//------------------------------//
// To Survive  
// Story: BLACK ICE 
// by TheCrimsonDM 
//------------------------------//

BLACK ICE
Written by TheCrimsonDM


A lone pony sat on the cold and cracked floor of an abandoned gas station. It was dark in here save for the light coming off of the white diamond shaped clasp on the ponies green cloak. The pony reached out towards the shelves he sat in front of and with his light blue hooves he worked carefully and quickly to fill up his brown saddlebag. 

His goal was simple; find any food, drink, or otherwise usable items. He had to work quickly though, because night was falling fast. The last thing that he wanted was to be left out here alone at night. The safety of the ruins of this miserable place were questionable enough during the daytime, all bets were off after dark.

He could feel the cold sweat on his brow, and quickly wiped it away with his foreleg. He stopped just long enough to brush snow out of his spiky silver mane. It would have been wise to continue wearing the hood when he opened the door to the gas station earlier, but instead he felt like taking his hood off so that he could thoroughly enjoy having a bunch of snow dumped onto his head.

He finally got the last can of vegetables off of the shelf when he heard a ‘clang’ and then the sound of something rolling. He quickly reached over and with his mouth grabbed the handle of his short sword, and drew it silently. He waited and watched with extreme caution as a can of food rolled passed his aisle and out of view. Something was in here with him.

It was still bright enough outside to mark off a number of threats, but it still left him with a plethora of monsters to choose from. He waited in silence, praying to Celestia, that he was just facing against gravity, he knew that there was little chance of that happening though.

Soft steps could be heard through the store as something moved just out of sight. He tightened the grip on his weapon as the steps moved ever closer to his current position. Suddenly a dark gray snout appeared from one edge of the aisle along with long whiskers. It sniffed a few times, and then it left.

He relaxed a little bit as he felt the danger was now leaving for the better. After a few silent and long moments he took a step back, wanting nothing more than to put on his saddlebags and be done with this place. The back of his rear leg touched the shelf and a few empty boxes fell to the floor with light thuds.

Tension crawled back up his mane, and he gripped his sword tightly again. A sudden high pitched squeak was heard. Fast but light steps ran towards the aisle. The gray snout reappeared along with its body. A giant rat, about half his size, was now charging at him. Its jagged sharp maw opened and ready for the kill.

He quickly swung his sword and hit the rat across its side, cutting a deep gash into the rat as it’s body was flung into the aisle wall. He quickly finished it with a stab of his blade. He pulled his sword back, and grimaced at the sight of it covered in crimson. 

He quickly fished around the shelves for a rag of some kind and found a shirt. He used the old shirt to clean his blade before returning it to its sheath. He put the saddlebags back on and left the store as quietly as he came in. As he entered the afternoon light the white diamond clasp stopped glowing. He took one last look back at the store thinking to himself,  I made a mistake in there, if it wasn’t just a giant rat, I’d be in trouble. 

And with that he began his trek back into the snow covered ruins of the lost pony city. He wasn’t sure what he was going to do now, but he knew one thing for sure. He had food that would hopefully last him a few days. He was a scout, he was a survivor, he was Heart Drizzle.


***


The afternoon sun had sunken low in the horizon while Heart Drizzle made his return home. His heart was beginning to race, and his mind began to panic as he looked at the sun. The tall buildings held shadows that watched him with dark intent as he made his way through the old ruins of Tall Tale. The snow was a few inches thick in most places, and up to a foot in others, so no matter where he walked he could always hear his own hoofsteps. The only other sounds he could hear right now were the sound of the wind breezing through empty buildings.

Tall Tale didn’t always used to be a snow covered graveyard; in fact it was once a bustling city. Its population rivaled that of Manehattan’s. But most importantly, it was home to Heart Drizzle after he got done serving his term in the Equestrian Border Patrol. Heart Drizzle loved it here back then, it was a beautiful city, where everypony was always busy, boredom didn’t exist here. Now the city looms over the surrounding forest as a testament to civilization, or more likely as a forgotten relic of what life was like before the world froze over.

Nopony was sure exactly what caused the world to freeze over the way it did. One day it started snowing, and didn’t stop. To make matters worse, terrible monsters began to ravage the world. Canterlot stood firmly for a few years against these threats, but eventually even it fell to the cold. As far as Heart Drizzle knew, Equestria only had a hoof full of survivors left, scattered across the landscape, eking out whatever kind of an existence they could. The world had already ended, and rebuilding it now seemed impossible. There was really only one thing left to do, survive.

Heart Drizzle made one last turn around another city block and his heart soared. Before him he could see his home, one of the apartments on the second floor of an old building. He couldn’t help but trot up the back ally and climb on top of a dumpster. From there he climbed onto the fire escape and made his way through the window.

The first thing Heart Drizzled noticed as he entered the living room was the smell of burning rubber followed quickly by the sight of smoke floating out of the bedroom down the hall. He quickly dashed through the living room, jumping over the coffee table and moving around the boxes of junk as he made his way to the smoke. He turned and saw a tall light brown earth pony wearing goggles and holding a sparking wire in his mouth. 

