Ice Queen
Chapter 9: Ice Queen
"Griffins?" Rainbow Dash asked Cryssy suspiciously.
"Yes, griffins" the blind unicorn's head was still bowed nearly to the ground, and her voice was filled with shame at deceiving the other ponies.
She lifted her head and allowed her magic to show their faces each with varying degrees of concern and confusion.
"Why would griffins be chasin' ya'?" Applejack finally asked what they all must have been thinking.
"Because they want my magic" Cryssy admitted, her voice shaking a bit.
Twilight was the next to speak, "No offense Ice, but I haven't seen you use much magic since you've been here. Why would they want you for that?"
Cryssy took deep breath and exhaled heavily. She would have to tell them everything, from the beginning. "It started two years ago, a week before I left home..."
Her scream tore through the previously silent night of Snowhoof, barely making a sound over the whistle of the wind that was now whipping around her like a tornado. Her body twitched as it was stung over and over by something, it felt like hundreds of bees were attacking her at once.
Behind her, one of the giant birds screeched in pain again. She stumbled blindly across the street, hoping that she wouldn't run into something while she was shrouded in the blackness. The tingling that filled her body still seemed to be swirling up into her head, she just wished she could see what was happening.
She was suddenly tackled from behind as a set of sharp talons dug into her back, shooting a wave of pain through her body. She rolled a few times before coming to a stop with something heavy on her chest.
"You're going to pay for that little filly" the cruel voice lashed from the darkness.
A deep pain tore into her side as the talons dug through her skin, and Cryssy could feel the warmth of her blood flowing onto her pale blue coat. She let out another scream, and the tingling pushed into her head even harder, throwing the weight of the demon from her chest.
The unicorn broke through the pain to roll back onto her hooves, and forced herself to run. She didn't even know which way she was facing anymore, but it didn't matter, she just needed to get away. She galloped as fast as she could, praying that she wouldn't hit a house or run into the lake. Unfortunately, fate was not on her side.
The cruel one rammed her again, and the two tumbled into the freezing water of the lake, sending a shock through Cryssy's body. Her breathing halted, and for a moment, the tingling stopped. She couldn't feel anything around her as time seemed to slow. She knew the cruel one had come in with her, and she knew he was close.
Her head finally broke the surface of the water, and her lungs sucked in a deep breath of air. However, the relief was short lived as she felt a claw wrap around her ankle and jerk her back into the water. The tingling returned, but this time, it was different. It felt like the blood froze in her veins, and the blackness around her flashed a solid white.
She felt the cold surrounding her as the water stopped flowing over her coat. Her ears were filled by a loud cracking sound coming from all around her. Her leg was suddenly pulled from the talons, and she felt herself being lifted, until a light breeze once again flew over her coat. The freezing sensation left her blood and the tingling subsided after a brief moment, replaced by the feeling of weakness through her entire body.
After a moment her mind was again filled with a flashed image, then another. She couldn't see anything in the flashes except her own front hooves. But something seemed wrong, the bottom of the images was fuzzy, unclear. She reached in front of herself, and poked at the edge of the fuzzy spot. The blur proved to be a slick, solid surface, with a chill only ice held.
She lifted herself to her hooves, her left flank still burning with pain from the attack. She looked down to see that everything beneath her had the same fuzzy look to it, and in the center was the cruel one from before. But after each image, he never moved, like he was...frozen.
It had happened again, after all of these years of thinking it was just a dream. Her magic had unleashed its own power yet again, encasing her attacker in solid ice, and from the looks of it the entire lake as well. But what had changed this time? Why had she been lifted out of the frozen lake instead of being left in the ice block?
The unicorn carefully limped to the edge of the frozen lake, moving slowly to avoid slipping and injuring herself further.
It took the mare around half an hour to reach the hospital, where her oozing wounds attracted the attention of the nurse before she even entered the building. The frantic nurse Softheart raced to her side to assist the limping unicorn into the hospital, screaming for the doctor as soon as the door opened.
The doctor Cryssy knew so well still worked in the hospital despite his old age, and his familiar face was a welcome sight after everything that had happened.
"Cryssy! What in Equestria happened to you?" the doctor frantically asked her as he started pulling bandages from the shelves beside her bed, "Where are your parents?"
