//------------------------------//
// Frozen 
// Story: Frozen:The day the sun died. 
// by Brosparkles 
//------------------------------//

		Frozen

Sol awoke within his room, far earlier than normal, and rolled groggily out of bed. His hoofsteps echoing down the halls as he walked across the metal floors of his room. The walls were all bare, no windows, just blankness. A vent on the wall occasionally shot out hot steam, which he had moved his bed out of the way of. You could still feel the scalding heat, but it was much better than the alternative. Such was the norm living in a geo-thermal shelter. He had been told he was one of the lucky few, his parents managed to secure a position inside of the shelter for him. He had heard from some of the older ponies living within the shelter that it wasn’t always like this, but he had no idea what it was like before. His bright yellow mane hung down his face messily, as it normally did. His brown fur was a bit dirty, but nothing too bad. He had a cutie mark, which was a bright flash. The elders seemed to know what it meant, but never told him anything other than it represented hope.He tried his best to look presentable, but there wasn’t much that could be done. He headed down to get his daily food dosage, which had to be carefully rationed between the residents Only so much can be grown underground, after all. The food was the same as usual, anything that can be grown in florescent lights. It all tasted horrible, and he tried to down it quickly. He received his water dosage, which had to be drawn from the lower ocean. He wondered if this is how all food tasted. There had to be something else out there. But enough lusting for something better. He did have one thing he enjoyed in this otherwise boring life. His friends. The few other children around his age. He ran off towards their usual meeting place, near steam vent 5. That was the one that was furthest away from the geyser the shelter was built on, and not many ponies hung around it. It was a little colder than the rest, but still stayed warm enough. There two ponies waited, exchanging muffled idle chatter. He approached them, and one waved to him.

“Sol!” the stallion called out.

“Get your flank over here! He’s got something to tell you!” the mare yelled to him.

The three of them were all young adults, the mare being a year or so older, and the stallion a bit younger than Sol. The mare was a bright purple, with a long, flowing bright red mane. The stallion was a light blue, with a deep blue mane, which was short cut, and didn’t hang further than the top of his neck. The Stallion’s cutie mark was a wave, representing his skill with water magic, and the mare had a bright amethyst, which symbolised her truthfulness. Sol, rushed off towards them.

“What is it, Aqua?” he asked the Stallion.

“You know that secret I was working on?” He said quietly, looking around, making sure no one was around.

“Yeah, what about it?”

“It’s ready.”

Aqua motioned them to his room, and they followed. He closed the door behind them,  and he unlocked a box, containing 3 strange suits, one with wings, and two with horns.

“You actually got them working?” The mare said, grabbing one of the horned ones.

“Yeah, but we can’t use them yet Amethyst. We can’t just wear these around the shelter.”

Sol grabbed the winged ones, being a pegasus.

“Well, is everypony ready?” Amethyst asked.

“I know I am.” Sol said.

“I guess so.” Aqua said.

They put the suits back into the box, which aqua carried with him. They acted normal, and calmly walked throughout the shelter, towards the exit, long ago closed. Aqua pointed them to a small closet where they could get the suits on without drawing suspicion, no pony came near the exit anymore. Sol got a closer look at them, and they really did seem to be perfect. They were a bit loose, but were completely enclosed, except for a mask, which had to be attached separately. It looked like something you would see in one of those old comic books that someone showed him once. It even covered the tail, although not very comfortably.

“So, why do we need these again?” Amethyst asked.

“Well, we don’t know what’s out there, I want to be safe.” Aqua replied. “Sol, could I say something to you?”

“Aww, the two lovebirds want to be left alone? I’m heading to the doors, see ya.” Amethyst said.

“I’m sure that these are safe, but...I have no idea what’s out there. If something happens, I just wanted to say...I love you.”

They kissed, in a more bittersweet fashion than usual. Sol tried not to show it, but he was afraid. But he couldn’t just sit around in here waiting for life to pass him by, not anymore.

