• Published 28th Jun 2014
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Elsa's Snowdrop - TheOneAJ



In her kingdom of isolation, Elsa discovers a special filly that will change her life in ways she never expected.

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Chapter 2

Several hours later, Elsa woke up when something moved in her lap.

Fearful and annoyed that it disturbed her sleep, she just wanted to hit it with an ice blast and go back to bed. Thankfully, before she could do any of that, she opened her eyes and saw Snowdrop curled up and fast asleep on her lap, breathing a rather adorable snore.

Relieved that the filly hadn’t frozen, Elsa ran her fingers through Snowdrop’s mane.

While Elsa didn’t have any clocks in her castle, she could guess that it was somewhere around noon from how the sunlight was shining through the walls. It had been a long day, which would be made longer now that she had to find out where this foal came from and get her home. Which brought her back to the problem of how she was going to do that. The only way she could think of helping was by leaving her castle to look for help. After coronation ball, that was the last thing she wanted to do.

While she pondered this, Snowdrop’s pale eyes opened.

“Wa— What. Ugh, where am I?”

“Oh, I am sorry. I did not mean to wake you.”

“It’s okay, Princess Elsa,” Snowdrop said as she stretched out. She ruffled her wings and crawled out of Elsa’s lap. “I was just about to wake up anyways.” She yawned.

Elsa chuckled as she patted her on the head. “I’m sure, and it is just Elsa. Now," Elsa said as she got up, "how about we find some food. Then we can find a way to get you home.”

Snowdrop leapt into the air. “That sounds great!”

“Alright, alright,” Elsa said as she picked herself up. She was going to tell her to stay close when she remembered that Snowdrop was blind. “Oh, um… do you need me to carry you again?”

Snowdrop narrowed her eyes. “I can get around myself. I’ll just follow the sound of your...” she tilted her head. “Is feet what they are called? I’ve never met anything that could walk on two legs before.”

Elsa tilted her head. “How can you tell?” She threw her hands over her lips. “I’m so sorry, Snowdrop, I didn’t— “

Snowdrop raised her hoof and looked down. “It's fine." She lifted her head. "I don't get offended that easily. Mom would be disappointed if I did.” She lowered her head, and then shot it right back up. “Anyways, I could tell how you're built from how you carried me and held me in my sleep. Which by the way, thanks again. You make a warm bed.”

Elsa blushed and scratched the back of her neck. “Thank you.” Both of their stomachs growled. “I guess we better hurry up and find breakfast.”

Snowdrop closed her eyes and smiled. “Yeah, breakfast sounds great. Or would it be lunch? How long have we been sleeping?”

“Only a few hours I think. Either way, we should get going. Food is not going to magically appear.” She led Snowdrop out of the room as the filly stayed close by her. Once in the halls, Elsa rubbed her temples.

What was she suppose to do for food? She couldn’t just magically conjured it up...

Or could she?

It was another long shot, but if her powers worked for firewood, why couldn’t it work on food? She shouldn’t have been able to summon logs any more than she should have been worried about what a talking pegasus was going to have for breakfast. At this point, anything seemed possible.

Seeing nothing loss in trying, she held up her hand and commanded food to appear.

She concentrated, and before her appeared a breakfast tray filled with her most favorite things, made entirely out of snow.

“Something wrong, Elsa?” she felt Snowdrop tug at her dress.

Elsa took a deep breath once her eyes stopped twitching. “It’s nothing,” she said as she blew the snow food away. “Unless you are okay with snow flavored snow cones for breakfast.”

“Maybe in the summer,” Snowdrop said thinking Elsa was playing a game. “But I’m more in the mood for say, a daffodil sandwich, or maybe a nice warm pile of hayfries.”

“Right, I’ll just go get that from…” that was when she remembered that Snowdrop was a pony. “Sorry, I can’t get you any hayfries, but I think I know where you can get some nice grass and maybe a flower or two.”

