When Allura and Twitch stood alongside the evil king Winterbolt, and had teleported with him back to his lair, Allura was expecting some sort of castle hidden within the mountain peaks.
But, boy, she couldn’t be more wrong.
Instead of a brilliant castle, what they had teleported into was a dark, cold icy cave within the mountains. But, at least Winterbolt seemed to be content with the conditions. “Follow me, Allura and Twitch, and we shall get you settled in once we talk with my Genie of the Ice Scepter. He will provide us with all the answers we need.”
Twitch tilted his head out of confusion as he rode on Allura’s back, but as he poked her back to ask her about it, she merely flicked him off so she could talk to Winterbolt without being interrupted. “Genie of the Ice Scepter, eh? Does he come with three wishes like other genies do in fairytales?”
“No… it comes with something better than wishes,” Winterbolt told his new ally. “It comes with endless knowledge and the ability to look into the past, just like my crystal ball, the Eye of Snow.”
“Hmmm… perhaps when I find the star shard, I will be able to create my own all-seeing crystal,” Allura told herself. “But only when I have enough power.”
Twitch hopped behind Allura and Winterbolt into the room where the genie was supposed to be kept, but the icy door slammed shut on him before he could enter.
Oh well... looks like he would have to find some other way to keep busy while Allura and her new ally were gone.
And making himself at home was just what he was going to do.
XXXXXXXX
“Genie of the Ice Scepter, awaken!” Winterbolt commanded the genie. “We have a visitor who is going to help me with my plans to rid Rudolph of his light!”
The genie began to stir, causing Allura to gasp in surprise, but then, she managed to regain her composure to greet the genie formally. “Greetings, great genie. I am…”
“Allura… former co-leader of the winged leopard colony and the former leader of Starlight Ridge,” the genie interrupted calmly. “Yes, I know all about your triumphs… and unfortunately, your failures.”
Allura growled partially at this, but she did manage to regain her composure. “Yes, I uh… am aware of those things as well.”
“Genie of the Ice Scepter, we must seek your advice,” Winterbolt spoke. “Why can’t Rudolph’s nose be extinguished with a simple spell from my scepter?”
“Yes, it appeared to work for a moment,” Allura said, “but then his nose began glowing as usual, if not brighter.”
“He has the wonder of the aurora borealis within him,” the genie explained. “A power far greater than all of thee put together. So long as he uses the nose for good, it can never go out.”
“Then I shall see that he uses it for evil,” Winterbolt simply declared. “Not in these northern lands, oh master,” the genie protested. “The memory of Lady Boreal still glows here and protects him.”
“Lady Boreal?” Allura seemed puzzled at this. “I’ve never heard of her.”
“She was the blasted queen of the Northern Lights who made me fall asleep and lose my domain over all these years,” Winterbolt told her with a growl. “Rudolph must be made to leave the North Pole!”
“Exactly right,” Allura nodded sinisterly. “If he leaves, the fox and those ponies will be sure to follow.”
“He sets forth but once a year,” the genie told them. “Christmas Eve.”
Allura and Winterbolt both seemed frustrated with this-- Christmas Eve was six months away, at best, and there was no way they could put their plan on hold for that long. “We cannot wait!” Winterbolt declared in anger. “There must be a way to make them leave now! Help us, oh Genie of the Ice Scepter.”
That’s when the genie provided a small hint of help. “Look into thine magic Eye of Snow,” he told Winterbolt. “There you will find the answer.”
XXXXXXXX
Winterbolt, Allura and Twitch sat in front of the Eye of Snow and waited for something to appear inside, but what did appear confused our trio of villains. “W-W-What’s this?” Winterbolt questioned. “A balloon?”
“Winterbolt, I hope this is not your genie’s idea of a joke,” Allura deadpanned. “How can a hot-air balloon help us lure Rudolph, his fox and those ponies away?!”
“Patience, Allura, patience! The genie knows best,” Winterbolt reassured his ally just before he began to get an idea… a sinister idea, at best. “I wonder… Allura, we must watch further, to see whom is onboard this vessel.”
