“It’s time to get up, Ratchet. I’ve found us some work,” a voice calls out to me. It starts off fuzzy but steadily becomes clearer. I open my eyes slowly and look at the inside of my pod. “Ratchet, it’s time to get up,” Cora says again.

I stretch groggily as the pod opens up. I look around the room that looks the same as always. Well, at least nothing horrible happened while I was asleep. “You know the drill Cora, how long’s it been?” I ask her, and then climb out of the pod.

“One hundred and nine years since the war, Ratchet,” She tells me. I nod and go over to my PipBuck, then put it back on. My vision flickers, shows the usual warnings and then returns to normal. Or, so I think. New words start appearing in my vision.

>S.P.E.C.I.A.L. Stats Compatibility Issue.
>Skill Stats Compatibility Issue.
>...
>...
>Generating New Stats.
>...
>Initial Boot Complete.

What in the...? Again? It generated new stats for me again? Seriously, this thing is getting to be more trouble than it is worth. I shrug and decide to deal with it once I hear what Cora has to say.

“Gotcha. So, what’s going on this time, Cora? Some crazy pony mad with power? Two opposing sides threatening to tear the wasteland apart as they fight things out? Another pod, perhaps?” I ask her while checking out my systems.

“It’s a pod, this time, or at least I think it is. I found some records indicating a MoWT facility in the north. Way, way up there too. It is apparently in the middle of nowhere in the Frozen North. I’ve already taken the liberty of procuring you some winter clothing,” Cora replies.

“Way to go Cora, nice work,” I tell her. “Any idea what we’ll be dealing with? Either the facility or inside the pod?” I ask while I walk to the armory.

“Typical MoWT defences, more than likely. Sentry bots, turrets, probably some laser death traps, all the good stuff,” She says. “As for the pod...the only references I found all mention the word ‘Abominable’. No details on what it is or does,” Cora explains.

“Abominable? Like, Abominable Snowpony? Well, I suppose it is in the Frozen North,” I mutter. “Anyhow…” I say as I enter the armory. “Where is everyone else?” I ask. Cora’s AI friends don’t seem to be here at the moment.

“They are investigating a possible lead on another pod. It is down in the Badlands,” She tells me. “I thought it best if we split up instead of all going to one. If they get back with good news, we can go there as well.”

“I see. Any reason we are going to the Frozen North then? I mean, it isn’t like they can feel the cold…” I mutter.

“I just flipped a bit. It came up tails, so we are going north, they went south,” She tells me.

I let out a sigh. “Let’s gear up and head out,” I say as I start putting my barding on.

Days later and many, many miles north, Cora and I have crossed into the snowy Frozen North. Right in the middle of a blizzard, I might add. I can barely see a foot in front of my face, and Cora is the only reason that we stay on track. “Cora, do you see anywhere we can rest?” I yell over the winds. “My legs are going numb!”

“My sensors aren’t doing much better than your eyes are, trust me, Ratchet,” Cora calls back. “I can’t see anything nearby.” This is going bad quickly. Cora will be fine as long as she keeps moving. But with me being a flesh and blood pony...The chances of me dying here are quite high.

As if to make matters worse the ground begins to shake. “Oh great, now what?” I say as I fall over. My numbing legs no longer able to support me. Luckily I fall on my side, keeping my exposed muzzle out of the chilling snow. “Cora! See anything?” I shout.

“The snow is rising!” She shouts in response. As if waiting for her words, I suddenly see a great mound of snow rise up higher and higher. It explodes, sending even more snow scattering into the winds. From the snow rises a worm-like figure, only infinitely larger. Larger even than a manticore.

Its mouth itself is larger than Cora and I combined and it is filled with razor sharp teeth. Half of it is scaley while the other is covered in fur. The head of the creature is crested with spines, more than likely used to dig through the ground. It turns towards us and unleashes a blast of fire from its gaping maw. The flames don’t reach us, but they melt the snow in their reach and it creates a temporary tunnel void of snow.

But as rapidly as the snow melted, the blizzard covers the ground in snow once more. The words of Madam Saber, a mare that I met long ago who said she was from the Frozen North, ring in my mind. “I ran into a few wyrms on the way as well. For whatever reason, they are swarming up there,” She had said. She later told me about them, and her descriptions match this creature perfectly.

“A wyrm,” I mutter as my eyes go wide. It is bigger than I imagined. Cora begins shooting at it, but it just seems annoyed. I shake my head to gather my wits and pull out Forgiveness. Despite our best efforts we only seem to be pissing it off. The wyrm keeps breathing fire at us, which both aids Cora and I in having less snow to deal with and causes us to run for our lives from it. Their flames can apparently melt steel, and I didn’t want to take any chances.

After one particular blast of flame, Cora and I run into each other. We manage to stay on our hooves, but the wyrm uses our momentary pause in movement to strike its mouth towards us. A shout rings out from somewhere in the blizzard and a moment later, something smacks into the Wyrm, causing it to veer off course and slamming its maw into the snow feet to our left.

“What are you waiting for comrades! Sink the harpoons! This wyrm is ours!” A voice shouts. Moments later, more objects fly through the air and hit the wyrm. It makes a beastial scream as the figure on it jumps from one harpoon to the next, slashing wide gashes in the wyrm and making its way to the front. Once there, the figure lifts their spear and pierces the wyrm’s eye. It screams and thrashes, but as the figure holds on to it, the wyrm progressively thrashes less and less until it is still more.

The figure jumps from the head of the wyrm and lands in front of us, spear grasped in their mouth. They stab the spear into the snow and smiles at us. “Well, hello there comrades! They call me Sickle,” The buck says, holding out a hoof towards us.

“Uh...thank you for saving us?” I reply and shake his hoof.

“Ha, think nothing of it. We were hunting the beast anyway,” Sickle tells us.

“I see. So, uh, Sickle? Was it? Do you live around here?” I ask.

“Indeed comrade,” Sickle says. I raise an eyebrow. He seem overly friendly considering this is, you know, the Wasteland.

“Uh, hu. Where about do you live?” I ask him.

Sickle smiles widely at me and replies, “About a mile to the east. We have a small settlement there. If you’d like, you’re free to accompany us back there.”

“That close? Cora, have you heard anything about a settlement near here?” I ask her.

Cora shakes her head. “No. Not many ponies travel up here though, so it isn’t surprising to discover a settlement no one knows about,” She tells me.

Sickle nods his head. “Indeed. Not even we know of every other settlement up here. But, our settlement is new. About one year ago is when we first formed it, I believe,” He tells us.

“That new? Where did you all come from before?” I ask.

“Oh, you know. All over. Some of us had a small group together and fell in with some others who were looking to survive. Together we just kind of decided to set up shop. Together we survive, alone we die. That’s our take on things,” He explains.

I look over the buck skeptically. He is wearing light barding and a simple jacket. Not exactly the kind of attire I would expect someone who lives in the snow and ice of the Frozen North to wear. He seems more geared towards a warmer climate. Despite his light clothing, he doesn’t seem cold at all.

Looking past him at the fallen wyrm and I see other ponies, some dressed in heavy clothing others dressed like Sickle. The others are attaching ropes to the wyrm and pulling out the large harpoons.

“Ok, Sickle. We’ll accompany you. I’m freezing and it will be nice to get out of the cold for a while,” I say. He smiles broadly at me.

“Very good! It is always nice to have company. If you don’t mind waiting for a few minutes while we prepare to transport the wyrm, we’ll start home then,” He tells me. Sickle turns to walk over to the wyrm, but then looks back at us. “I got the armored miss’s name, but what is yours?” He asks.

“Ratchet,” I tell him. “It is nice to meet you.”

Sickle chuckles as he replies, “The feeling is mutual, Ratchet, Cora.” He then turns back to the fallen wyrm and shouts, “Alright comrades! Get the beast ready to move! We will eat well tonight!”

With some distance between us and Sickle, I turn to Cora. “Let’s be careful. He seems a little bit too friendly. Maybe he is up to something. Don’t let your guard down,” I whisper. Cora nods.

Faster than I thought possible, Sickle and the other ponies finish tying the wyrm in ropes and we start towards their settlement. Sickle and the others are dragging the wyrm across the snow. There is probably twelve of them, counting Sickle. Cora and I offer to help, but they refuse and say it wouldn’t be right to have guests do manual labor.

Slowly but surely, we traverse the snowy landscape and enter into a valley. Nestled in the middle of this valley is our destination. It is a small village, and due to the blizzard, I don’t see it until we are already within. In the center of the village, is a large fire and surrounding the fire in a circular fashion are domed structures made out of snow.