Snowdrop’s ears fell flat but she kept a straight face. “That sounds lovely.” They continued their walk throughout the castle. “Thanks again, Elsa, you’re being more than generous. You’re almost as great a princess as Luna.”

“Who?” Elsa asked as she led Snowdrop towards the back of the castle.

Snowdrop flew ahead of her to look at her quizzingly. “You don’t know who Princess Luna is?” she crossed her forelegs together as she tried to look mad, only to come across as cute. “I mean, I know Celestia gets more attention, but at least everypony—I mean—everybody, knows her name.”

“Well I— Snowdrop, watch out!” Elsa grabbed Snowdrop by the elbow and pulled her away from the vase as she bumped into it. It wobbled on its pedestal before it fell to the floor, shattering into a hundred pieces.

“Elsa, I’m so sorry,” Snowdrop said as she curled up into her arms, “I didn’t mean it. I can pay you back and—”

“Relax, it’s just a vase,” Elsa said as she used her free hand to restore it. “It’s only ice. You’re not hurt, are you?”

“I’m fine, but what do you mean by ice?” Snowdrop asked as she jumped off her chest and walked up to a wall to place a hoof to it. “I… I thought this place was made of ice, but I just couldn’t believe it.” She looked up at Elsa. “How did you build this? Even Canterlot Castle wasn’t built with the type of magic this place would have required." she said with a smile."You must be a very powerful princess.”

Elsa was taken back. That was not the response she had expected.

“I mean,” Snowdrop went on, “sure, Celestia raises the sun, but you can make ice castles. That’s pretty cool. Oh um, no pun intended.”

Once Elsa caught on to what was so funny, she eased up as they continued their walk. “So, your queen is this Luna, or is it Celestia?”

“Well, they both rule,” Snowdrop explained as she hopped onto the floor. “And I don’t know anypony, or body, who calls them queens. Don’t really know why, something about not being married or because they dislike the title of queen or something. I’ve always meant to ask Luna, but never got around to it.”

“So, you’re friends with this Luna?” Elsa asked with a spark of hope in her voice. If this filly was best friends with royalty, that meant guards from her kingdom would be out looking for her. Yet, if they were all flying pegasus, it wouldn't be long before they stumbled upon her massive castle.

Then again—if all of Snowdrop's people were flying pegasi — wouldn't a search party have come by her giant ice castle by now?

“Oh yeah," Snowdrop answered, "she’s my best friend actually. Practically a second mother.” Snowdrop paused, but kept walking before Elsa could ask if anything was wrong. “Anyways, I think it’s because I appreciate her night and stars more than most other ponies. Not that they don’t, but compared to Celestia, she can feel rather insignificant at times, like nopony likes her.”

Elsa crossed her arms, not sure how to respond to that. In a way, she felt like she could relate to this Luna. On the other hand, she envied Luna for not being the spotlight of her kingdom.

She didn’t know what to say, so she didn’t say anything on the topic at all.

“Hey, Elsa?” she heard Snowdrop ask.

“Um, yeah, Snowdrop?”

“Is anybody else living in this castle? I haven’t heard another living soul since I’ve arrived.” Snowdrop looked up to her as they continued their walk. “You don’t live all alone here, do you?”

Elsa rubbed her shoulders as she looked away from Snowdrop. “Sorry, Snowdrop, it’s just you and me.”

“But… why? I mean, I know nopony likes to be alone, so I have to assume nobody likes to be alone.”

“Hey, don’t worry about me. I’ve been alone my whole life. I’ll be fine once I get you home.”

She heard Snowdrop sigh. “Well, why do you want to be alone?”

Elsa scratched the back of her neck. “I’d rather not say. Besides, we’re here,” she said as she opened the back door to her palace.

Normally this time of year, the mountain would be green with the occasional flower that brave men would fight tooth and nail for to obtain for their lovers. While it was covered up with snow from her previous power-rush, she suspected that the grass would still be fresh beneath the snow cover.

