In her kingdom of isolation, Elsa discovers a special filly that will change her life in ways she never expected.
Set in and after the story of Disney’s Frozen, this story follows Elsa as she takes in and cares for the filly known as Snowdrop after she mysteriously wandered into her world. In the process, the two form a powerful bond that will be put to the test time and time again. But if Elsa has learned anything from her sister's bravery on the frozen fjord, love can overcome anything.
I do not own Disney's Frozen of Hasbro's My Little Pony, but I do thank them for making both so I could write this story. Also, big thanks to Silly Filly Studio's for all their great animation projects.
Elsa never felt more free in her entire life. Sure, she had just run away from home because her people—even her sister—had seen her for what she really was, a freak. It was supposed to be the best day of her life, her coronation into a queen. Yet, now that her secret was out, she didn't care.
For her whole life, she had been told to hold it in, not to feel, and to not let it go, or else people would have treated her exactly like they had. Never would she get the fear on their face out of her mind no matter how long she lived. Now that her secret was out, she realized how she had nothing to lose. She had no reason to hide who she was anymore. As she threw her last glove and cape to the wind, she began to sing and test just what her powers could do.
With nothing to hold her back, she could create snowmen, stairs, even an entire castle and wardrobe, and it felt unbelievably uplifting. The rush of power, the release of a lifetime of trauma, all flowing out of her as she made her new kingdom larger and larger.
At the moment, it felt like there was nothing she couldn’t do.
For a final touch, she took the crown upon her head and tossed it as far as possible. She then made her way out to the castle's newly formed patio to admire her work.
“The cold never bothered me anyway.” Her song finished off as she gazed upon the sunrise. Smiling in satisfaction, she used her powers to close the balcony doors behind her. With all the freedom in the world, she could do anything she wanted.
She squealed as if she was a little girl, and did the most un-queen like things by skipping around the castle.
Though, after a while, the exhaustion from her little night had caught up to her reality sank in. Alone and free, what was she suppose to do, create snow-furniture all day? Not that she would choose the life she left over boredom, but she didn’t want to do nothing with her new freedom other than sit, create, sleep and eat forever. What was she to do now that she was the queen of nothing? What did she have to live for now?
She created a small ice-chair to pounder this. Once she sat down down, she heard the castle's doors open.
She jumped up from her newly formed ice-chair. No one could have possibly reached the mountain if it was a search party, so who could it have been? Anna? No, she couldn't have made it up here either.
Cautiously, she made her way towards the entrance.
“Hello,” the voice said, drawing closer, “can anypony help me? I fell out of Cloudsdale and I don’t know where I am. Am I somewhere in the north? It’s awfully cold for this time of year.” The voice sounded innocent enough, but she wasn’t going to take any chances after all she'd been through. “Please help me! I’ve been wandering around all night!"
The voice was right around the corner. Elsa inched forward, focusing on the high-pitched intruder and breathing deeply to steady her nerves. No, it wasn't Anna, or human: everything about it was different. At its closest, it would be an ten-year-old-girl.
Wait, a child? Elsa shook her head. No, she thought, that's impossible.
Biting her lip, Elsa took one last breath to prepare herself for whoever, or whatever, was waiting for her just beyond the corner. She lunged forward, ready to defend herself at the slightest provocation, and shouted, "Halt!"
The voice screamed. It was defiantly a scream of fear, but it was so weak. Elsa checked herself at the last moment, as much through her own willpower as through the other odd occurrence.
There was no one here.
And yet the voice stammered, "P-please d-don't hurt m-me."
Elsa frowned and convinced herself to face facts and look down on the child that had somehow entered her new castle. What she saw was not a child—at least not a human one. It was a small, blue pegasus.
Wha- How can- I don't- Elsa took a step back, eyes wide, her hand gently rubbing her forehead. This is impossible! Unless...did I make her somehow? Looking alternatively between the pegasus and the castle floor, the colors did match. There was even some sort of snowflower on the pegasus's haunch.
"He - Hello," Elsa said.
The pegasus's shivering did not stop, but it removed its hooves from over its eyes and folded its wings. It looked straight at Elsa's face and stumbled forward on the ice.
"St-stay back!" shouted Elsa. The pegasus jumped backward and flipped, falling to the ground. Elsa took a step back of her own, resisting the urge to help. "I'm...dangerous..."
Something about the pegasus's face told Elsa that it had realized something. It awkwardly rose to its hooves and said, "B-but you're f-f-friendly."
It was not a question. Or if it was, the pegasus completely forgot to make it sound like one. Either way, the words floored Elsa.
The pegasus approached again, more slowly this time. Her movements were oddly similar to Anna's way back when they had played together and saved a wounded bird.
"P-please, I n-need h-help. I-I have n-n-no idea w-where I am, a-and it's s-s-so c-c-cold."
And with those words, it all came flooding back. She—for the pegasus was definitely a she—was going to die from the cold, and it was all Elsa's fault. It was her sister Anna all over again, but this time, Elsa's parents were not around to fix her mess.
Elsa took in a long deep breath "Alright?" The pegasus nodded and ever so slightly increased the pace of her approach.
If she's cold, does that mean I did not create her? But that means... Shaking the fantastic and impossible thoughts from her mind, Elsa returned her attention to the pegasus. That shivering, it was not from fear. There was no telling how long she had wandered alone outside in the cold. Especially because she was blind.
Elsa's eyes widened as she processed her thought. The pegasus's eyes were gray and glazed over. Yes, the pegasus was blind, and she had not even realized.
Rushing forward, Elsa intended to share her body heat. In her haste, it was the only thing she could think of to save the pegasus's life. Yet, she stopped just short of actually touching the pegasus and retracted her hands.
Elsa sighed, as much from relief as from irritation. I almost froze her even further. Elsa looked to her hands and bit her lip. It had to be done, but the mere thought of putting on gloves again made her shiver.
"I-is s-s-something wrong?" the pegasus asked, head tilted to the side.
How does she-- Shaking away yet another distracting thought, she had to warm this child up.
"It' okay," Elsa said as careful placed a hand on the foals cheeks. After a moment, once Elsa was sure that the pegasus wasn't made of snow, she realized something else; the cheeks weren't turning to ice. Realized and not caring how the filly hadn't frozen (although she suspected her recent energy high had drained most of her magic) she picked the foal up and cradled the girl in her arms.
"It's okay," Elsa promised, "as long as you're in my castle, no one will harm you."
“Th-thank you,” the foal said as she hugged her. “Wait, are you not a pony, miss?”
“No, little one, I am not.” She patted the foal on the head and let gave out a warm smile. Elsa couldn’t help it as she comforted the foal, she was adorable. “But I promise that as long as you are in my castle, you will not be harmed.”
The foal smiled as she allowed Elsa to stroke her mane. “Than-Thank you.” The foal kicked at the ground around her. “I d-don’t ma...mean to sound rude, but-but is there some-some-anywhere else that I ca-can-can warm myself up? Not that I don't mind you, but a fi-fire sounds nice."
“Of course.," Elsa smiled nervously. “Although, would you mind if I carried you? It would be easier to guide you around the castle if you don’t mind.”
The foal huffed. “That sounds fine, miss.” And sighed. “Wait, is this your castle, and if so, would that make you a princess?”
Elsa sighed as she turned her head away. “I was.”
The foal tilted her head. “Was?”
Elsa shook her head. “Long story, and I would rather not go into it."
"Okay," the foal simply nodded as it tried to get comfortable in her grasp. "Although, do you have a name, Princess?”
Elsa scratched the foals' head. “You can call me Elsa.”
The foal smiled as she snuggled into her arms. “Thank you, Princess Elsa, my name is Snowdrop.”
‘Snowdrop,’ Elsa thought. A strange name, but then again, this had been a strange day.
“Alright, Snowdrop, just Elsa is fine,” she said as she held her close to her chest to warm her up. “Now, let’s see if we can find you some warmth, child.”
How was she going to do that? She was in an ice castle on top of a mountain that didn’t have a single tree for miles around. What was she supposed to keep this child warm and cared for? She didn’t run away from home, her sister, and her responsibilities of being a queen to take care of a child.
Then she remembered something. In her moment of harmony, she had created a snowman earlier using twigs for arms. She hadn’t thought about it then, but how had she been able to move around tree branches when she only had ice powers?
Not sure what else to do—trying wouldn't hurt—Elsa held out a hand and commanded for firewood to appear. It shouldn’t have been possible, yet enough logs appeared in front of her to keep Snowdrop warm for weeks.
“Yes!” Elsa fist-pumped. She then lifted up her hand, expecting the logs to levitate and follow her, only to have them remain in place. “Oh, you have got to be kidding.”
Snowdrop looked up at her. “What’s wrong, Elsa?”
“Um, nothing,” she said as she held Snowdrop with one arm and picked up one of the smaller logs with the other. “Now, how about we find that fireplace?”
Snowdrop beamed. “Yay!”
Elsa chuckled though her teeth. “Yay.” Then she realized the next problem: Where was she supposed to build a fire in a castle made of ice?
That was when she remembered that her castle was built into a mountain, a mountain that wasn’t made of ice.
With a flicker of hope, she headed as far back into her castle as she could. After a moment of fear, she found a room she was looking for. While most of the room was made of ice, one of the walls was made of stone from the mountain.
“Excuse me for a moment,” she said as she set Snowdrop down. She took a deep breath, steadied herself, and blasted a section of the stone wall with her ice powers.
It took her longer than she expected while Snowdrop shivered, but she had made a large enough hole in the wall to make a fire pit. Next, she made a window for the smoke to escape from, placed the log inside, and struck two stones together until she got a spark and a fire.
“Um,” she heard Snowdrop mumble. “I’m sorry to ask, but is the fire almost ready? I mean, is there anything I can do to help?”
Elsa smiled. “No need to, Snowdrop, the fire is ready. Why do you not come over here and warm yourself up?”
Snowdrop’s eyes widened as she slowly made her way over by the sound of Elsa’s voice.
Once she got herself comfortable, Elsa rubbed her on the back. Her coat felt, nice, comforting, and warm. It sort of reminded of her of when Anna—
She drew her hand back.
Snowdrop looked up at her quizzingly. “Elsa?”
“It is fine, Snowdrop. I just need to get some more firewood. Wait right here. I will be right back.”
“Oh, okay.” Snowdrop nodded, having no reason to distrust her.
Elsa obtained more logs with the intention of leaving the logs in a place where Snowdrop could reach them and leave her be. All she had to do was make sure Snowdrop didn’t freeze to death while she found out where the foal came from, then get her home. While it was nice to have company, she had to be alone. She couldn’t hurt this child in the same way she had with Anna. That was why she had to be alone. Alone and happy, for the rest of her life.
Elsa gathered the firewood and walked into the room. She had expected Snowdrop to greet her, but instead found that she had fallen asleep. The sight eased her fears for a time, because now she was feeling a new emotion, fatigue.
Seeing Snowdrop asleep, Elsa realized that she, too, was tired from running and using her powers all night. Not wanting to leave the poor thing alone to freeze when the fire died out, Elsa made a bed out of ice so she could sleep next to her. A nice, cold, bed of ice.
She was about to crawl in when she heard Snowdrop mutter, “Mama…”
Elsa shot up and looked at her as she let out a long sigh. Knowing what the filly was going through, she decided to make a bold move. It was just for one time, and she had used up most of her powers anyways, so hopefully she wouldn’t freeze Snowdrop in her sleep. In a moment of weakness, she walked over to Snowdrop and picked her up.
“Wa…” Snowdrop muttered as her faded eyes opened.
“Shh,” Elsa whispered, “go back to sleep. I will make sure you don’t freeze. Then we will look for your mother when you wake up.”
“Oh.” Snowdrop sighed as she curled up in Elsa’s lap once she sat down. “Yeah,” she said, yawning in her arms. “Thank for all you have done, miss.”
“It’s no problem at all, Snowdrop,” Elsa said as she summoned an ice wall to lean on. Once her back touched it, she let out a wide yawn. “But let us get some sleep. Looks like you had just as big a day as I had. Do not worry, I will make sure you get home.”
Elsa felt Snowdrop smile in her arms as the pair began to drift off. “Okay. Thank you, Princess Elsa.”
“I am not…” Elsa began, but decided to not care as she drifted off into a peaceful sleep.
*****
Down below in Arendelle, the cold retreated a bit as the sun broke through the clouds to give the people a moment of warmth.
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?
With only hunger to motivate her awake, Elsa slept throughout the following morning. Fortunately, Snowdrop remained sound asleep in her lap for the entire time as she tried to keep sleeping.
Today would be the day she would lead Snowdrop home, if she could find it.
However, as she slept, Elsa couldn't stop trying to think up excuses to delay their journey. It was selfish, she knew it, but she really didn't want to leave her castle. They had enough grass to last Snowdrop for a while, and she herself didn’t mind going longer without food as well. It would give her more time to figure out where they were going to go anyways and keep her from people.
Her stomach made a large growl that she feared would wake Snowdrop. When the filly remained asleep, Elsa took in a deep breath.
While Elsa didn't hate the child, she didn't like how her presence disrupted her peace of mind. Things were going great until Snowdrop showed up and suddenly having unwanted responsibility thrusted onto her. She just wished someone would come claim this kid so she could stay in her ice-castle.
Elsa opened her eyes for a minute to look around as she felt a tight pain in her tummy.
She sighed. Even without Snowdrop, Elsa would of have had to venture out for food sooner or later. All Snowdrop's presence did was make that need sooner rather than latter. Even eating frozen birds—once she got over her hesitation to kill them—wouldn’t last her forever. With another sigh, she drew Snowdrop closer to her chest.
By around what she believed to be ten o’clock, she felt Snowdrop stir. An hour later, she woke up.
“Morning, Elsa,” she yawned. “What’s for breakfast today?”
“A healthy bowl of day-old mountain grass, followed by a day-and-a-half-old bowl of grass for lunch.”
“Blah.” Snowdrop stuck out her tongue. “Couldn’t you make us a pizza or something?”
“A what?”
“Ugh,” Snowdrop moaned, “don’t tell me your kingdom doesn’t know what a pizza is.”
Elsa combed Snowdrop’s bedmane. “Sorry, but we don’t have those in Arendelle.”
Snowdrop giggled. “Oh, then you're in for a treat when we get to Equestria.”
Elsa ceased her combing. “Yeah, that sounds fine.”
“So, when are we leaving?” Snowdrop asked as she crawled out of her lap.
“Well…” Elsa began as Snowdrop stretched. “I suppose we should gather up some more grass first to make sure you have enough food for the journey.”
Snowdrop finished her stretching. “I’m sure we can find more grass, and maybe something for you to eat, once we’re down the mountain.”
“Um…” Elsa ran her fingers through her hair. “We can’t be too sure.”
Snowdrop lowered her gaze. “Are you stalling?”
“No!”
Snowdrop stomped a hoof. “You are.” The foal took in a deep breath. “Its fine. I understand you being afraid. From what you described of how your kingdom treats people like you, I don't blame ya. Yet, why are you also afraid to come with me to Equestria?”
Elsa paused. “I didn’t… How do you know that?”
“You just told me.”
Elsa raised a finger, yet said nothing. This filly was too smart for her own good. “Alright, you caught me.” She turned her back to Snowdrop. “We’ll leave today.”
Snowdrop's ears feel flat. “Hey, if you’re still scared, we can put it off for another day or two,” Snowdrop said uneasily.“I mean, I’m sure I’m not that missed by an anypony other than Luna. And it’s not like I’m her only friend in the world.”
“No,” Elsa said firmly. The child didn’t deserve to be away from her family and friends any longer than she had to be. “No, Snowdrop, we leave today, I swear. Just eat your breakfast and I’ll come up with a plan by the time you’re done.”
“Oh, okay,” Snowdrop nodded as she forced down her grass.
Meanwhile, Elsa’s mind was abuzz trying to figure out what to do.
Elsa didn’t know where Equestria was, and she couldn’t count on Snowdrop to lead the way. She would need maps, information—thing that she didn’t have in her ice-castle and couldn’t make out of her ice or log powers. Yesterday when she was on the run, she had thought about grabbing some supplies from a hut she passed on the way up the mountain, but kept going in fear of being followed. As her stomach grumbled, she wished she had. Sure, it might have been stealing, but it certainly seemed like a better idea than starving and having no idea how to find a lost child’s home.
Snowdrop’s ears perked up. “Did you hear something?”
Elsa glanced around at the silence. “No.”
Snowdrop turned her head towards the door. “I thought I heard something.”
Elsa ran her fingers through Snowdrop’s coat. “I’m sure it was just some snow. Now, get back to eating. We got a long walk ahead of us.”
Snowdrop stuck out her tongue and went back to her meal.
Elsa went back to her train of thought.
They couldn’t go to Arendelle. The closest neighboring kingdom was a two-month journey on foot if nothing slowed them down. Of course, there were plenty of towns between here and there. However, it was one thing if the whole country thought she was some type of monster. Having a talking pegasus with her wouldn’t help.
Then there were the trolls. Elsa knew they would be more understanding of Snowdrop, if she knew how to find them. Sure, she visited them once as a child, but memorizing the route to their home was the last thing she had done at the time. She knew there was a map in a book in her old castle that might get her there, but that brought her back to the problem of being unable to go to Arendelle.
Elsa pulled her hair with both of her hands. There was no good solution this problem.
She then heard a knock coming from the castle's front door.
Snowdrop jerked her head up. “You did hear that, right?”
Elsa held her breath. “Yeah, I heard it, Snowdrop.” She got up. “Stay here.”
Snowdrop walked up beside her. “But I…”
“Snowdrop,” Elsa said firmly, “stay here. I promise I’ll be right back.” Elsa made the mistake of looking at her. Those big pale eyes, scrunched-up nose, and cute face made her knees shake.
If she didn’t know any better, she might think that Snowdrop was guilt-tripping her. “Snowdrop," she said firmly, "I’ll be fine. It’s probably nothing. I’ll go check it out, and then we’ll get going. Okay?”
“Okay,” Snowdrop answered as she sat on her rear.
Elsa shook her head and walked out of the room, closing the door behind her, weary in her steps. Could it have been a search party for Snowdrop, or an angry mob looking for her? Either possibility didn't sound pleasant for her as she made her way towards the entrance.
Then she saw a red-haired figure below in the entrance.
No, it couldn’t be…
“Elsa?” the figure called out. “It’s me, Anna.”
She turned the corner to get a good look. Sure enough, it was her sister, Anna.
Elsa didn’t want to deal with Anna right now. The again, if she was leaving the country—likely for good—she should at least say goodbye to her sister. While she didn't need to, she knew that she would never live with herself if Anna didn't receive some closure.
With a deep breath, Elsa made herself known. “Anna?”
****
Snowdrop never returned to her meal. Once she heard someone call Princess Elsa’s name, she had to listen in. Her mother use to say eavesdropping was very rude, but she didn't care.
Who was it? From what she heard, it didn’t sound like Elsa was pleased to see them.
“Please don’t shut me out again,” the woman, Snowdrop deduced, said. “Please don’t slam the door. You don’t have to keep your distance anymore.”
Snowdrop’s curiosity piqued, she flew up to the door handle and opened the door. She was going to find Princess Elsa and make sure that she was okay. The voices led Snowdrop to a flight of stairs. With a flap of her wings, she ascended towards the sounds.
Wait, what? Snowdrop thought. What did Princess Elsa mean, alone and free? Did that mean she was nothing to her? Not that she had known Princess Elsa for long, but she thought that she enjoyed her company.
“You kind of set off an eternal winter.” the other voice said.
“What?” Princess Elsa gasped.
With some hesitation, Snowdrop landed on the top step and made her way towards the sound of Princess Elsa's voice.
“It’s okay,” the other voice said, “you can just unfreeze everything.”
“No I can’t. I… I don’t know how.”
The castle began to get colder. “Elsa?” Snowdrop called out. Her voice was lost in the sudden wind blowing throughout the castle.
“Elsa?” She nudged open a door on top of the stairs.
“I can’t!” Princess Elsa screamed as something cold hit her in the head. She reeled back and collapsed in an adjacent room.
****
Elsa took in heavy breaths. She turned around and saw her sister clutching her chest. She couldn’t have—
“Anna!” A voice cried out as a man rushed to her side along with the snowman, Olaf. “Are you okay?”
"I’m okay.” Anna looked up at her with a fierce determination in her eyes. “I’m fine.”
“Who’s this?” Wasn’t the idea of her sister with one guy enough? Elsa shook her head, trying to focus on the bigger problem at hand. “Wait, it doesn’t matter. Just... You have to go!”
“No!” Anna said, unmoving.“I know we can figure this out, together.”
“How?” Elsa said as the room began to glow yellow. The sound of ice cracking echoed throughout the room. “What power do you have to stop this winter? To stop me?”
“Anna,” the new guy said, “I think we should go.”
“No, I’m not leaving without you, Elsa.”
“Yes, you are.” She aimed her powers to the ground, and, without thinking, conjured up a massive snowman.
For a while, Elsa thought it was just a gaint snowman. Then it growled and picked up Anna and the others.
Elsa took a step back as it looked at her.
“What do you want with these three?” it asked in a deep and booming voice.
Elsa straightened herself up. “Throw them out, and make sure nobody else gets into the castle.”
The snow monster nodded amd walked off as the three tried to fight out of its grasp.
“Elsa!” she heard Anna cry out. “Elsa, don’t do this. Elsa!” Anna cried out one last time before the room became quiet.
Elsa turned her back to the door, arms crossed.
“Elsa!” her sister’s voice echoed throughout the castle one last time
Once she was sure Anna was gone, she cried.
She went to do something, when she stepped on a familiar object; the crown from her earlier life. Giving it a good kick down the stairs. After that, she increased her breathing as the room got colder.
*****
For the next few hours, nothing else existed for Elsa as she tried to keep her powers under control. Everything that had happened raced through her mind as she thought about what she could do.
Or, rather, what couldn’t she do? If she could create ice castles, bring snowmen to life, summon firewood, and bring on eternal winters, what were limits? The only thing she could think of was ending eternal winters. She was sure Anna was just exaggerating, but what if she hadn't?
