Ardennes
With the failure of the Canterlot invasion Poker Face found herself ejected from the capital city by a large bubble of condensed love. She attempted to try to draw some energy from it but just as she reached out a second shockwave hit.
She wasn't sure what exactly happened, but it felt a little like one time when the queen had teleported herself and several others for quick relocation. Whatever this was though, it was much more powerful, and when she came out of it she felt like she needed to hurl, though an empty stomach mercifully prevented that particular action.
Poker Face was still flying through the air, but when she looked around again she found that the ground she was headed towards was a forest, covered in snow. Where the day had once been clear it was now dark and grey, and she thought she heard the rumble of thunder, though the sound was strange, and very frequent for a day without any other signs of storm.
Just as she braced herself to hit the tree line she thought she saw smoke rising in the distance, but she couldn't be sure with the quick glance she got before her eyes shut and she felt the impact of branches.
She just barely managed to raise the same hardening spell from the initial attack on Canterlot before hitting the ground, leaving a crater where she impacted. She was thankful to have gathered some energy, but she was already low, between the assault and the sudden counter-attack.
Slowly pulling herself up from her self-made hole she looked around. In spite of the tree cover the snow was thick, almost up to her stomach when standing, and still falling. She burned a little love to try to fight off the cold, which was rapidly overtaking the little heat from her crash landing.
Poker Face had just barely managed to start moving to a nearby cluster of fallen branches when she froze, tilting her head to the side. She thought she had heard someling, or somepony, call out, but it was so faint she couldn't be sure. Standing perfectly still she waited, but hearing nothing for several minutes, she was about to move when she heard it again.
"Hello?"
It was weak. The voice sounded as if it was attempting to shout and whisper at the same time, and it was nearby.
Looking around Poker couldn't immediately find the source, and dashed to cover before peeking out for a more thorough look. With the third call she slowly made her way from tree to tree towards the source. She had no way of knowing if the owner of the unknown voice was friendly or not, and wasn't willing to risk charging headlong into a Royal Guard patrol.
It didn't take long, however, to see that, whoever it was that was calling, they weren't a pony.
Huddled against the base of one of the pines was a figure nearly covered in snow. Along coat covered most of its features, and a strange rounded helm sat on its head. It was difficult to tell from her hiding place, but she was fairly sure she'd never seen a creature like it before.
It appeared to be roughly shaped like a minotaur, but it was either malnourished or of much lighter build, maybe both. She could just barely make out the face, but it appeared to lack a muzzle, and the positioning of its arms implied hands or talons of some sort.
Ducking low, Poker Face sent a tentative magical pulse towards the creature, the spell meant to give her a general idea of how to mimic its shape. As said spell took hold, she found a strong signal from a memory the creature held on to. Taking hold, she allowed the emotions to flow over her and guide her disguise, till the sudden chill from lack of heating magic told her she'd taken her new form.
Recasting the heating spell, she quickly took stock of her looks. A strange furless creature, with a long brown mane, a blue dress, hands, pale skin, and blue, round, eyes. Still female, if she was guessing right, and a two leg walker.
With a few tentative movements, she managed to get herself standing upright, and stepped out to make her way towards the unknown figure.
As she approached, she saw him jolt at the sudden movement, before staring at her as she approached.
"Jean...h-how...I don't understand?"
"I wanted to make sure you're ok."
The creature's face contorted for a moment, before a smile slowly began to form, and a few tears began to make their way down his cheeks. She could feel the stream of love began to flow around her, and she closed the distance before bending down to him.
"Here, let me help keep you warm." With that she closed in, hugging him close. She could feel him trying to pull her closer, though the cold was clearly sapping his strength.
They sat there in the snow, huddled together, him feeding her love and her feeding him heat. She wasn't sure how long it was, likely only a few minutes, though the cold made it feel longer, before she felt him try to reach behind him to his pack.
"H-here, you hungry? I...I think I still have something from last time."
Reaching out she held his arm away from where he was fumbling. "I'll be fine, you should save it for yourself."
"If you say so, don't think I'll be needing it though, heh." He weakly coughed out a feeble laugh, the cold had to really be getting to him, in spite of Poker's attempts to keep him warm.
"I've missed you, you know. Ever since the letter from your mom, about what happened." He reached up, cupping her cheek in his left hand. "It's good to see you again, guess I'll get to see a lot more of you soon, huh?"
Poker nodded, hoping it was the right answer. "Yeah, we'll get to see each other as much as we want." She smiled, trying to keep him going, she wasn't sure why, but the love was growing in intensity, but weakening in the actual stream.
"T-that's good...wonder if...we can still...get...married..." With that his voice faded off.
At first Poker thought he had fallen asleep, then realized the stream of love had faded as well. Looking at his face, her eyes widened as she saw he no longer had white puffs of breath, and tried to shake his shoulders, only for his head to slump over.
Jumping up and backing away, she desperately tried to figure out what had happened, until she looked down.
And noticed the red stain on her dress.