“We’re almost there, just hold out for a little longer, sis.” I stumbled through the snow, sinking to my knees with each step. All around me was white, like a wall that cut me off from the rest of Equestria. Icy flakes bit into my cheeks as they came flying, like fired from a gun by the wind. Yes, PipBuck, I knew parts of me were dangerously close to falling off, thanks for reminding me for the umpteenth time. Before me hovered a tiny marker, my only point of reference in this frozen Tartarus, and the only hope for my sister to make it.
Everything was my fault; we should have stayed in the village and became snow farmers like mum and dad. But I had to be a reckless idiot and accept a PipBuck from a shady wanderer. Of course it contained a treasure map, and of course I dragged my sister into the frozen wastes to find said treasure. I was a stupid pony, with way too much heart and not nearly enough head to hold it back. But Glass was a smart and kind big sister, and she followed me through fire and ice. She had made sure my high-flying plans had stayed grounded, and saved my flanks more than I could count. But fate must have gotten fed up with us, and Glass had gotten shot by a raider.
Horseapples…
“Come on, you’re going to live!” I looked back to Glass, her limp body tucked onto Equestria’s most ghetto sleigh. Her body seemed to have taken on an even paler blue hue than usual, and a frozen red blotch covered her side. I blinked away the tears, which burned like fire when they froze on my cheeks. The harness cut into my skin, despite the three layers of clothes between it and me. Everything had gone so terribly wrong, and all because I, as usual, had acted without thinking and run straight into a raider ambush. Most raiders were just after our stuff, and Glass had shown an uncanny ability to negotiate. These raiders were different though; they had shot first, then shot some more, then not even bothered to ask any questions.
I trudged onwards, ignoring the constant notifications about how dead I should have been by now. Shut up, PipBuck, I heard you the first time. This PipBuck was an absolute dumpster blizzard. More than half the buttons did absolutely nothing, it itched, and for some reason the only functions that actually worked were the map, the waypoint, those annoying status alerts, and the text logs. Not that I was entirely ungrateful; the log had done a great job of painting this supposed “Stable 273” as the salvation of ponykind. It was probably a load of bull, but unlimited hot water and enormous indoors gardens seemed just too fantastic to ignore.
Hopefully they could fix bullet wounds and acute frostbite, too…
Only three more kilometers; I could do that. I was only knee-deep in the snow, and the pony on my sleigh was only like one and a half times my own weight. Now all I needed to do was hope that the location on the map was accurate. Then again, the rad-meter always showed a value way beyond “You should be glowing goo by now”, so most readings from this PipBuck were to be taken with a small mine’s worth of salt. Not that I had much of a choice. The snowstorm had eaten all of Equestria except for me and my dying sister, so attempting anything else was like letting a blind and deaf radroach run your snow farm.
I really needed the waypoint to be the only accurate part of my PipBuck...
I had to make what little hope I had left last just another two kilometers. It mattered very little when I could only see maybe a meter or two in front of me, but it was an achievement nonetheless. The more I thought about it, the more it felt like I was doing the right thing. Glass had joined to keep me safe, and that had ended up getting her a bullet to the gut. The least I could do was make sure she made it past the finish line. Even better, there were sure to be advanced medical facilities in a Stable as wondrous as 273. Once we got there, I would just have to put her in some kind of magical machine, and a couple minutes later she would come out healthier than ever before. Then we could go to the orchards and try all the fruit, and then we could find the communications room, which I was sure such a high-end Stable had. A smart pony like Glass could figure out how it worked in seconds, then we could send a message back to our village and relay them to the Stable. It was the perfect plan, and it was going to save both me, Glass, and our village.
Yes, everything was going to be just fine…
The final kilometer, yes! This was a cakewalk, I had no idea why I seemed so down before. I threw a quick glance back, and saw Glass' chest still rise and lower. I was not a fan of the excruciatingly slow pace, but at least she was still alive. Injured could be fixed, dead not so much. The mere sight of the range indicator dropping into individual meters made my heart skip, and all of a sudden it was like the knee-deep snow had been blown away. Everything was falling in place: Glass would live, we would signal our village, and everything would work out in the end. Then, in a whole bunch of years, Glass and I would look back on all our adventures and misadventures with some hearty banter.
