The City Must Survive

by waywardfallout

Rating: mature
Tags: Sad, Main 6, Original Character, My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic, Rainbow Dash, Adventure, Pinkie Pie, Crossover, Twilight Sparkle, Violence, Dark, Death, Alternate Universe
Length: 10301

The world has frozen over. Then is only one hope left, the Generator.

Dear Celestia if you find this note then I have left Equestria with my friends and whoever else would trust me. Most likely you have lost control of the sun at this point, not that it really matters as no pony will ever control the sun again. Why didn’t you listen to me again? I was overreacting you said if I remember correctly.

Anyway I got an offer from the faraway country of Arcadia. A country of steel and steam. A country that came to the same conclusion I did. The offer contained a location (which is written on the back of this note) and a chance to survive the coming cold. It said they could use a pony like me and told me to bring as many as I could. I doubt you will find this note but if you do send as many survivors as you can to the City. This is my last letter to you.

Princess Twilight Sparkle.

Published 2020-10-05 03:10:00 UTC
Last updated 2021-01-12 13:28:25 UTC

Chapter Day 14 part 2

Rainbow woke up to the nuzzling of another pony on her cheek, most likely the only pony she would ever let nuzzle her like this. “Twi let me have five more minutes. I don’t want to be cold again.” She heard a giggle come from above her. “I already gave you ten minutes Dash. Please wake up.” Rainbow let out a groan of annoyance.

“Agh, Fine” The pegasus opened her eyes to look at the one who disturbed her slumber. Finding as she expected a lavender alicorn looking at her. Twi had clearly gotten out of the bed at some point. This fact was reinforced by the fact that she had her coat on except the hood. Most likely to let her be woken up by Twi’s nuzzling and not the coats thick insulation.

The rainbow maned pegasus stretched her legs out, letting out a large yawn. Shifting the heavy blanket off of herself. She got out of the bed and stretched her wings as a shiver went down her body at the blast of cold air. “I miss coffee Twi” Dash whined. “As do I Rainbow but we have work to do and it's 5:40” Twi said in a comforting voice wrapping a wing around Rainbow. “Yea yea I know.” Rainbow huffed and leaned it to the wing hug.

Rainbow felt the alicorn tense against her as Twilight's wing brushed against what had to be the pegasus’s ribs. “Rainbow how little have you been eating?” Rainbow sighed and looked away from her marefriend. “I’m fine Twi, Scootaloo needs the food more than me. She has no pony looking out for her.” Rainbow felt Twilight sigh against her.

“Rainbow I understand that but you won’t be able to help her, me or anypony else if you're too weak. You need to eat what little food you're given.” Rainbow felt Twilight warp her lavender wing even tighter around her barrel. “Please Dash, I don’t want you collapsing somewhere in the City and d-dying of hyperthermia.” Rainbow looked at the wooden floor and thought about what Twilight said.

Rainbow knew the alicorn was right, but Scootaloo didn’t have a big sister and brother like Applebloom. Nor parents and a big sister like Sweetie Belle. “Look Rainbow Scootaloo has Sweetie Belle with her everyday at the Coal Thumper. If something happens to Scootaloo, Sweetie Belle will be there to help.” Rainbow took a deep breath then nodded.

“Ok, so normal routes?” Rainbow asked, changing the topic as she left the warmth of the alicorn’s wing. She went over to her coat and put it on. Then grabbed a pair of saddle bags and put them on, last she grabbed her last piece of equipment. A rifle that was anchored to her left side in such a way that it wouldn’t get in the way of her flying if she needed to.

Carrying a weapon constantly had been cool at first. But the novelty of it wore off fast. Rainbow knew why she was armed but it still felt off to her as she wasn’t used to carrying a weapon. But she already used it once to scare off a griffin who had nearly attacked her after being told he was moved to an extended shift at the sawmill. So she was thankful for the gun, but it still felt wrong to her.

“Yea it seems like it.” Twilight nodded her purple eyes focusing on Rainbow. “Dash it's going to be negative fifty today.” Rainbow whined like a little filly at the fact it was getting even colder. “Why isn't it cold enough already?” Twilight rolled her eyes at her marefriend’s whining.

“Apparently not Rainbow, but there are a few things that might change your routes I’ll tell you in the hallway so we don’t wake up the others.” Twilight said as she opened the door and slipped out. Rainbow followed her out of the room without question.

Once they were out in the hallway Twilight elaborated. “As I said it’s getting colder it's going to be negative fifty today. Also a new law will most likely be signed today and it has to do with amputees.” Rainbow’s eyes gained a look of concern, a look she only let her close friends see. “What’s going to happen to Apple Bloom?”

Twilight answered. “She is going to be moved to a new building called a Care House where they will take care of her as the name implies.” Rainbow interrupted “Ok but why are you telling me this?”

“I was getting to that Dash.” Twilight said with a hint of annoyance. “Oh sorry” Rainbow let out a sheepish laugh. Twilight just continued talking “Could you go to the Hothouse early and warn Applejack about Apple Bloom being moved to the Care house.” Twilight didn’t like asking Dash to do this as she knew she was putting Rainbow on the spot. But she didn’t want AJ to return to her bunkhouse and have a big sister style panic attack when Apple Bloom wasn’t there. AJ was also less likely to get physical with one of her friends.

“Sure but she’s not going to like it.” Rainbow said as she knew Applejack would be furious. “I know that but it's better than her just finding out.” Twi said knowingly. The cyan pegasus had to agree with that. “Yea you're probably right, Twi”

“Sorry to put you on the spot like this RD.” Twilight apologized. “You’re good Twilight. Anything else?” Asked the cyan pegasus. “No, Nothing I can think of right now.” The alicorn chose not to tell Rainbow about how they had been caught by the Captain. That could wait till later.

Twilight gave Dash a quick peck on the lips. “You better get going if you want to catch AJ before she starts working.” Rainbow nodded, turned around saying “I love you.”

