Fallout: Equestria - Broken Soul

Chapters

Chapter 1 - Of Life and Love
Chapter 2 - Of Death and Rebirth
Chapter 3 - Of Truth and Lies
Chapter 4 - Of Fire and Ice

Chapter 1 - Of Life and Love

Light. Blinding, painful light, pulled me out of my blissful dark sleep. That was the kind of wake up call you got in Stable 79. Groaning, I narrowly opened my eyes, greeted only by the grey walls my bed was against. The soft, annoyingly ever-present, hum of the fluorescence lights droned against my ears, beaten only by the soft beeping of my pipbuck.

I weakly sat up, and rubbed the sleep out my eyes with my forehooves. Planting a hoof between my hind legs to support myself, I brought my pipbuck up to my face, trying to focus on the glowing text.

Oh look, more light. Goddesses, I hated the light. I hated waking up. Groaning again, I turned down the brightness on my pipbuck, and my eyesight finally came into the range of usefulness, and I could read the message from the blue screen.

Shadow Bolt,

The terminal in the Overmare’s office is on the fritz again. I swear, that mare gets into more trouble with her terminal than a foal could with rebooting the medical spell matrix. Can you take a look at it? I’m tired of dealing with her. Thanks.

Technical Officer

Red Wire

I blinked, then blinked again. I was woken up for this? The Overmare’s terminal? From what I hear, that terminal is used for nothing but a few logs and solitaire! This could have waited several... more... hours. Ah, crap. My eyes fell on little number in the corner, telling me it was almost noon. Had I really let myself sleep for 6 hours? My face met my hoof as I let out a frustrated sigh. Pausing only for a moment, I climbed out of my tiny, overly alluring bed, the pale blue blanket falling limply off to the side.

I made my way to my mirror, standing alone in the far corner of the room, looking upon a pair of yellow eyes gazing at me as I came into view. A handsome buck, or so I had been told, eyed me back. Turning to the side, I saw my terminal cutie mark gleamed on my coal colored flanks. Sudden realization dawned on me, that how I earned that cutie mark might be why that terminal keeps going on the fritz.

My eyes traveled to my chest, following the jagged curve of where my belly ended and my rib-cage began, and looking at each rib afterwards, all the way until I reached my face. Luna, mother was wrong. Well, i wasn't ugly, but I was nothing special to look at either. Every other buck in this stable has just about the same bone structure. Unless they just meant that I’m the ‘dark and mysterious’ type. Well, good for them, if they were into that. Then my eyes then fell on my mane. The blue hair with a solid black stripe down the center ended in a frizzy mess that jumbled all together in the back.

Aw, crap. I may not have time for a shower, but I couldn't risk going out and let Lilly see my mane like this! I fixed my gaze to the dresser on the left, the comb on top between a lamp and a few scrap electronics glowed in a blue magic, emitted by my horn. I grimaced, floating it over to me, and began quite roughly brushing knots out of my mane, and then even more reluctantly, my tail the brush crackling as it pulled against several rough spots. Finally, i was done, still a bit of a mess, but that was unavoidable. Now, it’s not a tangled mess.

Being a satisfied grump, I floated the brush back to its place, before opening a drawer and pulling out a clean stable-tec technicians barding, the golden number 79 embroidered on the collar shone bright against the pale blue.

I never liked that color, too grey. Like the walls, the ceiling, the floor....

I pulled it over my head, the sleeve snagging over the casing that held the secondary spell matrix of my pipbuck. An achievement I was quite proud of, although, the metal work involved was definitely not my forte. I actually had to modify both spell matrices in order to get them to cooperate. Pulling harder, quite possibly almost tearing the sleeve, I managed to get it over the pipbuck, and slightly tucked it into the side, the spell matrix, exposed by a round glass casing, glowed softly. I smiled, thinking of how ‘improved’ my pipbuck was compared to the others. In reality, it really wasn't. Sure, I could now have two peripherals instead of one, but I hadn't even seen one, aside from an audio recorder. I guess there is only one true advantage, which is a lifesaver when you’re hacking a terminal with an advanced security matrix. Almost got into one of those once. Tricky little bugger, crashed my pipbuck’s secondary spell matrix, but my primary rebooted it, thank the goddesses. Didn't want to have to explain that one to Miss Wire.

I was wasting enough time. Straightening my barding, I quickly turned and grabbed the toolbox telekinetically, and rushed out the metal door, whooshing closed behind me as I stepped out into the hall. I banked to the left, trotting down briskly to the Overmare’s office that laid only a short walk away. As I stopped in front of the door, I raised a hoof to knock, but the door slid open in front of me and a dull green mare, with an even duller brushed back mane stared at me.

“Shadow?” The mare asked me, “What are you doing here? Where’s Red Wire?”

“She sent me,” I replied bluntly, “I heard your terminal was giving you issues?”

Her eyes narrowed, and eyed me, as if gauging my worth, “I was expecting Red Wire...”

I sighed, then huffed, a hint of annoyance tingeing at my voice, “I am perfectly capable of working my way around a terminal, Overmare Greyburn. I have been since I was six,” I gave her a coy smile.

“Oh, don’t think I hadn't forgotten...” She scowled at me, but stepped to the side, letting me into her office/home combo, “And no hacking. Those files are supposed to be private.”

I smiled, trotting into the door beside her, looking around in her little ‘office’. The same tan couch against the wall, with the same glass window above it. The same door leading to the same kitchen, with the same bedroom door next to it. Every living space was the same. What was different though, was in the center of the room. A small metal table sat squarely on top of an old brown rug. A poster was taped onto its front reading ‘Love your Overmare’ and ‘She protects us’ written in nice bold letters, over a group of children looking up to a smiling bright mare, who was definitely not, our Overmare. The ponies in the posters were always off putting to me, they looked almost like photos except... they were so fat that their bones didn't even show through. It was... unnatural. On top of the desk was a bunch of scattered papers, a small pipbuck statuette, and the terminal, which I quickly trotted over to.

“I’ll be back in a moment,” came the cold tone of our Overmare, “I want to have a word with Miss Wire.”

I waved a hoof at her dismissively, “Yea, yea. I should have this up and running by the time you get back.”

She scoffed, then trotted out the door, swooshing closed behind her, leaving me to my privacy. I turned to the terminal, its black screen annoying me. I pressed the power button and... nothing.

To a hint of annoyance, and none to my surprise, I slowly leaned over to the left, and looked down at the plug on the floor, and and quickly shoved it into the outlet.

Oh look. Power.

With the terminal now whirring to life, I began to realize that the reason behind my being woken up was not due to a faulty terminal, and to no fault of my own, but an idiotic operator error. No, scratch that. Just an idiotic operator.

It sat there, taunting me with its log in screen, the little cursor blinking for what seemed like ages, prodding me to try to figure out what secrets lied on the other side. Knowing the mare who used it... probably none, but that wouldn't stop me from finding out. I began to pull out my hacking tools, ready to pry open all the secrets I had once almost gotten, before stopping. Sighing, I typed in the password I had acquired from my youth, ‘LoveAndObey’. The computer logged in without a single care in the world.

I blinked. Oh Goddesses, seriously? I hacked this terminal when I was 6... and in 15 years she couldn't even bother herself to change the password? And seriously, love and obey? It may have been those ever present posters in this place since the world began, but buck, that mare had an inflated ego. No wonder Red was tired of dealing with her. I hardly deal with her at all, and I was tired of her!

Well, she told me not to hack the terminal. And now I just didn't have to.

I sat back, trying to think of what the Overmare actually did. I mean, sure, she works hoof in hoof with the security department, but other than that, she just kind of told young colts and fillies where they would work for the rest of their lives. Oh, a syringe cutie mark? To medical! A shield? To security! An electronic of some kind? To technical! Everything else? Work and toil in the farm! It... wasn't exactly rocket science.

And what exactly was there for the Overmare to ...overlook? We all took care of ourselves, and by extension, each other. At least security didn't have much to look after. We had our farm, connected to 3 separate living quarter wings, each with 20 rooms. Mine, the wing properly labeled ‘C’, held both the Overmare’s office, and the stairs down to reactor level. Both the clinic and food storage was in wing D, and the security office was in wing E. Where is wings A and B you ask? Who knows. Probably behind one of the many, many locked doors. Actually, I found wing F behind one, in a desperate attempt of exploration, but my mother, rest her soul, caught me before I could get too far.

Then they told me that you should never open the doors. Never leave, you'll endanger the stable. Bad monsters locked away forever behind those doors, waiting to eat you and your soul. I never quite understood it, but they said next time they would be quite adamant in their punishments, so I let it go.

But I never could quite let go the wonder of what secrets lies beyond those doors...

Dammit Shadow, you’re letting your thoughts distract you!

I turned my attention back to the terminal, looking through the titles of several logs, surprisingly sparse through the last 160 years. It may be bad to go through her private logs... but what about the logs of the Overmare before her? I smiled, plugging in my pipbuck and downloading as quickly as the progress bar would allow.

“And you really thought it was a good idea to send me that degenerate?” came the faint, yet harsh tone of the Overmare.

I looked up, my eyes going wide in panic as I cut off the download, and logged out completely, my magic making quick work of the keyboard.

“You know, you don’t have to call him that. Especially out in a public hall,” came the much kinder, yet slightly ticked voice of my mentor, Red Wire.

My ears flicked as the door slid open, and I straightened in my seat, trying to look as innocently as I could. Greyburn’s voice burst into the room, “I will call him whatever I please. He gets himself into trouble more than I-Oh.... you’re still here,” she added, looking at me.

Of course she was whining about me. That mare hated me. And I had no idea why, though, something had me suspecting it was something my father did.

Red Wire stepped into the room behind her, giving me a soft smile, her red coat contrasting highly with the worn blue of her stable barding, and her short, frizzled golden hair brought out a soft sparkle in her deep, azure blue eyes. A soft aura of red magic encompassed her horn, as well as a small clipboard and pencil she had been taking notes with, “Good morning, Shadow,” she knew me far too well, “Did you fix the terminal?”

I nodded, “The internal spell matrix lost contact with its power supply. I repaired the connection and now she’s humming happily.”

She gave me a knowing smile, before turning to our Overmare, “See, I told you he’d be able to fix it just fine.”

Greyburn narrowed her eyes at me, “So it seems. Now move, I have important business to attend to.”

I shrugged, before standing up and trotting towards the two mares, “Farewell then.”

Greyburn trotted by me, making a beeline for the terminal, giving it a suspicious glance before looking up at me, “Goodbye, Shadow Bolt.”

I left without another word, trotting to the farm in the center of our little world. Red had stepped to the side, letting me pass before following silently a moment. Then she giggled, “I like how you said ‘I plugged it in.’”

I smirked, “Well, I’d have all hell to pay if I made her sound that stupid, now wouldn't I?”

She laughed, and I soon joined her.

She turned to me, smiling, before nodding to a yellow mare who trotted beside me, heading back to her room from the farm, carrying a single sack of fresh goods in her teeth that would be food for her and her family from the day. I gave a friendly wave.

“So,” she continued, her gaze locking with mine, “I have some things to look at in medical. The reactor control systems are apparently bogging down, could probably use a good hard reset. Mind taking a look?”

I nodded, smiling, “Of course. Just got one stop to make at the farm, then I’ll be on my way.” Recently, she had been entrusting me with more and more important work, and that made me... Important.

I was important, and that made me feel good about myself, and what I did. These ponies needed me. And I needed them. They were... like a family. No, they were my family, the Overmare included. Though she was more like an annoying aunt than anything.

“Forget to make your lunch, or you just going so can you stare at Lilly’s plot?”

I.... what? “I don’t stare at her plot! I mean it’s a nice plot, but I-” I cringed at my own words. Wow, nice move Shadow. “Just no! I don’t stare!” Sweet Celestia, was it possible to blush with the entirety of your body?

She laughed so hard she looked like she was going to burst into tears. I looked away, shrinking back, trying to somehow hide within myself, which became increasingly harder to do as my cheeks were now probably little red warning lights, indicating to all those around that I would soon explode from the sheer pressure.

She tapped my flank with hers, the touch shocking me, somehow hitting the quick release valve on the embarrassment I was feeling, “You should ask her out already. You won’t stay young forever, ya know.” She smiled, before turning to trot back towards the farm, adding quickly, “and even the Goddesses above can see that you want to.”

I followed her nervously, keeping my head low as I looked up at her, “It’s..... really that obvious?”

She nodded, giggling softly still, “We've all known for a while now. I’d be surprised if she didn't know.”

I stopped dead, my eyes widening. She knew? For how long?

Red stopped, looking back at me, “You coming?” she said, her smile teasing at me, “You’ll never see her plot if you don’t go to her.”

Oh, I’m not going to hear the end of this, am I? Wait.... does Lilly think I stare at her plot? That I’m some kind of pervert buck of a... oh goddesses! “Y-yea... just...” There were those warning lights again... Shaking myself, I trotted my way past my mentor, “Yea, lets just get this over with.”

“Get what over with? Ohhh, you gonna ask her out?”

I nodded, “If she already knows I like her that way, then I’m just burying my own grave by not asking her out...”

She... squeed? “Exactly! So get your plot in there and put it on the line!”

Eep! That... wasn't how I wanted to think about that. I looked towards the door that was fast approaching and gulped, stopping short, just out of reach for the automated sensor to pick up my presence.

Red stopped behind me, giving me a little nudge, her head to my rump, that caused the door to sense me and open, before stepping back and saying softly, “...Go get her, tiger.”

I looked back to her, before a soft smile broke across my face. Turning, I peered into the open doorway, before trotting inside.

I scanned the room for Lilly, seeing only the pastel-colored ponies as they tended to the various crops or the few apple trees that spanned across half of the farm. A blue earth pony stallion pulled a rake down a line of farmland, a basket of freshly pulled carrots at his side. A purple mare trotted past him, heading towards the berry bush, her burlap saddlebag empty for the fresh harvest. A young green unicorn filly smiled deviously as she looked at the control console for the farms automated system, visible only in the window from a side room. The water sprinklers suddenly turned on, getting all the ponies working wet, bringing out several cries of surprise, laughter bellowing out of the green unicorn’s face.

"Hey! Cut those off!" a sweet, and very unhappy voice called out over the farm, "The moisture in the soil is supposed to be at a precise percentage for these tests to run properly!"

A warm smile grew across my face as my gaze turned to see the earth pony mare. Her forest green mane was soaked, draped down over her azure eyes. Dirt, quickly turning into mud, stuck to her hooves, staining her pearly white coat. Her flank bore her cutie mark, a lily flower growing out from a pool of water. Her tail was.... OK Shadow, you're a respectable buck! Stop staring, don’t let Red Wire be right!

She stood tall, giving the green filly a look that made me feel guilty! She quickly closed a vial of topsoil, though the damage to the sample had already been done.

The filly went wide eyed, "Sorry Miss Flower!" and quickly turned back to the controls, shutting off the sprinklers. The room fell silent, save for the soft patter of water dripping off manes and leaves as Lilly trotted towards her, that same firm look now towering over the shrinking filly.

"Kiwi," Lilly began stopping right before the filly, "This farm is our only source of food for all 87 ponies in this stable, and it is barely enough. The system is carefully calibrated for optimal growth... Add too much, and we might not see as much of a harvest next time. Ponies could starve!"

The fillies eyes somehow grew even more, then looked down, "I... I'm sorry.... I don't wanna hurt no pony!"

Lilly's glare melted away in moments, being replaced by a soft smile, now addressing Kiwi in a much softer tone, "I know... You didn't add enough water to do any real harm." Her smile grew slightly, raising her vial of mud, "Maybe delayed some of the tests I was going to run. But I can still run a few others. But I need you to understand that the equipment and the sprinklers are not a toy to be played with...." Her gaze shifted over to me a smirk running on her face, "That goes for you too, Shadow!"

Well, that brought a giggle out of the filly. Me? I felt my cheeks burning, "What?! Me?! But I wouldn't-"

"Yes, you would," she countered as she turned, her hips swaying slightly as she walked towards me, moisture making her coat sheen in the artificial sunlight, "I can see it in your face. Don't think I don't know what you do." Her grin grows, "There aren't many ponies in this stable that could hack a door so it only opens if you walk through it backwards." She giggled, "That was actually pretty good. It's surprising how ponies act when they have to think about how to walk through a door. Water Drain even moonwalked!"

“How come he gets to have all the fun?” Kiwi whined.

“I never said you couldn't,” Lilly turned and booped the fillies nose, “Just not with the sprinklers.”

"But I…." I started as Lilly faced me again, giving me a look, and I stopped with a sigh, hanging my head. There was no getting out of this one, she did know me too well!

With a little smirk, I sat back on my haunches, raising a hoof to my side, and laying the other over my heart, “I solemnly swear that I will not tamper with the sprinkler systems.” My smirk grew, “No matter how fun it would be to try to get the computer to blast ponies.”

Lilly eyed at me, and I could feel those eyes bearing down on me. A moment passed, maybe two, and my smirk wavered slightly. Then a giggle escaped her lips, and she patted my cheek. “Well, come on then,” she added, now leading me across the farm. A tap of a hoof and the swoosh of a door later, we were in her office.

The room hummed with several pieces of machinery, all performing different tests on the topsoil she had previously gathered. A mess of wires hooked up across the edges of the floor to a terminal upon her desk on the far wall, glowing softly in its green displaying the progress of the different machines. Behind it was a window, peering out towards a giant vat filled with more soil. Three large mechanical pillars with heavy bolts came down from the ceiling, connected together by large rotors and gears. An alarm sounded, and a red sludge poured out of a tube over the side of the vat. Slowly, the pillars began spinning and mixing the topsoil with a heavy groan, and pulling down the sludge into the mix. Then with a loud electrical pop, the machine slowed to a crawl. I could just make out Red Wire running across a catwalk, a gas mask over her face, no doubt heading towards the next area to fix the problem.

Lilly stopped in front of one of the testing machines, opening it up, and pouring the muddy contents of the vial into it. When she snapped it shut, it began to hum in harmony with the others. and she turned to me.

“You ‘forgot’ your meal for today again, didn't you?” she asked, not even waiting for me to respond before walking to one of the cabinets next to her desk, opening it up and pulling out a bag with a grilled veggie sandwich and an apple. “Honestly, I just think that you prefer my cooking.”

“Guilty as charged,” I smiled, taking the bag with my magic. It was still warm! I opened the bag, and took a bite out of the sandwich. Instantly, the savory taste of Lilly’s cooking filled my mouth, and I chewed happily as I stored the rest of it in my bags. We may not have had much of a variety in the way of ingredients in stable 79, but Lily always knew how to combine them into the best ways.

“Good?” she asked, a slight tilt to her head as she brushed her still wet mane out of her eyes.

I nodded. “Delicious as always, thanks.”

She smiled softly, "I'm glad, but I'm going to ask that you cook your own food before it spoils.... Or you can bring back it to me. Won't be any different than what we do now."

I smiled, nodding, looking down at the ground. Well, it was time…. "Hey Lily..."

“Yes, Shadow?” she said, a touch of gentleness in her voice.

I looked back up at her, into her eyes. They seemed to shimmer ever so slightly, and her smile made my heart race. My cheeks felt like they were on fire, and I had to force myself to even breath. “I….”

I panicked. What was I even doing? Here I was, a stable prankster. Sure, I wasn't the only one, we needed something to keep ourselves going in 79. Otherwise the only topic of conversation would be about what we did today to keep our little world alive. There’s only so many times saying I fixed something was interesting. Some ponies reverted to sex. Me? I created little disturbances to keep things interesting. A few laughs. But her…. She was beautiful, kind, cared about everypony. Her job was to make sure everything grew at their best. If she failed, ponies starved. Good thing though, that she never failed. She saved ponies.

But it didn't mean I shouldn't try.

And no turning back.

I breathed again, recollecting myself as Lily just waited patiently. “Lily, I-”

Suddenly, the lights brightened everywhere, and the machines around me groaned with the power surge. A spark flew from one of the lights, and everything began flickering.

And I faltered.

“...should go look at that.” I groaned in frustration and defeat as I raced out the door back to the farm as quickly as I could, not even looking back to gate Lily’s reaction. Did I ever mention how I hated light?

Outside the office was just as bad as inside, if not worse. OK, maybe this was actually bad enough that I needed to go.

The overly bright flickering lights hurt my eyes, and I had to strain to see right. Kiwi was at the controls to the sprinklers, desperately trying to shut off the now faulty system, crying how it was her fault and that she shouldn't have messed with the controls. The display flickered and died, and soon after a blazing white spark of electricity shot out, hitting the poor filly in the chest.

She flew back, giving out a weak yelp as she fell limp to the floor. I thought she was dead. She should have been dead. But a cough and a weak crying told me she was not, and a blue earth pony buck rushed forward and pulled her away. I cringed as I saw the bad burn on her chest where she was struck. But really, thank the goddesses she was alive.

"It's not your fault," the buck tried to calm her down, "I need to get her to medical!" he called out, carrying Kiwi on his back and galloping out the door, the other farm ponies moving out of his way.

We weren't in the clear yet. The power surges meant I had a lot of work ahead of me, and my pipbuck's magic in my vision alerted me just as much. But none of that mattered right now, my eyes locked onto the only one that did.

Reactor C-2 overload, meltdown imminent.

