WARNING: This takes place in an alternate dimension (or AU) of My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic. The ponies taken from the series have been humanized for plot purposes and thus, have been given more human names.
Please enjoy.
"Oh, Granny, pleeeease tell me another story! Please, please, pleeease…"
An amused chuckle.
"I think that's enough for today, Pinkamena… It's about time for bed."
The bed creaks as the figure rises, slowly heading toward the door.
"Good night, Pinkie, dear…" Lights off.
"'Night, Granny…"
The door is shut, closing off the last bit of light that had streamed in.
An ephemeral silence… the shifting of covers, then the silence again.
Suddenly, a thud reverberates through the still air of the room — the first step, followed by another, and another… until the small, frizzy-haired girl finally stops, only a few feet away from the four-paned window, staring through the glass into the perpetual blackness of the night, peppered with scintillating stars.
He has to be real…
I know he is!
She starts treading across the wooden floorboards again, cold and smooth beneath the soles of her tiny feet. She presses her hands against the glass, peering out intently, trying to catch even the smallest of glimpses…
Something zooms past the window with lightning speed, leaving behind a flurry of snowflakes.
She staggers back, gaping, as she sees a sheen of frost, gradually distending across the glass. Hurriedly, she lifts open the window, sticking her head out into the icy air.
And she sees him.
Grinning, laughing, casting a frozen spell upon the dismal farmland… before rocketing up into the sky again.
"Oh my gosh… OH MY GOSH!"
The girl screeches these words in utter excitement, frantically scrambling onto the ledge of the window.
"IT'S HIM! IT'S JACK FROST!"
The girl shrieks, her arm stretching out as she stands precariously on the wooden ledge… trying to reach him…
In vain.
"WAIT! COME BACK! WAIT!"
Her sharp cries continue…
"WAIT! JACK FROST!"
… piercing through the night…
"WAIT! PLEEEEASE!"
… even as the figure soars further and further away… diminishing into but a tiny, blue speck in the far-off sky….
"COME BAAAACK!"
Doors flying open — frantic bustling in the hallway... rising in decibel... drawing closer and closer to her room...
"COME BACK, PLEEEEASE!"
Further and further…. smaller, and even smaller….
"COME BAAAAAAAAAAAACK!"
Come back…
Jack… Jack Frost!
Wait… WAIT! WAAAAAAIT!
".. WAIT UP, TWILIGHT! WAAAAIT!" Pinkamena Diane Piper sprinted down the hall, racing to catch up with her best friend.
Sighing in exasperation, Twilight Sanderson stopped in her tracks and wheeled around to face the pink-haired girl hurtling toward her at top speed. "Pinkie Pie… I'm not a hundred miles away, you know."
That was the name she was referred to by every single member of her close circle of friends — Pinkie Pie. It suited her rather well, she reckoned, much better than Pinkamena. Sure, her grandmother had affectionately addressed her as Pinkie before, but Pinkie Pie was all-new, bestowed upon her only during her very first week of high school.
Pinkie skidded to a halt upon reaching her destination. "I know!" She beamed.
Twilight breathed another sigh, "Okay, Pinkie, what is it?"
"Hmmm…" Pinkie hummed, her features puckering up as she raised a finger to her chin.
"… I don't have all day, Pinkie."
"Hmmmmm…."
"Pinkie."
Eventually, Pinkie's hand dropped back to her side. Smiling broadly, she yipped, "I forgot!"
"… Urgh," Twilight slapped a hand to her forehead, not even bothering to mask her annoyance. "I don't have time for this, Pinkie. I promised Ms. Mitchell I'd help her sort out the shelves now, after school!"
"But Twilight, you always help out at the library!" whined Pinkie. "Come on! It's already December!" The puffy-haired girl began jiggling in enthusiasm. "DECEMBER! Winter's already here! We have to keep a look-out for Jack Frost out there! I don't wanna lose him this year too!"
As Pinkie dashed over to the row of windows lining the right wall of the hall, intensely surveying the streets to catch the mischievous snow spirit in the act, Twilight groaned, "Pinkie, you do realize that someday soon, you're going to have to stop clinging to those childish fantasies of yours! Jack Frost isn't real, and he'll never be real."
"But he is real, Twilight!" Pinkie turned to face her friend, looking as grave and serious as Pinkie Pie could ever get.
Twilight rolled her eyes. "Yeah, a little ol' bearded, magical snow pixie is the reason why ravaging blizzards and snowstorms happen every year…"
"Actually, he's normal-sized!" piped up Pinkie. "Oh! And he's a teenager… andhe's got no beard…."
"Pinkie Pie," interjected Twilight, irritably. "I really don't have time for this. I have to go now!"
"But why won't you believe me!" pleaded Pinkie, seizing Twilight's hands in her own. "Jack Frost is real, Twilight! I told you! I saw him myself when I was just a kid! He even…"
That was too much to take for the logical-minded girl. She forcefully yanked her arms out of Pinkie's grasp and briskly turned to go, but then stopped in her tracks after a few strides, turning slightly to the side to reveal a bit of what looked like…. disappointment.
"Pinkie, you were… just a child. Children believe in everything they see, or, to be more precise, everything they think they see…" She wheeled her head around completely to face her friend, fixing a cold, hard gaze upon her. "And you're still just a child, Pinkie, a child not knowing when to just… grow up."
And with that, Twilight turned away and trod on, leaving Pinkie behind.
Dumbfounded, crestfallen.
And alone.
"Hey c'mon... hey…."
Icy cold…. she feels it. A hand, trailing delicately down her cheek.
"Stay with me now…"
She moans weakly.
Pain.
Pain all over.
"Shh, shh, you're alright.. you're going to be okay…"
Slowly, her eyelids flutter open.
"Huh… ?"
She sees nothing… nothing but a blur… a mixture of blue and white, melded together like a splattered painting…
"Stay with me, okay? You're going to be fine…"
The voice…
It belongs... to a boy…
If only she could see—
Suddenly, she feels like she is being swallowed up whole, enfolded securely within two strong arms.
"Now c'mon, let's get you back…"
Her lips are parched. Her muscles, aching.
Who… are you…
And then there was nothing but blackness.
I do not own both My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic and Rise of the Guardians. They belong to Hasbro Studios and Dreamworks Animation respectively.
Thank you for reading.