Frost Bite!
A fanfic by Englishwitch
Chapter 2
Apple Bloom held the mug of hot cider close to her body, sipping it slowly, letting its heat spread to all her extremities. The non-alcoholic cider was the perfect thing to warm a filly on a cold winter’ night.
Scootaloo and Sweetie Belle were working on the snow-human, while Apple Bloom had taken a break to bring them more cider. It was also a good opportunity to look around the field and see what their competition was like.
The mail-mare, Derpy and her daughter, Dinky had pulled together with a friend of the family, Time Turner, he was a doctor or something, and made an unusual but impressing looking pegasus pony, it was up on its back legs, was wearing a strange toga-like dress, had very large wings and- for some reason- had covered its eyes with its hooves. Derpy and Dinky looked like they were having lots of fun but for some reason Turner looked more and more nervous.
Twilight Sparkle and Spike had....well...they had tried and that was the main thing. They’d put together two large blobs of snow with only vague details to give any indication that they were supposed to be a snow sculpture of Twilight and Spike. Twilight was getting more and more frustrated with making a snow-pony without magic. Spike was just having fun.
Rarity and her parents; Magnum and Pearl were working on a wonderful sculpture of a carousel. Rarity noticed Apple Bloom and managed a polite smile. It didn’t fool the filly, Apple Bloom could tell she was still upset that Sweetie Belle wasn’t taking part with her family this year. Apple Bloom kept her head down and moved on.
Pinkie Pie, Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy were working on an extremely bizarre, but highly imaginative piece; a large and ancient looking sea-turtle, upon its back were four small elephants who were standing in a circle, working together to balance a globe on their backs.
She froze in her hoofsteps, almost dropping her mug of cider. Diamond Tiara and Silver Spoon were standing aside, watching their professional sculpture ponies work. The two sculptures had, so far, carved a six foot long Viking warship. They had put fantastic detail into each plank of wood; grain, knots in the wood even a couple of barnacles on the keel. One Sculpture was just getting started on making oars out of ice to stick out the side of the boat, the other was beginning to put details into the boats dragon figurehead.
Diamond Tiara smirked at Apple Bloom’s shock. “What do you think, Blank Flank?” she laughed cruelly, “contest winning or what?”
Apple Bloom blinked several times before she remembered how to work her mouth. “but...that ain’t fair. y’all gone and hired professionals, you ain’t even doin’ nothin to make it.”
Diamond just laughed some more. “Like that matters, all that matters is something gets built. Every other pony thinks that means they have to get cold and wet building something themselves. You’re just jealous because you didn’t think of hiring somepony to do all that for you.”
Dejected, Apple Bloom moved away from diamond Tiara and her profession art piece, across the square and toward her fellow Crusaders. By comparison to the other entrants —especially Diamond Tiara and Silver Spoon’s— their efforts were looking as laughable as Twilight’s and Spike’s amateur effort. The general shape of the human was coming into being but the fact that only Scootaloo —kind of— knew what she was doing, was holding them back.
The loud voice of the mayor called out over the crowd through a magically enhanced megaphone. “Friends and Family, you have ten minutes left.” Apple Bloom picked up her pace to hurry back too their sculpture.
Scootaloo was balanced atop a small step-ladder, using her hoof to scrape away snow and work finer details into the snow-human. The snow-human looked a little better than its twin in the orchard. Scootaloo was details like fingers and the hints of muscles. In her mind she was trying to recall every detail she had seen in the body of the Minotaur Iron Will. According to Lyra-mom, Minotaurs were similar to humans; they had fingers. Working with the Minotaur as a base Scootaloo had built from there. The result was a very tall and quite broad-shouldered human with powerful looking arms but strangely thin-looking legs.
“Where’s Sweetie Belle?” Apple Bloom asked as she noticed their unicorn friend was missing.
“Went to find a few things to make the snow-human into a snow-human-ninja.” Scootaloo called down from atop the ladder. Gingerly she scraped away at the face of the human, forming a more defined jaw line. “Hope she gets back soon, we don’t have long left.”
A small voice called out to them, “a little help”
Sweetie Belle was struggling to carry the long broom handle while trying to avoid knocking over any other ponies snow art. Apple Bloom and Scootaloo rushed over to ease her lengthy burden. As well as the broom handle Sweetie was carrying several strips of long black cloth, as per Scootaloo’s instructions.
Working together the three fillies managed to decorate their snow-human without making any mistakes, or damaging the snow human in any way. They were taking extra care, knowing that if they messed up they wouldn’t have time to correct their mistake. One strip of black cloth was wrapped around the snow-human’s head; making a mask, a longer strip went around the waist; making a large black belt. Then, finally, the broom handle was tied across his back to make a bo-staff.
“We did it!” Apple Bloom yelled triumphantly, “Again!”
For her, it didn’t matter whether they won or not. They had managed, twice in one evening, to work together and build something without making mistakes, clumsy accidents or getting covered snow, mud, tree-sap or anything messy or disgusting. This had been one of their most successful Crusader activities yet.