I froze. This wasn't the first time the reactor overloaded, and technical was supposed to be prepared for this to happen again. I was in technical.

But I wasn't prepared.

An alert sounded, dragging my attention upwards to the intercom as Overmare Greyburn's voice blasted through, "This is a code red alert! All technical personnel report to reactor level immediately! Off duty medical staff return to your departments! All others, unless you are, or you are assisting, injured, return to your living quarters immediately. Brace yourselves for a possible type-3 Omega megaspell detonation!"

Doors opened and the sound of hooves thundered through the chaos as ponies raced to their assigned positions, and I raced to join them, heading back towards C hall.

A grey buck almost rammed into me as I tried to get into the door, “Watch it, kid!” He growled, shoving his wrench-bearing flanks against my face as he shoved past.

OK, not what I needed to feel right now. Actually, not what I wanted to feel ever.

A red mare appeared at my side, keeping with me as we raced down the hall.

"This is your first meltdown, ain't it Shadow?" Red asked as we took the turn to the stairs that led down to reactor level.

"Y-yea... First one I was responsible for..." I stammered, trying my best to not trip over my hooves the stairs turned farther down into the stable, several of the levels holding another locked door. Another danger, another secret. No, now’s not the time to wonder, Shadow! Lives are at stake!

The last time the reactor threatened to kill us all in fiery death was several years ago, but I was still in training at the time. And this probably wouldn't be my last. Well, I would hope this wouldn't be my last. I’d like for there to still be a reactor to meltdown.

As exciting as this was, I was honestly terrified of messing up. This time, one mistake could kill everypony. But there was one thing in my favor.

I wasn't alone.

"Right. This is pretty standard code red stuff,” she said pretty dismissively, “And we know what we're doing. Stay alert and out of the way. Listen for any electrical disturbances, if I'm busy, you're up."

My heart was pounding in my chest so hard I could almost hear it as I nodded. Part of me just couldn't shake the feeling that we were all about to die...

Her tail smacked across my flank. "Chin up," she said with a smirk, "I trained you myself, you'll do fine."

I was about to respond, when we made the final flight, now facing the thick open security door that lead to the reactor control center, blurred by the mass of ponies that rushed inside, most of them heading straight out the other side into the reactor chamber below.

I had only been down to reactor level a few times before in my life, once for the diagnostic systems having frozen and needed a hard reboot, the rest of the time for training. Being showed where everything was, so I could be ready for this.

But this wasn't anything like training.

This was chaos.

A half dozen ponies raced around, operating controls and reading off numbers and statistics off as they raced from console to console, barking orders to one another faster than I could catch them all.

"Power production at 187 capacity!"

"What's the temperature?!"

"439! We're in the red!"

“Activate all ice talismans! Full Power!”

"Ice talisman controllers are not responding!"

Red Wire split off from my side, leaving me alone as she raced out towards the prep room, her horn glowing a crimson hue she began pulling tools out of pouches, "I'm on it!"

Another siren sounded behind me as the heavy door began slowly sliding closed behind us. There was only enough time for two medical mares to dart under, before closing shut with a heavy thud. They began unloading heavy bags of RadAway, RadSafe, Med-X, and anything else that might have ended with an X.

It was about that time that I noticed the clicking coming from everypony’s pipbucks. Radiation, and a lot of it, was leaking from the reactor. Our job wasn't only to keep the reactor from exploding, no. We had to stabilize it and bring it online. If we couldn't stabilize it.... Bring it back online and man it until the radiation killed us.

For the good of the stable.

“Get those valves open! We need to flush the system!”

“Opening valves, water talisman holding!”

The sound of rushing water rumbled in the chamber below, and one of the medical mares handing me a few RadSafe pulled me out of the shock I was slumped into. Chewing the pills, I turned and took the chance to take a look out the control window.

In the chamber below, the MAS Mark-3 Omega-class power reactor raged violently. What was normally a calm vortex of pure white energy that traveled up the the central crystalline tower that was its core now spiraled out of control in a raging maelstrom of chaotic power. Shielding spells strained against the storm, unable to stop several bolts of white lightning from escaping and striking anything nearby.

A round metal sphere descended from the ceiling, barely absorbing the end of the maelstrom. and rumbled against the increased power. Thick cables shot out of the top, unable to contain the magical surplus, and glowed red from the heat. The same heat that sheared any metal close enough to the core. The reactor chamber seemed to take most of the blunt force of the power surges, almost every terminal sparking and zapping at all those who dared get close.

Jets of water rushed out of nozzles embedded into the ceiling, striking the reactor’s core, bursting almost completely into steam that would fill the room, if not for the fans clearing out the air just as quickly, forcing the steam to be sucked into a vat below the reactor with the rest of the water. But that steam made the sparks emanating off of everything that much more deadly.

A ring of crystal units surrounded the base of the tower. The regulator control crystals were supposed to keep the power flow under a certain level, but even from here with my limited knowledge I could see what was wrong. One of the crystals was charred black, disrupting the other regulators in the chain and allowing unregulated power flow back into the system.

Ponies rushed around in hazmat suits, avoiding being struck by the maelstrom. While those suits seemed to provide excellent coverage from the energy travelling through the metal catwalks, nopony seemed to want to risk a direct hit. I couldn't blame them.

“Water pressure dropping! Water Jet 3 is at 50 power!”

The buck that rammed into me before darted towards a pipe that came up from the floor, his wrench in his hooves. Its brace leaked with the high pressure from the water that was being pumped out of the vat below.

He rammed his wrench against a bolt in the pipe, twisting it as hard as he could while trying to avoid being touched by the boiling hot water. A terminal next to his flank exploded in a brilliant blaze of sparks, making him jump.

Right into the stream of water.

His scream of pain would terrify me for nights to come as the water melted right through the hazmat suit and pushed against his flesh. He lifted onto his hind legs, backing away from the blast of water. And right to the core. The maelstrom targeted the pony with vigilance, casting bolt after bolt into the blackening form. Finally, the scream stopped and his body broke apart into dust, and washed away in the water and magical gust.

“Pony down! Pony down! Get that water pressure under control!”

No pony grieved over the loss of the buck. There wasn't any time. A new pony stepped in and took his place, tightening the bolt that brought the stream to a close.

“Water Jet 3 restored!”

My mentor entered the chamber below, straightening the helmet of her hazmat suit before darting inside with the other ponies, floating her tools and a fresh circuit board for the ice talisman control unit in front of her.

I watched as she rushed towards a control panel on the far wall, stopping just short of it and used a crowbar to pop it open. No time for screws.

“Status!”

“Temperature in excess of 500! Critical in 19 minutes!”

“Water jets on full! Air talismans steady!”

“Containment breach! Shields unable to contain radiation!”

I held my breath as Red worked, those arcs of death were far too close to her for my comfort. She had the panel removed and discarded the crowbar carelessly to the side. She started on the clips that held wires into the circuits. One, two, three....

Then she disappeared in a flash of white!

No wait, there she was!

Oh goddesses...

She slumped over, a large black scorch in the back of her utility barding, a hissing smoke rolled out from her broken hazmat suit. Not good...

"Temperature critical in 14 minutes!"

"Pony down! Pony down! Medic!"

"It's too hot, I can't go in!"

"We need those ice talismans now!"

My jaw clenched, and my body shook. And yet for what seemed like forever I couldn't move. I was going to die. No, we were going to die. Red Wire was already dead, or mortally wounded. We were next. Then the rest of the stable. Lily... I don't want to die. I don't want you to die. We had to live. If only long enough for me to tell you....

"I'm on it!" I blurted, my body suddenly unlocking as I turned and rushed out of the control room.

I was the rookie, but now their lives depended on me. Down more metal stairs, and a small room embedded with lockers. No time to grab my own tools. I'll use Red's. My horn raged as I ripped one of the hazmat suits off its hook on the wall, slipping it on as quickly as I could. I lifted the helmet to lock it in place and my heart skipped a beat as I saw the back of it.

A large gash was ripped into the back of the helmet. I could still put it on, but I would have to hold it in place as I worked and it still wouldn’t have the effectiveness I needed. My eyes went back to the hooks on the wall, grimacing as I saw the shard of yellow on the one I grabbed my suit from. Oops…

I had an even bigger problem to worry about; there were no more suits here. There might be some kept safe in a storage closet in medical, but...

The medical pony in the room gave me a hard look as I began trotting towards the door without the helmet on. But she knew as well as I did, there simply wasn't time to find another.

“Take these!” she yelled at me, opening a package of RadSafe and shoving the pills into my mouth. “And don’t die!” she added as she offered a tiny bottle of water.

Best damn advice I've ever heard in my life.

I downed the water and pills, then nodded. The radiation symbol loomed in my gaze as I turned forward to stop in front of the sealed door. A secondary set of doors closed behind me, and several seconds passed. Several seconds we did not have.

Then the radiation symbol split as the heavy doors slid open in front of me, steam rolling out from the chamber beyond.

I instantly regretted not putting that helmet on as I was hit with a blast of intense heat. My mane frizzed and clumped down against my neck, as the moisture and smell of electricity and burnt electronics choked me. It was hard to breathe, but what hit me hardest of all was the radiation. The clicking of my pipbuck turned rapid and I watched the radiation meter slowly rise.

Shit... The reactor would blow in thirteen minutes, but even with the extra RadSafe, I would be lucky if I had ten. Well, no turning back now.

I struggled to rush to the panel where Red had worked, my lungs burning, and I strained over my tearing eyesight to grab her tools. I paused momentarily, grimacing at her limp form. Then finally stepping over her body, I looked at the circuit and resumed her work.

Four, five, six....

Nine minutes. I could feel my coat start to singe from the heat.

Seven, eight, nine...

One of the cables was shot.

Cut, split, twist, wrap.

I cut out the damaged section and spliced them back together crudely with electrical tape. Seven minutes. My stomach churned as my pipbuck decided it would happily inform me I had minor radiation sickness.

Thank you, very much.

Ten, eleven, twelve. The wires were free. Now I just had the screws to-

A thunderous crack of lightning struck a terminal next to me, blinding me. A loud ringing in my ears drowned out the sound of the roaring vortex and the rush of water. I had to let myself rest a moment for my senses to return, before shrugging it off and picking up a screwdriver off the floor.

Six minutes.

My magic fumbled with the screwdriver, and my eyes felt like they were bleeding. Radiation was now in yellow, and climbing quickly into red. My pipbuck gave me even more warnings about radiation and the health risks I was facing. It was telling me everything short of 'get the fuck out you idiot!' Trust me, I wanted to.

One, two, three. Radiation had entered red, and my vision started turning that very hue. Every breath I took started to bring a sharp pain in my lungs.

Four, five six. The circuit board was free, and I threw it out as fast as I could, lifting the replacement with my hooves and held it in place as my magic reached out for the wires, clipping them in place. It felt like my skin was trying to crawl right off my body.

Five minutes.

My body churned inside of me, and my mind burned. Hooves started trembling as my focus wavered. My lungs decided they were done with this breathing thing, and I stammered for several seconds before I finally gave out a hard cough, flinging blood onto the wall.

Four minutes. Shit…

I pulled out wonderglue as that last wire clicked into place, and i simply glued the control circuit into place, looking back at the control center waving a hoof. I could barely make out the mare inside giving me a nod, and yelling out something to the others.

The circuits hummed to life, and with a magical blue glow, the heat soon started clearing. The reactor wouldn't blow due to overheating now, I had given them more time.

But I wasn't in the clear yet.

Three minutes.

“You… did…. good…” a weak voice said under me, and I turned to see Red’s glassy gaze smiling up at me.

She was alive! But only for now, no time for celebrations. I dropped the tools, and pulled her onto my back, started to head back towards the door. It felt like weights were tied to my hooves, every move was a strain against gravity. Ponies in the room moved to valves and started turning them, and I could feel a rumble underneath my hooves. But none of that mattered. I just needed to get to that door…

Two minutes. My stomach twisted, and I violently forced out what little remained of my earlier breakfast. My vision was so red and blurry that I had to wonder if they were bleeding. My hooves trembled under me, and with one last step I tumbled to the floor, the door a mere foot away.

I was done. I couldn't even lift my own weight anymore, much less drag red with me. My vision was starting to fade. I slumped on my side, breathing slowed, and staring towards the opening door.

One minute.

For the longest moments, I laid there. My body became more and more numb to my surroundings. Sounds became quiet, the room darkened. All that was left was me, and my slowing heartbeat.

Thump thump….

“I’m so sorry Lily…” I rasped under my breath. My eyes closed, and the world shifted as I was dragged away.

Thump thump...

I love you...

Thump…

Footnote: Level up.
New Perk: Rad-tastic - Due to exposure to a critical amount of radiation, you have gained a teeny-weeny, mostly benign, mutation. When you are suffering from minor or more severe radiation sickness, you gain a +1 to both your perception and agility.

Author's Note

Many thanks to Kkat for writing the original story, as well as my many friends in that wonderful second life group whose RP inspired me to write this. Also to Bethesda for the awesome game!

And of course, all the wonderful people at hasbro and Studio-B that mad MLP possible!

Chapter 2 - Of Death and Rebirth

Darkness surrounded my everything. I tried to stand up on my hooves, but I couldn’t feel them. All I felt was the cold. No, I didn’t even feel that. I felt nothing. All of those little tiny aches and pains that built up over the years were gone. Didn’t ever think that would be something I’d miss. I didn’t even have a sense of direction. Which way was up? Was there an up?

Did I even have a body anymore?

Opening my muzzle, I tried to scream. No sound penetrated through the deafening silence that pounded against my ears. I would have killed to hear something, anything! Even that soft whine those annoying fluorescent lights made would have been a Celestia send to my ears! This silence was just maddening. My thoughts were the only things I could hear. They were all I had left to prove I even existed.

I was dead, and this was going to be a long eternity.

I wasn’t sure what I should feel. Fear that I would be stuck like this for ever and on? Pain that I lost everypony I cared about? Relieved that I wasn’t suffering in agony? I guess the simple answer would have been yes. But as I continued to just exist, I began to realize what I truly felt.

Alone.

In 79 you were almost never alone. When you were, another pony was always a few doors away. You had to work with them, and only together could you keep the stable alive. It didn’t matter if you liked them or not, they were there and they needed your help.

Everything was too idle, too still. I needed to get up and run to technical to make some repairs! Then run to medical and get my weekly shot of steroids so I could run forever! But I couldn’t do anything but just… whatever this was. Any moment now security would come and kick me out of bed to yell at me to get back to my work. Any moment now!

Any moment now…

...Being dead sucked.

What felt like an eon had passed. An eon of pure nothingness. I prayed out with my mind to the goddesses to let this end, even if it meant I had to end. For the longest time, I thought they wouldn’t respond, or that they simply didn’t care. Maybe they didn’t. A soft force slowly crept up on me, pulling me back. No, down! This was gravity! By Luna’s sparkly mane, something was happening!

The feeling of soft fabric was a Celestia send as it pressed against my side. Soon afterwards the feeling spread through me like a wave. Tiny sensations tingled across my spine, spreading out through my shoulders and hips down to my hooves. And then, with a sharp inhale of breath, I was breathing again. I was alive!

My eyes opened in a fluidic movement, and I was met with a blur of grey. A soft whine built up in my ears. I had never been as happy to hear those damned lights as I was right now! Grey walls and whining lights? This had to be my stable! I must have been unconscious this entire time, or something.

Things slowly came into focus and I was… in my room? Strange place for medical to leave me. I sat up, the air shifting around me as I moved; it was almost like I was walking through water. Since when was air so thick? I probably need to go check in with medical, this must be some side effect of the whole almost dying thing.

I hesitated a bit as I took a weary step off my bed. The feeling of gravity was still very weak, and I’d float away if I wasn’t careful! Or, the little pony in my head reminded me, it was probably just be more side effects from my recovery. Now he was kicking me and telling me that I probably shouldn’t have gotten out of bed in the first place. Oh, wasn’t I a silly pony? But I didn’t care, I had to move. I had to get back to work, help keep the stable alive.

Wait, if I was alive… did Red survive too? Well, now I had something else to move towards.

Once I was on the floor I had to fight to keep myself balanced. The world seemed to sway with my every movement. Looking around I noticed the surreal glow that brightened everything. I turned to the corner where I kept my bag of tools. My magic reached out to grab nothing. Scanning the rest of the room, I noticed my tools weren’t here at all. Another thing my happy little pony added to my checklist. I took slow and steady steps toward the door. The rocking slowly began to soften out as the gravity inched towards normal.

As I reached the door, my head-pony and I had made a nice sizable list of things to do. Most of them were to check on the systems I had remembered my pipbuck warning me about. Where was that magical overlay? I looked down at the devices black screen. Huh, pipbuck must have fried. Another thing to fix! Oh, I also had to find Lily! Finally tell her how I feel. Nothing like a near death experience to kick you in the-

The door opened with a mechanical swoosh that reverberated in my ears, revealing a bright shining light. I instinctively shielded my eyes, but the light spread to engulf the entire room in white. I expected my eyes to burn when I reopened them, but the white before me felt like looking into a dark room.

When the light faded away, I found myself on a hilltop. Green fluffy grass spread out as far as the eye could see, dotted with splotches of color from beautiful flora. Above was a great never ending blue, broken by a giant orb of yellow that illuminated the fields around me.

The little pony took one look around and blinked. Then he turned to the list we had amassed and ripped it into tiny little pieces. With a huff, he threw them all into the air and stormed off.

Welp, back to being dead. What was this place though, heaven? I would love the chance to meet the Goddesses!

The sound of foals laughter tickled my ears and a ghostly echo reverberated through the dense air. Curious, my eyes scanned over the colorful fields. I spotted them out in the open out to my right. Colts and fillies of all colors played together in an open field.

Not a single one of them had lost their baby fat! It reminded me of those old posters the Overmare had hung in her office. Was everypony fat back then? I thought it was just lazy painting and not wanting to draw out the bones...

The foals ran around a pole in the distance, weaving in and out of each other. Ribbons of a variety of colors wrapped around the pole, pulled taught by the little colts and fillies. I watched them for a short time, a smile creeping up on my lips. It was amazing how surreal the simple joy was. One of them looked up at me, and then they all ran off to hide and play in the trees.

Odd, I didn't notice those trees there before....

I took a step back, my hoof touching cold and wet. I quickly turned, all of my hooves splashing, and found myself standing at the edge of a large crystal clear pond. White flowers, open like bowls presenting the yellow core, bobbed along the waters surface.

The hell this get here?

The water rippled, and an icy feeling nipped at my legs. A sky blue mare, tall and regal, rose up out of the water facing me. She gracefully walked out towards me, her wings opening softly to stretch out by her side. She was fat enough her chest was smooth like the foals. I was honestly actually starting to find the look attractive.

Why couldn’t ponies look this way naturally? It was an odd look, not being able to see the curves her bones made. I looked down at my own body, eyeing the contours that my bones made on my legs. It was so ugly in comparison that she must have been some kind of goddess.

The smile that the mare carried upon her face was one of the kindest I had ever known. Her emerald eyes were locked on mine, and her look alone was enough to freeze me in my spot. The water itself seemed to ripple and arch up, forming into softly flowing mane and tail. I chanced a glance at her flanks to catch her cutie mark. She was... Blank?

"Greetings, young one," her words flowed into my ears with a gentle smoothness. "My name is Aquarius, and welcome to Elysium."

I stared up at her, my ears slowly perked forward as I asked, "I'm... really dead, aren't I?"

She nodded slowly, her smile staying steady, "You are at peace. Elysium is a place for you to rest for all eternity, away from the pain and hurt that ravages your world. Stay with me, Shadow. Only here can you truly be happy. Only here can you be provided with everything you need...." She dipped one of her wings into the water, gently picking up a little flower, "The lotus flower.... One of my favorites. It's center produces a nectar with a flavor that is absolutely.... Divine." She arched her wing, bringing the flower closer to my face, "Try a flower; it will take all of your troubles away."

I tilted my head to the side as I took the little flower and brought it to my lips. The aroma alone was enough to make my mouth water. I wasn't exactly hungry and I had a moderate case of death… but that didn't mean I couldn't still have a taste, right?

Her smile warmed when I took the tiny flower with my horn. That smile… it was almost just like Lily’s.

Lily…. Lily! Is she ok? Will I see her again when she dies? And what about the rest of the ponies from my stable!? Will they survive? Was my death for nothing? The questions kept piling on and I nervously bit into the flower.

Oh wow, it was delicious....

My thoughts were suddenly cut off by a pair of soft lips pressing against mine. The kiss clouded my mind and better judgement, and I could only melt into it. My eyes drifted shut as I could feel the worry washing away.

Oh…. oh my….

Hooves pulled me into a soft embrace, pulling me towards Aquarius’s chest as she began slowly sinking back into the water, “Let them go, my sweet young one… they will join us soon enough.”

“Let them go…..” I softly echoed her soothing words, resting my cheek across her chest as the water tickled my chin.

No! Shadow, please… You-you have to save him!

The desperate words wavered from the back of my mind like a whisper from a dream. I almost missed them, but they were enough to get my attention. I started to pull away from her, looking back into her eyes. She frowned at me, her soft hooves letting go as I took a step back into the chilly water.

“What… what about my friends? Is… is Red Wire OK? Or is she here too?” I had to at least know if my stable would make it here with me.