Heart Drizzle’s heart calmed down but to make a point he scowled at the brown earth pony and said, “Damn it, Dusty. What on Equestria did you do this time?”

Dusty spat the wire out onto the floor and pushed his goggles up into his messy purple mane before answering in a southern drawl, “Nice tah meet ya too. How’s yer day been, Mahn’s been pretty busy.”

Heart Drizzle stared hard at his roommate and best friend for a few seconds before letting out a deep sigh. He didn’t know what he expected from his roommate, Dusty had a tendency to make messes when screwing around with arcane devices. Heart Drizzle found himself remembering a specific instance where Dusty had somehow turned a toaster into a bomb.

“You know what? I don’t care what happened,” Heart Drizzle said while staring at the black sing marks around the edges of Dusty’s mane. “Just don’t do it again tonight, by the way I found some food today.”

“That’s good, Ah just hope you didn’t have trouble getting it,” Dusty said before turning around and facing his workbench again.

Heart Drizzle looked towards the window he had run through and realized he needed to close it. He began walking towards it while shouting, “Only a giant rat, nothing too troubling today.”

“Good, Ah’m glad cus the last time you encountered The Darkness Ah was afraid you’d get yerself killed,” Dusty shouted back.

Heart Drizzle shut the window that he had climbed in from, and then proceeded to move the bookshelf in front of it. The other windows were already boarded up, and since the doorway was blocked off as well, the fire escape window was the only one they could use for an entrance/exit for the apartment. Thankfully the bookshelf was a sturdy wooden one, so far nothing has broken through it.

Heart Drizzle stared out one of the boarded window looking down at the streets below. Memories of what the city used to look like all those years ago played in his mind. “I miss those days,” he whispered to himself. He couldn’t help his thoughts from wandering.  I remember those days, when life was relatively peaceful. Before everything began freezing, before the world ended. I wonder if Canterlot is still there, even if it is, it’s probably nothing but ice by now. 

“So you got lost in yer thoughts again?” asked Dusty from a surprisingly close distance.

Heart Drizzle turned around to face Dusty and saw a look of pity in his eyes. Heart Drizzle looked away and walked to the couch. He sat his bags down on the floor and climbed on top of the old piece of furniture. He was suddenly tired, thinking about how things used to be always exhausted him.

Dusty walked up and started picking through the saddlebags with his hooves until he found something he liked. A grin spread across the brown pony’s face as he stared at the tired Heart Drizzle. “So, Drizzy, how bout Ah cook up some grub fer us?”

Heart Drizzle stared at his two front hooves.  It’s only fitting that I have blue fur. Blue, the color of sadness, the color of depression.  The familiar feeling of numbness began crawling over his heart, he wished he was anywhere else right now.  Fighting monsters, easy. Exploring crumbling ruins, doable. Sitting around waiting at night, hardest thing in Equestria.  He closed his eyes slowly and felt himself being pulled away into the cold, black void of sleep.


***


A howling scream filled the tiny room and loud banging sounds woke Heart Drizzle from his shallow slumber. He quickly sat up searching the room for the source of the noises. A black shape was moving violently just behind the boarded up window. It was clawing and pounding desperately at the window with all its might. 

“Take this,” shouted Dusty as he tossed something at Heart Drizzle.

Heart Drizzle caught it with practiced ease in his mouth. The object in question was an old arcane powered weapon that he had found a long time ago. It was a bronze rectangular box that with a hole on one end. The box had a handle with a trigger designed to be held in the mouth, like most tools in Equestria. The only difference was that this tool was designed, by accident, to kill.

Heart Drizzle pointed the side with the hole towards the window and took aim. A few seconds passed with the monster continuing its assault on the barricade. Finally it broke through, sticking a black sickly looking leg through the window trying to grasp at anything it could reach with its hoof. 

He used his tongue to pull the trigger and a large bullet went flying out towards the leg. The bullet hit the leg and tore through the exposed flesh, black blood spilled from the wound. The monster let out a wicked scream and withdrew its leg. Heart Drizzle waited in complete silence for a long time. After the silence became too much to bare he spat out the weapon and laid back down.

“Good aim,” complemented Dusty.

Heart Drizzle stayed quiet for a few seconds as his brain slowly calmed down. His heart was still racing from the assault but he felt a little more secure now. “Thanks, I wasn’t sure if a simple injury would scare them off this time. Glad it did though.”

“Those things might be monsters, but they ain’t stupid. They’ve been testing our defenses for a while now, Ah just hope it doesn’t get much worse than this,” Dusty commented flatly.

A wonderful aroma wafted through the living room and into Heart Drizzle’s nose. He sat up instantly and sniffed again, it smelled like cooking but he wasn’t exactly sure what it was. It couldn’t have been anything he brought back with him, he didn’t find anything that could possibly smell this good.

