Prologue
I stared up at the huge cog door. The yellow number emblazoned on it’s face was faded and chipped, but I knew what it was. There had been many like it, hundreds even, built all across Equestria in the final years of the war that had ended our little corner of the world. The day the bombs started falling and radiation blanketed the land, ponies all over attempted to pour into these shelters, these... Stables. Only a select few were permitted to enter, the others were forced to stay outside, to die a slow and painful death from radiation poisoning. If you were lucky, you were instantly vaporized by the power of the twisted dragons’ breath.
If you weren’t, you got the chance to see us at our worst.
“Hey,” the mare beside me said. “You okay, mate?”
“Yeah, yeah...” I responded, more for myself than to answer her question. The gravelly earth beneath my hooves crunched as I fidgeted, still staring at the gear shaped door.
It was symbolic, if you thought of it. It was the final gear in what many thought to be a fine, well-oiled machine. Every pony, every part, every tool, nut, bolt, and screw had a job. But as soon a single gear slipped or broke, problems arose. If there was no replacement for the part, then the whole thing came to a screeching halt, and all the ponies inside would die.
I had a job to finish, as much as I hated it. I trotted up to the pedestal that held the code input interface.
“Alpha. Epsilon. Gamma...” Did I really want to do this? Things weren’t like they said. I’d been used... lied to...
Betrayed...
Yet, I couldn’t let them down. I had to go in and finished what I started. After that, I’d leave and ever look back. Whatever happened to them was their doing and theirs alone. I wouldn’t fight, I wouldn’t argue. I’d simply leave.
“Iota...” What if they didn’t let me? They almost didn’t let her.
It was a risk I had to take.
For her.
“Sigma...” I pressed the button.
Slowly, the door started to scream across its track.
It seemed like only yesterday I left Stable 59...
