That Time I conquered Equestria... As A Colt

The morning sun rose yet again over the small town of Ponyville. Though, what seemed like a normal day for most of the Ponyvillians, for two of them it certainly wasn’t. Rainbow Dash made haste to make herself presentable for once, as today, she would definitely be the centre of all attention. After all, today was the day of the Best Young Fliers Competition!

Frosty shared her excitement, although not for the same reasons. For him, this was a very important day as well. It was time to take another step towards his end goal.

Applebloom was apparently just as excited as he was, if not even more. Even before Frosty had even put a hoof out of bed, she was already banging at his door, calling for him to hurry up.

“Good grief, Applebloom. The Competition doesn’t start until this afternoon, calm down!” Frosty chuckled, as he went past her into the bathroom and took a shower.

However, Applebloom completely ignored what he had said, instead pushing him and her sister out of the door as soon as Frosty was out of the shower.

“Applebloom, for Celestia’s sake, what’s gotten yer so excited?” Applejack asked in irritation, as she and Frosty walked down the dirt road towards Ponyville, with Applebloom bouncing circles around them like Pinkie normally would.

“Did ya ferget, sis? We’re goin t’ Cloudsdale!” Applebloom squee’d, before continuing her bouncing and chanting “♫We’re goin’ t’ Cloudsdale, We’re goin t’ Cloudsdale!♫”

“We? Did Ah’ miss somethin’?” Applejack asked, raising an eyebrow at Frosty.

“Scootaloo wanted to cheer for Rainbow Dash, but due to her wing problem, she can’t fly up to Cloudsdale on her own. Thus, I asked Miss Twilight, if we could come along.” Frosty answered. “Which reminds me that we still need to pick her up from her home along the way.”

The three did just that, making a slight detour to Scootaloo’s, with Applebloom still imitating Pinkie all the way until they reached the Library. The others were already waiting there, save for Rainbow and Fluttershy, who was accompanying her. Sweetie was also present, having been brought along by her older sister and quickly joining her friends as they arrived.

“Good, it seems now everypony’s here.” Twilight began. “Before we start though, I have to put a spell on all of us, since only Pegasi can walk on clouds. It’s a spell that allows a pony to fly for three days. There’s only one minor issue.” She looked away, slightly ashamed. “I didn’t have an opportunity to test the spell until now, because somepony didn’t want to help!” She hissed, glaring at Trixie, who stood off to the side.

“Hmpf, you seem to forget that Trixie is a showmare and not a test dummy!” Trixie huffed.

“In that case, I volunteer.” Rarity stepped forward.

“Really? You don’t have to, you know?”

“Darling, if it’s for one of my friends then I am more than willing to give it a try.” Rarity reassured.

Twilight nodded nervously, before pouring magic into her horn. Multiple bright streams of magic enveloped Rarity and lifted her slightly into the air. She started to glow. So much so that everypony else had to look away to avoid being blinded.

When the light finally ceased and everypony looked back at her, Rarity was still suspended in the air, albeit not carried aloft by magic, but by two translucent butterfly wings that had grown on her back.

“Whooo-ey, Rarity! Those wings look mighty fine, Ah tell ya!” Applejack complimented.

“Yeah, very… fair… Applejack. Compliment the recipient… but not the… creator.” Twilight panted. It was clear that the spell had taken much more out of her than she had anticipated.

“Oh, uh, sorry sugarcube.” Applejack said sheepishly. “That was some amazing work.”

“Indeed, darling. These wings are truly fabulous!” Rarity complemented.

“Thanks, Rarity. Just be careful with them, okay? They are only made of morning dew and magic, so they’re very fragile.” Twilight said, having caught her breath a little by now. “And it’s very difficult to cast, so… this may take a while.”

“If it’s so difficult, why don’t you just cast cloudwalking spells on all of us and then get us up there with the balloon?” Frosty asked, turning the attention of everypony on him.

“Euh, yeah, that should work too…” Twilight said sheepishly.

And so, after just a minimal amount of additional magic effort, Twilight had successfully equipped everypony with cloudwalking spells. They all climbed into the balloon, apart from Trixie, who decided that she would rather guard the library than come to Cloudsdale and Rarity, who used her newly acquired wings to fly ahead.

