//------------------------------//
// Symbol of Winter 
// Story: Frostnight [a Snowdrop tribute] 
// by Gigglebrony 
//------------------------------//

A blue vase sat on a pedestal in the middle of a small chamber. The windows were tall, blue stained glass representing Snwodrop's contributions to the world. A window showing her staring at stars in the sky. A window showing the first snowfall. And in the middle, the snowflake rose that was the blind pony's cutie mark. 

The princesses were standing in the entrance to this sanctuary of snow, both looking sad in the way only an eternal being who is remembering a long-lost friend can. 

"Is it really the last one we have?" Luna looked particularly sad, her eyes full of a pain that few can understand. 

"It has been over a thousand years, sister. And she only made so many." Celestia was also looking sad, but with less pain in her eyes. 

"Can we not save it?"

"You know she wouldn't have wanted that."

"But she... I... I never got to..." Luna was near tears, her voice cracking in a way that she would never have allowed in front of anyone but her sister.

Celestia laid her wing across her sister's back consolingly. "I am sorry for that. I know she was a dear friend to you. "

"The only one who ever truly knew my night."

"She still knows it, Luna. You know that."

The sound of hooves on polished marble announced the arrival of a palace guard. "Princesses, the weather captains are waiting for your signal."

Luna carried the vase outside, it hovering between her sister and herself. They both arrived on the balcony outside the winter chamber which overlooked the clouds that would bring the first snowfall of the year. At a nod from her sister, Luna raised the vase high and tipped out the contents. 

A single snowflake fell out. It wasn't a very beautiful flake. It was nothing more than a pointy sheet of ice with a few holes in it. 

'Thank you, my friend.' Luna thought as sh watched the last of her old friend's snowstars fall to the earth, followed closely by the snowflakes that had been made by her old friend. 'For everything you gave. And every wish you never knew came true. Goodbye."

Celestia was called away by a guard to attend to some minor detail elsewhere, while Luna stayed to watch the snowfall. She thought she could still see the last of the snowstars as it fell to the slowly whitening ground below. A sudden icy wind blew by her, making her mane blow out behind her for a moment.

"You're awake early this year."

"Well, it's a special occasion. I knew the last of her stars was going to fall this year."

Luna turned to look beside her, barely able to make out the figure standing beside her. A bipedal pony of sorts, with the exact same coloring as her old friend. He was leaning on the rail of the balcony, one hoof resting flat while the other had five slender digits extended to catch a falling snowflake.

"You made sure that was the last one to go, didn't you, Frostnight?"

"Yeah. I made sure it was always at the bottom. I guess I just wished it would never have to be used."

"So did I. But she wouldn't have wanted us not to use it, though."

"Yeah, I know. I'm sorry you weren't there when she..."

"Thank you. But at least she wasn't alone when it happened. And we will always have the winter snow to remind us of her."

The semi-transparent figure turned to look at her, the cloak it wore swirling in the wind that started to blow. She was always struck by how much this wintry phantom looked like their shared companion. Had he been a really pony, she might have thought them related. 

"You know, you never did tell me how you first met Snowdrop."

"You mean when I first saw her, or when she first saw me?" he asked, raising an eyebrow.

"I doubt she ever saw you," Luna replied, making both of them chuckle.

"Well, it's a pretty good story. And one of the few things in my life that keep me from ending up like..." he trailed off. They both knew what he left unsaid. Ending up just like she had. "Well, it all started that first year, when she got to toss out the first snowstar."


*****


I woke up, after a year of sleep to see billions of snowy stars falling down around me. They were so beautiful. Snowdrop had obviously gotten a lot of help with making more. But I could always tell when I saw one that was made by her. They always has a special quality that made them stand out. 

I roamed the land for weeks, enjoying seeing the ponies all playing in the snow. For the first time in my long life, I had no desire to call up an icy wind or make snow fall from the sky until the ground was an impassable white mass. I was content to let the weather ponies take care of it and just play in the snow with everypony else, even if I never left a single hoof print.