Her smile returned as she nodded, hushing me gently before looking over to my side. Following her gaze, I saw my mentor’s euphoric smile as she looked back at me. Her cheeks were flushed, and her glassy eyes looked at me with bliss. A soft ripple drifted through the water, and Aquarius was gone.

“Heya, Shadow…” She said, quietly giggling as she wrapped her hooves around me in a quick motion. The water barely rippled as she moved. “Glad ya could make it!” She leaned forward and licked my lips. No, I quickly realized, she was licking at a flower petal I had missed.

But that didn't matter, I blushed all the same. “R-red….” I stammered, quickly trying to change the topic. She was my mentor… that-that would be like kissing my mother! "I'm sorry I didn't save you..." I blurted out quickly, pulling out of her grasp as I sat back.

She giggled again, giving me that same glassy smile. "And if ya had just left me, ya might have survived. And I'd be here without my....favorite pupil~"

I watched her for a moment. There was just something….

Red’s crimson glow floated a couple flowers out of the lake. The aroma seduced my nose, making my mouth water again. My will to focus failed me as I leaned forward to the offered flower and bit into it. The taste of the sweet nectar washed over my tongue, and I suckled the savory treat. Red had already eaten hers, and watched me with a gleeful expression.

She leaned closer to me, smiling giddily, "Ya know Shadow..." She leaned in closer, barely touching her muzzle to my neck. Her warm breath was tickling my fur. "We’ve got some time on our hooves~"

She nibbled on my neck gently, her hoof brushing my chest. Oh sweet Celestia, this was just so wrong on so many levels! She was the one who taught me ever since I gained my cutie mark! She was my teacher... My aunt, not a lover!

I swallowed the flower and stammered at her, my cheeks burning red, "R-Red! What do you think- But what about your husband? And what about Lily! I have to-to..."

Red kissed me, and my eyes widened in shock. Her breath carried the same scent as those flowers. When she broke it she giggled, "Till death did we part~"

I blinked. I had to.... What? I almost pulled away from her, but why? I was dead, I shouldn't care about this stuff. And when she arrived, I could share myself with her too!

Wait, share myself with who...? Names and faces of ponies blurred away from my memories, and I couldn’t bring myself to think. There was somepony important I wanted to see... something about a flower?

Flower... So sweet and juicy...

I could feel a warm smile grow on my face, looking over as a small white flower floated towards us. With my magic I lifted the small delicacy, then gently took it between my teeth. Red giggled again before she leaned forward and took the other half of the flower between her lips. Our mouths opened, and soon we began enjoying the taste of each other as much as we savored the flavor of our little treat. My whole body turned warm, and I held onto her tighter. She wrapped her hooves around me, pressing herself against my body.

And then everything blurred together as I lost myself in our bliss.

Another flower, another lost moment.

A soft distant sound tickled my ear. Was somepony crying? No, this was a happy place. My mind flowed like molasses as I began to do something I hadn’t done in a long time… think.

How long had I been here? Hours? Days? Years? I really couldn't tell. I had only thoughts of joy and love, and I shared them all and myself with Red. Aquarius never returned, and I was perfectly happy with that. But we never dared stray from the crystal water or the succulent lotus flowers it provided. Aquarius was right, this place had everything I needed. If that crying pony came here with us, she’d have everything she needed too. Nopony needs to cry…

A buck’s voice penetrated my ears, riddled with amusement. “Oh, lookie here! A little pony caught in a web of lies~.”

This voice was different, lacking a certain reverberation that I had grown accustomed to. I opened my eyes, floating on my back in the water as I looked around for its source.

Red eyed me, perfectly content right now just resting on my chest. “Need something, my sweet?” she purred seductively on my chest.

I shook my head, smiling down at her, “No… just thought I heard something…”

A lotus idly floated next to my head. I looked at it and smiled as I opened my jaw to take the little treat between my teeth.

The voice returned with a dark chuckle, “Oh you poor little soul! What poisons she must be feeding you for you to let yourself be devoured this way...”

The petals glistened in front of me, the aroma begging me to just take a little nibble. It was so good, how could it possibly be poison? My tongue reached out, caressing the little cup.

"And this mare with her aching heart!" He feigned a gasp, "You’re not too far gone. Far more than just a sliver of a fragment. You could go back to her, if you escape. Perhaps you could use a little assistance?"

There was a tingling sensation that traveled through my spine up to my ears. Suddenly, the sobbing returned to my attention with clarity.

Shadow, you idiot... Why couldn't you have just put on a damn mask?

I quickly sat up, It was that voice again. I thought hard, pushing back the cloud that had washed over me. I knew her…. from somewhere…

"Shadow, something wrong?" Red put a hoof on my chest, gently pushing me back down, "Let me take care of you the way only I can.... You love me." She smiled, turning her muzzle to my chest and slowly kissing down.

Wait, what? No I didn't, I loved...

You should have just told me… told me everything...

But instead you left me!

I shoved Red back, gasping out the name of the one I never believed I would have forgotten. "Lily...." I could hear her cries. I had to tell her it was OK... somehow.

Red’s eyes looked back at me, turning slightly cross, "Lily's not here. You’re going to love me. Here, have a flower and forget her."

I glared back into her pale green eyes, "Red, what's gotten into you?! You know how much I care about...."

Wait, green eyes? Red doesn't have....

Who the fuck was this?

And why didn’t I notice this sooner!?

The pony in my head signaled at me frantically with red flags and my expression must have said it all as shit started to hit the fan. Faces appeared deep in the warping water below as a chorus of horrible screams erupted. The sky shifted black and the colorful gardens and grass withered away. I don't know where here was, but it wasn't where I wanted to be!

Red, or the mare pretending to be Red, tilted her head back and joined the hellish choir. Before my eyes her color drained, blending in with the water. Her skin warped to something only vaguely resembling a pony before dropping down into the mass of ponies below.

And... that was my cue to run.

Or swim, as the case was.

The water sucked back and thickened, pulling me down before a wave crashed into me. The force knocked me down deep into the water. Ghostly apparitions that blended in with the water grabbed and nipped at my flesh, all chanting the same thing, “Love me! Stay with me!”

Aquarius reemerged from the center of the lake, towering over me with the mass of dozens of ponies. I could barely make her out through the water. Her face was wrinkled and her lips shrunk back, revealing her baring teeth. Her eyes were as black as coal, broken by the chalky white iris that glared at me through the water with fury.

I broke the surface of the lake, gasping for air as faces emerged around me. They were still screaming as they started biting and grabbing at my hooves, trying to pull me back down into the depths. Aquarius wasn’t just standing in the lake! She was the lake!

"You're going to LOVE ME!!!" she screamed, her voice filled with pain and desperation.

Oh, Luna fuck me with a megaspell reactor! Again!

I struggled to get to the shore against the watery hooves that flailed and grabbed at my sides. I felt a pair of teeth latch onto me in a very sensitive place, and my body shot out in pain. My head jerked towards the offending mare, my teeth clenched in rage. I brought my hoof down onto her face, breaking it apart into streams of liquid. Unfortunately, as my hoof was no longer holding me above the water, it left me vulnerable to the rest of the deadly herd trying to pull me down. I cried out as my lungs filled with water and everything started burning. In my wild panic, I thought I was going to drown.

The little pony in my head quickly pointed out that I was already dead and this was probably hell. Yea, thanks for that.

I fought back against the herd, their faces smashing and then reforming as I swung my hooves. Somewhere I got the idea of using them to push myself back up, letting me break the surface of the water. A fire raged in my chest as I started to cough out the ghoulish water, letting me take in another breath of sweet air. I looked up just in time to see Aquarius’s maw open wide and rear back before it came crashing down on me. My lungs burned again as a wave of ponies grabbed onto me, holding my hooves apart.

The one that was Red appeared before me, holding one of those damned flowers in her hooves and smiling. “Don’t worry Shadow… We’ll be together again soon!”

I fought and struggled against the water, but nothing worked. Whenever I would break free from one of those pony things, another would quickly take its place. They were biting, licking, and kissing at every inch of my body. Often all at once! Red moved forward, pushing the flower against my mouth. She tried to force the poisonous treat between my lips. To make me go back to that cloudy bliss…

Part of me wanted to. Go back and forget this nightmare.

The rest of me shot that part of me in the head and dumped it into the river.

Think Shadow, think! What was this thing? Water. What can you do to water? Freeze it. I don’t know that spell, and I’d still be just as trapped! What else…. Electricity! I needed to generate electricity! But how? I didn’t have a generator on me! Shit!

My horn flared in crackling white energy as my panic rose. Sparks spread out as the sudden spell released wildly into the water around me.

How the fuck did I do that?! It was similar enough to my spark charging spell, but had some oomph to it!

Whatever the hell that was was worthless anyway. The water rippled and distorted around the bolts, and the screaming ponies kept up their attacks. A hoof clamped down on my jaw, slowly prying it open. I could already taste the lotus flower’s nectar on my tongue and my mind slowly started to cloud. I was an inch away from just giving in.

No! I couldn’t just let it win!

I focused on the electricity again, barely managing to bring up my spell. I discharged it again, sending the electric sparks into my body. I shot up with pain, but it was a success. My head began to lift from the cloud, and I could think again! The hooves let go of me with a roar and I took my chance to break through to the surface. My lungs ejected the water inside them, and it took me all but half a second to notice the eye staring back at me from it. Oh, now that’s just sick.

Then my little pony pointed out something interesting to me; they screamed when I hurt myself. Did they not want me to hurt myself, or did they feel the same pain I felt? Well, nothing else in this world made sense so why the fuck not!

Aquarius's giant fat head ripped out of the water once more. "You can't leave me! I won't let you! We'll be together forever!" She roared at me in anguish as ripples of water trailed down from her eyes. I couldn’t exactly tell if they were supposed to be tears or not.

I charged my horn and aimed at her... Wait, no. I charged my horn and aimed at myself. As I discharged my electric spell, she cried out. Her head broke apart into water, sending a wave crashing into me. Of course, she wasn't the only one crying. This hurt, a lot.

Biting my lip, I turned toward the shore and swam as fast as I could.

"I hate you Shadow! I hate you, hate you, hate you!" Aquarius screamed at me from below.

Mouths erupted up around me and bit hard into my legs. I thrashed, kicking at the offending faces as I desperately tried to reach the shore. They latched on and I charged my spell again. "You ain't so pleasing yourself!" I bellowed, before gritting my teeth to the pain I knew was coming.

Another face broke the surface of the water. This time it was Red, appearing before me as the mare she once was. She glared at me with the pain of Aquarius as her hooves reached up for my horn. "Lily would never have loved you! You're nothing but a foal! You should have stayed with me and loved me!"

I glared into those green eyes that were now glowing with a sickening ichor. I brought up a hoof. "You! Are! Not! My! Mentor!" I screamed at her as I punctuated every word with a smash to her face.

Red broke apart into water again with a ghostly scream, and I discharged my spell into myself once more. A chorus of ghostly wails erupted as the water relaxed. I began swimming, fighting the against the living current. But bigger concerns dawned on me as I realized I was weakening far faster than I'd like. The spell was hurting me just as much as it was her. All I had to do was reach that shore.

My hoof touched soil and sunk in. I panicked, but then my little pony said fuck it, it can't be worse than here! I pushed on. Using the sticky soil as leverage, I began to pull out of the water. It was working! I was sinking further into soil, but the soil was not water!

Aquarius screamed behind me, "Lily is a cunt! A whore! She can never love you!"

"Fuck you!" I screamed, sending electric pain through myself. Both of us cried out in agony as I pulled through the water and onto land! Dry, sweet, somewhat gooey land!

Then I sank into the soil. Can I never just win? As my face met concrete, I realized that yes I can! I looked around, taking in my surroundings as quickly as I could. Beds on wheels, beeping equipment. This was defiantly Medical. And everything looked and felt normal! Except me. Other than the weakness I felt from my spell, and a growing pain in my horn, my body felt just as dead as it was before. At least I was out of that hell and away from that monster.

The crying tickled my ear again and I turned to see Lily crying and hanging onto a buck on one of the beds. Who was the buck? Me. There's just something about seeing yourself dead that makes you regret everything that you didn't do. I started to get up, to go to her and tell her everything. It didn't matter if she could hear me or not.

I then noticed the sticky wetness all over my body. And then the trails of goo that led from me to the mouth of some kind of unconscious monster pony. Finally, the little pony in my mind pointed out that the monster pony was some horrible mutated version of Aquarius. There were glowing bulges and veins protruding from her body. She was puffed up like she was filled with glowing toxic water balloons! Her jaw was split down the center, giving her a gaping hole which her grotesque tongue hung out of.

Aw, crap… did she fucking try to eat me?! She tried to eat me! She did eat me!

That meant that world was her stomach? Gross...

Thank Celestia for indigestion!

Aquarius stirred, groaning as she brought her gaze onto me. She screamed, leaping up and knocked me aside with a giant hoof. I braced myself for impact with the wall... and then found myself flying straight through it. Stupid ghost physics!

I had to focus with my magic to right myself, soon skidding to a halt and floating in the air. This kind of levitation may have been beyond me when I was alive, but without a body I could fly! This might have been fun if I wasn’t fighting for my life! Err, that’s wrong. Fighting for my soul!

There was a loud crash and a scream from the room I was just thrown out of drew my attention.

No... Lily!

My horn raged as I rocketed myself through the wall and back into Medical. Aquarius had somehow managed to knock over several of the beds in a mad rage. Kiwi, hindered by medical bandages wrapped tightly around her chest, scrambled to get away. Lily shook as she looked at the mess, her hooves still hanging onto my body’s shoulder.

Aquarius charged right up to Lily. “YOU TOOK HIM FROM ME!” bellowed a garbled wet voice from the creature's jaw. She lifted a hoof, morphing it into some kind of organic blade, ready to bring it down onto Lily’s skull. I did not want to find out if this creature could hurt Lily.

“Hey blob-brain!” I cried out as loud as I could, “You’re a fat and ugly bitch and nopony will ever love you!”

Well, that got her attention.

My horn raged as Aquarius leaped towards me. I released an electric arc right into her back. It struck home into one of the veined bulges, bursting it apart in a shower of water and shining fragments that floated around in the air. Aquarius roared vulgarities at me, then turned and started swiping at me with that blade.

I dodged, falling through the floor to living quarters below. The lights had been shut off, but I could still see well enough. Couch, bedroom, kitchen, bathroom. Same as any of the others. My horn’s glow didn’t provide any extra light as I caught myself… but I didn’t care! I could hurt this thing!

My celebration was short lived when I learned that I very much still had that thing's attention. Aquarius came rushing down from the ceiling, swiping her sharp legs at me. Her garbled scream beat against my ears and I barely had the time to pull myself out of her reach. I lined up and fired another bolt of electricity at her side, popping another sickened boil. The glistening lights sprayed out of her and danced around the room. After a moment they shot upwards, disappearing to somewhere above the ceiling.

Aquarius roared, slicing at me again with her blade. I tried to dodge, but this time I wasn't fast enough and the blade sliced right into my gut and out my back. The pain was, well, exactly as bad as I thought it would be. My body... well, spirit, felt like it was ripping apart. I looked down, expecting to see blood pouring from my shell. I really shouldn't have been as surprised to only see glowing cracks begin to form around her blade. She pressed her hoof against my chest and began to twist her blade, ripping the cracks wider. Her eyes narrowed as she started screaming at me about how I was such a horrible unloving pony and that I should die a slow, painful death from radiation.

Heh, funny. I thought I already did that.

I clenched my jaw, tears beginning to form on the surface of my eyes. I could see that baleful grin form along her broken maw. As far as she was concerned, I was done. If she couldn't have me, nopony could.

But I wasn't done yet. I couldn't let her kill me! I was already dead, and that just wouldn't be fair! My horn charged as I slowly raised my gaze to hers, a tiny smirk on my face. Truthfully, I had no real confidence, I didn’t even have an idea if this would work. My head felt more and more light as I tried to keep up my focus. This would be a one shot deal.

Luna guide me.

I grabbed onto her blade arm with my hooves, hooking my arms around her knee and holding her to my gut. She shoved at me, trying to get me to move and twist across her blade so she could cut me more. Her mutated maw opened as she started screaming more wet insults at me. Just as I wanted her to.

I leaned forward, letting myself be cut more with her blade as I rammed my charged horn into her maw. It penetrated the roof of her mouth, and I discharged as much of my magic into her skull as I could. She spasmed, all sorts of unwanted liquids regurgitating up onto my face. The boils on her body rippled and pulsed with a sickening wet sloppy sound. It took everything I had to keep up the spell, and I could feel my strength and consciousness draining away. I just had to hold on a little bit-

And then she exploded.

The blinding blast sent me through another wall before I managed to catch myself. I quickly decided not to let myself think about the sticky goop that followed through and pelted my body.

Gently lowering myself to the ground, I cautiously looked at the wall I came through. No horrible screams and no monster pony rushing to attack me. Was it dead? Err... deader? I took the moment to check my gut. The cracking was slowly starting to fade away, but there was still that slice down the center. The sight of my insides split open without any organs brought a queasy feeling to the gut I didn’t have. I don’t I could ever get used to that. Though I’d have to admit, it is probably better than the site of my organs all over the floor. Do healing potions work on ghost ponies? Didn’t seem likely, but I kinda wanted this hole gone.

I walked back through the wall to the other room. The feeling of my gut sliding against itself made my queasiness worse, but the next sight I saw was absolutely beautiful. Hundreds of tiny lights that had broken free from Aquarius’s body glistened about in the dark room. They swirled and danced around a glowing white form that floated in the center. The form slowly lowered to the floor, taking shape into a mare just a bit taller than I was. The glow faded into color of Aquarius's coat before the rest of her shimmered into view. This time she looked completely different than the monster, or even the tall and regal form she was before. What stood before me was just a pony, shaking slightly with tears welted up in her eyes.

Her sky blue coat was slightly singed under her stable 79 barding. The pipbuck on her leg’s screen was as black as mine. Must be some kind of dead thing that we have them and they don’t work. Her wings were spread slightly from her side, showing off her shortened feathers. A cutie mark shimmered into view on her flanks; a bird with its wings turned back, diving into a pool of water. Her tears began to flow as she took a tiny step forward.

Since when did ponies have wings anyway? The only ponies I had heard of with wings were the goddesses! But here before me stood a pegasi from an era passed. What happened to them?

“Wh-whats wrong with me? Why do you all hate me?” she cried, her broken voice choked on her tears. “All I wanted was a friend, or somepony to love!”

“Hate you?” I balked, stunned for a moment at the question. A part of me wanted to hug her and tell her it was ok… but no, fuck that. That feeling of pity melted into rage as I proceeded to growl back at her, “You tried to eat me! Fucking eat me! And you used the image of a mare I was close to that I didn’t want to sleep with to control me! You made me sleep with her! What the fuck else am I supposed to feel?!”

Aquarius reared on her back hooves, stomping them down before giving out a frustrated scream. Her body faded away in a swirl of light, taking her mournful scream with her, and left me alone in the sparkling room. I cautiously stepped towards where she was, the lights tickling my mane whenever they came close.

I watched the lights, weary of some kind of trap. They looked like what I would imagine the stars would. A few of them were bright and as big as my eyes, but others were dull and weak. My ears twitched as soft whispers came from everywhere around me. I looked around for more ponies, but all I saw were the stars. Was I hearing things, or were the stars…

The sound of clapping hooves made me jump out of my skin. Or it might have if I had any skin to jump out of. I spun around, quickly spotting a purple buck in a top hat and a suit relaxing back into the living room’s couch. He smiled at me, leaning back and crossing his hindlegs. I stepped closer, getting a better look.

His ghost grey mane flowed freely across his neck, brushing against the collar of his tattered navy-blue suit. A red ribbon was wrapped around the base of his scruffy top hat that matched his suit. The parchment and paper cutie mark, complete with happy and sad masks drawn onto it, showed clearly on his flanks. He wore a skull mask that covered the top half of his face. At least, I hope it was a mask. Red eyes gazed at me through the sockets, complementing that wide grin.

“Bravo!” he cheered, a slight roll in his r’s. “I expected to have to step in once you were freed, but you seemed to handle yourself quite nicely~” He smiled more, “I’d take claim for helping you escape from her trap, but the real honor goes to that mare of yours. I just had to nudge up the volume.”

That voice…. it was the same I heard while I was inside Aquarius. “Thanks for that… I guess, but...” But that smile of yours sends shivers down my spine. “Who are you?”

He chuckled as he got up on his hooves, trotting around me in a wide circle as his gaze turned to the stars. “Just a traveler, out searching for broken souls.”

The hell was that supposed to mean? I arched an eyebrow at him. “Yea, sorry. I’m new to this whole ‘dead’ thing. Is there some kind of rule that dead ponies have to be so cryptic?”

He pulled an amulet out of his shirt. It glowed a sickly green, and all the lights swirled around him before being sucked into it. He turned to me and smiled, “Oh, what? You didn’t get the memo?”

I blinked, then looked down at my pipbuck. “We get memos?” Yep, still a black screen. I tapped the device, hoping to get it to turn on.

