"I'm a Windigo."

There was a long pause. Followed by another one just like it. "Oh-kayyyy..." Spike said.

"Um, actually I'm HALF Windigo, I shoulda said," Frosty said. He scratched the back of his head with a hoof awkwardly. "It's sorta complicated...."

"Well, since everypony's coming in, why don't we all sit down and you can tell us all about it. Come along, children..." the class started to shuffle in. (Doubloon was already in, of course, curled up at the bottom of her bowl. She would have fried like a flounder out in the sun if she'd gone out today, she'd insisted. Even then her aquarium was little reprieve; the weather was so hot the water in her bowl was already tepid.)

"Wait!!" SweetieBelle jumped in front of the others, blocking the way. "Nopony go in yet!"

Miss Cheerilee frowned. "SweetieBelle, what is this?"

"I just remembered... Flitter's a Changeling!"

Miss Cheerilee gave the unicorn filly a look that clearly said she was confused, and annoyed by that fact.(1) "And what does that have to do with anything?"

"Well," Sweetie said, "Changelings feed on love. Right?" She pointed to Flitter, then over to Frosty. "And Windigos feed on hate. So what happens if they get put together? It could be dangerous!"

Spike suddenly gulped. "Hey yeah, I remember Twilight messing around with... well, opposite stuff. Anti-somethings and posi-whatevers. She told me it could be really really dangerous mixing opposites.  Gosh, they could explode or something!"

This set off a predictable reaction. "Explode?!" "I don't wanna be in a room with no explodin' ponies..."

Miss Cheerilee facehoofed. "I'm pretty sure it doesn't work that way, children," she said patiently.

Nyx looked at Spike for validation. "Did Mom's experiment explode?"

Spike shrugged. "Well, she brought these two clouds of stuff together,  I remember this bright light and a really loud noise, and when I woke up the library had a new skylight."

"Oh, so that's where that came from," Nyx said, tapping her chin with a hoof.

Cheerilee turned her eyes skyward, silently pleading for somepony to enlighten her to her student's bizarre chain of logic. Frosty, for his part, was scowling at his new classmates like they were the biggest bunch of morons in Equestria.  "Windigoes don't explode," he snorted. "And we don't feed on hate, either. Duh."

"Wait, what?" Chorused several students. Before the tumult could grow, Cheerilee rapped her hoof on her desk for attention. "Children. Children! Please, take your seats. If we all sit down and let Frosty tell his story, then we can get our questions answered." She gave a half-smile. "And I think I can give a no-exploding guarantee, everypony."

There were some awkward giggles, and the students filed in and obediently took their desks. "Now Frosty, why don't you start at the beginning. Tell us about yourself, where you're from, your family."

Frosty nodded and took a deep breath. "Okay, I'm Frosty, I'm a half-windigo, I guess I already told you that. Um. I live with my Mom, Polar Star. She's an arctic explorer and a mountain climber. We moved here to Ponyville so we could have a place to stay when my mom wasn't on one of her adventures."

A hoof in the back shot up. "And who's your Da?" Pipsqueak asked.

Frosty shuffled his hooves a bit. "That sorta has to do with why I'm half Windigo," he said. "Okay, see, somethin' like twelve years ago, before I was born, she was out exploring the Wintertop Mountains with a team--- counting mountain goats or something-- and she got separated from her team by a blizzard. She took shelter from the storm in a cave and fell asleep next to a fire. When she woke up, the fire was gone, and she found herself sharing her cave with a Windigo stallion."

Everypony "oohed" and leaned forward. "What'd she do?" Snails asked, worriedly.(2) "Did she run away?"

Frosty shrugged and rolled his eyes. "This is my Mom, Polar Star, the great arctic explorer," he said drolly. "If you plopped a frost dragon down in front of her she probably would give it a five-page questionnaire about its life and dietary habits." The class chuckled.

Spike grinned at Nyx. "Sounds familiar, don't it," he said with a smirk. Nyx stifled a snicker.

"Kanevvluk(3)--- that's my Dad--- had saved her life. He'd been hiding further back in the cave. The cave was blocked by the blizzard; if he hadn't put out the fire and dug airholes to the outside she would have suffocated. When she woke up he'd figured he'd have to run away, but when she saw what he was, she wasn't afraid. He was so impressed with her courage that he stayed with her through the blizzard, keeping alive by sharing their warmth, telling her all about his people. When the rest of the expedition finally found her, she was all alone in the cave-- but the very next night there was a beautiful aurora over the whole mountain range. And eleven months later, to the day, she had me. She named me Kaneq.(4)" He half-grinned.  "It means 'Frost' in the Windigo language."

"My, what a lovely story," Cheerilee sighed with a smile. "Very mythic and poetical."