The ponies drag the wyrm near the fire and then start taking the ropes off of it. “Start preparing the beasts, comrades! I will tend to our guests and then join you in a moment,” Sickle declares and walks over to Cora and I. “Follow me, I’ll take you to my home,” He says, and then starts walking to one of the domes of snow.

“Say Sickle, these are igloos, aren’t they?” I ask as we walk.

“Indeed! We don’t have much in the way of proper building materials here, but we made due. The insides are also lined with hide from the wyrms and our beds, furniture, and clothing are made from the fur of the beasts,” Sickle explains as he leads us into his igloo. It isn’t too large, probably only big enough for five ponies at the most, but given the properties of snow, any bigger and it might collapse.

Inside is also an earth pony mare, who I assume is his wife, judging by her age. She is wearing light clothing, similar to Sickle’s. Her fur is a cool red while her mane is a deep crimson. “Ah, grandmother! We have guests!” Sickle says with a smile. Wait...Grandmother? Her? She looks my age! Well, the age my body appears. Did the cold stop her from aging or what?

“Oh? I’m sure they are cold. Come dears, warm yourself in our home. My name is Marrow,” She says. I have to admit, I was already feeling warmer. If it wasn’t for the snow, I wouldn’t think we were in the Frozen North at all.

“Thank you for having us, ma’am,” I reply. “My name is Ratchet and my friend here is Cora.” She smiles warmly at us and gestures to a couch made of bone and wyrm fur.

“Oh please, we don’t get many visitors out here. Make yourselves at home, you can hang your coat on that wire there, Ratchet. And if you want to take your armor off, feel free Cora,” She tells us.

I do as she says, and hang my snow covered coat on the wire. I unwrinkle my lab coat and readjust my barding. As I do so, Cora says, “I’ll stay in my armor, if that is alright. I quite like it.”

Marrow smiles and nods. “Of course, dear. Now, Sickle, how did your hunt go?” She asks.

Sickle smiles and replies, “Excellent, grandmother. We killed a large wyrm today and judging by some of the old scars, it is the one that got away last month.”

Marrow laughs. “I knew you would get it eventually. Are the others taking care of it?” She asks him.

Sickle nods. “I had them go on ahead without me while I got our guests situated. But, I think I will go help them out now. If, that is, you think you can handle entertainment, grandmother?” He asks with a sly smile.

Marrow chuckles and shoos Sickle with a hoof. “Go on, I’ll make sure they are taken care of,” She tells him. Sickle bids us farewell and takes his leave. All this talk of taking care of us is sending chills up my spine. She then turns her attention to us. “Settle down, we aren’t going to rob or kill you,” She tells us. “You’ve looked anxious since you stepped hoof inside, Ratchet.”

“Forgive me if you saying so doesn’t help ease my anxiety,” I reply. “Usually ponies who are going to pull one over on you tend not to tell you they are.”

Marrow nods. “That is true. But, think of it this way. You were out in the blizzard when Sickle and the others found you, yes?” She asks. I nod. “If we wanted to rob or kill you, we could have just done so out there, when you weren’t aware of us,” She says.

I purse my lips and furrow my brow. “I suppose that’s true,” I mutter. Sickle did come out of nowhere and could have just let the wyrm kill us before killing it.

“Now then, I suspect you might have questions about us and our settlement?” Marrow suggests. “Most who wander across us do. I’m something of the village leader, being the oldest here,” She says.

I nod. “You’re right about. This is an odd place for a settlement, considering the harsh climate. Why not settle further south?” I ask.

“You came from down there, right?” Marrow asks, and receives a nod from us. “Then you know what it is like. Settlements rise and fall down there. You have raiders, monsters, all sorts of nasty things. But here, the worst is wyrms and the snow. The wyrms mostly stay away from this valley, and the snow is something we’ve grown used to,” She explains.

“I guess that makes sense. There are a few of you who seem to not mind the cold as much. Well, what do you do for resources? The wyrms give you food and some supplies, but what about water? And how do you make fire? I’ve not seen a single tree for a while. Do you have to travel far to find wood?” I ask.

Marrow nods rhythmically to my questions. “The wyrms give us our food, most of our building supplies, and is actually the source of our fire as well. Water we get from simply melting snow. Everything else we can’t get up here, we make a trade expedition for every few months and go south,” She tells me.

I raise an eyebrow. “Wait, the wyrms are your source of fire as well? How does that work?” I ask.

“Well, you’ve seen them breath fire, correct?” She asks, I nod. “Then, you know they produce fire. Inside their body is two, crystal like stones that when struck together creates fire. In addition to these, we burn the fat. The crystals, when separated from the wyrm last for around six months. And the unicorns here have learned they can use their magic to manipulate the crystals to control the intensity of the flames,” Marrow explains.

“I see, that’s actually quite interesting,” I mutter, putting a hoof to my chin.

We spend a while talking about their settlement and slowly my anxiety about them goes away. After a while, Sickle comes back from dealing with the wyrm. The four of us talk for a bit longer before the inevitable question is asked by Marrow. “So, what are you two doing up here in the Frozen North?” She asks.

“We are actually looking for a MWT facility up here,” I tell them.

Cora nods in agreement. “It should actually be around here, actually. But the blizzard has made finding it a bit difficult. Snow could be covering the entire entrance for all we know,” She says.

The smiles that were on Marrow’s and Sickle’s faces disappear. “Why are you looking for it?” Sickle asks, his voice is filled with concern.

“There might be something in it that I need,” I reply. They are both acting a bit suspicious. “Do you...know where it is at?” I ask them.

“Maybe,” Marrow says, narrowing her eyes. “Who are you two, really? You aren’t normal travelers. One of you is wearing power armor and the other is wearing a rather pristine lab coat. And you both seem rather intelligent for normal wastelanders. Are you Steel Rangers?” She asks. We went from me being suspicious, to them being suspicious.

“We aren’t Rangers,” I tell her. “Though we aren’t simple travelers either. I’m not sure a single word can explain what we are. But, before I go into that, the two of you are hiding something as well. You seem like good ponies and I don’t want to pry. So I will ask you one question before I explain. Do you know what is inside the MWT facility that the word abominable is used to describe?” I ask them.

Sickle and Marrow exchange a glance and then Sickle replies, “We do.” Simply that, nothing else.

I nod and explain to them our situation, including having Cora open up the armor to expose the hollowness within. When I explain the part about cryogenic pods knowing expressions come over their faces. Once I conclude my explanation, I ask them, “Can you tell us where it is?”

The two exchange a glance again and Marrow says, “Yes. But first, let me tell you about us. Like you, I was born before the war. I was a member of the MWT facility you wish to investigate. It is called the Snowfall Facility, and the purpose of it was to find a way to better combat the zebra threat here in the Frozen North. As you know, zebras attacked us from everywhere, nowhere was spared. Much of our equipment was hard to use in the harsh climates of the Frozen North.

“And so, a project was created by the name of Abominable. This project sought to use the snow to our advantage. You would think that would be a more MAS project, correct? MA, with their pegasi. But, MWT had a plan. It wasn’t magic, wasn’t controlling the weather, it was earth pony engineering.

“Robots were our plan. Robots that could use the snow as a weapon, condense it into ice and freeze our enemies despite their armor. We had a prototype for the freezing mechanisms, but had yet to put them into a robot when the plan was changed. Instead of a robot, we would build a machine that resembled a pony, that would house our freezing mechanism as well as the mind of a pony.

“I don’t know who it was whose brain we put into the machine, but things seemed to be going well. Tests were proceeding as planned. That is, until the megaspells fell. Our facility was far enough away to not be affected by the blasts or the fallout. And luckily, due to our remote location, we had our own garden in the facility to meet our small demand for food.

“Cut off from the rest of the world, we kept to ourselves. There were only around six of us to begin with, but as time went by relationships started and we had children. Then, grandchildren. I was an old mare, probably only a few years from death when one of us suggested we put our minds in the spare prototypes we made for Project Abominable.

“We had five prototypes, each resembled a pony, none of the freezing mechanisms in them. They were our attempts to get the pony form down. At that time, there were fourteen of us. Some of us refused to put our minds in machines. Only seven of us wanted to. With only five prototypes, we held a lottery.

“My grandson, Sickle, and myself are two of those who won that lottery. The others you’ve seen dressed lightly are the others. A few of the actual ponies here are also from Snowfall. Others found us and joined us. But you might be wondering why we are here now and not inside the facility.

