//------------------------------// // Winter Wrap Around // Story: Cold as Ice // by CamoBadger //------------------------------// Chapter 8: Winter Wrap Around "Winter Wrap Up?" Cryssy had never even heard of this day before, and she was curious as to what Twilight was talking about. "Winter Wrap Up. You know, everypony pitches in and cleans up winter?" Twilight thought she was reminding Cryssy of the event, not aware that Cryssy came from a place that only knew winter. "Why would you clean up winter?" "So that spring can come." "Okay," Cryssy still didn't get it, and Twilight wasn't helping so far, "what do you do for Winter Wrap Up?" "We have to melt the snow, wake up the animals, plant new crops, and melt ice from the lakes. Those are just the big jobs though" Twilight explained the basics of the event, a look of bewilderment on her face. "Don't they have it where you come from?" Cryssy shook her head, "No, it's always winter in Snowhoof. We didn't have a reason to do any of those things." "But, how did you grow food?" Twilight asked the mare, obviously not familiar with the northern city. "We just planted like I assume you do, and made sure the crops didn't get crushed by too much snow" Cryssy explained, "you mean you don't plant in the snow here?" "No, we just store food to last through the winter." Cryssy nodded in understanding, even though she didn't completely understand why they didn't just grow food all year. "So does everypony help?" Twilight nodded with a smile, "Uh-huh, everypony has a job and we work together to get everything done." Cryssy thought for a moment, then asked one last question before leaving Twilight to her work, "Is there anything I can do to help?" The next morning came slowly for Cryssy. She didn't sleep that night in an attempt to avoid having to clear snow out of Applejack's house again, and she hoped it wouldn't hurt her that day. She was actually excited to help out with this Winter Wrap Up, even though she still didn't understand exactly what it was, and she couldn't wait to see what her job would be. Twilight had promised her that she'd find a job that wouldn't be to difficult for a blind pony, which Cryssy appreciated greatly. The pony trotted alongside Applejack to the center of town, where Twilight would inform everypony of the order of jobs to be done. The entire town had gathered in the square, and everypony looked very excited to get started. A few ponies were literally jumping up and down in excitement, while the fillies in the front talked happily among each other. "Is everypony always this excited?" Cryssy asked the cowpony as they came to the back of the crowd. "Yup, it's a big deal o' pride 'round here. And after last year everypony is even more excited ta' get started." Applejack replied. She was wearing a vest today, and a small armband. She explained that the vests showed which team you were on. Blue for the weather team, who were mostly pegasus ponies, would clear out the clouds and get the birds from down south. Green for the earth team, which was responsible for clearing snow from the fields and planting the seeds for the next year's harvest. And brown for the animal team, who made nests for the birds and woke up the critters around town. Unfortunately Cryssy couldn't tell the difference, and explained to Applejack that because of her vision she saw everything in one color. The earth pony had asked if she knew what her job would be, but Twilight hadn't told her yet. "Okay everypony! Let's get started!" Twilight called from a podium at the front of the crowd. Everypony turned their attention to the unicorn, smiles still plastered across their faces. After Twilight explained everypony's jobs for the day, which took a good half an hour to get through everything, the crowd dispersed around town to start work. Cryssy trotted up to Twilight once the crowd had cleared out, met by a smile from the unicorn. "Good morning Ice, how are you?" "I'm good, thank you Twilight" Cryssy replied with a thin smile, "what can I do to help?" "Well, I have a few ideas, just pick which one you'd like the most" the unicorn replied with a smile. "Okay, what's the first one?" Twilight looked down at her list, then back up to Cryssy, "Helping wake up the critters in the park?" "That sounds fun" Cryssy replied, but added one last question, "there's no wolves there right?" Twilight giggled a little, "Of course not. Just little animals like bunnies and squirrels." "Oh, okay, I'll give it a try." "Great! Go find Fluttershy and she'll get you started" Twilight smiled to her friend before trotting off to make sure everything was starting out okay. As the unicorn made her way to meet with Fluttershy, she noticed that everypony in town seemed to be singing about something. Whatever the song was, everypony seemed to know the words, and they all sang with smiles on their faces. "Winter wrap up, winter wrap uuup! Let's finish our holiday cheer!" Despite never hearing the song before, Cryssy found it to be rather catchy, and actually tried to join in each time the chorus came up. After listening for a while she noticed that it seemed to be describing all of the jobs which had to be done during the day. Applejack had been right, this must be a very proud