Fallout Equestria: Wasteland Rhythm

Chapters

Chapter 1: A Slice of Life
Chapter 2: Door to Tartarus
Chapter 3: Nativity
Prologue: The Stable

Chapter 1: A Slice of Life

~ ~ ~

Well children, I’ve gotten wind that maybe that tiny taste of what’s to come wasn’t enough. That some of y’all out there want more. Now I know that you want to get all the juicy details and trust me, you will.

But just hold up! Y’all don’t want to get too hasty and fill up on bread before we even bring on the appetizers, do you? I’m not tellin’ you everything right away; there’s no fun in that! And even then, some things just don’t need to be shared. Even I gotta respect some privacy out in the Wasteland…

I…okay…I know some of you are thinking, “Hey, Pon3, since you have this information, doesn’t that mean that this pony isn’t in the stable anymore?”

Well, y’see children…you’re gonna have to wait and find out.

But don’t worry. I, your ever-humble chef of all that is entertaining, now present the first course. Bon appétit…

~ ~ ~

Chapter 1: A Slice of Life

”To live such fruitless years behind a guarded door…”

Do you know why ponies resort to violence?

The saying “violence never solved anything” is an absolute fallacy. As much as I admit my disdain of it, violence is one of the few things that actually provide a permanent solution to anything. That’s why, in many cases, it’s never considered a last resort.

The resort depends on how irrational a set of ponies can be and there can be no more irrational set of ponies than the Edges. They originally formed as some kind of antisocial group of delinquents in the stable. Sadly, a couple of them used to be really good ponies. Others just happened to be too young to see the error in joining a group under the guise of peer pressure.

Though, the problem that arises now is simply that as their numbers increase, their misdeeds have followed suit. These ponies provide more trouble than is necessary for the stable’s security teams.

They haven’t presented far too many problems in the past… but with more time that goes by, they just seem to up their ante. And in a full house run by a king and queen, too many jokers causing trouble will eventually be royally flushed out.

But, with the Edges, they always seemed to have an ace in the hole.

Nopony in the stable knows this better than Barrier Reef. Though, everypony calls him Barricade, he’s the head of stable security. A pony who, all formalities aside, scares the hell out of me. He runs a tight shift nowadays complete with watches and curfews thanks to recent duress.

The Overstallion could only agree wholeheartedly with the notion. After what happened to me more recently, the two of them came to the conclusion to lockdown the stable until the Edges were, quote-unquote, “ground down to the hilt.”

I suppose I don’t blame the Overstallion for coming down on the stable… I just wish that I didn’t feel as if I were the one responsible for it.

Long story short, I got in a fight with one of them; an earth pony called Switchblade. He lost and decided to get even with me for it. He brought friends later and beat me almost to death. If the Overstallion hadn’t been keeping tabs on me on the monitors, I probably would have.

What the Overstallion saw over the camera feed must have registered as a bit of threat considering he sent Barricade to come help me. Now, Switchblade and his pals are in a holding cell in the lower reaches. Since then, the Edges seemed to have gone into hiding.

Switchblade may have been the one who attacked me, but he was just a marionette with a grudge. The one pulling the strings is Claymore; a unicorn. Switchblade may talk big, but Claymore is the real leader. I’ve met him once, when they tried to ‘recruit’ me: him, Switchblade and some shy unicorn mare.

Claymore has this smooth tone of voice and way with words coupled with a stare that just makes it difficult not to pay heed to every single sentence that leaves his mouth. But he hasn’t ever been directly involved in any of the incidents, so Barricade hasn’t been able to restrain him, or, as far as anypony is concerned, even get a bead on him.

Though the shifts are tighter, work is more hectic and the Overstallion couldn’t be more anxious, days continue as they normally would. In, and then out. Simple.

But of course, there always has to be a catch. Thanks to these curfews, ponies aren’t allowed to roam the corridors at night, which is the only time my coltfriend can make it back to my room unnoticed.

Like I said before, ‘straightened façade’ means that I can’t be seen in public with him… so we do the sensible thing and sneak around.

But, still, days continue as usual and mine’s about to begin.

* * *

Ever had a nail hammered into your skull by incredibly precise and powerful bucks to the head? Ever had a hangover with an alarm blaring in your ear? Same cloth.

Six in the morning isn’t a time that I’d prefer to wake up even when sober the night before. But, of course, when your job basically demands that you do the same for everypony else in the stable, it’s not the only headache I’ll be receiving in the mornings.

The Overstallion set off an alarm system in my Pipbuck and I don’t know how to deactivate it for the life of me. This, at the moment, could very well be the case.

Clasping my hooves over my ears and clutching the little sanity I was retaining, it took my mind a few moments to process that I just brought the source of the noise closer to my head. I brought my hoof over the side of my dresser and whacked the device as hard as I could in an attempt to end the high-pitched scream.

KNOCK!

Stop…

KNOCK!

Argh, damn you, stop!

With one final strike, the noise ended and the world returned to its normal, blurry self. Oh, such sweet relief! Blinking until my eyes were clear, I lied back down and let my hoof wander until I felt it hit a glass object coiled in my sheets with a small, muffled clink.

Reaching out with my magic, bringing a dim yellow light into my darkened confines, I unfolded the sheets and brought the object closer. Empty bottle of Cuisine’s Apple Whiskey… the emphasis was on ‘empty.’

With a groan, I strained my magic to lift the bottle and place it gently on the top of my dresser. As I rolled from my bed, I lightly traced a hoof upon the cold metal floor until I was certain I had the proper footing. Each hoof touched down shakily as I forced my weakened form to stand up straight.

The room spun for a moment as I managed to keep my stomach from tossing its contents. I had to shut my eyes; taking shallow breaths through gritted teeth and feeling my brow perspire.

“Oh,” I groaned, wrapping my hooves around my stomach, “here comes the best part…”

Risking the flare of pain, I threw my magic at the light switch and quickly surveyed my room until I found a wastebasket. Out of the corner of my eye, I spotted it, my savior. I darted to it and pulled it before me as I prepared for the throes of sickness to begin.

I coughed and wheezed into the bucket, but nothing came out, leaving the pain in my stomach to become unbearable. Bringing my head closer to the lip, I hugged myself tightly, trying to force out what I could to no avail.

The dry heaves continued until my throat gave out. I fell back on the cold floor, panting heavily. “Oh, Goddesses, just kill me now!” I brought one of my hind legs up and bucked the empty wastebasket back into its corner.

“I see you’ve discovered faith again.” I lifted my head as my eyes met with the familiar teal pools of my lover, face stained with his seemingly ever present wry smile. “Seems to come whenever you’re kicking the bucket,” he said, staring at the wastebasket I just bucked.

How did I forget that he was even here? Well, his purple and blue streaked mane was only slightly disheveled and his light blue coat was no worse for wear. I guess he didn’t have the same night as me.

“You don’t know the half of it, Flash,” I muttered, sitting back up and bringing myself to my haunches.

“Oh, on the contrary,” he quipped as his horn emanated a teal aura, letting the same aura surround the empty bottle atop my dresser, floating it to eye level, “I know the whole of it.”

He levitated the bottle over the lip of the wastebasket and let it sit there, hovering. Oh, no, please for the love of all that is sacred and decent—

He let it drop.

I winced and let a whine escape my lips. The sound of the bottle hitting the bottom of the wastebasket was like a torrent of hellfire breaching my eardrums. And still, he had the nerve to saunter from the bed and place a blanket over me with his magic.

Why must you pity me?

“I told you not to overdo it, and you overdo it. I’d figure that you would’ve learned by now that when your father gives you a gift, he always has an ulterior motive.” His eyes never left the wastebasket as he said those words. “Now go do what you have to and get back to bed. You and I have unfinished business.”

“I think I liked you better when I thought you were a filly,” I mumbled.

“No you didn’t.”

One day, I should really ask him what the title to my life is since he can read me like a book…

Once again, I unsteadily raised myself to my hooves and managed to amble my way toward my terminal. Taking my seat and a deep breath, I pressed the button to the intercom.

“GOOOOD MORNING, STABLE 47!” Feigning energy was something I could do pretty well, especially when music was involved. “Got quite a selection for you all today including two brand new, sure-to-be hits from the little prodigy herself, Ocean Current! So shout now, yell now, it’s time to raise your sleepy heads!”

And time to get back to restingmine…

I took my hoof away from the intercom’s button and stepped away from the terminal. Just as I set a hoof back in my bed, Flashback curled his hooves around my neck and pulled me closer.

As our lips met, my head throbbed as I made an attempt to lean in further. Just as we finally began reaching a rhythm unattainable by even music, I heard the very distinct beep coming from the link I shared with the Overponies’ office, alerting me as painfully as possible. Sadly, I knew what came next.

“Wavelength,” boomed the powerful voice of the Overstallion through the intercom, perforating my eardrums with horn-splitting efficiency.

Oh, Sweet Celestia, make it stop!

“If you have any time to take off from your hectic sleeping schedule, please be sure to come by and see us.” Due to his slow, yet deliberately audible tone, I could only assume that he had the knowledge that I had kicked back a couple rounds. “There is a matter that needs to be discussed in private. And, just so we’re clear, that means now.”

Flashback and I let out a very downtrodden, very exasperated and very mutual sigh. I stripped the blanket away and rolled back out of my comfy bed and onto the floor.

The merry-go-round in my skull made it very evident that had been a bad idea. Shaking my head (not a painless choice, but effective nonetheless) and regaining my composure, I reached out a hoof to my dresser and slid out the drawer.

As my horn glowed, I pulled out a dark blue stable suit, complete with the yellow ‘47’ stitched on the back. I fell back to my bed and lifted my hooves, letting the uniform fall. Fitting my hooves through the sleeves, I pulled my head through the hole and rested my hooves upon my lap.

With another sigh, I got back up and walked in front of my mirror that sat next to my dresser. I might as well try and look presentable. Turns out I looked far better than I felt.

Well, hello, sexy!

“Hey,” Flashback pulled my attention away from myself, “shouldn’t you take a shower at least before you go?”

“Well, you heard the pony, now.”

“Ew. Okay, then I’ll go take one.” As he passed by with his Stable-Tec uniform and lab coat in tow, he threw a glance at me. “It’ll probably last longer anyway.”

My ear perked up. “With all due respect, Flash? Bite me.”

“Maybe later, but right now it would be kind of redundant seeing as the Overstallion seems prepared to chew you out as it is…and it’s only six in the morning. Bravo, I might add.”

Witty little…

He planted a soft kiss on my horn and left for the exit, pressing the latch as the door hissed upward. “Whoa!”

Flashback was bolted past by a silver blur. It touched off the ground and landed atop me with an ‘umph,’ which roughly translates to ‘this unit has stopped working, please stand by.’

Yup. Definitely down for the count on this one. I’ll just save you both the trouble and start at zero.

“Wavey!” chirped the voice of a filly. “Wavey? Wake up!”

“You’re going to have to give him a moment, hon.”

Zero! If you could, tell the Overstallion I died.

“Uh, scoot over, dear, let me try something.”

I dare you. There is absolutely nothing you can do to possibly get me to—

Flashback leaned over me and whispered softly into my ear.

Oh, you’ll have to do better than that.

“…and you can go first tonight.”

…damn it…

I sat up from my metal grave and stared down at the little filly to my right who almost broke me. Instead of shouting, I had to use a calm tone of voice for two reasons: one, to avoid risking further injury and two, something I’ve learned about my sister over the years is that if I take anything out on her, it only makes me feel worse.

“O, you really shouldn’t come barging in here like that,” I said, clutching my still-healing ribs.

Her ears drooped. “I didn’t mean to hurt you. I just came in here to ask you something. But do you really mean it, Wavey? You already finished my songs?” She reverted back to that of her normal, energetic self, beaming up at me expectantly.

Catching a case of her contagious energy, I smiled back. “Would I lie to you?”

Her indigo eyes rolled up in deep thought before she shook her head vigorously, sending strands of her golden mane in opposite directions.

I got up for hopefully the final time and walked to the door only to be halted by something latching onto my tail. I turned my head to see my sister clamping her jaws around it.

“Vait, Vavey,” she urged around a mouthful of hair. I turned to her as she let her grip on me fall loose. “I have to ask you something really important.”

“Can’t it wait? I have to go talk to the Overponies and you know that they don’t like to be kept waiting.”

I really don’t like even being the slightest bit cross with my sister, but I’d rather not leave the kettle to boil on this one.

“Y-yeah…okay…”

Great, now my heart’s broken. What a great morning this is turning out to be!

“J-just play with uncle Flashback till I get back, okay?”

She perked up a bit at that. She turned her attentions to my coltfriend and he let that wry smile of his take a hike for a much more nervous one. Well, I get to celebrate one little victory today.

“Be right back,” I called as I scampered through the doorway and heard the hatch slide back into place.

I noticed a small flickering coming from above me that caused me to wince. Faulty light bulb, no doubt. Maintenance probably already has somepony on their way here to fix it.

The distance between my quarters and the Overponies’ office wasn’t very far. I turned the corner and glanced between posters taped across the walls; some displaying Alpha coupled with a biohazard warning and Omega proudly positioned above it. Other flyers contained the familiar scrap metal forged hoof-blades used by the Edges crossed through within a red circle. Another depicted Barricade and some of his team in full barding complete with shields that read “SECURITY.”

Numbered rooms lined the entire corridor, each one running parallel to the one across from them. The lights above provided a well lit path, though their spacing gave them the appearance of individual spotlights.

Once I reached the end of the corridor, the intersection, the wall coveted arrows pointing in opposite directions; left leading to the medical bay and past that, the cafeteria and auditorium. I took to the right, toward Stable-Tec Security workstations and the Overponies’ personal office.

I passed by the various security offices adorned with plaques displaying names such as Nightwatch, Failsafe, Flashbang, and Barricade. The only one actually occupying their workplace was Nightwatch, nocturnal as ever and asleep at his desk.

I finally made the turn to the Overponies’ office. However, I landed on my haunches as I hit a steel wall, or, once I looked up, rubbing my head as my hangover made its presence all the more known, a Barricade.

His dark grey coat almost entirely concealed behind heavy black 47 security barding gave him the appearance of a knight straight out of a ponytale. His twin riot shield cutie marks were what guaranteed your safety around him. His stature; like that of a sentry even as he knelt down to my eye-level. His left eye was swollen and blackened and a bandage stretched across his nose, having been recently broken. He opened his mouth to speak.

“Sup.”

Always such a way with words.

The two of us (mostly me) sat in silence for a few moments before I got to my hooves. “So, you’re in…pretty rough shape?” I couldn’t tell to be honest. He almost always had some form of injury… almost always in the face.

“Check the holding cell if you wanna see rough shape. This is just a scratch.”

“So you’re cracking down on the Edges pretty good, huh?”

“Feels like their numbers thinned out. That or they’re just going into hiding. Hehe, my bet’s on the latter. And just when I was starting to have fun around here.” He placed a hoof under his jaw and jerked it to the left, making me cringe as a loud pop rang out.

“But, I still can’t help but wonder where they disappeared to. Bro hasn’t been able to find ‘em anywhere on the monitors and patrols’ve been sent all over the place but haven’t found a thing. It’s almost like they just up and vanished.”

Great, more to worry about.

“Tried interrogating the orange one for a while, maybe find out if he knew anything…but he wouldn’t talk. All he said was that his leader already thought things out…said he could be a real party-pooper. His words, not mine.”

“Well…okay then…try not to overdo it there, okay, big guy?”

“Ha!” he bellowed. “I know you’re one to make a bad joke every once in a while, but don’t bother worrying about me.” He followed with a look of concern. “That reminds me…how ‘bout you? Doing any better?”

“Y-yeah.”

“Ribs healing up nicely? What about your ear?”

Putting a hoof to the right side of my head, I sighed. “I’m…fine. May I please get by?” I asked as dryly as possible. “Don’t exactly need the Overponies on my case, y’know?”

“Sure, though you really don’t have to refer to them that way.” He turned and raised a hoof to the door, but for whatever reason, I just couldn’t help myself.

“Wait!” He paused and looked back toward me. “Lemme do it!” He shrugged and stepped aside. A sly smile lined my face; I have a plan for revenge! I raised my hoof to the door, only to lower it as my horn began to glow.

“Tide!” I shouted in the low monotone of Barricade. Judging from his raised eyebrow, I could only assume I was spot-on. I knew every instinct he had as a guardian was kicking in, but he didn’t stop me.

“There’s a fire in the maintenance tunnels! The Edges must have set something off down there! All attempts to extinguish it have failed! We have to evacuate the stable!”

Moments later, the Overstallion emerged from his office. His dark brown coat and mane were soaked and he had a towel wrapped around his flanks. Eyes wide with fear and… no, wait, he was glaring and one of those daggers just nicked me. And just to add insult to injury, Barricade was roaring with laughter at my failed attempt at vengeance.

Uh oh…

“Sooo, you were taking a shower?” I asked, desperately trying to change the subject. I may not have left the kettle to boil, but something told me that the tea was done anyway.

“Yes,” came the voice of the Overmare from behind him, “he was.”

I peered around the Overstallion. Her grey eyes, originally a light purple before the use of Alpha, were fixed on me. Her silver coat and blond mane were glistening similar to his which led me to draw a single conclusion.

And, wait for it, there’s the shame setting in. Wait… no, we’re even.

“Three things,” the Overstallion began. “One, you’ve already played a similar trick on me, so I already know you can alter your voice. Two, fire can’t spread in the stable without the alarms picking it up. And three, this is the big one, Barricade isn’t familiar with the term ‘evacuate.’”

Barricade, who was still laughing, abruptly stopped. “You really know how to kill a mood there, bro.” He resumed his position as a sentinel and set his gaze ahead, returning to his original duty of guarding the door.

Remembering something rather important and feeling like a foal because of it, I looked up. “You used the camera, didn’t you?” I asked, pointing a hoof toward the device accusingly.

“That’s beside the point.”

That’s cheating…

The Overstallion beckoned me inside with a composed wave of a hoof and I moved without hesitation, the door ramming shut behind me.

Their office was nice and warm compared to the rest of the stable. Don’t get me wrong, other areas in the stable were warm enough; every room has a ventilation shaft. It just felt more prevalent in here.

The Overmare’s eyes were locked on me with a familiar disappointed look as I solemnly trudged forward. And here I was with all I could offer being a nervous chuckle.

The Overponies’ office was cleaned of nearly everything except the bare essentials, yet it was still comparatively larger than other rooms. Settled near the end of the room was his desk, lined with assorted documents and neatly arranged pencils with his terminal marked as the centerpiece.

Behind his desk sat a pair of massive bookshelves aligned with nonfiction on the left and fiction on the right, both in alphabetical order. And installed between the bookshelves were the intercom and the infamous panel of monitors used to survey the entire stable from the auditorium, to the maintenance tunnels, all the way to the holding cells in the lower reaches.

Oh, hi there Switchblade. Looks like you’re enjoying your accommodations.

In the upper left-hand corner was the grate-covered ventilation shaft, which, at the moment, appeared to be my only ally. To the right of the room were the private facilities of the Overponies; complete with a bathroom and their very own exclusive showers.

What I wouldn’t give for a private shower… the things I would do to Flashback in—

“Wavelength?” the Overstallion spoke, drawing my attention away from my important thoughts. He placed his hoof on my shoulder as he walked by. Rounding his desk, he draped his towel over the back of his chair.

As he took his seat, he used his magic, quickly donning his suit and his black mantle, which to me looked more like a glorified robe. He rested a hoof atop the wooden finish as he fixed me with a look of concern and the Overmare took to his side.

“Hmm?” I perked up.

“Do you have even the faintest idea as to why I called you here?”

With my head still pulsating violently, I could think of a few reasons. “To pester me?” I saw the Overmare shoot me a dirty look and my eyes immediately diverted to the ceil—

Ow, my eyes! Why, light?! Why must you hurt me so?

Rubbing my eyes, I heard the Overstallion cough to get my attention. Cracking open my right eye, I gave an innocent smile.

“Cute,” he stated flatly. He let his hoof tap the desk as he kept his onyx gaze secured on me. “Do you even remember the conversation we had last night?”

“Of course I do.” Yeah, no I don’t.

“So you’ve thought it over then?”

“Yeah, I’ll do...whatever it is that needs to be done.” I’m not going to lie, that disbelieving look I was getting from the Overmare was almost insulting at this point.

My eyes aren’t darting, I don’t know what you’re talking about; I just like what you’ve done with the place. What do you mean I’m smiling too wide? I’m happy to see you, that’s all.

“Good, I’ll let Barricade know that you’ve agreed to help keep watch around the stable.”

“Yeah, no prob—wait, what?!”

By the Goddesses, what in the world did I just agree to?! I don’t want to have to keep an eye out for the Edges; they’ll just cut it out of me! Maybe I can get Barricade to realize this is all a great big misunderstanding and the Overstallion’s grinning and I just got played like a recording…

“Gotcha,” he smirked. “Do you want to know the real reason I called you down here?”

Oh, give me a break…

Hugging myself and ignoring that annoying clicking sound coming from somewhere, I only looked him in the eye and nodded my head.

“Y-yeah, s-s-sure.”

What the heck is that? It’s really getting on my nerves and… oh, my teeth are chattering… I didn’t even notice.

“You see, the real reason is far more important.”

“Yes?” I can see where this is going…

“And I believe it would be just as important to you.”

“Yes?!” Please just get on with it…

“As you know, Ocean Current’s cuteceañera is coming up.”

“Yes?!” Fantastic. Now the suspense and the hangover are killing me!

“And because of this she has a…” He looked me over and let a sadistic grin line his muzzle. “Oh, by the way, how was the whiskey?”

Almost on cue, I felt my stomach tie itself in a knot and a noose form around my neck. Something told me what followed wasn’t going to be the same false alarm from earlier.

The Overmare, thank the Goddesses, grasped a wastebasket in her magic and swept it over to me. With a grateful glance, I felt the bile burning its way up my throat and wretched a nights worth of poor decisions into the receptacle.

“Oh, for Luna’s sake,” blurted the Overmare, “can’t you see the poor thing isn’t feeling well?” She turned her attention back to me. “Ocean wants to perform a duet with you for her cuteceañera. Will you do it, yes or no?”

Pulling my head from the wastebasket with a sigh of relief, I blinked. “That’s what you called me down here for? You couldn’t have just asked over the intercom?”

“Well, I—“the Overstallion began before the Overmare deadpanned and placed a hoof atop his head. “Crescent…thought that she might have already been in the room with you and we wanted it to be a surprise.” At that, she smiled and ruffled his mane.

“Fair enough. Well, I’m done here,” I sighed, lowering the wastebasket. I softly shook my head and turned to walk to the door.

“Where are you going?” asked the Overstallion. “Aren’t you even going to give us an answer?”

“This is my sister we’re talking about. How can I possibly say no?”

Outside of Flashback, I love my sister more than anything in the world. As her big brother, it’s my responsibility to make sure that she enjoys her life to the fullest extent, even if it means that I have to suffer for it. But seeing as my suffering was only just beginning for the day anyway, I might as well go all out.

“Glad to hear it.” The Overstallion tapped the desk’s door control, allowing the large hatch to slide open. “We’ll let her know the next time we see her.”

“Uh-huh,” I mumbled as I slowly treaded out the exit.

When I heard the hatch close, I rounded Barricade and stared up at him impatiently. His gaze shifted upward as he began to whistle nonchalantly. Flattering as it may be that it was one of my songs, I cocked a loaded eyebrow. His whistling slowed to a halt as he realized I had him at point-blank range.

“Ocean, you can come out now, the jig is up,” he surrendered.

Sure enough, behind Barricade’s black mane protruded a pair of large indigo eyes that blinked twice before the filly they were attached to emerged headfirst.

“Aw, how’d you know?” she asked with a whine.

“First off, just because you have a black stripe in your tail doesn’t mean I wouldn’t notice Barricade’s new blond ponytail.” She looked back and wagged her tail before giving me a sheepish smile. “Now how much of that did you hear?”

“…all of it,” she said guiltily as she drew tiny circles in Barricade’s mane with her hoof as his tail began wagging.

All I could do was sigh. “And just like that you’ve spoiled the surprise.”

Her face morphed into one of the most crestfallen scowls I’ve ever seen in my entire life.

Wow, beat me in two moves, why don’t you…

“Wait, it’s okay,” I consoled, “just…be sure that you at least act surprised when they tell you. Can you do that for me, O?”

She leapt from Barricade’s head and landed square in front of me. Her eyes wide, she reared to her hind hooves and gasped loudly before falling on her back as if she had fainted. Her left foreleg even twitched for dramatic effect.

Despite myself, I couldn’t help but laugh. I even saw Barricade crack a smirk. “Whoa, hang on there. You’re telling me you can sing and act? No fair.”

Her left eye popped open and she rolled to her hooves with the same ever-animated expression she always seemed to carry. “I can dance, too!”

“I bet you can,” I chuckled. I’d almost figure I’d remember something right about…“Hey sis, what happened to Flashback?”…there.Well that’s good.

“He had to let me go so he could go to work,” she replied innocently.

“Uh-huh.” I don’t believe that one bit. “C’mon, let’s go,” I said as I cocked my head to the opposite end of the corridor, turned and walked. She quickly cantered in front of me and began walking backwards.

“Wavey? Fire can’t spread in the stable without the alarms going off. Even I know that.”

Outside of being condescended upon by a tiny filly, I drew exhibit A. There was no way she could have heard that unless she made it there before me, or very shortly after.

“Yup.”

We made a turn and she bounded ahead of me straight to my door as she hopped up and down giddily.

I don’t know where she gets all this energy, but I would almost swear she was siphoning it straight from that light bulb. Why is it still flickering? Maintenance should have already taken care of that by now.

Pressing the latch to the door, it shot open revealing exhibit B. Hot doctor trembling in place at the foot of my bed as if he just did something unforgivable. It couldn’t possibly have anything to do with the case of the lying little filly, could it?

Flashback turned to look at me, dashing to my hooves, locking his fetlocks together and looking up to me apologetically. “Wavelength! I’m so sorry!” he said with a panic.

