"Aw I don't wanna sunbathe! I want to go in the lake." It was a sunny day in Equestria, and Luffy and the Mane 6 were at the lake.
"Um you do realize your devil fruit makes you physically incapable of swimming right?" Twilight looked at Luffy with concern. Luffy stood at the lake's edge like an eager child. Finally Twilight gave in and managed to come up with a solution. "Ok Luffy how about this: I cast a barrier spell around your body to keep you from actually touching the water. Sound good?"
Luffy lit up and pulled Twilight into a bear hug. "Oh really? Thanks Twilight!"
"Luffy it's fine! But could you let go? You're crushing me." Luffy promptly let go. "Oh thank you Luffy. Luffy! Wait! I didn't cast the spell yet!" Luffy in his eagerness had assumed Twilight cast her spell, and had began running for the lake.
"*Gurgle* Help!." *SPLASH* Luffy was flailing in the water trying not to drown.
"You see Luffy this is why you wait before acting. Now let me pull out of the lake and we can-oh geez! Wait!" *SPLASH* Luffy in a panic had begun stretching his arms outwards trying to grab something, and that something happened to be Twilight. "Really? You really did that?" She asked deadpan as Luffy clung to her. With a flash of her horn a purple aura appeared around Luffy fitting his form, and blocking the water enabling him to swim.
"Sorry Twilight. I kinda panicked." Luffy said sheepishly.
Applejack who was also in the water approached the duo. "Haha! I swear Luffy yer as headstrong as Rainbow Dash, and crazy as Pinky Pie!"
"Hey! No pony is crazier than me!" Pinky Pie appeared from the waters surface.
"I'll take your word for it." Applejack replied.
Luffy hollered out to Rainbow, Fluttershy, and Rarity, who were relaxing in the sun. "Come on! The water is great!"
Rainbow replied back at him. "No thanks we're enjoying the sun!"
"Yeah speaking of which, I'd like to get out of the lake you dragged me into."
"Come on Twilight. Have some fun!" Luffy tried getting her to stay.
"Drying off is my idea of fun, I wanted to sunbathe with everypony else."
Pinky also tried convincing Twilight. "It's not like some swimming will kill ya. Unless of course you forget how to swim and suddenly sink."
"Thanks but no thanks."
Luffy sighed a got out of the water. "Oh well." He began running to the edge and jumped. "CANNONBALL!" The resulting splash got everypony.
"Hey! Watch the mane!" Rarity shouted annoyed.
"You call that a cannonball? THIS is a cannonball!" Pinky inexplicably appeared at the edge of the lake and jumped. The landing made all the water in the lake rocket upwards and back, making a splash of explosive proportions. Most of the ground around the lake was swamped with water, and most of the Mane 6 were knocked over by the water.
"Ah swear y'all, one day those 2 are gonna be the end of us." Applejack said in awe of. Pinky's cannonball.
The next morning was terribly cold. Yes Hearth's Warming Eve was a few days away. But Cloudsdale was late in producing winter, this winter came clear overnight without warning, and freezing like a raging blizzard, to say nothing of the massive snow cloud that seemed to stretch endlessly over the horizon. Twilight was running around the library trying to figure out the cause of this unnatural winter. "Keep calm Twilight." She reassured herself. "There has to be a book on this. There just has to be! Too bad I can't find it." *KNOCK KNOCK* "Oh who could that be?" She opened the door, and saw her friends outside.
"Guys you're here!" A voice came from upstairs. It was Luffy who came crashing down the stairs into everyone, knocking them outside. Everybody lying sprawl in the snow.
Rainbow got up first, and shook the snow off her. "Dude! It's freezing out here. A little warning next time?" Luffy hardly payed attention, and was playing in the snow making a snowpony, with Pinky joining in. Everybody else entered Golden Oaks to discuss the blizzard. Everypony was worried abkut the worsening blizzard.
Applejack spoke first. "Alright Twi this snowstorm is unlike anything we've ever seen before, it is getting dangerous with ice everywhere. Not even the pegasi can help. We were hoping you had some answers."