day for them if they were excited enough to sing a song about it. By the time Cryssy trotted into the park, which was actually the same place she'd first hidden when she got to Ponyville, the song had ended, but the tune continued to cycle through her head as she walked. A few ponies were walking out into the field with little bells and baskets full of food clenched in their mouths, while others were already to work ringing the bells into a few of the dens. She recognized a pegasus off by herself with a flowing mane from the party where Pinkie had introduced everypony. "Hey Fluttershy" Cryssy said quietly as she came up beside the pegasus. "Oh, hello Ice Crystal, are you here to help with the critters?" Fluttershy responded sweetly. "Yeah, Twilight sent me over to see if I could help." "Thank you. Here, take this bell," the pony grabbed a small metal bell from beneath her wing and passed it to Cryssy, who took it in her mouth, "and lightly ring it inside the dens to wake up the animals, but please be kind about it, no need to rush." Cryssy nodded and smiled, or at least tried to with the bell in her mouth. She trotted across the snow and stopped in front of the first den she found. The unicorn rang the bell gently in front of the den, just loud enough so it would echo into the back of the burrow, and placed it down beside her. A few moments later a small family of gophers crawled out of the burrow, rubbing their eyes before slowly opening them to the sun's light. Cryssy couldn't help but smile at how cute the baby gophers were as they crawled out behind their parents. "Good morning, did you sleep well?" she naturally said what Mama said to her every morning when she woke, and thankfully the thought didn't get her down. She woke family after family of critters with the same greeting, always making sure to be kind to the animals she woke. All of the animals had been adorable, especially the babies when they were present, but Cryssy's favorite had been the weasels. She rang the bell just in front of the den, again making sure that it wasn't too loud, just enough to wake the sleeping animals inside. When they finally emerged, it was a family of 3 weasels; a mother, a father, and their child. Cryssy wished the family a good morning, and was about to walk away when she noticed that the baby had walked straight into a small rock, as if it didn't even see it there. Before Cryssy could check on the baby, the mother walked over to check on the child. After a moment of nuzzling, the baby grabbed hold of it's mother's tail, following behind clumsily as the mother walked her child back to their den. A small tear came to Cryssy's eye at the sight, and she found her mind wandering back to her own foalhood. "Cryssy, where are you going?" Snowfall asked her daughter playfully. The little filly dragged herself across the cold grass, moving away from her mother. "Come here Cryssy!" her father said from the other end of the yard. He had cleared the snow off of this spot so that they could play with their little filly outside for the first time. The foal changed direction and started pulling herself toward Daddy's voice. "There you go, good job!" Riptide cheered for his daughter, sticking his face close to the ground in front of her. The filly's nose bumped into her father's, and she grabbed hold of his muzzle. The parents chuckled at their daughter as he turned her around on the grass. "Okay Cryssy, come back to Mama!" Snowfall started calling again. The filly again started pulling herself forward, but this time kicking with her back legs as well. "Good job sweetie!" The filly started kicking faster and faster, until her back legs were under her body. The filly stopped and pushed herself up with her front legs. She heard a gasp from her mother as she pushed, and her father getting to his own hooves. After a few minutes of trying, the filly finally pushed herself all of the way up on her hooves. She swayed from side to side and spread her legs out a little to try balancing herself. After another moment of silence she heard Mama speak again, "Come on Cryssy! Walk to Mama!" The filly took a single fumbling step forward with her right foreleg, then her left rear leg, and so on. It was slow moving, but she was still up. She could hear Daddy walk up beside her. The filly almost fell once or twice, but her father caught her as she leaned to the side, and stood her back up with his magic. "You're doing great Cryssy, keep going" he whispered to her. The filly kept going, growing more confident with each clumsy step forward. Within an hour, she was having almost no problems walking the 10 feet between her parents, though she was still a little clumsy. "Okay sweetie, come here so we can go get dinner" Mama finally said, her voice full of happiness. The filly turned and trotted off the other direction. She had just learned how to walk, there was no way she wanted to stop now! She stumbled around in darkness, and quickly decided it would be a good idea not to wander around when she couldn't see where she was going. She turned back to where she though Mama was, and took a few steps before she felt something hard hit her face. Snowfall was by her side in no time, nuzzling into her neck, "Are you okay