Equestria was in a dark era of crime and vice. Criminal activity had risen to an all-time high, and not one pony was safe on the streets, even in large numbers. In fact, most found themselves indoors as the best way to stay safe, but even the threat of home invasions made them less secure and caused panic. Princess Celestia and Princess Luna sent out guards to every corner of their kingdom to keep their subjects as safe as possible, though it did little to shift the tide of crime. Among the panic and unease within the kingdom, most try to live out lives as normal as possible, encouraging each other to help the other out should the need arise. One pony who kept her head high, but didn't believe in asking for help was a young mare by the name of Ditzy 'Derpy' Hooves.
A delivery pony by day, a policemare by night, Derpy was once just a full-time delivery mare until the events in which she had been attacked and left to die on the streets late at night. She remembered it as clear as day, but wanted to forget it. What made things worse for her then was that there were other ponies trotting by, but they had been too scared or too ignorant to do something about it. Serving as a policemare granted her the privilege of not only serving others but protecting herself, though she tried to live life as normally as she could. Serving by night was far more dangerous than during the day, but it had been a fate left in the hooves of her commanding officer. Granted, if it weren't for her commander's orders, she would not have discovered something that would change the course of her life forever.
It had been like any ordinary night in Equestria. Or as ordinary as it could before for Equestria. Ditzy was on patrol once again, and for the first time in a while it had been relatively peaceful, or as peaceful as it could be. Aside from the occasional robbery or home invasion, criminal activity had surprisingly been kept to a low. Either the criminals were taking a break, or they were scared of an even more powerful villain who had recently gotten the name 'Tempest' by the public. Not much is known about her, except the fact that she was a unicorn with powerful abilities from a broken horn and she only worked during the night. As far as law enforcements were concerned, Tempest was only kidnapping ponies rather than leaving them bleeding to death, something paramedics and policeponies alike were relieved with. The case on the vigilante had been left cold for almost a year, the occasional report of a kidnapping appearing every month or two, depending on the severity of the kidnapping.
Ditzy sighed, watching the clouds in the sky up above cover the stars and the moon, the cold breeze shifting through her scarf and her mane, shivering slightly from the wind. Watching her breath disappear into the evening atmosphere, Ditzy patrolled areas of Ponyville and watched over citizens still outside the safety of their homes trying to enjoy the night, not a single sign of foals to be seen. The occasional delinquent was spotted and sent home by the policemare, but that was about it for her. Ditzy even began wondering if going on patrol was the best thing for her to do, even wondering if calling in sick and staying at home was the better option.
The pegasus' train of thought was soon interrupted by the calling of a mare not too far from her location, and by the sound of her voice she might have been another delinquent trotting around town. Instinctively and because it was her right to do so as a policemare, Ditzy followed the cries of help until she reached the mare with the colour drained from her face, but not the type that was seen when Discord ran around years ago.
"Oh god, are you a policemare?"
"Officer Der-Ditzy Hooves, sorry. What's your trouble?"
"Oh thank Celestia. Yeah, my friends and I snuck outside to play...Back in the forest...Lightning, he-he fell through the ice...Laura is with him...I-I-Please don't get mad, I-"
"Hold up, you said a colt fell into the ice? Is he ok?"
"I-I guess so."
"Is he conscious?"
"Y-yeah, b-but he came out of the ice in a state of shock. H-he kept going on about something stuck in the ice, and-"
"Something stuck in the ice?"
"Y-yeah, he couldn't explain to anypony w-what it was..."
"Um, if you don't mind just pick one eye please. Yeah, I have a bit of a problem with them, so please don't get distracted with them."
"Oh! Sorry, I'm so sorry. B-But if you'd like to see what he found, h-he's still in the forest..."
"Lead me to this 'thing in ice' if you can."
The small mare nodded, and started to gallop in the direction she came from, Ditzy followed her in the air, flying through the cold breeze that started to blow down harder than earlier that night. After a while, snowfall soon covered the land in snow, and it became impossible to locate the mare through the thick layer of snow falling from the clouds. Ditzy thought to herself for a moment. She was a pegasus, she could control the weather to her liking to make things easier for her. Only downside was her condition with her eyes. Even if she could, she wasn't coordinated enough to change the weather without worsening the condition of it further, so the fear of heavy snowfall pouring down onto the three teenage ponies still in the forest plagued her mind, her face burrowing in concentration as she tried to locate the mare once again.
After some time flying through the air, Ditzy heard the calling of the same Earth Pony that called her attention in town, and carefully made her way down to a clearing with a break in the ice and three teenagers close together comforting the colt of the group. Shaking of any bit of snow from her face, Ditzy approached the group and extended a hoof for the colt to take.
"Officer Ditzy Hooves. I've been told by your friend that you spotted something in the ice after you fell through it. You don't mind telling me what you saw, do you?"