“Get it together,” Elsa said to herself as she paced the room.
What was worse was the knowledge that she couldn’t do anything to reverse it. She couldn’t even clear a small patch of snow. If she couldn't do that, how could she undo an entire winter?
“Get it under control.”
If she couldn’t even blow a small patch of snow off a mountain, she couldn't hope to undo this eternal winter she had set off. If she couldn’t do that, how was she supposed to unfreeze Arendelle?
The room around her began to glow red. “Don’t feel.” The walls began to crack. “Don’t feel, don’t feel.” The room grew darker.
She tried to stay calm, to find some silver lining in all of this. How was creating a living snowman— The room turned blue as Elsa began to smile.
If she could make two snowmen, why not a few more? Why not create several that could get her things that her ice and twig powers couldn’t? She could have food, a real bed to sleep in, anything she wanted with the flick of her wrist. With a snowman army, she would never have to leave her castle or worry about anything ever again.
It was a perfect moment for her. Everything was falling in place and she was on top of the world. Then that moment ended.
“Ughh,” Elsa heard a faint voice moan out in the distance.
“What the?” Elsa advanced towards the sound. It was coming from one of the adjacent rooms. “Hello—oh no!” Elsa gasped as she saw Snowdrop laying on the ground, her white coat and mane covered in ice crystals.
“Elsa?” Snowdrop turned around as she looked up at her with half-opened eyes.
She couldn’t have hit her, could she? When Elsa reached down to touch her, she noted how cold the filliy’s body was.
Goosebumps ran across Elsa’s entire body.
“Elsa, I don’t feel so good.”
“Hang on, Snowdrop.” She snatched Snowdrop up and raced towards the fire room. She threw a quarter of the twigs and logs into the fire and placed Snowdrop next to it.
“Feeling any better?”
“A little.” She snuggled up closer to Elsa. “What happened? I heard you arguing with somepony and I went up to see if you were okay. Next thing I know, something cold hits me in the head and… and now I feel really cold.”
Elsa let out a sigh. She had at least missed Snowdrop’s heart. “Alright, Snowdrop,” Elsa said as she tried to brush away some of the ice crystals, “we’re going to go and get help. You just need to—”
A choir a screams rang outside the castle.
“Oh, now what?” Elsa moaned. “Snowdrop, stay near the fire. And please listen to me this time.”
She set Snowdrop down by the fire as the filly curled up into a ball. “I think I’ll do that.”
Elsa brushed her mane and walked off to see what all the commotion was. She opened the front door and saw a small army of soldiers led by Anna’s supposed fiancé, Hans, fighting off the monster snowman she had just created. Two of the men, whom Elsa recognized as some of the Duke of Weselton’s bodyguards, looked up at her.
“There she is,” they shouted up at her.
Elsa slammed the door and made a run for it, footsteps echoing behind her.
The first thing she did was race to the fireplace room. She gave one last glance at Snowdrop before sealing the door with ice, ensuring the foal’s safety. Once the door was sealed, she heard the men ascend up the front steps.
She made a run for the stairs when she tripped and had to spend a second to breathe before she raced up them. By then, the men had seen her. Crossbows in hand, and murder in their eyes
“Up there!” one of the men said.
Elsa made a run for it. It was fine if they saw her, as long as they headed in the opposite direction of Snowdrop.
“Come on!” they said as she was halfway up the stairs.
It didn’t matter what happened to her, as long as she kept them away from Snowdrop. The only thing that mattered to her at the moment was the foal's safety.
She raced into the balcony room, the Weselton men right behind her.
“We got her.”
“No, please,” she pleaded as one of them let loose an arrow. She raised up her hand, and an ice-wall protected her from the arrow. Now that Snowdrop was safe, she could focus on her own survival.
“Go around,” one said.
“Stay away,” she said as she fired a blast of ice magic at them.
“Look out!” one of them shouted.
“Fire, fire!” They fired arrow after arrow, each with the result of either missing her or impaling a hastily formed ice-wall instead of her.
“Get her!” They continued as the battle dragged on. They split off as Elsa realized what they were trying to do by surrounding her.
She kept both of her hands up as the men began to circle around her, waiting for the right moment to strike.
When one of them tried to let loose another arrow, Elsa impaled him on the wall with ice-spears. It didn’t kill him, but she could easily do him in after the other guy was dealt with. While she was distracted, the other man tried to take the opportunity to shoot her.
Elsa was faster. She used her powers to knock his crossbow out of his reach. When he tried to run for it, she place up a snow wall between him and his weapon. He tried to go around, but Elsa blocked his path.
It wasn’t enough for her; she had to end this. She put forth a wall between her and the man and began to push him out towards the ledge.
It was like with the bird—she shouldn’t have hesitated with it, and now she was still hungry. If she and Snowdrop were going to live in peace, she had to make sure that no one would trouble her again.
She pushed the man towards the ledge. He put up quite the fight, but she knew who would win out in the end.
“Queen Elsa!” Hans shouted as several soldiers raced into the room behind him. “Don’t be the monster they fear you are!”
She wanted to ignore him, do what had to be done, and go back to the way things were. Yet, as she looked at the men that she was about to kill, she couldn’t.
Was this what she had become—a monster? It was one thing to accidentally freeze Arendelle and people she cared about, but to hurt them on purpose?
Before she could do anything, the man pinned to the wall raised his crossbow. Before he could fire, Hans raced over to him and lifted his crossbow up. The arrow fired and hit the thinnest part of the ice-chandelier that hung above her.
Elsa looked up as it began to fall. Once she came to her senses, she ran. The chandelier shattered right behind her. While it didn’t hit her directly, a piece of ice hit her in the back. She fell to the floor and everything went black.
*****
Inside the fireplace room, Snowdrop heard everything: the fighting, a man saying something about Elsa being a monster, and a loud crash. After the crash, there was a lot of commotion going on. While she couldn’t make out what they were saying, a lot of the time it was yelling as Elsa and a woman named Anna kept being brought up. She wanted to help, but the further she moved away from the fire, the worse the pain in her head became.
Minutes later, the voices stopped as whoever had invaded the castle left.
A smile crept on her face. Princess Elsa must have chased them off and would be back to help her warm up any minute now. As time dragged on, however, Snowdrop began to fear the worst.
Finally, after what felt like an hour, she couldn’t take it anymore. Despite the pain, she made her way to the door. To her horror, it was locked. Even after beating and bucking at it a few times the door remained as frozen shut as ever. She flew around the room several times inspecting the walls. Once she found the window that let out the smoke, she relaxed at the thought that she wasn’t trapped in the room. Before she could fly out, the pain in her head brought her back to the fire.
Snowdrop decided to wait a minute, warm herself up, and then go out to look for Princess Elsa. For all she knew, the Princess was chasing the invaders out and would be back any minute. In the meantime, she felt like taking a nap.
“Elsa…” Snowdrop moaned as she began to drift off to sleep. Before she slept, she prayed to Luna that Princess Elsa was okay.
With a moan, Elsa came to her senses. The first thing she noticed was a sharp pain in her wrist. Next, she smelt a rather damp room with a moldy musk. When she opened her eyes, she realized that she wasn’t in her ice castle anymore, but in one of Arendelle’s dungeons.
After taking a moment to fully wake up, she noticed a white, whistling window. Then she remembered Snowdrop, jumped out of bed, and raced towards the window.
Before she could reach the window, severe pain shot up from her hands to her arms. She quickly realized that she was cuffed to the floor. Limited in movement, she was just able to gaze out the window. It was enough to see what had become of Arendelle.
Anna wasn’t kidding. The entire land was frozen, and it felt like it was getting colder.
Elsa looked through the window in disquiet.
“What have I done?”
If it was this bad here, she couldn’t imagine how bad it was in the mountains. She hoped that she hadn’t been out for long. If Snowdrop had rationed her firewood, she might have enough to last her a day or two, nothing more.
With a loud creak, the dungeon door open behind her. She turned around to see Hans walking in, keeping as much distance as he could from her.
She had a lot to say, but only found six words. “Why did you bring me here?”
Hans swallowed and moved towards her. “I couldn’t let them kill you.”
“But I’m a danger to Arendelle.” She admitted, keeping her true intentions a secret. “Get Anna.” She knew her sister would get her out of this.
“Anna has not returned.” His words took Elsa back. Why hadn’t Anna just gone straight home? She knew the likely reason, and it made her feel worse. She couldn’t even see a polar bear lasting long in this weather, let alone her sister.
“If you would just stop the winter,” Hans started. “Bring back the summer, please.”
Elsa thought back to when she couldn’t blow a yard of snow off the mountain.
She turned her head from Hans. “Don’t you see? I can’t.” All she cared about was getting away, saving Snowdrop and Anna, and then taking this winter as far away from her kingdom as possible. “You have to tell them to let me go or I’ll freeze everything.”
Hans’s eyes looked around and back away. “I’ll do what I can.” With those words, he grabbed his lantern and left.
With not a moment to loss, Elsa focused her powers onto the arm cuffs. With luck on her side for once, the metal wasn’t ice-resistant. Within seconds, the ice crystals began to crack the handcuffs. It wouldn’t happen right away, but if she kept at it, she would be free.
Free to escape, find Anna, save Snowdrop, and then… Then what? Where was she supposed to go? How far would she have to run to take the winter where it wouldn’t hurt anyone? Was there even such a place? How would she know for sure that this curse didn't linger on even after she was gone?
She shook her head and focused on the cuffs. If the only people left in the world she cared about died—she didn’t want to think about it.
Taking a deep breath, she concentrated on nothing except freezing the metal chains. She pushed everything else out of her mind: Arendelle, Anna, Snowdrop. All that mattered was breaking the metal. Every moment she wasted was another moment one of them could freeze to death.
*****
An hour later, she had just about got it with her cuffs when she heard a group of men approach her cell.
“Hurry up,” a guard said from the other side of the cell door.
She put more power into her magic. The walls around her began to crack.
“She dangerous.”
Elsa shrugged.
“Quickly, carefully.” She heard one of them dangle a pair of keys.
She directed the frost towards the door.
“It won’t open!”
With a sigh, she forced every ounce of energy into the metal cuffs.
“It’s frozen shut!”
Then, with one final push, the cuffs shattered, along with everything else that was holding the cell together. With no concern for her own safety, Elsa barely dodged the falling debris and raced out into the storm. She made it out of her prison and into raging blizzard.
*****
It was impossible to see anything around her. Elsa tried to clear a path through the storm, but only made things worse as her anxiety caused the world around her to grow whiter. Every time she thought she had seen the edge of the fjord, another boat would spring up to remind her that she was still in the fjord.
Yet, despite everything, she pressed on in the hope that she could still save Anna and Snowdrop. Nothing else mattered to her but their lives. If she was sure that her death would save their lives, she would die right then and there, if not more for them. Living in a world without either of them was unacceptable. She wouldn’t give up; she couldn’t give up.
After more aimless walking, she saw a figure emerge from the white. At first, she thought that it was Anna. Spirits brightened, she advanced forward. Then, she stopped dead in her track as she saw that it was Hans, a look of murder in his eyes.
She tried to run.
“Elsa,” he shouted, “you can’t run from this!”
That didn’t mean she wasn’t going to try. Still, she had one last thing to say, even if she was destined to be hunted by him forever. “Just help me find Anna,” she begged. “Take care of my sister—”
“Your sister, she returned from the mountain weak and cold! She said that you froze her heart.”
It couldn’t be true. Hans had to be lying to her. Anna said she was fine in the castle despite looking in pain. She was sure Hans was deceiving her to make her easier to kill. Yet, her knees buckled up as the possibility sank in.
Hans went on. “I tried to save her, but it was too late. Her skin was ice. Her hair turned white.”
If someone stabbed her in the heart right then, she wouldn’t have noticed.
“Your sister is dead!” Hans paused to take a breath. “Because of you.”
Elsa had nothing to say, except for one word. “No…”
She fell to the ground, defeated. If Anna was dead, so was Snowdrop. At the very least, there would have been no way she would have made it back to the ice castle in time to save her.
It was over.
The snowflakes stalled in their fall, suspended in mid-air. She had nothing left to live for. Everything she had ever loved was dead. Right now, she just wanted the pain to end.
It seemed like her wish would be granted. She heard Hans draw his sword and raise it above her. She did nothing to protect herself. If she died right now, maybe others could avoid the fate Anna and Snowdrop had.
She closed her eyes and took one last breath.
“NO!” someone cried from behind her.
She heard something clash and something cold bounce off her back. Elsa looked around. It was her sister, frozen solid, her hand held in place where she had stopped the sword. Anna was alive.
Was alive.
Elsa sprung to her feet. “Anna!” She stared at Anna’s face, her expression frozen forever. “Anna…”
It couldn’t be happening. Everything she had done, shutting her sister out to running away, was to protect her, to keep this very thing from happening.
“No…” She placed a hand on Anna’s frozen cheek. “Please…” Elsa threw herself around her. “Anna,” she cried, oblivious to the world.
Elsa held onto her sister for what felt like hours. Then, suddenly, she felt something warm.
To her side, Olaf gasped as Anna’s fell into Elsa’s arms, completed defrosted.
Elsa looked up in shock, hardly able to believe her eyes. She ran her hand across Anna’s cheek to make sure the figure in front of her was flesh and blood. Once she was sure, Elsa cried out Anna’s name and threw herself around her. She held her sister tightly, afraid that Anna would disappear the moment she let go.
Anna wasted no time in returning the hug. “Oh, Elsa.”
She pulled back to look at her sister, making sure that this wasn’t a dream. “You sacrificed yourself for me?”
“I love you.” Anna said simply.
“An act of true love will thaw a frozen heart!” Olaf bounced around in realization.
“Love will thaw…” Elsa thought on it. Could it really be that easy? “Love…” Love had unfrozen Anna, perhaps by feeling with love rather than fear she could fix everything, even if it sounded incredibly cheesy (though not as cheesy as log powers).
“Love! Of course.”
“Elsa?” Anna looked blankly at her.
Elsa eyes widened. “Love!”
With a wave of her hand and a fire in her heart, the snow rose from the ground. In a magical display, the snow around them began to rise as they all held onto the boat that they had been conveniently under them.
It was one of the most beautiful things any of them had ever seen. From the looks of the people on the shore, Elsa felt an even greater desire to put her magic to good use. The snow rose off from the lake, from the land, from the gardens and the rooftops. It swirled around the air as it collected miles above the kingdom. Elsa could have simply dispersed the snow, but she didn’t want it to end just yet. Putting everything she had into it, she used the snow to form the world’s largest snowflake in the sky, before she detonated it in a flurry of light.
Everyone on board the ship smiled. Anna placed her hand on Elsa’s shoulder. “I knew you could do it.”
“Hands down,” Olaf said as he began to melt, “this is the best day of my life, and quite possibly the last.”
Elsa laughed. “Olaf, hang on, little guy.” A quick flick of her wrist, and the snowman reassembled with a new addition.
“My own personal flurry!” he shouted as he looked up at the snow cloud that was keeping him from melting.
They all laughed, then heard a loud groan from the side of the boat as Hans pulled himself on board.
Elsa might not have known all the details, but she knew one thing; he had lied about Anna’s death.
Elsa advanced towards him with Kristoff right beside her.
“Ah, ah, ah!” Anna held them back. “Allow me.” She advanced towards Hans.
“Anna?” He looked up to her, acting as if he’d seen a ghost. “B- but, she froze your heart.”
Anna remained posed and gracious. “The only frozen heart around here is yours.” Elsa felt the burn. If that wasn’t enough, Anna grabbed him by the collar and punched him overboard.
With a nod and erect back, Anna made her way over to Elsa.
“Care to tell me what happened between you two?” Elsa questioned.
Anna placed her hand in Elsa’s. “Later.” She drew Elsa into a hug. “Let’s just say, love at first sight is overrated and it takes more than one day to fall in love."
“Told her so,” Kristoff whispered to Sven.
Elsa chuckled and held onto Anna tighter as her view shifted towards the north mountain where her ice castle still stood. Although, not for long, as one of the pillars fell to the earth.
“Snowdrop,” Elsa whispered.
Anna pulled away. “What?”
“Snowdrop!” In a mixture of fear and hope, Elsa raced towards the ship’s wheel. If Anna had survived, Snowdrop might have made it as well.
"Anna, how long has it been since I was knocked out?”
Anna titled her head. “I... wait, what?”
Elsa rubbed her head. “How long was your heart frozen?”
“About a day, maybe less— hey! Anna cried as the sudden jerk of the ship tossed all the passengers to the left side. “What’s going on, Elsa? Who’s Snowdrop?”
Elsa’s eyes raced all over the ship. “It’s a long story. The short version is that she is a kid who wandered into my castle while the eternal winter thing was going on. I accidentally froze her head when I froze your heart.”
“What?” Anna cried once she got her footing.
“I left her in the castle before Hans brought me back here.” They looked up at the castle as another piece of it fell off. “Can’t this thing go any faster?”
“Alright,” Anna said, making her way to Elsa’s side, “we can go and get her—”
“Anna,” Elsa said with a deep breaths, “I need you to stay here.” Before Anna could protest she gave her a good reason. “Aside from me wanting you not to get hurt, I need you to tell everyone in Arendelle that everything is okay. Say that I’m just going off to clear up some remaining patches of snow and will be right back. I imagine they have a lot of questions, and I need you to comfort them until I get back.” She placed her hands in Anna’s and looked her in the eye. “Please, I’ll be right back. I promise, I’ll never leave you again.”
Elsa held her breath as Anna processed the news. Even though Anna had no reason to trust her, she nodded and said, “Okay. Just hurry back.”
The boat lodged into the shore. “Thank you.” They heard someone splash onto the shore, Hans.
“Oh, and you can make sure that he doesn’t get away while you’re here.” Elsa blasted him with magic that froze his body in a block of ice.
“Help!” Hans cried out as he landed on the shore, falling face-first into the mud.
Anna grinned ear-to-ear. “Sounds good to me.” She rubbed Elsa's shoulders. “Just hurry back, I want to meet this… Snowdrop? Odd name.”
Elsa could help but grin when she thought back to Anna playing with pony dolls. “Don’t worry, you’ll love her.”
Anna chuckled. "Okay, I'm sure I will. Is she adorable?"
Elsa scratched her neck. “Um… yeah, that's one way to put it. I’ll explain later.” She took off Anna’s cloak. “Can I borrow this?”
“Sure,” Anna said after Elsa took her cloak.
Next, Elsa walked up to Kristoff. “Christian, right?”
“Kristoff.” He lowered his eyes.
“Right, do you think I can borrow your ride?” she asked as she placed a hand on Sven.
“Of course.” He led Sven and Elsa down to the shore. “I can even lead you to the trolls to save your friend.” He looked towards Anna. “Don’t worry, this girl is in safe hands.”
Anna blushed. Elsa rolled her eyes.
“Fine.” Elsa looked up at the ice castle as another part of it fell off. “Hurry!” They jumped onto Sven and raced off.
“Hey, wait for me!” Olaf chased after them. “I want to help too!”
“Please come back.” Anna sighed as she heard a loud splash. Hans had managed to flip onto his back and was fruitlessly trying to escape by dragging himself across the shore with his freed arms.
With a smug grin, she walked towards him.
He tried to flash her an apologetic smile. “Anna, you look lovely.”
“Save it for your twelve brothers.” She flipped him back onto his face into the brown mud. It wasn’t until after he landed in it did she realize that the brown stuff wasn’t all mud.
At first, the ride to the northern mountain had been long and quiet. All Elsa cared about before was saving Snowdrop. She was still worried, but now realizing that the trip would take a bit longer, she could focus on other things.
“So,” Elsa said after a while to Kristoff, "how do you know my sister?”
Now that there was no rush on her part, she had time to ask questions. Questions such as how she could bring snowmen to life, what had happened between Anna and Hans, how she had log and twig summoning powers, and what this guy was doing hanging around her sister.
Kristoff, didn’t seem eager to reply as Olaf bounced on top of Sven, singing about what a great adventure they would be taking part in.
“Oh we’re going on an adventure, we’re going on an adventure!” the snowman sang out, “and hopefully we won’t die!”
Meanwhile, Elsa continued to pester Kristoff for answers.
“Um, well,” Kristoff began, sweat beading down his forehead. “She was looking for an escort to get her to the northern mountain, I happened to be the only guy available.”
“Un-huh,” Elsa crossed her arms. “I see. And, you’re both just friends, right?”
Kristoff looked to the side.
“Don’t ignore me! I’m the queen.”
Kristoff lowered his head.
“You’re not into her, are you?” Kristoff’s continued silence didn’t help. “You do realize she just came out of a bad relationship?”
“So I gathered,” he nodded as Sven made a sharp turn into the dense forest. “Look, your majesty, it’s not like we’re a couple.”
“Really?” Olaf stopped singing. “Then why did you run through a blizzard to give Anna a kiss of true love?”
“To save her!” he hastily pointed out. “To save her. Although, I would have done anything to save your sister, free of charge.”
Elsa raised an eyebrow. “Oh?”
“Yes.”
“And why is that?”
A patch of ice formed on the spot where Elsa held onto Kristoff. “If you weren’t helping me save my friend, I would have a long talk to you about all the bad things I would do to you if you hurt my sister.”
“Good to know,” he groaned.
“I know where trolls are as well.” Olaf said, but Elsa wasn’t paying attention to him.
“So, if you even think about hurting Anna,” The ice on his shoulder spread. “You get the idea?”
"Yes, yes! Now would you please not turn me into an icicle?”
Elsa jerked her hand back. “Sorry.” She cleared the ice from his shoulder. “But I am serious, if you want to even consider getting together with my sister, you better not plan to hurt her.”
“Yay, mother dearest” Kristoff muttered under his breath.
Elsa’s cold hand returned. “What was that?”
“Nothing!” Kristoff shot up.
“Oh,” Olaf said as he took a moment to catch his breath. “He said—"
“Shut up!” Kristoff’s head swung back and forth as Sven came to a halt.
“No.” Elsa crossed her arms. “I want to know what you—"
“No, I mean, stop talking,” Kristoff hushed the group up. “Shh,” he instructed as the team scanned around the forest.