The buck reared back and laughed. His gaze fell on me again as he trotted over to me. A hoof was wrapped around my shoulder, and he pulled me to his chest in a quick motion. Tapping my chest he added, “Oh, I like you kid! The way you took care of that wraith, I even think you could go places!” His creeper smile softened before looking off to the side and rolling his eyes. “If you would leave this damned hole, that is.”

“And what exactly is a wraith?” I asked, pulling myself out of his grasp.

“That would be a spirit like the one you just fought,” he said with an amused tone.

I gave him my best ‘oh really’ face and huffed. That made him chuckle a bit, and then he continued.

He turned to me again, giving me a serious look. “Some ponies believe that radiation only affects the body. But it is magic, and it will affect your soul as well given enough time. While souls are nigh indestructible, everything has their breaking points. And once worn, a soul can begin to mutate. The first stages inflict violence and hatred, fueled by any pain the pony might have had in life. Once they are mutated enough the inequine part of them can take over, usually turning them into monsters that feed off of other souls.”

I blinked, “Well… that explains it. I killed it, right?” It had vanished

He smiled, “The part that mattered. Pure soul is so much more resilient than it’s corrupted counterpart. A fraction of her survived. The pure part of her.” He chuckled, “Poor soul. She’s going to have to face what she’s done~ But she will move on in time!” He turned to me, raising a hoof and lightly tapping my nose, “Now onto you! We should get you back upstairs if we have any hope in saving you, my foal!”

I balked. I wasn’t even done talking about Aquarius yet! “But I’m already dead! You can’t fix dead!” I would have assumed this was kind of obvious.

“Haha! Of course you are and of course I can!”

“What the hell does that-whaaa!” With an eccentric grin, or perhaps maybe a manic one, he grabbed me by my hooves mid-sentence. Turning on the spot he flung me upwards and sent me flying through the ceiling back into Medical. I almost soared straight through the ceiling there as well before I caught myself with my magic, instead gently floating myself to the floor and taking a moment to around.

Medical ponies had already cleaned the room up from the flipped over beds. I heard one of them talking about how the ventilation system must have been on the fritz. It seemed crazy to me, but everypony just accepted it. I have to wonder how many of our stable’s malfunctions were actually caused by paranormal activity…

Lily was back to my body’s side. Just beyond her I saw a buck standing silently next to another bed, this one carrying a familiar red face under its sheets.

The buck rose out of the floor next to me, laying a hoof on my shoulder as he looked at me with a soft smile. “Now Shadow if you’ll listen, they’ll tell you death is the final word.”

I shook my head, looking back up with him, “What about my-” A purple hoof pressed against my mouth, silencing me as he continued.

“But I am here to say that is completely an absurd! I can bring you back for a favor, perhaps maybe a toll?” He left my side and jumped on top of an empty bed, turning around to face me again. He lifted a hoof to the air, closing his eyes as he said another line, “And all I really need is a tiny piece of soul…”

Wait, what?

“Though the process might be tricky,
and some might call it icky!
So if you’re just too picky,
You can refuse!”

Is he really…?

“But because your body lacks,
A bit of magic I must tack!
To your body a little soul I have to fuse!”

…He is!

My jaw hit the floor as the buck was gleefully singing and dancing to his happy upbeat tune, using the medical bed as a stage. Music rose up with his words, trumpets and other instruments I couldn’t identify, but no matter where I looked I couldn’t find the players!

Dark shadows rose up from the nooks and crannies in the room, forming into ponies that would dance on the walls. More shadow ponies would form behind them, lifting trumpets to their mouths as they played the music to his song. Well, found the players.

He spun on the table, before hopping down to me and holding a hoof out towards Lily.

“Now if you’ll look over there,
You’ll see your lovely mare!
And if you think your love might dare,
That’s the cure!
So if you’re crying over Lily,
Well now you’re just too silly!
Here I am to say, ‘you’ll endure!’”

The buck spun around in spot and the shadows put their trumpets away as they joined him, tapping their hooves on the floor. Hooftaps made by dancing could be turned into music? I didn’t have time to think about it before he grabbed one of my forehooves. He lifted me onto my backhooves and spun me on the spot before flinging me towards my body.

Enough with the flinging!

A hoof grabbed my shoulder and the buck was beside my side again, the shadow trumpets rejoining the tune.

“So you see, here lies your body,
Its not rotty, its not shotty!
And if you get a little naughty,
You could sire a handsome foal!
True, I don’t actually care, sir,
But you can have your mare, sir!
Something even I can tell that will make you whole!”

I looked at Lily, who was standing right beside me. Her tears had run out and part of her looked dead inside. I wanted to be there for her, tell her I did love her. I was too much of a coward to actually say it before, but now I would have screamed it.

The purple buck, who I was pretty sure was slightly insane, jumped onto the bed and straddled my body as he continued his song.

“It’s not going to make you shiver,
And it will not make you quiver!
You’ll be connected to the giver,
For a toll!
So listen to me, Shadow,
As I bring out the piano!
All I really need is a tiny bit of soul!”

He sat down on my body, shadows forming up into a grand piano as he began to play… whatever this was he was playing. Faster and faster the music ran.

And all I could think of was the life I could have had… no, should have had with Lily.

I suddenly found myself spinning with the buck when he had hopped down and grabbed my forehooves, forcing me to dance with him. Actually, my part was me tripping over my hooves, then gliding through the air ghost style when he let go of me. Enough with the flinging, seriously!

He stood on his hind legs, his head tilted back. Wow, his voice was actually pretty grand.

“Ooooooooooooooooh-lay!
Oooooooooooooooooooooh-lay!

You can tell her what you may!
Heal her heart with what you say!”

Shadows had joined in, producing their own mare voices as they circled around me in a dizzying blur. “Even treat her to meals of oats and hay!”

“So what if you are dead?
Let’s get you out of bed!
There’s just one thing left to be said!

I can provide you passage, for such a tiny toll!”

His voice hung on the last note, then silence rang out over everything. The buck turned to me, sitting down on his haunches as the shadows and music faded away. He gave me a warm smile underneath his skull mask and laid a hoof upon his chest, finishing his song with a soft note.

“For I am Doctor Soul...”

We sat there for a while, gazing upon each other. Then he held out a hoof to me, tilting his head slightly to the side. “What do you say, Shadow? Shall I bring you back to life and be your friend on the other side? All I ask is for a favor, for when you decide to go outside.”

I didn’t know what to say. Had I really just been sung an offer… to take a part of Lily’s soul and use it to bring myself back to life? That was crazy on a monolithic scale! At the same time though, I could be with her again. I looked at her, wishing I could just ask her what she would do.

I looked towards the bed where Red’s cold body lay, “Can you... bring her back too?”

He looked at her body, then frowned. “Sadly, I cannot. The body has been damaged far more than simple radiation. Widespread arcane damage caused her body to slowly fail. Probably quite painfully at that. I could have brought her back as a ghoul, but…” His hoof touched his emerald amulet for a moment, and then he smiled, “Her soul would be too weak to sustain it, even with added help of multiple fragments. She was almost completely devoured~ You’re lucky you purified that wraith when you did. I might be able to save her.” His gaze fell on me again, “If you accept my fee of a favor, I will bring her back to you.”

My mane itched at the thought. Save her soul only if I do him a favor? My eyes narrowed as I tried to size him up for what he really is. “What kind of favor?”

He gave a slight chuckle, “Oh, just a similar situation to yours. I am a pony in a cage… well, my body is anyway. Got myself locked in a room that only opens from the other side, and as a spirit, I cannot properly use the controls… Which is where you come in. Go to a place, and open the door. Free me so I can continue my work.”

Huh, that didn’t sound sinister at all, actually. Giving a slight nod, “Alright… Guess I can do that.” My eyes widened suddenly, realizing what that meant, “Wait, leaving the stable? We aren’t supposed to leave! Things will eat us out there!”

He chuckled darkly, “And you were having such a sweet time not getting eaten by wraiths and the like on the inside, were you not?”

Damn, he had a point… but could I really just… leave? Leaving was supposed to be bad, but staying killed me. A world beyond the four halls… I couldn’t imagine it. What would I even do out there? All I had ever done was work on the stable, and during my odd off-times I would work one some sort of device like my pipbuck. No. No more doubts, I had to do this for Lily and for Red!

The little pony in my head tickled for a moment, and I looked back at Soul. “What… would happen to her… I mean to Lily? Taking a part of her soul?”

He smiled to me, still holding out his hoof. “You are fine, are you not? That wraith sucked far more out of you than I will require of her. I already analyzed your body, I know exactly what I’ll need. Simply a spell to keep your body operable despite the damage done to your brain. Though there is an added effect. Both of your souls will be connected for an eternity. A marriage, if you will...”

I nodded slightly, looking down. Lily’s sweet voice tickled my ears, grabbing my attention.

“Goodbye, Shadow…” She said, barely above a whisper in my bodies ear. Leaning down she planted a kiss on my forehead, standing there a moment before slowly turning to walk away.

Medical ponies walked up to my bed, and put the blanket over my bodies face, before wheeling it away to go dump me into the processor to be ground up and mixed back into the dirt. Plant food.

That did it for me. I absolutely hated the idea… but I couldn’t just leave her alone. Not when I had a chance to go back.

“Tick, tock, Shadow. Make your choice. Time is running out.” Soul said with a growing grin.

I turned to the Doctor, hoping I wasn’t making some big mistake. Laying my hoof in his, I gave him a nod. “Do it,” I said simply.

He smiled at me, then his eyes narrowed, before turning a baleful green. My hoof locked into place on his as an electric surge shot up my arm and pushed its way through my body. I couldn’t move. I couldn’t blink, I couldn’t talk, and I couldn’t run. His mouth moved, speaking in a dark monotone of words I couldn’t understand. The entire room darkened, and little wispy trails of smoke emerged from the darkened crevices. They shot behind me, and a horrible scream of pain erupted from where they went. I didn’t need to be able to look to know who it was.

I’m so sorry Lily…

A wisp of light flew over my head, swirling around the sheets that my body laid. It descended into my horn, and I began to feel an immense gravity take a hold of me.

Doctor kept his baleful eyes locked on mine, and I was unable to look away anyhow. “Don’t forget our deal, my little foal.” He said darkly, “For I have given you life… and I can easily take it back.”

Oh, fuck.

His hold on me snapped away, and everything faded to black as I flew into my body.

The squeak in one of the wheels was the fIrst thing I noticed, followed quickly by the soft feeling of the medical bed, and the fabric upon my nose.

"Fuckin' hate this job." A buck whined, "Hate dealing with corpses."

"Show some respect, Beat... These ponies died saving us." A mare said. Same one who gave me the RadSafe at the reactor door.

"Yea? Good for them. They're dead, don't matter what we say about them now. Can't fuckin' hear us anyhow."

Oh, you'd be surprised...

"Oh, if you bad mouth these ponies even once, I'm going to throw you into the processor myself!"

"Shut it, Heart. I ain't got nothing bad ta say! This one was kinda cute, coulda had some fun with him if he'd let me!" I felt a soft tap on my ass as he laughed.

Oh, sweet Luna's moonlight spewing cunt, kill me now! Again! Come on, move it Shadow!

"Beat! That's sick!"

"So? Ain't no other cock lovin' buck in this Celestia forsaken place! Can't blame me fer dreamin'."

The bed came to a stop as Heart gave out a frustrated groan. The sound of swinging metal scraped my ears, and then the defining crunch of some pony being thrown into the processors grinder. "Look, just throw him in already, I ain't going to stand by while you rape corpses! And I thought you just said you hated dealing with corpses!"

Beat grumbled, and the cover was thrown off, "I do! I might like it better though if you'd let me. Rather have a warm body anyway!" A hoof laid on my ass again, and a dark chuckle emerged, "Oh, he is still warm!"

Stop! Touching! My! Ass!

"Beat! What did I just-"

Her words were cut off as my ability to move, and to scream incoherently at the buck, returned. I sat straight up in the bed, my eyes opened wide as I screamed right into his face. He squealed like a little filly, falling backwards and trying to back away from me as quickly as I could. The smell of ammonia hit my nose, then the buck turned tail and ran for the exit. "Fucking dead are coming back! I ain't going ta become a zombie, I fuckin' quit!"

I... couldn't exactly blame him.

I turned to look at Heart who was hunched down in a corner. Her eyes were as wide as my hoof, locked onto my every movement as her body shook so hard she'd probably fall apart.

I sighed, rubbing my temple with a hoof. "Thanks..." My voice was hoarse, and my mouth tasted all sorts of foul. "Blugh!" I stuck my tongue out, wiping it on my hooves. "Dead pony mouth.... I need some water..."

The mare watched me with weary eyes, but slowly stood up, keeping her head low as she approached. Her voice squeaked, “Are… are you alright?”

I nodded, giving her my best ‘I’m not going to eat you’ smile, “Yea, never better!" My dry lips smacked a bit as I moved my jaw. "Still need some water though. So... how long have I been dead?”

The mare could only do her best to stammer a response, which I couldn’t even understand. My body ached and groaned in several different ways as I tried to get up. Just like a living pony should. Perhaps maybe a living dead pony. Honestly, I didn’t know what I was exactly or how I should feel about that, but I couldn’t help but laugh.

It was good to be alive!

Footnote: Level Up

New Perk: Electric Personality - Your magic has taken a liking to electrical power. Any arcano-electric spell you cast receives a bonus of 15%. However, any other magics, excluding telekinesis or transport spells, suffer a 15% penalty.

Quest Perk Added: Death Sight - Through the power of necromancy, or just some bad luck, you have gained the ability to speak with spirits from the other side. New dialog options are available when dealing with the paranormal.

Author's Note

Of course, thanks to Kkat, hasbro, and bethesda for all the goodies and things I love that made me want to write this!

Also, thanks to my new editor! Welcome Cloud Kicker everypony! *claps*

And before you ask, no! Shadow is not immortal!

Written song is based off the tune of 'You won't Succeed on Broadway' from Monty Python's Spamalot.

Chapter 3 - Of Truth and Lies

The walk back to medical had been a long one. It may have been the terrified buck that ran through screaming about how the dead had returned to eat us all, or simply the miracle of a pony walking back from processing after being deceased for nearly a day, but everypony and their mothers had to come out to see. Nurse Heart walked next to me, keeping a hoof on my left elbow as we pushed through the growing crowd. Once we got to the farm it was almost impossible to move forward. My aching body refused to move right and every time I would stop moving, even for a second, my muscles would try to lock in place making me have to jerk my legs just to move again. Everypony was watching and waiting to see what I would do; I just wanted everything to go back to normal...

Oh, and I wanted my pipbuck back… I could care less about the barding, but that pipbuck was special!

As the ponies arrived I was met with a wide variety of responses. Some ponies were happy to see me and greeted me with warm smiles and good wishes. Some ponies were indifferent, and simply came to see if the word was true. Gossip was usually bland news about what broke or who likes who, after all. A pony coming back to life? Never happened in Stable 79; nothing ever did.

Other ponies were terrified and some even carried makeshift weapons in case I was going to attack. I tried to give them my best 'I'm not going to eat you' smile, but for some reason that only seemed to make those ponies more nervous. For once in my life, or perhaps my unlife, I was actually glad to see security, maybe because a quick hit to a pony's side was the only thing preventing me from being run through with a pitchfork.

"Why are his eyes like that, mommy? Is he gonna try to eat us? This is so cool!" An excited little blue colt asked.

"Be nice, Shock. ....And I certainly hope he's not..." Came the reluctant reply of his mother, standing nervously next to him.

“No, I’m not going to eat you!” I said loudly, drawing surprise from several of the ponies. Thankfully, it seemed to calm most of the more anxious looking ones.

“OK, ponies, clear a path! I need to get him to medical!” Heart cried out, just as annoyed as I was. “He’s not a zombie, he just was in a near-death state that we missed!”

I gave an annoyed little sigh as ponies returned to their gossip, but at least we were able to move again. Turning to Heart, I reluctantly asked, "What's wrong with my eyes?"

She gave me a sad smile, "There was a lot of radiation damage to your head, and mixed with the fact your heart hadn't been beating hard enough for our equipment to detect... I don't think we'll be able to restore your eyesight... We'll give you a few days to get your final affairs in order. I'm sorry, I wish there was something we could do."

I blinked at her, arching an eyebrow. "But.... I can see just fine. Doesn't seem different really..." I looked up, blinking a few times. Ok, so maybe they felt a little bit rougher than they did before.....

Her eyes widened and she let go of my elbow as she took a step back. "You can? But with that much retina damage, you shouldn't see anything at all!"

I looked back at her and smiled, "Ok, so necromancy isn't without it's repercussions, but I promise not to eat anypony’s flesh. Well, not much more than a nibble or two, anyway." A chuckle and a grin, sell it Shadow! You won’t be able to make zombie jokes for much longer.

The nurses eyes widened a bit, then shook her head furiously and pointed a hoof at me, "No, there will not be any eating of ponies! You are not undead, just in some near death state that we missed! Ponies don't just come back to life!"

I could feel my grin growing as the crowd of ponies mumbled around us. I leaned in closer to her, speaking barely above a whisper. "Oh really? Have you checked for a pulse?"

The squeak she let out and the look on her face was worth it completely. The uneasy ponies in the crowd relaxed a bit when I burst into laughter. Which was a good thing; I didn't want the return of pitchfork pony. Undead or not, I was still good old Shadow. Though I had to wonder; did I have a pulse? I raised a hoof to check when a distinctive sweet voice called out over the crowd.

"Shadow!" Lily's voice rung like music to my ears as she shoved her way through ponies to get to me.

I smiled and bounded my way towards her. Now was my chance! "Lily! I have something I've wanted to say for a really long time! I l-"

My voice was cut off by a pair of soft lips pressing against mine. Lily's hooves wrapped around me with the sudden kiss, pulling me close. I melted into it, kissing her back sens-

Her eyes popped open, then she gagged and pushed me away. "Uhg! Your mouth tastes like rotted carrots!"

I blushed, lowering my head a bit. She was right, my mouth was still rancid. Where's that water? "Sorry.... Whole dead thing and all. I might need to brush my teeth a few times..."

"Or gargle bleach," she countered, giving me a sheepish grin after wiping her mouth.

“OK, that’s enough!” yelled a grey earth pony mare in security barding before I had a chance to respond. “Everypony, back to work! Nothin’ left to see here!”

The crowd of ponies began to disperse with a grumble, the more stubborn of ponies receiving a quick shove from security to get them moving.

Heart stepped up between Lily and myself, giving her an apologetic smile, “I’m sorry, Miss Flower, you were released from Medical this morning, yes? I’m afraid I’m going to have to take him for examination.”

“I’ll see you tonight,” I quickly said, “I love you!”

“Yea, yea, touching,” that grey security mare said as she trotted up and pressed her head against Lily’s flanks, starting to shove her away, “You. Farming. Now.”

Heart returned to guiding me back to Medical, and Lily gave me a final wave before giving into the mare’s prodding. “OK!” she called out enthusiastically, “My room at one, don’t be late! I love you too!”

I watched as Lily disappeared behind the door to the office and we passed into the hall leading towards Medical. I looked to my right, catching a smile on Heart’s lips as she looked back at me, “You know, that was the saddest thing about you dying. We all knew you wanted to get with her, and now it feels like you fought death himself to be able to tell her those very words…” She giggled, "It's so romantic!"

I chuckled, "Yeah. I had too much to say." I then stopped, looking at her with an arched eyebrow, "Hey, I thought you didn't believe I was dead."

She blushed, looking back at me, "I don't, but the thought is nice… And did you really want to get attacked with a pitchfork again?” OK, good point. “Come on, we need to check your vitals."

"You mean if I even have any?"

"Of course you do!" she groaned as she shoved me through the door and toward one of the beds. "And I'm going to prove it to you!"

I laughed a bit, hopping onto the first bed and laying down. "We'll see." Medical ponies are fun to mess with!

She gave me a hard glare before rolling over one of the hemogram machines from the corner. The wheels squeaked softly as she brought the device's arch over my body before dancing her hooves on top of the keyboard attached to its side. It beeped an alert at her as it whined that I was already determined dead, but after a few hoof taps later the magical ruby built into the arch emitted a soft glow that washed over me. I closed my eyes, relaxing as I let the machine do its work.

Then Heart gave a yelp when a sudden spark shot out of the machine and the ruby darkened with a whir as the machine powered down. I groaned and heard a frustrated scream, and I opened my eyes to check the damage.

No, Heart! Contrary to popular belief, hitting things with your hoof does not fix anything!

"That was the last one!" She turned to me, ignoring my hard glare. "You can fix it, right?"

I looked at the machine, eyeing it over. It was a real piece of beauty; able to read your blood pressure, heart rate, glucose measurements, and pretty much whatever else there was to do inside your blood. The actual magic and technology was a bit above me admittedly; all I would be able to do is to identify and replace broken parts.

Red knew how it worked, and how to fix the pieces... I sure hope she'll be OK. The stable still needs her expertise…

I sighed, shaking my head. "I might be able to cannibalize the others to make one that works, but I'd need to bring Red back or have access to her notes if I have any chance in getting them all to work."

“Well, do what you can.” She ordered, starting to walk off towards one of the side doors and giving off, “I’m going to go attempt to get you authorization to access Mrs Wire's pipbuck...” She then froze, turning to me. "You can't bring Red back, Shadow. She's already been processed."

I shrugged, "I mean bring her soul back."

