It was a busy day in the ‚Frilly Filly‘. The mares at work were going to and fro, servicing their ‚guests‘, who were mostly nobles, with the odd Gangster Boss mixed in-between. Given the nature of the establishment, it was only natural for those closer to the entrance to wonder about the entrance of four foals, three fillies and one colt.

„Whoa.“ Scootaloo exclaimed as they entered the large main room. „This place is HUGE!“

„Yeah… and tha dresses those mares wear make me understand what you meant earlier about this place…“ Applebloom added.

Truly, given their purpose, all the mares working there wore clothes not to hide anything, but on the contrary, to even draw MORE attention to their naughty parts.

„Indeed. Certainly not a place for sweet little fillies like you are and neither a place where a colt like me should be found. However, we can’t worry about things like these now. After all we came here for something important.” The colt stated, before moving down the middle alley with the CMCs falling into step behind him.

All three of the fillies wore dresses which were fitting to their owner’s coat in colour, while the colt wore a simple black business suit with a fedora hat. Their outfits were one of the reasons why the guests that noticed them weren’t all that alarmed about their presence, even if it got them an odd look or another. After all, adults with the body size of a foal were rare, sure, but not unheard of.

The four made their way further into the establishment, heading straight for a table, which was already occupied. Its occupant was a large, brown stallion. Officially, his name was Safe Count and he was an accountant in the royal financial department. Unofficially, however, he was the head of the biggest Mafia in Equestria. His Influence stretched from Canterlot far into the major cities like Las Pegasus or Manehattan. He was also a regular at the ‘Frilly Filly’ and the mares here knew about his true identity. Did they care? Oh yes, they certainly did, or else there probably wouldn’t be hundreds of them swarming all around him.

Spotting his target, the colt picked up his pace and the CMC followed close behind and when they finally reached the Stallion’s table, they sat down directly opposite of him, which of course immediately grabbed his attention.

“What? Three fillies and a colt? Hah, how did you even get in here? Ah, doesn’t matter, what do you want? I don’t sell ice cream and I won’t donate to some orphanage, just so you know.”

“Good day, mister Safe Count. Do not worry, we are not here to waste your time with some donation or anything of that sort. Rather, I wanted to propose a deal. The… off-the-books kind of deal, if you know what I mean…” The colt said, smirking at the stallion directly in front of him.

“What? What’s that supposed to mean? Who are you?” The stallion asked, not amused in the slightest.

“Oh come on, mister Safe Count, we know that you aren’t just some accountant. Like I said, we want to strike up a deal with you and I promise you that it will be beneficial to both sides.” The colt answered.

“I told you to tell me your name, kiddo. If you know as much as you claim then you certainly know that I am not one to play games with.” Safe Count half-threatened, though the colt remained calm.

“Oh please, I just told you this is going to be off the books. Let’s just keep my name off the record for this.”

“No, I said I WANT YOUR NAME!!!” Safe Count shouted, slamming a hoof on the table, making Scootaloo, Sweetie Belle and Applebloom flinch back and scoot closer to their colt, who had remained completely calm.

“Well, well…” He started. “If you insist, I suppose it can’t be helped. I shall give you my name. My name is… Frozen Blood.”

As soon as the name was spoken, the room went completely silent. The mere mention of this name had caused every bit of conversation to be cut and Safe Count was now the one to flinch back.

Frozen Blood only chuckled from the reaction his name was causing and took a moment to think back to where this journey began…

It was a sunny day in the Everfree. The Manticores were stealthily hunting, the birds were singing their songs and in the middle of it all, a colt opened his eyes for the first time.

James didn’t know what happened at first. He thought he had gone to sleep inside of his house and not on the balcony. Furthermore, seeing a sunny sky in a British morning was most unusual. Nevertheless, he didn’t think much of it at first. He rubbed the sleep from his eyes, not noticing at the moment that his hands had become hooves, and tried to stand up. However, he found that standing on two feet had suddenly become very difficult. So difficult in fact that he got up and immediately toppled over again, faceplanting himself into the dirt.

“Ow. What a great way to start a day. Well, at least my cold seems to be gone.” He remarked to himself, not knowing why he said that out loud.

“Wait… Why is there grass in my room?”