A bell rang, “TIME’S UP!” The mayor’s voice called, “Contestants step away from your works, the judges will now examine your sculptures.”
The three crusaders stood in the shadow of their towering tall snow-human-ninja, beaming smiles on their faces.
The mayor moved through the crowd of ponies and snow sculptures, followed closely by the contest judges, two ponies from the city hall staff; her secretary Raven and the deputy mayor William Wright, and two Ponyville residents, Cloud Kicker, a pegasus mare who worked Ponyville’s weather team and Colgate, a unicorn mare who was Ponyville’s dentist.
They stopped in front of the first sculpture, a large sea-turtle, with four small elephants standing in a circle on its back, working together to balance a globe on their own backs. It had been built by Rainbow Dash, Fluttershy and Pinkie Pie, the latter showing how seriously she took building snow sculpture by wearing a yellow hard hat and fluorescent jacket.
The mayor lowered her glasses to stare at the piece. “Well...” she said unsurely, “it’s certainly an original piece.”
“I love the detail on the shell,” Cloud Kicker leaned in close to get at the fine groove pattern that had been put on the turtles shell, “you even got a couple of barnacles.”
Raven, the mayors secretary, was jotting down notes on a clipboard, “What do you call this?”
Pinkie wore a smile so wide it touched her ears, “The World Turtle,” she said proudly, “the whole of Equestria sits on its-”
A snowball flew out of nowhere and smashed Pinkie square in the face. She yelped, leapt back and fell into the snow-turtle. The sculpture collapsed under and upon her, she emerged a second later coughing and snorting, flurries of snow falling out of her nose.
Rainbow Dash’s wings flared sending her a foot off the ground, she looked left and right angrily. “Who did that?” she yelled, “That wasn’t funny?”
Pinkie shook her head, snow falling out of her frizzy mane, “Not funny at all.” she agreed.
The mayor looked furious, “this is deliberate sabotaging of a contest entry, whoever did this own up now!”
“Chīsana uma no hitobito ni hakai sa reru tame no junbi!”
All heads turned toward the source of the shout. A large pale shape was standing on the roof top of a house. Silhouetted against the moonlight it looked like a tall being, standing on two legs. It reached behind its back with thick arms and pulled free a long staff.
Apple Bloom, Scootaloo and Sweetie Belle’s jaws dropped.
“Is that?”
“Can’t be.”
“No way.”
The figure jumped from the rooftop, flipped in mid-air on its way down and landed on its icy feet in the middle of the competition area. The three Crusaders saw what it was. The snow-ninja they had built in the orchard, come to life and looking very angry. The eye slits in its mask glowed with an evil green colour as it surveyed the crowed of ponies, stunned and frozen in place with shock.
Its glowing eyes fixed on the three fillies and the smile on its face turned to an evil grin. “Kurieitā wa, anata no oroka-sa wa, anata no shinzoku ni motarashita mono o mokugeki!” It gripped its staff tightly and leapt at them. The three Crusaders screamed and scattered left and right. The snow-ninja let out a loud “HA!” and with a swing of its staff it knocked the head off the snow-human they had just finished building. “Jigoku ni mohō o tokasu!” it punched the remains of lifeless snow-human, smashing it to drifts.
The ponies of Ponyville snapped out of their traces, someone in the crowd screamed. As if this was their cue, the ponies yelled and started running away in their panic.
Apple Bloom found Scootaloo and Sweetie Belle in the panicking fray. “It’s the snow-human!”
Scootaloo nodded, “Yeah, we can see that.”
Sweetie Belle bit her lip nervously, “you think my spell did this?”
Apple Bloom didn’t want to admit it, but the evidence was overwhelming. “Not unless snow-humans come to life on their own.”
The snow-ninja looked left and right, searching through the frightened ponies until it saw the three fillies. It grabbed a scoop of snow off the ground, one hand shaping it into a huge snowball. “Watashi no tsumetai fukushū o kanjiru!” It threw the snowball at them.
The three fillies screamed, they cowered together as the cannonball sized ball of ice came toward them.
“HEY!”
A shadow fell over them, there was a rush of air and the snowball was reduced to flakes. Apple Bloom felt them fall over her and dared to open an eye. Applejack was standing over her, looking down at the three friends. She had bucked the snowball into oblivion. “Y’all get somewhere safe, quick.” she rounded on the snow-ninja, “Y’all leave my sister alone you frosty freak!”
Rainbow Dash landed on her right, “I don’t know what the hay you are, but you mess with my friend, you’re gonna get plowed!”
Rarity appeared at Applejack’s left, “My sentiments exactly, although I would possibly express it a little more eloquently.”
The snow-ninja gripped the staff tightly in its two hands and moved into an attacking stance, “Watashi no hōhō ni tatte, anata wa watashi no ikari ni chokumen shinakereba naranai!”
Rainbow Dash snorted, “Yeah, whatever.” She launched herself at the snow-ninja.