The Frozen Man

      Pain. Pain was the first thing that went through the human’s body as he slowly started to regain consciousness. When he went to open his eyes, a blinding white light pierced through the mall cracks in his eyelids. He sealed them back shut, taking his hands and putting them over his face. But it was not bare skin.

     Holding his hands in front of him to still block the sun, he slowly opened his eyes. His hands were covered with a thick set of gloves used for basic warmth. Then, he realized something.

     He was freezing.

     Letting out a long breath of air, he could see his blue breath. He let out a sigh as he rolled over onto his stomach and tried pushing himself to his feet. However, as he went to push himself, it was like he weighed two tons, his body collapsing back to the ground. The cold ground. Slowly once again, he opened his eyes. The ground was… white?

     “Snow…” He said slowly, rubbing his hands in the white powder. He let out a small laugh. “That explains why I’m so cold…”

     Trying once again to get to his feet, the human slowly brought one leg under his body. It was like his body was screaming to stop, to just lay back down in the cold snow. But he had to move. He didn’t know why, but he knew he couldn’t stay where he was. Bringing his other leg under him, he slowly stood to his full height. He looked down at what he was wearing, just to get a sense of what he had to work with. He was wearing a pair of blue jeans, thick black boots, a short sleeve shirt, a pair of rather thin gloves, and he could feel the warmth of a beanie on his head.

     Taking his hand and putting it over his eyes, he slowly looked around the area. In the distance, he spotted rows and rows of large trees full of red apples and a bright red barn. He could also make out a small house. With no other clue where else to go, he decided this would be his best bet.

     Sticking his hands in his pockets, and with a shiver, he started towards the house. He had no idea what to expect when he got there, an old man living alone? Or maybe a giant family trying to make their mark. Maybe it was just a small outpost on some industrial giant’s many fields, and he would get immediately kicked out.

     Whichever, he didn’t mind. And he didn’t think they would mind one missing apple. He reached into the tree, plucking the first apple his hand could grab. With a yank and satisfying snap, the fruit came free from the tree. It was a bright red, no bruises at all, no hints of green. The perfect apple.

     He chuckled at his luck. Taking a bite as he moved closer to the house he realized how hungry he really was as his stomach gave a loud grumble for more. He had to admit, the apple was pretty satisfying, leaving him more on the family farm or single person than an industrial giant.

     He could hear yelling in the distance, but couldn’t make out what it was about. He could tell it wasn’t aimed at him when another voice yelled back. The only thing that put him on edge were the extremely loud *crack*s that would fill the air every so often. He assumed that it was some form of machinery. That was the only thing in his mind that could make a sound like that and make it that loud.

     As he finished his apple, he was about a hundred feet from the house. Wiping the juice from his mouth, and making sure he looked decent, he walked up onto the porch. It was strange for him, it seemed to be just a touch smaller than he had expected it to be. The door and the ceiling both seemed odd. He reached out to the door, his hand gently hitting it three times before he took a step back.

     “Comin’!” He heard an old shaky voice say from inside. He formed a warm smile on his face as he heard steps quickly coming. He took another step back, almost on the edge of the porch. He could hear the locks on the inside of the door turning. Then, he saw the knob turn.

     As the door swung open, he kept the warm smile on his face. Standing at the door, was a horse. A small horse, mind you. It had wrinkles all over its body, frail legs, and a constant shake about it with a bandanna covered in apples wrapped around its neck. It slowly looked up to the human, neither of the creature's expressions changing.

     Bringing his hands together, the human broke the silence. "Well, it seems pretty obvious I don't belong here."

     The old horse continued to look at the human, squinting a little from the sun. "Y'er a tall one, ain't ya?"

     The human gave a small laugh. "You could say that."

     She started to observe the clothing he was wearing. "You look like y'er ready for winter."

     The human shivered once again. "Well, it is pretty chilly out." His voice cracking a bit, and with it, came the realization of a pounding head.

     The old horse frowned. "I hate to tell ya this, sonny. But, it's been one of the hottest days of the year." She said, fanning herself a bit.

     The human frowned, goosebumps running down his arms. He looked back across the orchard, looking for the small mound of snow he had woken in, with no luck. He looked for any kind of indication of the cold. But he couldn't find any. The trees had all their leaves, and the sky lacked any clouds.

