Tales of the Equestrian Frostland

Chapters

Are we going to have a Winterhorn here?!
Better to turn back now
What would your sister do?
To get away from all of it!

Are we going to have a Winterhorn here?!

Author's Note

The cover is only temporairy, until I draw myself a proper one.
I encourage you to tell me what you think in the comments so I can get better! Thanks!

Are we going to have a Winterhorn here?!

A dozen years ago the world was supposedly different, so say all the elders. Apparently it was so warm that you didn't need any clothes, you could walk around naked, and you could eat grass that grew everywhere, not just in greenhouses.

Then one day, without knowing how or why, the Wendigos returned, and they brought terrine cold with them.

The whole of Equestria rushed to combat the coming cold with technology and magic. Giant steel vehicles called "Carriages" were built and transported us north, Somewhere where the world was already adapted to the cold, to the Crystal empire.

There they built The Generators which under the watchful eyes of Engineers provided heat for the cities that sprang up around them, leaving the world outside frozen and abandoned, only populated by wild beasts and evil spirits that only Scouts, the bravest and strongest of us, dared to face.

And so Ponykind adapted to the conditions in its own way.

I don’t know, maybe it was like that, I don't remember, I was young when all that happened.

Of course it's interesting, but I don't have a head for history, I'm… too stupid. If I was smart like my sister is…

It’s so bucking unfair. She’s good at everything, She’s an engineer and a scout!

How come she got brains like this, and I couldn’t even get through the first year of–

It’s not fair! – I thought as I took an angry swing and hit the coal deposit with all my might

No matter what I tried I never could match her! Where’s the justice in that! I thought that–

Suddenly, an almost deafening whistle rang throu the dark corridors of the coal mine. I put the pickaxe I held in my muzzle into a pocket on my side, and with a wobbly step, began walking towards the exit along the planks laid on the floor of the thin dark tunnel lit from time to time by bare light bulbs hanging on the wall.

I was tired, very tired. My neck ached from swinging the pickaxe, my legs ached from pulling the coal carts to the lift, and I felt a stinging dryness in my throat from all the sweating. But now, it was time for the part I had been waiting for all shift

Walking down the mineshaft, other miners exited side tunnels, joining the mass of leaving workers like streams flowing into a river. After a while I stood among dozens of ponies lined up in front of the lift shaft. A crowd of tired ponies after a long day in a cramped space smelled absolutely awful, but I didn’t care! I had a smile on my lips, and patiently waited for my turn to go up.

Eventually I stepped onto the crude steel lift that had just moments ago been used to haul coal up the mine, and with a screech of gears, and hissing of the steam engine at the top ot the shaft that pulled us upwards, we moved to the mine’s ground floor hall with all those who had just finished a shift, waiting for a briefing and a few goodbye words from the foremare.

“Good job lads! Another hard day of work behind us!”--

Blah blah blah, Get to the point! Nobody cares about these motivational speeches!

“Now time to honour the hardest-working among us! The first place, Rocky Chase! Two hundred and sixty-two percent of the norm, Applause please!”

Hearing my name, I smiled broadly, and gloated at the sound of dozens or hundreds of hooves hitting the ground for me. It felt like a massage for my mind, like a giant pressure was taken off my head and I could just… Loosen up.

This moment makes a whole day's hard work worth it

And suddenly, like a quick hug from your loved one, the applause was over, and my moment was gone leaving an empty spot in my heart that craved for more.

"Second place, Smoulder Shoulders!--"

Tomorrow.

I walked home through the city’s narrow alleys. They almost always looked improvised, as if they were quickly squeezed between the talll steel framed and wooden buildings that stand here right now in a rush, and then nopony bothered to make them into proper streets. All of them looked more or less the same; On the sides, planks that you could walk on, and in the middle lay large, almost half my size, steel pipes that hissed and hummed transporting steam and water between the city and the generator that lay in the dead centre of it. No matter the time of day, The Generator was always clearly visible. It was the tallest structure in the whole city, during the day it loomed with its dark silhouette over the roofs of houses, and during the night it glowed with a warm orange light from its tip, and spat gigantic amounts of smoke into the air. You couldn’t miss it.

Right now, the generator spat less smoke than usual, and instead of white as always, it was grey.

I mean we’re just two days after a storm. Big piles of snow still lay against walls of houses I passed, and It's still warm, only -20 Celcius. Maybe that’s how it works when they use very little percent of its power? Or they are just cleaning it perhaps.

As I walked, thinking about how I will throw all these thick and restrictive winter clothes off me and sit by a fire or a radiator at my apartment, I noticed posters on the pipes. Lots of them. All of them depict one thing, my ‘incredible’ sister:

Be the City’s Hero!

Join the Scouts! And serve the city!

With an image of my sister between the two lines of text, her head turned, looking to the side, but while glancing at the viewer.

A fucking daily reminder that no matter what I do, I always be… just worse.

As I felt anger and frustration boil inside me, I ripped that poster off the pipes with a furious sweep. That one, and every other I saw on my way home. I’ll happily use them to start a fire when I get home.

And then, I felt the ground vibrate, and metallic creeks sounded from the direction of the generator. I turned in that direction but it was just covered by the hospital building, I didn't know what was happening, and in a slight panic, feeling the adrenaline rush, I started galloping.

What the fuck is going on!?

I have to run home, I'll be safe there!

I galloped through the narrow streets past the pipes, which, as I ran, began to leak, and high-pressure steam poured out of the cracks with a loud screetch, sending me and the ponies around me into a complete panic. Panting, feeling hot and completely sweated under the clothes, I rushed into my family house, climbed the common staircase, jumped into my flat and ran to the window from which I could see the very tip of the generator protruding from above the house opposite the street.

Against the dark blue background of the sky I could see the black tower of the generator, spitting out red fumes from the tip, which turned into black smoke as it rose above the city.

I was overwhelmed with horror. I couldn't take my eyes off the terrifying sight, so I just stood in front of the window, feeling my heart pounding and the darkest scenarios running through my head; Is it going to explode? Are we going to have a Winterhorn here!?

"Rock! Is that you?" I heard my mother's voice and the sound of hooves going up the stairs.

"Yes!" I shouted, "what's going on?" I asked as she entered the flat and stood at the window next to me.

"Oh my..." she whispered with horror on her face.

"Well, what do we do!?" I looked at mom staring at the window with her eyes wide open.

"You?" she took her eyes off the glass for a moment and looked at me, "you can't do anything. Stay here and don't bother, I'll get your sister and we'll go to the Captain's," she said in a rush while quickly turning around and walking towards the exit.

"I can help you somehow maybe?!"

"What can you possibly help us with?" she said walking towards the exit. "It’s politics, not swinging a pickaxe. Stay here and wait until we get back!"

I was completely flabbergasted, as I stood there I hung my sight and didn't say a word. I should have gotten used to that by now, but for some reason, everytime I am reminded that in her eyes I am a nobody…

And the worst part is that she’s right.

I sat in my room for I’d guess half an hour by now. Looking through my window, The dark silhouette of the generator was completely lost in the dark sky

They switched it off.

I walked over to the radiator and brought my nose close to it.

Barely warm

Well, without the generator I'd be surprised if it was any different. Looks like I'm sleeping in my clothes tonight.

I'd like to know what's going on, but mother's right, an ordinary coal miner -- the worst and least demanding job in the whole city. What would I even be doing there? Stand there and pretend I know what they're talking about? I probably wouldn't even understand anything.

All I know how to do is swing a pickaxe.

I'm fucking useless.

"Do you really think so?" I heard a weird nasal, almost annoying voice.

"Who said that!" I backed into the centre of the room and started looking around in a panic.

"Over here" a voice came from the wall. With a little trepidation I approached the wall cautiously, looking for the pony that for some reason was in my house!

And did he hear my thoughts!?

"Would someone useless have done this?" I heard the voice again, and looked up at the wall where I thought it came from.

It was a painting! It was hanging on a wooden wall and it was talking to me! Was I out of my mind with stress or what?

The framed engraving of me was moving! And it was pointing to the caption at the bottom "Rocky Chase, Best employee of Mine 24 East".

"Well?" the drawing of me asked me with raised eyebrows.

“What the fuck?!" I gasped, my heart began beating fast, and all my muscles stiffened “Who the buck are you?!”
"Later” he said after glancing at me for a second. “You're good at this, but you’re wasting your potential there."

it was nice to hear that, if only from my own hallucination... I smiled slightly

Wait, why the buck am I talking to my hallucination?! I jumped at the framed drawing, took it off the wall, at lightning speed, placed face down on the floorboards, and then moved away quickly, afraid of what’s gonna happen next.

"Hey! Listen to me!” I heard the thing’s voice from a different part of the room, “ I know you're just afraid to try! And I’m here to help! I’m here by the way!" My copy, now painted in a different style, talked from a painting of a grassy field from the opposite side of the room.

Now that’s too much for me! Fuck this! – I though, and ran out of my apartment onto the staircase

“Listen to me you idiot!” Now the painting that hung on the staircase in front of the entrance to my room started talking! Great! I started running down the stairs, almost slipping on them, while trying to ignore the shouts from all the paintings and pictures that I passed. In rush, I passed the middle – my sister’s floor, and kept running all the way down. I banged into the house entrance on the left of the narrow staircase and tried pushing the handle down. It didn't budge! I looked around, ran up to the lowest floor entrance – My mother’s apartment, and stopped.

I didn't want to go in there.

“Hey!” A black and white picture hanging to the right of the door screamed.

Fuck! I hung my gaze down, jumped into my mother's room, and shut the doors behind me!

Maybe it can’t go through shut doors? I thought leaning on the door with my back and feeling my heard pound like a jackhammer

I don’t fucking know. I need peace for a moment! First the generator and now this!

I took a breath, and opened my eyes. Mom’s room was truly beautifully arranged, fitting to her job in the city – a member of the Capitan’s council. Richly decorated, with handmade furniture and walls upholstered with nicer wood. It was also full of pictures and paintings of my sister in various situations.

Talking about a favourite child....

The largest painting, in the middle of the largest wall, opposite of my mother’s big and pretty walnut wood desk immortalised my sister standing with her back to me, and looking out somewhere into the Frostland, where the white snow and blue sky merged into a perfectly straight horizon line. You could see tiny black silhouettes of ponies in the distance. The whole painting came with a caption: "For not giving up on us, and believing. -- the survivors of Winterhorn''

But it wasn't my sister who stood there, instead of a beautiful, strongly built snow-white unicorn mare with luxuriant bright green and blue mane, there stood me! A grey earth pony, with a slightly weaker stature, and a dark blue sort of faded mane. It turned to me with a smile of satisfaction on its face.

"Nice isn't it?"

"You’re some kind of ghost?! What the buck do you want from me?!” I shouted while rearing on two hooves and holding my back against the door.

"Well stop running! Stop running and listen to me for a moment!” the painting shouted and sighed. “ I am a spirit, yes! and the reason for me being here is that I saw your misery, and I want to help you. Simple.”

“A-- A spirit?” I grunted and found my voice back.

“Well what did you think? That Discord was the only one?”

“You’re like Discord?!” I opened my eyes wide.

“No I am not ”, the spirit replied irritably, “Discord was a God, a– a spirit, but with his own body, and unlimited power." My copy said with a hint of jealousy, "I am just a spirit, I don't have either.”

“So, you’re like a– a good spirit that likes to help ponies?” I asked cautiously with a raised eyebrow.

“You know what? Maybe! Just stop asking stupid questions! Stop and tell me why you have so little faith in yourself? Or you know, “the spirit said while looking around my mother’s room and frowned, “don’t answer, I think I already know that,”, and I thought I saw a note of anger in that frown? “But it’s weird that you just accepted that you’re the worse child… If I were you, I’d try proving to your mom that she’s wrong instead of… Giving up like that.”

" I tried!" I Shouted, suddenly angered by the assumption that I just gave up, and that nasal irritating voice. “And I couldn’t even pass a first year of engineer apprenticeship while she had not only done that, but completed her scout training at the same time! You know how hard that is?! It’s Impossible! Nopony had ever done it before! She’s a genius that maybe only Twilight Sparkle could match!”

“So you’re satisfied where you are now, then?” It asked raised eyebrows and a smug smile.

“No! Of course not!”

“Then give it a try again. Give it a try and you’ll see. What do you have to lose? Your mother thinks you’re a failure anyway.”