“What’s cooking?” Heart Drizzle asked.

“Black bean and mushroom soup,” replied Dusty as he turned to walk back into the kitchen. “It must’ve been mah good cookin that aroused them monsters.”

Heart Drizzle pushed himself off the couch and onto the floor. He felt a lot better after getting some sleep, but he could still sense the numbness at the edge of his mind. It’s been there for a long time now, but he wasn’t ready to give in just yet. There were certain things that he had taken up to doing when depression got too hard on him, maintaining his weapons, restocking his saddlebags, and drawing were all things he would do to distract his mind.

He grabbed his weapon as he walked into the kitchen and watched his giant roommate stirring a pot of food that smelled delicious. He took a seat at the table and set the weapon down in front of himself.  The bolt gun, or as I call it, Bolter. Using a high powered wind spell this device fires large bullets at ultra high speeds. It was originally designed as a tool for construction but when they began tests and saw its potential, they changed the direction of its design into that of a weapon. At least that’s what I remember reading in National Equestria Magazine. Both the magazine and Bolter are relics of the past now, but at least one of them is still useful. 

Dusty finally stopped cooking and turned off the gas powered stovetop. He then poured some of the soup into two bowls. The bowls sat on a tray that he picked up with his mouth and sat down on the kitchen table very carefully. Heart Drizzle grabbed one bowl in between his forehooves very carefully and brought to his side of the table. He sat it down next to Bolter.

Dusty grabbed his own bowl and after setting it down he looked over at Bolter and said, “Do ya really need to bring weapons to the table?”

“After an assault like that, I’d be crazy not to,” offered Heart Drizzle.

That got a small chuckle out of Dusty and Heart Drizzle laughed as well. Heart Drizzle then looked down at his bowl of soup and took in its scent. He could smell the various herbs and spices that had been put into the soup causing him to salivate. The light purple color of the creamy soup itself was a little off putting though.

Heart Drizzle very carefully using one of his hooves brought a spoon down into the bowl. He was careful to bring it up to his lips and gave it a taste. The flavor of garlic was a little strong but mixed in well with all the other spices. Maybe a little too much black pepper as well but that wasn’t a bad thing. It was delicious!

Heart Drizzle could not help himself as he began digging into the food and eating it as though his life depended on it. It had been a long time since he had tasted anything so good, unfortunately until today he had been unable to obtain any good supplies for cooking. But today was a joyous day indeed now that he finally had a real, home cooked meal in front of him. Cooking had never been something that Heart Drizzle was any good at, it was always Dusty’s skill.

For awhile they ate together in silence, with Heart Drizzle looking fondly at his weapon, and Dusty reading a book. Heart Drizzle was happy to have his long time ally back in action; Bolter had recently run out of energy to use the spell that was housed inside of it. With Dusty being an arcane mechanic and all, Heart Drizzle had somberly given his weapon up to be recharged. It took a little longer then it should have but it was finally back in usable condition, and this filled his heart with a sense of relief.

“How did you manage to fix it?” asked Heart Drizzle, not taking his eyes off Bolter for a second.

“Ah found some spare spirit stones in the fridge,” Dusty replied while flipping the page of his book.

“Well I guess we don’t need a fridge anyways,” Heart Drizzle said. After thinking about this for a few seconds he asked, “Did that really work? Taking the power from a fridge to recharge Bolter?”

“All arcane tech relies upon the founding principle of, ya take a spell and shove it into an object to get a desired effect. So any magical power source would’ve worked to some extent. Luckily fer us, freezing spells take a bit of energy to get working and Bolter’s spell is energy efficient,” Explained Dusty.

“What do you mean energy efficient? How can energy be efficient?” Asked Heart Drizzle while still admiring his dangerous friend lying on the table.

“Simply put, some spells take a lot more energy than others. Bolter there uses a spell that uses a lot less energy than most, so it’s what we like to call ‘energy efficient. Honestly Ah’m surprised that it’s taken so long to run out of energy in the first place,” Dusty explained.

After a few more minutes of silence and eating Dusty said, “There sure are a lot of stallions in here, most of em of pegasi too.”

Heart Drizzle looked up and looked hard at the black faceless cover of the book that Dusty was reading. His cheeks, despite the cold, began heating up rather quickly as he stated, “That’s my art book isn’t it?”

“Ayep,” Dusty replied simply with a sly grin on his face.

Heart Drizzle felt like covering his head and going to sleep if it would make Dusty stop looking at the book sooner. Dusty was as close to Heart Drizzle as any pony could be, they considered each other brothers even if they weren’t related by blood. So even though it was embarrassing, an intrusion like this was forgivable. 

In an attempt to dislodge the feeling of embarrassment that Heart Drizzle was feeling he asked, “So when I came home today it looked like something happened in your room. What was it?”

“Just a small explosion when Ah was trying to turn on this heater AH found today. Turns out, it didn’t like having that much energy pumped into it all at once. Thing was nearly unsalvageable after that, but I got a nice idea from it,” Dusty said.

