Winter's darkness

Crystal Belle stood trembling at the bottom of a cliff, her eyes pinpricks her legs glued to the spot not in just fear but also the darkness around her hooves had turned to what could only be seen as a tar-like substance.

Above her stood a unicorn, her height could of matched that of the princesses,  her coat underneath a dress of dark blue was as as black as coal, the darkness seemed to flow from the coat itself. Her mane and tail were a dark purple that was intertwined with gems of all colors and gold and silver thread.

But the most intense thing about this mare was her eyes, as red as the biggest rubies that almost seemed to glow. She was at this moment starring down at Crystal with pure hate that twisted the mares beauty into something monstrous.

She spoke suddenly her voice cold and unfeeling.

"You have taken my beloved from me, stolen him with your false promises of love and devotion, now i can never feel the warm embrace of my beloved, never again will i see his smile that glows brighter then the sun itself!"

She says as her slender horn glows with magic of a sickly green color.

"So for this i curse your daughters and your daughters daughters they will only know the cold embrace of winters winds, to forever follow winter,may their hearts become frozen and no nothing of the warmth of love! Until the end of time itself!"

She says firing a spell at Crystal. It was the last thing she saw before complete darkness.


Crystal Belle woke with a shriek of pure terror from her bed, her coat and sheets soaked in a cold sweat. She had been having the same nightmare for weeks now, one that kept getting more and more lifelike each time.

Outside of the small inn she had taken shelter for the night winter itself howled in anger. The winds whipped this way and that as snow fell in sheets to the earth.

So much so that not even Crystal could bear a night like this so she used the last bits she had to spend the night in a old inn on the edge of a small town.

It wasn't much warmer then outside but at lest she wouldn't freeze to death by the raging blizzard.

Switchblade walked into the inn, the wind blew through the door behind him as he entered, he removed a long cloak that he wore for the winter nights and brushed the winter signs off of it, checking his cloak until he was sure of its cleanliness. Eventually he seemed happy with his work and flung it back on, however, before the cloak fully covered him again, his sword glinted in the meager light.

He walked up to the innkeeper, his boots clanking on the floor as he walked. He stopped at the counter, smiling, he spoke confidently "One room please, my good fellow." He looked around him to evaluate the situation; it was one of the coldest winters he had ever seen and one which he hoped he would not see the likes of again. He looked outside and smiled to himself "Almost apocalyptic." he said to himself.

Ebony's collar was turned up against the harsh wind of the massive storm. Her navy scarf whipped into her face, which she promptly ignored. After a few more stinging blows, she wrestled the ends of it inside her coat, shivering despite herself. 

A harsh snort dispelled the ice crystals around her nose as she shoved her way into the inn. The blast of suddenly warm air took a moment to adjust to as she shuffled her hooves, getting the snow all over the carpet she could care less about as she took a moment to warm up. However, the temperature within the decrepit building was scarcely a degree warmer. Alas. It was better than the howling wind. 

She hadn't been outside of Canterlot in a while. Most ponies enjoyed getting the city out of their lungs by taking the occasional vacation, but Ebony really only liked leaving the city she loved for interesting cases. 

Said interesting cases were going to have to wait, she realized as she glanced out of the window. That was enough to put her into a foul mood, which didn't bode well for the ponies trapped in this building with her. 

"Your quietest room," she demanded, slapping a few bits on the counter and ignoring the stallion beside her. "I don't want to be disturbed. Is that understood?"

Crystal came down the stairs and sat near by on a stool her eyes dark shadows, proof of her lack of sleep. Quickly the bartender got her a drink looking almost...afraid. Of course he was one of one who had heard she was the one who brought winter, that she controlled the winds with a wave of her hoof.

But what happened next may of just been proof to that if Crystal herself knew it it was just the whispers of fear.

As Crystal sat down and pulled out a large chunk of crystal taking shavings off it like a hot knife through butter and the bartender looking at her, trembling from fear or the cold, a nearby window busted open and the wind sweated in howling like a mad beast and throwing snow everywhere like a foal having a tantrum.

Crystal wiped around and rose her voice easily being  heard over the winds "Oh will you be quiet!" At those words, the wind blowing inside stopped the snow no longer  blowing. Outside it still raged but..

Crystal got up closed the window, and then went back to her craving, that was until she felt the stares on her.

Switchblade was about to strike up an argument with the mare that pushed in front of him when the snow burst through, his teeth started to chatter and his cloak became covered in snow, but it stopped as suddenly as it came on. He removed his cloak and started brushing snow off again.

Ah. 

Now that was interesting. 


A smile of excitement twitched at the corner of Ebony's mouth as she snatched her keys up from the front desk attendant and moved to sit next to the pegasus. A flick of her eyes at an unnamed drink on the back counter sent the bartender flying in an attempt to whip something up for her to keep himself from thinking about said pegasus. That spoke volumes about the type of influence she had over the wait staff and, as Ebony noticed with a quick sweep, the handful of regulars shivering in their seats. 

