“Mummah Wanda, wha ‘eyes-kweem’?” Magic asked as the waitress walked away with their order.
“It’s a treat, Magic.” Wanda explained. “Since you’ve been such a good girl out on our walk today, and since it’s so damn hot… I figured we deserve something nice.”
It was true, the jet-black fluffy pony wasn’t doing too well in the golden summer sunshine. Her coat was already damp with sweat, and she and Wanda still had to walk home after this.
Fortunately, Wanda knew the ice-cream parlor quite well, and they didn’t have to wait long before the waitress returned, bringing with her two shallow bowls of ice-cream.
Vanilla for Magic, strawberry for Wanda.
“Okay Magic, dig in.” Wanda said, scooping up a spoonful of her own pink ice-cream. Magic nervously licked at the yellow-white blobs in her bowl, and shivered.
“Tweaty-nummies cowd!” She whined.
“That’s right, Magic. It’s a cold treat. Now eat up!” Wanda replied with a laugh.
Magic gave the ‘eyes-kweem’ another lick, and found it actually tasted quite nice. So she continued licking and slurping at the ice-cream, enjoying the cool, refreshing sensation of it sliding across her tongue… until she spotted something.
Her ice-cream was getting smaller! But not because she was eating it… it was muh… mor… meg… doing that thing where solid stuff becomes liquid!
“Mummah Wanda, tweaties gu 'way!” Magic squeaked, watching in sorrow as her ice-cream melted in the hot sun.
“Yeah, you gotta eat it fast, hon. Otherwise it’ll melt.” Wanda said.
Magic needed no further instruction, and immediately buried her face in the dish of ice-cream, licking and slurping and chomping through the frosty treat.
After ten seconds of non-stop slobbering and slurping, Wanda became concerned.
“Uh, Magic, honey? I know I said to eat it fast, but… maybe slow down a little.”
Magic, however, showed no signs of slowing down.
“Magic, hon, seriously, you’re going to get an ice-cream headache if you keep that up.”
But Magic was long gone, focused entirely on devouring her ice-cream before it disappeared in the blazing sunlight.
She had eaten over half of it in just twenty seconds, when suddenly it happened.
Magic suddenly went very still, winced, and grit her cold teeth together. She could feeling a funny sensation in her head, kinda like a cold, squeezing feeling, like a frozen fist of ice was gripping her brain.
But it didn’t let up.
Instead, it got worse.
The icy grip on her brain squeezed tighter, tighter, tighter, forcing Magic to clamp her eyes shut tight and let out a quiet humming moan from the discomfort.
“Mmmmummah!!!” Magic whined through gritted teeth. “Majik hab huw-huw-HUWTIES!!!”
Wanda looked on with a slight grimace, as her fluffy pony experienced her first ever ice-cream headache. She wanted to help, but as everyone alive knew only too well… there was no helping an ice-cream headache.
“Sorry, honey, but I tried to warn you.”
Magic’s eyes snapped open. Her sight was going blurry, her breathing suddenly heavier and rapid. She felt the icy grip tightening around her head to the point she thought her skull was going to explode. The endless cold squeezing sensation just wouldn’t stop.
“Eeeee…” She whined, putting her hooves to her head in a vain attempt to massage the pain away. Unfortunately, nothing could help her now, as she felt spears of cold jabbing into every facet of her brain’s tissue, somehow managing to scorch and sear her with their blinding coldness.
“Mmmmmmmmmummah!!!” Magic cried again, shaking her head violently from side to side. “Huh-huh-HEWP! HAB BIGGEST COWDY HUWTIES EBAH! SCREEEEEEEEE…”
“Is everything okay?” A passing waiter asked nervously.
“It’s fine,” Wanda assured him with a sad smile. “She’s just having her first ice-cream headache.”
The waiter was immediately relieved.
“Oh, I see. Well, if you need anything…”
“Sure, thanks.” Wanda said as the waiter turned and left her with the screaming fluffy in the opposite chair.
Magic, meanwhile, was completely lost to her agony.
The spikes of cold had burrowed deep into her brain and had begun to protrude again on the other sides, sending new sensations of suffering through her body. Her teeth clattered together as she shook violently, her entire body sinking into the cold abyss. Every second felt like an hour, as Magic felt the cold burning through her entire form, penetrating every moment of her life, from her birth in the past to her death in the future, frosting over every single moment of her life with endless, eternal, endless cold.
Magic could see nothing. Magic could hear nothing. Magic could taste nothing.
All she could feel was the cold that she had sunken into so rapidly, which now refused to let her go.
With nothing left in her soul but suffering, Magic threw her head back, wrenched open her jaws and screamed to the heavens and the stars above.
“WAN DIE WAN DIE WAN DIE WAN DIE WAN DIE WAN…”
Two minutes later Magic blinked herself awake and looked around. She was curled up on mama’s lap, they were still at the ice-cream shop, but everything seemed okay now. The sun was still out, and Magic’s black fur was generously soaking up the heat once more.
“You feeling a little better now, Magic?” Wanda asked.
“Yus, fank yoo mummah Wanda.” Magic replied, snuggling back into her lap.
Wanda smiled, shaking her head, and finished off her own ice-cream.
“Maybe next time, we’ll avoid ice-cream. How does that sound?”
“Otay, mummah Wanda…” Magic mumbled as she drifted off to sleep in Wanda’s lap.
‘Fuckin’ fluffy ponies, man.’ Wanda thought to herself with a smile. 'Couldn’t even give 'em an ice-cream without ‘em making a problem out of it.’