sweetie? You need to be careful." The filly rubbed her nose and nodded, a single small tear forming in her eye. "Here, grab Mama's tail." The filly turned and felt the hair hanging in her face. She grabbed a big mouthful and stood back up. "Okay, walk with me Cryssy." Mama slowly walked forward, and her daughter followed close behind, her eyes closed to substitute for a smile. After the mother weasel put her baby back in the den, she walked back out to join the father. The pair bounced over to the side of the den, where Fluttershy had set down a basket of nuts and berries for the family. "They're adorable aren't they?" the pegasus asked Cryssy while the parents pulled out food for their child. Cryssy nodded and wiped the tears from her eyes, a small smile formed across her lips, "Yeah, it's a cute family." The end of the day came a little too quickly for Cryssy, she had really had enjoyed it. The animals were all so cute, and she had gotten to know Fluttershy a little too. Even though she would miss the snow, it felt really good to be a part of something that helped everypony in town. Even though she had started to slow down in the afternoon, her lack of sleep finally catching up with her. After all of the work had been finished, everypony gathered outside of town and looked at the beauty of the town. Cryssy wished she could see it from this far away, but with how happy everypony looked, it must have been amazing. Twilight stepped beside her, "This is my favorite sunrise of the whole year. It's so beautiful." Cryssy looked to her friend, "Everypony says that, I wish I could just see one" a frown spread across her face. Suddenly there was a bright flash, and the world around her filled with color. She could see, she could actually SEE! And Twilight had been right, the sight before her was by far the most beautiful thing she could imagine. The sky glowed a dim orange as the sun peeked over the horizon. Ponyville was still mostly hidden in the shadow of the mountains to the east, only the tops of the tallest buildings touching the sun's rays. Birds were suspended over the town, not even flapping their wings. Then as quickly as they came, the colors vanished. She was once again surrounded by colorless flashes of the world. She looked over to Twilight, the largest smile she'd had in years spread across her face. The unicorn beside her gave a long, exaggerated wink and a small smile. "Thank you Twilight, thank you so much." Only moments after falling asleep, Cryssy found herself surrounded by ruined buildings and overgrown vines. She was scared, but nothing around her gave her reason for her fear. The air was silent, and nothing in her views of her surroundings seemed to be the things that she normally feared most. Above her, a loud ripple of air reminded her of why she should be afraid. They had found her again, but this time she was certain she couldn't escape. Their feathers gave them away as countless numbers of them stepped from behind the shattered buildings which surrounded her on every side. No, there was no escape this time, there were too many, and they had her trapped with nowhere to go. The ripple of air repeated over her, and she dropped from the sky in front of her, landing with a gust of wind as her wings folded back to her sides. Her eyes bored into Cryssy's own as she stepped closer, a smug smile spread across her beak. "You know, this little game of cat and mouse is starting to get on my nerves Ice." Her voice stung Cryssy's ears, as it always had whenever they had spoken before. The very sound of it began the process as her body began to cool, and the tingle in her gut rose. Even if she didn't escape, she wasn't going without a fight. "Don't call me that, you haven't earned the right" the unicorn hissed back, the first time she had ever spoken in anger to anyone, even her. "Would you rather I call you Ice Queen? I can do that too" the feathered demon snipped at her with a chuckle. The tingling in Cryssy's gut continued to grow with each word, slowly making it's way through her body. The one before her lifted her talon to the air, wiggling each claw about a bit before looking back the the unicorn, "Already upset? I'm impressed, you usually take a little longer to actually chill the air." "You know what happens next if you don't leave me alone" the blind pony hoped the reminder would at least buy her a few more moments to think of a plan, hopefully one that didn't involve the ice and snow. The demon's tone changed drastically, "Look, just trust me on this one kid. I don't want to hurt you, but if I have to I will" the dire tone in her voice almost convinced Cryssy that she was telling the truth. "Even if you do escape, I can't stop chasing you. He won't allow that, so just come with me and let this be done." Small patches of ice began to grow on the outside of Cryssy's horn as the tingling cold reached her head. She was on the brink, all it would take is a little push, and then only Celestia knew what would happen. Even after the number of times she had done this, it was impossible for her to know exactly what would occur. All she knew was that fear seemed to freeze everything, while anger normally resulted in a storm of some sort, but even those were just