“I'll be the laughing stock again! They will compare me to her again!”

“You’d rather stay like this for the rest of your life then? In a mine?”

Go kiss a Wendigo! You know nothing! You think you know me?! You think you know how my life is gonna go?

“Suit yourself,” the spirit shrugged, “ I hope the fake applause you get in mine, from the ponies that don’t care about you in the slightest, satisfies you.”The painting turned away from me to look at the small silhouettes at the horizon again, and when I blinked, It became my sister again.

Fake… applause?

“What’s fake about it? Hey! Come back! What’s fake about it?!” I shouted at the painting, but the spirit seemed to leave me alone with my thoughts.

Fucking smartass, he knows that i’ll be thinking about it now!

I was awakened by the muffeled shouting of a foal selling newspapers on the street.

Oh that was one crazy dream.

"The latest issue of New Mareland Daily! What's going on with the generator! Will you have to evacuate? And a schedule of generator shutdowns for the next few days! Find out in today's issue!"

The foal mentioning the Generator hit me like a bucket of ice cold water, I threw off my thick duvet, jumped off my bed onto all fours and ran to the window. the piece of the Generator that protruded from above the house across the street continued to be cold and dark, encased in some kind of steel makeshift scaffolding.

They'll have to turn it on eventually because if it gets colder again in a few days the ponies will freeze.

I ran downstairs. Mum and Diamond hadn't come back in the night, so maybe at least the paper would know what was going on. When I got outside I felt there wasn't much difference between the inside of the house and the temperature outside, I walked across the creaking snow and shouted to the foal to come up. I gave him two Bits and, taking the newspaper from him, sat down on the muddy planks of the street, and, opening it with my front hooves, immediately began to read it. With a giant font at the first page was written

[New Mareland Daily]

The Generator is BROKEN!

After the whole night of consultations among the Captain's council, Our newspaper was informed that the rumours were indeed were true, and the New Maryland’s Generator, also known as Generator No. 243 has been damaged during the last storm a few days ago, and with the current state of the city’s resources, we are not able to fix it.

Then there was a part about how the generator will be shut down during the day, and fired up on low power during the night, a very loose schedule of maintenance stops, and about Captain's Lemon Breeze refusal to make any promises, which supposedly raised discontent among ponies who were there.

The captain however claims that there IS a way to fix the generator, which will involve scavenging needed parts from the wreck of the recently discovered Carriage which was exposed from under a layer of snow by the strong winds of the last storm. The Capitan Lemon Breeze announces that Volunteer Expedicion Corps under the watcheye of the Scouts will be formed to assist the scouts in these efforts, and encourages all those, willing to help the city to sign up in the Cookhouse, or Guard Stations, and become the city’s hero!

A wave of panic went through me. It’s BROKEN?! It wasn’t supposed to break! Ever! It was supposed to be the finest of equestria’s engineering! Concept of The Twilight Sparkle herself!

I threw the paper on the ground, and began walking in circles and hyperventilating.

Oh shit, Oh fuck, Oh shit–

I felt my legs turn into jelly and my stomach start dancing around. I wanted nothing more than to throw up right now!

We’re gonna have another Winterhorn here! We’re all gonna die–

No, calm down! Calm down! Uff. Big breaths, big breaths, in, and out.

“Hey, Hey! Don’t you see it? It’s your chance!” Heard a nasal voice again and looked at the source. The spirit was talking to me as a passer-by pony from the photo of the generator in the corner of the newspaper.

“What!? Chance at what? At freezing to death?”

“Chance at– Look!” he pointed at the paragraph talking about signing up for the Expedicion Corps, “That’s your chance!”

“What? What are you talking about! I wouldn’t– I couldn’t!”

“Give me one valid reason!” The spirit replied irritated, “You complain all the time– Yes I watched you for some time– you complain how, ‘oh i’m worse, ooh my mommy hates me i’m so sad’ but have you tried to do anything? You gave up! And I feel the jealousy of your sister oozing from you! Well there’s your chase to do something about it! Stop acting like a filly and get moving!” He finished shouting and crossed his forelegs.

I felt a lot of conflicting emotions. Happines that there is somepony that believes in me, annoyance at him claimin I gave up, and fear. I thought about reasons I wouldn’t be able to, I wanted to wipe that smug smile that made its way onto his face more for every second longer I stood silent. But I couldn’t.

I would make a fool of myself – Well just like everypony new there

I don’t know anything about Frostland – but just like everypony

I’m too weak…? –

“I’m stupid! I’m only good for coal mining!” I spat with satisfaction at the spirit.

“...Wow, did that feel good to say? Saying you’re stupid about yourself? Another excuse to not have to try anything?”

“But, She will be there. Everypony will compare me to her, I’ll be the worse one again. I’ll be ‘The dumber one, the coal miner one’”

“But won’t it be better than ‘The one that didn’t do anything when the city needed him to’?”

Maybe, maybe he was right? Admitting it didn’t make the fear of doing that any easier, but.

“Okay, yes, you fucking win, I’m a lazy idiot.”

“No! You are not! That’s the point!”

“Okay! I’m not!” but somehow admitting that made me feel even dumber. “So, what should I do then?”

The spirit just pointed at the paragraph again with his hoof. “Go, and show them. I know you can do it.”

I smiled lightly, but sincerely. I don’t remember when was the last time I heard that.

Was I… O Celestia was I feeling my eyes well up? Damn it!

“You just need a little incentive, but I believe in you, now go!”

I will! I’ll go there, sign up, and show to mom, to Diamond, to everypony, that I CAN.

I took a deep breath, grabbed the newspaper in my mouth, and put it into a pocket on my chest, and turned left, making my way to the cookhouse.

It will be stressful, and scary, but I’ll show them all! I’ll show them!

I’ll go out into the frostland, and maybe, I won’t be able to actually do it, but at least, I’ll show them that I didn’t give up!

Discontent increases
Hope falls slightly

Better to turn back now

Author's Note

I encourage you to tell me what you think in the comments so I can get better! Especialy if you didnt like it. Thanks

Better to turn back now

I can’t do this

“Stop being so cowardsome! I can sense it oozing from you! You’re doing it! Quit acting like a foal and get into these scouts!” The spirit whispered from a newspaper I had tucked into my chest pocket.

I stood in the recruitment office, nervous and cold. It was a repurposed Cookhouse, with all the tables and chairs moved away from the centre of the room. Before me, on the muddy from the melted snow floorboards stood the recruiter’s desk, at wich sat a rusty-brown coated, silver maned older looking unicorn stallion.

My hooves ached a little, the warmth of the room made my legs finally start warming up, and I felt the almost-burning hot blood coursing through them.

I should get better hoof warmers If I'm going to do this.

“Undress.” The Recruiting pony ordered from behind a desk. ” And answer my questions as you do so, we don’t have a lot of time,” He ordered.

With quick, almost frantic and anxious movements, I bent down and bit the zipper on the side of my winter coat. Then I took the sweater off, and then my shirt, all as the rough-looking, short trimmed middle age pony crumpled some paper with his orange magic, and proceeded to watch me with his unnerving observant look.

“Name.” He asked as he put glasses on his nose, which immediately made him seem less intimidating.

I took a shallow breath before answering, “Rocky Chase”

That made him look closer at me for a moment. Watching. He was comparing me to Diamond, I was sure of it, and I hated that. My form was not as good as hers, and I was sure he took note of just that. I didn’t want to look at him. I lowered my gaze and looked at the floor.

in everything he could compare me to her, I would perform worse. I knew that, and that made me feel just… bad.

After a stretched moment, I heard his magic grab his pen out of the quill, and he began scribbling something. After a few seconds he resumed “Occupation?”

I sighed with relief, still I didn’t look him in the eyes though. The dirty floorboards were interesting enough.

“Coal miner” I replied meekly.

“Hey, relax. I don’t bite.” He said firmly while looking up from his desk, more like it was an order instead of a reassurance. “Age.”

“T-twenty,”-- I cleared my throat, “ Twenty one”

“Legs too” He nodded downwards. I immediately began pulled everything off my fur. I took off my boots, furry hoof warmers, and the Calesons - a tight-like underwear for stallions.

“Any useful skills for going out there? Acquaintance of firearms? Navigation skills? Can you hunt? Use a Telegraph, or anything else?”

“No.” I replied lamely, and seeing a frown on his face that followed, made me feel even worse, I started feeling sick “I-I’ll just go.” I said as I started quickly picking up my clothes from the floor.

I’m just going to become a laughing stock for everybody. This was a shit idea from the beginning.

“Fine, better to turn back now than out there” He said indifferently, and put his pen back into the quill, and levitated the paper into his desk.

I quickly swooped my clothes with my right hoof, and hopped out of the room on three legs. The recruiter pony didn’t say a word, I was sure he was looking at me disappointed, or maybe he expected that from the beginning, and was indifferent about it.

I didn’t turn back to make sure, I just quickly limped naked outside into the still white from the night's snowfall morning streets.

The next pony in line, seeing me – a naked pony scurry outside, opened his eyes wide and swallowed hard.

Behind me the recruiter’s voice rang again.

“Next!”

“New Law! A new law has passed–” we passed an announcer’s voice while I was hastily climbing a small wooden bridge over the giant pipes that ran along the wide and empty street. Usually at this hour, ponies would gather in a massive column that would be heading to their workplaces, but now I only saw a few, some of them dragging their belongings on sledges behind them, running to the nearby cities probably. If I remember correctly, the nearest one was at least a few days of travel away.

Risky, very risky. Only the scouts were properly trained to take on such a long journey completely blind, and come back unharmed.

It was snowing, as always. The completely clouded bluish sky gave everything a dark tint of the same colour. And as usual, the wind was making its presence known, making every uncovered centimetre of my face pinch from the cold. After crossing the pipes, I turned, and with my head down, I left the main street of this section of the city entering a tight, barely two pony wide transverse alley between some storage buildings, and headed towards the mine. At least I had a cover from the wind now.

"Just now you said you were going!" The spirit pretentiously pressed, still talking from the newspaper on my chest.

I didn’t respond. He was right and I felt stupid for that, so I only looked around nervously, searching for something to assist me in thinking of a believable excuse. But everything I found were posters of my incredible and ever brave sister, looking at me with a disdainful smile.

‘Be the City’s hero!’

With a quick sweep of my hoof, I ripped them off the wall while trying to not look her in the eyes.

“There’s nothing to be scared of! You’d rather stay a disappointment for your family?!”

“Shut up! I’m… You know how much training do the scout go through?! They learn to navigate from the stars, to survive in harsh environment, to hunt, they learn to shoot, they learn about the creatures of the frostland, they learn to ski, and a lot of other stuff! It takes years to train a scout! I… I would be just a laughing stock! Everypony would see! My sister too!”

“Well, other ponies don’t know anything about being a scout either, and they still go.”

“Well… I’m… I'm a coward! A disappointment to everypony, because fate decided not to give me any talents, and poured everything into my sister instead! So leave me alone, I’m going to work!” Yeah! That's a good excuse! “I can’t just leave my job, somebody has to dig the coal.” I said firmly

“Bull~shitttt~” The spirit sang, “You’re pathetic.” He said with this… infuriating sense of superiority. The tone that I hated so sincerely ever since hearing it for the first time. It made my insides boil, and while baring my teeth, and barely stopping myself from shouting for him to shut the fuck up, I bit the newspaper he was on from my chest pocket, threw it on the ground with all the strength and speed I had, and with a quick step I left into an alley that led into the mine that was right around the corner.

The Mines were placed on the outskirts of the city, right at the wall of the massive crevice in which the city was built to protect it from the powerful surface winds. I approached the grim steel gate next to a gigantic slowly spinning steel wheel that squeaked, and buzzed so low that you could feel the ground vibrate. There were some papers stapled on the door, but I didn't pay them any attention. I didn’t want to think about the generator business.

Entering the main hall, I was hit by the noise of the steam machine powering the wheel on the outside, and by how cold it was inside! Despite being in a full winter coat and having at least two layers beneath I shivered as I walked in passing two guards that stood by the door. They were talking cheerfully to each other about being lucky to be here.

I approached the pony by the check-in desk. Dressed in his full winter gear sat Firm Keep, an old unicord listing ponies who entered.

I’ll just go to work. Just go to work and hope it all works out fine. I’ll be a… I’ll stay what I was but, at least I won't humiliate myself any more.