It wasn't until a month in that I finally went to Cloudsdale again. I was glad to see that my Snowdrop was now a very popular filly. And what was more, I saw that she had gotten her cutie mark. It was a green flower stem, with a beautiful snowflake as the petals. It was such a perfect mark for her. Her invention of the snowstar had not only caused her to bloom from the quiet, lonely filly into the much loved young pony she was now, but had also made my winter come into what it was truly meant to be. It wasn't just her cutie mark, but winter's as well. In a way, it way my cutie mark, though I would never bare it the way she did. 

I wandered the town for a while, hoping to see the snowy coat of the blind pegasus. But it wasn't until I went over to her house that I finally saw her. She was sitting out on the same cloud as before, this time with a rough cloak covering her. She wanted to stay warm in the cold, I guessed.

I settled on the cloud next to her, looking at the pile of snowstars she had made. I smiled, seeing how much better she had gotten. These stars were works of art, much more beautiful than the original. But they still had that special quality that she had. Judging by the way her ears were twitching, she was still making them look the way the twinkling stars sounded to her.

I looked on the other side of her, There was a small pile of snowdrops, which I guessed she had been using to make the lovely stars she worked so hard on. They were much bigger than any I usually made, and flattened slightly. Made expressly for being made into snowstars. 

I watched her at work for what must have been hours. I could have spent all winter watching her work. But soon she ran out of snowdrops to work with and had to go back inside. Even with he cloak, I could tell she was cold, despite my keeping the wind down around her.

She got up, piling the stack of snowstars in her arms. She got up and started to flap her wings, slowly flying across the small gap to her house, her wingtip lightly brushing the rope with each beat. She went slow, trying to make sure not to loose any of them. She di an amazing job really, but one of them still managed to get away. 

I let myself fall off the cloud, swinging a breeze up to blow it back to land back on the pile just as she landed on the cloud. "Can't let you drop even one of those little beauties," I said, even though I knew she'd never hear me. 

"Huh?" She said, turning around like she was looking for something. I tilted my head, wondering what she was looking for. "Who said that?"

I looked around, trying to find who she had heard, still talking to myself. "I didn't hear anything."

"Wha... Who are you?"

I let myself land in front of her, looking at her closely. "You... don't mean me, do you?" There was no way. Nopony could hear , see or touch me. 

"Well yeah, who else?"

I felt my heart speed up, an feeling of excitement I'd never felt before welling up. "You can hear me?"

She scowled, setting her pile of snowstars down for a moment. "Of course I can hear you. I'm blind, not deaf."

I just about leaped out of my hooves. "But, nopony ever hears me!" I was bouncing on the spot.

"Huh?" she had stopped scowling, but looked confused now. "How can nopony hear you. you're kinda loud." She reached out her hoof, trying to find me. I sat there, waiting to see if I would get lucky twice in a row.

Her hoof went right through me, just like always. But she must have felt something because she quickly pulled it back. Judging by the shiver than ran through her, I either felt very cold, or kinda gooey. 

"W-what...? Who...?"

"Sorry, sorry. Wow, I've never had to introduce myself to anypony before. Um.. my name is..." I hesitated. I had gone by Frostbite for a long time, but I didn't feel like that guy anymore. But What would I call myself now? "I'm Frostnight." I had no idea where the name came from, but I liked it. 

"Oh. Well, I'm Snowdrop." A cold wind blew past, making her shiver.

"You should go inside. You'll freeze to death out here."

"Yeah. Um, would you like to come inside? You could warm up to."

I smiled. She was still such a sweetie. And so nice to someone who she obviously knew wasn't a normal pony. "Yeah, I'll come on in. But I wouldn't tell your mom about me. She most likely won't be able to see me."

