"Is this really it?" The Captain whispered to Amethyst, staring out over the Generator site.
Amethyst nodded, "I'm seeing the same thing you are, sir."
The coals in the furnace they stood next to crackled, radiating enough heat to warm frozen hooves and defrost the bones of the short circle of Administrators, the Captain included, standing around it. All across the mountain pass sat similar furnaces, burning constantly as steel campfires to warm the earth ponies and unicorns waiting in line to be taken down by pulley to the valley below.
"Did you honestly think there would be a city waiting for you here, Captain?" Asked Doctor Hooves, who looked up from his position seated on the snow, warming his hooves.
The Captain gave the engineer a sidelong glance, "...Yes. Yes I did. Was a few bunkhouses, a medical post, and a cookhouse too much to ask for?"
"We built these on very short notice," Hooves grunted, shuffling to orbit around the fire a bit closer to the Captain, "Well... I wasn't actually there, but I know that our schedules were extremely tight. The workers were being shipped out as the ice closed around them... and in some cases we needed to send icebreakers to rescue them from the frost."
"Then what about the buildings used to construct them? Surely those should be standing?" The Captain questioned, continuing to stare down the engineer.
Doctor Hooves shrugged, "Disassembled. Buried under the snow. Maybe swept away during the storms! I have no idea, Captain. I just know they aren't here. At the very least, the Workshops should be standing above the snow, but-" The doctor paused, before eventually just shrugging, "I have no idea."
The Captain remained silent, looking away from Doctor Hooves to stare out at the dark pillar of the Generator, dark against the starless night sky above.
Eventually, the Captain shuffled as he drew his coat flaps closer, "Amethyst, do you have a final count of ponies who've made it?"
The dutiful unicorn immediately went to work looking through the notes scribbled down on her trusty clipboard. Eventually, she ran a hoof over a line on her papers, reading something out to herself, before turning to the Captain to respond, "One hundred and ninety five poneis, sir. Fifty foals, one hundred and forty able adults, five incapacitated being given palliative care."
The Captain opened his mouth to ask another question, but was cut off as Amethyst continued to speak.
"-And before you ask, there were eighty left behind near the crash site," Amethyst pulled back her clipboard to her chest, giving the Captain a warm smile.
The Captain nodded slowly, giving Amethyst a grateful smile, "Very well."
There was silence for a moment, with only the muted murmurs of the crowd around them, and the never ending shrill screech of winter thundering through the wind tunnel created by the mountain pass.
"We started this expedition with four hundred," The Captain remarked, reaching down for a poker with his magic, before bringing up the long metal rod to stoke the coals in the furnace, stimulating a bit more warmth from the small steel contraption.
"Yes. Yes we did," Doctor Hooves sighed.
"They knew the cost of their journey, Captain," Amethyst said, eyes following yet another group of ponies being carried down from the cliffside to the valley.
"And they payed the price, a hundred and twenty five times," The Captain finished, shaking his head, "I only wish there was more I could do."
"There wasn't, Captain. Logically, you did everything you could. We suffered through bad luck and poor planning on the part of the EEC," Hooves reasoned, being the one to now give the Captain a stare.
"He's right, Sir," Amethyst agreed, "What really matters is what happens now. This is our home now. We gotta make it safe."
"Aye, I suppose you're right," The Captain nodded, "Well. I suppose the obvious question to ask is: What is our supply status?"
"We loaded heavily on Coal, dumping some of our material supplies for it. We don't have much Wood or Steel left, but I suppose we have about... 50 or so tons of Coal remaining?" Amethyst twirled a pencil, before stopping to bite at the end of it as she thought.
"Is that enough to start the Generator with?" The Captain asked, turning his head back towards Hooves.
Doctor hooves nodded, "Yes. It'll keep it running for a few nights."
A loose panel on the furnace rattled at the wind blew harder, and the Captain shrugged his coat on a bit tighter, "I suppose while we're on the subject, isn't now a good a time as ever to brief me on the operation of the Generator?"
"Did you not read the manual we were given?" Doctor Hooves frowned, crossing his forehooves.
The Captain shrugged, "I did, but your expertise is currently unmatched among our expedition. I'd rather you explain it in detail."
Doctor Hooves sighed, looking out to the Generator, before looking back, "Well, I don't have any diagrams or plans to show you. Those are all still stowed aboard the Lorry. But, I will still try my best..."
The Captain nodded, and Amethyst turned around to both face the furnace and listen to what their head engineer had to say.