“One year ago, Abominable, the weaponized pony we made went berzerk. He destroyed the heating systems and without those, we would freeze to death. Abominable wouldn’t let that happen though, he was set on killing us. A few of us fell as we escaped the facility, including my daughter, Sickle’s mother. When we got out of the facility, we sealed it behind us so Abominable could not escape,” Marrow explains.

It was a lot to take in. No mention of Abominable being sealed in a cryo pod, either. I guess this facility isn’t connected to my pods. But, with Abominable still in the facility, I don’t think we can just walk away, either. “Well, it isn’t what we are looking for, but I think we should take a look,” I tell them. “I don’t think we should leave Abominable alone in the facility for someone to stumble upon later, if he is still berzerk.”

Marrow shakes her head. “It is sealed. No one will get into it. The facility is lost,” She says.

“I think you might be underestimating just how much determination ponies have to loot places,” I tell her. “Eventually, someone we get into it. We should stop it before that happens. If we beat it, you could all take back the facility, too.”

Sickle raises an eyebrow. “Why do you want to help?” He asks.

“I don’t know, it is just kind of what I do. I want Equestria to get back to what it once was. Having deadly pre-war thing lurking in the darkness isn’t going to help that,” I explain.

Marrow furrows her brow, deep in thought. “I will open the facility for you and lock the door behind you. I will wait for you for two hours and if you aren’t back by then, I’ll leave you for dead,” She tells me.

I nod. “That sounds fine, assuming we don’t waste too much time looking for Abominable,” I tell her.

Sickle stands up and grabs his spear. “Let me help you then,” He says with a smile around the spear.

“Sickle!” Marrow says crossly.

“Grandmother, it is fine. I’m our best hunter, and mostly machine. I can help guide them around the facility,” He tells her. “Besides, one of us should be present if they are going to fight Abominable.”

Marrow frowns, but agrees. “Fine. But, we will set out to the facility once this cursed blizzard is over. For now, let’s go over Abominable’s abilities and his weak points. The three of you will have a tough time,” She tells us.

“Thank you,” I tell her and Sickle. We then begin our briefing on Abominable and the Snowfall facility.

When the blizzard subsides three days later, the four of us set out to the Snowfall Facility. It is only an hour walk to the entrance, or at least where the entrance should be. “The blizzard snowed in the entrance,” Marrow mutters. “Oh well, it is a good thing I brought these with us…” She digs around in her bag and holds out two crystals to me. “Here, Ratchet. Since you have magic, it will be safer if you use them.”

“Huh? What are these?” I say, as I pick them up in my magic. They are blood red crystals, about the length of my forehoof.

“Wyrm fire crystals,” Marrow tells me. “It is how they produce their fire, as we told you. Just point where you want the flames to go and strike them together. Of course, since you’re a unicorn you can control the size of the blaze, but there is no need for you to learn how to do that,” She says.

“That’s it?” I say, raising an eyebrow at the strange crystals.

Marrow nods. “See that depression in the snow? That’s the entrance. Melt the snow and we can enter,” She tells me.

“Incidentally, why is the entrance below ground level? In the Frozen North isn’t that kind of...a bad idea? Didn’t it always snow over?” I ask as I point the crystals at the depression.

“It isn’t,” Marrow says as I strike the crystals together. At first, it is just a spark, but then flames erupt from the crystals and spew forth. The flames reach at least five feet in front of me and the radius is around three feet. Needless to say, it sets my mouth agape. “This is the entrance to the facility,” Marrow says when the flames die down.

The flames have melted a rough crater in the snow, exposing the ground below and the concrete of the structure. The crater is six feet deep and approximately a seven foot radius. Inside the crater, is the partially exposed concrete bunker that serves as the entrance to the facility, the door of which is is at ground level. My mouth opens further and I mutter, “This snow is really deep…”

“That’s what happens when you don’t tend it for a good year or more,” Sickle says. “It always was the hardest part of living in the facility.” Marrow slides down into the crater, followed shortly after by Sickle. After staring into the crater for a moment longer, Cora and I join them.

The facility, or what I can see of it anyway, is a plain concrete structure with no identifiable markings. Set between two hunks of concrete is a door that seems to be made of metal. As I approach it, I can make out lettering set into the concrete. Snowfall Facility. Ministry of Wartime Technology.

Marrow is beside the door, and I see her slide part of the concrete aside, exposing a terminal. “Had to protect the terminal from from the weather, you know. Of course, we had to deice it frequently,” She says offhandedly. After hitting a few keys the door lets out a groaning sound. Marrow clicks her tongue. “The door must be frozen shut on the other side as well. Ratchet, strike the crystals again on the door,” She tells me as she closes the panel again and steps away from the door.

“Wait, can’t wyrm fire melt steel? Won’t doing that render the door useless?” I ask her.

Sickle answers for her, “It was treated in a way to resist wyrm fire. At least temporarily. Eventually, it would melt. But the worst that will happen is that it will heat up after a few seconds.”

“Alright then, it’s your facility…” I mutter and strike the stones again. The flames strike the door and after a while they go out once again. I give the crystals back to Marrow. The door looks just the same, but the concrete around the door is black. Marrow walks back to the panel and tries again. This time the door opens, splitting in two horizontally and then receding into the ceiling and floor.

“There you are. I’ll be here to let you out. Remember, two hours and not a minute more,” Marrow says dryly.

“Thank you, Marrow,” Cora says. “We’ll be back soon.”

“Yes grandmother, we’ll be back. No need to worry,” Sickle says with a smile.

“We’ll be back shortly,” I add with a nod. “Let’s get going you two. We need to find Abominable.” The three of us enter into the facility and Marrow shuts the door behind us. I was expecting a relatively normal facility, typical MWT stuff. But this is a bit...different. This floor is an open area filled with large crates of supplies. Near the back is what looks like a large freight elevator and beside that is a staircase leading down.

On top of that, everything is iced over and piles of snow are everywhere. Honestly, I can only see a small part of the floor. It is like a cave, almost. Icicles rise from the floor and hang from the ceiling as well. If I didn’t know any better, I’d think that we were just inside a mountain cave not a research facility.

Sickle lets out a whistle. “Seems Abominable had his run of the place while we were gone. I doubt simply the lack of heating would create snow and ice. Well, while we look, I suppose I’ll give you a tour,” He says, gesturing around him. “This is our main storage. When we received deliveries, they would be dropped off here. At least, that’s what grandmother said,” He shrugs.

“Now we just have all this, the supplies have been here for years,” He tells us, walking towards the elevator and stairs. His spear is in a sling across his back, with part of the shaft sticking past his head so he can grab it in a moments notice. Normally, it would get in the way of wearing packs, but since he isn’t wearing any it is fine.

The three of us approach the elevator. “As I thought,” Sickle mutters. “The elevator is iced over. We’ll have to take the stairs.” He looks down the staircase. “Watch your step, they are covered with ice as well,” he says. We slowly, very, very slowly, descend the staircase. I almost slip a few times but manage to steady myself.

Once we are at the bottom of this case, we arrive at a T intersection with both choices descending down into more stairs. A sign near the ceiling probably indicated what was in which direction, but the ice has made it unreadable.

“On the left is our living quarters, the right is our small security section. I think we should go left for now. The entire lab is connected, so we shouldn’t hit any dead ends, unless Abominable did something,” Sickle says, and starts down the stairs to the left. “These stairs are icy as well, watch your step.”

We descend the stairs and end up in a hallway with a set of double doors on our immediate left. Further down the hall, I see six doors and way at the end is a corner turning right. “Those doors on the left lead to the sub-storage. It is where the elevator leads so we can easily transport supplies here and to the security wing,” Sickle tells us. “It also goes down another level to supply the reactor, water and heating, and research and development wing as well.”

“So, this is a multi-tiered facility?” Cora asks.

“In a way,” Sickle replies. “The main storage is on ground level, then is security and living, and under that is the reactor, heating, and research level. But they aren’t stacked on top of each other. Instead, it is like a staircase. Each level is like a step down into the earth,” He explains.

“Oh, I see,” Cora mutters. “So, that elevator goes down to each level, which I assume has its own smaller sub-storage on that level?” She asks.

Sickle nods as we walk towards the six doors down the hall. “Exactly. Of course, the ones that are further down have long tunnels that lead to the actual facility on that level. Due to the direct access, the tunnels also have a number of turrets and thick doors that require clearance to get through,” Sickle explains.

“Makes sense,” I say as we reach the doors. “Let’s check each room, then we can move on. Anything we should be concerned with in these rooms?” I ask Sickle.

