Friends Make The Best Presents
On this very night, it was a time for merriment, a time for cheer, a time for, well, and cliche things that one may associate with the holidays. In any case, it was Hearth;s Warming Eve, and all through the North, it seemed to be quiet and calm....as it always was. But this holiday would be different for one little colt and his mother as they prepare for Hearth's Warming.
Icesius Blizzard. One of the few members of the Ice Clan that are left in the world of Equestria, was preparing for this holiday with his mother, Yuki Frostlace. While his mother was usualy caring and kind during the holidays, Icesius....was...different.
The sound of a skateboard flipping off the rails of the stairs, and tumbling could be heard following by a tiny raspy shout, "Aw yeah! Trick filperoony!" The little blue colt with blue hair, and a blue tail, a yellow streak through both, and a blank flan was none other than Icesius. "That was awesome!" he exclaimed.
A gasp, followed by hoofsteps running up the wooden stairs was heard as Ice's mother, Yuki, came and checked on her son, "Ice!" she said angrily, "How many times have I told you? No skateboarding in the house!"
The little colt laughed, and replied, "Aw, come on, mommy. It's just a bit of fun. You know how excited I am."
The earth pony mare sighed. She head a purple coat, purpleish-blue and black hair that matched her tail, and sympathetic hot pink eyes that she fixated upon her son, "I know you're excited for Hearth's Warming Eve, sweetie. But please be careful. You don't want to be hurt when Electron gets here do you?"
Ice shook his head, and jumped up excitedly. Electron Wave Storm was Ice's good friend. They had met a few weeks ago, and had become friends at school. He was now being dropped off to spend the night of Hearth's Warming eve, much to Ice's delight, "No, mom. I can't wait for him to get here!" he said.
"Good," his mother replied, "Now there are a few things I want you to do before he gets here. Firstly..." she picked up his skateboard, "No more of this foolishness in the house, ok?"
Ice pouted, but nodded, "Ok..."
Yuki smiled, and kissed her son on the forehead, "That's my boy. Now please, go decorate the tree while I make dinner, ok? And no putting up any high decorations. Mommy will do those."
Ice nodded, and scampered off to go put up the decorations of the lower half of the tree. He whizzed, and zipped along, creating a blue blur as he moved about, putting the decorations on the tree. After a while, the bottom half of the tree glittered and shone with baubles, trinkets, and all kinds of old ornaments his family used thousands of years ago, "Woah....." he said as his amber eyes beamed at his work, "Mommy come look!"
Yuki came into the room, and saw what her son had done, "Oh, Icey! It looks beautiful!" she chirped happily, "You can go outside and play while mommy does the rest, ok?"
Ice shrugged. He didn't like having to go outside. He wanted to stay in, and help his mom with the decorations. However, he knew that he should leave her to finish up everything, so she could set it all up, "Oh well.....I just hope I can find something to do..."
Suddenly, a yellow colt with a yellow and black mane bowled Ice over, "Hey, Ice!" causing them to tumble around in the snowy northern landscape, until they both slammed into a tree, spitting up, "Woah....." They stopped together, both of their eye balls rolling around in their heads as stars circled above them.
After shaking their heads from the dizziness, Electron smiled, and hugged his friend, "Ice!"
Ice smiled back, "Electron! How are you?"
"I'm great! Glad to be with one of my best friends," he spoke happily.
Ice nodded his head, "Awesome. I can't wait! It's Hearth's Warming Eve, and we're gonna have so much fun together just the two of us! I even made you a gift!"
Electron smiled, "Aw, thanks. I got something for you too. But we'll have to wait until tomorrow to exchange gifts."
"Yeah yeah I know," Ice said impatiently, "Come on, I think mom's almost done cooking. We can go eat and then play!"
They walked back to Ice's house. It was a log cabin style home built for standing up to the harsh conditions of winter. The house was old. The wood creaking beneath their hooves at they walked up the stairs onto the porch. However, as old as it was, it still managed to hold itself together. The colts walked into the house. The decorated pine tree freshened up the room beautifully, as they walked onto the soft, beige carpet.
A lot of noise was coming from the kitchen as Ice's mother continued to cook. It was taking her a bit longer than usual, and she was sitting down to rest for a moment. Ice trotted over to the kitchen where he tried to open the door, but was stopped by his mother opening it, and blocking his view, "The food's not quite ready yet," she explained, "Why don't you two go upstairs and play while I finish up, hm?" She was quite a mess. She was covered in flour and other baking ingredients as she stood there. She was covered in so much of it, that she had to knock some out of her hair.