At first, it was quiet, eerily so. Then, a howl echoed in the distance as Sven reared up onto his legs. Looking off into the distance, a large pack of wolves emerged from the trees. Teeth bared, eyes narrowed, and a look of hunger on their face.
“Oh come on!” Kristoff kicked Sven in the rear and they took off running through the remaining mountain snow as Olaf dropped off of Sven. “Gah, I hate wolves!”
“Why are there so many of them in these woods?” Elsa asked as she blasted one with her ice powers.
“Don’t know, don’t care, running now!”
“Hey, wait for me!” Olaf cried out as Elsa pulled him up to Sven just as a wolf bit off Olaf's leg.
“Oh, there goes my leg!” Olaf cried. “Wait, I don’t feel pain.” he remembered.
“Hang on,” Elsa said as she replaced his leg as another wolf pounced onto them.
Using both of her arms, Elsa pulled back her wrist, and blasted the wolf into oblivion. Upon blasting that wolf away, she noticed that a pack of wolves replaced that one.
One by one, she fired ice-blast after ice-blast. Some of them hit their targets, other missed but resulted in ice-spears that slowed many of them down. One wolf tried to pounce onto Sven, and succeeded.
Olaf screamed as the wolf opened its mouth right in his face. A moment later, Elsa gave the beast a strong kick with her legs. Winching in pain, Sven gave the wolf a strong buck, sending the wolf off into the distance.
“You holding up alright?” Kristoff asked when she fell back into him.
“Yeah,” she said as she looked over her shoulder, not sure how she could keep up this fight. “Although, why are there so many darn wolves in these woods?” Then, her eyes widened when she saw a snow-covered tree on a cliff that was half exposed from the ground.
As they passed the tree, she curled her hands, and sent the tree down on the wolves, cutting off half of the pack. The other half continued to advance, as Elsa summoned loose tree branches and logs as they came.
“Wait a minute,” Kristoff questioned as he dodged a flying log, “I though you only had ice powers. Now you have log powers?”
“Seriously?” she said as she summoned a long tree branch. “I can bring snowmen to life, and you question how I can move branches?” With that, she swung the branch, sending the next wolf to pounce into the distance. “Just steer the reindeer!”
“Ye.. Yes, ma’am,” he grinned as he looked ahead. “Oh, um, I don’t suppose you also have the power to fly as well?”
Elsa snapped her neck around. “Why do you ask?” She looked up, and saw her answer in the form of large ravine, with another pack of wolves cutting off any other path of escape.
“Oh you know, just seemed like a good time to know if you do.”
“Okay,” Else's eyes scanned their surroundings as she thought up a plan. Pulling her hands into a fist, and raising them into the air as if she was about to deliver a double-fist uppercut, she created an ice-ramp on the edge of a cliff. “Say, Kristoff, what sounds more appealing?: Definitely getting eaten by a pack of wolves, or maybe falling to our deaths with the slight chance I can create a snow patch at the bottom of a cliff before we die?”
“Can you give me a minute to think about that?”
“No. Now hang on!” With one last ice blast at a wolf, she dropped onto Sven and gave the brown reindeer a slap in the rear.
Sven responded with a whine as he raced onto the ramp just as the wolves surrounded them.
“Gahh!” the guys screamed as Elsa reared back.
She took a deep breath, pushed her hands back as if she was keeping a bolder from flattening her and took in a deep breath. When she exhaled, she let loose a powerful blast of ice magic towards the cliff that sent the group skywards.
“Gah!” Kristoff screamed.
“Oh yeah!” Olaf said with his hands in the air. "Wee!"
*****
Meanwhile, in a cottage below the mountain, a family emerged from their sauna, relieved that the winter had passed as they looked up towards the north mountain.
“Look, family.” The husband, a large muscular man, pointed to a white streak rocketing through the sky. “A shooting star. Make a wish, everyone."
The youngest daughter titled her head. “I thought you could only see shooting stars at night?”
“Makes about as much sense as everything else that has happened.”
*****
Eventually, fatigue began to catch up to Elsa, and her powers began to go on the fritz. First, it was just a few gaps in her breath. With each breath, her powers grew weaker.
"Come on,” Elsa muttered as she fought wave after wave of exhaustion. Between ending the winter, fighting off the wolves, not eating for three days and the flying, her body was nearly spent.
After one last push, her magic faded out and the group made their way towards the ground.
“I should have said eaten by wolves!” Kristoff cried as the group began to fall towards the bare ground ahead of them. “Elsa!”
“Hang… Hang on,” she said between breaths as she used all her remaining energy creating a snow patch for them to land in. As they hit it, she realized through a scraped knee that she had barely made the snowpatch large enough for them to survive in.
“Everyone okay?” Kristoff groaned.
“I think I could use a facelift.” Olaf said. The snowman had flatten into a pancake.
“Ho… Gah!… Hold on, little guy.” Elsa held up her hand to straighten him up.
“Are you okay?” Kristoff asked as he tried to help Elsa up.
“Yeah,” Elsa lied, “just a banged up knee.” She pushed him off once she stood up. “Come on, we need to keep moving.” Holding her hand to her waist, she wobbled forward, but didn’t falter. “Are we at least almost there?”
Kristoff shook his head. “And here I thought your sister was strong headed.”
Elsa shoot him a glare of death. “Care to repeat that?”
Kristoff stepped back as he swore he saw flames dancing in her eyes. “Oh look, your ice castle is right over there!”
Elsa looked up at what remained of the castle, not sure how she missed it even though they had been flying through the air. As she looked up at the castle, that question became the least of her concerns. Most of the tall pillars and towers had already fallen off, and more followed as she stared at what was left of the castle.
"Snowdrop.” She bolted towards the staircase with a hunched back as she caught one of the falling pillars with her ice magic. While hot pain shot through her body, she pressed on, yet held nothing back by screaming.
“Hey, wait up!” Kristoff said.
“Don’t stop me,” Elsa said as she sent tiny snowballs in Kristoff's direction.
“I wasn’t. I was just making sure you’re okay.”
“I’m fine!” Elsa’s ankle twisted on a rock. It didn’t break, but it hurt more than she could have imagined. As she grabbed her ankle, another tower fell.
Elsa quickly shot her hand up to save a second tower from crumbling.
“Okay, so I’m tired, hungry, in pain, and so on. That’s not going to stop me though.”
Kristoff shook his head as he carried Elsa in one of his arms. “I never thought you would.” They looked up at a spiral on top of a fallen tower. “Still, I suppose we should move fast.”
Elsa rolled her eyes. “You think?”
They didn’t waste a moment longer as they raced up the stairs.
“We’re going on an adventure,” Olaf sang, “we’re going on an adventure! Into a falling apart castle! We’re going on a—Oh,” he said as he picked up a glistening piece of metal. “Shiny thing!”
He pulled it out of the snow, and realized it was a crown. He put it on his head. “I look pretty.” He danced around.
“Come on, Olaf!”
“Right.” Olaf jumped and raced up the stairs. “Wait for me!”
They raced up the stairs as Elsa fought between keeping the stair aloft, and the castle from falling in on itself.
“Hang on, Snowdrop,” she uttered as another pillar collapsed.
They made it to the top of the stairs, and barged through the door. With a deep breath, she pushed off of Kristoff and shouted through the crumbling castle, “SNOWDROP!”
*****
“You take her,” one of Snowdrop’s classmates said.
“No, I had her last time,” another said, “You take her.”
Snowdrop lowered her head onto the desk.
Next, it was recess, and the team captains for a game of hoofball were deciding between her and a colt in a cast.
“You take her this time,” she heard one of the captains say quietly.
They always tried to not say it out loud, which she respected. However, try as she might, she always heard what they said about her and other students like her.
“Poor child,” she heard one of the adults say on ‘the day.’
She was crying in the other room clinging onto one of her favorite blankets.
“You sure there’s no other family member that will take her in?”
“None that her mother mentioned, and it’s not like we can ask her now.” There was a pause. “I’m sure we can find her a good family.”
Snowdrop held her blanket as her mother driftedaway.
“She’s blind and eight years old. I wouldn’t count on it.”
“Mama?” Snowdrop looked up at her mother as she began to shrink. “Mom! Don’t leave me. Mom, please, I need you!” She raced after her, only to bump into pillar after pillar.
“Mom!” Snowdrop cried out just as she was able to reach out to her. As her hoof extended out towards her mother, she began to disappear.
“Mom!”
Before her mother disappeared, she turned her head towards her daughter, only for a blinding white light to deny snowdrop from seeing her mother’s face.
*****
Snowdrop shot awake, the pain she felt in her head had worsened. She felt that the fire had died down and went to gather some more firewood. After feeling around for a while, she came to the undeniable conclusion that she only had two rather thin logs left.
As the pain amplified, she grabbed the twigs and threw them into the fire.
She wasn’t sure what was taking Princess Elsa so long, but she was confident that Princess Elsa wouldn’t be gone for much longer. It was likely that Elsa was still running down those intruders to make sure they wouldn’t bother either of them again. She would be back any minute now, with warm smiles and more firewood to make the pain go away. Maybe it would take a day and they could spend one more night curled up together by the fire. Then… Then…
She began to sniffle as the fire grew weaker.
Who was she kidding? Elsa was either taken by those ruffians, or, she had left her. Snowdrop knew that Princess Elsa never wanted her around, so she sealed her up in this room to die.
Snowdrop sighed in acceptance. Maybe it was better this way. No one wanted her. She could be the most well behaved filly, create the most beautiful snowflakes, and have the most positive attitude, and none of that would matter because she was a blind filly that would be more trouble than she was worth.
Good, now she could—
“Snowdrop!” Elsa cried into the castle.
“Elsa…” barely above a whisper, Snowdrop shouted out.
“Snowdrop!”
*****
“Snowdrop!” Through falling debris, collapsing staircases, Elsa pushed on and used every ounce of energy limping to the fire room’s sealed entrance. On the way, her back burned with a burning pressure that threatened to crack at any time. as she moved on, her powers would waver as she would have to dodge falling ice and expanding sinkholes. If Olaf and Kristoff weren't there, she would have likely been killed before she reached the inner stairs.
Breathing hard, Kristoff carried her up the stairs, through the castle, to the place where the fire room had been.”
“Please,” she prayed before she touched the wall, bringing it down with ease. Inside, an ice covered Snowdrop curled up by the last embers of the fire, still alive.
When she heard the door melt, she turned her attention towards Elsa. “Ma… Princess Elsa?”
Elsa threw herself on Snowdrop, squeezing the filly in a tight bear hug. “I told you,” she said through heavy breaths, “it’s just Elsa!”
Snowdrop curled into Elsa’s arms and gave her a weak smile. “Where… where were you? Did… did you ch… chase them off?”
“Yeah,” Elsa held Snowdrop closer. “I’m so sorry I took so long. Don’t worry, I’m going to get you help, I’ll—”
She felt Snowdrop lift her frostbitten eyes up at her. “Don’t leave me again, okay? I… I was so scared that you just left me, because you didn’t want me because, well....”
“Snowdrop!” Elsa placed a hand to the filly’s cheek as she felt Snowdrop grow colder. “There is no reason why I wouldn’t want you. Do you hear me?”
Snowdrop winced, but nodded her head. Elsa also noticed Snowdrop warm up a bit.
“Good, now listen carefully. I am so sorry I couldn’t get here sooner. I’m back now, and I promise, I will never leave you again.”
Snowdrop tried to widen her eyes, but the ice only allowed her to open them halfway. “You… You mean it? You’d… r… really want a blind filly like me?”
“I wouldn’t have you any other way. You’re a special filly, my Snowdrop.”
Elsa didn’t expect what happened next. With a quick flick of Snowdrop’s tongue, the filly licked her cheek several times before she buried herself into Elsa’s chest. “Oh thank you, thank you,” Snowdrop cried as Elsa felt ice-tears stream down her dress.
Not seeing anything better to do, Elsa held onto her.
“Um…” their hug was interrupted by Kristoff. “I don’t mean to break up a heartfelt moment, or question why there’s a talking pegasus after everything I’ve seen today,” he said as another chunk of ice smashed next to him, “but can we get out of here before we get crushed by ice?”
“I don’t see what the big deal is, guys.” Olaf said as a large chunk of ice crashed right behind him. When he moved forward he noticed the ice had shaved off his entire back side. “Well would you look at that, a clean-cut.”
Elsa used her power to clean Olaf up as she stumbled forward. “Yeah, let’s get out of here.” Holding Snowdrop tight, they made their way towards the exit.
*****
With a few close calls, they made it to the exit in one peice. Once they made it out of the castle, Elsa looked one last time at her creation. She was the only reason it was still standing. After she let go and left, the whole thing would fall apart.
Elsa felt Snowdrop wriggle in her arms, and let go of any power she had on the castle.
It fell in a spectacular display of ice, snow, and powder. It started with the top towers. Instead of falling forward, the towers collapsed upon themselves as clouds of snow seemed to swallow the towers whole. The lower levels went next. They slid down the mountain under the white clouds as the last pillars dissolved, the balcony imploded on itself.
Lastly, the stairs fell. Unlike the rest of the castle, they merely toppled forward into the canyon below with the structure.
“Come on.” Kristoff placed a spare jacket around Elsa as he led her towards Sven. “Let’s get going.”
Once on the reindeer, Elsa turned around to stare at the green mountain. On the top, a path of white flowers began to blossom.
"Yeah.” Elsa said as she held tightly onto Snowdrop. “Let’s go.”
With Snowdrop safely nestled in her lap, Elsa stretched out her free arm and yawned, eager to fall asleep on the reindeer's back. She had nearly done everything that she could, and all that was left was to get Snowdrop to the trolls. It should have been easy enough to do so, yet, as they moved down the mountain through what little snow was left, Elsa couldn’t bring herself to relax. Even though she deserved it, a part of her wouldn’t submit to her fatigue until she saw the trolls remove the ice from Snowdrop’s head, and then saw to it that the foal was returned to her mother.
“Come on,” Elsa said repeatedly as they slowly made their way down the mountain. “We must go faster!”
“Sorry, your highness,” Kristoff said as he guided Sven, “I know you’re in a hurry, but I’m not in a hurry to die today if I can help it.”
“Shh,” Elsa commanded as she held Snowdrop closer to her chest, “you’ll wake her up.”
Bundled tightly in her arms, the young filly rested while her ice crystals slowly continued to grow. Still, as long as Elsa felt Snowdrop’s warm breath and rising chest, Elsa knew the foal was alive.
Kristoff rolled his eyes as Elsa cradled Snowdrop closer to her chest as they reached more level ground. “You know,” he said as he hopped back onto Sven’s back, “you sure seem to care an awful lot about it. If I did… Ow, ow, OW!” he cried as he felt his back freeze up.
“Its name,” Elsa hissed as her wrist flared in pain, “is Snowdrop.”
“Okay, Okay, sorry!” he shouted once Elsa released her grip “Although, that does back up my case of you caring about her, her! so much. It’s like you’re her mother.”
With deep breaths, Elsa wanted to protest, but two things stopped her.
The first was when she realized that she had come to care for Snowdrop, even in such a short amount of time. Not as close as she was with Anna or anything major, she reasoned, yet she did feel something strong for the child wrapped in her arms. Of course, Elsa reasoned that it was just her feeling guilty for not getting her home as well as freezing her, but it still stood that she was very determined to get Snowdrop to the trolls. If not at least so Snowdrop could be healed and safely returned home.
The second thing was a loud rumbling sound that echoed and shook the mountain. As it grew louder, a massive avalanche descended upon them.
“Sven, go, trees, now!” Kristoff uttered as the reindeer made a beeline for the trees, with each bound Sven took, the massive wall of snow gain by twice the distance.
Elsa, on the other hand, looked up at the avalanche with dismay. She didn’t have a lot of energy left, but she knew that she would have to do something. If nothing was done, they would be buried alive. With a weakened face, she turned to face the avalanche, arms raised, ready to stop it. Before she could do anything, she felt a warm hand upon her back.
“Save your energy!” Kristoff said as they approached the trees. “I think we're gona—“ he stopped as his back grew cold.
“Don’t… Even… Think about it!” Elsa warned as she spent a bit of her energy to save them from being jinxed.
“O… okay! Just, whoa!” Before they could make it, the snow was upon them.
Wasting no time, Elsa screamed in agony as she deflected most of the snow. She suffered dearly for her actions as her own body took in most of force, most of the snow got through as they were buried under the snow.
However, the snow was mushy and with a wave of her hand Elsa pushed aside most of the snow and pulled everyone out rather easily.
“So, we’re alive?” Olaf asked as he felt his legs.
“Yeah,” Kristoff nodded as he brushed some snow off of him. “And I think the worst is over.”
Suddenly, a loud roar echoed throughout the trees. A moment later, a tree flew through the air. From the trees, emerged a yeti.
“Oh come on! An abominable snowman?”
Elsa narrowed her eyes and shook her head.
The massive beast roared at them, pinning them in place with fear. As it lunged at them, Sven reared up and barely dodged his claws. However, as he jumped back on two legs, the party on his back fell off as they rolled all over the place, making easy pickings for the yeti.
On the ground, Elsa moaned, but shot back up as she saw Snowdrop roll towards the yeti.
The beast growled at the foal as Snowdrop whimpered, “Momma!”
Fist clenched, Elsa pushed herself up and threw herself between the monster and Snowdrop. Hands held back, legs shaking, Elsa fired blast after blast at the monster.
“Be gone with you!” she commanded as one of her ice-blasts froze it’s arm..
While the ice-blasts were strong, in her state, they were only able to annoy the yeti. With an ear-piercing cry, the beast broke through the ice and swatted Elsa out of the way.
With a screak, she smacked into a tree. Upon contact, she felt her back go limp and the pain escalated from bearable, to unimaginable as the bark that ripped through her dress scrapped her skin. Never breaking more than the epidermis, but causing fierce agonizing pain. Once she fell to the ground, she wanted to do nothing more than lay there forever. Yet, as she heard Snowdrop cry out for her, all Elsa cared about was getting back up. Head spinning, back torn, she was desperate to get to Snowdrop before the yeti did.
“Get away from her!” Elsa ordered as she carried herself forward with one arm supporting the other.
The yeti certainly was taken off guard by Elsa’s sudden resurrection, but it showed no fear as it advanced towards Elsa, ready to go in for the kill. Suddenly, a much larger—and more literal—snowman crashed in right behind him. Limping on one leg, the monster roared at the yeti as the small party below stared.
“Oh, hey, Marshmallow,” Olaf said with a goofy grin.
Elsa looked down at Olaf. “Marshmallow?”
Olaf shrugged. “Seemed like a good name at the time.”
Elsa looked up at Marshmallow as he limped on his one leg. If that wasn’t enough, the warmer weather had nearly melted her poor creation away. He wasn’t as intimidating as when she had created him, yet still showed a lot of spark and power in carrying out his goal of protecting Elsa.
Catching the yeti off guard, Marshmallow pulled back on the beast’s shoulders and threw him onto his back. However, not as strong as when he was created, the yeti only stayed down for a moment. Once it got back up, it grabbed Marshmallow around the waist and shoved him into a tree, where the beast went to work chiseling away at what remained of the giant snowman. Each punch wore down Marshmallow until his upper half threatened to separate from his lower self.
“Come on!” Kristoff said as he hopped back onto Sven and raced towards Elsa and Olaf.
Before he could, the yeti grabbed a nearby tree and blocked their path. With nowhere to go, he made his way towards Elsa, only to be stopped when Marshmallow slammed into him, pinning him to the ground for a short while.
Elsa, seeing a chance, waved her arm and created a snow flurry around Marshmallow, bringing him back to his former strength as his leg regrew and his body hardened. As the yeit lunged at him, Marshmallow as able to pin the yeti down, giving the party the chance they needed.
“Now we go!” Kristoff said as he and Sven made it around the tree, snatching up Elsa, Snowdrop and Olaf in one fell swoop.
Sven was about to race off, when the yeti pushed Marshmallow off and sent another roar in their direction.
“Come on, Sven!” Kristoff nudged the frightened animal. “Move, you dumb animal,” he said as he kicked Sven hard.
The reindeer moaned and raced through the two snowmen’s battle. The yeti tried to reach them, but Marshmallow let him have a right uppercut. Throwing the yeti down as Elsa and her compnay raced through the forest as the echo of the battle raged behind them.
*****
Sven ran through the trees until the roars of the snowmens’ battle were nothing more than a distant cry.
Elsa sat still, eyes locked forward as her vision blurred.
“Are you alright?” she heard Olaf ask as he placed one of his twig arms on her back.
“Fine… Fine I— I’m fine!” She fiercely shook her head. “Let’s just get to the trolls. Oh, and if one of you dare jinx us, I will lock both of you in the dungeons for the rest of your lives.”
The guys started at her. “Why do I have to be locked up just because he says something wrong?” Olaf pointed out.
Kristoff turned to face them. “Let’s just all shut up until we get there, okay?”
Elsa nodded her head approvingly. “Good, good, now we just… Ugh!” Elsa leaned forward onto Kristoff's shoulders.
Kristoff responded with a slight pull on Sven’s antlers. “Whoa—“
“Don’t you dare stop, peasant!”
Kristoff piped down as Sven picked up speed. “Yeesh,” Kristoff said as he turned to stare at her. “You're on fire.”
Elsa rolled her eyes. “Okay, so maybe peasant was uncalled for, but you didn’t—”
“No,” Kristoff said as he placed a hand on her forehead. “I mean your literally burning up. You look like you got a fever.”
After she took a breath, she noticed that he was right. She felt uncomfortably hot, as well as every other pain—and more so—someone had when they were sick.
“Just… just… get us to... the trolls,” she said between breaths. “I’ll be... fine as long as nothing else bad happens.”
Suddenly, Sven came to a stop at a wide river.
“So,” Olaf said, “do we all have to go to the dungeons, or would that just be you because you only said if us guys said it?”
In front of them was a wide river, flowing faster than usual for the time of year.
“Is there… there a way to go around?”
Kristoff looked towards the red faced queen and the icing bundle in her arms. “I don’t think we have the time.” He gave Sven’s antlers a hard turn. “Don’t worry, your majesty, I know where the river is shallow.”