“Love you too” Twilight replied as Rainbow headed for the door, opened it and went out in the freezing cold.

The freezing cold hit Rainbow like a brick to the face, causing her to almost stumble. “This fucking cold.” She muttered as she regained her balance. The fact it was supposed to get even colder to today did not help her mood.

Looking around the city center she could see a few other creatures that had extended shifts starting to go to work. As Rainbow walked farther out from the bunkhouse a voice called her name.

“Good morning Rainbow, how are you on this fine frozen day?” Looking towards the sound was an earth pony stallion wearing a coat like her, but was colored gray.
He also had a rifle like her. His name was Cromwell, he had deep green fur and a short sandy yellow mane, with bright yellow eyes that she swore they were spotlights. He was one of the few guards in the city and one of the few creatures in the city she would call a good friend, other than her old friends.

“Cold, you?” Rainbow replied, as she started to turn towards the street that led to the hothouses. “Yea same here, Hey are you friends with Ms. Applejack?” Rainbow snorted at that. “Yea you could say that.”

“Wonderful! Would you also happen to know where she is at this time?” Cromwell asked as he caught up to Rainbow as the Generator continued rumbling behind them. Rainbow looked over at Cromwell as he approached. Why did he want to find AJ?.. Eh, she trusted him enough. “I’m going to her right now, she’s normally at the Hothouse by this time.”

“Mind if I follow you to her? I would like to speak with her.” The stallion asked keeping pace with the rainbow maned pegasus. Rainbow answered his question. “Sure just don’t slow me down.”

“Wouldn’t dream of it.” Cromwell said as their hooves went from frozen ground to wood planks. Both ponies stayed to the right side of the road, because of a steam pipe that spit the wooden road in half. A few creatures passed on Rainbow’s left most of them were likely heading to the coal mine and getting their ration on the way.

Rainbow spotted two fillies walking together, Sweetie Belle and Scootaloo. The pegasus had caught them as they left the street that was between the second row and third bunkhouses. A tired looking Rarity followed the two fillies as they walked down the main road that led to the Generator. Rainbow just sighed as they passed each other.

As both Rainbow and Cromwell got close to their destination the once-apple farmer came into view. She was standing in front of the Hothouse wearing standard city getup and her signature hat on top of it all.

The hothouse grew all the food that the herbivores of the city ate as nothing grew in the Frostland. Thanks to earth pony magic still working they could grow food daily but only in the hothouse as it was aided by something called a Steam Core. A very rare resource from what Rainbow knew.

The building itself was one and a half stories tall and was shaped like a trapezoid with one side going much further out then the other. The building was a mix of wood and steel with bits colored green like all buildings that were related to food in some way.

“AJ I need to tell you something!” Rainbow called out to the orange mare. “Don’t have time to; works about to start!” Applejack started to head into the building. Rainbow needed to get her attention.

“It’s about Apple bloom.” Instantly AJ turned to look at Rainbow with a fire in her eyes that she was not expecting to appear so fast. “So y’all have finally come to throw her out. Right? Well it ain’t happening, unless it's over my cold body.” AJ had stomped over to Dash and had become muzzle to muzzle with the rainbow maned pegasus. A growl left the throat of the element of honesty.

Now there were few things that truly scared her. One was Twilight being angry, the next being the thought of losing her wings, the third being an Applejack ready to fight to protect Apple Bloom. The instincts of a big sister were on full display in Rainbow’s face, to say she was scared would be an understatement. “That’s why you brought him along isn’t it!” The farm pony accused, pointing a hoof at Cromwell. Rainbow now understood why AJ had gotten so mad so quickly.

Rainbow was about to say something to try to calm Applejack down but the guards pony spoke before Dash could. “Miss Applejack I will have you know I am a father.” Applejack snapped her intense gaze to Cromwell which worried the cyan mane as she knew AJ was unlikely to attack her. But with Cromwell she wasn’t sure about that, even with the gun he had.

Cromwell took a step forward challenging the farm pony. “And as a father and the leader of the guard I will never let a foal be thrown out of the city, lest the Captain wants to lose his head. You got that?” He said staring AJ down with his bright yellow eyes. AJ flinched under the intense gaze of the guards pony, but quickly rechallenged him. “Then what’s y’all going to do to Apple Bloom?”

“We are going to do nothing to her Applejack, She is simply being moved to the new care house building, as stated by the new law that will be signed today.” Cromwell answered in a level tone. Rainbow saw this as her moment to jump in the conversation and try to stop any fighting from happening. “That’s why I wanted to talk to you AJ to warn you about Apple Bloom being moved.”

Cromwell turned his head to look curiously at the pegasus, almost ignoring Applejack. “How did you know about the new law?” Rainbow rubbed the back of her head with a hoof nervously. “Twilight told me this morning.”

“Fair, I was sent to do the same thing by Ellis. It seems we were both sent to warn the Queen of the Arena.” Cromwell said with an air of amusement in his voice.

With the tension in the freezing air noticeably lessened. Applejack took a second to calm down. “So what will it be like in this care house?” Asked Applejack as she wanted to know more about where Apple Bloom was being moved to.

“I don’t know the specifics of the new law, but I know she will be eating half rations because she can not work. But she will be in a building that receives medical grade heating.” Cromwell answered.

“Really? We can afford that.” Applejack said happiness filling her voice at the thought of Apple Bloom being warm in this freezing cold.

Rainbow knew the answer to that question. She was the pony who ran production notices from the workplaces to the Captain after all and she couldn’t help but look at them. “We can AJ but barely, the amount of coal we’re making is just enough.”

Applejack looked back at Cromwell, she knew asking a favor from the pony she had just yelled at was not a great idea. But guards were the only ones that could give her permission to be late to work. “Can I go tell Apple Bloom what’s going to happen. I know works about to start and all, but-” She was cut off by Cromwell.“Yeah sure” He said with a shrug of his shoulders “But on one condition.” He stated. “And what's that?” Applejack asked, eyebrows raised.