"The Generator is a large thermal tower," He began, drawing a sketch in the snow, "What you see here is actually a very small portion of it. Most of the construction is below ground in this inner ring," He drew a large pit below the Generator, "This hole was dug once the EEC found an appropriate place to tap the aquifer network below this valley. Down here are heavy support structures, along with the Tower Pumps, which draw water from the aquifer and pump them at high speeds directly up into the Core of the Generator..."
Hooves drew a large, spherical shape in the middle of the generator tower to indicate the core, "Here, Steam Cores combined with the most advanced tech Equestria had would take the water, and if given sufficient heat from 3 giant furnaces located on the south, northwest, and northeast sides of the generator, the Core would superheat the water into steam at an unimaginably high rate."
"How high?" Amethyst asked, curious.
"Ma'am, the Generator is fully capable of turning thousands of gallons of water into steam per second," Hooves gave a faint smile, "The top of the Generator here are the Thermal Hulls and Risers, which also surround a turbine. The superheated steam from the core rises up to these thermal hulls, which powers a steam turbine capable of powering pretty much any electrical device we want even once the city is fully constructed. The Thermal Hulls take any excess heat generated by the core and turbine and radiate it into the air, warming up the air in the valley as much as possible. The steam run through the engine here is then taken through pipes here..." Hooves drew several lines coming down from the top of the Generator to the ground, "And then distributed to buildings around the city for warmth."
The brown earth pony adjusted his glasses, "We will need to lay those pipes below our streets ourselves. Also, the farther away those pipes get from the Generator, the less pressure they will sustain and the more they will cool. Right now, the Generator can only barely produce enough steam to heat a zone large enough to squeeze everypony we have here inside. That's not much of a problem right now, as the valley itself provides enough protection that nopony will freeze to death from sleeping in cold tents, but later on..."
The Captain narrowed his eyes, "Hang on... did you just tell me the Generator can't actually house us all?"
"No, no no!" Doctor Hooves shook his head, "That's not it at all."
"Then?" The Captain quirked an eyebrow.
"Twilight Sparkle wanted the Generator to be as modular as possible. She said that it made no sense to build it to only fit one size if it was supposed to last for millenia. So, as you can see here..." Hooves drew several indentations on the sides of the Generator tower, "These are places where extra furnaces are to be installed. Once we install them, we can provide more heat to the Core, which thanks to its design directly results in more pressure and heat. This will increase the range of the Generator, as well as the amount of Heat it may produce to warm homes and businesses."
"There are also the matters of Hubs," He said, "Notes say that while a tech like this was never directly developed, it was heavily theorized and could be very possible. The theory is that we could place backup furnaces around the city outskirts where the Generator couldn't possibly extend to heat on its own. These furnaces would take cooled steam from the central rings and reheat them, creating extra potential and heat nearby buildings... sort of like a satellite generator."
"...I see. Is there anything else?" The Captain asked, leaning forward a little bit to look at the crude sketch as its lines flickered by the coals of the furnace.
"Yes, one final thing in fact," Hooves coughed, "It's something called the Overdrive. There is a bottleneck between the turbine and the Core, where a steam vent is usually held open to relieve strain on the system. However, if we so wish, we can close this vent. It's unsustainable for not more than a day, but while active it can temporarily increase the heat produced by the tower. However, if it stays on too long, the internal heat buildup can damage certain components, and eventually..."
There was a pause, before Amethyst piped up, "...Eventually...?"
"Eventually the Generator will explode with a force that could flatten everything in a mile's radius. And even if you survive that... your only source of heat is gone..." Hooves shrugged, "You can extrapolate that scenario on your own, if you so wish."
"So just don't over stress the Generator for too long," The Captain sighed, "Seems easy enough..." He then turned towards Amethyst, "Amethyst. How many days of food do we have?"
"Everything remaining in our stores is raw. We can do a lot better by building a cookhouse and turning them into rations," Amethyst explained, once again unlimbering her clipboard to flip through its pages, "When cooked, I think... about three days before ponies start getting very hungry. They will be working constantly, I assume...?"
"Indeed," The Captain grunted, "What food sources do we have out here?"
"Absolutely none," Doctor Hooves shook his head, "No foraging, and nowhere to plant. If we want to eat, we'll need to grow vegetables and fruit from the seeds we have in the Lorries inside of a Hothouse."
"And what's that?" The Captain asked, turning back towards Hooves.
"Well..." Hooves chuckled, "It's a house that's hot."
The Captain quirked an eyebrow.
