• Published 14th Feb 2014
  • 1,569 Views, 16 Comments

Fallout: Equestria - Frozen Hearts - ksad96



The bombs may have left Equestria a hostile, barren wasteland, but much further to the north, a very different waste lays. Buried beneath centuries of snow, something dark awakens among the ruined Kingdom.

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Cold Flames

Author's Note:

First chapter of my first story ever. Please feel free to comment, message me, give feedback or offer to preread! I appreciate everything, and special thanks to Cascadejackal for helping me start off with some cleanup on the rough draft!

Chapter 1: Cold Flames
“There’s no place like home”

I sat down at my desk, lifted the pencil, and briefly considered simply screwing around and writing a load of hay. With a sigh, I decided against it, and put the pencil tip to the paper.

Once upon a time, in a land just north of the magical country of Equestria, there was a kingdom called the Crystal Empire. It was inhabited by ponies of all sorts, and led by Princess Cadence and her Shining Armor through a time of peace and prosperity.
Until the war started.
Crystal ponies were recruited to protect Equestria, as all ponies were asked, requested and drafted into the army, or the Ministries that were assembled. As years wore on, Cadence and Shining were forced to begin development of their own projects to assist in the war effort. Those projects are now buried beneath two centuries of winter, within ruins long since dead after the bombs on Equestria dropped. The conflict and hatred had fed creatures known as windigoes, who began to create a layer of ice over the already chilled Empire, but after the bombs fell in Equestria, the radiation poisoned some of them, creating much fouler and more potent beasts, who fled north to a more pleasing climate, and thus they began to work, freezing the land within merely a year. The fall of Equestria had left the spirits of the Empire broken. A legendary artifact, meant to break the curses of both evil and frost, was rendered useless by the lack of hope and joy in the people, and winter fell with an icy hammer over the land.
Beaten and hopeless though they were, the ponies of the Crystal Empire did not simply lay down and die. Many had been preparing for worst case scenarios, a company based off of the Equestrian “Stable-Tec” created bomb shelters and caches of food or other supplies around the land, and these were quickly used once winter began to settle. The rapid snowfall proved too much to survive on the surface, and groups of survivors, often entire cities, were closed off and separated. One group, from the relatively small city of Neighton, managed to get into an underground shelter, linked with tunnels to other cities (Those tunnels have long since collapsed), and survived the initial freezing. However, as the years passed, they began to force themselves to go outside, to find a food source, some way of sustaining their own lives. As such, they learned to adapt to the now frozen and mostly hostile land outside, while still using the vast caves to take shelter. Radiation poisoning in the air made water bad, but not undrinkable or entirely poisonous. Purification talismans worked, but couldn’t care for the entire population, so pure water was rationed. Food became scarce inside, so the focus turned to survival in the elements, hunting, that sort of thing. The group, now like a tribe of sorts, became adapt with weapons for hunting, though there were some that were able to use the somewhat rare weapons.
Two hundred years later, the Icehorn tribe is able to hunt with ease, experienced ponies can survive for days in the frozen wastes, and some hunters can even make the journey to other tribes. That said, often those journeys become tense, as most nearby tribes are less welcoming to the traders, scouts and hunters that are sent, and once sent an attack force back to raid the caves. The tribe defended themselves and-

I stopped writing with a sigh. This was getting boring. Yes, a short summary of the Icehorn’s history was great and all, and the history professor wanted it by tomorrow, but it wasn’t going to be useful for what I did anyways. I mean, it wouldn’t even be useful for anything anyways, it’s not like we meet ponies that don’t know our history. It’s literally impossible. With a short laugh, I gave up on the suddenly very dull draft and put in in my pack, before throwing the pack onto my back, getting up and stretching, taking a look at the clock.

“Oh hell, I’ll be late for sure!” I ran out of my room, which though messy, had a comforting feel, despite being a hollowed out wall of the massive caves we use. The rooms made of stone and concrete which were created for living quarters were long since filled, so ponies with a talent for mining carved out rooms and tunnels after the bombs fell. I supposed it was a good a thing to do as any when your previous life was pretty much gone.


Okay, let me explain a little. Firstly, my name is Krystal Clear, I am a unicorn descended from survivors of the war between ponies and zebras. The war that ended with megaspell bombs falling down over all of Equestria.

Thankfully, my tribe’s ancestors weren’t actually in Equestria. Our lands are further north, in what was called the Crystal Empire, but since the likelihood of anypony recognizing it by that name (or caring) are miniscule, we simply call it the Frozen Wastes.