“Rocky… Chase…” He mumbled to himself in his monotone voice while he took his sweet time writing my name on the list as the structural metalwork groaned lowly from the weight placed on it by the wheel. “Good. At least you’ve come, are you ready?”

What kind of question is that?

“Ready for what?” I said as I looked around the almost empty building, only one pony other than us was here, sitting, almost curled into a ball by the building’s wall in the corner and clutching his hooves close to his body while groaning. His tools, just like the tools of everybody that should be working here at this moment, pickaxes and shovels lay scattered on the dirty, almost black wooden floor “Where’s everypony? And what happened to him?” I asked, nodding towards the groaning pony.

Firm kept sighed “ Emergency shift is back. You’ve got twenty four hours today. And the heating’s off until they turn on the generator later today” He said, a bit extinguished.

“Twenty four?! What the…!? That's nuts!” I said as I stepped back.

“Labour obligation is back too, no leaving early or you’re gonna have massive problems. That also applies to not showing for the shift.” He said informatively and monotony like a machine.

I felt a wave of shock stop me in place. The images of overworked ponies in the hospital from years ago flashed before my eyes. Their filthiness contrasted with the clean white hospital sheets. Their teeth, broken and bleeding from holding their tools, tired eyes, and their awful smell of sweat, with slight desperate smiles on their faces, enjoying the break they got to spend in the warmth of hospital beds. All from working for so long. And it wasn’t over back then. Before The Great Storm, twenty four hour shifts were announced once every three days regularly.

What the… Fuck. I’m not gonna do twenty four!

“Calm down! It’s just one time, until they patch up the generator.” Firm Keep said, noticing the worry on my face with his monotone, yet now alarmed voice.

I don’t believe him. they’ll let us ‘rest’ for two days and then they will do that again. That’s how it was before!

“And you won’t be alone, the guards will drag whoever did not show up, but many have volunteered for the expeditions.”

I stood in place for a moment, and then after a deep breath. A cold huff of air coming from the mine shafts pierced through my clothing, and made me shiver. And I was supposed to go there! I’ll get my hooves frostbitten for sure!

I looked again at the pony clutching his hooves at the wall near the exit. No way. I turned left, and tried to dash for the exit, only to bump headfirst into the guards that suddenly appeared on my way.

“I am not working myself until I freeze my hooves off!” I shouted as I started pushing and struggling, trying to force my way past them. There being two of them, they overpowered me, and with quite a bit of effort, they pushed me back away from the door. Then one of them, a green earth pony with a yellow mane, a bit shorter and slimmer in posture than me, bit and pulled out a wooden baton the length of my foreleg from its holster on his chest.

“Get to work, you’re free to go when your fucking shift ends!” His unicorn friend shouted.

I stood next to the desk, staring at them while breathing heavily. Damn it!

“Rock calm down!” Firm Keep shouted, standing with his front legs on the desk. “Don’t do anything stupid!”

No, no! I’m!... I chaotically looked around the crude building for something to help me. Its powerful steel skeleton filled with wood and insulation, and then on the floor and the tools laying on it.

Tools!

Without a long thought, I jumped for the nearest one, and bit hard the dirty pickaxe by its handle. Seeing that the guards launched at me, but stopped as soon as I had it in my mouth.

“Put that down!” Shouted the bigger guard while levitating his baton using his yellow magic.

I looked at them, the two dangerous ponies in guard uniforms, the batons they wielded, ready to beat me into obedience, and their careful eyes watching my every move.

I can’t beat two guards using a pickaxe.

Yeah, you can’t. Just give up. I’m sure your sister could probably manage but oh well, you aren’t her, are you. I heard the Spirit’s mocking tone

Shut the fuck up! Ah! My legs tensed, and I wanted to kick him on his face so hard. I bit the pickaxe harder, and the wood made a soft crack from my teeth digging into it.

He’s provoking meee~ I sang in my mind. I won’t let that work, but damn it sure made me angry.

With a painful resignation, I let go of my weapon, letting it clatter deafly against the floorboards, followed by an echo.

I sighed. At least I didn't do anything stupid yet.

To say the dark tunnels of the mine were cold, would be a massive understatement.

They were absolutely freezing! Being dug into the equally cold, if not even colder, frozen over ground, and the generator off, there was absolutely nothing except my clothes and body heat to combat it.

I blindly swung the pickaxe, and chipped some of the coal off the wall. It was so dark I barely saw anything here. Usually the lamps were hung in regular intervals, but there was nopony to hang another one here, and I was already far past the point of where the next one should be. Same applied to extending the rails for the cart.

This shit is inequine! My nose and cheeks pinched, my hooves hardly felt anymore so I kept stumbling over the coal lying on the ground, and the idiot with the cart still hadn't returned! I’d happily just throw this pickaxe away and tell these guard pricks what I think of them.

If they didn’t beat the shit out of me as soon as I’d show up on the elevator up there….

But I won’t be the biggest softie to resign from the work first.

Without waiting for it to fall on the ground, I kept swinging. There was nobody to pick it up and put it into a cart. Not even the cart was here. The pony who pulled it was already here when I came here. Firm Keep said he came here just half an hour before me. He would shuttle between the lift and the tunnel non-stop to keep his hooves from freezing, even when it was empty.

I had to wait for him to come back again. But working was the only way I could stay tolerably warm, so I just walked on the coal that was piling before me, and kept swinging the pickaxe.

“Oy! Let’s fucking– stop! What are ya… what are ya doing?!” I heard a tired and weak voice from behind. Turning around, I trotted in place to warm myself up while waiting for my only shift companion to drag himself and the cart through the barely lit tight black corridor.
He was a cart pulling pony. His clothes so black from coal that if it weren't for the lighter white fur on his face, and the yellow light from the bulbs behind him that allowed me to see his black silhouette, I would have had a hard time spotting him.

“Waff?!” I mumbled loudly through the pickaxe in my mouth. I tried to spit it out before, but my lips got frozen to it, so It just stayed like that.

“Look!” He nodded towards where the last lamp hung on the wall of the tunnel. I just shrugged and murmured something.under my nose. “Don’t ya fuckin dare mine any further! There's nopony to build another roof support!”

Well what else am I supposed to do?! I don’t plan on freezing to death.

I tried to say that as clearly as I could through the pickaxe, but only a series of grunts and intelligible mutters was what left my lips.

“Listen, I just fucking–” he breathed heavily for a moment, “ Can’t anymore. It’s too cold, I’m– Come on, drop this shit and let’s go.” he said, and with sluggish movements, he unbuckled himself from the small wagon.

He’s done already? Hah! I’m not the worst oneeee~

With a satisfied shrug, I nodded my head to him, turned around and continued swinging the pickaxe blindly in pitch darkness, lit only by the lightbulb hanging on a wall a few metres behind me. I even increased the tempo. Just for show.

“And yer gonna keep working like this?! Are you– fucking off your rocker!?” He rasped from behind.

I just muttered indifferently. Yeah I wanted to go too, sure, I had no idea how much longer I could stand and didn’t feel my hooves up to my knees anymore, but not yet. I was savouring the moment.

“F-fuck you. Freeze to death if you want.” He muttered, and I began hearing his hooves clatter against the wooden boards on the floor we used as a walkway. Between my occasional pickaxe clatter against the wall, I heard his hoofsteps getting further and further, until suddenly.

A loud thud made me turn around.

He lay there on the boards right next to the cart.

“Ephh!” I mumbled loudly.

He didn’t move.

With slow and stiff steps I approached him. My legs were almost completely numb, but still, a feeling of discomfort was there all the time. I guess that meant they didn’t get frostbitten yet, but fuck, just now I noticed how close i might be to that. I poked him with my pick, no reaction.

I opened my eyes wide, and a feeling of sickness filled my stomach. I began furiously licking my lips, hoping to free my mouth from the Pick they were fused to while also hyperventilating.

Fuck! Damn it! He already passed out?! Oh Celestia– He came here– He was here just– Just half an hour before–

I stood there breathing heavily watching him lying on the ground.

What do I do what do i do what do i do. I’d walk around in circles but I moving my were numb.

I have to run to the lift for help!

Or, no! I’ll take him there myself. That’s– That’s what–

I need to– I bent my head to the wooden walkway, and placed my front right hoof on the pick, and began tugging. As I tugged, i felt my lips painfully break off from the handle. Stopping for a moment, i took a series of short breaths, and with a strong tug and a loud groan, I broke my face off the tool. It clattered deafly on the floorboards, which echoed through the corridors of the mine and returned twice.

“Fuckin owww!, ow!” I groaned again while holding my right forearm to my lips, “Heeelp!” I shouted, and then licked my lips right after. Blood. Did I – I didn’t rip my lips off my face did I ?!

“Heelp!” I shouted louder, but only my echo responded, “Fuck!” I cursed while my voice broke.

I took a stiff step towards my shift companion, and tried to pull him upright, but as I grabbed him and tried to pull him up, my legs gave out.

I Can’t do shit! Wendigo fuck my ass we’re gonna freeze here!

“Think!” I heard the spirit say further from the corridor. It was his distorted shadow cast on a wall opposite of the lights talking to me.

“Fucking help me!” I began looking around frantically,

“What would Diamond do?!” He asked in a raised tone.

“I don’t fucking know!” I shouted.

I need to get him to the lift so they can call the doctor.

I bit my companion's clothes on his back, and began dragging him towards the lift. I didn’t even know his name. It was terribly slow. The more I worked my legs the more they began to hurt. The effort did warm me a bit, I felt my torso getting comfortably warm but even if that saved me from passing out I had no idea if it would help my legs, I don’t want to have them amputated!

I kept pulling for around ten minutes, gasping, groaning, taking breaks. We moved by ten-twenty metres I think? Hundreds more to go, fucking great!

It’s not going to work, it’s not going to work!

What would Diamond do? She woud– Teleport with him to the surface!
Ah she’s a fucking unicorn! I don’t have a magical horn! Why can’t I have a magical horn like her!? Fuck my life!

I began looking around frantically for something that would help me, but there was nothing! Wooden floorboards, lightbulbs on a wall, wooden roof supports every couple metres, and the… the cart!

I stiffly hobbled back to the cart, walked around, and pushed it with my head until it was level with the stallion, and threw it onto its side off the rails. Maybe i can tuck him in there and get him to lift like that.

But to my horror, the tunnels were so tight, that with the cart on its side like that, I could barely squeeze a hoof between the cart and the wall, not talking about a whole pony!

I sat my rump on the boards lying loosely on the right side of the rails. Feeling the sharp stinging pain on the tips of my hooves getting stronger, I covered my face with them while my rapid breathing turned into an irregular spasms that preceded crying. I could barely feel the hooves on my face too.

I can’t! I can’t save him! Damn it! Diamond would have done that! She’d- She’d figure something out! Why can’t I be as smart as her!? I felt my eyes sting, and tears welled up in my eyes. Great and now i’m crying like a foal. I bent my neck and wiped my eyes at my right foreleg. Every leg movement was really uncomfortable.

She wouldn’t cry, fuck!

“Get up! You’ll freeze if you stay.” I saw the spirit’s shadow talk to me form the wall that I sat by.

“That’s what I get for trying to be like her I guess.” I got a pony killed, and will probably freeze here myself. I brought this onto my self.

“But you can be like her! All you need to do is not give up and you’ll already be like her! You won’t just change into her after one night! Baby steps! You need to warm him up! How’d you go about that?” the shadow asked with a patient, parent like voice, standing on his rear legs and arms crossed.

“I don’t fucking know, I’m just a stupid coal miner!”

“Agh,” the shadow voiced a grunt of irritation, “Then stay here and freeze to death! You’ll definitely be like Diamond then, sitting on your ass and crying about yourself!” he added in a completely different, indifferent but mocking tone.

Fuck you! I stood up to break the light, but he was gone. The asshole was right though. That would be the most pathetic death… ever. No, not like that.

I took a couple deep breaths, and got to thinning. Warm us up… Warm us up…

I winced with every wobbly and painful step towards the other wall with lightbulbs hung on it. Maybe they… I put my nose up to one of them, and a very painful burning sensation made me bounce back almost right away. Ow! Ow! Good. okay. It’s hot.

All I know about bulbs is that the wire inside gets so hot that it glows. Maybe it’s hot enough to…

I took my eared cap off my head, broke the light bulb, and stuck a piece of it inside. Within seconds it caught fire. Yes! Fire! I threw it on the ground next to my unconscious companion and watched it burn. The heat i could only feel on my nose, but oh it was the best feeling in the whole Equestria right now. As one third of the cap burned completely after a few seconds, i got to a horrifying realisation. I need something to keep the fire burning!