Cryssy's eyes filled with tears at the mention of her parents, telling the doctor all he needed to know. He yelled to the nurse over his shoulder, "Get to the police! Tell them to go to Cryssy's house, NOW!"
She felt the doctor's hooves pressing into her back as he tried to stop the bleeding. She winced with the pain, but it was nothing compared to what she was feeling on the inside at that moment.
The blind pony continued to cry as the doctor raced to stop the bleeding in her flank and back, "You're going to be alright Cryssy. You're going to be alright" the doctor tried to assure her as he worked.
But he didn't know, he could never understand everything she had just been through, everything she had felt tonight. It didn't feel like she was going to be alright, not in the slightest.
The next morning hit Cryssy like a ton of bricks. Her head was swimming as she came out of sleep, and her body felt like she had been hit by a train.
The doctor was at her side as her horn began feeding images back to her brain, his face drawn taut from working late into the night to save the unicorn before him. "Cryssy, how do you feel?"
She noticed that her mouth felt like cotton right away as she spoke, "I've felt better."
"Do you need any water, or food?"
Cryssy nodded, "Water would be nice."
The doctor trotted into the front of the hospital, and returned a moment later with the nurse and a pitcher of water and cups. He filled one cup and placed it on the table beside her. The nurse placed a straw in the water and bent it so the blind unicorn could reach it without too much effort.
After allowing the unicorn to slowly drink the entire cup of water, the doctor finally spoke, "Cryssy, I'm so sorry."
Cryssy focused on the doctor, her eyes beginning to tear up again, "Are...are my parents okay?" she knew what his answer would be, but she was hoping against hope that the cruel one had been lying, and that her parents were alive and well.
The doctor looked down and shook his head slowly, "I'm so sorry, they...they were gone before the police arrived."
Tears dripped onto the pillow beneath her face, dimpling it with moisture. She closed her eyes, wishing she could just wake up and have this all be a terrible dream, but the images continued to flash into her mind. She felt a hoof gently rub her shoulder, and saw that it belonged to the doctor.
"Why...why did they do it?" Cryssy asked through the tears.
"We don't know Cryssy, the police haven't told us anything."
The doctor remained by her side for the next few hours, comforting her in any way he could and making sure her wounds didn't get infected. Around lunch time, a pony in a police uniform trotted into the back room and spoke momentarily with the doctor before taking a seat beside Cryssy's bed.
"Are you Ice Crystal?" the police pony's voice was sympathetic, almost sad.
Cryssy nodded in response.
"I'm Officer Goldhoof, do you mind if I ask you a few questions?"
Again, Cryssy simply nodded.
"Okay, first can you tell me what happened in your house last night?"
Cryssy hesitated for a moment before answering with a shaking voice, "I went on a date with a colt from school. When I got home it was late," she paused for a moment, thinking of how to describe the scene that had burned into her mind, "It was really quiet, and my parents weren't anywhere I could see on the first floor. I heard a loud noise in the kitchen, so I went to check it out. But, someone was there."
"Can you tell me who it was?"
"It was...some kind of giant bird, at least mostly. It looked a little strange, I didn't see it at the time, but later I saw that they had an extra set of legs, like a cat" Cryssy tried to explain the strange birds she had been tormented by, their blazing stares burned into her memory.
"They were griffins" the officer corrected her, "sorry, please continue."
Cryssy nodded, "They cornered me...and started arguing about what to do with me...and they told me...they said..." Cryssy couldn't bring herself to repeat what the cruel one had said, the words stuck in her throat.
"You don't have to say it," the officer told her sympathetically, "one of them told us that already."
"Thank you" the unicorn whispered, unsure if she could have ever repeated those horrible words. "And then...I don't know what happened. My vision stopped working, and everything was so cold. I found the door and went outside, but one of them followed me, and attacked me again" she paused for a moment to wipe tears from her eyes, "and we fell in the lake."
"What happened in the lake Ice Crystal?" the officer's voice had suddenly taken on a more curious tone, as if up to this point the police had already figured everything out, leaving the lake as the only mystery.
"I don't know" Cryssy said softly, "he pulled me under the water, and then the cold got worse. I still couldn't see, all I know is that I felt the water stop moving, and when my vision finally came back, I was sitting on top of the lake, and it was frozen."