     Looking back at the old horse, he let out a long breath. To his amazement, he could see the blue air leaving his lungs. Frowning, he did it again, with the same result. He was snapped out of his trance by the old horse.

     "You don't look too good, how about you come inside and sit down for a minute?"

     The human slowly nodded. "Thank you." He said as the old horse turned, walking back inside the house. He followed behind closely, ducking to get through the front door.

     Once inside, the old horse pointed at a small room. "Just take a seat in the livin' room, I was just about to start making lunch."

     The human smiled. "I appreciate your hospitality miss... I'm sorry, I never caught a name?"

     She gave a small laugh. "You can call me Granny Smith."

     "Like the apples?" He asked, rubbing his temples. The headache making its presence extremely painful.

     "Well, we are the Apple family after all." She replied from what he assumed to be the kitchen. "You never said your name either."

     "My apologies, my name is..." He stalled. "My name is ah..." He started running his chin, reaching into the very back of his mind. "It's ah..." He started to sweat, despite the feeling of it being sub zero temperatures.

     Granny Smith looked out from the kitchen into the living room at the human. "Y'er name, sugarcube."

     With a closed fist, he started hitting the top of his forehead, trying to jog his memory. "What's my name!" He grumbled to himself. His breath was getting faster as he came to a quick realization.

     He didn't know his own name.

     He looked up at Granny Smith. "I don't know." He said in almost a whisper.

     Straining her ears and leaving forward, she said. "Say again?"

     He cleared his throat. "I can't remember." He said, loud enough for her to hear this time.

     She rubbed her chin before ducking back into the kitchen. "Let me get ya a glass of water. You look like you've been through a lot recently."

     "Thanks." He squeaked out. He started shaking ever so slightly. He couldn't remember his name. His name! The thing that labeled him, and set him apart from everything and everyone else. His title, and he couldn't remember it.

     Then, he realized something else. He had no clue where he was at. He didn't know what he did. He had no clue how he got there. He didn't even know what his own face looked like! His thoughts were cut off when he heard the small noise of a glass being set beside him on a small stand. Looking up, he saw the old horse giving a warm smile. Looking over, a glass of water with just a few ice cubes sat, filled to the brim. He didn’t question how it got there, but gently reached over and took it.

     “You’re much too kind.” He said, taking a sip. He had to grasp it tighter, his gloves taking in the water and making the glass super slick.

     “You may think of taking those off.” She suggested, making her way back into the kitchen to finish making supper.

     The human sat the glass down, and went to take them off. But something was keeping him from actually removing them. He had the middle finger of the glove in his hand, but he just couldn’t get himself to take them off. He didn’t know why.

     Eventually he shook his head, and forced himself to take them off. Looking down at his hands, he didn’t see anything strange. They were hands. A little hair on his fingers and the back of his hands, a little dirt under his nails. But other than that, everything was completely normal.

     He reached over for the cup, and was just about to pick it up, when the door was thrown open. More steps came into the house. “Granny, we got the Eastern…” The orange horse, with a cowboy hat, glanced into the living room. Her eyes shone with a look that was not of acceptance like Granny Smith’s had. Instead, they immediately saw the human as a threat. And the human knew that look all too well. He didn’t know how, but he knew it. And his body immediately took action.

     He stood up, and dashed for the back door. He could hear the new horse screaming at him as he lowered his shoulder and barreled through the door. He had no clue where he would run, but he knew the direction. Away.

     He was met with the rows of trees pretty quickly, and could hear the new horse still screaming at him. He powered his way  up the hill, thinking on the other side would be some kind of river or stream. For some reason, he knew if he reached any body of water, he would be able to easily lose her. But as he crested the hill, his heart sank.

     Acres and acres of trees. No water in sight. He heard the mare quickly coming up behind him. With a sigh of defeat, he turned to face her. They were both breathing heavily, the air coming from the human’s lungs still visible. He slowly raised his hands in defeat.

     She started to slowly walk towards him. “What did ya do to mah Granny?” She said, grinding her teeth.

     “Nothing!” He pleaded. “I didn’t do anything!” Slowly backing up as she got closer.

