Frosty's Trottings

Back when I was still living in Canterlot, I wasn't that happy. I grew up in there, in the highest social circles. My parents were very rich and sociable, after all. They were the kind of rich ponies that give their child the name "Midnight Frost". I don't dislike it, but it's still pretty fancy. Nowadays I prefer everyone calls me Frost, or Frosty, if they know me better. My mom and dad had a lot of money, and made more money by becoming friends with ponies with money, and then joining in with the happy money-dance, whatever it is they do then to get money. They were good at the money game, and therefore it was expected of me to do the same as them: make important "friendships", and most importantly, get to know the children of rich ponies who my parents wanted to get something from. I didn't really know what real friendship felt like back then. My parents weren't unkind ponies, they just wanted me to become like them: rich, successful ponies. But I'm not them. Not at all. When they would be socializing and forging friendships, I would be sitting in a corner reading a book about magic. Social things just happened to other ponies. I was also just too shy to approach other ponies, but I never thought about that. I didn't want friends, I wanted other things, that actually had value. Like magic. Magic does what you want it to do, when you want it to. If you do it right, that is. Numbers also interested me, but not as much as magic. Numbers don't freeze a puddle solid in the blink of an eye.

So instead of trying to socialize, I practiced magic: basic levitation, small transformations, everything. It was difficult at the start, but I got better the more I practiced. Eventually I got so good that I could levitate myself, and one day, I levitated myself up from outside to my parents balcony, and then I sneaked inside and sneaked up on my mum. She got really scared, it was really fun to do. She asked me how I got there, but I didn't answer. I thought that me being good at magic would just be used as another tool in social things. Of course it wasn't going to be used like that, they would probably arrange some advanced magic studies for me, but I didn't know that. So I kept my mouth shut about my magic, and my parents got increasingly worried about me.

One evening, in the middle of the winter, I had to go to a party from this other mare who apparently had her birthday-sleepover combo that day, and her parents had a lot of money, or something. I had to go there, and become friends with her. This time, I tried to be a little more open about it, maybe she was a nice pony. So I went to the party and hoped for the best. I trotted through the snow to the house my parents told me was their house, and I went inside. It was a fancy house, even fancier than that of my parents. Everything was clean, not a single speck of dust was to be seen. I took off my coat and warm winter shoes, and entered the living room. Immediately a huge chandelier caught my eye, it was set with precious stones, and candles everywhere. Then I saw the table underneath it. It was laden with presents, and around the table there was a group of about eight ponies, slightly older than me, who were eating fancy chocolate cake, and all turned around to look at me when I entered. After a few seconds they ignored me, and continued chatting among themselves and eating cake. I looked around to see if there were any parents, who I could ask where to sit and to introduce me. There weren't any, so I just added my present to the pile, and sat down. I nervously said hi to them, and got a few noncommittal "hello"s back. So I just sat there staring of into the distance, thinking about what kind of magic I was going to learn next when I got home. After a while one of them noticed my blank stare, and drew the attention to me.

"Hey, are you sleeping, or what?" said one of the older ones.

My mind was pulled back to the present, and I noticed three of the older ones standing around me.

I hadn't heard what he said, and I felt really ashamed, so I stammered: "Wh-what?"

They sniggered a bit, and the one from before said: "I said, are you sleeping, or what?"

I looked at them, and I knew where this was going, so I just stood up, and walked to the exit.

One of them yelled after me: "Hey! Where do you think you're going?"

But I ignored him. I got my coat and my shoes, and I opened the door. I said goodbye, and closed the door behind me. I didn't want to be awkwardly standing inside putting on my shoes and coat, so I had just taken them on my back and walked away. So I stood there, wondering what to do next. I decided to take a little walk, and I started wandering in a random direction. I started thinking about magic again, and time flew by. It got dark, and before I knew it, everything was dark, and it was very, very cold. I still wasn't wearing my warm clothing, and I was surprised that I was fine with that. I felt the cold, sure, but I was completely fine with it. It even felt...nice, in a way. I felt comfortable outside. The stars were shining, no pony was outside, and everything was completely silent. I felt happy.

Then I thought, why not study ice-magic? I didn't have my books, so I had to think out this one on my own. I also doubted I would have a book about ice magic, as people would rather stay warm than be cold. So I wandered around some more, thinking about how to do it.

After a while I stopped, and looked at a small frozen puddle. I stomped on it, and the ice broke. I levitated the pieces out until there was just a small puddle of calm water left. I thought, if you take the warmth of something, and put it somewhere else, then it should work. So I tried it, and I suddenly felt a warm wind pass me, and the puddle froze solid in a second. I was really surprised it worked, and I did a silent victory dance. At that moment an old gentlepony walked past, and looked at me.

"Are you alright, my lad?" he said. I froze in mid-dance, blushed deeply red and stared at him.

"Yeah, s-sure," I said. He looked a bit worried.

"Aren't you cold? Shouldn't you be home, where it's warm?"

"Don't worry, I'm on my way home, and it's warm enough outside."

He gave me a doubtful look, and walked on. I watched him walk away, and then I started walking home as well, breaking the icy puddles, and then freezing them as I went with a mad smile on my face.

When I got home, my parents were surprised. I wasn't supposed to be home until tomorrow.

"Back so soon? What happened?" my mother asked.

"A few of them started bullying me, so I just walked away," I said. My parents weren't too happy about this.

"Why are you letting yourself be bullied so easily? If you want to be even a bit successful you're going to stop being such a pushover!" my dad said a bit angry. I got angry too.

"Well maybe I don't want to be successful here, maybe I don't care about being social and rich!" They were shocked.

"You two are forcing me to go to parties and to socialize, but that's not who I'm meant to be! I haven't gotten my cutiemark yet because I'm not meant to do this! Trying it again and again won't change that!"

There was a silence for a few seconds as I seethed and they stood there, baffled. My dad recovered first: "Maybe this isn't the right place for you then, son."

My mom wanted to disagree, but my dad poked her, and elaborated: "If he isn't capable of being a social, successful gentlepony, then he's better off somewhere else."

I felt hopeful. Maybe I could leave this life behind, and find out who I really needed to be. After all, I was the only one from my age (that I knew of) that was still a blankflank. Other ponies didn't say anything about it, out of politeness, and the fact that I might one day become successful and rich, and be useful to have as a friend. Maybe I would get my cutiemark in my new life. So my parents gave me some bits, and together we looked up what the best place to seek fortune was. Turns out it's Manehatten. A big city full of ponies. That meant dealing with a lot of ponies to make a living. So we looked on the map to see what small nice villages there were that I might go to. Then we noticed Ponyville, a small, (check,) friendly, (check,) village with tons of places to work, (check,) that was relatively close to Canterlot. (Not on the list, but helpful, nonetheless.) It sounded like a nice place. I just hoped that I wouldn't have to be so sociable like here.

So far, it hadn't been a good day.