A Winter Tale

A Winter Tale

By Blue Eyed Melloon

Chapter Three: The Party

ooOooooOooooOoo

The vacationing Wonderbolt spent the few days leading up to the party at home, choosing to relax now knowing he would be busy all Saturday night. He ordered take out, caught up on a book that he had been meaning to continue reading and lounged around his cloud home, entertaining only the very few pegasus that flew up to meet him. One such pony was the mail mare. Her strange knocked was followed by a smile with strange eyes that looked in two different directions. Soarin didn’t remember seeing her before, and assumed she had moved in somewhere in the past couple of years.

“Mr. Soarin?” she said, her voice cheerful and happy. Her hoof dug into her mail bag, and a few letters slipped out and off into the wind. “I have a letter for you.”

“Oh thank you...miss...?”

“Derpy.” she said, finally fishing out the letter and inspecting it to make sure she wasn’t giving the wrong mail away. Again. Handing the letter over, she offered another winning smile, continuing to speak. “It’s Derpy Hooves. That looks like an invitation to Pinkie’s party this weekend. I can’t wait to go!”

“It should be....interesting to say the least.” the colt replied, chuckling. Giving Derpy a smile, he said “Thank you very much Miss Hooves”

“No problem, it’s my job!” she said, taking off from his doorstep with a flurry of wings and envelopes.

Soarin, still smiling over his encounter, closed the door with his back hoof, opening the letter and revealing a bright pink invitation covered in stickers. Inside detailed that the party was for him, as well as the time and date. He stared at the invitation strangely. Why would Pinkie send me an invitation to my own party? But he shook off the odd occurrence as nothing. Pinkie did very strange things. He left the invitation on the counter, and went back to his business of reading.

The wind gusted through a window, pulling on the edge of the card and flipping it open. It seemed determined, and after a couple more gusts, the invitation skidded along the table and lifted off. It flew through the open window, and fluttered down to the earth below, carried on now triumphant winds.

There wasn’t a sound as it landed on the earth. There it lay, getting slightly damp from the ever present frost until a pale hoof picked it up. This same pale hoof held it aloft, reading the words inside.

“A...a party? For Soarin?” came a soft exclamation, followed by a gaze upward. She knew it was his home, she had watched him fly there the last time he had left. Briefly she wondered why the invitation had fallen. Maybe he had dropped it for her! Her heart beat an erratic rhythm,but her head told her not to be so stupid. It probably just fell from the window. She really should return it...

The mare looked at her light blue back, sighing. No wings. “I guess I can give it to him at the party.” she mumbled, tucking the invite away in her mane. “A party! I’ve never been to a party!”

ooOooooOooooOoo

Sugarcube Corner was alight from the inside, and when the door opened to let somepony in music blared from the opening. Balloons and streamers were tied to every available cranny, and a large banner depicting Soarin was strung from one corner to another. The colt of the hour was standing just out of the beam of light, and coughed nervously. It looked like every pony in Ponyville was showing up tonight. He adjusted his new jacket’s collar for the hundredth time, and took a deep breath. It was just a party right? He was in front of crowds all of the time...

Of course those crowds are far below me. I can’t make out their faces.

There was no more time to wait. He was already fashionably late, and had run out of excuses for not going inside. So he put on his brave face, and entered the beam of light coming from the windows. He pushed open the door, and was assaulted with light and noise.

Sugarcube Corner was decked out in blue and yellow streamers that wound around poles and leapt from one side of the ceiling to the other gayly. Each streamer ended in a bow with a yellow lightning bolt with light blue wings, exactly like his cutie mark. There was a long table against one wall laden with every sweet treat imaginable including...

