After a mysterious frost falls over the lands of Equestria, ponies are forced to flee to the Far North to escape the eternal winter. There, around several coal-powered furnaces called Generators, they may generate enough heat to guarantee the survival of ponykind and civilization among the snow and frost.
However, as the temperature drops, and their situation becomes increasingly desperate, the ponies of New Ponyville must make the hard decisions.
What is the worth of a foal's life?
What lengths must be taken while facing starvation?
What must be sacrificed in the name of survival?
Where is the line between leader and tyrant?
There is only one wholistic truth among the howling winds and biting cold: The City Must Survive.
Based off of 11bit Studio's "Frostpunk"
Cover art found here: https://derpibooru.org/images/2816269
This was an interesting game, I hope you keep up the work cause I'd like to see how far you'll take this with all the game mechanics.
This is pretty cool 😎
a awesome song!!!
Heave, lads! Ho, lads!
Forget the comforts of home, you're a nomad
We've lost so much since we first started
Are our hearts cold or are we cold-hearted?
So pray to your lord or your foreman
That the Sun might rise in the morning
They told us hell was warm
But our empire fell for shelter from the storm
On the run from London town
Nothing left but rubble there to plunder now
Torn asunder, buried underground
Beneath the tundra and a hundred weight of brothers drowned
Heh, now we're gonna need another crown
So huddle round, hunker down, man the shovels, plough
And every hundred paces pray and lay another down
Another mother, son or lover lost — the frost is out
For lonely drifters in the snow drifts, won't be scuppered now
Stay devout, tough it out, 'til the Sun is out
Trust the censor, shun dissenters, hunt and flush them out
Keep the faith and trust there's grace behind the thunderclouds
Or fall in line and march in time against the climate, proud
What are we becoming now?
Is this the life we prayed for?
Time is running out
There's nothing left but labour
We write our future in the ice like it was pen and paper
Leave for future generations more than just a generator
We must never waiver
This is the price we pay for
Safety one day for our children on the path we pave them
And in the end know that history depends
On an empire forged in the flames of what we gave up
Heave, lads! Ho, lads!
Forget the comforts of home, you're a nomad
We've lost so much since we first started
Are our hearts cold or are we cold-hearted?
So pray to your lord or your foreman
That the Sun might rise in the morning
They told us hell was warm
But our fell for shelter from the storm
Turn your collars to the wind as our odyssey begins
Feel the ice creeping in 'til your bones sing
And as the tempest descends and your ears ring
That's the bells of the church that we're preaching
Now grieving is a luxury, we spun to weave our cloaks
Comfort, warmth and plenty feel like centuries ago
The storm won't crush our spirits like a tent beneath the snow
Every upper lip gets stiff at 20°C below
No gold or silver, coal's the only thing of worth to me
The only precious metal to our name would be the mercury
Our fragile strip of burgundy that ever hurtles to the deep
Alerting us as Mother Nature's taken every cursed degree
I've nothing left, my only treasure is my word to keep
Keep bellies filled, treat the ill and preserve the heat
But can I keep the peace as we bleed through adversity?
How's a shepherd supposed to lead without a dog to herd the sheep?
These choices that I make, I make to save our nation
What's a little sawdust when you face annihilation?
Is childhood so sacred? Or just resources wasted?
Every value that I thought I had debased and razed to save us
Heave, lads! Ho, lads!
Forget the comforts of home, you're a nomad
We've lost so much since we first started
Are our hearts cold or are we cold-hearted?
So pray to your lord or your foreman
That the Sun might rise in the morning
They told us hell was warm
But our empire fell for shelter from the storm
Growing up, they told us no two snowflakes are the same
And everyone's a wonder, something not to take in vain
Of Mother Nature's beauty, of the universe at play
Seems that she's abstained from duty, left us here and turned away
Fingers splintered into kindling and hearts as dark as coal
As heat and hope we're dwindling we march towards our goal
Committed to the hymns we sing so after all is told
The generations after us aren't cast into the cold
So burn us in the furnace, let our souls ignite the flame
Use our bones to stoke the embers, use our blood to oil the chains
We are nothing now but engines rending flesh to find a way
And as we fall we know we die to light a brighter day
Every shiver will deliver us deliverance in time
Burn the incense of our innocence and in a sense we thrive
Pray the future that we're building will be worth its weight in lives
So take heed, but take no pity, as the city must survive
i wonder what happened to Crystal Empire
they got Crystal Heart to protect their empire
11208497
Stupendium.
11208642
it fits though right??
11208575
Chances are that they weren't entirely self-sufficient with the basics. Food, clothing, the like.
11208575
there's actually already been a hint as to what happened
Here's hoping they even can go back for anyone.
11208497
Man or woman of culture I see.
Octavia most likely missed a few things with Berry. That's not going to end well.
Oh I'm adding this to my reading list and checking it out this easter
The game was great. After playing the game for a while, and a little luck, you could beat it with everything maxed with no deaths and no "bad" laws.
