Fallout Equestria: Project Exodus

Chapter 1: Troubles on the Homefront

Grey.  Dull, emotionless grey.  It summed up Kit Tinker's bleak existence within Stable 87 quite nicely.  It was the color of the walls, the ceiling, and the floor.  It was the color of a lifeless corpse laying in the narrow corridors.  No hope lay within the tight confines of the stable, for hope was but a word, printed on paper, destined to fade with time.  When one was stuck within a world where ponies murdered each other needlessly, without thinking, without asking the question 'why?'. where was the source of hope?

She lay in bed, her sea blue eyes staring lifelessly at the same grey ceiling, the one which she had spent most of her life under. Alarms blared, drowning out the sounds of gunshots and screaming that could be heard throughout the stables metal interior. The hissing of her bedroom door opening broke her trance, the sounds of the ongoing battle increasing as it opened fully. Kit glanced towards the open doorway briefly, seeing a familiar violet unicorn come rushing in, before turning her head back towards the ceiling.

"What are you doing here Ros- Bulletspree? Shouldn't you be out there murdering ponies?" Kit snarled at her sister, who had begun grabbing objects and belongings off the shelves, placing them into her saddlebags. Her mane was a chaotic mess of pink, tuffs of hair stuck out in a haphazard fashion from lack of care. She wore a standard, grimy stable jumpsuit with the numbers '87' boldly printed on the back in faded yellow colours, strapped to her thigh was a worn faux-leather pistol holster.

"Get up Kitty, we're getting the hell out of here!" Spree shouted, completely ignoring her sisters snide remark. She finished packing her saddlebags, having filled it with what little food and water they had, along with her IF-21 10mm pistol, a box of 24 10mm rounds and whatever supplies were left in the stables medical bay.

Kit looked at her sister Ludicrously, chuckling darkly under her breath. "Oh yeah? How do you suppose we do that hmm? We'd have get past all those ponies out in the halls who are shooting each other then, managing that, we have to get through a 15'' thick steel door!!"

"Would you quit your bitching? I have a plan to get us out of here!" She replied proudly, putting a hoof up to her puffed out chest, the saddlebags falling to the floor, having not been strapped on properly.

"Like your 'plans' have gotten us anything but good, remember the time you planned to sneak into the earth pony section to steal food?"

"Do you want to stay here and die!?" Spree shouted, causing Kit to flinch, "Look, all of the fighting is in the mud pony side of the stable and I have the code for the front door, getting out should be a breeze!"

Her sisters winning grin and assurances filled her with a renewed, weak, sense of confidence. She reached for her Pip-Buck 2000, that was lying forgotten on her bedside cabinet, and strapped it onto her left foreleg, securing it tightly in place. She switched it on, its nigh indestructible screen flaring to life with a pale green, luminescent glow. The H.U.D appeared in front of her vision, displaying a simple compass in , along with a small box in the bottom right corner displaying the condition and quantity of equipped items, which was currently empty.It was old and it was terribly outdated, lacking most of the fancy features that the newer Pip-buck 3000 models held, such as the rad-meter and motion tracker, but it was better than nothing.

She slid herself off of her bed, quickly throwing on her own Stable Utility overalls and saddlebags. Picking up a framed picture off the cabinet and tucking it safely into her saddlebags, she followed her sister out of her bedroom door. For first time in what felt like forever, Kit Tinker finally had a reason to hope.

• - -  - - -

The sharp crack of pistol fire echoed throughout the battle torn halls, the last soul wrenching screeches of dying ponies, filled with nothing but pain and sorrow, followed close behind them. This, couple with the deserted halls, made simply walking through the stables corridors feel like a trip through Tartarus itself.

The closer the two mare got to the stables main atrium, the horrific sounds became louder and clearer, making the duo feel as though they would stumble into the crossfire at every turn.

"Are you sure it's all in the earth pony side? Those gunshots sound pretty close." Kit winced as a particularly loud screech of agony filled the air. Two gunshots followed and then the voice was silenced.

“I’m...I’m pretty sure it’s only in that half, l-last time I checked it was anyway.” Spree stuttered, looking back at the fear filled face of her sister. She turned her head back around, facing forward, and noticed a sign indicating the atrium to be on the next right.