     She kept getting closer and closer, analyzing everything about him. “What are you?”

     He kept backing up, eventually backing into a tree. “Ahhh… human… what are you?”

     She narrowed her eyes. “What do ya mean ‘What am I?’”

     The human swallowed as he placed his hand on the tree, looking for leverage if he needed to run again. “I mean, wha…”

     Her eyes became gian as his hand touched the tree. “What are ya doing!?” She screamed.

     “What?” He quickly turned to where her eyes were facing. His heart skipping a beat. Where his hand had touched, a large amount of ice had formed, protruding spikes outward. The ice quickly spread, overtaking the entire tree. In less than three seconds, the entire tree was solid ice. Every leaf, branch, apple, and piece of bark was enveloped in a cold prison. The human tried to find words while pointing at the tree.

     “I… did that?” He looked down at his hands. “I did not mean to do that…” He started to turn to the horse, when a pair of hooves made solid contact with his side, throwing him into the frozen tree. His head bounced off the iced over bark, causing him to lose consciousness for the second time that day. And with the new knot that was forming on his head, a new question brewed in his mind. What the hell just happened?

___________________

     Applejack walked over to the body of the unconscious creature. The human, it had called itself, was calmly breathing in its forced slumber. With each breath came a cold chill originating from his blue breath. Her eyes looked up from the human to the tree that was right next to them. She didn’t understand how it had done it, but somehow the human had managed to freeze the thing! The entire thing! Not a single leaf or apple was able to escape the icy prison.

     AJ sighed, she only knew one pony who could possibly explain the logic behind it, if there was any. Reaching down, she was about to start dragging the human, but jerked away as her hoof stepped into something extremely cold. Looking down at her hooves, ice had started to form around where the human’s bare hands were making contact with the ground.

     ‘Logic’ hit her like a train. Realizing that whatever its hands touched would freeze, she quickly took its sleeve in her mouth, placing its hand on his chest. But what didn’t make sense, was that its clothes seemed to neglect this new rule. AJ looked down, taking time to observe the non hostile human.

     Come to think of it, it acted like it was afraid of her? At the first sight of her, it took off like it was about to be eaten by a large predator. And when it knew it was caught, it didn’t even try to defend itself, it just tried to talk its way out. It was scared. And she could have sworn that the first thing she saw in its eyes, was confusion.

     AJ let out a sigh, taking time to actually observe the human this time instead of criticize her own motives. It had a short white mane on its head. its eyes, when they were open, where an extremely light blue, almost grey. It was a little over twice as tall as her when it was standing to its full height. His clothes looked rugged, worn, tired, and like they had been through too much work. Not being one for fashion like Rarity though, she could still tell that they were made for moderately low temperatures.

     AJ looked over her shoulder at the big red barn. Just outside was a wagon she often took into town with her apples. With a groan, she looked at the human, then back at the wagon. She didn’t have any other choice.

__________________________________________

     “Rainbow Dash, it’s impossible.” Twilight said as she continued to place books back into their proper place. “Daring Do is a fictional story, you realize this right?”

     “So you’re telling me it’s impossible for somepony to to jump over a rolling boulder while dodging crossbows with a broken leg while being chased by an elder dragon with an ancient artifact in their mouth worth millions of bits?” She asked, flying up to just three inches from Twilight’s face.

     Twilight turned to Rainbow Dash without any change in her expression. “It is extremely unlikely.”

     “Ha! So it’s NOT impossible!” She said, flying back down into her seat.

     Twilight rolled her eyes. “Shouldn’t you be with the weather team?”

     Rainbow Dash looked up from her Daring DO novel. “The next storm isn’t until Wednesday?”

     Twilight looked over to her pegasus friend. “It is Wednesday.”

     Rainbow looked down, then back up with a look of shock in her face. “Oh… I’ll be back!” And with that, the pegasus shot out of the room. The rainbow trail and small sonic boom she left behind causing all the books that were just put up to be knocked back off the shelves.

     Twilight sighed as her horn fired up again picking up the books. Only when she was three in when a knocking started on her door. “It’s open!” She said, concentrating on remembering where said books went. The door opened, followed by the clopping of hooves and the… squeaking of tires?

