My eyes suddenly shoot open and was greeted by the bite of the cold. I tried to stand up but a wave of pins and needles metaphorically stabbed my back legs. I tried not to move them but even the slightest twitch made me feel like thousands of ants were biting my haunches. The best I could muster was an awkward sitting position where I rested on my flank. As I waited for the sensation to subside I began to scan my surroundings wondering why it was so cold, but I didn’t have to wonder long to see the culprit.

Snow…

“wait...SNOW!!?” I blurted out, I could feel the gears in my head grind to a halt, saying I was perplexed would be an understatement. I tried to recall my last memories to explain what could have happened to me to end up in the middle of this frigid wasteland. But it did not produce any results, my last memory was inside Canterlot castle in that hallway feeling sick.

During my stupor the imaginary pin-pricks jabbing my legs relented enough so that I was able to gather the strength to stand up. Slowly I checked myself to see if any anomalies or injuries were on me, but a quick self-pat down thankfully uncovered nothing. Now with more mobility I took a better look around me, the snowy landscape was shrouded in the darkness of the night, barely visible by the glow of Luna’s moon. I kept looking around in hopes of finding some sort of clue that would tell me what happened. Then I manage to see some sort of figure laying on the ground a few feet behind me. An awfully pony-shaped figure with wings laying on the ground.

“PRIVATE!” I yelled

I felt a burst of energy course through me and sprinted to my downed cohort as quickly as I could hoping, no; praying that she was ok and still breathing. the needles’ onslaught seemingly returned, albeit with less intensity. I got close to the downed Pegasus and began inspecting her for any visible injuries. Celestia seems to smile upon us today as I couldn’t see any damage, so I began prodding her shoulder to wake her up.

“Private Silver Spirit! Wake up!” I raised my voice as I pushed against her, she merely grimaced and let out an annoyed groan. “Good, she is responsive” I thought to myself.

With a little bit more force I shook her trying to coax her back to the land of the living, “Come on Silver, Wake up” I said breaking military formalities. She must be having a really good dream for her not to wake up in this cold. Admittedly I was holding back a little bit, with no immediate danger apparent I tried using the polite route but seeing that she is deep within dreamland I decided to use a tactic my old drill sergeant would use when she’d catch me slacking off.

“FOR CELESTIA'S SAKE WAKE UP YOU PATHETIC SACK OF PONY-FEATHERS!” I outright screamed at her but it worked, she immediately shot her eyes open and stood up.

“S-Sir, M-mam! I mean MAM!” Silver stumbled over her words while doing a half hearted attempt at a salute as she regained her footing in the real world. The poor mare looked like she was hit by a train, her mane and tail were completely tangled in a storm of knots and her armor was unadjusted in all the aspects that would make an instructor pop a blood vessel.

“Private, It’s nice to see you are alive but right now I have a serious question to ask you”

I clear my throat.

“Just where the BUCK are we?”

Silver looked dumbfounded like if I were asking some sort of trick question. She then swiveled her eyes around and I saw her expression change from an alert state to a horrified gaze. Her mouth went agape and took a few steps back, her brain was still carbureting from waking up so perhaps that was why it took her a second to realize our situation. She just stood there in silence just staring at the endless void of snow. Then I quickly laid a hoof on her chest to break her trance, if I didn’t intervene she might have screamed her lungs out.

“Silver, listen. What was the last thing you remember before waking up here, I can’t recall anything” I stated bluntly.

The piston inside the Pegasus’ head began cranking but after what seemed like the longest minute in my life she came up with nothing.

Aw horse apples.

Ok, so we have no idea how we ended up in the middle of “Snowsville, Snow-where” with no supplies and it is freezing cold. Great, just...Great. With no other task at hand I began looking at the horizon to see if anything looked out of the ordinary.

I look forward, snow.

I look leftwards, more snow.

looking rightwards revealed water vapor frozen into tiny ice crystals that piled up on the ground, also known as even more snow.

I turn backwards and look to see blue light in the distance

I tur-WAIT A SECOND!!!

I immediately did a double take and stared intently at my previous direction, but what I thought was some sort of blue light was no longer there. I was going to dismiss it as the cold messing with my eyes…

…until it turned on again.

I saw this blue sparkle shimmer for around ten seconds before turning off and then turning on again after another ten seconds. Now my curiosity was peaking, I told Silver about my discovery and soon enough we were analyzing the light thoroughly. We initially thought it was somepony trying to communicate with us but our hopes were quickly shot down as the blinking was in perfectly timed intervals, way too on point for a pony to pull off, and also the fact that the light did not react to our hoof waving nor shouts.

So the next best thing in my mind was to trot towards this mysterious blue beacon. It was literally the only thing of interest besides the mounds of snow surrounding us and who knows, there is probably a small chance that thing is the reason we're here in the first place.