“I want to fight you in the Arena in two days.” He said with a cheeky grin on his face. “Now that's a condition I can accept.” Rainbow watched Applejack leave heading towards the bunkhouses.

“Well it was nice seeing you Rainbow but I have a job to do, so I’ll be on my way.” And with that Cromwell was off, leaving Rainbow alone to do her job as well. “First stop saw mill.”

The City’s discontent 57/100

Hope in the City 44/100

Author's Note

Bit of a slow chapter. But tell me what you think in the comments below If you’d be so kind.

Chapter 3 day 15 Sunset

Sunset Shimmer was leaving the mess hall when the clock hit 8:00 and the loudest sound she will probably ever hear shook the City once again.

BWWWRRRMMM!!!!

Followed by the words “The work shift starts.” Said by some creature.

The sound was made by the Generator. If Sunset had to describe the noise the Generator made everyday at 8:00 and 18:00 she’d say that it sounded like a low rumbling mechanical fog horn. The sound made her heart vibrate in her chest each time as the sound roared through the city letting all creatures know that work was to be started.

And with work started the city came to life. As Sunset made her way to her job she watched as the skyline that the Generator mostly dominated with the huge amount of smoke it released blocking the sun in some places in the city. Quickly became accompanied by the smaller smoke of workplaces that were waking up to provide the resources that the city needed to survive.

Creatures that Sunset had never seen before coming to the city, left their bunkhouses to go to their assigned jobs. Sunset herself was returning to her workplace which was located next to the Beacon.

The amber mare worked as the radio communicator between the city and the two scout teams exploring the Frostland. Her job was not as labor intensive as Rarity’s or Starlight’s but was just as important. She had to do hourly check ins with both scout teams making sure they hadn’t fallen through ice or something of that nature. She was also responsible for mapping out the Frostland using what information the scouts gave her.

As Sunset moved along the road that circled the Generator she saw the lower part of the Beacon’s tether come out of hiding from behind the Generator’s smoke plume. Sunset’s eyes followed the tether up far into the sky, all the way to the balloon that sat alone high above the crater the city sat swaying in the icy wind. The balloon was the only reason Sunset and the rest of Twilight’s group had found the city in the Frostland. Its bright light ended up guiding them to this frozen city.

Sunset weaved her way between two workshops that stood side by side facing the Generator and saw her workplace. It was a small wood and metal box no bigger than three meters by four meters, was one floor tall and had a slightly angled orange roof, a shed basically.

Around the shed was a framework of steel that anchored the Beacon’s tether to the ground and her shed. Parts of the framework moved which had confused Sunset at first till she was told by Nansen the movement acted as a counterweight to the balloon keeping it in relatively the same spot.

But there was a pony outside her shed, the lavender fur gave it away at a glance. The amber mare sighed. She knew this conversation was going to have to happen, that didn’t mean she’d like it.

Sunset had bottled up her anger during the trip to the city and a few days ago had exploded in anger at some small comment Twilight said about the human world. That led to her saying some things that she regretted and her throwing a punch at Twilight which she really regretted. As Rainbow had kicked the amber mare in the lower jaw when she went for the strike.

As Sunset approached Twilight spoke up “Sunset I’m sorry about-“ Sunset held up a hoof telling the alicorn to be quiet. Which she did, thankfully. “You have nothing to be sorry about Twilight. When I came through the portal to see if human technology could help, nobo-pony expected it to be a one way trip.” Sunset could still clearly hear the sound of the mirror portal shattering. Sunset knew what Twilight would say next, so she beat the alicorn to the punch.

“And that’s not your fault I got trapped here because you asked for help, it was my choice to step through that damn portal. But honestly it’s neither of our faults, if anything it’s Celestia’s for not listening.” Sunset knew Celestia was arrogant but the amber mare could understand somewhat why Celestia wouldn’t believe Twilight.

When Sunset left for the human world all those years ago, she, like Celestia, still believed that the magic resistant theory was wrong. The theory stated that object’s slowly become more magic resistant each time the same spell would be cast on said object.

The effect took a long time to manifest, by some estimates hundreds thousands repeated spells. The effect was thought to be sudden, as it wouldn’t take more magic to cast the same spell, until a tipping point where you could no longer cast the spell on the object. Sunset believed it to be wrong but once Twilight showed her first hand-er-hoof the effect was real, she went to help. But by then it was too late.

Sunset lowered her hoof and made her way to the door that led into the shed saying
“Twilight could we just forget that argument ever happened please, I said and did some really stupid stuff, and I’m sorry about all of it.” The alicorn nodded “That would probably be for the best.”

Sunset pulled out a key with her hoof and awkwardly opened the door as she didn’t have hands or magic, a fact she hated. As she went inside she added “Good luck.” Twilight replied with “Yea you too.”

Sunset entered the room, the door clanking closed behind her. She was alone, again. The amber mare sighed then took a second to look around the room. To her left was her wooden bed that was up against the far wall. At the hoof of the bed was an orange bag that held all of the things she brought from the human world to try to help Twilight. To her immediate left was a small plank built into the wall that acted as a table. It had a few papers on it but nothing else.

The important side of the room was the right side.

There was a table that ran the entire length of the wall as it was built into said wall with metal supports going from the floor to the bottom of the table. The reason for this was all the radio equipment sat on the table.

The equipment was big and bulky taking up most of the room’s right side. Boxes with dials of all different shapes and in rows each with their own purpose. Gauges with a little needles moving around constantly. If somepony had told Sunset it was really old stuff from the human world. She would have believed that pony easily.

Finally in the middle on the far wall was a map that covered said wall. With the room’s radiator underneath. Sunset took off her jacket and boots, then put the clothes next to the radiator hoping to warm them up. She looked at the map.

The map held the general shape of the Frostland. The city sat in the center with a bright red metal pin marking the city and the crater it was located, with the words “Site 14 New Kingston”stamped on the pin. To the mare’s still mild amusement the red pin was engraved to resemble the Generator.