Elsa wasn’t going to hear any of that. “I can… I think I… I can make a bridge, ugh.” she tried to wave her hands, and while a thin ice bridge appeared in front of them, it quickly melted and dissolved into the river.
“Don’t worry,” Kristoff assured, “the crossing isn’t far. We’ll get you there in no time.”
“Good,” Elsa nodded continually, too tired to question anything as she held onto Snowdrop in an attempt to simultaneously cool herself off and defrost the filly. “Good…”
As she did so, Kristoff made his way to the shore, watching his steps, as the ground was muddy from all the snow and ice that had just as quickly vanished. Still, he was able to carefully and quickly lead Sven to the water’s edge.
“Alright, buddy,” he said as he patted Sven’s neck, “you ready for a little swim?” The reindeer moaned but nodded his head.
“Alright, let’s do it! Our destination is just across this little stream.” With that said, Sven began to make his way across the water.
“So this is water?” Olaf said as he looked at his reflection. “I wonder what—” He stuck his legs into the water and pulled them out immediately. “Ow, ow!” he screamed. “It burns, it burns! Why does it burn?”
“Hey,” Elsa said weakly, “water… is melted snow, Olaf. You must… be careful.”
“Oh I’m sorry, Elsa,” he said as he placed one of his branches arms to her face. “I didn’t mean—”
“It’s fine,” Elsa panted. “Just be careful, okay?”
Olaf nodded. “Okay. But can I, I don’t know, crawl on top of your head since I’m running out of room to stand on the reindeer?” he said as the water began to rise above Sven’s body.
With no hesitation, Elsa lifted him up onto her back as the water went past her hips.
“Ugh,” she heard Snowdrop moan, ice chunks floating on the surrounding water. “Are we there yet?”
“Just hang on there, dear,” Elsa said as she raised Snowdrop to her chest. “We are almost there.”
As they waded halfway across the river, a loud roar could be heard as flocks of birds took to the air from upstream.
Now what? Elsa thought to herself as she looked up as the sound of water echoed through the valley. It was at that point that Elsa noticed that the river had begun to rise.
“Go, now!” she ordered as Sven moved forward. Each step causing the reindeer to sink deeper and deeper. As he got halfway across the stream, neck deep into the water, Sven stopped.
“Sven, what’s wrong?”
Sven moaned as it became clear that he was stuck.
“Hang on,” Kristoff said as he dove under. Minutes passed, Elsa held on tightly to Snowdrop as the water began to rise and pick up speed.
At last, Kristoff resurfaced with a defeated look on his face. “I’ll have him out in a minute.”
The rushing water grew louder.
Kristoff's jaw dropped. “I don’t think we have that long.” On cue, a massive wall of brown water rounded the bend, growing larger and wider as it advanced on them.
Back aching, arms sore, Elsa placed Snowdrop and Olaf on Sven’s head, jumped off his back, and waded through the water.
“What are you doing?” Kristoff said when he resurfaced again.
Elsa didn’t answer. Instead, she took in a quick deep breath, and with her body aching, she froze the water around them, fighting both the rising stream and every instinct in her body to stop. This immediately drained the water around them, allowing Sven to free his leg as he raced off with Olaf and Snowdrop.
“Come on,” Kristoff shouted, “let’s go!”
Elsa didn't pay attention. Instead, she moved the ice around into a massive wall. A moment later, she felt the impact of the runoff as it hit the ice wall. All Elsa wanted to do when she felt the impact was cry out in pain and collapse. Give in, and let her nightmare of misery end. Yet, despite the pain that threated to break her body, she told herself that choice wasn’t an option. However, even with the miraculous second wind she had acquired, she couldn’t hope to both keep the ice wall up and make it to the safety of the high ground on the other side.
“What are you waiting for?” he asked, but Elsa could tell that he knew the inevitable truth.
“Make… Make sure Snowdrop gets to the trolls.”
Kristoff's mouth dropped a gape. “No I—”
“Go!” she screamed as she used a foot to fire a blast of ice at him, which missed his chest by meters. “Do not expect me to miss next time. As your queen, I demand that you go. Please,” she said as tears began to flow down her cheek, “take care of Anna for me. Make sure… Make sure she is the queen Arendelle deserves. Then see to it that Snowdrop gets home as well.”
Kristoff started to protest, but as he felt the water on his shoes he knew that she was right. If he didn’t leave, they would both die for nothing.
He nodded furiously and raced off towards the high ground, leaving Elsa to her doom.
Even though Elsa knew she was about to die, she wasn’t going to just stand there and do nothing. Despite all the pain that raced through her body, she slowly made her way towards the shore as the rest of her remaining energy went into keeping the ice wall from collapsing.
Nearly out of harm’s way, she opened up a few more holes to let some more water flow through. As she did so, the weight of the flood proved too much for her as the whole thing collapsed and gushed towards her.
Elsa tried to run, but her worn out body made it difficult to limp. As the water was upon and towered over her, she tripped on a rock. Elsa closed her eyes. She was ready to accept her fate. That was until a rope and a pair of arms wrapped around her.
“What the… Kristoff, you idiot!” she screamed in a raspy voice.
“Just shut up and take a deep breath,” he hastily said as the wall of waer crashed upon them.
Elsa did as he said, and then they were under.
For a moment, she thought that she had died, floating, suspended in a rather nice state of bliss, until they resurfaced, held firmly in place by the rope Kristoff had tied around them and a nearby tree.
Elsa, meanwhile, was able to conjure up one of the most pathetic sheets of ice she could muster. I couldn’t support them to stand up on, but it did hold long enough to be an effective floatation device.
“Hold on,” he said as the water rushed past them, “the shore's not that far.” Even though they only had to swim a few feet, the current made the journey feel like miles. However, Kristoff proved to Elsa that he was a strong swimmer, and was able to get them safely to the river’s new shore.
“You… *gasp… were sup… pose to save… Snowdrop.” Elsa said as Kristoff pulled them out of the water.
“I did. I made sure Sven was heading the right direction, then I came back for you.”
Hand clenched to her chest, Elsa uttered the words, “Thank… you.”
“I suppose that was one way to cool off. Still, I couldn’t let the queen and my future girlfriend’s sister die. I’d never hear the end of it.”
Elsa shot him a look. “What?” she said above a whisper as she suddenly realized that she felt a sharp pain in her belly. The last thing she remembered before she passed out was hearing her name being shouted out over and over again.
Surrounded by her toys and snow, a young Elsa sat on her window ledge and gazed out into the kingdom. It was a warm summer day, most of the kingdom was spending it outdoors, preferably on the beach. While the people played, Elsa focused on her breathing exercises her parents encouraged her to do each day to keep her powers in control.
With a sigh after she finished, Elsa looked down at the beach towards the kids around her age, Anna included, playing in the waves. Well, Anna wasn’t playing with the kids, as her escort of guards made sure of it.
As always, Anna had invited her to join along earlier that day. After Elsa got over the shock that her parents allowed Anna to venture outside of the castle, she made up an excuse as to why she couldn’t go as she always had, and was left to sulk in isolation.
Normally, Elsa would have been—if not fine—then content with how things were. However, as she watched her sister play in the sand, eager to make new friends, only to have the guards pull her away, something in Elsa snapped.
Not thinking, she placed her hand on the window’s lock and attempted to freeze it off.
“Elsa!” she heard her father say before she could do so.
“Father!” She turned to him. “I’m sorry, I didn’t mean—”
“You must be more careful not to reveal yourself,” he said as he moved towards the window.
As he reached for the blinds, Elsa reached up, hand curled into an ice-ball, ready to stop him. Then, she looked at her hand, then at her father, and thought about how easy it would be to kill him.
While the ice in her hand shrank, the room became colder. Then, just as her father was about to pull the blinds closed, Elsa managed one last glance at the beach. The guards had just put her sister down, and it had been clear that Anna had put up quite a fight. While she was straightening herself up, Anna glanced up to the window, clearly seeing her sister, and cried out, “Elsa!”
*****
“…”
“…going to be okay?” she heard someone say.
“She’s just a little tired and needs some rest. Then she’ll be up in no time.”
“Ugh,” Elsa said as she forced herself awake as pain shot through her ribs.
“Hey, I think she’s waking up!”
Elsa moaned in response as she forced herself to sit up while her eyes struggled to open
“She is!” someone cried out as she felt something heavy land in her lap.
“Hey,” she heard Kristoff say. When her vision became clear, she saw him holding back a bouncy troll child. “Take it easy. We don’t need to damage her any more than we have too.”
“Aw,” the child moaned as Kristoff responded by tickling her. Elsa didn’t have long to enjoy the moment. As soon as she sat up she was surrounded by rocks that sprang into trolls, each one asking if she was alright, and a few who were asking random things such as “could you kiss my glowstone?” and “what’s your favorite color?”
Elsa had just gotten to answering “blue” when a large and battered looking stone rolled her way. It unrolled, to reveal itself to be the troll’s leader, Grandpape, a tired looking troll with the most glowing stones around his neck, Elsa remembered him well. He was none other than the troll who had saved Anna when she froze her head as a kid. It was then when Elsa suddenly remembered something else he had done.
“Where is Snowdrop?” Elsa said as she tried to get up. As she pulled herself up, a fierce stabbing pain in her chest brought her down.
“Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa!” Kristoff said as he helped her back down. “Take it easy, Snowdrop is fine.”
Clenching her chest, Elsa realized that she wasn’t going anywhere. “Show her to me.”
Taking a step back, yet standing his ground, Grandpape nodded. “Of course,” he said as he waved a hand away from them. “Come, she is resting.”
Turning her head around a few times, Elsa staggered to stand up. Once she did, the crowd of trolls, usually bouncy and full of life, parted and allowed her to pass until she made it to the center of the dwelling. There, Snowdrop was bundled up in a thick blanket of the cloths Elsa had brought along and leaves.
“Oh, God,” Elsa said with relief as she stumbled forward into Kristoff's arms. “Gah!” Elsa screamed as she held onto her chest.
"You know what, your highness,” Kristoff said, “for someone who got stabbed by a tree branch while underwater, you sure aren’t acting like it.”
“I… what?” Elsa questioned as she looked at her chest as she sat down next to Snowdrop. “Never mind, is she okay?” She ran her fingers through Snowdrop’s mane. “Why is she still asleep? How long was I asleep?” Elsa then glared at Grandpape. “Did you wipe away her memories?”
The old troll shook his head. “No, but if you’d like—”
“No!” Elsa screamed at the top of her lungs. “No! No more magic, no more secrets!” As she held Snowdrop’s hoof, something that had been held inside of Elsa came out. Something that had been buried deep, and not even an eternal winter could have vented out. “Is it too much to ask, to not have to hide things from people?”
Breathing heavily, she took a moment to scan the crowd, which had gone eerily silent at her outburst. A crowd, that suddenly burst into hysterical laughter as her stomach began to growl.
“Um,” Kristoff said as he pulled an apple out of his pocket. “Maybe you’d like to eat first.”
With a few last meditative breaths, Elsa humbly held her hand out to accept the apple. While she was starving after going days without eating, and still steamed after her outburst, she refrained from gobbling the apple and took tiny bites. While eating, she never allowed her eyes stray from Snowdrop for more than a few seconds to blink.
She would have thought that Snowdrop would have been awake by now. When her sister’s head had been frozen she had— she pushed that thought out of her mind as she began to ask a few questions.
“How long was I out for?”
“Just a day,” Kristoff answered as he handed her another apple. “I got you here just as the sun was beginning to set. You’ve been asleep all morning.” He chuckled. “You sure do know how to take a beauty nap.”
Elsa rolled her eyes as she ran a hand over her bandage. “So much for my log powers then, I suppose.”
Grandpape tilted his head in response. “Log powers?”
“Oh yeah,” Olaf nodded as he waved one of his branch arms. “She has the power to move logs and branches now.”
“Hum,” the old troll said as he scratched his chin, “that shouldn’t be possible.”
For some reason, Elsa became insulted. “But it is true! Although, for some reason I can only summon the logs.” She then stretched out her arm at a fair sized branch lying on the ground several yards away. “Watch.” She raised her hand, and as before, she commanded the branch to come to her. To her dismay, the branch didn’t even wiggle.
“Um, Elsa…” Kristoff said as he reached a hand out to Elsa.
“Just,” Elsa said as she ran her fingers through her hair as she took deep breaths, “just hang on. It worked before.” Although the longer she held her hand up, the more the pain in her chest intensified.
“Take it easy—” Kristoff tried to say as Elsa smacked his hand away.
“Do not tell me what to do!” In her fit, Elsa blasted the log with her ice powers, which froze the logs. A moment later, it lifted up from the ground and landed in front of her.
“Well, I’ll be,” Grandpape said with a grin. “Impressive, but simple enough to understand. If anything is frozen, or covered in ice, you should, in theory, be able to move it.”
All of a sudden, Olaf jumped into the air with widened eyes.
"You okay?” Kristoff asked the snowman with a raised eyebrow.
“I’m not sure.” Olaf answered as his eyes narrowed while he stared off into space. “It felt as if a hundred voices simultaneously cried out at the same time. I even think one of their heads exploded”
Kristoff slowly nodded his head. “Right… So,” he addressed Grandpape and Elsa, “she doesn’t have log powers?”
“Oh she does,” Grandpape said.
“But,” Elsa questioned, “you just said I did not.”
“You don’t, but you can when it’s a frozen log.”
“So,” Kristoff said as he ran his fingers across his chin, “would that not just be ice powers?”
“It would, I suppose,” Grandpape added.
“Yes,” Kristoff added, “but if it’s a log, wouldn’t that be log powers just as much as it wouldn’t technically be food power if you froze some food?”
“No, then that’d just be frozen food powers, not log powers.”
“But that would just be ice powers, not log powers,” Kristoff pondered, “right?”
Sighing in defeat, Elsa placed both of her hands over her head as she said, “No more! Logs, logs hurt my head!”
“I imagine logs would hurt anyone’s head,” Olaf said as he sat down next to Elsa, “then again, these logs would probably just go through me. Hey,” he began to circle the crowd of trolls, cowering in place in utter silence. “Is it just me, or did things get awfully quiet around here?”
In baffled silence, notroll said a word. To Elsa’s dismay, when she moved an arm in their direction, they all gasped and backed away. A few mothers even brought in their children closer to them.
Fortunately, the awkward silence didn’t last long. For in one deep voice, Grandpape said, “Now, now then, shouldn’t we all be happy the queen’s alive.” It got a few of them to lighten up, and even smile. “You know.” The troll king smirked. “I think all of this good news is worth of… A song?”
Elsa’s face darkened. “Oh.”
The trolls pulled back their arms.
“Oh… We are so happy, the queen is alive.”
They clapped their hands.
“We are so happy, that she’s not dead.”
They continued on as the choreography began to get more energetic.
With a shrug of his shoulders, Kristoff allowed a female troll to grab his hand and pull him into the dance.
“I find it best to just go along!” he advised Elsa before he and Olaf’s voices were lost in the music.
Shaking her head, Elsa felt tempted to join them. That was, until the pain in her chest prevented her from moving fast, and Grandpape’s hand pulled her in the opposite directions.
“If you wouldn’t mind, your highness,” he said, “there are some things I’d like to talk to you about, in private.”
Elsa nodded, and leaned down to take Snowdrop with her when Grandpape stopped her.
“She’ll be fine,” Grandpape said as he pushed her hand away. “I promise. The steam will help her wake sooner. I know how you feel, but before they finish singing, I’d like to discuss a few things away from the rest of my family. In return, I can answer a lot of your questions for you, such as why your parents did what they did in your upbringing.”
Attention forfeited over to him, Elsa complied with a deep breath. “Heaven help you if anything happens to her. She is my responsibly, and I will not fail her in getting home.”
To that, Grandpape grinned. “Glad to hear. Now come on,” he motioned towards the musical number, “even they can’t go on singing forever.
“It isn’t like we were cold,” they sang on, “but just didn’t know what was what!” they clapped. “So now that we’re not dead, we can play and sing instead!”
“Yeah,” Elsa shuttered. “Lead the way.”
*****
“Sorry about that.” Grandpape said as they walked further away from the clearing. Deeper into the forest, until the singing was nothing more than a light hymn in the background.
“It is quite alright.” Elsa said. “It certainly lightened the mood.”
Grandpape’s expression remained the same. “I was talking about how they reacted to you earlier.”
Elsa raised an eyebrow. “Earlier, what do you…? Oh.” She thought back to how scared the trolls looked when she used her powers and shouted. “I suppose I’m feared by everything now, not just humans.”
“No, child,” Grandpape said as he placed a hand on Elsa’s. “Sure, they are, nervous, like a lot of people will be after what happened. However, we can’t change that. We can only move forward, learn from our mistakes, and try to make amends.”
Elsa responded by curling into a ball. “Yeah, you make nearly bringing on an eternal winter and abandoning my sister for twelve years sound forgivable.”
“I never said easy, but possible.” He sat himself beside her. “And it was only for three days you know.”
It took Elsa a moment, but once she realized that Grandpape had told a joke, she couldn’t help but laugh at it. “Yeah, and I am sure that if it was only for one day then things would be different.”
“Maybe.” Elsa couldn’t figure out if he meant that seriously or not. “But just remember this, child, nothing is impossible. Sure, some things are more likely to happen than others, but nothing’s impossible. And you know what, I don’t believe everyone will so easily forgive and accept you, I’m not going to sugarcoat it, there will be many who never will. However, with the right heart and determination, I think you can change things for the better.”
Elsa sighed, but looked up with a hopeful smile. “And how am I going to do that?”
Grandpape grumbled to himself. “I think it’s time you learned a little history.” With that said, he began to wave his arms around. “Sorry I had to drag you out here to tell it. It’s not something we trolls like to think about if we can help it.”
Elsa hesitantly nodded. “It is fine. However, is human and troll history really that bad?”
Grandpape sighed. “If it’s any consolation, we were just as bad with the other races.” With one final wave of his arms, his magic came into effect as his story was told through the magic art of silhouette. As he spoke, the mist swirled around into whatever shapes he needed to tell his tale.
“Long ago,” he began, “when civilization was starting out, your kind, and mine, and many others,” the mist swirled around to form the silhouette of every sapient creature that had ever lived, working together, using magic to shape the world. “All discovered the art of magic. At first, it was used to tame the elements, and made the world a livable place for all of us.” His mood fell as the mist grew darker. “But alas, as time went on, our true nature of greed and pride set in. I wish I could say it was just you humans, but no, even we trolls are guilty. Once we tamed and defeated nature, we slowly, but surely, turned on one another, believing that only one kind could rule the world. The wars were deadly, catastrophic, with the type of magic we had back then. I’m surprised we didn’t rip the world apart.”
“Though, many races were lost through the war,” the silhouette of the centaur was stabbed by a human. “Others, fled into hiding,” the silhouette changed to a mermaid swimming away. “Eventually, it was the humans that came out on top. Yet, their drive for war and power didn’t stop. For soon, they began too turned on one another.”
“At first, it was merely those with power who fought, putting innocent lives between them. Then, in time, the common man tried to rise up against the evil tyrants. Then, as it would be, somewhere along the line, your kind declared all magic evil, and thought to wipe it out. Worst of all, they almost succeeded.”
Elsa wanted to say how horrible that sounded. But, when she thought back to what she had done, could she really blame them. While magic could do good things, it seemed to cause nothing but pain to whoever wielded it, and those caught in the middle of it.
She was so lost in thought that she nearly didn’t hear Grandpape continue.
“However, as we can see, they only almost succeed. From time to time, some used their powers for evil and world power . Though, most kept their powers hidden. Fewer still, used their powers for good.”
“However, one thing that seems absolute is, that the magic seems to be stronger in royal bloodlines such as yourself. Mostly in part that many revolutionist leaders were siblings to those with powers. As a result, nobility tends to produce the most children with magical gift. Most of the time, it’s nothing more than the ability to communicate with animals.” He showed Elsa a silhouette of a young woman petting several woodland creatures. “Easy to miss, even by the prince or princess with said powers.”
He then waved a hand as the silhouette became an image of Elsa. “Then you came along. Not only are you one of the first royals to come around with the powers over the elements, but one to come along with such strong power as well. Even back in the old days, no one had the talent you possess.”
Elsa turned her head and clenched her fist.
“I’m sorry this all happened,” Grandpape assured as he sat down next to her. “Maybe if your parents weren’t so dead set on keeping you hidden—” He didn’t get to finish as a hand slapped across his face.
“Don’t you dare accuse them for what they did!” Elsa spat. “They… They did what was best for me.”
Grandpape sighed. “Elsa—”
“No!” she protested, breaths growing heavy as her eyes threatened to water. “I mean, locking me away, from the world and my sister, they knew what they were doing.” Tears began to roll down her cheek. “I mean… I had to. They… They had to be thinking of something with what they did. My miserable childhood had to be for… something.”
After that, the pair remained quiet for a bit as Elsa occasionally broke the silence with a sniffle, to which the old troll would rub her back.
“I’m sorry,” Grandpape finally said. “They did have good intentions. I feared for what might have happened if your people knew what you could do back then. Although, I did suggest, many times after that day with your sister, to let me guide you. Yet, they refused, believing that, one day you would be able to control your powers on your own. Then they went on that voyage and…”
Elsa held in her breath, thinking about the day she was told the news. Then, she thought of something. “So, why didn’t you, or any other troll, come for me? If you knew of some way I could control my powers?”
“How many palace guards would allow a troll to just walk into a crowded kingdom to see a princess unannounced?” When Elsa thought about it, she had to admit that not many who would call themselves good guards would have. “In any case, I admit, I also thought you needed space after the death of your parents. I thought, that once you became queen, I would try to contact you and see to it that I could help you with your powers.” He shook his head. “Then everything happened, and here we are now, I suppose.”
“Yeah,” Elsa groaned, “here we are.”
After another long moment of silence, Elsa asked, “So, what now?”
Gandpape chuckled. “I suppose, that’s up to you, and what you do with it. Do you want to remain alone, the monster everyone talks about in the village? Or, do you want to be the queen, who sets the model for people to follow? To be the one who ends the hate humans have towards beings with powers.”
