Fallout Equestria: The Kingdom of Ice

Nothing is as it seems

I told Soft Heart that I wanted to open the door and leave by myself because it would be easier for me to leave, despite her insistence that she walk me to the door. I felt like an idiot. Why did I do this? What am I doing? I swallowed hard trying to calm myself down. I was surrounded by darkness, I couldn't even see my hoof in front of my face. I fumbled with my pipbuck, trying to find the light on it so I could see where I was. The longer I was in the darkness the more frantic and panicked I became until finally I hit the right button and my pipbuck glowed like a lamp letting me see my surroundings. I could see that I was in a cave, there was a tunnel ahead of me. Now that I had calmed down a bit because of the light I started paying attention to my other senses. For starters it was oddly quiet without the ambient noise of the stables power supply or the lights. Another thing, rocks, I’d never stepped on anything other than carpet or metal slabs so the feel of rock was an odd one. I was still scared as hell, but I started walking down the rocky tunnel. I could feel myself breathing, I was breathing hard. After a few minutes, which felt like an eternity, I came across another door, although this one wasn't a huge stable door, it was a smaller metal door. I rotated the handle and opened it.

Light! The suns light was so bright I nearly fell back down the tunnel. It was the first time I had seen the sun before. I sat there stunned for a bit when the suns light vanished behind a cloud. Now that I could see again I saw that the entire sky was filled with clouds, the sun must of been at the right angle between a gap in the clouds to get me like that. I knew what the sun and clouds were through old books, but I never thought I’d actually see them one day. Before looking at anything else I stepped out of the rock tunnel and into the outside world.

Cold! In the stable there were no real concepts of hot and cold, the stable was always at room temperature, the only time you’d feel any difference is in a bath or a shower, or if you were an engineer working around the generators, which I've heard can get pretty hot. But this was constantly chilly. I shivered as I looked around. My stable 57 jumpsuit helped with the cold a little bit, but I’d be in trouble if it got any colder. Around me was a wide plane of rolling hills, covered in greenish brown grass with bits of snow on them. Snow was another thing I read about but never thought I’d see. I stepped out onto the grass which made a small crunch noise, a mixture of noises of dry grass and bits of snow being stepped on.

I took a good look around, the nothingness went on forever. There’s nothing here. I thought to myself. My ears perked up when I spotted something way in the distance. I couldn't tell what is was but it was my only real landmark. I looked at my pipbuck and noticed that it started drawing a map of my surroundings, as if they were already programmed into it. A name appeared to the cliff behind me where I had exited the stable. “Galloping Gorge” it read. Well, wherever Galloping Gorge is, that's where I am. I jokingly thought to myself, trying to do anything to keep my mind off the cold. I looked up and saw the thing in the distance again, it seemed far away, I figured I should start walking before I froze over.

Breathing cold dry air for the first time was harsh on my muzzle. The air was cold inside my nose and it kind of hurt, it didn't help that the cold air was causing me to be short of breath more often, or maybe I was just out of shape, could be either or, probably both. After 30 minutes of walking towards the object, I could make out its shape. It appeared to be a skinny shack. “A structure?..Building? Wait...if there's a building...that means there are ponies out here! everything isn't dead!” I exclaimed out loud, I was genuinely happy, it meant the rumors of the outside world being completely devoid of life were not true. I was so happy I actually started jumping up and down cheering a bit.

I stopped when I noticed something move along the grass. I bent over to check what it was. It was some sort of spider, I was not unfamiliar with spiders, we shared the stable with them, but this one was not a kind of spider found in the stable. Luckily for me, one of the books I had brought with me was a large hardcover book called “The Wildlife of Equestria” It was an old pre war book that documented all the known species of animal that lived in Equestria, it even included pictures which was my favorite part when I was a filly. I flipped through the pages until I found a picture of the spider in front of me. It was a wolf spider. I was happy, I was actually having fun. I felt like some pre war scientist working in the field studying nature. I read before about ponies whose jobs used to be going out in the wild and studying it, I always thought it would be cool to do it, and then there I was actually doing it. I was living the dream.