I quickly jumped in and got to ripping the wooden boards off the floor they were frozen to, and supporting them on the cart, I put them over my now half burned hat.

Shit! Please catch the fire please catch the fire. I mumbled to myself as I held my head on the cold ground, watching the boards from underneath.

The rose, licking the boards from below, charring them black. It grew and grew, even peeking shily from above the cracks between the boards, while making them sizzle from the heat and evaporating water. Then it grew smaller and smaller, not tall enough to even touch the boards anymore, and then died in a sudden puff of white smoke.

I felt like crying again. My hooves hurt so bad now, that I barely sat my rump on the ground again. And then I started weeping.

The fuck was I thinking. No, I can't do shit. I take any more clothes off and I’ll freeze in a moment.

Fuck this. All of it. I can't–

…

One last try.

The fuck do I have to loose, right? I doubt I can get to the lift anyway.

Sluggishly, I unwrapped my scarf from around my neck. Feeling a shiver when the cold air got in contact with my still quite warm fur on my neck, and stuck it into the broken lightbulb. When it lit up, i quickly placed in under the boards again, and with my faced hugged to the ground, i watched the fire shily strolling on the top of the scarf, going from one end to another, then i watched it grow, taller and taller, shining its yellow light on the boards above, and then rising tall enough to lick them from the bottom. I put a couple lumps of coal on the top of the fire boards. It lay everywhere so why not? I doubt it will catch but, in case it does, the fire will have something to nibble on for longer.

My hooves hurt so much, and now my ears too. All from the cold. I don’t think I could even get up right now. I just curled into a ball on the ground.

I didn’t want to look at the fire. I didn’t want to see it die. It would just hurt too much.

I just closed my eyes and… Felt bad. Now they’ll find our bodies like that. Somehow it feels more pathetic. I failed, as usual. As always. Mom will be disappointed as always. And Diamond… Whatever bad things she thinks of me, I’m only probably confirming them right now.

Of course I couldn’t do it. I should have ran for help when I had the chance.

I…did it? I looked around room.

Hospital. And I was in bed. The cart hauling pony was here too! He sat on his bed next to me, a light cream coloured stallion, with a short trimmed black mane. Eating warm soup.

One of his rear legs was bandaged, and the other one completely– Oh no.

I instantly bit the quilt and threw it off me.

“Oy, nurse! Nurse!” My companion shouted alarmed to the nearest nurse, a blue-furred mare with a long golden curly mane, and a band with a red cross on her forehead. She ran up to us right away, and then he nodded towards me.

One two three four! Oh Thank you Celestia, I still had all my legs!

“Calm down please sweetie, everything is fine,” The tired looking middle aged mare calmed me down in a sweet but raspy voice, to which I nodded positively, and relaxed on my bed. “I’ll go get the doctor, don’t you dare leave that bed,” she pointed at me with her hoof in a threatening manner, but with a smile on her face, to which I smiled back. Then she levitated my quilt back on me with her blue magic, and quickly scurried away.

Damn it, I wish I had a horn like that. Why couldn’t I be a unicorn?

Then i looked at the pony on the bed next to me. “Ey,” he greeted me, “I'm Pawn Board.”

“Rocky” I replied, but he still looked at me with his eyebrows rise, “Rocky Chase”

That made him open his eyes wide, “You’re Diamond Chase’s relative?!” he said in shock.

“Fuck off!” I know I'm not like her! You don’t have to rub it in like that, asshole.

“Oh no, no! I didn’t mean it like that! I meant it like… Like wow!”

After that there was a pregnant pause. I lay on my bed looking at the ceiling, and he sat on his bed, looking at the bowl of soup he held on his thighs.

“I’m sorry I wasn’t fast enough.” I said, staring at the white painted ceiling, with cables randomly running on it, descending on the walls, and connecting to all the electronic equipment in the room.

“Oy? Fast enough for what?”

“Well you… Lost your leg.” I said as I forced my eyes shut.

“Ow you’re a fucken idiot then,” He chuckled, “You saved me. I would get kissed by a Wendigo if not for you.”

“Hmm,” I murmured, and turned my head towards him. If it was somebody else, maybe Diamond, he would still have his leg.

“I'm serious, lad. You did… More than I could ask. I’ll get to see my family today thanks to ya! I guess being a hero is something you guys have in your blood,”

That made my ears perk up, one of them hurt but, i assumed it was from lying on the ground. Does he really think I'm like her? I felt a slight smile build on my face.

He sighed, “Don’t worry, they’ll give me a prosthesis anyway. I’ll be like new. And it’s not like you came out of it without a scratch either.”

“What are you talking about?” I rose on the bed. He just tapped his left ear. Oh no. I launched my hoof to my head, to check for my ear, but it wasn’t there! At least, not entirely. I wanted to start swearing, or kick something, or maybe– or–

I just hid my face in my hooves, and took a long, deep breath. Could be worse. Definitely could be worse. Still a damn shame

“Look at the good side,” He said with his mouth full, “maybe it won’t impress any frostlander, but ponies who live here, the city mares. Oh they like scars like that. ll will be yours in no time, im telling you!” he chuckled

“Oh yeah, at least I got that now,” I chuckled too.

“Yeah…” then, as if he got a surge of new energy, he looked at with curiosity in his eyes. “ So tell me. How is She. My little sister will kill me if she finds out I met Diamond’s brother and didn’t ask about her. She wants to be a scout because of her.”

Oh my fucking– of course he wants me talk about her…

I was happy!

I walked with almost dancing steps as the alleys squeezed and turned between the tall, multi-storey steel and wooden buildings. Almost all their doors had signs written on their doors with chalk. Some ponies do that, they believe it helps scare off Wendigos and evil spirits. Maybe there was something to that, I didn't care! I Whistled a happy tune I heard once in a pub together with the wind as I walked.

I checked my chest pocket touching it with my hoof, to make sure the playful wind fella hadn't ripped a certain very important paper out of it while I was distracted. He was really wild today.

“I knew you could do it.” The squeaky weasel voice asked me from the nearest poster I was passing.

Ah, him…

I never treated spirits seriously, at least until he showed up. Wendigoes, oh they scare the shit out of me. The way they howl during storms… It makes it impossible not to take them seriously, but spirits? The only notable name I know and respect is Discord.

I mean come on, when your mom goes ‘Go to bed or an evil spirit of tiredness will take you away!’ whenever it was past your bedtime as a foal, it's hard to not shrug them off.

“You did not! You left me in that mine to freeze!” I turned to the talking red and white poster of my sister.

“Me? Leave you? No! No! You’re my favourite pony in this whole city!”

I groaned, “ Fine, I signed there, now leave me alone! My life was awful enough without you being there to mock me all the time!” I said with a smile I couldn't hide, looking at the simplified graphic image of my sister that was currently talking to me. I was in such a good mood that I didn't want to rip it off the wall like I normally would have, and even though it was smiling all smugly.

“Truly,” He replied, still smug.

“Piss off!” I don't need somepony foal sitting me, and definitely not some… spiritual asshole. I quickly changed my mind, and ripped the poster off the wall, chewed the paint tasting paper for a bit and spat it on the ground. Then I turned and continued walking through the city’s tight, emptied and trashed streets ripping off every poster on my way. Just for good measure. It was just my routine by this point. Maybe not today, but usually seeing my sister's face everywhere made me feel sick. And I could use these to start a fire later.

I parsed, “Hero of the city” If I had her horn, magical talent, strength, and brain, I would be a hero too.

The damning thought stiffened my step and the smile disappeared from my face.

Nevermind that, I’m aware life isn't always fair, but to make her that… perfect? And make me… me? That’s just some sick joke. Maybe there’s a spirit of unfunny jokes that had something to do with it. I should go to the House of Prayers and check maybe. They have all the books on spirits.

I opened the doors to my family house, also with chalk signs written on them. On the inside there was a little bowl next to the door on the inside of the house, with a couple slices of apple in it. So much effort to convince the spirits to piss off, and that one glued himself to me anyway.

“Rock is that you?” I heard my mom’s voice through an open door to her room.

“Yes it’s me!” I said and after a pause and a long sigh, I entered the ‘Diamond Chase Sanctuary’ that mom called her ‘room’. “Hey mom!” I greeted her with cheer.

She sat at her walnut desk, wearing a dark purple elegant sweater, that contrasted her white fur while matching her eyes. Her light blue bane was neatly tied behind her head in a neat bun. She was writing something on a scroll with a pen held in her cyan magic.I can't wait for her to hear the good news, she's finally gonna be proud of me!

“Oh.” My mom opened her purple eyes wide, “What happened to you on the head?“ she asked with concern.

Ah, the bandage on my head, I completely forgot about that. “Nothing, I slipped on the ice and hit my head against the pipes.”

“Oh, okay,” She replied, still looking at me with worry in her eyes, “There will be twenty hour shifts in the mines. Don’t go to work tomorrow, I'll talk to Sweet Conduct as soon as I can. There should be a lot of vacancies because lots of ponies fled to nearby villages and cities, and I helped her daughter get to the scouts and she still owes me for that. She’ll … do something to move you to a cookhouse, or the Pub. ” She said as she leaned over her notebook again, and lifted her pen with her cyan blue magic.

“Ma, you and her both are just councilmare's assistants. What can she do?” I smiled lightly.

Yeah, My mom really wanted to be important, that's how she acted, dressed, and furnished her room anyways. That's also why her very famous ‘hero of the city’, ‘Fire of the Frozen Equestria’ daughter, was so precious to her. Yes, mom is a bit important. She works directly below the councilmares, who work directly under the Capitan. But that didn't give her much power. Hell, most doctors in the city could do more than her. Everybody wants a doctor friend. They can consult you, get you double rations, or have a friend that would do the same. A council mare’s assistant can… Only ask and hope for the best.

“I can do a lot more than an average pony in this city” She recoiled, offended, “And I won't let you work yourself to death! Sweet Conduct works directly under Swift Schedule who assigns ponies to jobs and manages the shift lengths.”

“No need Ma.” I took a deep breath, and smiled brightly, “ I’m joining the volunteer expeditions.”

“What?” She opened her purple eyes wide, and levitated her pen back into the quill.

She got up from her desk, “Why would you want to do that?” she asked with visible concern, and approached me, to look me in the eyes closely.

That puzzled me a lot. W-why is she not happy? Why isn't she jumping with joy that her ‘failure’ son is finally… I don’t know, doing something with his life? “Because I don’t want to freeze while working twenty four’s in a mine.”

“No no no, It’s not happening. I’ll get you a job somewhere else.” She grabbed my hoof in hers, and looked at me in a pleading manner.

Now that turned something inside me. Something that made me not sure how I should feel. “Why not?! Why aren’t you happy?!”

“Because I’m scared for you! You want to go out to Frostland! It's dangerous! You’re going to die! There are bandits there! Beasts!”

“But about Diamond, somehow you aren't afraid for.” I started to take on a bit of an angry tone.

“Because you're not Diamond sweetie” she said in a kind and understanding tone which… infuriated me. “Just know that, you are what you are, and I know what to expect from you.”

“Hmph, she thinks you can’t do what Diamond can. Shame she didn’t see you in that mineshaft.“ I heard that asshole’s Spirit’s voice from somewhere.

Yeah, it is a shame! I sensed a provocation, but at the same time, he was completely right!

“So that's what you think of me!?” I shouted

“Rock, don’t nitpick me by the words.”

“No. I will! What would you expect Diamond to do?!”

“Calm down!”

“What Would Diamond do?!”

“You’re not her! You’re Rock! You can’t be her! Stop trying to be her!”

That’s the last thing– “Bullshit! You–” I approached her with a fast and furious step, which made her take a few steps back, “You just accepted that I am worse than Diamond! That I am a nopony!”

“No, It’s not true.” She said, shrinking and lowering her voice slightly.

“Well the paper work's all here! I’m going to sigh in right now!” I growled, and punched my chest pocket in which i had the paper, ”You're gonna see for yourself!” I shouted as I stormed out of the the house and slammed the door. I was going towards the recruitment point. And this time, I was sure.

I'll show her.

What would your sister do?