“What’s wrong?”

As if I didn’t already know…

“I was watching Ocean Current and then she hopped up on the bed and tore the grate off the shaft and went inside and then she was gone!” He had his hoof pointed in the direction of the open hole in the wall.

“Please don’t be mad at me, I’m sorry and…” I heard her trying to sneak away as tiny clinks of hoof on metal reached my ears. I reeled her back in between Flashback and I with my magic. “…and…and…”

She let a timid smile stretch across her face as she waved her hoof in an attempt to soften the blow. Flashback’s face sank as if he just saw a ghost before wiping a hoof across his forehead with a loud ‘phew.’

“Well, Ocean Current. You’ve spoiled a surprise, kept the cutest doctor in the stable from going to work and disobeyed me once again.” I indicated the shaft with a hoof. “How many times have I told you not to go in the air ducts? It’s dangerous in there, you know that. What do you have to say for yourself?”

“…wanna see me dance?”

“Yeah, I want to see you waltz back to your room. We’ll talk about this later.”

She solemnly walked from my room and to the door next to mine, sliding through the opening after pressing the latch with her magic. After it closed, I exhaled my sternness. Walking through my own door, I practically galloped to my bed and lifted the grate back into place.

Now I feel twice as bad as I had before. Great. Dumb grate…

“One of these days,” Flashback began, “you’re going to have to be a lot less lenient with her.”

“You’re kidding, right? Did you see the look on her face?”

“I’m not saying that you have to be cruel, just tell your parents about some of the stuff she does and let them handle it.”

“You know damn well I can’t do that!” I snapped.

“Why? Simply because you feel that if they find out she isn’t a precious little angel, you believe they’ll cease to love her? Wavelength, I’m not telling you to clip her wings, but she can’t live a life feeling like no matter what she does, she won’t suffer any serious repercussions.”

“What, so you want me to get my parents to hit her? Like your father did to…“ I couldn’t understand the words leaving my mouth. It was like I just took my frustration out on him for no reason. “I…I’m sorry…I’m just under a lot of—“

“Stress? I’m aware and I understand…but right now, I think I’m going to need to be left alone for a while.” He stepped out of the door and looked back. “Try and get some sleep, Wavelength.” With that, the door seemed to slam rather than simply slide back into place.

Flashback was good at hiding his real emotions, but I know when I’ve screwed up. The metal shell he wears around his coat rusts easily from the countless tears I’ve watched him shed. I know him better than anypony in the stable and I know he’s put up with just as much of my baggage as I have with his… and neither of us are very easy to carry.

As I laid my head down and felt it sink into my pillow, I tried to drift, but was only left to dwell…

* * *

“Lately, safety, seems like a passing trend,

It maybe, hasty, but it just has to end…”

I slept off the hangover. Mostly. Yeah, I know I’m bringing that up a little much, but if I didn’t get any rest, the Overstallion was going to be beating a dead horse, too.

Before I left my room, I let a small playlist I set up on the terminal commence. Playing softly over the intercom, the entire stable was filled with Ocean Current’s beautiful voice.

I was currently working out what little remained of my dread with a cold shower. The Overponies had their own private bath, but the rest of the stable has to use public facilities. So, as fate would have it, I wasn’t the only one bathing at the moment.

As the cold water traveled down my spine, I could feel my steady rejuvenation coming to fruition. However, I noticed a few ponies looking at me strangely, almost as if I had no right in being here.

Looks that told me I was somehow contaminating the water supply with my very presence. If I even so much as craned my neck, even with the slightest movement, I could see them look away.

“Imprisoned; we hold our bars like a lifeline,

Imprisoned; trapped for what feels like a lifetime,

Imprisoned; on the inside, looking forever,

Imprisoned; yet we all still stand together…”

Following this routine for only moments longer, I dried off and left without a word. As soon as they thought I was out of earshot, I could hear their voices picking up.

“What the hell was he doing in here?” asked the voice of a stallion.

“Shouldn’t the spoiled fuck have a shower of his own?” asked another.

“Daddy, daddy,” imitated a mare, “if I make more garbage to be played over the intercom, do you think I can be the Overstallion? I’d be the best one ever since I can spew just as much crap!”

That elated some laughter for whatever reason. Honestly, if ignorance is bliss, I’d be in paradise right about now. I’m the DJ of the stable because I was the only one that actually tried to do it.

But I can understand that after a few years or so of most of the same recycled rhythms, ponies don’t enjoy your work as much as they used to. But, again, I live in a stable. That already makes it pretty difficult to be original.

I donned my usual apparel and slowly trotted down the corridor, past my room and headed straight for the cafeteria. This was break time for a majority of the ponies in the stable and though I haven’t done much during the day, I could use a bite to eat.

As I slipped through the large double-doors, I watched as many ponies cantered around one another in order to get from the line and back to their seats and vice versa. Ten lengthy tables expanded over immaculate metal-tiled floors.

Unlike nearly every other nook and cranny of the stable, the walls were completely uncovered of posters. Outside of the makeshift sign dangling over the bar that read “The Apple of my Eye” that sat in the center of a pony’s actual eye. I always guessed it was likely the eye of an Overstallion.

Thankfully, a less-dreadfully-ironic set of lyrics began to enter the cafeteria with the new song that began playing.

“No matter what, we forgive and forget,

Or all that remains is hate and regret…”

I was met with several glances as I trekked toward the end of the line at the bar. I saw Podium, my old teacher, who simply gave a curt nod as I passed by.

Flashback gave me an indecipherable look from the side of his father at their table in the back. I winked at him, but regarding how quickly he turned his head, I could assume he still didn’t want anything to do with me.

Not like I blame him…

The line separated quickly as I shifted my way through the small crowd. When it was my turn to be served, I noticed the only thing spread across the bar were apples. I tapped on the glass to get our ‘honorary chef’s’ attention from behind the counter.

“Hey, Cuisine, what gives? Normally you have more…variety than this.”

“Oh, now you like my cooking,” he said patronizingly. “Perfect, you can tell me what you think of it when you try it at your sister’s cuteceañera tomorrow. Till then, it’s just plain apples.” I raised an eyebrow and he just shrugged. “Overstallion’s orders.”

No matter how hungry I am I can’t eat… ugh, more than one or two.

I snagged a couple in my magic and traversed through the sea of occupied tables. I spotted Ocean Current sitting beside the Overstallion with Barricade practically towering over the two of them from the other side. They were talking and I could easily infer that the little filly already knew about her ‘surprise.’

“One day, we’ll hang our weapons to retire,

Making peace is how we’ll escape the fire…”

Maybe if I just walk away now, he won’t notice—

“Wavelength!” he signaled while waving his hoof in the air.

You know what, Celestia? I don’t appreciate your sense of humor.

I turned with a plastic smile, showing off a set of metal teeth and gleaming glass eyes, or, in other words, with a very artificial enthusiasm. I trotted back over to their table and took a seat next to Barricade. He bit into a fresh apple and chomped audibly as the ever-growing heap of ten cores became eleven.

“I’ve told your sister about your answer,” he told me with a thin smile.

“And was she surprised?” I asked, eying the filly incredulously. She kept her attention focused on the apple she had balanced between her hooves as she nibbled intently.

Ignorance most certainly is bliss. She’s definitely my sister.

“You bet she was. You should have seen her, hopping up and down like an ecstatic little…well…filly.” He put his hoof on top of her head and ruffled her mane. “She really wants to get into it.”

“Yeah,” I replied half-heartedly. I couldn’t keep my eyes off Flashback’s table.

Flashbang was far larger than his son. Not as big as Barricade, but he was at least the second largest pony in the stable, and for a unicorn, that’s impressive. Also, unlike Barricade, I’ve never seen Flashbang without his security barding. If I didn’t know better, I’d say he slept in it.

Looking between the two, the only actual resemblance he had to his son was the purple in their manes. Though, his was entirely purple. His slate-grey eyes were filled with little emotion and his orange coat spread across him like fire.

“…but, the cuteceañera is tomorrow…”

“Uh-huh.”

Sitting across from Flashback and his father was Failsafe, Flashback’s older brother. He worked his way up the ranks in security very quickly, the epitome of following in a father’s hoofsteps.

His mane was a darker shade of purple and his coat a much starker variant of orange in contrast. It was almost as if he was constantly wrapped in his father’s shadow. The biggest and only discernable difference between them was that he was an earth pony.

“…best get started as soon as possible.”

I bit into my own apple as I continued to listen mostly to the sound of him talking rather than what he was actually saying. After a few moments of chewing, I began to notice the silence. I swallowed my mouthful of food and let my ear perk up. Maybe I accidentally completely tuned him out?

“Ouch!”

Barricade just hoofed me in the ribs! He…he…! Well… since I’m not on the floor writhing in pain, it must have been to get my attention.

His eyes were watering as his lower lip was stuck out with a pout. He held the apple core up to me and I just stared at him dumbfounded.

“They only let me take a dozen,” he whined.

With a roll of my eyes, I passed one of my apples to him as he greedily snatched it away without even so much as a thank you.

Humph, well I didn’t want it anyway…

I paced my gaze back in the direction of the Overstallion who had me fixed with a disconcerted look.

“Did…did you say something?” I asked.

He deadpanned. “Get to work on Ocean’s song,” he said without even the slightest hint of emotion.

I took a bite of my apple and continued to stare at him.

“That means now.”

“Oh, you mean right now.”

“Yes.”

I got up from my seat and looked to the little filly across from me. “You ready, O? Wanna get started?”

She nodded and levitated what was left of her apple to Barricade.

“Hey, thanks,” he said.

Hey, wait a minute…

She leapt onto the table, bounced to the top of Barricade’s head and jumped once more, landing right on my back. Ow.

“Be sure to make it a masterpiece,” said the Overstallion, “if not for me, then for her.” That look of admiration I only knew from secondhoof experience broke the surface tension in his eyes as he spoke those words.

“Yes, sir,” I replied as I began to trot from the table with my sister in tow.

“Sir?” I heard him echo as I moved forward. “What ever happened to the mischievous little colt that used to call me dad?”

“Time is the remedy for all wounds healed,

But in due time, truths will be seen revealed…”

#

I have to make something clear.

Yes, I’m the Overponies’ son… but I never exactly called them my ‘parents.’

Parents help their children. As I was ‘struggling’ in my classes, they didn’t make any effort to assist me in improving my grades. They simply told me to do better and continued to allow me to fail.

Parents believe in their children. When I discovered my talent in creating music, they didn’t care. They told me that my grades were far more important than what my cutie mark told me I was good at.

Parents accept their children. I like stallions! How do they react? They make me keep it hidden away from the stable because they fear that their lineage may very well end with me.

So no, my parents weren’t around much when I was in school. No, my parents didn’t recognize my position as a performer in the stable. And no, my parents didn’t support me about my… preferences.

To them, I was just another inhabitant of Stable 47. Not a DJ, not a prodigy, not their son, just another citizen. Don’t get me wrong, it’s not like I hate them or anything, but the Overponies aren’t my parents.

They’re the politicians, the leaders and the figureheads, but not mom and dad. I can’t even remember the last time we’ve even spoken on terms that weren’t formal. They weren’t parents to me; they were parents to Ocean Current. Because if we don’t remind ourselves every day, history is doomed to repeat itself until we do.

But I feared that too would’ve ended if they ever found out she had a crush on another filly. I told her that when she was ready to let everypony know, she should. She shouldn’t be forced to hide it like I am…

I don’t care what anypony says… my sister deserved to take flight.

* * *

We were back in my room. We were supposed to get started on the song, but when I sat at my terminal to get us on a roll, I only ended up sitting still. My hooves were at my side as my horn glowed. Not having selected something to envelop, I was only wasting my magic. I was just too busy dwelling on things to really focus.

“Wavey?”

Maybe Flashback would forgive me if I just apologized…

“Wa-vey.”

Or maybe I should just keep my distance…

“Wavey!”

My ear perked. “Sorry, O…I’m just a bit distracted. We’ll get started in just a second, but it takes some time before you come up with the first line. You know it has to really capture your audience.”

“It’s not about that, big brother. I just wanted to—“

“O, this isn’t about me starting a diary again, is it?”

Her ears drooped. “But Wavey, you promised!”

“Yeah…I know, I know…and I will. But you know what I’ve been dealing with lately. I can’t just drop everything to help make up for all the time I’ve lost on writing one.”

“O…okay…”

“Please don’t do this with me now, O,” I coaxed. “I promise when everything with the Edge’s blows over, I’ll get started on it right away. I’ll even let you read some of it if you want.”

She gasped. “You can’t read somepony else’s diary! That’s just wrong…”

Okay, d’aww!

“Wait, I know! You can make it my cuteceañera present!”

I blinked. “But…I thought we were working on your—“

“Oh, you’re doing this because you want to! Don’t lie to me, Wavey.” She beamed at me with an indefatigable belief in her own words. “You can do the diary for me!” she squealed, rearing and raising up her forehooves, falling to her back and giggling madly.

I smirked. “We’ll see, O. We’ll see…”

She stood back up, still giggling. “I might even like this one as much as Uncle Flashback’s present!” She wagged her tail back and forth as she said that, showing off the black stripe along the right side.

I swished the gold stripe along the left side of mine into her face, making her spit profusely as I must have accidently grazed her mouth.

“I don’t know…that’s gonna be a pretty tough one to beat.”

“That doesn’t matter, Wavey. Remember what Flashy said!”

“I know…thanks to this, we’ll be right behind each other every step of the way.”

“That’s right!” She leapt up onto my lap and placed her forehooves to my chest. “And don’t you ever forget it!” She closed her eyes and smiled in the most adorable way she could… then her horn glowed. She gripped my uniform, pulling me eye-to-eye as she altered her voice menacingly. “Because if you do, I will devour your soul.”

…what?

She wrapped her tiny forelimbs around my neck and pulled me in for a hug. “I’m just kidding, Wavey.” As she fell away from me, she obviously noticed the startled look on my face. “Wavey?”

“Why did I teach you how to do that?”

* * *

Today is the day!

Ocean Current will be receiving his/her Pipbuck today!

The cuteceañera will be taking place this evening at 7:00 P.M.

The Overstallion will have the stable auditorium prepared for the party and EVERYPONY IS INVITED!

Note: Attendance by everypony is considered mandatory. Those who do not attend the party will be met with severe consequences. If you have a substantial reason pertaining to your absence, please report it to me before 8:00 A.M. tomorrow.

Have a nice day.

- Overstallion Black Tide

This message was sent to every terminal in the stable at approximately six in the morning. Thanks to a certain device on my left forehoof, I received the message fairly soon after it had been sent. Luckily, this time I wasn’t dying a slow, painful death.

It was currently six fifty-five in the evening and a vast majority of the ponies from every wing in the stable had shown up. There were a hoofful of doctors not present, along with a few key workers from maintenance and nearly every member of security bar Flashbang and Failsafe standing guard at the entrance. Even Barricade was sent patrolling in the lower reaches.

The auditorium was easily the largest room in the stable, barring the orchard, as it was built to accommodate the entire populous and then some. This was a good thing, considering there were over three hundred ponies in here at the moment.

It was also the brightest area in the entire stable. The overhead lamps were in closer proximity of one another, so the lighting was far more consistent and less spaced apart.

Balloons dangled limply from strings on the ceiling. Some were positioned so that the light would pass through the vibrant decorations, letting a flash flood of color penetrate the otherwise dismal atmosphere.

Banners brandished the upper nooks of the walls and a large red one hung over the stage with ‘Cuteceañera’ scrawled across it in large, yellow print.

The stage was not anything to truly be admired. It was basically just a large, flat surface at a slightly higher elevation from the rest of the floor. It almost had the appearance of an oversized pedestal with the Overponies standing resolute like a pair of statues near the center.

Cuisine, true to his word, had set up a plethora of different goodies for guests to enjoy. Looking at the spread, I could understand why some of the ponies were already indulging in the festivities.

You never quite realize how much variety acts as the spice of life until it becomes bland I suppose. Tables adorned with fritters, pies, dumplings, juice and even samples of whiskey…

Oh Goddesses, kill it with fire!

I spotted Flashback by the refreshments but decided against making my presence known to him. Though, even if I kept myself scarce, he probably already knew I was here. Regardless, I wasn’t that hungry anyway.

Timidly walking across the stage, I saw my sister trudging along with her head hung low. Her eyes quickly swept over the crowd as she spotted me. I did my best to give her a reassuring smile and she returned the gesture, raising her head proudly and walking a little bit faster.

She took her place center stage between the Overponies; her mother on her right and her father on her left. Both of them appeared overjoyed to have another member of their family becoming an able-bodied inhabitant.

“If I could have your attention, please,” the Overstallion spoke, ushering everypony’s heed to his words. “It is our great pleasure to bestow Ocean Current with the honor of becoming another upstanding citizen of Stable 47.”

He proceeded to reach into his suit pocket, revealing a Pipbuck and a small key. The Overmare immediately swept the items in her magic, manipulated the key into the lock and twisted it.

As the device sprung open, she leaned to her daughter’s ear and whispered something. The filly lifted her right forehoof as the device was subsequently latched on and clicked closed.

The screen flickered to life as my sister regarded the device with little avidity. She gave a sad smile, recognizing her very own Pipbuck, ball and chain not included. Cheers elated from the crowd, some projecting more than others, but they all cheered nonetheless.

Ocean Current took a few steps back, but her father scooted her back into the center with his magic. Scouting through faces in the crowd, he caught me with his gaze and impatiently urged me forward.

I didn’t hesitate… to grab a drink (apple juice, I swear).

As I put the cup to my lips, I felt a force tugging on me as I saw the Overstallion’s horn glowing onyx. I tried to ignore it as I downed the juice, but the Overmare followed along.

Before long, I began skidding across the floor.

Damn these immaculate tiles! I have no grip!

As if that weren’t enough, I witnessed a third, indigo aura surrounding me.

O, you traitor!

I was inches from the stage as I felt myself lift from the floor entirely, rotate to face the crowd and land with a thud in front of the Overponies.

Fourth aura. Teal. I wonder who that could’ve been…

Flashback shot me a wry smile from around his cup.

Very soon after my eye stopped twitching, I cleared my throat as I stood up and my horn began to glow. “First,” I amplified, “I’d like to thank all of you for taking time off your busy schedules to attend my little sister’s cuteceañera.

“Sadly, she talked me into performing a duet with her for this occasion. That means good news and bad news. The bad news is that she’s forcing me sing.”

I already didn’t like the looks I was getting from the audience.

They know this is going to be a mistake just as much as I do… great.

“The good news? She’s still singing, so hopefully that’ll cushion the blow.”

Yeah, I don’t like singing. There’s a reason I record noises. When we were writing the song, I must have forgotten the meaning of the word ‘duet.’ She pressured me into writing my own lyrics, making it rather blatant she wanted me to use my voice. I told her ‘no’ but one look from those pleading eyes made me say ‘I mean yes.’

“I hope you all enjoy it as much as we enjoyed making it.”

In other words, if I get booed and she gets a stamping ovation, mission accomplished.

“So without further ado…”

I turned the volume up on my Pipbuck as my horn continued to glow in order to strengthen its resonance and pressed the ‘play recording’ button. The room was filled with a constant rapping of hooves across a desk and the occasional loud clang of a hoof against metal; set for me to kick off the ‘song.’

“Under circumstances that are undefined,

Following a guise that’s sadly undermined,

Determined by what you wish was underlined,

Leaves you wanting more as your hunger pines…”

Singing… yeah, no. I can find loopholes in anything. She just wanted me to use my voice. Talking along to a beat just happened to be right up my alley. The crowd didn’t seem to mind though.

Maybe this won’t be so bad after all.

As my verse continued, I felt a little more at-home than I had in a long time. Ponies weren’t booing me, they weren’t shouting at me to get off the stage; they were just listening.

“…For the longest time we’ve remained silent,

All left wondering exactly where the time went,

But forty-seven, this one is strictly for us,

Now I want y’all to listen up for the angel’s chorus.”

I used my magic to slow down the tempo in order to ease my sister’s way into the song. The crowd, me included, eagerly awaited her to effortlessly bring joy to our ears.

She stammered a note, but she’s never performed in front of an audience before… I could relate to that. I halted the beat entirely and leaned in to whisper the first few lines to her.

Once I pulled away, her lapse in nerves subsided as she projected her voice in the exact way the last line of my verse stated. The rhythm picked back up, lacking the rapping of hooves meaning the clang against metal became more prominent in her verse.

“Why must we hide away?

Be taken to another place,

To never see the light of day,

Please come back and give us grace…”

This was better than I could have hoped! They may have liked how my verse sounded, but I loved that they felt what she was singing. The Overmare was tearing up and the Overstallion held a seldom look of admiration in his eyes. I scoped the crowd and saw Flashback toting an adoring smirk.

Is that forgiveness I see?

“The envy of the grass,

The sadness of the sky,

We’ll see it again,

You and I.”

I… I’m not crying, it’s liquid pride, I promise!

I lifted a hoof to dry my eyes of how proud I was and attempted to get back into the spotlight. My voice was cracking, but to my surprise, my sister hopped on my back and whispered the first few lines in my ear.

“Each and every one of us, the ones who listened,

Treading down these halls with tunnel vision,

How many trials we’ve endured, met with all-errors,

Burdening mantles of the dead like pallbearers…”

I flowed through my next set of lyrics without another hitch. All thanks to that little filly gearing up for her second verse. Still atop my back, her stage presence multiplied indefinitely as I finished my final lines of the… I guess it really is a song.

She bled her heart and poured all of herself into singing her last verse. The beat came to its halt and the song came to a close with a final, lengthened clang against metal; the closest thing I could find for a gong-sound during the final notes.

Or so I thought as my sister wanted me to sing the last two lines with her. Already used to the routine of telling her no, I gave in and acquiesced. The beat gone, I kept my eyes on Flashback as I uttered the last lines once more with my sister.

“We’ll see it again,

You and I…”

The audience broke into nearly unanimous applause. I turned to see my sister still standing atop my back. I apparently wasn’t the only pony who had someone in mind when they sang. I followed her line of sight and saw another filly with a midnight-blue mane and mauve coat who was, to my amusement, staring back with wide turquoise eyes.

She hopped off my back and trotted toward the other filly as her mother followed in hot pursuit. I stepped off the stage and trotted toward the refreshments where Flashback sat with a smile. Whether out of happiness because of the song or out of mirth due to my singing, I didn’t know.

I stood near him, but I pretended not to have any meaning for being over there other than to get a drink. I lifted a cup and ladle and poured myself a serving of fresh apple juice.

“Hooves down,” he started, “that was the nicest thing you have ever done for this stable.” His eyes faced forward, away from me, but I hoped I knew who that was directed at. “You know, you should use that voice of yours more often.”

“Hehe, you really think so?”

“Indeed.” He set me with his gaze. “Sadly, not anytime soon.”

“Why’s that?” I asked as I tilted the cup to my muzzle.

“Because later, your mouth is going to be a bit preoccupied. You just look so adorable when you’re nervous.”

Take the ripest red delicious apple you can find, cross breed that with a cherry tomato and then paint that red. You’d be at least a fraction closer to how harshly my cheeks flushed… I nearly spat out my apple juice.

“I’ll see you in a while.” He turned and began to leave. “Oh, and Wavelength?” I watched him from the corner of my eye. “I happen to remember a certain promise I made to you yesterday that I intend to keep.”

With that, he walked away and I was left to ponder exactly what… he… meant… WHOOPEE! Happy in ways that nopony would believe, I practically skipped toward the exit.

“Wavelength,” came the voice of the Overstallion from behind me.

Oh, come on, what did I do now?

“May I speak with you for a moment?” I turned to him as I was met with a much kinder pair of eyes than what I’ve become accustomed to; the eyes of my father. “Thank you for doing that for Ocean. It…it really meant the stable to her.”

I half-scoffed. “Oh, that? That was…it was no problem. I’d do anything for her.”

“Yes, well, your mother talked me into this. I’m going to let you be on your way…but, I know you probably already have plans with Flashback. I need to borrow him for a bit, but rest assured I’ll send him directly to your room afterwards.”

Nope. I’m not buying it.

“I didn’t expect that from you…what’s the catch?”

“No catch, just trying to be…nice.”

I raised my eyebrow, but he didn’t flinch. “…thank you.” I don’t think I’ve ever meant those two words more in my life, especially to him.

My father let a kind smile etch across his face. “If you want, I can even procure some of Cuisine’s whis—“

“No!” I blurted. “No, no that…that’s okay. Thanks though.”

Out of the corner of my eye, I spotted my sister and mother with that dark-maned filly. Judging by the look of embarrassment on my sister’s face and the other filly covering her mouth with a hoof to stifle giggles, mom was using pet names.

“Um, can’t Flashback and I just leave together? Just this once?”

The look on his face said it all. “I’m sorry, Wavelength, but you know I can’t allow that.” I had a feeling I may have been overstepping my boundaries, but, sadly, I watched my father revert back to the Overstallion with just a simple sentence.

“Okay…thanks anyway.” I walked from the auditorium, toward Flashbang and Failsafe’s little post-up.

Failsafe reached out a hoof and patted me on the back just as I was about to leave. I turned back to look at him with narrowed eyes as he just shrugged.

“What? Just wanted to say nice job, dude.”

I relaxed slightly. “Th-thanks.”

“You got it.”

I looked to Flashbang, who gave me a simple nod which I returned. I extended a hoof and pushed my way through the double-doors into the canteen. From outside, I heard the Overstallion speak.

“It’s time for us to turn in, but to those of you who wish to mingle, please feel free. We’ve had a rough few weeks and you all deserve a little time for yourselves. Please enjoy your time off, because it’s right back to work tomorrow.”

Ooof course it is…

Suddenly, I felt a gust of wind sail across my back as I heard the double-doors flap open. I turned my head in a state of perpetual horror, watching Ocean Current launch herself from the floor and clasp her entire body around my neck.

“Wavey!” she squeaked out with increased effort through her vice-grip glomp. “Now that I gots my PipBuck, can you do something for me?”