"...Ahem," The doctor cleared his throat, "Well. The ground is frozen too solid to grow plants out in the open, and it'd be too risky to do that anyway. The only way to grow crops would be to establish a sheltered building with a method of distributing enchanted steam to warm the ground and air enough to sustain plant life."
"We'd do best with a mixture of beans, kale, cabbage, and berries. They would supply all the vitamins our ponies require in their diets," Amethyst noted, continuing to chew on the back of her pencil.
"We also possess some herbs useful in the manufacturing of alchemical remedies, as well as mundane medicine," Hooves added, "Importantly, we must also eventually scout for some place where we can mine salt ice or access ocean water. Salt is integral to a healthy diet, and we had no space to stock it amongst our rations on the way here."
"Our supply of Steam Cores is also to note, Sir," Amethyst flipped her clipboard around, showing the Captain a few numbers on its front page, "We had managed to salvage a Steam Core from Lorry One all the way back when it stalled. We have two more on the surviving Lorries that we can salvage as soon as we have tied them down permanently and unloaded their cargo. As I am sure Doctor Hooves could tell you, Steam Cores are extremely important in establishing any technologically advanced industry out here."
Doctor Hooves nodded, "The most relevant of those technologies, in my opinion, would be coal mines. The spots we've selected for Generator construction were specially chosen for their abundance of Coal. I believe, according to the plans for this site, the southern and eastern walls of the valley can be mined for coal deposits detected during the survey," Hooves pointed a hoof to indicate the valley walls he spoke of, "There are also deposits of Iron Ore scattered around the place that we may mine and turn into Steel for our constructions. The positioning of this Generator was very carefully selected, you see."
"It seems so," The Captain grunted,"As for trying to find salt water- I distinctly remember exploring Sequin Bay a few miles south of here back during my arctic expeditionary days. It was deep enough to park our ships in, so most likely we can drill for salt water there."
"You explored this area before the Frost?" Amethyst asked, curious.
"Yes. Indeed. I'm unsure if I visited this alley in particular, but I made one of my most famous expeditions through these plains about twenty years ago," The Captain breathed out an icy puff of air, "Record for farthest north travelled. It's what made me the ideal pick for this expedition."
"...Was it always this cold?" Amethyst asked, shivering as another blast of wind thundered through the pass.
The Captain chuckled, "Actually. No. But, we did go through it without any of the fancy steam tech we have now. No, not even a Lamp," The Captain raised a forehoof to adjust the Lamp attached to his chest, "Even though it only ever got as low as -30 centigrade... it felt nearly as bad as it is now."
There was only the sound of the wind for a moment, only broken up by the distant shouts of the ponies working the pulleys as they sent yet another load of hopeful citizens down to the valley. Slowly but surely, the crowd was beginning to dissipate around them. It would not be much longer until it was their turn.
"Captain, if I may ask..." Doctor Hooves started the conversation up again, "You seem to be... extremely qualified for this mission... so... why were you selected for this expedition in particular? I know personally of other sites that would've been much harder to navigate to..."
The Captain's eyes searched the crowd, before they landed on a single figure sitting next to a furnace. A white unicorn with a purple mane, and a thick fur coat.
He pointed towards her, leaning in towards Doctor Hooves, "See that pony over there?"
"Yes, sir?" Hooves nodded as his eyes followed the Captain's.
"That is Rarity Belle. She, along with three other refugees on our expedition were close friends of Twilight Sparkle," The Captain explained.
Hooves quirked an eyebrow, "You mean to say... this expedition has been shown nepotism?"
"I believe so, yes," The Captain nodded, "At least, that's how I interpreted it. It's not like Her Majesty told me directly that this was the reason I led this expedition. But... she did give me this..." The Captain reached into his coat pocket, bringing out an envelope sealed with a wax imprint of the Princess of Friendship's cutie mark.
"A letter?" Amethyst chimed in, looking over the Captain's shoulder at the piece of paper.
The Captain nodded again, "She told me to give it to them, but only when they were 'Bereft of the magic that brought them together'."
"Cryptic," Hooves mumbled, stoking the coals in the furnace once again as the cold nipped at his muzzle and at his ears.
"Very much so," the Captain stuffed the letter back in his pocket, "I suppose only time will tell..."
Out of the corner of his eye, the Captain spied a pony walking up to the small circle that the administrators had formed. Snow caked her heavy cloak, and she peered out at them between a small gap between her scarf and a Stetson hat.
"Sir!" the earth pony gave an untrained salute, causing the Captain to automatically return with his own salute, "It's time for y'all to be lowered down to that there Generator! Ponies are already waiting to see it being turned on!"
