Once upon a time, in the magical land of Equestria, the virtues of friendship were cast aside in favor of greed, suspicion and war. Tensions strained from within and without, soldier against soldier, friend against friend. One day, the tension finally snapped and the world ended. Deadly megaspells and balefire bombs rained down, pulverizing the world and burning until little remained but the smoldering husk of a once vibrant planet. But against all odds, life went on as beaten and bruised as the world around it. Some retreated underground, sealing themselves away in massive subterranean Stables where they waited out the nuclear winter before daring to return to the hellish surface.

Others hid themselves far above the Wasteland; when the pegasus city of Cloudsdayle was destroyed the winged ponies left the surface for dead, blocking it away with a thick layer of clouds. There they built the Grand Pegasus Enclave and for two hundred years they survived isolated from the world below them. However, they never forgot Equestria entirely, and after two centuries of red tape and scouting missions the Enclave has begun a serious foray into the Wasteland. The wasters have seen the signs, pegasi swooping below the clouds and the creatures of the wastes acting stranger than normal; the Enclave is most certainly coming. The question on everyponies’ lips, are there here to save, or to destroy?

In the Enclave, everypony has a purpose. Living above the clouds means limited resources and it is up to every stallion, mare, and foal to do their part in keeping the society running. But limited resources means that we must have near 100% efficiency of working ponies, over or under population would destroy us. Because of that, families are limited in the amount of children they can have. That cap is typically at one or two foals, but special consideration was made for military families since their members ran the higher risk of premature death, raising the cap.

I was the daughter of one such military family, the youngest with two older brothers. Like most military families we lived near an Enclave base. My father and eldest brother were currently stationed at the military academy at Coltarado Heights, so named because the former town of Coltarado Springs was on the surface and made of so much irradiated slag. Like the families of all the other officers and trainees we lived in a large ring of suburbs several miles outside the base. Being in a military family meant I was stuck with plenty of expectations, not the least of which was that I’d serve in some grandiose fashion like my father the drill sergeant.

But before you were some big high ranking official, you were a lowly grunt, and my home was a place where you were reminded that every day. “Stand at attention, Sleet!” My brother barked at me.

“I. Am.” I said through gritted teeth. Knees locked, back flat, neck perfectly straight, eyes forward, wings at your side, and uncomfortable as all hell. We went through this drill every morning since we could walk on our own, and with Dad and Downpour gone Storm Kicker was taking it upon himself to keep me “well trained.”

“No you aren’t, cold flank.” He said, reveling in his power. “Your feathers aren’t straight.”

We had been stuck like this for the past ten minutes, Storm taking his sweet time correcting every miniscule flaw in my stance. He could tell it was annoying me, and the “pet name” was not helping my mood. I wasn’t the world’s prettiest mare, and my brothers wasted no time letting me remember it, but when I had gotten my Cutie Mark it had given them a whole new clip of ammunition. Five white snowflakes with lines of gray driving sleet between them adorned my flank. Hey, lookit that! They said Even your Cutie Mark knows you aren’t hot!

I bit the inside of my cheek, giving my wings a small flap to even out my feathers. “Better?”

“If you call ‘less than terrible’ better.” He sneered. “Try again.”

A pony’s Cutie Mark was a manifestation of their special talent, a magical mark that displayed your destiny. You were a blank flank until you discovered your talent, and from that point forward your flank was marked. I’d gotten the mark when, after being tormented by my brothers, I had slammed the door to my room and frozen the hinges shut. I hadn’t even noticed the mark’s appearance until I had stopped sulking. My mark indicated that I would be a weather pony, able to create snowstorms when winter came. The only problem was that after the apocalypse pegasi no longer controlled the weather. But while this meant my special talent was almost completely useless to the Enclave, it helped me with other matters.

I concentrated, using my wing fluttering as cover while I activated my talent. Pegasus weather magic worked a bit like unicorn magic, except instead of channeling power through a horn we used wings. I sent a bitter, wintery draft at my brother, aiming for his more sensitive areas. I had to suppress a snicker as his eyes widened and he started shaking. “Well, and improvement is an improvement…” He began. I lowered the temperature further, causing a spasmodic twitch. “We’ll see how well you do tomorrow, Sleet Gray. Dismissed!”