“Whatever you say, Winterbolt,” Allura said, rolling her eyes and continuing to watch the Eye of Snow for anything new.
XXXXXXXX
“So you see, Opaline was trapped in the Together Trees forever,” Sunny finished their story, “and we don’t think that she’s ever gonna come back. But if she does… we’ll be ready for her, especially since we have dragons on our side.”
“Wow…” Chilly said in amazement. “That was a cool story!”
“Uh… a scary story for sure,” Snowfall said a bit shakingly, uncovering her eyes with her hooves, “but… yeah, it was a cool story too.”
“Well… there’s still Allura you have to deal with, right?” Frosty asked. “Have you got a plan to stop her, too?”
“Well… not currently, Frosty,” Zipp admitted with a frown, “but we do have a hunch-- if we can steal Allura’s star shard back and find the other shards before she does, we may have a fighting chance.”
“Borealis! Rudolph!” called a male voice from up above them. “Hey, Rudolph!”
Everyone looked up to see a curly-haired man in a white suit riding in a hot air balloon (the same one Allura and Winterbolt saw earlier) with a light brown earth pony with a dark brown, light brown and white mane and tail, purple eyes and a cutie mark of an ice cream sundae, and Borealis immediately recognized them. “Hey! It’s Cocoa and Milton!”
“Who?” Frosty, Borealis and the Mane 6 echoed in confusion while Sparky tilted his head to the side. “The flying ice cream man and his pony helper!” Rudolph explained as the balloon began to descend near a cave filled with frozen ice cream. “He keeps his stock up here,” Borealis clarified, “where it won't melt.”
“And this time every year,” Rudolph added, “he picks up a big load to take down to the seashore for the 4th of July weekend.”
“Wait till you guys meet them!” Borealis told her friends. “A million laughs! Come on!”
“Heh heh heh! Okay, okay, we’re coming!” Misty giggled as she, Izzy and Pipp followed Rudolph and Borealis away. But before the others could join them, a snow woman from nearby called out to Snowfall, Frosty and the twins. “Snowfall! Frosty! Milly, Chilly! Dinner’s ready, sweethearts!”
“Is that your mom?” Hitch asked the twins. “Uh-huh. She’s the bestest mommy ever,” Milly nodded as Frosty approached his wife with Snowfall at his side. “Sorry, Crystal,” Frosty apologized. “Snowfall and I gotta meet somebody.”
“Yeah!” Snowfall nodded. “Bori said that he and his pony pal are a million laughs! Plus... me and the twins wanna hang out with our new friends some more.”
Sunny, Hitch and Zipp waved to Crystal as they stood next to the twins, to which she acknowledged them with a smile. “Well, I’d love to get to know your new friends too,” she said, “but I've got dinner on the table. It'll get all warm.”
“You can always cool it up in the ice stove,” Frosty persuaded. “Come on! A million laughs!”
“Come on!” the twins called to their parents. “Come on!”
“Well, I guess we’re meeting the flying ice cream man and Cocoa Sundae!” Zipp said before her stomach rumbled. “I just hope they can spare us a few ice cream samples-- it feels like that carrot I had earlier is leaving quicker than I thought.”
XXXXXXXX
“Rudolph! Bori!” Cocoa Sundae said as she galloped over to her friends, hugging Rudolph first before hugging Borealis. “Wow, for a little fox, you sure grow fast!”
“Hey, I’m not that little!” Borealis giggled. “Cocoa Sundae, I’d like you to meet more of our Equestrian friends-- Izzy Moonbow, Pipp Petals and Misty Brightdawn! Their other friends Sunny Starscout, Hitch Trailblazer, Sparky and Zipp Storm will be here in just a second.”
“It’s so nice to meet all of you,” Cocoa smiled at her potential new friends. “Whenever Milton and I are here, Bori won’t stop talking about you.”
“Cocoa…!”
“She talks about good things about us, right?” Misty asked, causing Cocoa giggle. “Of course. And… we actually need some of your good graces-- we actually need your help with something, if you can spare it.”
