Equestria Frozen Wasteland.

My gaze swept over the surprisingly empty house, an eerie feeling washed over me. The shack itself creaked with the wind, barely supporting itself. The ground was a stony gray, coated with a light layer of snow. It didn't look as if it had been ransacked, it looked as if everything was just poofed away. Raiders would usually tear the place apart after taking anything valuable. The door fell forward, the cold breeze flooding in. The shack was on its last legs, as if a single touch would knock it all down. I moved slowly, testing each step to be careful, making sure the floor wouldn't cave in and was built over soft snow. As I moved into the room to the left, I saw finally the staircase, which well... Wasn't even a staircase. It had been a staircase, but only the last steps up at the top remained. If there was anypony here, there certainly wasn't any signs they'd been here recently, or were living. Just as I was about to make my way out, my hoof hit against a small doorknob sticking up from the ground.

What the... A... Doorknob? Finally it came to me. When ponies saw how bad the house was on the outside, and saw it was empty on the inside, they'd leave it alone. But, as a extra defense the stallion had built a basement and everything was down there. Using my magic to turn the knob, I heard it click, and the door swung down opening the path to the basement up for me. This had been done very well, the stairs were made of bricks and held together, no cracks. The walls were the same stone the floor had been made of. As I reached the end my eyes widened in surprise.

The basement was a laboratory and a library! Books were scattered everywhere or placed neatly in piles. Chemistry sets sat on tables all over,  odd inventions by the looks of them were lying around. Some of the books were opened, and food was scattered around. It was... Messy, yet at the same time a little clean. What surprised me the most, was the apple trees in the left corner, growing out of the stone. Purplish lights surrounded them, somehow providing the sunlight. Back at home it was done very carefully using soil enchanted by magic, or the trees were grown literally from magic. The food was alright, but they didn't ripen quickly, and it took longer then usual to get a harvest. The magic grown trees required attention every few hours. Water wasn't a problem, but getting the trees to grow was the big one. It didn't always go as planned.

But these trees had no soil, just the lights. There was no faint glow of magic, just... The lights. A few apples, almost ready for picking hung from them. Yet... They didn't look right. Instead of red or green, they were an oddish yellowy color.

Then, I heard it. The scribbling of a quill and the mumbling, followed by an angry grunt and something being thrown. The stallion! Hoping this wouldn't go badly, I coughed a few times to make myself heard. The pony that turned the corner from where the mumbling had been almost scared me. His mane shot up, spiky and going in every direction. A pair of googles covered his eyes. His fur was sticking up in numerous places, and he had a crazy grin missing a few teeth. "Why hello there madame! How may Zerthol be of assistance?"

So, Zerthol was his name. His voice was off a little, he looked... Insane! But hey, he was the one who would get rid of my curiosity that was peaking. Most of all I wanted to know of those trees. "Er... Some ponies in the town nearby said you could help me.."

"Ah yes! I know of that town! Founded 334 years ago by Sir Bluehoof.  Did you know he had a severe case of frost bite? That's how he got his name, Bluehoof ya know. He was a commander in the Equestrian Equalists army, but then he took an arrow in the leg. Shame.."

Now I had the names of both factions. I had to remember all this for when I got back home. Though,

Now I was even more curious. I didn't know if that was true, but if a pony knew that off hand, that was crazy! The history of the snowy world wasn't extremely recorded in Ponyville, but in other places it was. Ponyvilles books only dated back around four hundred years. There was a large gap of time and much of it was based on rumors. Needless to say, history wasn't exactly cared about when it came to places like Ponyville. They kept tract but they'd rather focus on food production; Not that I'm complaining. The only ponies that did keep up to date history were the scribes in each town, and they'd only be accepted by other ponies of the same faction. Ponyville knew this only from a captured scribe that had turned to raiding. Scribes were born into the work, as the scribe before them reached old age, their son or daughter would take up the work. To make sure the history was exact and perfect they'd start working at a very young age, and some died of cold from traveling. But they were respected greatly in towns.

When I was lost in thought I didn't notice him getting closer. His fur was a dark blue, Zerthols cutie mark was a odd colored beaker. If he knew so much maybe he new a quick route back home. The only one I knew was the path we had taken to get here, which I would barely be able to see. Hopefully it didn't snow.

"Well they said you knew about the scroll in the song or something? And do you know how to get to Ponyville?"

"Oh of course I do! Here you see, the scroll is very old, and very few are supposed to know of it. You won't tell anyone I told you this right? Super secret!" Zerthol whispered, looking around as if somepony would be listening. So far, without even knowing him, I thought he was hyped up on something, he seemed filled with tons of energy and was a little paranoid it seemed...

"Of course I won't tell anyone." I lied, but made it sound as honest as possible. He gave one last look around the basement before turning and walking through a closed curtain. Pushing it aside as I followed, my jaw dropped again at the room that followed.

Defiantly old, very, very old. It was some sort of secret underground lab, some of the metal was rusting, many more of the lights I had seen outside surrounded trees, but in all different colors. It stretched out far, and the ceiling was high. It was a flat room, with two staircases on the in the two farthest corners going down farther. This must've been a place where they tested growing food or something... But not only that. Aside from the trees, there were many tables littered with scrap metals, tools, oddly made things just like outside. All across the walls was large bookshelves stuffed full of books. It seemed in perfect condition, save for the rust. In the middle was a chemistry set of a sort, filled with different liquids, a few holes the burned straight through the metal of the table where something had been spilled.

"Welcome to The Equestrian Food Productions very last testing lab."

"The... What now? What's the Equestrian Food Production?"

"What? Never heard of it? Oh well they were haha.. Awesome! For short, the E.F.P was made by Celestia before she died you see. The main goal was to find a way to create food in well, cold temperatures. They succeeded but it wasn't exactly great, but they settled for anything they could get. Every town, every village, every city, they all use the technology the E.F.P built. The E.F.P wasn't just for food though. They built weapons, ah, magically enchanted weapons incase Equestria got invaded. They were mass produced in case but none of them ever saw the surface. Horrible explosion happened in the second lab and trapped all the ponies and weapons inside. The others focused on food. After it was complete only number two stayed in production and the rest were left. Mostly just abandoned. The scroll you asked about earlier, was a prize making of Princess Twilight. The scroll has thousands of lost spells, and one in particular. It can transform a pony into an alicorn! Imagine that! If a pony had the power to make alicorns. It'd allow for them to use their new bodies to raise the sun and moon. Only problem was the first time it was tested, it ended up killing the elements of harmony. It was deemed useless from Twilight and is somewhere in Canterlot Castle. So like, you see tons of ponies have gone looking for it. However the whole city is buried under probably half a hundred feet of snow, ice caverns, pockets, and the Castles on a mountain. That's the story of it plus what the labs are. Canterlot got hit the hardest with the snow. Not to mention it's dotted with tons of and is very dangerous. Been kinda left alone recently. The huge wars more important then the sun I guess."