The Captain stood up from his seat in the snow, his bones creaking as he sighed, "I'm afraid they'll be waiting a while for that."
"Well, whatever you say Captain," The country pony shrugged, "Ah'm excited either way to get out of this wind!"
The three leaders followed her back to the platforms at the base of the pulley, where a metallic cart was suspended by four ropes to the pulley system. There was nowhere to hold on, and the cart shook unconvincingly as the three ponies piled inside.
"Better hang on, and don't try and shake around too much! We have a few foals that we'll squeeze in with ya, if you don't mind!" The pegasus stallion manning the pulley crank shouted.
"Very well!" The Captain shouted, nervously adjusting his wait as he sat in the cart.
Amethyst and Hooves also both piled in around him, the cart swaying from side to side as they did. Amethyst nervously looked up at the ropes that held them up, before simply gulping and staring down to study her forehooves as she shivered.
A pegasus walked forth from the storm, herding along three foals towards the pulley. With a bit of help from the adults, the three wrapped up foals descended into the cart, squeezing in around the legs of the three adults.
The Captain narrowed his eyes as he noticed something off about the three foals', who he could now see were all fillies, winter clothing. An odd accessory was pinned over their heavy cloaks. A red cape, made of a familiar red silk, which was only meant to be given to repair the sashes that the distinguished members of the city's administration wore.
The pulley began to creak as the cart began its descent to the valley below, causing the Captain's stomach to lurch.
Amethyst squeezed her eyes closed as she began to whisper, "Don'tlookdowndon'tlookdowndon'tlookdown..."
Hooves grumbled, "Dear science... we need an elevator."
Eventually, though, the cart quit swaying, becoming more stable. The ponies aboard became less nervous as well, a large inhale coming from Amethyst signalling the end of her hyperventilation as she deigned to simply plaster her forehooves over her eyes.
The Captain, after taking a quick look at the ground, still so far below them, turned his head towards the three fillies, "Say, little ones, where'd you get that fabric from?"
The three of them unanimously stared at him sheepishly. One of them, the small orange pegasus, grinned nervously, "...Through completely legitimate means?"
"If you stole it, I won't be mad," The Captain gave a small smile, drawing his coat a bit closer to his chest.
"Well... we didn't not steal it," The white unicorn filly mumbled.
Hooves sneered and leaned forwards towards the three foals, causing them to shy away in fear, "That's expensive stuff! We only have so much of that material you-"
Amethyst plugged Hooves's mouth with a forehoof, "Aww... I'm sure nopony will miss a little bit of silk. Will they?" Her eyes turned back towards the Captain.
The Captain, however, just rolled his eyes, avoiding Amethyst's gaze and looking at the fillies instead, "You know stealing is a very serious crime, right?"
"...Yes siree..." The bright yellow earth pony filly's gaze looked down, "...But me and mah friends just wanted to remember the good old days. And we had these capes and they were just the right color... and it didn't look like nopony would mind..."
"Hmph, well," The Captain crossed his forehooves, smiling slyly, "I'll let it slip... for now. But, I can't just let known criminals run around free, can I?"
The foals blinked, and Doctor Hooves rolled his eyes as Amethyst slowly removed her forehoof from his mouth.
"Every morning, at exactly 7:30, I want you to report to my tent so that I may personally search you, punish you with a cup of hot cocoa, and watch over you so you don't get to any mischief!" The Captain ordered sternly, "Am I understood?"
The pegasus filly beamed, "Whoah! That sounds like a great deal!"
"Yeah! You got it, mister!" The earth pony nodded fervently.
"Very well! Please, give me your names!" The Captain leaned in, smile beaming wide as he kept his forehooves crossed.
The pegasus spoke up first, "Scootaloo!"
"Apple Bloom!" The earth pony said next.
"Sweetie Belle," The unicorn finished.
"Very good," The Captain nodded, his smile persisting, "I want you at my place by 7:30 tomorrow morning. No tardiness, understood?"
"Yessir!" Sweetie nodded.
Suddenly, the cart rumbled to a stop, and its passengers finally realized just how much closer the ground had gotten. They were now on the floor of the valley, and already they could feel the change in temperature.
Without the wind, the air was almost balmy. Doctor Hooves took out a device from his pocket, looking at it with fascination, "A mere -20 degrees! Fantastic!"
The Captain wordlessly adjusted his cap, standing up and beginning to disembark from the cart. Another pegasus pony, standing by the bottom end of the pulley, helped the foals get out over the high sides of the metal bin. Once everypony was off, the pegasus tugged the rope twice, signalling the pony at the top to begin retrieving the cart.
