The single candle illuminating the small workroom flickered as Crystal Lattice brushed her hoof past it, helping a levitating gemstone bounce properly into her "cheap" basket. The bright green unicorn winced as the shadows danced across the room, aggravating her fear of the dark a little bit, but she'd been caving long enough to avoid losing her grip just because of a single candle going out. Besides, it was still blindingly bright outside, Celestia's golden sun hanging high in the sky just beyond her curtains. But right now, Crystal needed darkness and focused light to work.
The unicorn focused on a topaz at the top of her latest haul from the gem mines just outside town. She almost instantly saw a large flaw on one face of the gem, visible even without the jewelers loupe currently tangled in her short, chestnut and yellow-highlighted mane. She sighed and tossed it into the "cheap" bag as well. It was so annoying some days, digging through her bags of gems for the highest of quality gems to practice weaving her magic into. The highest quality gems held magic much better than the gems riddled with impurities, and the purest of gems could hold such a quality of magic she desperately wanted to practice.
Crystal cracked open the top drawer on her left and opened the jewel box sleeping inside, revealing a quartet of the purest opal gems she'd ever encountered. She smirked at her pet project and levitated the pale blue gem she was saving for Winter Whisper, turning it over in the light. "I just hope everything goes ok for her today," she said, setting the gem down between a gem seemingly cut from the night sky itself, hopefully destined for Midnight, and her own green stone. Before she closed it she glanced at the red gem for her adopted little sister and smiled, as she closed the case she could just hear her calling her name...wait, that really was her!
"Crystal, are you home? Crystal!"
Crystal jolted up and used her magic to yank open the lock of her office door. She hurriedly stood from her chair and trotted to the door, moving for the stairs before she heard a panicked pounding on her shop's front door. She'd put up the "Out to lunch" sign in her front window and locked her door to get some sitting through gems handled, but Vlyka's fear was more than enough to get her out of working.
Crystal didn't wait any longer and summoned her magic, picturing the mat just inside her front door and pointing her magic there to check if it was safe. She then pictured herself dropping gently onto the mat, and with a flash of light and a crackle of energy she was there. Teleporting herself was one of Crystal's most advanced tricks, making it difficult to maintain her orientation after each teleport she did. This one was no different, making her shake her head for a moment as her dizziness passed and she could look up again.
Vlyka was standing there on the other side of the window taking up the upper half of her door, her literally little sister's chin just high enough to reach the windowsill. It let Crystal see the entire horrified, frantic look in Vlyka's eyes as she hurried to open the lock and let her sister in.
Vlyka didn't enter however, only locking eyes with Crystal and tensing to run. "Winter’s in trouble. Can you go check her house while I get Midnight?"
"Wait, Vlyka slow down. What happened to Winter?" Crystal waited just a second, but Vlyka didn't answer, only looking down the street for her clear path to run. "Are you okay? you're panting, do you need something to drink?"
Vlyka glared at Crystal for a moment before sighing and shaking her head. "Winter's magic went crazy, she made a storm and froze me to run away. Go check on her while I-"
"Wait wait, she froze you?!" Crystal grabbed Vlyka in her magic and started surveying her for injuries. "Oh sweet Celestia Vlyka, are you okay?"
Vlyka growled as Crystal checked her body, Crystal ignoring her sister's growing anger until she ripped her hoof from Crystal's magic. "I'm fine!" she yelled, "can you go to her house?!"
Crystal gasped in shock, it wasn't often Vlyka lost her patience with her like that. Sure she wasn't always patient with herself or strangers, but Vlyka had serious patience for her best friends and family. Something was very wrong if she'd snapped at her so easily. After a moment, she nodded. "I'll go. You...be careful, sis."
Vlyka turned to run, but froze on the doorstep and looked back. "I will. You too, Crys...and, I love you." She turned on her hoof and wrapped her forelegs around Crystal's neck, Crystal hugging her back tightly.
"I love you too, sis," she whispered, squeezing Vlyka tight in her hug before letting her go. Vlyka smiled briefly at Crys, before the worry returned to the little mare's face and she turned, taking off towards Midnight's cloud home. The pegasus would be asleep by this hour most days, Crystal could only hope Vlyka could get him up soon.