The street was once bustling with activity, merchant's stalls strewn about, shops spilling out of the buildings through open gates and doors of the buildings with a variety of tools, toys, just to show passers-by as much of their products as possible. Griffins, and less frequently, ponies, shouted and praised their products. Now it stood empty, the doors closed, windows dark. The street itself was uncomfortably quiet, the whistling of the wind, and the creaking of the locked doors and gates as they fluttered in the wind, “Closed” signs banged violently against each of them, was the only thing disrupting this eerie silence.

It went to show how many of the citizens had fled. One might think the city had been completely abandoned.

But where would they go? how could anypony feed this many fleeing ponies? It’s impossible, I think.

Yeah, Caverners wouldn't exist if it was possible.

Hoofwarmers, snowshoes, Hoofwarmers, snowshoes, Hoofwarmers, snowshoes! Shit!

My thoughts scrambled in my head as I ran through the abandoned streets.

I had no idea I was supposed to bring my own gear!

I turned to the right, approaching the door of one of the smaller shops. “Harga’s Work. Renewing and repairing.” read the sign above the big front window made up of a mosaic of smaller windows set in a grid pattern.

It’s not a clothes shop, and there’s not a lot of choices, but Harga always had the stuff you needed.

I stopped at the entrance, knocking on the door while trotting in place because of my nervousness, and to keep myself warm from the cold wind that pierced my clothes. I felt it getting in under the fur right at my belly, making me shiver.

Please Harga be here please be here please!

I saw movement through the glass! Yes!

I doubled on the knocking, and finally the door pulled open.

“I’m not hiring anymore. You lost your chance.” The mature rust coloured griffon lady dressed in full dark grey winter coat spoke as she saw me. “And I’m busy.” She said, as if waiting for me to leave.

I reared and put my hooves together in a begging manner, “Please! I need something from you!” Hearing this Harga rolled her eyes, “All the other shops are closed!”

Her beak stayed still, but amber eyes lit up for a second, and she instantly let go of the door. I quickly trotted in, pushed the door closed with my shoulder, and turned around to look at the chaos. The tight space was surrounded by black painted wooden empty shelves by the walls, boxes of various things wrapped in quilts. Clocks, pots, crank mixers, Glowrock lamps, and lots of other stuff, either fixed and renewed, or old and broken, ready to be fixed. All laid on the floor in a circle, in the middle of which was a small furnace.

“New hoofshoes and snowwarmers– Hoofwarmers and Snowshoes!” I blabbered quickly.

Taken aback by my sudden request, without a word she cocked her head and stared at me with her eyes squinted for a few seconds.

“Please quick! They’re gonna go without me if I don’t get the gear in time!” I almost whined, running in place.

She muttered something under her beak, and her face fell to the usual calm, slightly disdainful look, “Bits?”

I quickly pulled a bag of coins from my chest pocket.

Seeing the bag, she sighed “Going out there?” She asked as she walked over to one of the boxes and began unwrapping it from the quilt.

“Yeah.” I said quickly and firmly.

I’m doing something brave after all. That eased my nervousness that always appeared around her, for some reason.

“Well, mister Rocky, I never expected you to dare do something like that.” She said indifferently, with a hint of contempt

“Oh- Y-yeah,” I raised my front left leg and stammered.

Should I feel insulted or… Maybe it was the most disrespectful compliment I ever heard, but it still was one.

”Ekhm, Looks like I'm not such a failure as you took me to be.” I said more confidently, almost accusingly as I straightened my neck slowly and took a step forward.

Now she’s nice because I'm going out there to save her ass. And her beloved belongings of course.

“Look at you all confident suddenly.” she murmured, “Don’t let you act appropriately for once get into your head,” she retorted calmly, “but, better late than never.”

Aw fu– go kiss a Wendigo!

“It’d be a shame if you ended up in the snow though.” With her front right arm she pulled up a pair of beautiful, beautiful hoof warmers. Shiny copper coloured, laced all the way to the top, even reinforced at the bottom so the water doesn’t get through!

“Eight hundred.”

Oh! WHAT!? EIGHT HUN– My one and half ear instantly fell as I raised my front leg and took half a step back. “I’m sure you have something… More beginner-like, maybe?” I asked with a sheepish smile.

“I do provide a co-worker discount so… No.” she smiled with satisfaction, “I don’t think you’ve got the time to be picky at the moment, Mr. Rocky.If something bad is gonna happen, it’s not gonna be because of me.” She slammed them on the floor in front of me, and looked me in the eyes. “Maybe not now, but when it’s all over, you will work off the rest of the price under me, because I'm sure that’s” She nodded towards my bits, “not enough.”

What!? The?!.. First she offers me a job everytime she sees me, and now this?!

“Why do you want me to work under you so much!?”

She didn’t answer at first, and just lowered her eyelids.

“Are you sure you’ve got time for questions?”

Screw you! “Fine!”

I hate griffons so much! Damn it! Using a pony in need like that! AGH!

There was noise, a mess of sounds of ponies talking, laughing, complaining, sharing their worries, whistling of snow, my own heartbeat, fluttering of wings of a pegasus flying somewhere above us.

We were standing outside, right on the edge of the creek the city was built in, and looking at it from above, the one thing that came into my mind was...

Tight.

The creek encased the city like a tight cell. Buildings filled every bit of more or less levelled ground that was available.

You could see the Generator in the centre, puffing a small amount of black smoke, the houses and various other buildings built around it in circles, getting further and further away the houses were replaced by factory buildings, mines, steel mills, wall drills, until they met the sides of the creek. Each of the complexes, whether a house, or an industrial one were organised around smaller generators that branched off the Generator with street pipes like roots of a tree.

“Shut up everypony!”

I snapped to look at our capitan, a red coated-at least on the face- earth pony stallion wearing full scout gear. A thick brownish parka covered his whole torso, neck, and head with a big fur covered hood, hoofwarmers on the upper portions of his legs, and thick boots. His dark clothes allowed him to be easily spotted against the scary, infinite whiteness and the snow capped grey mountains in the distance.

It looks like a great white desert, or an ocean, surrounded by occasional mountains, dead trees, and random landmarks.

What if I get lost out there? There’s no way I would find my way back. I don't even want to know what could wait for us out there. I’m not ready for this!

I started feeling sick.

“There is no going back now,” The Captain said.

“From now on, I am your Scout CaptainNice Glide.” He announced, as if it was a chore for him, “We’re going for the Carriage, it’s a couple days of walking, you should know that… Uh, ah yeah, everyone carries for themselves! You’ve got your food rations on your sledges, ration them as you please, but we do not have more so, if you aren’t wise about it you’ll starve! What else… what else” He tapped his chin with a snowshoe attached to his hoof, “Ah, if we go fast, we’ll meet the team No.1, which we will hopefully manage to do. They are more experienced, and the more of us the better, it scares off Caverners more. Now get in pairs!”

Just stay with the Captain, he knows what he’s doing. Yeah, he knows what he’s doing.

We all rushed to find partners, ponies looking at each other randomly, nodding their heads and pairing up. I looked over some ponies too. A big stallion, a head taller than me… No, I am strongly built for my height, but he's still probably stronger than me. Who else, who else…A pink unicorn mare, already paired up with somebody. Then I looked towards the edge of the group, and saw a quite small navy blue unicorn mare. A parka that looked like it was older than her, hoofwarmers tied with a thin rope instead of laces. She looked weak, like she wouldn't even be able to pull her sled, and wasn’t pairing with anybody. Shy maybe?

Good, that's good. I won’t be seen as weak if I go with her.

I approached her without a word, she looked at me with a disoriented look, but followed me. as we joined the rest of the pairs in a neat line almost at the end.

“Pun on your snow gear! Skis or shoes, whatever you have,” Nice Glide announced, “And one last, most important thing, there are a lot of dangers out there. Caverners, wildlife in general, weather itself. So let’s make this our golden rule,” He raised his front right leg and pointed it at his chest, ”When I say be quiet, you shut the fuck up instantly.” he swiped his hoof horizontally, “Or I'll shut you up. Now get a move on! We need to get there and back before the next storm!”

It was noon, a few hours into the journey.

I didn’t know why they gave us shade goggles at the beginning. Like, why would we need them? Well it turns out, at noon the sun was the strongest, and the snow, being completely white and shiny, reflected it all right into our eyes. If not for them I think I would go blind!

Oh yeah, and guns. After a short safety course, they gave us those too, together with a strap around the chest and leg on which it could be hung like a hammer.

After some time you could get used to the additional weight on your side, but my partner seemed to have more problems with it.

Everypony had a partner, we all walked in six pairs one behind the other, everypony was towing two sledges strapped together with supplies, and as long as you followed the tracks ponies ahead of you left in the snow, it wasn’t too difficult. At least for me.

For her, I assumed the sledges alone would be a challenge, and with the gun at her side, you could clearly see she was having a hard time. Her groaning was getting louder and louder, and I heard her murmur something along the lines of, “I can’t do this” in a teenage wailing tone, a couple of times.

Which, to be honest, made me feel good about myself. Fortunately it was covered by a mask so the wind didn't stab my face. It carried small pieces of ice and snow, so whenever it was too strong, it felt as if pins were being stuck in your muzzle.

I looked at the endless, blinding ocean of white around us. A little snowdrift on the left, with a two-storey building squeezed underneath it as if built into it, puffing small plumes of brown smoke through its chimneys. On the right, far away, rocky hills which looked like the tips of mountains barely sticking out of the snow. and underneath them a lot of broken and dead trees. Similar to those under the mountain in front of us, but closer.

We must be going for the mountain. Why didn't we go using one of the already trodden trails though?

Then as we were passing the building dug into the snowdrifts from around a kilometre away, we heard a whistling of ponies from it. Those who lived and fled there were opening the windows, cheering and shouting at us.

“They must be from New Mareland…Cheering for us,” I heard from my left. I turned and saw the unicorn mare looking at me through her darkened goggles. “Hey, listen. Could you please,”- she panted, “Help a little mare out a bit? It looks so easy for you.” she asked sweetly.

Upon hearing the compliment, I chuckled.

Maybe I could help her. She seemed sweet. Pulling one of her sledges wouldn’t make a big difference to me…

But at the same time, I didn’t want to.

What if I’d be the slowest one then? I’d be an embarrassment to everybody! They’ll- They’ll laugh, or… talk about me behind my back. I’ll be ‘the guy that can’t even carry for himself’ An embarrassment.

No no no no.

“Ah thanks, but uh… The captain said that uh, everypony should carry their own stuff right?” I said with a worried expression.

“Ugh,” she groaned, and pulled the mask off her muzzle, exposing her navy blue fur, “Captain!” She shouted forwards, making the ponies in front of us, a grey stallion and a cyan mare, turn their heads towards us instantly.

“What?!” We heard the captain shout from the front.

“What’s your name?” The mare asked me quickly.

“Rocky,” I replied, taken aback by the whole situation. Isn’t she embarrassed to do all that?

“Can Rocky pull one of my sledges?!” She shouted loudly again.

We walked in silence for a moment, waiting for the Captain’s response, wondering what the answer would be.

Will he have a problem with that? I kinda wish he would. But on the other hand… Why would he?

“I don’t give a fuck!” His annoyed distorted shouting rang from the front.

“Sorry!” She shouted back with a slightly embarrassed tone, “I just didn’t want to–”

“Stop shouting!” He cut her off, “Shout only if it’s an emergency! That’s to all of you!”

Embarrassed, she bit her lip, lowered her head, and pulled the mask back on her face

“So? Will you help?” She asked meekly.

I uh, shit. I raced to find an excuse not to, glancing all around me for… something.

“I didn't hear a ‘no’. Thanks Rocky,” She swiftly untied both of her sleds from herself using her light blue magic, and attached them to mine, “I’ll take one later i promise, i just need to rest for a moment,” her tired voice radiated with a child-like naiveness.

“Hmpf, as long as it doesn't slow me down” I said with resignation, and got to pulling the four sleds. We walked in silence for a while.he added load did make it tougher to go forward, but it was comparable to the cart in the mine. As I pulled steadily, placing my hooves carefully in the ruts left by the ponies ahead of me, my partner was trotting happily, and turning her head around while observing the view.

Why is she so happy? She can't even pull her own supplies! That's embarrassing! They are probably already chuckling and talking about her.

I jerked my head towards her, “Why go on a journey if you can't even pull your ownweight?” I asked, almost pretentiously.

She looked at the wooden sleds behind us, each one carrying at least three to four days worth of supplies. All of them were loaded up to half a pony height and covered with some kind of brown material.

