I smile as I trek back to Cinder. My trip had been cut short by the oncoming storm, but I know these wastes like the back of my hand, I won’t get lost. I was happy with the plump seal I was dragging on a sled behind me. I hadn’t eaten seal in years! I’m sure that whoever gets a share back in town will appreciate the rare meal. I was broken from my musings by a rather unusual sight in the light of my lantern - a dark spot. The Frostlands have exactly two colors, white and ice blue. Anything that doesn’t fall in that color scheme is not normal. It could be something as mundane as an outcropping rock, a rare if mundane sight - or something huge like a buried land dreadnought.
I immediately turn towards the object, any kind of discover could potentially be good for Cinder. Though if it’s a buried dreadnought or something I’m going to rag on the scout teams for missing it.
“Something that big should be impossible to miss…” I mumble to myself absentmindedly as I trudge forwards. I look down at my feet and smile.
“Heh, what I would do without snowshoes. Hell, no-one knew what a snowshoe was when they arrived.” I’m pretty sure talking to myself isn’t a good habit, but out here there’s nothing much else to do. As I get closer I could swear that whatever the object is begins to look less like uniform black and more like a field of stars, much to my confusion.
“A mirror? No it’s a freaking blizzard, no way to reflect the starlight through clouds.” I mutter confused to myself. At this point I’m within 2 meters of the object, enough to just make out what it is in a snowstorm.
“A horse?” I ask myself incredulously - shocked that all of them hadn’t died off from the cold yet. However as I get closer, I realize that the ‘horse’ isn’t what I think it is. The first thing to tip me off is the spiral horn jutting from its forehead. I was about to hesitantly write it off as a mutated caribou or something when I noticed feathers sticking out of the snow. I dug through a little bit, before being shocked by the sight of black feathery wings jutting from the abdomen of the ‘horse’. Somewhat recognizing this being - I hastily start digging out its rear, and am greeted with a butt tattoo in the shape of a crescent moon.
“Well hello there… little pony.” I mutter to myself. Or rather Alicorn. There aren’t very many of them in MLP… and even given my rather basic knowledge of the show from an enthusiastic little sister, I can recognize the first big bad of the show, Nightmare Moon. In all seriousness, she’s not the worst villain who could have popped up at my door.
I ponder for a moment how exactly she wound up here, before ruthlessly cramming that thought into the ‘don’t even bother’ section of my brain. The only thing I would get from following that train of thought is a headache and a few dead brain cells. I still don’t know how I wound up in the world of Frostpunk after all. No sense trying to figure out why a starter villain from a TV show about magic, ponies and friendship, is in a post-apocalyptic steampunk world.
I have two choices here really… leave her to freeze to death or take her in. If I remember correctly she was born from a desire for love and acceptance from her people… well she can't be that bad. Besides, it's obvious she cant survive out here on her own. My mind made up I yank her shivering body from the snow and throw her over my shoulders.
My heart and mind are in agreement in my choice to save her. Both from the perspective of not letting an unfortunate soul die out here in the Frostlands… and from the logical perspective, her magic potentially being what my city needs to survive the endless winter. Still I can’t carry her all the way back to Cinder, so I yank my personal radio off my pack and signal for an Automaton to pick me up.
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Nightmare Moon awoke slowly to a rhythmic thumping and incredible warmth. She blearily opened her eyes to behold an incredibly bizarre sight. She had a coat of some sort laying on top of her to shield her body from the biting winds she could feel on her muzzle. The ground below her was made of solid metal, yet it was warm on her fur, rather than freezing cold, much to her confusion. As she began to look around, she noticed the main attraction so to speak. A broad shouldered being sitting mere feet away from her. The being appeared to be bipedal, like minotaurs, yet without fur or a muzzle. It was noticeably shivering, given the lack of fur she reckoned it would likely be far worse off than her in this environment. Yet it appeared it had surrendered its coat for her recovery.
This definitely earned the creature brownie points in Nightmare Moon’s book. It also showed that this sort of creature was capable of compassion and kindness. Given the still rather frozen state of her body, she reached out with her magic to further determine her surroundings. She was shocked to find she was riding atop a mechanical contraption of some sorts, moving without the slightest aid of magic. Speaking of magic however, the bipedal being seemed to hold a very impressive reserve - though from its slightly chaotic nature, it would be rather poisonous to her if she tried to take it to replenish herself. Interestingly enough… its magic also held a somewhat unrefined feeling to it. This shocked her somewhat, as only untrained unicorns, mostly fillies, had the same sort of feel to their magic. Meaning this being, despite holding as much magic as some of the strongest unicorns she had seen, didn’t use its magic at all. Why exactly was a mystery to her.