This got an outburst from Rainbow Dash. "Hey! It's not our fault! Everytime we kick a cloud, it pops back twice as big!"
"Well whatever the case is we need to-" Rarity attempted to speak, but was inturrupted by Luffy screaming. Everypony looked out the door window to witness the events unfurling.
"HEY! You big jerk!" Pinky had accidentally knocked over Luffy's snowpony. Luffy balled up some snow and flung it at Pinky, hitting her square in the face.
Pinky's reaction was to lick the snow from her face. With a massive grin on her face she replied to Luffy. "So it's a snowball fight you want huh? Fine by me!" She began chasing Luffy, throwing snowballs fast enough to make a machine gun jealous. The tables quickly turned when Luffy caught them and balled them up into one big snowball, and literally steamrolled her with it. Luffy stood victorious, only to see the snowball rise prompting him to bolt to the door. The moment he opened it Pinky was already on him, and smashed it on him, and the rest of the Mane 6 with the snowball, breaking it.
Luffy took his loss in stride. "Oh man, you totally get me!"
Everybody was less than amused at their antics. "Agh! It's minus 15 *C outside! How can you be so energetic in cold like this?" Rainbow questioned them.
Up until now Luffy had payed the cold no mind, it took Rainbow mentioning it for him to notice. "Oh wow you're right Rainbow Dash, it-it's s-so cold!" He and Pinky began shivering like the everybody else, arguably even worse.
"NOW you notice? Oh geez, this is gonna be a lonng day." Rainbow gave a sigh.
"Ahem!" Twilight got everyones attention, and gave her take on the situation. "I'm sorry girls but I haven't found anything in my books. I've looked through every book twice, and not one of them says anything about whats happening."
"Well there just has to be something we can do. As much as I hate to say it, perhaps Discord could undo it." Rarity suggested.
Luffy'sface twisted to one of his rare frowns, and he shouted louder than he normally did. "Hey Discord didn't do it! Celestia said so herself!"
"Indoor voice please!" Rarity, and everypony else covered their ears. "That was unnecessarily loud. I never accused Discord of anything. But be that as it may, Discord IS an reality warping spirit. Even if he isn't the cause he can still use his magic to make this unnatural blizzard go away."
Fluttershy spoke up. "I'm sorry but that won't work. Discord told me he was sent on a misson by Celestia. Something about a magic absorbing anomaly. He is on the borders of Equestria as we speak, searching for it."
"Well who needs him? If we rely on him for everything, we will go soft! We've survived Chaos Worlds, an Evil Shadow Pony, Nightmare Moon, and lets not forget The Changlings. An out of control blizzard is nothing for us, it's not as though it is threatening all of Equestria!" Rainbow Dash had a really bad habit of tempting fate, no sooner than she finished her speech, Spike burped up a letter from Princess Celestia. Everyone gave her a smirk. "You gotta be kidding me." 'Dear Princess Twilight I'm sure you and your friends have noticed the unusual weather. Go to the train Station in Ponyville, the train will arrive with me there, and then we will head to the Crystal Empire. This is of the upmost importance. -Princess Celestia-
"What is the Crystal Empire?"
"Oh it's only the most gorgeous place in all of Equestria!" Rarity informed him. "It isn't called the 'Crystal Empire' for nothing you know."
Twilight inturrupted. "Girls, and Luffy. We know what we have to do. If Princess Celestia thinks it is a problem, then it must be worse than we thought!"
"Yeah but what in tarnation does the Crystal Empire have to do with anything?" Applejack questioned.
"I don't know yet, we will just have to wait until we meet with Princess Celestia. We have to leave, otherwise we will miss the train.
"Hey thanks for the outfit Rarity!" Rarity had brought everybody winter wear. In Luffy's case it was a long winter coat with blue black horizontal stripes.
"Oh it was nothing Luffy, I couldn't just let my friends freeze." She paused and took a moment to admire her handiwork, among other things.
