legs and procuring one of her trusty lassos. If the earth pony needed to, she’d-

*OOOF* Almost right as a weird flute sound started playing, the entire cave’s bat colony flew right through the two combatants, obscuring Calamity’s vision down to nothing. And just as soon as the bats flew past, the rancher instantly observed a gang of pony-sized furry masses chasing after. With the skill that came from years or handling stampedes, Calamity galloped out of the way of the cubs... who naturally were followed by their fierce mama, the biggest bear in the entire cave, along with the other one from earlier. That flute player was about to have a really bad day.

The owner of the bat-warning voice finally revealed herself, along with the ice unicorn and a silver fox companion. Calamity Mane lacked any time to waste. “Can't go out that way,” Mrs. Mane pointed to the entrance she came from; “All the bears went there. We'll have to skedaddle back the way you came.”

[Corsair]

Fluttershy was frantically trying to hold her position in the sky as the winds picked up. She'd already dropped off a few animals back at the cottage, but many of the volunteers and awakened animals were still out there somewhere. She hoped that some of the creatures would have returned to their burrows, but the ponies didn't have that luxury. She gestured wildly, and yelled, trying to make herself heard. Her pastel colors made her stand out against the white... or at least that's what she was hoping.

"This way!" she shouted. "Inside as quickly as you can!!" With the wind whipping around her, she wasn't sure any pony or creature could hear her. She'd seen Brooke and Pyroblaze assisting some animals inside. For just a moment, she had started to object when the unicorn started to use magic, but she quickly realized that the situation was just too dangerous; tradition would have to stand aside for expediency. With the decreasing temperature and the increasing snow, she didn't even notice as her wingtips began to frost over. "Please! Everyone! You need to get inside!" she shouted in desperation. Then, Fluttershy felt somepony grab her hoof.

​
"C'mon, let's go, they're all going to follow you!"

She started to protest. "But... there are ponies still out there!" But then, she looked at the ground, at the shivering creatures all trying to stay next to her. She dropped to the ground among them. She wiped her pastern across her eyes to clear the snow that had built up there. "Everyone this way!" she shouted, trudging through the wind and building snow toward the door.

Ushering the last little bunny inside, Fluttershy struggled to push her door closed from the onrushing wind. Finally bolting it into place, the pegasus sagged to the ground. Her mind spun. This... this just couldn't be happening! Winter Wrap Up was supposed to be a bright, happy day to welcome the animals back. It wasn't supposed to turn out like this! And she was the team leader... Why did this have to happen now! She was on the verge of breaking down into tears, when she felt someone lifting her muzzle from the ground.

Angel forced Fluttershy's head around until the pegasus could see the other occupants of the now over-crowded cottage. Ponies and animals filled almost all the available space. Creatures huddled together in shivering, miserable piles, those that weren't frantically pacing or running in circles. The ponies looked no better. Fluttershy forced herself to her hooves. Projecting a calm she her self didn't feel she called out, "Everyone, calm down! This is no time to panic!" This is the PERFECT time to panic! her mind screeched in protest. Forcing down her impulses, she scanned the crowd for familiar faces. She felt immense relief when she spotted one particular unicorn. "Rarity!" Fluttershy flew over and grabbed her friend in a hug. "Rarity, I need your help! I need you to get all of the extra blankets out of storage." Spotting another unicorn in the group, she called out to him as well. "Mr. Pyroblaze, can you do fire magic? I need somepony to build up the fire in here."

Fluttershy began mentally running through a mental inventory of the supplies she had in the cottage. She had animal food reserves built up for the next month or so, but most of that was in a cellar outside. Her firewood supplies were low though, because winter was supposed to be over! She looked out of her window, and could see nothing but white... How long could they all stay in here??

​

[PyroBlaze]

Pyro was levitating more animals towards the cottage when the leader began moving that direction too. He stayed to the side of the door as he set the animals down inside. He was making sure everypony they could get inside made it. He was the last one in, besides the leader, who was now forcing the door closed. It was really cramped in here, but he didn't mind. That just meant they had saved more ponies and animals.