The Icehorn tribe, my tribe, is led by several ponies, always at least one crystal pony and one unicorn (though if the crystal pony is a unicorn, there has to be another non-crystal unicorn as well), and a third pony. The first two are chosen to be the leader by one of two methods. The first is a vote. Crystal ponies vote for their representative, unicorns for theirs, any earth ponies and the odd pegasus vote for a third, who can be anypony in the tribe. Crystal unicorns can vote for either their crystal representative or the unicorn one, not both. It sounds unfair that unicorns and crystals can vote twice, but that is balanced out by giving the final representative greater decision power. Sort of like a veto. I never really was interested in politics, but I was at least told how our system works.

The tribe itself is nearly two hundred large, which makes calling it a “tribe” weird, but simply calling ourselves a group didn't really work. The population is divided by what they do. Ponies like me, with the knack for sciences and tech work in the labs and repair shops and whatnot. Others who are good at other things get other jobs, but only the strong and quick are able to be scouts or hunters. Those are the ponies that keep us alive by finding supplies, hunting for food and clearing the way to ruins or places untouched by scavengers for our tribe to loot.

A larger part of the ponies in the cave system use it for food. A system from before the war allows for underground growth in the largest excavated area of the caves, using several unicorns’ magic to power a fake sun, which allows food and plants to grow. With this in mind, we have plenty of vegetables and fruit like apples, lettuce, tomatoes, a few orange trees, and some berries.

In the lower levels of the cave system, tunnels have been collapsed and left alone. Upon asking, I was told that they were used by raiders a couple decades ago in an attempt to destroy us and loot the caves, and therefore were collapsed, cutting us off from any other tribe.

The original living spaces were set some 100-150 yards from the entrance, which really was still too close if a bomb were to strike, but apparently nopony actually thought the zebras would do it. I mentally facehoofed everytime I thought of how stupid they must’ve been. The rooms were set with uncomfortable, but usable beds, much like cots, a dresser and closet for storage. The cots were cannibalized and mattresses were set in each room instead, the dressers and closets were used, to my knowledge, exactly how they were meant to be used, and the rooms quickly froze in the first decades, probably claiming a few lives in the process. Then the caves became mines, of a sort.

Powerful mages among the unicorn survivors managed to create cloth and thread, apparently, as I’ve never heard of the tribe ever being short on clothes, and at some point (the history is very blurry and unsure here) able scouts began to search for other groups of survivors, food sources and anything else of interest.

As for myself, I was born eighteen years ago, I’m a pale yellow unicorn with a light pinkish-purple mane, and a tail striped with purple and the pale yellow of my coat. I grew up with my father, my mother died on a scouting trip when I was five.
I was talented at magic and fascinated with technology at a young age, and mixed with my immense curiosity, I read just about any book I could levitate. That range began to grow exponentially as I grew, practiced and learned. My father helped a lot, as he worked in the library and would let me read anything I wanted, although he might not have been expecting me to go to the Technology & Thermophysics aisle when I was seven.

My cutie mark isn’t too special, and I personally think it’s a little hard to interpret. I mean, it’s like a shiny glass ball that’s completely translucent. The story behind it is way better.


I was in the lab as a filly, watching all the science ponies and doctors working on something, and one of them had troubles with a screen. The screen had been cracked, but with a quick spell that was easily remedied, the issue was that when it turned on, it would flicker, like a burnt out horn. The stallion trying to fix it couldn’t see the problem, but for me it was clear as purified water. I trotted over and helped him, even though he was certain I wouldn’t know what to do. I found the problem in a few loosened circuits connected to the power talisman, and that the talisman itself was damaged. The stallion was embarrassed at first, but the next time he was stuck, he came to me for my opinion. Eventually, I was helping out in the lab with repairs, and sometimes even working on magic spells as well, anytime I wasn’t doing something else, which was pretty often considering I was a filly.

The breakthrough occurred when I was listening to a discussion about how to recharge generator spark batteries and fire talismans, where many unicorns were at a loss on how to effectively recharge them to last longer than eight to ten hours. They’d been going for a couple hundred years or so, and the spells and knowledge to fix them was long gone. A few ideas were thrown around, most of them debunked the moment they were suggested. Some of them were only shown to be flawed after ten minutes or so of calculating the power trade. After nearly two hours, and having seen a solution for the last hour and been working it out in my head for forty minutes, I spoke up.

