MLP Infection AU: Frostbite

by Kor Dust

Chapter One: Starlight's Invitation

"You must be joking, Twilight! Sunset would be a better pony to ask then me."

Starlight was a little taken aback that Twilight had asked her this year to be in charge of setting up the entertainment and historical attractions for Ponyville, not expecting the purple alicorn mare to put such a large job onto her shoulder's especially since this year was to be the year that other representatives from other neighboring countries were to be arriving that week in that very town to celebrate Hearthswarming, something that was only brought up at last year's celebration held at Canterlot that Twilight had blurted out on "accident" while several representatives from other countries were attending mostly out of curiosity of how the pony race held festivities near the end of the year.

"I trust you to do this for me, Starlight. I know you don't really trust yourself with leadership given what has happened in the past but I have full confidence that this will be an excellent lesson for you to learn on your own not only about trusting the ponies under you but to trust in yourself to not fail them as their leader." Twilight says comfortably to Starlight, the lighter purple unicorn looking nervous and a bit sheepish at Twilight's request.

When Starlight had accepted Twilight's invitation to join her at Ponyville's town hall, she was not expecting the resident royal alicorn and harmony element to entrust her with a leadership task of historical importance that she feels she would surely mess up in some way and cause Ponyville to become a laughing stock not only by the other representatives attending but by the princesses as well, Princess Cadence and Shining Armor included with their young Flurry Heart.

"N-No, Twilight, I-I shouldn't. I-I would totally mess up somehow a-and ruin the whole festival a-and destroy Equestria's reputation with the other nations and.. and.. and..--" She gets interrupted by Twilight grabbing her by her shoulder's and shaking her gently.

"No, you're not, Starlight! I fully believe in you to make this one of the best Hearthswarming Week festivals ever. And I am also confident that you will wow those ambassadors when they get here and see how amazing it is. I have seen and heard what you have done before when you stepped up as a leader for everyone to look for guidance, Starlight. I believe in you," Twilight says in a confident and encouraging way to lift the nerves of the young unicorn.

"R-Really, Twilight? You really think I can pull it off? W-Well, i-if you really think I can do it, then I guess I can give it a try. I-I'm still going to be nervous as Tartarus but it can't hurt to give it a shot, considering you probably have more important things to do since you are a princess." Starlight says in a still nervous but growing confident voice. If Twilight says she believes in her then by Tartarus Starlight will give it her all to prove to her friend and everypony else that she can do this!

Twilight gives her a pat on the back as a sign of good faith before walking off to have a chat with Mayor Mare in her office about the festivities and other things that still needed to be prepared before and after the representatives arrive on different days of the week to attend the different schedules of the festivities. Starlight meanwhile stepped out and proceeded to walk to one of the large tents set up by town hall where each of the different teams assigned to different tasks got together in their special uniforms to talk amongst each other and decide what they were each going to do and when. Starlight headed to the tent in charge of the entertainment and historical plays, the light snow crunching softly under her boots as she approached where Applejack greeted her as Starlight approached the flap as AJ was stepping out.

"There yah are, sugarcube! Twilight's already briefed us that you'll be in charge ah us this year. She's got a lot a faith in you, sugarcube, and so do we. We've already got a few ideas as to what we can all do this year to prep for the shows and activities but we wanted ta run them by you first since you're in charge for now." Applejack seemed a bit cheerful and indeed faithful that Starlight will be able to prove herself this year that her looks aren't just for her smarts, handing her a yellow vest to wear overtop her light jacket before following along behind her to join the rest of the group waiting for them around a large table with a bunch of paper, lists, notepads and a large map of the town spread out across it a bit messily.

So far, most of the ideas that were previously been thrown about before her arrival seemed to be fairly straight forward and normal if not a bit repetitive since a lot had been done for years before due to their popularity with most ponies. With a sigh, Starlight greeted her group before requesting these ideas brought up, each one indeed sounding like the various activities she and many others have participated in many times each year. After hearing them all, Starlight decided she was going to take things for a spin and change things up a bit. While the historical shows such as the founding of the three tribes, their descent into aggressive jabs at the other tribes and finally their fall into ice sculptures before their thawing thanks to the magic of friendship, some things were going to be a bit different this year.

One such change was to move the historical founding show from the town square over to the fields near Sweet Apple Acres, a decision Starlight came to since there were to have a much larger crowd than usual so they would require a larger space to host the show, one of which seemed to put a smile on Applejack's face considering how proud she is of her family's farm. A lot of ponies in the group agreed to such a decision since the weather was supposed to be warm and not so cloudy so it was a perfect idea.

They went through several other ideas, most of which involved moving some activities and minor shows about for convenience, some of which are outside the town more towards the path towards Sweet Apple Acres while most were still in town so there was more space for the crowds and so other ponies can check out the other shops and businesses the many Earth ponies, pegasi and unicorns have built and maintained over the years instead of just crowding around the town hall.

