Pinkie's Polar Plunge! (See OP for Rules)

[RainbowFoxxy]

 

"Weeeee!" Pinkie squealed out with excitement as she slid down a snow embankment. A small green gator clung desperately to her festive hat and a certain pensive magician followed in her wake.

 

"Uhhhh, Pinkie?" He pushed his glasses back up the bridge of his nose as he made his way down the slope himself. "I-i ummm, well I'm not sure if this is such a good idea."

 

"What do you mean Sunny?" She skidded to a halt at the bottom of the snow slope, right at the edge of what was probably to coldest water in all of Equestria! "Of course this is a good idea, it's fun! Not to mention a Pie family tradition!"

 

"I-i don't know how jumping into freezing cold water could be fun." He stared incredulously at the deep steam he himself had conjured in the fountain yard of the School of Friendship. It would only be there until the end of the festivities at which point he would direct the flow of frigid water back into the fountain and remove all the snow banks he'd formed. "I-it just looks ummm, cold." He shivered and glanced at her. 

 

"Where's your sense of adventure?" She dapped the water with the edge of her hind hoof. "Brrrr!" Chills ran up her spine and she giggled. "You just have to stay in until the time limit then jump out and go douse yourself in the warm pool you made!"

 

Sunburst now glanced at the spa like impression in the ground not too far from the freezing stream. Steam rose from it and the blue/green depth of it sure did look inviting! "Yeah, I like that pool a lot better than the stream." He still looked skeptical. 

 

"You'll see Sunnyburst! Ponies will be all excited to see we have a polar bear plunge! Plus," She nodded to a table laden with trinkets and medals. "There's prizes for the winners and even small gifts for those who try and don't make it all the way to the time limit!" 

 

The mage levitated a pile of fresh fluffy towels onto a second table and smiled. "Well, if it's tradition and it's fun, h-how could I say no?"

 

"That's the spirit!" Pinkie pranced in place, hoping there would soon be names on the sign up list!

 

(OOC: For your first post, have your character sign up and give their impressions of the event. Pinkie or Sunny will your character it's their turn. Second post jump into the cold water, stay as long as you can then jump in the warm pool if you wish before drying off. I'll respond letting you know if your character reached the time limit based off your post and a random roll of the dice! Have fun!)

[Ashton]

        Cloudy Skies                  Jasper Dragon          Azure "Iggy" Ignine

 

 

The freshly fallen snow had already been thrown to the side, which was a good thing - it gave the dragon something less to complain about... While jasper was trailing along behind the other two, grumbling to himself, the griff and kirin were looking at the lovely sight of the small town decorated for heartswarming - something else that Jasper didn't particularly understand or care for.

 

"I dont see why we have to do this stupid swimming event, its way too cold!" commented the dragon, wearing a long coat and boots, trying to keep warm

 

"Because its a local tradition and observing tradition will help my studies, it might some how tie in to why this town is a magnet for the bizarre" explained iggy, who herself was wearing a just a scarf, though her thick mane was almost like a coat itself given how large it was.

 

"And friends compromise, Jasper. Trust me, I may have lived in the water in my youth, but it never got this cold there!" commented Cloudy, who was bundled up almost as much as Jasper, in a large coat, hat, boots, gloves, and a scarf.

 

When they got there, though, Iggy was the first to look around confused "I thought this was supposed to be a huge holiday tradition, where is everypony?" she asked, floating a book out from... somewhere... and flipping through it "There should be no fewer than twenty ponies here, possibly as many as fifty, and at least one to three griffons!"

 

"Iggy, we're probably early, and your book doesn't predict the future, you know that" commented cloudy with a smirk

 

"Good reason to turn and go home!" said Jasper, turning, though finding Cloudy had grabbed his tail "Hey!"