“Yeah what’s that?” Heart Drizzle asked.

“If we could build a big enough heater, we could maybe make an area that was warm enough to grow crops again. Maybe if we had a unicorn we could make some equipment that would allow us to get through the weather and make a farm… we would need a few more ponies for that though,” Dusty explained.

“Large groups only get destroyed, besides that I don’t want to be a leader ever again,” Heart Drizzle explained.  It hurts to bad when you lose the ponies you love. 

“Ah didn’t say you had to be the leader, that would be a terrible idea. No, Ah was thinking instead that you an me could join another group. Ah would help them set up everything, you could still do scouting things all by yerself if ya wanted too,” Dusty said.

Heart Drizzle thought about it for a few minutes in silence. Finally at length he said, “Okay, I’ll do that. So long as I’m not in charge, everything will be fine.”

A smile appeared on Dusty’s face and he said, “Sounds good. Guess that means we will be keeping an eye out for groups around here. Haven’t seen any in awhile though, not even any raiders. It’s been quiet.”

The fact that it’s been quiet was disturbing. Heart Drizzle, despite having gone on long scouting trips every day, had not seen a single living pony outside himself and dusty in a few weeks. Maybe they were the last two left, and all their plans were over right then and there. The thought of it made him worried, so he pushed it away and instead thought about what they would do when they found other ponies. It would be nice to see and talk to some new ponies. Hopefully things would work out for the best.


***


The next day Heart Drizzle and Dusty Soul both went out into town at the brake of dawn. They had a couple of things to do for the day, the first of which was to look for any supplies they could use, following that they were looking for any survivors they could find. Heart Drizzle hopped that they could find somepony, anypony really, to break up the silence that this city has suffered for so long.

Dusty walked alongside Heart Drizzle, the brown earth pony towered over Heart Drizzle. It used to be a little unnerving to walk alongside somepony so tall, but by now he had gotten used to it. Although Dusty was very tall, he was also very clumsy and Heart Drizzle could see just how much by the way that Dusty walked through the snow with him. Then again Heart Drizzle was very dexterous and his steps were quiet and well placed, even in the snow.

After a few hours Heart Drizzle noticed something that he hadn’t seen in a very long time. He motioned for Dusty to stop walking as he examined the ground. A set of small hoof prints were left in the snow, they were smaller then his own. He came to the conclusion that these must belong to a mare, but the question was, who was it, and where was she. The good news was that they were fresh.

“Looks like we might have found another survivor,” Heart Drizzle said.

“That’s good news, maybe we can do some good after all,” replied Dusty optimistically.

They followed the set of hoof prints for a few hours until they heard some sounds coming from around the street. Taking great caution Heart Drizzle walked quietly up to the end of the street and using the building as cover he poked his head around the corner carefully.

Across the street from his current position he spotted an old museum, its windows shattered but blocked by iron bars. The front door was boarded up tightly preventing any easy access into the building. But the thing that really stuck out to him was the three ponies standing just outside the front doors of the building. All the ponies were wearing thick black leather armor and arguing. After listening in for a bit, he realized they were arguing about how to get inside the building.

The more he watched the more information he collected about these three ponies. One of them was a purple stallion with a short black mane. There was also a mare with red fur and a mid length purple mane, Heart Drizzle felt almost as though he recognized her. The pony who Heart Drizzle guessed was the leader was a blue stallion with a bright green and yellow stripped mane. The leader also wore a pair of sun glasses, although the sun was covered by thick clouds so Heart Drizzle couldn’t understand why he was still wearing them.

After a few minutes of watching them argue Heart Drizzle returned silently to Dusty. Dusty looked a little excited as he asked quietly, “Are there ponies over there?”

“Yeah, and they don’t look like raiders… but we still got to be careful. We have no idea who they are, they could mean us lots of harm,” Heart Drizzle explained.

“Yeah, yeah, but they could also be really nice people. So let’s give ‘em a chance,” Dusty said.

Heart Drizzle was happy to have Bolter back for this occasion. As the two of them walked carefully and slowly around the corner they watched the other three ponies for any dangerous movements. Dusty being the charismatic one cleared his throat and hollered, “Howdy.”

The other three turned instantly and Heart Drizzle watched. The purple one reached over towards the sword at his side, the leader stared at them with a sly grin, and the mare looked stunned. Heart Drizzle wasn’t sure what he had expected them to do, it’s probably been a while since these ponies saw any others as well.

“Hey now,” Dusty said, “We’re just tryin to get by, just like ya’ll. So why don’t we all be civil here?”

The leader’s grin grew in size and he quickly looked over at his purple friend. The purple one relaxed and stopped reaching towards his sword. The leader then returned his attention to Heart Drizzle and Dusty. “It’s been awhile since we’ve met any ponies who want to talk. Last couple of months it’s been nothing but raiders, and thieves. But since you two don’t look like either of those, and since you don’t look like merchants, I have to ask myself; who exactly are you two?”