With some requests sent out to the other groups asking to see if they were alright with some changes to their plans and some coming back stating they were fine with some of the changes, things seemed to get in motion as they started to proceed with some of the ideas that didn't involve the other groups such as prepping the stage out near Sweet Apple Acres and having the actors rehearse their lines while they wait nearby.

Within the next couple of hours, most of the stage had been constructed and there had even been some hay bales donated by the farm so ponies weren't sitting in the cold snow. As a bonus, a couple hay bale rides were even arranged with the Apple family scheduled around the shows as well so attendees can take some tours of the apple orchard and of the area surrounding the town and farm.

Despite the interruption of a rude pony over at the train station a couple hours into all the preparations, the pony being a bit hostile towards some of Starlight's groupmates and some of the vested ponies from other groups, things went fairly smoothly for everypony involved with little complications.

And when it neared the evening, Twilight approached Starlight with a grin on her face as Starlight was looking over the notes of everything they had went over and completed that day, AJ standing beside Starlight reading some things over her shoulder on the checklist as Rainbow Dash flew overhead and landed nearby with some of her group.

"I knew I could count on you, Starlight. Look at how well everypony works with you and look how well everything got done today. We'll have to come back again tomorrow but I think everypony did well today. We have three days to set everything up but based on how much you got your group to do and getting the Apple family to help out with some of the construction of the stage, you might have enough time to help the other groups with some of the things they may need help with." she says with a smile on her face.

"Thanks, Twilight. I guess I needed this to help get over my anxiety of leading others. I thought everypony would eventually hate me and all my ideas and kick me out, but they said my ideas were pretty alright and were open to some change rather than sticking to the plan that happens every year. I get that we're getting a bigger crowd this year but I wasn't expecting ponies to be open to my ideas. Thank you, Twilight. This has really helped me with getting over some things." Starlight says to Twilight genuinely as Starlight gets a pat on her shoulder from Applejack behind her as Rainbow stepped up to join the conversation.

"So you really were behind all this, Starlight. I thought Twilight was pulling my wing when she told me she was putting you in charge of something this year but you really surprised me, Starlight. You actually took charge for once and made an impressive show for yourself. Good job." Rainbow flashes her a smirk and an approving nod as Starlight blushes a bit at the compliment from her.

"You really did do good, Starlight. I have a feelin that this year will really be a year to remember by all thanks to you, sugarcube." AJ's compliment made Starlight's blush brighter, the unicorn mare trying to hide her face as Twi and Dashie chuckle at how cute she looks with a blush.

They continued to speak for a bit before finally meeting up with the rest of their little friend group over by Sugarcube Corner for a quick bit to eat, Starlight getting even more compliments from the rest of them as the Cutie Mark Crusaders had a snowball fight just outside. Even Spike was with them giving the blushing mare some heartfelt comments and praises for her work. After getting so much praise and compliments, the poor mare couldn't take her face becoming more and more red so she decided to take a quick run outside before she bumbled out something embarrassing, baffling her friends before they laugh a bit and continue chatting about the week what they were each going to do before and after the Hearthswarming festivies.

As Starlight ran out, she shakes her head and tries to calm herself down. As she passes by Rarity's Boutique, she hears a bit of a verbal dispute out back, two stallions getting a little heated with words, one being a bit upset and grumpy about something as the other seemed the same, like the two were bickering about something small but were making it bigger than it really was. She tried to walk about back to try and break them up gently but the two weren't very receptive of it, shouting at her that its none of her business. This shook her enough for her blush to wash away entirely before she walked away back to Sugarcube Corner, listening to the two as the sun began to slowly set on that productive day.

Comments

[stag the story teller]

11938216
OK I thought about this and I say, infect Celestia, add the tragedy and comedy tags, make them find the cure fast and start cure the infected and make Celestia get infected and restart the nightmare all over again, multiple times until they crack and decide to make her be in solitary, just so she won't get infected again, but make it that the sickness have a unnatural element, other than what you already gave it, that makes it reappear when the affected is in huge distress, thus making everything they do to contain Celestia, pointless and forces them to either infect everyone on the planet or destroy the planet, and make them choose the later on being the best option because after the distress reemergence the affected to be desperate to want to become infected no matter what, like an addict. Also make Celestia a little clueless or incapable to not try and comfort the infected so that she becomes one verry fast even after being cured.

