Out here in the icy forest outside of the Crystal Empire, Lady Permafrost paced nervously around the clearing, through freshly fallen snow. She had come here for one reason- just to be alone with her thoughts in the unrelenting cold that that birthed her all those millennia ago.

Her grip on her own sanity had been really beginning to slip, and she knew it very well. All too well, in fact. Her twitchy and uncertain movements gave it away so very clearly to anypony that cared to notice. Nopony had brought it up with her, so she assumed that either nopony HAD noticed, or nopony cared enough to raise it with her.

What began with the horrific death of her beloved daughter, Aurora, she had thought done with her own slaying of the beast that took her precious filly. But no, her bitterness had only grown, her anger and grief had only increased exponentially.

Where once she felt catharsis, the tall grey mare now only felt lost, and oh so alone. Despite her welcome as a heroine into the Crystal Empire, and the helpfulness of the ponies there, let alone the Royal family, who she now counted as the truest of friends- they were not her people.

And it was the inevitable final realisation that truly broke her- she couldn't repair her broken heart with new faces.

There was a rustling of twigs on the snow covered trees as a light breeze grced the clearing, and Permafrost lifted her face to the frigid, dark sky and closed her eyes.

She saw Aurora again, as she always did whenever she closed her teal eyes. It didn't really matter where she looked, her filly always seemed to be nearby, even if she passed so very long ago. Often playing in the snow, or trying to catch small creatures to show off. A bitter smile played out upon the mare's face, before rapidly melting into a grimace of pain as tears began to freeze to her face.

A beautiful life, cut so short... She wasn't even eight winters old! Where was the justice in that!

Permafrost screamed her rage into the empty and uncaring night sky, knowing that it wouldn't help, but too far gone to care. A savage rearward buck lashed out and smashed a tree to splinters, the top half of the frozen oak toppling down as the mare unleashed millennia of grief in a single, brutal kick.

Unbeknownst to the tall grey pony, she was being watched as she mercilessly destroyed her surroundings in the secluded and once quiet place.

Deep amethyst eyes watched the destruction with grim resolve, and a deep sadness that threatened to make her break her cover and try to stop to the futile one-pony war on nature that Lady Permafrost was enacting.

Dabbing away genuine tears with a tissue held by her gold-clad hoof, Princess Cadance sadly turned her back on her raging friend and slipped out of sight before teleporting home directly to her personal office.

As far as she knew, there were only two ponies that could really help Lady Permafrost right now, and they were both in Canterlot.

She sighed as she opened a drawer in her crystalline desk and retrieved a sheet of parchment, and her quill and inkpot.

She had a VERY important letter to write.