Going south from the city marker was land and glacier that slowly led to the frozen ocean that she had crossed over to get to the city. There was a pin on the right of where the land met the frozen ocean. Attached to the pin was a piece of paper with the words “Frozen Port” writen on it. Going north from the city led to unexplored tundra.

But going east or west led to a few pins. West had a few notable ones like the orange pin with “Site 28 New Brunswick” stamped on it. Site 28 was built at the base of a small mountain and was supposed to be another city with its own Generator. But no activity had been seen in the three weeks the City had been occupied. So that's why a blue pin with “Scout unit 1” written on it had an arrow pointing to Site 28 at its base.

The Scout unit should make it to the site by 13:00 today as they were basically at the site. Sunset knew the Captain himself would be joining her for that report so she wouldn’t be completely alone today. Which was nice.

There were other places of note to the west, like the massive army crate the scouts had found. Over half of the guns and ammo were ruined by the cold, but the five hundred pounds of TNT the crate held were fine. The scout unit couldn’t carry the, once again, five hundred pounds of TNT back so then left it for later recovery. But they took the guns because of course they did. The fact that so many explosives were just laying around worried Sunset. As who would leave that many explosives in the middle of Frostland even if they were mining grade and not weapons grade explosives.

Looking east on the map the biggest thing that stood out was a canyon named Claw’s Cut that led to the frozen ocean. But other than that it also had a few notable pins, in particular another orange pin near the end of the canyon with “Site 8 Winterhome”. Another Blue pin with “Scout Unit 2” was headed to a bridge that crossed the Claw’s Cut hoping to use it as a shortcut to get to Winterhome. They should arrive in an hour or so.

So about an hour till anything important happened, great. Sunset hated that about her job, her job was slow most of the time with bits of excitement every once and awhile. It didn’t help that she was basically alone these past seven days since she got assigned to work the radio full time after the original operator died.

After Sunset finally learned having friends was a good thing. She was having a good life even if she was in the wrong world. But now she was in a literal frozen apocalypse. She had lost almost everything, hell she couldn’t even use magic.

She was just a ‘less good earth pony’ as the captain said and Sunset agreed with the dragon a hundred percent. He wasn’t being mean when he said it was just an unfortunate fact, unicorns were weaker then pegasi and earth ponies. Unicorns couldn’t use magic as it was too cold most of the time. She-

Sunset’s inner rant was interrupted by some creature knocking at her door. “Wa-one sec.” Sunset had no clue as to who it was, it wasn’t the Captain as it was way too early. Twilight or her friends? No, all of them were busy. Sunset walked over and opened the door quickly trying to let the visitor in without letting too much cold air get into her workplace and living quarters.

The visitor passed by her quickly entering the room. Sunset closed the door and turned to identify her surprise visitor. It was an orange griffin so had to be Clockwork as she didn’t know of any other griffins with orange feathers in the city. “Good morning Sunset, sorry to intrude but I wanted some creature to talk to.” He looked around the room with his green eyes. “Cozy.”

“Not that I don’t appreciate the company. But shouldn’t you be working on research or something like that?” Sunset asked as she moved over to her bed and sat on it.

“Yes I am supposed to be in the workshop. However I am out of ideas so here I am.” The griffin took off his jacket and other bits of winter protection. “Is it fine that I heat up my stuff with the radiator.” The griffin asked.

“Go for it.” She replied. Sunset had talked to Clockwork before once or twice. He was an Arcadian, like the Captain. By what she remembered from the last time she talked to the orange griffin was that he was a bit scatterbrained. As he would jump from topic to topic without warming.

“Thank you.” Clockwork put the clothing where he said he would and sat next to the amber mare.

Sunset broke the silence before it could last more than a second. “So why talk to me of all ponies?”

“That’s easy, Twilight spoke about you and her at one point, traveling to another world and that they were more technologically advanced in some ways.”

The griffin pointed to the red Generator pin with a claw. “Some ways not as advanced, it infuriates me a tad that Twilight still doesn’t think Automatons are physically possible. It’s not like it was my job to build and maintain them or anything.” The griffin muttered the last part while waving his claws in an annoyed fashion.

“Automatons?” Sunset asked curious about the word and the fact Twilight didn’t think they were possible. Clockwork looked at her and waved a claw dismissively. “Don’t worry about it. As I doubt I will ever see one again and we definitely don’t have the materials to make them or the blueprints.” The griffin looked around the room randomly, ending on the orange bag.

”Annnnnyways I was wondering if I could pilfer some ideas from that other world.” The orange griffin said hoping he could get some form of inspiration. Sunset sighed “Sorry but while I know how to use their technology I have little to no clue how it actually works. I have bits and pieces at most.” Clockwork sighed “Drat.”

Sunset watched the griffin get up and walk up to his jacket. But instead of putting it on and leaving her alone. He pulled out a pencil and a notebook that looked like it had been through hell.

He turned to look at her “I have this feeling you are just a bit lonely considering you sit in this shed nearly twenty four hours a day alone. So I might as well brainstorm here and give you some company. If that’s ok with you?”

Sunset was more than ok with that.

—-

Both creatures were startled by the sound of the radio

“Good morning city. This is scout unit two and you will not believe what we found.” The voice of a stallion said through the radio.

Sunset responded while Clockwork listened in. “Morning Clovis. So-“

A metallic whine blasted over the radio followed by a stomp. While the unicorn covered her ears at the sound, while Clockwork shouted in joy “Clovis you better not be messing with us. Did you really find an Automaton in the middle of the Frostland?”

Sunset decided to take a back seat in the conversation.

“Yes we did the latest model as well. The guy is in great condition as well, not a dent on his hull. Although We can’t find his handler, the poor thing was left out to sweep snow off of this bridge.” Clovis said.

“You better be sending it to the city.” Clockwork demanded with a smile.

“Planed on it. The thing can replace an entire workforce. Although it’s convenient that you're here as we have no idea how to do that.” Clovis admitted with a chuckle.