[Kor Dust]

11938878
While that would be interesting, this isn't like a normal virus or infection from the other infection AUs (although at some stage bites will become infectious (the ones that break the skin) and scratches will cause frostbite within the area, meaning scratches will need immediate treatment or be lost permanently). This is moreso transferable via the environment, aka the cold weather, so at first ponies are infected based on how cold it is and for how long they are outside for in the deep cold (so not Ponyville for now because of the warm weather around it but eventually the "cold front" will eventually move down there), the infection progressing and infecting faster if its very cold and the pony is out for hours. If Celestia were to become infected repeatedly, she would need a reason to be out for so long repeatedly. However, if I can make the excuse for her to be traveling a lot that week, that would cause her to be exposed plenty of times and thus make her more and more viable to the infection once it progresses to atleast Canterlot. Now, as for the "cure", a temporary solution is to treat the infection like a normal cold: bedrest, plenty of being cared for and being isolated from others. That will cause the infection to "regress" however will not completely remove it. It will always stay within the body, mostly around the infection site and any wounds on the body, until the pony is injected with the cure/exposed to the cure in a localized airborne cure agent or until they reach a certain stage of the infection, causing the cure to be halfway effective, meaning if a pony reaches that stage and is injected/exposed to the cure they won't progress but they will not revert either to their original looks. And the stage after that the cure will not be effective at all, the infection progressing as normal the more the pony is cold and outside for long periods of time. Plus, once pure frostbite sets in (as in the pony no longer feeling cold and think they are getting "warmer" and thus start shedding protective clothing), that is the pure point of no return. This is also when the infection starts "resurrecting" the corpse, using the icy damaged corpse as a host to move about and infect others either as a sort of "drone" or purely as a zombie. During this whole process, the infection will never kill off its original host, forcing it to become weaker and weaker until it can successfully control the brain and drive back the original host to the point where they are forced to watch and remember what its body is doing, thus leading to the infected at this stage still being somewhat conscious and thus still being to think and dream, albeit weakly, thus if say a large group is in one place, a certain someone might be useful but only if she concentrates

[stag the story teller]

11939367
OK interesting concept but you kinda missed the point, the fact is that, regardless of how it infects Celestia should be repeatedly infected, not until the severe stage, heck with the scenario where it makes the one in distress to look upon being infected you can make that being the point of no return.
Also for why she might get infected, what if she's both pacient zero already and the one that created the curse, after she realized that in order to have true harmony and be able to care for her subjects, regardless if pony or other things like changelings or windigoes?
Thus giving her a separate motive for her to be infected, and the rest just make it harder to manage that.
Also what if, when they eventually realize that the true way of stopping it is either to allow it to infect every creature or destroy the life on the planet, Celestia rigs their device that would do the latter in order to accelerate the infection and ultimately do the former

[Denstetsu]

Hi broth!!

I have a challenge, motivation type of challenge.

Challenge is, let's see who can get more views and words in under 4 months.

My doom fanfic vs yours

Challenge starts now and ends in October 20!

{Loser has to put link of the winner's story on their story description :3}

screenshot zis

A real man accepts this challenge

Gentleman kor dust, a person never thrives without a challenge.

[Kor Dust]

11939424
Ooooooooo, that actually does sound interesting. It would act a bit like a test for everypony, including those in other kingdoms. While it might be difficult for the others at first, some might be willing to cooperate while others (cough cough griffins cough cough) might have to be pushed through their stubbornness before they willingly admit to needing help. As for Tia being the actual creator, that would actually make sense somewhat AND would explain why she can hear the voices of the frozen from time to time. With Luna its quite obvious, she can hear the voices because they are still quite conscious and thus can dream so they can connect to the dream realm (would also kinda darken Chapter Zero because it wouldn't just be a premonition but the voices of the TEST SUBJECTS her sister experimented on for some time before unleashing the final product). With Celestia, it would only make sense if they had some form of connection with her in order to haunt her through it

[stag the story teller]

11939624
This and she could be the consciousness that takes over the body of the affected.
Also she might not do it out of malice, but out of desperation and fear she won't be able to protect everyone, especially since you made it clear it is after starlight and flurry were introduced, and definitely after starlight vs chrisalis episode with the acnolwedgement of sunset by starlight, I don't know if you plan it to be after the movie and one of these events being what prompted her to activate the infection, bonus points if Luna, Discord and Sombra are aware of the plan but realised what it was way to late to be able to stop it, and this might be a secondary reason for the wars with Discord and Sombra before Nigmare moon and also Nightmare moon

[Kor Dust]

11939642
I've been mulling over it a bit and I think I've come up with a way for not only an early sign that Celestia might know what's going on behind the scenes but also introduce Flurry Heart into all of this. Celestia would send Shining and Cadence a letter warning them of a nasty storm coming that might rush in fast into the kingdom and put extra cold measures in place and have emergency services prepare for very grumpy ponies in the coming days. Cadence would be reading the letter next to her husband with Flurry heart nearby, Cadence and Flurry showing no symptoms but Shining already infected a little bit due to working outside and the infection already worming its way through the cold kingdom of the north

[stag the story teller]

11943901
that sounds great