The leader was calling for everyone to remain calm. Then she seemed to be scanning the crowd, eventually hugging Rarity and asking her to bring blankets out of storage. Then she was addressing him, telling him to get the fire going.

"Fire magic's my specialty. Just give me a second and we'll have a fire going." Pyro said before scanning the crowd to find the stallion that had his sunglasses. When he found the tattooed stallion, he levitated his sunglasses off the stallion's head and made his way over to the fireplace. When Pyro got there, he placed his sunglasses back on his face and put some wood together for the fire. With the wood set up, he activated his magic and a fire sprung to life in the fireplace. With his job done, he moved away from the fire to let others warm themselves up.

[RarityDash]

Sometimes when Rarity was hard at work, her instincts just took over. It was perhaps not entirely the most opportune thing sometimes, but concentration on her art could block out all manner of things from her perception. So it was about the time she started in on her second nest. After that point, she lost track of all of the things that were happening around her. Presteza, Valen, Mojo, Fluttershy, even the very elements themselves. Any of the commotion nearby, anypony who might have spoken to her, anything that happened was lost on a mare very busy with her work. Nests formed quickly though. She had learned not to stress unduly on just one for ages as she once did. Still, she demanded perfection for the birds and did her very best to ensure each and every specimen was exquisite.

Rarity stayed at the task so long, that she didn't even take note at first when the strom swept in or even when the panicking ponies started rushing all about. Only when a sudden chill swept over her did she decide to look up from her nest. And it was a good thing she did! At nearly that very moment, a very large fell tree branch came crashing down on her table, smashing most of the nests she had toiled to create to pieces and only narrowly missing her head. Rarity started back at this and looked about. It didn't take her long to deduce that something was very much not right. An unnatural, unplanned for storm of sorts? What an unfortunate and awful thing. That it would choose to destroy so thoughtlessly the fruit of her hard work only served to anger the pony. She was prepared to scold the storm until she realized this was utter silliness and also the fact that she was in danger.

Luckily for her, the nest table was only just outside Fluttershy's cottage. The few steps back and into the cottage were somewhat labored for the weather, but she managed and made her way in through a back entrance. No sooner had she then Fluttershy herself rushed in and then almost just as suddenly threw her arms around her. Rarity thought back to her earlier words to her firm friend and nodded. She needed to be ehre for Fluttershy now. That was the most important thing. Whatever Equestria decided to throw at them, she'd be sure to help her friend and all those who looked to her for guidance with whatever they might need.

"At once, my dear," she said. She knew where Fluttershy kept practically everything in her quaint little cottage. The storage closet where the extra blankets were was up on the second floor.

Before she departed to retrieve the blankets, she gave another smile at Fluttershy. "Don't allow yourself to worry, dear. No matter what happens, we'll make it by all right," she said with a nod and then she rushed up to get the blankets. She returned only moments later, carrying a large stack of fluffy warm blankets. Not enough for everyone, and some seemed only large enough for small animals, but it would help them keep warm.

"Everyone grab some blanket now--be sure to share--and let's gather 'round the fire!" she said to everyone in the cottage who might hear her.

​

[Mojo]

Mojo was briefly taken by surprise when a bat snatched his flute but soon retained his trademark calm, peaceful composure.

"Not cool to nick me flute, but I didn't know we had bats in this cave too," the Paint stallion admitted, turning to the other ponies in the cave, "I'm gonna give it another go at calmin' these creatures down. Stay calm, panic will only invite more chaos. Wish me luck."

The hippie brony slowly approached the warring animals, the angry bear swinging at a flock of equally annoyed flying bats.

"Yo, cave critters, chill out! No need ta quarrel about like this. Everything's groovy! Let's have peace.."

Now Mojo began to hum the tone he'd been playing on his flute, but in a far lower octave in order to keep from agitating the bats any further.