I don't know if she actually believed me, but she led me in, leaving the door open until I had to blow it shut with a gust of wind. I was getting better at that. She hung up her cloak and headed to the kitchen, where she  flew up to put t snow she had made in the freezer. 

Her mother commented about her staying out so late to work on them and how she should be careful she didn't catch cold. She didn't see me or hear me when I said I agreed with her, which seemed to cement what I had said to Snowdrop. She never mentioned me, and stopped bothering to hold doors for me when I mentioned I could just walk right through them.

"So, Frostnight, what are you doing at my house?"

Snowdrop was sitting on her bed, running her hoof across the page of a book. I didn't see any ink on it, so I guessed it was made special for her. What she was reading, and how she could read and hold a conversation at once, I had no idea. 

"Well, I came to check on you. After seeing how all of Equestria has fallen in love with your snowstars, I wanted to see if you weren't letting it all go to your head."

She giggled, turning the pages on the book until she came to a spot at the front. "Yeah, Princess Luna came to my house to say how much everyone loves the winter snow now. But how did you know I made the stars?"

I plopped myself down on the bed next to her, trying to see the page of the book. All the little bumps on the page looked like nothing to me. "Well, I was there when you made the first one. I saw you crying and I went to wipe away the tear. It ended up freezing solid. You actually used it to make that star."

"Oh. But what were you doing there?" She flipped through the book, looking for a particular page, I guessed. 

"Well, I was just passing by. Back then I used to just wander around, making things cold and windy."

She closed the book, setting it aside. "So, you have something to do with winter?"

"Yeah. I guess you could say I sort of AM winter. I just sort of sleep during the warmer seasons and only wake up on the first day of winter. And I can make it snow an the wind blow whenever I want."

"So, you're connected to winter sorta like the princesses are connected to the sun and moon?"

"Well not exactly. The princesses can go about their day just fine without the sun and moon being around. But I basically don't exist until winter. And nopony can see or hear me. Or at least, nopony until today."

Snowdrop tilted her head questioningly before asking, "Well, maybe it's because you never really tried before? Maybe..." She blushed, which made her cheeks turn a stunning shade of red on her bluish skin. "Maybe I can try again? I'm pretty good at telling the shapes of things."

The next few minutes were spent with me standing stock still hi Snowdrop ran her hooves and wings over me. though she still went through me if she pressed with too much force, she was very good at it. After a few mistakes, she managed to get a good look at me. She was surprised when she found me standing on two legs, and even more surprised when I showed her how I could open my hooves into the strange 5 digit appendages.

I spent the next few ours with her, chatting about my long lonely life and how angry I used to be. I was surprised by how easily she took it, and how she admitted that sometimes she had had similar feelings. Having grown up blind, she had gone through a reversed problem where she could be seen and affected by the world around her but had a hard time affecting it herself. I found this utterly amusing, seeing as she had had such a massive effect on the world with so little effort. 

I looked over at a small blue vase that sat on the dresser. It was very beautiful and shimmered like crystal. I walked over and looked inside, seeing the small, slightly ugly snowflake lying at the bottom and feeling a chill rising out of it. I blew a wind into it and the small thing floated out. This little thing, nowhere near as beautiful or large as the newer ones, was still my favorite. 

"I noticed your snowstars have gotten a lot better since this one.Did you practice through all the warm seasons?" 

She smiled, blushing slightly. "Yes. My mother and a few ponies from school all helped me make them look better. They don't seem to look the same way the stars sound to me, but they sure are prettier."

"Well, this one may not be beautiful in the traditional sense, but it's still my favorite."

She tilted her head quizzically. "Why?"

"Well, I like to think of it the same way someponies look at art. Just because it's not pretty to everypony doesn't mean it's ugly. As long as there is a single being out there who finds beauty in it, it's the most beautiful thing in the world."

She settled her head onto the blanket. "But nopony thinks my first star is beautiful."