“Yessir!” I said with a jaunty salute. I quickly left the room before he could warm up and continue harassing me. I trotted into my room, my hooves falling on clouds as if they were made of stone. Like everything else in the house, my room was as Spartan as possible, a bed, a dresser, a window, and an old computer terminal. While my special talent did not help the Enclave, I had been fascinated with pre-war archano-techonology for years and had developed some moderate skill in accessing old computer terminals and technology. I practiced my data extraction skills on the old terminal, and hoped that one day I’d be good enough to work as a data specialist for the military. Like everything else in the Enclave, the terminal was made out of cloud with the exception of the glass screen.

As the old model fired up I examined myself in the screen. Supremely dull, as usual. Same ice blue coat, same mane that gave me my name, same unimpressive features. Years of being picked on had rendered me mostly immune to getting depressed over my looks, but some deep part of me was still irked at how very unimpressive I was.

My reflection was overcast by the green glow of the monitor turning on, thankfully before I could work up a good ire. “Okay forgotten files from an age long past, what have you got for me today?” I had connected my terminal to a large Enclave data repository of old files retrieved from the surface world. Sure, it may not have been perfectly “legal” for a civilian to view this stuff, but nopony cared about two hundred year old journal entries enough to bother me. My hooves clacked on the keys as I traversed the files; I had already cracked most of the entries on the low-security end of things. Seeking a bigger challenge, I began looking dangerously close to files ponies may actually care about.

One in particular caught my eye. “Oh, hello there…” I muttered, my eyes darting over the screen. The file name was an unintelligible jumble of numbers, letter, and symbols, but judging by the size it probably contained something interesting, perhaps several somethings. “Let’s see what you are, hmm?” I opened the file and was greeted with a box asking for a password, as expected. There was a weakness in terminal security systems that allowed you to pull up a list of possible passwords as well as learn how many letters the real password had, which I quickly exploited.

There were a few catches though, for one you only had four guesses, and if you got the fourth one wrong you were locked out permanently so you were forced to back out fully and reset the lock if you failed three times. Also the list of potential passwords was randomized each time, making each attempt different. I had to back out several times before I got the password right. “There we go! Now let’s see what we have…what?” What I got was another password box. “That’s…different.” There had never been a double security layer before.

I backed out of the system and re-entered the first password just to make sure. Sure enough it worked and another box popped up. I gave a frustrated sigh. “Oh well, let’s get to work.” I set to cracking the second code, this one was longer so the chance of failure was greater. Not to mention each time I was forced to back out of the system I had to make my way back through the directory and first password, making the endeavor tedious.

My hooves flew over the keyboard, each failure eliciting an annoyed hiss. I was so preoccupied I didn’t notice my mother enter the room. “Hacking again, Sleet?”

I twitched in surprise. I was usually more attentive when treading the fine line of legality. “’Hacking’ makes it sound like I’m doing something wrong.” I said, turning to look at her. “‘Extracting data’ sounds much more professional.”

Another common jab from my brothers was that the reason I was unattractive was because after Mom there weren’t enough good looks to go around. Radiant Dawn was about as picture perfect as mares could get, with her golden coat, illustrious silver mane and smooth features. How a delicate beauty like her had ever married a gruff military buck like Dad was completely beyond me. Still, despite not being as forceful as Dad she did her best to keep her family happy. “Too bad you didn’t get a data extraction Cutie Mark, then you wouldn’t need to practice all the time!” Though she tended to blunder a bit.

I tried not to let the sting of my nearly useless talent being brought up show on my face. “Well, what’s life without something to strive to, eh?” I said.

She seemed oblivious to my discomfort. “True enough. I just wanted to let you know that your father and brother will be coming home later today, so don’t go freezing my potential grandchildren anymore!”

I snickered for a second before a thought hit me. “Well what about me? Couldn’t I have kids?”

