Frost Bite!

by englishwitch

Chapter 1

Frost Bite!
A fanfic by Englishwitch

Chapter 1

Rainbow Dash shivered and wrapped her scarf tighter around her neck. She and Cloud Kicker worked together to push a heavy black cloud into place. The weather team were all feeling the cold today. Dash would have bet her monthly pay that all of them were thinking of mugs of freshly made hot chocolate from Sugar Cube Corner.

“We done?” Cloud Kicker shivered and rubbed her hooves together in a vain attempt to warm up.

“Almost,” Dash responded. Her breath clouded around her like smoke. It really was too cold to be flying at such altitudes, even for pegasi. “We just need a little Nimbostratus over the town hall, then we can kick this puppy into action and go home.”

The whole of Ponyville was covered by a layer of thick, black and heavy clouds. Normally a source for worry, a sign that a heavy storm was coming. Yet today the clouds were a source for joy, not worry. Today was Ponyville’s annual snowpony building contest, while Ponyville already had a blanket of winter snow a foot deep they would always need more. Competition was always friendly yet intense; a contradiction in terms but it was true. Everypony was always trying to outdo everypony else, so while they could admire the work of others they would always be working hard on their own projects trying to make the best snow-sculpture they could, the more unique the better.

There were three contests in all, one for fillies and colts, one for stallions and mares and one for groups of friends of families to work together on.

Dash and Cloud Kicker pushed the delicate Nimbostratus into place over the tall tower of Ponyville Town Hall, the final piece in the cloud over needed for today’s snowfall. “All right!” Dash pumped the air triumphantly. “OKAY EVERYPONY! WE’RE DONE!” she yelled out to the sky and hoped the rest of the weather team heard her. “Cloud Kicker, you wanna do the honours?”

CK grinned, “Sure boss.” she lined herself up with the clouds and gave them a powerful kick. A rumble like thunder ran through the skies around them. Then snowflakes, huge and fat as down feathers , started to fall and drift toward the ground.

Rainbow grinned. The smile was short-lived as she felt a few snowflakes land on the back of her neck, the freezing cold and wet ran right down her spine. “Hot chocolate, on me?” she asked Cloud Kicker.

...***...

Mayor Mare of Ponyville, dressed in furry boots, a thick woollen scarf, and a winter cloak, looked almost like the abominable snowpony as she took to the stage. The snow was still falling in its snow and gentle fashion.

The main square of Ponyville had been cordoned off into three huge sections for the competition. The whole town had been lavishly decorated with many exotic paper lanterns hanging from every surface, since the competition usually went on into the night lights were a necessary thing. Lights hung from tree branches, from houses, some had even peen put into windows, and many of the lights had been used to decorated the multitude of stalls that ran the circumference of the competition area. Winter warmers were the stock, from the stall owned by Sugar Cube Corner, selling hot chocolate, to Applejack’s stall, selling good hot cider and baked apples. Rarity even had a stall set up to sell a scarf or coat to anypony who needed it.

The mayor cleared her throat to get the attention of everypony. “Mares and stallions, fillies and colts,” she called out to the growing crowd. “Welcome to the annual snowpony building contest. Now, I know you all know the rules, but we shall be reminded of them all the same. The contest for school age ponies and the contest for adults will be given one hour to build their snow-sculptures. After the judging the contest area for friends and family teams will be opened, you will be given a further hour to do build the best snow-sculpture you can.

“Judging is point based, points will be granted for style and creativity; the more interesting an object you build, the better. The judges will be watching closely, so no cheating,” she laughed lightly, as though such an action was beyond the citizens of Ponyville. “pegasus ponies are reminded to only use the snow from the ground, so no collecting more from the clouds. And we remind unicorns that you may use magic to lift and move snow, but no transfiguring; all sculptures must be hoof-made; The earth pony way.

“So, without further ado, let the Ponyvillle Snowpony Contest, begin. You have one hour!” she stepped over to a large hourglass sitting on the edge of the stage. With barely a tap of her hoof the large device flipped over. The bright golden sand started to flow down into the empty bulb.

...***...

Dressed in their thickest winter scarves, boots and their bright red crusader capes, Scootaloo, Apple Bloom and Sweetie Belle, sat in the crusader clubhouse, huddled around a lamp which provided heat as well as light.

Apple Bloom drew her cape tighter around her body. “Kay, guys, we gotta think of sumthin good if we’re gonna win the contest.”