Elsa thought on that. What did she really want? She closed her eyes, and tried to envision the future where she would be the most happy. In it, she saw herself, sitting in a fireplace as she played a silly game with Anna. Just the two of them, no conflict, while their parents watched on them with joy. She also, saw herself, cradling a child. Elsa had thought that her imagination would make it a baby, yet, for whatever reason, that baby took to form of Snowdrop.
Elsa opened her eyes with a gasp.
“Is everything okay, child?”
“Um… Yeah,” Elsa stuttered. “I mean, all I want is to be happy with my sister. I would almost prefer a peasant life over the life of a queen if it means that could happen.”
Grandpape huffed. “Well, I suppose that’s what everybody would want. And who knows, maybe one day that could be the case. However, even I can tell that with what has happened, nobody is going to let you live that life so easily.”
Elsa groaned, Grandpape went on. “No, things aren’t going to be easy. You’ll have to fight for it. Work at it every day, and it’s possible that at the end of all of this, you will gain nothing.” Elsa’s skin began to crawl. “However, I believe in you. And, if you will let me, I would be happy to instruct you in any way possible. Perhaps even, you can bring in a new age where magic and my people can be accepted again.”
“Alright,” Elsa nodded. “Although, I’m not looking forward to going back to Arendelle, or acting like everything is fine when it isn’t.”
“Then don’t. You’ve lied to you sister long enough, and I can understand why, but no more. Besides, if you’re going to get through all of this, you will need at least one person you can be openly honest with, someone that you love more than life itself.”
Suddenly, a large rock rolled in front of them which, just as suddenly, sprang into a troll. “Granpape, queen, the foal is awake!”
Elsa sprang to her feet and raced through the trees.
Granpape scratched his chin. “Two doesn’t hurt either.” He then curled into a rock and chased after her.
*****
“Snowdrop!” Elsa cried out as she made her way past the trolls. Once she did, she saw the young foal on her belly spinning her head nervously back and forth, legs kicking in the air, shouting. “Elsa, where are you?”
“Snowdrop!” Else shouted out again, this time gaining the pegasus’s attention.
“Princess El… gah!” Snowdrop said as she tried to get airborne.
“Hey,” one of the older trolls said, pulling her down. “You gotta take it easy for awhile. Getting shot in the head will take a lot out of you.”
Elsa backed away at the mention of said incident. To her dismay, Snowdrop ignored the orders and flew right into Elsa’s arms.
Looking up at Elsa with her pale eyes, Snowdrop muttered, “You have to help me!” Elsa began to tense up. “These trolls are trying to drive me insane, and they won’t stop poking me!” she yelped when one of the troll children jumped up to do so.
“Quit it!” she yelled down at them as Elsa held back her laughter.
Once Elsa’s glee passed, she realized that now might had been as good a time as any to ask Grandpape if he knew of the kingdom of Equestria. She wasn't’ counting on him having a map, but perhaps with his old age he might have at least heard of the land where Snowdrop came from.
“Hey, Grandpape?” Elsa turned to him. “You wouldn’t happen to know of any lands where pegasus come from called Equestria, would you?”
Grandpape raised an eyebrow. “E-quest now?”
“Equestria,” Elsa explained. “Snowdrop said that is where she came from. However, I have never heard of it. I don’t suppose you have?”
Grandpape shook his head. “I’m sorry, but this kingdom is new to me as well. In fact, I didn’t even believe that pegasi existed until today.”
It took a second, but soon the words began to sink in. “Wait, are you telling me that pegasi are not suppose to be real?”
“Afraid so, dear,” a middle aged troll said. “They’re actually made up, not real, a figment of the imagination, just like griffins and unicorns.”
“Hey,” Snowdrop said, “who said t—ow!” Snowdrop winched as she held a hoof to her head.
“Snowdrop!” Elsa said as she placed a hand to the foals head. “You are still cold.” She shot a look towards Grandpape. “I thought you healed her!”
“Hey, hey!” Kristoff said as he got between her and Grandpape. “He did.”
Elsa closed her eyes and took a breath through her nose. “Sorry… I am sorry.”
“It’s quite alright,” the troll assured. “Though, with how long she had ice in her head, I’m impressed that she’s even alive.” He liked up to Elsa, who pulled Snowdrop back.
“Promise you will not do anything to her mind other than to heal her?”
“I promise,” he said as he waved his arms around her head. “As I was saying, fortunately for you, this one seems to have magic in her. It was able to fight back the ice until she got here, but, she is still weak from the experience. I’ll have to keep her here until then.”
“Oh,” Elsa said as it clicked in her mind. “… Oh.” Realizing what it meant, she craned her neck towards the west, and to Arendelle.
“Don’t worry,” Grandpape broke Elsa’s thoughts. “We’ll take good care of her, and I’ll do whatever I can to find out where her home is. You have my word.”
Elsa believed he would. Yet, as she realized that her time to return drew near, she couldn’t shake a strong ick in her gut about leaving Snowdrop behind. Even though this would probably be the safest place in the world for her, some part of Elsa didn’t feel right about leaving her behind. Some ancient instinct kept her from simply letting Snowdrop go, even if it was for the best.
Already knowing what she would do, she turned to Grandpape, hands below her chest as she fidgeted with her thumbs.
“Actually, sir, I was thinking… Maybe we could keep her at the castle instead.” Everyone’s mouths dropped, and she went on. “I mean, you would have to come, if it wouldn’t be a problem. I’d be happy to pay any fee if necessary. I just thought that... we could check the castle archives for information on Equestria while she was recovering.”
Grandpape moaned. “I don’t know. I mean, I don’t want to sound rude, but I’m not sure if right after everything that has happened this would be the best time for trolls to be walking in a human kingdom.”
Even though he had a good point, Elsa continued to argue. “All… the more reason to insure that someone like Snowdrop is kept safe behind the castle walls… Besides,” she straightened herself up and ceased her finger twiddling. “I think a little culture bonding for this new age I unintently brought on might be a good thing for everybody.”
No one said anything at first. Then, one of the younger trolls pulled back his arms.
“Oh…” he began.
“Oh…!” the others joined in.
“Oh no,” Elsa whispered as the new song began.
*****
An hour later, after they had finished singing and had Elsa’s wound freshly patched up and hidden, all that was left to do was to pack up. They even distributed Grandpape and three other trolls he had ordered to come along in such a way that Sven could carry them, Elsa, and Snowdrop.
While Elsa had convinced him to come along with them back to the castle while they healed and tried to find Snowdrop’s home, he only agreed on the condition that he and some of his trusted trolls were brought into the kingdom hidden until they got to the castle.
Elsa had also agreed to keep the still sleeping Snowdrop hidden under a blanket until they reached their destination as well. At first, she didn’t think much about it, since Snowdrop would be asleep for the whole trip anyways. Yet, as they secured the last troll in place, it occurred to Elsa that she was hiding Snowdrop from her entire kingdom. Similarly to how her parents had done so with her own powers.
She shook her head at the thought. Of course, once Snowdrop got better, she would allow her to go out and play with the other children. However, as Elsa tried to imagine Snowdrop happy with the other children, all she could picture was all of them running away from Snowdrop.
“You’re crazy, you know that?” Kristoff snapped Elsa out of her daydream.
“Well,” Elsa protested, pushing her thoughts out her mind. “I wasn’t going to leave her. I… I just want to make sure she is not in danger.”
“You mean by bringing her and a bunch of trolls into a kingdom full of people who had just been traumatized by an eternal winter their queen brought on.”
Elsa puckered her lips. “It was only for three days.”
One of the trolls unrolled himself. “And I thought we already worked this out.”
Elsa shot him a glance as the young troll resumed his rock form.
“Point is,” Kristoff said as he leaned in closer to Elsa’s ear. “I don’t want to see the kid or these guys hurt just because you’re acting like a mother too stubborn to let their kid go.”
Face turning red, fist clenched, she pushed Kristoff away from her. “You will refrain from ever saying that again if you value your freedom.” She crossed her arms and turned her head. “I am not letting any emotions I have towards Snowdrop affect my decision.”
Kristoff, surprisingly unfazed, replied, “Um, I hate to point this out, your highness, but even if that was true, you just admitted that you do have feelings towards her.”
Elsa’s face flushed as she did her best to avoid eye contact with Kristoff. “Speaking of, how come you are not asking a million questions or seem too be surprised by a talking pegasus?”
Kristoff lowered his eyes. “After all I’ve seen,” he scratched his chin, “I doubt a five-headed chimera with a lavender mane that poops rainbows would surprise me.” He shrugged. “At some points, things that are impossible become… unsurprising.”
In the back of her mind, Elsa began to wonder if that would be her fate in a short while. Although, she figured that could be a problem for another day. For the moment, as she climbed onto Sven’s back, after she checked to make sure Snowdrop was safely secured, the only things that mattered now was going back to Arendalle, for good this time. What she would have to face from her people was uncertain, though her gut gave her a good idea.
Yet, as she ran her fingers across Snowdrops warm body, and thought about the hug she was sure Anna would give her—as well as the reaction she was sure her sister would have seeing a talking pony—it eased her mind.
She sat up straight and said, “Are we ready to go?”
“If there’s nothing left to do,” Kristoff said as he patted Sven, “then I say it’s time we head home.”
“Yeah,” Olaf said with a sigh as he slid under the blankets as well. “Home, and a nice, non-life threatening place where you don’t have to worry about dying every second. It sounds like a swell place.”
While Elsa wasn’t sure about that much, she nodded and said, “Yeah, let’s go home.”
“For the last time,” Anna said to the court of dignitaries as she held her head with one hand, “my sis— Queen Elsa, will be back soon! Until then, we are not going to talk about any trade, politics or… any other topics until then.”
“But what if she doesn’t come back?” one man asked.
“Yeah?” the rest chinned in.
“Perhaps,” the Duke of Weselton suggested, “it is time you should consider that your sister might not come back. Perhaps,” he added with a raised hand, “it’s time you started to accept your role as queen, and forget the demon—” He was interrupted by Anna’s fist as it made contact with his face.
“The next person who thinks they can speak such treason will be set out to sea in a row boat without an oar! Now,” Anna sighed heavily as she forced on a happy face. “How about we all relax to some freshly made tea and cookies?” Anna said through her teeth.
“It’s um, pronounced, tea and biscuits,” one of the dignitaries corrected, “your majesty. And, my kingdom would like to know whether this winter will affect trade prices?”
“Grr!” Anna moaned as she made a run for it, with the noble’s guards and dignitaries in pursuit.
Fortunately for her, she knew the castle well enough to slip into a hidden corridor where she could breath. Alone at last, at least, until one of the staff found her. Still, it would allow her a moment to recompose herself before she had to face them again.
“I’m going to kill you Elsa,” Anna said as she curled up into a ball. “First, you ignore me for twelve years, then you go and set off an eternal winter, then you leave me with these piranhas who think they know what’s best, then… then!....” After she vented and her breathing became weak, she added, “not that I know much better myself.”
Out of the past two days, the only thing Anna had found comfort in was locking her lying ex-fiancé, Hans, in the dungeon. While she had originally intended to have him beheaded, her court had convinced her that it would be better for the relationship with the Southern Isles if they sent him back alive.
Although, with how annoying they had been, she had been tempted to disobey their ‘request’ just to spite them.
While the people—for the most part—were willing to accept everything that had happened and had eagerly gone back to the way things were before, the nobles, dignitaries, and the higher classes though were either convinced that they had to replace her ‘demon sister’ and make her queen, or were just out to take advantage of the situation for more power through her own ignorance in politics.
She then got herself more comfortable into her ball. “I can’t believe…” Stop talking out loud! Anna forced herself to say in her mind. It’s not an empty castle anymore. Or at least, she hoped so.
In her few and far between alone moments, when no one was trying to manipulate her, Anna's mind was occupied with two words: What now? At least, with her and Elsa. Theoretically, Anna had a feeling that Elsa wouldn’t shut her out again. No, she told herself, that’s a fact.
Sure it is, a tiny voice in her head said.
No, Anna convinced herself. She wouldn’t let Elsa drift into any kind of depression now that she knew about her powers.
Suddenly, the doors to the hidden room were flung open.
“Oh, there you are, Anna,” one of the servants said.
Anna rolled her eyes and turned her back. “Could you at least give me five more minutes?”
“No, I mean, Queen Elsa has returned!”
Anna’s eyes shot open as she bolted up. “She has?”
“Yes, a guard just spotted her entering the town and—Whoa!” she cried as Anna ran past her.
“Sorry,” Anna shouted back without slowing down. “I’ve got a sister to talk too!” she said with a desire to hug and strangle Elsa at the same time.
*****
“Hey, you alright there?” Kristoff asked Elsa as Arendelle came into view.
“Why would I not be?” Elsa asked as she clenched onto Sven’s mane.
“Because your ice-powers are showing.”
Elsa looked down at her hands as the ice began to creep up the reindeer’s fur. With a sigh, she retracted her hands and began to take erratic breaths.
“Hey, hey!” Kristoff said. “Take it easy.”
“How can I?” Elsa blurted as a snow fluery began to form. “My powers are coming back. Oh,” she said as the ground around them began to turn to ice. “Maybe we should wait a few more days. Maybe we should just turn back,” the ice began to grow, “there is not any…”
“Elsa,” she heard Grandpape say as his arm rested on her foot from his spot, tied up on Sven’s side. “It will be okay.”
“Bu… but…” she muttered, “I…”
“You are more capable than you think. Just think about love, think about your sister and… think about how happy Anna will be to see you.”
The ice beneath Sven’s feet melted.
“Alright,” Elsa nodded with more relaxed breaths, “let’s go.”
With that, they continued down the last track to reach the kingdom. Each step they took, brought them one step closer to getting home, and all the drama that would be sure to ensue with Elsa.
Even if by some miracle the people accepted her, the dignitaries, and those higher up, would have a million questions for her. There would be those who would break their treaties, and Elsa wouldn’t put it past them if a few of them would declare war on them for her actions. At best, she could keep some of the nations that had favored them over the years is she lowered tariffs on select items. The only thing she could hope for was that Anna had calmed most of the dignitaries down and hadn’t done anything irrational to Hans.
Once Elsa spoke that out loud, she said to Kristoff, “Is there any way we can go faster?”
“Why?” Kristoff asked as he tilted his head. “Suddenly not nervous to get back now?”
“No, I just imagined the worst case situation Anna could have gotten into while I was gone.”
Kristoff was clearly tired, but he bursted out with laughter. “I wouldn’t put it past her to behead that Hans guy. Although, I’ve always found feisty girls very attractive.”
“Yeah, about that.” Elsa hummed, “now that I am not in a dire hurry, or have a branch through my body, or drained of all my powers, is there anything else you would like to say about any, intentions, you might have towards my sister? The one thing that has, and will keep my powers from losing control again?”
Kristoff stuttered. “Um…look, we’re here!”
Elsa shook her head. She supposed her sister could have picked worse. Plus, she did ow Kristoff enough to give him a chance. However, she didn’t have time to think more about it as a crowd began to gather on the outskirts of the town.
“Are we there?” Olaf asked as he poked his head out from beneath the sheets.
“Yeah,” Kristoff said as he pushed the snowman’s head down, “but you might want to stay put for now.”
Olaf frowned. “But I…”
“Olaf,” Elsa frowned at him, “just for today, I promise.”
“Fine,” Olaf grumbled as he went back down next to Snowdrop.
For a moment, Elsa considered letting him walk about, and to hold Snowdrop in her arms. However, her instinct took over as the first wave of children began to circle them, and threw the covers over the pair.
“Hey, it’s the queen!” one of the boys said.
From there, one of two things happened. Either—and mostly all of the children—circled around her as the adults who did came up to give her blessings and wishes of good fortune. The other half—the half that made Elsa keep Snowdrop under the covers—were the ones who simply looked at her, grunted, and looked away.
While Elsa knew no one would disagree with a queen that could freeze them all to death, they could still moan about it. There wasn’t anything Elsa could do about it. Even if she had fought off an evil snow witch, there'd still be those who would fear her. Elsa’s only comfort was in the possibility that most of the people didn’t care who she was, as long as she didn’t raise the taxes. Yet, as she held on tightly to Snowdrop, she prayed for a day where—most of them—could learn to accept people like her, and Snowdrop.
“Hey, miss!” A girl caught her attention with a wide smile on her face. “Thank you for bringing back the summer. You were so amazing on the lake.”
Elsa didn't hold back her grin.
****
As they neared the castle gates, the pain in her stomach intensified as she had to put more effort into not freezing anything. Though, if the mood around her outside the castle ground had been chilly, the mood as they moved inside the courtyard was frozen.
“Elsa!” In a flash, Anna had raced out of the castle gate and threw herself onto Elsa.
“Ow, Anna!” Elsa moaned as she hugged her sister back, while she pushed any worries away
Anna grew frantic as Elsa cried out in pain. “Are you hurt? What happened? Were you able to save your friend? Kristoff, what happened…?”
“Anna,” Elsa reassured, “it is okay, and I will tell you all about it once we’re inside.”
With heavy breaths, Anna nodded her head and allowed Kristoff to lead them inside the closing gate.
Once the gates were about to close in on the cheering crowd, Elsa, for a moment, considered demanding them to keep it open, but froze up as she felt Olaf and Snowdrop wriggle beneath the blanket from her hips.
“Um, Elsa,” Kristoff said as he placed his hands on his lips, “you got a little—“
“Muff!” Elsa moaned as she brushed the ice away from her lips as the gates were sealed shut behind them. She was about to order them back open, when a mob of nobles and dignitaries, one of which acted very loud and stupidly.
“You!” the Duke of Weselton said, finger pointed right at her as the other hand held a raw steak to his eye, “you nearly froze us to death, and then you just run off. I demand an expla—“
“And you will all get one!” Elsa shouted loud and clear as the air around them began to chill. “I mean,” Elsa said with calming breaths as the temperature of the courtyard returned to normal. “If you would all just be a little more patient, I wish for some alone time with my sister so we may discuss what has happened. Then, I will listen to what you have to say.”
The Duke raised his finger as Elsa cut him off. “Do not think I did not recognize the men you sent to kill me.” The Duke lowered his finger and seemed to grow smaller. “Now, just gather in the ballroom, where I will address all of your concerns shortly. Come on, Sven,” she ushered to the reindeer who seemed just as eager to get away from the crowd as he bolted into the castle, the nobles right behind her shouting out demands and questions.
With that, they all ran into the castle as Kristoff stayed behind.
“Go on,” he shouted, “I think you two need some bonding time. Hey, everyone!” he shouted at the crowd as he pointed in the opposite direction. “They went this way! Said something about cutting trades in half!”
If Kristoff said anything else, it was lost in the loud uproar of people as they raced to the other end of the castle.
Meanwhile, Anna giggled madly as Elsa rolled her eyes. “This way!” Anna motioned as they slipped around a corner. From there, they were able to duck into a hidden room while the noise of the crowd died down.
It might not have been the largest with Sven in it, but without Kristoff, it allowed enough room for them to breath, and talk.
“You seem to know your way around,” Elsa nodded as she dismounted from Sven.
“Oh, you know,” Anna brushed off, “when trying to survive from pestering nobles, knowing the ins and outs of a castle you spent your whole life in alone,helps.
“Yes, it sure…” Elsa tensed up, “I mean, Anna, I’m so sorry—“
Anna raised her hand up. “It’s fine. I know your secret now, so we can move forward to a better day.”
Elsa weakly chuckled. Before Elsa could say anything, Anna wrapped her tight into a hug. With a sigh followed by a relaxed face, Elsa returned the hug.
“Speaking of,” Anna said as she broke the hug, “why did you bring a bunch of rocks back to the castle?”
“Couldn’t walk into the kingdom as trolls,” one answered, “now could we?”
“Gah!” Anna screamed as she fell backwards. “Sorry,” she immediately replied when she realized that they were just trolls. “I mean, welcome to the castle,” she bowed as the trolls descended from a relieved reindeer as she presented herself in front of them. “Oh, and Grandpape, what brings you here? Not that I’m not happy to see you, but—“
Grandpape held up his hand. “Its fine, it was on the request of the queen.”
Anna shot an eye towards Elsa. “You did? Oh, you brought them here to help you with your powers.” Anna closed her eyes and clapped her hands. “That ought to be fun.”
“Yes,” Elsa said as she scratched the back of her head, “and to help find Snowdrop’s home.”
“Snow—” Anna titled her head before her eyes widened. “Oh, your little friend,” her younger sister smiled. “I take it that means you got to her in time?” Anna looked around the room. “Where is she?”
“Well…” Elsa began as she moved toward Sven, “do you remember when we use to play with doll, especially doll ponies?”
“Oh were those the days.” Anna laughed. “Stuffed unicorns dolls galore. Why do you ask?”
Elsa’s lip curled up as she pulled back the covers. “See for yourself.”
“Yeah,” Olaf said as he wiped his brow, “it was getting warm in there.”
He hopped down, and allowed for Anna to get a clear view of Snowdrop. “What, you bought a pup—” Anna gasped as she saw the pegasus yawn and stretch out it’s hooves and wings. “Wait, ponies, magical creatures… is that a…?”
Else chuckled. “Yes, she is a pegasus.”
With that, Elsa stood back to watch her sister’s eye grow wide as she swelled up her lungs, ready to squeal when Elsa realized that might be a bad idea.
“Shh!” Elsa ordered, “You don’t want to wake her.” Elsa sighed and took a step back. “She is still recovering.”
To say that Anna was a bit shocked by Elsa’s motherly behavior was, surprising, to say the least. However, to Elsa’s relief, Anna didn’t think about it as her sister lowered her head, but then with spring in her step, Anna placed a hand on Elsa’s shoulder. “Hey, it was an accident. an accident, you went to fixs. Besides,” Anna said as she moved in, nearly touching the sleeping foal with her nose, “she’s so cute.” She squeaked and rushed back over to get a better look at Snowdrop. “Although, she’s the strangest looking pegasus I’ve ever seen.”
Elsa crossed her arms “You have something to compare her by?”