“I’m sure we’ll be fine, what’s the worst that could happen?” Sol asked.

“You’re probably right, but you never know.” Aqua responded.

“What are you two doing in there! Get out here already!” Amethyst yelled from outside the door.

“We should probably go.” Sol said, sliding his helmet on.

Aqua nodded, and slid his on as well. They exited the closet, and approached the doors. The doors were built on an automatic airlock system, and as they passed through the first one, it closed behind them, and there was a bit of a walk to the second one, to give the door time to close. Sol was shaking, both from excitement and from fear. Aqua was a bit as well, though mostly from fear. Sol felt like he had dragged Aqua into this scheme of his. Amethyst was down with it from the start, but Aqua had seemed hesitant. But it was too late to turn back now.

“Okay, everyone turn on the temperature control, the oxygen circulation, and the solar panels. We need to be prepared for anything.” Aqua said through small radios he put in the helmets.

They all turned on each function as he named it, and Sol noticed the suit was indeed solar generating.

“I found these really nice solar panels, they’re really tough, and don’t lose much to heat. I don’t know why they were all just sitting around.” Aqua said, noticing Sol looking at them.

“Let’s go.” Amethyst said.

“Right.” Sol agreed.

Aqua slid the door open, and they head through. The doors closed behind them, and stayed sealed. A loud thud was heard, and the door would not open from this side.

“Well, we can’t go back.”  Aqua said.

The three of them were in a small cave, dug into the ground over a geothermal hotspot. Steam shot up around them as they headed out.

“I can’t see anything.” Sol said.

Aqua fiddled with his helmet, and a light shot on.

“Turn yours on.” Aqua said to the other two.

They both flicked the lights on, and could see. The cave was very dark, the darkest they had ever seen. The surface was just up ahead. They walked out of the cave, and began to survey the land. Snow covered the land, except near the geysers, which kept snow off of the area near them. It was still unbelievably dark. 

“It’s too dark to get any use from this solar.” Aqua said. “But the batteries should be good for quite a while, hopefully the sun will come up soon.”

The Sun was always this sort of mythical object to Sol. He had never seen it, but he heard it was a huge ball of fire in the sky. It seemed like some sort of myth, but supposedly it was real. All around was nothing, but after scanning the area with flashlights for quite some time, Sol spotted a building.

“I suppose we should head inside.” Aqua said.

“It’ll be more fun than walking around in the snow.” Amethyst said.

Snow was interesting to him as well. He had seen water, but never seen it freeze. The three of them headed off to this  building. Inside were lot of mundane things, it looked to be a transport station that had been abandoned. Amethyst found a slip of paper, which she unfolded. It was a map of a land called “Equestria.” That seemed to be where they were, as it matched one of the ones they saw in the shelter. 

“The shelter is in the Dragon Mountains, right?” Sol said.

“Yeah, we’re nearby Canterlot. Still quite a distance to go on hoof though.” Aqua said.

“I heard there are these things, trains I think, that could take us there.” Amethyst said.

“Oh, right! That old railroad worker talked about them!” Aqua said.

“It says here the railroads passed by often.” Amethyst noted, looking at a schedule.

“Well, it is a train station.” Sol said, noticing a sign, which read “Hoofington Train Station.”

“Cmon, the train can’t be far.” Amethyst said.

“Can we really run one with just 3 people?” Sol asked.

“We won’t know until we try.” Aqua said.

The three of them headed towards the rails, careful of anything in the shadows. Not far from the station, a large metal beast sat on the rails, intimidatingly staring them down. 

“That must be it. It looks a lot like what he said it would.” Aqua said.

“That thing can move?”  Sol said, shocked.

“I don’t know, it looks pretty heavy.” Amethyst said.

“It must have a huge engine.” Aqua said.

The three of them approached the train cautiously. Amethyst gave the front of it a light tap with her hoof.