Slowly gaining altitude, the seven ponies inside the basket enjoyed the view their height gave them. Well… at least as much as they could. While the three adults in the group could easily look over the edge of the basket, the four foals had difficulty doing so, thus being forced to look through the tiny gaps in the basket itself. Needless to say, this granted them very little of a downward view. However, this also meant that they were the only ones paying attention to what was above them and were thusly the only ones that were prepared when the balloon broke through the cloud cover and coated everypony in a thin coat of water.

The CMC went into a gigglefit when they saw the surprised faces of the older mares and even Frosty couldn’t suppress a chuckle. The sudden surprise made Twilight almost forget about releasing the hot air again to start their descent.

As soon as the balloon set down on the cloud, they immediately spotted the surprised Rainbow Dash standing right beside them and only becoming even more surpised when Pinkie jumped out of the basket onto the cloud and didn’t fall through. After a quick explanation from Twilight, Rainbow and Fluttershy offered a trip around Cloudsdale, which was gladly accepted.

The architecture of the city reminded Frosty a bit of ancient Greek buildings, what with all those pillars and all the white going on there, although the shops seemed more modern, with wide front windows, which Rarity gladly used to check out her own reflection.

They reached the weather factory and quickly decided that they very well still had enough time for another tour, so they quickly slipped into the safety garments and went inside. Their first stop was the snowflake-wing, where every single snowflake was hoof-made, according to Rainbow Dash. Though Frosty highly doubted that, as that would mean that – even if the snowflakes here were far larger than on earth – each square metre of ground would need thousands of these and making them all per hoof would likely take MULTIPLE years.

“Well, magic.” Frosty thought, deciding that he shall apply the same rule as with Pinkie Pie.

Of course, Rarity had to use her new wings, even though even Rainbow Dash was staying on the ground and, as any normal creature with good enough foresight could have guessed, the winds from her flapping sent what was probably half a year worth of work, flying across the room.

“Uhh… we should probably get moving again…” Rainbow said nervously as the whole room went into a panic.

Next was the rainbow factory (shudder), where Pinkie, of course, had to take a taste of the freshly made rainbow. Needless to say, it wasn’t very tasty.

“Yeah, rainbows aren’t really known for being tasty, you know?” Rainbow commented.

Shortly after she made that comment, however, they heard a voice from the other end of the room. It were three Pegasi who were following and complimenting Rarity for her wings, drawing even more attention to them. Rainbow seemed at first annoyed at Rarity’s antics, but as more and more ponies gathered, she became nervous.

They were cheering for Rarity, making her subconsciously slowly gain altitude until she was hovering in front of one of the many windows. The sun shone directly through her wings, casting rainbow light throughout the room and impressing the crowd even more.

“Wow, such beauty!” One of the mares commented.

“You should definitely enter the best young flyers competition!” Another shouted, earning wide agreement among the crowd.

Meanwhile, Rainbow Dash’s nervousness grew exponentially. Even though it was irrational, self-doubt grew within her at the sight of the crowd Rarity had amassed. If she, a completely unexperienced flier could already entertain a bigger crowd than Rainbow could even attract, how should she keep up with the actually experienced flyers?

Thoughts like these were a heavy blow to Dash’s morale, making it increasingly difficult for her friends to keep her motivated. Yet, time doesn’t stop, as much as one would sometimes like it to and so, with her stage fright on an all-time high, Rainbow led her friends to the stadium, where the competition took place.

As they took their seats, Frosty took care to place himself as far to the front as possible, in order to make the execution of his plan easier. Rarity, to the horror of Rainbow Dash, had actually chosen to enter the competition, leaving the group together with Rainbow to prepare for their turns.

None of them were surprised, when Rarity’s number was called, but nopony stepped out. Instead, the commentator said something about ‘minor issues with the contestant’ and moved on to the next number… and the next… and the next… and the friends started to wonder, when Rainbow will get her turn, as they all remembered clearly that her position was one of the first five.

Of course, Frosty knew what was going on. Rainbow was secretly switching her positions with those of the other ponies in the waiting room, thus hoping to buy more time, but ultimately only delaying the inevitable.

Finally, the last number was called and out stepped Rainbow Dash… and Rarity, who had finally managed to ready herself up and apparently didn’t know what these numbers were for, but that was fine… for Frosty at least.