"So the magic of the aurora gave her a Windigo baby?" Nyx asked.(5)

Frosty made a dismissive 'pssh' sound. "Nah. They just spent the last three days in the cave doinking." The poleaxed look on Cheerilee's face would have been heartbreaking, had anyone older and less guileless been there to see it.

Before Cheerilee could frantically assess whether she was going to have to head off any inquiries for definitions of the verb "to doink,"(5a)  the topic was mercifully shifted to another track. Applebloom raised a hoof, frowning. "But Windigoes are all wind and cold and stuff," she said. "How could he keep--"

Frosty answered this with the air of someone who had answered the same question the same way for far too many ponies for far too long a time. "No, they aren't," he said, his eyebrows flat. "They're flesh and blood ponies like everyone else, except when they're flying. And yes, we're warm. See?" He pressed the frog of his hoof to Applebloom's nose. The filly started in surprise, but didn't deny it; his hoof was warm. A few other colts and fillies tentatively felt the frog of his hoof. "We can just stand lots colder stuff than most ponies." He shrugged and put his hoof down. "We're not so great with warm and hot stuff, though. Oh gosh--" He suddenly trotted over to his coat and other gear, which were getting surprisingly soggy. He popped open the lid on his ice chest and started stuffing the articles of clothing in.

"That's why I wear all this stuff when it's really hot," he said. He held up his scarf; now that everypony was closer they could see it had bulging pockets lining the inside. "All this stuff is full of ice packs so I don't get too hot."

Twist gasped and put her hoof to her mouth. "Omygothsh, if you're out in the Thun too long will you MELT?"

Frosty groaned as he dropped the last article into the chest. "No, I SAID we're regular ponies, didn't I?" he said, slamming the ice chest shut. "We're made of flesh and blood, not snowcones."

"Now Frosty..." Cheerilee said in a warning voice.

"Sorry," Frosty grumped. He certainly didn't sound it. "No, we don't melt. But getting too hot can make us sick, or even kill us. I can handle more heat than my Dad can... even if he wore icepacks like me, he could never walk around outside like I did. He'd have keeled over just walking here."

Nyx raised her hoof. "So like heat stroke?"

"Yeah, like that," Frosty said. He looked a little less grumpy now that someone seemed to get it.

Dinky spoke up. "Is that why your Daddy doesn't live with you?" She asked. The sympathy in her voice would have melted anyone's heart, made of snow or not. "'Cause you said you just lived with your Mommy."

Frosty hung his head and scuffed his hoof a bit. "Uh, yeah," he admitted. "He can't stand the summers down here... even the mild ones. And Mom could never live in the cold like he does. Or at least she'd be so miserable as it wouldn't make any difference." He smiled a bit. "He does visit in the winter sometimes. And he writes a lot, and sends gifts and stuff for our birthdays. And we go to Niflheim to see him once in a long while."

Twist sighed. "How thad and romantic," she said. "A long dithtance romance..."

There was a splash from the back of the classroom. "What was that about 'Niflheim?' " Doubloon asked, leaning halfway out of her bowl to wave a hoof.

"Oh, that's the other part of the reason Dad can't stay down here with us," Frosty said, warming(6) to the topic. "The Windigoes are the guardians of Niflheim."

"It's... sort of like Tartarus, down here," he explained after a moment of clueless staring from the class. "Except it's way up in the North Pole, and it's really really old. Way older than Tartarus, even. It's where the giant Frost Serpent Iormungand, King of the Windigoes, keeps the ancient evil monsters he defeated long ago, frozen in ice forever." He shrugged. "Well, or until their sentence is up or they're due for a parole hearing. Whatever."

"King of the Windigoes? Your king is a giant snake?"

"Serpent, yeah," Frosty said. "I saw him once. He's as big around as one of the towers in Canterlot, and miles long. Scales white as frost. Head of a dragon, with a shining blue gem as big as a wagon wheel in his forehead. He sleeps coiled around the entrance to Niflheim, and speaks to his counselors through the gem. They say he can see a thousand miles, and can breathe frost that can freeze a mountain."

"Cool," Snips said.(7) "But... how did you end up with a giant ice snake as your King?"

"Well, he MADE the Windigoes." Frosty said.

"Huh?"

"My Dad sent me a book when I was really little," Frosty said. "It tells all sorts of stories about the Windigoes; our history and stuff.  I haven't read all of it yet," he admitted. "It's pretty big. But the first story is how Windigoes were made.

"Long ago, after Iormungand defeated the last frost giant and his greatest work was done, he coiled himself around the entrance to Niflheim to stand guard over it for all time. But after several centuries, he got bored and lonely... not much out there on the polar icecap. Not even penguins.

"One day a tribe of northern ponies, lost and confused, wandered out into the frozen wasteland. Iormungand saw them and took pity on them, and used his magic to give them shelter. He spoke with them, found them heartwarming company. He knew that such warmblooded creatures wouldn't survive for long in the great white north. So he made them an offer. He would use his magic to transform them so that they could thrive in the cold and frozen lands; and in return, they would serve him as his soldiers and guards in Niflheim, and keep him company in his solitude. They agreed.