273 would solve all our issues, it had to.
The blanket of whirling snow eventually gave way to a looming dark mass, several times higher than myself and just as wide. As I got closer, details appeared, revealing a huge gear-shaped door, faded paint spelling out “273” right in the middle of it.
So, Stable 273 was a real thing after all, the waypoint was correct all the way down to the door control panel. I trotted up to the weakly glowing green window, almost completely encased in a thick layer of ice and frost. There was a single button not covered in ice, so naturally I pushed it. Text suddenly flashed onto the monitor, prompting me to “Verify Stable Access”, whatever that meant. A hatch opened just below the screen, shattering the ice like it was nothing but packed snow. Two cables ejected from the space inside, then proceeded to flap about wildly in the raging storm. I looked at my PipBuck, noticing two tiny holes in the front, seemingly made for the Stable cables. Glass may have been the smarter of us, but I could still put two and two together, and before long the tiny computer was connected to the Stable wall. More text scrolled across the monitor, then the cables retracted back into the wall, almost taking the PipBuck and my leg with them.
“Come on…” I would have jumped on the spot in anticipation, but my legs felt like four icicles. Still, we had done it; we found Stable 273, or at least a massive door with “273” written on it. If only the door would have opened faster! I had a dying sister to save, for crying out loud! As if the ponies designing the Stables had a grudge against those of us in a hurry, the door went through an excruciatingly long sequence before it finally slid aside and revealed the foyer of Stable 273. I ran inside as quick as I could, unable to contain myself. As a matter of fact, I ran in a bit too quickly — I tripped over the doorstep and slid my way across the cold concrete floor. Moments later, I got hit in the butt by Glass' sled, sending me sprawling forward even further. Shaken, but intact, I got to my hooves, but a red streak on the floor caught my attention. I quickly brought a hoof to my cheek, then looked at the suddenly red horseshoe.
Injuries were supposed to hurt, right? Weird…
The Stable door creaked, then slid shut before I had a chance to react. I had no idea if it was supposed to do that, but it felt good to get away from the snow and wind. I squinted in an attempt to see through the dimness around me. If this was how all Stables were lit up, Stable Dwellers must have been really scared of daylight. There only seemed to be one other door, which I assumed led deeper into the bowels of 273. Great, fewer options meant less chances to get lost. I did a quick check on Glass, who thankfully was still breathing, and moved her up against the wall. If luck was somehow on my side, she would stay unconscious until I had her all healed up. Now, all I had to do was find the infirmary, or whatever it was called in the Stables.
How difficult could it be? Stables had maps and signs, or at least so I hoped…
“By the windigos…” There were so many bodies. More than I could ever have hoped to count. Every bed in the infirmary had one, some even two. They were mummified, dried up into shriveled and flaking husks. Some of them cradled equally mummified foals, as if something had taken their lives suddenly and without warning. Despite all of the weird, sometimes downright disturbing, things I had seen on my way to this Stable, I felt a nausea rise in my throat. An entire Stable’s worth of ponies did not just go and die like this, something must have killed them. Dread showered over me, and not only because I had gotten myself and my dying sister locked up inside what had turned out to be an underground necropolis; everything had been looted, every locker and cupboard were completely empty. I ran as fast as my tired legs allowed me, checking every nook and cranny for supplies, bandages, anything, but all I found was empty containers.