She cocked her head at me and stared for a second. Because of the mask she wore and her goggles, I couldn’t see her face at all, so I could only guess what expression her face took.

.“I'm not that heavy!” she whispered hoarsely in an offended tone. I

“No! I mean, you can't pull your own supplies!” I whispered back loudly.

“Ah!” she jerked her head upwards,” Well, why not? I figured that, in the worst case scenario, I'll just ask somepony to help.”

“Well- nevermind.”

Maybe she's just stupid. Doesn't she see how she clowned herself in the eyes of others?

“What, are you gonna tell me it's stupid?”

“Wh- no... Not exactly what I had in mind.”

“Well what did you-aaAA!” she shouted and flopped on her face. Then she began clumsily trying to get up, attempting to pull herself forwards, and flailing her legs randomly.

Seeing that I chuckled. Yeah, I definitely couldn’t be worse than somepony like this. It made me feel good!

I really am not as big of a failure!

“Heh, you good? Uh…”

What was her name?

She scrambled and rolled onto her back in a frantic manner.

“Ursa! Urs!- Mmhhhh!” She shouted in panic, her scream turned into a muffled squeak as she pressed the back of her head against the snow.

Or…

It looked like something pressed her head against the snow.

The ponies ahead immediately started repeating what she said. Ursa! Capitan! Ursa pinned someone!

And the only answer we got was, “Don’t shoot that thing! I’m coming!”

as the little unicorn groaned and almost squeaked in fear while trying to defend herself with kicks of all her legs against something I couldn’t see. I stood frozen in place not knowing what I should do, or what even an Ursa was!

I did the only thing I could think of. I bit her by the hood of her coat and tried pulling her away from whatever had pinned her. I closed my face to hers, feeling some kind of foul breath on my face, and hearing a low growl.

I instantly jumped backwards, “What the fuck is that!?” My heart sped up, and so did my breathing.

It could be anything! I can’t approach- that! How big is it!?

I stood there, seeing my partner being pressed into the ground by something huge, while I couldn’t even move! I just breathed rapidly and stared with my eyes wide open.

Why does it happen! Why does it happen! Why does life have to always be against me?!

What would your sister do, Rocky?

I…

I took a slow step towards it, then another.

Please don’t kill me please don’t kill me.

What if I'm approaching its jaws?! Or claws!? Or what if it has tentacles!?

I took a few more shakily steps towards my partner, and bit hard onto her parka’s hood. I felt the creature’s breath on my face, its soft growls, and a variety of other sounds it made.

I was right next to its jaws, and by the direction of the snorting and the sounds it made, it looked like it was sniffing the face of my partner, who signalled her distress with soft and quiet whimpering.

Okay, please don't get angry.

I yanked as hard as I could by leaning backwards and pulling with all the might I had in my four legs… and instantly fell back, only keeping a few strings and pieces of fur from my partner’s hood in my mouth.

But the invisible monster was stronger.

Please don’t bite my face off please!

I adjusted my position, leaned backwards, and tugged firmly, but calmly again. Slowly, I increased the force. Eventually I was pulling with all the might I had, but then I felt a pony bite and pull on my clothes from behind, but even our mutual efforts were nothing to the monster.

“Mof Awayf!!” I heard the Captain's muffled voice in the back.

I instantly did as I was told, and turned around to see the whole column of scared, standing a few metres back looking at us from behind the Captain who was sprinting through the fresh deep snow around them with some kind of firecrackers in his mouth.

“Hewe! Hewe!” He screamed and threw the firecrackers somewhere into the snow behind us.

The stricken small unicorn mare suddenly gasped with relief, and after catching a breath, began shouting.

“Pull me back! Pull me ba–!”

“Shut the fuck up!” The Captain roared, almost matching the firecrackers in volume. The small unicorn instantly froze on her back, only whimpering slightly.

Then I saw it.

I saw pawprints, big pawprints appearing near her, slowly taking steps away towards the source of the louder, apparently much more interesting noise.

As the monster seemed to move away, two ponies from the column quickly passed me and ran silently to the mare, loaded her onto a litter, and pulled her towards the centre of the column.

I felt a hoof pull on my shoulder, and saw the Captain leaning in for a whisper.

“You pull her shit for now. We need to fuck off before thoseburn out.” He said.

He turned around and began walking parallel to the column.He waved his hoof forwards, the signal for everypony to start walking again

Everypony started moving silently, making as little noise as we could. No talking, no whispering, just rustling of sledges, crunching of snow and clacking of ponies’ harnesses accompanied us as we left the loud popping of the firecrackers behind. As we moved like this for a moment they finally died. The last few bangs echoing through the air, followed by a sound of… nothing.

I walked evenly with the injured unicorn mare, and we looked at each other. She held her hoof over her mouth so as not to make a sound when the stretcher on which she lay on jerked with each step taken. She looked at me with a scared look in her eyes.

They didn’t treat her leg. Maybe there was no time for that. he fact that they didn’t stop to do that worried me.

Because the thing must be following us then.

Noon passed, and we all could take off our goggles. Then came the evening, and the warm sun started losing over a cold wind that roamed the open expanse of white. It carried tiny bits of ice and snow, which upon contacting your fur, felt like being stabbed in the face. Another reason for wearing masks and goggles, if one wanted to.

I had no idea the outside of the city could be so dangerous. It hadn’t even been a day and something like this already happens! Can’t something good happen to me for once!?

Six pairs of ponies whispered nervously to each other, not daring to raise their voices higherthan a loud murmur.

“Did it bite you?” I whispered to the blue mare.

I should get her name finally.

She shook her head, “I think it stepped on my hoof by accident, and sprained my ankle,” she replied, laying sideways on the stretcher to face me.

“By accident?!” I whispered back, bringing my face closer to hers so I wouldn't have to talk as loud, “It attacked you!”

“Nuh uh! I read the Frostland bestiary before we moved out because I wanted to be prepared, and because it was very interesting! When I read it I was like ‘Whoaa’ because I had no idea so many creatures could live in a climate like thi-”

Of course she read a whole Bestiary! Damn smartass. I wouldn’t remember a thing right after closing the book! But, she somehow memorised the whole thing! Agh!

I’m gonna have to get right on that. If she could, then I can.

“Okay, but what does that Ursa do!?” I cut into her avalanche of words.

“Oh, It’s full name is Frost Ursa,” Ugh, okay miss smarty pants, “And that depends on the time of day. During the day it's like a curious child. It walks aimlessly until it finds something that sparks its interest, and follows it curiously until the sun sets. But, when it does” She took a deep breath and looked behind us, as if making sure the Ursa wasn't following us. “The bestiary only said that it takes a more material form, and turns into a bloodthirsty monster that mauls everything it sees.”

Oh… That does not sound good.

We walked in silence for a moment.

“What’s your name by the way?” I asked

“Cool Streak, my dad called me that because my hair had a funny looking streak when i was born,” She chuckled, “And you? I know your first name but…”

“Isn’t that enough?” I asked, in a pleading manner.

“I promise,” She raised her hood, “I’m not gonna laugh, even if it sounds funny! Cross my heart, hope to fly, stick a cupcake in my eye!” She said as she did some silly looking gestures, ending with her, indeed, stuffing a hoof in her left eye.

“I’d uh, rather not.”

“Pleeeeease…?”

Suddenly the pairs ahead of us started to split, the pony pulling her marched right, and the pony ahead of me went left.

“Ope, maybe later!” I whispered hoarsely to her.

The ponies stopped as we formed a circle around the captain, as he counted every pony entering the circle. Next ot him, there was some other pony with a weird, barrel looking device strapped to his back.

“You all keep watch for the bear, and keep your muzzles shut!” He announced in a slightly louder whisper, and turned to the pony with the weird device on his back.

“Tell the city we have an Ursa on our back, we’ll reach Blackhoof Creek by dawn.”

The pony pulled headphones onto his ears, and levitated a weird, staple looking device up with his magic, while the capitan bit a string dangling from the device and pulled. There was a loud Clunk, which made everypony jump, and something started to move and rotate inside the round metal casing, like a clock mechanism without a housing. A gem built into the casing suddenly lit up, and the device-carrying pony closed his eyes,furiously clicking the stapler in various intervals. We all stood by and watched.

“Copy- Team No.1, 22, 15,- Stop.” he opened his eyes and looked at the capitan

“I don’t know their fucking codes! Tell that to them!” he replied instantly.

He doesn’t know codes?! Why is he the Captain then!?

The telegraph pony looked down, clenched his eyes shut, and began clicking again.

“Copy- Stop, Team No.1 Will be informed, continue your mission- Stop.” he reported.

“And, say that we have an injured,”

The pony began clicking again, but as he did, the gem on the machine died, its internals spinning slower and slower, until it completely died.

The Captain slid off the telegraph’s pony’s headphones.

“The spring died. Let’s move before the Ursa catches up,” He turned towards us all, “Listen everypony, We don’t have the equipment to get rid of the Ursa, much less to fight it! The Captain of team No.1 is Diamond Chase.” Upon hearing this, everypony in the circle around the Captain began looking at each other. From their almost completely covered by scarves and balaclavas faces, I saw a glint of hope.

Yay, Diamond Chase to save the day… As always.

It took me biting my tongue to not scoff audibly.

“We get to her, and we’re pretty much safe. She managed worse shit than this–”

And as he said it, I heard the creaking of the snow behind us, and saw the big paw prints slowly approaching us.

“Captain! The Ursa!” somepony next to me whispered

“Let’s fucking move! We have only a few hours till sunset!” The captain shouted loudly now, and began trotting forwards together with the telegraph pony, and the rest followed forming the column again.

“You could take action too, my dear Rocky. You know that, don’t you?” I heard a familiar voice to my left. It was the spirit, talking to me from my own shadow. “What would your sister do?”

He’s been gone for a while. The asshole’s back to keep tormenting me?

He did usually provide a harsh reality check… which was something I needed…

I just nodded my head. I wouldn’t want other ponies to think I'm off my rocker for talking to my own shadow!

Yeah, we could do something too! We don’t have to wait for her to jump in and save the day!

That’s what you usually hear in stories about her anyways.

“But what?” I whispered under my breath.

“Oh, if only you had one of the most deadly weapons known to Ponykind strapped to your chest right now, hmph,” The spirit chuckled

I looked at the rifle strapped vertically to the right side of my chest.

Yeah… If only I did…

I’d have to learn how to use it first.

What did the Captain say, we have a couple more hours until sunset, right?

That’s when the monster takes a more physical form.

I’ve got time. If Diamond could do it, then I can too.

The sky took a beautiful orange-ish colour, turning into a vibrant red around the horizon. A beautiful, but scary reminder of how little time we had left in the day. The warm colours contrasted strongly with the cool blue snow shaded by the mountain we walked near.

There was nothing here. I expected… something. Other cities, structures of some kind, houses, taverns… anything.

But no, there’s just us here. An incompetent Scout Captain, a bunch of newbies, and the very excited unicorn on a stretcher next to whom I was walking.

Oh, and an invisible monster that followed us no matter what.

It would be unfair to call the Captain purely incompetent though. I just expected… More? He did save us, and clearly knows what he’s doing. But he’s…

Normal?

Maybe these fabled scouts, and my legendairy sister too… are not as incredible.

Which made me both happy and scared at the same time.

Cool Streak opened her eyes wide “You’re Diamond’s–!”

“Shut up!” I cut her off to stop her from shouting.

“Oh Celestia, I'm so sorry- I’m just so excited! You’re her brother?! Ohmygosh Ohmygosh! Tell me about her! Tell me everything!”

I wanted to wrap my hooves around her neck and choke that excitement out of her.

“Fine” I replied quickly and sharply, as if I was ripping off a bandage.

“Yes!” she almost screamed with excitement.

“Shut!” I hissed, “And, it’s nothing to get that excited about. Now show me how to deal with the gun!”

“Oh, right right right right. Well,” She levitated her gun in front of me.

It was a… gun. That’s all I could say about it. Its wooden body discoloured, bearing a ragged varnish and numerous scrapes. The metal parts, except for occasional scratches, seemed to be in a better condition. A big logo, with letters ‘WF’ written in a big triangle marked the barrel.

“A ‘Weapon Factory’ bolt action rifle model zero four dash two”

“‘Weapon Factory’? That’s one creative name,” I commented.