Ice tried to look around her, but she was insistent. Therefore, he had no choice but to go upstairs and wait as she said, "Oh, alright," he grumbled, "Come on, Electron. Let's go." Ice walked across the floor to the stairs, with Electron following closely behind. They both walked up the wooden staircase until they reached Ice's bedroom, "Alright. We'll sleep in here!" he stated. The room was quite a sight. The walls were all painted blue. His bed had snowflake pattern bed sheets, There was even a bookshelf with one lonely book sitting on its side, and two windows which would allow one to view the snowy landscape down below, "Isn't my room cool?" Ice asked.
Electron nodded in agreement, "Yup. It sure is something." He then sat on Ice's bed, noticing the lone book, and pointing at it, "What's that?"
Ice blinked, turning his head around to the bookshelf, "Oh. That's my book!" He exclaimed, and then raced over to grab it in his mouth. He sat on the bed next to his friend.
Electron cocked his head a bit, "What's it about? Monsters? Aliens?"
Ice shook his head, and opened it, "It's my grandpa's war book. He gave it to me a few days ago as my Hearth's Warming Gift."
Electron was confused, "Why didn't he give it to you in person?"
Ice sighed, "It's because he's still on his mission or whatever. Since he's a general, I had to realize that he wasn't able to come home for Hearth's Warming. But he sent me his book as my present."
Electron was amazed, "Wow. He must be pretty awesome."
Ice nodded, "Yeah he is. But I'm just glad to get this from him. Hearth's Warming Eve is about giving, and charity. If he's not here himself, then at least I have a piece of him with this book." He hugged it tightly.
"Right..." Electron mumbled as he looked away. He was really hoping that his gift to Ice would mean something. In reality, he wasn't that much of a stickler for the holidays. He would always feel disappointed in not getting what he wanted, and had decided not to ever get his hopes up for anything anymore. Because of this, Hearth's Warming Eve hadn't been much of a big deal for him.
Ice began flipping through the book rapidly like the hyperactive colt he was, until he stopped on a page with a map. The map was two light brown pages of the book that were old and tattered. It had a path that traveled around the surrounding area, "Ya know.....I could never figure out what this actually was."
Electron looked at it, "Hm....interesting...."
"You wanna follow the map with me tomorrow? Maybe we can find whatever is out there!" Ice chirped.
Electron shrugged, "Maybe....."
The colts heard Yuki's voice from downstairs, calling them to dinner. Once Ice left the book on his bed, the boys went downstairs. All kinds of delicious food was on the table from vegetables to hay soup, "Thanks mommy!" Ice squeaked.
Electron muttered, "Thanks....."
Yuki noticed Electron's off behavior, but decided to wait until later to ask him about it. It was peculiar. So much so, that there was a blank awkward silence at the table. Yuki decided to break it, "So, are you boys excited?"
"Yeah!" Ice shouted.
Electron simply nodded his head.
Yuki tried again, "Have you two been having fun?"
"Yeah!" Ice repeated.
Electron nodded once again. It went on like this for the whole half hour they were at the dinner table. When they were all finished, Yuki gathered their plates, "You two wash up and get ready for bedtime ok?"
Ice nodded quickly, and scampered up the stairs.
Yuki was now alone with Electron, "Is there anything wrong?" she asked.
Electron shook his head.
"You sure, hon?" Yuki asked again.
Electron nodded.
"Alright," Yuki said, "Go upstairs and get ready for bed."
Electron nodded and walked upstairs. The colts eventually were both in their pajamas, and tucked tight in bed, "Goodnight," Yuki said with a smile. The boys returned the goodnight, and went off to sleep.
Later on that night, Ice couldn't get to sleep, so he decided to get up for a drink of water. He then looked outside his window, and saw a blue aura. Being the curious colt he was, he snuck out of his window into the cold night. He walked around until the ground beneath his hooves caved in, causing him to fall, "Ahh!" he cried, "Help!!" After some time, he stopped at the bottom of the slope and found an old room.
The room was made of nothing but brown stone and there was practically nothing in there, "Woah.....what is this place?" He eventually came across something that caught his eye. A blue crystal. It was a quartz-like crystal that was floating in the air, "What is...." He reached his little hoof out to touch it, and all of a sudden, several old spirits emerged from it.
"Icesius Blizzard....." one of the spirits boomed, "You are one of the only last members of the Clan of Ice. And you have found our power supply."
Ice was speechless.
"This crystal contains all of the power your ancestors used. And now, you shall carry on the legacy. You are a very young colt, so if you practice and take the time with your powers, you'll be the best Ice Clan warrior of all time."