     “Twilight, ah need y’er help with somethin’.” Applejack said, rolling her wagon through the door.

     Twilight looked over to her southern friend. “What’s in the wagon.”

     Applejack unharnessed herself from the wagon, moving around to the back. “Lock the door.” She said, seriousness in her voice.

     Twilight nodded, using her magic to close and secure the door. She looked over to the wagon. “Applejack, what’s going on?”

     Applejack grabbed the burlap bag that was covering a lump in the wagon. “See for y’erself.” She then yanked her head back.

     Twilight did not gasp, instead she moved closer, squinting her eyes. “Applejack, what is this?”

     Applejack spat the burlap to the ground, turning to the wagon and its contents. “It called itself a ‘human.’”

     Twilight looked over to Applejack. “Called itself? So not only is it sentient, but it also speaks Equestrian?”

     Applejack nodded. “Ah found it in mah house, talking to mah Granny!”

     Twilight activated her horn, scanning the ‘human’ for any surface damages. “Did it hurt her?”

     Applejack shook her head. “No. She said that he actually had a conversation like any normal pony.”

     Twilight raised his shirt, two hoof marks making themselves painfully visible. “How did he get these?”

     “That’s another thing, Twi.” Applejack leaned in close. “Ah think it may be magic.”

     Twilight stared at the human. “It’s possible. These stitches on its clothes look too similar to one another to be hoof… er… hand made.” Twilight was about to poke his hand with her own hoof, but was swatted away by Applejack.

     “Don’t touch it’s hands!” Applejack screamed. “That’s what ah was just about to tell ya about!”

     Twilight frowned. “What? What’s wrong with it’s hands?”

     Applejack looked over, grabbing a tissue from a box nearby. She held it over its hand. “Watch this.” She said. Letting go, the tissue fell directly onto its hand. Twilight this time did gasp, as the soft tissue turned into a solid block of ice with contact. Using her horn, Twilight picked up the frozen tissue, examining it over.

     “Interesting.” She said. Looking at his head, she noticed his breathing. “Has it been doing this the whole time?” She asked, pointing to his blue breath.

     “Yup, Granny even said that he was doing that when he knocked on the door.” Applejack said, looking over to Twilight. “So the tissue, it kinda did that to one of mah trees.”

     Twilight met Applejack’s eyes. “One of your trees?”

     “It just touched it, and the entire thing froze over.” Dug into a small compartment in the wagon. “It left these when i…”

     *SLAM!* “Ooooooooooooooooooooooooowwwwww…. Twiiiiiiiiiiiiliiiiiiiiiight!” A groan came from outside.

     Applejack looked over to Twilight. “When it tried to run from me.” She set the other article of clothing on the  ground, walking towards the door. “It looks like it goes on its hands, but ah didn’t want to touch ‘em.”

     Opening the door, Rainbow Dash sat on the ground with crossed arms as rain fell from the sky into her fur. “I said I would be right back… Hey AJ!” She said, shaking off before walking inside. Her eyes got wide at the wagon in the middle of the room. “Woa…. what is that?”

     Twilight used her magic to raise the clothing and the human’s hand into the air, sliding the protection onto its body. “We don’t really know.”

     Rainbow Dash cocked her head. “Doesn’t look so tough.”

     “”Dash, this thing froze one of my trees solid.” Applejack said in a monotone voice. The memory getting less and less shocking to her every time she had to mention it.

     Twilight grabbed a thermometer from the kitchen with her magic. “I don’t sense any unstable magic coming from it. Maybe it’s all contained?” She asked, sliding the thermometer into the human's  mouth.

     Rainbow Dash hovered over the human, making sure the blue breath didn’t touch her. “What if it’s an alien? Oh! What if it came from the Everfree! OH! What if, it. Can. Talk!”

     Twilight glanced at Rainbow Dash. “It can talk. And from what Applejack said, it speaks fluent Equestrian.”

     “Coooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooool.”

     Twilight took the thermometer out of its mouth, her eyes widening. “This says his temperature is below freezing!”

     “How is it still alive?” Applejack asked, observing the human.

     With a grunt, the human started to stir. The ponies took a step back. “I guess we could always ask and find out?” Twilight said, getting her horn ready.