Forever Young

by Trick Question

Sweet Pop

About a dozen foals were waiting for me outside.

"Congratulations!" said Featherweight, as I stepped into the crowd. Several other foals echoed the sentiment.

"You cut it close with the timing, Rumble," said Scootaloo. "You could have earned your cutie mark any day!"

"Or even hit puberty," said Snails. "Though the cutie mark is usually first."

"Either one would have prevented you from activating the band," said Kettle Corn.

"Well, I didn't, and I haven't, so here I am," I said.

Diamond Tiara approached me and got right in my face. "Rumble, you and I need to talk."

"You can't buy his band, Diamond," said Apple Bloom. "And that wouldn't even make sense, because it's too late for you to wear it."

"Ugh, I know that," said an irritated-looking Diamond, rolling her eyes. "I'm not that selfish! I just don't want to see him make a terrible mistake with his life."

"You really wanted a band, huh?" I asked.

Diamond Tiara sighed. "Of course I did! And believe me, Daddy did everything in his power to get me one. Bribery, influence, dark magic, you name it," she said. "And then Celestia picks some random, ungrateful colt!"

"Dark magic?" said Sweetie Belle. "Uh, does anypony else—"

"I heard the selection is super mysterious," said Skeedaddle.

"It's totally random," said Silver Spoon. "It has to be random. Nothing else makes any sense."

"Look, I'm not ungrateful. I just want to grow up like my brother," I said. "He's a Wonderbolt! I've always wanted to be like him, and I'll never get to be a 'Bolt if I do this."

"The odds of getting into the 'Bolts aren't good," said Chipcutter. "I mean, you're a real good flyer Rumble, but they're the best of the best. You're betting your life on a risky dream. Literally."

"Besides, you could train for a hundred years and be the fastest colt in the world," said Scootaloo. "That's almost as good."

"It doesn't even matter!" said Diamond Tiara. "Living forever is so much better than being a stupid Wonderbolt!"

"Except you can't grow up," said Lily Longsocks.

"Why does everypony keep saying that? That's the best part of all!" said Diamond Tiara, wide-eyed as she looked back and forth at everypony. "I mean, being a foal is the most wonderful thing there is! Who even wants to grow up—obviously not counting those three?" She pointed at the Cutie Mark Crusaders.

"Now Diamond, c'mon. There's a lot of good stuff about bein' a grown mare," said Apple Bloom. "You get to have a family of your own, you get to make decisions..."

"Making decisions is lame. Being a foal means being pampered and living the good life, and you still get to be part of a family," said Diamond. She turned to me and placed her hooves on my shoulders. "Rumble, Miss Cheerilee is nuts. Please don't make the same mistake she made. Don't throw away your life!"

"Why do you even care?" I said, pulling away from her hooves.

"I don't know," said Diamond Tiara, holding a hoof up to her temple. "I just... I'd feel bad for you, okay? Like, really bad."

"Aww, that's kind of sweet," said Pip.

"Never mention this to anypony," said Diamond, narrowing her eyes at Pip.

"O-okay," stammered Pip.

As I turned around to look for a way out of the herd, I saw somepony approaching us.

"Hay, it's Pop!" said Snips, and indeed it was. Sweet Pop was a pegasus like me, though much smaller. I could already see the blue twinkle from her infinity band.

"Oh, another one!" said Pip. "How come hers is blue?"

"Ruby means you're deciding. Blue sapphire is permanent," said Kettle Corn.

"And diamond's after you turn forty," said Scootaloo.

"Huh huh, yeah. That means you can have sex," said Snails, grinning. "If you want to, I mean."

"Oh, that's really gross," said Pip, his muzzle wrinkled up.

"Most frozens don't want to do it until they're way older than forty," said Scootaloo. "I don't even see the point. It's not like you can make babies."

Sweet Pop trotted right up to us. "Hay there! I just heard the news, or I'd have come to class today. Congrats!" She bounced a little in place.

"Oh, uh thanks," I said. Pop looked much younger than me, but looks were deceiving.

Pop glanced over my head, then lowered her eyes to the ground. The rest of the crowd fell silent.

"What..." I said, then turned my head to see Cheerilee standing there.

"Hello, Sweet Pop," said Cheerilee, with a smile. "It's always nice to see you."

"Y-yeah, same here," said Pop, not making eye contact.

"I'm sure you can tell Rumble all about the pros—and the cons—of being frozen," she said, with a blank expression on her muzzle. "Have a nice weekend, everypony." Cheerilee walked back inside the schoolhouse.

Pop exhaled deeply. "Right. Oh, Rumble... I don't want to pull you away from your friends, but do you wanna come over to my house and talk?" she asked. "You probably have questions and stuff, and Daddy said you could come play."

"Sure," I said, trotting away from the herd as she tagged along. Several foals waved goodbye to me and I waved back half-heartedly. "Can we stop by my house, though? I need to ask Mom for permission."

"Of course," she said.