We will see if ponies will keep their hearts or lose them to survive.
11208685
I answer that by quoting another beginning
"Gather brothers, gather sisters, soothe your blisters by the fire!"
i picked up for tracking but i really fear to start it :D i playeed frostpunk many times and yis.... its... hard.
i had same idea for a story but never got around doing it because i am hathing hard time spell checking my current work and so on
But i feel i am going love reading this (Frost Punk my fav game)
11208989
man and thank you
11209177
based on
?
Maybe one day they might come back to it.
Even if they really can't restart it later it would still be loaded with supplies and it is made out of mostly intact spare parts.
Additionally, if the boilers themselves are still working, it would make a (relatively) good shelter.
And hope if stays fixed. At least for a while...
The convoy isn't the only thing on edge right now...
Good premise!
I look forwards to see where it goes.
Also, nice touch to name the Land Dreadnoughts "Lorry".
And since apparently no one had mentioned it yet I'm going to post this fitting video:
Are the Windigos behind this, or is it something else this time?
I'm pretty sure no one actually needed a bell to realize that...
That opens an interesting question:
How troubling is the situation that waiting one week is more costly than abandoning a ( somewhat) functional Lorry with its entire cargo?
Good chapter!
I enjoyed reading it.
The plan of the captain isn't perfect, but the best he can do considering the situation.
Since Lorry Seven still has a functional boiler they can heat themselves.
Together with the stuff they can salvage from Lorry Four they would also have supplies of Coal and Rations to hold out for a time.
While the outlook is dim it's not hopeless. At least not entirely.
11209677
I went off script from the default game lore.
The Dreadnoughts are what the ponies used to cross the ocean to the Arctic.
The Steam Lorries were unloaded from the Dreadnoughts, which was abandoned, and used to cross the thick ice and land to the generator sites.
11209646
noh
this
11209857
It's always nice to meet some one with such a stupendous taste in music.
11209857
ah, cool. :)
I was wondering what happened to AJ. Though she was already dead. Your story has made me look up the game its based on. Looks fun, might buy it.
This is sounding like the 'refugee ' scenario as the normal one only had one steam lorrie
At least Luna will be "kind of" happy about the longer night
Let us give an F for our fallen scout because without them the city would of never of survived the great storm
In the words of a man of culture
"Scouts. They are absolute chads."
When I read this I could hear the emergency horn for the generator blasting in my ears as the overdrive reached 90%
And if my math is correct. Then there was one.
11208970
There's an event in the actual game detailing how you can find the rest of the expedition I hope the author does include that and isn't just snow + cold = death
Octavia once she gets found out is going to be relegated to one of the worst jobs. Why throw somebody off the lorry when you can have them simply work instead?
Whoops, first person pronoun spotted.
At any rate, I'm really, really enjoying what I'm reading so far. I'll save my full thoughts for when I'm fully caught up though.
She probably did think of everything but time is an infinite resource but we never have enough of it.
Realized I'm posting too many comments so I'm merging them into one.
Then she can break her back FUELING the generator
There's always that one person that dies from exhaustion when you enable 24 hour shift.
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=iKUzWfduRtg
0:34 is what I hear when they said this
Start worrying when it reaches the triple digits.
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=RgPQ3pQ7lFQ
Rather amusingly, if they moved further south they'd likely be fine. Even during ice ages, Earth's equator still stayed somewhat warm though it became temperate rather than tropical. Depending on how advanced they might get, they could even end the whole thing using 'brute force' ala space mirrors to intensify the sunlight the planet gets. All the light that goes 'past' the planet? Well put some mirrors up there and send it back down to the surface!
11210366
The thing is in the real frostpunk that's what they were planning but trying to fit the entire earth's population into the equator is a hard thing and it eventually failed from a multitude of factors and events.
11210368
Well there was more than enough space for living, but growing food might have been a problem. But hydroponics would have been one solution for that.
11210381
But then the great storm comes and ruins it all.
11210344
;A;
I swatted the mistake
11210366
I know that in the original Frostpunk lore, the volcanic eruptions that dimmed the sun and caused the earth to freeze over primarily originated in the Equator, making it just as bad as everywhere else.
The reason the Generators were not constructed there for their relatively warmer temperatures was because the Coal deposits and aquifer networks were only present in sufficient quantities in the arctic circle.
11210420
...Far as we know there aren't actually any coal deposits either in the Arctic or Antarctic, might be oil there though.
11210423
media.discordapp.net/attachments/899199106814189588/963776846946787358/eef.png?width=670&height=670
A usefully skilled individual is able to tip the scale between life and death.
Pinkie Pie's skills were, and would always remain, useless in the grand scheme of things.
Such is the fate of Laughter at the cold and heartless wind.
11210455
The cold strips us of all joys in life
11210455
Don't underestimate the power of good morale.
11210752
Worry not. For I am indeed awaiting her everlasting, if not, eternal smile (at -80 °C).