 

"Look, jasper, this is important to iggy, you dont want to disappoint her, do you?" asked the hippogryph

 

Jasper sighed "Fine." he said, crossing his arms "doesn't mean I like it"

 

Cloudy nodded as he headed over to the signup table, leaving Iggy and Jasper together to observe the area

[szalhi]

 

The Plunge sounded simultaneously like the best and worst event ever. From one perspective, it seemed really unsafe and like ponies could get really hurt, but then again, apparently Pinkie Pie was in charge and she was sure it was physically impossible for one to get actually hurt around her. Even though Loose was born in Appleloosa, she spent the majority of her life here and as such she could be considered biologically neutral on the temperature scale. But such an event wasn't just about physical endurance, it was also about mental endurance for one could probably stay in longer than their nervous system wanted to. And how could such a pony of her figure not even attempt this at all?

 

She found out about the event through one of Pinkie's totally not discreet announcements; one of the types where it seemed she hadn't even prepared it yet but was certain it was going to happen. Because of this she felt like she was surprisingly early to the event, normally being late due to lack of communication (no, posters are not a valid form of communication, thank you government.) She was actually lucky when she arrived at the table because she wasn't the only one there. While she was taught how to write her name in print, that only really works if you know where to write it in the first place. 

 

"Hey, Cloudy, sorry to run off on you the other day. Had to get the food home before... stuff happened to it you know." That was probably the greatest excuse she could come up with now. "Are those your friends over there. Are they participating too? Which reminds me, can you put me down as well? Kind of hard to do it myself."

 

It was about then that she started getting second thoughts. But she ignored them. "The recovery might be more intense than the actual event. Assuming one of us doesn't go through cold shock." She kind of hoped that wouldn't deter him. 

[PyroBlaze]

Vera wasn’t entirely sure what was going on around here, but that just made him all the more curious to find out. The hippogriff was perched on a roof nearby, bundled up as much as he could as he listened to the two ponies talk about what was going on. Seemed interesting enough, see how long you could last in the cold water before diving for the hot stuff. He nodded to himself, about to go down and sign up when a group of three appeared and caused him to hang back and observe what was going down. And then another pony came in after them. He waited a few more moments before flying down and walking up to the table, waiting his turn to sign in as he looked over the other hippogriff. Didn’t seem to be one he recognized, which was probably for the best since that more than likely was true the other way too. 

[Ashton]

Cloudy looked in the direction of the voice and smiled "Oh, hey loose, good to see you" he paused "...oh, sorry, bad choice of words" he laughed awkwardly "Yeah, well it was a mess the other day, thankfully we got most of it cleaned up. Sure, Ill put you down" he said as he wrote her name on the sheet for her, as well as Iggy's name.

 

Cloudy glanced up at the other griff and blinked "Windfish?" he asked, then shook his head "oh my bad, I thought you were somegriff else"

 

((XD Bonux points if anyone knows where that name is from!))

[Blueblood]

It was rare that traveling performers had control over their own schedules.  Were Flying Brick possessed of such a luxury, she would have timed her journey to Ponyville closer to the time of the Iron Pony; the Earth Pony mare was quite proud of being 'Stalliongrad strong!'  Alas, 'twas not to be; the bits made from streetside acrobatic performances wouldn't carry her to this town until Winter.

 

Not that she minded all that much.  It was Hearthswarming!  What better holiday to spend in a town famous Equestria-wide for its spirit of friendship?  And wouldn't you know it, but there was a contest going on as well!  The brick-colored mare grinned, trotting up to the crowd gathered around the magical stream.  "Ah, you are having nice swim here, da?"  The solidly-built Brick faced the cold unflinchingly, no hat, scarf, or any protection.  Wool was for the weak!  "Back home in Stalliongrad, it be nice balmy day for the beach.  And a stay in the sauna after!  Ah, but you only have warm pool, eh?"

 

Her bravado might have seemed grating, were it not delivered in a charming, boistrous Stalliongrad accent.  It was infectious, almost warming.  As if the glow of home-city pride in her heart could keep the cruel temperature of the water at bay.

[RainbowFoxxy]

 

Order of go:

1. Sunburst (done)

2. Cloudy

3. Loose Cannon

4. Iggy

5. Flying Brick

 

Pinkie bounded over as participants started to show up!

 

"Hi you guys!" She waved her hooves around in excitement and then chattered her teeth. "Brrr! Who designed an ice water bath event on a day like this?" She glanced at Sunburst.

