Delicate Chaos

It’s cold, windy, and raining. A lone and scared unicorn trots along a winding forest path, following it alongside a river headed downstream. The river’s threatening to flood, but it’s her job to go and fix the dam.

An unintelligible whisper, carried by the wind, causes her to gasp and nearly leap sideways into the river. “W-who’s there?” Iris asks, casting light into the dark woods with her horn. A horn entwined by a silver metal, as a decorative piece.

No response, it was probably quite literally just a trick of the wind. She slowly moves on her way, keeping a keener eye out for movement in the woods. Though, to no avail. Nothing seems to be around, save for a couple birds and small critters like squirrels, rabbits, and the like.

As she nears the dam’s reservoir, she notices that there are chunks of ice on the lake, despite it being the middle of summer. With a frown, she circles the lake, checking for more strangeness. The dam’s gates are frozen over, and the door to the usual control mechanisms hangs open, swinging in the wind.

She approaches, pressing her hoof to the metal door, only to pull back quickly. “F-fuck…” She shivers, forming a shield around her body for warmth. She heads inside, glancing around the inside. “W-what’s going… on?” She speaks to herself, going toward the controls.

Only to find them frozen over, just like the dam gates. “E-everything’s… wrong…” She mutters, running her shielded hoof across the ice. She suddenly snaps to look backwards, only to see nothing unexpected there. Iris glances out the window, then heads outside to look at the lake again. “E-even with this… weather, it shouldn’t be freezing?”

Her thoughts are a mess, confused by the circumstances and enshrouded by fear from the path here. “A-and wait, where’s… the crew, anyway?” She glances around, only to see nobody, no trace of any crew. With a bit of levitation, she makes her way atop the building, to get a better view. Downstream, the river’s running low. No water’s making it past the dam, and the rain’s not particularly helpful there either.

She sighs with a shiver, and climbs down onto the top walkway on the dam, then walks along it, examining the ice. “D-definitely… magical.”

“Whatever gave you that idea?” Another whisper of the wind, but this time much closer to a voice. A chilling, ethereal voice coming from an unclear direction. Its origin shrouded by the intense weather.

Iris yelps and fires out a magical flare, covering the area in a bright light only for a moment… but despite its magical nature, the flare is rapidly made ineffective by the rain. She glances around frantically, seeking the voice’s source. “W-who’s there?!” She yells out, but her voice doesn’t carry far, nor does the source of the voice reveal themselves.

A cold wave of wind pierces through her shield, and Iris shivers, backing up and tripping on some metal grating, collapsing to the stone path. “A-ah!” She quickly tries to get back up, but can’t.

Ice starts to form on her legs, climbing up from the cold stone below her. It’s like her shield isn’t even there. She shivers and tries to struggle against it, gasping sharply as a cold hoof runs down her back. She tries to writhe away, to pull herself from the ice, to gaze back at whomever it could be.

But there’s nobody there, and a moment later manages to succeed in her struggles, much to her own surprise. She manages to pull herself free, but at great cost: her momentum is taking her right into the lake, and in her flustered and messy state she can’t cast fast enough to levitate herself before cold water surrounds her.

Panic and fear quickly fill her mind, a wave of numbness washing through her followed by a desperate struggle against the cold water to try to swim upwards instinctively, despite the disorientation. Her mind reels, trying to process what’s going on, yet the dangerous mix of feelings and thoughts in her head makes it impossible for her to come to any sane thoughts. Her horn glows feebly, but doesn’t cast any light within the dark night and obscuring water.

Iris’s heart beats faster, the force of the fall having knocked any wind out of her body, and as she struggles to regain some semblance of orientation, she quickly becomes more and more disoriented and confused. Her vision starts to blur, her ears feel like they’re full of cotton, unable to see or hear anything clearly.

The cold of the water burrows into her, through her skin into her muscles and bones, and into her mind just the same. Her horn’s light goes out, and her struggles weaken. She lets out a gasp for air, as her lungs run out. But all she gets is a lungful of freezing water. Coughing and trying to breathe again, she only takes in another fresh gulp of it, reflexively breathing despite her true needs.

Her vision starts to go out, and quickly she loses consciousness to the water, drowning in the lake…

Or at least, so she thought in her last moments in the lake. As when she comes to, she’s in her bed at home, an open window above her bed raining cold water onto her shivering form. She gasps softly and closes the window with magic, glancing around the room. Her blanket, sheets, and body are soaked in icy rainwater. She quickly climbs out of bed, using magic to try to warm herself up as she searches for a towel.

An alicorn watches from a nearby roof, a deep black and blue coat hiding their presence against the grey sky. Oh, my dear Iris. They smile softly, leaping into the night sky and vanishing amidst the clouds. I’ll be back for you. Take care, my little pony~

The alicorn’s presence that night would go unknown to Iris, at least for the time being.

Come morning, Iris quickly heads out of her home, and towards the dam. In the morning light, after the rain, travel is much better. As she nears the lake, she finds the dam operating as normal, with no traces of ice. The crew’s working on it, and there are temporary work-homes set up for them.

Iris sighs shakily, poking a hoof at the water. It’s… colder than lukewarm, but not horrible. She brushes her hoof against the grass, glancing around the lake. It’s then she spots some tracks not too far from where she is. She quickly runs over, glancing at them, then towards the woods. W-was that real… o-or not? She thinks to herself, unsure.