The winter weather was always a fond memory for Snowflake Swirl. As a filly, growing up in Ponyville, she always enjoyed playing in the snow with her friends and taking walks with her parents in the woods. The holidays were merely an added bonus. Spending long winter nights curled up against a warm fireplace with her younger brother while her parents read to them was one of her fondest memories from years past. Yet of all those times, her most favorite memories were of skating on the lake with her friends. Oh how she loved it! It had started out as a lesson in ice safety from her daycare sitter when she was 3. Soon, Snowflake discovered the many things one could do with snow and ice. It wasn't until she was 8 that she decided to take up ice skating lessons. However, to her surprise (as well as the surprise of the class and instructor at the community center) she picked up on it as if it came as natural as breathing or walking. Eventually she discovered that if she mixed her love of dancing with ice skating, that she could do something astounding and it was this thought and a bit of practice that she got her cutie-mark of a snowflake atop an ice skate.
It was that day when she got her cutie-mark, when she started really thinking about her future. From then on, every day after school she was usually found at the local ice rink. Unless it were winter, then she’d be on the (hopefully) frozen lake and be completely focused on perfecting her routines making sure she was in tip top shape for competitions (that and her school work of course). Competitions. The one place where Snowflake honestly got a little (okay…a lot) bit crazy competitive. As is expected when you’d already won countywide division champion and Nationals champion. She took her competing a bit too seriously at times and is no stranger to the statement of “you need to take a chill pill filly!” As she's heard it many times in life when it came to competitions. As she grew up into a grown mare, her skills and experience on the ice only grew and she became world renowned in the skating community for being one of the most serious competitors. As well as the most fierce on the ice. Eventually even the great Snowflake Swirl had to slow down a bit. So what else does one who is a world renowned champion ice-skater do after she semi-retires? Opens a school for foals who seek a career in their passion of ice-skating/hockey playing. Having been open for now 3 years, the now 27 year old mare has scarcely had time for herself. That is, until today when she miraculously found her schedule free for the next few days. So that's how she found herself sitting in her living room on a plush deep red area rug with a book splayed out in front of her. Her phone playing a playlist of contemporary jazz music as she absent mindedly glanced at the book. Suddenly her phone rang and she picked it up.
“Hello?”, Snowflake asked.
“Hey big sis!?! Have you looked outside lately?”, The voice on the other end asked.
“*sigh* Catwalk, you know this is my day off! What's my rule for those rare days?”, Snowflake griped to her younger brother.
“I know. I know, but since I take it you haven't looked, it's currently snowing hard and sticking. That means, out there in Ponyville it's prime time for snow games! Anyways that's not why I was calling you. I was kinda hoping you knew where my old sewing machine was? I feel like it's in your attic, considering most of the family's old stuff is in your attic.”, Catwalk asked his sister.
Holding her phone away from her to let out a frustrated sigh, she put it back to her ear.
“Come on out and you can help me look. Because I sure as heck aren't about to mail it to ya if I find it.”, Snowflake said in an exhausted way.
“Great! So you don't care if I pop on over in say--an hour! Awesome! See you then!”, Catwalk exclaimed before hanging up.
“Wait I--nevermind.” Snowflake started as she got up and put her book back on her bookshelf. A quick glance atop made her stop briefly. A framed picture of herself at 5 years old standing with a trophy that was as big as she was. A large semi-toothy grin (with missing teeth) splayed on her young face and her ice skates draped on her shoulder as she posed with her trophy. Snowflake remembered this as it was her first elite competition and she had won with flying colors for ice dancing. Snow smiled before a thought occurred to her.
“How long has it been? 10? 15 years? Dang. It's been awhile since I've done that.”, Snowflake Swirl said to herself as she turned her music off and headed to her kitchen to put a pot of tea on.
(An hour Later…)
A knock on her door alerted Snowflake from her task in the kitchen. Wiping her hooves off on her apron, she ran to the door. With a smile she let her little brother inside from the cold. Making sure to remind him to dust his boots free of snow before taking them off in the foyer.
“You came a such a convenient time! I was just about to put a tray of cookies in the oven. I already have some tea brewing. We can look while those are being made.”, Snow told her brother as she hung up his coat and took off her black apron. Quickly dusting some flour off her pale blue coat and out of her golden mane.
“Ooohh! What kind of cookies?”, Catwalk asked as he scooped his older sister up in a gentle hug.
Returning the hug, Snowflake sighed as she realized she really hasn't gotten around to seeing her little brother in quite some time.
“Ohhh just our favorite cookies on the planet!”, Snowflake gleefully stated as a grin blossomed on Catwalk’s face.
“Sweet Celestia! Gingerbread! Now the question is: Are you using a box recipe or are these from scratch?”, Catwalk asked as he inspected the kitchen table near them.
“Did you really just ask me if I made gingerbread cookies from anyway other than Great-Great-Granny Mayflower’s recipe?”, Snowflake asked with the utmost straight face she could muster while internally laughing at the thought at the same time.
“Duly noted….now about that sewing machine? Let's get to looking.”, Catwalk responded with a playfully haute flip of his mane. Tiny snowflakes falling from the mop of hot pink dyed mane as the siblings laughed. Their laughter trailing throughout the house and into the attic to begin their search.