Crystal locked her front door and turned the other direction down the street, running for Winter's home. She wasn't as physical as her little sis, but Winter's home was closer, she felt sure that she would reach it well before Vlyka could start getting Midnight up. She felt sure she could help talking Winter into a calmer state before the more emotionally tense half of their little quartet could arrive.
But as Crystal arrived at Winter's house, something was going to go wrong. Winter's front door was hanging ajar, and as Crys dove in to shut the door she nearly slipped on the ice formed on the front carpet. Winter certainly messed around with ice and could be something of a prankster with it, but the fact that her home was layered with ice haphazardly told Crystal this wasn't an innocent joke. She hurried upstairs, finding icy hoofprints heading both up and down, leading to every room in Winter's home. "No, please..." Crystal gasped, running to Winter's bedroom, only to find precisely what she feared.
Winter's closets were raided, some protective gear and a saddlebag missing and nothing else. A teddy bear, one Winter had said was a keepsake from her maternal grandmother, was missing from its regular spot on the shelf as well. "No no no Winter..." Crystal stammered as she ran to the kitchen. It too was raided, a box of non-perishable snacks upturned in front of a cabinet. But as she looked to see if anything else was missing from the kitchen, her eyes wandered across the kitchen table and stopped there. Sitting there in an icy card holder were three pieces of paper folded in half. One in the middle bore a single name, Guardian Gleam, and one in the bottom had the two of Winter's parents. But the top one...
Crystal grabbed the note addressed to her, her sister, and her good friend, the one with the most care and attention in the writing. It didn't make the words sting any less. Nor did reading them a second, or a third time, as Crystal dug desperately for any signs that Winter was fooling with her. But no hints came, and as she heard the approach of Vlyka and Midnight she stumbled out the front door, brandishing the letter and wiping tears from her eyes. Midnight landed and stared worriedly at Crystal as she turned the letter over.
"To my best friends,
I’m so sorry I have to do this to you. I hope you know me well enough to know this hurts me as much as it hurts you, but if I don’t, I fear it might hurt you much, much more.
Vlyka knows how bad it got today, but for Crys and Midnight, just know that it was bad. Really bad. If Vlyka hadn’t stopped me, I might’ve killed somepony and not even noticed it. I felt like I was losing my mind, like something deep inside me is trying to make me lash out. I think everything I had to bottle up with my family jumbled together into some other me, something that hates everypony around it and doesn’t care if somepony gets hurt or worse. And I don’t know if I can stop it…if I can’t, then nopony is safe.
That’s why I have to leave, get away from any and everypony I can. I’m going out into the wild where somepony out of control like me won’t be out of place. I know you’ll come here to check on me, but please, don’t come after me. I can’t stand the thought of hurting any of you, you’re all my family. And to protect you from me, I have to leave. Take care of each other, and don’t forget that I still love all of you.
Goodbye,
Winter."
The trio stared at each other in pained silence for nearly a minute, nopony certain what could even be said. Finally, Crystal recovered her senses enough to let her speak. "What...what do we do now?"
Vlyka started to glare at her, a seething fury in her eyes. Crystal winced at the look, but Midnight found his voice in the moment. "We're going after her. I don't think...I think I speak for all of us. We're not leaving her to deal with this alone." Vlyka turned and nodded at Midnight.
Crystal sighed with relief and smiled. "I'm glad we all agree on this. Should we...go get supplies? Help?"
Vlyka shook her head. "Winter doesn't want anypony there...she was afraid of hurting me back at the market. She'll panic if anypony but us goes after her."
Crystal nodded. "She had to go somewhere uninhabited then...Everfree?" Nopony disagreed with her. "Then maybe we should pack quickly, meet at Vlyka’s house in an hour?"
Midnight nodded. "Pack for cold, see you on an hour." He turned to run home, but froze and turned back to Crystal and Vlyka.
“We’re going to find her, Midnight,” Crystal said encouragingly, coming to him and putting a hoof to his shoulder. “She’ll be alright.”
“I hope you’re right...” Midnight sighed, before flapping his wings and taking to the skies.
Crystal smiled as he flew off, Vlyka running for her home as well. As she turned to head home herself, she sighed and bit her lip. “So do I...”