“Let’s see what’s under the ice. Stand back.” Snowdrop obeyed, and Elsa let loose a wave of magic expecting the snow to blow off the mountain. When she tried, however, she ended up piling on more snow on top of the existing snow.

“Da…” she held her tongue when she looked down at Snowdrop. “Darn. Looks like my powers can’t clear snow.” Elsa sighed and crossed her arms. “I’m sorry to ask to you this, but would you mind waiting just a little bit longer while I dig up a meal?”

Snowdrop shook her head. “It’s okay, I’ll help.”

“Snowdrop, you don’t have to—”

“Hey, it’s my meal, and you’ve been kind enough as it is. Although,” she said once she began to dig, “maybe you should consider hiring some servants to do this work. Perhaps some snowpony? I hear they work for snow cones and carrots now a days.”

Else laughed at Snowdrop’s sense of humor and decided to play along.

“Yeah,” Elsa commented once she made an ice shovel to join her. “Servants aren’t expensive, but a snowman army will only take coal for its payment.”

It felt nice to talk like a little kid again. It had been ages since she did so. While she wasn't keen on the idea of bonding with someone she would have to say goodbye to soon, she figured that it would be okay to at least entertain the child with play while she just happen to enjoy it herself.

“On the bright side, a snowpony army only accepts gold.”

“Oh yes,” Elsa nodded as she wiped a bead of sweat from her forehead. “I’ll get right on it to make snow-gold so I can start recruiting.” She leaned on the shovel to catch her breath. “Okay.” She smiled at Snowdrop. “I don’t suppose I could recruit you? We have an opening for a general position. Would you be interested?”

Snowdrop stopped digging. “You're joking,” she smiled nervously, “right?”

Elsa leaned down to scratch her head. “Of course I am,” she said in a serious tone. “A girl as special as you would cost too much to recruit anyways.”

Relived that this was just a game, Snowdrop saluted her and said, “You can pay my first years’ salary in snowcones, my princess.”

“In that case,” Elsa conjured up a medal made of ice, “I appoint you, General Snowdrop, 1st commander of the Snow Queen’s Royal Guard.” She went to place the pin on Snowdrop when she realized that she didn’t have any clothing to put it on.

She backed up for a moment, then snapped her fingers as she converted the badge into a hairpin. “Hang on a second,” Elsa curled her tongue as she placed the hairpin badge into her mane. “There you go. May you serve your country with honor and pride.”

Snowdrop chuckled as she felt the badge with her hoof. “How does it look?”

Else paused as she remembered that Snowdrop wouldn’t be able to see her work. “You… you look beautiful, dear.” She eased up when Snowdrop blushed. “Right, General Snowdrop, your first duty to the kingdom is to see that we have enough food for our nation.” She picked up her shovel. “Come on, I think we’re about to hit pay dirt.”

“Don’t you mean pay grass?”

Elsa rolled her eyes. “That too.” The pair went back to work as Elsa chose to spend the rest of her time asking about where Snowdrop came from. “So, what is the name of the kingdom you are from?”

Snowdrop dug pushed aside more snow. "I wouldn't call Cloudsdale a kingdom, but that's where I'm from; Cloudsdale.”

“And where would that be? Is there a neighboring kingdom or something that’s not too far from Arendelle?”

Snowdrop kicked at the snow. “I can’t say for sure. I thought it was last above Manehattan, but you can never be sure where it will drift off to.”

Elsa stopped digging. “Come again?” Snowdrop couldn’t have meant what she thought the foal was saying. “Snowdrop, are you saying you live in the clouds?”

Snowdrop stopped digging. “Yeah, you never heard of a pegasus city before?”

“I…” She blinked. “You know, Snowdrop,” Elsa said as she went back to her shovel. “A city made of clouds doesn’t sound as strange as I thought it would.”