Before Anna replied, she mentally said, Oh, and said, “Well, I mean… Where did she come from?” Anna thoughts went back to the creature’s cuteness.
“That is what I was hoping to find out here.”
“Queen Elsa!” they heard several people say as a series of doors were thrown open down the hall.
Anna sighed. “Looks like our time is up.”
“Yes it is,” Elsa nodded with her head down as she made her way to a grandfather clock. She opened the clock, pressed the eight, and up opened a secret passageway.
Anna’s lower jaw nearly crashed on the floor. “Wait… What? How did you know that? How did I not know that?”
Elsa winked. “You are not the only one who knows this place inside out.”
“Queen Elsa?” another, much closer door was heard being forced open.
“Right,” Elsa said as she gestured towards the passageway, “all of you, get in. It won’t lead you directly to your room, but it will get you away from all of this. Anna, try to keep everyone out of sight, I’ll take care of all the politics my title requires me to do. Just, make sure Snowdrop is comfortable, and I’ll come to get you once this whole mess is over.”
At first, it seemed like Anna wanted to protest, but as the group of people drew closer, Anna’s mind flashed back to the past two days of hell. “Alright,” Anna said with a relieved sigh, “just don’t take too long,” she said as she lead a reindeer, four trolls, and one snowman, into a secret passageway. “Oh,” Anna said she closed the wall, “I’m not counting on you to execute Hans, but if you could be hard on him, that’d be great.”
There was a loud banging on the door to the room, and Anna had only closed the secret passage as the door burst open, and in poured all the displeased dignitaries.
“There you are!” The Duke of Weselton said, finger raised. “We have waited long enough, and we want answers, now!”
Elsa frowned as she thought back to how he treated her at the coronation, and how his men had nearly killed her.
Though, like a queen, Elsa sighed and tightened her knuckles behind her back. “Ah, yes, I suppose many of you do not care about what happened, only how this will affect your treasuries. So,” she sighed as she moved her hands out from and cupped them, “let us talk.”
"I mean, is there any other explanation why she's got a job like that?" Snowdrop overheard serval other weather factory workers while she got ready for lunch.
"I worked for this company for 20 years," another said in a hushed time, "and that kid, right out of school, gets a job like that? I'm telling you, they only gave it to her because they pity her."
More than anything, Snowdrop had wanted to eat lunch where she always had, in here work room. However, thanks to company polices—and not so sutle hints from Luna to interact more with her co-workers—she had been forced to eat lunch in the break area.
Although, she did try to eat durning the less crowded break hours of the day. Which created the problems—or benefit depending on how she looked at it—of the room being filled with the older workers instead of the ponies around her age.
"I still can't believe we're getting orders on how to make snow from a brat," another said without any attempt to soften his voice, which wouldn't have made a difference with her hearing, but it would have at least been polite.
"Oh come off it," the one Snowdrop guess was the head of there group said as he stood up. "If it weren't for the princess giving that retard the job, I'd be in a higher position now. I mean, what do we even need a night princess or decorative snowflakes for anyways?"
"Hey!" Snowdrop snapped as she felt the could shake when they all bolted up from there seats. "You know I blind, not deaf?" None of them said anything, as if they go away if they didn't move.
However, Snowdrop wasn't done. Following their heartbeats, she flew right up to them. "Now look, I don't care what you say about me, but you don't say mean things about Princess Luna. Got it?"
It was when she got up to them that she could smell that they all had at least 2-3 cans of cider.
Though, the one closet to her must of had a bit more than his buddies.
"Or what," he huffed, "you going to go crying to your worthless princess of the night? Oh boo-hoo, the retard who can't do anything unless someone like a useless princess arranges it."
Snowdrop might have felt bad for bucking him in the face if not for that last part.
***** "Ugh," Snowdrop moaned as she began to wake up. It certienly wasn't like her to... Then she realized that she wasn't in Cloudsdale.
It was hard to remember what had happened entierly, but she got the basics: One minute she was trying to fly home, only to be caught in a sudden blizzard in the summer, only to end up in an ice castle to be saved by some ice-princess.
Oh yeah,she though, just Elsa.
It wasn't like her to have lowered her defense so easily and sunngel up with some random pony (or person). Yet, maybe it had been the similarities between her and Luna, or one their first night, how scared Elsa spud of just having someone around.
Either way, as much as she didn't want to admit it, she needed Elsa to find her way back home. Which wasn't bad, since Elsa seemed like a nice person, but it still hurt when she had to admit defeat.
"Princ... I mean, queen Elsa?" she corrected as she circled her head around instinctively, wondering where was everybody.
Even though she couldn't see, she still felt as if it was the middle of the day. So when she heard no reply, she decided to hop out of bed and go walk around, familiarize herself with the place she'd be staying until she could get home.
Right after she had made the bed she had spelt in, Snowdrop circled around the room until she found the door. It have a click, as if I had been locked from the outside, and she wondered out into her new surroundings.
"Hello?" she shouted as she spun her head in no particular direction.
A second later, she heard someone scream.
"Monster!" a woman cried.
Snowdrop firs stood on end as she jumped into the air and stayed there. "Where, where?"
The woman's screamed again and took off running.
Not wanting to be left alone with some monster on the loss, Snowdrop took after her, which was made easier as her screams where soon joined by many others.
Whatever was after them, couldn't have been good if it was making that many people run. She had to find Elsa.
"Elsa, Princess Elsa!" she cried as she eventually heard her voice.
"What is going on?" Snowdrop heard Elsa ask.
Assured that the, queen, she nodded to herself, Queen Elsa would stop whatever it was she flew straight towards her.
"Elsa!" she cried as she slammed into her chest. "Sorry."
"It's attacking the queen!" the women from earlier said.
Snowdrop was about to panic when Elsa shouted, "Calm down! And if any of you call her a monster again, you may consider yourself unemployed!"
"Huh?" Snowdrop questioned as she heard a few people gasp.
"I will explain later, but for now," Snowdrop felt herself being held by her waist, "know that she is my quest, and will treated as any other. Now, go back to your jobs, and I do not want to hear about this, understood?"
"Yes, my queen," they all answered, in a less than pleased but willing to obey way.
As the room died down, it clicked in Snowdrop's mind what had happened; they had called her a monsters.
Sure, she had been called lots of mean things before, but definitely not a monster.
Was that how people of this world treated those who were different?
"You okay?" Elsa asked as she felt herself being squeezed by the queen. "Are you feeling alright?" Elsa asked as they began to move.
"I'm fine," Snowdrop lied. As she wiggled her way out of Elsa's grapes.
"Let me help—"
"I got it," Snowdrop assured as she felt herself next to a wall. "Just talk a lot and show me around and I'll be able to take care of myself. Oh, and let me know if I'm about to hit something valuable."
"Oh, um... Okay, if your fine."
Snowdrop nodded as she stayed close to Elsa.
However, her mood hadn't improved and it must have shown.
"Hey," Elsa said as she felt her chin being lifted, "do not worry about them, you're not a monster. They are just... Never seen a pegusis before and are still a little on edge."
The commented lift Snowdrop's sprits. "So, they didn't call me that because I'm blind or something."
"Why..." she heard Elsa stop. "Wait, your people would call you that?"
Snowdrop turned her head. "It's fine, don't worry about me, your majesty." She felt Elsa's tug at her backleg before they continued to move on.
"You do not need to call me that, Snowdrop. Please, just Elsa.
***** A long while back in Cloudsdale.
*knock, knock, knock
"Come in," Snowdrop said as she stayed focus on her latest creation in her work area.
"Really, Snowdrop, so caught up in your work again?"
Snowdrop dropped the pen as she looked up.
"Oh," she said while tapping her hooves, "Princess Luna, I wasn't expecting you."
"Please, Snowdrop," the princess said, "you don't need to call me that. Luna is just fine."
“Are you sure you are okay?” Elsa asked again as she lead Snowdrop through the castle. “I’m sorry about that, we just do not have… A lot of pegasus in these parts. Very rare.” Snowdrop stopped in dead her tracks. “Um… Okay. Of course.” She perked herself up a bit. “I’ll be fine. I always am, Elsa.” Elsa sighed as they reached the room. “Okay.” She opened it for her. “Oh, and…” Elsa scratched her head, “I don’t know how you’re feeling, but there’s going to be some ice-skating if you would like to come. The whole kingdom will be there.” As soon as the words left her mouth, Elsa mentaly slapped herself. Why did she invite Snowdrop to that? If only those few, well trained, servants reacted badly to Snowdrop, how would the rest of the kingdom go about? While they didn’t seem to care, for the most part, too much about her, she knew that there were plenty who didn’t. What if— “I’ll… pass.” Elsa’s head shot up at Snowdrop’s response. “Oh?” She wasn’t sure how long that response had taken—or how long she had zooned out worrying about it—but it had at least been a considerable amount of time. Snowdrop seemed to realize this, and began to circle her blind eyes around the room. “Um.. I mean, sounds fun, but,” she rubbed her head while she held a toothy grin, “I think my head still hurts. But, maybe some other time?” Elsa sighed in relief. “Well, okay. Maybe when you are feeling better.” Snowdrop nodded. “Okay.” Snowdrop floated into her new room. However, before she enter, she turned to Elsa. “Which remind me, what happed to me anyways? You hit me in the head with some of that ice-powers of yours?” Elsa turned her head. “Um…” Did she tell her, would she hate her for it? Would it be worse to lie? She sighed. “You see, Snowdrop—” ***** It had been a week since the frozen incident. For the most part, things had return to normal—more or less. Sure, Elsa had to cut off trade with Weaslton to set an example for those who would call her a witch, which was better than to kill him for trying to have her killed, and a lot of the people where still uneasy. Which was how this event came to be, thanks to Anna no less at first, when the gates opened and the people began to pour in, Elsa’s stomach began to turn as she thought about calling it off. Perhaps for another day when it was cooler or when Snowdrop— She felt Anna’s arm on her shoulder. “Go on,” Anna nudged as Elsa made her way to the center of courtyard, with only a few whispered to break the silence. “Are you ready?” Elsa said nervously to the crowd. To her surprise, they began to clap. With a grin, Elsa placed her foot out, and the ground began to freeze as ice-skates appeared on everyone’s feet. With the ground fully frozen, and with everyone at ease, they began to clap again. With a new wave of confidence, else looked to the fountains next to her, and froze the water that shot out, creating two spectacular ice-sculptures. Then, for a grand finale, she shot a blast of magic into the sky, which exploded in spectacular blast as the remains of it floated down to earth as snow. Soon enough, anyone who had any worries simply relished in the cool ice-rink on the otherwise hot summer day. Ridden of the worry, Elsa soon caught herself up in the excitement as Anna bumped right into her. “Oh, hang on,” she said as she waved her hand over Anna’s feet as a pair of ice-skates appeared. The pair then began to circle around each other, all while laughing in a way they had never thought they could do again. “We are never closing the gates again.” “Yeah,” Elsa laughed along as they continued to skate. After awhile—and once they got Sven’s head out of the wall—the two sister and kingdom skated for many hours. It wasn’t until Elsa happened to glance up room where Snowdrop was staying, curtains closed did a sinking feeling hit her stomach. “Whao!” Anna screamed as she bumped in her. “Sorry.” She then looked up at Elsa’s worrying face. “You okay? I thought you were having fun.” “Oh,” Elsa said as she brushed her hair and shook her head, “it is nothing.” She put on a forced smile. “I am having fun!” Anna titled her head. “Nothing.” Elsa took in a breath and turned her back. “You sure nothing’s wrong?” Anna asked as she pulled her to the side. Elsa sighed. “Okay, so I invited Snowdrop to come ice-skating, and she said no.” “Oh,” Anna replied, “well, I mean. It’s a shame and all but—” Elsa jerked away from Anna. “I felt relieved by it.” Anna’s head shot up. “What? What do you mean, ‘relieved? What, where you not going to let her come if she wanted to?” Elsa lowered her head. “It… May have crossed my mind.” Anna face planted. “Oh my god, Elsa, seriously?” “I never said I would have!” Elsa snapped. She then saw that she had been making a small scene. She waved politely at the guest, who went back on their way before addressing Anna. “Well I… I don’t want the whole town to treat her the same way as the staff did, okay?” “So you think keeping her locked up is a good idea?” “I never said I locked her up.” Elsa’s clenched her hands into a fist as they began to glow blue. “Oh,” Anna hissed, “so if she wanted to go flying, you would just happily say, ‘go ahead, fly around the whole kingdom.” “Of… of course I would!” Elsa stuttered. “Then again, it might not be a good idea letting a blind pegasus fly by herself—” “Oh,” Anna spat, “making excuses just like mother and father did?” As he hands sparked out ice-crystals, Krisstoff stood between them. “Whoa, whoa, ladies, let’s chi… coo… Let’s not make a scene.” The pair stopped shouting, but still glared at each other. However, Elsa’s glare didn’t last long as she realized: She was acting just like her parents. “Oh,” Elsa moaned as she placed her hands over her head. “You are right, aren’t you?” Anna placed a hand on Elsa’s shoulder. “Hey, Elsa, this is nothing too get upset about.” Krisstoff brushed back his hair. “So, um, what did I miss anyways?” Anna was about to answer when Elsa did it for her. “I am acting just like my parents by wanting to lock Snowdrop in the tower and keep her from the rest of the world,” she moaned as she dropped to floor. “Hey,” Krisstoff said as he caught and pulled Elsa up. “Let’s just take this one step at a time. I mean, the kid did just have a traumatizing experience.” Elsa lowered her head. “Do not reminded me.” Krisstoff raised a finger, moaned, and put it down. “My point is, maybe this event is too soon to get her out. I mean, are you honestly going to deny her going outside if she asks it?” Elsa scratched her neck. “Well, I mean—” “Are you?” “Of course not!” Elsa said with a little force as she covered her mouth. “”But, that’s not all I did.” The pair looked at each other, then back to Elsa. Kristoff scathed his neck. “Um, what else could you have done?” Elsa crossed her arms behind her. “I may have also lied to her and didn’t mention I froze her head.” ***** Snowdrop hummed to herself as she doodled on some paper’s Elsa had left for her. While she probably could have asked for more, she didn’t want to take advantage of Elsa’s guilt for lying to her about how she nearly killed her. Besides, it wasn’t as if she needed to know what color any of the crayons were. One of the many things that was ‘great’ about being her easier to tell lying abilities. She picked up a new crayon in her teeth and began to sketch. It wasn’t as if she automatically knew how to tell lies, it was just sort of something she picked up quickly. Like when someone said how sorry they were for her, or how bad they felt, or when they though it be funny to put something in her food and say it was a seasoned hay. Or whenever someone said they were sorry for her, or how things would get better if she just believed in herself. Or whenever someone said that somepony would adopt her when— She felt the crayon in her mouth snap. “Nuts,” she muttered as she tossed it to the ever-growing pile of broken crayons. Snowdrop sighed and picked up another one. She suppose she couldn’t have been to mad at Elsa. In time, she bet Elsa would tell her the truth. Though, did she have to go so far as to say an evil witch swooped in and attacked them? Did she think she was three years old? This time, Snowdrop was able to stop herself from breaking the crayon. Putting it down, she took a moment to run a hoof over the paper to feel what she had made. If she could see, she would have seen some very rough and pointy looking snowflakes. With a groan, she flicked them across the room and rolled up into a ball. “Better control yourself, snowdrop,” she muttered, “they don’t want a grouchy pegasus when you get back to work. If I ever do.” She then began to think about back home. Did anypony really miss her? Sure, there was Luna and a few ponies who were descent to her. But that was it. **** “Hey, Snowdrop, right?” she heard a colt say one day during her shift. Parolee a year or two older than herself. “Um, yeah.” She said cautiously. “Hey.” He paused. “Just though I’d say, you’re doing a great job. Love the snowflakes.” She grinned. “Well, it’s no problem.” “Hey,” he said with excitement in his voice, “is it true that your friends with the princesses?” All joy left her. “Oh, yeah. Though, mostly Luna, hardly Celstia. Besides, Luna just gave me the job. We don’t really talk to each other anymore.” His silence said enough. “Oh, that’s nice.” He was silent again. “We’ll, keep up the good work. I’ll see you around, Snowdrop.” He flapped off. ***** Some options, a world where ponies only wanted to know her to meet or get something out of royalty. Then again, if she stayed in this world, would it have been any different since she knew royalty as well. She groaned and threw her hooves to her head. After that, she stood up. “I need some air,” she declared as she flew to the door. “Elsa did say I could join whenever I wanted.” She held up her hoof, and though back to earlier when those servants panicked around her. With a shrug she opened the door. “I’m sure it will be fine. Besides, she said she took care of it.” ***** Anna rubbed her temples. “You couldn’t have come up with something more creative than an ice witch?” “I panicked.” Elsa crossed her arms. “Though, I think she knew I was lying.” Krisstoff chuckled. “How’d you guess that?” Elsa glared at him. “Fine. Just… Just give me a day or two. At least with letting her out and being able to go where she want’s. Right now, let’s just try to enjoy ourselves, then I won’t see if I can’t go tell Snowdrop what really happened.” “What happened?” All three of them jumped as the turned to see Snowdrop had walked up to them. Elsa’s teeth chattered. “Snowdrop? What are you—” She raced out to cover her up, when a collective cry of gasps echoed throughout the courtyard. Elsa turned her head, to see everybody staring at them.
As Elsa's breathing grew heavier, Snowdrop continued to stare forward as Elsa struggled to figure out what to say.
"Oh," Snowdrop winced at the lack of a response. "If you don't think it's a good idea, I could—"
"Nonsense!" Anna interrupted. "I think it would be a wonderful idea for you to do. Get out and enjoy the nice air! You’ll love it"
Anna leaned down, and was about to take her hoof when she realized something; Snowdrop, was a adorable talking pony. Maybe not a unicorn like she always wanted, but defiantly a cute little pony that could talk.
This was the first time Anna had seen Snowdrop awake. Despite Elsa's explanation that she was a blind pegasus, it wasn't until she saw her in person did that sink in.
At first, Anna wanted to pity the little filly and do nothing but shield and protect Snowdrop while she cuddled her to death. However, looking deeper into Snowdrop's eyes she saw something else, something that reminded her of Elsa on those few instances when they were children. Oh the other hand, she also saw a tiny spark in Snowdrops blind eyes. A spark, which wanted to be adventurous, and could still be helped. Something she could work with
"Um... You know, little cutie pie—" Anna coughed. "I mean, Snowdrop, why don't you try some ice-skating. Have some fun, be adventurous."
She reached out and grabbed her hoof. "What do ya say?"
Meanwhile, when Anna's hand connected with Snowdrop's hoof, something inside her twitched.
She couldn't explain it, but all of the sudden, looking into Snowdrops pale eyes, some sort of defensive instinct kicked in. Maybe it was some sort of quirk she had from all her lonely childhood years, but she deiced then and there that she wasn't going to risk Snowdrops safety on a little ice-skating.
"You know what, Snowdrop?" She asked as she gently pushed her sister away from the filly. "Maybe we should try another day. I mean, it's a lot more crowded than I thought." She grabbed Snowdrop's hoof. "You know what, I'll give you a whole ice-rink, all to yourself, and how’s that sound?"
Snowdrop's blind eyes began to move side to side. "Um... Well—"
"Oh no you don't!" Anna stormed in. "Krisstoff, back me up!"
The poor man nervously looked between the two princesses.
"Um... Of course, sweetheart, it be good for Snowdrop."
"You going to side against your queen?" Elsa threatened.
Krisstoff gulped. "Well, I mean, it would be bad if someone tripped over her."
"Stay out of this!" Anna snapped.
Snowdrop, meanwhile, just kept turning her head whenever she heard one of them speak. She wasn't sure what to do anymore, and didn't want to make Elsa anymore uphappy then her sister.
While the sisters continued to fight over wheatear she would skate or not, Snowdrop hung her head.
She hadn't meant to cause a fight between Elsa and her sister, she just wanted to get out a bit, have some fun as Anna suggest. Though, if this was what happened, she could be fine with just sketching Snowdrops.
"I think I'll just be going." Snowdrop said, more out loud than to anyone since she couldn't be sure who was in front of her.
"Nonsense!" She heard the sister say as she jumped out behind her. "You just need a little, push!" She was then pushed onto the ice, where she slide around some screaming people, until she slide to a stop.
Back on the side, Elsa's eyes began to twitch furiously as Anna bit her nails at the many near collisions her little 'push' had almost caused. As she did so, a lot of reactions coursed throughout the area.
Elsa, held a hand to her mouth, trembling, and wondering if she would have to fight them all off to save her.
Anna, stood timidly between Elsa and Snowdrop, not sure if she made the right choice, but sure it be the best for the long run.
Krisstoff, stood on the on the side, and even began to take a few steps away from the girls and closer to Snowdrop, not quite sure who to side with.
Sven chewed on a carrot.
Everyone else, merely stood blankly at what they though was hair a creature for a moment. Some of them didn't even know stop skating and just gave her a passing glance.
Snowdrop, meanwhile, slowly got to her hooves and said, "Okay, I think I got this."
That was when everyone who had kept skating stopped dead in their tracks to stare at her and gasp
Anna and Elsa held their breaths.
Olaf, meanwhile, had just then noticed Snowdrop, and his response was instance.
"Oh hey, Snowdrop, you're awake!" He then bounded over the little pegusis, and wrapped her up in a warm hug. "Oh you had me so worried young lady, but now you're awake and we can have fun—"
All of the sudden, the courtyard erupted into a choir or 'daws' and chatter about the two.
"Aw! Isn't that just the cutest?"
"Mommy, mommy, a pony, I want it!""
"Sqee! She's so cute, where'd she come from?"
Before Olaf knew it, Snowdrop was surrounded by squeeing little girls.
"Oh she is so cute!"
"Where can I get one?"
"Hey, she has wings! She's a flying pony!"
"It's called a pegusis."
"Well... Well actually.. My, my name is Snowdrop."
"Oh my god, and she can talk!"
"Hey, is that a flower on her rear?
Meanwhile, the vast majority of the adults simply went back to skating, though their conversations mostly changed to those regarding Snowdrop and the other oddities that had happened.
Elsa and Anna stared blankly at the mass of girls around Snowdrop.