Soarin licked his lips, spying a few apple pies steaming with warmth despite the warm temperature inside.Tables had been cleared away from the central part of the room, where there was currently a conga line dancing to the upbeat music played from the record player nearby. A large bowl of punch stood on its own table, with plastic cups circling it. Everywhere he looked Soarin saw ponies. They chatted and laughed and ate, everypony seemed to be enjoying themselves. When he entered the room, eyes began to drift toward him, and everypony had a smile on their face. There was a collective inhale and suddenly the entire room of ponies shouted.

“WELCOME HOME SOARIN!”

He felt buffeted by the noise, but grinned while covering his ears. “Thanks everypony!” he shouted back, moving farther inside so that he could shut the door from the cold. He immediately went for some punch, and after downing a glass, he mingled among his friends, sharing a story or two and laughing about the stories they had to tell. He gave Berry Punch a pat on the back, congratulating her on her recent success with opening a bar, and promising to visit sometime very soon. After every snippet of conversation, he always ended it with a hearty thank you for the attendance of the pony in question. In this fashion he made his way through the crowd, pausing to sign an autograph for the same orange filly he had spied  earlier in the week with what he guessed was an Apple family member, judging by her name. The filly, named Scootaloo, hugged the napkin close, grinning widely and saying “This is going next to my picture of Rainbow Dash!” before scampering off to squeal with her friends that stood by a table nearby. Soarin felt a tap on his shoulder, and turned to see Pinkie Pie, who was in her element and looked as if at the slightest provocation, she would explode into a rain of confetti and cookies.

“Isn’t this party great!?” she squealed, throwing a hoof around to indicate the merriment in the room.

“It really is Pinkie, thank you. I think everypony in town is here!”

“Well DUH, I sent an invitation to everypony in town, so of course everpony is here! Who would ignore a Pinkie Pie invitation!?”

Soarin laughed, and took a bite of the cupcake he was holding steady with a wing. An explosion of raspberry hit his tongue right before the tang of lemon chased in after it. He hummed, and swallowed, saying “Apparently nopony. Thank you again. I don’t know what I can do to repay you.”

Pinkie smiled, cotton candy hair bouncing as she hopped from hoof to hoof.

“You can repay me by having the best night ever!”

An hour into the party, a young mare entered Sugarcube Corner. There weren’t any hellos exchanged, no one stopped their stories to call out her name and wave.  If a poll were taken of everyone in the room, most would be reluctant to say they had ever seen her before in their entire lives. But that was ok with her. She didn’t want their attention. The colt that she wanted to talk to was standing by the counter, laughing at a story that a butter yellow pegasus was telling him, Rarity and Rainbow Dash.  She recognized the rainbow speedster from the various Wonderbolts tryouts that came through Equestria, though most weren’t in winter due to the cold. She stopped in her tracks, taking a deep breath. She could do this. She could do this..

There was a gasp from across the room, and ponies were hastily shoved aside as a pink bullet shot straight through the crowd. There were calls of “Watch it!”, but Pinkie Pie didn’t hear them. She was eye to eye with the young mare, who looked absolutely terrified.

“Ohmygosh a pony I haven’t met yet!” she exclaimed, taking the other mare’s hoof and shaking it so quickly that her entire body seemed to shake right along. “I’m sorry I couldn’t get you an invite to the party because I didn’t know you! But you found your way to the party anyway thank goodness! My name’s Pinkie Pie, what’s yours?”

The light blue mare pulled her hoof free, breathing heavily. Pinkie Pie didn’t seem to realize that her close proximity was causing this unknown pony grief, and tilted her head to one side when she didn’t immediately answer. She tapped a hoof, impatient to hear the other pony talk.

“What’s the matter? Cat got your tongue?” she emphasized this by sticking out her own pink tongue, waggling it while trying to talk.

“ifh a cat had your ton, you would shound like dish!”

She succeeded in getting the mare to smile, and Pinkie’s tongue shot back into her lips, which split into a grin.

“There we go! Now what’s your name?”

“My...my name is Snowflake.”

The voice was quiet and sweet, and Pinkie grinned wider.