“Why would it sound strange?” Snowdrop asked as she continued to dig. “I mean, don’t you see them often?”

“Not really. You see… Oh wait, I think we got some grass.” Elsa dug faster as the green blades began to surface. She then threw her shovel on the ground to brush away the last bits of snow to make a nice, big, green clearing for snowdrop to feed on. “Snowdrop, breakfast is served.”

“You mean lunch, right?”

Elsa shook her head as she cleared a large patch of green ground. “Just eat your vegetables, kid.”

“Bleh,” Snowdrop stuck out her tongue. “I never was a fan of raw grass.”

“I’m afraid it’s all we got at the moment, so enjoy.”

Snowdrop scrunched her nose, but leaned into her meal.

As she ate, Elsa realized that despite their lucky break, the grass wouldn’t last forever. Either the trouble of getting the grass would take more energy than what it was worth. The mountain would get bare, or the grass would shrivel up without any sunlight. Either way, there would only be enough to last the foal for a week.

On top of that, she couldn’t eat grass at all.

As her stomach grumbled again, a bird landed on the snow next to her.

Elsa’s eyes widened as she realized what she was thinking. she couldn't eat a canary. Then again, how was a canary any different from a turkey, only she would be the one killing it. She didn’t want Snowdrop to notice her, but she couldn’t see. She had to eat, but it didn’t feel right.

It was how things were in nature, why should it be hard for her?

The bird looked up to her. Elsa held her hand out as the only thing she thought about was dinner.

“Hey, Elsa?” Snowdrop’s voice scared away the bird.

Elsa curled up her fist as she looked back at Snowdrop. “The grass is delicious. You want to give it a try?”

“Sorry, Snowdrop, I can’t eat grass.”

“So you eat meat like that bird instead?”

Elsa’s mouth dropped. “Um… I didn’t—”

“I’m not stupid you know. I heard the bird and your heavy breathing.” She walked up to Elsa with a smile. “It’s okay, I know a lot of races know about our taboo of meat-eating, but it doesn’t bother me. I understand that some things just gotta eat meat. I’m fine with it as long as they don’t consume anything they can have a conversation with.”

“It wasn’t that,” Elsa said as she fell onto the ground. “I just never thought I would have to kill anything for my dinner. I usually have servants who bring me food.” She laughed as she placed a hand to her forehead. “Boy, did I not think this whole running away from home thing through.”

Her lazy arm tingled as she felt Snowdrop curl up to her. “You ran away from home? Why?. I mean, it’s not like magic is a crime or anything.”

Elsa stroked her mane. “Well, I—” She felt something wet run down her hair. “What the— Oh, Snowdrop.”

“What?”

“Your medal, it’s melting.” She had forgotten that ice did that. “Here, I can fix it.”

She felt Snowdrop lower her own arm. “It’s okay, Elsa, snow and ice melts. I make snowflakes all the time with the knowledge that they’ll either melt or be turned into snowballs. It is a shame when they’re gone, but it just makes you appreciate them more while they’re around.”

Elsa sighed as she leaned onto Snowdrop. “Aren’t you the poetic one.” She narrowed her eyes. “What do you mean by making snowflakes? You don’t have ice-powers like me do you?”

“I’m afraid not. But I am the pony who came up with the idea that snowflakes should be shaped like stars. I’ve told it to death, but would you like to hear it?”

Elsa looked up to the sky, they still had a lot of daylight left. “I suppose so.”

“Alright, but then I want to hear your story about your ice powers and why you’re the only person in your castle afterwards. Deal?”

Elsa fought, but Snowdrop's large eyes proved to be too much for her. “Alright, deal. You first.” Hopefully it would give her enough time to come up with a better story than the one she didn’t want to speak about.

“Well, as you know, I’m blind.”

Elsa clasped a hand over her mouth. “No! I would have never figured that out myself.”