No, this was not supposed to happen. I was supposed to save my sister’s life…
“Overmare?” I read the text on a door as I pushed it open, revealing a very nice looking office. The walls were covered in photos of ponies playing in the snow, as well as more thermometers and diagrams of snowflakes than I could have ever imagined. The overmare herself, I presumed, sat with her head resting against the table. The dark stain and the gun next to her told me all I needed to know, except for why. If 273 was, or at least used to be, such a beacon of hope and light, why would anypony want to do something so drastic? Carefully, I attempted to move the deceased mare away from the desk, only to have her body fall apart into dust and bones. Her computer was still active, pulsating with a soft, green glow. I pushed one of the two keyboard buttons, and text flared up on the monitor. The text was too garbled to read out, so I picked the first option. It appeared to be some kind of audiolog, thought most of it was so corrupted and compressed that only a select few words were actually eligible. Apparently somepony named “Cirrostratus” had been tasked with an “atmospheric cycler” and “phasing out oxygenator talismans”, whatever any of that meant. I continued to click through the corrupted computer, finding every excuse possible to not have to go back and give Glass the bad news.
Maybe if I kept clicking it would open a secret vault full of supplies, but every option seemed to do less than the one before it. One beeped angrily when I tried to use it, another chimed that the Overmare’s private safe had been unlocked. I quickly searched the office, but found no sign of any safes, unlocked or otherwise. The next option simply did nothing, ignoring my commands to activate it. Finally, an option responded with a garbled prompt. Whatever it asked about was unreadable, but one line stood out.
Y/N?
Without thinking twice, I accepted; there was no time to waste if I wanted to save my sis. Loud creaking noises exploded throughout the Stable, walls and floors vibrating as something came alive within the depths of the steel and concrete bunker.
“I messed up again, I’m so sorry!” I rushed into the now-illuminated Stable foyer and over to Glass. Above me a synthetic voice blared warnings about atmospheric scanners being offline and a venting process being carried through despite incomplete data. Glass sat up, her head resting against the wall as she held a hoof against her frozen wound. She looked at me, a weak smile plastered over her blackened lips. I was too busy panicking to smile back, instead I just pounced her in a tear-filled hug. “This is all my fault, I shouldn’t have let you come.” Glass coughed as I buried my face in her chest, splattering my mane and back with something warm and sticky.
“W-What are you talking about, Snowball?” She moved my head with her free hoof until our eyes met. I was expecting pain, agony, regret, the kinds of things dead ponies walking probably felt. My sister just smiled, like we were still at home, lying under our bedsheet way past bedtime, telling stories to each other. “We made it, didn’t we? This is Stable 273, just like we were promised.” Her hoof ran through my still thawing mane, just like mom used to do back at home.
“I-It’s empty. Everypony’s dead, there’s nothing here…” I rested the side of my head against her chest, listening to the weak breaths and erratic heartbeats. I had gotten my sister killed, and for what? It was all a waste of time, we might as well have gone into some random monster’s nest and kicked its babies. Actually, we had done that on our way here, and it had ended pretty successfully. “They lied to us. This PipBuck, Stable 273, it was all just a big, fat lie.” But Glass just kept stroking my mane, seemingly not even listening to what I was saying. All I wanted to do was find that blasted wanderer and give him his PipBuck back, preferably with a stick of dynamite strapped to it. Thinking about it, I would shove it up his ass, too.
“W-Well…” Glass stopped stroking my mane. I looked up and saw a tear streak down her chin. “W-Who cares? It doesn’t invalidate the things we experienced on our way here. D-Do you remember—” She coughed violently, splashing red globs on my mane and face. “The ponies at Crystal Lake, was what we did there a waste of time?”
“C-Crystal Lake…”
“Everypony, take cover!” The ground erupted in a cloud of blue energy, tossing ponies aside and burning their hide. A white suit of Power Armour moved towards the small village and its meager militia. Bullets pancaked as they struck the almost crystalline hull, not even scratching the glistening surface. The creature, whatever it was, moved forward slowly, but unwavering. A large, black shell ejected from the oversized cannon on its left, sending out a plume of fine powder snow with it. As another shell started cycling into the chamber, the weapon on the Ranger’s right side opened fire. Ponies dove behind makeshift barricade as a barrage of razor-sharp icicles cut through them, slicing through all but the thickest fortifications like a hot knife through snow.