Both started their show simultaneously, but while Rarity seemed to gain the attention of the crowd almost instantly, Rainbow seemed to go almost completely unnoticed, which was likely the best for her, seeing as her nervousness caused her to make a ton of mistakes.

Finally, it was time for the climax of both shows. Rainbow readied up for her attempt at a sonic rainboom, now finally noticing that nopony was paying attention to her. She looked around and spotted Rarity, who was climbing higher and higher into the sunlight. Frosty’s heartrate rose as he saw the event that would be his mark inch closer and closer.

A small trail of smoke came from Rarity’s wings as she spread them out to scatter the sunlight into all the colours of the rainbow and then, the moment came.

Everypony gasped in shock, as Rarity went Icarus and plummeted towards the earth. The Wonderbolts were immediately hot on her tail, however her flailing made it difficult for them to even get close to her, even knocking them out in the end.

Rainbow spotted this and immediately went into action. She sped down with all her might, straining her wings to get just a little more speed. Just a tiny bit. A tiny bit that was enough to form a cone of compressed air before her head, which slowly grew bigger until, just before she reached Rarity and her unconscious saviours, a rainbow-coloured shockwave soared through the sky and a rainbow trail followed Rainbow’s path.

Only moments before Rarity would’ve hit the ground, she found herself caught and lifted into the air again by a cyan blur, followed by a rainbow streak.

Rainbow flew over the stadium in a wide arc, before coming in again through the bottomless floor and setting her friend and the Wonderbolts down on the clouds.

Now it was Frosty’s time to strike. Just before Rainbow could set down herself, he made her wings cramp up with a burst of his necromancy.

Rainbow gave a yelp of surprise and pain as it was now her turn to fall, eliciting another row of gasps from the crowd and yet another, as Frosty jumped right after her. However, only when he was already in the air did Frosty notice what he had brought upon himself, as his mind was overwhelming him with all the alarm bells it could possibly ring.

“Okay, calm down, just don’t look down and… fuck, I have to look down to see Rainbow Dash!” Frosty thought to himself, as he tried to force his fear back by solely focusing on Rainbow. He increased his speed by making himself as small as possible to lower his air resistance and only when he came closer, he slowed down again.

When he was close enough, he grabbed onto her, eliciting another surprised yelp from Rainbow. However, Frosty couldn’t hold himself on her back, instead sliding around to hang from her neck, where he found himself nor face-to-face with the panicking mare.

“Frosty?! What the tartarus are you doing here?!” She screamed with even more panic.

“Saving your life obviously!” Frosty said back.

“How?! You aren’t even a Pegasus! What were you thinking?!”

“Calm down, I need to concentrate. I can get you back up there, but, just as a heads-up: this is gonna hurt, so try to resist as little as possible.” He said, before closing his eyes and getting to work.

“Hurt? Resist? What the buck are—HNNG!” Rainbow wanted to ask, as she suddenly felt her control over her own body slipping away.

Frosty opened his eyes again and gave a few experimental flaps with his new wings, slowing his fall in the process. When he was sure that he had full control, he looked back down and saw that his own body was still falling.

“Oops, better make haste before I hit the ground…” He thought, turning upward with Rainbow’s body and flapping her wings. He could feel the fatigue in them drag heavily on his performance, but he luckily didn’t feel any pain. That was likely all forced upon Rainbow, which he felt genuinely sorry for. However, he had other problems to deal with at the moment, as he noticed that his necromantic energy was being drained faster than he had anticipated.

He strained her wings as much as he could in order to gain altitude faster, fighting against time, as his power got drained quicker and quicker. Finally, he reached the lower stadium and barely managed to place Rainbow over the cloud floor, when his necromantic energy ran out.

Quickly forced back into his own mind, Frosty gasped when his consciousness returned, but gave a satisfied smirk when he found his plan had succeeded.

“Perfect.” Her thought. “And now onto the last part.”

He called upon his normal magic to gather around his horn and form into a parachute. When he felt ready, he then released the spell, so the magic could form… nothing.

Slightly irritated, Frosty tried again… and again… but somehow, every time, it seemed like there wasn’t enough magic in him to form the spell, even though it had worked all those times before.

“Oh dear god NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!” He screamed as he found the situation falling out of his control, just as he kept steadily falling towards the ground.

He tried again, again and again, but every time he failed.