“It’s probably broken. Why else would it just be left here?” Sol asked.

“Where is Hoofington?” Aqua asked confusedly.

“What?” Sol asked.

“It isn’t on this map.” Aqua said.

“But, it’s a town, isn’t it?” Amethyst asked.

“Is it?” Sol asked. “I don’t see any sort of town.”

Sol and Amethyst looked around for any sort of signs of a town, while Aqua kept checking the map. The occasional little bit of a wall or some flooring would show up, but no homes.

“Amethyst, over here.” Sol said, looking around the remainders of one home.

“Ashes.” she said.

“You think it was burned down?” Sol asked.

“Sounds like it, but why?” Aqua said, hearing the conversation through their radios.

“An accident?” Sol suggested.

“Arson?” Aqua added.

“”I dunno.” Amethyst said.

“Hold on.” Aqua said.

“What?” Amethyst asked. 

“There’s something crossed out on this map.” Aqua said.

“Do you think it could be Hoofington?” Sol asked.

“Maybe. It looks like there was a city here. Why would it be crossed out?” Aqua asked.

“Because this place is gone.” Sol said.

Amethyst entered the train slowly, flicking her light back and forth, scanning the area. Nopony seemed to be inside.

“But that would mean that this map was changed after the city was burned.” Sol said.

“Who would be here to change it?” Aqua said.

“Well, the train station is still here, maybe someone was still running it for a while.”  Amethyst said.

“That’d be a pretty bleak job. Running a transport station for a dead town.” Aqua remarked.

Amethyst noticed her hoof hit something on the floor. She shone her light on it, and jumped back, horrified.

“Gaaaah!” She exclaimed.

“Amethyst?” Aqua yelled.

“I’m fine. But...get in here.” Amethyst said.

Sol and Aqua headed into the train, and saw what she was horrified of. A mare, long dead, was on the floor in front of her, iced over.

“What happened?” Sol asked.

“I don’t know! She was just...here!” Amethyst yelled.

Aqua fiddled with another small device on his suit, a small black dot. Some static was heard, and his voice amplified. A tape recorder started up, which he had modified to playback instantly, so he could hear things from outside of his suit, and speak outside of it as well.

“Damn, you really put everything you could think of into these, didn’t you?” Amethyst said, impressed.

“Hello?” Aqua asked, his voice projecting throughout the train

No response. He turned the speaker back off, but left the recorder functioning. Sol turned his on as well, as did Amethyst.

“Come on, let’s see if we can get this thing started.” Sol said.

“How?” Aqua asked.

“It can’t be that hard.” Amethyst said.

The three of them walked towards the back of the train. With the recorders on, they could
hear nothing but their hoofsteps on the floor of the train. 	.

“That must be the engine ahead.” Aqua said.

“I don’t see anything.” Amethyst said.

“Over here.” Aqua said, as he approached the engine.

“That little thing is supposed to move this whole train?” Amethyst said.

“Well, someone needs to go up front and operate it.” Aqua said.

“I can do that.” Sol said.

“Okay, it shouldn’t be too hard, this thing’s on a track.” Aqua said.

Sol hovered over to the front of the train, where the controls were located.

“So, do you know how to start this?” Amethyst asked.

“No, but it should work like any other engine, just put some fuel in.” Aqua said.

“Like this?” Amethyst said, grabbing some coal.

“That should work.” Aqua said. “But I have no idea what will happen when it starts.”

“Well, might as well give it a shot.” Amethyst said, as she chucked some coal into the engine.

“Now to start it up.” Aqua said.

He scanned around the engine, until he found the startup controls. He pulled a lever, firing up the engine. but nothing seemed to be happening.

“Is it working?” Amethyst asked.

Before Aqua could answer, an ear-splitting crash was heard, followed by a screech. A rusted piston began to screech back to life, and slowly started to function. The engine was up and kicking once more, a symbol of hope in a desolate wasteland.