 

"H-hey!" The mage trotted over, hoping to save his reputation for coming up with this event. "Although I said I'd help you with set up I-i certainly not the one to take responsibility to all of this!" He smiled. "Though it does look exciting I must say!"

 

"Well that's good Sunny cause you're going first!" As the mage's mouth dropped she listed off the names that had gone onto the parchment sign up sheet. "After you will be Cloudy, the Loose Cannon, then Iggy!" The Ponk glanced at the other creatures. "Who else wants in on this! Flying Brick is it?" She grinned at the sturdy mare, sure she'd be taking part in the festivities! "Sunny'll show you all how it's done!"

 

The mage grumbled and reluctantly shed his cape and glasses and left them up on a snow embankment. "Your family does this every year Pinkie?" 

 

Pinkie shrugged and smiled. "Most years... in the summer...when it's warm...and sunny..." She giggled as Sunburst's muzzle dropped open again. "I'm kidding! Yes, it's a Pie tradition on the rock farm!"

-----

Sunburst made his way down the bank to the icy waters. It looked pretty much like any other slow moving stream he'd seen in his life. The water circled from the fountain, around the yard and back into the fountain, enchanted to do so and to be very cold by his own magic! "M-maybe I should have gone a couple degrees warmer..."  Two more steps and he was on the edge! "Well, here goes nothing!" In he went, the cold sucking away his breath and making his skin crawl. He waded out a few steps and then submerged himself up over his withers. The stallion shook and chattered, trying to make it to the time limit that Pinkie had set.

 

"Ok that's enough!" He shuddered from the cold and trotted back out of the water as fast as he could, making for the warm pool. "Ah!" He stepped into the steaming spa and felt his hide tingle first slightly painfully and then delightfully. Sunburst relaxed in the warm spa, intent on staying there for at least a little longer. After this he made his way back out onto the snowy ground and shook the water from his coat. A burst of magic and he was dry again. The stallion replaced his cloak and nodded to Cloudy. 

 

"I-i think you're up now! it's actually really refreshing! Oh, and I can enchant you dry when you're done!" The event had been exhilarating for him and Sunny smiled from ear to ear. 

[PyroBlaze]

Vera titled his head to the side at the name the other hippogriff said, as it seemed he had been mistaken for another. Odd, but alright. He mulled over the name for a bit before answering, writing his name in at the same time.

 

"Not ringing any bells, sorry. Name's Vera Menita." He answered Cloudy, nodding at him and the others. After that, he watched as the first contestant went, a unicorn that didn't seem to last all that long before running into the hot pool. Well, not everyone could handle the cold well, and he imagined it'd be hard even for those that could to hang out in a freezing cold pool of water.

[Ashton]

((oh you missed the gag - Cloudy didn't put his name down either, he literally ONLY signed iggy up for it! XD --- so I'm gonna assume iggy goes next then))

 

Cloudy nodded back to Vera "Cloudy Skies, Cloudy for short, you remind me of a griff I spent a lot of time with back in seaquestria growing up" he explained

 

The trio clapped for Sunburst, but iggy was looking apprehensive

 

"wow, that water does seem cold... maybe you were right..." she commented, then when Sunburst nodded at them she gulped "at least we're going togeter, right?"

 

Cloudy and Jasper both stepped back "well, actually, no, your going alone"

 

"WHAT?!" she exclaimed "I thought you just gave a talk to jasper about doing things together! You do that then you turn around and stab me in the back!"  the snow around her was starting to melt as her eyes faded to white and wisps of smoke started rising from the kirin

 

"If it were lava I'd be down for it, but I'm not as stupid as you are" commented Jasper

 

"WHAT!" Now the smoke was getting stronger and flames started licking her hooves

 

"Now!" shouted Cloudy as he dove out of the way

 

Jasper dropped down "Have a nice trip!" he kicked Iggy squarely in the chest sending her off the edge "See you next fall!"

 

Iggy's arms and legs waved around in the air, trying to find purchase but instead she started falling "YOU SON OF A-!!!" There was a bright flash as her whole body burst into flames, going full Nirik mode now, and almost immediately there was a deafening *SSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS* as she hit the water and steam covered the area

 

The dragon and hippogryh were laughing their tails off now 

 

a short time later a wet and steaming Iggy walked back over to them "...you planned this didn't you...?"