“NO! You can’t do that to me! YOU CAN’---“

*phlat*

Rainbow panted as she fell the remaining few inches onto the cloud floor. Frosty had warned that it would hurt, yes, but never could she have expected so much pain. Her wings felt sore to the point that she almost couldn’t feel them anymore at all and her mind was throbbing like something or somepony had been sitting in there together with her.

And that was exactly the case, wasn’t it? Frosty had saved her life. He had taken control of her body, as it refused to listen to her and forced it to take her back to Cloudsdale.

“Rainbow!” She heard a familiar voice, as she looked up and saw her friends rushing towards her.

“H-Hey, girls.” She said weakly, far too exhausted for any more movement.

“Rainbow, are you okay? Are you hurt?” Twilight asked worriedly.

“N-no, I mean yes, but… everything… hurts.” Rainbow panted.

“Hold on, I’ve got this.”

Quickly, Twilight lit up her horn and cast some magic into Rainbow. The Pegasus immediately felt her tense and sore muscles relax and the pain subsiding. Tentatively, she tried getting up again, but only barely managed to get herself into a sitting position. At least that was better than to lay flat on the ground, though.

“Thanks, Twilight. I feel better already. Dear Celestia, that cramp really came unexpected. If it wasn’t for Frosty, I’d—“ she cut herself off and her eyes went wide as she noticed that she had almost forgotten something. “FROSTY!! Quick, we need to save him! He’s still falling!!!”

Rainbow wanted to dash off again, but Twilight held her back.

“Calm down, Rainbow.” She ordered. “Everything is fine.”

“No! It’s not! He’s falling to his death, Twilight!!”

“No, you don’t understand, I’ve taught him a parachute spell.” Twilight said, walking to the cloud’s edge and peering down. “Just watch, you’ll see a bright light any second now and then a big, purple dome will slowly float towards the ground.”

The others gathered around her and looked down, where one could still faintly see the colt’s falling form in the distance.

“Any moment now…” Twilight ensured.

“Can’t be long anymore…” She ensured again, growing slightly nervous.

“Come on… what’s taking him so long?” She asked herself, her nervousness rising quicker every second.

“Ah can’t see him anymore, Twi! Are ya sure that he’ll be fine?” Applejack asked, just as nervous as Twilight was.

“I can still see him, but he still hasn’t cast any magic, as far as I can see.” Fluttershy said, her and Rainbow’s Pegasus-eyes allowing them to see way better than the others.

But even Pegasus-eyes have their limits, as a few moments later, even Fluttershy and Rainbow couldn’t see him anymore.

Another few, tense seconds pass until suddenly, their eyes went wide, as they could faintly make out a rustle in the treetops below…

“Oh no…”

“…Ow…” Frosty groaned groggily as he regained consciousness. “I should really make a mental note to never do that again.” He said to himself, as he was lying on the forest floor and looked upwards towards the cloudcity floating above him in the blue sky…

…

“Wait a second, the sky? Didn’t I fall into a dense forest?” He asked himself, tilting his head slightly to the side and spotting a deep brown branch hanging above him, devoid of leaves… and devoid of life.

He tilted his head further and found that the dead branch belonged to a tree which looked just as dead. He quickly got back onto his hooves and looked around. His eyes widened, as he took in the scene before him.

In a wide circle around him, everything looked… dead. The grass looked like it had been burned, the trees and bushes had lost all their leaves and the wood itself was so brittle that a simple touch brought a whole tree crumbling down under its own weight.

And something else also caught his attention, when he focused on himself: Even though he was fairly certain that he had expended all of his necromantic energy, the ball inside of him was replenished.

“You don’t mean… Every time I die, I just suck the life force out of my surroundings? While that’d certainly be helpful in a few ways, I’d rather not test it out…” He thought.

Obviously, such a power also opens up quite a few new possibilities for him, like when surrounded, letting himself get killed on purpose in a kind of a Kamikaze-attack, which he would then actually ‘survive’ while his enemies didn’t. Though, such a course of action was likely neither particularly pleasant for him, nor was it really his style.

“Frosty!?” He heard shouting the distance, ripping him out of his internal monologue. He took another look at his surroundings, quickly coming to the conclusion that if he was to be seen in this mess, the chances of him getting out of this unharmed were likely very slim.