generalizations. The feathered beast let out a long sigh, "Have it your way then." Suddenly the demon was flying toward her with talons bared. As she flew, time seemed to slow as the images barely showed any difference in her distance. All around her the others twisted and faded into dust along with the ruined buildings, leaving her alone with the demon before her. She turned her attention to the attacker, who seemed to freeze for a moment in time. When the next image refreshed in her mind, the demon had morphed into the first experience of true fear in Cryssy's life. The wolf's fangs loomed only inches from her face as its eyes stared into her own, just as they had all those years ago. Cryssy was jerked from her dream by a loud banging on the door, "Ice! Get up, quick!" Applejack yelled from the hallway. The blind unicorn rolled out of bed as her horn flashed the day's first image to her head, saving her from the torture her mind had put her through. Once again the room was filled with snow, at least a few inches this time. She pulled her shawl over her back and was about to head over to the door when the corner of one image caught her attention. She trotted over to the window, and waited for the image to flash into her mind. When it did, Cryssy knew why Applejack had been in such a hurry to wake her up; the ground outside was completely coated in snow. The unicorn quickly ran into the hall, and saw that it wasn't just her room this time. "Oh no, please no" she mumbled to herself. The entire house had been dusted with snow while frozen flakes stuck on the walls. She ran outside to see how far her power had stretched this time, and saw that it was much worse than she had thought. The trees immediately beside the house were frozen solid, along with the outer wall of the house itself. Cryssy looked desperately for Applejack, she had to explain herself, and she had to leave. If they heard about this, they would know it was her! They would come to Ponyville, and she couldn't risk them hurting anypony here. Applejack was nowhere in sight, only her big brother was nearby. His jaw was dropped in awe, his eyes wide at the sight before him. Cryssy galloped to the other side of the house and desperately started bucking at the frozen wall, hoping it was from her directly, and not just the wind and cold. But the ice just cracked rather than evaporating like it would if she had made it herself. She ran back to the other side of the house to Big Macintosh, tears forming in her eyes. "I'm so sorry Big Macintosh, I'm so, so sorry" she turned and ran back into the room the family had rented to her, and quickly began packing her things into the saddlebags. As she turned to leave again, she found that Big Macintosh had finally moved, blocking her way out. "What d'ya mean yer sorry?" he asked gruffly. Cryssy shook her head quickly, "I didn't want this to happen here." "This can't be yer fault" Big Macintosh shook his head, "jus' a late storm, some joke from a pegasus." Cryssy lowered her head, unsure of what to say to the stallion. "An' why're ya' all packed up like yer leavin'?" "I can't explain. I just have to go" Cryssy said quietly, her head still bowed. "Well, we all hate ta' see ya' go, but if it's what you need ta' do" he moved out of the doorway, giving a simple nod to the obviously frightened mare. Outside, Cryssy froze in her tracks. Applejack and her friends had all gathered in front of the house, all gaping in surprise at what they saw. Applejack turned and smiled, "Ah'm awful sorry Ah woke ya' like that sugarcube, but Ah could really use yer-" the cowpony stopped and frowned, "Where're ya' off to Ice?" "I-" Cryssy stumbled on her words, "I just need to go." "You sound like a pony with something to hide" a raspy voice came from behind her. She turned to see Granny Smith shuffling out of the house, her face drawn tight into a suspicious look. "I-" Cryssy couldn't deny the old pony, she did have something to hide, but it was her problem, not theirs. She couldn't burden them by explaining, she just had to get away before they got hurt. "What's the matter Ice?" Twilight asked. The 6 friends had formed a circle around the blind pony, and were staring at her expectantly. Cryssy bowed her head and sighed. There was no getting out if it anymore, she would have to tell them. She spoke quietly, as if they would appear if she spoke too loudly, "I'm the reason your farm is covered in snow Applejack." The ponies around her all gasped, "But...how?" Applejack asked. "It's my magic. It makes ice and snow in my sleep, I can't control it" Cryssy admitted with shame, turning away from Applejack, not wishing to see the anger on her face. "Why didn't you tell us?" Rarity stepped forward. "Because it would put you all in danger, they would kill you to find out where I am." The stylish unicorn stepped back, her face drawn in fear. The others all did the same, except Twilight. "Who would want to find you Ice?" Cryssy looked up to her friend. She had never told anypony about this before, and getting it to come out was much harder than she ever thought it would be. The words caught in her throat, refusing to leave her mouth. "Well, spit it out!" Rainbow yelled from above the blind pony. "The griffins."