Snowdrop looked puzzled, but lightened up when she realized Elsa was joking. “Okay, so I’m a blind pegasus with no friends. Then one winter, we were all assigned to create a project to present to the Princess to welcome back spring. Everypony else had a partner, but I chose to go on it alone.” She turned her head from Elsa. “I didn’t want to get credit for something I didn’t do, and I honestly believed I could've come up with something in time. However, the harder I tried, the less I got done.

Finally, a day before the project was due, I was sitting on my thinking cloud when I reflected back on a time when my mother and I… We were stargazing. Well, she was trying her best to describe what a star looked like and explain how you can make wishes on them if I listen carefully enough to hear them twinkle. I told her I was going to wish to see, but she told me I should save my wishes instead. She then went into detail about how special I am despite my disability, and how I was special all on my own.

Back at that present, all I cared about was how unfair it was that I couldn’t see or do anything right. So, I wished with all my heart that I could be good at something.

Then, it began to snow, and I heard the snowdrops fall past my ears and twinkled. That’s when I had an idea. While I couldn’t see, I did know a thing or two about what a star should look like. So I pulled out one of my feathers and began to shape the snowdrop into a star until it became a snowflake.

The next day when I showed it to the Princesses and explained how winter, despite nopony liking it, could be special as well. That we could make the snow into stars that ponies could wish upon and admire when they fell to the earth. They loved it and put me in charge of designing the shapes of the snowflakes.

The following winter, we put my snowflakes to the test, and the ponies on the ground loved them. That was when my cutie mark appeared.” She said as she wiggled her rear in the air to show off her snow flower.

‘Cutie mark?’ Elsa thought as she eyed the tattoo. Was that what it was supposed to be?

“Since then, I’ve been put in charge of creating designs for all the snowflakes in the world.”

It was certainly some story. Elsa knew it couldn’t be possible. If it was, it would mean Snowdrop came from a different universe. Still, she had to admit that it was a moving story.

“Alright, Princess Elsa,” Snowdrop’s snout bumped her ribcage. “Now it’s your turn.”

“Oh— My…” Elsa held her tongue again. She had been so caught up in her story that she hadn’t thought of a different story to tell Snowdrop.

“Um…” Elsa ran her finger through her hair.

“Oh, if it’s that big of a deal, you don’t have to tell me. I just thought we were friends.”

Elsa’s stomach tensed. “No, we are, we are.” Were they? The closest she ever had to a friend was her sister Anna, and that ended well. Still, what else was Snowdrop supposed to be to her? Just somebody, or pony, who she was keeping an eye on until she found her parents.

“I suppose it won’t hurt to tell you.” She eased up as she surprised the foal with a surprise tickle attack. Once the giggled died down, she placed Snowdrop into a lap as she streaked her mane. “First off, you have to understand that where I come from, most of my kind doesn’t have any magical powers. As such, they tend to view people like me as,” she thought on the best words to tell Snowdrop. “Different. They get… jealous. Yeah, jealous of us, and tend to shun us because of it. They think we’re dangerous because,” she tightened her grip on Snowdrop as she thought back on that terrible day when Anna and herself were just children. “Well, because they can’t defend themselves if any of us decided to attack them.

So for my whole life, my parents tried to hide me from the rest of the world so no one would be afraid of me. Then, during my coronation, everyone found out about my powers. I mean, just the way they stared at me. I… I couldn’t stay, so I ran away.”

She stopped as she held Snowdrop closer as a tear began to stream down her face.

“Well that sounds like a lousy kingdom to me,” Snowdrop said as she snuggled up closer to Elsa. “You know, you should come back with me to Equestria. Almost everybody has some type of magic, and they don’t get jealous of one another, often.”

Elsa wiped away a tear as she raised an eyebrow. “Often?”

“Hey, no place is perfect. It just sounds like my home is far better than yours.”

“That it does, Snowdrop,” she rested her hand on the foals white head. “That it does.”