“Only one way to find out.” Kit muttered darkly, her steps becoming hesitant and shaky.

The two slowly edged their toward the intersection of the two hallways, heads low and ears perked, waiting for any sounds of movement. They turned the corner and halted in their tracks almost immediately. There, laying dead in a large puddle of dried blood, was a mint green unicorn mare. Her blank, soulless eyes stared back at the pair, her face frozen in an expression of agony and grief. A smeared trail of blood continued behind her, leading into the atrium hall. Her fore hoof was outstretched in front of her, making it obvious that she had dragged herself to that position.

“M-Misty?” Kit’s legs threatened to buckle underneath her, the raw emotion flowing through her body becoming too much for her to handle. A pit formed in her stomach and her heart felt like it had ceased beating. Her mind began to race, all the fond memories rushed to the forefront of her mind. All the times she spent with her friend. All the sleepovers they spent giggling madly in their quarters, gossiping non-stop about the strange on goings within the stable.

But one memory shined brighter than the rest, the final crack that burst the dam, the night her parents had died.

The Stable was abuzz with activity, unicorns bickered and argued with one another, trying to distinguish a reason for the sudden, unprovoked attack that had stemmed from the earth ponies of the Stable. A dozen unicorns, both old and young, were brutally maimed and injured, the results of a surprise detonation in the Stable's common room. At least half a dozen more were dead, their bodies being carried down to the furnaces for cremation, their families and loved ones grieving their loss.

Deep in the recesses of the Stable, down in the forgotten maintenance tunnels where nary a pony entered, a small lilac unicorn filly curled up in self seclusion. Her light pink mane was a disheveled mess, her aqua eyes bloodshot and teary from heavy boughs of crying. In her arms she clutched a small stuffed animal, worn and tatty from years of childish abuse and love.

The distinct sounds of frantic hoof steps and raspy, panicked breathing found their way to the filly, making her ears perk and her eyes widen. She scanned around for a place to hide from her unwanted guest but found no such place, as the tunnels were barren and desolated. The set of hooves skidded to a stop at the opposite end of the dingy corridor, just outside the open blast door, their owner desperately wheezing in breath after breath.

The pony, a young mint green unicorn just above the age of twelve, slumped into the doorframe and looked into the room, her tired, sunglow eyes probing the room for the young filly. She quickly spotted her small friend, beginning another exhausting sprint towards her. "T..Tinks! I...I heard...what happened, I'm ...I'm so...so sorry!"  She fell to a stop, scooping the small Kit Tinker into her arms with a bone crushing hug.

"T-They're d-dead M-Misty," She mumbled, her voice catching and hiccupping with every word, "M-My parents are d-dead."  Her face suddenly buried itself into her friends shoulder, her tears coming back full force as sobs rocked her body. Misty gently rubbed little mares back, her movements were awkward and unsure, never having found herself in such situations before.

"W-Where's my sis-sister?"

"I...I dunno, she said she had to uh...take care of some...things. Sh-She's okay though...I think." Misty fumbled over her words, feeling extremely uncomfortable with the turn of events and heartbroken at the state her usually happy go lucky friend was in.

"I j-just w-want my m-mummy." Kit weakly croaked out.

"I..I know," Misty stuttered, "I know...."

“I’m guessing you knew her?” Spree asked in a voice just barely over a whisper, placing a hoof on her sisters quivering shoulder. Kit could only offer a nod of confirmation, her voice having been lost in the vast sea of sorrow threatening to drown her. Spree reached to place the rest of her leg around Kit but she shrugged her off. Instead, Kit began walking towards the broken body of the mare once knew as a friend.

Kit knelt down, her legs becoming coated in the sticky blood puddled around her. She reached out a hoof towards the young mares forehead, A shiver ran through her body as she contacted the ice cold skin. Fighting to hold back the flood of tears, she placed her hoof over the mares eyes and dragged it down, closing them for the last time. Her resolve finally caved and she broke down, her eyes becoming a fountain of tears as she wept for her fallen friend. Spree rushed to her side, wrapping her arms around her sisters shaking form. Kit turned and buried her head into her chest, her cries of anguish becoming muffled sobs as her sister comforted her.

They stayed there for what felt like hours, embraced in each others arms. Eventually Kits shaking sobs subsided into the occasional weak sniffle or hiccup.