[QueenChrysalis747]

Moonlite got into the house and saw Rarity and Fluttershy, she looked around, "How can I help?" she asked either of the mares. She had so far been completely useless, she asked Rarity to help but the mare was so busy she must not have noticed.

[CaptainMcDerp]

Brooke had ushered a few more groups of animals into the house alongside Pyro, but she found it increasingly difficult to function as the storm was now upon them. Temperatures dropped, freezing the tips of her hair. The wind threw her about like a piece of crumpled paper and the snow plummeted to the ground in sheets.

"Everyone this way!"

She gazed around to see ponies following Fluttershy to the safety of the cottage. Once everyone made it inside, Brooke hopped in before Pyro joined her and Fluttershy forced the door shut. After calming everyone down, Fluttershy requested Pyro to get a fire going while Rarity fetched some blankets.

"Everyone grab some blanket now--be sure to share--and let's gather 'round the fire!"

Brooke complied to Rarity's direction and wrapped a portion of the blanket around her before scooting closer to the fire.

Her mind swarmed with questions as she scanned the cluster of faces. Did everypony make it out safely? She couldn't help but feel there were others out there. Her heart sank as she remembered the group of ponies who headed towards the caves. Wait, no need to worry, right? Caves serve as a great shelter during a storm like this after all.

But what if they're trapped in with the bears?

Brooke became increasingly tense as her mind filled with worry. Would it be foolish to go after them? What if it's too late? She couldn't take it anymore, she had to speak her mind.

"I think others are still out there. Particularly those who volunteered to wake the cave dwelling animals. Is there anything we could do about their predicament?"

[Bellosh]

Over near the cave’s mouth, the frantic argument between the bats and the bears was just about to produce its first unintentional causality. Mojo did his very best to continue calming down the feuding creatures, and given enough time, the mammals might have started paying attention to him. But alas, a flustered snarling bear, resorting to kicking at its flying tormentors, missed its mark and scored a direct hit on Mojo. That kick had enough force to blast the pony of peace right out of the cave entrance (right before the accumulated snow covered it up), hurling straight into the blizzard-infested sky. With such a strong punt from the bear, it’d be entirely possible for Mojo to end up as far away as Fluttershy’s cottage, despite the raging snowstorm.

Witnessing the departure of the flute player from deeper in the cave, Calamity Mane set things into motion. Without waiting for anypony else to offer a dissenting opinion, the rancher warily cantered even deeper into the cave. But she and the rest of the party had to be quick about escape, or else the snows would block their only other viable exit point. And Calamity did not look forward to sharing a cave with an entire family of disgruntled, territorial bruins.

[IceStorm]

Ice couldn't really believe all of the events that were unfolding. First there were bears, then bats, then snow. This was followed by a pony playing a flute before the bats stole the flute, then the bear kicked the flute playing pony out of the entrance of the cave to Celestia knows where. At this point all of the bats and the bears were still as frantic as ever, and going deeper into the cave, rather than leaving, was apparently the first choice of the brown mare. She went off on her own. That wasn't the smartest thing that she could do at this point. However, to be honest, Icy had done the same thing not too long ago. She wasn't really in a position to say anything because of that. However, since the bears were busy with the bats, that gave Icy enough time to move over to the entrance of the cave that had been blocked.

She looked at it carefully examining the snow's density and weight, and how structurally sound it was. "Hey!" she yelled back at the mare that was going deeper into the cave. "We don't need to go deeper into the cave to find a way out. This is still a perfectly viable option, and in fact safe than the way you're heading" Ice Storm said to the stubborn mare. "Looks like I'll be asking for forgiveness rather than permission," she said to herself as her horn lit up and she focused her beam onto the snow that was blocking the entrance, creating an archway several meters in length into the snow to give them a path. "We can go this was to get to the top layer of snow. From there, unless it's completely buried, we should be able to find Fluttershy's cottage and any other ponies that may have gotten caught off guard by this storm like we have and gotten stranded. I will protect us all as much as I can from the elements, but we have to hurry!" Ice Storm said moving into the highly condensed archway of snow that she created. Once everypony was in the archway, she could seal the cave off with ice so that the bears still had their fish, and they could be separated from them to avoid anymore accidents while they were getting out.

