//------------------------------//
// chapter 10 
// Story: Elsa's Snowdrop 
// by TheOneAJ 
//------------------------------//

“Are you sure you are okay?” Elsa asked again as she lead Snowdrop through the castle. “I’m sorry about that, we just do not have… A lot of pegasus in these parts. Very rare.”
Snowdrop stopped in dead her tracks. “Um… Okay. Of course.” She perked herself up a bit. “I’ll be fine. I always am, Elsa.”
Elsa sighed as they reached the room. “Okay.” She opened it for her. “Oh, and…” Elsa scratched her head, “I don’t know how you’re feeling, but there’s going to be some ice-skating if you would like to come. The whole kingdom will be there.”
As soon as the words left her mouth, Elsa mentaly slapped herself. Why did she invite Snowdrop to that? If only those few, well trained, servants reacted badly to Snowdrop, how would the rest of the kingdom go about? While they didn’t seem to care, for the most part, too much about her, she knew that there were plenty who didn’t. What if—
“I’ll… pass.” 
Elsa’s head shot up at Snowdrop’s response. “Oh?” She wasn’t sure how long that response had taken—or how long she had zooned out worrying about it—but it had at least been a considerable amount of time.
Snowdrop seemed to realize this, and began to circle her blind eyes around the room. “Um.. I mean, sounds fun, but,” she rubbed her head while she held a toothy grin, “I think my head still hurts. But, maybe some other time?”
Elsa sighed in relief. “Well, okay. Maybe when you are feeling better.”
Snowdrop nodded. “Okay.” Snowdrop floated into her new room. However, before she enter, she turned to Elsa. “Which remind me, what happed to me anyways? You hit me in the head with some of that ice-powers of yours?”
Elsa turned her head. “Um…” Did she tell her, would she hate her for it? Would it be worse to lie?
She sighed. “You see, Snowdrop—”
*****
It had been a week since the frozen incident. For the most part, things had return to normal—more or less. Sure, Elsa had to cut off trade with Weaslton to set an example for those who would call her a witch, which was better than to kill him for trying to have her killed, and a lot of the people where still uneasy.
Which was how this event came to be, thanks to Anna no less at first, when the gates opened and the people began to pour in, Elsa’s stomach began to turn as she thought about calling it off. Perhaps for another day when it was cooler or when Snowdrop— 
She felt Anna’s arm on her shoulder.
“Go on,” Anna nudged as Elsa made her way to the center of courtyard, with only a few whispered to break the silence. 
“Are you ready?” Elsa said nervously to the crowd.
To her surprise, they began to clap.
With a grin, Elsa placed her foot out, and the ground began to freeze as ice-skates appeared on everyone’s feet.
With the ground fully frozen, and with everyone at ease, they began to clap again.
With a new wave of confidence, else looked to the fountains next to her, and froze the water that shot out, creating two spectacular ice-sculptures.
Then, for a grand finale, she shot a blast of magic into the sky, which exploded in spectacular blast as the remains of it floated down to earth as snow. Soon enough, anyone who had any worries simply relished in the cool ice-rink on the otherwise hot summer day. Ridden of the worry, Elsa soon caught herself up in the excitement as Anna bumped right into her.
“Oh, hang on,” she said as she waved her hand over Anna’s feet as a pair of ice-skates appeared. The pair then began to circle around each other, all while laughing in a way they had never thought they could do again.
“We are never closing the gates again.”
“Yeah,” Elsa laughed along as they continued to skate.
After awhile—and once they got Sven’s head out of the wall—the two sister and kingdom skated for many hours. It wasn’t until Elsa happened to glance up room where Snowdrop was staying, curtains closed did a sinking feeling hit her stomach.
“Whao!” Anna screamed as she bumped in her. “Sorry.” She then looked up at Elsa’s worrying face. “You okay? I thought you were having fun.”
“Oh,” Elsa said as she brushed her hair and shook her head, “it is nothing.” She put on a forced smile. “I am having fun!”
Anna titled her head. “Nothing.”
Elsa took in a breath and turned her back. 
“You sure nothing’s wrong?” Anna asked as she pulled her to the side.
Elsa sighed. “Okay, so I invited Snowdrop to come ice-skating, and she said no.”
“Oh,” Anna replied, “well, I mean. It’s a shame and all but—”
Elsa jerked away from Anna. “I felt relieved by it.”
Anna’s head shot up. “What? What do you mean, ‘relieved? What, where you not going to let her come if she wanted to?”
Elsa lowered her head. “It… May have crossed my mind.”
Anna face planted. “Oh my god, Elsa, seriously?”
“I never said I would have!” Elsa snapped. She then saw that she had been making a small scene. She waved politely at the guest, who went back on their way before addressing Anna. “Well I… I don’t want the whole town to treat her the same way as the staff did, okay?”
“So you think keeping her locked up is a good idea?”
“I never said I locked her up.” Elsa’s clenched her hands into a fist as they began to glow blue.
“Oh,” Anna hissed, “so if she wanted to go flying, you would just happily say, ‘go ahead, fly around the whole kingdom.”
