Chapter 6: It Calls for a Party
Cryssy shot to her hooves at the sudden noise, nearly knocking her head on the roof of the cave. She quickly spun her head around as her horn began sparking, convinced that she was caught, that they had finally found her.
"What're you doing in here?" the voice spoke again, but it wasn't one of her stalkers, it was...a pony?
The images flashed to her mind proved it, in front of her was a smiling pony, though her mane looked like it had seen better days.
"I was, um," Cryssy searched desperately for an excuse to be in the cave, "I was napping."
"No you weren't silly! I watched you come in here!" the pony exclaimed brightly, her smile somehow growing larger.
"Oh...I was..." she tried to think of another excuse, but couldn't think of anything in her current exhaustion.
"Ooooo, are you playing hide and seek?" the pony started to bounce up and down, and Cryssy thought her head might hit the roof of the cave.
"Um, yes?" it wasn't Cryssy's best excuse ever, but if this pony believed it, why not?
"Well you shouldn't hide here, it's WAAAAAAY too obvious! Follow me! I'll show you the best spot EVER!" the pony squealed excitedly as she bounced toward the exit.
This was just unreal, she had to be dreaming. The pony suddenly appeared above the unicorn, her eyes wider than dinner plates, "I said, follow me! What are you, blind?"
Cryssy lowered her head and kicked at some dirt, "Actually."
"Oh no. I'm so sorry, I didn't know, I promise!" the pony fell from the ceiling, and did some wierd dance involving flapping her arms and hitting herself in the eye.
"It's okay," Cryssy quietly answered, her head still looking to the ground, "I was just-"
"Wait, I've never heard of a blind pony in Ponyville, and I know EVERYPONY here" the overly-energetic pony cut the unicorn off, "And that means..."
Cryssy lifted her head back up at the word 'Ponyville'. That must be a town, and if this pony was from there, it must be close!
She pulled back a bit as the pony leaned in close to her, a smile slowly curling beneath her wide eyes. "That means that you're new here!" the pony pulled back and sprinted out of the cave yelling something about getting something 'ready'.
"Wait! Come back!" Cryssy tried to gallop out after the pony, but she lost her as soon as she left the cave. "But...where's Ponyville?"
She quickly turned back and threw the shawl around herself, and wiggled into her saddlebags. She was tired and exhausted, but if there was a town nearby, it was much safer than this cave, and she could find food there!
She trotted back out into the field and scanned the area for any sign of a town, or anypony else nearby that she could ask about it. But either the town was still too far for her magic to reach, or she had imagined everything that just happened with the strange pony.
"No Dashie, I'm serious, there really is a new pony outside of town!" she heard that same excited yelling over to her left, on the other side of a hill. The blue unicorn galloped to the top of the hill, desperately hoping to see where the pony had gone.
She could hear a different pony this time, even though she still didn't see either of them, "Fine Pinkie, I'll go make sure the imaginary blind pony makes it to town."
Imaginary? Cryssy's head sunk, maybe she had just spent so much time away from others that her mind had created this entire situation.
"Great! See you later Dashie!"
She turned back to the cave, maybe a nap would bring her back to reality. She heard flapping wings shoot over her head. They had found her! She started to run toward what she hoped was the forest, she had to get away.
"Hey you! Stop!" they were yelling at her now, if only she hadn't left the cave, this would never have happened. Cryssy suddenly found herself face first into the frozen grass. She wanted to scream, but she couldn't, there was no escaping this time. She just buried her face in her hooves and waited to be taken away to...
Wait, something was strange about this. She didn't feel talons digging into her back, but instead she felt...hooves?
"Where are you running off to so fast?" whoever had tackled her asked semi-rudely as they stepped off her back.
Cryssy pulled her face from her hooves and turned her head to face her assailant, and to her surprise there was another pony, a pegasus, staring down at her with a confused look on her face. She was a bit embarrassed at her reaction; it was just a pegasus, not one of them.
"Well?" the pegasus continued to question her.