Sweetie Belle brushed her hoof against the floor and looked uneasy. “Why couldn’t we just work on our own snowponies in the fillies and colts contest? Rarity wasn’t happy when I told her I’d be working with you guys in the friends and family contest instead of with her mom and dad.”

Apple Bloom nodded. “I know, Applejack weren’t too happy when I told her I di’n’t wanna make a snowpony with her and Big Mac. It’s a family tradition.”

Scootaloo nodded in agreement. “My moms were disappointed but I think they understand. Bonbon-mom said that We’ve been making snowponies since you were a little foal, we got years of memories and we’ll have more in the future. So it’s okay to spend some of those years with friends.” She tried to hide a blush rising on her face. “She always says sappy stuff like that.”

Sweetie Belle giggled. “It’s not sappy, it’s sweet.”

Scootaloo just rolled her eyes. There was no reasoning with Sweetie Belle and her sappy ideas.

Apple Bloom was the one to bring them back to the subject on hand. “They’ll all be proud of us when we win the Friends and Family contest,” she looked at her two friends, “but we gotta think up a great snow-sculpture t’make. A normal snowpony ain’t gonna do it. We gotta get points for somethin’ weird, somethin’ unique...but ah got nuthin’.”

Sweetie’s ears perked up. “We could make snow animals,” she suggested. “I think I could make a bunny.”

Scootaloo rolled her eyes. “Seriously? A few bunnies and teddy bears? that’s not gonna win us the contest. Remember that snow family portrait you helped Rarity make last year? A snow zoo can’t compete with that.”

Apple Bloom shivered and scooted closer to the lamp’s weak light. “That snow train Pinkie Pie an’ the Cakes made last year was pretty impressive too. Ah reckon we gotta think of sumpthin’ real good. Sumpthin’ nopony cud even think of.”

Scootaloo’s eyes lit up. “Maybe....no, forget it.”

That caught her friends attention, Apple Bloom said, “Whut? C’mon, it ain’t like we got any other ideas.”

Scootaloo looked doubtful but Apple Bloom was right, they didn’t have anything else to try. “Well, what about....we try and make one of those thing Lyra-mom is always telling us stories about...” she looked thoughtful for a second – what were they called? “Hoomons? We make a snow hoomon?”

Sweetie Belle looked doubtful. “I don’t even know what one of those things looks like.”

Scootaloo waved a hoof dismissively, “I got a good idea what they look like, I heard the stories from mom hundreds of times. You just follow my instructions and we’ll be fine.”

Apple Bloom cocked an eyebrow and looked at her two friends, “Do y’all think we could? Ah ain’t never made nuthin that looks like a hoomun.”

Sweetie Belle shrank down like she was trying to hide underneath her cape. “I don’t want to embarrass myself in front of everypony,” she said shyly.

What she meant was Diamond Tiara and Silver Spoon, both Scootaloo and Apple Bloom knew this. The two fillies were also taking part in the Friends and Family contest and there were rumours Diamond Tiara had made her dad hire a professional sculptor-pony to help her win. The long-term bullies would no doubt get a big thrill at the Crusaders if their efforts started to fail.

Scootaloo tried to think, “well,” she tapped a hoof against her chin, “well....we got time before the competition, so let’s practise. There’s plenty of snow outside, so we could make one or two real quick. Then we can make the real one at the contest and it’ll look awesome and Diamond Tiara and Silver Spoon won’t believe their eyes.”

Apple Bloom nodded her head. “Great idea, c’mon, let’s get started.”

...***...

Apple Bloom and Sweetie Belle pushed a huge ball of snow across the ground.
“Are y’all sure?” Apple Bloom quizzed, “two legs?”

Scootaloo nodded. “Yeah, I’m sure.” she gathered her own snow ball, significantly smaller than the one Apple Bloom and Sweetie Belle were making. Hers was going to make the head. She glanced at her two friends. “Okay, that should be big enough, now we need to make a second ball to make the middle. Smaller than that one.” she turned her attention to her own creation. In all the stories Lyra-mom had told her she described humans as tall creatures, who walked on two legs, had two arms, round heads. They also had fingers. For some reason Lyra-mom was a little obsessed on the fingers.