Cryssy noticed that a few heads had poked into the doorway to the room, including the nurse and a few other police ponies. She ignored their presence and focused on Officer Goldhoof.
"And that's all you can remember?" the officer asked her after a moment of silence.
"Yes ma'am" Cryssy almost sounded ashamed of not knowing more.
The officer stood back up and gently placed her hoof on Cryssy's shoulder, "I'm so, so sorry."
"The next day, the Snowhoof police gave the griffins over to their own government. They had been on the run from their king, and needed food and money. So they broke into my house" Cryssy continued the story with wet eyes.
"Wow, I know Gilda was a jerk, but these griffins..." Rainbow commented after a moment of silence.
Cryssy's legs stiffened and her head shot up to Rainbow, "What did you just say?"
"Whoa, calm down, I wasn't trying to insult you" the pegasus defended herself.
"No, the name, how do you know that name?" Cryssy's knees started wobbling, and her voice seemed fearful.
"Who, Gilda? We used to be friends, how do YOU know her?"
"Gilda...is the one in charge of catching me."
A deep gasp erupted from one side of the circle, and everypony looked over to see Pinkie Pie looking side to side with a air-puffed cheeks. She exhaled quickly and shrugged, "What? I thought we were supposed to gasp there."
"Why would she want to find you?" Twilight stepped forward and asked, ignoring the sporadic pony's actions.
"Because her father told her to."
"Okay, why does HE want to find you" Rainbow cut back in, her voice sounding impatient.
"Because he...he thinks he can use me" Cryssy shrunk back from the pegasus.
"What could he possibly use you for dear?"
Cryssy looked to each of the ponies before answering in a near whisper, "To rule Equestria."
"WHAT!" every pony around the blind unicorn yelled in unison.
"Ice! Why didn't you tell anypony this before?" Twilight yelled at the blind pony.
"Because nopony would believe a vagabond telling them the king of the griffins wanted to conquer Equestria" Cryssy defended herself as she shrunk down to the ground.
"Why didn't you tell US? We would have believed you Ice" Twilight continued to scold her.
"I-I..." Cryssy couldn't think of what to say.
"Hold on just a minute. You're tellin' me that Gilda is the king a' the griffin's DAUGHTER?" Applejack interjected.
Cryssy nodded, unable to speak any more.
Twilight glared at the blind unicorn for a moment longer before looking back to her friends, "We need to tell the Princess about this. Everypony get to the library and we'll get Spike to send it right away."
Her friends nodded in agreement and galloped away, leaving Cryssy trembling and alone with Big Macintosh and Granny Smith at the farm. After only a few moments, her eyes brimmed with tears which freely fell to the snow beneath her. Everything had been going so well, and now she had ruined it, and lost the only ponies which she had connected with since leaving home.
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Wow, this is going to be even better than I thought!
knew it!
DUNN DUNN DUNN
Oh, man. I did NOT see that coming. It does leave me with a lot of questions, though, I'm not sure if you wanna elaborate on it now or if it'll all be answered as the fic goes on. It's just that we haven't seen a lot from Cryssy's time running from the griffons, so I wonder how she knows who Gilda is, how she knows Gilda is the griffon king's daughter and not least how she knows about the griffon king's plan. Again, this might all be resolved eventually, I'm just kinda at loss at the moment.
'Twas a good chapter, though. Shit looks about ready to get real
>>Shade Yes, you will see more of Cryssy's run from the griffins, including her run-ins with Gilda. Wouldn't be very storytellerish of me to leave giant gaps like that
Thanks for continuing to read everyone!
MOAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAR!
Wow. I had my suspicions that it was Gilda, but man, that hit me like a sack of bricks
Throwing in Gilda is a very good idea... but making her Princess of the Griffins might have been too much. She could have just been a bounty-hunter.
(If Gilda is daughter to the King, why is she running around trying to catch Cryssy... instead of directing guards to do it?)
Regardless, I'm enjoying the story very much!
Cryssy uses the water already in the air.
Gilda being the daughter to the king will play its part in the story, a pretty important part in fact.
I'm really liking this so far.
Can't wait to see what happens next.