“I will blanket Equestria in eternal winter. Your village is but one of many.” The booming voice of the Ranger seemed only matched by its massive cannon, unleashing another shell that ripped through barricades and threw ponies around like discarded toys. No matter how much fire the defenders poured on, the Ranger barely seemed to notice. Its glowing blue eyes swept over the fortifications, followed by another barrage of deadly icicles. “There is only one absolute in this world: everything freezes.”
“Allow my sister to break the ice!” A crack echoed through the air, followed by the armour’s massive cannon shattering like a frozen branch. The defenders, still dazed by the relentless assault, peeked warily over their barricades. Just a hundred or so meters away from the armour, perched atop a low dune of snow, laid a pale blue unicorn, the rusty mane poking out from under her white helmet almost glowing against the landscape. Above her head hovered a rifle, easily longer than the pony herself. Down the very same dune came an almost snow-coloured earth pony like shot from a cannon, only visible thanks to her chocolate mane and the orange glass of her ski goggles. She galloped towards the icy Steel Ranger, then leapt into the air and struck its head with all four hooves. There was a resounding thump, like a grenade going off underwater, and the Ranger’s head evaporated.
“Is that all?” The earth mare’s power hooves crackled as she poked the decapitated armour, leaving it to disintegrate into a fine mist of snow. “Welp, that was anticlimactic.” She turned to the defenders, burst into a wide smile, then came galloping towards them. She was swiftly scooped up by the larger unicorn, who came trotting while casually folding up her massive rifle. “C’mon, Glass! I want to say hello to the ponies we saved!” The earth pony flailed, fruitlessly, in her sister’s grasp.
“Hello, I’m Glass,” Glass gestured to herself, then to her sister. “And this is Snowball, my little sister. We would like to rest and resupply at your village, if possible.” She extended a hoof towards the defending ponies, still wearing her usual calm smile. One of the defenders, a pony completely covered in winter gear, came up and took the hoof. Immediately, the remaining defenders lowered their weapons, and whatever tension was left in the air seemed to disappear completely.
“I’m in charge around here; you can call me Iceberg.” Iceberg shook Glass' hoof. “I don’t know how we can thank you. If it hadn’t been for you, that Ranger Lich would’ve gotten us all for sure.” He pulled away his hood and goggles, revealing a weathered crystal stallion. His coat glistened weakly, as if it wanted to shine but had no energy to do it. “You can stay for as long as you need, I’ll inform the shopkeepers that you may take what you want for free.” He nodded, then scratched his chin. “Within reason, of course.”
“We just did what seemed like the right thing, you’re being far too generous.” Glass put her sister down, who quickly started dashing around to greet as many ponies as possible. Most seemed hesitant to shake hooves with the power hoof-wielding earth pony, but the majority were thankful enough to look past the deadly contraptions.
“You and your sister carry the blessing of the crystal princess in your bond, that alone is worthy of praise.” Iceberg pulled his gear back on, then turned towards the town. “Please, make yourself at home, it’s the least we can do.”
“T-They probably could have dealt with the Ranger on their own, we just helped them out.” I curled up closer to my sister. The temperature was dropping, and an ominous gale seemed to howl from deep within the Stable. My breath crystallised in the air before me, which definitely did not happen just a few minutes ago.
“Do you really think so, sis?” Glass raised an eyebrow. “Besides, that’s not the point.” She coughed again, splattering more blood against my mane and face. Lifting my head again, she looked deep into my eyes. “W-Would you rather have stayed at home than fought an undead Steel Ranger made out of ice? That was an adventure, short as it was.” I dropped my head back to her chest, crying even more. “And what about the sunrise over the frozen forest?”
“T-The sunrise…”
“C’mon. Just a little more, sis! You can do it!” Snowball jumped up and down excitedly, urging her sister to hurry up. “You’re gonna miss it!” Glass reached over the ridge with a hoof, then heaved herself over the edge and onto the plateau. Through the darkness, she could see a seemingly endless forest stretch across the land. Every tree was like a pincushion of ice, stabbing at the very landscape with its many thorns.
