Ruby's tongue slightly stuck out the side of her mouth as she concentrated on the lock she was picking, sweat beading on her brow and moistening her red coat. She knew she could get in trouble for this, but she just had to know what was behind this door. What was it in the lowest level, beneath even the reactor and water sphere, that only the Overmare was allowed to access. Just a little more...
"Ruby!"
Ruby yelped in surprise and accidentally snapped the bobby pin in her telekinesis. "Aw... That was my last bobby pin..." She sulked as she put her screwdriver away and turned to face her sister, a white coated mare with an ingot of silver for a cutie mark. "Why, Diamond? I was so close..."
"You know damn well why!" Diamond snapped. "What if one of the security staff had caught you? Or the Overmare herself? That level is restricted to all except the Overmare, and we all know you've gotten in trouble for going where you're not supposed to before!"
"But I wanna know!" Ruby whined, stomping her hoof like a petulant child. Which wasn't far from the truth. Of her and her three sisters, she was the youngest at 13 years old.
Diamond sighed. "I know you do, Ruby. I know you're curious about everything around you, and that's a wonderful trait to have. But you have to understand that some doors are locked and some secrets kept for very good reason." She smiled and drew her sister into a hug. "You know I'm only stern because I love you."
"I know, sis. I love you too," Ruby said as she hugged Diamond back, a smile forming on her face.
"Now come on. Obsidian's wondering where you are, and you've got work to do," Diamond said as she released Ruby.
"Okay," Ruby said somewhat dejectedly as she followed Diamond. She really did admire Diamond though. She was the Overmare's assistant and rumor had it that the aging Overmare was planning to have Diamond succeed her. And why wouldn't she? Of her and her sisters, Diamond was the eldest. The responsible one that always kept everypony on task and focused.
As they entered the armory, they saw a black unicorn mare with a technician's tool belt over her barding, her cutie mark the image of a disassembled pistol in front of an assembled rifle. Obsidian wasn't her sister by blood, having been adopted after her mother died giving birth to her and her father was killed during a rare radroach infestation, but Ruby loved her like she was her own flesh and blood.
Obsidian looked up at her sisters and gave Ruby a small smile. "Getting up to mischief again, Ruby?"
"It's not mischief!" Ruby retorted with a frown. "It's exploration. Big difference."
Obsidian chuckled and passed her little sister a data drive. "Anyway. There's inventory work to do, Ruby. We can't have any of our weapons going missing now can we?"
Ruby took the drive in her telekinesis and smiled at her big sister. "Nope!" Sitting down beside Obsidian, Ruby plugged the drive into her pipbuck, bringing up its contents on the screen. Diamond may have been the one destined to become Overmare, but Ruby had quite the talent for administrative work. She had always been a curious filly, going where she wasn't supposed to for the sake of knowledge, and, as her teacher had put it, devouring books like scraps of bread. Little surprise that her cutie mark was a magnifying glass scrutinizing book pages.
But nopony understood. Nopony but her beloved sisters. Ruby had to study and learn so fervently. It was the only way to block out the noise. She was blessed, or cursed as she herself would say, with both hyper awareness and eidetic memory. What did that mean? Well, hyper awareness meant that she took in everything happening around her. Every smell, every sound, every taste, every sensation, every sight. She was pegged as shy, but really she avoided other people because in crowds she was constantly being overloaded. Not helped by the eidetic memory, which made sure she remembered all that sensory input and never forgot those details. Silver lining: she was the go to organizer of the stable's inventory. She just had to skim an updated manifest to know if anything was missing.
She did this for all of the inventories. Food, weapons, clothes, tools. Every. Last. Little. Thing. It was boring. It was monotonous. She had to do it every week like clockwork. And Obsidian and Diamond always made sure she could never avoid her assigned responsibility. But that monotony also made it all the more exciting for the filly when she finished her work.
"Done!" Ruby announced as she removed the drive from her pipbuck and returned it to Obsidian. "Everything is accounted for, Obsidian." She gave her big sister the most adorable puppy dog eyes she could muster. "Can I go now?"
Obsidian rolled her eyes with a smile. "Alright. You can go hang out with Topaz."
"Yay!" Ruby cheered, tightly hugging Obsidian before galloping off to another part of the stable. Specifically the office/studio of Topaz, the stable's resident DJ who both provided music for the inhabitants and gave the Overmare's announcements. She was always grinning. She was self-assured. And she was without doubt Ruby's favorite of her sisters. "Topaz!" Ruby called as she burst into the room and tightly hugged the yellow coated unicorn, who hugged her back just as tightly. "Hi!"
"Hey there, sis," Topaz greeted as she let Ruby go and grinned at her. "What were you up to today?"
"Oh the usual," Ruby said. "Exploring, learning, getting dragged to that boring inventory work by Diamond. Oh! I almost got that door open!"
"So close to the Overmare's big secret eh?" Topaz asked with a grin. That was another reason Ruby liked her the best: she was a true Cool Big Sis. Never got onto Ruby, always encouraged her talents, and kept her secrets for her. "Stick around, sis. I'm about to do the announcements."
Ruby nodded and cuddled up to Topaz's side. Topaz didn't like sitting in a chair to do her DJ work. So she lounged on her mattress.
Topaz cleared her throat and switched on her microphone. "Good afternoon, Stable 413! This is your favorite DJ Topaz on air bringing you the latest of our dear sweet Overmare's news. Those rumors floating around are true. The Overmare has indeed selected my own big sister Diamond to succeed her, effective tomorrow morning! Let's have a round of applause for dear sister, shall we?!"
Ruby giggled as she felt the rumbling of applause reverberate through the floor. She could imagine Diamond's embarrassed blush as she was showered with words of congratulations.
"In other news," Topaz continued, still grinning up a storm. "In just one hour, a team of ponies hoofpicked by the Overmare will make our very first trip outside the stable to see what's happening in the outside world. She's hoping to see if any outsiders can be integrated with. We might actually get to leave whenever we want if all goes well."
Ruby looked up at her sister in awe as she thought of all that she could learn outside. The thought made her giddy.
Topaz noticed that look and chuckled. "I know a certain baby sister of mine is excited about that prospect," she teased, no doubt drawing chuckles from the rest of the population even as Ruby cutely frowned at her. "Aw don't give me that look, Ruby. It's my job to embarrass you."
"Topaz!" Ruby whined, her reaction drawing genuine laughter from the population.