(2 hours later….)
With the sewing machine found and snacks eaten along with necessary catching up between the siblings, the time came for Catwalk to depart for the train station. With the house quiet again for the time being, Snowflake decided that a little light cleaning would be in order. Yet just as she was about to start up her vacuum, her phone rang once again. Picking it up and seeing the caller ID she groaned in exasperated annoyance as she saw it was the manager of her ice rink, Speed Skate.
“What do you want Speed? You know it's only my first day off in...well practically ever.”, Snowflake said in a faux-happy tone.
“Boss! It's a disaster here! Two of the instructor's called in sick and now we're short on instructors. There's still a class doing warm ups without an teacher. We know it's your off day, but we just don't have enough ponies to do the job!”, Speed rattled off, close to hyperventilating.
“Okay! Okay! Chill out Speed. Firstly make sure to leave a memo on my desk to personally check on the two sick instructors. Secondly…*sigh* I guess I’m on my way there to teach that class. What's the age range and course today's group is going for?”, Snowflake respond. Not missing a beat.
“Group of foals. Between 2nd-5th grades. They're going over….” Speed paused. The sound of papers being flipped was audible “Aha!... Let's see….looks like they were going over some drills then practicing some routines the group came up with for the holiday performance at the community center next week. Simple enough I’m sure.”, Speed finished.
“Alright. I'm on my way. Be there in 20 minutes if the roads are good.”, Snowflake said before hanging up and sliding on her boots and coat before grabbing her duffel bag with her supplies and headed out the door into the chilly afternoon air.
(3 hours later…)
After an exhausting 3 hours filled with loud semi-coordinated blades hitting ice and the sounds of 20 foals nearly tripping over themselves multiple times (though she will give some of the 5th graders credit for actually taking the rehearsals seriously whereas the others only half and half.)and giggling over it, Snowflake was seriously tired and incredibly annoyed. Walking home wasn't ideal due to it had gotten considerably colder and it had started back snowing lightly. Yet she managed as she trudged off her boots and found herself back on her rug with another small plate of cookies and some warm apple cider. Not paying attention to what she was doing, she inadvertently put on a playlist of instrumentals and film scores on her phone. Amongst them, one peaked her interest immediately.
“Well well...I haven't heard this song since….” Snowflake cut herself off as she suddenly remembered when it was the last time she had heard that particular song “.... geez... It's been about 14 years. If...if I really think about it, I’m sure I can remember the routine to that one.”, She finished as she picked up her empty plate and mug and put them in the sink.
With a determined gaze, Snowflake Swirl grabbed her phone and half leapt upstairs to her closet and dug through an old trunk labeled ‘Ice Dancing Stuff’. Once she found what she was looking for, she sped back downstairs and grabbed her skates and coat before heading back out the door.
(10 and ½ minutes later…)
Stilling her stride to a stop, Snowflake found herself at a familiar place and with an almost nostalgic sight. Horseshoe lake. Nopony knew why it was called that as it didn't even look like a horseshoe. Regardless Snowflake took precautions and checked to make sure that the water was truly frozen enough for her to walk on. Once she determined that it indeed was, she set about placing her phone and portable speaker on a nearby fallen log. She then proceeded to remove her coat, revealing a sparkling ice blue and white leotard w/attached short skirt. Lacing up her ice-skates, she headed out onto the ice. Quickly calling out to her phone to play the selected song on rotation. When the first bars of the song started, Snowflake instantly fell into a rhythm that she'd all but nearly forgotten. As the song continued its flow, so did Snowflake. Doing a ice dancing routine that she hadn't done since she was a mere 14 years old. Her spins and glides would seem near impossible to some ponies, much less an Earth pony, yet Snowflake pulled them off as if they came as natural to her as breathing or walking. Doing a series of twists and turns as the music intensified, she completely lost herself in the music. As the music started to end, she finished off with her signature move: a triple axle change into a backflip landing on the tips of her blades before sliding effortlessly into a pirouette and posing to finish.
Panting and smiling, Snowflake looked about at her surroundings. The sun had since began to set. Casting the sky into beautiful shades of amber and marigold with some purple mixed in. This in turn reflected off the snow that surrounded the land. Snowflake sighed as she reached the shore and replaced her skates with her boots and put her coat back on. She quickly told her phone to cease recording and packed up her speaker. Picking up her phone, she slid it into the pocket of her coat and began the trip home.
(10 and ½ minutes later…)
“Gosh! I had forgotten how much fun that is! You should've seen me out there. It was incredible!”, Snowflake said as she talked to her brother on the other end of her phone.
“I can imagine! Hey, are you gonna send me the video?”, Catwalk asked.
“Possibly…Let me review it first before I send you the video of what I did. Then I promise I'll send it to you. Okay I just got home. Call you later. Bye.”, Snowflake said as she hung up. Trudging her boots off again, she hung her coat and scarf up again before heading back into the living room. Only to be surprised as to see just who was in her spot on the couch.
“Chelsey! Hey girl, I was wondering why I haven't seen you much of today.”, Snowflake sighed as she rubbed the calico’s head lightly. Her only response was a happy meow from Chelsey and a satisfied purr as the pair wrapped up in a blanket on the couch and cuddled.