“At least it’s intuitive right? It’s the only still working weapons and ammunition factory in the frostland! It’s really an incredible story, like, imagine you’re just one pony, and–

“You’re sidetracking.”

“Oh yeah, sorry. Well, to shoot you bite the handle on the left side of the barrel- or maybe you’re left hoofed, so then you move the handle to the right.” She rotated the gun in front of me in various positions, showing me every side and angle of it to make sure I saw everything she was telling me about.

I noted how she was taking great pleasure telling me and showing me the things she knew. Which annoyed me a lot. She was showing off! She used that to full extent, making me feel like an idiot in the process.

”And so– Oh wait, yeah I started wrong. Well your gun, it should be strapped to your side just over the centre of mass, like this, It’s really simple.”

‘It’s really simple’ Fuck you! It’s not simple for me! She’s just insulting me. You think you’re smarter you–

Without warning, with her magic she quickly strapped the gun against my side pointed upwards, which made me grunt. Then she twisted it to aim forwards, straight at the pony walking ahead of me. I quickly extended my hoof and yanked the barrel up, so she doesn’t kill anyone by accident, “in a way, you should be able to easily twist it with your hoof from vertical to horizontal, and then when you want to shoot– Oh wait, and before you shoot, you should extend your right leg to rest the stock on your thigh, and then you press here–”

She isn’t gonna shoot it… is she?

I saw as her magic focused on the trigger placed in the bite-handle, and quickly grabbed the gun and hugged it to my chest, ripping it out of her magic,

“That’s enough! You’re gonna kill somepony!” I growled at her.

“Oh sorry… I just got too excited, It’s not loaded right?”

“I don’t know!” I growled again.

“Oh it’s very easy to check, just–”

‘Very easy to check!’ How can you not know that?! “Shut up!” I growled right at her face.

“I- I thought you wanted my help…” She asked with her brows furrowed in a mix of surprise, and sad disappointment.

“You’ve helped enough,”

“Hmph, fine.” she snorted, “But you’re still telling me about your sister.”

“Ughhhh, the hell do you want to know?”

“Oh, I know! How about… How a hero of this whole side of Frostland, such a good and kind, and idealistic mare that is Diamond Chase could have such an asshole of a brother like you!”

I instantly took a swing with my front right leg, but barely, just barely stopped myself from slapping her on the face. She flinched, covering her face with her hooves.

“You keep that fucking voice of yours down…” I growled at her as I put my leg back on the ground.

She just turned around on her stretcher, facing away from me without a word.

Another thing that Diamond is better at. Ponies just love her. SHe’s just likeable for some reason. Ponies just love her. And I hated her even more just for that.

“You wouldn’t be any better in my place.” I said without looking at her, but all I got in response was the sounds of sledges quietly gliding through the snow.

“Dig! Quickly! THe sun sets in half an hour!” The Captain shouted behind us, distracting the Frost Ursa while doing so. The sun was almost setting, its last, orange-ish rays lit the upper half of the mountain we stopped by.

Ponies were getting anxious. It was getting late, and still we had no camp for the night.

When we came here, we saw a mineshaft entrance half buried in the snow, and Captain Nice Glide decided we didn't have any more time to go further to look for a better place to sleep.

“We were supposed to get to the First team’s camp before sunset!” The radio pony shouted while digging in the snow with their hooves.

“But we didn’t! Save your breath and dig! We need to be out of its line of sight when the sun sets!” Nice Glide shouted even louder, while running with the Ursa in circles.

Me, as a miner, and the biggest pony on our team, had the convenience of getting an actual shovel to dig. The other nine ponies either dug with hooves in panic, or ran around frantically in search of a different entrance.

By their panicked and chaotic digging, you could clearly see they were giving their best to not get mauled to death by the monster that was right behind us at that very moment, and would turn on us in the matter of minutes.

We managed to dig out a slight gap between the snowdrift obstructing the entrance and the horizontal beam limiting the entrance from above. Just a bit more and we’d be able to slide through.

So we dug. Sweating hard, panting, freezing our hooves off. But we dug.

I’d stick the shovel into the hard and icy snow, hit the shovel with my hooves to get it in as deep as possible and then, rearing, and pulling it by the top of the handle to rip out a chunk of snow. Then I either threw it onto the side, or just pushed it in.

And so on for around fifteen more tiring minutes, until it started to get dangerously dark.

“Hey you! Black muzzle! your name?!” The captain shouted at a pony digging with his hooves like a dog next to me. He instantly stood up and turned to the captain, walking backwards, away from the ursa.

“Charcoal Drift sir!” He answered quickly.

“Get everypony here! Tell them to stop looking for another entrance! We’ve got five minutes!” The black muzzled pony nodded, and went off to sprint around the mountain where the others had gone.

“This shouldn’t have happened! We were supposed to be at the hideout team number one prepared for us!” I heard the Telegraph pony talking to somepony.

“We’ll worry about that lat–”

“Stop digging! Throw in the gear, then the wounded, and then you jump in!” The Captain roared. Then he whistled loudly right at the Ursa he was backtracking from.

We started throwing out sledges into the opening, then, suddenly everypony turned to help Cool Streak, but only two ponies ended up crawling in with her.

Everypony wanted to be there as fast as possible.

Then one by one, ponies squeezed between the snowdrift and the top of the shaft, and disappeared into the darkness.

With every second, every passing moment, as the sun got closer, and closer to the horizon, I got more and more anxious being outside of that shaft.

Eventually, I crawled in there too, squeezing against the cold snow with my belly, and then dove headfirst into the mineshaft’s floor. I stumbled and fell on my back, but immediately got up, and joined the rest of the team in looking outside.

We saw the Captain was leading the Ursa away from the entrance, shouting at it, while the final bits of the sun disappeared behind the horizon.

“Captain! The sun! Get in here!” Everypony started shouting at him, dressing the same message in their own words.

“Run you fucking morons!” He shouted at somepony else, pointing towards us. After a second we saw three ponies run up from around the mountain, heading straight for the mineshaft. We all moved away from the entrance, but as they were throwing their things in and squeezing through, I could see the sky lose its vibrant orange-ish colour, and by the time the third pony made it in, it turned completely blue.

There was a hellish crack. There, the Ursa stood in bluish flames. They formed a big silhouette. It started roaring, as if the flames burned it alive.

Somehow, they did. When the flames died, there appeared a charred, almost completely black body parts, legs, big torso, and a head, with no visible features, except for two, bright yellow glowing eyes with frighteningly small round pupils. The Captain started running around it, sprinting towards the mineshaft, as the monster roared again, and as if panting terribly, as if it was suffocating, threw itself into the chase.

He ran towards us, as the, now gigantic black figure, with just two yellow glowing eyes sprinted towards him, catching up quickly as he screamed aloud

“ AAAAAWWW FUUUUCKKKK!! “

In just a couple of seconds, our Captain was halfway to the mineshaft, but so was the Ursa.

It’s gonna get him. I thought. A terrifying thought that made me feel nauseous.

No no no no!

But then there was a deafening gunshot. I instantly recoiled into the corner of the shaft, fell onto my rump and covered my ears. After a moment, I quickly sprung back to my hooves to see the captain already squeezing through the crack.

“Pull me! Fucking pull me!” He shouted terrified and extended his forehooves. The six ponies that were there next to me instantly reared, grabbed him by his clothes and got to pulling. At least until his face took an expression of pure terror, and his screaming became much more high pitched, and he started to thrash violently.

“It’s got mi legehhh! Ah I’ts got my AAAA!” he shouted to the point of his voice cracking.

I quickly got up, and twisted my gun on the harness. Snagged the knob on the end of the handle with my right hoof, pulled the bolt back and forth, heard a mechanical click lined the sights up with the black figure behind the Captain, and instantly pressed the trigger with my tongue.

Another deafening gunshot rang, the harsh recoil of the rifle bucking my right thigh, but this time there was no recoil from me. No reaction. I pulled the bolt with all the might I had, back and forth and pressed the trigger. Another shot, Another panicked movement of my hoof, back and forth, third shot. I continued like that until I ran out of rounds. The firing pin fell on an empty chamber with a deceptively loud click, seeming to echo just as loud through the enclosed space as the shots before had.

“It’s okay, it’s okay…” I heard from behind, as I panted hard and fell on my rump, the rifle falling against my chest, caught by the sling.

I looked to my right and saw the Captain laying on the ground with everypony else.

We all just lay on the ground in silence and panted for a moment, until one of us started to chuckle.

The Captain started to chuckle first. laying on his back, he pulled off his hood, mask, and goggles, and covering his face with both of his front hooves he let out a shakily laugh.

“I- I think- I..” He panted.

We all painted. Me too, and it felt like my heart was about to jump out of my chest.

“I hope it’s the melted snow a-and I didn’t piss myself.” He let out a chuckle, which almost sounded like crying.

But we all laughed anyway.

We heard a terrifying roar again. A completely black paw, the size of my head, with claws bigger than my ears reached through the crack trying to grab something, or somepony.

We all let out a collective terrified scream, and ramming into everything on our way, we ran deeper into the mine.

As we ran, I saw the glowing yellow eyes staring right at us. A pair of two amber rings, floating in the pitch darkness, pinned into me.

“I fucking told you, not fucking further than five minutes of walking!” Easy Glide shouted, as he cuffed one of the two ponies that i remember, went out looking for the another entrance, “I almost fucking died!” he screamed, as he smacked the other one on the chest, which looked more like an annoyed wife hitting her husband, than a commander punishing his subordinates. “Next time somepony does shit like that, I’m letting you die!” He roared, and turned away.

He walked towards the other end of the chamber we were in. It looked like some kind of unloading chamber, cart tracks going off in two different directions, and an elevator shaft. But instead of an elevator, there was simply a big hole in the ground.

I was getting distracted. I had to get back to writing. I had some things I needed to get on paper.

They told us we’ll be able to send mail to the city from time to time. So I did… well, that. I wrote a letter.

At least, I was trying to.

Just in case… Something happens.

I glanced at Cool Streak. The small, thin unicorn finally got her leg treated, tied between two boards to prevent it from moving, and she had received some basic healing magic that Charcoal Drift happened to know.

No, back to writing.

Hey mom, it’s me.

I know you’re probably scared for me. And I just want to tell you that, you don’t have to be. It’s all right here. We’re pushing forward, despite inconveniences, and we’ll be back before you realise.

I’m sorry, for everything in the past years.

But I hope that this journey will make up for it.

I’ll make you proud. I’ll make up for all those years of being a disappointment to you.

I’ll be great, like Diamond. like you knew I always could have been.

Rock.

the first step towards greatness is to kill that Ursa.

Hope rises significantly

To get away from all of it!

Author's Note

I encourage you to leave a comment to let me know what you think! Both negative and positive criticism well appricieateed!

To get away from all of it!

The Ursa is not here… Good, I have to be quick.

The night was dark and windy. Very windy… it blew strong, launching tiny pieces of snow and ice off the ground and stabbing the only part of my body uncovered by a thick layer of winter clothing. It felt like it had tens of ice cold needles piercing into it every second.

Damn snow. Damn cold. Damn darkness. Everything, even the weather is against me.

I was climbing alone on top of a snowy hill. The one in which the ponies from our team took shelter just a few hours ago. The entrance to the mine that was at the bottom was easily visible if I looked down, lighting the snow near the slim entrance in a warm yellowish colour. I didn’t want to stray too far from it, in case I had to run - or tumble down, as it wouldn't take long in case the monster got on my tail.

I'll try to not let that happen.

So far I hadn’t seen the monster anywhere despite that I was looking, turning my head in every direction it could sneak up on me from every couple seconds.

it definitely won’t be easy, but nobody said killing it is impossible. It’s stupidn and horrendously dangerous, but not impossible… Just Imagine, “Rocky Chase - First time outside of the city, and already killed a Snow Ursa”- That would be something. I don’t know if even Diamond Chase has done that.

She did rescue a bunch of foals escaping Winterhorn from six Caverners though… Almost all by herself. Damn, I don’t think I could beat that. Winterhorn’s dead and, not a lot of fleeing foals that I heard of around here…

The thought that I can't beat her in that regard filled me with frustration. I just hated that so much.

Does she have to set the bar at everything so high!?

Hmph.