* * *

“Eeee! Oh my Goddesses! Wa-vey!” My sister’s face was lighting up in a way that flickering bulb in the hallway never could. A cord connected my sister’s foreleg to a small port in my terminal. “This is the coolest thing ever!”

“Hey, I didn’t think it was very fair when I got my PipBuck and had to start from…hehe, Vinyl Scratch.”

Oh wow, I crack myself up…!

Her head slowly turned toward me. “That was a dumb joke, Wavey.”

“Heehehe, then why am I laughing?”

“’Cause ya got poor taste.”

“Hehe, wow…you know that runs in the family, right?”

“I know. I’m working with you, aren’t I?”

“Well that was snippy. Spending a little too much time with Flashback, are we?”

She raised a hoof, waving me off. “Aw, chill, bro.”

Uh… “Barricade?”

“Failsafe.”

“Oh, okay, O…since when have you been spending time with Failsafe?”

“Why do you sound so worried?”

“Because…Failsafe is scum, why else?”

“Failsafe isn’t scum, Wavey. He’s like a whole ‘nother uncle!”

“Oh-ho-ho-hokay, that’s not how that works, O.”

“Yes it is. Flashy’s my uncle, right? Failsafe and Flashy are brothers so that means Failsafe is also my uncle.”

“Well, Flash’s a special case.”

“Why?”

“I…uh…I don’t…know what else to call him.”

“Why not your coltfriend?”

“You…you’re just full of loaded questions, aren’t you?”

“Headshot!” Her tiny hoof rocketed up to my cheek, holding it there while rolling it in tiny circles. “Bang!” She giggled out.

She has been talking to Failsafe.

Using my own hoof to lower hers from my face, I looked her right in the eye and said what needed to be said. “I want you to know that even two seconds of eye-contact is more time than I want you spending around that pony. Do you understand me, Ocean Current?”

Yeah, I used your whole name; you better know I’m serious.

“Yes, Wave-length, I understand…”

“Good,” I exhaled. “Now that we’re clear on that, we still have to talk about this air-duct thi—“

My terminal beeped several times in lieu of a progress update.

“Download’s done!” she squeaked out, tugging the end of the cord that was inserted into her PipBuck. Letting it flop to the floor as she hastily scrambled away, she used her magic to quickly open the door. “Thanks for the songs, Wavey!”

“Hey, get back here!”

“Yeah, you should get started on that diary! G’night!”

And she was gone.

My ten-year-old sister picked up my system a little too easily…

Just then, that flickering light bulb popped right out into blackness.

“Not yet?! Really Maintenance?” I shouted in harsh whispers. “You had somewhere around one hundred and seventy-three jobs to do and you couldn’t find the time to change a single, stupid light bulb?!

“Complaints will be filed, I hereby say—AH-Ha-holy steaming piles of—“

“So, you don’t want your light bulb changed, then? ‘Cuz that’s what I just heard.”

The maintenance pony pursed her lips into a smile that irked me in many of the wrong ways there is to irk me. She was, after all, the only mare in the showers at the time.

“Gee, and I came all the way here to fix that little problem, and now you just up and change your mind on me? Well, no light bulbs for you then, bucko.” She tapped a forehoof along the box of bulbs on her back as she turned and began walking away.

“Whoa, hey, you’re just gonna leave me hanging here? I thought you were supposed to be doing your job! Y’know what? Here,” I let my magic do the light bulb’s job and illuminated the hallway, “I’m a unicorn, just give me the damn thing and I’ll change it.”

“Actually, as long as you got that attitude, I’m pretty sure it’s your fault for not filing a request to have that thing changed. So, in other words, not my problem. Have a good night, Wavelength.”

She turned down the other end of the corridor and left my line of sight entirely. Giving one last look to the dead bulb with a shallow annoyance, I waltzed back into my room and pressed the latch for the door.

So… diary…

* * *

Still in my room. The lights were off and I was sitting in front of my terminal; the blank screen’s glow giving me enough of an idea on how tedious writing this thing could be. But, I’m keeping my word and trying to get the first few sentences of a diary on the screen… at least until Flashback gets here. Though, focusing was becoming a little difficult. The party was beginning to get far more rowdy than it had been when I was back in there.

There were shouts coming from the auditorium that carried through the halls and reached my room, leaving me wondering exactly what they were doing to cause such a ruckus… or maybe a fracas.

The beep of the intercom sounded. Not just in my room either as I heard it rebound against the walls from outside. “Security teams, get to the auditorium now. There’s a situation that requires force to deal with.”

I guess a fight broke out… I had a feeling the whiskey may have been a bad idea.

Soon after, I heard a knock upon my door. Knowing it was Flashback, I raised myself from my chair and approached the panel. As it slid open, I saw the silhouette of him standing before me. I suddenly gained a new appreciation in how inconvenient a lack of light could be as the darkness enveloped him.

“Hey, sexy,” I said, turning on the lights. “You ready to…” I stared at him with disbelief. His right eye was completely swollen closed and a small, dried stream of blood trailed down his mouth. “Flash, what…did your dad—“

“Please,” he interrupted, “come with me.”

“Flashback, what happened?”

“The Overstallion can fill you in on the details, but you have to come with me.” His eyes were filled with tears as he reached a hoof out to get me to follow. “Please.” I wasn’t one to argue, though I feel as if I should.

“O-okay.”

Flashback turned and began walking in the direction of the Overponies’ office. I followed as the sound of the party began to escalate while we neared the intersection.

“Flash? What’s going on in there?”

“The Overponies can explain, please just come on.”

As I neared the Overponies’ office, I couldn’t help but notice there was no security detail on duty. Normally, at this time, Nightwatch would be guarding their door, but he was nowhere in sight. His office was dark; no light escaped the window as it was unoccupied.

I had a bad feeling as the two of us stood before the large hatch to the office. I stared upward toward the camera as if it would tell me what was going on itself. Flashback knocked on the door… moments later, it slid open.

Who stood before us was not the Overstallion, not the Overmare, not even Nightwatch. His spiked tan mane and light orange coat layered his form like a bad omen as he focused on me with brown, bloodshot eyes that echoed his malice.

“Hey there, sweetheart,” said Switchblade.

I took a hesitant step back.

What the hell is Switchblade doing in here? He’s supposed to be locked up in the holding cell! How did he—

“Wavelength,” sounded another voice from behind him. One I haven’t heard in a long time, but still his first impression haunts me. “Come in and have a seat.” Switchblade stepped to the side, revealing the elusive ghost of the Edges. “I insist.”

He held a metal object in a warped pink aura, pointed directly at me. I felt myself tremble as I recognized it from occasional visits to the forge, armory and textbook analyses on the implements of war.

It was a gun.

His long, white mane reached down and embraced his light pink coat like a hollowed cowl. A stoic green glare accented his ability to despise even the most insignificant of inconveniences as he regarded me. Claymore aimed the weapon and jerked it ever so slightly, beckoning me inside. Flashback fixed me with a sorrowful look as I eased my steps through the doorway.

The Overponies sat in the far corner, hostage to the situation just as much as I was certain I now was. Switchblade forced me down to my haunches as I was seated next to them along with Flashback.

“Flash…what…?”

“They said if I didn’t bring you here, they’d hunt you down…” Tears streamed down his muzzle as he hung his head in defeat and his mane shielded his eyes. “Please…don’t hate me for this.”

I could only remain silent. I wasn’t mad at him, but I… I…

Oh Goddesses…

Even the scant amount of the composure I was retaining dwindled further as I caught the image of the crumpled and still form of Nightwatch on the other side of the room. His eyes were glazed over and staring outward as a stream of blood seeped from an open wound split across his neck. I didn’t know him very well, but he…

“My work,” Switchblade cooed mockingly as he gripped my head with his hooves, forcing me to stare. “Do ya like it?” he laughed. That laugh… that sickening laugh that only he could manage.

I felt the memories of him sitting atop me with his two friends pinning me down shattering the levees in my head, leaving the pain in my ribs to flood over me.

“Had to get in here somehow. A knife against your throat’s pretty convincin’ y’know.”

I turned my head and shut my eyes, just trying to force myself to think of something else. “Switchblade,” Claymore spoke. “Leave him be for now.” I heard a distinct metallic click, but I refused to open my eyes.

“I wish to make one thing clear, if I see any of your horns glow, I will not hesitate to shoot you. Now, we’ll try this once more before I resort to…different measures. Tell me, Overstallion, what is the password to access your terminal and open the stable door?”

“Please,” I heard a different female voice intone with sincerity, “we want as few ponies to be hurt as possible, just tell us and we can go.” I opened my eyes and looked for the source of the new voice.

Sitting in the Overstallion’s chair was a unicorn mare with a carmine coat and blood-red mane that clasped over and covered her left eye. Her one visible cyan eye expressed genuine disdain of the situation. Obviously, she didn’t want to be here.

Then, looking between the three of them, I noticed none of them were wearing Pipbucks. It hadn’t really crossed my mind that it mattered at the moment, but, I guess to me it seemed somewhat noteworthy.

“If that were true, this senseless violence I’m seeing in the auditorium wouldn’t be occurring, would it?” retorted the Overstallion.

My eyes traveled to the monitors. What I saw could only be described as… a massacre. The Edges, more than twenty of the bastards, were cornering and beating innocent ponies, each carrying one of their forged knives, either in their teeth or in a field of magic.

A small family was huddled together. An older stallion, most likely the father, stood between a mare and a filly, his teeth bared as a knife-wielding unicorn slowly strafed around them. The unicorn shot forward. The earth pony reared in preparation, only to have the knife glide directly into his neck. When he went down, the unicorn went straight for his family…

Why…?

My eyes averted… different monitor…

“Simply a precaution so none of your security teams come to interrupt us,” Claymore stated. “If I’m correct, they should be arriving to break up that party, or at least attempt to, as soon as they realize the severity of our distraction… Oh, would you look at that one? Vim and vigor all around…”

He was referring to Flashback’s father, who was being assaulted by two, an earth pony and a unicorn, both stallions. The earth pony charged him, knife in his jaw’s grip. A quick thrust of a baton into his throat caused him to crumple and slide past the prepared officer, a hoof clasped around the point of impact.

The unicorn shot his knife forward in his field, though, the larger unicorn knocked it away with a quick baton swipe. Before long, the earth pony rose from behind him, immediately taking the opportunity to pounce him. As the old security unicorn quickly sidestepped his original attacker, the Edge unicorn took initiative, sending the knife straight for his eye…and it connected…

“But it only lasts so long…”

“Clay,” the unicorn mare uttered his name forcefully, “enough with the sadism. I have as much reason to hate as you, but let the goal come before the grudge.”

A group of five was blocking the exit as anypony that made an attempt to escape was struck down. It was clear whether the blow was to subdue or be lethal was up to the assailant.

He stared at the monitors patiently as one of his members was thrown back. Barricade was leading a charge into the auditorium with several security ponies stampeding in accordance.

“I ask again, what is the password?” The gun was aimed at the Overstallion. He didn’t falter even as he stared death in the face.

I was scared. It hurt to think about it in the way I did, but I took solace knowing that none of my family was in that auditorium. It was a selfish thought…but one that kept me from letting my flimsy resolve disintegrate.

Not like we're much safer in here...

My eyes trained back over the monitors as my attention was garnered by something else. I looked up to the ventilation shaft above me and to Ocean Current, silently watching the events unfold before her.

My sister met my gaze and gave me a fearful grimace. Claymore wasn’t paying me any mind. The red mare had her eyes glued to the terminal in front of her. Switchblade was behind me and couldn’t see where my attentions were focused.

Seizing the opportunity, I made sure my sister was paying attention with a subtle curling of my fetlock toward myself. As she gave a small nod, I passed my eyes between her and the monitors twice.

She looked to the monitors and then back to me. I lightly tapped my right hoof on the floor and gingerly rubbed my horn with my left one, hoping that Switchblade wouldn’t take it suspiciously.

Please, O… please understand…

Her horn began to glow as her aura enveloped the small button to the intercom system. Thank the Goddesses! The red light displaying the intercom being active lit up. Barricade and other members of security perked up at the beep of the intercom that must have sounded.

“It’s ‘obituary,’” answered the Overmare.

I watched as the red mare used her magic to key in the word, only to receive a set of harsh beeps informing her of the mistake.

“Is it? Do you think me foolish?” Claymore asked brusquely.

“Of course not, but I’d sooner have that written than give you the password.”

Claymore swerved his gun in my direction. “What about his obituary?” The barrel began drifting toward me. “Wavelength, twenty-four, death by archaic contraption designed to do its job…successors…none. Something along those lines?”

This is what true fear is like. Feeling absolutely helpless to a situation while you can see your life on the line and the open scissors inching ever closer. I instinctively reeled back from the weapon, but I felt Switchblade’s hooves holding me from my shoulders as he stood at my side. I tried to keep the fear from consuming me as I moved my eyes to the monitors.

Barricade obviously heard what was going on as he was plowing through various Edges, barreling toward the auditorium’s exit. One Edge hopped on his back and began to ruthlessly stab at his barding. He tried to ignore it, but another one bounded for him, then another and another…

…then he collapsed…

“You point that thing away from my son this instant!” shouted the voice of my father.

“Strange, where's your conviction?” Claymore mocked. “Are your lives truly of lesser importance?” The gun moved closer to me as he spoke. “Perhaps your son is of a higher degree of concern to you?”

My mom grit her teeth as my dad looked between me and the weapon before he hung his head. “The password to the terminal is ‘alpha brought one miracle.’”

…what?

Claymore slowly eased the gun away from me, garnering a disgusted look as my father seethed at him. “And the password to open the stable door is ‘omega brought another.’ Just take it and leave!”

Claymore smirked. “Katana, type it in.” He ordered and she obeyed. Her magic tapped away at the keys as two beeps signaled her success. “And while you’re at it, change the password to the door to ensure no interruptions.”

On the monitors, I witnessed Barricade starting to rise. One Edge’s head was pulled back, a trail of blood streamed from a small hole blown into his forehead. Then he toppled over. Failsafe reached the auditorium, his mouth toting a gun as he took another shot. Another Edge fell.

The last two finally acknowledged their new threat, but had no time to react as Flashbang sprinted for both of them, taking them off Barricade’s back. When the three of them touched the floor, the security unicorn pummeled them with no remorse.

Shouting something back to the both of them, Barricade tore out of the auditorium and into the cafeteria. He started passing by various camera angles, making his way to us.

Damn it! With the password changed… maybe I can get my sister to open the door…

Katana continued to manipulate the keys as she smiled and stepped away from the desk. Her horn still aglow, she pressed one final key.

The chair began to slide back along with the floor beneath it, revealing a long set of stairs. The desk began to ascend on four long metal poles. As it lifted, it gave a clear passage downward. Claymore looked into the darkness of the stairwell and smiled eagerly.

They… they’re going to get away with this… I can’t let that happen, they have to pay for this somehow… I have to bide time for Barricade to get here!

“Claymore, why are you doing this?” was all I could think of.

He turned to me. “Alpha,” he stated flatly.

“What does that have to do with anything?”

He seemed taken aback by the question. “Alpha has everything to do with this!” he shouted. “This stable…this Goddess-forsaken stable took away everyone’s free will! I wasn’t supposed to be here!

“The Overponies blind obedience to Stable-Tec’s arbitrary laws nearly wiped it out…forced a life of misery on my sister and I…” He scoffed. “Hell, even you and your coltfriend are probably male because of it…it stole our lives from us!”

Flashback left his state of inertia and regarded Claymore through his mane, staring dumbfounded. “How did you—“

“It’s obvious! You two love each other. I can feel it. There is nothing in here for me like that!” He began to break down. Every machination of his mind was crumbling before my very eyes.

“After my mom passed on, no one cared for us…we were alienated simply due to appearances. The one that was supposed to? He doesn’t give a damn about us! If it weren’t for one another, we’d have died years ago! We have no more reason to be here than the wind!

He’s serious. This is what all of this is about? Forming the Edges, planning a massive attack in the stable, holding us hostage… It was all so he could escape?

“We hav—”

His eyes trailed to the monitors. The one displaying the camera view from just outside showed Barricade keying in the password to open it. Claymore’s eyes widened as he turned to the door, breathing rapidly as he aimed for the hatch.

“Katana, is the password changed?”

“Uh, yeah? What do you think I was doing before?” she answered smartly.

He turned his head toward the monitors, noticing Barricade’s obvious frustration as his attempt to key in the phrase must have failed. My uncle turned, sending a hard buck into the hatch that made each of us quail from the devastating impact. He followed with more; pressing an increasing effort into each thrust of his hind legs… it was beginning to dent…

“You!” Claymore harshly shouted, turning the gun toward my father. “You led him here! I don’t know how, I don’t know when, but this was not by chance!”

Katana put a hoof on her brother’s shoulder. “Clay, we can leave, let’s just go,” she tried to reason. The gun in Claymore’s telekinetic grip began to slowly rise.

My father stood his ground, not denying it at all. Why?

“Wait!” I pleaded. “It was me! I did it!”

Everypony stared at me, Claymore included. The weapon trembled.

BANG!

I shut my eyes and cringed. The sound of the gun going off ripped through my ears with unbridled force.

“Tide!” I heard my mom scream. I opened my eyes and looked to where my father sat. He stared vacantly outward as an open hole in his chest began to pool red, expanding over the front of his dark blue attire. He looked down and only seemed to note his wound before toppling to the floor.

No…

“Dad!” I scurried to his side as his breathing became unsteady. I panicked as I frantically tried to stop the bleeding, pressing my hooves over his chest.

I looked to Flashback for help, but he only glanced at the point of impact before his head sank behind his mane again. He knew as well as I do that there’s nothing that can be done…

I looked to the ventilation shaft, praying that my sister didn’t just see that…only to know that would be a foolish hope. For the time being, however, she only held her forehooves to her ears, her eyes shut tightly as she cringed and trembled. The gunshot must have scared her…

I saw as Claymore trembled feebly, clenching his eyes as the nose of his pistol exuded a thin trail of smoke. Opening his eyes, he faced the camera angle still displaying Barricade’s egregious, yet weakening efforts to break in, putting another round through the monitor. His magic fell as the gun clattered to the floor and he wrapped a hoof around his stomach, retching uncontrollably.

I heard Switchblade scoff behind me. “Goddesses, you are such a pansy.”

Katana put a hoof over her brother’s back. “I’m not cut out for the dirty work…” he said coldly, wiping a hoof along his mouth before spitting and shakily raising himself.

I grit my teeth, trying my best to ignore him.

My mother took my father’s hoof in her own as she openly shed her tears… my own came without warning, feeling utterly consumed by defeat. He only looked up to me with a stupid smile plastered across his face...

“Damn it,” I wiped a hoof along my eyes, half-expecting his smile to disappear by the time I looked back down at him. “What the hell are you smiling for? What’s the joke, dad? Tell me the fu—“

“Y-you…called me…dad…”

…

His hoof fell from my mom’s limply as he exhaled his final breath. His eyes became dull and listless as he slipped from my grasp. That smile was still sitting there… unmoving…

My dad is…

“Daddy!” I heard my sister yell from the air duct. Everypony faced her…Claymore included.

With his magic, he pulled the grate away and let it clatter to the floor. My sister squeaked and tried to squirm back into the duct, but he pulled her from her place of safety as she screamed. He held her in his aura, between him and us, letting the gun rest against her temple.

“Good, more leverage,” he stated with an inhibited lack of emotion.

I… I can’t breathe…

“Clay, no!” Katana shouted at him. “We’ve done enough!”

“No,” he gave her a glance from the corner of his eye. “Added assurance never hurt anyone’s chances.” He eyed us once again. “Open that door,” he said as he cocked his head in the direction of the hatch, “she dies.”

“No!” my mom’s horn began to glow, her aura dominating Claymore’s as fury embedded itself in her eyes. “You put her down now!” There was a flash of motion. Suddenly my mother was grasping her throat as blood started to pour down her chest.

“Oh, just shut up!” rasped Switchblade, his hoof-blade dripping red. “See Clay? Not that hard.”

“Mommy!” screamed my sister.

I watched as my mom fell limp. Nopony’s even laid a hoof on me… but I was beginning to feel my own emotions attempting to suffocate me. I blurrily regarded her… lying there, with shock utterly consuming her eyes.

Flashback’s horn glowed. “Crescent,” he said softly as his horn began to shine, surrounding his aura over her wound, “stay very still. I’m going to stop the bleeding, but you have to stay still.”

Claymore swung the gun around again and aimed at my coltfriend, but a dark red aura completely overtook his. He was taken by surprise as Katana forced his means of dominance away from him.

“Let. Him,” she quietly demanded.

Switchblade started laughing. “You just don’t get it…we’re in control! You spoiled foals have been living the good life, but now the Edges can do whatever we want! For instance…”

He gestured for Claymore to hand over my sister, who hesitated for a moment before nodding, slowly passing her to him. My sister cringed as the wretched stallion held her in his foreleg, knife at her throat.

“This little brat gets her cutie mark and everypony has to go to her stupid party. All because the Overponies got so excited about this blue squiggly line on her flanks.”

He brought one of his hoof-blades toward her cutie mark and scraped downward, making her scream horribly. At that moment, any fear or sadness I had was immediately wiped out, being replaced with the most gripping anger I’ve ever felt in my life.

“What a useless talent…the only thing she’s good for is bein’ our ticket outta here. And check it! Your folks are bleedin’ out and you ain’t allowed to make a move to help neither of ‘em.”

“I didn’t want any of this…I just want to leave.” Katana scowled as she started down the stairway, gun in tow. She let out an agitated grunt, turning to Switchblade. “If I find out you killed her or any more of these ponies, and I will, you’ll die the moment you find us. You get to think about that.”

“Oh, don’t worry. I ain’t got any plans to kill ‘em.” He shot me a wicked look. “But they’re sure as hell gonna remember me.”

Her eyes narrowed. With that, she walked on, leaving us. Claymore slowly followed as I heard a door creak open that Katana must have passed through.

He looked back at us. “Switchblade…?”

“You go on ahead,” he said, “it’s just more…hehe, catching up I’ll have to do.”

Claymore shook his head, continuing down the stairwell. Shortly after, I heard a door shut as he followed his sister.

Switchblade turned back to me. “Now Way-length, I think it’s time we finished our business. You’d prolly have a good bunch’a jollies chasin’ us down. But, care ‘bout your sister at all, and, wild guess, I think you do…you’re gonna stay right where you are and keep that door locked. Do that, and we’ll let her go.”

He looked toward the stairs, but paused for a moment before smiling at me.

“Y’know, on second thought, maybe I’ll just keep her.” Pushing his muzzle into her mane, he took a deep whiff. “Yeah,” he exhaled sickeningly. “She might make a good little broodmare for the crew. After all, there’s lots of lonely colts out there.”

“Switchblade,” I uttered his name dangerously. “Let her go. Leave. And I’ll pretend I didn’t just hear you say that.”

“Oh, really?” he taunted as he dragged his tongue along her cheek.

“DON’T TOUCH HER!”

I’m going to kill him. If he keeps pushing these buttons, he’s going to die.

Giving a timid look up to Switchblade, my sister spoke. “You d-don’t need to listen to my big brother. I don’t.” She looked to me and winked… It seemed so out of place for the look of fear in her eyes. “I-I really like that idea, m-m-mister stallion.”

His eyes trailed down to her, appearing more than just a little confused. I know her well enough to understand where she’s trying to go with this, but he didn’t. She was trying to talk her way out of it, but I saw an opportunity I greatly wanted to take advantage of.

Holding the knife against her with less pressure, he lowered his guard. With a sharp laugh, he turned his gaze back to me. He started his sentence with a smirk.

“See? Your little sister knows her pl—”

He gagged on his words. The smirk slowly morphed into a placid, distant look upon seeing my horn’s glow. He didn’t have enough time to react by the moment he noticed I’d slipped off his hoofblade. I had already shoved it far into the left side of his neck. Upon realizing what I’d done, he shut his eyes and let out a gurgling laughter.

“Ya know what’cha jus’ did, right?” he choked out with exertion.

I didn’t right then…it was so sudden…

My sister’s yelp only lasted a moment as Switchblade slammed her to the floor, audibly knocking the wind out of her. Instinct took over my entire body when his hoof came over her head. I rocketed forward. It hadn’t even registered that he’d already brought his hoof down…

I… I’m not sure what happened next…

I lowered my head and charged…

…

Blood pouring down my face…

…

Switchblade was on the floor…

…

Shouts for me to stop…

…

Pushing him, stomping his face…

…

I lost count of how many times I hit him…

…

The door opened…

* * *

“Let me go! Let me go! That bastard’s still breathing, let me go!”

Flashback had opened the door for Barricade and several members of security. Flashbang pulled me away from Switchblade. I thrashed in their hold, catching glimpses of teams of doctors striding through, retrieving my mom and sister. A few hovered around my dad… but…

I caught a glimpse of Barricade, limping and favoring the placement of weight on his forehooves, moving toward my father. He was taking it especially hard. He loomed over his brother’s form and only stared at him. That immobile smile forever carved into his still being.

“Ground down to the hilt,” Barricade muttered, “just like we said, eh, bro?”

I was dragged from the room by Flashbang, Flashback and another doctor. I struggled to get away from them, but was only met with a more firm restraint. I tried. The procrastinator in me has never tried so hard in its life.

“Let me end him! I never want to see him again, let me—“

“Wavelength!” I was cut off by the ordered tone of Flashbang. “I can tell from looking at him that he won’t make it. You’ve done enough.” I looked to him, his right eye still streaming several narrow trails of blood. “Now stop struggling and let us help you.”

At that, I gave in. Acquiescing to a notion I had no desire to.

As I was laid on the mattress of one of the beds in the medical bay, a nurse was trying to clean me off, probably checking for injuries. I looked on either side of me. Mom was on my left, a doctor carefully bandaging her neck as several IVs pumped fluid into her.