"Oh, I'm sorry, I thought...I thought you were someone else" Cryssy apologized as she stood up.
"Who did you think I was?"
Cryssy just looked away, hoping the pegasus would drop the question. She didn't need anypony knowing about her stalkers.
After a few moments of silence, the pegasus sighed, "Never mind. Hey, my friend told me to find a blind pony around here, have you seen one?"
Cryssy slowly looked back up to the pegasus, and pulled the shawl from over her head, revealing her silvered eyes.
"Oh, sorry" the pegasus started scratching the back of her mane, "So, hey. Since you're new here, do you want me to show you around town?"
Cryssy squeezed out a tiny smile, maybe she hadn't been crazy! "So, there really is a town near here?"
"Uh, yeah. It's right over there, how could you not-" the pegasus cut herself off.
"Don't be worried," Cryssy tried to assure the pegasus that she didn't mind, "I'm used to it."
"Oh, well...um, do you want to hold my tail or something? I don't know how you would get around."
"Actually, I can just follow you. Lead the way"
"You...you can?" the pegasus sounded very confused.
"I can explain while we walk."
"So let me get this straight" the pegasus finally spoke after Cryssy had explained her 'sight', "you use magic to see...like a bat?"
"Yes, exactly"
"That...is...AWESOOOOME!" the pegasus yelled, causing Cryssy to flinch at the sudden outburst.
"Thank you."
"So what's your name?" the pegasus finally asked.
"Ice Crystal"
"I'm Rainbow Dash, fastest flyer in Ponyville" the pegasus introduced herself.
"Really? That must be great."
"Yeah, I'm pretty great."
Cryssy finally started to notice buildings appearing around them. Most appeared to be made of wood or stone from what she could tell, and with simple construction. Most were only 1 and maybe 2 floors tall, so she could still see the tops of them. She scanned the area around them slowly, taking in every detail her mind would show her.
"What are you looking at?" Rainbow asked her after a few moments.
"Everything" Cryssy replied as she continued to search around, "it all looks so homely."
"It's not bad, but not nearly as great as Cloudsdale."
Cryssy turned back to Rainbow, "I wish I could go there sometime. Mama used to tell me stories about it."
"Your mom is a pegasus?" Rainbow asked her.
"She was, yes."
Rainbow was pretty sure she knew what Ice Crystal had just implied. She frowned a little, but quickly shook it off to take back up her aura of toughness. "Well, here's our first stop. Carousel Boutique."
"A boutique?" the blue unicorn couldn't figure out why they would stop at a boutique first, but then again she hadn't seen herself in a mirror for a while, she couldn't even imagine what her mane must look like.
"Yeah. Don't ask why, I'm just doing what I was told" Rainbow replied with a dry look on her face. Obviously this was not her favorite place in Ponyville.
A small bell rang above the door as the two stepped into the boutique. "Coming!" a feminine voice echoed from somewhere in the back of the building.
A few seconds later a unicorn with a swirling mane trotted around the corner. There was a small pair of glasses perched on her nose and some kind of band hanging from her neck. "Oh Rainbow, what brings you he-" the unicorn stopped in her tracks, sending the glasses clattering to the ground beneath her. "Oh dear, who is this?"
"Hey Rarity, this is Ice Crystal. Pinkie found her in a cave outside town" the way Rainbow described the situation didn't exactly shine a bright light onto Cryssy, but she didn't have time to argue her side before the other unicorn, presumably Rarity, was pulling her into the middle of the room.
"Dear, you're a mess! We simply must clean your mane and tail" Rarity said with a suave tone as she dug through drawers beside Cryssy.
"You don't have to do-"
"Oh but I do. I'll be banished before I let a mare wander around with her mane in such a mess." she stated, actually more demanded, as she started to pull leaves and twigs from Cryssy's mane, often painfully.
After a few minutes of pulling out debris, the unicorn moved on to combing out the tangles in her mane and tail. "So tell me, how did you get you mane into such a mess?"
"I...I haven't had time to mess with it" Cryssy lied. In truth she never really cared how her mane looked, but with the number of twigs Rarity had pulled out, she was glad it was finally being cared for.