She shook her head, muttering something as she left. I waved her a farewell and pulled over the other two hemograms next to the one I would hopefully be fixing. My eyes fell on the saddle bags one of the orderlies had brought back and I checked it, finding my pipbuck, my tools, and a bunch of spare electronics that I was sure were mine as well.

Everything back to normal… Good. I liked normal.

I snapped the pipbuck back onto my wrist, letting the small device boot up as I started to pull out my tools out and lay them neatly to my side. Once everything was set in place, I charged my horn and cast a simple spell upon myself. Glowing lines of pulsing light rung out through my vision, following the electric current in wires hidden behind walls and in lights. The hemograms were dark, which made my job all the easier. The side panels came off easily and I set quickly to work. As I sent micro-electric pulses into the wires, glowing lines flicked to life. Some would run flawlessly through the internal components, others fizzled and died at damaged sections.

Good, I had enough here to make one of them work. I raised my tools, taking apart the delicate electronics, setting them beside me and-

A voice next to my ear made me jump right off the bed, landing somewhat ungracefully on my rump. "You're wasting time."

OK. So I can see ghosts now… or I’m just crazy. Still… relatively normal…ish.

I looked up into the red eyes that glared back at me from behind Doctor Soul's skull mask. "Can you not do that?"

His eyes narrowed, and he hopped off the bed, keeping his eyes locked on mine. "This is your story, and it has just begun. Let me tell you something; nopony wants to listen to the story of a buck brought back to life just to live in a box and fix things. As a character in your story, and you a character in mine, I'll be damned to let you waste away on a doomed life."

"I'm fixing medical equipment," I replied bluntly, "I don't have a story to tell. I'm a technician. I fix things."

This drew a laugh from the purple buck, "Oh, my dear colt!" He hopped back onto the bed, spreading his hooves as wide as his grin, "The whole world is a stage! Everypony, every character you meet has a story! True, some stories might be more interesting than others, but a story none the less! If your story was to resume being a mere technician... You never would have met me! Your story is destined for something greater! Besides..."

“Mr Bolt? Are you feeling alright?” Heart asked as she peeked her head out, “Who are you talking to?”

I looked over quickly, then back up at the Doctor who was giving me a smirk. “Uhhhh…. Yea!” I said, giving her my ‘I’m not crazy’ smile, “I’m good! I just talk to myself sometimes! Nothing to worry about! I should be able to get one of these working.” That seemed to sate her.

“OK… let me know when it's done!” She said with a bright smile before disappearing back through the door.

I returned my attention to the Doctor while I started to work on the machines once again, switching out and testing the components.

He sat down, his smile shifting into a coy smirk as he continued. "Now, you're a smart pony, aren't you Shadow? How many more times can you try to fix your little box before it kills you all?"

“We can fix it. We always have, and we always will. With hard work and dedication, 79 will endure.”

He chuckled darkly again, “Is that true, Shadow? It's already killed you once... Is this really the stage you want to bring foals into?"

I opened my mouth to reply, then froze. Was it? The words I just spoke… They weren’t mine, just a slogan created long ago by security and the Overmare. Did I really want to put my trust into the Overmare?

No… No I did not.

I thought back to the generator. Our core was slightly damaged, and it creates micro surges that the regulators caught. But the regulators would fry after so much, creating a disturbance in the shield that would allow the generator to start to overload and meltdown. The regulators could be bypassed and realigned to stabilize the shield, but we didn’t really have a way to fix a bypassed regulator. With the minimum amount of regulators required to keep the shield strong enough…

Two…

Two more meltdowns, and we wouldn’t be able to fix it. The Overmare would have us stay down and keep the generator running as long as we could. We’d die a horrible death from the radiation, and the generator would ultimately explode or leak enough radiation to kill everypony. We might be able to shutdown the generator, but then ponies would suffocate as the air filtration systems would shut down as well…

Doctor was right, the only viable option would be to leave.

Which meant I would have to find the exit, and somehow convince the others the outside is safe… Well, safer than here.

“There’s also your friend's soul to worry about… Our little deal? I made sure she survived through the night and she’s still very weak...” Doctor Soul continued, and then he smiled, “She’ll recover just fine, but I still expect you to keep up your end of the bargain… I want to be free.”

OK, now he was starting to pull at my nerves. "Right. Yes, I'll get you out of wherever. But that better not be a threat of some kind."

He gasped, placing a hoof on his chest, "A threat? You wound me, my colt. It is a mere reminder of a deal made between gentlestallions. I would never think of harming your friend’s soul." A smile regrew on his face, drawing further on my uneasiness, "Unless of course you planned on harming myself, but then who would be threatening who?"

“No, I just… let me fix this, alright? Inside the stable or not, medical equipment is important. I’ll… I’ll leave right after.”

His grin returned, “Marvelous! That’s exactly what I wanted to hear! Oh look! I even found you a guide.”

My gaze followed his outstretched hoof to a familiar blue mare hiding with her head hung low behind one of the beds. Oh, hello Aquarius…

Her mane was frizzled and her eyes were red and swollen as if she had run out of tears to cry with. I had a hard time imagining her as the monster she was before. She squeaked slightly when she saw me, shrinking back as she kept her swollen eyes averted, “I…. I’m sorry…”

“Now, now, my dear…” Doctor began to Aquarius, “We’ve discussed this.” He turned to me, “Now that you’ve saved her soul, she’ll be the perfect guide!”

“...She tried to eat me.”

“She’s very sorry.”

"She messed with my mind."

"She isn't going to do that anymore."

“She made me sleep with a fake copy of my mentor.”

“Oh? Did you enjoy it? Was she good?”

“I-Yes-Bu-Eh-Na-She was my… Th-That’s not the point!”

My cheeks were probably going to catch on fire at this point. Doctor Soul burst into laughter and he hopped over to my side and wrapped a hoof around my shoulders. He quickly calmed down, eyeing me with that insane grin. “The monster who did all of those things is dead, my colt! Can’t you just understand that? The mare that’s there now is just as much of a victim as you were!”

I could disagree with his view on victims, but…

My gaze fell back on Aquarius... he was right. When I looked into her eyes, I didn’t see the hate anymore, just pain and… regret.

“Give her a chance, Shadow,” he said, departing from my side. “Let her guide you to the surface were ponies belong. I’ll be waiting…”

I said nothing, just give him a slight nod as I looked back at the machine I was supposed to be fixing. Then the Doctor disappeared with a chilling breeze. I checked my pipbuck, remembering the files I had downloaded from the Overmare’s computer. After quickly skimming through them, I noted that they were mainly about work done within Stable 79. Might be something there that was interesting to read later, but I didn’t have time for that right now. The first one was thankfully an audio log. Finally, something I could listen to while I worked.

I pulled an earbloom out of my bags and stuck it in, selecting the first file in the list as I resumed my repairs. I partially regretted it as I was met with the voice of a very angry buck.

"Ok, ya stable-tec feather-brain! This is just fuckin’ insane! Your plan sucked! Your plan got them all killed! Now we’re locked up in here, while those… those things are tearing ponies apart left and right! But we’re safe now… locked every door up tight, cut ourselves off from the degenerates outright. Those fools can keep banging on the doors for however long they want, we ain’t lettin’ them in! I ain’t riskin’ it! This module’s at capacity as it is!

"We’re cut off from every single department there is! They’re dead, all of them just dead! An’ if they ain’t dead, they’re gonna be dead! Freakin’ killed the Overmare over the freakin’ intercom!

"But I’ll tell ya what we do got. We got the utility module! We got ‘nuff food to last us a year! A reactor three floors down, we got the soil processor, enough supplies in storage spaces to convert the park into a farm, spare medical equipment, the works! ‘Nuff parts and ponies to turn this shit’ole into a mini-stable of our own! Even better ‘cuz we’ll have enough food!

"But no, I ain’t runnin’ this place like y’all did before. They’re gonna work, and they’re gonna listen to us! They’re gonna live the way we want’n ‘em ta! No more of this democracy bullshit! Democracy gets ponies killed! I’m gonna wipe every bit of data about the outside an’ history off every single pipbuck an’ terminal in this shit’ole! Ponies in th’ future won’t miss what they don’t know they don’t got! We’re gonna have order in St-

"What? You! Don’t open that door!

"I don’t care if’n she got a twerp, don’t open that door!

"Hrrng… My heart goes out to the innocent ponies on the other side. It really do. Wish I can do more, but I don’t know who we c’n trust, an’ everythin’ here an’ now is to help who’s left to survive. But openin’ those doors an’ lettin’ just one pony in could let in the others. We’re lucky we don’t already got one in here with us. Maybe some other ponies wised up an’ did the same.

"...f’n we ever need to leave this place, th’ password is ‘redemption.’ Seemed fittin’

"This is Blueburn, Chief of Security an’ actin’ Overma- …stallion of Stable 79, signin’ the fuck off."

My screwdriver spun as I put the last screw back into its place. I had already packed the rest of my supplies back into my bags and strapped them on. The machine had whirred to life with a soft hum that was beautiful music to my ears. Hopping off the bed, I looked toward the door where Nurse Heart was still trying to get approval, and probably receiving a storm from the Overmare... or simply waiting for her to respond. Honestly, I wouldn’t see that ever getting approved. Ever since I hacked her computer, the Overmare has hated me with a passion that would make fruit rot while still on the vines.

After listening to that recording, I had started to gain an understanding for why the layout of all the rooms were exactly the same. These were originally living quarters, and the central area was a… park? Whatever that was. The door Nurse Heart was behind would have been the bedroom, and it had been changed into an office. The kitchen had been turned into a lab where they would cook up chemicals that they would give out to ponies to help keep us from getting tired and worn out.

Speaking of which, I hadn’t had my shot in… well, two days? I should be completely exhausted by now, but I was as awake and alert as if I had just received it. Huh, strange…

The bathroom had been turned into a… well, it’s still a bathroom. The living room had its 6 beds all close to one another, and the room next to medical belonged to Heart and Beat, and they kept an extra medical bed in their living room in case the doctors needed to perform a surgery.

I wonder what a full medical clinic would actually look like… Guess maybe I’ll get to see.

I walked over to where Aquarius had migrated to the waiting couch next to the front door. She was so timid I was afraid of running her off. “Are you ready?” I asked her softly.

She nodded, giving me a nervous glance as she stepped down onto the floor. I moved next to her, raising a hoof to gently pat her shoulder. She flinched and my efforts were put to waste as my hoof passed right through her, distorting her form as if she was just made of a solid mist. I wasn't sure if it was the attempt at the gesture, or the fact that I couldn’t touch her, but she gave me a slight smile and eased a bit. Actually, she eased a lot.

“We need to stop by the Overmare’s office and get the passcode to the door. I’ll show you where it is.” She stood up a bit taller, walking through the door.

It opened as I followed her through. “I did that already… Got the passcode.” I wiggled my pipbuck in the air at her.

She looked at me with a stunned expression, “Oh? How? But you haven’t even-” She suddenly stopped and smiled, giggling softly to herself, “Different office. Different door.” She turned down the hallway, leading me to the door at the end.

A door that was never supposed to be opened… the biggest rule of Stable 79...and I was about to open one of them.

I took one look at the security panel next to the door, then back down the hallway. Surprisingly, nopony was there to stop me. Part of me wished there was. The other part of me just wanted to scream 'Geronimo!' and dive right in.

"Don't worry," Aquarius said at my side, trying to give me a reassuring smile. "Any monsters there were are gone now... You took care of the last one. Doctor took care of the rest... Just..." Her voice trailed off for a moment, looking away from me again. "Don't be scared of what you see..."

I gave a nod, suddenly not liking this idea. Just what would I see? Mounds of corpses? Right, I'm not afraid! I'm not!

I opened the security panel and was met with the ten digit keypad. The pass code was redemption... All I had to do was type it in. With a deep breath I focused and the keys began clicking.

7333678466

There was a mechanical click from inside the wall and with a loud groan the door slowly slid open. A cold breeze rolled passed my hooves that made my coat stand on end as I stared into the darkness of the hallway beyond. Aquarius started ahead of me, her head low as she looked around. I stepped in after her and took in a breath of the cold and stale air. It was a fight to stop myself from gagging at the smell of mold.

The door slid closed behind me with a defining thud that left me standing in pure darkness. The only light emitted from my pipbuck's secondary spell matrix. I couldn't even see my pipbuck as I brought it up in front of my face, that is, until I turned on its blinding screen.

We meet again, accursed light! This time you're going to help me!

I fumbled with the controls before being blinded again as I turned on the one feature of my pipbuck I never thought I'd use: overbright mode. I quickly turned the infernal device away from my face and oh wow was this thing effective!

The light that came of the screen was bright enough that it lit a nice area in front me and even enough that I could see shapes down the hall. I turned my leg, looking around at all the doors and windows. Dirt and grime gunked up and covered everything and fogged up the windows. More living spaces, I suspected. How many ponies was this stable supposed to hold? I shined my light into one of the windows and there was a large form in the center of the living room. Curiosity got the best of me, and I stepped up to the window, wiping away part of the grime with my hoof.

Inside was a pony, or more specifically the skeletal remains of a pony, hanging in the air by bedsheets tied around their neck. One of the sleeves of their barding was missing a hoof, and I brought my gaze downwards towards an arm that had fallen off of the corpse and onto the floor. My light caught the reflection of the screen of the pipbuck still loosely wrapped around it. As much as I didn’t want to go anywhere near the hanging corpse, that pipbuck might have some useful data on it.

The door was even more resistant to opening than the one to the hallway. Of course it was, this door had no power. My horn crackled with electricity, striking the panel next to the door. It groaned as it came to life, opening partially before the door ran out of power again. I squeezed carefully through, ignoring the stench of rot that now tickled my nose with a power drill.

I took slow and steady steps towards the hanging body. I had no idea why I was so nervous. What was it going to do, eat me? Wouldn’t have been the first time, my little pony reminded me.

OK, you know what? Fuck you, brain!

The pipbuck glowed as I wrapped it with my magic and pulled it free from its skeletal resting place. Thankfully it only took a little bit of work to get it to boot up, and I managed to download several files off of it before turning to leave, stuffing the pipbuck into my bags.

As I raised my gaze towards the door, my light illuminated a blue face mere inches away from mine and I jumped back, screaming like a little filly. I hit the corpse behind me and the bones broke off the makeshift noose and came crashing down. Aquarius giggled, raising a hoof to her lips to block a smile. “Sorry… I noticed you weren’t following me so I came back to check up on you.”

I quite undiligently got myself out from under the bone pile and flailed my hooves helplessly at the ghost mare, “Don’t… do that! Is there some kind of bell I can attach to you?!”

She giggled harder, and I shined my light at her so I could give her another hard, and ultimately futile glare. With a frustrated sigh, I turned back to the bones, “S-sorry… about that.”

Aquarius took one look at the bones and then back at me, “They’re just bones… the mare has been gone for a long time.”

I looked at her and gave her a slight nod. “Right, should have known that. Lets just… go.”

With that we left again, heading out of the room and back down the hallway. My electric spell seemed just as effective opening the rest of the doors as it had been the first one and we made our way deeper into the stable. I shined my light at her a few times, there was something just… off about her.

“Everything all right?” She asked, giving me a sideways glance.

“Yea… you just look like a living flesh and blood pony, but something is just different. Trying to figure it out.”

“Well, I am dead. Never had a pony that could see me before. Well, other than Doctor, but that was a long time ago…”

I looked at her, “So, he has been here this entire time?”

She shook her head, stopping in front of a door as she waited for me to open it. “No… He was here for a like a day about a hundred fifty years ago. I was in maintenance watching a mare and her buck…” She suddenly blushed red hot. “Uhm… nevermind. But he came through the wall, told me how pretty I was and then just left... It was so strange. I tried to follow him, but he told me I should stay to help my friends when they died and then just vanished. I… didn’t really have any friends. How could I? I had been dead for almost fifty years at that point and I really… I really didn’t have any friends when I was alive either…”

The door gave a loud crack as rust broke off its opening frame. “Why didn’t you have any friends?"

Her feathers rustled a bit, and she looked down as she stepped through the door, “I… Let’s just go.”

Poor mare… not to have any friends? Now that I had been talking to her, she seemed nice enough. Or was this an effect of her isolation? Or her recovering from being a monster…

I took a look around as I stepped into the… what was this place? I shined my pip-light over the railing of the balcony that laid before us. Dark shadows barely made out the shapes of large doorways in the distance with various signs written in bold letters above them. I could make out several other different other shapes, and a few trees popped up here and there. Looking over to Aquarius, I opened my mouth to ask, but I noticed her smiling softly.

“Recreational,” she explained after noticing my confusion, “A place where ponies could relax and hang out with each other between when they would be called to work.” She pointed out several of the archways, “Over there was Big Shot’s movie theater, always claimed to have the best movies. He might have, but they were all ones we’ve seen a hundred times. Cold Stone’s ice cream parlor always had a delicious and cold treat for you to snack on. We got the ball game court down there, next to it was the gym, and next to that….” Her wings opened a bit, and she grew a longing smile. “Was the pool. I absolutely loved to swim… always felt like I could fly…”

“You… can’t fly? I thought that’s what those…. limbs were for.” I wasn’t even going to try to ask about any of the buildings… that all went right above my head.

She lifted a wing to her face, looking at it with a frown, “Oh… yea. They’re supposed to… but I was born with a condition called clipwing. My feathers don’t grow in right, and I couldn’t support my own weight. There was a treatment for it, but my family couldn’t afford it. So they sent me down here instead…” She quickly shook her head and turned, walking along the balcony to a set of stairs. “Come on, lets get going…”

I nodded, following her. I took out the pipbuck from that room, checking to make sure that it finished loading. A smile grew on my face and I quickly started digging into the logs. The last few logs were audio files. What made her want to kill herself? It was a dark thought… but one that brought an aching curiosity to my heart. All my life we were told monsters had taken over the rest of the stable, it could have very well been true, but now I could get the truth. My excitement waned as I was met with the voice of a desperate mare…

"Oh shit! Oh shit, oh shit, oh shit! The fuck you do this, Lyre? The fuck anypony do this! We were supposed to have a nice quiet dinner out, and you fucking bit me! You fucking bit a fucking chunk of my fucking arm fucking off! Fuck!

"No, you can’t come in, I locked that door for a reason! I’m recording this right now, I don’t care that you’re my brother! I’m sending this to security! You need help, Lyre! You’ve been acting strange for a week, and now this!

"Fuck you, Lyre! Why don’t you tell those ponies over there how hungry you-

"Lyre…? Lyre! No, you get your fucking hooves off of her!

"Oh shit Lyre, the fuck sense does this make?! No, nononononono… no… I can’t watch this anymore! I-if anypony hears this, we need help! In C-hall!

"AH! The lights, what happened to the lights?! No! This… this isn’t happening… this can’t be happening! I’m… this is a nightmare! Yes! Lyre isn’t out there… eating a mare… Oh fuck, now there’s two of them… No! No there isn’t! I’ll wake up, and this will all be a dream I can forget about later! Wake up! Come on Harp, wake the Celestia-damn up!"

The rest of the recording deteriorated into the mares sobbing and I quickly shut it off. I… couldn’t exactly blame her. Maybe it was the cold, but I was shaking after just listening to it. What the fuck happened that made ponies start to eat each other? I’ve heard of ponies starving to death, but to eat another pony to stop it? No way! And why wasn’t there any blood out in that hall? Did they lick the floor clean?

Or maybe blood was there, and I just didn’t notice it from the rest of the grime.

I looked towards Aquarius, who was even more shaken than I was. “That… wasn’t a good year. I don’t know exactly what happened… but ponies left and right went insane. The entire maintenance department just shut off the power and started killing ponies! I turned into a wraith that day… the hunger was so… compelling. I had to eat them, or I-I’d die alone forever! 79 literally became hell.”

She stopped, hanging her head low and let her hair fall in front of her face. “I just… I wish I wasn’t stuck here like this… I wanted to fly up to the clouds with mom and dad, but they said I’d be safe down here! The ponies hated me because of my wings, because the pegasi abandoned the surface! But what the hell could we have done against those missiles? Thrown ourselves at them? They hated me because we didn’t save them, and I died alone and turned into a monster because of them!”

OK Shadow, your guide is getting upset again… time to step up. “You’re not a monster, Aquarius… not anymore. Look…” My mind raced as I started trying to put things together, “Something must have happened to turn all of you into wraiths… Doctor said that radiation causes it… So something must have happened.”

She nodded, looking back up at me, “I know… maintenance has its own reactor, and it started to overload a few days before. It was fun to watch them fix it… but how many times had your reactor overloaded? How many times had your ponies gone down and fixed it? Why weren’t you turned into a wraith?”

I opened my muzzle to speak then closed it again, looking down. She had some good questions, and now it was a mystery for us to find out. “Maybe we could go find out…”

Her eyes widened and she jumped in front of me, shouting, “No! We don’t need to find out! What if ‘finding out’ turns you into a wraith? Or me? I don’t want to eat ponies anymore, and I don’t want to see you start doing it either! Lets just get you and the others out of this Celestia-damned hole and be done with it! Just… stay out of maintenance, whatever you do!”

Well… fuck. When the mare is right, she’s right. I gave her a nod, “Well, lead the way then…”

She took a deep breath, relaxing a bit before she lead me down the stairs to the atrium below. We passed by a few of the places she mentioned, and I took the chance to look inside.