My house was close, but the trip passed in silence. I was too nervous to say anything out in the open, and I wasn't sure what Pop's deal was.

---

I opened the door to my house. "Hay, Mom," I called out, and noticed Thunderlane standing in the kitchen. "Oh. Um, hi, Thunder."

"Hay, short stuff. Hi there, Sweet Pop," he said.

"Is... Mom okay?" I grinded my teeth a little.

"Yeah, we're cool. I'm, uh, sorry about before," he said.

I huffed. "You shouldn't be sorry! It was Mom's fault."

"Yeah, well... we can talk about it later, okay?" Thunderlane gave me a weird look.

"Okay, sure. Oh, Pop wanted to know if I could spend time at her place. I can come back here for dinner," I said. Sweet Pop waved cutely and smiled.

Thunderlane nodded. "Sure thing. I'll give you permission and let Mom know," he said. "Be back by seven, okay?"

"Sweet. Thanks Bro." We both turned around and started walking to her house.

"That was nice of him," said Pop. "It's harder when you're frozen. I need to get permission directly from Daddy, unless he sets something up in advance."

"That's weird," I said. "Is your dad strict, or something?"

"Not really. It's just how it works. The only way you can die is by accident, so they watch you like a hawk," she explained. "It's always tragic when a foal dies, but it's an extra level of tragedy if it's a frozen foal."

I scrunched up my muzzle. "I dunno. I think it's way more tragic if it's a normal foal. Like, they never even got to live!"

"Yeah, I agree. I just mean from the perspective of society, and what we represent. We can talk about it more at home," she said, and picked up her pace to a canter.

It didn't take long for us to reach her house. Sweet Pop knocked on the door and an old stallion opened it. "Ah, you found him! Congratulations, little one," he said with a wizened smile. "Do come in."

"Your grampa's nice," I said.

"That's Dad, silly! He just turned seventy, and Mom is sixty-seven," she whispered to me. "Dad and I have been married a long time."

I followed her to her room. "Oh. So, that's your real dad? How old are you, again?" I asked.

"Just turned thirty-five last week," she said. "I was six when they froze me, so I've been married for almost twenty-nine years now. You?"

I laughed. "I'm nine! You're like, way older than me."

"Wow, nine. That's cutting it pretty close, huh?" Pop started cleaning up the floor of her bedroom. It was littered with an even mix of filly toys and colt toys.

"I guess so. I haven't even decided if I wanna go through with it," I said, sitting down on a clear patch of carpet.

"Yeah, I heard the rumor. That's why I wanted to talk to you. I think you should freeze," she said.

"I guess you like being a foal for this long?" I asked. "Do you think you'll feel good about it a hundred years from now?

Sweet Pop sat down next to me. "It's not a bad deal. Never growing up isn't perfect, but I still have a lot of fun and I don't get bored much," she said. "As for the second question, I have no idea! But Cinnamon's been around for centuries and he likes it, so it's probably fine."

"Wow! I had no idea he was that old," I said.

"Oh, I just realized! We have one of each color in Ponyville now! We have got to take a picture together, all three of us with our different collars," said Pop. "Before you get sapphire like me, I mean. We could do it just before your wedding! You'll have a photographer there so it'll be perfect. If you do a big wedding, anyway, and you totally should because they're a blast."

"And if I don't go through with it, I guess I could let you guys take a pic with me before I take the collar off," I said. "Do you and Cinnamon Tea hang out a lot?"

"Yeah, though not as much as before. He's nice and fun, but a little creepy," she said. "He wants to teach me about sex when I go diamond, and the idea grosses me out... though lately I've been wondering if he really means that because it almost seems like he wants to spook me and he's smart enough that I'm sure he notices it bothers me. Still, he's the only foal in Ponyville who understands what it's like being frozen, so it's good to talk to him now and then."

"That's so weird. Do you start wanting to have sex when you hit forty, or something? I know you can't go through puberty, so I don't understand why they even have diamond collars," I said.

"A lot of ponies don't know this, but that's not what the diamond collars are for. At least, it's not what they used to be for," she explained. "A long time ago they used to let you remove the infinity band if you changed your mind before you turned forty."

"Really? I heard removing a permanent band would kill you—is that a myth?"

"Not exactly a myth, no," she said. "If you take off an infinity band, which you can't do without magic, the magic lingers for a few hours. Then if you don't put it back on you age a bunch all at once. So Cinnamon would probably turn to dust or something, but I'd just turn into an adult. Like, a thirty-five year-old adult. Bam, just like that."

I whistled. "Wow. That's crazy."

"It's kind of neat, I think! But they don't let you do it anymore. Nopony was brave enough to take the band off back when you could, and eventually they decided even giving you the choice was unethical. Nopony would want to do it until they were close to forty, and you'd still be losing your adolescence and stuff, so all the new sensations in your body would be overwhelming and icky," she said. "Having the option just adds a bunch of stress when you get close to forty, for no good reason. So they got rid of the option, and sapphire became permanent."