 

"Every step!" laughed Cloudy

 

"You should have seen your face!" added Jasper, barely able to talk for laughing so hard

 

Iggy sighed but after a moment found herself laughing too, realizing she deserved it for dragging them along in the first place...

[szalhi]

She laughed in response to Cloudy's quirk and patted him once. "C'mon Cloudy, it's not like you're the one who is blind. Unless something changed recently?"

 

When Iggy, who Cloudy mentioned earlier was a Kirin, made their plunge, Loose was a bit surprised that the energy transfer speed didn't seem to have much of a lasting effect besides what seemed like a steam cloud, but maybe the limits were higher than she thought. Or magic. Yeah that was probably the answer. It was supposedly the answer of how this was possible in the first place, so it would be the answer to that as well.

 

"Hey, nice job, Iggy was it? You were in there for a bit. But not long enough right?" Hopefully that didn't intimidate the Kirin too much because no one should redo this challenge anytime soon. "Well, I'll have to do better than you." 

 

She wasted no time hopping right into the water. It was cold. Like, cold, but colder. The cold was coldier. But it was cold as she expected, just except that it was colder. Cold. But nah, she played it off normal. "I don't see what's so bad about this water. Perfectly normal." Hypothermia is a worthy sacrifice for victory. Supposedly there were two ways to do this, completely focus all on the task, or completely ignore it entirely. Ignoring seemed more nonchalant. "So, uh. Nice weather we're having today?" 

 

Alright, that was about it. She got out of the water as smoothly as possible, standing out in the open for maximum plausibility. "That was disappointing. You know, I think the pool is messed up, it's actually warmer in there. You guys should come here and try it."

 

Spoiler

 

[RainbowFoxxy]

 

Pinkie grimaced slightly as the two buddies had their joke with the kirin. The party pone wasn't exactly sure that it was such a good idea to be forcing somepony into the water before they were ready. But then the flames began to lick at her hooves and Ponk remembered. "Ummmm, Sunny?"

 

Sunburst was watching with rapt attention as the joke went full swing and the flaming nirik hit the water. "Yep, I-i'm probably gonna have to cast some more cold huh?"

 

The Ponk nodded and then trotted towards the kirin as she made her way out of the water. Thankfully the kirin was laughing which Pinkie took as a good sign!

 

"Well, that doesn't seem like the nicest way to go about the tradition buuut, on the plus side you did make the time limit!" She nodded towards a table laden with scarves and hats. "These are enchanted the warm up on their own when worn for super cozy effect!" She wrapped a rainbow colored scarf around her neck and posed. "I think they're pretty stylish and also..." The scarf took on a faint red glow. "Super warm!" She put the scarf back on the table to give Iggy her pick. "Speaking of warm?"

 

"O-oh yes!" Sunburst conjured a quick spell an in an instant Iggy was completely dry! 

 

"Sooo, those two are your friends right?" She eyed Cloudy and Jasper who were still laughing away. 

 

Next went Loose Cannon who commented that the water didn't even seem that cold. Sunburst raised his eyebrows as she continued her plunge, wondering if his spell to re-cool the water after the nirik plunge had worked. 

 

"W-wow!" Sunburst used his magic to quickly evaporate the water from the mare. "T-that was incredible, the cold didn't even phase you! You definitely made the time limit!"

 

Pinkie glanced at the list. "Ok Vera, looks like you're up!"

[PyroBlaze]

Vera hummed slightly as he watched the others go at it, nodding a bit as the word came that he was up. Looking at the pool for a moment before shucking his clothing and moving right in there. 
 

It certainly was cold in here... but he knew there were ways to mitigate that. For example, exercise. To that end, he started by jogging in place, getting warmed up a bit before moving on to shadow boxing. He fought off multiple imaginary opponents, moving around as much as he could within the confines of the pool. He kept it up as long as he could, until he couldn’t feel his extremities any more. Once he couldn’t take it any longer, he walked back out of the pool and shook himself off. 
 

“Wow, that sure was cold. Colder than I remember Seaquestria ever being.” He chuckled, making his way over to the hot water to warm himself back up again. 