He lifted his head and looked around. All he saw was trees. Trees everywhere. Well, and a small lake that was in the clearing that he woke up in. Then, it suddenly clicked with him.

“Oh, what, seriously? I died from a blasted cold? Oh you can’t be serious!” He complained to whatever deity had written his fate. “I really hope this afterlife is worth its price, ‘cause that was not cool at all!” He then added, pointing an arm into the sky. Though, when it came into his field of view, he stopped and looked at it more closely.

“A hoof?” He noted. “Wait a second…”

He looked at his other three extremities and found that all of them were indeed hooves. He got up to all fours and noted how fascinatingly easy it was for him to keep his head in an upright position. Almost as if it was natural.

He looked behind himself and saw just what he had expected to see: his human body was now gone and replaced with the body of an animal, though he couldn’t quite place which one. He looked around and noticed the lake again and, with a very awkward first attempt, he walked/wobbled over to see his mirror image.

“Alright, this might just do as a make-up.” He stated, as he looked into the water and saw that he had indeed become a pony from the MLP-verse. A light-gray unicorn colt with a white mane to be exact.

“Alright, I’m a unicorn colt… do I have a name?” He asked himself again, looking into the sky and thinking for a moment, until a name was practically shoved into his brain. “Frozen Blood? Well, that’s certainly an off name for someone from the MLP-verse, but well… I’ll just go with it, I suppose?”

He sat there for a moment, looking at his image in the water thinking of his new name. Though, he soon found another problem that he had to face.

“Though… as much as I love the show, I don’t know what I am supposed to do here… hey, maybe my cutie mark can… oh, sure, why can’t things be easy for once?” He asked rhetorically, as he turned around and saw that he was – surprise, surprise – a blank-flank.

“Well, I guess I’ll have to find something else to do then…” He stated, looking upwards and thinking, before his face slowly shifted into a devious smile. “Oooohhh, I know… How about I try to conquer Equestria? That should certainly be something.” He stated before himself.

With his mind made up, he pondered his first steps and the logical first thing that came to mind was to determine, where exactly he was. He looked around at the scenery beyond the trees and, to his delight, could actually spot Canterlot sitting on a mountainside in the distance and with the help of the background imagery from the show, he quickly determined the direction that Ponyville had to be in. That and that he was likely in the middle of the Everfree.

“Alright, so I’m in the Everfree… Well, since that’s likely not a place I want to be in, especially as a colt, I’d likely best make haste to reach Ponyville, wouldn’t I?”

Trees, trees, even more trees. It had been quite a while since James, or Frozen Blood, by his new name, had started his journey. Journey in this case being meant literally, as he was still wandering through the Everfree.

Trees, trees and more trees yet. There were still no signs of Ponyville though. It was the closest settlement he could think of and it was thus only logical for him to head that way, albeit it wasn’t the only reason. After all, since he was only a colt and alone at that, brute-forcing his way to the top would be quite difficult. Instead, he knew he would have to build up some influence within Equestria and then make his move onto the throne and what better way to build up influence than to befriend the elements of Harmony and Celestia’s protégé at that? That is, if she was in Ponyville yet. There was, after all, the possibility that he had landed here before Twilight would arrive, or even worse: in another era all together.

Trees, some buildings, even- wait what?! Finally, there were signs of civilization in front of him! He released a relieved sigh, as his long march would finally find its end.

He made his way into town, taking in all the buildings and quickly identifying it as indeed being Ponyville. Now, since he didn’t see a giant crystal castle, the first thing he needed to check on was the tree library. If Twilight was there then he definitely had something to work with. If not… well, he’d think about that, when the time came.

He walked through the marketplace, noticing that Applejack was selling her apples at a stall and that there was also a cloud floating by with a Rainbow tail hanging from it. Thus, he determined that he was at least in the right era. What he didn’t notice, however, as he made his way to the library, were the strange looks and even disapproving glares he got from the local townsponies.

He made his way over to the Golden Oaks Library and was just about to open the door, when he suddenly heard a deep male voice behind him.

“Excuse me, young colt?”

Frozen Blood turned around and looked at who called out to him. It was a white unicorn stallion, wearing what seemed to be a variation of the standard guard’s armor. A local policepony maybe?

“Uh… do you mean me?” Frozen asked back.