He shakes his head. “They are pretty basic rooms, not even that big. Originally, there was one for each staff member. Once things went the way they did, they started being used as separate rooms for each family,” He tells us.

“Oh. Didn’t that get cramped?” I ask him.

“At times. There were only six beds, so we started using extra blankets and the like for those of us that came after. Thankfully, we only had three generations living here. If us grandchildren of the original occupants decided to get together, things would have gotten really tight,” Sickle chuckles.

We each take two doors and check them out. The first one I look into is a fairly simple. A bed in the corner, a dresser and nightstand are the major furniture in the room. On the floor is two bundles of blankets, like makeshift beds, like Sickle said. Of course, when I touch them I find them frozen completely stiff.

There are some other personal effects in the room, such as a picture of five ponies I don’t recognize. It is probably the family of one of the original occupants. I don’t see them having a camera down here. But, a question occurs to me as I look at the picture. With nothing else of note in the room, I step back outside.

“Hey Sickle, I just thought of something. Since that isn’t your original body, does your current body look similar to your original?” I ask him, though he is in another room. I walk to the next room while I wait for his reply.

“Nope!” He calls back. “Not even the same color palate. None of us who put our minds into these machines look similar to what we looked like before. These bodies don’t have any defining features, either. No cutie marks, freckles, moles, that sort of stuff. Just generic coloration,” He says. After a moment, he calls out again, “Oh, and no genitals either. Being all machine, that would be sort of pointless, ya know.”

“I know what you mean,” Cora chimes in. “But us machines have our own way of copulating. Of course, it isn’t for reproductive purposes. It is purely entertainment,” She says. They can? That’s...weird. I wonder how it works. Perhaps electrical impulses or something?

“You don’t say?” Sickle replies, his voice filled with curiosity. “You’ll have to tell me about that sometime.”

The other room is much like the first, only with one less group of blankets on the floor. This room also has a few more pictures of ponies I don’t recognize. I also spot a book on reactor maintenance on top of the dresser, but of course the pages are frozen together and the book is completely frozen to the dresser. Well, as long as Abominable isn’t in here, I suppose nothing else really matters.

I walk back into the hall in time to hear Cora reply to Sickle, “I don’t think you would be able to figure it out. For an AI or machine, it is basic knowledge. But for you ponies who live in the physical world, it isn’t a concept you can grasp. It is like trying to imagine a fourth or fifth dimension.”

“Can you imagine a fourth or fifth dimension?” Sickle asks.

“No,” Cora responds. “I can logically know what they are based upon what the first through third dimensions are. But, when it comes to imagining an object in a higher dimension, it is impossible for me as well,” she says.

The two of them step out into the hallway with me a few moments later. “That’s a shame,” Sickle mutters. “Anyhow, we should keep going. We’ve got a lot of ground to cover, and we have a time limit,” Sickle says, and starts walking down the hallway.

The three of us continue to the corner and find another flight of stairs. At the top is another sigh too iced over to read. “This takes us down into the reactor area. You know, just assume any more stairs we come across are slick. Let’s go,” Sickle tells us. We descend into the reactor area.

The reactor area is a large rectangular room with a reactor in the middle. Power cables run from it up into the ceiling. Some terminals are around the room, probably once used to monitor and regular the power flow. A catwalk crawls up one wall and rises over the reactor. No doubt to provide maintenance access to it. Across from us is another hallway, to our right is a small door, and to the left is security door.

“Intruders detected,” A synthetic voice declares. It sounds like...and then I spot it. A protectapony. It stumbles out from behind the reactor and looks directly at us. “Extermination authorized,” It announces.

“Shit,” I mutter. “Get ready!” I shout and draw two of my knives. Sickle already has his spear in his mouth and is moving in position to attack the robot. Cora is doing likewise. The robot is targeting me and starts raining firing upon me. I quickly jump out of the way and slide behind a desk in the room. Cora’s guns go off and I hear the bullets impact the robot.

The robot turns its attention to her instead of me and I peek over the desk. Cora is now behind the reactor taking cover from the robot, but it seems hesitant to shoot at the reactor. It must have been programmed to not shoot at it. I notice that some of its armor near one of its arms has been stripped away, exposing some circuitry inside.

I quickly throw the two knives I have in my magic at the exposed wiring. My first knife bounces off the armor just below the wires, but my second strikes true. The robot’s arm immediately goes slack as it turns back to me. But in doing so, it turns its back on Sickle. In that moment, he drives his spear through the machine, tearing our various circuits as the tip makes its exit.

Immediately, the robot’s limbs go slack and it falls to the ground with a crash. Sickle pulls the spear from the machine and looks around for more. “It looks like that was the only one,” I say as we gather up again. “You didn’t mention robots,” I tell him, slightly angry.

“Yea, sorry comrades. Last I knew, they were deactivated and used for spare parts. Abominable must have repaired them. Incidentally, there should be two more somewhere,” Sickle tells us.

I look at the robot at our hooves. It is a pretty standard protectapony. Like the rest of a facility though, it is covered in ice and snow. “So, two more of these to deal with, huh?” I mutter. “Well, at least the cold is making them brittle,” I say as I pick my knives back up. “But it is also freezing my tail off...How is it colder now that we’ve entered into the facility?” I complain.

“That is probably Abomination's work. His body is a bit different from mine. Its metal is resistant to the cold and his weapons work better the colder it is,” Sickle tells us.

“I see,” I mutter as we start looking around the reactor room for anything we should be wary of. “By the way, a spear is an odd choice of weapon. Wouldn’t a gun or something be more effective?” I ask.

“You’d be surprised,” He replies. “In this harsh climate, weapon maintenance is crucially important. The cold, snow, and ice are all factors you have to be aware of. The cold can cause parts to break easier and the bullets to become faulty. It is a huge mess. A spear doesn’t have those issues,” He says.

“That’s a good point,” I mutter, recalling my time learning about gun maintenance with the Rangers. “So, where did you get it from?” I ask him.

Sickle chuckles. “It is an heirloom from my grandfather on my father’s side. The one who wasn’t Marrow’s husband. Marrow’s husband, Hammer, came from Stalliongrad. Where as my other grandfather, Waltz, was a former royal guard. Once the war began, he joined the actual military and later became security here. Kept his spear through all of it,” He says proudly.

“It served him well, and it serves me just as good. Apparently it has a special enchantment on it so it never needs maintenance. It stays sharp as the day it was first made. Which comes in handy, because that same enchantment also means it is nearly unbreakable. Wyrm hide or scales? No problem. Even metal robots aren’t an issue. And, it doesn’t get brittle in the cold,” Sickle adds.

“Huh, that is handy,” I mutter, inspecting the knives I threw. One is a bit rusty and the other could use a good sharpening. It would be nice to have an enchantment like that on my knives. “Well, I think this room is clear. No more robots lurking around and no sign of Abominable,” I say.

“Yea,” Cora agrees. “He must be deeper in.”

Sickle nods. “That, or he is back up in security or the sub-storage areas,” He mutters. We are about to continue through the hall into the next room when I hear the sound of treads coming from behind us. I turn just in time to see the other two protectaponies coming out of the stairway to the security wing.

“We’ve got company,” I tell the others as I draw my knives. Cora and Sickle turn just in time as the robots start shooting at us. Their lasers streak down the hallway as we struggle to get out of it and back into the reactor room without getting hit. The three of us make it out and slide into the nearest object of cover. All the while the robots are moving closer and keeping us pinned down. It isn’t long before they move between us and the reactor itself and an idea hits me. “Draw their fire!” I call out to the others.

“You got it!” Cora replies and starts shooting back at the robots. The robots react as expected, and focus on the threat at hoof. This gives me, and Sickle, an opportunity to close the distance. I keep as far from the robots as I can while flanking to the right of the robots and try to stay out of sight. Sickle flanks left, but barely makes any progress towards them before one starts shooting at him again. Cora is pinned behind her cover by the other.

This gives me the opportunity I need to close the distance. I finish looping around to the right side and then dash in behind them, putting myself between them and the reactor. “Hey, robots!” I shout as I throw a knife at each of them. The knives strike their casing and bounce off, but it does draw their attention. “That’s it, I’m your enemy too,” I say as I draw two more knives. The robots turn towards me and level their guns, but they stop short of shooting.