[Blueblood]

In the back of the line as she found herself, Flying Brick was content to hang back and observe the performance of the plungers before her.  Growing up in the cold northern climes, the mare had a pretty good sense of how to predict how cold a spring was.  But that was contingent on all kinds of natural factors that just didn't apply if it was magically conjured.  To the earth pony, all that sort of thing was mumbo-jumbo that threw off her innate senses.  

 

But did that bother her?  Nyet, tovaritch!  Besides, Loose Cannon had said the water wasn't so cold as all that, and even if that was fake, it couldn't be too bad if she could pull it off like that!   And with Vera's plunge, it was now Brick's turn.

 

"Zaryad!"  She called out, boisterously bounding to the edge of the pool, before leaping up and cannonballing into the icy waters, giving all present in the splash zone a taste of just what she had plunged into.

The initial shock didn't even register, even as she was briefly submerged completely, surfacing to float on her back.  "Ah, is quite refresher!  Remind me of good swims back home in Stalliongrad!"  For all that, though, she didn't attempt to swim here.  Northern clime or not,  it was cold in this water, and not even those built strong like bull could stand it forever!  

Nonetheless, she betrayed no sign that this was anything but a pleasant experience as she gently drifted to the far bank, pulling herself up to shake off the water clinging to her back and tail.  "And now, let us see what you give us instead of sauna..."  Nonchalantly, she trotted over to the hot pool, sinking in with a sigh.

[Ashton]

Iggy smiled and picked out a nice dark blue scarf and a red hat "Sometimes I have to be reminded of that" she said to pinkie, but she then walked over and in a surprisingly gesture, levitated jasper up and put the magic warming scarf about the dragons neck, the proceeded to put the warming hat on cloudy's head, smiling

 

The two stopped laughing and blinked in suprise, not expecting that at all.

 

Iggy just smiled "I shouldn't have drug you two out here, I deserved what I got, so its the least I could do"

 

Now the two males just looked awkwardly at the ground, feeling like real heels...

 

She then walked over to the pony who was dissapointed in the warming pool "not steamy enough for you?" she asked as her hoof ignited and she tossed a fireball in, making sure to keep it in the opposite side of the pool from the pony, throwing a nice large cloud of steam her way

[RainbowFoxxy]

 

Pinkie and Sunburst were both impressed with the cold tolerance of the ponies that had come out for the plunge! Every one of them had gone right in and not had any major reactions to the fridgid temperatures!

 

"Wow! W-well looks like maybe I'm the only one around here that has a problem with how cold that water is!" Sunburst shivered as he thought about his plunge. "Brrrr!"

 

Pinkie grinned, happy that the ponies who had gone in had all completed the time to get their own self warming hat and scarf! "You guys must be part polar bear or something! We never had a winter where everypony completed the time limit, but this year it looks like we did!"

 

Sunburst stood ready with his warming magic and Pinkie with her prizes once the two that were in the warming pool got out. 

 

Sunburst chuckled as the kirin tossed in some nirik magic of her own. "Thanks for the help Iggy! Not sure my heat magic can match up to nirik's!"

[Ashton]

Cloudy leaned over to Sunburst and whispered "Dont feel bad, Jasper and I'd be ten times worse than you, that's why we didn't do it - Tropical seas and an active volcano, we'd probably have passsed out"

 

At the compliment Iggy blushed a little "Thanks, I'm sure you'll get better than me one day, I've just been kinda forced to practice since birth" she said "And honestly its the only magic I'm really good at, I mean you should have seen what happened last time I tried to teleport!"

 

"Yeah, it took us hours to find her tail and left hoof!" commented Jasper

 

Iggy giggled "He's kidding... we found it in five minutes when the couple in the appartment next door started screaming"

 

Cloudy's claw went to his face "iggy... Dont pull his tail, somecreatures here might think your serious..."

 

Iggy laughed awkwardly "...oh... right... yeah, ok it wasn't that bad, I've never actually telefragged, thankfully"

 

"yet..." commented Jasper

 

Iggy blushed again, clearly thinking jasper had a valid point with his snarky comment....