"Oh, that must have been just dreadful."
'You have no idea' Cryssy thought to herself as the comb was pulled from her mane.
"Okay, now we just need to wash out this mud and find you the perfect style."
"Wait, style?"
Almost an hour later, after countless changes, Rarity finally stopped working with Cryssy's mane. "There we go dear, you look simply beautiful! Take a look."
"Thank you! Finally!" Rainbow shouted from where she was laying in the center of the room.
The unicorn pushed some kind of board across the room in front of Ice Crystal, smiling brightly at the work she had done. "What do you think?"
Cryssy figured out that the board must have been a mirror, why else would the unicorn push it in front of her? She frowned and drooped her head.
"Oh, do you not like it? Perhaps something a little sho-"
Cryssy cut the other unicorn off, "No, it's not that. I just can't see mirrors."
"You...can't?"
"Oh, sorry Rarity, I forgot to tell you," Rainbow said as she rolled to her hooves, "she's blind."
Rarity looked back to Cryssy for confirmation. The mare nodded shyly.
"I'll take your word that it looks good" Cryssy assured the fashonista. "How many bits do I owe you?" she asked as she reached for her saddlebag.
"Not a thing darling, consider it a favor" Rarity replied with a smile.
Cryssy couldn't stop a smile from creeping onto her lips. Nopony had ever done anything like this for her, and she felt very lucky to have stumbled into this town suddenly. "Thank you Rarity."
"You're quite welcome."
Rainbow flew to Cryssy's side, "Sorry to break this up but we'd better continue the tour of town."
For some reason Rarity suddenly dashed into the back of the store with a gasp, as if Rainbow's words had somehow lit the place on fire.
"Why'd she do that?" Cryssy asked the pegasus next to her.
"She, uh, left something in the oven?" Rainbow replied uncertainly.
The blue unicorn shrugged and followed Rainbow out into the street, "Where to next?"
"Well, you look pretty hungry, so what do you say we go get a snack?"
Rainbow's assumption was correct, and her words reminded Cryssy that she hadn't eaten in quite a while. She didn't even know how many days it had been, winter had always made it hard for her to tell when it was night and day, especially when she first woke up.
"Sure, that sounds good."
Rainbow smiled in what could almost be called victory, and flew down the street, only stopping to make sure the blue unicorn was still behind her.
"Where are we going to eat?" Cryssy asked as she jogged to keep up with the pegasus.
"Sugarcube Corner! They have the greatest treats in Ponyville!" she replied excitedly, doing a small loop to fall back beside the blind pony.
Cryssy jumped a little when the pegasus was suddenly beside her, and internally cursed herself for being so jumpy. She wasn't in the woods anymore, she was in the middle of a busy town, and she could only guess it was the middle of the day since ponies were actually awake.
The pair stopped in front of what looked like a giant gingerbread house, which definitely fit the name Sugarcube Corner. Although for apparently having such good food it seemed strangely deserted.
Rainbow led Cryssy up to the door and held it open for her, which she acknowledged with a quiet "Thank you."
As soon as she got through the door, the building erupted with noise as a giant cluster of ponies shouted "SURPRISE" at the top of their lungs. Cryssy jumped back out of the door, at least she would have if Rainbow wasn't right behind her. Instead she knocked the pegasus to the ground.
"Woah, where're you going?" Rainbow asked her as she picked herself up.
Cryssy studied the room, realizing that she had stumbled into...a party?
That crazy pony from earlier popped up in front of her, a giant smile once again plastered onto her face. "Hi again! Sorry I ran off earlier, but I had to set up this party, because you're new in town, and that means you don't know anyone here, so I threw you a party so you could meet everypony, but I had to get Dashie to distract you while I set it up, but now you're here, and we're all so happy to meet you!"
How the pony managed to say all of that in one breath was a mystery to Cryssy, but she couldn't say she was surprised after what she'd seen from the pony earlier.