“C’mon sis, we...we need to go.” Spree whispered gently, stroking her sisters mane as her gaze remained locked on the stiff corpse that had caused so much anguish. Slowly, she eased Kit away from her and helped pull her to her hooves.

They continued on through towards the stables main atrium, stopping short of the metal hydraulic door. Spree, using her magic, reached into her saddlebags and extracted her 10mm pistol, clicked a magazine into place and cocked the slide. Satisfied that it was loaded and primed for fire, she placed it into the holster that was strapped to her flank.

“P-Please, don’t tell me you’re going to use that....” Kit stared, transfixed on the tool of death that was strapped to her sisters leg. The same tool that had caused the death of her best friend.

Spree sighed, looking away from Kit's pleading eyes. “What choice do I have sis? The whole Stable has gone to Tartarus, if somepony starts shooting at us, we need to shoot back or we're dead!"

"Just...promise me you'll only use it in an emergency, please?"

"Okay Kitty....only in an emergency, I promise." Spree sent her sister a reassuring smile, drawing the gun back out of it's holster. She flipped the safety switch on and removed the clip, before floating it back towards its place. As Kit smiled and turned back towards the door, she slyly slipped the magazine back in.

"So...w-what do you think's on the other side Rose?" Kit trembling voice asked, barely above a whisper. So quiet Spree almost didn't hear it over the constant sounds of gun shots echoing in her ears.

"Looks like we're about to find out Kitty."

• - -  - - -

Spree reached her hoof out towards the doors switch, firmly pushing the 'open' button. The hydraulic seals hissed and separated, the dull, grey metal grinding open before them, sliding up into the ceiling. Nothing could've prepared them for what they saw.

Bodies littered the floor, along with spent bullet casings. Lockers and table's lay toppled, with the recently deceased laying stiffly over them or behind them, having used them as a make shift cover. In the center of the carnage, a beige earth pony lay brutally impaled on a chair, having fallen from the catwalk overhead. One leg was protruding crookedly from the back of his throat, whilst another pierced his lower abdomen.

"Well....now we know why it all sounded so close..." Spree stated plainly, taking in the large amounts of vivid gore with ease. Her sister however, didn't fair as well. Kit stood, her wide blue eyes gaping at the scene before her, a strangled gurgle escaped her throat, unable to form even the simplest of words.

"C'mon sis....we should get out of here, the whole place has gone to shit." Spree whispered gently, seeing her sisters far-gone expression. Grasping Kit's foreleg lightly, she began pulling her quickly but gently through the mess of mutilated corpses and gore. Avoiding a particularly large pool of blood, they made it across the atrium, reaching the final sealed door, which would lead them to their goal; the stable door.

They quickly opened the dented block of metal and briskly made their way down the final corridor, emerging into the stable's main entrance. The whole area was rusty from disuse and lack of care, decade old papers lay strewn about the floor, yellowed with age. The dim, dusty fluorescent lights overhead barely illuminated the scene, making it seem as if it was torn straight out of a horror movie. The one thing that stood out most though, was the gigantic, cog shaped seal, the numbers '87' painted on it in bold, pealing white paint. The two ponies stood in awe, both amazed and worried, at the thick behemoth before them.

"Are you sure it'll open sis? I-I mean look at it, it's practically fusing together from the rust!" Kit stared horrified, the notion of being trapped within the underground tomb drained the life from her face.

"C-Course it will, all we have to do is punch in the code and we're home free! Watch." Spree trotted rapidly over the faded yellow control panel and began entering the code sequence displayed on her outdated Pip-buck 2000.

"Let's see... 8 ... 6 ... 4 ... 3 .... Enter!" Spree announced with a smile, slapping her hood down on the enter key. A loud buzzing sound erupted from the control panel, signaling that the code was incorrect.

"What? B-But I entered all the numbers!" She screamed, forcefully slamming her hooves onto the age weathered panel, her shoulders slumping in irritation. "Why won't it work!?"

Kit inched nervously over to her sister, peering over her shoulders at the rusted device. Her eyes caught onto the small, barely lit screen, displaying four numbers, each separated by a forward slash, along with another four blank spaces after them.

"Sis... I-It needs an eight digit code to open, are you sure you got the right password? M-Maybe you missed some!"