“Okay, what are we here for?” Glass sat down on a bare rock, her eyes gazing over the valley before her. It was beautiful in its outlandishness, but hardly the view Snowball had made it out to be. “This doesn’t seem all that—” A blinding light struck Glass, almost making her fall backwards in surprise. On the opposite end of the valley, the mountains parted the cloud cover just enough for the first rays of dawn to make their way down. The light swept across the forest, reflecting off the frozen trees and filling the valley in a sea of sparkling lights. “I-It’s…” Glass found herself at a loss for words, too busy trying to control the tears streaming down her face. “Absolutely beautiful…” It was like staring into infinity, or at least what she imagined infinity to look like.
“S-See, I told you it’d be worth it.” Snowball looked at her sister, her eyes red with tears. “Imagine when we get to 273, we can relay the village through here. They could all get to see this sunrise!” She started prancing around, then tackled Glass in a hug. The two rolled around in the snow, laughing uncontrollably.
“You’re right, sis.” Glass sat back up, looking out over the valley as the sparkling dimmed. “We should definitely do that, once we get to 273.”
“Y-Yes, it was beautiful, the sunrise…” I stifled a sniffle, my nose stinging from the cool air. The lights were starting flicker ever so slightly, as if the cold was sucking their energy just like it sucked the life out of me and Glass. “But we’ll never be able to show anypony else. What’s it worth if you can’t share it with anypony?” I tried to stand up, take a walk, do anything to keep myself warm. “M-My legs aren’t working…” A lump built up in my throat, almost choking my words. “We’re going to die here, aren’t we?”
“I, well…” Glass' smile wavered, just barely enough for me to notice. “I think it was worth it to see that sunrise, and it was all thanks to you.” Her breathing was even more shallow, and her heartbeats were barely noticeable. “Why don’t you—” She coughed again, even further staining me and the floor red. “Why don’t you tell me about something you remember? Wasn’t there anything we did on our way here you’ll never forget?”
“W-Well…” I coughed, then instinctively drew a breath that burnt my lungs. It was like breathing icicles. “T-There was that sled chase, with the avalanche. That was really cool.” The smallest hint of a smirk crept across my face, it seemed to chase off the incoming cold, even if it only lasted for a moment.
“Yeah, I guess the sled chase was pretty intense…”
“This is amazing!” Snowball laughed as the sled sped through the forest, spraying snow behind it in an enormous plume. A bullet ricocheted off the floor next to her, and she quickly pulled back down beneath cover. “Hey! Stop being such killjoys!” She took one look at her power hooves, then shook her head and detached them. More bullets passed over her head, several also bouncing against the metal sheet she hid behind. She looked to Glass crouched down next to her, the unicorn working on assembling her oversized rifle. Despite the unadulterated chaos going on around them, she worked with remarkable calmness.
“I’d hate to break up tea time, but I’m gonna need you to take out those raiders!” The one piloting the sled, a griffin covered in extremely thick fur and an equally thick plumage, threw Snowball an urgent glare. He adjusted his goggles, then quickly peeked up to avoid a tree jutting up from the snow. “We’re gonna need the slope for ourselves to keep up with the avalanche!” A bullet pinged off his helmet, and he quickly dropped to his stomach.
“Just one moment, Slippy.” Glass started adjusting her scope, slowly manipulating the small screws that held it in place. Apparently it was not going how she wanted, as she furrowed her brow and started over again.
“Hey, I have an idea!” Snowball strapped her power hooves back on, then slammed them together. They discharged from each other with a thump, knocking her hooves away from each other. “Slippy, throw me!” She crawled over to the cowering griffin, stray bullets plinking against her helmet. The griffin just looked at her, dumbfounded.