"I'm Pinkie Pie! You've already met Rainbow Dash and Rarity," the unicorn from earlier stepped out from the crowd, though Cryssy wasn't sure how she'd gotten here without running into her again, "and this is Octavia, Vinyl Scratch, Derpy Hooves, Bon Bon..."
Cryssy was frozen as Pinkie named pretty much everypony in the room, once again all in one breath somehow. She noticed that everypony was smiling, it was such a happy town. She felt another smile creep into the corner of her mouth at the sight.
"...And this is Applejack, Fluttershy, and Twilight Sparkle!" the bouncing earth pony had finally named everypony in the room, her chest heaving as she tried to catch her breath.
"It's nice to meet you all, I'm Ice Crystal" Cryssy said once Pinkie had finished gasping for air, eliciting a loud response from everypony in the room, although not all of them said the same thing.
After the initial greeting everypony scattered to enjoy the party and converse with their friends. A few stepped up to talk to Cryssy, asking her where she was from and why she came to Ponyville. Almost nopony had heard of Snowhoof before, and she spent a lot of the party talking about her home town, avoiding certain personal aspects of course. Her fabricated story for why she came to Ponyville was a bit harder to think up, but eventually she just told them she was looking for a change of scenery.
Rainbow was right, the food here really was amazing. The cake tasted great, but her favorite food had been the chocolate cupcakes. They were almost as good as Mama used to make them, though they weren't far behind.
Cryssy wished she hadn't thought of that. She put the cupcake she was eating into a trashcan, hoping nopony saw her waste the food. She crept into the back of the room, where nopony else was gathered, and tried to hide the tears that had crept into her eyes. She hated that she was so down at a party, but she hadn't exactly been the happiest pony in the past few years.
Suddenly she felt a hoof on her shoulder, "Are you okay?" a soft voice asked her.
Cryssy turned to face whoever had found her. The image flashed into her mind was of another unicorn, but not Rarity. She remembered her name from when Pinkie had introduced everypony at the beginning of the party, Twilight Sparkle.
"Oh, yes, I'm fine. Thank you" she lied.
"You don't look fine" Twilight said as she sat beside the sobbing unicorn.
"It's nothing, really" Cryssy continued to lie, not wishing to bring down other ponies when they all looked so happy.
"It's hard to get used to being away from home" Twilight tried to calm her down, not realizing how well the unicorn beside her understood that statement.
"This isn't your home?" Cryssy asked in an attempt to change the subject away from herself.
"Not originally, I moved here a couple years ago from Canterlot."
Cryssy's ears perked up at that as she wiped the tears from her eyes, "You're from Canterlot?"
Twilight nodded and smiled, "Yes. Have you ever been there?"
"One time, a really long time ago" Cryssy replied, "I loved it there."
"What were you there for?"
"I went to take a test. I was trying to get into Celestia's School for Gifted Unicorns."
Twilight's eyes lit up, "I remember that test!" her voice was suddenly full of excitement.
"You took it too?" the tears stopped flowing as Cryssy's spirit shot higher than it had in a long time. "How did you do?"
A sheepish smile spread across Twilight's face as she answered "Actually I almost failed it."
"You passed! That's amazing, nothing even happened when I tried" Cryssy's voice was surprisingly full of excitement as well, something even she didn't expect when talking about the failure all those years ago.
"The same thing happened with me at first too" the unicorn replied with a giggle, "I actually got kind of lucky."
"Lucky?"
"No way! I remember that hole!" Cryssy laughed for the first time in years.
Twilight had told her the story about how she passed her entry exam for Celestia's School. The two were still in the back of the room, and quite a few ponies had started to leave the party already, but it was still lively.
"Really? I thought they had patched that up a few days later!"
"I must have tested around the same time as you then Twilight."
"So do you know how long-"
Twilight was cut off by three fillies running over to the two of them, "See! Ah told you she has silver eyes!" one of them yelled, a little earth pony.
"That's so cool!" a little pegasus beside her added, "How do I get eyes like that?"