"I hope the train gets here quickly, quite a few ponies have been hospitalized due to the weather, to say nothing of the property damages happening. The sooner we get to the Crystal Empire, the sooner we can find out what is going on, and put a stop to it." Twilight's voice was full of conviction. As if answering her hopes the train arrived 20 seconds later, and they went on, bidding farewell to Ponyville. They saw Princess Celestia and Luna in the first train car, which had royal guard at the door. Their faces looked somber. Twilight's face began beaming despite the cold, and she ran up to her former teacher. Princess Celestia! Princess Luna!"
Celestia took off her saddened face and allowed a gentle smile to appear in it's place. "Twilight, Element Bearers, Straw Hat! It's wonderful to see you all. Please take a seat."
Everyone took a seat. Fluttershy started asking questions. "So uh Princesses do you know what is going on?"
Rainbow asked next. "Yeah what's up with his weather, and whats the Crystal Empire have anything to do with this?"
Celestia turned to face her questioners. "What doesn't it have to do with this? Look at the clouds, they are the same ones that surround the Crystal Empire, and now they are spreading across Equestria."
Applejack put up a concerned face, and added more questions. "Well do we have any idea what is making it happen?"
This time Luna spoke up, still retaining her somber face. "Who you mean."
Rainbow Dash spoke loudly. "Oh come on! no pony could be that powerful!"
"Black Ice is." Luna replied.
"Who the hell is Black Ice?" Luffy asked.
"Black Ice." Luna said his name with raw hatred, her sad face turning into a scowl. "An Evil Alicorn with and terrible powers over the forces of snow and ice. 1200 years ago he appeared, reawakened The Windigos, and is the source of the eternal storm that surrounds the Crystal Empire."
"Oh great. Another wack job who wants to rule over Equestria." Rainbkw said with sarcasm.
"Rule over it? Absolutely not. He would love nothing more than to turn Equestria into a frozen wasteland. Encasing everything and everypony in ice. He is a twisted monster who cares not for life, with a mind as fragile as the ice he makes. Me and my sister threw him in Tartarus, he must have escaped when Cerberus left his post."
1200 years ago. "HAHAHAHAHAHAH!" A beam of ice and magic came from a horn, freezing an army of pegasi. The horn was half organic, half ice with the organic part seemingly broken off where the ice portion began, nerves visibly pulsing inside the horn. "Keep charging fools! I'll turn this land into ice, and DESTROY IT!" It was Black Ice, with a ghostly white coat, and a cutie mark that represented a potion bottle. His mane and tail like ice, and his wings made of ice, with visible wing bones inside it. "This place doesn't DESERVE TO EXIST! Your rulers are traitors who would throw you away!" He began gathering up all the snow in the area for miles and started condensing it in a bomb like ball. "With this Equestria will become a land of ice! Incapable of life!" The ball began expanding as more snow hit it, all seemed lost. But before it could do anything a blast of blue magic hit Black Ice square in his neck, making him lose focus and dropping the ball on him. It was Princess Luna. "PRINCESSES! AFTER WHAT YOU DID YOU DARE COME HERE?!"
"SILENCE!" Luna wore a heavy scowl, her eyes narrowed like a viper ready to strike. "We did nothing to thou! It will be you who pays! For what you tried to do to Equestria! For awakening the Windigos! For the taking of me and my sisters precious student!"
"Ragh! SHUT UP!" The mention of 'student' made Black Ice go ballistic. He stood on his hind legs slammed his front hooves into the ground sending ice spikes straight for Luna, who flew upwards. "Don't try to run Luna!" At his command the spikes shot upwards, and gave chase. She dodged one in an elegant spin, blasted a few with her magic. They still gave chase, and there were dozens, but it wasn't over. Luna made a downwards dive and allowed the remaining spikes to catch up, teleporting at the last second making the spikes shatter against the ground. Her teleport got her right behind Black Ice, and she blasted him in the back. Luna made an approach. "Agh! NO! NO! NO! NO! NO!" A miniature twister of snow surrounded him, and exploded outwards knocking Luna back. "HERE! A gift of mine!" He threw a vile of green liquid hitting Luna. "Doesn't it hurt? It'll increase your nervous systems sensitivity. Don't forget that ice isn't my only talent!" He proudly looked at his cutie mark, which signified a knack for potion making. "Next time think before you fight!"