From the scant words I overheard from the doctors that retrieved my sister, she was being taken into surgery. Switchblade had cracked her skull and the doctors were having a hard time stopping the swelling…

Flashbang and the other doctor who had retrieved me immediately left, but Flashback simply stared at me for a good amount of time. I had no idea what was running through his mind as he looked me over. An outer layer of fear coated his metal shell, quickly becoming the only emotion I could feel coming from him.

Before long, he exited my room silently, leaving the nurse to continue working on me. As she dabbed and wiped the rag around my head, I noticed the crimson that coated it with each pass. After she discarded the first rag and went retrieving a new one, I zoned out, my mind wandering without a destination.

I stared at the same spot on the floor for what felt like hours. There wasn’t anything special about that particular metal tile, but I focused on it as if it held the secrets to life’s mysteries.

The nurse returned to me, raising the new rag to my head only for me to hold a hoof up, blocking it in protest. “You can stop now…none of it’s mine.” At the statement, she seemed to shrink back from me. She said nothing, only offering several small nods as she left me be, going to work on somepony else.

On my right, I noticed Podium propped up with a doctor thoroughly examining a wound on his shoulder that he must have incurred in the auditorium. I’m not sure what possessed me to even acknowledge him, but I guess I was just reaching out of instinct.

“Hey, teach,” I said rather quietly.

“Wavelength,” he replied curtly.

I wasn’t planning on saying anything else… but it just came out…

“What happened to your shoulder?”

“Defending a helpless filly,” explained the doctor. “Brave pony, your teacher is.”

“Sounds just like you, considering you taught me. What, was I too much of a challenge? Had to step down to petty fights?”

“Ha, don’t go around tellin’ ponies I taught you. My reputation’d be at stake.” As the bandage was coiled around his shoulder, he winced. “You look like a spitting image of Tartarus. What’re you in for?”

He peered around to the other side of me, seeing my mother. Then the electrocardiogram beeped to life. I turned at the sound, watching my cutie mark flash across its screen. Each beep that followed felt like the visage of an artist attempting to keep a legacy alive. The gauze was elegantly wrapped around her open wound, highlighting the injury in crimson.

“Dear Goddesses, what happened?”

…

* * *

Barely eight hours had passed since the incident, and already the day continued as it normally would. In. Now we were all waiting for the out…

After my treatment, I had been sent back to my room to go to sleep. Just to be safe, I kept the lights in my room on overnight. I’d have figured sleep to be impossible, all things considered, but, in the end, I just hit my mattress and plummeted into slumber. Of course, I only received roughly an hour’s rest before the alarm in my Pipbuck, now as a reminder of what I lost, blared in my ears.

I didn’t want to move, but a hoof lifted mine and tapped my Pipbuck, shutting it off. As I creaked open an eye, I saw the large form of Barricade looming over me, even as he sat beside me.

“Barricade?” I stirred. “What’s going on?” I sat up in my bed and met him at eye-level. I noted his new facial injury; a small cut barely concealed behind a strand of his mane, just above his eyebrow. He was absent of his barding, brandishing the regular stable attire. He seemed so much smaller without it, but still he dwarfed me.

“Sorry,” he spoke solemnly.

“For waking me? Don’t worry…the alarm already took care of that.”

“For not getting there sooner.”

Oh…

“It’s not your fault, Uncle Barricade. I saw the chaos in the auditorium. There wasn’t anything you could’ve done.” I tried to sound as sincere as possible. “I’m sure dad would’ve been happy knowing that you were protecting everypony.”

“That’s not the point,” his usually monotone voice cracked. “I didn’t get there soon enough and now you have to take up his mantle. Knowing him, he would want you to take good care of the stable.”

“I…” The stable… I’m the next oldest male unicorn in the family… “I’m the Overstallion?” He nodded. I allowed my head to slump into my hooves as I felt a massive weight crash onto my shoulders. “But…”

“I know you probably aren’t prepared, but don’t worry. Bro always said that the spell to keep the orchard alive was pretty simple. Everything else should come naturally more or less…” He paused in thought for a moment, cracking his jaw with a hoof. “Though, thinking back, you’ve never really been the responsible type.”

I lifted my head from my hooves and stared at him with disbelief. “You come in here to remind me of that, then you feel the need to chastise me?”

He blinked before turning slightly, rummaging for something behind him. “Here,” he said, holding a carefully folded object out to me. “Bro would’ve wanted you to have this.”

I levitated it, enveloping it in a yellow glow as it unraveled before me. “Why don’cha try it on?” It had the distinct appearance of a black…robe…

My father’s mantle, in a much more literal sense, is basically a robe passed down from Overstallion to Overstallion. The term ‘hoof-me-down’ can’t exactly apply to it.

“I can’t wear this.”

No matter how long this piece of fabric has been in existence, it hasn’t received even the slightest bit of damage: no rips or tears, all of the stitching remained intact… not even a single stain. The bottom-line, however, is that I just can’t wear it.

“’Cause you feel like you aren’t worthy?”

“No, I just always thought it looked kind of dumb.” I carefully laid the robe next to me atop my bedspread.

“Glad I’m not the only one.” We both shared an awkward moment of solace as I feigned a weary chuckle. “Oh, by the way, you and that doctor you’re with…which one of you’s the Overstallion in the relationship?”

Normally in this situation, I might have shut off the lights in my room. Perhaps disappeared under my bed like the crafty ninja I was. But he was just grinning at me. “I’m honestly hurt at how dumb you think I am.”

“When did you find out?”

His hoof reached around, scratching the back of his mane. “Uh, y’know, it’s in your body language…I see you talking to him kinda often…I mean, you two just seem…”

“Dad told you?”

“Yup.” His expression darkened. “Now don’t get me wrong, your dad was a good pony, but he was wrong to want to hide your relationship. The stable can’t have secrets like that anymore. You’re the Overstallion now. It’s your turn to decide how things work.”

I wasn’t sure I believed what I was hearing. “I guess you’re right. I…I have a lot of thinking to do. Thanks for the advice…I may have to call on you for it a lot in the future.”

“Yeah, well…don’t get too used to it. I, uh, have some…other things to take care of.” He stood, rounded my bed and meandered out the door.

I quickly sat back up and watched him. “Wait, what do you mean?”

He turned his head, the expression on his face morphing into a much more serious demeanor. “I have to make things right…” He lowered his gaze before setting his eyes forward.

My mind reeled at the statement. “I’m not following you,” I nearly whispered.

“Strangely enough, that’s exactly what I wanted to hear.” As the door closed, I sat nearly inebriated from drowsiness and confusion. Suffice to say, I couldn’t get back to sleep…

* * *

Light cascaded across the entirety of my surroundings. Barricade had been correct in that the spell for maintaining an artificial sunlight was relatively simple. A surge of magic sent outward creating simulated rays of sunshine.

Trees surrounded me, each ornamented with apples of different shades and textures. The dirt below me was soft beneath my hooves, a desired break from the cold metal of the stable.

The apple orchard; the life-sustaining food source of every inhabitant. Ironically, my presence among the massive acres felt like it was draining life from me. When the dead are buried, they continue to help the stable thrive by dedicating their vessels to the orchard; a place that housed the dead and ushered new life.

Many new inhabitants were put to rest as of last night. Whether a member of the Edges or just another inhabitant; they worked side-by-side in their final acts of service for the stable.

In terms of dedication, my father was no different. I stood before a gargantuan tree along with the fresh mound slightly elevated before it. The tree of the Overstallions, as some called it, caressed the ceiling as if every Overstallion of the past utilized the branches to help keep the stable aloft.

It was the only tree in the orchard to never be harvested for reasons other than the apples, forever mounted as homage to the leaders of my ancestry.

Biographical signatures were carved into the bark, illustrating the namesakes of those who sat in the office, provided decisions, and, most importantly, watched over the stable. As progeny, it was my duty to scrawl a new name into the natural tapestry. ‘Black Tide’ decorated the forefront as the newest addition to the list of lives lost.

“Sorry, dad,” I uttered as I gingerly traced my hoof along the mound of dirt. “I hope that I can somehow maintain a ‘harmonious state.’ But…y’know…mouth shouldn’t make promises.” Normally, if I ever quoted him, it would have been mockingly, but his memory deserved better respect from me. I wasn’t really crying, but I was pretty close to it.

“I…damn…Dad? Not sure if I’m just forcing this or…whatever but…I’m really gonna miss you… You’re never gonna be a father of the year, but at least…I know you loved me. Hope that counts… I think it does.” I smiled as I began walking from the orchard, leaving my father to his rest.

However, another mound caught my involuntarily narrowing eyes. The diggers brought him in earlier as I watched him get buried. I know I should feel remorse for what I did, but…somehow, I easily rationalized that he deserved it. As I walked past it, an uncontrollable urge overcame me. Turning, I hocked up and spat on the mound…

I hope you’re suffering in Tartarus…

As the hatch closed behind me, I was greeted by Flashback as he made his way around the corner. The swelling in his eye had gone down considerably. I’m happy to see at least somepony I care about is feeling better…

“You decided to don his mantle anyway, huh?” His eyes trailed across the black fabric that now adorned me. “Overstallion Wavelength?”

“Three things,” I began. “One, just because I’m wearing this doesn’t mean that I like it. Two, I don’t want you or anypony in here calling me that, it’s Wavelength. And three, this is the big one, I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, it’s a robe.”

“But it still looks good on you.” He let that wry smile of his slip across his muzzle. “Not as good as I would, mind you.”

Despite it all, I chuckled… but…

“How…how are my mom and O doing?”

His smile completely disappeared. “Your mom is going to require a lot of rest since we can’t give her much in the way of healing potions due to the Alpha in her system, but she should make a full recovery.

“Ocean Current is…it could go either way. The swelling is putting a lot of pressure on her brain. She’s still in surgery and…but...I’m sorry…I-I wish I had better news.”

He must have noticed my lack of enthusiasm from his statement as he inched closer. I gave him a gentle smile, trying to show him that it wasn’t eating me up like it really was.

“You did everything you could, Flash. Neither of them would’ve had a chance without you there.” There was still something clawing at my mind. “Hey, did anypony ever get the password changed back in the Overstallion’s office?”

“You mean your office?”

“Do me a favor and don’t remind me, please…”

“Sorry…” he said, scratching the back of his mane. “Yes, they fixed it. The red one changed it to a seven-letter word…‘goodbye.’ You would think it’d be a little more cryptic.”

“What’s the password now?”

“Your choice. The door’s stuck open until you think of a new one.”

Ooh, decisions, decisions… “I already know exactly what I’m changing it to.”

“Overstallion Wavelength,” a calm and ordered tone reached my ears (though I’d prefer a different greeting).

I shifted my gaze beyond Flashback as he turned.

Flashbang rounded the corner, exhibiting a deadly serious presence. “We have a problem.” The bandage coiled around his right eye was fresh judging from its pure white color. His left eye still managed to convey some severity.

“Dad,” Flashback regarded him, a small amount of worry quaking in his voice, “I already told you that you have to rest, your eye hasn’t fully he—“

“There’s never time to rest. But, Overstallion Wavelength? I must request tha—“

“Flashbang, formalities are stupid. Now what’s the problem?”

* * *

“What do you mean Barricade’s gone?!”

We were back in the Overstallion’s… my… office, running over old security footage from the cameras around the stable. The stable door had been opened by Claymore and Katana, but, rapidly fast forwarding through twelve more hours of the recording revealed my uncle following the same path.

Flashbang paused the recording before turning to me, his slate grey eyes conveying a message of slight apprehension. “What do you believe to be the best course of action?”

“We have to send a party to get him back!” I practically shouted at him.

“Sir—“

“Wavelength!”

“Wavelength…the stable is in a state of disarray,” he patiently reasoned. “We can’t simply sacrifice precious resources to retrieve a single member of security.” He turned back to the monitor, surveying the still frame of my uncle stepping his first hoof outside. “Asset though he may be.”

I’ve lost too much too soon. I can’t just let another member of my family go…

“Then I’ll go.” Needless to say, that earned some strange looks.

“Wavelength,” Flashback interjected, “don’t you find that a little drastic?”

“You expect me to sit idly while my uncle, for Goddesses only know what reason, goes out there alone?”

“But what about your sister and your mom?” he inquired. “You’re just going to leave them behind?” He reached out to me, placing his hoof on my shoulder. “What about us?”

“How would you feel if you lost your dad and then Failsafe left the stable?” Due to the look on his face, I can assume he was beginning to grasp my adamancy. Flashbang regarded me with an intricately disguised look of understanding.

“I’m sorry, but I simply won’t allow the Overstallion to leave—“

“Unguarded?” came the voice of Failsafe as he entered the room, obviously having monitored our conversation. “Man, we can go out there and get him back, no problem. I mean, if he’s got me, that is.”

“Son,” the large unicorn stood, rounded the desk and approached the equally large earth pony, “is there something you’re trying to prove here?”

“Oh, c’mon, pops. Barricade’s done shitloads for us around here.” He stepped past his father, and stood before Flashback and I with his head held high. “It’d be a pretty dick-move if we didn’t bring him back.”

“Failsafe…” I began thinking over my options. Crap… “You…you and I still aren’t on the best terms, I hope you know.”

“You ain’t over that yet?”

“Should I be?”

“Whatever…” he muttered with a roll of his eyes. “Not doin’ this for you anyway.”

“Then we can agree to disagree. But, since you stepped up, I can’t really be mad at you for now, can I?”

“B-but…” Flashback stammered.

I turned and placed my hooves on his shoulders. “Hey, it’s not like we’re gonna be gone forever.” I gave him a reassuring smile. “We’ll come back and it’ll be as if it never happened.”

“But your mom…your sister…”

“Are being left in your very capable hooves. Who knows, maybe when we get back…so will they.”

Flashback returned my words with a look that I couldn’t properly name an emotion for.

Flashbang let out a sigh. “I can’t believe I’m going to let this happen…” He kept his gaze locked on the three of us with a look of admonishment. “You aren’t leaving today. You two will need time to prepare. Dangerous is a word I could use, but that would be an understatement. I’ve been out there before…it’s…hellish.”

“Whoa, hellish? Sounds like a walk in the orchard, man. You forgettin’ I got top ranks in the shooting range and hoof-to-hoof, pops? I can handle anything ‘out there’ throws at us. I mean, shit, we could head out tomorrow morning if we wanted.”

“So it’s settled then,” I finalized. “We go out, bring Barricade back and everything’ll be back to normal.” I wandered back to my chair and took a seat. “Things might finally go right for a change.” I set my sights on Flashbang. “You’ll be in charge until we get back, is that understood?”

“Sir, err, Wavelength,” he saluted me.

Hey, admittedly that feels pretty cool.

For the hell of it, I started swiveling in circles in my chair, thinking about bringing Barricade back without a hitch.

“Overstallion Wavelength?”

The misused title was delivered in a quiet outburst by the nurse who had cleaned me up when I was in the med-bay. She stood at the open entrance to the office, clasping a hoof around the edge of the frame.

Her head was hung low as she slowly stepped toward my desk, each of us wondering what brought her here. She spoke softly, her voice barely more than a whisper.

“Wavelength, I’m so sorry, but…I’m afraid we lost Ocean Current.”

~ ~ ~

Well, I…think that’s more than enough for now. Sorry to end on such a note, but not every song is a happy one…

Till next time…stay safe out there, children…

________________________________________________________________________

Footnote: Level Up!

Perk Attained: Colt-Cuddler – So you think you can dance? You got smooth moves with the colts, kid. Unique dialogue options when dealing with members of the same sex and you know all the right spots to make them scream… 10% damage boost against stallions.

[Quote: “Fotheringay” by Fairport Convention]

Roachy notes: Yeah… I came up with the perk before the ending, so… sorry…

Author's Note

I don't know how FimFic writers do it. I don't. It took me three days to figure out how to get this thing on here. And even then I've had the most difficult and tedious job EVER trying to re-indent and re-double-space paragraphs. I never, EVER want to see the word center again, but, if this is the norm for how people are supposed to upload these from Gdocs, then I don't know if I have the energy in me to keep this story going here. It's bad enough having to write it, but then having to sift through every little detail until the paragraphs look the way they're SUPPOSED to... If I'm doing something wrong, for the love of GOD someone tell me I'm just being stupid.

Teraphim's notes: I swear Roachy didn’t realize he had created a character with the initials ‘O.C.’ until I pointed it out. It still makes me laugh everytime I think about it. And while Roachy did plan out everything that happens in the chapter, that ending was all me. Sorry about that.

Chapter 2: Door to Tartarus

Author's Note

Typically, there won't be an author's note at the top, but this requires a little special attention.

Before you go in and read, let it be known that I am fully aware that the indentations are completely out of whack. There's probably a way to fix it. There's also a very high likelihood that I'll never find it. A real author's note will be at the end of the chapter. That is all.

Chapter 2: Door to Tartarus

Fallout Equestria: Wasteland Rhythm

By: Roachy

~ ~ ~

That was Sapphire Shores’ ‘Roundabout.’ A nice, high-energy sound for those of us currently bathin’ in the stillness of the day. Speakin’a which, no new news today, I’m afraid.

But since we don’t have anything new…let’s try for another peek into the past, shall we? A DJ fightin’ the good fight on a much smaller, but no less important scale? Well, I’m already interested, pardon the bias.

Wavelength…that pony’s probably havin’ a rough time. But, no need for the sentimental stuff. Movin’ on!

Needless to say, stuff went down. When we last left the stable, Wavelength and Failsafe were gearing up to do the same. With more recent news on his end, I can only assume he wouldn’t let his uncle get away from him that easily. Barricade apparently abandoned the stable when they needed him most. Now, I’m certain the pony must’ve had his reasons, but what could those reasons be?

Let’s see if these two can shed a little light in the darkness, shall we?

~ ~ ~

Chapter 2: Door to Tartarus

“Season ticket on a one-way ride…”

Fragments of glass were scattered across the floor of my room…

Whether from my mirror, my terminal, an empty bottle of whiskey or a shot glass, it’s no secret that glass is fragile. Inebriated anger and sorrow completely engulfed me. No matter how many objects I broke or shattered, it didn’t dull the pain.

That was what the whiskey was for. But that didn’t help much either. All it did was make me feel like everything was my fault. Stupid twelve-percent alcohol content… going through another bottle was helping, I think.

I couldn’t feel much of anything anymore. Even when a shard from my mirror etched its way across my face, I was still too focused on my internal suffering to notice anything external.

Knocks came at my door every once in a while, telling me to shut up. I recognized the voice. Upon opening the door, I pieced together that it was one of the stallions that had bad-mouthed me in the showers a few days ago. Noses can be just as fragile as glass as it turns out.

Another round of knocking began that I interpreted as an attempt at a rematch. When I opened the door, fully prepared to launch my half-empty bottle I had in a field of magic at him, I caught a glimpse of the teal eyes that always seemed to calm me. After that pony scampered away, I should have predicted that would have warranted a visit to the med-bay.

“Wavelength...” He peered around me, catching my destructive tirade’s aftermath in his vision. “Isn’t it way too early to be drinking?”

“No…just…jus’ too lata’be happy…” I replied groggily. I levitated the bottle to the top of my desk and twisted the cork back in. “Wha…whad’ja need?”

“Well, I suppose an explanation for why I was suddenly charged with tending to a broken nose is in order.”

Wow, that bit me in an uncomfortable place…

“Wha’makes ya think it was me?”

“He was complaining about the DJ.”

“Pfft…zat cou’be anypony.”

His eyes narrowed as I stumbled back and landed on my haunches. With a sigh, he entered my room and closed the hatch behind him, fixing me with a look that told me he just felt sorry for me.

“I can tell we need to talk,” he said.

“’Bout?”

“Wave…Wavelength…your sist—“

“Nope!”

“Wa—“

“No. No. No! We ain’t talkin’ ‘bout zat ri’now…we can talk ‘bout somefin else…like…uh…” I paused to scratch the back of my head, “how…how’s you’re day been, babe?”

“It would be better if we talked. Wavelength, you haven’t left your room since you heard the news. If I had more time, I would be in here with you, but even now I’m risking my position by leaving my post just to check on you.

“Do you have any idea how many ponies require medical attention since the Edges attacked? Some have minor injuries, but even more are in critical condition. Some are barely clinging on to life even as we speak. Several other doctors included.

“I understand what you’re going through right now…don’t think I don’t. If you want to talk about it…then I have an obligation to you to listen. It’s just like what you did for me…I leaned on you for hours after…you know.”

I unsteadily raised myself, wandering back toward my bed and taking a seat on my mattress. “Flash, there’s nothin’ta talk about.”

His eyes narrowed once more. “Pardon my language, but cut the shit. You’re obviously hurting, and trust me, through experience I know that talking helps more than you might think.

“This,” he began, lifting the bottle away from my desk with his magic, “isn’t the answer to your problems. If anything, I am. So please…just treat me as a solution rather than an obstacle.”

“…please put’za bottle down.”

He snapped, throwing the bottle against the wall as more fragments joined the glass collage being formed along my floor. “Dammit, Wavelength! Do you think I enjoy watching you do this to yourself? Do you really think your sister would want you to mourn her loss rather than celebrate her life?”

“Too shor’ta celebrate anythin’,” I said, unfazed by his outburst.

His eyes widened. “You…how could you say that? So…what, you’re just going to step on her memory? Keep your hoof over it so you don’t ever have to face it, is that it? Do you know how feeble that makes you look?

“What kind of attitude is that to have when you’re the Overstallion? When ponies around here have to look to you for guidance? Do you really think with the state the stable is currently in that anypony around here should feel worried about their leader?”

“Flash, nopony in ‘ere gives a damn ‘bout me. I cou’drop dea’tomorra ‘n nopony’d even cry fer’me.”

He began approaching me. Lifting his hooves over my shoulders, he crossed his horn against my own as it glowed profusely and sparks began to emanate upon their connection.

I was locked in place. Any attempt I made to move was a message sent with no return address. I felt like I was being sapped away of all of my happy thoughts. As he pulled away from me, I understood what he just did.

“Way…wayshba—“

He passed me the wastebasket.

Is this going to be the norm? Vomiting into a bucket to start a day?

As I pulled my head away, I collapsed back onto my bed.

“Why?” I asked. Tears began to pour down the sides of my face as I couldn’t even raise my head to look at him. “You can’t just let me deal with my problems my own way? Why can’t you just leave me alone?”

“Because stupid ponies need education. How dare you say that.”

I craned my neck forward. “Say wha—“

“I give a damn! And do you know why that is? Because I love you, you idiot! I’m not asking you to stop being sad, hell, I’m just as broken up as you are right now. But don’t think for even a second that you can absentmindedly sulk until you hit the bottom of a bottle!”

“Flash…you know what I meant.”

“That’s exactly why I’m berating you! Why can’t you understand that? Why can’t you understand the simple truth that we’ve proven time and time again, even before all of this? That no matter what, we will always have each other…and we’ll get past anything that comes our way together.”

He held a hoof out to me. As I hesitantly took it into my own, he pulled me into an embrace and finally let his voice fall apart at the seams. He was in just as much pain as I was… but he’s always been stronger than me when it came to this…

“That’s exactly why I’ve decided I’m coming with you.”

What?

“Flash…wh-what do you mean? I-I can’t let y—“

“Look at my cutie mark.” He lifted the end of his coat. “Tell me what it means.”

The beaker… filled with a light red, fizzing liquid. It was tilted over as some of the liquid could be seen pouring from the lip in the still-frame. Adorned across the front of the scientific instrument was a large, red heart.

“You pour your heart into everything you do…”

He pulled away, his eyes conveying my correctness and a wry smile telling me what to expect. “And since I do you…” he sniffed, “it all makes sense, right?”

Wow, I really needed to laugh. I pulled him back in. “I can’t tell you how much this means to me…”

“You don’t have to. We’ve said it all before…”

* * *

I left my room.

The first thing that greeted me was a poster; the shield read S-E-C-U-R-I-T-Y.

Hollow hallways. Completely empty. I’d made no attempt to raise anypony from their beds this early. Four in the morning; beating my alarm by a good two hours. The last couple of days have gone by at an agonizingly slow pace. I’ve actually been taking every minute as a mental tally.

Two hundred and forty two down, eleven hundred and ninety eight to go.

Time and eating; two things I’d forgotten to keep track of lately. I’m pretty sure the last thing I even tasted was whiskey… maybe a glass of water here and there, but water doesn’t ever really do that whole ‘taste’ thing… if only it were possible to put time off.

Lunch time… the best of both worlds?

I made a left turn.

A single doctor rushed from a room, the curtain rattling from above as plastic rings scraped over the metal pole, “Probably before next curfew…” I overheard him mutter as he stepped by me. He lifted the end of another curtain with a hoof and slipped under it. Despondently, his voice still carried from the other side. “The orchard will have never been so full of life…”

Just as I slipped by the room he’d exited from, I heard the unmistakably prolonged singular beep of a flat-line. I felt myself jolt at the noise. The first thing my mind jumped to was the number two-zero-three. I chanced a look at the curtain to my left; two-zero-five adorned on the plaque directly to its right.

Not Mom’s room…

The curtain rattled as the doctor peered around the flap he lifted. “Overstallion…” he addressed me solemnly. Without another word, he proceeded right on by me and into his original room again.

Not Mom. That’s good…

I reached the end of the medical area. Using my magic, I depressed the large switch. The humongous, airtight double-doors immediately slid apart, granting me entrance. Next thing I know, I’m in the cafeteria. The lights overhead remained on perpetually, giving the wrong impression.

I stood right by the counter, waiting to be served, I suppose. Surprisingly, little did I figure, Cuisine wasn’t at his station. Gee, I wonder why. Did I seriously just tap on the glass? What am I not processing?

“Where is everypony?” I asked curiously.

It’s four in the morning. That’s still out, not in. I saw the time when I looked at my Pipbuck…but I… Oh, now I’m beginning to feel it… I’m tired… Like asleep-on-my-hooves, forget-the-necessity-of-cognizance, running-on-nerves tired.

I wasn’t even concerned about heading outside at the moment. There were only two things on my mind: trying to find out if Cuisine was willing to part with some of his whiskey and wondering whether or not I’d ever see my uncle again.

Today. He comes back today.