“Ok ok you're going to have to access it’s hull first.” The griffin was actually bouncing in place like Pinkie would.

“Guessed as much but how? It’s all the way up there.”

The griffin let out a groan “Does no creature else know how to operate an Automaton or is it just me?”

“I’m honestly sure you are the only one who can in the city Clockwork. That’s probably why you were assigned to New Kingston in the first place.” Clovis answered.

“Ah good thing I’m not dead then. So there should be a leg with the number four on it, find it, then pull the lever.”

The Sound of Clovis repeating the instructions to some creature could be heard. A few seconds later the sounds of hissing could be heard. “Done next?

Clockwork continued instructioning Clovis on how to send the Automaton to the city.

The griffin then put on his jacket saying “I have to let the Captain know about this sorry Sunset.” With that he was gone.

She was back to being alone. Again.

Chapter 1 Day 14 Part 1

The once Princess Twilight Sparkle was woken up by the sound of the Generator. To the machine's constant grinding of gears, the endless hissing of steam it made and the omnipresent rumble of the ground beneath her hoofs.

This had happened a few times, she’d be woken up by the Generator in the middle of the night and she knew that she wasn’t falling back asleep. That stupid, loud, towering hunk of metal that they all worked to feed. That same towering hunk of made Rarity work 14 hours a day in the coal mines, breathing in dust that would destroy her lungs. The towering hunk of metal that needed her to help it run, that stained her forelegs black, that gave her burn scars running up her right foreleg. Twilight could still feel a lance of pain every so often, Fluttershy told her she was lucky to be alive.

But that same towering hunk of metal that was keeping all of them warm in this suffocating cold. The Generator was what powered the city. (if 124 creatures made a city.) It's steam heating the medical posts to treat what sick creatures they could treat. It let Applejack and the rest of the earth ponies grow food, with their magic, to eat so they didn’t starve or eat only meat. The Generator was the only reason they were still alive, without it they would die. It was that scarily simple, if the Generator dies, the city dies, she dies, her Dashie dies, her friends freeze. There was no maybe ifs or buts.

But she knew she wasn’t going to get back to sleep, even snuggled up to a certain rainbow mane pegasus. So she did what the Captain suggested, get to work. However she had to get out of bed without waking up Rainbow or the three other occupants in the small room.

The first one being Spike who slept in the bunk above her. He helped in the cook house, cooking food (or what little of it). As he was too old to go to the small school ( if you could call it a school) that was built for young creatures to stay in during the day.

The second occupant being a sphinx which had surprised her when she first met him, he wasn’t as big as a building like Somnambula described but about the size of the average pony, if a bit smaller. His name was Nansen and he worked with Twilight in maintaining the Generator and researching new technology for the city. His fur was slightly less than dark brown colored. But he didn’t have the headdress that Somnambula had also described; he simply wore a pair of goggles around his neck. He was in his bed sleeping and she wanted to keep it that way.

The Third was a light orange griffin by the name Clockwork. He also worked with Twilight in maintaining the Generator and researching new technology for the city. He slept in the bunk above Nansen.

But before she could worry about those to two she had to get a cyan wing off of her. The alicorn slowly shifted the wing off of her with her own wing. As she did this she felt the biting cold come back making her shiver and want to snuggle back to her cyan colored source heat. But she carried on. She managed to move Dash’s wing back into place and untangle her legs from her marefriend and stood in front of the bed. The alicorn moved the blanket with her hooves to cover Rainbow.

With that done she looked at the room. The room was made of planks of wood and bits of steel as was the rest of the building. It was just big enough to hold two bunk beds with a radiator in between them with the door directly facing the radiator. Twilight walked over to where her coat was hanging and put it on as quietly she could so she didn’t wake anypony. The coat was heavy and thick, it was colored dark brown. It covered almost all of her body except her face, even her horn. It also had two flaps that would let her use her wings if she needed to.

With the coat on she grabbed what looked like a piece of metal in the shape of a 8 with the bottom filled in and the top had some kind of ball of light. It's called a Glow worm, a personal heater and spotlight. It can’t keep you warm in this cold but it could buy you a minute or two of extra warmth, enough to get to an actual heat source or find shelter.

She connected it to a slot on the front of her coat and made sure she was ready by checking her mental checklist twice. Coat check, glow worm check, Tools check. Knife check. Once she was satisfied the lavender mare opened the door to the hallway quickly and quietly left the room and entered into the hall.

She had decided that she was going to check the workplaces and do whatever maintenance she could do, it won’t earn her an extra ration but it would keep her busy and that’s what she wanted.

The hallway was just that, a hallway with doors every so often with a single door at the end that led outside. The alicorn could feel the draft from the door that led outside, and the omnipresent rumble from the Generator.

Walking to the door she once again quickly opened the door and dashed out, closing it quickly as she was hit with a wave of vicious cold. It made her instinctively ruffle her wings under her coat. The roaring sounds of the Generator were all consuming at this point and that made sense as it was right behind her and as she was still facing the door. Twilight turned to face the Generator.

https://images.app.goo.gl/bmfCoVPg68dNPjZW8

Twilight didn’t know to describe it, all her years as Princess Celestia‘s personal student. The countless all nighters she spent studying for some big test. She had entire dictionaries memorized, yet she couldn’t find the right words to describe the machine. But lavender alicorn knew how it worked and what it did. That was enough she supposed.

The Generator was an enormous steam-powered furnace/engine, it generated huge amounts of superheated steam and sent it to all the buildings in the city by pipes built into the roads. This machine was the beating heart of the city and one of her jobs was to help it keep beating along. A part of her still had trouble believing it worked without any magic.

But she didn’t dare approach it, not at 5:00 in the morning. Because if anycreature saw her in the middle of the night. They might think she’s trying to damage the one thing that kept them alive in this cold.

So the alicorn went to the 2nd place on her list to check the medical posts. Maybe she’d find Fluttershy there working on somepony. It would nice to talk to somepony.