I smirk, just as I thought. “What’s wrong? Can’t risk shooting me and damaging the reactor?” I taunt them. Cora and Sickle move closer to them while I have the robots’ attention. “You see, this is why I never really liked robots. The two of you could very easily kill me, and probably do so with minimal damage to the reactor. But, because of your programming you can’t even fire in the general direction of the reactor,” I say with a smile. “Just another reason that AI and living breathing ponies trump robots.”

Sickle is right behind one of the robots now and Cora is a fairly close to the other. “Need an example, robots?” I ask them. “Let the three of us demonstrate. Now!” I shout. Cora sprays her target with bullets, shattering its brittle metal armor and exposing a its insides. A few of her shots miss the mark and fly towards me and the reactor, but don’t do any serious damage.

“See? An AI just attacked you despite the reactor and myself being in the line of fire,” I say, and then throw one of my knives at the damaged robot. It strikes a critical component and sends the robot spinning in circles. The other robot turns to target Cora as she finishes off the damaged one. “Another thing,” I declare, “you robots seem to be programmed to attack the most hostile elements first. Which means, you leave yourselves open.”

Sickle runs at the remaining robot, plants the end of his spear on the ground, and swings his body around it, slamming his rear hooves into the robot and sending it flying towards me. It slams down on its side and grinds to a halt next to me. However, it fires it weapons as it lands and one of the lasers hits my rear leg. I quickly use my other knife and pry open part of its armor as I draw another knife and stab another crucial component inside with it. The robot powers down and its limbs go limp.

“And that, is why robots will never be as good as AI or ponies,” I mutter, as I put my knives away and inspect the burn on my leg. The laser burned through my winter clothing and scorched my leg up a bit. Nothing worth drinking a healing potion for, but I should probably bandage it. A few minutes later, and it is all bandaged up and we are back in the hallway leading deeper into the facility. “So, Sickle, what will we be heading into down this hall?” I ask.

“This hall leads into the heating regulation room. It is where water and air is heated to make sure things don’t freeze over. Once in the room, left will take us to the water treatment and regulation room and right will take us to the research and development wing. Those two are linked in the back by our greenhouse,” Sickle tells us. “Though, no doubt the greenhouse has seen better days.”

“Yea, this cold and ice can’t be good for it,” I agree.

“Can’t be good for your water pipes either,” Cora adds. “No doubt any water left in them has been frozen solid.” The three of us emerge into the heating room. There are various pipes and air vents running into the walls and ceilings. All of the vents funnel into a central vent that rests between two large heaters. This central vent also has a valve on it where two vents branch off from the central one and connect to the heaters. The pipes also have a similar setup to the vents, with a large central pipe resting between the heaters.

“Actually,” Sickle begins, “our water distribution system has a failsafe in place that removes water from the pipes in the event the temperature falls below a certain point. Though, that isn’t likely to happen in most cases. We have two heaters for a reason. Only one runs at a time. We switch when we do maintenance or one breaks.”

“That’s actually a very good system,” I say. The heating room is wide open with nowhere to hide. “Doesn’t look like Abominable is here,” I mutter. “On to the next room?”

Sickle nods. “I doubt he would be in the water distribution room, so let’s go straight to research and development,” He says and leads us to the right. We enter into a hall with doors and windows on either side. “This is where the magic of Snowfall happens. All of our planning, tinkering, and testing happens. Abominable has a room at the end of this wing.”

“He should be in there then,” I mutter. “But, let’s check each room along the way, just in case.” Sickle and Cora nods in agreement. Lucky for us, each room long the hall has a window looking in so we don’t have to chip away at the ice on the doors. A kind of observation thing, I suppose, and they are a little frosted over, but we can see through them enough.

The first room looks like a drafting area for planning out the construction of Abominable’s weapons and body. Drawings and notes hang from the walls and heavy looking books are on the desks in the room. The next room looks to be a hardware room used to actually make the weapons and body. Tools, components, and scrap metal are scattered about. There is even half of a robotic body hung from the ceiling by its metal vertebra.

Next is a room that seems dedicated to the software behind working the weapons and body. Two terminals in the room are hooked up to what appear to be parts of a robotic body. In the next room, I see what is essentially a shooting range. Worn down target dummies hang from the ceiling or are attached to stands in the room. The last room, aside from Abominable’s personal room, looks to be a sort of classroom. There is a desk in the middle and multiple chalkboards are in the room, each with different information on them. It seems to be mostly military tactics, but one of them details the amount of pressure to takes to melt snow and how cold the melted snow has to be chilled to in order to form ice.

“Not a bad facility, you have almost everything you need down here,” I say, thinking of my own lab. It is always interesting seeing the differences in research facilities. “Ok, last room is Abominable’s, right? Let’s get ready,” I say as we near the last room in the hall. It is the only room without a window looking in. We won’t be able to see until we open the door. It does look like the door to this room has been used recently. It lacks the ice the other doors do.

“I’ll open it,” Sickle says as he stands near the door. “Cora, be ready to shoot as soon as you see him. Ratchet and I will back you up when there is an opening,” He tells us. “That sound good?” He asks.

Cora and I nod and take position near the door. After a moment, Sickle opens it then takes cover around the corner. “It’s empty,” Cora says as she walks inside. “Nothing but another room like in the living quarters.” Sickle and I poke our heads in the room. She’s right, it is an almost exact copy of the rooms in the living quarters. However, this one is much more sparsely decorated.

“Shit,” Sickle murmurs as he puts his spear away again. “I wonder if he is in security then.” He holds a hoof to his chin in thought and then says, “let’s check out the greenhouse and water distribution before we backtrack.”

“Right,” I nod in agreement. We make our way to the end of the hall and the large door I suppose leads to the greenhouse. Sickle opens the door and we go follow through the doorway. The room beyond is largely open, aside from two dead trees. The room is divided into four sections, each with four large planters. Everything is covered in snow and ice, much like the rest of the facility. Large mounds of snow are in random places around the room, and large icicles hang from the trees. The trees are in the middle of the room on our right side. Between these two trees, is a throne made of snow and ice, and on this throne is pony.

The pony has ice hanging from his chin and ears and snow covers his back, blending in with his white coat. His grey mane is slicked back along his neck and frozen stiff, his tail barely moves as he shifts on the throne and turns his attention to us. “I’ve been waiting for you,” he says flatly. “You three have been quite noisey, you know.”

“Abominable…” Sickle says, his voice full of spite. “Well, we wanted to make sure you knew we were coming. You could have saved us the trouble and come to greet us.” The three of us spread out as he talks.

“Please. You remember the tactics drilled into us, don’t you? By your grandparents, by my keepers?” Abominable says. “Wait for your enemy to come to you.”

“You’d know better than I. You did have over a hundred years to memorize them,” Sickle replies. “But, we aren’t here for pleasantries and we are on a time limit.”

“Clearly.” Abominable says simply. “But, I expect you forgot the reason why we were taught to wait for the enemy to come to us. Because we lay traps for our enemies,” he says, and pulls on a length of wire near him. A few mounds of spew snow into the air as something comes out of them, sending dozens of shards of ice at us. Cora takes the hits without moving, but Sickle and I try to dodge them. I manage to avoid most of them, but one sails right past my head and pierces a hole through the hood of my coat. Sickle seems to have made it without a scratch as well. Wait…

“Why did you dodge, Sickle? You’re made of metal like Cora,” I ask as I get back to my hooves.

“For the same reason she should have dodge as well,” Sickle replies. I look over at Cora, and see that her armor is missing in numerous places. “Cold makes metal brittle, remember? His ice is also exceptionally hard, we went over this,” Sickle tells me.

“Cora, are you alright?” I ask her as I make my way to her.

“Nothing vital was hit, Ratchet. I’ll be fine,” She replies. I reach her side right as Abominable pulls on another wire. More of the mounds erupt into icicles. This time, we all dodge and I fall to the side as I do so.

“Everyone good?” I ask as I get back to my hooves.

“Good,” they reply in unison. I look around for more mounds and spot three more. Judging by how many have been going off at the same time, I’d guess those three will be triggered at the same time. He can’t aim them either, so as long as we get away from where we are standing now, we should be fine.

“Quick, get away from the entranceway!” I shout as I make my way towards the wall across from the throne. Cora follows after me, but Sickle heads for the other wall.

“That’s another tactic we learned, remember, Sickle?” Abominable says as he pulls another wire. “Route your enemy.” The remaining mounds erupt and send out their shards. But these are aimed in a different direction, right at the wall Sickle is heading to. I try to call out, but the sound of the ice impacting the wall drowns out my words.