I took a seat at one of the tables, tapping my hooves along its surface. There was a rhythm in there somewhere, but I felt no reason to listen for it. I guess I wanted to when I started, but that desire only faded little by little. My practice became sluggishly weaker with each second my eyes remained locked on the table I had shared with my family the other day.

I sighed sullenly, averting my gaze as the room fell into its natural silence. My hooves folded across the table, I scanned the back of Cuisine’s workstation one last time. I found myself staring at my reflection in the glass, my yellow corneas surrounded by fissures of red.

I allowed my head to rest atop my forehooves. My eyelids began to gently fall closed as I felt the rest of my body relax. I let out what I felt coming on as a sigh, but came out a harsh, quaking breath. “He’s okay…he’s okay…” I raised my head with a sniff, gingerly rubbing an eye. “We’re gonna go out, get him and he’ll be just…fine…”

“Ah, it’s you who’s been traipsing their way around the corridors.”

The voice rebounded from the large doorway in between the cafeteria and medical area (I just realized how unsanitary that is). I wearily focused on the stallion that entered… Podium. He was staring back at the scene from beyond the doorway, sighing as a pony-shaped bulge under a sheet was wheeled away from the medical area. As he stepped into the cafeteria, he closed the doors behind him, obstructing it for his own benefit.

“I heard that you’re heading outside today.” He took a seat across from me at the table I had chosen. His eyes and mine looked pretty similar; restless and bloodshot. Laying his hooves on the table, he cupped them together, giving a smirk that lasted no longer than a facial tick.

“Overstallion. No security or combat experience. No idea as to what’s out there aside from a gaggle of speculations with no real physical evidence of what to anticipate. I hope we’re clear that if anypony asks who your teacher was, you won’t say me.”

I disregarded pretty much everything he’d just said. “How are you awake right now?” I asked groggily. “Or is this the norm for you?”

I was fixed with a dead-eyed stare. “Couldn’t sleep,” he stated. “Lightswitch’s been keeping me up.”

Um… “I don’t…what, is yours faulty?”

“Lightswitch is my boy’s name.”

“Oh…wow, teach, I didn’t know you had a son.”

I watched every feature of his face twinge in disgust. “Yes…past tense. It came to my attention the other night that, uh, my boy was in with the scoundrels that…attacked everypony. The Edges…but…I never saw him in the auditorium.

His son was in the Edges? That doesn’t sound like any son of his.

“So, of course, my first instinct as a father was that it was…somewhat of a sick hoax. It was enough to learn that security had apprehended him prior to this. He’s never been outspoken, his motives were always sincere and he’s more often than not tried to do me proud in one way or another. To…hear that he may have played a role in what happened, it…had been driving me mad.

I mean, the Edges? Really? We have clubs for a reason, right? Math, science… I was in debate… argued with my parents all the time.

“Then I…learned he was never in the auditorium. Overstallion’s office,” he continued, as my ear perked straight up. “Along with two unicorns who’d succeeded in escaping the stable entirely.

Wait… no… No. N—what? He can’t be… that… what?

“There was this glimmer of hope I’d had that he’d gone with them…then again, a glimmer that wished he hadn’t. For better instead of worse…and the worst of it was to find out that…he’d been holding hostages.

His… son is…

“The Over…Late Overstallion Black Tide… The Overmare, Crescent Moon, intensive care…allegedly brought about by my son’s direct actions. And…is it true? Was he the pony who…Ocean Cur—“

“Switchblade.”

His name left my mouth almost as if I were correcting him. I felt every hair on the back of my neck stand on end. Every word that left his mouth was like a hoof scraping along a chalkboard. It hurt every part of me to so much as make eye-contact with him.

“That dreadful alter-alias…” He gave a half-scoff. “In his final moments, was that how you came to know him?” He carried a pained expression that he forced back through his words; he sounded like he wanted to make himself laugh. “Why not Lightswitch? Why the Edges? What possessed him…to…ch-change so suddenly? So drastically? To give everything for nothing?!”

I cringed as that last word etched and screeched its way along the chalkboard.

He let out a shaky sigh. “Wavelength, the truth of this matter, what every little detail points to is that my son…my Light…Lightswitch died well before you ever got your hooves on him. But even if I’ve come to grips with that fact, and though I don’t blame you…I feel I must be honest with you. I harbor a great deal of ill will for you.”

He pursed his lips, staring intently at the empty space between his hooves. “But I can’t excuse my son. His mistakes led him to his grave…perhaps it’s better he stay buried with them…” He shook his head, putting a hoof to his temple before staring off into space, visibly disturbed by what he’d just said. “I am truly…sorry for your loss.”

He’d uttered those last few words very quickly, as if he were covering up what he really wanted to tell me. Once he stopped talking, the natural silence weighed heavily on my heart. It wasn’t long before Podium wordlessly excused himself from table, treading toward the cafeteria’s exit. I didn't have it in me to tell him the same.

I’d waited a good ten minutes after he’d left to follow him out... I lost my appetite.

I walked past every curtain, made a right and drifted straight into my room. I stepped hoof into my bed and paused. I stared at the ventilation shaft and slowly put myself down. I lay on my mattress, almost expecting to see a glint of indigo shining from within. I cupped my hooves over my eyes, shuddering until my body forced them away, almost like pantomiming a game of peekaboo.

Using my magic, I tore the grate from the shaft.

I peered inside…

It’s so dark in there…

I slid the grate back into the slot.

I sat in lonely contemplation. Envisioning something, anything, to alleviate my dread.

“Maintenance…”

I left my room.

#

Barricade had placed me in one hell of a position, in more ways than one as it would seem. A stable in shambles with the population a shadow of what it once was. With the Edges’ attack, we lost lives. Not just the lives of the average inhabitant, but very few of their ‘insurgents’ survived the acts of my uncle and the security teams. What few had lived were in critical condition… none of them are older than twenty… the youngest was fifteen.

This would be the second blind charge Barricade’s made in the last couple of days, and I’m weighing my options as to which one caused greater chaos. With him gone, we lost a major asset to the stable and I lost another member of my family… I won’t let either remain that way. As far as I was concerned, the swiftness of Barricade’s return depended solely on how fast we spotted him. And, from how big he is, it shouldn’t be too hard.

That plan of action is truly the art of a mastermind.

Flashbang accepted my offer to allow him credence as a temporary Overstallion until I returned. He took up the spell for maintaining the orchard on his first attempt and easily succeeded. Also, I had imagined that somepony with an overall knowledge of security would undertake a far better grasp at the decision-making involved. The only thing he denied in the position was the robe out of, in his words, ‘respect for my father.’

Lie though that may be, that means I get to carry it with me…

Ya-hoo…

Gleaned from his words, the outside world is unpredictably brutal in its own war-forged nature. There are other civilizations beyond the stable door, but I’ve been forewarned a majority of the outer inhabitants should be avoided, and wildlife even more so. The presage of a nightmarish creature with the likeness of a rotting bear carcass was enough to give me second thoughts.

The more I was informed about the world that we were stumbling into caused me feelings of terror and apprehension. But Barricade isn’t staying out there. Search and return. After a day, search and rescue. If more than a week passes… search and recovery… in which case, I return with empty hooves to be filled with a shovel… but that won’t happen.

Time is of the essence and Barricade has already been out there for a day. I had faith in my uncle’s strength, endurance and overall ability to handle anything that came his way, but... the stable still needs him. And… as the Overstallion, it was my prerogative to ensure his return as soon as possible... but as his nephew, I just wanted my uncle back.

* * *

“Cocked, locked and ready to go!” Failsafe shouted, eagerly eying the closed stable door before him.

Something I had never truly understood about him compared to his father was his unbridled enthusiasm to step into dangerous situations. He was always ready to test his skills and better himself even when he knew he was outmatched. Then again, the same could be said for licking a light socket multiple times, which is just stupidity.

Each of us is carrying our own supply of food and water in our saddlebags, but we each held something different when it came to our survival.

Failsafe was brandishing three pistols, each individually placed into their own holsters along a sash wrapped around his chest. Each one had been fully loaded. Let’s hope that they stay that way. His right saddlebag was bulging with a bulk of ammunition and strapped around his right forehoof for easy access was a baton for ‘CQC,’ whatever that means.

Flashback stood by my side, head resting on my neck. His decision to come with me was completely unexpected. Though I feel terrible for taking him from the stable, he assured me that the doctors were more than capable of handling everything in his absence. I wasn’t going to say it flat-out, but having him with me out there will undoubtedly make this journey a hell of a lot easier.

He was burdening white cloth saddlebags. Across the center on each bag was that red plus mark that somehow correlates with medicine. He was carrying five healing potions, bandaging gauze, tape and other medical paraphernalia all concealed within them.

I was just carrying clothes, deodorant... and of course my own supply of food. More apples than I’d care to count and ten bottles of fresh water in the left side and just about anything having to do with hygiene on the right. Along with the clothes, however, were four syringes that Flashback personally asked me to hold on to.

But I snagged something else that I just couldn’t leave behind… there are some perks to being the Overstallion. Like going wherever you want and nopony asking questions about what you were doing. Unlimited access is the only thing that allowed me to take it. For only moments, I considered just leaving it, but I needed to take something of hers with me.

As I stared forward, the door to the outside practically taunted me. It had the appearance of a giant gear adorned with the rusted number forty seven set in the center. Whoever put it there must not have paid very much attention to their work considering it was slightly lopsided. As if it were a face, cocked in my direction asking ‘what are you thinking?!’

Disquieted anxiety filled my body as I tried to stifle my buckling legs beneath me. My father’s robe even felt like it was coiling around me, nearly strangling me. The thoughts of being ripped apart by the possibly ravaged landscape sent my mind spiraling in opposite directions. Absurd notions such as balefire bombs plummeting right down on top of me wreaked havoc on my mind.

The war’s over, so that shouldn’t happen… right? Of course not, Wavelength, don’t be ridiculous. Just breathe… breathe… okay…

“You seem calm,” Flashback muttered, obviously feeling me tremble. I didn’t need to look at him to know he was toting that smile. “Wavelength, we don’t have to do this. You know as well as I do that Barricade is more than capable of handling himself out there.”

I uneasily shifted, getting a better look at him. “And you know as well as I do that that’s not the point.”

“Yes, I’m aware.” He raised his head and rounded me, placing his hooves on my shoulders as he studied my eyes. “But you’re lucky I don’t inform my dad about that little episode yesterday regarding your sister,” he said, lowering his hooves and stepping away. “We wouldn’t be going anywhere if he knew.”

“Flash, I…you have to know that there isn’t any way that it wasn’t going to affect me the way it did. But my mind’s clear,” like a smokescreen, “and I’m ready for this,” like an exam I didn’t study for.

“Certainly you can tell me that, but can you say it to yourself?”

I had to think about this one. “Nope.”

Breaking away from him and moving to the door’s control panel, I input the code: ‘omegabroughtanother.’ One word, no capitals, no spaces.

She was a miracle… Brain, I swear to Celestia, if you don’t change the subject…

I pressed the large button as the beeping signaled my success, for whatever that’s worth. The door jostled in place before slowly rolling along the floor, opening. Failsafe stood ready at the entrance, tapping his hoof on the floor excitedly as if he were being teased. The door creaked, straining against its hinges as it revealed the outer world in all of its barren glory.

“Wavelength, Flashback,” I heard Flashbang call for us. I turned my head. From the door to the maintenance wing, he emerged and stood by his son, who gave him a passing glance before eying me once more, wordlessly telling me to play it cool. The bandage wrapped around his right eye was still taking some getting used to…

He probably wants to talk to us before we leave, I’d bet.

“May I speak to you for a moment before you three head out?”

Called it.

I moved away from the panel as I watched Failsafe trot outside, grinning like a foal who just received a reward for good grades (secondhoof experience). Flashbang’s eyes were following his overly-enthusiastic son as I approached him. He stammered a little before his attentions were once again focused on me.

“I know it’s his job to keep you guarded,” he said as he trained his gaze from me to Flashback, “but I have to ask that you two protect him from doing anything…”

“Reckless?” I asked.

“Stupid, yes.” He placed his head in a hoof. “I love my boy, but…”

He cracked open an eye and peered around me to him, his mouth hanging open slightly. I turned my head and witnessed Failsafe, strafing with a gun tightly gripped in his mouth. I fully turned, expecting that he may have already run into some danger… then he started striking poses.

“Uh-huh,” I said with a drawl. I turned back to face Flashbang and noticed Flashback’s twitching eye. “Got it.”

He gave me a curt nod and gave an admonishing, almost threatening look to Flashback. “I’m getting news from the doctors that there are a few missing medical supplies outside of the few you told them you were taking. You happen to know anything about that?”

“Missing medical…?” Flashback ran over his words, eyes widening in sudden realization. “Are you accusing me of—“

“N-no, of course not,” the old security officer interrupted with a sigh. “Though, the fact that you bring that up unprovoked is more than just a little unnerving.” He looked forward, past the both of us. “Failsafe! Could you come here for a moment?”

Failsafe turned at hearing his name, gun still in his mouth. Spotting his father, he came trotting back toward us, spitting the armament back into the holster wrapped around his chest and giving me a grin as he passed by.

“Wassup, pops?”

Flashbang lifted his left hoof and draped it over Flashback’s neck and his right hoof around Failsafe’s, pulling them closer. I decided to turn away from the scene before me, not wanting to ruin their moment. I stared outward into the sand-colored void that I feared would soon become my own personal graveyard.

“I want you two to be safe out there, okay? If anything happened to either of you while you were out there…I couldn’t ever forgive myself.”

“Aw, dad, stop being so mushy,” Failsafe said. “I can handle whatever’s out there with all of my hooves tied behind my back.”

“What Failsafe means is that we all have each other’s backs,” Flashback rebounded. “You don’t have anything to worry about.”

I listened to the silence for a moment as I let out a sigh. “Wavelength?” I heard Flashbang beckon. I looked over my shoulder back to them. “You’re family too, come here.”

I was honestly taken aback by that. I turned around, if for no other reason, to make sure he wasn’t going to pull my leg any harder. As I approached him, however, Flashback pulled me in with them as we sat there… just… we were hugging…

He’s serious? Why would he care about me?

I didn’t really care for questioning it, but I saw how he first reacted when he found out about Flashback and I. I’ve seen my coltfriend at his worst, more often than not brought about by the hooves of this pony. Yet, here I am, watching him use his hooves for something much more meaningful. Without even thinking, I wrapped my own hooves around him.

I felt the back of his barding, completely rigid from wear and tear. I felt his neck cross against the back of my own, his breath traveling down my spine. I felt Flashback and Failsafe on either side of me; the former helping me share in the solace, the latter, albeit reluctantly, following along.

I felt… my eyes burning.

Failsafe began to squirm away from the embrace and was shortly followed by Flashback letting go as well… but I was still holding on. “And keep in mind,” Flashbang broke the silence in a hushed tone, “when you get back, if you need anything, don’t hesitate to ask.”

Oh, that almost did it!

I had to fend off my tears’ brutal onslaught. I couldn’t give a reply. If I had, I might not have been able to keep the dam from bursting. I pulled away, looking him in the eye and hoping that would be a substantial enough answer. Thankfully, his unusually gentle smile gave me the feeling that it was.

“Oh…yes, I should definitely ask before you go. What’s the password for the office? You never gave it to me and…I can’t get in.”

I paused, trying to steel myself in preparation for the effort it would take to answer that without breaking down. “I-it’s…it’s ‘angel wings.’” I choked on the last syllable, turning away from him.

“Huh…thank you, sir.” I didn’t bother correcting him. I only tried to get away from him… then I jumped.

“Whoo!” I heard Failsafe’s voice reverberating from the entrance.“Huh-hey, you guys comin’?”

I steadied myself upon my hooves, unready for his outburst. “J-just give us a second,” I managed to stammer out. I fully regained my balance and began trotting for the exit before I noticed Flashback from the corner of my eye fixing me with an odd stare.

I stopped when I realized he wasn’t following me and shifted, pretending to fasten my saddlebags. As I began getting a better look at him through my mane, I caught him scowling, but as I rose, it quickly reverted into a feigned smile.

I gave him a half-hearted smirk. “Got something smart to say?”

He slowly worked his way toward me. “I love you.” He wrapped his forelegs around my neck as I felt his horn cross against my own, his teal eyes nearly drowning me. My smirk disappeared. “How about you? Have anything smart to come back with?” he nearly whispered as our lips were inches away from one another’s.

I’m at a loss for words and my lungs are beginning to overflow. Help? “Uh, hehe…” Oh Goddesses, I’m about to die over here! Mind pulling me from the water?! Please?! “I…love you, too?”

That wry smile broke through, shining past that accursed shell he always wore. “I think that would be the most intelligent thing you’ve said in the last two months.”

Yes, I shall survive! Celestia, Luna? Good work, team.

My victory was short lived as I began to drown once more in his embrace. I didn’t want to let go, but… ah, screw it. I dove further down, submerging myself with him being the only wave crashing against my mind. He was my anchor, pulling me further into the welcomed abyss. As my vessel plummeted, the depths of my subconscious pushed me back to the surface as he pulled away, leaving me breathless.

“No, but seriously though, can you two lovebirds give it a rest?” Failsafe chided before looking upward. “We’re wasting time here an—whoa…” he trailed off. In more ways than one as he stumbled forward, keeping his eyes fixated on whatever was above him.

I reluctantly drifted away with my anchor in tow, one tepid step forward at a time. The outside world in its unwelcoming visage, a torn world brought about by senseless actions. We took our first steps into the outside world and turned back, giving Flashbang the okay to close the stable with the wave of a hoof.

He moved over to the control panel and let his hoof hover over the large red button. “Just so you guys know,” he said audibly as it bounced out the exit, “if you want come back early, I wouldn’t be against it.”

I stared at the ground while I contemplated what that meant; leaving Barricade behind. I gave him a reassuring smile. “We’ll be back in a flash,” I said with a wink. Flashback’s hoof connected with the back of my head.

Ow… I thought it was funny. Least I didn’t tell him we’d be keeping an eye out.

I saw him shake his head as a small smile formed. Then he pressed it. I heard the door begin its slow rotation to conceal the stable once more. As the door continued working its way closed, I caught a short glimpse of his eyes shutting tightly… his teeth clenched… he turned away… then it was sealed…

I watched as Flashback brought his hoof along the door, letting out a sigh as he slid it across the inscribed forty-seven. I couldn’t help but notice that this number had been correctly worked into the metal. The face of the door was looking onward, through us, past the horizon and possibly beyond.

I turned, hoping to see where its gaze led. There was no envy in the grass, no discernable sadness in the sky; instead, corrupted soil with the consistency of sand sprouting sparse patches of grey glades and an outward expanse of a seemingly endless cloud cover that hung overhead, obscuring the sky in an opaque blanket of alabaster.

Shriveled forms of what may have been trees, baring fragile, blackened limbs and lightly rustling brittle leaves stretched across the landscape in spaces that appeared entirely random. Even the air was stale with the odor of petrified emptiness. It was as if every picture I had seen in my history books: the plants, the animals and the beauty of nature… adulterated fiction loosely based on reality.

“Why in Equestria would your uncle want to come out here?” Flashback thought aloud as he took to my side. “Or even Claymore for that matter? This is downright depressing!”

“Your guess is as good as mine.” I turned my head back to the stable door…then I looked up. “Flash, did you know the stable was built into a mountain?” My eyes continued along the massive, rocky ninety-degree angle upward as it jutted into and above the clouds.

Flashback let his eyes scour the visible peaks as if he could glimpse past the puffy, white shroud. “Well, if this is the mountain’s face, I suppose we live in its mouth, huh?”

“Wow, did you just try funny?”

“No, that was a deliberate failure, but I succeed very regularly.”

“Sure, yeah, of course you do, babe,” I shook my head and turned, slightly admiring the difference in the way the ground felt, letting my hooves glide through the brittle earth with each step.

I treaded the ground, slowly taking in the environment for what it was; a shattered silhouette of the world Celestia and Luna had once watched over. As I took another few steps, I squeaked once I was caught off guard by a mad beeping from my Pipbuck. Raising the device to my eyes, it revealed that the map function had given a name to the new location.

“Baltimare…of course.” Flashback acknowledged, having caught up to me. “Wait, wait, wait, how…how does this thing know what this area is called? The parts of the stable, that’s one thing, but there’s no possibility that this thing has even seen the light of day!”

“Flash, take a look up.” I pointed my hoof upward and watched as his eyes followed it. “I’m pretty sure we still have that in common.”

He sucked his teeth. “Well, I suppose stranger things could happen.”

As we took in our new surroundings, I realized I was forgetting—

“Failsafe?” called Flashback.

Oh yeah, where did he go? Let’s see… he was looking up and walking forward… forward? Uh… nope, not there. Ooh, wait, “Hey, Flash, I see hoofprints.”

We began to follow the trail along the slightly angled slope leading away from the stable. The tracks led near a small gathering of wood, each placed over one another. Though the hoofprints continued and Flashback began to leave me behind, I felt my attention drawn to the pile seeing as it just felt out of place.

Hang on. “Failsafe?” No response… well, back to the wood.

I inched myself closer, completely ignoring the fact that I still didn’t know where Failsafe was. I tried to use my magic to pull a piece of wood from the jumble as it ascended unsteadily before dropping back into its interlocked position.

Wow, this wood is heavy… okay.

I moved closer, placing my hooves upon one of the slabs of black timber that protruded from the pile and pulled at it. After a few moments of my forceful attempts, it finally slid out from the collection, causing me to stumble backwards. The piece of wood cluttered to the ground, kicking a faint arc of dust up into my face.

“Nuh!” Oh, it got in my mouth!

Once I had finished sputtering and spitting the foul taste from my tongue, I lapped at the inside of my mouth, garnering an immediate disdain for the poignantly salty aftertaste and the crunch of the dirt between my involuntarily gnashing teeth.

“Why ain’t I surprised you’re playin’ with wood?” Failsafe asked. After a rather high-pitched yelp and a crash down to my haunches, I looked to him as he sighed.

Flashback stood beside him, toting a wry smile. “Found him,” he said.

”Hey, I’d prefer not to be snuck up on while I’m distracted, don’t gimme that look!”

“Just…just move over.” Failsafe strode to the pile, turned and raised his hind legs, not really waiting for me to get out of the way.

“Oh, yeah, like you can do bet—”

His hooves shot outward, sending the pile toppling with a single buck… while he gave me a smirk…

“—ter…shut up.”

What lied under the heap of timber was a small metal lockbox, unlocked as if purposefully left for somepony to find what was inside. Failsafe kneeled over to it as I levitated it away from him.

Tee-hee.

I sat it in front of me and he moved to my side. Once it was opened, it revealed a small parchment, which Failsafe immediately snatched out of the box.

Fair’s fair, I suppose.

“What is it?” I asked.

“It’s a…” His eyes began darting as he skimmed whatever had been scrawled upon the parchment. “It’s a letter from Barricade.”

“What? Let me see.” I got up from my haunches and cantered to his side, trying to get a peek at the paper only for him to keep it away from me as he read it aloud to spite me.

“It says ‘if you are reading this, then that means that you have found my hiding spot and are more than likely reading this…’”

Yeah, sounds like Barricade.

I stepped to his side as he quickly whirled around, still keeping the parchment from my eyes. “’I’m going to make a guess that it is one of three ponies reading this. Flashbang, if it’s you, I’m telling you I’ll be just fine and to just let it go. I have to do this for reasons that I can’t explain, but you have to listen and just get back in the stable…’”

I swerved around him, attempting to catch him off guard by making him think I would approach from the right. Instead, I would get him from the left and grab that pa—and he’s running away.

How is he doing that on three hooves?!

Flashback and I took off after him. It didn’t take long for me to catch up to him, though. I think that barding of his is either slowing him down, or I’m faster than I thought I was. Now, if his hind hoof weren’t in my face and holding me back, I might get that parchment. I can feel his resistance loosening!

Just… a little… further…!

“’Failsafe,’” he paused before turning back to glimpse at me. “Hey that’s me! ‘Its been fun teaching you everything I know and I hope you can use it to benefit the stable…and though your father would never say it…he’s extremely proud of the stallion you’ve grown into…’”

His hind hoof gave way and I ended up landing on my stomach. As I began to lift myself, that evil genius actually sat on me. Whatever, I can get out of this… anytime I want…

Alright, never mind…

He only sat there, still on top of me, analyzing the parchment silently. I tried to use my magic to get it away from him, but I couldn’t get a good line of sight on it. Flashback finally managed to catch up with us, panting slightly. Taking notice of the scene before him, he snickered as he levitated the parchment away from Failsafe and skimmed what remained of the text.

“Oh my…” He held the parchment down to my eye level as I sent a field around it and began greedily… reading…

‘Wavelength, what the [fancy]

are you thinking? Get back

in that stable before

Bro starts haunting me!’

Needless to say, ‘fancy’ wasn’t the actual F-word that was used. Flashback manipulated the parchment into his open medical bag and latched it shut. He then gave Failsafe an abnormally intimidating look, causing him to stumble off of me, showing at least enough courtesy to offer me a hoof. Once I was helped to my hooves again, I looked myself over and found a splotch of dirt on the edge of the robe.

“Oh…dammit.”

I know it’s just a robe, but…

“Whoops, sorry ‘bout that,” he attempted to apologize, breaking out of his melancholy tone. He stepped closer and inspected the stain. “Uh, lemme try somethin’.” He licked his hoof (ew) and tried to place it upon my robe, to which I immediately staggered away from.

“No, you’ve done enough.”

I can’t believe I’ve only owned this thing for a few days and caused more damage to it than it’s received in nearly two centuries…

The image of my dad glaring at me whipped through my mind.

It was Failsafe’s fault, not mine! Blame him!

“Oh, come on, what can it hurt? Not like I’ll make it any worse.”

I eyed him incredulously, every facet of my common sense telling me ‘yes he can, don’t let him do it!’ I glanced at Flashback who gave me a look that urged me to have some trust in his brother.

“F-fine…” I conceded.

I’ll at least trust Flashback’s judgment.