"Do you mind?" Ebony asked, her voice low. "With the storm and all. I do have a report to write up, and though paperwork is tedious, I have a schedule to abide by and a very intriguing set of double homicides in Manehatten that won't get solved until I show up. Nice trick, by the way, though I do wonder," she straightened up to her full abnormally tall and sight lay imposing height as she leaned a little closer, "how a lone pegasus could do that?"

Grizz the repair pony came up out of the basement his brown coat stianed with sout ." well i got the fernace going again he walked over and sat across from the 2 mares just happy work was over.

((Evel, you can't roleplay until you get an approved character. Sorry!))

Crystal Belle slowly formed a shape from the chunk of sparkling crystal, a shape of a pony. As she spoke it was soft and gentle not like the rage she had when she first spoke. "I don't mind at all" She says pausing to take a drink from her glass. "But it wasn't a trick"

Switchblade leans against the counter, looking at the two mares talking and listening to them; he too was intrigued  by the mare's ability but decided to keep at a respectful distance away from the grumpy one until invited closer. So he watched from under his hood.

Ebony's skeptic's expression flitted over her face.

"Ah, but that wasn't what I was implying," she said, looking stoic as ever. "Surely you understand that I was pointing out that it is June and there is a full-on blizzard outside of that window." She gestured with an angular tilt of her head. "So unless the weather team has been sabotaged, Discord is going to make that stack of paperwork on my desk three times the size it is, or there's something else going on here. You have that look on your face that implies that this is a normal occurrence, and those fools are looking at you in fear instead of indifference or even reverence. Therefore, this storm has something to do with you, and that is most certainly curious indeed." She smiled, but it wasn't warm in the slightest. "Wasn't that far of a leap."

She tilted her head again, but this time to angle her face towards the stallion still standing at the counter. "One might even say it was... apocalyptic. And that pony would be horribly disillusioned."

Crystal Belle sat the finished figure in front of Ebony, it was a small sparkling version of her. "Tell me miss...Have you heard of the tale of Winter's Wife?" She asks before giving a slight yawn. "But maybe that tale would best wait until morning? You did say you had paperwork and I don't want to keep you from your Job."

(so many big words!)

((now can i use my character to partake. hes approved and everything))

Switchblade listened to the conversation waiting for a break where he could enter, he frowned at the tall mare's paraphrasing of his earlier remark; 'a tad impertinent' he thought to himself before eventually deciding to attempt to join in the conversation, so he walked over to the two and smiled, pulling his hood down showing the helmet below "Lovely evening, isn't it?" he remarked casually

" I gotta ask," Grizz stepped in, completely interupting Switchblade. " what the hay is is a Winter's Wife?"

Ebony bristled. Suddenly, there were three ponies attempting to speak to her, and not the one she had originally been interrogating. She angled her body away from the earth pony and ignored the unicorn, keeping her eyes on her subject.

"I can't say that I have," she said seriously. "It sounds very much like a fairy tale, and I usually don't keep such drivel cluttering my memory. However, now seems like a relevant time to catch up. The story? Do tell, I'd be delighted. My paperwork is sitting on a desk in my office, which would be impossible to get to without a powerful transportation spell that would be rather impertinent, considering that this set of circumstances are far more interesting."

It's a short, concise, and fairly rude way of asking, but unless she thought this mare was going to be reluctant to tell her, she wouldn't have done it any other way. No time for pleasantries when the game was on. It was also the reason why she was ignoring the other two. If they were trying to initiate conversation or speaking in a way she immediately deemed idiotic, then there was no time or space in her day to bother putting up a social mask. She already knew that this investigation was going to be the prime spot of her day and possibly the week, and if she was bothered, there was always the badge sitting in the inside pocket of her coat. Most ponies backed down when she pulled a serious no-funny-business face and a DI title.

Crystal nods slowly before taking a deep breath before she started her story, the emotions and grace she put in her words mad even the bartender and the regulars stop and listen. "Now most of you know us Pegasus as the one who control the weather and changes of the seasons. But this isn't exactly true"

"Sure we can cause a rainfall, or a sunny day, but do ever wonder why a blizzard or a thunderstorm causes tremendous damage, it isn't because of use Pegasus, it is because of the seasons themselves.

She glances around before starting her tale

"Long ago before the princesses, before the founding of Equestira and even before the chaos filled rule of Discord, when the three tribes still lived separated, there lived a powerful unicorn sorceress, who was arranged to marry a stallion from one of the other tribes. Mind you this was one of the many failed attempts to unite the tribes. Now this unicorn, even though it was arranged loved the stallion she was to marry, but the same could not be said of the stallion himself, for he loved another, a mare,a gentle spirit."

Crystal sighs softly

"But the unicorn knew nothing of this until the day of their vows when the stallion and his secret love they ran away together. Just as love can drive a pony to do crazed things so can a broken heart. It twisted her mind into something monstrous. Seeking revenge she waited until she learned of the foal they were expecting. She visited them to bring a gift for them, but instead she brought them a curse."