The three mares and Borealis looked confused as Rudolph approached Milton, who was sitting beside his balloon. “How you doing, Milton?”
“Awful!” Milton told Rudolph before sniffling… something that instantly got the reindeer and all his friends concerned. “What’s wrong, Milton?” Zipp asked with a frown, leading Milton to sigh. “I’m in love…”
“With who?” Rudolph asked, leading Cocoa to grab a poster from the balloon and handed it to Milton, who unrolled it to reveal it was a poster showcasing a few circus acts. This immediately got Pipp's attention. “You’re in love with a WHOLE circus?! Isn’t that, uh… a little extreme?”
“In my own words,” said Crystal, “I’d call a man like that fickle.”
“No… just her,” Milton gazed toward the girl on the poster who was high on a tightrope. “Lainie Lorraine.”
“Her mother owns the Circus by the Sea,” Cocoa explained. “They were actually going to get married right on the high wire. Milton hired a preacher and he had a net ready… it was gonna be perfect.”
“Well… what happened?” Rudolph asked in concern. “Aw, the circus is going broke,” Milton sighed. “And another showman a crook named Sam Spangles is ready to pay off the back taxes and take over the show! So ya see? Laine can't even think about romance. And if her mom's show doesn't get a big audience on the 4th, it'll be sold to Sam Spangles on July 6th. Lainie will have to go on the road… and we'll never
get together.”
“That’s… horrible!” Pipp said in sadness. “Both the show going broke and that your love life is being ripped apart.”
“I wanna help Milton and make sure the circus has a good show,” Cocoa sighed, “but… I’m not entirely sure what to do myself. We were... hoping that maybe you guys could help us come up with something while we're here?”
“We’ll try our best, Cocoa, really,” Zipp said, “but… this will take a lot of thinking.”
That's when the groups decided to buckle down and begin thinking about what they could do... unaware that enemies were watching them think from afar.
XXXXXXXX
Winterbolt and Allura had been watching the entire conversation through the Eye of Snow, prompting Winterbolt to cackle victoriously at discovering their next move. “What luck! Thank you, Eye of Snow!”
“Ah, yes, thank you!” Allura smirked. “Rudolph and his band of foolish friends will never suspect a thing. But... now what are we supposed to do?”
“Simple,” Winterbolt said before gathering a cluster of magic snow in his grasp. “First, I will use this snow to put a little idea into Milton's empty head.”
After he said this, Allura watched as Winterbolt murmured words into the snow, making it sparkle and shine before Winterbolt blew it into the Eye of Snow.
Now... all they had to do was wait.
XXXXXXXX
Milton sighed desperately, rubbing a hand over his face. “I don’t know what to do…”
Suddenly, as Winterbolt's sprinkle of magical snow flew into his head, Milton suddenly stood up, catching the ponies offguard. “Hey! I just got a great idea! There's only one guy who could draw the kind of crowds the Circus by the Sea needs. And that's you, Rudolph!”
However, this wasn't the kind of idea that Rudolph expected, causing him to blink in surprise. “Me?”
“He’s right!” Cocoa told the reindeer. “The would just pack that tent to see you and your nose in person… and Borealis too!”
“Oh, wow!” Chilly exclaimed. “Bori and Uncle Rudolph in the circus?” Milly asked. “Hey,” Rudolph began to scold, “wait a minute. Borealis and I never said we would even go to the circus, and we definitely didn’t say we would be IN the performance.”
“But… you gotta admit,” Borealis turned to her best friend, “being in a circus DOES sound like a lot of fun.”
“And you wouldn’t go alone,” Sunny agreed. “Me and my friends would be happy to go down there with you! Maybe we could help.”
“Come on, Rudolph,” Frosty tried to encourage. “You all have just gotta go.”
Rudolph looked at all of his friends and his adoptive niece and nephew, thinking hard about this.
He did want to help Milton and his girlfriend save the circus so they could be together, and… Borealis did have a point.