Mom’s expression became slightly panicked as she realized the implication. “I just like to keep the chance high, dear.” Of course Mom, of course. At least she tried.

Before she shoved her hoof further down her throat, Mom wished me luck on my project and hastily left the room. I contemplated following her, to assure her that there was no offense taken, but even if I was a half-decent liar I doubted she would believe me. Instead I returned to my work, hooves tapping the keys in a comforting rhythm.

After several minutes I cracked the second code. I eagerly waited for my prize to load, but was disappointed when another password box greeted me. “You’ve got to be kidding me. Did I find Princess Celestia’s porn stash or something?” I subconsciously glanced out the window at the mention of the Sun Goddess. I had spent longer on the project then I had thought, it had been early morning when I began and now the sun was high in the sky, meaning Dad and Downpour would be home soon. If Mom found my “hacking” strange than Dad would look at me trying to break a triple-encoded file as downright treasonous! “That just means I’ll have to finish before he gets here!”

But as I set to breaking the code something felt off. What in Equestria would need to be so heavily encrypted? And if it was so important, why hadn’t some Enclave tech cracked it already? Surly something this big wouldn’t be just sitting in the junk folder. The strength of the code was also a cause for alarm, a twenty character password with almost no correlation between the different possibilities. Cracking this one would need to be almost pure guesswork unless you already knew the code, and I got the distinct feeling that anyone who knew the code would take grievous offense to me taking a peek.

Despite my misgivings I was determined not to let this one go. After all this work I wouldn’t be able to live with my curiosity if I gave up. I had failed my third attempt and was about to back out of the system when I noticed my last guess had been mostly correct, even more so than my last two. I now had a good idea of what the password was, having narrowed it down to two possibilities. I chewed my lower lip, weighing the chances of getting this far again. I sighed “Nothing ventured I suppose…” Bracing myself for the grating sound of the system locking out I typed my guess, counterrevolutionary.

A happy beep confirmed my choice. I blew out a sigh, my shoulders relaxing. “You better be the last one.” I muttered as the next page loaded. “I don’t think I can pull that off twice.” Sure enough that was the last password, a page full of entries opened, headed by the words Operation: Cauterize. “Operation: Cauterize huh? You better be worth it.” There were no markings to indicate what part of the old world government this belonged too, so I opened the first entry and began reading.

Cauterize, meaning to burn or sear. Usually in reference to a wound by burning it closed and killing any infection with the heat. I hadn’t blinked since I had cracked the code, reading further and further into the operation. This wasn’t some old world thing, this was an Enclave project, a plan to cauterize the surface! Equestria was a wound and the Enclave planned to burn it closed! I knew that ponies existed on the surface, ponies from Stables and ramshackle settlements that eked out miserable lives and I was reading their death warrant! Nothing was to survive, every stallion, mare, and foal was to be wiped out to make way for the pegasi. Everything was calculated, estimated death tolls and pocket of resistance, weapons specs, assault patterns, and methods of putting down dissenting troops. There were even whole sections dedicated to the spread of propaganda so that Enclave citizens wouldn’t rebel!

I felt short of breath, and was shaking slightly. I turned to look out the window towards Coltarado Academy, were my father was training soldiers to commit genocide. Genocide under the guise of saving the world, acting like they were trying to help. I could see the specks of trainees flying over the base, the setting sun bathing the whole town in a red-orange glow. I had to tell somepony, but who? Who would believe me? Would parents believe me when I said their sons and daughters were training to kill thousands of ponies? And even if I showed anypony the files I ran a really big risk of facing prosecution. Civilians were obviously not meant to see this. I continued to watch the soaring dots, looking without seeing as my mind churned over what to do.

Since I wasn’t actually paying attention I didn’t notice the dots growing larger. Or that they were wearing power armor, meaning they weren’t trainees. Pegasus power armor looked like a black carapace, light enough to fly in it never the less provided plenty of protection to its wearer. It was outfitted with a battle saddle, a saddle that strapped two guns to a pony’s side allowing them to aim with more precision and pack more power than using their mouth. The saddle included a pair of devastating novasurge magical energy rifles, capable of firing a condensed beam of magic energy that could vaporize a target. And as if all of that wasn’t intimidating enough, the tail was covered by similar plating that ended in a vicious scorpion barb. All in all Enclave officers in power armor were a terrifying force to be reckoned with, and I had a small squad of them heading straight for me.

