Marble probed the snow with her hoof, leaving a sparkly firm indentation on its surface. She pawed it some more, her ears forward, swishing her tail side to side, like a giddy little filly. She bent her forelegs and flopped to the side, smiling, stretching her legs. Marble braced herself and rolled to the side, then back, then again. Her gray coat got covered in silvery patches of snow, quickly becoming dark patches, when the snow thawed under the sunlight.
‘I love the snow so much!’ she thought, flicking her ear, ‘So white, so fluffy, so fun to roll in.’
She rolled some more times, as if to prove the point. Then stood up and wobbled, sending sparks of glittering snow dust left and right. She tossed her head to the side, making her gray mane fly, jumped forward, landing on all four hooves and immediately began to gallop. Her hooves were pounding the ground like hammers, while she ran through the snowy meadow without any care in the world. When she encountered a snow bank, a rather big one, up to her chest, she didn't even slowed down. Having a rock related cutie-mark, she knew from the instinct it was just a mound, not a snow covered boulder. She simply plowed through, laughing happily.
‘Almost like I’m at the rock farm.’
Although, the snow was much more shallow around the Ponyville. She and her sisters wouldn’t have to clear the Holder Boulder ever if it was here.
Finally Marble felt like she had enough galloping and slowed down to the trot and then to the walk. The sun got higher in the sky, marking the middle of the morning. Marble frowned. She deliberately got out as early as she could to walk to the outskirts in peace. The later it was getting, the more ponies would appear on the streets…
‘Oh, Celestia! I should have returned already. Now I will have to walk alone through the town, collecting all the stares.’ She dropped her ears and pawed the snow in distress.
Then her face brightened again.
‘Pinkamena will probably want to have a second morning snack and will go searching for me, no doubt. She always knows where I am, somehow. Or, if she’ll be busy in the kitchen, Maudileena will go fetch me.’
Marble darted forward again, making long energetic leaps this time. Her muscles were aching without rock-cracking. She approached the low hill, not far from the frozen lake and stopped abruptly.
She heard somepony laughing.
A pegasus mare suddenly appeared from around the hill; a lemon-coated, with a pink mane and tail, wearing saddlebags and a knitted cap with a pompon. She was dragging a large sled behind her. In the sled there were a bunch of woodland critters. A large white bunny, wearing a scarf, barely held two plump hedgehogs in his embrace. All three were yelling something happy. In front of them laid a woolen hat, full of mice, who were also contributing their tiny hollers into the whole cacophony. A flock of grayish sparrows, yellow and blue tits and robins, bright red and round, were accompanying the cortege, making pirouettes in the air.
Dumbfounded, Marble made a few steps back, her ears dropping, uncertain.
The yellow pegasus saw her, standing near the road. For a brief moment their eyes met and Marble averted her gaze.
The pegasus gradually stopped, making sure the sled wouldn’t bump her hindquarters and wouldn’t spill its passengers onto the ground. The critters quieted down, also looking at Marble. The birds landed onto the sled’s frame.
“Um… Um… Oh, my… A new pony.” uttered the the strange mare, quietly, almost whispering.
She lowered her head, her ears dropped as well, her tail was swishing slowly.
“Ehm…” answered Marble, looking to the side.
“It’s… nice to meet you,” continued the pegasus and her voice became a tiny bit louder, “I’m… I’m Fluttershy.”
“Uhmm…” Marble nodded, this time having managed to look at the center of the Fluttershy’s body. She contemplated, what to actually say next.
The meekness of the pegasus, her dropped ears, her posture, her quiet tone were somehow reassuring. Marble felt a strange, faint tinge of kinship with the newly encountered pony.
“Marble. Marble Pie,” she muttered.
Fluttershy raised her head, ears straight.
“Pie? Say, do you know Pinkie Pie?” She asked in a much more cheerful, decisive tone.
Marble looked at her face. Now that she thought about it, she began to remember those letters she and her sisters have read, about the Ponyville. She sighed with a relief. Suddenly it wasn’t some unknown pony that stood before her. It was her sister’s friend.
“Pinkam— um, Pinkie is my sister.” Marble answered.
She remembered that the Cakes and other townsfolk referred to her sister as Pinkie.
“Oh… Oh. That’s great!” Fluttershy’s tone now was much more excited.
“Yes, she told us her sisters would be coming for the holidays, but I somehow thought it would be just Maud, who we already know.” She continued at the quickening pace.
Marble instinctively took a step back.
Seeing that, Fluttershy paused.