*****

The pair spent the rest of the day in the snow digging for food or playing in the snow building snowmen and snowponies to defend the castle.

“Alright, General Snowdrop,” Elsa wiped her forehead from building the snow army by hand. “I think that they should be enough to keep our borders safe.”

“I sure hope so,” Snowdrop said as she placed the last badge on a snowpony. “I’m ready to call it a day.”

“It’s only… Oh,” Elsa looked out at the sunset. “It is getting late. The day is almost over and I haven’t done anything to get you home.”

“Oh,” Snowdrop said as she kicked the snow. “It’s fine. I’m sure no one will miss me if I’m gone a few more days.” She let out a cute yawn. “Besides, I’m still tired from that long hike I had yesterday after I fell out of Cloudsdale. Can I stay in your castle for one more day?”

“Of course you can,” Elsa said as she took one of Snowdrops hooves into her hand, “I wouldn’t have it any other way. Now come on,” she said as she picked up a bundle of grass, “let’s head inside and get warmed up by the fire.”

Snowdrop smiled and followed in tow.

They made their way to what Elsa had decided would become the master bedroom. She lit a fire as she conjured up another ice-bed for Snowflake when she remembered that if the ice-medallion didn’t last long on her, she wouldn’t be able to sleep on a bed.

“Oh, sorry, Snowdrop, I don’t seem to have any beds available that you could sleep on.” Boy, was she a lousy host.

“It’s okay, I can always get some clouds and bring them down here to sleep on. Although,” she shuffled her legs back and forth, “if you want, we could snuggle up by the fire like we did this morning. I wouldn’t mind if you’d prefer to sleep in one of your ice-beds, but I figured that the first option would be much warmer.”

While she could sleep in the ice-bed for the same reason her ice-clothes didn’t melt, the idea of sleeping by the fire with Snowdrop in her arms did sound more inviting. It reminded her of the times when she and Anna…

She had to stop thinking like that. She only had to keep an eye on this foal for one more day before everything went back to normal.

Which would have been nothing but sitting, sleeping and eating once she solved the food problem.

“Alright,” Elsa said as she made another snow-wall, “come here.” She patted her lap as Snowdrop flew over.

She circled around in her lap a few times before she laid down. “Well, thank you, it was a fun day, Princess Elsa.”

Elsa didn’t bother to correct her as she stroked her mane. “Alright get some sleep. We have a… a big day ahead of us.”

A big day doing what? How was she supposed to find this filly’s kingdom? She couldn’t even figure out how to make breakfast for herself, let alone find out where this Equestria was. The only way she could do that was if she left her castle, which she had only lived in for one day.

The more she thought about it, the more the idea of leaving this castle to help find this foal’s home sounded a lot better than sitting around doing nothing.

Besides, if it put more distance between her and Arendelle, the better.

“Yeah, Snowdrop,” she said as she snuggled up against her snow-wall. “Tomorrow, we’ll head out to find your home. Don’t worry, I won’t rest until you get home.”

At first, Elsa had thought that Snowdrop had fallen asleep from her lack of response. She then felt her stir and say, “Yeah, sure.”

“I thought you’d be excited to get back home.”

“I am, I am,” she said quite quickly. “I’m sure Luna misses me. I think you would like her as well. I know she’d be happy to let you live in Equestria for all you’ve done for me.” Elsa saw the edge of Snowdrop’s lips curl up.

“That… does sound nice.”

“Well, you think on it and like you said, we’ll head out in the morning.” She moved around in Elsa’s lap one last time before dozing off. “Goodnight, Elsa.”

Elsa held Snowdrop as close as she could. “Goodnight, Snowdrop.”

As Elsa dozed off, she thought back to the idea of moving to Equestria with Snowdrop. It should have sounded too good to be true, a kingdom where people with magic weren’t shunned.

She should have felt excited, so why wasn’t she looking forward to it?