Maybe I can beat the Ursa without shooting my gun? Barehoof? But then, all I had was my rifle strapped to my side, and some additional ammunition in the saddlebags that I managed to pick up sneaking out while most of our team fell asleep. Three magazines and no melee weapons. Should be enough, right? Eighteen bullets. I doubt anything could survive eighteen bullets. I definitely couldn’t. Diamond would just stop the damn bullets mid air with her freaky unicorn magic and that would be it. She’s like a- Like a damn adventure series protagonist! Someone tries to come up with a plan to capture her, or kill her. And she just… Always finds a witty way to stop it. Like… when ‘The Crazy Regent’ sent somebody to ambush her when she was heading to ‘Our’ City?... Or was it Harmony City… It’s so frustrating, beyond putting it into words. It makes my insides turn and boil, it makes me want to take that gun, put it in my mouth and pull the trigger, it makes me wish that someday when I least expect it, she doesn’t… come… back...

thinking that is wrong. So wrong. I know it. I want to love her, she’s my sister. But the bottomless hatred I had for her perfection. Always better, always smarter than damn everyone.

Suddenly I heard a crack and froze on the spot. Turning every way to see if the Ursa was nearby, or Celestia forbid, on my tail. But I couldn't see anything uphill, against the black sky. Neither could I see anything downhill against the bluish dark snow. Or to my sides. No tracks, no anything.

The wind must have buried them.

Finally after climbing for a good while as if approaching the black abyss of the sky to get a better view, I reached a pleasant looking hollow in the steep snow that would more or less shelter me from the wind. The huge monster was nowhere to be seen, which was good, but at the same time unnerving. Every crack, every creak of the snow made my hair stand up, and my ears perk up - if they could, but the thick eared hat firmly stopped them from doing that. It also helped with them not freezing off… more than they already did in the mine. My head did always twist towards the source of the sound though. That happened pretty often, but nothing was there each time… Just the wind howling, and the grainy ticking sound of pieces of ice sliding along the ground.

I laid myself inside, and sighed upon feeling the needling pain on the fur of my muzzle stop.

I should really get something to cover my face next time.

As quietly as I could, I put my gun on the edge of the snow hollow I was laying in, and scanned the downhill terrain ahead. My hoofprints led from me to the base of the hill, avoiding the occasional black rocks sticking out from underneath. Then the surface levelled, leaving an ocean of dark blue… you guessed it , snow! It was coloured by the night sky, and some occasional lights in the distance. Houses? Travel shelters? Who knows. Just snow, snow, snow, everywhere you looked.

No wonder everything that lived out here was so aggressive. Ponies probably too… I mean, just look at the Caverners. You really have to kill everything that moves and eat it to survive.

I waited, looking for those bright yellow eyes anywhere… Trying to find a black coloured beast during the night with all the moonlight blocked by a layer of clouds was next to impossible, so only its eyes could betray where the monster would be…

The howling wind eventually calmed down, and I still lay there in perfect silence, letting the snowflakes calmly land on me and my gun, one by one.

I didn’t have all the time in the world. Every minute of me laying here I grew more anxious. The monster really didn’t seem to be one to let go easily, so it had to be around here… Not seeing it made me actually feel worse. But also, the Scout Captain - Nice Glide - could notice one of his ponies missing any second. He will eventually if I keep sitting here for who knows how long.

Unless…

I sat down, cold snow piercing the insulation of my pants right away.

If I am to prove something. I can’t just wait for the opportunity to find me…

Click. A sound of thunder tore through my ears as I shot into the air, the sound echoing away into the horizon faster than any animal could run.

“Aw fucking ow ow ow…” My gun dropped down, and now with ringing in my ears and my eyes clenched shut I did too, massaging my hurting ears.

How do ponies use these things without going deaf?!

I did open my eyes eventually and scanned the surroundings again while still massaging my ears for a good minute,hissing and whispering a quiet “ah, ah ah, ahh” to myself

Nothing was running into my direction from below yet - that’s good. But what’s the hoarse noise…? Are my ears still ringing?

I took off my hat and scratched the inside of my right ear, and then the… what was left of my left ear.

Yeah, it's ringing but it's not… That…

Is it my gun? I looked at the weapon, laying half buried in the snow next ot the edge of my shelter after I threw it away from myself, and put my ear to the something-bolt complicated-bullet-shooty-mechanism. No it’s not..

So that means…

A paralysing wave of fear ran through me.

It’s behind me, it's behind me, it's behind me.

While hearing the hoarse sounds behind me, as if a ragged breathing that changed its tempo randomly, I slowly, very slowly leaned forward towards the edge of my hollow where the gun lay on the snow. Accompanied by the sounds of the snow cracking when I moved, and the breathing of a huge monster that most probably stood behind me. I hugged the gun tightly to my chest, and tried to attach it back to the mount on my side using two small straps. My hooves shook, and my breathing was shallow. I tried one strap, but couldn’t put it through the metal ring it was supposed to go into. I just couldn’t do it!

Please Please go through it!

But the breathing behind me got hoarser, almost turning into a growl. THat made my moves more frantic. I was missing time after another.

Please oh anyone, Any Gun spirit around to help…?

While shaking and breathing shallowly, I slowly turned my head towards… It.

And i saw it, first in the corner of my eye, and after that i just couldn’t stop until my eyes were locked with the bright as fire amber coloured pair of wide open eyes, tracking my every slightest move. They were open so wide, that if you’d skipped the tiny detail of the giant bear-like muzzle full of huge sharp teeth, you could almost think the Ursa was more scared than you. But it wasn’t, It was waiting for the right moment to throw itself on me and rip me to pieces. The teeth and the eyes were the only two recognisable parts on the pitch black furry silhouette, giving it a haunting look of a monstrous face floating on a dark form. A form that was huge, I felt it, even though I could barely see it, I sensed its hunger, I saw how it trembled from its lust for blood, wanting nothing else at the moment than to make sure all that was left of me is a red stain on the snow.

I sat on my rump paralysed by fear, couldn't move a muscle. Merely a shallowly breathing scared to death prey, packed in a thick winter coat as packaging, hugging its gun tightly like it was gonna do anything except serve as a nitpick.

But the Ursa wasn’t. It took one slow step after another, raising its formless legs high, and then sinking them elbows deep in snow. And despite that, it was still almost twice as tall as me.

I-it’s attracted to a-action right? Like these firecrackers… Then If i’m slow enough…

When it was just a metre away, I realised I had to do something! I took a quiet and shakily deep breath, let the gun go out of my tight embrace while still having the flask between my legs, I slowly pointed it towards the Ursa's face.

One good shot and… Maybe… I can actually-

Slowly, d-don’t shake too much-h…

Put the flask on my thigh like the mare said, and, and…

I slowly extended the gun, like a drawbridge, going from upwards to more and more horizontal, until it was aiming right at the ursa’s face, who tracked its movements carefully, making even slower and steady steps, now that it was sure I couldn't escape my fate. It started showing its teeth entirely, opening its mouth, as if getting ready to finally bite-

Click - i pulled the trigger.

It did nothing.

Except for making the ursa throw itself onto me, biting the gun in a flash.

I didn’t know what was happening anymore. One second I had it in my hands, and just the next, the Ursa was ripping it to pieces with a furious growl right in front of my face while i was running.

I jumped into the air onto my legs and instinctively I started fleeing… And screaming.
Throwing myself down the hill and Galloping for my life as I heard the gun clanking and falling to pieces behind me against a rock I just passed.

Why the fuck did i do this why the fuck did i do this!

“Get inside!” I heard a familiar voice from above me, whoever said that didn’t matter because I was planning to do exactly that!

I galloped downhill as fast as my snowshoes allowed me, while trying to not slip or fall down because of the speed and the steep angle. The voice from above me growled, and with a flutter of the wings that turned into wheezing of a jet engine, something flew behind me, angering the Ursa and making it growl in a way I'd never want to hear in my life!

A pegasus!

The wheezing stayed behind me, further occupying the Ursa. As it roared and growled behind me, curiosity made me turn around, to see what was happening.

And then a rock made me stumble, to keep things from being too simple.

As I tumbled down, closing my eyes and only feeling the cold snow get everywhere under my jacket, as I was repeatedly hitting my head against the white and hard frozen crust of the mountain, I finally came to a halt, right next to the yellowish lit gap between a snow pile and the upper beam of the mine entrance that served as our way in. Wobbly, I opened my eyes and slowly stood up trying to keep my balance. My breathing was quick, lungs hurt, and so did my head.

But before jumping in I wanted to see who was the one that saved me, is he alright? Will he manage to get in after me?

I looked upwards at the mountain, and saw… Was that my captain!? He’s a pegasus!

Indeed, against a dark starry night sky I saw a reddish Pegasus. Now I know where I knew the voice from.

And he was completely naked! It was like -30 Celsius outside! How is he not freezing!?

“Run inside and this time you’re gonna fucking stay there until Diamond chase shows up!” he roared, diving against the ursa, who seemed to have focused on me again. It really wasn’t hard to deduce since it was sprinting at me at full speed down the hill!

Something didn’t allow me to move though. Yeah I had a huge monster that wanted to tear me to shreds running at me, but I stood still, as if frozen to the ground before the Mine’s entrance.

Wait until Diamond Chase shows up? Wait for her to save me? Us?

There are things I guess I considered worse than the Ursa. If i go in now. I’ll be stuck inside the mine under the eye of Captain Nice Glide- And then she’s gonna come, save everybody, and babysit me as usual?!

I looked at the Ursa closing in rapidly,- Ah fuck this!

Shuddering, as if gathering myself for a gallop inside, I jumped into a sprint - but stopped after a second, and kept standing almost on the same spot.

No! Diamond. I’m not gonna let yo- OAAAA!

I screamed into the white emptiness ahead as the black beast with its huge yellow globes launched at me. Instinctively closing my eyes and turning away from the danger, I felt its teeth bite into my back. It bit hard, the pain making me scream as I felt the beast easily lifting me up and sweeping me to every side, like a dog trying to tear apart a piece of meat. I was completely helpless, I couldn’t turn, couldn’t kick, I could imagine it mauling and playing with me like a squeaky screaming and crying toy until I died. And I thought that’s exactly what was gonna happen,

Until the wheezing and fluttering of Nice Glide’s wings got loud.

Suddenly I felt an impact together with an empty clank of something hard hitting the Ursa’s skull.

It let me go out of its jaws, making me fall onto the snow on my belly. As I heard Nice Glide scream, I realised the severity, the disaster that the Ursa’s bite turned out to be. I felt every muscle on my back act… wrong. Warm sticky wetness filled the inside of my clothes, soaking through and dripping on the ground.

“Run inside! I’m gonna distract it!”

I couldn’t think.

I didn’t feel the pain. Not yet at least. I could run. I could get up and gallop.

I looked at the warmly lit mineshaft.

And then in the opposite direction. At the cold blue plain of snow under the dark night sky, and a lonely distant light, shining somewhere out there.

No, I'm not gonna let her save me.

I jumped back on my hooves, and began Galloping. As much as my hurt back allowed me to, running away into the cold dark Equestrian frostland.

“What are you doing!? Get back here you idiot! Come back!” I heard his tired shout. Was it the cold, or the exhaustion from flying, I didn't care.

He screamed to no avail. I didn’t even look back at him. I’m not doing that again. I just hoped he could distract the Ursa long enough for me to lose them.

“You’re gonna die! You hear me! Come back!” But then his tone shifted, from confused, to angry, threatening, “I’m here freezing my ass off and you’re fucking running?! I’m not gonna have a dead volunteer on my account, you hear me?! I’m gonna find you! And drag you back into the fucking city!”

Maybe he really would do that, but I kept running. I didn't care, I didn't want her to save me, I didn't want her again to get all the glory, and definitely not because she saved me.

This was stupid. I’m fucking stupid. Too late to turn back now. I can’t.

Tears began falling off my face, as I ran blindly forward.

I almost fucking died! Died!

No, it was worth it, it was worth it.

Was it?

I’ve got to get away from here, i fucked up. Please don’t look for me, I’m sorry.

I couldn’t bear the thought that I had disappointed yet another person. It was supposed to be my moment! But this… It felt like a hole in my stomach, hurting me more than even the bites on my back, and they felt worse and worse every minute. I didn’t want anything more than just my gun, to shoot myself and be done with it all.

I’m sorry I’m so sorry, I didn’t mean to put you in this!

I'm sorry Captain, for the trouble, I'm not gonna get myself killed in a stupid way like this, I promise.

For now, I just needed to get away from all of this.

Hope falls slightly

Discontent rises significantly