The medical post was to the right of the housing district. The city was laid out in concentric rings facing the generator. From the Generator at each 90 degree interval was a different district, the one she came from was housing. To the right of housing was medical. To the left of housing was the mess hall, cook house, fighting arena and the pub where Pinkie Pie worked. Behind that was the hot house where Applejack worked on growing food using her earth pony magic. Next to the hot house was the hunters’ hut where a group of workers would go out and hunt for food.

Then directly across from the housing district was the workshops where she worked on researching new technology for the city. Then behind the workshops was the Beacon.

The Beacon was a grey balloon with a large spotlight and radio wave receiver attached to it. Which was connected to a tether that in turn connected to the ground. It acted as a lighthouse guiding groups of creatures to the city and was a way to communicate to the scouts out in the Frostland.

The Frostland was everything outside the crater as The City itself sat in a large crater with a small ramp carved out of dirt and snow that led out of the crater in a southward direction it was behind the housing district.

Twilight got to the medical post and started her inspection. The bluish whitish tent looked fine from the outside so she stuck her head in the tent to see how many patients there were. Five full beds with various creatures in them. With a sleeping Fluttershy in the far corner. Twilight didn’t dare walk into the tent out of fear of waking Fluttershy.

Sighing the alicorn turned and started to head towards the mess hall. Fluttershy had taken up a job as a nurse for the city. The once-Princess almost never saw the butter yellow pegasus anymore, she was always busy. The list of injuries one could get was staggering, with the most common being hypothermia. She herself had been gravely injured by the blasted Generator ten days ago.

The memory was a bit foggy but there were a few monuments that were fresh in her mind. The pain mainly was still fresh in her mind. What she could remember was she’d put down the clipboard she had been holding in her right foreleg For some reason. And when she went to pick it up with said foreleg she accidentally brushed one of the steam pipes that led from the main boiler to the city. The almost molten metal of the steam pipe instantly cooled on her much colder leg and burned its way through her jacket. All she could remember after that was screaming in pain and immediately falling unconscious from said pain, leg still bonded to the steam pipe. Lucky for her both Rainbow and Clockwork had been close by and saw it happen if they hadn’t...

A shiver went down her back at that thought, the answer was easy she’d be dead. Thankfully She’d awoken in the medical post the next morning to a RD style hug attack while she yelled “I told you so.” and Fluttershy looking surprised to see her awake so soon. Fluttershy told her the ramifications of her injury. She would, for the rest of her eternal life have a 5 inch long 1 inch wide shard of metal running down her leg and some nasty burn scars to boot.

But what hurt her the most was what Rainbow told her that night. “Twi didn’t let you make me immortal so you could die and have me do all the work.” Rainbow wore a goofy smile when she had said that. But the tears stains on her face told her more accurately how Rainbow felt. She’d done the same thing Rainbow that Cadence had done to her brother, gave up a part of her alicorn magic and transferred it into Rainbow Dash so they could live, forever together, as Cadence put it. It was, to her, one of the best decisions she had ever made. But it meant nothing if one of them died, they weren’t unkillable, just biologically immortal.

That's why she begged Dash not to volunteer to go out into the frostland and find resources, refugees and what not. It was very dangerous out in the frostland and they had learned that first hoof during their journey to the city. Thankfully she had managed to convince Dashie to be a courier in the city, running papers, messages and other special materials from work place to work place.

Shaking herself from her thoughts as she reached the mess hall and started her routine checks. The mess hall was, for all intents and purposes a long wooden box with the same green coloring all buildings related to food had.

Twilight entered the building. In the food box (as Applejack put it) was three lines of tables that went from the front of the room to the back of the room. There were lamps spaced out evenly connected to the ceiling. She walked to the back of the room. There was a door at the back of the room that led to the cook house.

She wasn’t allowed to go in there, only the cooks were. Her stomach chose this moment to remind her how hungry she was. She desperately wanted to get something to eat, to just go in and get something. A locked door couldn’t stop her and she knew it.

She started to leave the mess hall before she got tempted by the idea of eating food. It wouldn’t be that hard to just break down the door and grab something to eat, even grass, it would just take- Twilight flinched at her own thoughts. How could she think that. She was a Princess dammit, she shouldn’t be having these thoughts. Her stomach decided to once again remind her that she hadn’t eaten much more than thin soup since her group arrived at the city two weeks ago. During the trip she had eaten basically nothing once the supplies ran out as no pony had been expecting the trip to take two months. Even with the shortcut that was crossing a frozen ocean.

The trip.. She quickly shut down that line of thought down. It was the best choice she had at the time, she was happy with the choice she made. But it had cost her and everypony else pretty much everything.

As she exited the hall her right hoof landed on some ice and slipped sending her sprawling to the ground. Her face smacked into the frozen ground facing the Generator. Her right foreleg telling her just how much it didn’t like hitting the ground. “Really! You have to be fucking kidding me!” She shouted in frustration as she picked herself back up off the ground. The alicorn did a once over on herself checking if everything was ok. She had no rips in her coat. No new pain, just the pain in her right foreleg. She was fine all things considered.

Huffing Twilight chose her next target as the hothouse but before she could start heading in that direction. She saw a light coming from the pub to her left. To her this was Strange as the pub didn’t open till 18:00 and that wasn’t till a long time from now.
A flash of worry went through her, maybe some creature broke in! With that thought she rushed over to the pub and opened the door.

Twilight entered the Pub and was surprised to see the Pink Party pony herself behind the counter. Pinkie looked like her usual Pinkie self but with the addition of a simple brown vest on. She was polishing a glass with her tongue bit between her lips in a look of intense focus.

As Twilight's boots hit the wooden floor Pinkie looked over to the alicorn. Her face gaining a smile at recognizing her friend then it gained an impish twist. “Hiya Twilight you're up early. Does Dashie know?“ Twilight froze for a second then shook her head with a light blush on her face, as she took off her jack and put it on the rack to her right.