Being in a circus did sound like a lot of fun.
Eventually, Rudolph sighed and looked toward Frosty. “Well… if you all say so, pal,” he said before turning toward Cocoa and Milton. “Okay-- we'll do it!”
“Yes!” Zipp pumped a hoof. “This is our chance to have fun AND look for the star shard all at once!”
Everyone began to converse excitedly about their upcoming adventure, and after getting an idea of her own, Crystal turned toward her husband with a happy smile. “It would be wonderful if we could go with them, Frosty. I sure would like Snowfall and the twins to see a real circus.”
“Oh, wow!” Cocoa said, realizing what a great idea this would be. “If you and your family would appear too, Frosty, we would have to have a bigger tent!”
Snowfall and the twins then looked to Frosty with pleading looks.
“Aw, Daddy?”
“Can we?”
“Please…?!”
“We’d be super good!”
“It would be fun to get to hang out with you guys more,” said Izzy. “We could make a whole group trip out of it!”
“No way,” Frosty denied the request with seriousness in his voice. “The seashore on the 4th of July? We'd be real misfits. Me and my family would melt in ten seconds flat.”
“Aww…” Izzy, Snowfall and the twins pouted at such disappointing news. “Bein' snow people has its drawbacks,” Frosty explained gently. “Sometimes I feel like a real misfit.”
“Huh… I guess I never thought about it that way,” Misty said in thought, frowning as she did such. “That sounds really hard, having to stay someplace cold all the time and not getting to explore the world.”
“Aw, Frosty, I just forgot for a minute,” Crystal said with a frown. “I'm sorry. Why, I wouldn't have us any other way.”
Then, to reassure her husband that she had no doubts about them, Crystal began to sing a happy tune.
Crystal: Everything I've always wanted
You are "everything I've always wanted"
And I'll never let you go
I will take deserted byways
Dusty roads or cement highways
Follow you through rain, or sleet, or snow
In my wildest dreams I never dreamed
I'd find somebody I would love
Much more than I could ever show
You are everything I've always wanted
More than anything, and if there's any doubt
Well, now you know
Snowfall sighed romantically as the song reached an instrumental bridge. “How romantic...”
“Sure thing, bestie,” Borealis rolled her eyes. “Sure thing.”
But before anyone else could protest against this, Crystal resumed singing once more.
Crystal: You are everything I've always wanted
More than anything, and if there's any doubt
Well, now you know
If there's any doubt
Well, now you know...
Once the song was over, Sunny took the opportunity to step up and say something to encourage the snow family further. “That melting business is a nuisance,” she said, “but it doesn't make you all misfits, Frosty.”
“Take it from another misfit,” Rudolph added with a wink before beginning to think of another solution. “If only there was some way to make you... unmeltable.”
“What if Bori used her powers to make you guys unmeltable?” Snowfall asked curiously. “She’s really been improving!”
“I have been improving,” Borealis pointed out, “but I’ve never done magic like that before. Sunny, is there any way your cutie mark magic can help?”
“If there was a way, I wouldn’t know,” Sunny sighed before humming in thought. “We’re just gonna have to think of something else.”
Suddenly, a swooshing sound from nearby caused all the ponies and their friends to turn in shock to see Winterbolt appearing not too far away. Unfortunately, they didn’t know that Winterbolt was here to carry out the first part of his plan.
While everyone else looked on in shock, the twins and Snowfall were amazed with what they saw. “Wow!”
“Like a fairy godfather,” Milly spoke up, causing Winterbolt to chuckle warmly as he approached. “Just say I'm an old, old magical friend who wishes to help,” he said, faking kindness as he patted Snowfall and the twins’ heads. “Children should see a circus at least once in their lives. So I will… help.”
As he chuckled warmly behind his malicious intentions, Zipp and Sunny looked sort of concerned as to how much this guy knew. However… they seemed to be the only ones who felt like that at this moment. “But… what can you do, sir,” said Rudolph curiously, “to stop Frosty and his family from melting?”