“Ha!” I said aloud “The outside world isn't so scary” I had a big smile on my face. The only thing I didn't like about the outside so far was how cold it was, if it was warmer it would of been perfect. “If only Soft Heart could see me now” I chuckled to myself “She would be so jealous of me” I imagined her running around in the open field. Why were ponies so afraid of the outside? The outside was cool! really cold, but it could be worse. I thought to myself as I trotted along towards the small shack, it wasn't too far away now, maybe about another 20 minutes. I had the Equestrian wildlife book floating beside me, stopping every now whenever I saw new little critter. Most of the creatures I ran into were small insects, all the while hoping to run into a larger animal.

Due to all my stops, it took an extra 30 minutes to get to the shack. I noticed it was getting darker and colder. I started to shiver, fun time was over for today, I needed to find some place warm. Looking around I noticed a larger building nearby, it looked like a cottage of sorts, it was very old, containing several holes in the walls and roof, the door had been removed, the windows were also broken. Overall it looked rather scary. I shivered again from a gust of wind, I put my book back into my saddle bag and approached the cottage. I stepped on the first step.

*CREAK*

I quickly took my hoof off the step, This thing is falling apart! I thought to myself. Another cold gust of wind caused me to shiver hard reminding me that I was low on options. I slowly walked up the stairs onto the porch “Don’t break, don’t break, don’t break” I was shaking, out of cold and fear. I slowly started walking inside the cottage, each step making more loud creaking as I went along. The inside actually looked worse than the outside. The floor was rotted and full of holes, the furniture was ratty and probably full of all sorts of mold from years of exposure. I looked around trying to find some part of the house that looked even remotely safe, but all I saw was rot. I noticed a staircase but I dared not to test it. Slowly walking through the old rooms I saw something that peaked my interest, a computer terminal. My face lit up. Finally! I thought. Something I can use! I made my way over to it, making sure to step lightly as not to break the floor. I still didn't feel completely safe in the cottage, but it at least protected me from the wind. I still felt cold, and I could tell it was getting colder. I finally got to the terminal and activated it, to my amazement, it still worked. I was very happy, I didn't know what I would find, but I was curious. I checked the recent files, the last file was dated at 200 years ago. It looked like an email, though I did not know if it ever sent. I decided to read it:

[Leaving the ranch]
Well, we've decided, we are going to leave the ranch and head to the stable. This war is getting way out of hand and I don’t know what else we can do. I've been trying to hold it off for as long as I can but, I just have a feeling things are going get a whole lot worse. I’m going to miss it here, this ranch has been in my family for generations. Hopefully, maybe one day, when this war ends and the stables are reopened, if not me, then somepony in my bloodline down the line will come here and fix this place up to how it used to be, back in the good ol’ days. Where our only problems were if a friend could come over or not, or if your favorite store was closed. Well I’m rambling, tell Sweet Tart I said hi, and you two be safe you hear?
-Cabbage Patch

I felt sad, this was someponies home once. I turned around and looked around once more thinking of this place as an old neglected home. I felt bad for Cabbage Patch, I wondered if Stable 57 was his final resting place. I admittedly didn't know much history, I knew that a war had happened, but not much beyond that. My train of thought was rudely interrupted by a cold wind wisping through one of the holes in the wall, reminding me that it was very cold in here, it was also very dark. I turned my pipbucks light on and began searching the cottage for anything I could use as a blanket. I found the remains of an old bedroom. The bed frame was still there, I didn't know how intact it was, there was a ratty mattress and a torn up blanket, both had undergone heavy exposure. I didn't have many options and I was cold and tired. I levitated the blanket of the mattress and got on the bed, the bed frame creaked loudly and the mattress had no firmness, it might as well have been a large thick blanket. Once i was on the bed I tried to stretch out and get comfortable when suddenly the bed frame broke under me and I crashed to the floor, which in turn broke and crashed into the foundation, fortunately for me it wasn't that deep of a hole, during the fall I screamed and let go of the blanket and it softly fell on me. So far this was going well. I curled up into a ball under the blanket and in the middle of the mattress, shivering, even with the added layers it was still cold. I closed my eyes shivering and shaking trying to get some sleep.

