The frozen wasteland in front of him was truly breathtaking. The way the light from the sun reflected off the snow, and the mountains in the distance stood out like sleeping giants on the horizon, blanketed in snow.

Time Turner, more commonly known as Dr. Whooves to his friends, surveyed the area around him, shivering from the cold in his parka.

Him and his associates were out to place special sensors around to study both weather patterns, and seismic activity under the ice.

Dr. Whooves was part of the Crystal Research Outpost 15, an Equestrian research station located many, many miles north of The Crystal Empire. Dr. Whooves was the assistant Biologist at the station.

With him placing down sensors was Rainbow Dash, the stations tough and egotistical Meteorologist. Maud Pie, the rock loving Geologist. And Twilight Sparkle, the head Biologist.

Waiting on Standby for a pickup was the station's Helicopter Pilot Applejack.

The rest of the crew were still at the station, keeping in contact with radios.

Dr. Whooves took another sensor out of the pack he carried and switched it on before planting it into the snow.

"Are you picking this one up?" Whooves asked into his radio. The radio crackled in response, before a voice came through.

"We're receiving the data already." the voice of Outpost Commander Shining Armor came through.

Whooves looked into his pack and found it empty, meaning he had placed all the necessary sensors. He glanced up to Rainbow Dash who was in the process of placing another sensor.

"Are you on your last one Dash?" Whooves asked. Rainbow Dash turned around and nodded.

"All done, now lets get back and get some hot soup, the winds are supposed to pick up within the hour." Rainbow Dash said.

Suddenly, a scream was heard and Whooves and Dash immediately rushed over to the source. It was Twilight, who was standing over some ice, looking terrified.

"What happened Twilight?" Whooves asked as he approached her. Twilight simply pointed a hoof down at the ice. Dr. Whooves looked down and gasped.

Under the ice was the shape of some huge thing. It was at least six feet across and had 3 glowing red eyes.

"I don't think I've ever seen a rock like that before." Maud said in her usual deadpan tone, but with a glint of shock in her eyes. The other 3 glanced back and forth between each other before Twilight spoke.

"We should head back and report this to Shining." Twilight said as she placed a sensor directly over the shape.

Rainbow Dash quickly radioed back to the station, requesting a pickup from Applejack.

"You said this thing has red eyes?" Shining asked, looking up at the four scientists that brought back their findings. They all nodded.

"It could be a new life form!" Twilight piped up in an excited tone. The others gave skeptical looks as Shining thought it over, looking at the readings from the sensor that Twilight put down.

"These readings are a bit abnormal, are you positive we should take a risk like this?" Shining asked Twilight. She nodded

"Shining, this could possibly be a new lifeform never before discovered by ponies, it could even be the missing link between modern ponies and our ancestors! This could be the find of the century!" Twilight said excitedly with Dr. Whooves, Rainbow Dash and Maud nodding in agreement.

"It could be worth the risk Shining." Whooves said.

Shining thought it over for a few moments before responding.

"Okay, we'll monitor it tonight, and if anything changes, then we'll send a team out tomorrow to collect the specimen." Shining explained, the rest nodded. "You're all dismissed, thank you." Shining said waving his hoof.

Rainbow Dash turned to Twilight in the hallway, "Are you 100% certain about this Twilight, that could be a dangerous creature or something." Dash explained.

"Don't worry, we can handle it. It's been frozen for Celestia knows how long, it's probably long dead. What could go wrong?" Twilight said.

The base was alive with speculation that night, from the discussions among the scientists, to the very excited cook Pinkie Pie raving about something new.

Besides the commander, Scientists, and Pinkie, the station had several other residents.

The Helicopter Pilot and snowcat operator was Applejack, a southern Equestria raised mare with a cool cowboy hat and a thirst for hard cider.

The station had 2 Technicians, Chief Technician Rarity, a Unicorn mare with an eye for fashion, and assistant Technician Soarin, a Pegasus stallion.

The station had a team of 12 sled dogs reserved for specific tasks all under the care of their handler Fluttershy, a timid and shy Pegasus.

The Station's Physician responsible for patching up any injuries was Dr. Stables, a caramel colored earth pony with a brown colored mane.

Last but not least was the Station's Radio Operator Vinyl Scratch, responsible for making contact with other station as well as the main base back in the Crystal Empire.