Dusty opened his mouth to speak but was interrupted by the mare.

“Dusty? Drizzy? Is that really you two?” She said with a voice full of joy.

Dusty and Heart Drizzle blinked in surprise a few times before Dusty asked, “Rosy, is that really you?”

The mare smiled and said proudly, “Rosy River, at your service.”

Dusty grew a giant grin on his face as he said, “Wow, Ah can’t believe you’re here. Ah thought fer sure that you were an ice statue by now.”

“For shame. You should’ve known that I’d be strong enough to survive this mess. Seriously though I’m so glad to see you two again,” Rosy said. “Especially you, Dusty.” She quickly winked at him.

Heart Drizzle feeling more than a little confused by the fact that there was a mare who seemingly know him very well, one that he recognized, but he couldn’t quite place as to where or how. Heart Drizzle looked between Dusty and Rosy and asked, “Who exactly are you again?”

“It’s me, Rosy, from the little old bar in Ponyville. Don’t you remember?” she explained.

It took Heart Drizzle a few moments of silent contemplation before he could recall Ponyville, and then he remembered her very well. “You were the one who had such a lovely singing voice.”

“Ayep, that’s our Rosy,” Dusty said.

“Yeah, I’m just one of the boys here,” she joked.

The leader finally interjected, “Okay, so you two know our Rosy. That’s good because otherwise I wouldn’t have trusted you. This purple guy here is Neon Rhythm and I’m Rewind. We’re currently out here in the snow searching for some old piece of equipment in the museum here. If you help us out, we can let you come back with us to town.”

“Town,” Heart Drizzle asked.

“Yeah, out south near the Smokey Mountains there’s a small town. A place where we are rebuilding civilization. We could use the help with searching this place before nightfall, and if you help us I’ll make sure that you get a place in town,” Rewind explained.

“Sounds good, but what are we looking for?” Dusty asked.

“So you’ll help us then?” Rewind asked in return.

“Ayep, we’ve been needing a place to stay warm, and talking to other ponies will keep us sane,” Dusty said.

“Good. What we are searching for here is a weather manipulator. We need the power crystal from it for the weather project we’re working on back home. Think you can help?” Rewind asked.

Heart Drizzle looked around quickly and noticed the sun was getting lower in the sky. Nightfall would be here soon, so whatever they did they had to do it fast. Heart Drizzle looked at Rewind and said, “Okay, why do you think one is here, and where would it be?”

“Smart questions, I like that. First we have reason to believe that an older model of the weather manipulator is here, and it’s in the modern Equestria section of the museum. Hopefully it’s undamaged, and by looking at the front of this place, I think it’s a pretty safe assumption that it is,” Rewind explained.

Heart Drizzle looked at Dusty who returned the look. They nodded at the same time. Heart Drizzle looked back towards the museum and said, “This needs to be done quickly, but it can be done. Let’s hurry and find a way in.”


***


After searching for a few minutes the group decided it to be impossible to find any other way in from the front. The sides were blocked off by a large chain fence and debris just beyond it. So taking caution to be as quiet as they possibly could they began pulling the boards off of the door. It took about ten minutes, and wasn’t very quiet, but they finally managed to free the door and open it.

Inside it was dark and frost covered the floor and walls of the interior. Heart Drizzle walked in and his cloaks clasp began glowing again, granting him some amount of light to see by. Rosy’s horn began to glow and magic ebbed off of it, floating into the air and forming a ball about a foot in diameter. The glowing ball cast white light across the large entrance room to the museum.

Dusty had a cloak similar to Heart Drizzles only gray. Both Rewind and Neon Rhythm had small lanterns that hung around their necks. With everypony armed with light Rewind spoke, his voice echoing in the museum. “Okay everypony, our first task is to locate the weather manipulator. It’s a steel spike about ten feet tall, there is a panel at the base of it. Open that up and grab the big rainbow colored crystal from inside of it. Secondary to that is to collect anything you see that looks valuable, food, equipment, books, anything that looks useful. We will all meet back here in a half hour.”

“Neon I want you to go with Heart Drizzle, and check out the east side of the museum. Dusty you take Rosy and check out the western half. I’m going to keep my eyes on the front door and keep a look out for our ride, they should be here soon. I’ll radio if there’s anything wrong,” Rewind finished explaining.

As Heart Drizzle walked with Neon Rhythm, who was a few inches taller than him, he couldn’t help but hate being ordered about. X It’s been a long time since I’ve taken orders, guess I’ll have to get used to that again… I just hope that this doesn’t end poorly for us. X

Heart Drizzle walked in silence next to his new companion for a while, the desolate halls were littered with fallen objects and trash. The layer of frost on the floor glistened just out of reach of the light, and the darkness around them was thick. Heart Drizzle got an uneasy feeling from this area, and the further they walked the worse it became. 

“So,” Neon Rhythm said, effectively breaking the silence. “What was it like for you when the world ended?”

