Tales of the Equestrian Frostland

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