"S-Sorry ma'am, I can't..."
"And why not?"
"I-It looked like it was about to pounce out of it! I-I honestly don't know what I saw down there!"
"You don't mind showing me where this thing is, right?"
"N-not at all ma'am. It's right here, about north of the ice break."
Taking in a deep amount of air, Ditzy lowered her head into the freezing cold water beneath the ice. The temperature of the water pricked at her coat like a pair of knives, even igniting a few sores from her old wounds. Ignoring the pain to the best of her abilities, Ditzy continued to look in the general direction the 'thing' in the ice would have been, briefly spotting something that looked like a mane before going back up for air.
"Well, you're right kid. Somepony's down there."
"There's a pony down there?!"
"Yeah, there is, and they might be in trouble. Hold these for me, and make sure they don't get wet!"
Ditzy hurriedly stripped of her outer uniform and scarf, and with a deep breath she dove back into the ice cold water and winced as the water pricked at her coat once again, but with a much greater force than that of just sticking her head in. Taking no time to waste, Ditzy used her wings to swim through the water towards the area she saw the pony's mane from, meeting with a wall of ice that was thin enough to buck should she need to. The ice wall was fogged with the additional cold of the weather above, and before she could reach it to remove the fog, Ditzy felt her breath growing shorter and her chest stinging from the lack of air, forcing her to resurface back through the hole, the cold air above the water giving her a numbing chill through her mane. Taking in another deep breath, Ditzy wasted no time to get back to the ice wall, this time reaching it successfully without wasting more of her breath. After scratching through the foggy wall with her hooves, she found herself releasing a muffled scream upon seeing something that shook her very spirit: A stallion in the ice. Ditzy resurfaced for oxygen once again, this time calling for the group that contained her equipment.
"You guys, there's a stallion Earth Pony down here stuck in ice! That's what you might have seen!"
"Oh thank Celestia! It wasn't a deep sea monster craving pony flesh and blood."
"I'm going to try and bust him out of there. If I don't resurface for a while, get help!"
Ditzy didn't even waste time getting a reply, one she heard muffled from the water's surface. Swimming back towards the ice, the policemare swam as fast as she could, using her back hooves to try and buck the stallion free from the ice wall, the wall cracking little by little as she continuously tried to destroy it. She felt her breath going through the process of realising it had no oxygen left to spare, so she tried continuously to break the wall more and more. After some time, she was able to create a break-in through another part of the wall, and using her front hooves, she used what strength she had left to pry the ice more and more until she reached the stallion's location. The more she dug at the ice, the more she was able to study him in as much detail as her darkened vision could allow, which wasn't very much to begin with.
With her breath as short as it could get, her coat numbing with each second she stays underwater, and her vision blackening with each loss of breath, she turned around and with a mighty buck, she broke the Earth Pony free from his icy prison. The stallion, now freely floating in the water, was free from the ice, and a relieved Ditzy used her wings to reach him, grab his securely, and fly out of the water, meeting with the cold winds and snow that made her skin feel like it was being stabbed. Her lungs numb and sore, Ditzy took in a deep breath and started coughing her heart out, breathing heavily as the three teenagers that were waiting for her galloped towards her to help her and the body of the colt off of the ice to prevent either from falling in.
Wrapping herself back in her warm scarf, Ditzy soon began to work on the colt, seeing whether or not she was able to save him. Beginning CPR, she instructed the pegasus mare with her outer jacket to give it to the Earth Pony and fly back to Ponyville to alert the medical centre of this discovery. After some time of performing chest compressions, the teenage colt Lightning offered to step in to do them for her, Ditzy allowing herself to move for the young colt to do what she was fearing she could no longer do. Looking at the stallion with her vision restored, she was able to get a bit more of a clearer view on him. His mane had been traditionally styled in a way that looked old-fashioned, and he looked at peace, as if he were sleeping. He looked no older than herself, and the only thing he had on him was a ruined bowtie that wrapped around his neck. Removing the bow to help him possibly breath better if he were still somehow alive, Ditzy looked at his mouth and wondered if she should do the next bit of CPR. Ditzy strove to leave that part to mares or stallions who already had their first kiss taken, but the thought of that soon left her mind as she convinced herself that saving a potential life was more important than kisses, and tilting his head she placed her lips onto his cold ones and exhaled.
The sudden jolt of his head made the pegasus jerk her head back as the stallion began spewing out water and by the looks of things vomit. The body moved himself around a bit, turning himself around slowly before losing consciousness, the one thing signifying life was the mist of oxygen exiting his muzzle and the wheezing of each breath he took. Ditzy took her jacket and wrapped it around the now unconscious Earth pony and looked towards the teenage ponies that were with her, the not-too-distant gallop of Paramedics echoing through the forest, the Earth Pony mare asking one question everypony had in their minds.
"Where-Where did he come from?"