[Mojo]

Suddenly, without warning, Mojo found himself on the receiving end of the fierce bear's kick. The force of the kick propelled the Paint stallion out through the slowly closing cave entrance like a shot out of a cannon!

"Far out!" Mojo neighed as he ascended into the sky, "flyin's so groovy! No wonder me gal pal Jubilee likes soarin' in the sky so much."

The cold of the storm soon had the hippie brony chilled, ice began to form on his pelt as he reached the arc of his flight and then started to fall downward. Mojo had to think fast before he hit the ground and wind up with a long recovery at Ponyville Hospital. An idea sprang to mind as the Paint stallion calmly reached into his saddlebag and pulled out one of the hoofmade shag rugs that he liked to create and sell so much. Quickly tying two ends of it to his hind legs, he held the other two corners of the run in his front hooves, and thus formed a makeshift parachute to help slow his descent. As Mojo neared the ground, he saw he was now directly over Fluttershy's cottage.

"I hope that Fluttershy babe doesn't mind me dropping in on her like this," Mojo chuckled as he tried to steer clear of the roof, which he failed to do. Striking the rooftop with a good amount of force, the Paint stallion crashed through it, landing on a sofa in Fluttershy's living room. Lucky break for him, since the comfy couch kept the hippie brony from much physical harm. After his landing, he looked up to see Fluttershy.

"Hay Fluttershy babe! Sorry ta crash yur pad like this, but I just hadda go with the flow after that bear kicked me outta his cave, can ya dig it? Oh, guess I should tell ya there's a buncha guys and dolls trapped in that cave with one angry bear and a whole lotta mean bats that don't appreciate good flute playin'. Kind of a bad scene going on there, love. They need help, ya think we can offer'm some, doll?"

[Zeig]

Inkbrand barely noticed the pilfered sunglasses being levitated off his head, only vaguely noted the fire starting up in the fireplace, and couldn't even summon a proper leer and ogling at Rarity's fabulous backside.

Seriously, what the buck.

This is what he got for being a good Ponyville citizen and volunteering to wrap-up winter. If the printing press was ever rescued from the piles of snow it was undoubtedly covered in by now, the headlines would eventually read, 'Manehatten Stud Freezes to Death Doing His One Good Deed of the Day. Serves Him Right.' Maybe Wicked Rhythm would hear about his untimely demise and throw a great big funeral party for him, maybe even shed a tear or two if she was really feeling up for the challenge.

Though, if Inkbrand were being entirely honest and a little less 'WE'RE ALL GOING TO DIE', even he could admit that he was lucky. Goodness knew how many ponies had been eagerly going about their day out there, caught when the first snowfall had started. And not to mention the ponies still stuck out in the caves. Inkbrand hadn't missed the hesitation in Fluttershy's voice when he'd gone to grab her, yellow head turned up the hills. And to be frank, it was a little sad, yeah. But if Presteza and that crazy brown mare were anything to go by, they were tough, they could figure out how to handle themselves until help came along. And help would not be coming along if Fluttershy, or anypony else, decided it'd be a good idea to go charging out into the blizzard without any sort of plan.

They'd be getting pony-shaped ice statues instead…or dear shaped statues.

"That's crazy," he said immediately after the pretty deer that had crashed into the tree earlier spoke up, expressing a concern for the ponies in the cave. She didn't expressively volunteer herself for a rescue mission, but for some reason, Inkbrand had the sneaky suspicion that at least five ponies in the room were all raring to go play the hero. "Not only would it be Tartarus in a hand basket to even reach the caves, what the hay would we do once we got there?" Maybe drag some blankets and a fire starting kit over to sit out the storm with them?

But again. Snowstorm. Blizzard. Tartarus in a hand basket.