A while ago she and Lyra-mom had seen a Minotaur in Ponyville, his name was Iron Will and he’d been helping Fluttershy become more confident. Lyra had been thrilled to see a creature with fingers. She’d followed Iron Will around all day until his goat friends had forced her to go away. Scootaloo still remembered his basic shape and -oddly- many of his features could be applied to the shape of a human.

While Apple Bloom and Sweetie Belle gathered up the second snowball, Scootaloo used her hoof to cut a few basic features into the face of the human; a couple of deep holes made the eyes and she cut a wide hole to make the mouth.

Apple Bloom and Sweetie Belle brought the second snowball up to the first. Scootaloo nodded at their work, “okay, now carefully put that one on top of the first. Then all that’s left is to put the head on and put a few fine details on the body.”

Slowly and carefully the crusaders worked to put the midsection into place. Meanwhile Scootaloo retrieved a small stepladder from the clubhouse. Their brief stint as Cutie Mark Crusader Window Cleaners had been a bust –in more ways than one– but the ladder was still useful from time to time.

She climbed up to put the head on the frosty shoulders. She took great care to make sure the head wasn’t going to fall off; a lot more care than she’d ever shown anything before, but making this snow-human was important if they wanted to win the contest.

She hopped back to take a look at their creation. For the moment it looked like three balls of snow piled on top of each other, with a funny face drawn on one. It didn’t look prize-winning, not yet. “Okay, now we need a little more snow to make the arms, I’ll try to make this look more awesome.”

Apple Bloom and Sweetie Belle took a side each and began to pack snow into two long tubes on the snow-human from its snow shoulders down to its snow waist. Scootaloo kept her attention on the rest of the snow human. She packed more snow around its neck and waist, blending them carefully to make the three snowballs more secure but still look like three individual piles of snow built up on each other. She scraped a little snow from the midsection to make it look a little like a torso, still a plump and round one but not exactly spherical. Then she put a little of the snow in the middle of the face to make an odd pointed nose.

Finally she hopped off the ladder, the soft snow underhoof cushioned her landing with a satisfying crunch. Then she turned her attention to the lowest section, where the legs and feet would be. “Great work you guys.” Apple Bloom and Sweetie Bell had done excellent work on the arms. Scoots dug and shaped the snow around the base of the snow-human, forming the shape of legs and feet.

The three fillies stood side by side and admired their handiwork. It certainly did look like the human creature Lyra described in her stories. It was six feet tall, had arms and legs, a round head with eyes a nose and mouth and —most importantly— it hadn’t fallen apart or resulted in the three crusaders ending up flank deep in snow. They had done something and it hadn’t gone wrong, a definite win!

“It looks kinda plain.” Apple Bloom admitted. “I mean, it does look good, but still kinda plain.”

Scootaloo’s eyes brightened. “I got an idea, wait here a minute.” she galloped off into the clubhouse. Apple Bloom and Sweetie Belle shared a confused look while they heard the noise of clattering, clunking and something made of glass breaking.

Scootaloo returned almost as suddenly as she’d left, carrying three items; two strips of black cloth and what looked like a broom handle. Apple Bloom cocked an eyebrow as Scootaloo climbed the stepladder again then began to tie the strips of cloth around the snow-human.
“Why just have a plain old snow-human,” Scootaloo tied one strip of cloth to make a thick black belt. Then she tied the second cloth around the sculptures head, over its eyes. “When we can have a Ninja-Snow-human!”

The broom handle became a bo-staff tied across the snow-human’s back, the cloth around its waist was a black-belt and the cloth across the face made a convincing enough mask.

Scootaloo stepped back and admired her accessories. “100% more awesome in ten seconds flat.” she looked at her two companions, “what do ya think? Contest winning or what?”

Sweetie Belle looked dubious. “I’m gonna say, what.”

Apple Bloom however was smiling broadly. “It looks great. Let’s just hope our luck holds out an’ we can make it again at th’ contest. It’s a shame we can’t jus’ take this one with us.”

“Maybe we can.” Scootaloo’s eyes brightened up again and she looked at Sweetie Belle, her expression made the unicorn nervous. “We can’t move it, or it’ll fall apart, but maybe it can move itself?”

Apple Bloom cocked an eyebrow. “What you talkin’ ‘bout Scootaloo?”

Scootaloo looked at her like she was being ignorant on purpose. “Remember Winter Wrap Up last year? Applejack told us how Twilight used a Come To Life spell to make a plow move on its own.”

