Equestria 22X5 The Past

The match lit, catching fire as it was struck against the grey stone wall of our partially sunken home.

It was cold, which was fairly usual for winter winter weather and was never my favorite season. But as an Equestrian pony it was something I had to get used to as we gradually floated away from the sun. We must have been floating away from the sun for a small number of days, far enough for the sun itself to be visibly smaller than usual and by this time Celestia herself was already to late to stop our movement.

The lit match touched the wick of a lantern that sat nearby the pony holding the match in hoof, doing so caused the lantern to be lit with a small puff of smoke that the wick gave off, with a nod and the closing creak of a small hinge on the lantern, Sulfurous Rock blew out the match.

"Tell me a story grandpa Sulfur," Soft Ice said softly, waiting for her grandfather to lumber over to her side.

"Well, what kind of story would you like to hear," Grandpa Sulfur asked chucking at Soft Ice's innocence while lifting the lantern off the small table adorning their small concrete room and over to the small foal laying under her covers. setting the lantern on her nightstand Sulfurous Rock adjusted the wick of the lantern, dimming the light coming from it to a small dull flame.

"One about Equestria, something from the old days again, grandpa" Soft Ice explained in excitement.

"Alright then," grandpa Sulfur chuckled once more, sitting down in the old creaky chair he had put adjacent to her and the nightstand side her for these occasions.

"This was a long time ago in the wonderful land of Equestria, there were three types of ponies, Unicorns, Pegasi and Earth ponies, all of which lived together in harmony, learning what it meant to have friends in such a wonderful land. But all of that changed as everyone in Equestria heard that their world was going to be turned upside down. Many who heard this news stole, hunting for any sort of shelter they could find and pillaged many villages to ensure their own survival"

Many took refuge in their own homes boarding up what they could using it as shelter. The ponies that did this were wrong in their choice, as they were consumed by the first frost brought upon by the flash freeze, the entire world was encased in ice. For ponies that didn't know what to do, they were doomed, heading for a destruction of their own, be it from another pony or their own insanity. As for ponies such as you and I, this wasn't a problem, you see for ponies like me who have someone else to take care of, we always made sure we had a back up plan and to keep our heads in the right mind."

"Oh, you mean like this small underground bunker you built for us and the walks you take out in the red snow you bring back sometimes" Soft Ice squeaked cuddling deeper into her covers.

"Yes, very much so" grandpa Sulfur added, rocking back the chair in one big creak,"Now get some sleep."

With those words, Soft Ice rolled over drifting off to sleep.

The ideal dream is not one of explosions and warfare, but in this instance the ideal dream was one of looking for remission and remembrance of my grandfather comforting me in my youth. But this, waking to to war only proves one thing to me. War, war never changes. War never sleeps, never stops killing and doesn't ever get dead ass drunk in the heat of battle to the point of passing out.

"Grenade!"

The warning and that explosion is what woke me up, both of which came from a Sector C, 363 explosives operative that was never good at timing a throw and who's name I was never able to remember.

"Soft Ice, get your ass up out of the snow now," Steel Plate yelled, looking back at my drowsy body laying in the snow.

"Grandpa Sulfur" I whispered to myself as I held my head and looking in the direction of fire. Well, our explosives operative is dead, I thought to myself as I looked at a headless pony paralized in place further down the line than the rest of our team.

"Open fire!" Steel Plate ordered pointing in the direction of the enemy, returning to his own.

"Grandpa Sulfur why are you still coming through my head, in my thoughts," I questioned myself, seeing that it was that dream again, and I was out with Steel Plate's team, again. "This wasn't where I wanted to be," I thought, as my ears drooped in disbelief.

"What the fuck, Ice, get your ass up now!" Steel Plate yelled looking back at me once again.

"What for" I asked "It's not going to do us any good," I didn't receive an answer.
sighing I stumbling to get up.

"It would do us some good if you weren't so god damn drunk all the time, fire," Steel Plate exclaimed resuming the firefight.

"Okay, fine I'll find my gun," I sneered out of frustration, stomping on it, my gun was set to full auto."

"Where are they" I asked screaming my head off, everyone else just looked at me and ducked as I used my integrated targeting systems slaughtering them all.

"Soft Ice!"
"Oh Celestia's mercy"
"This is why I don't yell at her, Steel Plate," Gunther explained with a look of I warned you.

Everypony in my direction looked like they were pieces of pony shaped swiss cheese, and with the howling wind in the air the silence that fell on the battlefield was a little less depressing and made our search for a more suitable home enjoyable, except for the aroma of fresh blood and gun powder at our noses.

"All I am asking is who called Ice a mercenary, and who in hell gave her a mini gun to suit" Steel Plate asked Gunther pummeling him with angry questions and directing them at me at the same time.

"For Celestia's sake Soft Ice, you could have killed all of us, your lucky you only shot our enemy." Steel Plate exaggerated pointing at me.

Gunther rolled his eyes as he cleared his throat signaling for Steel Plate to stop and listen to new information.

"Sir Paladin Steel Plate, our observations tell us that all falcons have been killed, we're ready to move out."

"Thank you Gunther, Steel Plate said resuming his confrontation with me, "This stays in your barding," Steel Plate shoved the mini gun into my chest. "Use that pistol I gave you."

"But I hate that little piece of shit" I kicked the ground with my hoof.

"Alright, let's move out," Steel Plate yelled making sure everyone heard him as we returned home to Sector C, 363.

Sector C, 363, or Sector Celestia as some might have called it when it was first inhabited, is deep within Equestria's crust. It was a Stable designed to keep the inhabitant of Equestria warm from the dark freezing cold named after our fallen ruler. In the beginning, it had definitely saved the lives of ponies who knew about the stable and could find the Stable's location, but now, It can barely hold the ponies that we have. The population problem we are experiencing has been getting worse everyday, we're at maximum capacity. 'We', Steel Plate, Gunther and I had been sent out with a mission, to find other stables that 'Sector C' might be able to move some of our occupants to. The first time we tried to find another stable was back in 22X6. Its been seventeen years since I started drinking and I haven't stopped since, that is because our mission is hopeless, we will never find another stable at this rate. The snow and ice is too thick over Equestria's surface.

Stopping to catch my breath, I opened my bourbon flask ready to take a sip, except when I tried, the ground shook beneath me. Something was off, the ground shouldn't be undergoing an earth quake or feel like a hammer was being beat beneath my hooves, It was warm, welcoming, jarring like a heartbeat. "Something is beneath us here," I thought looking out towards Steel Plate in the distance

"Steel Plate!" I called out, hoping my voice would be carried by the wind. "I've found something."

"This better be good, If not, I'm leaving you out in the freezing cold tonight." Steel Plate called back marching through the snow to me.

I doubted that, we've been doing this for seventeen years, I already knew my way back to Sector C.

"Okay, what is it?" Steel Plate asked annoyed enough to tie me up and leave me for dead.

"Here, stand here," I positioned him where I was standing when I felt it. His ears lowered as to listen very carefully for the silent whisper of within the wind. The ground jarred again.

Steel Plate's eyes lit up with excitement ."There is definitely something under here," Steel Plate confirmed with a gleeful smile.

"So, what do you want to do," I said trying to smile back at him with a shovel in my mouth.

"Sir, we need to find some shelter soon or move on back to 'sector C' before the storm hits us hard," one of our team was really worried, who was to blame him, none of us wanted to freeze in the dark.

"No, we're here now and this might be the only chance we have, we have to find out what this is," Steel Plate said pulling out his shovel and shoving it into the hardened snow.

Author's Note

Luck, -2
Heavy Guns, +5
Light Guns, -10
Traveling drunk.