Well, I wasn’t expecting too much attention for my suggestion, as I still was only ten, but when I began to suggest my idea, some stallion simply snorted and talked over me. My dad and the stallion I’d been helping told him to be quiet. My idea was to use a gem attached to a conducting element, connect it to the batteries’ positive and negative poles in a complete circle, use magic to create a current in the gem, and then feed the current in a way that amplified the power in it, and would continue to feed itself. It was a mix of magic and technology, nothing new or groundbreaking, but extremely simple. At first a few of the assembled unicorns simply smiled and shook their heads, but I insisted, and began drawing the formula and the theoretical diagram of how it would work. I was given the chance to do it, and when the results proved successful, I struggled not to dance with glee. Only afterwards did my dad point out the cutie mark I’d finally gotten.


The various rooms flashed by, most open, some with the entries covered by cloth or towels or whatever. I was headed to a testing area in the science labs, one of the pre-war rooms in the caves that I liked most. Even without my cutie mark, I found that I could easily see what I wanted or needed to do, and as such my help was often… well, helpful in the labs. Today I was testing out something I’d helped make, a device that could stave off the chill of the winter when outside. If it worked, our hunters could stay out for possibly weeks, and if it worked in the ideal way, it would keep their supplies, clothes and everything else dry and relatively warm, without a constant drain on magic. The way I’d helped was by simply watching the schematics and ideas being drawn, then taking a surplus heat talisman and reenchanting it into a bit of tech I’d wired. The concept is long and somewhat dull, but on paper it should work.

On paper. I tried not to let that thought get to me as I slid down the slope leading to the labs and finally made it in, panting a little.

“You really have to either train a bit more, or stop leaving your room at the last moment, Krys.” Doc gave me a tired sigh, then a grin as I grinned back.

“So, are we all ready? Is it set up and everything?” I was nearly bouncing with excitement. The Icehorn tribe really hadn’t made much new stuff. Sure, they made supplies, some weapons for hunting or defense, healing potions, bandages, that stuff, but no tech progress in two centuries is pretty slow. With this idea, we could go all around the Empire if we needed or wanted to, and it wasn’t exactly something hard to make. We had plenty of talismans, and a few unicorns knew how to enchant new ones, or reenchant them like me, we had plenty of extra wires and scrap metal, with some knowledge of wiring and whatnot, it’s really not that hard. Although, some electronics are needed to create an interface and program the device to not turn everything within three feet into molten slag. I ignored the direction my thoughts were going.

“You tell me, it’s your invention.” The Doc chuckled. He was a light brown coated stallion with a darker mane. His real name was something like Time Remedy or Life something, but everypony simply called him the Doc.

I picked up what was essentially a magical heating aura, but resembled a glorified heating talisman fused to scraps of some pre-war tech. Which it technically was, but I disregarded that and examined it, checking that the wires and circuits were where they were supposed to be. Satisfied, I smiled and put it onto a makeshift harness, which held it with a cannibalized armor barding, then put the barding on. I then put on one of the dozen or so Pip-Bucks. This one was the Pip-Buck 2k model, useful as all hell, but a little bulky. I linked the device to the Pip-Buck, and the settings for my personal heater were initialized and came up on screen. “Ready to go! Let’s get outside and see how well it works!”

Allow me to explain. From what I’ve read in various books, pre-war papers and documents, as well as the Pip-Buck’s user manual (I know, I know, I’m a true bookworm), a Pip-Buck is an amazingly useful piece of pre-war tech. I’d been using the Pip-Bucks we have available for something like four or five years. Not daily, but when I needed one to see if I could program something to be compatible with it, like say a heating aura generator, I would use one. The actual devices themselves were originally meant to be indestructible and nearly impossible to remove without tools, but some techy a few decades back created an omnitool that allowed much easier equipping and unequipping. The Pip-Bucks themselves have some impressive functions, most of which I rarely use. There’s a simple light and a tagging option, which allows the ability to track down anything with a compatible tag, no matter where in the world it is, a map that fills out as the wearer travels. That’s useful for scouts, but the problem with the original Pip-Bucks were that they simply couldn’t deal with cold. They’d work for an hour or two, then simply die. To restore one to full power, you’d need a spark battery, and those were pretty much useless when frozen, too. So having a heater protecting the Pip-Buck from freezing would be a symbiotic relationship between the Pip-Buck and heater.

The Pip-Buck 2k also has something labeled E.F.S. or Eyes-Forward Sparkle, which was much like a compass, overlapped the actual compass, and showed any and all life forms within range of the spell. It even colors them if they’re hostile, though I’ve never seen that before. The Pip-Bucks have an inventory sorter as well, a spell which allows you to efficiently see exactly what you have, how much of it, what it weighs, and even how much it’s worth, although all currency values are pretty much redundant now anyways. It also has a system scanner, which allows the user to view her own condition, how irradiated she is or anything that is affecting her at the time.

