"Lilac, I need you to focus," Starlight said with some authority in her voice.

Lilac Oil was laying on her back and staring up at the ceiling in one of Stable 45's medical examination rooms. The purple earth pony shut her eyes and just laid there for a bit, listening to the room while trying to remain calm. When she opened them again, she was looking at Starlight's face. The unicorn's horn was glowing pink while a notebook floated next to her head along with a pen. Except Lilac saw her upside down.

"You know I'm not crazy, Doc. She insulted me and… and... and I had to put her in her place!" Lilac glared at the unicorn as she crossed her forelegs across her chest.

Starlight facehoofed. "Lilac, you don't beat up a pony when you can walk away. We’ve talked about this, remember?"

"But she called me a chicken!" Lilac rolled over and sat up, stomping her hoof into the bed with a glare. "What am I supposed to do?! Let some... some pony who just arrived think I'm a chicken?!"

"Yes," Starlight nodded. She had yet to raise her voice and spoke quietly. "Who cares what they think? It's the stable community you should be worried about."

Lilac's ears folded back because she knew what Starlight meant. "Princess Luna is real," she said, crossing her hooves across her chest again. "I've touched her and had conversations with her. If I can do that, then how is she fake?"

“What does she look like?”

Lilac looked up in the ceiling in thought for a while as she tried to recall the details. After a few long moments, she nodded. “Dark blue, a blue mane with horns and a set of wings; Princess Luna.”

"But no one else has seen her." Starlight sighed deeply and rubbed her forehead as she shut her eyes. "Do you see what I'm getting at? You’re seen talking to nothing by a pony, and..."

The purple earth pony looked at the wall to her right and nodded. "Yes, y'all think I'm fuckin' nuts. Starlight, when I start feeding a ‘pet’ rock like Bits, then you can call me crazy."

Starlight set a forehoof on Lilac's and smiled as she gently squeezed the earth pony's leg. "Lilac, please. No more fighting with other ponies because they call you chicken. Everypony here know's you're not, so you have nothing to prove."

Lilac looked down and set her other hoof atop Starlight's, nodding again. "You're a nice pony, Starlight."

Starlight smiled while looking into Lilac's eyes. "So, what caused this fight to break out?" The purple earth pony looked away and clenched her jaw shut. "Lilac, anything you say to me won't leave this room. Understand?"

"Yeah, but it is a sensitive subject." Lilac shut her eyes and looked down, sighing. "She said 'hey flower butt! What's that stupid picture mean?'."

"Oh... um..." Starlight's ears folded back. "Remember what we talked about?" The purple earth pony said nothing, so Starlight squeezed her hoof again. "Lilac, your special talent is growing the prettiest of flowers that are also very tasty. She was just jealous about that. Or, an idiot."

Lilac looked at her old friend and nodded slowly. "I guess you're right. She was a complete idiot. Is there anything else I need to do?"

"Yes," Starlight nodded. She set an empty notebook down in front of Lilac and stood up. "How about when something makes you angry or sad, you write it down and we'll go over it once a week?"

Lilac took the book in her hooves, flipping it open and tilting her head a little. "There's not many pages. What if I fill it?"

"It's a magical diary that creates a new page when you run low." Starlight stepped to the side to allow Lilac to climb off the bed and walked over to the door. "Oh, and tell Gears I need to see him okay? He's been avoiding me since that last party we held."

"I will," Lilac nodded and hugged Starlight, smiling a little. The unicorn hugged back with her own smile, then stepped away and opened the door. Lilac's ears drooped to the side of her face when she recognized the pony on the other side of the door. "Hi, father..."

"Lilac," he nodded a little before looking at Starlight. "Well? What's wrong with her?"

"As far as I can see she just has an imaginary friend and a short temper, which isn't so bad out in the wastes. There are ponies far more messed up on the surface than anypony in this stable."

"I'm not a foal," Lilac grumbled to herself when Starlight had said imaginary friend, but neither unicorn paid any attention to the earth pony.

Lilac's father, however, wasn't convinced. "Really? She gets into these fights at least three times a month. She’s not a monster surface dweller, so what can you do for her?"

"She's supposed to write her thoughts into a diary I gave her and we'll go over them weekly."

"Where did you learn to be a doctor?" Lilac's father tilted his head. "I don't remember seeing you as a foal around here."

"From another stable," Starlight nodded and tried to smile. "I liked this one better and saw the lack of medical personnel, so I set up shop a few years ago."

