Life, Love, & Magic

You never know what to cherish until you no longer have it.

Frost had learned what that phrase really meant the moment the truth hit him square in the head.

He was at a slumber party.

With Applejack, Twilight, a not-quite-sure-she's-still-alive-over-there Rainbow Dash....

and Pinkie Pie.

That mare was an unstoppable ball of energy with a hyperactive thought process and an extreme addiction to parties.

Frost tried to cover his head with the pillow. No luck. Those mares were having a great time, no doubt about that, but that didn't make it any easier for Frost to try to get some sleep.

"Umm... could you guys ple--"

Big mistake. The moment he tried to take his head out from behind cover, Frost met with a pillow to the head.

"Ooph!"

Pinkie made what could be considered one of the most adorable apologetic faces ever. "Oopsie Woopsie! Sorry Frost!"

"Could you guys please keep it down? I just know I have a lot of work ahead of me tomorrow, and I want to try to get some rest."

"Aww, that don't mean you can't stay up just a lil' longer? Think of it this way Sugarcube-- you an' a couple pretty mares like ourselves, alone, at night... don't tell me you're plannin' ta sleep through that? Maybe Twi here ain't as traditional as she seems, cause Ah'm not quite sure there's a stallion here!"

Frost knew exactly what AJ was trying to do. She was trying to rile him up and trick him into joining in on the fun, thinking that he'd end up enjoying himself. Well her little plan wasn't going to work. Frost was too collected to let a mare rile him up like that. Challenging his stallionhood? Really? Nice try, but you'll have to wake up pretty early to try to slip psychology tricks past Frost GreOH HAY WHO AM I KIDDING NOONE CALLS ME A MARE ESPECIALLY NOT IN FRONT OF MY MAREFRI-- IT'S COMPLICATED OK?!

"Applejack, I better not have heard what I think I heard! Alright then, you asked for it!"

Frost levitated an absolutely ridiculous amount of pillows, all aimed right at the orange cowpony. What followed was a massive storm of flying feathers. When everypony could see again, AJ was covered from head to hoof in feathers.

Frost tried to stifle his giggles for a moment, but it was useless. He fell to the ground, clutching his stomach and laughing his flanks off.

Twilight and Pinkie soon followed, and eventually, Applejack smiled and collapsed too.

Frost was so busy laughing that he didn't notice the three pillows hovering over his head.

"OWWW! Hey, watch it!"

He looked up to see two mares with pillows in their mouths, and one with five hovering over her head.

"...." Frost sprang up and quickly flipped his mattress, holding in the air as a shield, and ducked behind it before the onslaught began.

Frost took some time to think to himself while the pillows flew. 'Well...too late for sleep.'

________________________

One Year Ago...

________________________

He had finally done it.

Frost was resting comfortably at the top of the Canterlot food chain. Few others could claim to have his status, and even fewer could say they were higher. He still decided to stay away from the other members of the Canterlot elite, though. They had (indirectly) taught him everything he knew about other ponies, but that didn't mean that he actually liked being around them. The few he had met were exactly how he had expected them to be - snobby, vain, and selfish. But how could he judge them? His sins were just as bad, if not worse. He had retaken Canterlot by storm, stepping on lesser ponies all the way up to the top. The lucky ones could still claim to have something to their names after he was done with them. The ones who weren't...... well, they just weren't so lucky. But he never could have destroyed so many lives, taken so much and left so little behind, without the help of his... little friend.

As he took the time to head back to his room in his parents' newly renovated mansion, he stopped short. HE was talking to him again, for the first time in months. After they had finally reached the top, he simply went silent. Now that he was back, Frost had a feeling that he wasn't going to like what he had to say.

"..........Soon........."

'Wha- What are you talking about? Soon for what?'

"Soon, it will be time. I can sense it. The Elements have taken new hosts, and will soon be ready for me to collect. It is now simply a matter of time." He let out a small chuckle. "Only a matter of time......" and vanished.

Frost was more than a bit shaken when his sister found him sitting in the hall, staring as if he had just seen a ghost.

"Frost! Are you okay?"

"Huh? Oh, ye-yes, I'm fine."

The minute the words left his mouth, Frost knew what he was in for. His sister gave him a look, and he knew that he'd have to tell her eventually. He didn't say anything about having taken on her burden, her Voice, for fear of what the knowledge that it was still here and could return to her at any time could do to her mind. He tried to deflect the inevitable onslaught of questions with one of his own.

"Hey, something's been bothering me. Back when you still had that.... thing..... inside you.... what was it like?"

