It was hot.

Primordially hot.

Mad hot.

Celestia-done-lost-her-MIND hot.

It was late spring, closing in fast on summer, and due to some monumental screwups in the Weather Bureau, a good chunk of Equestria was stuck in the middle of a massive heatwave that they insisted was necessary to balance out some excessive rainfall elsewhere. Consequently Ponyville had turned into an oven. The air was hot and still. All the grass was turning brown and drying out. Rainbow Dash was kept busy shuttling her limited allotment of rainclouds out to Sweet Apple Acres and the other farms just to keep the crops from drying up. Everypony, even workaholics like the Apple family, were doing as little as they possibly could in the sweltering heat, retreating indoors to plop down in front of fans and air conditioners and even open refrigerator doors, or in the case of the younger crowd, beating a path down to the lake to try and cool off there. Sunburned shoulders and noses and swimsuit lines were de riguer among the colts and fillies, and Doubloon was easily the most popular pony in her class-- she used her Daddy's water trident to send sprays and cooling mists up in the air over the beachgoers, turning the lakeside into an impromptu water park.

But nopony, especially school age foals, could linger by the lake all day. (Not even, ironically, the one who was part fish.) School was still in session for another few weeks, so every colt and filly in Ponyville had to troop through the heat up to the schoolhouse, suffer through classes in the stuffy classroom, and then troop back home again. Miss Cheerilee did her best, but the schoolhouse air conditioner just wasn't up to the task and the fans she bought from Mr. Breezy didn't help much at all.

It was recess at the moment. The schoolfoals were outside, ostensibly playing, but it looked less like foals frolicking and more like the aftermath on a battlefield. The limp bodies of colts and fillies were draped everywhere, sprawled out in every possible spot of shade, clustered around the water fountain, guzzling water and occasionally risking adult wrath for wasting it by spritzing each other and themselves. Otherwise they all moved as little as possible.

Nyx, Flitter, Willow and the CMC were all sprawled out in the shade of the huge oak tree that grew on the edge of the playground. The air was so hot and muggy it made little difference, though. A fact which Scootaloo was making a great deal of effort to point out. The pegasus filly lay on her back in the shade, all four hooves sprawled out. "It's hot," she called out to the sky.

"We know," Nyx grumbled from nearby. Her ink black coat wasn't helping her keep cool, temperature or otherwise.

"It's soooo HOT," Scootaloo said again.

"We know," Nyx growled back. "Stop TALKING about it."

"But it's--- so--- HOT!" Scootaloo said in frustration, briefly kicking all four hooves in the air before falling limp on the ground again.

This was an opening Flitter couldn't resist. "Howwww hot IS it?" she said, lifting her head up long enough to waggle her eyebrows. A weak giggle went through the group.

"So hot you could fry an egg on the sidewalk," Scootaloo said. A few foals giggled.

"Fergit that," Applebloom said. "the chickens are layin' all of 'em hardboiled." This one got a good bit more laughter.

"It's so ruddy 'ot you 'ave to butter your 'ooves to keep from stickin'," Pipsqueak said.

Nyx thought it over. "It's so hot I saw Spike putting on suntan lotion." She giggled.

The baby dragon looked up from where he was napping on a hot rock in the sun. "Har, har," he said. He lay back as the others laughed.

"It's tho hot Pinkie Pie climbed in her oven to cool down," Twist ventured. Everyone laughed.

"Don't laugh too loud, she just might," Willow said. The thestral colt was lying on his stomach, slowly waving his webbed wings to keep them cool-- much to the appreciation of the foals close enough to feel the breeze. It was a mark of just how eccentric the local baker's assistant was that nobody contradicted him.

"It's so hot I saw two trees fighting over a dog," Rumble said, grinning evilly.

It took everyone a minute. "EWwwwww," everyone chorused. Nyx tried to whomp her coltfriend in the shoulder with her hoof but gave it up as a lost cause.

"It's so hot the birds are using potholders to pull worms out of the ground..." Snails said. That one only got a weak laugh, but it was there.

"Heh. You got one SweetieBelle?" Scootaloo asked, looking upside down at her friend.

The musical unicorn filly tapped her chin with her hoof, thinking it over. "Umm, it's so hot that.... um..." She let her eyes drift around looking for inspiration. Her eyes went round. "... there's a colt walking down the street in a snowsuit, scarf and wooly hat!"

Several heads turned to look at her in confusion. "That one doesn't make any sense, SweetieBelle," Nyx said. She squinted at her friend. The pastel-maned unicorn wasn't getting heat stroke was she?

"No, really! Look!" SweetieBelle pointed. Everypony sat up and looked. She was right. There was a colt walking up the path to the schoolhouse dressed in what had to be every piece of winter gear he owned. He wore a winter cap, earmuffs, a huge bulky snowsuit, boots, and a red and white striped scarf wrapped half a dozen times around his face. All they could see of him was his white snout and his snow-white tail... which seemed to be blowing in a breeze that wasn't there. He was towing a small wagon behind him that had a large ice chest sitting on it.

As every student on the playground watched in disbelief, the colt... well, most everyone assumed it was a colt; there was no way to really tell... trotted up to the schoolhouse and went inside, the wagon bumping up the steps behind him. Everyone looked at each other. "Did we just see that?" Spike finally asked.

"If you did, so did I," Scootaloo said. "I gotta see what this is about." She got to her feet and trotted to the school.

"C'mon, everypony," Applebloom said, following suit. "Recess is almost over anyway, and ah know I'd just go nuts wondering...."

As a group, they trooped to the door and filed in. To their surprise the air inside the school was cool and refreshing. "Sweet," Snips said. "Miss Cheerilee musta fixed the AC."

He bumped into Applebloom, who had stopped dead the doorway to the classroom. "I don't think so," she said oddly. Slowly the class piled up behind her, peering over and around each other to see what she was talking about.

Up at the front of the classroom, Cheerilee was talking with the colt who had come in. He had just finished shucking all his winter gear and piling it by the coatrack. Cheerilee looked up and saw her class milling in the doorway. "Hello everypony," she said. "Recess isn't over yet, but since you're all here I'd like to introduce you to your new classmate." She smiled a touch nervously. "This is Frosty. Frosty?" She made a motion for him to say something.

The colt turned and faced the class. He was an ordinary looking colt for the most part; He was a blank flank with a snowy white coat. He also had blank, blue-white eyes, and a cloudy white mane and tail that seemed to float in a breeze nopony else felt.

"Hi," he said. He looked anything but enthused. "My name's Frosty.

"And yeah... I'm a Windigo."