"My sister say's shes blind, whatever that means." a little unicorn filly, who actually looked a lot like Rarity, told the other two fillies.
Twilight turned to Cryssy, "You're blind?"
"Naturally, yes" she replied.
"What does blind mean?" the pegasus filly asked with a raised eyebrow.
"It means she can't see Scootaloo" Twilight answered for the filly.
"Really? That doesn't sound very fun."
"It's not so bad," Cryssy interjected, "besides, I use magic to see a little."
Twilight looked back to the blue unicorn with wide eyes, "How do you do that?"
"It's like a bat. My horn shoots out a wave of magic that bounces off of things around me and when it comes back, it puts a picture in my mind."
"That's so cool!" Scootaloo repeated herself from earlier.
"How did you learn to do that?" Twilight asked.
"I didn't, it just happened one day."
"What else can you do?" the unicorn filly asked excitedly and sat down, as if expecting a long list of magical stories.
"Um, maybe I'll tell you about that later."
"Aww" all three of the fillies moaned in disappointment before running off to find somepony else to talk to.
"Sorry about that Ice Crystal" Twilight turned back to Cryssy after the fillies had left.
"It's okay, I was just like that as a filly. Always excited about learning new things."
"Weren't we all" Twilight said with a giggle which was mirrored by Cryssy.
"Hey, sorry, but it's getting a little late and I should find a place to stay before it gets too late" the blue unicorn apologized, suddenly realizing that she didn't have anywhere to sleep.
She had thought about just leaving tonight, after getting some food, but with her sleep being disturbed constantly the night before, she wouldn't be able to make it far. Besides, it would take a while for them to find her here. She didn't stop in towns often, and she hoped they would see that as a pattern, and bypass Ponyville.
There was another reason she hoped to stay as well, one which she thought of as a bit selfish. She was actually really enjoying Ponyville. Everypony was really nice here, and they had made her feel welcome within only hours of arriving, something she hadn't experienced since she left home.
"You don't have anywhere to stay yet?" Twilight asked with a concerned tone.
"No, I just got here a few hours ago, and I was only here and at that Carousel Boutique. I didn't even think about it until now."
Twilight looked around the room for a moment, then back to Cryssy, "Stay here, I think I know a place."
"Are you sure this is okay, I don't want to be a burden."
"It ain't no burden at all sugarcube, we got a big house, and you can stay as long as ya' need to get settled in 'round here" Applejack assured Cryssy as she pulled fresh sheets over a spare bed.
It hadn't taken long for Twilight to secure a place for the blue unicorn to sleep. Applejack was more than happy to give Cryssy a warm bed for as long as she needed, calling it 'Apple Hospitality'.
"Thank you so much for this," Cryssy said for about the tenth time, "I can't remember the last time I slept in an actual bed."
"Ah'm glad I could help. Now you just get some sleep, looks like you haven't had none in days," the pony told her with a smile, "and if ya' need anything, Ah'll be right upstairs."
She left her new guest to herself, trotting up the stairs to her own bedroom. Cryssy hadn't realized how late she had actually gotten to Ponyville. The party had lasted a few hours, ending right around sunset. Her and Applejack had been some of the last ponies to leave; only Rainbow, Pinkie, Twilight and a few others were still there when they left.
It was nice to be around ponies again, it had felt like years for Cryssy, though she had passed by one or two during the past few weeks, but they usually ignored her; probably assuming she was an outcast of some kind. Cryssy had especially had a good time talking with Twilight. They had talked about magic a few times that night, and when Cryssy mentioned how much she enjoyed it when her parents would read her books about magical history Twilight almost flew through the roof in her excitement. She offered to let Cryssy come to the library and look at some of her books, which of course she would once she found out what she was going to do.
She really wanted to stay here for a while, especially after meeting so many nice ponies at that party tonight. Nopony had been rude to her, and they almost accepted her like family. But she knew she couldn't stay long, at the most a few days, then she would have to move on. She had to reach Canterlot, it was the only way she knew that she could guarantee her own safety.
It was the only way to stop what would happen if they caught her.