"Somepony does. You may not have been able to, but I saw princess Luna looking at it. Something about that star really resonated with her. And I love it too. It's a symbol of when the world finally came to love my winter the way it deserves."

She smiled, taking the snowstar from me and dropping it back into the vase. The cold chill puffed out, making me smile as it blew her mane slightly. This made her cutie mark stand face me, and I couldn't help commenting on it.

"Your cutie mark is nice. Wish I could get one like that."

She blushed, looking bck at her cutie mark. I wondered why she did stuff like that when she couldn't see. "Everyone keeps telling me that, but I don't really know what it looks like. What's yours look like?"

I was stunned. How had nobody told her what her cutie mark looked like? "Well, I don't have a cutie mark. I'm not a pony, so I don't get one. And how do you not know what yours look like?"

She sat down on the bed and I sat beside her. "Well, Everyone tells me it's a snowstar on a plant, but that doesn't really explain it enough for me to actually know what it looks like. I wish I could see it."

This was almost heart breaking to me. She had worked hard for that cutie mark, even if she hadn't actually been trying to get it. She deserved to know what her mark looked like, especially since it was a part of her body. "Well, maybe I can help with that."

I walked over to the window and opened it, The wind was down and the snow was falling in slow, lazy flakes. I whistled a long, shrill note and the wind started to spiral, forcing a number of flakes together. They bunched into a sold mass and fell into my waiting hoof, I pulled it inside and set ti down on a small table on one side of Snowdrop's room. 

"What are you doing?" she asked from her bed, carefully getting down from it. 

I started running the digits of one hoof across the lump of snow, freezing it where my skin touched it. I was careful but quick, having a lot of experience with making designs with ice. I traced my way across the ice in several layers, making the snow harden into ice with snow between the design. In the short time it took her to work her way acros the room to me, I had finished my design.

"Just a second, Snowdrop." I went back to the  window and held out the lump, blowing on it. The wind blew through it and the loose snow blew out of it. I was left with a small ice sculpture, which I carried back to the small table. I was rather impressed with my ability. The sculpture actually looked exactly like her cutie mark. I was gonna have fun with this little revelation someday. "Here, this should show you what your cutie mark looks like."

She stood on her hind legs, reaching her front hooves up on the table. She ran her hooves over the ice sculpture, feeling from the base of the stem up to the snowflake blossom. I saw her expression change from concentration to joy. She's finally able to see what everpony else has been telling her about. She could finally see something in her mind that no one had been able to explain to her. And what was best, she could finally see the mark that adorned her flank and stood as the symbol of her contribution to the world.

I was surprised to see a tear roll down her cheek. I reached out and wiped it away, and this time I actually did mange to wipe it, though it still froze to my finger. 

"Thank you. I.... I can't tell you how much this means to me." She was barely managing to hold herself together, there was so much emotion in her voice.

"You don't have to. You helped me in a way I can never really repay. This is the least I can do." I stood up, heading back for the window I had left open. The cold air as calling to me, and I knew I couldn't stay much longer. "Snowdrop."

She looked over at me, her hooves still gliding over the ice sculpture. "Yes?"

"I have to go. The winter is calling me."

She smiled, moving away from the table and walking over to me. "Ok. But I will get to meet you again, right?"

I knelt down, wrapping my front legs around her. "Yes you will, my little pony. I'll come see you at least during the first snowfall each year, I promise."

I sat down on the window sill and let a breeze grab me. I was carried up and away, watching as Snowdrop leaned out the window. I could tell she was listening to the wind to see where I was going. I gave a long, musical whistle, causing a shower of snowflakes to come down, blanketing the giggling pony in cold white.


*****


Princess Luna wiped a tear from her eyes with a hoof, turning her head to hide the gesture from her phantom companion. "That is indeed a very beautiful story. Did you ever discover why she was able to hear you? Or why I can see you now?"

"Yeah. I found that the more ponies came to enjoy the winter, the more corporeal I became. The next yeear, I was able to touch her without her going through me. Though I still couldn't make anypony see me. Not until she told you about me."