From down in the valley, the Generator's size was truly immense. The Captain's neck strained to truly look up to the top of the massive steel tower. The massive steam machine was currently idle, and now he could only imagine what it would look like when active.
He looked around at the supplies left scattered in the snow. There was steel wreckage, wooden boxes, and piles of coal smattered around the valley seemingly at random. Snow fell slowly from the sky above onto them, with the world being so paradoxically calm when compared to the chaos outside of the sanctuary of the valley.
The three fillies ran out ahead of the Captain and his entourage, running towards the Generator with their giggles and laughter disappearing into the night. By now, it was only a few more hours until sunrise. Even though the sun would still be dim through the storm clouds, it would still shine on a new day for Ponykind. A day hopefully safe from the eternal winter, where perhaps they could rebuild what they lost to the frost.
The three began their slow trudge through the snow towards the Generator, the small twinkling lights of the citizenry's Lamps sparkling under the Generator.
Huge, gaping bins stared up into the sky, yawning for coal to be inserted into them. The only premade building in sight sat right next to the huge tower: a set of what looked like warehouses to stockpile resources in. From what the Captain could see as he walked around the Generator's inner ring, inspecting the machine and the situation, the stockpiles were completely empty for now. Regardless, he felt thankful that there was at least some place to put the resources they would salvage from the Lorries and gather from the surrounding piles.
"Captain, look," Amethyst tapped the Captain on his shoulder, turning his attention away from the stockpiles to stare up towards the Generator.
Amethyst's hoof pointed up towards a huge placard mounted on the face of the Generator. The Equestrian Exploration Company's familiar logo was imprinted on its top, and engraved below it was:
SITE 132 - NEW PONYVILLE.
THIS GENERATOR OWES ITS EXISTENCE TO THE BRAVE SACRIFICES OF NEARLY 200 PONIES, WORKING TIRELESSLY TO SEE ITS COMPLETION. HOLD THEIR MEMORY IN YOUR HEARTS, THOSE WHO COME LATER, FOR THEY ARE THE ONES WHO YOU TRULY OWE YOUR LIVES.
SIGNED, DIRECTOR TWILIGHT SPARKLE
"200..." The Captain whispered, nearly breathless, "How is that possible..."
Amethyst gulped, "I... I guess this Generator has a lot of stories to tell."
"I'm sure it does," Chimed in Doctor Hooves, also staring up at the engraving.
There was a moment more of silence, where the three continued to appreciate the lack of noise, be it from the storm or from the endless rumble of a Steam Lorry's engine.
Eventually, the Captain broke the silence with a sharp exhale, blowing out a frosty cloud from his nostrils, "I suppose we'd better get to work, then. We can't have ponies sleeping on the floor, and the faster we can begin fueling this thing, the better..."
Amethyst Star reached into her pack, bringing out the megaphone with a smile and floating it over to the Captain.
The Captain nodded, taking it in his own magic as he raised it to his mouth and turned to face the crowd.
"Attention! Everypony!" His voice boomed across the crowds of gathered, idle ponies, causing them to turn towards him and fall silent.
"We have arrived at our new home! Yet there is still much to do!" The Captain's voice held years of experience in leadership, and his booming voice commanded authority over the crowd, "We must gather the resources left for us, as well as decouple the remaining cargo from the Steam Lorries!"
He gestured towards the row of Administrators standing next to him, which included Amethyst and Hooves, "My ponies will divide you into two groups! Group one will be given extra layers to bundle up with, and will be sent to the Steam Lorries to ferry supplies from their cargo bays and to the pulleys! The second group will be split into groups of thirty, and will head out to stockpile coal, wood, and steel from the nearby piles!"
"You will be off shift by 6 o' clock this evening, where hopefully we may erect tents, activate the Generator, and build a place to prepare food and eat! Remember this, though: Every plank, steel panel, and lump of coal you collect today will directly dictate if you sleep under a tent or in the open, if the Generator stays dead or hums with warmth, and if you will eat a full meal come tomorrow!"
There was silence from the crowd, but the Captain was sure in himself that they got his message.
"Now, there is no time to waste! Get to work!" The Captain cried.
And so, as the administrators began to divide the workforce up, the Captain lowered the megaphone with pride puffing in his chest. There was Hope, hope of a brighter future. They just needed to work for it. For now, everypony had the same mind, the same goal.
He just hoped he could keep it that way.