No longer worried that some creature broke in as Pinkie worked the pub. The Captain put her here to help raise morale, from what she knew. The alicorn chose to answer with a question of her own. “I could say the same thing. You're also up early Pinkie.” Twilight replied as she sat on one of the stools directly across from Pinkie.

“So why are you up early Pinkie?” Twilight asked, as she wanted to steer the conversation away from what the pink pony implied. “That’s easy, cause the Captain asked me to.” This surprised Twilight the Captain was ever much a follow the rules type of pon-er-dragon. “The Captain asked you to be up this early? Why?”

“He said he wanted to get a drink without being mobbed.” Twilight looked down at the table, she could understand that as a Princess. She also didn’t like being mobbed by ponies when she was trying to get work done or trying to get some time to herself. He was undoubtedly under a lot of stress trying to run this City.

“Hey Twilight since you're here do you want something to drink?” Pinkie asked. The alicorn thought for a moment then nodded her head at the party pony. “You know what Pinkie sure, give me the lightest drink you got. Something that won’t affect me for too long. Can you do that?” Normally Twilight would never drink unless it was at one of Pinkie’s parties and even then she had very little. There were a few notable exceptions, a certain wedding (that changelings interrupted) comes to mind.

“Silly Twilight of course I can, anything for my friends. You still have all of your drink tickets anyway.” Pinkie answered in her usual chipper tone, as she leaned under the counter and started moving bottles with her hooves to find the right one for her friend. She found the nondescript bottle, and grabbed it with a chipper “Found it” and put it on the counter.

She then turned around and grabbed a glass and set it next to the bottle. She then poured the liquid into the glass and gave it to the alicorn. “Thanks Pinkie,” Twilight said with a small smile of gratitude on her face. “No problem” The party pony replied.

Twilight was about to instinctively pick up the glass with her magic. But she stopped herself before she ended up hurting herself. She turned to look at the thermostat on the wall to her right. It read -10 Celsius. So it was warm enough to use her magic freely.It had recently (recently being a month ago) started to get so cold that unicorn magic wouldn’t work. It would just fizzle out into nothing. Earth pony magic still worked ,thank Luna, so they could grow food much faster than normal. Pegasus magic still worked as well but flying in this cold would freeze the wings of any pony who tried to fly too high.

So with the all clear she levitated the glass and took a drink. “It feels good to be able to use my magic” She sighed happily as a minuscule smile formed on her face. She was magic defined after all. Not being able to use her special talent hurt her quite a bit. Well in actuality she could use some, it just hurt a lot. Being an alicorn probably had something to do with it she figured. The alicorn chose to lay her laid head on the counter closing her eyes, enjoying the warmth of the room.

After a moment of silence Pinkie spoke up. “So how's Rainbow Dash doing? You see her every night right? I still can't believe you’re marefriends. I bet Dashie gets all snuggly at night too, you two must look so cute all snuggled toget—“

“Pinkie! Please don’t talk about it.” Pinkie’s spiel was interrupted by Twilight. “Why not?” Pinkie then let out a loud gasp. “Is it because you two broke up and you are all like, I never want to see you again!”

“What! No why would you think that?” The alicorn questioned, almost offended by Pinkie's claim. “You said you didn’t want to talk about it so I thought that meant you and Dash aren’t talking. Then I thought-“

Twilight interrupted Pinkie “No it’s because I feel bad talking about it. I feel like I’m bragging by being in-“ A Pink hoof was shoved into her mouth interrupting her. Twilight looked up that Pinkie. The pink mare looked Twilight right in the eyes. Her face was that rare serious face Pinkie made when she was in fact, serious. “Do not apologize for being happy. Not now, not in this stupid, stupid cold, not after all that has happened. Ok” Pinkie’s mane had slightly deflated and she wore a saddened expression.

The pink mare lowered her hoof from Twilight’s mouth. “We need every bit of happiness we can get right now. After what happened to Apple Bloom and Granny’s death. You and Rainbow are happy together, that means at least some of my friends are happy.” The party pony was now clearly sad. She then shook her head and put a somewhat forced smile on her face. “You know what the saddest thing of all is?”

Twilight chose to play along, she had a feeling she knew what the mare was going to say. “And what’s that Pinkie?” “I haven’t made a cake in two months. Two month without creamy frosting. Two mouths without…” As Pinkie started to rant about the lack of baking cakes.

Twilight heard the door to the pub open. “Ah, Princess Twilight. I’m surprised you're here.” At the sound of the draconic voice that had entered the pub, Twilight knew instantly who it was. “Captain Ellis how are you this morning?” Twilight replied as she turned to face the dragon in question.

He was twice as tall as her with orange-yellowish scales. He also had red eyes. Not evil eyes like Sombra, they held a more happy shade to them. But also held a strong sense of authority to them as well. He had a pair of silver horns pointing backwards from his head. He also wore a large coat like every creature else in the city.

On his back was a weapon that she had only heard rumors about till she reached the city. It was called a ‘rifle’ or a gun for the more general term. It was a long brown stick with a metal tube that had a hole at the end of it. She knew how to operate such a weapon thanks to Rainbow being issued one. As the Captain worried creatures may take out their grievances or anger on the messenger hence her being given a rifle. It was attached to her left side and operated with a mouth tigger. A design made just for equines like Rainbow.

The dragon walked over to the and sat one seat apart from the princess such that she was on his right. He set down a book to his left on a seat. “Fine all things accounted for. Eight more sick yesterday and one death yesterday,” Twilight tensed was she worried it was one of her friends. “Who was it?” The dragon replied shrugging “Some dragon.” Twilight relaxed at the fact it was some creature she didn’t know.

The Captain looked at the party pony that was still currently talking about the lack of baking cake. “Pinkie you got what I requested?” Pinkie snapped from her cake tirade and looked at Ellis. ”Of course Cap. Let me get it for you.” Pinkie leaned down under the counter once again and picked out a blue bottle, poured its contents into a glass and gave it to Ellis.”Thanks Pinkie.“

The pink mare bounced out a door behind the counter, going to do who knows what. “I’ll be in the back if you need me.” She said in a sing-song voice. After taking a drink of said drink. The Captain turned to look at Twilight. “So I made a new law for the sick. Can I get your opinion about it?” The orange dragon asked.