Once the shower of snow and ice dies down, I can see Sickle clearly again. A good portion of his skin is ripped, exposing the metal underneath. Even some of the metal has broken away, exposing some wiring. He is raising a hoof to the wires as he walks on three hooves towards Abominable. “You’re out of traps now, Abominable,” he says.

“Well, they served their purpose. I didn’t expect much from them, but they did damage two of you,” Abominable replies. He slowly gets up off the throne and stands to face us. “I expect that damage you sustained will impede your movements, Sickle,” he says.

Sickle chuckles. “It is a shame you are modeled after me. You know just where to hit to do the most damage,” Sickle tells him. Then Sickle addresses Cora and I. “Careful you two, his body is specially treated so it doesn’t get brittle in the cold, unlike mine. Remember what we talked about back in the village,” He says.

“Right,” I reply as I get closer to Cora. “Lay down some fire so Sickle and I can get close,” I tell her, keeping my voice down. Cora nods and I begin to circle Abominable to the left. With Cora at his front, Sickle to his left, and me to his right, we’ll have him focusing his attention between three different directions. When he attacks one of us, the other two can hit him in the back.

Abominable doesn’t seem to care that we are surrounding him and just stands there. Once I am in position, Cora opens fire on Abominable. Immediately, he slams his hoof on the ground and a sheet of metal rises up out of the snow, blocking her shots. I draw a knife as Sickle runs as quickly as he can towards Abominable. Abominable won’t be able to dodge our attacks while blocking Cora’s. Either he gets hit by us, or moves and lowers the shield and lets Cora shoot him.

I throw a knife at him, but all it does is break the ice covering his body, he didn’t even try to avoid it. Sickle gets within striking distance a moment later and Abominable jumps away from the shield to avoid Sickle’s stab. This gives Cora a clear shot and she begins to fire once again. Some of the bullets strike Abominable’s body, but don’t see to do anything more than break ice or send billows of snow drifting from his body. Abominable turns his head toward Sickle and spews out a cloud of freezing vapor.

Sickle quickly dodges this cloud as it sweeps over where he was just a moment ago. “Perhaps I didn’t slow you down enough,” Abominable says as the cloud disappears. He then opens his jaws and forms a bolt of ice, then sends it towards Sickle, who barely manages to leap aside. All the while, Cora is shooting him and barely doing anything.

Abruptly, she stops shooting and I hear her let out an expletive. “My assault rifle’s done!” She calls over. “I think a spring broke!” Great. Soon we will only have melee left to resort to.

“Use your sniper then, it should pack more punch anyway!” I tell her as I draw Forgiveness and another knife. Hopefully Forgiveness doesn’t break like Cora’s assault rifle. I shoot it once, and the bullet strikes just under him. As I line up another shot, Sickle charges back in at Abominable, but once again Abominable just steps aside and blasts Sickle with his icy breath. But as he does so, Cora hits him with a round from her sniper. A huge chunk of ice flies off him and I think I see a bit of metal mixed in with the ice. “Keep it up Cora!” I call out as I try to get closer.

Cora’s shot spares Sickle of getting doused with the icy cloud, but Abominable turns his attention to her and shoots an ice shard at her. She manages to avoid it, but her next shot goes wide and misses completely. With Cora distracted, Abominable points his muzzle up in the air and spews forth a blizzard like snow, obscuring my vision. The snow fills the room like a snow globe and I can only see flashes of color here and there. But I hear movement, it sounds like Abominable is charging towards Cora. I run blindly through the snow, following the sound. I hear Sickle’s hoofsteps as well, I think.

Suddenly a spear comes out of the snow towards me. I just barely manage to throw myself to the ground as it stabs right where my head just was. “Sickle! It’s me!” I call out.

“What? Shit,” I hear him mutter from right above me. “I didn’t get you, did I?” He asks.

“No,” I say, as I get to my hooves. “You weren’t lying when you said he can literally make a blizzard,” I tell him.

“Yea, luckily it works both ways. He can’t see any better than we can,” He says.

Just then I hear the sound of ice striking metal and Sickle grunting in pain. “True, but I can hear you,” Abominable says, his voice coming from our left. I point Forgiveness in that direction and fire once. The sound of my bullet hitting metal is quickly followed by Cora calling out in surprise.

“Ratchet! You shot me!” She yells. “I thought we were friends!”

“Shit, sorry! I thought Abominable was over there,” I reply. “You ok?”

“Yea, just dinged off my armor,” She tells me.

“That’s a relief,” I say. The next second, a shard of ice stabs me in the side.

“That isn’t though, is it?” Abominable says from my right. I hold a hoof to my side as I point my gun in that direction, but I can’t see anything and I won’t risk shooting blindly again. I decide to just shut up and wait as I pull the ice shard out of my side. If I keep getting holes cut in my clothing, I’m going to freeze to death faster than I’ll bleed to death.

After a few seconds of silence without even hoofsteps in the snow, Cora speaks up. “Sickle, Ratchet, don’t move. Call out so I know where you are at,” She says. I hesitate for a moment, but then hear Sickle call out and I quickly follow. “Got it, don’t move!” She yells. After a moment, I hear two objects hit the snow, then nothing for a few seconds. And then, I hear a ‘fwoosh’ and the air gets a bit warmer for a moment. I look around and see some flames around the room. In a few more seconds, the snow in the air becomes thinner and soon after it finishes falling to the ground.

Sickle is standing next to me and Cora is a few feet away from us. Abominable is standing a ways off between the us. “Incendiary grenades, hu?” He mutters. “Effective against snow, but against my body they will do nothing.” He’s got a point. I think I’m the only one at risk from incendiary grenades. At least we can see now, but at this rate he is going to slowly wear us down.

“Sickle, we need to keep him away from Cora. Her gun can get through his armor. If we get up close, we can keep him from getting to her,” I whisper to him.

“Got it,” Sickle replies. “But watch out for his attacks. You don’t seem to be the most nimble on your hooves,” he tells me.

“Yea, yea. You take his right, I’ll take his left. Cora will shoot when she has a line on him,” I say as I begin to walk towards Abominable. I holster Forgiveness and draw three knives in my magic and one in my mouth. Sickle and I make our way towards Abominable, dodging his shards and breath as we do so. Cora takes a few shots at him, but they don’t do anything vital. Once Sickle and I get within striking distance, the real fight begins.

Sickle starts with a series of quick stabs, which Abominable easily avoids and retaliates with a cloud of freezing mist. Cora takes a shot as I press the attack, striking his body with my knives and ripping through his artificial skin. My attacks don’t do much, but they do expose his metal body underneath. Abominable turns to me and launches a shard at me. At this range I barely manage to avoid it by jerking my head to the left and dragging my knife along his neck.

I pull back right as Sickle attacks again, but Abominable rears up and Sickle’s spear stabs right under his chest. Cora takes this opportunity to put a bullet in the middle of his chest, which sends Abominable back further than he anticipated. He staggers and Sickle stabs at him again. This time, Sickle’s spear goes straight through Abominable’s torso. Abominable lets out a cry, but quickly turns towards Sickle and lets out another breath of freezing mist.

With his spear still inside Abominable, Sickle cannot avoid the cloud. The cloud envelops Sickle and Abominable immediately slams his front hooves down on Sickle. Sickle’s metal body fractures and chunks break off from it as he is thrown to the ground, his spear still sticking out of Abominable. “Sickle!” I call out as Abominable turns his full attention on me, with Sickle’s spear still piercing straight through him.

“Shit,” I mutter as I jump to the right to avoid an ice shard. Cora keeps shooting as I try to dodge Abominable and keep him busy. Sickle is struggling to stand. Oh, this is bad. I can barely avoid Abominable’s attacks, let alone counter attack. I keep backing up and rolling aside, but then I feel the wall against my rump.

“Nowhere to run now,” Abominable says as he opens his maw, no doubt to exhale his freezing breath at me. Before he can do anything, Sickle leaps onto his back and wraps his hooves around the protruding ends of his spear. Sickle pulls on the spear, pulling Abominable with him. Abominable unleashes his breath, but it misses me as he is thrown about by Sickle. Sickle hauls Abominable over onto the floor and the two struggle for control.

I quickly recover and get over to them. “Sickle, where is his weak point?” I ask as I look over Abominable’s body. Thanks to all the damage, I can see the various slats in his body under his artificial skin.

Sickle struggles to answer me as he fights with Abominable. “Left side on his abdomen, there should be a jagged looking slit with rounded edges,” Sickle tells me and then jerks Abominable around to try and expose that side.

“You bastard,” Abominable spits as he struggles against Sickle.