"That was the first day that I saw you. When she told me about how her inviible friend helped her make the snowflakes for the first snowfall."

The spirit smiled. "That's when I found out that to make ponies see me, they need to believe in me. The only reason you saw me was because you were so certain she wouldn't lie to you."

"Indeed. Though I was not sure I should believe that there was really a strange winter spirit running around." 

"But you believed enough that you got to see me. You and her were the only one who knew about me, and with her gone, that number is down to one."

The princess looked out at the falling snow. Her eyes once again showed her immense age. "And one day even my sister and I will cease to be. What will you do then?"

The figure jumped onto the rail, walking on its hind hooves as if he had no fear of falling to his doom. "I don't know. I use to worry about that during the time you were in the moon and Snowdrop was gone. And I have to say, I could get along without anypony seeing me, as long as my winter was still loved."

Luna smiled. "I have often felt the same about my dream walking. Few ponies know I can walk through the dreamscape, and fewer know I can help shape their dreams. But as long as my work is appreciate, I am fine with it. But my work on the night is still harder to deal with."

The figure sat down on the rail in front of her, one leg dangling while the other sat on it. "Well, if it makes you feel any better, I enjoy every moment of your night. It's when I do my best work, seeing as I never have to sleep and there isn't anypony there to mess with my work."

She giggled, taking a step closer and nuzzling the figure, which seemed to startle him. "That is comforting. Thank you."

He slid a hoof across her face, the thin digits extended so the softer, more delicate skin soother her. Then he stood and turned around. She saw the back of his long, raggedy cloak. There was a patch of it that looked older than the rest, which was just big enough that a small pony may have been able to use it. On that patch of cloth, standing out against the faded grayish color, was a brilliant blue design. A flower with a snowflake blossom. It looked as if the design had been added when the cloak had been extended to fit the semi-transparent figure. 

"I'll see you sometime later, Luna," the figure said, then leaped off the rail, being caught up in a gust of wind. It carried him up, quickly accelerating.  When he reached a certain point, there was a loud pop and the sky filled with an explosion of snow. The wind caught the snowy explosion and twisted it until the snow blossom shape filled the sky. It lasted only a few moments, then became just another wave of the falling snow. 

Luna gave a small laugh. "Well well, a sonic snowboom. we shall have to see if he can do that again at the hearth warming eve celebration."

"Princess Luna?" came a voice from behind her. She turned to see Twilight Sparkle standing behind her.

"Twilight, how many times must I tell you, you no longer need call me princess, seeing as you are now one yourself."

Twilight looked sheepish, rubbing her mane. "Sorry, I'm still getting used to that. Were you talking to somepony?"

Luna looked thoughtful for a moment. Then she asked, "Twilight, you are a learned pony. What do you know about the history of winter in Equestria?"

"Twilight looked confused for a moment, her wings rustling as she thought. "Well, I know that there were once a lot more blizzards, and the winds and snow weren't always controlled by the pegasi. Not much more than that though, excpet that they came under control after the hearth warming eve story took place."

Luna nodded. "about as much as anypony then. Well, there is actually much more to it than that." She walked to the smaller alicorn and settled her wing on her back. "Allow me to tell you a story. A story about the origins of the Snow Chamber and the reason it put and end to the fierce blizzards of the past. And about a very special young filly who introduced a very special friend to me once upon a time."

Twilight smiled, letting the larger princess lead her into the chamber. She looked at the blue stained glass, getting excited to  learn their story. She had yet to find a book on the subject of the Snow Chamber.

Luna began telling her story as she settled the blue snowstar vase back on its pedestal. "It starts over a thousand years ago, before my time as Nightmare moon. My sister and I were due to arrive in Cloudsdale for the Summer Sun Celebration in two days. In the school, a young filly with a snowy white mane sits at her desk, listening to her teacher..."



The End