I felt my heart drop into my stomach and whirled to the terminal. All the classified information was laid out for the world to see and somepony must have noticed the breach. I turned to the window to estimate the time I had to cover my tracks, maybe I could talk my way out of this. Say I was framed. If I erased everything from my personal terminal then I could say somepony else had hacked it through my connection. The squad was approaching faster and faster, now close enough for me to recognize my brother Downpour leading them. My hooves flew over the keyboard, rapidly erasing data. I’d wipe the whole hard drive if I had… I jolted at the sound of the door slamming open and Mom screaming.

“Downpour?” I heard her saying. “What are you doing? Who are they?”

“Official business, Mother. Stand aside.” Downpour’s gruff voice grated through my own panicked breathing.

“Official…You do not just barge into the house with strange ponies! I demand to know what is going on!” I screwed up, Mom. That’s what’s going on.

“Where is Sleet Gray?” He growled. Mom’s protests continued, making me think he wasn’t addressing her anymore.

“Last I saw she was in her room.” Storm Kicker complied. “What’s going on, bro?”

I could hear their hoof falls getting louder, I turned off the console just as the door slammed open. I resisted the urge to whirl around, if I was going to sell my innocence here it needed to be convincing. I turned to face them, summoning up my best death glare. “Did the military not teach you to knock, Down? I’m busy!”

My eldest brother was taller than most ponies, and absolutely towered over me. The intimidating black armor, and the sight of the giant magical energy weapons, nearly made me wet myself. I couldn’t see his eyes, the helmet with its compound lenses obscured most of his face though his mouth was set in the usual hard line. “Sleet Gray, you have been charged with unauthorized access to a highly restricted computer database, and unauthorized viewing of a maximum security file. I am placing you under arrest and you will be brought in for questioning. Should you resist we will have no choice but to consider you guilty and carry out the minimum sentence.”

“What the hell are you talking about, Downpour?! I was writing a code, my own encryption! That’s, like, the complete opposite of hacking!” It was a bold faced lie, but I was praying to Celestia I’d pull it off.

“Sleet, you are being accused of espionage and potential terrorism. That minimum sentence is death. Now come with me quietly or I will have no choice but to shoot.”

Now was a perfectly good time to look scared, which wasn’t difficult. I tried to keep some indignation for effect. “Wh-what? That’s crazy! You can’t just execute me! I’m your sister!”

“This order came down from Colonel Autumn Leaf himself and was relayed to me by our Father. I can ‘just execute’ you, but only if you don’t shut up and come with me.”

The rest of the ponies had crammed themselves into my small room, making me feel claustrophobic. I was completely surrounded by Enclave soldiers, five including my brother, with Storm Kicker and Mom behind them. “Bro, you’ve got the wrong pony. You know cold flank couldn’t pull something like that- “ Much as I appreciated the effort, that was as far as Storm got before Downpour’s hind leg kicked him in the gut.

“Quiet, civilian.” He said as his brother fell to the floor, coughing. “This doesn’t concern you.”

By now I was thoroughly terrified. I couldn’t go with Downpour, and I couldn’t stay here, either way got me killed. It was just a question of how much I would be tortured and interrogated beforehand. Against all odds, I continued to try and reason with him. “Downpour, you’re being crazy! I haven’t done anything! My terminal isn’t even connected to anything important!”

“I saw her.” A soft voice said, making everypony in the room fall quiet. Radiant Dawn stared firmly at the floor, unable to speak in more than a whisper. “Before you showed up, I was going to bring her some dinner, but she looked so busy I didn’t want to bother her. I put the plate on her bed so she could eat when she was done.” I glanced at my bed and sure enough there was a plate of warm food on the covers that hadn’t been there before. “I saw a glimpse of her face when I set it down. She looked so scared…”

I couldn’t believe my ears, Mom was selling me out. I could feel my heart going crazy as fear shot through me. “Mom, what are you doing?!”