A dark topic for an even darker location, but it’s something to kill the silence with at the very least.  Heart Drizzle spoke quietly, not feeling the least bit safe here. “The end was slow. It started to snow one day, and didn’t stop. I was stuck up here in Tall Tale when I heard that Canterlot had blocked itself off from the rest of the world. It was slow but eventually people just disappeared, replaced by these evil things in the night. We’ve called them The Darkness for the longest time now.”

“Wow, that’s depressing. I was stuck in the first snow storm with both the members of the band I was in. There used be five of us, now it’s just me, Rosy, and Rewind,” Neon Rhythm explained. “First time encountered those things from the night was horrible. We lost one of our members before we even knew what was going on, the other one died from injuries sustained during the night. We call them the Dread over at the town.”

“If your quiet, and stay well lit, they don’t come very close,” Heart Drizzle explained.

“That’s why we have giant spot lights, and a noise curfew,” Neon Rhythm explained.

Heart Drizzle stopped suddenly and admired a door to his side. A small smile formed across his lips as he said, “This looks interesting.” Heart Drizzle then reached out with a hoof and pulled opened the door. It squeaked loudly as it slowly opened. 

“What’s inside there?” Neon Rhythm asked.

“Probably some good food, this is the break room after all,” Heart Drizzle said.

Heart Drizzle walked inside trying to stay quiet. The window was high up on the wall and again barred, but at least this window had glass on it still. The room was relatively small, with a single table and a couple of chairs. There was also a series of lockers, and a fridge against one wall, along with a microwave and a sink. 

Heart Drizzle opened up the fridge, inside he found a few frozen water bottles but that was all. So he moved onto the lockers, which thankfully were all unlocked, and had the keys still in them. It took awhile but eventually he was able to find some snack bars, a few packs of instant noodles, and some batteries. 

Looking back at Neon Rhythm who was just outside keeping the door open by leaning against it Heart Drizzle said, “Hey, I found some food in here. Told you it was worth a look.”

Neon Rhythm smiled and said, “Good, we can always use more food.”

Heart Drizzle walked over to the door and looked back down the hallway where his ally was staring. Heart Drizzle was just poking his head out of the door enough to hear some loud thumping sound coming from down the hall with an echo. “What was that,” Heart Drizzle whispered.

“I don’t kn-“ Neon Rhythm began but never finished as something slammed hard into the door behind him. 

While Neon Rhythm was knocked off of his hooves and further down the hallway, the door came closing shut with great speed. The door slammed hard against Heart Drizzles head and rocketed his body back into the supply room before shutting completely. Heart Drizzle didn’t even have time to feel the pain of the blow before his world turned to darkness.


***


Heart Drizzle opened his eyes slowly. Something felt very wrong as he stared at the pitch black darkness in front of him. His entire body was freezing cold and he ached from head to hoof. First he tried to move his legs and pain shot through his entire body. He continued to lay there unmoving while fighting a terrible aching in his head. Eventually he closed his eyes and fell back into the blackness.

He opened his eyes again, his body even colder than before. His body wasn’t in as much pain as it had been earlier and his head was feeling better as well. Carefully he moved his legs and although they were stiff the pain was now almost completely gone. He slowly sat up, and the effort exhausted him. His head swam ever more with every inch he pushed himself up with.

After a great deal of trouble he finally found himself sitting upright, but the world around him was still spinning. He attempted to rise to his hooves but his head quickly began screaming at him to stay down. The room was pitch black beyond what his cloaks light illuminated. 

He looked up at the window and his head hurt from the effort. The window was black. He looked back at the floor and his head felt much better. His eyelids felt heavy and he wanted nothing more than to go back to sleep. But he couldn’t go to sleep yet, he had just enough of a mind left to know that he was in serious trouble here.

Heart Drizzle carefully and painfully crawled across the floor back to the door of the break room. Each time he stretched out one of his forelegs, and pulled himself across the floor his head exploded into violent agony. After what felt like an eternity of horrid pain he reached the door. 

He could see a spot of dark red on the door, it was blood, his blood, and it was frozen. He carefully moved a hoof up to the handle and locked the door. This door was made of solid metal, and hopefully that would keep him safe from all the horrors outside at night.

Now locked in the little room he collapsed into a heap on the floor and closed his eyes. This time he was going to sleep on purpose, but at least he could feel somewhat safer now. It didn’t take long before the blackness crept back into his mind, and he fell asleep again.


***


Again Heart Drizzle opened his eyes to a nearly pitch black, and frozen room. This time when he pushed himself up it didn’t hurt. He still felt a little dizzy, and he found a continuous low powered throb in his skull, but he wasn’t exhausted anymore. He carefully lifted a hoof to his forehead and felt a mess of frozen blood in his fur.  At least I’m an earth pony and not a unicorn. 