“Oh, sorry, I’m not very good with new ponies.” She said quietly.
Marble relaxed again.
“Uhh… Neither do I.” She shifted her ears, “It’s… nice to meet you.”
Fluttershy smiled and nodded.
Marble stepped closer to the sled. The friendly pegasus and the adorable critters made her feel more at ease.
The bunny hopped out and approached her cautiously. The hedgehogs followed and soon all three were sniffing her investigationaly. Marble lowered her head and sniffed them too.
“That’s Angel Bunny and Mr. and Mrs. Hedgehog.” Fluttershy introduced them.
“It’s… a pleasure.” Marble nodded.
“And those are the birds.” Fluttershy pointed with her wingtip at the featherfolk sitting on the sled, “And those are the Mouse family”.
Marble looked at all of them again and wondered. In her experience, ponies normally didn’t interact much with with other uncivilized species. Where she lived, her family and their neighbors were simply trying not to encroach too much into critters habitats, and that was it. Not that many critters lived in the desolate plains suited for rock farming anyway.
‘A very curious pegasus.’
“So, um, what have you been doing here, all alone?” Fluttershy shifted on her hooves.
Marble looked around.
“I… wanted to play in the snow.”
‘There isn’t enough of it in the town. All flattened.’ She thought.
“Oh, I see. Well… Would you like to play with us? We were going to to build a snowpony.”
“A snowpony?” Marble cocked her head, puzzled.
“Yes. Have you never built a snowpony, Marble?”
“Um, no.”
She only knew how to build rockponies, carving them out of stone.
“Oh, sweet Celestia! Really? We will show you, it's fun!”
Fluttershy untacked herself from the sled and looked at Angel Bunny. He pouted a little, but nevertheless went and took a bit of snow in his front paws. Hedgehogs also took some snow. They put their little snowballs together, making it a medium snowball. Mice and birds were observing all the activities from the sled. The snow was too deep for them.
Angel rolled the snowball forward, pushing it in front of himself and it’s begun to collect the surrounding snow, becoming bigger and bigger.
“Now we need a really big one, for the main body.” Said Fluttershy.
She bent her front legs, leaned closer to the ground, opened her large feathery wings and scooped as much snow as she could.
“I’ll help.” Marble looked around, spotting another large snowbank nearby.
‘I think, I understand now.’
She got around it and took off with a start, going full gallop right off the bat. When she was about to impact the snowbank, she made a sharp pivot and rammed it sideways. The huge avalanche of snow exploded and flew towards the snowpony-building site.
Mice yelped and hid into the hat. Birds got into the air, emitting alarmed chirps. The Hedgehogs hid behind the Bunny.
Fluttershy leaped forward and extended her wings, shielding the critters. Thankfully, the avalanche ended halfway to them, forming a new large mound near the one Fluttershy has begun to build.
Marble dropped her ears, crestfallen.
To think she’s just managed to make some new acquaintances, was tying to help them, do something together… and the only thing she’s achieved was scaring them away! She was always sure in her strength, she calculated everything precisely, but others did not know that, as she didn’t think to explain her actions beforehoof.
Marble was afraid to look straight at the distressed critters and a pony in front of her
“I’m… sorry.” She mumbled, pawing the snow.
“Um…” Fluttershy actually pinned her ears for a moment, but then, seeing all mice intact peering out of the hat, birds returning onto the sled, and Angel Bunny, who was looking at Marble with some sort of awe, the pegasus mellowed down.
“S-sorry. I know my power, I would never—” Marble began to say, but Fluttershy shook her head:
“It’s alright. We just were surprised."
Marble sighed and nodded. Not knowing what to say more, she lowered her head and began to push an abandoned snowball with her nose, making it to snowball even more. After some hesitation, the bunny and the hedgehogs joined her. Marble’s hot breath caused the snow to thaw a little at the surface, making it easier to acquire the new layers. They kept rolling it for some time, until the snowball got as large, if not even larger, than an actual pony head.
Meanwhile, the birds flew to the nearest grove and brought back a bunch of pine cones and branches. Some branches were rather large, so they were carried by a multiple birds simultaneously: they clutched it tightly with their little talons and were frantically flapping their wings to stay airborne with such a load.
“Oh, thank you, little ones!” Fluttershy smiled at them, “You didn’t have to, really. I would’ve bring everything myself after we put the snowpony together.”
The sparrows and the tits puffed themselves proudly at this note and the robins became even rounder.