“Of… of course I would!” Elsa stuttered. “Then again, it might not be a good idea letting a blind pegasus fly by herself—”
“Oh,” Anna spat, “making excuses just like mother and father did?”
As he hands sparked out ice-crystals, Krisstoff stood between them. “Whoa, whoa, ladies, let’s chi… coo… Let’s not make a scene.”
The pair stopped shouting, but still glared at each other.
However, Elsa’s glare didn’t last long as she realized: She was acting just like her parents.
“Oh,” Elsa moaned as she placed her hands over her head. “You are right, aren’t you?”
Anna placed a hand on Elsa’s shoulder. “Hey, Elsa, this is nothing too get upset about.”
Krisstoff brushed back his hair. “So, um, what did I miss anyways?”
Anna was about to answer when Elsa did it for her. “I am acting just like my parents by wanting to lock Snowdrop in the tower and keep her from the rest of the world,” she moaned as she dropped to floor.
“Hey,” Krisstoff said as he caught and pulled Elsa up. “Let’s just take this one step at a time. I mean, the kid did just have a traumatizing experience.”
Elsa lowered her head. “Do not reminded me.”
Krisstoff raised a finger, moaned, and put it down. “My point is, maybe this event is too soon to get her out. I mean, are you honestly going to deny her going outside if she asks it?”
Elsa scratched her neck. “Well, I mean—”
“Are you?”
“Of course not!” Elsa said with a little force as she covered her mouth. “”But, that’s not all I did.” 
The pair looked at each other, then back to Elsa.
Kristoff scathed his neck. “Um, what else could you have done?”
Elsa crossed her arms behind her. “I may have also lied to her and didn’t mention I froze her head.”
*****   
Snowdrop hummed to herself as she doodled on some paper’s Elsa had left for her. While she probably could have asked for more, she didn’t want to take advantage of Elsa’s guilt for lying to her about how she nearly killed her. Besides, it wasn’t as if she needed to know what color any of the crayons were.
One of the many things that was ‘great’ about being her easier to tell lying abilities.
She picked up a new crayon in her teeth and began to sketch.
It wasn’t as if she automatically knew how to tell lies, it was just sort of something she picked up quickly. Like when someone said how sorry they were for her, or how bad they felt, or when they though it be funny to put something in her food and say it was a seasoned hay. Or whenever someone said they were sorry for her, or how things would get better if she just believed in herself. Or whenever someone said that somepony would adopt her when—
She felt the crayon in her mouth snap.
“Nuts,” she muttered as she tossed it to the ever-growing pile of broken crayons.
Snowdrop sighed and picked up another one. She suppose she couldn’t have been to mad at Elsa. In time, she bet Elsa would tell her the truth. Though, did she have to go so far as to say an evil witch swooped in and attacked them?
Did she think she was three years old?
This time, Snowdrop was able to stop herself from breaking the crayon.
Putting it down, she took a moment to run a hoof over the paper to feel what she had made. If she could see, she would have seen some very rough and pointy looking snowflakes.
With a groan, she flicked them across the room and rolled up into a ball.
“Better control yourself, snowdrop,” she muttered, “they don’t want a grouchy pegasus when you get back to work. If I ever do.”
She then began to think about back home. Did anypony really miss her? Sure, there was Luna and a few ponies who were descent to her. But that was it.
**** 
“Hey, Snowdrop, right?” she heard a colt say one day during her shift. Parolee a year or two older than herself.
“Um, yeah.” She said cautiously.
“Hey.” He paused. “Just though I’d say, you’re doing a great job. Love the snowflakes.”
She grinned. “Well, it’s no problem.”
“Hey,” he said with excitement in his voice, “is it true that your friends with the princesses?”
All joy left her. “Oh, yeah. Though, mostly Luna, hardly Celstia. Besides, Luna just gave me the job. We don’t really talk to each other anymore.” 
His silence said enough. “Oh, that’s nice.” He was silent again. “We’ll, keep up the good work. I’ll see you around, Snowdrop.” He flapped off.
*****  
Some options, a world where ponies only wanted to know her to meet or get something out of royalty. Then again, if she stayed in this world, would it have been any different since she knew royalty as well.
She groaned and threw her hooves to her head.
After that, she stood up. “I need some air,” she declared as she flew to the door. “Elsa did say I could join whenever I wanted.” She held up her hoof, and though back to earlier when those servants panicked around her.
With a shrug she opened the door. “I’m sure it will be fine. Besides, she said she took care of it.”
*****   
Anna rubbed her temples. “You couldn’t have come up with something more creative than an ice witch?”
“I panicked.” Elsa crossed her arms. “Though, I think she knew I was lying.”
Krisstoff chuckled. “How’d you guess that?”
Elsa glared at him. “Fine. Just… Just give me a day or two. At least with letting her out and being able to go where she want’s. Right now, let’s just try to enjoy ourselves, then I won’t see if I can’t go tell Snowdrop what really happened.”
“What happened?” 
All three of them jumped as the turned to see Snowdrop had walked up to them.
Elsa’s teeth chattered. “Snowdrop? What are you—”
She raced out to cover her up, when a collective cry of gasps echoed throughout the courtyard. Elsa turned her head, to see everybody staring at them.