And so we began walking towards this blue light, the snow was half a foot deep so our little journey already had an obstacle from the beginning. We had to lift our legs a little bit for every step we took as the little blue light on the horizon seemingly taunted us with its constant blinking.

We trudged through this ocean of powdery white, the blue light barely inch-worming itself towards us. As we did that I pondered what could happen to us to end up in this fridge, did a spell go wrong? Did some ancient evil awaken from its slumber and decided to cast some sort of reality warping hex upon ponykind? Or are we puppets for a twisted story for the amusement of some chaos entity watching us from some alternate reality?

Ugh...the cold is making me think weirdly.

After twenty minutes of slogging through the snow the blinking light was much closer as its blue glow glinted off my armor, the closer we got I began to notice some sort of strange structure above the glowing beacon. It looked like a tower similar to those used in scaffolding. This particular tower looked slightly wider on the bottom compared to its top, and on the top more of the scaffolding stretched outwards in opposite directions forming a giant “T” of sorts.

It felt familiar. I feel like I’ve seen something like this before so I began thinking of what could it possibly be reminding me of, but before I could even conjure up memories, Silver commented on them.

“Mam, those are power pylons aren’t they?” Silver beats me to the punch.

Those were in fact power pylons. You see those a lot in places like Manehattan or Vanhoover where it's just filled to the brim with ponies, you don’t see fancy technology in places where magic is more than common. Even Canterlot does not have many mechanical marvels besides a power grid and some telegrams since magic does most of the heavy lifting.

As we came in just a few feet from the blue sparkle we finally saw the silhouette of the object giving it off.

It was a metal sphere no bigger than 3 feet wide laying on the ground just in front of the power pylon, connected to it was a mess of tarps and cables tangled on the frame of the pylon. when the blue light turned on it revealed some sort of text written on the metal sphere, but the hue of the light blended in with the color of the text making it difficult to read.

I needed to see what was written on it. My desperation for knowledge was reaching its apex, I needed to know just what the BUCK happened to us and I was definitely not going to let low visibility starve me from that.

So I took a deep breath and then focused my mind to materialize small motes of magic light around my horn, then the motes converged onto the tip of my horn and formed a small ball of white light illuminating my surroundings, the light was strong enough to brighten the text on the orb to a more readable clarity, and what was written on was...

"ОРБИТАЛЬНАЯ КАПСУЛА "

I just stared at the text again. I rubbed my eyes to see if it helped me read it more clearly. But another glance at the scripture did not yield a different result. I simply could not believe it, this was clearly another language. A language I definitely couldn't read.

Silver moseyed over to look at the odd scripture and the result was the same. In a way I felt insulted by this as if destiny were mocking me even further for our sudden misfortune with even more bad luck.

"Gaaahh!" I exasperated outwards as I shook my head. I needed to proceed with this more logically and not let my emotions take me over. I inspected the metal orb more intensely as I also brighten the ball of light on the tip of my horn to give me the maximum amount of clarity, surely something this out of place had more than one curio on it.

And there I saw it.

A small red lever located on the other side of the metal orb. It had more of that odd language on it too

"ПОТЯНИТЕ ВНИЗ"

oh I wish I could understand this language, it would make things a whole lot more easier.

I debated whether or not to pull the red lever. On one side it could give us a much needed clue on where we are and what happened us. On the other it could be dangerous to do so and it did not help that all of the visible text on it was written in that odd language.

"So Silver, what do you think?" I motion my head towards the lever, "should I pull it?".

Silver stared at the lever for a few seconds before making her decision. "I don't know what else to do, so I say yes"

With Silvers approval giving me a little bit more confidence I envelope the lever with my magic but not before stepping as far as my magical grasp could take me with the private right besides me. In the event it may be dangerous we'd have a chance to react to it.

I take in a deep breath and concentrate my magic once again, and with one mighty tug I pull the lever down.

*CLUNK*

Several seams on the orb now made themselves visible, arranged like the wedges of an orange on its top half as they pop outwards. for a few seconds they remained liked that until the wedges burst off the orb revealing the interior.

It was a small metal rectangle. I analyzed it from where I was trying to figure out what it is until another, smaller blue light began blinking on it. This one blinked much faster compared to the now defunct bigger light on the metal orb.

"What...What is it?" Silver asked, rather sheepishly.

"Well, the only way to figure it out is to get close, no?" I answered. "Just stick close to me".

We both huddle up, I was taking point while Silver watched my back. We then slowly began moving towards the blinking blue light, my eyes very carefully surveying the area in front of me. We got close to the fallen 'wedges' of the orb, with the light on my horn I quickly inspected one that was flipped over and was surprised to see that they were not simple hunks of metal.

Pipes, mechanisms and cables of all sorts of sizes and colors constituted the inside of the wedges. I ponder for a second, "just what in the buck is this anyway?" I put the thought aside, my task right now is to investigate that weird, blinking rectangle.