“Alright, now that we have everything we need let’s put it where it belongs,” Fluttershy looked at the larger snowball thoughtfully, then hugged one side of it tightly with her wing.
Marble helped by prying it off the ground with her nose and then pressing her forehead against it. Fluttershy pulled up from her side and the snowball slowly came off the ground. Together the ponies lifted it and planted onto the larger mound.
Marble looked at the snow agglomeration, baffled, wondering why anypony would call it a “snowpony”.
“Need to work on it more,” she whispered and approached the hoard of wood and pinecones made by the birds nearby. Marble took one of the larger branches, with a somewhat pointy tip, in her mouth and squinted at the snow mound, assessing it.
‘Shouldn’t be much different from working on the stone.’
She touched the snow with her branch, and immediately understood that she was wrong, after it has immediately sunk into for the half of its length.
‘That sure is a different kind of a material, alright.’
Others were looking at her with curiosity. Marble smiled sheepishly and adjusted the force applied. After a couple of tries she got it right and began to work the snow, shaping it into the more pony-like form, using her experience in making rockponies.
After a while the mound of snow got some distinctive features, like cute ears, a snout and a slight outline of the muscles on the "barrel". Marble paused to look at her work at large when she suddenly heard cheers and claps. She turned around and saw Angel Bunny clapping his front paws, along with the hedgehogs.
“Uhm.” Marble stepped aside, to let others get a better look at the snow sculpture.
“That’s pretty good,” Fluttershy smiled, circling the snowpony.
“Now, let’s add the rest of the details!”
Angel Bunny took a large pine branch and stuck it in the place of a tail. Fluttershy and the birds made a mane out of the smaller brances and eyes out of pinecones. Everyone gathered near the sled to look at the results of their combined effort.
“This is the best snowpony we have ever built so far!” Fluttershy looked at Marble and smiled, “Thank you for making it look like a real sculpture.”
Marble blushed. She wasn’t used to such overt and clear praise. Back at home, her parents always made it clear that everything can be done even better. Limestone adopted the same attitude, while Pinkamena, being a contrarian to a degree, always praised her as much as she could, to the point that her praise ceased to feel like something special. Maudileena simply was her usual taciturn self, one would need to intently look for the subtle cues to feel her approval.
“Oh. That’s… That’s OK. I just… I’m used to rocks.”
“Now I want to see what can you do when actually sculpting! Would you make something for the Hearth’s Warming?”
“Maybe. Probably. I’ll ask Maudileena to find a good rock.”
Fluttershy nodded and then suddenly looked up, at the sun.
“Oh my! It’s almost noon.”
She leaped to the sled and began hastily strapping herself back to it.
“I’m sorry, Marble. We need to go home. It’s time for a launch, for Angel and others. It was so much fun playing with the snow, I completely lost the time.” She herded the pouting bunny and much more complacent hedgehogs to the sled.
“It was very nice to meet you! Are you staying in the Sugarcube Corner, with Pinkie?”
“Uh-huh.” Marble nodded.
“Great! I think I will visit soon… if it’s OK. I’ll be needing to buy some sweets.”
Fluttershy waved with her wing, turned around and began to drag the sled back to where they came from.
Marble found herself alone once again. She looked at the snowpony, sparkling in the sun, at the road turn, where the Fluttershy’s cortege vanished and smiled. She was kinda surprised how she felt now. Normally she would have felt relieved that she has finally got rid of a company of somepony other than her parents or sisters. But the shy pegasus mare and her adorable entourage somehow made Marble really appreciate their brief acquaintance. It was an unusual and pleasant feeling.
Suddenly she heard the snow creaking under somepony’s hooves and turned around sharply. She saw Maud, who stopped on her tracks.
“Sorry, Marble. I scared you,” she said in her usual monotone manner.
“Nah-ah.” Marble shook her head.
“Good.” Maud nodded and looked at the snowpony, “Looks like a rockpony.”
“Yes, it's pretty.” Marble agreed.
“Let’s go home.”
“Uh-huh.”
The Pie sisters stood shoulder to shoulder and turned back to the Ponyville, silent.
Maud, looking at Marble from time to time, and Marble, lost in her thoughts.
"You look happy." Maud articulated her observations at last.
The youngest Pie turned her head to look at her sister. Maud's face was impassive, as always, but her turquoise eyes were literally shining with curiosity. For Marble, at least, who knew how to look for cues.
"I am. I had so much fun." She answered, smiling.
Maud nodded.
"Good. I am glad Pinkamena convinced you to go here with us after all."
"Uh-huh. Me as well, now."