He carefully checked his surroundings as best he could. The window was still black, the door still locked, his saddlebags thankfully still closed and contained everything he had found earlier. He rummaged around the bags and pulled out a bandage wrap along with some gauze pads. This wasn’t the first time he had injured himself and needed to fix it before trotting along. 

After a few agonizing minutes of trying to wrap the bandage around his forehead properly he finally succeeded. Now with a bandage wrapped around his head covering the wound he looked again at the door where he had gotten injured in the first place. He could only pray that he didn’t have a concussion. 

Slowly he pushed himself up off the cold floor and winced as the pain in his head increased. When at last he had stood up the pain in his head had calmed down. He took a cautious step and a single thread of pain played in his head before fading.  Why can’t I have healing potions for when I get injured? It would make my life so much easier right now. At least I can move now, so I can find the others. I can’t leave Dusty. 

Heart Drizzle carefully unlocked the door to the break room and grabbed Bolter with his mouth. Before leaving he checked his ammo supply, although it was hard to read it he felt as though it looked good enough. Pressing his hooves on the door itself he felt a wave of fear pass through him, it was night and that meant he could encounter The Darkness, or The Dread, whatever one would call pure nightmarish horrors.

The door opened slowly, and very noisily, and out walked a very worried looking Heart Drizzle with an ugly box shaped weapon in his mouth. The floor of the hallway was stained with black, or dark red, it was hard to tell with his vision becoming a little blurry. He looked both left, and right. To his left was where the dark stains on the floor trailed off, to his right he would find a presumably open front door. Both of these were absolutely horrible decisions.

With some amount of regret he chose to go left after the stains. If these stains were indeed blood, then whatever they belonged too was surely dead, but even if he only found Neon Rhythm’s corpse, he could take the radio from him. Besides that, if the night time monsters had come into here, then it wouldn’t matter where he went because he was dead anyways.

The walk down the hallway was dreadfully quiet, and even more so it was dark. Each time he caught a glimpse of a bench further on he would nearly shoot it before realizing what it was. He did this for several trash cans as well until the hallway opened up into a large area. A sign next to the hallway read, “Hall of Modern Technology.”

“Just great,” Heat Drizzle whispered to himself. “Now I’ve got to complete the mission before getting out of here.”

He moved slowly through the hall and quietly as well. He could hear something in the distance echoing back to him, it was quiet and he wasn’t able to make out what it was past a quiet thud occurring at random intervals. First he passed an old home radio, it amused him to think of these things back when radio stations used to play. Next he passed by the first line of arcane weaponry, deactivated of course, he couldn’t help but admire the rifle that was laying there. Finally he walked by a tall steel gray pillar that ended in a spike. He began to walk past it before realizing what it was that he was looking at. 

He went back to the weather manipulator and looked at its base. The panel was still attached to the side, which meant that the others had not reached here yet. He hoped that they were okay, just hiding somewhere until dawn. Kneeling down he carefully examined it. 

The panel was held on by a set of four screws, so Heart Drizzle dug in the side pocket of his saddlebag which held only one thing, his multi tool. He quickly pulled it out and began to unscrew the panel from the weather manipulator. 

After he was done he laid the panel on the floor and saw the rainbow colored crystal just sitting inside an indent along the wall of the machine. Various runes were etched along the inside walls and lines connected the runes together. All of the lines connected back to the central rainbow crystal, although he had no idea what the runes actually were, he did know that the basic principle was that these runes were enchanted with magic and the lines connected various spells to make the machine work. All of this being powered of course by a spirit stone, this one happened to be rainbow colored.

Quickly he pulled the crystal out of its socket and then placed it into his saddlebags. This was the one thing that they needed to make things start being okay. Heart Drizzle left the panel on the floor as he rose up again. He was still dizzy but was recovering little by little. Now that he was standing he finally had time to realize that the sound he had been hearing earlier had stopped.

The room was quiet and he felt like he was being watched, but he couldn’t see nor hear anything around him. He began walking further into the museum very carefully, and listening for any sounds he could pick up. For awhile there was nothing but then he finally began hearing the sounds of dripping. He didn’t let that stop him as he continued walking forward into the darkness.

Finally he caught a glimpse of something in the darkness. He crept closer until he saw exactly what it was; Neon Rhythm. Neon Rhythm lay still, his body drooped over a wooden crate. Blood dripped down Neon Rhythm’s muzzle and onto the floor, landing into a growing pool of red. 

Heart Drizzle felt his heart sink at the sight. He had barely even known the stallion and now he would never have the chance to learn more. Heart Drizzle began to turn his head away from the sight and stopped just as he noticed some sudden movement in the darkness just beyond the body. A giant shadow was creeping towards him at a slow pace, growing larger with every quiet step.

A giant bear with balding brown fur, black skin could be seen where there was no longer any fur. Lacerations covered the bear’s body, and sickly dark ooze seeped out from the open wounds. The bear’s eyes glowed a cloudy white and it stared down at Heart Drizzle with pure malice. This had to be the creature that had attacked them earlier, this was the thing that had killed Neon Rhythm, and this was going to be the thing that killed Heart Drizzle if it got its way.