The next morning I awoke still curled up under the blanket and in the mattress. While I did eventually fall asleep, it wasn't a restful one. I was still slightly tired, however I was not as cold, it was of course still cold, but it had warmed up. I got up and climbed out of the hole I fell in. I needed a game plan, wandering aimlessly was not going to find my father. I needed an objective, somewhere to go. I got an idea and headed back to the computer terminal. I checked where the message Cabbage Patch wrote was sent to. I discovered that the message was sent to a city called Stalliongrad. “That's as good as place as any” I said to myself. I now had a destination. Now I just had to hope that insects and bugs weren't the only things alive out here.

On my way out I passed a mirror, I looked at my self and chuckled “wow I’m a mess” my mane had started to become matted and so was my fur, I then looked at the big number 57 on my jumpsuit that Soft Heart had been so proud of. Stable 57 had an interesting arrangement in where it was connected to a sister stable, Stable 56, 2 full sized stables connected to one another via a few hallways, this caused there to be friendly competition between the 2 stables over everything. Soft Heart hated every single member of the Stable 57 hoofball team, and probably got into a fight with each of them at least once during school, but during game day in a stable vs stable match, she was rooting for the 57 team the whole way. I was never really into the sports competitions, but I always accompanied her to them. Soft Heart was very prideful of her stable, and that probably part of the reason she didn't want me to remove my Stable 57 jumpsuit.

I caught myself smiling in the mirror, its funny how you look back on things after you've left them. I then chuckled. It hasn't even been a full day and I’m already thinking nostalgically about my Stable. I shook my head at the thought and continued on to back outside the house. Before I left for Stalliongrad I wanted to search the rest of the ranch first, according to my pipbuck, there were still a few more buildings I had yet to search, maybe I could find supplies or maybe some warm clothing, which I needed the most.

My pipbucks map listed 5 main buildings, the cottage, a tool shed, a cow pin, a windmill, and a chicken coop. I was just in the cottage, but I didn't check upstairs, mainly because I was afraid of breaking the floor and causing the whole house to collapse. I decided to start with the windmill which was the building west of the cottage. As I approached the building I tried to think of what this place might have looked like 200 years ago, children running around the open field, adult ponies doing yard work. It made me rather sad to think they had to leave here, I imagined that it must of looked really nice back then.

I came up to the windmill. It was also in a state of heavy disrepair molded and cracked stone foundation, along with most of the wood parts rotted, the blades of the windmill were all gone save one, I saw their wreckage piled up in front of the door. The door however was not completely blocked off, although I would need to drag one of the blades out of the way to fit through the door. I enveloped one of the blades and pulled with all my might. The blade barely moved, and I was tired. My telekinesis wasn't that strong, then again it wasn't something I practiced a whole lot. I was then aware that I hadn't eaten in a long time. I took out one of the apples I had with me while I thought of a way to get rid of those blades. As I chewed through the apple I began to look at the stuff around me, wooden debris from any manner of things, old and decrepit tools strewn about, the wooden handles mostly rotted, however the metal was still intact. Rocks of various sizes, and the remains of a fence around the perimeter of the ranch. I started thinking, I’ll need to make those blades smaller if i’m going to remove them, I’m not strong enough to move them on my own. I got an idea, I finished the rest of my apple and got off the log I was sitting on.

I picked up an old shovel with my magic and broke the handle off, i next grabbed a sharp pointy looking rock, then focusing on the side of the shovel i performed a spell I normally used to weld circuits, a thin laser of heat shot from my horn and started heating up the edge of the shovel. The strain of using 3 spells at once was starting to tire me so I had to work fast, not knowing if what I was about to do would even work. When the edge of the shovel head started to glow red I struck it with the sharp part of the rock, and to my amazement and joy there was now an indention in the metal, I struck it a few more times to further improve the notch, I then set all of my tools down and rested a few minutes.