The last function is something I’ve never needed to test in my life, thankfully, but I know quite well what it does. The function is called S.A.T.S. short for Stable-Tech Assisted Targeting Spell. It did just that, it could be activated to all but freeze time, and would target anything you could see, and give you percentages of the likelihood of you successfully striking the target with the weapon you’re using. It even lets you target various body parts on something.

Doc chuckled as I ran out, past the ever-familiar cave walls, my hooves clopping on the worn stone floor, and I made my way towards the entrance, where three watchponies stood with two others I recognized in their well-used lab protective clothing. I skidded to a stop, and stood near the opening, feeling the chill of the wind as we all waited for Doc, a minute or so behind me.
“Well? You ready to try your device out?” Four-Eyes had a businesslike tone, which was a welcome change from the condescending one she had used when I had first voiced my opinion. With a few designs, some theoretical diagrams and more than enough equations judging the amount of magic required to power a device enough to heat a pony and their gear against the cold, as well as ways to reduce the magical cost, she came around, in her own way. Next to the green doctor I saw a friend of mine, Clever. Apparently he was named after some ancient unicorn that helped found the original Equestria, but somepony gave him the nickname “Einstein”, which was Germane for “One rock”. It was now just an inside joke among us, as he’d long since proved his smarts by creating a spell which allowed massive amounts of materials to be handled, either moving or completely changed, with the help of just three or four unicorns, if they knew the spell matrix required for it. This allowed for more effective mining or the effect of creating (or summoning, I guess it could be called) materials needed, like cloth, metals, those things. Gems weren’t possible for some reason, unfortunately.

With a nod, I grinned as the slower clop of Doc’s hooves signaled his approach. We were all here to see if I could go out without half the protective clothing of a normal scout. A couple more experienced explorers were outside waiting for me somewhere in the flurry of snow, and I was supposed to be able to find them using a tracker we’d set up, linked to my Pip-Buck’s compass and map. If anything went wrong, I had a communicator in my Pip-Buck and a flare that I could use, as well as a small firearm in case I ran into anything less pleasant.

“So, how’s everything looking? Did you make sure the third circuit doesn’t cross the inhibitor and overlaps the heating conductor to the resonating amplifier?” Clever gave me a grin.

“Hey, that fire was bound to happen anyways. I swear, the talisman was faulty to begin with!” Yeah, that little messup nearly cost us a lab room. Clever and Doc had managed to stop the talisman from incinerating everything before anything more than a few hairs were singed.

“Then you better be sure this one isn’t! I’d rather not have you barbecued, personally.” He came over and hugged me. I hugged back, remembering the times we worked together.

“Remember that spark battery you said ‘accidentally’ blew up in your face?” I laughed, remembering the way his hairs stuck out to the full extent they could, electricity arcing through them.

“Somepony sabotaged it! It was totally set up!” He let me go with a laugh. “But seriously, you better be completely sure this one works the way it’s supposed to.”

I nodded, more serious now, “It’s the one I tested out yesterday. I rechecked the wiring before I put it on, nothing changed whatsoever.” I knew all the ponies in the lab, and they all generally liked me, but I didn’t want to risk anypony having touched the careful wiring, as all of them would be able to cause a simple, fatal flaw, but none of them would know what they’d messed up.

I rechecked all my gear, patted my saddlebags and grinned, adjusting the heater to start, and with a soft hum and glow of the talisman within, a soft red aura surrounded me. This was already tested, now we needed a field test, I glanced at the compass in my vision, a little unused to it, and I smiled at the assembled ponies before marching into the snowstorm.

It was mild today, compared to other times, and happily, I saw that most of the snow melted before touching me, and the secondary enchantment on the talisman kept the water off of me, sliding off and onto the snow. My hooves were unfortunately still cold, but nowhere near as cold as they should be, and I started trotting out, following my compass, giddy with the thought of success.


I knew where the ponies should be, theoretically. They were over a hill, where I couldn’t see them from the caves, so I headed upwards, to get a better view as I felt snow around me, but never quite touching. Thoughts raced through my head, ideas of making portable water heaters, purifiers, anything. With this idea working, we could do just about anything! Hell, we could even offer to trade with some of the other tribes, if I could convince both sides. Well, that might take some time, but I was confident it could work.

Then I got to the top of the hill. The view was great, I hadn’t been this far out without being distracted by either being heavily laden with clothing and supplies or shaking with cold and feeling like I must have frostbite. I could see in the distance, hills and… well, actually just more snow. It wasn’t that great, but I finally felt that I could see further than my hooves, and if the scouts could see that far even while freezing, this could help them both see and go further than anypony else!