“Observe,” Winterbolt held out his hands, revealing sparkling jewelry inside. “Magic amulets. If Frosty, Crystal, Milly, and Chilly wear them about their necks, they cannot melt. Even though the temperature be hot enough to melt steel still they will remain cool and icy.”
“Wow!” Frosty exclaimed to his family. “Our troubles are over forever!”
“No… not forever. See?” Winterbolt knelt down so everyone could see the amulets better. “On each is a design. The letter F, four times entwined.”
“Oh yeah!” Frosty said as he, Pipp and Snowfall approached to get a closer look. “F, F, F, F!”
“Uh, yeah. A cryptic design and everything,” Pipp said, “but what does that stand for?”
“That means the amulet's magic only lasts until the final firework fades on the 4th,” Winterbolt said as he gave Frosty the amulets. “You must return here before the fireworks finish, or you will melt in the heat of the summer eve.”
“But… until then?” Snowfall looked up at the stranger with uncertainty. “Why… you will be safe,” Winterbolt reassured behind his sinister laugh. “Wow!” Chilly and Milly exclaimed at once. “The circus!”
“Wow, thank you so much!” Borealis thanked Winterbolt with the wag of her tail. “You have no idea how much this means to us!”
“Oh, it was my pleasure, my dear,” Winterbolt said, kneeling in front of her. “And might I say… you seem to look just like someone I once knew.”
“Really?” Borealis said optimistically. “Was her name Nora? If it was, then that’s my mom!”
“Hmmm… no, I don’t know this Nora personally,” Winterbolt hummed in thought, “but I did hear her mother talk about her… her name was Orelia… the Northern Lights fox queen… and your grandmother.”
This seemed to stop Borealis immediately in her tracks, shaking her head to try and clear it. “I’m sorry, what?”
But before she could ask anymore questions, a swirling wind blew everybody backwards into the snow, and Winterbolt had disappeared. “Wow!” Milton said, rather impressed. “He certainly does blow in and blow out!”
Rudolph and Cocoa burst out into laughter while the twins giggled to themselves. “Well, that was certainly… an experience,” Zipp said as they got up, “but… doesn’t it surprise anypony else that he somehow knew all about us and our problem?”
“Yeah… I always like to give people the benefit of the doubt,” Sunny said, “but… something doesn’t feel right about this.”
“Aww, I think you two are worrying too much-- he handed us everything we need on a silver platter!” Snowfall said excitedly. “Come on! We gotta go talk to Santa and see what he thinks about all this!”
“Yeah, come on, Bori!” Pipp said to the young fox… who was still puzzling over the facts that Winterbolt had spilled. “B-Bori?”
“That… that stranger,” Borealis muttered to her friends as she turned around. “He said that my grandmother was a… a queen! The queen of the Northern Lights foxes!”
“Wait... he said that?” Zipp said, growing even more suspicious. “What else did he say?”
“He said that my grandmother talked about my mom a lot,” Borealis said in thought, “but that's everything I can remember.”
“Hold on a second,” Cocoa said in thought. “If your grandmother was the queen before your mom, then she must have passed on her title to your mom, right?”
“Right, but…” Misty was about to ask something else before her eyes widened with a gasp. “Bori, if your mom was the queen after your grandmother, doesn’t that mean that you’re…?”
Borealis gasped with wide eyes as well. “That means… I-I’m the princess of the Northern Lights foxes!”
“Whaaaaaaaaat?!” Snowfall cried as everyone else gasped. “That is a SERIOUS plot twist!”
“And with you being princess, you’re just me and Zipp!” Pipp giggled. “Welcome to the Princess Club!”
“But… why would my mom leave me behind before she could tell me?” Borealis wondered. “I mean… what happened all that time ago?”
“I don’t know, but we’ll be able to figure it out as we go,” Sunny said gently. “Come on… we gotta go talk to Santa.”
“Yeah… okay…” Borealis sighed, looking back at where Winterbolt was before following her friends away, a billion questions filling her mind.
Maybe, just maybe… there was more to her destiny than even she thought.