“Yes, I mean you. Say, what are you doing here at this time of day?”

“Uhm, I wanted to check up on a few things in the library. I didn’t do anything wrong, did I?” Frozen tried to remain as passive as he could, though it was getting hard for him, since he definitely wanted to know if Twilight was there and this bobby was definitely not something he wanted to deal with.

“Well, that depends… To my knowledge, school is in session right now.”

Realization hit Frozen like a brick. School, of course! He was a colt, so he had to go to school!

“Uh, hehe, there has to be a misunderstanding, sir. I have actually left school two years ago and am now studying. That’s one of the reasons why I need to check the library, actually.”

Heheh, smart move, I’ve got to say. He praised himself.

“Oh, really? In that case, you should have a student ID, shouldn’t you?”

Or not…

“Umm, yeah, that’s the thing: my student ID is in there and…”

“You can stop right there, kid. I’ve heard these excuses way too often already to actually believe them. Now, I’m afraid I’ve got to tell your parents about this. So, be a nice colt and tell me where I can find them, okay?”

Oh crap… “My parents? Uhm, uh, they are…” Frozen Blood stammered. He needed to come up with something quick, or else he might—

“Ah, you know what: I’ll let Cheerilee deal with them. For now, I’d best bring you back to school. Maybe we can make it in time for afternoon class.” The policepony said, leaving no room for argument.

“B-But—whoa!” Frozen tried to argue anyways, only for a blue aura to grab hold of him and float him into the air.

Oh, god dammit. He cursed to himself, as he saw the Library slowly move away.

In the Ponyville School, the bell had just stopped ringing and Cheerilee was scribbling something onto the chalkboard. She planned on teaching her students about the many strengths of the different pony types today and how they came to found Equestria. However, just as she turned around to address the class, somepony knocked on the door.

“Uh, yes, please?” She called out, to which the door opened and the local sheriff entered.

“Miss Cheerilee, I’ve come to bring you this colt I found skipping class today.”

“A colt skipping class?” Cheerilee repeated. She looked over to her class and counted through. Diamond Tiara, Silverspoon, Snips, Snails, Scootaloo, Sweetie Belle, Applebloom…

After she had gone through her whole list and was certain that nopony was missing, she turned back to address the stallion. “Um, excuse me, but I’m not missing… any… pony…” Only to find that he had already left, leaving her a light gray colt with white mane and tail, who looked just as confused as she was.

“Um… hello there, young colt… You seem to be in a rather strange situation, aren’t you?” She tentatively asked.

“Yeah, that’s… certainly one way to put it.” The colt replied, earning him a few giggles from the front row.

“Uhhh, yeah, anyways…” Cheerilee turned to her class. “I… guess you can all welcome a new member to our class today. Say, young colt, what’s your name?”

Oh, this is gonna be good. Frozen prepared himself for the storm that was undoubtedly about to commence.

“My name is Frozen Blood.” He said, and the class responded by innocently singing “Hello, Frozen Blood!”, while Cheerilee almost toppled over when she heard the name.

This didn’t go unnoticed by Frozen. “Yeah, it’s a pretty weird name, isn’t it?” He asked, though he truly only wanted to tease Cheerilee a little.

“Yeah... Uh, I mean, no, not at all!” She lied, forcing a smile at him. “Now… how about you take a seat and we start class now, huh?”

Frozen nodded and looked around. He saw that there was only one seat left empty in the room. Directly behind Applebloom and next to… Diamond Tiara…

Oh, bollocks… Given that I’m blank, this is likely not going to be fun… He thought, as he took the seat.

“Hey there, Frozen Blood, Ahm Applebloom! Ah see that y’all ain’t havin’ a cutie mark neither! How ‘bout yer join the Cutie Mark Crusaders and tryna search fer it?” Applebloom asked him straight away, though, seeing as the other two crusaders were also looking at him, she had likely already discussed this with them.

Hey… those three are the sisters of the Elements, aren’t they? Huh, maybe being forced to go to school wasn’t that bad of a thing to happen to me… Frozen thought to himself, before he replied happily.

“Yeah, sure!”

Author's Note

A new Idea that came to mind while working on Equestria: The Afterlife. I hope you are thrilled as to how he's gonna accomplish his goals ^^

Also: Commodus pt.1