In hindsight, I should’ve looked at what was nearby rather than what was far in the distance. When I finally remembered my reason for the journey, I turned my view back towards where the marker was supposed to be, I frowned. Nothing there. I considered calling back to the caves on my Pip-Buck to ask, but I assumed they were simply under the snow, keeping safe from the freezing cold. I knew that scouts out in the weather would dig out a shelter under the snow and stay there to rest or wait if they needed to. The thermophysic theories and functions proved it made sense. Either way, I headed down, following the compass to my waypoint, and when I arrived, I saw the lumps indeed right where the marker was.

“Hello? You guys awake? The thermostatic aura works!” I smiled, and one of the lumps moved, and a shovel broke a hole in it, showing a stallion clad in the thick furs of the hunter scouts. He whistled, and all of the bumps in the ground were broken open, and he smiled at me as he rose.

“Well done, Ms. Clear. I certainly hope you have more prepared for us when we get back.” The group chuckled a little as they folded their shovels and packed them. I smiled back and watched as they were entirely focused on the shovels for a few moments, more ideas going through my head before he nudged me, signaling that we were to head back now. With a sheepish grin I turned back towards the hill, then stopped.

There was actual smoke in the air, visible despite the snowfall.

I gave a gasp, the stallion I’d talked to first turned around and the others looked up and within moments we were all running quickly up the hill. With a quick thought, I used my telekinesis to make their gear lighter, though the drain on my horn was significant, and they managed to reach the top before I could, at which point I let their gear go, and I instantly went cold, despite my heating talisman.

There was a ring of fire around the cave entrance, something was burning, and I rapidly realized somepony must have had created a fire with an oil base, as the flames spread along the melting snow water, and I slid down the hill, trying to think of a spell to quench the flames.

Then they started running out. One by one, then in waves, all the ponies from the Icehorn tribe fled out of the caves, even through the ring of flames, and I watched in horror as many of them caught on fire, rolled in the snow, only to have it spread even more on them. Some ponies I recognized, some I knew personally, and I flinched away at the sight of the singed, burning and shriveling flesh. The smell of the burning hair reached my nostrils and I knew I’d never forget it. The smells and sounds of my tribe burning alive.

All but me and whatever scouts were still outside.

I stood there for another moment before my horn glowed brightly, and I focused on what I knew of the way an oil fire could be extinguished, and I cast a spell, hoping desperately that I could stop this. A hole appeared in the wall of flames, then a line, as my spell simply blew oxygen away from the section, creating a vacuum in the middle, and I saw ponies instantly coming through the line cleared of fire. I saw their terrified eyes, and a green mare in a familiar coat run up to me.

“Krystal! What is this?!”

I could barely speak, my focus requiring everything I could muster as Four Eyes looked at me, panicky but clearly willing to help. “Oil based… Fire… Spreads with water… I’m making… a vacuum.” The last sentence was extremely difficult to get out, my horn painfully throbbing as I felt sweat drenching my face, then being wiped off by the aura still around me. An errant though went through my head about how sweating in the cold wouldn’t be lethal any longer if I survived this and could still make these devices.
Four Eyes grabbed a unicorn, my attention was off of them as I struggled with my spell. I couldn’t tell if they were able to help, or if they could understand how I was doing what I did, and I couldn’t afford to waste energy trying to tell them. I could barely stand as it was.

My magic was weak, but I kept the spell up as I saw each terrified pony running through, and I noticed something; many of the ponies coming through in the back were bleeding already, some limping. Gunshot wounds? I had to stop thinking as the strain of the spell began to take my entire focus as I forced myself to keep sucking the air away from that one little section. I faintly noticed some lab ponies trying to frantically help, some medical ponies and ponies simply good at heart attempting to help those on fire, wounded or otherwise injured. Then all my senses went black. I kept forcing my mind to continue the spell, even if I was working blind, and a second later, my mind stopped giving any conscious thoughts at all.


Footnote: Level 1
Level up
Cutie Mark Perk gained: Clarity – You’re able to see things ponies often look right past, and are able to be clear-headed even under stress! PER+1
Perk gained: Horse Sense - You are a swift learner. You gain an additional +10% whenever experience points are earned.
Trait added: Good Natured - Your Barter, Mechanics, Medicine, Science, Speech and Survival skills are all increased by +5. Your Battle Saddles, Explosives, Firearms, Magical Energy Weapons, Melee and Unarmed skills are all decreased by -5.
Trait added:Magic Knack (Unicorn only) - You have +1 effective Potency (maximum 11) in either a single spell set or a collection of up to (Versatility) thematically related spells. You must spend your first Advanced and Expert spells improving spells you possess in this set or collection (if possible) before gaining or improving other spells.