Despite the cold hutting her ever harder Luna merley gave a smug smirk as she stood back up. "Whoever said we were fighting? I was just holding you back, until my sister got here." She promptly teleported away from Black Ice leaving him confused.
"Ahg whats that blinding light?" To his horror it was none other than Princess Celestia herself, flying above in front of the very Sun. "YOU!" He shrieked with fury and fear. Celestia spoke not a word, and the light seemed to grow brighter condensing itself in an orange ray around Black Ice. With temperatures hotter tban the surface of the Sun the snow melted instantly and the ground too under the heat of solar flare. "YAAAAHHH! IT'S LIKE AN INFERNO!" Black Ice was horribly burned with his with his wings partly melted, exposing the bone, as he tried to regenerate. Black Ice began rolling in pain. "IT'S HOT! MY SKIN FEELS LIKE IT'S MELTING! HOW COULD SUNLIGHT BE DOING THAT?!" It was all over Celestia appeared beside him as he got up for one last attack, and Luna appeared on the other side. Both princesses formed an energy ball representing their celestial bodies, and fired them at Black Ice resulting in a powerful explosion that could be mistaken for an eclipse. The dust settled. He was barley alive. "First you throw me away, then you try to kill me when I fight back. And to think I thought my heart was made of ice."
Celestia spoke as he lost consciousness. "I don't know why you did what you did, but we did nothing to you. We don't even know you. You will be living in Tartarus for the rest of your days for your crimes."
"Woah you beat him with sunlight? Thats so cool!" Luffy was amazed at their story.
"Princess you mentioned a student of yours?" Twilight asked. Celestia's face lost it's luster becoming pale, and sad.
Luna spoke. Her voice stern, yet pleading. "Please don't ask such questions, that is an bad memory for us, one that we can't bear without tears."
"So what?" Luffy's voice questioned her.
"So what? We're princesses. It's expected of us not to lose compusure. We must remain strong for our subjects."
Luffy was fuming at this and hollered. "THATS SO STUPID!" His sudden change in tone caught everypony off guard. The guards themselves flinched. "So because your princesses you can't cry when you feel like it? Don't be so stupid! Who cares if you're princesses?! That doesn't mean you can't act like a person. It's not weak to show your feelings!"
There was a few moments of stunned silence. "Luffy." Twilight gave an whisper.
Luna attempted speech, attempting to keep calm, although Luffy's words had rocked everypony. "Luffy I don't think you understa-"
Celestia inturrupted her sister with an amused smile. "Straw Hat Luffy. For someone who carries themselves as an fool, you have more wisdom than meets the eye. You're quite the enigma aren't you?"
"I'm just saying what I think." Luffy responded.
"If you really wish to know about 'the student', then fine I'll tell you. Frosty Hearth. His name was Frosty Hearth. He was a young unicorn colt in the Crystal Empire, who lived on the streets, due to the orphanage being too full. He wasn't just a student, he was the very first one. Me and Luna were on a trip there when we saw him, playing with the snow. Of course most ponies in his area could do the same, but the way he did it was so beautiful, and elegant. It was so trance like, few ponies were that skilled at it. We walked up and spoke with him. I suppose we made an impression on him, because we caught him following us when we left. I guess he left an impression on us too, so we offered to make him our student. He lived with us for 3 years before that fateful day today. Celestia's voice began breaking, her eyes watering.
"Sister." Luna said mornfully.
"On the way to the Crystal Empire a strong wind conjured by Black Ice knocked Frosty out of the chariot, and into the valley below." Tears now streamed down her face. "We searched for months before realizing the truth, and yet even still I held some hope that he might be out there."