We finally reach the mystery orb, I shine my horn on the rectangle an all of its details were clear to me. Well...Not clear as in "I understand," its more of a "I can see it now" clear

The rectangle had an assortment of knobs and buttons on its left side. on its right it has a little black mirror on it with a slot of some kind above the mirror and a bar of buttons just below it. One of said buttons was the source of the blinking blue light. I had no idea what this thing was, I've seen my fair share of technology but this seems to be an entire league above my knowledge on that field. I was about to raise a hoof to get a feel of the device when silver interrupted me.

"Mam, I think that's a radio," the Pegasus spoke.

I stare at Silver with confusion, "...Radio? What in Celestia's mane is a radio?"

Silver tilted her head at me, "You don't know what a radio is, Mam?"

"Well why do you think I'm asking?" I retort, mildly annoyed.

Her ears perk up "A radio is a device that allows two ponies to talk over long distances! Its fairly new so not many places have one." She explains it with such enthusiasm.

She then gives me an embarrassed look, "I...just, like technology a lot."

"Ok...then, if you know so much about technology then can you tell me what do I do with this radio?" I ask.

The Pegasus expression turns hopeful, "Its a radio! surely somepony is on the other side, it would not hurt to try."

Silvers reasoning is sound. But there is a couple of questions that still needed to be answered, like the weird orb thing the radio was in, the odd language or the reason why are we here in the first place? But I put those questions in the back burner as my objective right now is to survive, in this cold without supplies or shelter we won't last long. If there is a chance for somepony to bring help with this thing then I'll take it.

"Alright, you are the one who knows about radios, call somepony." I ordered as I stepped aside to let Silver do...Something.

Silver approached the device and with the help of my light she inspected it. She pointed some other aspects of the radio I did not notice at first. A smaller metal rectangle connected to the radio via a coiled up wire she calls a microphone and a thin telescopic metal tube on the top which she calls the antenna, more of the strange language was visible too. only a minute elapsed when she turned to me.

"Mam, I think this will turn it on" she motions a hoof to the blinking light, something is written on it.

"МОЩНОСТЬ"

I raise an eyebrow, "are you certain?"

Silver looks hesitant, "Uhh...Uhm, I don't think something like that blinks for no reason. So my educated guess is that it may be the power button." She finalizes with an awkward smile.

I give out a sigh. "Well, since there is LITERALLY nothing else noteworthy, go ahead and press it."

Silver got within reach of the radio and extended her leg to press the blinking button, she gingerly placed her hoof on the button and with a little push...

*Click*

The buttons on the radio suddenly lit up like an arcade cabinet, then they began blinking in a seemingly random pattern. Shortly after that the black mirror on the radio started displaying a small image on it. It looked like the silhouette of a stallion jumping with a five-point-star for a cutie mark, two more stars were besides the stallion, all of it glowed in dark green. More of the weird text appeared but this one looked more angular and stylized compared to the previous instances.

"МагиТек Телекоммуникации"

After that a wall of text began scrolling down, It did it so quickly that I could not see clearly what was written on it. It was like this for around five minutes as we both gawked at the screen. This device looks much more advance than anything I've ever seen before. Then the wall of text stopped scrolling, at the end of it a phrase was highlighted.

"Установление шифрованной линии связи со станцией Полякова"

"Wow..." Silver announced in amazement, I too was astonished by the small lightshow. After the moment has passed we were not sure how to proceed afterwards, I began formulating ideas of what would be my next course of action.

"Okay, the thing is on now. Now we must figure out how to call somepony so they can send help, Silver what do yo..."

*Kzzzt* "Allo? vy menya slyshite?"

We both nearly jump out of ours skins, the voice of a stallion came through the radio with a slight metallic tone. I just stared at the device in silence, I was definitely not expecting that nor was the Private.

"Vy menya ponimayete??"

I could not believe it. Somepony was on the other end of this machine and he was asking questions, I also noticed that the voice spoke in a strange tongue, likely in the same language as the text. We were in trouble, we had somepony that could maybe help us but a language barrier is impeding that. Then a thought went through my head, I immediately passed it on to the Pegasus.

"Silver! Answer! even if he does not understand us at least he'd know somepony is here!"

The winged mare snapped out of her startled state and quickly cupped the microphone with her hoof and brought it near her muzzle, but before she could utter a word the mystery stallion spoke.

"Kto tam???"

The mystery stallion sounded confused. Silver then spoke into the microphone, "H-hello? can you hear us?"

After Silver said those words there was silence, if it were not for the cold I'd be breaking into a sweat. And then the mystery stallion spoke once again.

"Ohhhhh! Vy ne govorite na khovestroyanskom!!!"

This time the mystery stallion sounded, jovial? Silver just stared at me with a confused look. I was about to lose hope thinking that whoever was speaking to us was not taking this matter seriously, until...

"Privet! Can you understand me now?"

Author's Note

So don't freak out over the other language. One is written Russian and the other is Phonetic Russian