The door to Big Shot's was made of a black material that crumbled and broke off as I put my hoof to it. Behind it was a large room filled with rows of large comfy looking seats. Skeletons of ponies filled them, all staring at a blank white wall. Some of them had their arms hooked around another's back, seemingly holding each other in a loving embrace. Considering the teeth marks on the bones, I highly doubt they died that way. Nor would I have believed a pony would have wonderglued a cup to their hoof...

There was a place called The Spa filled with even more remains glued together in poses of relaxing and being treated. I would have inspected further, but there was a chemical smell that made my head hurt. I could see clearly into Cold Stone's, the ponies were posed together eating and laughing. Made me actually want to try this ice cream... Almost. It was already cold enough I had begun to shiver.

The pool was the next stop on my list. The water was green and had a consistency that made me not want to go anywhere near it. There was a board at the end of the pool and a pony was hung up with a tiny wire as they were frozen in time. The skeletons all posed up were creepy... But at the same time I was thankful for them. It's like some pony left me a gift so I could see what life used to be like so long ago.

A life without endless work to survive... That was just so appealing. How did the ponies out here manage it? Did things just work back then, or maybe there was just enough ponies to keep things running without too much worry... It was hard to imagine, but here was the proof right in front of me!

"The water used to be so beautiful..." Aquarius said softly, walking in after me and laying down at the edge of the square pool, lifting her wings high to her sides. "I would leap and dive right in, my wings would let me twist and turn and if I closed my eyes I could imagine myself soaring in the blue skies... A true pegasus!"

I sat down by her side, listening closely to her story. I wonder if she had been just as desperate to say anything as I had been to tell Lily I loved her when I died.

"Sometimes, I'd find myself up in the clouds with my brother flying with me, working at clearing the skies so Brighthoof could have another sunny day. But then I'd open my eyes, and I'd be back under the water and back with ponies who could care less about me. If... If just one of my friends had made it into the stable with me… I’d be ok! But I was alone…” She took a deep breath, then smiled. “So one day… I came here and flew, imagined my friends down below.” Her head tilted to the side and she shook slightly, tears beginning to flow from her eyes and evaporating into nothingness as they rolled off her cheeks. “So I flew down to them, took a breath and said hello…” She looked away, “And I’ve been stuck here ever since.”

“Why didn’t you just leave?” I asked softly.

“The world had been destroyed, Shadow! Sure, maybe ponies can survive up there now, but all there was back then was green fiery death! Sure, I could have left, but there wasn’t any ponies up there! I looked! All the dead were… gone. So I came back here and watched ponies… it was all I could do…”

“Aquarius, I…” I lifted a hoof and attempted to pull her into a hug, met only with failure as her form distorted and let me pass through her.

She shook harder, her voice cracked as she stood up. “I… I need a moment. Look around if you want, I’ll find you.”

Before I could say a word, she lept through the air and into the pool of murky green water, leaving behind a soft ripple that extended to the edges of the pool and bounced back.

I was speechless, all I could do was look down after her into that murky water. All of those emotions I had felt when that wraith tried to eat me… they all made sense. But how could all of those ponies just… ignore her like that? There had to be somepony who at least liked her a little.

I stood, leaving the mare be for now and returned to the atrium. Another little shop caught my eye, Pizza Joe’s Party Palace. I could use a party right about now.

This place though… it had a whole different vibe to it.

Ponies weren’t glued together or posed; this was from the Stable’s final day.

At first glance, I noticed the party decorations for something called a ‘cutecenara.’ Looked nice, and I eagerly looked towards the tables so I could see how the ponies had their celebrations. This wasn’t a celebration. Small bones lied on the table, a colorful party hat on top of an unicorn foal’s skull. The arms were outstretched and ropes had been used to hold the foal down. Its ribs had been broken open, pieces of bones scattered onto plates in front of more ponies that had been tied down. A few of the plates were clean, little bones found on the inside of their corpses.

These fucks had fed ponies a fucking foal! It was bad enough these ponies were cannibals, but to force other ponies to eat a foal?! I responded the same way any normal and sane pony would.

I went on a rampage.

My horn burned as the tables and chairs flung across the room, smashing through the window and denting holes into the walls. Every piece of sick and depraved decoration was torn away, and found new locations in trash bins that later got thrown out the window as well. I found skeletons of ponies that weren’t tied down, and tore the halogen light bulbs out of the ceiling and proceeded to smash those fuckers to bits. It didn’t matter that they were already dead, they needed to pay!

The only thing I didn’t destroy were the bones of the unicorn foal. Those I floated above me and out of harms reach. I left the place, now a giant mess, carefully carrying the bones. Aquarius stood in the doorway, watching me with wide eyes.

I held the bones of the kid out in front of me, shaking with every step. “They fucking fed a foal to ponies…. Forced them to eat him alive!” I think I was crying at this point. How could anypony, sane or not just… No!

Harp was right. This was a nightmare. Just a living one.

Aquarius looked down, “I… I know… but…” She looked back up at me, then over at the mess I had just made, “Come on… There’s one other thing for you to do before we go… Bring the kid.” She turned, walking off into the darkness.

Why the fuck was it so cold?

She led me past a pair of marble statues of tall mares. They had long flowing hair around even longer horns poking from behind crowns. Their wings were held out to the side, and... wait, wings? Wings and horns? I moved closer, my pip-light glistening a plaque at its base.

Princesses Celestia and Luna

May they watch and guide us from above into a bright future

Wait, these were the princesses? I had always imagined gods of ethereal energy that would damn us if we didn't keep the stable alive... These just looked like tall ponies.

Another reason not to trust the Overmare...

Aquarius called me from a nearby archway, waving me over before disappearing inside the large open room. I got up and followed her, taking one back look at the visage of the Princesses before looking up to the sign. ‘Happy Foal Fun Farm.’

OK, a farm for kids to take care of specifically? OK… so more skeletons of foals were probably inside. I hope this was nothing like the last place...

I trotted inside, looking past the little cubicles where foals and their parents had stuffed belongings before letting their kids run off to work. Past that was what looked like a farm, but this one had the strangest farming equipment I had ever seen! Tiny skeletons sat upon plastic benches that were strung up on metal chains over the dead dirt. One of the benches was pulled back by the skeleton of an adult earth pony, and the foal sitting on top of it looked ready to be launched into the air.

Another small unicorn was sitting on on a large disk in the farms center, her forehooves wrapped around one of the metal poles that looped back around to its center. Some kind of… giant spinning sprinkler system? No… looking closer I could see there wasn’t any holes for water to come out of. Shame, that does look like a fun way to water the crops.

A metal ramp was adorned with the skeleton of another small foal, sitting on top and overlooking the ground below. My mind tried to strangle out what purpose this served, but this far too strange of tools for it to work right.

No… this wasn’t farming equipment… it couldn’t be! Where were the real tools? Probably in a storage closet somewhere...

I gave Aquarius a look, "What kind of backwards thinking farm is this?"

“It’s a playground,” Aquarius explained with a bemused smile. “Colts and fillies could come here to play together while their parents were working. One of the first votes that went through completely unopposed…”

Ok, what? I had always been taught that playing in the field would hurt the crops. Or playing with anything else, really. Sure, once I got older and wiser I found ways to have a little bit of fun, but I’d never mess with something that could endanger lives!

She gave me a blank look, her head slowly tilting to the side, “You… really have no concept of fun, do you?”

I snorted, “Of course I do! Puzzles are fun, messing with ponies’ heads is fun, and hacking systems to make them do shit is fun.” I raised my hoof to the farm, “Letting foals play around in the middle of a farm and trample the crops? That’s crazy!”

She shook her head, giving out a sigh. “Shadow, It’s not a farm… it was just a place to let foals play.”

Oh. Well, that made a whole lot more sense, but… “Why call it a farm if it’s not a farm?”

She shrugged, “Just a name, I guess. But bring him here…” She hopped onto the metal disk and gave me a sad smile. “There wouldn’t be enough dirt for a proper burial… But leaving him here would be a lot better than that table…” She looked over the bones of the skeletons, “Maybe one of them was his friend?”

I baulked. Was I really going to add to the collection of this fucked up museum? I could better toss him into the processor and let him be cycled back through into life! Although, ponies might protest if the pony who recently came back from the dead came running through with chewed up bones of a young foal. More pitchforks, fuck that. Creepy museum piece it is... For now.

I set the bones down on the disk, curling them up so it looked like maybe he was sleeping. Stepping back, I took one more look at the little farm playground and tried to imagine little foals and fillies running around having fun. It was an odd thought, but one I would have liked to see. Aquarius gave me a smile, before trotting silently past me and out the door. I pushed the thought away for now, following the ghostly mare through the arch.

As my breath rolled out of my lips again a giggle tickled my ear, just barely in my range of hearing. A ghost foal? I stopped, looking back over my shoulder as I looked over the farm. The bones that I had just left had moved, now posed as if he was happily running next to the disk, a hoof on one of the metal bars.

...OK... Enough of this! Leaving now!

Needing a distraction, I pulled back out the pipbuck I had gained from Harp’s room and caught up with Aquarius. This time I dug into something older, maybe I'd find something a bit happier.

“A vote was cast today, and I couldn't be more excited! We are completely changing the way ponies will have to work, no more set hours! Instead, administration will track ponies and pool out jobs that come in to those qualified and if you're busy, you can pass that job down to the next pony in the list!

“I don't have to miss dinner with my brother anymore because of his stupid shift! I can hang out with my friends and watch movies without missing anypony! Oh, life just got so much better!”

Well Harp, perhaps you should have skipped dinner...

Past the courtyard of the recreational district was more hallways with more rooms. I had wished I hadn't asked my earlier question because now everywhere I looked I could see blood. Half of the remains of a pony sat on top of a foul smelling smear of something, a hoof outstretched as if he was desperately trying to crawl towards us. The smell of it almost made me lose my lunch...

My pip-light illuminated one of the windows; the word 'hungry' was smeared backwards on the inside. The hallway met with another, and we took a left. I swore out of the corner of my eye that I saw a blue wispy light off in the distance. I quickly turned my head, shining my light down the hall and saw nothing but the same grimy hallway.

I was really starting to hate this place. I will probably have nightmares for months! I'll be happy once we are out of here and on the surface. And I really hope the surface is warmer than this because, fuck!

"Here we are... Administration." Aquarius said, stopping at the door at the end. "The Overmare and security offices are in here. We can get the code and get out of here..."

I rubbed my arms together, shivering even more than before. "Good.... Then get a more direct path to our part... Need to get the others out too..." I focused my magic, which was getting harder to do. Not sure of it was the repeated use of the spell or just the cold. Probably the cold. An electric arc shot from my horn, hitting the panel squarely on the side.

Aquarius started through the door, then gave me a worried glance when I rubbed my arms together again, "You going to be all right?"

I nodded, unsure of the answer myself. "Yea. I'll be fine. Just cold..."

She trotted over to me, leaning into my face and squinted as she looked into both my eyes. "Feeling light headed? Can you still feel your face? Your hooves?"

I blinked, backing away slightly, "I.. Yes? I'm beginning to hurt, actually."

She frowned, "Let me know if you lose any feeling the moment it happens. We'll need to get you to someplace warm before frostbite sets in… It shouldn’t be this cold ever. Especially not in the middle of summer."

"Yea… Well, our heater works overtime. Maybe... I should head back..."

"And what? Work until the stable kills you again? I don't know about you, but I'd rather not just stand by and let more ponies slowly kill themselves when freedom is so close by. I don't want to see this anymore..."

I groaned. Right, of course. Now, or later, it would be just as cold. It would help if this section of the stable had some power to turn on the heaters. I followed Aquarius through the doorway and looked into the rooms around us. Everything in Administration was just as dark as… wait…

“Aquarius… If this part of the stable doesn’t have any power, how am I going to get the password? Is it written down somewhere?”

Aquarius stopped dead, her eyes narrowing slightly as a soft frustrated noise escaped her lips. She turned and looked at me before taking a deep breath. “This way,” She said, trotting down the way we just came.

I couldn’t help but chuckle slightly as I turned to follow her. “I’m going to take that as a no… Where we headed now?”

“Well Utility, your stable module, foolishly cut off their emergency generator from the rest of the stable. It’s the main reason you kept having issues with it overloading and melting down… Too big a generator for too small a system. That generator could easily have powered a quarter of the stable. The main one was sabotaged, and none of the other emergency generators came online. There’s only one generator that would be close enough for us to get the systems to turn on the terminals in Administration.”

“You seem to know a lot about the stable…” I began, giving her a half smile.

“I used to work in Maintenance.” She smiled, “And I’ve been a ghost wandering these halls for one hundred and fifty seven years. You kind of pick up on a few things.”

A sheen caught my eye on one of the windows, drawing my attention. Was that ice? I reached up my hoof to touch it, illuminating my face in my reflection.

“What the hell?” My reflection’s iris’s were washed out with a sickly grey, leaving a faint trail of their previous golden hue in a ring around them. Well, that explains what was wrong with my eyes.

Aquarius looked over at me, “Oh, you should have seen them when you first came back. I suspect Doctor did something to let you still see us.”

I squinted at the reflection, “Well, he could have done it without making my eyes so… ugly, couldn’t he?”

Aquarius shrugged, “Honestly, you look like a blind pony.”

A blind pony… well, I’m glad I can actually still see somehow. In 79, if you were crippled to where you couldn’t work, even if you had no pain, you were… What did they call it? Oh. ‘Put to sleep.’

I sighed, pushing the thought from my head and stepped away from the ice-glazed window. “Anyway, so where’s this generator?”

Her smile faded and she looked onward with deep resignation in her voice. “Maintenance.”

Footnote: Level up.

New Perk: Blindsight - Your visual senses have improved greatly, even in situations you would not normally be able to see. All penalties for visual impairment are halved.

Author's Note

Phew! Ok! Shadow was originally supposed to be out of the stable in this chapter... Yea, that ain' happenin' xD

Let's hope for the surface in chapter 4, yes? Yes. Probably.

Chapter 4 - Of Fire and Ice

The door to maintenance screeched loudly as it struggled to break free from its rusted frame, knocking free dusty chunks that clattered on the floor. My horn was burning with the magical lightning I was keeping on the control box. Cold sweat pooled on my bow, though not as cold as the half inch of water that rushed past from the slowly rising door. A loud crack echoed through the mechanism as the door jerked and fell an inch downwards. The soft whine of freely spinning motors tickled at the edge of my hearing.

“D-damnit,” I cursed under my breath, looking at the two foot opening it was stuck on.

Aquarius looked at me and frowned, “Hopefully it will still be open by the time we get back. If not, there are other ways out. Come on.”

Ways out possibly just as rusted as this one. She turned and trotted through the doorway with her cheaty ghost powers. I crouched down when I approached, my chest and chin dampening with the ice-cold water. I took slow and easy steps as I inched my way under the door. A rough metal brushed against my flanks and the door gave a loud metallic groan.

Hooves reached out toward one of mine, turning into a wispy smoke as Aquarius attempted to pull me through. I wasted no time in lurching forward myself and leapt right through the ghost mare. The door gave one final groan before falling silent again.

“Are you alright?” She asked, reforming in front of me.

I nodded, standing up as I tried to shake as much of the water off as I could. I took a deep shaky breath, filling my lungs with the moist and moldy air. My voice broke more as my lungs rattled my chest trying to keep warm. “C-cold. Now, w-wet and cold… Let’s not use that door again. Let’s go, maybe the h-heater sy-system still works….”

She nodded before turning to lead me off down the darkened corridor, “Yes… let’s hope.”

“Th-thanks, by the way…” I said trotting behind her, my eyes looking over the rusted walls before catching her inquisitive look. “For trying to pull me through. You m-may not have done much, but the thought w-was nice.”

She gave me a weak smile, her cheeks flushing out slightly before looking away. “You’re welcome… As much as I’d love to have a companion to spend my eternal undeath in…”

I chuckled, smiling a bit more. “Hey… t-tell me m-more about this place. You know, before things went to shit.”

She tilted her head up as we passed under a running fire sprinkler. “What can I say? It was maintenance…”

I smiled at her, quickening my pace for a moment to catch up to her side. “Try. A-and not just maintenance. I want to know how things could have been. Sh-should have been. B-besides,” I puffed a cloud of smoke air from my lungs, “It’s a g-good distraction.”

She smiled slightly, “It was… democratic. Our old leaders, the princesses and the Ministries, were matriarchal. That system led to the world blowing up, so the founders of Stable-Tec wanted us to take a different approach and see if it was better. We could all put in our votes over everything or even put in petitions for new votes to be cast, and even vote to change entire areas in the stable. Some ponies got really into it, you should have seen some of the debates that went on! Sometimes I thought it would get violent. Usually that wasn’t the case, but as long as just over half the stable voted for something, it got done, and couldn’t be overturned for a year. The close call votes were the worst… Obviously…” She looked to the side, right into the eye socket of a pony skeleton resting against one of the hallway windows, “It didn’t quite work out…”

“What happened? How did that… d-democratic thing turn into that?” I asked motioning to the skeleton with a soft sigh before looking back to her.

“That’s the thing. We don’t know, ponies just went… crazy.” She sighed, looking up.

I nodded slightly, “A-and something here caused it?”

She gave a kind of sad smile as she leaded me deeper into maintenance, “I’d both like and hate to think so…”

I think I knew what she meant. My hooves sloshed through the quarter inch of water that collected and rushed past to the stairwell we were approaching.

Aquarius turned towards it, “There’s an furnace not too far from the generator, hopefully it will still work. We need to get some heat into you, fast… I don’t think you want to find out what frostbite is like.”

I looked down the stairwell, watching the water cascade down the steps. I’d have to be careful walking down, lest I want to ram my head into a metal wall. Glowing eyes caught my attention from the corner of my eye. A different kind of chill ran down my back as I nearly jumped out of my skin, splashing down and slipping slightly into the water.. My heart ached and pounded in my chest, bringing my pipbuck light forward as I searched for the face that belonged to that smile. All I could see was the ice building up against the eternal grey.

Fuck… was it getting colder? We just came from there! And I clearly remember not slipping on ice! I was really starting to loathe this place.

The ice answered my question as it gave a soft creaking sound, slowly reaching out towards my hooves. I got up and stepped away from the ice, peering back down the hall. No smile, the cold must be getting to me...

I really did need to get to some heat. My ears were beginning to itch badly, and I had lost the feeling in my hooves.

Aquarius looked up at me from halfway down the steps, “Shadow, you OK?”

I smiled at her, my lips cracking with a slight twinge of pain. “Y-yea, I’m fine. Let’s get t-to th-at heat.”

Yea, of course you’re fine, my little pony snarled at me.

Hey, not like telling her the truth would change anything, so shush!

She gave me a worried frown, leading me along as I slowly descended the steps. Several times I felt the water wear against my hoofing, threatening to drag me down into the-

“Fuck…” Aquarius muttered, looking down at a giant puddle of water that collected at the bottom of the stairwell. Our destination? If it’s anything like the design of our module, several feet below the water. Ice had begun to form around the edges of the pool, reaching up to icicles that hung down from the bottom of the stairs above.

She paced in place, nibbling on her lower lip as she looked down into the icy water. Then she nodded, looking to me. “Hey Shadow? Stay here for a bit. I want to check something.” Without another word she dived down into the water.

I stood there for what seemed like ages, staring down into the rippling pool as the freezing water rushed against my hooves. They were getting numb… I had to get moving! Could a healing potion even fix frostbite? What was frostbite anyway?

I started dancing in place, keeping half my hooves out of the water as much as I could. “Hurry Aquarius… what’s taking you so long?” I muttered, checking the time on my pipbuck.

Oh fuck, it had only been a few minutes...

A blue blurry form appeared in the water. My ears perked, ready for the news that Aquarius would bring, but something wasn’t right. When was Aquarius so hazy? No, this couldn’t be her… unless something happened to her down there. As a dark smile and two brightly glowing eyes formed into the hazy figure, I prayed to Luna I was right. I backed up the stairs, my horn charging in case I need to shoot-

My thoughts were cut off as the creaking of growing ice grew around me. The water that was flowing between my hooves began to harden and clump against my fur, but that was the least of my worries. The stairs were so slick that moving became almost impossible! I tried to stop moving to take a moment to catch my breath but the growing cold made that impossible. I had lost focus on my spell... actually, I had lost focus on everything.

A loud crack in the ice underneath my hooves pulled me to some sort of cognition. Ice had started growing up my legs, threatening to trap me in the stairwell for all eternity. Oh fuck! When did this start happening?! My little pony was panicking as I started jerking against the ice. A soft crack and my hooves broke free!

Now, I need to get back up-nope… going down.

Everything else went numb as my body was dunked down into the water. Luckily, I managed to get a good breath before I was dunked down, as it gave me an opportunity to check the door. Fuck, it was wide open! But where was Aquarius and where was that blue face-thing? Doesn’t matter, I can ask that question when I was back on the surface. More important question though; how does one swim?

I attempted to not panic as I thrashed my hooves in the water, desperately fighting to get to the surface again. My hooves connected with the steps, and I was able to push myself upwards; right into the thick layer of ice that had now grown over the surface.