"That was," Spree took a deep breath and sighed, further leaning over the battered terminal, in an attempt to calm herself down, "That was all that was there, just those four numbers, along with some bullshit about mud ponies. Why would they make a door that can only be opened with eight numbers but only give the Overmare four! it doesn't make sense!"

"They gave our Overmare four... What about the other Overmare? The Earth ponies? What if... What if she has the other half?"

"What? Why the heck would they trust a dirty mud pony with half the code? I say that this was intentional, those bastards at Stable-Tec wanted us to stay in here! They wanted us all to die!" Spree began pounding her hooves on the already damaged panel.

"S-Spree....please stop doing that." Kit said weakly, staring in confusion at her sisters odd, and quite frankly, terrifying behavior.

"We're both gonna' die here!  And there's nothing we can do! We'll just sit in here, in a underground hole, full of rotting corpses for the rest of our lives!" Spree continued to rant, turning her anger on a nearby table, flipping the poor thing into a wall.

"Spree Please! You're going to break something important!" Kit repeated herself, raising her voice until it was almost a scream, moving towards her sister and to try and stop the madness taking place before her eyes.

"We've all been fucked from the start! They wanted this! I bet it's not even a fucking wasteland outside! I bet they've been watching us squirm in here! I bet they think it's real funny too, sick bastards!" Kit jumped back as a terminal smashed to the floor, its glowing green screen crackling and sparking as it impacted the hard metal floor, shattered glass spilling on the floor around it.

Kit quickly closed the distance between them, roughly grasped her sisters shoulders and proceeded to vigorously shake her. "Rose, please stop it! You're scaring me!"

"Don't call me Rose!"

*Smack*

Time seemed to freeze as Spree's hoof collided with her dear, innocent sisters face. Shocked overtook her system as she witnessed Kit Tinker's head snap to the side, her body following close behind, as she fell to the cold flooring. Paper crinkled and tore as her small body toppled onto it, her hooves cradling her bruised face.

"K-Kitty...I...I didn't mean to- I'm sorry." Kit flinched as her sister approached, staring down at the dull paneling underneath, unwilling to look up at her sisters pleading, aqua eyes.

"It's okay, It was my fault for grabbing you..." Kit Tinker softly whispered a reply, the pain clearly transmitted through her voice.

"N-No, no it's not your fault, I shouldn't have let myself go like that, I shouldn't have started destroying everything in sight, I shouldn't have hit you..." Spree yanked her sister into a tight hug, feeling her entire body tense at the contact, before relaxing into the strong embrace.

"A-Are you sure there even is a second half of the code though? I mean...what would be the point in separating it?"  Spree's body seemed to deflate in her sister's arms, her shoulders filled with a sudden weight as they dropped, her head coming to rest on Kit's.

"Because...Because I think this Stable is a test. Think about it, what would be the point in stuffing earth ponies and unicorns, but then make them hate each other? I...I think we weren't meant to kill each other..." Her voice trailed off, images of the mass of bodies in the stable's main atrium popping into her head, along with the image of Misty's...'No, don't think about that right now, you have to be strong! For Rose and yourself!'

"I guess it's worth a shot, at least we'll know we tried if we fail..."

"We won't, I know it," Kit offered a weak smile, the small spark of hope flickering at the back of her eyes erupting into a blaze. She picked herself up from the hard floor, offering a hoof to her sister. "C'mon sis, let's go."

"Right behind you sis." Spree smiled back, accepting the helping hoof and pulling herself to her hooves.

• - -  - - -

A sudden silence filled the air as the two sisters back tracked  their way to the stable's atrium, filling the two ponies with a sense of dread and foreboding. As they re-entered the scene of devastation, not a shot was heard, nor a scream, nor the loud bang of a grenade exploding. No signs of life where heard at all, the whole stable had fallen completely dead.

Spree and Kit edged their way through the mess of corpses, being careful not to slip on the large pool of blood which had formed in the center of the room."I don't like this...It's too quiet."

"Maybe they called a truce? Or maybe they realised that shooting each other wasn't the answer..." Kit struggled to find a logical answer in the sea of uncertainty she found herself swimming in. Why did the stable suddenly fall silent? Surely if somepony had won, there would be cheering or a celebration, or at least some noise signifying life still existed. But there was none, just the constant, struggling drone of the stables failing air filtration unit.