He approached me yet again, licking his hoof and rubbing the splotch gingerly as I silently observed. Once he pulled it away, to my amazement, the stain was gone.

“See? Good as new.”

I examined the edge of the robe and found myself relatively surprised. Typically, I wouldn’t expect a member of security to have even the slightest idea as to what cleanliness was, so whatever color impressed happens to be, color me that.

“Old trick my ma taught me. Always got stains outta everything.”

“Th-thanks,” I said, still working over the fabric to look for where the stain had gotten to.

“Don’t ment—why’re you still lookin’ over it? Y’don’t trust me?”

“Uh…no, no I don’t,” I replied curtly, causing him to snort with a huff. I diverted my attention away from the hiding stain and looked to the sky. “We should probably get started. I can’t tell, but I think we’re burning daylight.” I began walking forward as they swiftly followed close behind.

“So your uncle’s note didn’t really register with you, huh?” Flashback asked almost wistfully.

I chuckled to myself. “Please, if I ever listened to anything Barricade told me to do, I’d be with a mare, have short hair and more than likely have a collection of Playcolts under my mattress. It goes without saying that I’d disregard what a piece of paper says.”

“Whoa, whoa, hang on, Playcolts?” Failsafe cut in. “Can, uh, can we go back to the stable for a bit?” I shot him a look so dirty it could easily be featured on the next cover if they ever went back into production. “Right, message received.”

“We’re not setting our hooves back into that stable until a fourth set’s with us.”

“Right.” He kept his eyes forward as we continued our stride. Each of us remained silent for a few steps; the only sound being Failsafe’s annoying habit of clicking his tongue along the roof of his mouth. “Hopefully I’ll see some action out here while we’re at it.” Though, I’d take the noise over whatever he had to say.

Flashback leaned over to me and whispered, “You’d think he was kidding.”

“Didn’t bring these pistols for no reason,” he said, bringing one out to inspect within a fetlock.

“You’d be wrong.”

I gulped. I’d like to think it’s pretty obvious I’m hoping for the opposite… and it’s no coincidence that Flashback and I let him take the lead as we moved onward. The secret is that I really, really don’t like guns.

* * *

Our hoofprints left new indentations in the ground behind our path; new paragraphs beginning on another page of life. We walked and searched for hours in no particular direction with no leads to follow. And to make things worse, wherever Celestia’s sun happened to be up there, Luna’s moon was taking control of the atmosphere, and fast.

We made absolutely no progress in finding Barricade, and after such an uneventful exploration, I could feel my hopes dwindling. No stone was left unturned, neither nook nor cranny left undefiled in our wake. But it’s only been a single day and we still had plenty of food, water and (oh, thank the Goddesses) ammunition to spare. I’m certain tomorrow will shed further light in our darkness, but for now, Luna just doesn’t want to give up.

We came upon an old farmhouse, a place of agricultural significance during the pre-war era. Just a small, cream colored shanty complete with barn and already-harvested crops surrounded by a flimsy-looking fence comprised of wooden planks.

We’d passed by, and even entered some houses on the way, but they looked like they had been completely demolished for the most part. There was nothing of note to be taken or observed by the ramshackle establishments that riddled the area. My Pipbuck didn’t even produce a name for it. Whether their destruction was caused by time or balefire, it was difficult to tell.

Then again, how could I know? It’s not like I’ve seen the destruction balefire can truly cause. I would expect charred remains, maybe a crater rather than the mold and blankets of dust we encountered… they were basically desiccated rather than eradicated.

So I’ll just surmise time. Time. Not balefire. Time. Because balefire would be silly.

We’d been warned about the outer-inhabitants, but we hadn’t any other place to go. Admittedly, I found it interesting to see a door made from wood rather than metal for once. Failsafe just kept jabbering about this place being unoccupied even as I knocked upon it… only to receive an echo to his words when there was no answer.

“Maybe we should just keep moving,” I said with a sigh.

“What’re ya, deaf? I just said there’s nopony here,” Failsafe affirmed with wary glances at his surroundings. “This place is totally deserted. We could just head right in if we wanted to.”

“What, so you can see through walls all of a sudden?”

“No, but E.F.S. isn’t picking up anything.”

“E.F. what now? Do you have an imaginary friend?” He passed me a dumbfounded expression as if I just asked him who Celestia was. “Aw, that’s so cute.”

I climbed to my hind legs, leaning myself against the outer wall on my forehooves to take a peek into the small circular window only to have my vision blocked by some sort of accursed light blue fabric.

“What’s it stand for?” I asked without looking back.

“Eyes Forward Sparkle?” I heard Flashback intercept. “How do you not…did, at any point in your life, find that reading the manual for your Pipbuck might just be an idea worth consideration?”

I looked over my shoulder. “There’s a manual?” I climbed down from the window sill and looked between them as they both stared at me, wondering when I was going to tell them the punch-line. “No, really, there’s a manual?”

With a roll of his eyes, Failsafe moved toward me, taking my left hoof in his own as he tapped the buttons on my Pipbuck. “You just have to cycle through the presets, scroll over this little thingamabobber right here and voila.”

He pressed the enter key and my peripherals were invaded with a layer of green brandishing the letter ‘S.’ I turned my head to the left and the ‘S’ scrolled away, being replaced with ‘E.’

Whoa! That is so cool! Is it weird that I’m spinning in circles for the fun of it? There’s ‘E,’ now it’s ‘S,’ oh, hello ‘W,’ you want to join the party? ‘N,’ how have you been? Yeah, this is weird, I should probably stop. Flashback’s looking at me funny… and I’m getting dizzy anyway…

“The letters are the directions…north, south, yada-yada and those little yellow dots are us.” He looked to the house with intent. “That’s how I know there’s nopony around. No yellows, no fellows.”

As much as I hated to admit it, he was right. The only yellow dots were him and Flashback, but as I turned to the barn, there were a large amount of red ones. “If yellow is you, what about red dots?” He cocked an eyebrow before Flashback hoofed him in the side, getting his attention as he pointed in the direction I was facing. “In the barn, I see a bunch of—“

And his gun’s out. Note to self, red is not good!

“Red gets filled with lead.” He barreled for the barn, kicking dust up in his tracks. Flashback and I screamed for him to wait, but he, again, continued to ignore us. Breaking through the door of the barn, he opened fire on whatever was in there.

The darkness of the barn’s interior was lit briefly between each round fired. Twelve times I heard the gun discharge. Red dot after red dot either scurried off of my peripherals or simply dropped from the overlay altogether.

Finally, I heard several clicks as I slowly drew near the barn. An extremely bright light escaped the entrance as a yellow dot grew closer on my newly discovered E.F.S. Failsafe stood before us; his Pipbuck’s light shining intensely, showing he was bringing us a present.

There’s… something in his mouth…

He spat it in front of me as I jerked my hoof back to dodge the squishiness of the gooey impact.

“Got ‘em, coach!”

I wish I could say something intelligent at this moment, but… EWW!

“Gah! Wh-what the hell is that thing?!”

“Radroach,” he answered, not missing a beat with a hint of enthusiasm. “We got ‘em all over the place in the maintenance wing. Caused a hell of a lot of false alarms. Place’s almost infested.” He let out a dry chuckle. “You mean to tell me you’ve never seen a radroach before?”

“No!”

On all of my trips to the maintenance wings, whether to the smelter used for forging ammunition and new firearms (yeah, that exists in the stable, go figure) or just a stroll from one random machine to the next to gather sounds to use in my music, I had never seen one of those things in my life.

Needless to say, when I get back to the stable, first order of my Overstallion-ness will be to eradicate the gross little vermin.

At that moment, another red dot slipped onto my overlay, darting ever closer to the three of us. Now, I can’t really lie when I say that a radroach scampered around them, scurried up my leg and latched onto my face!

I’m not quite sure how I managed to be standing on Failsafe’s back within a split-second, but it happened. The radroach remained suspended in midair for a moment before it dropped to the ground, landing on its back. Its tiny limbs were sprawled and twitching as disgustingly as possible and I remember giving the most important order of my entire life:

“Quick, I found its weakness! Smash it with a hammer!” I nearly shouted, pointing my hoof with such fierceness that I almost dislocated the joint. Failsafe lifted his hoof and brought it down on the vile beast with enough force that I heard a crunch and a tiny squeal; an acceptable alternative.

I was hyperventilating, sliding to my stomach, trembling as I held onto Failsafe for dear life. The creature lay dead before us, its final breath nothing more than a whisper on the wind to even the most attentive of listeners.

It… was… vanquished.

“Good…good teamwork,” I managed to stammer between borderline convulsions.

He craned his head, giving me a half-lidded expression.

Realizing where I still was, I gave him a sheepish smile in return. “I, uh, got your back?”

A short, nervous chuckle followed by several moments of awkward silence led me to let go and climb down from his back. We then stood there for more oh-so-joyous seconds of awkward silence. He turned, walked back to the barn’s entrance and lifted his left hoof, illuminating the darkness within.

“Wow, you’re so brave, Wavelength,” Flashback chided. “I’ll have to be more wary of radroach attacks.”

“Ignoring that.”

“Oh, come on, Wavelength, look at it like this, if you prefer. You handle all the nasty radroaches and I’ll patch you up if they get a couple of good hits in.” He wrapped a forehoof around my neck, leaned in and kissed my horn. “We’ll make a good team,” he whispered in my ear, “it’s what I’m here for.”

“Oddly enough, I know you’re playing me…but thanks.”

We followed Failsafe into the barn and took a quick look around. Like every other place here, it was practically empty. The smell of aged paint and rotting wood with just a pinch of dried dung (possibly the insect-demons) entered my nostrils as we took our time to inspect it.

Rakes, ploughs, a wheelbarrow and other farming equipment were lined against the wall, appearing to have had no use in a long time judging from the strands of cobwebs that linked them to the walls. Gigantic bales of browning hay were strapped together and stacked upon one another toward the back; a place I began to assume was where the radroaches had made a home of.

A metal ladder was leaned against a ledge above. I raised my Pipbuck’s light and discovered it was an access to an upper loft. “Hey, I think I found a place to sleep—the hell did Failsafe go?”

Flashback, standing at the entrance of the barn, gave a deadpanned expression as he pointed his hoof toward the farmhou…

Aw crap…

I retreated from the barn and looked toward the farmhouse. Failsafe, of course, was galloping for it.

“You couldn’t have told him to wait?”

“Yes, because that’s worked well before.” He faced the farmhouse and his encroaching brother. “I’ve learned by now that my words would fall upon ears so deaf that it would be far simpler to tell a blind pony ‘go that way.’”

I let out an exasperated sigh as we began our tentative pursuit. Failsafe was right, however. There wasn’t anypony here, so once he barreled through the farmhouse door, I didn’t expect to hear a scream.

Oh, but guess who was wrong.

We began to rush for the structure.

On three hooves, the other being used to nurse his right shoulder, Failsafe walked out of the farmhouse doorway, keeping his eyes averted from me and more to whatever was behind him.

“You…y’all don’t wanna go in there,” he said with a shaken whisper.

“What?” I asked as I cantered in front of him. “What is it?” He let out a sigh, slightly shifting his shoulder and turning his head to look back with a wince. He slowly stepped to the side and…

The scene before me shouted for its recognition into my reality. Streaks of crimson lined the inner walls of the establishment, the color beneath, a decaying cream forever stained by the dark color of somepony’s life essence.

A dismembered yellow hoof, severed from the shoulder, lay curled upon the floor blemished by the same stark hue. I felt myself drawn to the scene before me. Regardless of the stench of rot brutally wafting through the air and assaulting my nostrils, I continued to walk further, taking it in, realizing.

This… this was somepony’s home…

Death… yes, I’ve dealt with it, obviously… but this is… horrifying.

Then, I noticed the most grisly aspect of the entire display… on the furthest wall, directly in view of the doorway was the letter ‘A’ scrawled in lifeblood. If a picture’s worth a thousand words, this is just the word ‘evil’ repeated a thousand times… I could barely hear my own thoughts as cries for vengeance seemed to echo from the doorway.

There’s no misconception to be had at that… a sentient being did this…

I felt Failsafe’s hoof upon my shoulder, beckoning me away from the former home. My hooves took steps forward against my own will, breaking away from him. Before I knew it, I went inside… and caught something out of the corner of my eye.

My eyes shot to the right, to a room that held a single bed. Heaped on top of a dark blue blanket… a… oh, dear Goddesses. I staggered backward out of the farmhouse, tripping over my tail and off the front steps onto the ground behind me. Failsafe regarded me from the porch. His lips were moving, but I couldn’t make out what he was saying. I only continued to stare at him vacantly.

He leapt from the porch and ran to me. His lips continued to move as no sound seemed to escape them. I began violently trembling as sound slowly started to work its way back into my brain. I hadn’t noticed it before, but I was hyperventilating.

“Wave!” I heard Failsafe, but it felt distant. He started coming in clearer with each eternal moment that seemed to drone on. “Wave, come…aring me here, ma…ap out of it!”

It was like being forced to have a conversation underwater. His hooves were on either side of me. I only began to understand moments later that my trembling was actually him shaking me…

So hard… why?

Flashback nearly shoved his brother away, taking me by my shoulders as the trembling finally stopped. “Wavelength?! Wavelength, can you hear me? Wavelength!” A voice finally registered… I looked to him… he was studying my eyes. “Are you with us?”

“Y-yeah.” The one syllable was all I could manage.

Flashback let out a very hesitant breath. Wrapping his hooves around me, he pressed a forehoof against the back of my head, pulling me closer. I stared up to Failsafe, who regarded me with a seldom worry I didn’t think he was capable of.

“Okay, man,” he took a shaky breath, “you had us goin’ there for a bit. You good?”

I nodded lethargically.

“Flash and I’re gonna salvage what we can from in there,” he stated. “But first,” he tapped his brother on the shoulder, “Flash, we’re, uh…we’re gonna set up in the barn for the night, ‘kay? Help the guy there, would ya?”

Flashback cautiously pulled away from me as he offered me a hoof. I gave a weary nod as I took his in my own and he lifted me. I kept my breathing stifled as we began a surprisingly lengthy trek back to the barn.

* * *

Once I got over the smell of decay, the barn actually wasn’t that bad. The outside of the structure had been dark red, but the interior was a moldy, brown color. Though the stench of dung became prevalent, I found myself attempting to focus on the rotting wood simply because it was a more tolerable alternative.

Turns out I had been right though.

Radroaches smell like sh… manure.

Speaking of which, I had a nice view of the barn from atop the loft I climbed up to with the use of the ladder. There was a window above me that left the darkened cloud cover adorned like a framed picture.

Very little light broke through the panes of dank glass and I found myself using my Pipbuck’s light, giving me just enough visibility so that I could tell where the edge of the loft was. The loft wasn’t uncomfortable by any means, just rather small, and the fall, rather steep. Pretty cold, too… a little humid, albeit, but cold. I was currently using my robe as a blanket, draping it over myself as I lay upon my hoof-made hay-bed. Pardoning an obvious pun involving literally hitting it, I can’t believe we used to eat this stuff.

Multiple bales of the tan, easily crinkled, and surprisingly itchy straws were heaped in stacks around me. It only felt necessary to unravel one and spread it out to help me in creating a makeshift mattress. I set one up for Flashback right next to mine, even cozier than my own if I do say so myself. I even made one for Failsafe, the nice pony that I am.

Flashback went back to the farmhouse, leaving me here… by myself… which wouldn’t be such a problem if my peripherals weren’t still flooded with red from every crevice of the E.F.S. thingy. I knew those things were just sitting down there, waiting for a moment to strike.

Must… remain… vigilant…

Every twitch, every rustle, every bone-chilling click that emanated from the darkness caused my eyes to shoot open. Sleep seemed like a possibility that further slipped from my grasp with each slight movement proclaiming its presence in my vicinity.

I silently nibbled at an apple I had retrieved from my saddlebags. My eyes darting in every direction, the only advantage I have against the enemy being that the radroaches can’t climb upon surfaces like smaller insects. I suppose that’s the cost to their far more menacing appearance compared to their tinier counterparts.

Celestia. Loft. Good job.

The doors to the barn burst open as Failsafe stood at the entrance. Does he have to buck every door? He can’t just… I don’t know, open it normally? Though I nearly jumped out of my skin and a few chunks of apple were now scattered across the floor, at least a majority of the red scurried off from my overlay.

Celestia. Failsafe. What happened?

“Hey, Wave, can you come down here?” he bellowed up the loft as I assumed he heard my frantic gasps for breath.

“Not a chance,” ugh, apple in my throat, “you come up here!”

“Oh, but I found a bunch of neat stuff—“

“That you can show me up here!”

I heard mumbling and the clattering of the ladder’s metal rungs as they shifted under his weight with each step, the light of his Pipbuck climbing with him. As his head poked over the edge of the loft, he brought his left foreleg up first, highlighting his position. With a grunt of exertion, he rolled over the ledge, brought himself to his hooves and tossed me his saddlebags all in one swift motion.

My placement of his ‘mattress’ was rather strange, I must admit. I may just be tired, but it seemed funny that we were segregated by the cloud-breaking moonlight, facing each other from the darkness and peering through Luna’s essence as particles of dust began to part and sway in the rays with each breath we exhaled.

Yeah, tired… definitely tired…

“Where’s Flashback?”

“He’s still dealing with what’s goin’ on back there, tryin’ to find the cause of death or some shit like that.” He scratched the back of his mane. “But dude, check out the swag,” he said with a prideful smirk as he shut off the light from his Pipbuck.

“No,” I said flatly with a raised hoof.

“Huh?”

I leered at him. “Never…ever use that word again.”

“What? Swa—“

“Ah!”

He deadpanned. “Shut up and look at what I got.” He propped the saddlebag up and unlatched its buckle, kicking it over and letting the contents spill across the floor in a heap.

A box of… I guess food? ‘Sugar Apple Bombs…?’

Oh yeah, that’s some good marketing techniques right there, put the word ‘bomb’ in the title of your brand. They must’ve made quite a profit during the war. I wonder if it’s weird that what’s turning me away from it more is actually the ‘apple’ part.

“Got a couple healing potions from a not-so-locked medicine cabinet and this little beauty,” he said while holding up a bottle of what anypony could recognize as alcohol, “in the unpowered fridge.”

“So…” I’m a little bit annoyed at what I’m hearing here. “You just…took what you could find from a dead pony’s home?”

“There were actually two in there. I’d give ya the details, but…”

“And that’s supposed to make it right?”

I’m dealing with Failsafe. I don’t know if I can make the bar go any lower without a shovel… which just so happens to be in the barn.

He swirled the bottle in front of his eyes as if inspecting the mixture, not listening. It possessed a narrow neck and contained a transparent liquid. Emblazoned across its center was the picture of a white beast with piercing blue eyes clutching a bridle of some kind within its jaws.

It was being bound and broken by an armor-clad pony standing atop its back using one hoof to take hold of the stirrups and the other holding up a bottle of what I could assume was the same unrightfully confiscated, yet equally tantalizing liquor.

He held it up in the air as the moonlight seemed to cascade through it like a glowing gift from the Goddesses. “A little warm, but who cares! This stuff’s marked as an import from Stalliongrad! ‘Wendigo Stirrups!’” He straddled it between his fetlocks, clamped his teeth around the cork and yanked it out with a resounding pop.

“Don’t you think we should at least save that for another time? Like maybe celebrating bringing Barricade back? Sound like a plan at all?”

Of course he ignored me. The bottle was already a fifth of the way gone by the time I had even said Barricade’s name! He pulled it away from his muzzle, licking his lips to get what little must’ve accumulated from his short-lived binge before passing it to me.

“And you feel no regret for basically grave-robbing?” I asked, levitating the bottle in front of me.

I took a closer look at the bottle’s picture. Strangely enough, the way Failsafe was holding it earlier… he looks a lot like the pony on the bottle. Maybe the bottle in the picture across this bottle has the same picture and it would just be an unending string of ponies taming beasts with the aid of this alcohol and I really need to sleep…

“Why? They don’t need it anymore.”

Yep, that did it.

Before he realized his mistake of giving me the bottle, I levitated it over the edge of the loft and poured what remained down below, dropping the bottle with it. Each splash that connected with the ground became more and more satisfying as the look of horror on my companion’s face grew the longer it carried on.

Then, the crash of the bottle… his face… oh Goddesses, yes! The falsetto of his twitching eye! The melody of his gaping mouth! And the brilliant chorus of his outstretched hooves!

“Dude! The fuck?!”

Ah, music to my ears.

“My master plan!” I exclaimed, throwing my hooves into the air in my feigned excitement. I am going to have so much fun with this! I lowered my hooves. “The radroaches will get drunk off of that stuff. Then! I make my move and leave with Flash as they decide their hangovers are too severe to care!”

“Um…” He placed his right hoof under his chin and the other against the left side of his more-than-likely swimming head, staring at the floor as if it held the answer to this riddle I must have told him. “Y-yeah, that makes sense, I guess. You meant with me, too, right?”

“Of course!”

That throws a bit of a wrench in the plan…

“Good…good…” He scratched the back of his neck, letting his eyes wander in different directions, not really selecting a particular place to study.

Drunk Failsafe is best Failsafe. I’ve always had an incredible lack of belief in his stance as a lightweight. He may be at least twice my size, but I can put away twice as much without nearly the same hassle. Then again, the whiskey in the stable is nowhere near as powerful as that stuff he just drank.

Even down there in between the cracks of a dwelling far past condemnation, the aroma of what could’ve been mistaken as a decaying liver still reached me atop the loft. I wondered if it would be too late to go down there and sample some... soaked through the floorboards of a crumbling foundation.

Perhaps I was too hasty in my decision. Maybe the ponies who owned it would’ve been happy to share before their disappearance from the pages of history. Maybe they would’ve wanted that fire to pass by another’s lips if they hadn’t received the opportunity to do so themselves, which, at this moment, they clearly didn’t…

Maybe there would still be some left in the morning. And maybe I should stop thinking. Thinking doesn’t seem to be doing me too much good at the moment. Yeah, thought processes: you’ve lost your privileges.

“So…this is where we’re all sleeping tonight, huh?” Failsafe examined.

“We have the choices of the sight of a massacre, Tartarus’ den of soul-devouring entities or a nice loft with added view.” I crossed my forelegs over one another. “I’ve made my choice.”

“Fair enough.” He turned his head to the left and watched the wall. His mouth was hanging slightly agape as his eyes passed over every inch of it like it was closing in on him. He anxiously tapped a hoof on his hind leg, starting up that annoying tongue-clicking noise.

Goddesses, I hate that noise… Well, I can put a stop to that!

I could only imagine he was noticing how much red currently covered his peripherals. Turning the volume of my Pipbuck up to maximum, I played a recording of a hammer striking an anvil.

About two feet off the ground… respectable. My dad still holds the record for grazing his horn on a light bulb... and he wasn’t even drunk. And, added bonus, I’m seeing a lot less red… on my E.F.S.

He just gave me a look of terror combined with anger. He continued to stare at me, condemning my actions as if I had done something immature and I should be completely ashamed of myself. I’ll be fair and at least plead guilty to the former.

“You. Are such. An asshole.”

“Yeah, yeah…hey, so what else can this Pipbuck do?”

E.F.S. is something that I wish I had known about before we left the stable. I would have enjoyed having this when the Edges started springing up… come to think of it, if we have this function, how in the world did the Edges manage to go into hiding?

Heh, maybe E.F.S. can’t pick up the cold-blooded…

“Uh, depends. Outside of recording, what do you already know it can do?”

“It has a map…and E.F.S.” That cocked eyebrow he offered me gave a vibe of ‘really?’ “Whaaat? I didn’t even know there was a manual for this thing up till about thirty minutes ago.”

“Wow, okay.” He sat silently for a moment, thinking of something simple, no doubt. “It can show you what you’re carrying.”

“Sort my inventory?”

“Yeah, those words. Right down to the clothes on your back.”

I turned my eyes to my Pipbuck’s screen and cycled through its features… and discovered something.

He’s a liar.

I opened my mouth, but before I spoke, he’d already made his way over to me. I guess he saw the look on my face and decided that it was the look of somepony who didn’t know what they were doing… though, he wouldn’t be wrong.

He tapped one of the buttons on the left side under the word ‘Items’ and, low and behold, my inventory. “Man,” he said gently before looking to me, “you should really just leave it to the experts.”

Cute.

“Oh, my gracious guru. How I have counted the times you’ve proven your worth to me,” three, “my knowledge of Pipbucks is humbled merely by your button-pressing prowess.”

I’m not jealous he knows more about Pipbucks than I do, no… at least I still know what one plus one is.

“Two?”

“What? How?!”

“You only brought two sticks of deodorant with us?!”

Oh… apple-scented with a hint of cinnamon. Wow, our stable really only has one dimension.

“Well, what do you want from me?” I jerked my hoof away from him. “You said—‘bring the bare essentials’— so, I did.”

His eyes grew wide. “Never do that voice-copy thing again, it’s fuckin’ creepy.” Shaking his head, he exaggeratedly outstretched his hooves. “Do you not understand the gravity of this? Do you not understand that these vests security wear trap smells?”

He reached around to his back. I heard the click of the vest being unlatched one by one. Once he slipped out of the barding—

Uegh—I already miss the smell of dung! Hell, I’d take a field trip of waste disposal back in the stable if it meant I didn’t have to deal with this anymore!

I practically threw the deodorant at him. As it stumbled from one hoof to another before he got a proper grasp, I started scrolling through my ‘Items.’ With my magic, because, well… my other hoof was plugging my nose. I’ve never used this function on my Pipbuck before. I guess what I’ve always had it under was ‘Data’ which is where all the recording and map functions are.

‘Right down to the clothes on your back’ indeed. Small green squares appeared next to the attire that I could guess were the clothes I had on: Stable 47 Jumpsuit, and under that, the same title with the number four in parenthesis on the right, Stable 47 Saddlebags, Mantle of the Overstallions… wait…

This thing’s defective!