I pounded against the ice fruitlessly, the force of my hooves only pushing me farther down into the cold. Every part of my body that I could still feel burned, and my lungs were quickly joining them. A blurry form with glowing eyes appeared over the ice ceiling that sealed my doom.

I wanted to scream. This was all your fault, wasn’t it?! You wraith thing! I already died once, I can’t die again! This isn’t fair! When I am dead I will fucking kill you! Of course, I didn’t actually scream, I only continued pounding at the ice as a wicked smile appeared below those two evil eyes.

“Soon…” A buck’s voice broke through the ice, unimpeded by the water, “Soon, I will have another to add to my collection…”

My next batch of rage was cut off as a light illuminated at my side with a loud click. Then another click and lights illuminated from the other side of the ice. And another click, and another. One by one, the lights turned on upwards the stairwell. Who turned on the power? I didn’t have the chance to think as the water that formed my current world started flushing away.

I lost my breath when my chest met with the railing as I was sucked downward through an opening door and down a short hallway. My side met metal, and I quickly grabbed on. Thank Celestia! The water was clearing, and I had enough time in air to cough out the ice in my lungs and fill them with sweet, sweet air! Of course, the metal archway was slick enough that I was sent tumbling back down. Soon though, my hoof met the floor and the water leveled out to a few inches. I continued to slide, not that I cared now that I could breathe, down a few more steps and into a brightly lit room with terminals and switches galore. It almost looked like…

“Shadow! What the hell?” Aquarius’s voice rang out from beside me. “You were supposed to wait for me to come back!”

My eyes fell upon the blue mare standing in front of one of the terminals. She had stuck her hoof inside it and the screen seemed to respond in a glitchy static… Did she turn on the power? Didn’t matter, I could still barely breathe.

She gave me a glare as she trotted towards me, “You really don’t want to be swimming in water if it’s that cold! Can you even feel your legs?! What the hell, were you trying to follow me?!”

I coughed out a bit more water before coming up with the only answer I could muster out between sharp breaths. “Waiting… pony figure… water froze… slipped… trapped under… ice… swoosh!”

Her eyes widened a bit and she took a step back, “Wait… No, it can’t be…” She quickly shook her head, before nudging her nose into my side. "Doesn't matter. Move. You need to get yourself warm again, now."

How the hell? She’s a ghost! She can’t nudge!

...Really Shadow? Out of all the shit that’s happening, this is the least of your concerns.

“Come on,” She added softly, “Heater’s this way. Should be kicking on any minute now…”

It took me a few moments before I could roll over onto my belly and feebly stand on my hooves. My joints resisted my movements at the beginning, but once I started moving it wasn’t long before I got to the room Aquarius was leading me to. The problem, however, is not all of the water was draining away as quickly as I had hoped.

The entire section was possibly filled at one point, only now were the pumps draining the water away, and the doors open enough for it to escape. But this still left an inch of freezing cold water on the ground I had to slosh through... And no. No I couldn't feel my legs.

The room wasn’t big, mostly took up by a few shelves filled with various maintenance supplies and a large box. It was lit by your standard stable lighting, of course normally the rusted room wouldn’t glisten with dripping water. But there was one thing important about this room, on the far side wall was a large box connected to the ventilation system. And it was warm! I had never been so happy in my life! Either of them! The four heating talismans hummed as warmth filled the air, and I happily moved closer to-

Hang on, why was this talisman… green?

I pulled the rouge talisman off the system and studied it. It was… strange. On the surface, it seemed to be a normal heating talisman, but a soft sickly green gas emitted from its core. Studying it closer, I could see green symbols carved inside the heating one. Those….. weren’t supposed to be there.

It was a bad, bad idea to bring that green smoking talisman closer to my face. As I inhaled some of the green gas, my head instantly began to pound. I growled, instantly backing away from it, covering my face with my arm.

“Shadow?” Aquarius asked, coming to my side, “What is that?”

“I… d-don’t know… and I don’t th-think I want-t to find out…” I threw the talisman away, picking up a fire extinguisher and proceeded to violently smash it to bits with a rage I did not know I had. I knew something down here had made everypony go crazy. I didn’t want to find out what did. I didn’t want my friends going crazy just trying to bring them out of the stable. And right now, I wanted to just curl up against the heater and sleep.

Aquarius joined me at my side, looking down at the talisman I had destroyed before turning to me. “Well….. Ok then. Moving on…. Can you describe this figure you saw?”

I shrugged, flopping over onto my side as the heater’s warmth soothed my skin. “I never s-saw it clearly. First time I saw it in the water, though that might have been a reflection. Then I was tr-trapped under ice, and it was s-smiling down on me… Just had blue glowing eyes…” I yawned, rolling over to get nice and toasty on all sides. “No wait!” I remembered, “I had seen it before… kind of ha-hazy and spooky, like what you’d ex-expect a ghost to look like from the st-stories I’ve heard… No offense.”

It was about this time that I realized I hurt. A lot. I was regaining my feeling in my legs, and I didn’t want to. But my little pony was smiling with one important fact: I was still alive. I didn’t need a necromancer to bring me back to life! He made my quest sound so easy… open a door. I guess I didn’t really question the locations in-between enough. Or at all. Perhaps it would have been easier to just have died and stay that way?

No… I have ponies who need me! I had to stay alive… for the good of the stable.

Aquarius was quiet since I had told her what I had seen. It had really started to bother me. She just sat there, looking through the open door. “Aquarius. Wh-what did I see? You know something, don’t you?”

She paused, then shook her head, “I’m… not sure. But it sounds like a windego…”

I sat up, arching an eyebrow. “What th-th-the hay is a windego?”

The look she gave me was one of utter bewilderment. “Haven’t you ever heard the Hearth’s Warming stories?”

I smiled and shook my head, my lips twinging in pain along the cracks that started to bleed again as I leaned against the heater. “Don’t know what a hearth is, but I sure would like to have that-t w-warmed.”

“Ugh!” She cried as her hoof met her face, “Are you serious? They taught you nothing about anything down here!”

“I know a lot of st-st-stuff!” I protested, “I can rebuild this entire heating unit if I wanted to!” Rebuilding the heating unit sounded like a good idea to me right now, actually.

Aquarius snorted, “But what do you know about life? About living?”

“I…!” The question threw me. Before I would have just answered something along the lines that I live to keep the stable alive, but after seeing the entertainment module… I wondered how much I really was missing out on.

How much we were all missing out on…

She sighed, then laid a hoof on my shoulder. Of course, now I didn’t feel it anymore. “Don’t worry Shadow. When we get everypony out of here, I’ll teach you how to be a real pony!”

I nodded, “Thanks Aquarius… You might have tried to eat me once, but… now you’re a good friend.”

She blinked, her head drawing back in surprise, “I’m… I’m your friend?”

I met her bewildered gaze with a warm smile, “Of course! Now that you’re sane, you’ve been great help! I should have died years ago!” Ok, maybe that’s a slight stretch, but it seems to have cheered her up a bit.

She sat in front of me, trembling with her hooves placed against her lips and her cheeks flushed a soft red. “I… I hadn’t had a friend in… 200 y-years…”

“Well, you have one now…” I said softly.

She leapt at me, wrapping her hooves around me with enough force to make my coat crawl. “Thank you! I’m sorry for everything! I’ll-I’ll be a good friend, promise!”

Trying to hug her back was an awkward gesture, but one that she defiantly seemed to have needed. One question came to mind however. “Hey Aquarius? How are you able to touch me sometimes? And how did you turn on the power?”

She pulled back, trying to calm herself. Her gaze fell on a box of detergent on one of the shelves and she briskly trotted to it. “I’m… not sure really. It takes a bit of focus, but I can if I try hard enough…” She reached out with a hoof, poking the box a few times. It passed through without a care the first few times, but the last connected. The box lurched backwards, breaking apart and oozing its contents all over everything. Ok, I know it’s been in water for 200 years, but ew!

“As for the power,” she continued, “While many places had been sabotaged, the maintenance ponies simply turned this section off. And that’s why the emergency services were still running. Must have been a fire at some point.” She shrugged, “There was just a switch I had to flip. Then I had to get a few of the terminals rebooted, and everything just came online.”

That was surprising to say the least; 200 years underwater and it still works? Can we just move here? Nah, it’ll probably break soon too.

I sighed, shaking my head in disbelief. “You know, as long as I’ve been running around fixing shit that have been falling apart, I have to say: Stable-Tec can really build things to last.”

She giggled, leaning back and giving me a wide smile, “Yea, until somepony throws a wrench at it.” Her gaze drifted into mine for a moment, before she spoke again softly, “Thank you, Shadow… You have no idea how much this means to me.”

I opened my maw to respond, but froze as cold smoke rolled off my breath. The soft crackle of ice snapped my attention to the doorway as a buck entered the room. I could only see the outline of his form and business suit and hat. His mane and tail seemed to float off his body in tendrils that broke apart into smoke that was cold as ice. His eyes opened, meeting my gaze with the glowing blue that coupled that wicked smile.

“Oh, how touching this is!” He said with a dark voice that sent chills down my spine. “Two little ponies, friends at last! But I must take credit for a part of this, you did take a tour through my exhibit after all…”

I quickly stood, backing away from the growing ice that was quickly surrounding us. Aquarius took a slight step forward, peering into the windego’s eyes. “You’re… Cold Stone, aren’t you?”

His smile brightened, stepping forward at a brisk pace. “Oh my, my! Somepony remembers me! Well, miss, I’m sorry I don’t have your name, but a pleasure to meet you nonetheless! I’d love to make friends with both of you...”

She took a step towards him, relaxing slightly as she smiled at him. “My name is Aquarius, and this is my friend Shadow. Look, you’re hurting him by making it so cold.”

I backed into the heater, but with the windego right here in front of me, it did little good at holding back the cold. “Hi, yes. I’d like to not die again.”

He chuckled softly, his grin growing “What is the point of being alive when you can be art?”

What? Seriously, what?

Aquarius gaped at him, “That’s just…”

“Splendid? Marvelous? Look at us! We don’t need bodies to survive, and neither does he! And after he cleared out that one spot, something has to go there, does it not? I’ll finally have a new exhibit! Oh, a body with the flesh still attached! That would be simply joyous for us to see! I’ll call it ‘Life in the Flesh!’”

“That’s horrible! You can’t just kill ponies for art!” Aquarius protested, her eyes furrowing at him with a disgusted rage.

The temperature in the room decreased sevenfold as Cold barked back at her, his main and tail flaring in a frost storm that covered the room in ice in an instant. “Life is meaningless! No matter how much you fight to strive, to survive, you all end up the same! Dead! But art… art is eternal! Ponies knew me for my ice cream, a few even for my ice sculptures, and now I found a new calling… Give his body to me, and I will make it last forever! And when his friends come looking for him, they’ll see him and want to join him!”

I growled. As much as this actually made a bit of sense, this fuck just turned my heater into a block of ice! “Fuck off… I very much like being alive!”

Cold Stone pushed past Aquarius and walked straight to me, “Now, now, my boy... If you won’t give me your body, I will have to take it by force. I am quite sorry, but I tried to be reasonable.”

His maw opened and he exhaled a breath colder than anything I had felt before. My legs started to freeze, with ice traveling rapidly across my body. Luckily, I was prepared. My horn charged in an instant and I-

“Nopony!” Aquarius screamed as her hoof met with Cold’s face knocking him to the side, “Messes!” Another hoof connected with his chin with a deafening crack that sent him flying into the air. “WITH! MY! FRIEND!” Aquarius leapt into the air, her wings flared wide as she dived down onto the windego buck. He may have been a dead ghost thing going, but that really looked like it hurt and by his ear piercing scream, it really did. I wouldn’t even have expected him to have bones to crack…

The two crashed into a shelf, knocking a few things off, and the last thing I heard was his screams of agony as they went flying through the wall. And now I was just stuck here with my legs frozen in place listening to the fading sounds of distant fighting.

Well, fuck. "Thanks Aquarius!" I called after her, my spell dissipating before it even began.

At least the heating talismans were still functional. They were making my butt nice and toasty. Could you thaw out my legs already? Please? I’m already not able to feel them… again…

My ears strained as I tried to continue to listen to the fight, but it was getting harder as they were getting farther away. Since when did Aquarius kick ass? Oh well, I guess all that was left to do was sit here and wait… Wouldn’t be long before I would be able to move my back legs, the ice was already starting to feel brittle. Actually…

I looked around the shelves. Mostly maintenance junk I hopefully will never need once I get out of this hell hole, but my eyes fell upon a screwdriver. Perfect!

My horn emitted a soft glow, lifting the screwdriver towards me. I had to be careful, but I couldn’t just freeze like this… Aquarius seemed quite worried about this frostbite thing, so I suppose I should be too. I pointed the tip of the screwdriver to my legs and started to work, slowly chipping away the ice.

It was forever it seemed before I was able to remove enough of the ice that I was able to move around. It took even longer before I was willing to leave the heater behind, but not before removing one of the talismans and tying it to my horn. My joints refused to move right, feeling as if they were made out of something along the lines of old crusty jelly.

Oi, now was not the time to be thinking about food. I had left behind my sandwich back in medical and the third I had eaten of it was quickly running out. I should head back to get it… but if I went back looking as I did now, they’d never follow me outside again. I needed to find a healing potion or two, and I could catch back up with Aquarius later.

Celestia must have been smiling down on me from above.

Now that the lights were humming gently, I turned off my pipbuck and trotted briskly down the hall. The wet floor seemed to shimmer against the light. Walls were covered in rust and this strange green fuzz that was squishy to the touch.

I traced my steps back to the stairwell, but it was still frozen and I’d have to find another way up. Or use my little talisman to melt it… but I didn’t want to tax it any more than I’d have to. Looking for this new path was the right thing though; as I was traversing down the halls a little red sign sticking out over a doorway caught my eye. Clinic.

I had to hit the door with my shoulder before it snapped open, but my eyes widened as I looked around into all the glass cabinets. This place was the treasure trove of everything I’d ever need! Healing potions, Med-X, and bandages, oh my! There were even a few boxes of sealed Fancy Buck Cakes! All it took was a few whacks on the glass with a fire extinguisher I pried free from its metal box on the wall to shatter the little treasures free. I didn’t even question how they weren’t filled with water. The snack cakes were a bit odd… a very sweet odd… Did everypony eat this stuff back then?

By the time I was finished breaking everything open, I had a dozen packs of bandages, 7 healing potions, 19 med-x, and 8 more buck cakes I squirreled away into my bags. As I was turning to leave, a green glow caught my eye; a terminal that was sitting on a desk in the far corner of the room had begun booting on. Oh, wasn’t this lovely! The little pony bounced around in my head, telling me this was a perfect way to figure out what happened here.

I couldn’t agree more.

I took out one of the healing potions, downing the foul tasting liquid as I shifted my rump onto the squishy seat in front of the terminal. It wasn’t even locked! I had some time on my hooves as the ice melted, so I cracked open the terminal and dug right into the first log.

Diseases! I need diseases! Tiny little spores that can make your flesh writhe in agony and your brain melt into a puddle of vegetable soup! Things of magic and fire and mold! I need them… I need them all!

That’ll show them! That’ll show them! I should be the lead doctor, not stuck down in a little tiny office of miserable head-ponies!They expect me to serve their little head-colds! I say no more, I should be healing everypony! Healing diseases!

I need diseases! Capture a pony and inject them with everything! Grow the diseases and stick them in a ventilation shaft! They will die… yes. Death is inevitable! But for the greater good! Sick ponies means more doctors! More doctors means less sick ponies! It’s the perfect plan!

Doctor Golden Lockheart
Maintenance MD

Well. That was… an interesting read. I don’t believe we share the same views. Ok, let’s skip down a bit…. That was… insanity. I had to admit, it’s surprising to see that an insane pony would spend the time to even write a short log. Or sign their name. Ah! This one looks normal…

I just don’t understand it. I have been receiving more and more reports of headaches and ponies have been coming in and demanding that I administer pain killers to them! Not just asking, but full on demanding! Today a buck even tried to smash his way into my medical cabinet, luckily a few ponies from security were nearby because of other fights that had been starting in the area. I actually thought for a moment he was going to cut me with that scalpel….

Everything points to this beings some kind of pathogen, but tox screens have all come out clear. No bacteria or viruses, magical radiation, or alkalines. I even went so far as to check cholesterol and blood sugar! As far as I can tell, these ponies are in perfect health.

As I was discussing the problem with other ponies in medical, they suggested that ponies have become addicted to the Med-x. They were accusing me! Said I shouldn’t be giving out the stuff so much! I would never break my oath upon such ludicrous amenities like a ‘quick high’! I’ll show them. I’ll find out what’s causing this and put a stop to this!

It must be something they’re working with. Something in the stable that only they currently have access too. Something our tests aren’t designed to pick up.

Uhg… trying to deal with this is starting to give me a headache…

Dr Golden Lockheart
Maintenance MD

So, this wasn’t just an all of a sudden thing. The signs of something being wrong had been there for a while, and the rest of the stable... just ignored it. I had to wonder if things would have been different if one of the other doctors had listened. Or if anypony did, for that matter.

And why hadn’t anyone noticed the corrupted heating talisman? Did nopony just pay any attention to it? The green fog was kind of a dead gi-....

Or was it something they couldn’t see?

I thought back to Aquarius. She was so happy I could see her… Were glyphs written in the same way she exists? Could a ghost or wraith have attacked the stable? I’ll have to ask her… but I had a feeling she’d know just as much as I did. I clicked the terminal off with a hoof, leaning back in the seat and taking a deep breath. I felt better… a lot better. And now it was time to get moving.

The talisman tapping between my eyes began to annoy me as I trotted down the lower halls of Maintenance, but there was no way I was going to remove it. The nice little bubble of not-cold felt far too nice. It did, however, make me wish I had brought my bags.

It wasn’t long before I managed to find the other stairs up. The layout was very similar to our little home, just this stairwell would have led to nothing but locked doors. Once we were safely settled on the surface and I saved Red, I’d have to come back down here. I may have hated this place with a passion, now that I was actually out and exploring my curiosity burned like a bonfire that was so much brighter.

Finding the door towards Administration was easy. Lights illuminated my path. Trying to walk over the ice that Cold Stone left behind... was not. The ice was rugged with bits jutting out at odd angles, arching up the walls and leaving some rather interesting fractal patterns in the glass to rooms that had been torn apart. Every hoof wanted to slide in a different direction! At least the ice had begun to melt under me, and I was able to slowly push forth.

There was one good thing about the ice. That door I was worried about finding its way shut was now frozen open. Of course, the bastard also froze the door to Administration closed.

Oh well. Have heating talisman? Will heat!

I closed my eyes, focusing a weak stream of magical energy into the talisman. The area around me began to heat up faster than a hot summer day. Now I just had to wait…. which was like watching paint dry. And the worst part, I was alone with only the arcane hum of the lights and the cracking of the ice to keep me company. I didn’t much like being alone. I knew this place already had a freezy ice-demon thing that used to be a pony, and Aquarius herself had once tried to eat me before. Who knows what danger lied beyond this door?

Part of me wanted to go back to Utility. Back to friends, back to my work, back to Lily, and just stay there forever. But we couldn’t do that anymore… It was past our time to leave. In my lifetime alone, our stockpile of working parts has dwindled by 16%. That might not be a lot, but within the coming years, mathematically that number would increase exponentially.

There was a resounding crack as the door broke free, opening and dropping chunks of ice as hit the top of the frame. With a deep breath, I was off.

Administration had a totally different feel to it than Entertainment and Maintenance. For one, it wasn’t freezing anymore, the module’s heating system was humming along nicely. For two… where were all the bodies? The place seemed abandoned. That was fine enough, I suppose. Didn’t really want to see any more posed skeletons right now. There were however, nice little signs that pointed to every section of Administration! So. Where would I keep the code to the stable door if I were a security pony over a hundred years ago? Security Records? Let’s try that.

Ok, the security on this door was one of the most advanced I had ever seen! Not that that stopped me. It just took me backing completely out of the system about 7 times to prevent the access panel from locking down and attempt to fry my pipbuck. It was completely frustrating… surely a door so advanced wouldn’t have a password so simple! But I’ve tried everything else, so why not?

‘password’

The door beeped merrily and slid open as my face met the wall with much angst. Seriously ponies! How hard is it to change a default password? Too much work to bother with, apparently! Well, at least the door was open now, so I unhooked my pipbuck and trotted inside, ready to hack the first terminal I saw. There was however a problem with this plan. There wasn’t a terminal! I had walked into a room with nothing but shelves and hundreds of these little white orbs. Several on the first two sets of shelves were labeled with stickers, the rest blank.