“That’s so pretty! Almost as pretty as my friend Rarity’s! She’s over there, with the purple mane. She’s talking to the one the party is about! That’s..”

“Soarin.” Snowflake breathed, eyes widening. There he was! Her breath came in shallow gasps as her heart threatened to beat right out of her chest. Pinkie Pie looked from Snowflake to the unsuspecting Soarin, a plan slowly starting to brew in her brain. She grabbed Snowflake by the shoulders with one hoof and threw her other hoof into the air, shouting “HEY SOARIN! COME MEET THIS PONY!”

Snowflake felt her world starting to crumble. Her hooves became jelly, and she wobbled dangerously as Soarin’s green eyes met hers across the room. His widened while hers shrank, and tension flared between them. Rarity, Fluttershy and Rainbow Dash were staring around his shoulders with mixed expressions. Rarity’s was appraising, deciding on whether or not she liked the short mane and tail given her complexion and body type. Fluttershy stared at her with curiosity, but hid it behind her length of pink mane. Rainbow Dash’s face showed mistrust, and a bit of concern regarding this mare coming out of nowhere and wanting to talk to Soarin.

There was a full minute of silence, all the while Pinkie Pie remained frozen in place, goofy grin on her face and a hoof holding Snowflake hostage while she willed the earth to swallow her up at that exact moment. Finally Soarin broke the tension and made his way to where the two mares stood. Now that he was about to talk to this strange mare, he felt his heart begin to beat quicker. What would he say? What would she say? The uncertainty made his pace slow and steady, and each second felt like agony to Snowflake.

The closer he got, the more Snowflake leaned away from Pinkie Pie, hoping that the electric pink pony would let her go so she could leave. But the pink hoof held her fast, as if Pinkie knew that she was trying to bolt. She was nearing panic when Soarin reached two feet away he stopped. Both ponies remained silent, staring at eachother as if the other had grown a second head. It was Soarin who spoke first, saying “Hello.”

“H-hello.”

Again, awkward silence. Pinkie Pie looked from one pony to another, her smile perpetually plastered to her face.

“Well! You guys are getting along great! I’ll just leave you two alone Okie Dokie Lokie?” One more glance between the two and she bolted away to find somepony else to bother.

Snowflake remained adamantly silent, staring at the ground while twirling her hoof around in circles. Soarin coughed, trying to think of something to ask that didn’t involve her following him or anything like that. He flapped his wings to release some tension, then said “So, what’s your name?”

The mare muttered something, and Soarin was reminded of Fluttershy, though her mane was much shorter and she seemed to be even more jittery than the timid pegasus. He leaned forward, and she leaned back. “I didn’t hear that, sorry it’s kind of loud in here.”

“I’m....S-s-s” Her voiced failed her, and she whimpered.

“I’m sure it’s pretty, it’s alright.”

“I’m....Snowfl-Snowflake.”

Soarin smiled reassuringly. “See, I was right. Are you a visitor here? I don’t remember you from when I last visited.” He lowered his head, attempting to look at her eyes. She curled in on herself, shriveling away from his curious gaze. Her lowered lip quivered, and her body threatened to shake to pieces.

“I-i-i have to g-go.” She said suddenly, turning away and trying to make a quick escape. Soarin reached out and grasped her shoulder, and gasped when she turned to face him.

Her eyes were large, the irises the palest shade of blue. At first glance they looked almost white. There were tears swimming at the corners of her eyes that were framed by long black lashes. They were beautiful.

Snowflake took the opportunity of his stunned silence to wriggle free, galloping away through the crowd and blasting through the door. She ran away, tears staying put in her eyes even though she felt like crying. She blew it. He was talking to her and she blew it!

Soarin stared at her exit route, hoof still floating in the air. Those eyes....those beautiful eyes! All around him, the party faded away, the merriment washing away into the background as his mind turned over the latest encounter with that odd mare. Snowflake he mentally corrected, amending his view of her. Her name is Snowflake.