He reached through the moonlight and pulled my Pipbuck to his eyes. “Few changes of clothes…weird, never seen a Pipbuck list itself before…meh.” He pressed a button and the screen swapped over, this new one showing a list of our food and medicine. “You brought plenty of noms, good…and you got…got…oh-ho-ho, Sweet Celestia!” He assaulted me, ripping my saddlebags away and sending me landing on a pile of moldy hay.

“Okay, ow!” I squeaked out, rubbing the back of my head. “What was that for?!”

I saw it.

The plunger protruded from the numbered cylinder like a tail. He clenched his teeth around its small plastic cover, pulling it away and spitting it out, revealing the needle. It extended like a single fang dripping with venom. A syringe of the Magically Enhanced Dulling chemical, or, ‘Med-X’.

“Flash didn’t tell me you were packin’! This is just what the doctor ordered!”

“Med-X? Are you hurt?” I moved to him, giving him a once-over and…“Was it the radro—“…his eyes… they were just... staring, mesmerized by the syringe.

I know that look…

“I should’ve known when Flashback told me to carry them.” His ears perked. “You’re an addict, yeah?”

“What? No I’m not,” he snapped like a foal caught attempting to steal something even as his hooves were stained red with evidence. “I just really, really like the feeling I get from Med-X. Like the feeling you get right after you’ve finished with that mare you’ve been trying to get in bed for weeks.” He gave me a once-over. “Course, not that you’d know anything about that, exactly.”

Really?

“I dunno, I’d like to think I get it.”

“Naw, naw,” he nearly cooed, swirling his hoof in the air with a certain condescending aloofness that only he could manage. His hoof limply shot forward, tapping my nose and causing my eyes to cross. “You, my friend, are tied down. All the more power to ya for it, but, oh-ho-ho…damn, are you missin’ out!”

“Not what your brother said…” I half-scoffed at my own words.

“Yeah?” He leaned forward. “And who else?”

My hoof involuntarily shot upward in hopeless objection and hovered while my mouth attempted to form the sounds required to create another name. “Umm…” being all I could manage. My eyes rolled back in thought as my hoof grounded itself.

Surely I’ve been with somepony else at one point or another… not that it matters. Flashback’s all I’d ever need.

“Wow, you really won’t say, will ya?” he chided.

Nope.

“But forget about it. C’mon, you got three more in that bag of yours. Just pull one out and join me. It’ll be like our own little adventure! Almost like old times. Whaddaya say?”

“Nope, nuh-uh, not gonna happen, no siree, never in a milli—“

“Tell ya something ‘bout the Pipbuck.” I paused. “Guarantee you don’t know it.”

Gee, that makes all the difference.

“Narrow minds tend not to make narrow paths, huh?”

“Wha?”

I sighed exasperatedly. “Outside of the obvious reason, why wouldn’t I know it?”

“S’not in the manual.”

Not in the manual? By the Goddesses! What information could be so precious?! Play along, learn from the master, then get those syringes away from him. It can’t be that hard. It’s not like this pony can live up to his name or anything silly like that.

I made a swift motion to grab the saddlebags away from him and pretended to rummage to find the Med-X, which, hopefully unbeknownst to him, was staring me right in the face.

“Okay,” I shifted my hooves as I pieced this together, “but you have to tell me before I join you.”

“Really? Alright, cool.” I continued to work my hooves through the saddlebags, waiting for him to declassify. “Having trouble there?”

“What?”

“…gimme the bag.”

Of all the times I’ve watched his brain at work, this is the first time it isn’t slacking off? Are you kidding me?!

Not wanting to warrant another uncomfortable landing on the hay-bed, I complied. He took the bag and let his eyes wander through its interior until he seemed to give up.

“They were sittin’ right next to each other, where’d they go?”

We’re going to go with not hidden under the bale of hay behind me.

“Whatever, we can look for ‘em later.” He held out the other Med-X syringe and offered it to me which I accepted in a pale yellow glow. “We can share this one for now, good?”

Crap… uh…

I lowered the needle to my hind leg. Before I broke skin, “Hey, I’m not gonna have all of myself under control on this. You mind telling me about the Pipbuck thing before that happens so I can remember it?”

“Yeah, sure,” he slurred as he bowed into the moonlight, grabbing the back of my neck and pulling me closer. I felt his slightly chilling breath scrape across my good ear. “Only security on the highest level know ‘bout this.”

Success.

“Really?”

“Keep it on the hush-hush, but…”

My ear perked as his words seemed to slam into my brain with their sheer surreal, unadulterated stupidity with the silence that followed. The syringe fell to my side and there was a faint beating that could be heard only from inside my head.

There’s senseless, there’s idiotic, there’s birth defects which can’t be blamed… then there’s Failsafe.

Pipbucks can track other Pipbucks. I went off.

Balefire be damned! You have met your match!

“YOU MORON!” I amplified my voice, the recoil from my words causing him to cringe, red to scurry, and the panes in the window to rattle. “Highest level security? I’M THE OVERSTALLION! Understand that there is NO LEVEL HIGHER THAN ME! This is something that you should’ve told me BEFORE we even left the stable!”

“The fuck’s your deal, Wave?”

“My deal?” He can’t be serious. “MY DEAL IS THAT WE COULD’VE TRACKED BARRICADE DOWN BY NOW IF YOU’D OPENED YOUR DAMN MOUTH IN THE BEGINNING!”

“Okay, so? I mean, we’ve only lost a little time. It’s not like we were gonna find him today anyway.”

“And how do you know that?!”

“Okay, look you bipolar fucknut. I’ve had the damn thing turned on since we walked out of the stable! He’s got a good twenty miles on us right now. Here,” he said as he brought his Pipbuck forward, “look.”

He showed me two blinking green triangles that I assumed were us, one a few millimeters above us that I could guess was Flashback, and, as he expanded the map, a fourth triangle reared itself about five inches above us. “You think we’ve just been walking in circles this whole time?”

This… this…! Damn it, I dropped the ball on this one…

I’d apologize, but there’s still a little something to be annoyed with about this. “If you knew where he was this entire time, why didn’t you stop me when I searched in such ridiculous places?”

He smirked. “Just ‘cause I know where he is doesn’t mean I don’t get to have anyfun out here.” He started with a snicker and gradually worked his way into full-on laughter. “You’re…you’re right though! You did look in some funny places. Almost lost my shit when you looked in that cookie jar ‘bout two miles back!”

“Hey, that was because I was hungry! Besides, that thing didn’t have any cookies in it. I think…I’m pretty sure it was ash.”

“The hell puts ash in a cookie jar?” I gave a quick shrug. “Well, hey, past that.” His eyes widened with glee as he dragged his hooves across one another. “Now, about that Med-X.”

I did forget something.

“We can, uh…save it for later.”

“Yeah, we can but…” he let out a low, half-chuckle, “we aren’t gonna.” His tone began to get a little dangerous for comfort, like the moment when Flashback gives me a certain look… except… less exciting and more fear-inspiring.

“I-I think we should—“

“Yeah, no.” He held out his hoof expectantly. “Give it here.”

I tossed the syringe into my saddlebag and latched it shut, clutching the woven satchel closer to myself, hugging it. “Um…no.”

He paused for a few moments, blinking rapidly. Then he started laughing again, stopping as abruptly as he began, looked me up and down, then laughed some more, going so far as to add the exaggerated knee-slap you see when somepony tells you a funny joke.

“Bu…bu-hut seriously though.”

He lunged at me with wanton fury. Before I fully understood what was happening, he was on top of me. It took him little effort to tear the saddlebags away from me, but in doing so, they came unlatched, sending a majority of my supplies scattering in different directions. Several apples, along with a bottle of my water tumbled from the loft and fell to the ground below.

Once I sat up, I saw Failsafe trying to sift through them to find the syringe. I raised my Pipbuck’s light and allowed my eyes to dart around. Remembering the other three that I still had hidden, I looked for the last syringe, holding up my Pipbuck for more visibility.

“Hah!” I heard Failsafe blurt. He had the syringe in his hoof. Just as he was about to send the drug into his system, I sent a field around it and pulled it away from him.

He gave me one of the most menacing looks I had ever received as he prowled forward. I wanted to retreat further from him, but I was already backed into the bales of hay and I didn’t want to risk the lunatic actually seeing the others. So, instead, I floated it over the edge of the loft, holding it there as he stopped in his tracks.

His eyes darted between me and the syringe. “Okay, Wave,” he said in a much calmer tone. He began to inch himself forward. “Don’t do anything you’d regret.”

He was getting closer to me and I realized that he wouldn’t stop unless I made him. I considered letting the syringe fall below, but that wouldn’t stop him from going down there to get it. And if it broke, that would just be a waste of perfectly good medicine.

He was only a few feet away from me and I had to think fast. I did the first thing that came to my mind. Focusing all of my magic on the needle, I bent it, dubbing it useless and levitated it back to the loft, placing it down in front of him.

He sat in silence for mere moments, his eye twitching profusely. “You…you…!” he began to seethe. He shut his eyes tightly, snorting. “Why is it that every fucking Overstallion has to ruin everything?!”

Whoa, where the hell did that come from?

“Every. Single. Time. Once an Overstallion comes into power, they think they get to control everypony’s choices!” He stepped on the syringe, shattering it with his hoof. “And you know what? I thought that you’d be different.” He twisted his hoof as I heard the crunch of the broken plastic shift under it. “But no, you just care about how you feel. You don’t care about how anypony else does!”

“Wh-what the hell are you talking about? I would trust your father with my life, and I have. Your mother was the closest thing I had to one while I was growing up. Your brother is my best friend and I want to spend any and all of my time with him in my waking and sleeping hours. Podium, Cuisine and…everypony else in the stable! What gives you the right to tell me that I’m selfish?”

“Yeah, y’know you just listed off ponies you’ve spent enough time around to have no choice but to remember their names, right? Give me one name from maintenance, from medical, from anywhere in the stable.”

“There’s that nurse that cleaned me up, she—“

“Name?” he asked flatly.

“I…uh…it was…”

I… I don’t know anypony else’s names? That isn’t right. There’s… umm…

“You proved my point,” he said snidely.

“Just because I don’t know other pony’s names doesn’t mean that I don’t care about them. Besides, what does that have to do with ruining everything?”

“What my family’s been put through ‘cause of this whole Overstallion thing! I lost my mom ‘cause of that toxic bullshit that your family authorized!”

“So, wait, we haven’t suffered enough? My dad’s gone, I don’t know about my mom and…my sister…I’m one thing, but damn you if you’re gonna tell me that all of your problems are any of her business!”

“Please! Your dad was like a fuckin’ band-aid to you anyway. Quick pain and it’s over! You didn’t have to watch any of your family rot from the inside like I did! My mom kept that smile on her face until her dying day..." he seemed to fall back on his anger, if only for a split-second. “I still don’t know what it means when your organs calci-whatever-the-fuck-ify, but I do know Alpha caused it. That shit your great grandfather thought was such an amazing idea.”

“My dad had nothing to do with that decis—“

“But he let it go on for another twenty years!” He passed through the moonlight and entered my personal space, leaning in so his words would continue to break me. “Face it, Wavelength. Your entire family is full of so many fuckups that the rest of the fuckups in the stable have no choice but to listen to them.”

“What’s that supposed to mean?”

“You know exactly what that means! As a matter of fact, I got a few things to point out to you that you obviously haven’t figured out. And, if you’re half the Overstallion that you probably think you are, you’ll listen to what I have to say.”

I tried to remain calm. With a quick sigh, I looked him in the eye and spoke, “F-fine, I’ll let you say your piece.”

He gave me a wretched smirk. “You know your dad, our leader?” He scoffed. “Right…puts on a mantle and makes all the decisions that affect our lives. I bet that bullet was probably the first time he’s ever felt pain in his life and fuck if it wasn’t well-deserved.”

Let him say his piece…

“You know your mom? Like all Overmares, she. Does. Nothing. A pick from your dad’s all-seeing eye that is the surveillance cameras put up every which-way ‘round that fuckin’ place. Her bull mixed real good with your dad’s shit, hence the namesake.”

Let him… say…

“Oh, and of course you know yourself. Your grades say that was your favorite subject. Being the over-privileged colt ready to take over for daddy and havin’ all the ponies in the stable kissin’ so much of your flanks just so they could get a chance to be the next Overstallion’s favorite little pony and, oh, would you smell that shit they talk.”

Let… him…

“Oh, but y’know. You always know, right? Like how much you think I’m addicted to Med-X? Or maybe you should check on your own problem, huh? I just happen to like Med-X. You on the other hoof…can’t seem to remember the last time you turned down Cuisine’s whiskey. And that bottle before…whoo! That must’ve been one of the hardest things you’ve had to do in your whole life, huh?”

I… I can’t…

“But I should’ve seen this comin’. You were makin’ decisions for us before you even became Overstallion. My brother was perfectly fine before you made the decision for him to stop using Med-X. But I bet he was just ‘addicted’ right? Not like it was hurtin’ anypony.”

“Not hurting anypony?” I let slip. “I understand we live in a stable, but come on! What kind of sheltered world have you lived in that you don’t believe that chemicals are harmful?! He dropped his addiction because he cares enough about the ponies around him to do it! He cared about his family enough, your father enough, your mother enough! Even—“

“You?”

There’s a certain point where words can hurt. But none that can be used without a certain voice; a voice that, if used correctly, can push enough buttons to make somepony shut down. In my head, there’s only two that could possibly push them on Failsafe. The first one’s simple:

“’Don’t do this with me, Failsafe,’” I warned in a missed low monotone.

“Think you’re gonna get me to back off from you just ‘cause you can do a decent Barricade?” he continued to rile. “What’s next, huh? Gonna do my dad? Maybe bring my brother into this? Oh, oh! Maybe your dad, right? That’ll get me to cool it! But then…what’s a dead pony gonna do to me?”

This… has gone on long enough…

“Let me just say one more thing about your little sister.”

No…

“She’s was just the sweetest little thing, wasn’t she? Such a shame that sh—“

“’You rat-bastard! I hope you know how disappointed I am with you! Look at you, drunk out of your mind and saying such awful things…I have a great idea for you! Why don’t you take one of those pistols, put it in your mouth and pull. The. Trigger!’”

The sweet yet sorrowful tone of flower petals drifting over a closed casket that would utter no ill word toward anypony, let alone her children. He has so many tells. Never foretelling of his weakness, his mother was the voice of reason in his life. Without her voice, reasons became a thing I’ve seldom seen from him. But what is action without reason?

In Failsafe’s world, a reckless drive toward nothing.

The silence overtook the entirety of the loft. The clouds outside must have thickened as the moon’s rays were choked from the barn. Failsafe faded bit by bit into the shroud. The light from my Pipbuck was the only thing keeping the darkness from fully enveloping either of us as even Luna turned her gaze.

His hoof rocketed toward me, but it slipped past me. I fully expected to feel the full-frontal impact of his hoof across my head, but his grasp entangled with something far more meaningless.

He spotted them…

The needle entered his leg. As he forced the plunger to quickly descend, I made no attempt at stopping him. He removed the emptied syringe and furiously threw it over the edge of the loft with a frustrated yell.

I heard the dull smack against the far wall and the faint clacking as it hit the ground. He let in a deep, hissing breath through gritted teeth before exhaling as he must have felt the effects seeping through him. His eyes opened wide as I watched them roll upward.

I hate his eyes…

He shares absolutely everything with his father right down to the tip of his tail, but his eyes… they’re exactly the same as Flashback’s. Pools of teal that I would deliberately drown myself in… but watching the same corneas pull back in forced ecstasy, the same pupils dilate… the same hated memories of what my Flashback used to be…

He stood and donned his vest, each click of the harness carrying itself throughout the barn as even the radroaches remained silent. He nearly toppled the ladder over as he made his hasty descent, his hooves barely connecting with the rungs as he passed over them like a shadow.

“I’m gonna go for a walk,” he said to himself.

“Failsafe?”

“Wavelength, you may now kindly fuck off,” he retorted groggily, his voice cracking as he drifted toward the barn door, opening it; letting the rusted hinges moan as it slid open. I spotted Flashback as his brother strode by him with the mercy of a conqueror. Failsafe clicked the light in his Pipbuck to life.

“Where are you go—“

“Flash, not now.”

“Just…be safe, okay?!” I shouted after him.

He halted, absorbing my words rather than letting them bounce back. He turned his eyes toward me, saying nothing, but I’ve seen what those eyes can whisper across a room. He continued to move as Flashback slid by him and closed the door with his magic, letting it creak back into place.

He quietly shuffled up the ladder. As his head poked over the edge, he eyed me with a tinge of unease. “You mind telling me what happened?” He clambered up and over the ledge. I said nothing, but gave him a glance and pointed to the shattered remnants of the Med-X syringe. His eyes widened. “I’m gonna kill him.”

“What’s the point?”

The light in his Pipbuck clicked to life as he brushed away the pieces of the syringe over the loft, taking a seat in front of me. “The point is that I’m so…tired of having to contribute to his bad habits, of covering for him…of lying to dad.” He fixed me with a serious look. “Now, I want you to tell me what happened.”

“I…started it.”

“Wavelength, I know my brother better than that,” he forced a chuckle. “Here, let me guess. He found out that you had Med-X and tackled you to get it, am I correct in that assumption?”

“Not…entirely?” He gave me an unconvinced glare. “Okay, look, I wouldn’t give it to him.” I scratched the back of my mane. “Then we said some things, it…got kind of heated and…Flash? The things that he said, that I said…can and never will be able to be taken back.

“And what’s worse? What I fear from his words isn’t the words themselves, but their accuracy. Your brother’s a lousy shot, but even a bad shooter eventually hits their target.

“There’s only so many times I can hear the complaints about the system we live with before I can’t. Stop. Listening. Only so many times that I can have my family’s name be cursed before I start believing it, and you know what else? There’s only so many times that I can hug my own reflection and tell myself it’ll all be okay…”

He sat in a moment of silent contemplation. He raised himself and wrapped his hooves around me, letting me shudder in his embrace.

“Did he hurt you?”

I kept my gaze locked on the mattress I made for him, looking over Flashback’s shoulder as my eyes began to burn. “Not as bad as I hurt him…”

* * *

“Damn this alarm!” I shouted at my Pipbuck. I proceeded to slam it repeatedly into the edge of the loft until the only sound I could hear was metal colliding against wood. And then continued until I was satisfied. “Six in the morning? Even outside of the stable, six is in?! I slept on hay hiding from demon-spawn! I want an early out!”

Upside: sleep had never been more welcome. Downside: I had a better rest in a rotting barn infested with an awful vermin, not to mention radroaches, than I’ve had in my own room in the stable for the past months of having to sleep with one eye wide open. A place where my threats couldn’t reach me and my biggest worry was waking up to a relatively awkward cuddling with a far too touchy-feely, jacked up Failsafe.

I raised myself from the hay, watching as the light began to shine through the window sill; still breaking through that horrendous cloud cover above and falling from wherever Celestia pleased.

Brushing several straws from my mane and returning my robe to its rightful place on my back, I looked to the mattress on the other side of the loft and realized Failsafe never even came back last night. Not a single straw was out of place from the hay I set up for him.

Flashback, on the other hoof, was still asleep. “Damn, he’s a heavy sleeper.” He looks so peaceful… why would I want to disturb him? Actually, I could think of a few reasons…

Eh, not in a barn… we aren’t animals.

Though Failsafe’s absence from the barn felt more… appealing, I still had to make sure that I had everything. The Med-X was the first thing I grabbed, taking the two remaining syringes and placing them gently inside their home in my right saddlebag and latched it shut.

Following that, I levitated four apples and a bottle of water into the left. I even swallowed my holier-than-thou attitude as I swept the provisions Failsafe gathered last night. First, the bomb-box went into my bag and the two extra healing potions were slipped into Flashback’s.

I scaled down the ladder, taking my time as I remembered the supplies that fell from the loft the night before. As I leapt from the ladder, I took a slight satisfaction in the crunch of the glass from the bottle of Wendigo Stirrups that I had discarded.

Passing under the loft I managed to retrieve another bottle of water and two of the three apples that rolled over. The other, I guessed, had probably been snatched by a radroach.

“Hope it choked…”

Clipping my saddlebag closed for the last time, I let out a sigh as I turned for the barn door. I extended my hoof and placed it upon the molding gate, exerting force only to slide back about half a foot away. I blinked, realizing that I just got pushed by an inanimate object.

I can not be this weak!

Well, it is a big door… I pressed both of my hooves against it, exerting all of my weight into forcing it open… I leaned my back against the door, utilizing and straining the strength in my hind legs to propel myself backward into it. My hooves dragged along the floor for several moments before I came to a valid conclusion.

The door must’ve rusted shu… no, the hinges are fine…

I’ve got no grip on the flo… it’s wood, Wavelength…

The radroaches have formed some sort of blockade and are stopping me from leaving! Yes! That is the only logical conclusion! Because, you know… so what if there aren’t any red dots outside… I’m not a weakling, okay?!

Oh, who am I kidding? I just need to admit to the fact that… there’s a yellow dot getting closer to the barn. Failsafe! I will not let him have this satisfaction!

I turned and bucked at the door. Once. Twice. The third time…

* * *

“I…didn’t expect you to open the door so fast,” I said half-apologetically and half-amused.

Failsafe was tending to a bloody nose with a crimson-stained rag thanks to a little poor judgment on both our parts. What I mean is I probably shouldn’t have bucked the door with the knowledge that Failsafe was getting so close and he probably shouldn’t have opened the door knowing full-well that something (much) stronger than a radroach was trying to break free from his moldy prison.

We were sitting back in front of the farmhouse on the small staircase leading to the porch. Flashback slept through the whole thing! But, luckily, in watching that pony perform his duties in the stable, I picked up on the conservation of healing potions by wetting rags or bandages and lacing them with the purple liquid to treat afflicted areas rather than simply drinking them.

“Wave, look,” he began, “I’ve got one hell of a hangover and, normally, I would kill somepony for something like that.” He dabbed the rag once more over his muzzle, snorted inwardly, hocked up and spat out a large wad of bloody mucus. “But…” he spoke solemnly, “I…I said some shit last night that…well…” He paused, placing his attention on the rag he held in his hooves. “I deserved that one.”

Dear Goddesses, how hard did I hit him?

I sat in stunned silence for a few moments. I opened my mouth, but I couldn’t say anything. I couldn’t really agree… and I sure as hell couldn’t disagree.

He looked to me. “Didn’t get any sleep last night, man,” his voice cracked. I’ve only just now noticed the dark circles under his eyes and his bloodshot sclera; an estranged intertwinement of condolence and sorrow.

“Just been…thinkin’ all night, y’know? Just…I just wanted to say that…and…look, I know ya may not have gotten good grades or whatever, but I know you’re the smarter one between us. You come up with what I’m trying to say here, okay?”

“Apology accepted,” I said. “And I’m sorry too.” I gently patted the back of his barding, letting this little moment between us actually sink in. “What happened last night was just…a lot of pent up agony. You’ve been looking for somepony to blame for that for a long time and, well, it only seems natural to place it on those with the most power, doesn’t it?”

“Y-yeah,” he said as he gave me a passing glance. “I didn’t really mean all that stuff I said last night. Y’know that, right?”

“Of course I do.”

Honestly, I can only tell him that. Thing is, your true feelings come out when you’re inebriated… drunk as all hell. But I wasn’t lying in the fact that I do forgive him… I find it hard myself sometimes to not harbor blame for my father on some of what happened in the past.

“It’s just…Wave, I…I fuckin’ hate Alpha.”

“So do I.”

He regarded me with a look of curiosity. “Well, my reason…you get it, but what’s yours?”

The question caught me off-guard. “Why does it matter?” I attempted to dodge it. “I only wish that I could’ve gotten an idea for what my life would’ve been like without Alpha ever being a part of it.”

“Wave, I’m not very bright when it comes to math,“ he began.

“History, Equestrian, geography, sci—“

“Okay, shut up. Point is, I’m not stupid when it comes to ponies lyin’.” He looked me in the eye as he spoke, “Now come on, spill it.”

I sat in a moment of dejected reflection. “You really want to know?” I asked rhetorically. Not that I’m impatient with him (at the moment), but I don’t get an opportunity to speak for myself very often. I’m taking advantage of this while I have the chance. “Fine. You know how stallions are supposed to have one X-chromosome and one Y-chromosome?”

“Y-yeah, sure.”

“No you don’t. You see, a few years back, your brother and I got a little alone time—”

“Wave, I don’t need to know about that.”

“Okay, I know how that sounds, but bear with me. We were getting to that point where we were starting to get curious—“

“Wave!” he shouted, clutching the side of his head as his volume must’ve caught up with him.

“About what Alpha does…we already knew about it making a filly come out colt during the pregnancy, but did you know that one of the side-effects of Alpha just happens to be…err, infertility?”

“Yeah,” he drawled.

“Lying isn’t good in the grace of the Goddesses, Failsafe.” I sighed, “Anyway, when Flash and I took a look at our medical records, we found something that really…caught our attention.

“Stallions made by Alpha in some of the past generations of the stable possessed two X-chromosomes. It took some digging, but we managed to come across an entire orchard-full of long-dead information. When a male has two X-chromosomes, they’re, uh…sterile.”

“So…?”

“Stallions with two X-chromosomes can’t…have kids.”

“Wait, so that means…”

Come on, I’ve given you all the pieces, the puzzle could be solved by a foal, you got this.

“That means I’ve been pulling out this whole time for no reason?!”

Seriously? Really? I mean… come on, Wavelength, at least he gets it.

“No you…” don’t say idiot, don’t say idiot, don’t say… “fool!” Good enough. “Just a hoofful of us. Like me…”

“Oh…” I watched him think for a moment. “But what’s it matter to you? Y’know, considerin’ you being gay and all.”

Wow, blunt.

“Two X-chromosomes means that the only thing keeping me from being a mare is my…inert baby-maker.“

“You mean your di—“

“You can’t approach anything indirectly, can you?” As he gave an apathetic shrug and turned his attention elsewhere, I seemed to involuntarily roll my eyes at his immaturity. “Hey, over here, you hear me?” I beckoned while tapping my hoof on the staircase, trying to do something to keep his focus on me.