Ice was confused, "Wait...how....who...."
The spirits began to fade away, "Use them well, Icesius...use them well...."
Ice began trying to ask a multitude of questions, when suddenly, he woke up out of his sleep the next morning, "Woah....what happened?" He looked over to his yellow friend that was still asleep, "Hm...." With a sudden wave of his hoof, he froze his alarm clock by accident, "Woah....." He waved his hoof again, and froze a rock outside, "Woah! This is awesome! Wooo!"
His loudness woke Electron up. He looked at his excited blue friend and was shocked, "Woah....dude....how did you...?"
Ice shrugged, "I dunno! But I like it!" He then ran downstairs to show his mom, who shared equal excitement. An earth pony who could control ice was so amazing, it made him forget entirely about presents.
Electron walked downstairs to see his friend focusing on his powers. He sighed, and looked at th wrapped gift he planned to give him, and shook his head. He didn't want to interrupt Ice's fun with his newfound powers. It went on all day, as Ice made snow and ice from his hooves amazing both his mom and himself, "Why don't you go show your friends?" Yuki suggested.
Ice nodded, and ran to his friend, "C'mon Tron! Let's go show everyone!"
Electron nodded, but now had a look of sadness on his face as he followed Ice. When they got to their friends, all eyes were on Ice and Ice alone. Electron still couldn't find the way to say anything.
"Woah! You have powers?!" a colt shouted.
"That's amazing!" a filly squealed.
"Yeah....amazing...." Electron said to himself as he sat down away from the group. It went on like tis for every day after that. Electron would set himself aside to let his friend Ice take in all the glory he wanted as he showed off his powers. It stayed that way until one day, Electron walked up to his friend, "Ice....I need to talk to you...."
"What's up?" Ice asked as he fumbled around with ice in his hooves.
"Ever since you got those powers.....you've only paid attention to everyone else...."
"What? That's not true...."
"Yes it is. You hardly pay attention to me anymore, Ice. I'm your real friend. They only like you for your powers."
"Well...is that a bad thing?"
"Yes. Because you're not spending time with your real friend.....me."
"But....but I...."
Electron turned around, "Ice....if you can't balance your time with your fans and your friend....then I'm sorry.....we can't be friends anymore......" He then walked off back to his house. Leaving Ice alone, stunned, and torn.
"What do I do....?" Ice asked himself.
That night he walked back home, and prepared for bed. His mother noticed he looked troubled, "Icey? You ok?"
"Yeah I'm fine, mom...." Ice answered.
Yuki sighed. She knew something was wrong, but she decided to let Ice sleep on it, "Alright....goodnight."
Ice returned the goodnight, and as soon as he heard his mother snoring, he made a beeline for the cave. He fell down the same place and went back to where he found the crystal, "Ice spirits? Hello?!" he called, "I don't want these powers anymore."
"Why not?" a voice replied.
"Because....it's ruining my friendship. I'm getting unwanted attention from all the other foals, and I.....I just want my friend back."
"Are you sure he's not jealous?"
"No. haven't been a good friend to him this Hearth's Warming. I've been selfish and forgot all about giving my friend a gift. I want to make this right. Please take my powers back."
The voice sounded sincere, "Are you sure?"
"Yes. Friends make better presents than magical powers. And if it means I have to give them up. So be it. I just want Electron and I to be friends."
"Very well...." the voice said. Suddenly, Ice was once again awakened in his bedroom. He was alone, and ran off to find Electron.
Ice eventually found his yellow friend playing with a stick, and gave him a hug, "Hey buddy!"
Electron scoffed, "Aren't you supposed to be showing off your powers?"
Ice smiled, "I got rid of them."
"Wh-what?! You gave up those powers? Why?" Electron asked.
Ice sat down with him, "Because.....you're my friend. I don't need adoring fans over some stupid powers. I need a friend. Like you." He waved his hoof around, "See? Nothing."
Electron smiled, "Thanks....I appreciate it."
ice laughed, "Hearth's Warming Eve is about charity and giving. I realized I needed to give up those powers in order to stay your friend."
"Wow....." Electron muttered.
Ice presented his gift, "i got you something....."
"Me too..." Electron said as he showed his. They both had made hoofbands for each other that read, "Friends 4 Evur."
"Friends forever?" Ice asked with a smile.
Electron nodded, "Friends forever...." he said, pulling him into a hug.
Author's Note
I know it's rushed. But I tried my best in the limited amount of computer time I had. XD