He turned into the direction the shouting came from and closed the distance in order to intercept them before they could get into viewing range of his impact zone. Luckily for him, they still seemed to be pretty far away, so he managed to get far enough away from the impact zone quickly enough.

The first he ran into were the CMC, who instantly tackled him into a hug the moment he came into view. Or, well, at least Applebloom and Scootaloo did. Sweetie Belle apparently wasn’t fast enough to join in. Not that it would’ve made a difference.

“Frosty! You’re okay!” Scootaloo shouted in joy as she buried her tear-stained face in Frosty’s chest.

Applebloom didn’t even manage to say anything, as she instead emptied her last drops of saltwater into Frosty’s fur.

“Of course I’m okay! Did you really think I’d do something like that without a plan?” Frosty grinned as he let them go, playing down his own panic attack that the three luckily hadn’t witnessed.

“Heh, of course. I knew you’d have a plan. You always have!” Scootaloo said, wiping a few last tears from her eyes as she and Applebloom gave Frosty a bit of space.

Sitting back up, Frosty looked at Sweetie Belle, who had been silently standing a few steps back with her head hanging low.

“Come here, Sweetie.” Frosty offered with his forehooves extended. “If these two were worried about me, I can’t even imagine what you went through.”

Sweetie slowly closed the distance and Frosty opened his forelegs further. However, when Sweetie finally reached him, she did something that none of them had expected.

Scootaloo’s and Applebloom’s eyes went wide, when Sweetie slapped Frosty once across the face.

“Firstly, Never, EVER, do something like that again.” She demanded forcefully. “And secondly…”

Scootaloo’s and Applebloom’s eyes went even wider when Sweetie suddenly lunged forward and pressed her lips forcefully against his, holding them there for a good few seconds, before collapsing against his chest.

“Secondly… please, PLEASE, never do something like that again…” she pleaded desperately, as she pressed her face into his chest and sobbed. “You don’t know how terrible it felt seeing you jump like that and then, when you fell and fell and fell… We didn’t know what to do. We could only stand there and watch as somepony so precious to us just fell to his death…” she cried.

“Yeah, I’m sorry. I know that losing a friend can be terrible, but—“

“NO! You don’t understand!” She interrupted him, jerking her head upwards and locking her sore eyes with his. “You’re so much more to us than just a friend, Frosty! You’re so kind and helpful and intelligent! You make us happy by just looking at us! Every second we spend with you is like the best day we’ve ever had! You’re not just a friend to us, we LOVE you, Frosty!” Sweetie blurted out, burying her face in his chest again.

Frosty was taken aback by that statement, even though he had already known. He looked over to Applebloom and Scootaloo, who were looking away with heavy blushes.

“Is that… is that true?” He asked in surprise.

“Y-yeah. Actually, we’ve all been feelin’ kinda weird ‘round you and we wanted t’ see what that feelin’ was… but yeah, ah think ah love you…” Applebloom said.

“Yeah, what she said.” Scootaloo agreed, still looking away.

Frosty, meanwhile, was speechless. He had planned out this very scenario and yet, right now, he was woefully underprepared. Although, such a situation held also something that was both, curse and blessing at once, as he didn’t need to choose a personality. Turns out that, no matter the amount of planning you put into this, nature always takes the upper hand and makes your choice for you.

“I… I… umm…” Frosty stuttered. “I—I think, I… I love you too…” Frosty confessed, although not quite truthfully. “I’ve known for quite a while and I meant to tell you, but I… I just couldn’t bring myself to do it.”

“Heh, really? That’s great!” Scootaloo said joyfully.

Then, silence ensued. A somewhat tense silence, where none of them really knew what to do.

“Sooooo… what do we do now?” Scootaloo asked, breaking the silence.

“I… I don’t actually know.” Frosty admitted.

“Maybe ya could… you know… kiss us too?” Applebloom asked tentatively, hiding a blush again.

Frosty looked over to Scootaloo, who, too, blushed at the idea, but kept her head forward this time and nodded. To this, Frosty said nothing, instead opening his hug around Sweetie again and spreading his forelegs a bit wider. Sweetie scooted a bit to the side to make room for her two friends, who then quickly came in, both receiving a peck to the lips by Frosty when they arrived.

“That tickles!” Scootaloo giggled. “So, what now?” She asked, looking at her two friends.