I nodded and reached over to grab a toy cart, rolling it back and forth on the floor. "Did they just sort of decide diamond would mean sex, then?"

"At that point they were already using diamond as the marker for biological emancipation too. That lets you have sex, and gives you a little more control over some stuff related to your body," she said. "Originally the cutoff was a hundred years, but they pulled it back to forty once some foals complained it was too long of a wait. From what I hear, a lot of foals don't want to have sex even after a hundred years, though. I don't know what Cinnamon sees in it, and I don't really want to. I think his mom would let him do it, but I know Daddy won't agree, so I don't have to worry about him pressuring me. I can use Daddy as an excuse until I have to remarry. I guess I could change my mind later, though."

"Remarry... I didn't even think about that," I said.

"Ponies get old and die, even your parents, and in some cases you have to declare a divorce if they lose the ability to take care of you properly," she explained. "Eventually you gotta remarry. Obviously, Cinnamon's done it a bunch of times."

"What if you don't have any family left?" I asked.

Pop frowned for a moment. "Usually, only your first husband or wife is family. Besides your parents, most family members aren't willing or able to care for a frozen," she said. "I guess my youngest niece could take me, because she'll be old enough pretty soon, but I haven't asked her. I don't think she's interested or else she'd have brought it up by now. It's not a problem, though, because there are tons of adults who want to care for us, so you can stay in foster care while you date and decide."

"This is all so weird," I said. "I wonder how Princess Celestia even came up with the idea."

"Why do we have frozen foals at all, you mean? That's easy. Hope." She buzzed her wings for a moment.

"Hope?"

"Yeah. Children are something everypony can agree are special, and there's this... consistency of sorts, to having foals out there who never die," she said. "It's inspirational. It reminds ponies that life is worth living, to see something pure that never changes. That's my guess, anyway."

"This is a lot to take in," I said, closing my eyes. My mind was racing with so many ideas I couldn't focus on just one.

"Believe me, I know. Also, you probably know this, but you have to stay in lower school until you're twenty-five, because you don't learn stuff as well," she said. "You're allowed to stay until you turn forty and get diamond, which is when you can go to upper school if you want to, but I got bored and left a couple years back. You remember me, right?"

I reopened my eyes. "Yeah, I do. You seemed to know everything, but when I heard you a lot older than you looked, it made sense."

Sweet Pop grinned. "I'm still a foal at heart! That's kind of the point. Hay, do you wanna play trains together?"

Comments

[Pun System]

Sweet Pop was a pegasus like me, though much smaller.

I'm trying really hard not to judge grammatical stuff, because 1) when I get a comment that does that, it's kinda embarrassing, and 2) well, you've written a lot more than me, and you're doubtless the much better writer, but, um... that was really tell-y and not very show-y and it... um... kinda stuck out at me.

filly toys and colt toys

Wow. Bold words for a brony. Then again, this is through Rumble's eyes, so I guess that explains it.

It reminds ponies that life is worth living, to see something pure that never changes.

inb4 Cozy Glow side fic in the Frozen-verse. The rules are juuuuust loose enough that she can hit up Celestia's vault and Starlight's village in such an order that she can gain immortality and rule the nation.

Ah! Sorry, sorry! That'd be my cynical side trying to hijack and twist the story.

But seriously...

So, I'm not completely unfamiliar with your highly symbolic writing style, Trick, and ever since I arrived late at the blank story on the Writeoff site I've been asking myself, "Why foals? That was an intentional choice. Why?" The answer, through the eyes of one such frozen foal, is Hope and Purity. Which is interesting since, at the time of writing, Cozy Glow was already canon. And it's not like child villains are new to Friendship is Magic, either, as all the Darla Dimple comparisons clearly demonstrate. And I know there's more chapters, but the fact that there's enough in-universe truth for Sweet Pop to believe what she's saying is significant.

But as I said, there's more chapters...

[Omegafr]

I found this so tragic to just be block at 8 years old body, i think this is a horrible thing for Rumble, too much thing to think in this child head

[Teikan]

Why is it that the frozen ones are not allowed to make decisions? It does not make sense. Immortals would long ago have achieved equal rights for themselves from society.

Not frozen would still have died, this is not such a strong tragedy.

What are you not learning? What ? In what sense ? If literally, then you would stupidly stop thinking.

[Luckyfanisaac]

"At that point they were already using diamond as the marker for biological emancipation too. That lets you have sex, and gives you a little more control over some stuff related to your body," she said. "Originally the cutoff was a hundred years, but they pulled it back to forty once some foals complained it was too long of a wait. From what I hear, a lot of foals don't want to have sex even after a hundred years, though. I don't know what Cinnamon sees in it, and I don't really want to. I think his mom would let him do it, but I know Daddy won't agree, so I don't have to worry about him pressuring me. I can use Daddy as an excuse until I have to remarry. I guess I could change my mind later, though."

What happens to pedophiles in this?

Sweet Pop grinned. "I'm still a foal at heart! That's kind of the point. Hay, do you wanna play trains together?"