"Besides," the grey stallion continued in a more passive tone, then stopped as a sudden shiver nearly took him by surprise. Despite the roaring fire, the dropping temperatures outside were starting to settle indoors, casting a generally icy chill over everything. Annoyed, Inkbrand looked around for a moment, before inviting himself into the deer's personal space to grab at the unused portion of her blanket. The grey stallion threw a slightly flirtatious glance down at her, but mostly focused on rearranging himself with the blanket wrapped around his body as best as he could.

"Besides" he repeated when he was finally content with his sitting arrangement, "that brown mare looked like she knew what she was doing." Against sleeping, dormant beers sans furious snowstorm outside, yes, but the point still stood. Inkbrand settled into a position pressed right up next to the deer, with only a half-desire to get the feel of her against his side - the blanket was genuinely too small to afford much space between them, and buck it all, her warmth was nice, and he was cold. And they were suppose to be sharing and all. Inkbrand shot what he thought might be a reassuring smile that was probably more of a leer down at the doe, but before he could be forced out of his much warmer and comfortable spot - or possibly get a hoof to the face - a distraction appeared.

Straight.

Through.

The roof.

Save for a startled "What in all Equestria - " that had erupted from him as the roof had caved inwards, Inkbrand watched with an almost deadpanned expression as a vaguely familiar pony untangled himself from loose debris, fabrics, and snow - and then was almost immediately shivering as the sudden blast of wind and ice followed after him, dropping the fire down to an alarming level. Fur-covered animals dove into blankets every which way, two rabbits and a badger burrowing their way against his own side, but Inkbrand barely paid attention to anything other than the circus show in the middle of the living room. The stallion was, apparently, completely unfazed by the giant gaping hole he'd just torn through the middle of Fluttershy's roof, if his flirtatious come ons and lingo were any indication. Under any other circumstances that hadn't involved freezing to death, Inkbrand might have been impressed by the stallion's dedication.

Too bad it wasn't go to work, though. Breaking and entering into a mare's home was, not, the best way to endear yourself to them. He would know.

But if he was annoyed at the sudden thrills and chills, the stallion's next words made Inkbrand's ears fall back onto his head. Sure…yeah, Fluttershy was undoubtedly the go-to pony for dealing with an angry animal, especially an angry and dangerous one. But was he seriously asking the Pegasus to go out into that storm? Fluttershy looked like the type of pony to get blown away by a strong breeze half the time, let alone a snowstorm.

But then, she'd probably bring along some volunteers to help out the rescue, and again, Inkbrand was fairly sure a good portion of the ponies here would jump at the chance. It was almost enough to make the tattoo-clad stallion roll his eyes, but hay, if they wanted to risk their lives for a bunch of strangers, they could do what they very well pleased, and he'd do the same. As if to prove his own mental point, Inkbrand snuggled even closer to the deer whose name he didn't know, laying his head down to rest as another shiver took hold of his body.

Ooh, yes. Sharing body heat was definitely the way to go.

[PyroBlaze]

Pyro didn't bother grabbing a blanket. Let the ones who need them use them. He could keep himself warm just fine without them. He sat around, worrying about Pressy and that brown mare that had drug her off to the caves. They could probably take care of themselves, but he couldn't help it. He wanted to make sure everypony was safe right now, and their safety was completely unknown to him.

Brooke seemed concerned about them too, which was good. That tattooed stallion though, he seemed more out for himself, at least at the moment. Pyro couldn't blame him though, they were in the middle of a blizzard after all. Self-preservation was fine, but Pyro put the safety of others above his own. He sighed slightly as the stallion snuggled up with Brooke.

He was about to speak, when a stallion crashed through the roof and landed on the couch. Pyro just stared, mouth slightly opened, as the pony spoke, seemingly unfazed by his crash through the ceiling. Casting a glance over at the fire, Pyro saw it was almost out due to the wind coming in through the hole. He simply put more magic into it and brought it back up to size.

"I'm going. I can keep myself from freezing out there." Pyro said, now that the fire was back up and running. If what that brown stallion said was true, Pressy could probably use some help.