I was not used to using this much magic at one time, something I felt like I would have to get better at. After a few minute rest I made another notch. I repeated the process until the entire length of the shovel head was serrated, I now had a saw. I was proud of myself, an hour and half of hard work and I had a crudely made saw, and, according to my pipbuck, it early afternoon and it had started to warm up, I guessed that I must of came out of the stable around late evening, figuring the cold hours were between 6pm and 10am. With my newly formed saw I got to work. I was lucky enough that the wood was rotted enough that my saw could get through it without too much trouble, though it still took me a while to cut the entire blade into segments small enough that I was able to move, with some effort. My hard work had paid off and I was now able to enter the windmill.

Inside the windmill there was rubble strewn about, however the rubble didn't seem like it was in a random pattern from wood just falling off the structure, it seemed organized. On closer inspection, I noticed that several metal and stone objects were arranged in a small circle with burnt wooden sticks were placed in the middle. Somepony must of lived here. I thought to myself. It seemed odd that a pony would choose here to live, but then I began thinking. Whoever was here must of lived here before the blades on the windmill fell down. I bet that circle of stone and metal was used to store a fire. I looked around to see if I could find anything useful.

Near the fire pit I saw a large box, it had a busted padlock on it, but the lock was still engaged, I walked over and inspected it. The dial was jammed so there was no way to open it normally. I found a decent sized rock next to it, I guessed that it was the rock used to break the lock. I decided against bashing the lock with the rock, seeing how well that worked. However I really wanted to know what was inside that chest. I had an idea and readied myself to do a spell. My plan was to use the same heat spell I used to craft my makeshift saw, I had noted how much energy it took to heat the metal up as much as I needed to, I then picked up the rock. Since I was only using telekinesis to pick up and hold one object, I could focus more on my beam of heat. I directed my horn at the lock and started heating up the metal loop that held the chest closed. Once the metal was glowing red I started striking it with the rock. It took about 30 minutes but I had broken through one end, I was then able to swivel the lock around and take it off. Inside the chest were some items that I felt like I would need. First the most important thing I felt at the time, a heavy coat, while I was not a fan of the red plaid design, but it would do for now. The other items were a few cans of food that looked very old, and a sack of bottle caps. I took all the items since I figured they might come in handy and I left the windmill.

I next headed for the cow pin next. The fence of the pin was rotted to the point it was barely there. There was a structure at the back of the pin that was barn shaped so I decided to check it out. When I got inside the first thing I noticed was the huge hole in the ceiling as if something crashed through it. Whatever it was was gone by the time I got there, leaving only a pile of wreckage underneath the hole. By the looks of it, it had happened a long time ago. Most of the stalls were empty, save two that had rubble in them. I walked over to where the hole was and looked up at the cloud covered sky. I wonder if there's anything past that… I saw the sun, if only for a moment when I exited the stable, so theres got to be something beyond those clouds. I thought to myself as I stared up at the sky. After about a minute, I decided to check the back of the building to see if there were any more useful supplies.

There wasn't much as far as supplies went, just really old tools, a shovel, rake, and a garden hoe. Each one was hanging on some kind of rack, however the last slot was empty. I looked around to see if I could find a tool big enough to fill that slot. I then remembered that I had just broke a tool about that size to create my saw, so I thought nothing of it. I found another chest, but this one had an internal lock. I thought about using my laser to cut around the lock and remove the lock entirely, but I didn't want to set the wood on fire and ruin whatever was inside. I also considered smashing it since again, it was wood, but I was afraid I might break whatever was inside. I sat in front of the chest contemplating on what to do about it. If I really wanted what was in there I could try finding a key, but there's a very small likelihood that it even exists at this point. I thought to myself, I even thought about attempting to pick the lock, but I had nothing to pick the lock with, and on top of that I didn't even know how to pick locks, lock picking was more of Soft Hearts thing, apparently according to her it’s a useful skill in her line of work, I wouldn't know, computers were more my thing.

I decided to leave the chest for now, only coming back to it if by chance I found the key to it. I walked out of the barn and headed over to the chicken coop. Along the way I found a few more bugs that I hadn't seen before, so I added about 20 minutes to my short trip looking up the new insects. I was starting to notice that the most common insect I was running into the book called a House Fly, I found it a little interesting how often I was running into one. At the chicken coop, I found a small little pin and the coop itself, which wasn't as big as I thought it would be, it looked barely big enough for a single pony to fit in and turn around, which made sense, seeing how it was made for chickens and not ponies.

