Cold

CRACK

...

CRACK

...?

CRACK

?

CRACK

SHATTER

THUD

I was suddenly aware of the floor in my face, which was as cold as ice. I rolled over, feeling the cold ground on the back of my thin coat.

"Well, isn't this a surprise," Came my own voice. I was shocked to hear it, and jumped a little bit.

After that, I calmed down and took a look around the throne room, noticing the frozen bodies of Celestia and Luna. The latter was dead, their head's contents on the floor. Thankfully, the contents were frozen in ice, the blood and brains not anywhere near me. I was slightly disgusted, the horrible dark side of myself having hardened me to the sight of gore. Besides that, the room was decorated for some kind of ceremony. Bouquets of flowers and potted plants were covered by the aforementioned ice, some crates and other objects such as fabrics and scaffolding was scattered around.

I pushed myself up, finding that the ground was very slippery, but I managed to get a foothold. I crossed my arms and held them close to my body, wouldn't do me much good to be frozen to death. I took a few steps forward, carefully stepping over any materials. As I did so, I took a look around. It appeared some of the stained glass windows were broken, snow coming in at an alarming rate. Whoever left this stuff here was trying to fix the place up, and probably froze to death or starved in the process.

I shook my head, perishing such thoughts from my mind. It wasn't good to think about death, even if it wasn't my own.

God, would I soon learn a lesson about this frozen wasteland.

Nonetheless, I carried on forward, trying to find any supplies I could. I feared for the worst, it was very unlikely anything was spared from the cold. Especially when the snow was coming in at such a rate. I estimated that whatever was left would probably be unsafe to eat, fearing for the worst again. If I kept this up, I would be stressed to the point of insanity. But, first I decided to find the kitchen, which was a workout in itself. The twenty feet long hallways, the winding staircases, and the dimly lit and freezing cold hallways were a chore to traverse, constantly finding frozen ponies in the process of fleeing.

After some questioning of mortality and existence, I found myself inside of a kitchen. The place was wrecked, cupboards open and boxes of assorted ingredients spilled on the floor, most of the liquids frozen. I found a few vegetables which were inside a freezer, already frozen. Inside, there was also some raw meat, probably for griffins. Although it was frozen, I looked around for something to put it in. It appeared there was nothing here to put it in, so I begrudgingly found some plastic wrap and took out my knife. I proceeded to cut off some ice, and then I wrapped the food I picked up with the plastic.

I placed the aforementioned wrapped food into my bag, then carrying on to find a drink cabinet. The cabinet was full of wine that had something on it, keeping it at a reasonable temperature. Even though I was under-aged to be drinking, I said fuck it basically and filled my bag up. I may have already had some provisions, but it wouldn't hurt to have some more. As I took a quick look around, I found some expensive looking cigars in a case. It was relatively warm, probably having something keeping it at a reasonable temperature as well. I reasoned that I could probably sell the alcohol and cigars somewhere out there.

Some thinking later, I realized I should get a move on and find a way out of here. Perhaps that blizzard stopped, and I could leave. I silently prayed that the blizzard would have stopped, so I could leave and find somewhere to go.

Suddenly, a loud boom came from the entrance. It must have been hundreds of decibels loud to have reached all the way over here. I hoped whoever did that wasn't deaf, and if they were I hoped they could understand me or read lips. I realized that was a foolish thought, as I was a human and they were most likely ponies. Nonetheless, I carried on after pulling out my revolver.

After dashing to the scene, I took cover behind a pillar and watched as the door blew off its hinges. The blast wasn't that loud this time, not causing me any ear damage. As they filed into the room, I noticed the ponies were wearing heavy coats, and crude rifles were held aloft in their magical grips. All of them were unicorns. After all eight of them entered, they moved out of the way as a pegasus with two rifles on a saddle on their back moved in.

The pegasus spoke up, "Alright you idiots, get to work looting the damn room. Make sure you find the hyoo-man, and when you do find him, kill him. If he's not here, search, and then plant the charge and double time it out of there."

A charge? Damn son, these guys were going to kill the Princess if they planted one and blew it up! The ice would easily be broken, and she would be pieces. I had to take them out. I surveyed the situation. I had claws instead of fingers still, I had two guns, I had two knives, and I had a lot of ammo. But I didn't want to go loud. I decided to knock them out first, and then I would drag them away and silently dispatch them with my silenced pistol. I put away my revolver, and then I peeked at them. The pegasus was standing at the exit. Perfect.

I crept past the pillars, the ponies having gone quite far up the room. Some of them had already gone to different locations, and none of them were looking for their boss. I hesitated for a moment, and decided against my initial plan. Time to go silent.

I popped out of cover, and shot the pegasus with my silenced pistol.

The pony went down quick, and no one noticed yet. I looked back, and saw that they had already left for the next few rooms. Creeping along the pillars, I made my way to the next room. I saw a few guards searching around, and quickly shot them without any complications. Four down, four more to go.

I made my way back into the front room, walking in on them shocked at their boss's death, as well as planting the charge.

They noticed me almost instantly.

Soon everything turned into a fire-fight, their crude rifles cracking as musket balls fired from the muzzles of the rifles. I took cover behind a pillar again, peeking out to take fire. They had taken cover behind the adjacent pillars, popping out to fire their rifles. Thankfully, they were moving in a pattern, and soon I had dispatched three of them. The last one shouted at me.

"Buck you!"

He then ran, grabbing a detonator, but I shot him as he grabbed it. He was dead, finally falling over.

"Well, that's over with. I thought that damn fire-fight would never end. Damn looters. Or whatever they were. I should leave, but maybe I should fix one of these coats up to fit me?"

Some time later...

"Ah. This should do it."

I put on the patchwork parka, over my jacket. I took a quick look around, and then grabbed one of their rifles and some ammo. I tore off a strip from an unused parka and tied it to the two ends of the rifle, making a rifle sling. I put the rifle on my back, and carried on.

Now, off to find a shop to sell this shit.

But, where in the bloody Hell would there be a shop in this arctic wasteland? Canterlot is a large place, and I doubt it would be easy to find a shop very quickly, especially when this weather is prominent...