“You used your knowledge of our similarities to your advantage, it is only right I return the favor,” Sickle tells him. I quickly look over Abominable’s body and look for what Sickle described. No...No...not that one...Ah, there it is. I find the slit and stab my knifes inside it, trying to pry it open. Come on...come on…and one of my knife breaks. Shit.

“Cora!” I call over to her, “Shoot right here!” I point to the plate of metal with a knife tip.

“Got it!” She replies. A moment later, a bullet strikes the plate, cracking it. I then stab my knives into the cracks once again and pry with all my magical might. Slowly, the pieces break away and expose the circuitry underneath. I quickly stab my knives into the circuitry and damage everything I can.

Abominable screams out in pain. “Arrgg! Stop! Don’t cut those! Damn you Sickle!” He yells. As I keep cutting, his body eventually stops struggling against Sickle and lies still. Sickle gets off of him and pulls his spear out of Abominable’s body.

“What component was that?” I ask Sickle. “He isn’t dead, just immobilized. Some sort of motor control?”

“More or less. I’m not sure about the specifics, but I was always told to guard that spot,” Sickle replies.

Abominable lets out a growl. “Well, you won. Kill me then, Sickle. Or will you have your friends do it for you?” He asks.

“Oh no, I got this,” Sickle says, and stabs his spear through Abominable’s head. Abominable goes completely motionless and silent as Sickle pulls his spear out, and then proceeds to fall over himself. He lets out a grunt. “Abominable got me pretty good. I’ll need to let my repair talisman do a bit of work before I can move properly again,” He tells me.

“Do you need anything?” I ask him.

He shakes his head. “I have enough spare scrap metal in my internal storage that it shouldn’t be a problem,” Sickle says. “By the way, how much time do we have left?” he asks.

“Twenty minutes,” Cora tells him.

“Ah, well. You two should get back to grandmother before she keeps us locked up in here,” Sickle tells us. “I’ll stay here while my body repairs itself. With the robots and Abominable taken care of, there shouldn’t be anything else in here to worry about. But, don’t take any chances and go back the way we came,” He says.

“Alright,” I say as I put all my knives away. “We will be back once we assure her Abominable has been taken care of,” I tell him. “Let’s go, Cora.”

Over the next few days, Cora and I help Sickle, Marrow, and their village make the transition back into the Snowfall Facility. At first, it is just helping the ponies who once lived there get it habitable again. Of the fourteen original occupants, three others similar to Sickle and Marrow help out. I suppose that matches the number of prototypes they had to put their minds into. One of these three, Ether, is part of the original six, like Marrow. Generation one, I suppose you could call it. The other two include Lavender, Ether’s daughter, and Mercury, Lavender’s grandson.

In addition of these five, three remain from the original fourteen that once occupied the facility. Echo, Sickle’s uncle on his father’s side and husband of Lavender, and Mute and Howl, Echo and Lavender’s daughters. Of course, these three are flesh and blood ponies like me. Once Marrow and Sickle informed the others of what I did for them, introductions and celebrations began.

They also tell me more about what happened to the other occupants. Waltz, Sickle’s former royal guard grandfather, died as they escaped, along with Sickle’s parents, Lint Trap and Flora. Marrow’s husband, Hammer, died shortly after they left due to exposure to the cold. Echo’s parents, Pomegranate and Xenon died from old age in the facility before things went south. Some tales are sadder than others, but after passing the night away, the remaining eight occupants of the facility, Cora, and I set about trying to fix up the facility.

The very first thing we do, is repair the damage on the heating systems. Luckily, they have enough spare parts in storage that it isn’t too much of a chore. But then is the task of clearing the snow and ice.

We start with removing the ice and snow around the elevator so we can use it to transport the snow from the lower levels more easily. With it free, we use the few carts they have to pile snow into and then haul it outside. It is a slow process, but eventually we make progress. As the heat starts to kick in, it helps us a bit. The water distribution room and each of the bedrooms have drains, so we leave the snow in there to melt naturally as it warms up. Our main focus, is getting the snow and ice off of the terminals and sensitive equipment so they don’t receive any further damage.

Once the snow and ice removal is complete, we set about inspecting everything that might have been damaged by the snow and water. This includes everything from bedding, papers, and electrical components, to seeds used in the greenhouse. It is only slightly less arduous than removing the snow. After assessing the damage, we work to restore everything that we can. A few terminals and quite a bit of the more sensitive equipment is unsalvageable. But, the major systems of the facility remain operational. I suppose that has something to do with the original construction being meant to stand up against extreme temperatures.

Fixing up the facility takes us about four days. Once we kick on the heating and goet most of the snow removed, the remaining villages are brought in to make themselves at home. There is only six of them, but given how cramped the living quarters already are, I wasn’t sure where they were going to fit everyone. But then they start clearing out the experiment and testing labs and putting things in storage. Abominable’s room is cleared out left unoccupied so the six new residents can share his bathroom.

I also keep receiving thanks and praise for helping them. I keep telling them it isn’t a big deal. It was just something I felt I needed to do. It wasn’t to help them, specifically, but Equestria as a whole. Their praise makes me...anxious. I’ve had people thank me over the years, and they all end up worse off than when I helped them or dead.

That was how things went. The Wasteland sucks and it will take from you till you have nothing left, and then take some more. I’ve rarely seen how cruel the Wasteland can be though, I just hear about it through Cora. I’ll wake up and ask about someone or somewhere we helped, and she’ll give me the bad news. In the beginning, I didn’t believe her. I’d drag her along till we found a body, a grave, the charred or bloody ruins of a town. I always wonder, how can things go south so badly in the course of a few months or years.

But here, in this remote facility, seeing everyone’s smiling face and hearing their kind words...I have hope that maybe, just maybe, this place won’t end up the same way as the others. That Sickle, Marrow, and the others will live in peace and quiet until they die of old age or their bodies rust away. Because of this, as I’m about to leave and Sickle tells me something, I hesitate.

“You know, you could stay if you’d like,” Sickle tells me. I turn and blink at him in surprise. “I know you have your own lab, and that you freeze yourself, but I’m sure it gets lonely. You could live here with us, if you want.”

I stare at him for a moment, my jaw working but no words coming out. I bite my lip and look at the ground. “I would like that,” I tell him, with a sigh. “But...I can’t. I told you why I’m doing what I’m doing. If someone stumbled upon one of the pods and released something nasty, it would do a lot of harm.”

Sickle frowns. “Why is that your responsibility? Did you seal these things, these ponies away?” He asks. I shake my head. “So you don’t have any obligation to find these pods.”

“But it is my technology, my research that helped make them,” I reply.

Sickle shakes his head. “From what you said, it was stolen from you and used without your knowledge. You aren’t at fault, if anyone is, it is Twilight Sparkle herself for using your research without telling you,” he tells me.

“She’s gone now, though. Everyone from before the bombs is, unless they are a ghoul or a robot like you. If I don’t find the pods, no one else will look for them. Ponies will stumble across them, and may get themselves, and others killed,” I tell him, furrowing my brow.

“Ponies die all the time in the Wasteland, Ratchet. And I’m certain there are worse things out there than whatever is in your pods. Take Abominable as an example, he wasn’t even in a pod,” Sickle says. “During the war, dangerous and deadly weaponry was the norm, and not all of it is sealed away in a pod.”

“You’re right,” I mutter. “But why shouldn’t I try to remove as many dangerous things as possible from the Wasteland?” I ask. “And there aren’t just things that are dangerous sealed away in these pods. There are good ponies who deserve to be free again. Ponies who can help the Wasteland,” I tell him. This seems to quiet him, at least for a moment.

“You shouldn’t have to do this,” He tells me.

“I have to,” I tell him. “I survived the end of Equestria, I was lucky enough to be allowed to live just a little bit longer. By all accounts, I should be dead right now. I’m roughly a hundred and thirty years old. I had my time and everything that I once knew is destroyed. Someone like me is exactly who needs to do this.”

Sickle stares at me for a minute, before turning to Cora. “Cora, can I speak to Ratchet alone for a moment,” He asks.

Cora nods. “Of course. I’ll be outside waiting, Ratchet. It was nice to meet you, Sickle. Take care!” She says and starts towards the exit.

“You as well, Cora. And if you are ever up in these parts, feel free to stop in and say hello!” Sickle calls after her. Once the door outside closes, Sickle and I are the only ones left in the storage room entrance. “I am concerned about you, Ratchet,” Sickle tells me.

I’m taken aback for an instant, but compose myself. “Why? I’m fine, Cora is here for me, and her friends too. It isn’t like I am running myself ragged or anything either,” I tell him.