"Somehow Kitty, I highly doubt that..." Spree answered, taking a wide berth around a blood caked unicorn stallion, whose face and body were mangled from a grenade explosion, making it nearly impossible to recognize who he was. Kit followed close behind, trying her best not to look at the carnage. They eventually made it to the hydraulic door that would lead them into the earth pony section of Stable 87, into the very heart of the conflict.

"You ready sis? You might not want to see what's on the other side of this door." Spree warned gravely, lifting her right foreleg and poising her hoof over the doors release button, prepared to open it. "You can wait for me back at the door if you want, I'll be alright on my own."

"No, I'm coming with you, I'm not letting you go it alone. We're in this together and we'll get out of this together." Kit stated with mock bravado, giving her sister a  weak smile and a nod, to confirm her readiness.

"Don't say I didn't want you..." With that, Spree pushed her hoof, pressing the 'open' button. The door hissed and creaked, slowly crawling it's way up into the wall. It's metal was bent and warped, having been in the same proximity as the grenade that had claimed the unicorn stallions life, but eventually it opened fully, revealing the darkened corridors beyond.

"What happened to the lights?" Kit inquired curiously, staring up at the emergency lighting, bathing her in a eerie red glow.

"Some idiot must've blown up the main power line, the whole place has gone dark. Be on your guard, who knows what's waiting for us in there." Spree's magic reached behind her, pulling her pistol out of the holster strapped to her thigh, bringing it to hover eye level in front of her. Checking it over, she released the safety and pulled the slide back, pulling a round into the chamber.

"You promised you'd only use that in an emergency."

Spree looked to her left, seeing her sister glaring her way and, more specifically, at the gun hovering in front of her face. "I would class right now as an emergency, there could be an ambush waiting for all we know! I just want to be prepared."

"Just...don't go shooting the first thing you see, I want to see if we can talk to whoever is in there before a bullet flies through their brain! If they shoot at us just... Do what you have to do." Kit sighed, walking further into the red haze of the corridor, without a glance back towards her sister. Spree looked to the pistol hovering in her aura, then back at her sister. Groaning in defeat, she re-holstered it and cantered to her sisters side.

"So, which way to the Overmare office? I've never been in here before." Spree asked, stopping at an intersection leading off in three directions. The paths to her left and right led to a closed hydraulic door, whilst the path straight ahead led to a flight of stairs. The wall to her left held a series of directional signs, three of which were missing or completely broken, a fourth was stained with blood and the fifth stated that the main atrium was back in the direction in which they had came.

"Uh...I'm guessing this is just a mirror copy of our side so...left leads to the stallions dorms and right leads to the mares. Straight ahead must lead to the common rooms." Kit said thoughtfully, switching on her pip-buck light and shining into the barely lit hallway, taking in the semi-familiar surroundings. She peaked into the leftward corridor and spotted the male bathrooms, confirming her suspicions.

"Well, I guess there's only one way to find out, c'mon." Bulletspree trotted ahead, electing herself to lead the way, deciding on the corridor straight ahead, towards a flight of blood stained stairs.

As the two ponies made their way up the dimly lit stairwell, they came across an earth pony mare with her back firmly wedged into the corner. Her face was stuck frozen in a expression of pain and shock, and her glossy, lifeless green eyes stared blankly ahead, unblinking. In her hoof she clutched a half loaded, mouth held 10mm pistol, having succumbed to her injuries in the process of reloading. Spree knelt down and began searching the mare's clothing, picking out a pair of spare magazines from the bloodied pockets and a box of twenty four 10mm rounds, holding them aloft in her magic.

"What are you doing?" Kit hissed, appalled by her sisters behavior.

"What's it look like I'm doing? I'm getting extra ammo, she isn't using it any time soon." She replied, gesturing to the stiff corpse with her free hoof, whose pockets she was busy patting down and scavenging with the other. When she decided that she had gotten everything of use, Spree stood back up and took inventory of the objects floating in her magic, placing them into her own jumpsuit pockets for easy access. Taking a second thought, she glanced back down at the body, her horn glowing a bright blue.