"And so the Windigoes have lived in the frozen lands ever since." Frosty finished his recitation with a satisfied bob of his head.

"But what about the Hearthwarming Day story?" somepony protested. "The Windigoes in that story were bad guys, and they lived on hate and froze the ponies in ice and stuff..."

         "Oh gee, the Hearthwarming story has mistakes in it," Spike muttered dryly. "Who'd a thunk, right?" Nyx nodded and snickered.(8)

"I told you already, Windigoes don't feed on hate!" Frosty said, a bit angrily. He stamped his hoof for emphasis. "That's stupid anyway. Why would we freeze the thing that feeds us?"

"To keep it fresher longer?" Snails ventured. Every pony in the classroom stared at him. "...Whaaaat?"

"I think we'd better skip going to Sugarcube Corner today," Snips said, giving his best friend a look. "You've been around Pinkie Pie a little too much."

"Huh?" Snails blinked.

"Ugh," Frosty growled. "Look, Windigoes have snow and ice and wind powers. But we don't feed on hate!"

"Then why'd you-- I mean why'd the Windigoes freeze the three tribes?" Truffle asked.

"I dunno. How would I know? I wasn't there," Frosty said. "Mom explained it once but it's really complicated. It's just a stupid story, all right?" he snapped.

A chilly breeze whipped around the room, ruffling manes and tails. Everypony started in surprise.... then let out a long "aaaaahhhhhhhhhh" as the coolness seeped in. "Oh wow, was that you?" Scootaloo asked.

Frosty looked terribly nervous. "Uh, yeah. Ice powers, remember?" he blustered. He wilted a little at Cheerilee's look. "Sorry Ma'am," he muttered.

"Ah, that's all right dear," Cheerilee said. "It's certainly made the schoolhouse much nicer. Most definitely!" She sagged in relief; her thermos of iced tea just hadn't been cutting it. "Um..." she looked a little apologetic. "You... wouldn't mind keeping that going would you? I mean, it won't hurt you keeping the entire schoolhouse cool will it?" she asked worriedly.

"What? Oh, no, that's no problem..." he said. He closed his eyes and concentrated; the cool breeze picked up again, swirling around the room steadily. Everyone sighed in pleasure. "A little building like this is no problem. I mean-- I coulda just used my ice magic to stay cool all the way here, but I woulda been totally pooped out. The snowsuit just makes it easier to stay cool outside."

"Now there's a phrase you don't hear very often," Spike chuckled.

"You mean you can keep stuff cool even in this heat?" Applebloom asked.

Frosty grimaced, but hid it. "Uh, well yeah."

Scootaloo grinned, and turned her face into the breeze. "Dude, you just became the most popular colt in Ponyville," she said. Everypony in the class laughed.

Frosty ducked his head a bit, brow furrowing. "Yeah. Great," He muttered. The false enthusiasm left his face in the next moment.

"Well Frosty, go ahead and take your seat," Cheerilee said, already sounding a great deal perkier than she had before. Frosty nodded and headed for an empty seat. "Oh, and before I forget--- that book about the Windigoes sounds fascinating. If it's all right, is there any chance I could get a look at it sometime?"

"Uh, it might be awhile," Frosty said. he threw his saddlebags under his chair and climbed into it. "Mom took it over to Princess Twilight Sparkle's library so the Princess could make a copy. I dunno how long that'll take."

"Oh wow, a whole new book about a whole 'nother pony tribe?" he heard Nyx say. "Mom's gonna be going bonkers! You'd better get ready, Frosty. She's gonna be champing at the bit to ask you all sorts of questions..."

Frosty's eyebrows dropped even lower. "Oh. Terrific," he muttered low enough not to be heard.

"Okay, class," Cheerilee said, snapping everyone's attention back to the front of the room. "Get out your math textbooks; we're going to be doing some exercises in long division..."

Frosty thought noone had overheard him. Willow had, however. (9) He stared at the new colt's hunched shoulders in puzzlement. What was his problem?

Didn't Frosty want to be liked?

1)One saw that expression a lot in a town with a Pinkie Pie in it.

2)Snails had a little trouble understanding the idea that the narrator of a story obviously survived it. If the storyteller had told him "and then she died, and I was never born," Snails would probably have mourned her and given Frosty his condolences.

3)Inuit word for 'fine snow/rain particles'.

4)Kaneq--- Inuit word for 'frost'

5)Considering Nyx's origins, not exactly a non-possibility. In equestria, delivery by stork or discovery in a cabbage patch wasn't always an evasion by embarrassed elders.

5a)Though that is, naturally, the way to bet.

6) Yes, I know. Shut up.

7) And the entire class facehoofed.

8) See "Nyx's Family" for details.

9) bat ears.