“Sure but why my opinion? You rule the city.” Twilight asked. “Because you have also ruled over creatures-er ponies.” Ellis replied giving Twilight a look of confusion. Twilight scoffed at that “Sure but when it mattered no pony listened.”

This remark by the princess peaked the dragons curiosity. “I didn’t get the chance to learn what was going down in Equestria before the world froze over. All I know is that Celestia didn’t listen to the warnings.” Twilight huffed a sigh that held a bit of resentment.

“What happened was I came to the same conclusion your country did, that the sun would become magic resistant. Such that no amount of magic could move it, and the sun would go back to its original position which is farther away from the planet.” Ellis raised an eyebrow at this “Wait wouldn’t moving the sun farther away gravitationally screw with everything else in the system.” Twilight shook her head “No and the best way to explain it is to say alicorn magic and move on.” Twilight said with an apologetic smile. The Captain rolled his eyes while setting down his glass. “You ponies and your magic, I like my physics.” Twilight shrugged indifferently.

Ellis thought for a moment as he took another drink. “So basically the planet orbited the center of the system but the point of light was closer.” Ellis guessed trying to understand. Twilight thought for a second then said “Eh not quite but close enough.”

The alicorn continued talking but with a bit more resentment. “But when I went to Celestia, she said I was overreacting. That everything would be fine.” Anger filled her voice, had being her personal student meant nothing? Had her and her friends saving Equestria multiple times meant nothing? Didn’t being a princess earn her some trust, she guested not. “The only ones that agreed with my conclusion were my friends and some of Ponyville. And in one month what I predicted started happening, it got colder sooner without pegasus intervention.” Ellis could start to see rage fill her eyes, with a quick swipe of a claw he proceeded to lift his glass off the table.

“Even after that most ponies still didn’t believe me. Like seriously! Could they not see what was in front of their faces! They mocked me and called me crazy! That I didn’t know what i was talking about! I was the princess’s personal student for shit sake! They told me that I was the Princess of Friendship and THATS! ALL! I! FUCKING! AM!”

The furious alicorn slammed her left hoof into the counter. It broke through the countertop sending wood flying around her and the orange dragon, while also sending her drink flying to the ground smashing the glass. Twilight was panting with her wings flared out, anger still behind her eyes. After a second she looked down at where her hoof had broken though the counter, eyes widening. “I’m sorry I didn’t mean to -“

“Feeling better?” The dragon said, cutting her off before she could start panicking. She looked at him funnily, then took a second to think. Twilight had to admit she was feeling much better, maybe it was the alcohol she reasoned. She lifted her hoof off the countertop.

“But what about-”

“I’ll just say there was a bar fight overnight, no creature will know or care” Ellis answered, took a drink then continued on. “From what I know every creature needs to let out their anger. That’s why I had the fighting Arena built in the first place. I know your friend Applejack goes there almost daily. So it must be doing something for her.”

He took a second then shouted. “Hey Pinkie there was a bar fight last night! ok?” An audible giggle could be heard for the back room then a replay of “Okie Doki Loki” was heard from the back room. Twilight couldn’t help but laugh at that, of course Pinkie would have her back. “So as I said could I have your opinion on the new medical law?” Asked the Captain. Twilight nodded as she cleaned up the wood mess she had made with her magic.

“Excellent. So the medical posts have been filling up again to the point of overflowing. So I designed a building to put the overflow who are waiting to be treated and a place to put Amputees. It's a Care house basically. While a patient is in the care house they will eat a ⅓ ration.” He said while giving Twilight the notes. Twilight took the notes in her magic, levitating them in front of her. The purple mare took a moment to read it over. “Do the amputees have a choice about being moved here?”

“No they do not.” The Captain said in a voice that left no room for argument. “Hmm I recommend you increase the ration to ½.” Twilight suggested. “Why?” The dragon questioned. “Because we eat very little as it is and it is easier to accept eating half then one third of a ration.” Twilight answered.

“Fair enough. I will take it in to consideration. Thank you for the input Twilight.” He took back the notes. Then took a sip of his drink. After a few moments Ellis pulled back his right sleeve exposing a watch. “Extended shifts start soon you’d better go back to the rainbow interloper, that’s in the wrong bunk house by the way” The Captain gave her a look that simply said don’t bother, I already know. Twilight wilted under the gaze.

“How’d you know?” Twilight asked, she thought she had been sneaky about it. Rainbow was supposed to be in a different bunk house. But Rainbow snuck in one night and Twilight didn’t complain. She craved company as working in The City didn’t leave much time for her to talk to her friends. So when Rainbow kept sneaking in Twilight helped cover her tracks tho it didn’t seem to matter.

The dragon chuckled. “One, she always starts and ends her routes at your bunkhouse. Two you two are an item. And Three” The dragon reached towards Twilight’s mane and pulled out a cyan feather from said mane. “This feather.” He finished with a smug look on his face.

Twilight’s face had the look of a foal who had been caught putting her hoof in the cookie jar. The dragon chuckled. “Next time just tell me or write a note to me. If anything you two sleeping together conserves heat and makes it less likely that either of you will complain about it being too cold. Just don’t try to sneak something by me again. You’re not that good at it.”

Twilight at this point was blushing heavily. “You should probably go wake up the rainbow interloper so she can start her routes” The alicorn regained her composure and nodded. “That’d probably be for the best.” She said as she got off the seat and put her clothes on. “Oh and buy the way it’s getting colder today, -50 says the weather team.” Twilight simply sighed and walked out the door.

The City’s discontent 57/100

Hope in the City 32/100

Author's Note

So here we go a new story. Tell me what you think in the comments, if you’d be so kind.

And to those who read A Third Front Has Opened Up, this story will not slow updates.