"So what's so important about this Frosty Hearth guy?" Luffy questioned. "I bet you had dozens of apprentices before."
Luna answered his question with a frown. "Frosty was our very first student. It was our first time taking somepony into our personal care. We were young, and new to it. We were with him most of the time, and did almost everything together." She paused before speaking again, her voice cracking. "I guess after all that time spent with him, he dug his way into our heart's."
Both of the princesses were lightly crying, a few tears streamed down Fluttershy and Pinky's face, while Rarity held back a sob. "Good job, you made the princesses cry!" Rainbow sarcastically told Luffy, who remained calm the whole time.
"It's fine. This is something they need."
"Oh what? to relive a bad memory?"
"No. To relive it with their friends. They need to let it out with people they care about." His words once again caught everypony off guard. Everyone just sat for the rest of the trip, pondering this new information, little words were said afterwords.
"Hey what the hell is this?!" Luffy was dreaming again. Inside he felt deathly cold, ice was everywhere. He saw a vision of a pale alicorn covered in ice. "Huh? It's Black Ice! Come here, I'll kick your ass! Gomu Gomu no Pistol!" Luffy stretched out his arm, slung it forwards, crashing through Black Ice. "Ha! Got you! Huh?" The broken pieces of Black Ice began reforming, this time in the shape of Twilight, only frozen. Horror came through Luffy, his ears drooping. "Twilight? Hey whats wrong with you?" He placed his hooves over Twilight, searching for life. Luffy suddenly heard the crackling of ice behind him, and turned around to see 8 more visions of Black Ice. "What the? One of you has to be real! Gomu Gomu no Gattling!" The Black Ice visions all shattered and reformed, each reformation taking the shape of one of Luffy's friends, completely frozen. The mane 5, the princesses, and Discord. Luffy dropped to his knees. What is going on around here?" Ice began forming around him as well as he grew sadder, and angrier.
"Luffy." A voice called out for him. "Luffy! Wake up!" The voice came again, this time more forceful. LUFFY!!!
Luffy's eyes shot open, blinded by light momentarily. He could feel himself being held down, he tried struggling, but relaxed when he heard familiar voices. "Luffy it's alright." Luffy looked around. There were dents in the car, his the Mane 6 were holding him down, everybody had worried expressions, and the guards were knocked out.
"Woah what happened?" Luffy asked as his friends let him go.
"You happened sugarcube." Applejack spoke to him. "You started flailing an muttering in your sleep. You started attacking everypony, saying something about Black Ice."
Twilight spoke next. "Luna tried entering your dreams, but you ended up punching at her everytime she got near you." Luffy took a look at Luna who had bruises on her body.
"Oh uh, sorry about that." Luffy said sheepishly while rubbing the back of his head.
"It's fine, your actions weren't on purpose." She reassured him.
"Yeah you were going crazy! And not the fun kind!" Pinky added.
"Luffy what did you see?" Twilight asked Luffy.
Luffy took a moment to catch his breath and recalled his dream to his friends. "You were all frozen, I thought you were all dead!" Luffy proclaimed ending his story with his eyes growing wet.
Celestia put a hoof over his shoulder. "Luffy it's fine, it was a dream nothing more. We were worried for you too. It's rare for ponies to have night terrors this bad. The important thing is that you are ok."
"Do you think my dream meant something?" Luffy asked.
Celestia took a pause, then sighed. "Who knows. Some dreams are foretelling of things yet to pass. In your case I would hope it isn't, for the sake of everypony."
Luffy wiped his face, and regained his smile. "Well alright then! Let's keep going to the Crystal Empire!"
"Actually." Celestia spoke. "We are already here. Welcome to the Crystal Empire."
Luffy took a look outside the window, and saw a glimpse of a glorious city full of beautiful crystals. His eyes full of wonder at the sight. "Woah. Awesome." He said in a whisper.
To be continued.