"Um... See!" Anna pointed out sometime later. "What I tell you? Nothing bad happened, they like her."
"You should not have done that, sister! What if she had been hurt? She almost was hurt! What if a mob formed?"
Anna put a finger to her chin. "Huh, let's see... She wasn't, and they haven't. I don't believe this, you are so tense."
"Tense, tense! Shoving a blind girl onto the middle of a crowded ice-rink, I would think tensing would be underacting!"
"Well... She didn't get hurt!"
"She could have!"
"But she didn't!"
Meanwhile, Krisstoff simply stood there and watched. All the while, he kept his finger going between the two, trying to figure out which side would be safer for him to stick with.
"Hey, hey!" he heard Snowdrop cry out. "Not the tail! Help!"
He turned away from the princesses to see the cheerful mob of girls had swelled around Snowdrop and Olfa.
"Getting very crowed in here!" Olaf cried from the center of the mass.
Krisstoff, without a moment of hesitation, made his way towards the crowd. “Hold on, you two!"
After a moment if making his way through, he finally got close enough to pick Snowdrop up by the waist—and one reluctant girl’s grasp—as he pulled up Olaf by his head.
"Don't worry, Snowdrop," he assured her, "I gotcha." He held her closer to his chest.
"Thanks," she whispered back.
"Aw," one of the girls cried, "but I wanted to put bows in her hair!"
Krisstoff felt Snowdrop tense in his grasp.
"Now, now, ladies, your little friend is just going to take a break. She's had a..."
"Long flight?" Olaf added in.
"Um... That's it."
"Aw," they all moaned. "But I want to take her home with me!"
"Yeah, where can I get one?"
After being freed from the mob of fillies, Snowdrop remained paralyzed in Krisstoff's arms. Even when she became famous, she never had such an experience. It was as if those foals had never seen a peguis before.
She was about to tell them off, when she heard one of them start to cry. It was a faint sniffle, but it was one she was unable to ignore.
So she—while butting her lip—said, "Um... I'm sure we can... Always play later?"
She tensed when she heard an ear-perching squeal, but kept her smile on the entire time.
"Ye... Yeah, some other time... I promise."
The next thing she knew, she felt herself and Krisstoff slide off on the ice as they foals shouted goodbyes to her.
"You okay, little miss popular?" He asked.
Snowdrop made her eyes narrow. "Very funny." She rubbed her forehead. "Yeah, I'm fine. Thanks."
She felt a sudden pair of arms pull her into a tight hug. "Oh, Snowdrop!" She heard Elsa moan. "Are you okay? I am sorry about that! I promise, it will never happen again!"
"Elsa, its fine!" Snowdrop said between breaths.
Elsa loosened her grip. "Of course," she said as she looked down at the still quivering form of Snowdrop. "Though, if you like, I can see to it that no one bothers you. Why don't we just go back inside and—"
Anna stomped her foot. "Elsa!"
Elsa dropped Snowdrop, who spread out her wings and flew up to hover at their shoulder lengths.
"Nothing bad happened! So why not let her keep skating? We can keep those girls in check."
Elsa crossed her arms. "And I say she has had enough for one day. I am glad no one behaved badly, but we should not push it. While they liked her, they seemed to like her a little too much."
"Or here we go! Don't tell me—"
"Um, ladies?" Krisstoff interrupted.
"What!" they both shouted at him.
Krisstoff jumped back. "Anyways, Snowdrop," he ignored their glares to address Snowdrop. "What would you like to do?" Both princess jaws dropped, until they realized they Snowdrop was shuffling her hooves.
"If... If it's okay... I would mind doing a little flying. If that's okay. Don't worry, I won't go far. I'd just like to fly around the castle, get some feel about it."
Elsa tensed. "I, um," she looked towards her glaring sister and friend. She sighed. "Alright, but don’t go far!"
Snowdrop happily nodded, and flew off to a wall. She tapped on it with a hoof, nodded, and was on her way. "If you need any help, just call and—"
She felt a hand on her back.
"Hey, she'll be fine." Krisstoff assured. "I'll go keep an eye on her."
He then walked up, as Anna walked up to Elsa. "You know, as wrong as wanting to keep her hidden, you do sure care about here." Not catching onto any other meaning, Elsa said, "I just want to make it up to her, and get her home."
Anna started to say something, but then began to grin.
Elsa raised an eyebrow. "What?"
Anna giggled. "Oh nothing, nothing right now. Though, I'm sorry I tried being so assertive back there."
Elsa moaned. "Yeah, well... You arr forgive."
Anna's jaw dropped, but decided it was a good time to drop it. She could worry about Elsa and Snowdrop later. Today was about Elsa's confidence.
With that mentality, Anna pulled on her sister’s arm. "Now come on, how about we get our minds off of that little incident, and get back to skating. The day is still young."
Elsa rolled her eyes, then joined her sister while they skated. All the while, when Anna wasn't looking, she'd nervously watch as Snowdrop flew around the grounds, which was made easy to find her as all she had to do was look to wherever the majority of the courtyard was staring.
"How are things coming along?" Elsa asked on her morning routine as she stopped by the library to see how Grandpapie and the other trolls were doing on their research.
The old troll shook his head. "Still nothing, your grace, but we'll let you know if we find anything." He then went back to analyzing one of Snowdrop’s features.
Elsa nodded through a yawn. "Very well, as you were. And keep up the good work."
Before she headed out, Grandpapie added, "You alright, dear?”
Elsa blinked through her baggy eyes. "I am fine," she lied. “I just have a lot to do since I took the throne.”
Grandpapie nodded and crossed his arms. “Just be sure not to exhaust yourself.”
Elsa turned her head and thought back to her near death experience. “I will keep that in mind, thank you very much.”
With a shake of his head, Grandpapie went back to work as Elsa continued on with the rest of her morning duties.
“Morning, your majesty,” one of her aides said as he bowed.
“Good morning, good sir.” Elsa nodded. "What do you have for me today?" She began to walk off as her aid followed reading off her list of duties for the day.
“Well, you got several marriage proposals."
Elsa rolled her eyes. "Where they always go.”
“You got letters from five neighboring kingdoms who want to talk about trade, half of them are with the marriage proposals. "
She waved her hand. "Lay all of those on my desk, I’ll sort through them later."
"Of course. Also, the meeting on the tariffs are today.”
“Will do.”
“And you still have to deal with the growing concern of the ice-pickers.”
Elsa groaned. "I’ll talk to Kristoff again."
He then flipped through the notes. “Oh, and your sister birthday present is done.”
Elsa’s face lit up before she relaxed and regained her composer. “Put it under my desk. Under! I do not want Anna finding it.”
He bowed. “At once.”
“Is that all for the moment?”
“Yes, my queen.”
Elsa nodded. “Very well. You are excused.”
With that, he ran off and Elsa headed down the hallway until she stopped when she heard giggling behind one of the doors. Carefully opening the door, she saw Anna combing Snowdrop's mane.
"I’m afraid to ask,” Snowdrop moaned, “but how do I look?"
"You look great.” Anna straightened one of the bows in Snowdrop’s mane. “I bet every colt will want to date you when you get home."
Elsa noticed that Snowdrop tensed at the words, but put on a brave happy face as Anna continued.
Wearing her first true smile all morning, Elsa walked in and said, "You are not tiring the poor dear too much, are you?"
The pair looked up at her and beamed.
"Oh come on, sis," Anna picked up Snowdrop by the waist and showed her off. "I mean, isn't she adorable?"
Snowdrop narrowed her eyes through the bows and makeup.
Elsa chuckled. "Well, in any case, it's time for breakfast."
With that, Snowdrop shot out of Anna's arms and flew to Elsa and said. "Okay!"
"Well..." Anna said as she scratched the back of her neck, "Kristoff and I were going to go—"
“Just be careful with whatever you do.” Elsa moaned. “Though, while you are at it, could you ask him to put in another word with the ice-men?
"Of course,” Anna nodded vigorously as she raced off.
Elsa merely shook her head. “Oh sister…” she felt a rustle in her arms.
“Hey” Snowdrop said, “it’s been over two months, I think they’re doing alright.”
Elsa sighed. “I know, I know. I just do not want her to get hurt again.”
Snowdrop nuzzled up to Elsa. “She’ll be fine.”
“Of course,” Elsa said with a slide of her arm as she undid all of the bows. “Though I thank you for putting up with my sister and the children of the kingdom every Tuesday.”
Snowdrop grumbled, then sighed. “Of course, Elsa.” She then shrugged. “I guess they’re not… that bad. Though, it is Thursday… Right?”
Elsa smiled. “Yes, it is.”
Snowdrop let out a breath. “Right.” She then looked up and smiled at Elsa. “So, breakfast?”
Elsa nodded. “Breakfast.”
As they walked, Elsa couldn’t help but to think back on the last two months…
‘Had it really been that long?’
Most of the kingdom had gotten used to the trolls, blind pegasus and snow queens, while Elsa and Snowdrop had settled into their own routines. Every day, aside from the occasional complaint from someone involving her magic, she spent most of her time ensuring her kingdom was lead as well as possible. In her free time, she spent time with Anna listening to her jabber about Kristoff, Grandpapie while he was trying to find where Equestria was, or with Snowdrop doing... Whatever she wanted mostly.
While Elsa hesitated to let Snowdrop go outside, she allowed it as long as she herself was in town to make sure the little filly didn't crash into anything, which Snowdrop seemed happy to accept. Though, while Elsa spent a lot of time with the little pegasus, she could never get Snowdrop to open up. At least about her life from where she came from.
It seemed that whenever Elsa brought up something to do with Equestria, Snowdrop would always find a way to change topics. If she asked Snowdrop about what her life was like, she would instead talk to Elsa about her snowflake making process. If she asked about her family, Snowdrop would suggest they make a pizza as they had when Snowdrop first explained what one was. Which was fun to make and it tasted incredibly good.
Still, a part of... No, all Elsa could think about was, what is she not telling me? And why won't she open up?
"So," Elsa said, holding her hands together. "Is there anything you would like to do today, Snowdrop?"
Snowdrop rubbed her chin. "Um... I don't really know.”
Elsa clicked her tounge. “Do you want to have a snowball fight? Maybe we can make a pizza?”
“Maybe we can go to that pizza café we built for the city?” She thought back to when they opened the place up and grinded.
Snowdrop giggled.
"Oh,” Elsa added quickly, "maybe when Grandpapie finds Equestria we can invite some of your friends over.”
Snowdrop stopped in the air, only to fly on quietly.
After a moment of several hesitation, Elsa said, "Um... So, um..."
"Oh, that me remind me!" Snowdrop flipped around to Elsa. "What month is it?"
Elsa shook her head. Seeing as how she wasn't going to get anywhere else on the matter for now, she humored Snowdrop with an answer. "It's August."
Snowdrop stared at Elsa. "Um... What season would that be? Is it almost fall?"
“Almost, it's about halfway through summer and autumn. Though, are months named differently where you are from?”
Snowdrop rubbed her chin, then snapped her hoof. "Yeah. So, I don’t suppose you’re up to learn how my land’s months’ work compared to yours, Elsa?”
It didn’t sound like fun, but as they entered the dining room and took a seat, it sounded like a decent enough idea to talk about something that had to do with Equestria.
“Alright, excuse me,” Elsa asked one of the servers, “would you fetch me a calendar and a piece of paper with some ink please?”
“Of course, your majesty,” the servant bowed. She raced off, and returned a moment later with all that Elsa requested.
“Thank you, miss. As you were.” The maid bowed and Elsa showed Snowdrop the paper. “Now, this is our calendar.”
Snowdrop touched the paper. “Ah yes, I love how the yellow mixes with the green and the purple bunny on the front.”
“Um, this calendar is…” She blinked as she looked to a smirking filly. Elsa tensed up and started to breath fast. “Oh, Snowdrop, I’m so sorry! I forgot you can not—”
“It’s fine.” Snowdrop interrupted as she placed a hoof on Elsa. “You don’t have to freak out every time.”
Taking a deep breath, Elsa said, “Alright.” She moved the calendar in front of her. “Now, our year starts in the month of January…”
They then spend the next hour going over the calendar as Snowdrop told her the months of Equestria, which wasn’t too far off from Arednell’s. Then, after a while, Snowdrop became more and more focused as they got to what day it was compared to what it would be in Equestria.
“That’s… Perfect. I mean great.” the filly said. Snowdrop then grinned. “This was fun.”
With a deep breath, Elsa said, “Yeah, it was.” She never would have thought going over a calendar would be fun, but it seemed as if anything she did with Snowdrop was fun. “Although,” she said getting up, “I do have a few duties to take care of. When I am finished, would you like to check out what I got Anna for her birthday?”
Snowdrop perked up. “Anna too?”
Elsa halted in place and stared at Snowdrop. “What?”
Snowdrop’s eyes began to circle as her hooves fidgeted. “Oh, I mean… When is it?” She then tried to act excited by floating up into the air. “What did you get for her?”
Elsa chuckled and pushed Snowdrop down. “Clam yourself. I will show you later. And her birthday will be in three days.” She then let out a sad sigh. “It is… well, I just want to make this one special after all the ones I ignored.”
“Oh,” Snowdrop moaned.
Elsa perked up as she rubbed Snowdrop’s mane. “But that’s behind us.” She chuckled. “You will love it. Right then.” She clasped her hands together. “Now, how about—"
"Could I maybe fly around by myself for a bit?” Snowdrop asked.
Elsa tensed and raised a finger.
“I won’t leave the castle grounds or fly too high.” She pouted her eyes. "Please."
Elsa lowered her finger. “Alright, just be careful.”
Snowdrop smirked. “Don’t worry, Elsa, I won’t.” She began to fly off, before she added. “Oh, um… is there any chance I could have a lit candle in my room?”
Elsa’s eyes widened.
“Oh, I’ve used candles before!” Snowdrop insisted. “It’s just… a technique I have for some of my… Special snowflake designs.”
Elsa didn’t like the idea. “Well… I—”
Snowdrop pouted her eyes. “Please!”
With a closed fist and grumble, Elsa said, “Just be care—”
Snowdrop cut her off with a hug. “Thank you, you’re the best, love ya, bye!” With that, she flew off to her room as Elsa merely stood there and shook her head.
“That girl.”
*****
With that, the day passed on for Elsa much like any other day had been for what felt like forever. She held court for anyone, sorted through whatever problems she could, held a meeting with her advisers on the tariffs to keep on the good side of their remaining trading nations. Then all she was scheduled to do before she could focuses on Anna’s party was deal with the flood of marriage requests.
Before she could ‘organize’ said letters, she stopped by the dining room to enjoy a quick lunch. Afterwards, a tray of cupcakes was placed in front of her.
“Oh,” she said surprised by the unrequested treat. “Thank you, you did not need to make dessert for me today.”
“I didn’t,” the chief explained, “Snowdrop requested a cupcake, so I thought I’d make a few extra so I don’t waste a tray and batch.”
“Oh,” Elsa said without too much thought for the moment. Although, as she burned the dozen of marriage proposals, she couldn’t help but think that, between that and how obsessed Snowdrop was about dates that morning, something seemed off about her.
Maybe it was just how that was the closet she had gotten to getting Snowdrop to talk about her life from Equestria, but it pestered Elsa to no end. Why was it so difficult for Snowdrop to talk about it? Did something bad happen to her back in Equestria? It was a problem she dragged over when she later meet with Kristoff and Olaf to talk about Anna’s birthday party.
"I mean, it is as if she does not want to talk about what may have happened in her old world!"
Kristoff and Olaf merely watched as Elsa paced back and forth between the picture room.
Olaf raise his arm. "Well, maybe she's—"
"I mean, have I given her reason to not like me? Do I remind her of someone who hurt her?"
"Now, I don't think—"
"Oh!" Elsa said as she bit her nails, “what if she tries to run away? What if she gets lost or eaten by a predator—"
"Okay!" Kristoff said as he stood up and rubbed his hands together. "Two hours of this is long enough!"
“Then she’ll hate me and lock herself up forever and—” she paused as she felt a hand on her shoulder.
“Elsa, you need to relax.”
“I… I,” she ran a hand over her head.
“You need a hug?” Olaf offered.
Elsa held up a hand. “It is fine.” She took in a deep breath. “Now, what were we talking about?”
Kristoff rubbed his chin. “Well, first you just wanted to ask me to help set up a birthday party for Anna, which in some way lead to your freaking out about Snowdrop.”
Olaf raised an arm. “I’m just here because I was promised cookies.”
With a groan, Elsa walked towards the nearest wall and leaned her head against it. “I am a wreck, am I not?”
Olaf and Kristoff looked nervously at one another.
“Well…” Kristoff began.
“You could always—” Olaf began.
Elsa stomped her foot. “Let’s focuses on Snowdrop, shall we?”
They held their breaths.
“Okay,” Kristoff said, “so she has something she doesn’t want to talk about.” He crossed his arms.
Olaf shrugged. “Maybe there’s a good reason for it.”
Elsa placed a hand on her head. “Maybe… But I do not like the idea that she is holding in something that is troubling her.”
Kristoff shook his head. “You sure do care about her.”
“Of course I do!” Elsa quickly placed a hand over her mouth. “I mean, her comfort is very important to me.”
Kristoff smirked. “Yes, that be why, exactly?.”
Elsa raised an eyebrow. “Are you implying something?”
Kristoff scratched his neck. “Well, it’s just… you’ve been spending a lot of time with her. You’re always finding an excuse to play with her, constantly worrying about her…” He gulped as she took several steps towards him.
“What are you saying?”
Through his sweat, Kristoff said. “Um… well… I mean… So, what about getting that cake, Anna told me she likes a cookie cake.”
Elsa flinched and took a step back. “That is a lie!”
With a relieved sigh, Kristoff added with a smirk, “And isn’t her favorite color… orange.”
Elsa’s eyes began to twitch, and the poor man was starting to wonder which nerve he should mess with most.
“Or was it red?”
“It’s green! And you should know that!”
“Okay,” Kristoff whimpered, just now wondering if he went too far. “Conjoined words. Not a good sign.”
Elsa glared at him.
“Could be worse.” Olaf suggested. “You could have implied she was acting like a mother to Snowdrop.”
From the hallway, Anna, who “happened” to have been listening to her sister's “secret” birthday plans, reeled back when the doors flew opened, and Kristoff and Olaf busted through the door, running from blue blast after blue blast.
“Um… Elsa?” Anna nervously asked as she peaked into the room.
“Oh… Um, Anna,” Elsa said as she straightened her hair. She then widened her eyes as she reached towards her sister. “I did not hit you, did I?”
“No! I’m fine, but what about you?”
Elsa sighed. “I’m… I am okay. I was just… well.” She shook her head and attempted to regain her posture. “Just a lot of work.”
Anna raised an eyebrow. “Right… so, anything you want to talk about.”
Elsa raised a finger, and then lowered it. “Actually, I could use a moment alone. I will be fine, just got to… think about some things.”
Anna bit her lip, but decided to let this issues pass. “Alright, just,” she placed a hand on Elsa’s shoulder, “don’t be afraid to come to me if you need anything.”
Elsa sighed. “I will not, sis.”
With that, they gave their pleasant goodbyes, and then, arms crossed, Elsa headed towards her bedchamber to digest what was said.
Her, acting and becoming a mother to Snowdrop? No, she told herself. She was just acting caring to Snowdrop. Besides, she had a real mother she was desperately trying to—
She stopped short when she heard something. A soft whisper coming from Snowdrop's room. Just now realizing that it was well into the night, she headed towards her door.
What is she doing up this late?
With a moment of hesitation, she slowly slid the door open.. "Snow—" she stopped as she stared at the foal in the dark room, save for a single candle that lit up the room.
Realizing that Snowdrop, somehow, hadn't heard her. Elsa continued to stare as she figured that part of the reason why Snowdrop hadn't noticed her was because she was mumbling something.
It took Elsa a moment, but soon, she realized that is was a song. A secondlater, she made it out to be a sad song.
"Happy... Birthday, to you... *sniff... Happy birthday, to you..."
As Snowdrop cried between the lyrics, Elsa backed out of the room and clenched her hand to her chest.
So that's why she was so keen to figure out what day it was. Because it's her birthday, and she's feeling sad because she's not with her family.
Chest tightening, she peaked into the room again, but slowly raced off once she heard Snowdrop was getting closer to the end.
Oh, Snowdrop, Elsa moaned, I'm so sorry I haven't been able to get you home. Oh, I bet that is it. She won't talk about home because it hurts too much.
She ran her fingers through her bangs. "What am I going to do?"
Realizing she was in her bedroom, Elsa threw herself on her bed, and noticed the plans for the gift she was going to get Anna for her upcoming birthday.
Elsa's face lit up. "Oh," she cheered, "would that not just be the best idea ever! I will be making up to two people for the price of one!" She began to squeal and clap. "Oh, but if I am going to do that, I will have to make it grand and epic and… and...."
She began to pace around the room. "Okay, they both like ice-cream cake, so that will work, but I can make it bigger! Oh, and then maybe a scavenger hunt, I could get the school choir involved, and then we'll need games, oh, and why not a large pizza for Snowdrop! I’m sure the new business could use the promotion ." She chuckled.
Elsa raced to her table and began to frantically jot notes down. "Oh... It’ll be a lot of work…”
She shook her head. “Does not matter, this is for Snowdrop, and Anna. Though, I’ll need help and… I need to get started now! Only have three… no, two days to get this all done!" She then grabbed her paper, and with a grin plastered on her face, raced off to what was going to be a long night.
*****
"—to... you." Snowdrop let out another soft sigh through her tears as she focused on the candle light. Which, while she wasn't able to see it, her mind could make out the flames bright orange color if there was no other light around.
"Happy birthday, mom." With a deep breath, she blew out the candle, and fell asleep as she hugged and cried into the pillow she had been laying on.
“No.” Else muttered as she changed the ice-sculpture of herself, Anna, and Snowdrop on top of the ice-cream cake. “Still not right.” With each blast of magic, her voice continued to fluster as her frustration rose.
“Um… Elsa,” Kristoff said as she sneezed, “maybe you should lay—”
Elsa spun around to face them. Eyes bulged, hair wrinkled, she twitched and said, “Yes?”