Her face lost it's curiosity and took on a cold, blank expression. ".......It... It was bad. I told you already, I remember touching that statue, then a few glimpses of you, and then there I was, staring at you on the ground, passed out. I really don't want to go into more detail than that."

Frost respected his sister's privacy, and decided not to pry any further, save for one more question.

"Ok, ok, I get it. But, can you tell me one thing?" His sister nodded silently waiting, for him to proceed.

"What did it want?"

As his sister remembered what the Voice had told her in her solitude, a look of horrified realization crossed her face.

"It said once that it wanted..... You."

_______________________

They were pinned down.

Frost and Spike, who had long since woken up due to the commotion and decided to work with Frost to give him a fighting chance, were stuck behind the mattress as the onslaught continued. That bed was the only thing standing between them and a feathery grave. Well, more like a feathery pummeling, but it would be feathery nonetheless.

They would have actually stood a chance against the mares - if Rainbow Dash hadn't woken up and if Frost hadn't accidentally hit her in the head with a pillow. It probably didn't make her hangover much worse. She had joined up with Twilight, AJ, and Pinkie, and they were hammering the only defense the guys had relentlessly.

Suddenly, the pillows stopped flying. Spike and Frost were confused and paranoid, and weren't about to look upon this ceasefire without suspicion.

Suddenly, Spike had an idea. "hey, frost!" he whispered, for fear of giving his plan away. "I have a plan. give me some cover by throwing down a few pillows. I'll sneak under them, and we can flank them on both sides."

Frost wanted to argue. It was too dangerous to send in one pon- er, dragon. "you know if you do this, you might not make it back."

"that, my friend, is a chance I am willing to take." Without another word, Frost nodded and silently levitated a small mass of pillows into the middle of the room to act as cover, a line all the way to Twilight's bed. Spike gave a valiant salute and dove immediately dove into the pile.

'There goes the bravest soldier I ever did see.'

And that's when Frost realized that they both might be taking this whole thing a little too seriously.

All was going according to plan, until, suddenly, the pillows he was levitating took on a soft magenta glow and were wrenched from his grasp. Even her magic was beautifIS THIS REALLY THE TIME FOR THAT?! Spike was revealed crawling along the floor, stuck halfway between both bases, with no cover in sight.

Frost cried out, "IT'S A TRAP!!"

Spike rose from the ground, a look of bold determination on his face. "Well, if I'm going down, I'm going down fighting!"

Spike turned to me, a single tear formed in his eye.

"rarity," he whispered, "someday you'll join me."

And so Spike charged.

He threw all the pillows he could find lying around, determined to give them a fight to the bitter end. Only a few got behind the bed before the retaliation began. The first one hit him square in the face. He stopped running, but kept standing, still determined. The next few gradually broke him down to the floor, until he was on his stomach, clawing for another pillow.

"Must..... continue.......on....."

Frost couldn't watch anymore. He galloped over to Spike, determined to get him back to base. The pillows all focused on him, but he didn't care. They were both making it out of there.

"Hold it together man! We're getting back to base, you here me?! Don't you black out on me soldier!!"

Spike chuckled. " I'm not.... gonna..... make it......game over..... tell Rarity... tell her......" and with that, Spike passed out.

"NOOOOOOOO!!" Frost cried out. He got up to gallop back, but a pillow hit him square in the back of the head. He fell to the ground. His vision hazy, he could see Twilight approaching him. She had a pillow levitated over her head, ready to deliver the final blow.

Frost coughed. This was it. The End.

....

....

Once again, Frost realized that him and Spike had taken this whole thing way too far at this point.

He sat up, completely unharmed. "Ok fine, you win. Can I just go to sleep now?"

Spike sat up, a disappointed look on his face. "Oh come on, It was just getting fun!!"

Twilight looked at them both with a smirk on her face. "Well, It is pretty late. I suppose that now that we're done with--"

"That SLAUGHTERFEST???" Rainbow Dash butted in. She immediately looked like she wished that she hadn't, as she began holding her head again, most likely from a combination of a pillow to the face and her hangover. She had a ring around one eye, a twirly mustache, and swirls drawn onto her cheeks, and noone had really thought to tell her about it yet, most likely because they were still getting over how funny it looked.

Twilight turned around and chuckled a bit at the sight of a confused Rainbow, still oblivious to her appearance as well as half the night. "--that, as Rainbow put it, we should get some sleep."

Frost was well ahead of her on this. He had already reset his mattress and leaped into it by the time Twilight had finished. He was out like a light.

However, the respite of his dreams could be considered less than restful.