“Listen to me for a moment, Ratchet,” Sickle says, his face serious. “You make yourself sound good and kind, and you are, without a doubt. I’m sure you believe you are as well. But...you’re not...normal.”

I chuckle at that. “Of course I’m not. I’m a scientist from before the war who keeps freezing herself,” I tell him.

Sickle shakes his head. “That isn’t what I mean. The way you handled Abominable, without hesitation and the mindset to kill him...Not to mention, when I finished him off, you didn’t even try to stop me. I know he was bad, so killing him doesn’t bother me. But you are a stranger here,” He tells me.

“What do you mean?” I ask, confused.

“You believed us right away that Abominable was bad, when we could have just as easily been the bad guys. Did you think for one moment that maybe Abominable didn’t try to kill us, but drive us out for his own safety? You didn’t try to talk to him, get his side of the story,” Sickle says, letting out an odd sigh. “I think that a normal, good pony, would have asked him. Would have stopped me.”

“Are you saying I should have doubted you?” I ask.

“Yes,” Sickle says. “I’ve taken a few trips to the south. I know how bad things are down there. If you don’t doubt, you don’t live long. But...I’m not sure lack of doubt is your issue. I think you don’t care.”

I flinch. “Why do you think that?” I ask.

“Let me ask you something,” Sickle says. “It has been around seventy-five years, give or take, since you first woke up in the Wasteland, right?” I nod. “In those seventy-five years, how long do you think you’ve been awake?” He asks.

The question catches me off guard. “Uh...I think…” I trail off. How long...had it been? "Less than two years?" I suggest. Wait, now that I think of it, I started keeping a memo in my PipBuck. “Wait, uh, let me see here…” I mutter as I fumble with it. I find the memo, a list of the total time I’ve spent in the Wasteland. At the bottom is a total that I read aloud, “Thirty four years...” I stare at the number in shock. Thirty four? But...I don't...remember?

“You just said less than two years a moment ago,” Sickle says darkly. “How could you forget all of those years? Dark memories you want to forget? Well, how about this, how many ponies have you seen die?”

I move my mouth, but I can’t find any words. “That many?” Sickle says. “You remember them, don’t you? All of them. Maybe not individuals, but towns, families, locations? Celestia...I don’t know how you are still sane. Ponies have broken for less. I think...I think you’ve become desensitized to death and killing. You still know it is sad and wrong, but when it happens it doesn’t bother you anymore. Am I wrong?” He asks.

I think back to the last few times I was in the Wasteland. The way I killed raiders, the muted reactions I had when innocents died...One thought hits me: Sickle is right. He’s right, and I have nothing to say in return. At my silence, Sickle frowns. “Despite this,” He says, “You go out of your way to help others. You’ve not been broken yet, but you’ve seen so much.”

Sickle sighs. “I can’t do much, Ratchet, but, I’ll be here if you ever need me. If you can’t take the weight of the world anymore. We’re comrades, after all,” He tells me.

“I...Sickle, you could always come with me,” I offer.

He shakes his head. “Snowfall needs me. I’m our best hunter, the metal body does help though. Besides, once you get back to your home, you’re just going to freeze again, aren’t you? I’ll just be left there, waiting,” He says.

“Actually, I have a second unoccupied pod in my lab. You could always use it. Then you wouldn’t have to wait,” I tell him.

He chuckles slightly. “I appreciate the offer, I really do. But, I want to say here, for now. We just got the facility working again, after all,” Sickle tells me with a sad smile. “I’ll be here for a while, and if you ever need me, I’ll be here. Be it a day, a month, a year, even a hundred years from now. You helped us and I’ll return the favor.”

“Thanks,” I tell him. “I’ll be sure to stop by if I am ever up with way again or if there is something I need your help with.” I hesitate for a moment before going on. “One last thing,” I say, pulling my PipBuck’s interface cable out. “I’m assuming you have some sort of mapping system build into your body?” I ask.

“Sort of. It isn’t like a PipBuck, but it serves its purpose,” Sickle replies.

“So, if I were to give you the map data to my lab, you could use it to find your way there?” I confirm.

“Yes, in theory. I’ve not really used the function all that much,” He tells me.

“Well, here. Hook this in,” I say, giving him the interface cable. He lifts a hoof, moves aside a flap of fake skin, and plugs the cable in. “Ok, here you go…” I say as I send him the location.

“Got it,” He says, and unplugs the cable. It retracts back into my PipBuck.

“Good. If you ever need anything, I should be there. If not, I’ll return shortly. Oh, and the entrance is a little odd. It is inside a shed, you go underground and through a few bulkheads. Oh, and the password for the doors!” I say, with sudden recollection. I look around us cautiously before I lean next to him and whisper the password into his ear. Leaning back, I put on a serious expression. “Listen, Sickle. Don’t tell anyone else this information. There is no telling what would happen if my lab fell into the wrong hooves.”

Sickle nods. “Of course not. We’re comrades. And comrades don’t sell out other comrades. Your information is safe with me. Oh yea, and before I forget, Marrow asked me to give you something before you go,” He says, and digs around in his bags for a moment. He pulls out two long objects wrapped in cloth. “Here you are,” He says, holding them out to me.

I take them in my magic, raising an eyebrow at them. “What are they?” I ask, as I unwrap one of them. After a moment, the cloth falls away revealing a glowing red crystal underneath. “Wait, these are…”

“Wyrm fire crystals,” Sickle says. “The ones from the Wyrm we took down when you arrived. They haven’t been used yet since we removed them. Since we got Snowfall back, we don’t really have much use for the fire as badly as we once did, and we still have a few crystals left anyway. I’m sure you can find a good use for them eventually,” He tells me.

“I...I don’t know what to say,” I tell him. “Thank you,” I say with a smile.

“I should be the one thanking you,” Sickle chuckles. “The crystals will last quite a while, even a hundred years if you don’t use them much. So, unless you’re melting through steel with them on a daily basis, I suspect they will last you quite a while. Also, when holding them in your magic, after striking them together, you can focus the flames with your magic,” he says.

“You mentioned that before, how do I do that exactly?” I ask. He then launches into a five minute explanation about how to focus the flames. It is strangely detailed for someone lacking a horn and the ability to use magic themselves. Sickle seemed to pick up on my shock.

“Before I got this body, I used to be a unicorn,” He chuckles. “I still remember what it feels like, controlling magic. But, this body is more useful in the long run,” He says.

“I see,” I mutter. “Well, Sickle, I guess this is farewell, for now,” I say as we walk towards the entrance.

“For now,” He repeats. “We’ll meet again, I’m sure of it,” He says as I open the door.

“You two took forever!” Cora says as soon as she sees us.

Sickle just laughs. “Sorry to keep you waiting, Cora. Well you two, it has been grand. I will see you later, comrades,” He says. After returning his farewell, he closes the door behind him, leaving Cora and I alone in the snow.

“What did you two talk about?” Cora asks.

“Oh, a variety of things,” I mutter. “Oh yea, he gave me a pair of those wyrm crystals,” I tell her with a smile.

“What! No way, show me!” She says giddily. I fish one out of my bags and float it in front of her. “Awesome! That was so nice of him,” She says.

“Yea, it was,” I agree. “We’ll meet him again, Cora. After all, I think I just made my first friend that isn’t going to die of old age while I am frozen,” I tell her.

Cora jerks her head back. “Really!” She asks happily. When I nod, she begins telling me how happy she is I finally made a friend.

“Cora, Cora!” I say, trying to call her down. “I know you can’t feel it, but it is really cold out here. Let’s leave the celebration for another time and start heading south?” I tell her.

“Hehe, oh yea. Let’s,” She says, and we begin our slow trek south through the Frozen North once again. Only this time, it is a little more bearable, without a blizzard going on around us.

When Cora and I are about a mile out from home, she suddenly stops and lifts her head up, seeming to be staring at nothing. “Uh, Cora?” I ask, waving a hoof in front of her face.

She turns to look at me. “Sorry, Ratchet. We just got in range of Macro’s radio signal. He’s been auto broadcasting for when we return. Seems they are back at the lab,” She says, seeming to still be listening. “No, wait, only Macro and Hal are back. Soar is still in the Badlands, keeping watch over the facility,” She pauses again. “They’ve found a pod there, but...something went wrong. He says he’ll fill us in once we get back to the lab,” Cora tells me. She sounds worried.

“Well then, let’s get going. We don’t have any time to lose,” I tell her as we set off again, on the last stretch of our journey home.