As her magic reserves had recovered somewhat in her bout of unconsciousness, she decided it would be prudent to cast a few healing spells to ensure she didn’t loose any limbs to frostbite. With a grunt of exertion and a dim flare of light, much of the pain that plagued her eased and Nightmare Moon breathed a sigh of relief. This sigh however gained the attention of her rescuer.
The being turned around and she was greeted with a rather flat faced being, with rather expressive brown eyes. It looked at her and gave her a big smile, shockingly similar to what she would see from fellow ponies before speaking in plain, if accented common tongue.
“Ah, I’m glad to see you’re awake. When I found you nearly buried in a snowdrift I feared you wouldn’t make it.” The being, now clearly a male of its kind spoke conversationally to her, yet with an undertone of concern. It sent a spike of warmth through her heart, how long had it been since she had been shown simple kindness and concern from a fellow being?
“Tis somewhat of a shock to us that we have awoken at all. Thou hast our thanks Sir…” She begins before realizing that she doesn’t actually know the name of her savior. Thankfully she is saved from the awkwardness rather quickly.
“Oh, where are my manners. My name is William Deepstone miss...?” The now named William asked her. Very well, she shall oblige his curiosity.
“We art Nightmare Moon, Future Ruler of Equestria and Mistress of the Night.” She finished with dramatic flair befitting one of her station.
“Ah my condolences then.” Her rescuer said simply, much to her confusion.
“Pardon?” She said in return, conveying her confusion at his statement.
“Well… there are no nations left in this hellscape. The Great Winter came and froze all but the luckiest few. The City of Cinder from which I hail is the only known city left in the world… and we barely have a population of 10,000 souls. That’s out of more than a billion humans who walked this good Earth before the cold.” To say that she was shocked at his answer was an understatement.
“This… cold is truly horrendous. Yet surely it could not destroy so many?” She asked, somewhat scared of her rescuer’s answer.
“You’re not from around here are you? This right now is positively balmy! It’s -45 degrees right now! It hasn’t been this warm in months!” He cheerfully chirped in spite of his shivering.
“… but… if this is warm then what’s cold!” She asked somewhat more frantically than befitting one of her royal stature.
“Well… it gets truly cold during the bi-annual storms. Even the most gentle of those storms have temperatures drop below -150 degrees… cold enough for the carbon dioxide in the air to freeze. Cold enough for the atmosphere itself to fall down on us as snow. And those storms are years past. The latest one was below -180 degrees… we’re not sure how far below though, that’s as low as out thermometers can measure.” The male biped said with resignation and fear in his tone. The latest information caused something of a blue screen of death moment for the Nightmare.
‘…-180 degrees! That should be impossible! I haven’t seen anything that cold since…’ Nightmare Moon had indeed seen temperatures that cold once… only once. In the final battle against Sombra, his strongest spell froze the air itself. It nearly killed Celestia and herself… yet here the weather seemed to prominently feature temperatures as cold as Sombra’s darkest spell…
“Well that’s enough of that depressing subject. Look alive! We’re should be able to see the city… just… about… now!” The friendly biped said with gusto, pointing at a warm glow appearing on the horizon. As they got closer, that warm glow seemed to fade somewhat as the beginnings of a huge dome of metal began to become visible. As they got closer, more details were revealed. She could see more of the mechanical contraptions crawling over the skeletal framework of the dome, seemingly welding and doing the construction for the bipeds. Through the framework she could see the ground continue as normal for a time, before it dropped off into a massive crater.
Within the crater, was a work of defiance against the horrific wintery landscape. It was a sprawling city, with many well insulated homes… and a fiery core at its heart. She inwardly marveled at the tower of flame, she could feel it banishing the terrible cold even from the distance she now stood. That wasn’t all, if her eyes weren’t playing tricks on her, she could see the nearly completed framework of four more towers of fire being constructed at the edges of the city.
It wasn’t the most spectacular city she had ever seen. The sparkling visage of the Crystal Empire and even the opulence she witnessed briefly in the new capitol of Equestria, Canterlot - however, this city lacked something those kingdoms held… magic. There was not the slightest speck of magic being used to protect this city from the weather, rather it was seemingly being done entirely with the novel contraptions she had witnessed.
It was a sobering thought, it brought her back to the uniting of the tribes and how the fires of friendship banished the wendigos. These bipeds… they had this horrible cold set upon them… but there was no enemy pulling the strings, no magic to save them. Instead… it seemed that they simply had to prepare and hope it would be enough.
"Well then Nightmare Moon, welcome to the City of Cinder."