Heart Drizzle turned quickly on his hooves and fled back the way he had come in from. He heard the loud thuds of the bear’s footsteps as it ran after him. As he approached the break room door he saw three ponies standing in the hallway. All of them had bald patches of fur across their bodies, black skin where visible, and the same lacerations with black ooze.

Thankfully they looked stunned to see a pony bolting towards them, and Heart Drizzle was able to dodge in between them as he passed the break room, with the monster charging after him, he knew that hiding in the break room a second time was not possible. He slid around a corner and saw the front door wide open with a bright white light shining through into the lobby. Heart Drizzle made his way towards the light, and just after getting out the front door he heard somepony shout, “GET DOWN!”

Heart Drizzle dropped to the snow covered earth, a high pitched hum followed by green flashes of light streaked just over his head as he did so. He quickly looked behind to see the bear charge out the door and get hit square in the face by the green flashes of light. The light exploded upon contact and Heart Drizzle looked away as the bear roared in pain.

Heart Drizzle began crawling towards the bright light and felt a pair of hooves wrap around him and pull him up. He looked up to see Dusty staring down at him with a smile on his face. Heart Drizzle smiled back and followed Dusty around the bright light and into the darkness. 

It took his eyes a few moments to adjust to the darkness but he was able to make out a truck sitting in the snow. A search light was aimed at the doorway of the museum, and a turret was attached to the back of the truck. The turret was aimed at the doorway, specifically at the bear, and firing off green lasers at the bear. The gun turret was another magical weapon created by equestrian scientist, it was attached to the base of the truck with bolts, and the middle section of the turret itself was actually a series of magical rods witch spun around and fired magical energy blasts at an extremely high rate of fire.

Rewind was standing on the back of the truck and manning the turret itself. Rosy was next to him, somepony else was in the driver seat up front. Heart Drizzle looked at Dusty and Dusty quickly said, “Alright, let’s get going.” Heart Drizzle didn’t argue as he followed Dusty into the back of the truck.

“WHERE’S NEON?” Rewind shouted while continuing to unload the turret into the doors.

Heart Drizzle found himself unable look at Rewind when he answered, “He’s not coming.”

Rewind slowed his rate of fire and shouted quickly, “GET US OUT OF HERE, NOW!”  After a few seconds the truck began speeding off away from the museum, and hopefully towards safety.


***


There was nothing but silence for about a couple of hours as the truck drove over the snow, and out of the city. After exiting the city and getting into the snow covered forest, Rewind finally looked at Heart Drizzle and asked, “What happened in there?”

Heart Drizzle looked up and met his eyes. Rewind had removed his sunglasses and stared down at Heart Drizzle with purple eyes. It was hard for Heart Drizzle to look into those eyes while knowing that it was his fault for losing Neon. “We were exploring, and were ambushed by that bear. I only survived because it knocked me into the break room.”

Rewind was quiet for a long moment, and to Heart Drizzle it seemed as though all time had stopped. Slowly Rewind began to speak again, “I’ve been with Neon since this whole thing started. Losing him… mourning will have to wait, first I need to know if you found the crystal.”

Heart Drizzle nodded and said, “Yeah, it’s in perfect condition… I just hope this was worth it.”

“The few pegasi that we do have aren’t good enough to start a farm. These weather manipulators however proved to be able to defeat the cold much better than any single pegasus. Despite how tragic and painful this loss is, Neon gave his life for a great cause… and because of you this mission was a success. I don’t know how long we could have waited for you outside though, I’m just glad that you made it out in time,” Rewind explained.

Heart Drizzle looked at his saddlebag and felt a little better about the crystal now. He could only hope with all of his heart that Neon’s death wasn’t in vain, and that maybe, just maybe the world would began being fixed by this. 

“Welcome to civilization Heart Drizzle,” Rewind said.

Dusty let out a notable gasp and Heart Drizzle looked ahead of the truck and his eyes widened. Before him he saw the first glimpse of dawn coming over the land, and the base of the Smokey Mountains barely visible. What he could see however was that the land around the mountain wasn’t white, instead it was a dark luscious green, the small square shapes of buildings were lit up by lights. This was the town that Heart Drizzle was going to. To top it all off there was a giant beam of light shooting out from the center of the town. The light shot all the way into the sky and Heart Drizzle saw a circle drawn in the sky with rainbow colored light. Inside the circle he couldn’t see a single cloud.

“How, what, why?” Heart Drizzle found himself asking.

“Those weather manipulators are fighting off the cold, and creating an artificial spring. Although its radius is limited to the number of crystals we have, so only the town and surrounding area are affected so far. We are constantly on the lookout for more. The why is pretty simple; if we can get enough crystals, we can rebuild Equestria. It will be tough, but I believe that we can do it… so what do you say? Are you in?” Rewind said confidently.

Heart Drizzle met Dusty’s eyes and together they said, “Of course.”


THE END