Olaf and Sven jumped into Kristoff's arm’s.
Elsa blinked and brought a hand to her face. “Sorry, I just want this party to be perfect for the both of them.”
When she turned around, Olaf leaned in and whispered to Kristoff, “So should we not tell her the band is going to be late?”
Kristoff shook his head and set his friends down. He leaned in and whispered to Olaf saying, “later.” And carefully made his way towards Elsa, hands crossed in front of him. “Elsa, it’s not that I don’t think you’re not doing a good job. But, you have been working really hard—”
Elsa shot around and glared at him.
Kristoff stepped back. “What I’m saying is,” he fought off a yawn, “we've been at this all night. Making changes to accommodate Snowdrop as well. Maybe you should take a break before—”
“But everything is not ready!” Elsa began looking around the surrounding. “The banner is crooked, the bands not here, the horn needs to be dusted, and did I… I… ACHOO!”
Kristoff ran a hand across her back. “Seriously, you’re wearing yourself sick. When’s the last time you even seen a bed?”
Elsa rubbed her nose and stood up straight. “So it has been a couple of days. I am fine.” She brushed on her dress. “I just want this party to be perfect.” She sniffed. “I mean, I owe Anna for years of neglect, and I owe Snowdrop for not being able to get her home.” She sighed.
Kristoff looked to Olaf and Sven, then back to Elsa. “And it will. So why don’t you just lie down—”
Bell’s began to ring, and Elsa jolted to look at the clock tower. “Oh no, it’s time! Oh, how long have we been at this? It can not be seven already.”
“Hey, we could always hold off—”
“Make sure the banner is straight! Don’t let anything happen to the cake. Olaf, that means you! Oh…! Have that ribbon organized, see to it that Snowdrops plate is blue, and breakout the party favors!” She then ran off to the castle, chanting and sneezing the whole time while shouting commands.
“You think we should do something?” Olaf questioned.
Kristoff rubbed his chin. “I think the best we can do is let her carry this out.” Not that he didn’t want to help, but it was clear Elsa was beyond reasoning at this point. “Once this is over, she’ll get her rest knowing Anna and Snowdrop had a great time.”
“That or it will be a disaster.”
Kristoff crossed his arms and nodded. “That it might, but at least it will be a memorable one.”
*****
“Snowdrop…”
Snowdrop groaned.
“Snowdrop.”
Thinking it was just in her head and wanting to sleep after her long night awake, she just—
“Snowdrop!” the voice quietly rang, as a hand nudged her as well.
Awoken, she focused her mind to realize the voice was Elsa’s. “Huh?”
“Oh Snowdrop, you are awake.” She heard Elsa giggle.
“Er, yeah,” she yawned, “I am now.” She popped her lips.
“Well, I have something for you.” Snowdrop felt a box being placed in front of her.
Snowdrop raised an eyebrow, but shrugged and fummbled with the package till she opened it, and felt a cold metal object … “Wait, is that—”
Elsa beamed as she watch Snowdrop run a hoof over the neckless. “Yes! Just got it crafted.” She then lifted up the necklace, shaped into Snowdrop’s cutie mark, and clipped it around her neck.
Snowdrop smiled and began to rub her gift, when Elsa squeaked, “Happy birthday, Snowdrop.”
Snowdrop face dropped. “Birthday?”
“Oh, I am sorry.” She pulled Snowdrop in for a hug. “I know I should not have, but I saw you singing happy birthday to yourself.”
Snowdrop blinked in the grasp. “So you think it was my—”
“Yes, I know it is late, but I will make everything better.”
Snowdrop nervously smirked. “You really didn’t have to—”
Elsa pulled away and held her hooves. “I know. But, it’s Anna’s birthday as well, so I thought I’d make it up to both of you by giving you both the best birthdays ever.”
Snowdrop started to raise a hoof, only to bring it to her chin. Sure, she should have been angry, but on the other hoof, she couldn’t help but to feel touch that Elsa went through a lot of trouble to make her happy.
Her hoof brushed against her new necklace again.“So… is there cake too?”
“Of course!” Her nose began to twitch. “ On… Only… ACHOO! Pardon.” She rubbed her nose. “Only the best and biggest for you two.”
Snowdrop shrugged and smiled. “Alright, then happy birthday to me!” She leapt up into the air and threw Elsa into a hug. “Thank you!” If Elsa had went through this much trouble, who was she to deny it if everything had already been set up? Besides, there would be cake. She could always let Elsa know the truth later. No one had ever been this nice to her since Luna, and there would be cake.
Elsa flinched at the hug, but slowly returned it.
“So when’s the party?”
Elsa placed a hand on one of Snowdrop’s hooves. “Easy, my child, we still need to get Anna.”
Snowdrop smirked. “Oh yeah.” This is going to be an interesting day
****
“Anna…”
Anna moaned. Snowdrop giggled.
“Anna…Happy birthday.”
Anna groaned and whispered back, “Happy birthday.”
Unable to contain her excitement, Snowdrop landed at the foot of the bed. “Come on, Anna! Wouldn’t want to miss the party!”
“Huh, what…” Anna shot up of her bed, bedhead jiggling. “It’s my birthday?!”
“Yes!” Elsa cheered. “It is yours and Snowdrops!” Snowdrop crossed her hooves and looked away from Elsa. “Now come on.” She pulled out two shirt bags. “Let us get you both dressed.”
Snowdrop’s head shot up, just as Elsa grabbed both of their arms and dragged them behind a dresser. Upon exiting, both Anna and Snowdrop were paired in elegant green dresses. Snowdrop’s had been custom made to accommodate her engine body and to allow her wings to keep her afloat.
“Elsa!” Anna cheered.
“Meep!” Snowdrop added as she felt her own dress. “You really shouldn’t—“
“Oh think nothing of it, ladies,” She then started to sing,
‘You've both never had a real birthday before, Even you Snowdrop, I feel rather sore, Except, of course, the ones just spent outside my locked door So I'm here way too late to help you celebrate And be your birthday date if I may...may Achoo!’
Anna put a hand on Elsa’s shoulder. “Elsa, I'm thinking you might have a cold—”
“I don't get colds.” Elsa assured. “Besides..”
She waved an arm as her magic, after having spent the bulk of last night perfecting it, added a weather resistant veil to both of the ladies dresses.
‘A cold never bothered me anyway!’
Snowdrop rolled her eyes.
“Anyways,” Elsa waved, ‘Just follow the string!’
“Snowdrop, I’ll lead the way!”
The next thing they pair knew, they were following Elsa. Snowdrop following the music as her hoof carefully kept in contact with the string.
‘I've got big plans, I've got surprises for today Nothing but nothing's gonna get in our way
What followed was a onslaught of presents, after presents, after presents. Ranging from dollhouses, to dolls, to jewelry, to even more dresses. Each flung into one of the pairs arms as Elsa continued down the halls.
‘If someone wants to hold me back I'd like to see them try I'm on the birthday plan attack I'm giving you the sun, the moon, and the sky!’ I'm making today a perfect day for you, I will make it a blast if it's the last thing I do! For everything you both are to me and all you've both been through I'm making today a perfect day for you—’
“Achoo, achoo!’
“Elsa, bless you!” Snowdrop said as she followed behind. Each present making it harder and harder for her to keep up by flying as she lost track of the string on several occasions.
“I'm fine… achoo!” Surprise, surprise this one especially, achoo! With each new present, Anna and Snowdrop had trouble keeping up, until they got to a bike which flew the trio through the rest of the castle.
‘Wow, you've got me reeling, but I'm still concerned for you,’ Anna sang
‘Maybe it’s time, you try to get some rest?’ Snowdrop added quietly
‘We are not stopping!’ Elsa declared. ‘Cause the next one is the best, achoo!’
‘Elsa, you gotta go lie down!’ Anna urged.
‘Yes, please!’ Snowdrop had enough. The latest gold bracelet grounding her as Elsa’s sneezes got worse. “It’s not—‘
‘No way!’ With that, the bursted through the doors outside, where Elsa started to lead the girls towards the gate, where the red string lead to to town. ‘We still have a town!’
‘But you need medical attention!’ Anna said as the string lead them to a large cart. ‘Fast as can be!’
From one of the doors, a burst of steam shot out, as a naked man offered, “Are you sick? How 'bout a cold remedy, of my own invention!’
Elsa waved him off. “No thanks!”
“We'll take it.” Anna gingerly took the bottle by the neck and passed it to Snowdrop, who was no longer airbound, as they approached a bunch of children.
Snowdrop added it to her pile, and the girls barely caught up to Elsa as she reached a choir of children.
‘We're making today a perfect day for you!’
They sang.
‘Making today a special day We're singing a birthday song to make both of your wishes come true… Wishes come true! We love Princess Anna and Snowdrop!’
“And I love you too!” Anna shouted as she races after Elsa.
Snowdrop nodded. “Same!” She then tossed the kids some of her jewelry to keep up with Anna and Elsa’s footsteps.
‘So I’m making today a perfect day, A fabulous day in every way, Yes, I’m making today, a perfect day, for you!
As she sang, Anna noticed their next stop was the clock tower.
“Should we…” Snowdrop panted, hoofs on the string, “Be… Worried?”
Anna blankly answered, “Yes.”
“Come on, you two!” Elsa shouted as they reached the tower, starting to slouch around as the girls had to catch her several times.
‘Now we climb!’
“Elsa,” Anna pleaded, dropping all her presents at the foot of the tower, “ that's too much, you need to rest!”
‘No! We… we need to get to our birthday chills, I mean thrills!’
“Elsa!” Snowdrop cried, discarding her own gifts to zoom right up next to her.
‘Making dreams. Making plans. Go go go go! Follow the string to the ends… You are my very best friends!’
‘Elsa!’ They both cried as Elsa reached the edge of the tower’s ledge.
“What?” Elsa asked as she fingered the string, leading out of the window. “ Now for the fun part!” she then sluggishly stepped off the tall tower.
Anna screamed and raced forward, only to see that Elsa had landed in a basket attached to a pulley which lead to the castle courtyard where the ice-cream cake could be seen.
‘Isn’t this, a glorious view, ladies?’
Snowdrop blinked. “Er… Of course.” ‘Is she really that out of it?’ she asked herself, following the string to the basket right besides Anna. Only to shriek as the basket slowly started to move towards the party.
Anna, meanwhile, couldn’t deny the sight as the basket slowly made it’s way to the party. On the other hand, she found it was harder to hold her sister upright as Elsa wore a goofy smile.
Once they reached the ground, Elsa, miserably, tried to maintain her poss and sang, ‘Now for the thing…’
The next thing Snowdrop heard, were cries of Elsa’s name and the patter of shoes as Anna’s voice shouted, “Elsa! You got a fever. You're burning up!
Ears flattened, she felt around for a table to land on to fold her wings back as she stayed there. Staring in the direction she thought Elsa was, her stomach convulsed…
*****
Back in her bedchamber, Elsa groaned as Anna lowered her into bed.
After she collapsed from exhaustion, she had tried to pull herself up using the tablecloth where the ice-cream cake had been on. Crashing it to the ground and as a result covered herself and a few other guests in the goo. After which, she tried to carry on, but found herself unable to stand.
So, Anna canceled the party, and she and Kristoff carried Elsa to her room. He left Anna alone with her sister, and feeling meek, but able to speak, Elsa said, “Least it wasn’t because of water wall.”
Anna narrowed her eyes.
Elsa rolled on her side, back towards Anna. “I’m sorry,” she croaked, “I just… just wanted to make this… Both of your best birthdays ever. But I ruined it… Again.”
Anna sighed. “Is that what this is about? Elsa… You didn’t ruin my day.”
Elsa stayed silent.
Anna pulled her into a hug. “You made it a perfect day, just by being there.”
Elsa shuffled in her bed. “Really?”
Anna giggled. “Yeah. And I can tell you, Snowdrop had a blast.”
Elsa chuckled. “Yeah. She seemed rather excited when I surprised her.” She yawned.
Anna pulled a blanket over Elsa. “Now get some rest. I’ll save you some cake for when you’re all better, alright?”
Elsa muttered what sounded like a, ‘Alright…’ and Anna kissed Elsa on the head.
She then tiptoed outside the room, where Snowdrop was pacing on the floor.
Snowdrop’s ears flicked up and she glanced in Anna’s direction. “Elsa okay.”
Anna sighed. “She’s fine.” Leaning down, Anna picked up Snowdrop with her arms. “With a little rest, Elsa will be as good as new.” She giggled. “All things considered, I’d say it was a good birthday. Do you?”
Snowdrop nervously chuckled. “Yeah…”
Anna raised an eyebrow. “Snowdrop? You alright?”
Snowdrop ears feel back. “No! I mean…” Her blank eyes began to circle. “Alright… You saw what happened, and I didn’t try to stop it.”
“Oh sweetie,” Anna assured placing a hand on her back, “it wasn’t your fault.”
Snowdrop pulled away and sighed, hovering in the air. “But it was. Cause you see…” She bite her lip. “it’s wasn’t really my birthday.”
Anna blinked. “Huh?”
Snowdrop groaned. “Elsa saw me a few nights ago singing happy birthday to a cupcake.” Anna took a step back. “She thought I was singing to myself, but… It was for my mom’s birthday.”
“Oh… Um, well…”
Snowdrop huffed. “Yeah, I know. But I’ve done it ever since my mom died—”
“What?!” Anna shriked.
Snowdrop jolted upwards. “Shoot!” she swore to herself. She then looked to Anna and smirked. “I mean, since I’m missing her. You know?”
Anna crossed her arms.
After a moment with no response, Snowdrop lowered her head. “You’re not buying it, are you.”
Anna frowned and lead further away from Elsa’s room. “I’m so sorry Snow—”
Snowdrop turned her back on Anna. “Don’t. I got enough of it as is.”
Anna reached out a hand. “You mean how everyone keeps saying how sorry they are, how they keep trying to cheer you up, but then seem to move on once they give your condolences.”
Snowdrop looked over her shoulder in Anna’s direction. “You too?”
Anna shrugged. “We were right around your age.” She then mumbled, “Not that they seemed to care too much.” She shook her head. “But how about we just focus on Elsa wearing herself out for now.” She cautiously walked up to Snowdrop and began stroking her hair. “I’m sure my sister would have worked herself out anyways today if it helps. If I’m honest, it’s felt like ever since she started to open up again, it’s always been, ‘how can I make it up to her? How can I make it up to them? Is there anything more I can do? Is there?”
Snowdrop snickered as Anna’s mocking voice. “Oh yeah. I mean, it’s like she is my mother.”
There was an audible pause. “well, I mean…”
Anna nervously chuckled, envisioning how awkward yet adorable it would be if Elsa heard Snowdrop say that. “You know, I think we’ve both have had a rather crazy day. Some of that cake should still be good. So, what do you say?”
Snowdrop let out a happy sigh. “Yeah, I guess a little relaxing on ‘our,’” she winked at Anna, “big day while the night is still young would be nice.”
The pair of girls giggled, and walked off, oblivious that Elsa had needed to use the toilets and heard everything the two girls she loved the most had to say.Why?
Snowdrop sat on top of the tower, listening to the stars. While different from those in Equestria, they seemed to sing similar songs. Some nights, the stars would twinkle a song of love. Other, their tunes would be much more mellow, or tragic. Sometimes they would played random notes. Not bad, or even good, but out of tune. On those such night, when the tune leaned more towards good, it meant it had been an okay day. Not good, but it wasn’t bad either.
Such night’s were common in Equestira, but in Arendelle, she had only heard two such nights.
Tonight, the stars seemed to be laughing at the bulk of misfortune’s from Elsa’s birthday party. Of course, it wasn’t as if she had spent that many night’s listening to the stars. It had only been three weeks, after her first few days once settling into the castle, did she get her first chance. It was then when she realized this was a different world from Equestria. Perhaps a different planet, but most likely a different demension.
Information the troll’s figured out a lot sooner than she would have liked. Luckly, she didn’t have to lie when she said she didn’t know anything else about it. If Luna hadn’t even once brought up a time Starswirled explored mirror portals, she wouldn’t have even guessed that this was a different dimension.
She wonder how Luna was doing. Was she doing alright? Did she really miss her that much? Possibly, but it wasn’t as if she couldn’t make other friends. Was she even looking for her? Or perhaps if did, but had long since given up.
Snowdrop placed her head on her hooves. These were too many questions, and know of them were getting her mind off of today's events. As she laid down, she felt the snow pendent brush onto her hooves. So with a smile, she sat back up and gave her present a tap and looked back up towards the sky.
“Looking at anything good?” A raspy voice spoke.
Snowdrop blinked and turned her head in the direction of the sound. “Huh?”
“Or were you thinking of something?” Snowdrop heard Elsa say as she took several steps towards her.
Snowdrop stood up. “Elsa! What are you doing awake?”
“I could ask you the same thing.” She felt Elsa sit on the ground next to her.
Elsa look upon Snowdrop and back to the sky.
“You really need the rest,” Snowdrop protested.
Elsa chuckled. “And I shall.” She took in a breath. “Just had to releave myself when I noticed you up here looking up into space.”
Snowdrop’s lips curled upwards. “Why yes, the pink elephants and blue tigers sure know how to waltz.”
Elsa’s eyes narrowed. “Pink el…” She blinked several times. When she looked back down at Snowdrop, she noticed the little filly snickering. “Very funny, Snowdrop.” She nuzzled Snowdrop’s head.
Snowdrop shrugged. “Though it be better than the whole ‘poor Snowdrop is trying to see when she can’t’ deal.’” She looked up to Elsa. “It get’s older than you think.”
Elsa frowned. “I was not… Though, were you?”
Snowdrop stood up. “As a mater of fact,” she proudly pointed to the clear night sky, “I was listening to the stars.”
Elsa titled her head. “You can do that?”
Snowdrop sat back down and looked up. “It’s not easy, but if you’re really quite, you can hear them twinkling.”
“Huh…” Elsa looked up at the sky, and held her breath. It was a beautiful night sky, but she heard nothing but the occasional rushel of the wind on the trees. She tried to squint her eyes, tilted her head, but heard nothing.
“No luck?” Snowdrop question.
Elsa sighed.
“Don’t worry,” Snowdrop chuckled, “ it’s not as easy as I make it sound to be. My mom said you have to be really patient.”
Elsa looked away.
When she didn’t respond, Snowdrop added, “Thanks for the party. Meant a lot.”
It was Elsa turn to smirk. “Even if it was not your birthday?”
Snowdrop tensed.
“Yes,” Elsa nodded, “ I was not that tired.”
Snowdrop slumped onto her belly. “How much did you hear?”
“Pretty much all of it.” Elsa scratched her neck. “I suppose I should not have been snooping that night, so the party was the least I could do.”
Snowdrop’s head faced the other way. “So I gues you know my mother’s—”
“Dead? Yes.” Elsa held her hands to her knees. “ However, if I am honest… I had a feeling for a while now.”
Snowdrop turned her head back to Elsa. “You did?”
“Nothing I could prove, but the way you would avoid talking about Equestria and your family, how you would sabotage the troll’s progress.”
Snowdrop tensed.
Elsa chucked. “Again, you are not as sneaky as you think.” Elsa face flattened. “Do you not want to go home?”
Snowdrop bit her lip. “I… I don’t know. I mean, Equestrias my home, but, none of the other ponies my age were very nice. The only had one true friend was Luna. Though, before I came here, I sort of felt like we weren't spending as much time together as we use to. Which I understand, she’s a princess, but still…”
Elsa began to lean in, then, pulled Snowdrop into a hug.
Snowdrop sighed and rested her head on Elsa’s lap. “I just don’t know, Elsa.”
Elsa generally ran fingers through Snowdrop’s mane. “Neither would I. However, just know, as long as you are here…” She took in a long breath. “You can… Can…” she looked down to see snowdrop staring up at her with her pale eyes. “You can consider yourself my family.”
She winched at the words, fearful that she may have stepped to far, until snowdrop buried her head into Elsa's chest. “You mean it?”
Elsa smiley slowly, but surly, widened. “Of course.”
Snowdrop began to chuckle.
“What is funny?”
Snowdrop happily sighed. “Well… Anna and I were just joking about you being more or less my mom.”
The pair became deathly silent. Till Elsa breath, “Well, I…”
Snowdrops ears feel flat.
Elsa quickly responded. “It is not as if it is a bad idea, but snowdrop, you have to understand, I…” She what? Had what excuse? She had a kingdom to run? Was worried that she would become like her parents and was fearful of that?
‘Or am i really just a coward?’ she thought to herself.
Snowdrop pulled free of the hug. “You’re right.” She chuckled nervously. While Not upset, “I guess it would have been too forward.”
Not wanting to end the note on a bad note, she pulled Snowdrop into a tight hug, and closed her eyes. “No, Snowdrop, don’t think I don’t want you. I do. You mean a lot to me.”
Snowdrop sighed in Elsa’s grip. “I know… Though maybe we should just both sleep on this?”
Elsa loosened her grip. “Perhaps.”
They sat besides each other, until Elsa said, “Perhaps we should head to bed. Would not want you to be staying up too late now.”
Snowdrop nodded. “The same could be said for you, you know.”
Elsa chuckled. “Yes. Now come on.” She picked Snowdrop up into her hands. Who let out a yawn as her eyes drifted off.
“Thank you…” Snowdrop mummered, drifted off to sleep.
Smiling, Elsa made her way down, whispering, “sweet dreams, Snowdrop.”
*****
Down below in the castle, two trolls were boardly twirling pencils as they struggled to figure out where to go with their research on getting Snowdrop home.
“We could try butter.”
The other troll raised an eyebrow. “Butter?”
“Well, what else would you try?”
The opposing troll punch her in the shoulder. Said troll reeled back into a shelf. This in turn, caused a few papers to tumble down onto his head. “why you…” he paused as on one the papers landed in his face. “HEY! These are some of the files I’d though you lost.”
“‘I’, lost?!”
“Well whoever lost it…” He raced to the table and wrote a few things down, then few some dust into a blow. A flash of blue light later, and they began to jump with joy. “You know, I think we got something.”