The night passed and everpony woke up in the early hours to get ready for the extraction of the specimen. Vinyl entered the radio room and sat down at the desk that held the large device. She flipped it on, put on her headphones and started to tune it.

She tuned to the appropriate channel and pressed the voice projection button.

"This is Crystal Outpost 15, attempting to contact Main Base, please respond, over." Vinyl said into the microphone, she then waited for a response, only to get nothing, as usual. Then Twilight entered the room.

"Good morning Vinyl, have you contacted the Crystal Empire yet?" Twilight asked walking up next to Vinyl.

Vinyl sighed and turned around in her chair, "Still nothing, I haven't been able to reach shit in 2 Weeks!" Vinyl said frustrated.

Twilight sighed, "Well get a hold of somepony, get a hold of anypony! We need to report the specimen!" Twilight said angrily before storming out.

"I'll try, but no promises Twilight!" Vinyl called out before turning back to her radio.

The crew gathered for breakfast in the mess room later in the morning. As they all ate, several conversations began among the crew, spanning from joking with each other, to conversations about the future of the mission.

"I don't think I can last an entire winter out here Darling, I get frostbite easily." Rarity said to her table mates Rainbow Dash and Soarin.

"I wouldn't worry too much Rarity, the base is heated, and if there is ever a problem with the generator I know you and Soarin can fix it up in a jiff." Rainbow said, nudging Soarin slightly.

"Yeah, and who knows, maybe that specimen that Twilight found can get us out of here a few months early." Soarin said, pointing across the room to Twilight.

Rarity sighed, "Maybe you're right. It is healthy to have wishful thinking." She said before eating another spoonful of oats.

Then, Shining Armor entered and called the crew to attention.

"After monitoring the specimen that Twilight found yesterday, I've decided to have it collected and brought back here for deeper analysis." Shining announced.

Twilight let out an excited yelp in response.

"Applejack, Twilight, Dr. Whooves, Rarity, and Myself will head out to collect it with the helicopter, we leave in one hour, so get ready." Shining explained before leaving the mess room.

"Well, looks like something interesting is happening this winter after all." Vinyl said sarcastically.

The small team of five left on Applejack's helicopter to the site where the specimen was discovered. When they got there they had a good look at the specimen.

It was entirely black, and it was very difficult to make out any features, apart from the red eyes.

"It looks, eerie, do you think it's alive Twily?" Shining asked as he observed the strange shape beneath the ice, feeling slightly unnerved at the site of the unknown organism.

"It's hard to tell. We won't be able to know definitively until we get it back to the station and get some samples." Twilight explained.

"Alright, let's get this thing cut out of the ice." Shining ordered. Then, Twilight, Shining, and Rarity all used their magic to cut the block out from the ice and levitated it out. Now that they could see the organism from more than one angle, they could now see that the specimen was very thin, like it was cardboard cutout, only slightly thicker, since it looked much larger from the previous angle.

The helicopter, piloted by Applejack, hovered over the block and released 4 cables that the rest of the crew hooked into the ice block. After being secured, the crew all climbed back into the helicopter, and Applejack flew them and the specimen back to the station.

After the specimen was delivered, it was moved into the spare shed and the scientists along with Shining Armor began to examine it.

"Well, can you tell if it's alive yet?" Shining asked as Dr. Whooves and Twilight inspected it. Twilight turned to him with a disappointed expression.

"I'm afraid we don't know, we're gonna have to wait for it to thaw before we can make further observations." Twilight explained.

Shining Armor scoffed, "Alright, we'll let it thaw, now let's go and get drunk, because if this thing is a new life form, then we are gonna get paid extra for this mission." Shining said as he left the shed.

"Now you're speaking my language Shining!" Dr. Whooves said as he followed him.

Twilight lingered behind and continued to observe the specimen, she became almost entranced by the strange being under the ice. She stared directly into the three red dots glowing under the ice, and she felt her eye start to twitch.

"Twilight! You Coming?" Dr. Whooves called to her, snapping her out of the trance.

"Oh, yeah, I'm coming!" Twilight said as she followed Whooves back to the main building, Looking back at the shed for a second as she walked into the building.

Later that night, one of Fluttershy's dogs entered the shed with the frozen specimen. The dog wandered up to it and began to sniff it, when suddenly, the ice began to crack...

Author's Note

I Hope to update this story frequently enough, since I currently have a huge bulk of this story already written. Hope you all enjoy!