“What?” He shook his head, as if to see if he had gotten something in his ears. “Are you out of your mind, lady? I’m not going to throw you!” He quickly looked up, then swerved the sled to avoid a jagged rock. A cluster of shotgun pellets ricocheted on the back end of the sled, spraying pellets all over us like a swarm of angry bees. Slippy gave Snowball a sour look, then sighed. “Fine, but don’t have your sister blame me when this goes terribly wrong!” As soon as there was a gap in the hail of bullets from the other sled, Slippy grabbed Snowball, stood up, and heaved her at their assailants with all his strength.
“This is even more amazing!” Snowball looked down as she sailed over the rushing snow, at the shocked looks of the raiders. Glass looked up at her with a highly unamused glare, still adjusting the scope on her rifle. Her power hooves crackled as she slammed them together, activating them. “Who called for a party crasher?!” Snowball landed with all four hooves on the back of one raider, completely eviscerating his back and stomach. Of the remaining three raiders, two of them were quick to lunge at her, dropping their rifles in favour of jagged climbing axes. In one motion, she threw her hooves out, blasting the raiders off the sled. Their bodies rolled in the snow, but were quickly consumed by the incoming tidal wave of snow.
“You… You monster!” The last raider reared up behind Snowball, brandishing a pair of very spiky snowshoes. Just as she was about to stomp down, her head turned into a fine red mist, repainting the entire inside of the sled. Snowball looked at the still rearing body as it slumped over, then at her sister. Glass had her rifle resting against the edge of the sled, smoke trailing from the muzzle. She tucked the rifle away, then grabbed Snowball with her magic and lifted her back to their sled. Moments later, the raider sled smashed into a tree, flipped over, and disappeared under the avalanche.
“Well, I guess it worked…” Glass looked at Snowball, bearing her usual small smile. She started dismantling her rifle, not taking her eyes off her sister. “Just give me a warning before you do it again.” Snowball nodded in reply, kicking off her power hooves and stashing them in her saddlebags.
“You two are absolutely insane.” Slippy stood back up, grasping the sled’s wheels. He looked at the two sisters, then shook his head and sighed. “But you’re pretty good at fighting, I’ll give you that. Now, let’s get out of this avalanche.”
“W-Wasn’t that worth it?” Glass gave me a meaning look. I just nodded weakly, pieces starting to fall in place in my head. My sister coughed again, much more weakly this time. Red saliva trickled from the corner of her mouth, like a gaping wound spreading down her face. “It was crazy, dangerous, and you had fun. Was that worthless?” Somehow, she kept that same encouraging smile, despite barely managing to stay conscious.
“W-Well…” I bit my lip, it was completely numb, like I was biting somepony else’s lip. “Y-Yeah, that was kind of worth it…” I coughed again, drawing in a lungful of searingly cold air. This was bad on all levels, but there was only so much I could do about it when I had lost all feeling in my legs. “W-What are you trying to say, sis?” Our eyes met each other, and I felt tears push their way out.
“I-I’m saying, Snowball…” Glass took a strained breath, barely inflating her chest. “W-Who cares that there wasn’t any goal? Just look at all the things we experienced together. The Lich, the sunrise, the sled, and all those other crazy things we did on our way here. That’s more than I expected to experience in my entire life before you got that PipBuck.” She stroked my mane again, her hoof resting on my head more than stroking it. “W-Wasn’t the adventure alone worth it?”
“I-I guess…” I snuggled up to her even more, desperately attempting to conserve what little heat I had left. My mind raced, or at least attempted to race, at the idea that Glass seemed so okay with dying. It was so unlike anything I had ever heard from her before. No matter how hard I tried to make sense of it, the cold just made me tired, and all I wanted to do was take a nice, long nap. “Y-You’re right, it was worth it.”
Glass remained quiet, her chest stilling. I wanted to cry with her, keep her with me, but I was too tired.
Maybe I could dream about our adventures together…
Author's Note
Thank you very much for taking the time to read this short one-shot. I hope you enjoyed reading it as much as I enjoyed writing it.