Reaching out with her magic, she grasped the pistol that lay forgotten next to the deceased mare and lifted it into the air. She then slid the guns magazine fully into place with a metallic click, then flicked the slide release, snapping a 10mm round into the chamber. Checking the weapon over, ensuring that was in a semi-decent working condition, she floated it over to her confused sister.

"Why are you giving that to me? I don't even want to touch one of those things, never alone shoot one!" She protested, pushing the gun away with her own blue coloured magic, staring at her sister with indignation.

"Just take it, just in case, I'll feel better knowing you have someway of protecting yourself." Staring defiantly into her sisters pleading eyes, Kit eventually relented, accepting the foul weapon with disgust, quickly placing it into her saddlebags. 'Out of sight, out of mind.'

Finished with their quick looting session, the two of them continued their trek up and the stairs and through the hellish, confined space of a long corridor, passing a dozen ransacked family dorms, their contents destroyed or missing. Ignoring the strange disappearance of furniture, they continued on, encountering nothing but silence and the occasional stiff corpse of an earth pony, which Spree was quick to search, looking for anything of use.As they were walking down the deserted, Kit couldn't help but feel like there was somepony watching her.

Eventually the two came across another sealed door, a sign above stating that they had just arrived at the entrance to the earth pony 'common room'. A place where everypony would meet and socialize, share funny stories, gossip, make friends or just relax in the overall pleasant and friendly atmosphere.

"Yup, this is definitely a trap." Spree announced nonchalantly, drawing her favored pistol for the third time, giving it a quick once over to check its condition and ammunition, before floating it up at eye level. This time, she had the intention to use it, no matter how much her sister argued and begged.

"What makes you so sure? They could all be dead in there, just like everywhere else." Kit turned to look at her sister and began fuming at the site of the drawn pistol and her sisters hot headed attitude, shooting first was not a way to make allies.

"How many bodies did we pass on the way here? Three? Four? Out of all of them, how many were unicorns? Answer, none." Spree pulled an empty magazine from her pocket and began loading rounds into the top, slipping it back in to her pocket when it was full. "That's because the mud ponies were retreating, regrouping. They were setting up an ambush for our ponies to fall in to, and the idiots took the bait." She finished filling a second magazine, slipping it in with its cousin.

"How are you so sure they're still alive then? Our Pip-bucks don't have those fancy motion trackers." Kit asked Incredulously.

"Because if they weren't; firstly this door would be wide open, 'coz there wouldn't be anypony left to close it, and secondly the fact that all those cameras we passed on the way here couldn't stop watching us. Now, copy what I do," Spree pressed her body up against the area between the doorframe and the wall, effectively hiding herself from the possible hostiles on the opposite side of the door. Kit reluctantly followed suit, wedging herself into the adjacent space. Bringing her pistol to bare once more, Spree prepared her hoof over the door release.

"Ready?" Kit rolled her eyes, but nodded all the same, wanting her sister to hurry up with her silly antics. Spree quickly pressed the button and jerked her hoof back into cover. She placed her hoof up to her lips, signaling for Kit to remain silent. The door opened with a hiss and they waited. A brief minute followed before a sound broke the silence.

"Where are they? Igneous, go check it out!" A mares voice shouted, supposedly at another pony in the room.

"What! Why do I have to go? Send the pipsqueak, she was gonna die anyway!." A second voiced sounded, this one obviously belonging to a stallion due to its deep tone and gruff undertone.

"That filly is staying exactly where she is! Now get your ass over there and check it out, before I hit you!" The first voice replied back, aggression and annoyance evident in the mares voice.

"Okay, jeesh." The sound of hoof steps echoed through the silence, growing louder with each passing second. Spree pulled her pistol close, activated her pip-bucks Stable-Assisted Targeting Spell (S.A.T.S), and rolled out of her cover, aiming for the stallions head. Time seemed to slow down as her gun fired with a sharp crack, a bullet tearing through the air at breakneck speed, flying straight into the shocked stallions face. The round tearing a hole through his skull, turning his brain to much, before continuing its course straight out the back of his cranium. He flew back, body limp and lifeless, with his blood and grey matter splattering the area behind him.