“How about we just stay like that for a moment?” Sweetie Belle offered, to which the other two agreed by simply burying their faces into Frosty’s chest.

Another moment of silence ensued, but this time, it was a content silence. A silence shared between fresh lovers and spent only enjoying each other’s proximity. Though, even moments like these have to come to an end, as Sweetie spoke up again.

“Frosty?” She asked.

“Hmm?”

“Can we please not tell our sisters yet?”

“Hmm? Why?” He asked slightly irritated. After all, his whole plan required telling their sisters or else he wouldn’t be able to exploit their sisterly bonds.

“Because I… I just… don’t feel comfortable about it yet…” Sweetie said.

“Well… I mean… what do the others think of that?” Frosty looked over to the other two, who were both nodding against his chest.

“Well, if it`s like that… sure, if you want to wait, we can wait.” He conceded, hiding his annoyance. Although… maybe this wasn’t too bad. After all, if he immediately went to their sisters to tell them, he could come off as a braggart, which would likely be counterproductive towards his plans. Maybe, taking the slow approach was for the best…

“Wait a sec, OUR SISTERS!” Applebloom suddenly remembered. “They’re probably searchin fer us!”

“Applebloom? Applebloom, where are ya?” A country-accented voice sounded through the forest.

“Scootaloo? Where did you run off to?” Another, raspier voice called.

“Sweetie? Are you there?” A third, more ladylike voice chimed in.

“Huh, in speak of the devil.”

“We’re over here!” Scootaloo called back. “We’ve found Frosty!!”

The calling stopped and was instead replaced by the sounds of galloping hooves that quickly came closer.

The first to break the bushline was Applejack, who immediately set eyes upon the four cuddling foals. Immediatley she went into a sprint towards Frosty, who was already preparing for a second slap across the face, when he was suddenly lifted up and pressed against Applejack’s fur.

“Oh thank Celestia, Ah thought we’d find ya as a pancake on the ground!”

“Heh, I told you he’d be okay.” Rainbow said calmly behind her.

“Uhh, weren’t you the one who dove down here the moment I fixed her wings again?” Twilight asked with a smirk.

“Uh, yeah, yeah, I, uh… As a future wonderbolt, I have to help ponies, you know? I just, you know, did my future job!” Rainbow defended.

“Of course you did.”

Twilight rolled her eyes and looked over to Frosty, noticing his strangely unharmed state.

“Though… forgive me that I’m asking, but… how did you survive?”

Frosty took a moment to gather his thoughts and to conjure a plausible-enough cover story.

“You know… after I got Rainbow back onto the clouds, I had barely any magic left. It was actually not even enough to keep the spell up for even a few seconds. So, what I did was cast a very small parachute, which slowed me down barely enough so that I didn’t get impaled by any branches and didn’t break any bones. The rest is just… up to pure dumb luck, I guess?” He said, close enough to the truth for Applejack not to notice. That or she was too busy hugging the life out of Frosty to really care.

“Alright… but what am I doing? You’re probably very tired now. We should really get back to Ponyville and maybe even get you to the hospital. Oh, what am I saying, DEFINITELY get you to the hospital!”

“Heh, yeah… that would likely be… for the best.” Frosty said unenthusiastically.

And so, they made their way back to Ponyville. The doctors at the hospital found no further injures, which Twilight immediately asked a thousand questions about, but upon Frosty’s suggestion, she decided to just be grateful for the gifts fate had given them. That and the short pause the hospital visit had granted her had made her realise, how tired she actually was.

And so, after a whole day of excitement, they all went to their respective houses and as soon as their heads touched their pillows, they all fell asleep.

Two royal guards flew over the Whitetail woods. A Pegasus had spotted something strange and they were sent to investigate, though what was waiting for them clearly surpassed their expectations.

The first signs that something was off came when they could see a patch of forest in the distance that wasn’t covered in leaves, although they could definitely see trees there. A few minutes later, they could see that there were also bushes, which also lacked any leaves to speak of. However, the true extent of the damage only became apparent, when they had almost reached the mysterious clearing.

Slowly, the baffled guards set down in the clearing, the charred blades of grass immediately turning to dust. The guards looked around, trying to comprehend what they were seeing, but utterly failing to do so.

“Sweet Celestia, what happened here?!”