My eyes fell on a orb that was marked with a star. Reaching out with my magic, I pulled the orb closer so I could read the label. ‘Case 005-i36.’ Wow, that was really descri-

~~~~~ooo0o0o000o0o0ooo~~~~~

I felt weird. My entire body didn’t move right. In fact, why was I moving? I wasn’t telling myself to move! I pulled myself this way and that, but nothing I tried to do would do anything! I passed another buck while trotting down the hall. When did I get into the hall? Where did he come from? He didn’t appear dead! And was he looking at my ass?

My eyes slowly shifted over to him, and I felt myself scoff. My muzzle opened on it’s own, as a very much a mare’s voice came out. “Don’t ya have a wife to get to, Iron Side?”

He chuckled, looking back towards me, “Yea, but it don’t mean Ah can’t look, now do it?”

“Insufferable prick…” I grumbled, shifting my eyes back to a door on the left I was quickly approaching.

Questions kept popping up in my mind that set me further into a wild panic. In retrospect, it’s sad how long it took me to figure out I hadn’t actually been turned into a mare with a body I couldn’t control and I was merely watching something.

I was… she was opening a door labeled ‘Interogation Room C’ by the time I had calmed down enough to actually pay attention. “Case 9, interogation 36. Active homicide investigation.” I grumbled to myself, before looking up to a yellow unicorn buck sitting on the other side of a metal table in the small room, closing the door behind me with a rear hoof. “Thank you for waiting, Mr Sun. I know how hard this must be for you.”

She kept her eyes on him as she sat down on the other side of the table, only briefly looking at herself in a large mirror that almost covered the entire wall of her side of the table. She was an earth pony of medium build with black on blue mane and coat. A security pony, I gathered. She reached to her side, pulling a folder out of her saddle bags and setting it on the table before looking back up to the stallion, flicking it open with a hoof.

“It’s…. no issue.” The stallion said, a twinge of despair in his voice. “I have nothing to do right now anyway.”

I, or the mare, briefly read over the file in the folder, but I suspected it was theatrics as her eyes only scanned it long enough that I could verify that, yes, it was indeed a file. She put her hooves together on top of it, leaning into the table as she addressed him with a cold gaze again. “I assume you know why you’re here?”

He gave a nod, and a short answer. “Yes, ma’am.”

“And you own the establishment where her body was found?”

“Yes, ma’am.”

“And you found the body yourself?”

“Yes, ma’am.”

“And you were the last to see the victim alive?”

He took a deep breath, then nodded. “Yes, ma’am.”

“And did you know the victim?”

He gave a shrug and looked down, “I knew her just about as much as anypony else did. She didn’t like talking much. Kept to herself… I think the bullies really got to her when she was younger. That’s when I first noticed her, when my father helped chase them away.”

“Bullies… do you have any names?”

“No, ma'am. That was over seven years ago. But they were pretty bad… she was bruised up, and I believe I heard something about a broken rib…”

I nodded again, starting to close the file. “I see. Well, Mr Sun, thank you for your time. Our investigation is almost over. We’ll be returning your pool to the public within a few days.”

Pool…. isn’t that where-?

“Take your time,” he said softly, “I don’t really care about that pool.”

This seemed to draw surprise from my host, tilting her head as she reopened the folder, scanning it as she flipped through pictures and quickly passing a photo of my departed friend. Though it seemed dated by several years. “Oh? It says here that you petitioned for that spot…. seven times before it was finally approved?”

He gave a smile, but it felt more sad than anything. “Once per year. Took me long enough to get the right ponies to vote. Ma’am… I have never gone swimming in my life. Not even after I had opened it. That pool… it was never for me. It was for her. She didn’t have any family that made it into the stable with her, and she withdrew enough that she never let herself make any friends. After my father saved her, I helped her get to medical… they had beaten her pretty bad. She told me how much she hated this place and what she missed. I wanted to show her that there were still ponies in this stable who cared… I guess I failed.”

“....Did you like her?”

He gave a nonchalant shrug. “I thought she was cute. I would have been willing to date her if she asked, if only to get to know her better. But as it stood… No. I didn’t know her well enough to truly like her. Just enough to want to help.”

My host took in a deep breath and sighed, looking down at the photo of Aquarius. She shook her head, quickly closing the folder, “Thank you for your time, Mr Sun. You’ve been very helpful. You may go.”

Without a chance for the stallion to speak, my host stood and quickly left the room, not even bothering to pick up her folder. She passed several ponies in the hall, before ducking into a bathroom and locking the door behind her. She put her hooves up on the porcelain sink, staring at the fixture for what seemed the longest time. I could feel her eyes strain as she held back tears.

“For the record I…”

She brought her gaze slowly up to the mirror and looked into her reflection. No…. she was looking at me.

“For the record I wanted this to be a homicide. I wanted there to be a killer to put behind bars… Don’t get me wrong. I’d rather nopony have died at all. But our world... it’s gone. Luna is gone. Celestia is gone. And we and the ponies of the other stables are all that is left. If conditions down here are that bad… that ponies beat each other up and others just start killing themselves... how are ponies going to survive? It’s been eleven years. My memories of my old friends… they are fading fast. And I’ll never get them back. Despite everything we do…. we miss the sun. We miss our old homes. And we need more ponies like Mr Sun to reach out a hoof and try to make other ponies’ lives better. But most ponies… It seems we have just stopped caring. Our home may be gone, but dammit, we are still Equestrian! Please, if you see a pony sad or hurt, reach out your hoof. Help them. I’m… I’m just scared. I’m scared that there won’t be much left if we don’t...”

With that, she sat back, the first of her tears beginning to fall as the world began to shift back into my own.

~~~~~ooo0o0o000o0o0ooo~~~~~

The dream faded away into a swirling blackness. My eyes opened as I began to take sense of my bearings. I was… right. The floor of the records room was cold against my side, the white orb resting just against my temple. What the hell was that? A dream? A memory?

My head felt a bit foggy as I sat back up. A chill went down my spine as I saw the smoke roll off my breath…. oh, fuck!

“Hello again, Shadow…” came the windego’s dark chuckle behind me. “I do hope you had a nice nap?”

I turned, my eyes widening as I saw him and the ice already beginning to form over the walls - and over the doorway. “...Cold Stone.” Suddenly my shock turned to anger, “Where’s Aquarius!?”

He laughed, taking a step towards me, “Oh, your marefriend will be just fine! I just had her chill out for a bit while I took care of current matters~ Now, would you be a dear and remove that talisman? Then we can get to business…”

I snorted, “I don’t think so.” I was quite fond of being alive. “I have somepony I need to go save, and I can’t quite do it while I’m dead.”

He smiled, then laughed. “Relax, my friend! Death is not the end, I’m the proof of that! Or are you... afraid?” He blew cold air on me, creating tiny ice crystals on my muzzle. "Come on.... don't be so harsh? You just need to... chill out~"

I responded by pouring magic into the heating talisman. Melted that quickly….

“I’ll tell you what it’s like to die in ice. The first signs is the sharp pain you feel… but that soon gets replaced by a cold numbness in your hooves. You’ll get tired, confused. Faces of the ones you love will soon fade away with your memories in the final moments that will feel like a lifetime… and just leave behind the hate. Hate for the ones who locked you in a freezer, hate for the living, hate for me. And then you’ll take that hate, turn it into strength… and break free from the body that holds you back… and we can be friends! I’m trying to do you a favor, honestly. I mean look at you, you’re barely fed at all! You’d never feel hungry again!” He turned, blowing a layer of ice onto the doorway, before giving me a sideways evil glare. “You don’t want to starve to death, now do you? That I heard is quite painful~”

No! Fuck you! Wait, I should say this. “No, fuck you!” I growled, quickly standing with my back arched in attack mode, “I already died once, I ain’t going through that again anytime soon! I have a friend who’s soul is in danger, and I made a promise to get her healed. And now, you’ve frozen another one of my friends, but most of all … You’re IN MY WAY!” I screamed as my horn flared, bringing up my only combat spell as I shot a bolt of white electricity at his skull.

He took in a deep breath, blowing ice over my bolt, but it didn’t matter. My electricity shattered through his ice like glass before striking true to its target. I’m almost ashamed to say that the look on his face just before he got hit and his scream of agony was…. well, kind of satisfying. Almost. I also began to wonder at that moment - my magic cured one monster, could it cure another?

The answer to that sadly, was no. With a guttural scream, he lunged. My lungs roared like they were on fire as the icey presence shot through me, my bones locking into place. “You son of a-!” I looked behind me, my neck creaking and popping as it turned. He was gone… probably didn’t want me to shock him again.

I made a beeline for the door, my horn flaring as I charged the heating talisman. I was going after him. I was going to find Aquarius. And If that bastard thought he had me trapped in here, he had another thing coming!

What felt like an eternity had passed, and my freedom was still blocked by the frozen door. I had melted the ice around the door, but it didn’t seem to be enough. That bastard had frozen the internals to the door, and my little talisman wasn’t strong enough to penetrate. I was trapped…. Now I sat in a corner, my horn burning with the strain of keeping that talisman powered just enough to stay alive.

I felt my eyelids start to get heavy. This was ridiculous. Since my death my life has been non-stop torment. Where is that crazy doctor when you need him? He had to send me down into the bowels of the stable, looking for some hypothetical exit where nopony can find me, and he won’t even show up to protect me!

My breathing slowed drastically and I could feel the last bit of magic from my horn fizzle out. For the past hour all I could think about was Lily. How she’d find me if she knew I was in trouble. It was a nice thought…

My eyes drifted over to the many memory orbs that lied on those shelves. Such interesting contraptions, but only one thought rang through my mind. The memories that they contained… were warm. I could slip inside of one, enjoy what time I had left while my body slowly froze and I could drift off into a peaceful sleep. I didn’t want it to end like this, not again. Because that meant letting Cold win… but every moment my body was in agony from the freezing cold the idea became more and more alluring.

I tried raising the magic in my horn back up, to reach out to one of those little orbs. I didn’t have enough strength in me to keep up the talisman, and I was done already. Falling into one of those orbs meant loosing the pain that came with freezing to death. That sounded better to me....

A sharp hissing sound pulled me away of what could have been my eternal sleep. My eyes drifted back open, being instantly drawn to a small orange glow with smoke billowing out moving ever so slowly up the side of the door. Somepony had a blowtorch! I was getting saved! …..Again. Wow, I really need to get used to being rescued from this kind of stuff…

I got up, my bones creaking as I took steps towards that glowing light. Even from here, the heat radiating off that door was a Celestia send. “H-hello?” I tried calling out, my voice cracked. After a few moments with no response, I called out again, a bit louder this time. “Hello?” All I could hear back was that hissing sound of the blowtorch.

I sighed and basked in the glorious warmth, watching that blowtorch do its work. My mind kept wandering…. just who was on the other side of that door? It couldn’t be Aquarius or that Doctor…. neither of them would be tangible enough to operate a blowtorch. Maybe…. Maybe Aquarius found another pony who could talk to ghosts! Ha! Atta mare!

I watched as the blowtorch completed its arch, and something told me it was time to step back and hell, I was right. Just mere moments after clearing the doorway it burst open with a thundering crash, rocketed by a flying filing cabinet into the far wall and smashing several memory orbs.

“Shadow?” A voice called out from beyond the clearing smokescreen, as a familiar face peaked in.

I was stunned for the greater part of a minute as it took me a moment to process who just trotted into the door. “....Lilly? ….Lilly!” My heart instantly skipped a beat, smiling widely at her.

“Shadow!” her face lit up, rushing towards me as her hooves thrown around me in a tight hug. I could feel her tremb- …. no wait, that was me. “Sweet Celestia Shadow, you’re freezing!”

I couldn’t help but laugh, holding onto her tight. “Y-yea…. how…. how did you-”

My sentence was cut off as she backed up, her hoof suddenly meeting the side of my face with ferocity. “Don’t you DARE ever scare me like that again, Shadow! What were you thinking coming back out here! You know it’s dangerous!”

I blinked, looking at her, a hoof trailing up to touch the offended cheek. “Lilly, I…”

Her eyes narrowed, ‘No buts! We’re going to get you warmed up, and then it’s back to the clinic with you! You almost died, Shadow!”

I blinked, “No…. I did die. And I can’t go back, not yet…. Lilly, how did you find me?”

“I followed your pipbuck marker, but that’s not important now.” she said, heading back outside into the hall, finding every piece of paper she could find and stuffing them into a bin and setting them on fire with her torch. “Now get your ass over here and warm yourself up! And yes, you are, I’m not letting you explore out here anymore!”

I nodded, moving closer to the fire, warming my little hooves. Oh, this was fantastic! Asides from the angry mare bit…. I probably should have thought this plan a little more through before simply leaving. “Lilly….. thank you….” I said, shivering, “And.. I’m sorry. But I mean I can’t go back…. I have things I need to do. Where did you find a blowtorch anyway?”

She shifted. “I… stole it from the maintenance department before I left. I’ll bring it back as soon as we get there.” Her eyes narrowed at me, “But why, why would you need to risk your life, against everything we’ve been taught about how dangerous this place is? Just what is so important that you’d leave everypony behind to die! The stable needs you, Shadow. The stable needs everypony!”

I looked down at the fire, contemplating my next words. “We…. can’t continue living like this. We’re going to run out of stable that can be repaired. Maybe not, with this section open… maybe they can grab the parts they need to keep y’all alive back there. Or maybe we can get to the surface…. But I have something I promised I’d do, so I can save a friend…. and that requires me going outside.” I looked back up into her eyes, “Lily, I know this is going to sound completely crazy, so let me start off with this. How did you know you were going to need a blowtorch?”

She looked down at the tool, blinking a few times. “I…. I don’t know. I just did. Instinct, I guess.”

I shook my head at her, “No, Lilly…. something much more than that.”

And so I told her everything. About what happened when I died…. leaving out a few details there. About meeting Doctor Soul. About what happened to bring me back to life. About the deal I made with him. About exploring out here in the stable, the fall of stable 79, making friends with Aquarius, and my run in with Cold Stone. She just listened with wide eyes, stopping me every now and then to put more burnables into the fire. I don’t know how, but it seemed like she believed me. I don’t think anypony else would have.

She sat for a moment in silence, contemplating everything I had just said. Her cute eyes opened slowly, turning to look directly into mine. “Have…. you checked the Overmare’s office?”

I blinked, “Checked her office for what?”

“The passcode for the stable door.”

Was she serious? Our Overmare wasn’t competent enough to run our section of the stable. “Why would she ha-”

Lily lifted her hoof to my lips, silencing me with a soft giggle, smiling brightly at me. “Shadow….. I do love you, you know.” I had to blush at that, “But sometimes you’re a complete idiot.”

Her hoof lifted off my lips, slowly pointing up to a sign above a door on the wall behind me. Overmare’s Office. “....Oh.” I groaned as I set up. “Yea…. let’s go.” I said reaching for my bags and holding them above the fire, getting them nice and toasty before I turned towards the door.

“Should you really be moving around like that?” She sat up, looking at me with concern, “You almost froze to death!”

I nodded. “Not my first time since I came down here. Cold’s been after me ever since I left…….” Oh. Oh no…. Just no. My eyes slowly turned to Lily, widening them as I came to realize. “....That means he’d be after you too.”

She sighs, and nods. “Yes, Shadow, I know. I figured that out when you mentioned him wanting bodies for his…. collection.” She shivers, moving next to me to try to see inside the window of the room we were about to enter. “But I can’t see him. So I’m safest with you. Let’s do this so we can get out of here….” She sighed, and set her hoof back down, her pipbuck having illuminated nothing but the blinds on the other side.

I nodded slowly at that, “Sorry for dragging you into this, Lily….” I said, opening the door to the Overmare’s office and stepping inside. “I need to find a way to disable his powers…. Was able to on the first wraith. But he seems to be different, somehow.”

Cold…. just like every other room. Cold Stone must have really taken over the place. I had hoped once the heating was on for a while, the place would get warmer. I knew I took one of the heating talismans, but there would have been more than enough other ones elsewhere to compensate… It seemed that the only place he couldn’t freeze where the spots that were directly affected by the talismans. This brought up an interesting question… Why hadn’t he just taken over our section? Sure, we had our own heating talismans, but he should have been able to freeze us over now for his ‘art’.

Instead, he waited years for somepony to leave. That... didn’t make any sense… did something prevent him from entering?

I pushed that thought aside as I took a good look around the room. This was nothing like our Overmare’s office… this was an actual office. The aged lights hummed as they slowly flicked to life, revealing the large desk and blood splattered shelves filled with old books and trinkets that overlaid the corners of the back wall. Large sloppy words were written hastily in more blood between them.

‘Death is Freedom’

The skeleton of who I assumed to have been the Overmare sat in a large comfy looking leather chair. Her hooves were pressed together and her head was ever so slightly tilted as if she was listening to every word I would have to say. Large sections of her skull were cracked open, then carefully positioned back into place. In front of her, the desk was neatly organized with her terminal on one side and some small photo frames of smiling ponies on the other.

Just by the look of this office, whoever this pony was… can she please replace Greyburn?

As I moved closer to the desk, I noticed the pony shaped smear in blood underneath the writing. I really wish that whoever took the time to reorganize this room after the struggle would have taken the time to throw around a little Abraxo cleaner.

As I turned to the terminal, my horn glowing a brief moment as I hit the power button, I noticed Lily staring at the blood-riddled scene with an open mouth. “You… You weren’t kidding when you said this place went to hell…”

I nodded to her, not having anything to say to that. This room spoke for itself.

The computer hummed to life and I quickly managed to hack in. Oh wow, she had a lot of files on here. Lily moved up next to me, sitting down with her head resting gently against my neck. My hoof found its way to wrapping around her back, her touch bringing a smile to my face. Just by being there, Lily was able to make me feel just a little bit warmer.

As I searched through the terminal, I found a folder containing a series of recordings. Audio Logs, I assumed, timestamped and marked with abbreviations I couldn’t quite understand. Well, the data was good, so I hooked up my pipbuck, quickly downloading one of the logs labeled ‘OOEB’ and played it while I continued to sift through what seemed to be hundreds of files.

“This is Overmare Shortcake calling all ponies. This is a code red announcement. Get to a secure zone and lock your doors, we are under attack from an unknown group. Do not open your doors for anypony, not even security! All Security teams, initiate lockdown and guide ponies to secure zones immediately!

I repeat, this is a code red announce-’” The sound of a sliding door snapped my attention out of that reality, and into our own, but I quickly realized it came from the recording emanating from my leg.

“Hello, sweetcakes~” said a low voice, followed by two other dark chuckles. “This has been a long time coming.”

“Iron! Wh- you’re behind this?

"Oh, you could say that~ Really though, this is all because of you. We are fucking DONE with this 5 to 11 bullshit you got going for us. I can't tell you how many late nights it has been simply reconfiguring rooms to your whims. And now? It ends. No more pools, no more massage parlors, no more ice cream shots." The sound of metal scraping metal etched at my ears the the voice drew closer. "It ends NOW."

The recording cut short as Lilly's hoof touched my pipbuck, just as the overmare's scream and pleas for help echoed through the room. "I'd... rather not listen to that. If you don't mind...."

My eyes fell on the mare, a soft expression falling on my face as I looked into her sorrowful eyes. "Alright..." I gave her a nod, as my attention pulled back to the terminal. There were hundreds of these audio logs, but only a few text files. It made it easy to search through which ones were open. By the time the recording ended, I had already found the correct file. Ironically, the passcode for the door was to be 'WINTER.'

"Alright. I got it." I nodded to Lilly, shutting off the terminal. "Let's go."

We left the office quickly, following the signs towards the stable door. The walls got darker and darker, despite the illumination coming from both of our pipbucks. As we approached the final bend... it dawned on me just how cold it was.

My hoof slipped on ice as we took the final turn, before smashing into a block of ice, an icicle smashing into my head, splitting it with a sharp sting.A soft trickle of blood ran down into my eye, blocking part of my vision as I looked up at the icey figure.

Aquarius. A soft glimmer of her form emanated from within the icy prison, a shocked form frozen solid. She looked like she was fighting, her wings flared and her hind legs in the air.

"Shadow!" Lily came over, her hooves smooshing into my cheeks as she looked at the cut on my forehead. "That's... going to need stitches." She remarked, before I pulled out of her reach.

"Aquarius! Lilly, melt her!" I stated, giving her a soft look. "Once we take care of Cold, then we can worry about stitches."

Lily glared at me, before turning on the blowtorch and aiming it at the frozen-ghosts face. "And how are we going to do that? He's already DEAD! I don't know if you've studied metaphysics or not, but you can't shoot a ghost, Shadow! We should head back to the others."

"N-no..." Came Aquarius as her maw was melted free by the flame. "But you c-can burn him.... wi-"

"Shadow? Look." Lily interrupted, agitation echoing through her voice, her pip-light shining through the empty space, illuminating the wall beyond.

The first thing that was obvious to me was the speckles of light shimmering on the wall. The second was the round gear with the giant numbers '79' behind. "Damn Cold....." I muttered under the chilled breath that nipped my lips, approaching the wall.

Cold Stone had frozen us in, the stable door glimmering teasingly under a foot thick wall of ice. My breath sharpened, feeling my blood boil, despite the cold that seemed to just get worse with every passing hour. "We'll kill him. Destroy him! We are dying in this stable, and it's only a matter of time!"

"Sh...Shadow, calm down." Aquarius mumbled.

"I'd be right with you." Lilly stood, glaring as the ice melted at Aquarius's chest. "He's nothing but a sick murderer!"

"Calm down.... windegos are fueled by hate..."

"Why shouldn't I hate him?" My glare and ice-infused rage directed at the icicle pony. "What would you suggest we do?"

Aquarius took a breath, turning to face me with one of the kindest smiles I've known. I blinked, my raged mind taken aback by her calm reaction, as Lily litteraly melted her to freedom.

"Burn him with the fires of love."

Author's Note

I really, really wish shadow was out of his stable. But tune in next time!