“S-sorry, got distracted.”

How? Oh, wait.

“You still…uh…” I raised an eyebrow while gesturing my left hoof upward.

“Y-yeah.”

“Uh-huh,” I exhaled curtly. I’m not quite sure what a ‘brick wall’ is but I’m pretty sure it isn’t as dense as what I’m talking to right now. “What’s the point in asking me about anything if you’re just going to drone me out?”

“Y-you’re right, I’m sorry.” His eyes were still averted from me, so I knew speaking any further would just be a waste of breath. “H-hey,” he paused to wipe the rag across his muzzle once more, “you wanna see what I did last night?”

He just completely changed the subject on me! That…that…!

“Sure, let’s see what you did last night,” I obliged.

He gave me several hasty nods and stood, facing the door to the inside of the farmhouse. He pressed his hoof forward.

“Wait, Failsafe!” I reached out in a feeble attempt at getting him to stop. But as the wooden veil creaked upon its hinges, it revealed that what lied beyond its frame was a messy immaculacy that I couldn’t fully comprehend.

Where a curled hoof once laid was devoid of any evidence of a violent struggle. The wall, though still stained, was now a faded picture of the ‘A’ that previously adorned it; just a figment of smeared crimson barely retaining its latched presence. It was as if every spirit that vied for vengeance was now pleading for peace.

“You…you did all of this?”

I’m, well, surpri—no—impre—no—astounded! Yes, astounded.

I entered the farmhouse to get a closer look at his work.

“Yeah, it was nothin’. Just a little knee-grease and, well, y’see the result.”

Did the floor just sparkle? I… I can see my reflection in it! Oh, my mane is just a mess… but a shiny mess!

Though the wall could use a little more touching up, it was only a pale imitation of the horror that I witnessed last night.

If I pretend, it almost seems like a decoration! It clashes with everything, but out of pretext, a decoration nonetheless. It almost makes me forget all about the… the…

I slowly turned my head to the right.

“Failsafe,” I squeaked out, “what did you do with the…ponies that lived here before?”

“Buried ‘em in that patch of garden they had. Y’know, to help the plants grow and stuff.”

“Like the orchard?”

“Pretty much.”

I stared at the bed. The sheets; anything less than burning them wouldn’t cleanse them. “Can…” I faltered, turning my focus back to him. “Can you take me to them then?”

“Y’sure? After the way you reacted last ni—“

“Please.”

He let out a sigh as he exited the farmhouse, cocking his head in the direction of the crops. I forced myself to walk forward and follow, but what I attempted to turn into an enthusiastic canter became nothing more than a notch below sidling. As he carried on, he looked over his shoulder and caught my hesitation. In the seconds that passed, I had only pushed myself to the doorframe.

I took a deep breath, and stepped hoof outside of the farmhouse. I took each step down the small staircase as if I were descending a mountain. Once my hoof connected with earth, I began to work my way up to walking within a few foal-capable strides, keeping a straight face all the while.

Failsafe continued moving. I kept my pace at his side, eying his cutie mark. A red sponge. In the time that I’ve known him, I never really asked what it was for… I guess cleaning just happens to be his talent…

Soon, we came upon the shoddy, wooden fence that closed off the crops. It didn’t stop him as he placed his front two hooves atop it and vaulted it. I, on the other hoof, took advantage of the large gap between the rotting planks.

The crops were shriveled and long-dead, not harvested like I had initially thought. I tried stepping around the blackened plants as Failsafe didn’t seem to really care, mindlessly trampling over a few. The crackling of them under his hooves hurt just to hear.

“Failsafe, please,” I said imploringly.

He craned his neck back to look at me. He paused, lifting his hoof and shifting his gaze to what lied underneath. “Oh, sorry…” He showed the decency to step around them for what remained of our time in the crops. Within five more steps we reached a fresh mound.

“Here it is.”

The more I let it sink in, this seemed pathetic. It’s no fault of Failsafe’s, though. I’m honestly glad to see that his heart’s in the right place, but… two ponies who probably lived here, set up a home here, had a history with this world that would never be shared… their legacy nothing more than a mound of dirt in a lifeless garden.

I… I was crying.

I don’t even know who these ponies are and I’m shedding tears for them? Why?

“Wave, you okay?”

“I-I-I’m fine.”

Nopony deserves this… my sister wouldn’t have wanted this for anypony… why should I?

There was only one gesture I could do that meant something, at least to me. I channeled my magic and my horn glowed bright yellow, casting our shadows across the crops as they flickered. A glowing orb emanated from the tip of my horn as I sent it skyward, letting it burst open, showering the crops with rays of magical radiance.

I don’t know what it can symbolize to those ponies… but, hopefully, it could just be their light in the darkness.

~ ~ ~

Well, if I can’t say anything else about this pony, he most certainly seems to have a way with words. A bit sappy for my taste, but, eh, whaddaya gonna do?

Well, that’s the end of this segment, children, but there’s more to be had of this pony yet!

Till next time, stay safe.

________________________________________________________________________

Footnote: Experience Estimated |38%|

Just wanted to say that the events of this chapter and the next were originally going to be one huge one, but I can’t pull off Murky-Level deadlines. Shorter chapters mean more frequent updates… so… there’s that. I also have to apologize for how boring this must be to read, but I felt I had to build the characters a bit more before I moved on. I promise the next chapter is far more exciting. Also, you’re probably wondering why there isn’t a level up… Wavelength won’t level up every chapter. This story could go on for a while, and I can’t have him reaching the level cap by chapter 20. Quest perks can help, but sometimes… they just get out of hand. I can’t do that either. There has to be a limit to a character’s power, and the level cap for this particular story is 20. Just so you know.

[Quote: ‘Highway to Hell’ by ACDC]

Chapter 3: Nativity

Something has gone wrong. We don't seem to have an archived copy of that chapter.

Prologue: The Stable

Fallout Equestria: Wasteland Rhythm

By: Roachy

~ ~ ~

Hey there, Wasteland. Grave news today, I’m afraid. We’ve suffered heavy loss with the Bloodletters’ recent attack on Ponyville. Eyewitness accounts tell that there were no survivors of the massacre. I know, I know, children, but times will always be tough out here. We have to remain hopeful that things will get better or we won’t have anything to look forward to.

Someday, the sun will shine brighter, my little ponies. But we must endure the darkness. Can’t enjoy a sunny day without some rainy ones, right?

Right, well, instead of dwelling on the negative this time around, I decided that I have a story to share with y’all straight outta Baltimare. Remember that ruckus stirrin’ ‘round that area some time back? Well Ol’ Pon3 just happens to. And guess who just got some more info.

That’s right.

Literally from first-hoof account, we’ve got a special bulletin that will be told to you by me. Sorry the pony couldn’t be here himself, but he has his reasons. The recordings on his Pipbuck are pretty much all that we found.

He starts where it all began and works his way to the end. Now, this is not a short tale, no, but it will all be told. Understand that my broadcasts are not mandatory to listen to, but if you’d pay heed, it’d be greatly appreciated.

So listen up children, you just might learn something…

~ ~ ~

Prologue: The Stable

“I pledge allegiance to my X-Chromosome!”

“O? I don’t know how long it’s been, but…I’ve been thinking about you a lot lately and…well…I’m starting that little project you’ve been bugging me about. I’m sorry it’s taken so long and…I’ve got a lot of lost time to make up for. I don’t know if you know what a memory orb is, but just think of it as the only way to do this right.

“I just wish you could bug me about it one last time…”

* * *

War?

War was a word that would whimsically appear within the articles of my history textbooks. I had never thought very much of the word, as it was just that; a word. A word lost within the annals of history that nopony ever brought up in conversation, a word that had no meaning to the ponies of Stable 47.

Whenever the word was mentioned in my presence, I would simply scoff at the sheer belligerence that was introduced into it. War is, unquestionably, just an easier way of saying ‘senseless violence over foolish actions.’

The truth of the matter is that war is nonexistent. So, why bother with the context in which it was used? Why not just allow its flame to diminish entirely until it is nothing but a flickering ember in the confines of our subconscious?

Because it’s part of our history of follies.

And if we don’t constantly remind ourselves of our past mistakes, then history is doomed to repeat itself until we do. And because of this, reluctantly, I still keep that word buried in the back of my mind.

Who needs to know about the history of a dead world when you could have all you’ve ever wanted in the serene safety of a Stable-Tec Stable?

Don’t get me wrong, I take a large interest in the history of Equestria. I just wish there was more information in the books pertaining to life before the war; when peace was shared by everyp… everyone…

Yet, the only knowledge I could glean from the text were about the Princesses, the work of the Ministry Mares, some vague rumors about Zebras and a few soldiers that helped turn the tide of the war.

I just wish I could have been there; to admire the gardens of Canterlot, to see the lives of the pre-war ponies with my own eyes, to learn about the Zebras from firsthoof experience…

Sometimes I really hated the stable…

* * *

Stable 47: a society crafted by the geniuses at Stable-Tec whom believed heavily in male dominance. To ensure a constant male hierarchy, the scientists of Stable-Tec concocted a special chemical called ‘Alpha’ that, when injected into the bloodstream, would travel to the womb to have the first foal in the family be a colt by some miracle of modern science, regardless of the initial gender.

No way that could possibly go wrong, right?

Another chemical known as ‘Omega’ was later introduced when side effects of constant use of Alpha became abundantly clear. It basically reversed the effects of Alpha and opted for the birth of a filly.

Or… at least that’s what it’s supposed to do.

Duly noted side effects of Alpha include: heavily reduced effectiveness of healing potions (guaranteed), a drastic change in eye color (158 recorded cases), infertility (29 recorded cases), coma (12 recorded cases), death (9 recorded cases) if the fetus was already male, the formula would seek out the one X chromosome in the egg and replace it with another Y chromosome, resulting in a mutation that caused stillbirth (7 recorded cases)…

…and the cutie-pox (1 reported case).

As for that last one, the poor mare, whose original cutie mark was a lunar crescent, temporarily gained cutie marks of a roll of duct tape, a rope tied in knots, a pair of pliers, hot coal, strips of leather and a metal muzzle.

According to dad, mom was never quite the same after that. He also said he’s never had so much fun in his life.

Ugh…

Even after Omega was released, the damage that Alpha caused over years of usage couldn’t be fixed overnight. While the future looks to bring balance back to the population of four hundred, for the moment, having only one mare to every three stallions does not make good odds for the stallions.

The medical staff has discontinued the distribution of Alpha until further notice. This would imply that they are going to be tweaking it and it may return at some time in the future. Sickening how such a harmful drug is being ‘improved’ to somehow ensure the proper gender gap.

Gotta love Stable-Tec, huh?

Oh, but here’s the best part! The stable is built upon the foundations of a monarchy: a foundation in which the Overstallion makes all the decisions of the stable and the Overmare who does basically nothing except for being ‘with’ the Overstallion.

The Overstallion must always be a unicorn according to prerecorded bylaws of Stable-Tec. This was due solely to the fact that they could harness magic to make apples in the orchard grow; creating a substantial, yet repetitive food source. Sorry, but after a while, nothing but apples opens little room for variety.

We tried planting cherry trees for a while, but they required a more humid environment to thrive, meaning we had to sacrifice rations of water from our talisman. In the end, it just seemed more productive to only settle for the one.

On the upside, the stable often sends out search parties to deliver news about the outside world. Though, it can’t be all that great out there considering, sometimes, members of the parties don’t come back. Because of this, the doors have remained closed in order to ensure the safety of the inhabitants.

One time, a search party returned with an injured mare who was, by order of the Overstallion, placed under the watch of the head of security. She doesn’t show up much around the stable anymore. Truth be told, I don’t even know her name.

But I digress. After all this time, I must admit, it’s hard to believe that the stable is even able to maintain the system that it does considering the severe differences in gender distribution. Not that it bothers me; I don’t have eyes for mares even though I’m ‘supposed to.’

Nope. I only have eyes for stallions, but I would never let the stable know that. I have to keep up a straightened façade in public around the stable, by order of the Overstallion. If word were to get around that the main source of entertainment in the stable wasn’t a happy-go-lucky flank-fondler, but instead a colt-cuddling, stallion-sticker there would be a lot of upset ponies… or so says the Overstallion.

Some ponies do indeed know of my preferences, but it’s only a hoofful at best. The Overponies know, my lover obviously knows… his parents know. And I’ve explained it to my little sister once to which she immediately turned around and told me she had a crush on another filly.

Go figure.

* * *

Now if you’re listening to this, and you aren’t me, it’s likely you didn’t grow up in a stable. Even if you did, your upbringing might have been very different from my own. So to help you understand where I’m coming from and how things ended up the way they did, I need to tell you about my past before I get to more recent events:

Once, there was a colt whose parents weren’t around very often when he was still in school. Even though their jobs kept them very busy, his father would periodically check on his progress. I wish I could say that the colt was a diligent student who sat at the front of the classroom willing and eager to learn… but that would be a boldfaced lie.

The Overstallion spoke of this colt with disappointment dripping from his words like water from the aged pipelines: ‘lazy,’ ‘good-for-nothing,’ ‘drain on the stable resources,’ that kind of stuff.

Most of his classmates showed promise in at least something that could be useful to the stable. However, despite scoring well on a number of aptitude tests, this colt just couldn’t find anything that really interested him. But given the selection of jobs in the stable, could you blame the colt for his reluctance?

First off, there was maintenance… too dangerous.

Death did not occur often in the stable, but any unnatural cases were usually located within the maintenance wing. These deaths were always gruesome and terrifying, even with the miniscule amount presented.

Once, there was a report of shrieks of agony coming from one of the maintenance tunnels. When a security party was sent to search the area, they found a pony by the name of Scraps, who now grimly matched his name better than he had in his entire life.

He’d been torn to pieces by the machinery when it caught his tail and mangled him in the gears. From that point on, ponies who work maintenance are required to cut their manes and tails to an unbearably short length. Yet another reason the youth wished to avoid maintenance.

There was security… too boring.

There were already so few things to do to occupy time in the stable as it was and being security is literally doing nothing to consume many of the agonizingly tedious minutes in the day.

Security has one job; keep order and peace throughout the stable. This is fairly simple due mainly to the fact that the stable is already peaceful. Outside of the occasional scuffle and verbal threat, the ponies of Stable 47 remained relatively civil.

Besides, security was for the ponies that weren’t too bright and he’s not stupid, just a procrastinator. Why couldn’t the Overstallion say that?

There was education… too stressful.

The colt doubted he’d be cut out for that kind of job, judging by how often he got in trouble during class. Besides, Podium, the current teacher, was young and already had an assistant.

There was medical… too messy.

Only the really smart ponies knew which medicine to give and how much. Dealing with blood and injuries? Way too gross. Not to mention the colt wasn’t much for taking on that kind of responsibility.

There was waste disposal… no comment.

He spent a majority of his time tapping his hooves on the metallic interior of the stable, which became a bit of a habit. He quickly discovered that he enjoyed the sounds and found himself attempting to put them into a rhythm; habit becoming hobby.

Eventually, his peers in the classroom heard him tapping his hooves on the desk and the floor and began to silently encourage him. He began to speed up, head bobbing in unison with the sounds as they bounced around the metal walls in the room. It did not take long for the noise to escalate and reach Podium’s ears, yet even he became engrossed in the resounding knocks and clanks.

The colt’s excitement reached its peak and his horn began to shine as all the sound in the room immediately dissipated. Neither he nor his classmates knew the exact nature of the phenomena that was about to occur. The knocks against the desk, the clanks against the floors, even the initial cheers from the classroom all became audible once more; all at once. They took the form of a chorus that manifested itself into a glowing cacophony of – what some of them called afterwards – music.

Following the event, one of his classmates pointed something out to him. Something that became a part of him and seeded his fate, planted in the soil of his life to hopefully sprout the fruits of his (lack of) labor.

His cutie mark.

It resembled what could only be described as a pulse on a doctor’s electrocardiogram; a yellow line that zigzagged across his flanks.

Those who were unaware of the events that transpired in his classroom that day often mistook his special talent for being some kind of medical pony. Which was funny considering the most he knew about medicine at the time was how to drink a potion.

A week later, his cuteceañera was celebrated and he was presented with his very own Pipbuck from the Overstallion which was subsequently locked onto his left forehoof. His smile would have been dashed if he had realized the device acted as little more than a weight.

He also received a stack of records and record player from his mom and dad, which appeared to have never been used, made apparent by the thin layer of dust blanketing both of the items. The colt wiped away the residue and watched as the gifts began to seemingly glisten before his very eyes. A toothy smile lined his face as he began profusely thanking each of the guests that attended his party, regardless of whether or not they had intended to come.

Sometime later, he learned how to record sounds via his Pipbuck and then play them back. He also figured out how to distort the sounds and have them repeat by interrupting the flow of the recording with a magical disruption.

But this passion for sound wasn’t considered ‘useful’ to the stable, so the Overstallion thought nothing of it and numbly told him to continue his studies until he found something that would be essential to maintaining the stable’s ‘harmonious state’.

One day, when he walked by the door to the maintenance wing, blatantly disregarding the Overstallion’s wishes, he decided to spelunk through the steel caverns and see if he could find some interesting noises to record. As he traversed through the narrow tunnels, he kept a constant watch on his Pipbuck’s map, making sure to stay away from any and all doors that were marked with the location of a machine.

That is, until he heard an enticing whirring coming from a machine labeled ‘W.T.D. 47, Water Talisman Distribution.’ Most notably, the groaning and splashing sounds coming from within the pipelines that protruded from the machine, extending from it and throughout the room and into the walls and ceiling.

He saw potential in the seemingly random noises. He started the recording device on his Pipbuck and sat back, waiting until he was satisfied that he had retrieved a substantial sample. As he exited the maintenance wing, he heard another set of noises. These ones from a pony, a mare specifically, coming forth from a nearby room that sounded like she was being hurt.

He slipped in the doorway, exercising caution in order to get a better look and possibly spring into action to help the distressed pony. He spotted the Overstallion on top of the Overmare when he suddenly realized that she was most certainly not being hurt.

His eyes widened and his cheeks went pale as he looked away, embarrassed by the sight before him. His initial thought was to slip from the room unnoticed… but an even better idea came to mind. Safely concealed in the shadow of a nearby crate he activated his Pipbuck’s recording device.

Once the couple finished their business and left the room, he emerged from the darkness like a bad omen, let out a hushed sigh of relief and quickly and quietly darted from the area.

Later, he went back to his room and tried to create a couple of songs from both of the events that were just stolen from the airwaves. After a few forlorn attempts to distort, lengthen, shorten and alter the captured data, he found that, separated, he couldn’t seem to create a tune that was just right, but instead ended up with a garbled mess of undecipherable garbage.

He was on the brink of giving up on his work, but he found that together, they culminated into a beautiful symphony by his standards. A few hours later, he managed to craft an ecstasy of moans, organic and synthetic, that burst into his eardrums with an unbridled force.

But, like any artist, he needed feedback from somepony. Not just from a few friends who could be biased, no. He needed a real audience. He thought and thought until an idea struck.

Waiting until the Overstallion and Overmare trotted out of their office toward the cafeteria to indulge in some of Cuisine’s ‘fine cooking’ (it’s difficult to create good meals out of the few edible scraps of food available in the stable, but putting spice on an apple from a Stable-Tec orchard is like using euphemisms to deliver bad news; you’re only sugar-coating crap).

When they made a turn down the corridor, he slipped inside, completely unnoticed. His eyes darted around the room in search of the intercom system’s master control. Quickly spotting the Overstallion’s microphone, he exaggeratedly sidled toward it as if it would assist in his stealthy infiltration.

When he reached the control panel, he felt a mischievous grin cross his face as he noticed the security monitors displaying various areas around the stable. Including where the Overponies sat to enjoy their meal. Pressing down the intercom button with his right hoof and telekinetically turning the volume dial up on his Pipbuck, he pressed the ‘play recording’ button.

The audible beep of the speakers coming to life resounded throughout the entire stable. The look on the Overstallion’s face was, as I remember it, absolutely priceless. His cheeks bulged with a mouthful of spiced apples as he gave wide-eyed blinks toward the nearest sound output.

He spit out his food and pelted Barricade, the head of Stable 47 Security and his brother, with chunks of chewed up pieces of apple. The large grey and black Earth pony stallion simply wiped a hoof across his face without even taking so much as a glance at where the debris originated and continued chewing.

The Overstallion calmly excused himself from the table and sprinted out of the cafeteria. First, the Overstallion realized what was playing throughout the entire Stable and, second, he knew who was playing it. He bolted down the halls at full speed, racing past each camera angle until he came before the one mounted atop his office’s entrance. The colt glanced to the clock on the camera feed.

Huh, ten seconds flat.

When he keyed in the password to open the door, the colt pressed the desk’s panel with his magic and closed it back in his face. This routine continued for a while before the Overstallion simply resorted to banging his hooves against the door and yelling at the colt to open it. He, of course, was ignored as the colt continued the song as both it and the intimate moments shared by the two ponies in the recording started to reach a climax.

The colt saw the close-up view of the Overstallion’s anger-drenched face and cringed at the sight on the monitor. He felt an overwhelming guilt weighing down on him as he wondered if he should open the door and accept his punishment. So, to quell these feelings of contrition, he looked to a different monitor and turned up the audio.

Keeping his mind off of his impending doom, he noticed something that delighted him; a vast majority of the ponies in the eating quarters and stable hallways were visibly enjoying his work. Some were giggling and others were grimacing at the sounds that perforated the initially calm atmosphere, but both sets were still keeping with the rhythm.

Back in the eating quarters, he noticed a mare covering the ears of her purple and blue haired filly with her hooves. The stallion in the security uniform across from her couldn’t help but burst into laughter at the worried look on her face. The filly looked at the smile across her father’s face and let a smile cross hers as well as they both started to laugh.

The mare expressed a sad look, but abruptly began laughing with them. She then pulled her hooves away from the filly’s ears and shoved them into her mouth to muffle her own giggles. The filly’s eyes widened as she grinned from ear to ear, head bobbing up and down to the beat.

With that, the colt felt content. He realized that his song was brightening up the days of the ponies of Stable 47, minus the Overstallion. He noticed the blushing Overmare with her head beginning to slump into her forehooves. A snickering Barricade put his right hoof around her in a failing attempt to comfort the abashed mare.

As the song came to a close with a final pump from the mechanism and the stallion, a very horny mare gave a shout of ‘Harder, you big stud.’ Her mouth dropped open and her hooves dropped to her sides. Without her hooves supporting her, her head smacked the table with a resounding thud.

Funny, because the monitors don’t pick up sounds.

His song played, the colt sheepishly opened the door and looked the Overstallion in the eyes, giving him the most innocent squee that he could muster. Before the Overstallion had a chance to berate the colt with comments about his uselessness, immaturity and breach of privacy, a group of ponies came to the office, smiling at the two of them. They wanted to know who had played the song and if there was any chance they could hear it again.

The Overstallion blinked in astonishment with mouth agape. He pointed to the colt, giving him a half-apologetic smile as he stumbled over his words.

“A-and that is why I’m here. To give this colt the privilege of providing Stable 47 with the much needed entertainment that it deserves,” he proclaimed as if it was his idea from the start.

This elated a few cheers and ‘congratulations’ from the growing crowd of ponies. The colt jumped up and down in triumph as his horn glowed and the sounds from the cheers were all absorbed.

When he let out a cheer of his own, all the ponies in the hall were pushed back; some fell on their haunches while others fell all the way on their backs. Barricade, still standing, simply looked around and let out a very loud “Ha!”

The purple and blue maned filly from the monitors emerged from the entourage of fallen ponies, made her way over to the colt, planted a big kiss on his cheek and thanked him. The colt scowled and wiped at his cheek, desperately trying to remove the cooties while she gave him a wry smile and walked back past the crowd.

Being the stable’s entertainer came with quite a few perks: being able to freely roam around to look for possible music and his own recording studio (which was basically a modification made to the intercom system to allow him to project sounds throughout the stable and the only personalized link directly to the Overponies’ office with which they could both bother each other incessantly).

Not to mention, the song that started it all became well renowned as ‘Crank that Flank’ which became a hit with the entire stable and the breeding ground for the assumption that he liked mares.

Strangely enough, his parents never congratulated him on his new position…

* * *

“Right, well, little did I know that more than just my fame happened to be conceived from that song. Wow, I was really immature back then…but, at least some of the best moments of my life came from it. I love you, O. Don’t you ever forget that.”

~ ~ ~

Well, that’s how the DJ of Stable 47 got his start. What happens from here on out is gonna be an account straight from the horse’s mouth, so to speak. I guess that about wraps things up for now.

Hehe, and next time I might even tell y’all his name.

Till then, stay safe children.

Footnote:

Traits Added: Humblebragger – You are an individual with kind words to say, but you can be full of yourself. Automatically gain +2 to Speech per level, but Charisma is -1.

Procrastinator – Due toyour lazy nature, you are normally seen as less of a threat in combat and are not taken seriously in many dialogue situations.

(Thanks to Kkat for creating this amazing universe. Thanks to Somber, Mimezinga, and FuzzyVeeVee for showing me that it is possible for a fanfic of a fanfic to be well-received, well written and enjoyable. Thanks to my pal Teraphim for doing any needed editing.)

[Quote: “X-Chromosome” by Kane Smego]

Author's Note

Yeah I know, the Prologue contains tripe. I hope you enjoyed it anyway!

Teraphim's notes: So you see the fantastic writing of Roachy in it’s oh so exciting beginning. I can promise it has quite a bit more excitement in the first chapter, and the story as a whole will have it all: action, adventure, romance, horror, comedy, tragedy, and more than a bit of magic. I’d also like to point out the first of Roachy’s many unintentional pop culture references; I don’t know how many of you noticed, but the scene where our protagonist plays music over the P.A. system was reminiscent of a scene from “The Shawshank Redemption.” Roachy has never actually seen the movie or read the story so when I showed him the clip and he wanted to change it, but I wouldn’t let him. I found it fit perfectly and it was just too funny to let him cut it. Sometimes great minds just think alike, you know?