Crystal closed her eyes as she quoted the mares words from her dream.

""You have taken my beloved from me, stolen him with your false promises of love and devotion,So for this i curse your daughters and your daughters daughters they will only know the cold embrace of winters winds, to forever follow winter,may their hearts become frozen and no nothing of the warmth of love! Until the end of time itself"

A frozen heart she wished their daughters to have, like the one she now had. The curse was true never breaking. The mares of the bloodlines bonded to the winds of winter following them until the day they die keeping them company. That is the tale of the Winter's Wife."

(long posty!~)

Switchblade sighed "Some just spend so long holding onto lost straws that they can't see the darkness until they are blind." he leaned against the wall, cloak still obscuring his body.

" What's funny is you all believe these stories. It's all an old mare's tale." Grizz sad very sarcassticly.

Ebony looked at the unicorn with a skeptic's gaze. Then she swept her eyes over the unicorn with a gaze that meant she was reading everything about this unicorn and categorizing it carefully to be pieced together. Then she looked outside of the window, analyzing each snowflake as it fell and stuck to the ground.

"Curious," she said finally. "Curious indeed. Though I do believe there is quite a lot of naivety related to such a tale... When you eliminate the impossible, whatever remains, however improbable, must be the truth. The impossible is that this is a regular occurrence. It does not snow in the Northern Hemisphere of Equuis in June, and the exception to that rule is, on a rare basis, in Vanhoover. Normalcy is out-ruled. That this is a freak weather pattern is impossible as well: the weather ponies would already be trying to clear it, and it is obvious that they are not. If what you are saying is, indeed, true, then that is our improbable cause."

She leered at the earth pony and narrowed her eyes in distaste.

"I wouldn't be so sure," she said. "We do live in a world of improbable situations. Ponies shouldn't be able to fly, for instance. They do because there is magic involved in their airborne tendencies. The explanation for a situation such as this can be chalked up to the impossibility that is magic. Don't talk out loud unless you have something useful to say."

It was probably best to take Ebony's insults with a bit of sugar. It was uncommon that somepony could avoid such utter contempt, but, when one is living in a world of goldfish, a little impatience was to be expected, and said earth pony reminded her of a particularly disliked member of her forensics team.

Crystal was going to turn and snap at the earth pony but the mare spoke first "They said nightmare moon and discord were old mare's tales too, but look at what happened."

Switchblade looked at the other stallion "Also remember that ponies like me that are from declassified military black ops have more than enough legends made about us, the only difference between a myth and a legend are the percentages of truth that underlies them."

"You ponies are acting like I shot Celestia herself. I merely stated an opinion of mine. And hello with out me knowing how to fix the furnace we would all be freezing right now. So I don't believe I should've been subject to such verbal assault. I wasn't saying you are wrong I was saying I would need proof to agree with you all." He took on an offensive tone.

Ebony peered at the earth pony for a moment.

"I appreciate a skeptic's mindset. Without it, there would be no way to retrieve relevant information. However, even I know where to draw the line, and there is quite sufficient evidence for me to determine that there is a relative possibility that this legend could hold a grain of truth. Every fairy tale has truth ingrained into it." She sniffed. "The furnace is of no concern. After all, your knowledge of how to repair the furnace is useless if we're all still sitting here, well and truly alive. I personally don't care if you're a little uncomfortable. Whether my body temperature is cold or not is of no consequence to me. It's all just transport." She gestured to her coat and scarf. "Either way, I'm perfectly comfortable. Continue, please, Ms...?"

Crystal belle had pulled out another chunk of crystal the color of icy blue slowly making it into another pony shape, but this time of an alicorn, the horn and wings clear as ice but the body itself frosted it was easy to see this was not a figure of any of the princess but also strangely enough the size and shape of the body lend it to be seen as male, something never seen before.

"Crystal Belle" She says before continued the story telling more of strange winter storms and snowfalls in places like the badlands Appleoosa and other hot climates all the while unseen by any pony hidden by the darkness of night and the blinding snowfall a smoky figure stood staring in at the small group its eyes red as rubies that almost seemed to glow.

With a glow of rage it's smoky form seemed to fade into a black mist that slowly swept under the door moving closer and closer to the group. Just as it was about to reach them to swallow them into its darkness there was a flash of light that caused the creature to shriek in pain and shield itself.

When it looked back not only was the group gone, but the inn they had been sitting in as well, mass Teleportation, something only a creature of great magic could do. The creature gave a great roar of rage after losing it's prey, before flying off into the night to report back to its creator.

Meanwhile Crystal Belle sat up feeling sick,a common effect of Teleportation, all around her the inn was a mess, tables and chairs smashed and broken toss all over the room, apple cider dripped on the floor from broken bottles. Stumbling to her hooves she called out softly "I-Is everypony a-alright?"