Sweetie Belle’s eyes widened in fear, “You want me to try a spell? But you know I don’t do magic very good. Things set on fire,” she looked ashamed but Scootaloo put a reassuring hoof on her shoulder.

“It’s okay Sweetie,” she smiled and nodded her head as she spoke. “it’s snow, we can’t set snow on fire.”

Sweetie began to blush. “I didn’t think I could burn juice.” she muttered.

Scootaloo just shrugged her shoulders. “If it works we’ll have an awesome snow-human-ninja to take to the contest, if it doesn’t then it’s no problem ‘cos we’ll make a new one at the contest.”

Apple Bloom nodded along encouragingly. “C’mon Sweetie Belle, you won’t know if you can do it until you try.”

Sweetie still looked unsure, “well....okay, I’ll give it a try.” She moved to stand in front of the snow-human-ninja. Behind her Scootaloo and Apple Bloom moved back a few paces. Sweetie screwed up her eyes in concentration and tried to channel magic into her horn. The tip of her horn started to glow with a pale greyish harlequin light, the same shade as her eyes. Several sparks erupted out of the end, a noise like humming filled the air as the energy built up. Sweetie clenched her teeth, her face screwed up tighter.

Apple Bloom and Scootaloo took cover behind the nearest tree.

There was a bright explosion of green light. When Apple Bloom and Scootaloo dared look from their cover they saw Sweetie Belle sitting in a huge bare of mud, the snow around her had melted and steam was rising off her body, the tip of her horn was black, as though smudged with soot. The snow-human, however, was still intact and as motionless as ever.

“You alright Sweetie?” Apple Bloom approached her friend slowly. Even from several paces away she could feel the heat lingering in the air.

Sweetie Belle wiped a little sweat off her forehead and looked at Apple Bloom with tired eyes. “Guess it didn’t work.” she said breathlessly. “sorry Scootaloo.”

Scootaloo waved a hoof dismissively, “it’s okay Sweetie Belle. It would have been cool to see the snow-human walk to the competition, but I’m glad you’re okay. We’ll just make another snow-human-ninja down at the competition.”

“Speakin’ of the contest,” Apple Bloom looked toward the distant glowing lights of Ponyville. “We better hurry if we wanna make it on time. C’mon, if we run we can get a glass of hot cider from Applejack before we start.”

“Sounds great,” Scootaloo started to run toward Ponyville, her two friends were right behind her. “I bet we could all use something to warm us up. I’m getting icicles on my wings.”

The three Cutie Mark Crusaders crested the hill and vanished from sight, leaving behind the snow-human and the bare patch of snow.

The empty eyes of the snow human started to glow with a green light from behind the mask. The snow-human’s head started to move. It looked left and right, taking in its surroundings. Its snow arms left its sides as it stretched. Its legs parted and it took a few steps around the area to gets its bearings. The bright lights of distant Ponyville caught its attention. Its icy expression turned serious as it reached behind its back and pulled its bo-staff free.

With a powerful leap from its tiny legs the snow-human-ninja flew off the ground, up into the air, it flipped and seemed to glide along on the breeze before coming to land on top of an apple tree. It leapt from tree to tree with surprisingly light steps, heading toward Ponyville.

Author's Note:

Lyra and Bonbon are the adoptive mothers of Scootaloo, a piece of my own personal fanon which I covered in my fanfic entitiled Scootaloo's Mother.

The idea of a snowman ninja, or Sninja, I picked up when watching an episode of Eureka. a non-canon christmas episode, where holograms became real and a giant snowman attacked the town. Somehow my brain pinged that, in essence, the plot could be ponified pretty easily, the idea evolved from there. The cutie mark crusaders would be involved; Scootaloo would want to make a plain snowman more awesome so she'd make it something cool, like a ninja, and with Sweetie Belle's lack of experience with magic she could easily mess up something as complex as a come to life spell.

I did try, early on, to have the CMC's making a snow-pony instead of a snowman, but it just didn't work out. Handling a bo-staff with hooves was too complex to imagine, let alone describe. So I bailed out and went with a snow man.
Once I chose a snowman it was pretty decided that I'd use my fanon Scootaloo; she would know all about humans after hearing stories from Lyra while growing up.

Really though I'm happy I went with the decision to go with a snow man, its odd shape alone will make the Sninja a more frightening monster all involved when it finally arrives in town.

Comments

[CanterlotGuardian]

oh... this... I like where this is going...