Lilac's father frowned for a moment before nodding. As he was about to open his mouth to say something, but Lilac pushed past him and galloped down the hallway. He tried to grab her with his hoof, which narrowly missed her tail. "Lilac! Get back here!" her father shouted as she lowered her head and galloped faster.

Lilac ignored the slightly grimy grey walls, and the constantly cleaned floors as she galloped around ponies towards her destination.

Stable 45, which was situated along the northern border of Equestria, had been opened twenty-five years ago. Only eighty years after the megaspells went off. The stable was maintained by robots that ran off clockwork and, unluckily for the residents, the shipment of Pipbucks never arrived. Which meant that the residents were not issued with them. Nor had any of the current residents seen one outside of pictures.

Eventually Lilac Oil slid to a stop in engineering, nearly bumping into the door to Brass Gears' workshop. The yellow unicorn was a lifelong friend of Lilac's and the only one that never poked fun at her. Lilac opened the door to the shop and walked inside.

There were literally piles of robot parts stacked around in a haphazard fashion. Some looked like they were about to fall off the pile, yet they stayed put. All of them moved around on wheels and a few were in teh shape of ponies. Brass Gears sat over one such pony shaped robot and had most of it pulled apart. He was so focused on his task that he did not hear Lilac enter. Only when she slid over and leaned on him did he notice her presence.

"Aah!" Gears jumped to the side in shock, his ears folded back and his eyes were wide. They quickly narrowed at a giggling Lilac. She moved over to him again and leaned on his side again, looking up into his glare with a grin. "Lilac!" Gears stomped his hoof down, causing her to giggle more. "How many times do I have to tell you to knock when I'm working?!"

"But your face was priceless," she put a sucker into her mouth, leaning on Gears more and causing him to have to shift all of his weight on his right side to keep them upright. "Starlight says hi and she misses you. I think she's lonely."

"What?" Gears blinked in confusion for a few seconds before rapidly shaking his head. "Lilac, why don't you go out with her then?"

"Because I like stallions?" she tilted her head, receiving a roll of the eyes in response. "It's true! And I'm lookin' at one with a nice flank right now."

Gears pushed the earth pony away, blushing a bit. He levitated a book over and pointed at a crudely drawn map detailing some things on the surface. "Lilac, I picked this map up off a trader in exchange for fixing his rifle."

"Uh-huh," Lilac nodded while looking at the poorly drawn map, "and... What am I looking at? It looks worse than my writing and I use my mouth to write."

"A pre-shithole military base that might have some loot."

Now Lilac stared intently at the map. However, to her it appeared like random scribbles. There was a dot with the name of her stable community, a few other dots, and a line going to the base with no name. Just an ‘X’ that marked the spot and said ‘surface’.

"Gears," Lilac sighed. "You know we're not allowed on the surface. The Overmare doesn't know what's up there beyond vague stories and has told us to stick to the tunnels."

Gears rolled his eyes again and let out a deep sigh as he set a hoof on Lilac’s side. "It's safe. Where do you think some of the traders come from? All that's up there is snow."

"The fuck is snow?" Lilac tilted her head to the side as an eyebrow raised up in confusion.

Gears facehoofed. "You know the ice cubes you don't like to put into your drink?" The purple earth pony slowly nodded. "Imagine water droplets from a mist turned into mini ice cubes covering everything."

"Uh... So, since they’re mini ice cubes, that means I can drink it?"

Brass Gears groaned and shook his head, mumbling to himself. "Only you would ask that.” He set the hoof down and looked into Lilac’s orange eyes. She smiled at him as her ears slowly drooped and the irises grew ever bigger. Gears’ ears folded back as he took a step back before tearing his gaze away from Lilac and looked at a pile of robot parts. “Look, pack enough supplies for four days in the tunnels and meet me back here, okay?"

Lilac nodded, wrapping her tail around the unicorn's neck. "How about you and I take some time alone up there to get to know each other better?" she winked.

The unicorn's cheeks darkened a little as he blushed and pushed Lilac away again. "Li-Lilac, I... I t-told you bef-before. We're f-friends and... and th-that might be bad."

"Fine," Lilac rolled her eyes as she slapped her friend's flank. He jumped in surprise with widened eyes. “I’ll see you in the morning,” Lilac winked and galloped off.

“Don’t be late!” Gears called after her. Then started gathering up his supplies.

Author's Note

Happy new year!