“I’m sorry, honey.” She still wouldn’t look up. “I have no choice.”

“No choice? What do you MEAN no choice!?” My voice cracked as I strained to speak around the lump in my throat.

“Your father only left a month ago, but I can tell. I’m pregnant and we only have permission for three children with no way to get another voucher.” I thought I saw a tear run down her cheek, or maybe that was mine blurring my vision. “I’m sorry, Sleet. I’m sorry…”

I was being sold out for an unborn child. The imperfect daughter thrown away to make room for a potentially better one. I stared in horror at Radiant Dawn until I heard the whirr of a rifle charging. “That testimony is all we need.” I heard Downpour say, as if from very far away. I turned to him and saw the barrel of his rifle pointing straight at me. “For what it’s worth this will prevent a scandal from harming the family. You will be buried as a criminal, but Mother’s testimony will help maintain our honor.”

“No…” I whispered. The battle saddle fired from a trigger bit that hung on Downpour’s chest. He dipped his head, picking up the bit in his mouth. “No, please…” I backed up a step, my rump bumping into the accursed terminal. My brother signaled his troops to ready their weapons. “Please, brother, don’t…”

“Goodbye, Sleet Gray.” He said around the bit.

“NO!” All my fear, all of my panic, channeled through that scream and through my special talent. I gave my wings one powerful beat, sending out a veritable hurricane of frozen air. I threw everything I had into creating the most powerful winter gust I could. The power strain was enormous, like my body was held together with rubber bands and I was stretching them to their limit. I felt something snap in me, and I blacked out as all the power rushed out as a howling gale. The last thing I saw was the panicked look of my mother as the world froze around her, and some deep dark part of me felt joy at that.

I felt my body ripping apart at the molecular level. My vision turned red as my atoms dissociated and became dust. Even as I collapsed into a pile of glowing dust they still shot me, each bolt compounding the pain of my disintegration. With no mouth, I couldn’t scream, and throughout the whole ordeal I heard my family chanting “We’re sorry. We’re sorry. We’re sorry…”

I awoke to the sound of shattering glass and the feeling of being flattened. I slowly blinked my eyes open and was greeted with the sight of shattered ice. I slowly picked myself up, my whole body aching from the strain. My mind felt like it had been scrubbed raw and I felt a deathly cold penetrating my limbs. Once my legs steadied I tried to take a step, but my hooves slipped on the icy surface and sent me falling. I landed with a painful thump and slid on the inclined plane before bumping into something. I glanced at the object I had stopped against and screamed in terror. The object was the frozen husk of Storm Kicker, his eyes wide with terror. I scuttled away, still screaming before impacting something else. I turned and promptly emptied my stomach. Radiant Dawn had also been frozen, but her brittle body had shattered on impact, her entire lower body had been broken off and scattered in icy pieces. I thanked Celestia I could not see the frozen remains of my unborn replacement.

I stood again to try and run, I had to get away from the horror surrounding me. When I saw what may before I froze, as solid as the statues of ice. Around me, shattered over the desiccated ground, were the icy remains of my home town. I looked up and saw the breech in the sky where my neighborhood had once sat. The giant cloud curtain spread out to cover the sky around the nice neat hole that the sun shone through.

In my panic, in an effort to save myself, I had frozen everything around me. I’d sent everypony I had known since my foalhood plummeting to a frozen demise and I was the sole survivor. Celestia and Luna preserve me, I had killed them all to save my own flank.
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Footnote: Level up
New Perk: Winter Weather Pony (Rank 1). Your skills as a pegasus allow you to slow the movement of a target with a burst of icy wind. You can even freeze the hooves of a single pony. Additional ranks of this perk allow you to freeze larger objects.

Author's Notes:

This was originally a college writing course project, but I had such fun writing it I couldn't just leave it at one chapter. Though I've written pony fiction before, this is my first time actually posting it to the internet, so by all means criticize as you see fit. I will take all criticism into account and attempt to improve as I continue with the story.