I walked around the small chicken pin, looking for something interesting, but not really finding anything of note. I decided that before I checked out the tool shed, I wanted to brave the cottage once again and try looking around the upstairs rooms. I walked back over to the cottage, again getting nervous about it. I once again stepped on the front step and once again it creaked loudly, making me more nervous. I entered the cottage slowly making my way to the staircase. I put my hoof on it and it creaked. I took a gulp and slowly made my way up stairs, pausing every time the stairs made a noise. When I got to the top of the stairs I took a sigh of relief, but I then realized that I would still have to be careful so the floor didn't fall out from under me. I slowly investigated the rooms which appeared to be full sized bedrooms, a heavy layer of dust coated just about everything. I again started to imagine the place how it must of looked 200 years ago before everything went bad. I slipped out another apple and started to eat it as I continued my search of the second floor. Most of the items I found were personal items, things that might have held value back in the past, but were now useless. Looking in the closets I found a few more coats, but the one I was currently wearing was thicker so I decided to keep it and leave the other ones.

I did however find some trousers to cover up the rear side of my body, as the coat only covered my front, the collar of my stable jumpsuit peered over the coat still allowing the number 57 to be seen, so I had another reason why I didn't need to change coats. I was now fully covered from the elements, except my head and hooves but I felt all bundled up, movement was a bit harder and more restrictive, I assumed it was just a price to pay for warmth. I decided to remove my coat and the trousers and store them in my saddle bags until I actually needed them. i stretched a bit then slowly made my way back down stairs.

Once outside again, I took note of the time and made my way to the tool shed. I noticed an odd odor and an increase in house flies when I got near the building, but I didn't pay it much attention. I walked inside and was greeted with an interesting find. Right there, hanging on the wall was an old rusty saw. I chuckled out loud a bit upon realizing that if I had just gone there first, I wouldn't have had to spend so much time crafting my own saw out of a shovel. I considered replacing my saw with this actual one, but upon closer inspection, the saw on the wall was in bad shape and rusted bad, my current shovel saw would be a better keep in the long run.

I continued looking around, looking at all the various tools and what not. Some of them looked like they could be useful so I decided to take some. I took a screwdriver and a hammer and stashed them in my saddle bags. This was turning out to be a little fun, not nearly as fun as documenting little critters and reading about them of course. I then came across a medium sized box laying on one of the tables, it was locked of course. I looked around looking for something useful to get it open, not wanting to completely destroy what was inside. I found a crowbar hanging on the wall. I knew how to use one, as I've seen maintenance ponies use them to pry open titles to do electrical work. I jammed one end of the crowbar in the lid of the box and broke the box open. I then also stored the crowbar. Now I was starting to actually feel like a maintenance pony. I giggled at the thought and opened the box up.

Inside was what I could identify as a gun, although it was not one I was used to seeing. It had a revolving chamber instead of a magazine. I carefully lifted it with my telekinesis and inspected it. It seemed to be in decent shape all things considered. I took some time to go over it to see how it worked and in no time I was able to pop open the cylinder. I got a little fearful, it was fully loaded, six bullets each labeled “.38 special”. I closed it back up. I figured it would be a good thing to keep with me, I didn't plan on shooting anything, but if there are ponies out here, I could use this as a deterrent. Thinking that since most ponies in the stable had a healthy fear of anything that shoots bullets, aside from Soft Heart and the other security ponies, that anypony out here would also fear them.

I put the gun in my saddle bag and sat down on a bench, I smirked. Hey, it’s not so bad out here. A little lonely sure, and cold most of the time. But nothing too serious. I decided to mess around on my pipbuck. I never really bothered with it before seeing how I didn't needed any of the advanced stuff, but I figured now was a good time to learn. Wait...every pipbuck has S.A.T.S. ? I thought the hoof ball players were the only ones who had it. I thought to myself as I looked through the various options. One of them caught my eye. “E.F.S…” I read out loud. I turned it on and suddenly a little compass showed up on the pipbucks screen, and about 50 ft away from me was a red dot.