Spree quickly switched targets, this time aiming for the mare, who was too busy being frozen with shock to fire back with her combat shotgun. Another loud bang sounded, and another bullet left the guns barrel, finding its new home inside the poor mares head. She promptly fell like a sack of bricks, her weapon slipping from her slack jaw and clattering to the floor. Spree switched to the third and last target, preparing to unload another round but stopped dead in her tracks at the sight of her 'target'.

A small yellow filly lay curled up in the corner of the room, partially hidden behind an overturned sofa, her shoulders shaking as she cried softly. Spree slipped out of S.A.T.S and lowered her pistol, unsure of how to proceed. Kit poked her head into the room, her curiosity piqued at the sound of sobbing. Looking towards the area in which her sister was dumbly staring, her eyes widened as she too spotted the small filly.

Stepping fully into the room, she began looking around, checking for any other surviving ponies apart from herself, her sister and the filly. All the rooms furniture, along with beds and cabinets  from the ransacked rooms they had passed, were set up as a makeshift barricade at the far end of the room, riddled with holes and caked in blood. The scene in front of the barricade almost made her release whatever contents were still left in her stomach.

Mounds of unicorn bodies lay piled in front, each cut down as they ran blindly into the room, straight to their deaths. Behind the barricade a similar scene was laid out, with earth ponies lay slumped over furniture or lay crumpled on the floor, having been caught in the return fire from the panicked unicorns. Each was bathed in the same eerie red glow of the stables emergency lighting, creating an image straight out of Tartarus itself.Blocking the images from her mind, Kit began to approach the young pony, taking a wide berth of the bodies.

Hearing the older pony approaching, the yellow filly peaked her head from behind the sofa, her orange mane and yellow coat clashing harshly with the sofas dull brown. When her tearful green eyes spotted Kit inching her way towards her, she quickly ducked back behind and curled into herself in an attempt to make herself as small as possible. "S-Stay away daemons! Please! Don't kill me..."

"Daemons?" Kit stopped approaching, completely puzzled by the fillies odd exclamation. "Why would she call us..?" Realisation dawned on her. She looked at the mass of dead flesh that covered the majority of the room and at the two fresh corpses, that were slowly draining a puddle of blood from the new orifices in their skulls.

"Oh..."

"C'mon Kitty leave her, we need to get that code and get out of here, we can't afford to take her with us." Spree said softly as she holstered her sidearm and picked up the bloodied shotgun in her magic, checking its drum mag. Satisfied that it held a suitable number of shells, she then began to move towards the far end of the room, climbing up and over the impromptu barrier. She stopped when she reached the bullet beaten hydraulic door, glancing back at her sister, still staring at the filly. "C'mon Kit, she'll only slow us down."

Kit Tinker made a move to follow her sister but the sound of the fillies whimpering sobs kept her locked in place, a certain memory resurfacing. She shook her head and quickly blocked it out, unwilling to face the pain the images brought. She began looked back and forth between her sister and filly with uncertainly, torn between her feelings and the harsh before her.

"I'm sorry Spree, I-I can't leave her here." She whispered softly, redoubling her advance on the filly, who quickly shrank into a tight ball, covering her head with her tiny hooves. Kit reached quickly reached her, gently pulling the tiny mare into a comforting hug, softly brushing her scarlet mane with her hoof. The filly struggled weakly, attempting to fight the sudden warm embrace she found herself in. Eventually realising the futility in her struggles, they gradually ceased, being replaced by heavy sobs that violently shook her small frame.

Bulletspree sighed deeply, turning away from the scene taking place in front of her eyes and quickly pressing the doors release button. It quietly hissed open before her and, taking one last glace back at her sister, she slipped through, flicking the close switch as soon as she was on the other side.

"I'll be back for you Kitty...I promise."

[canter]- - -  - - -

"Ssh, it's okay, you're okay, I'm not going to hurt you. I know it hurts sweetie, just let it all out. It's okay." Kit continued to stroke the filly's mane, gently rocking the both of them back and forth, in an effort to calm the small yellow pony down. The filly now clutched Kit's body like a pillow, screaming and crying out her pain and heartache. In return, Kit held her tighter, rubbing the young mares back, resting her chin atop her head.

"Ssh it's okay, I'm here for you." Kit closed her eyes, imagining moments, such as the one she found herself in, with her mother. She remembered how she would sing a soft lullaby to her as she cried, the words forever lost to her in the sands of time, but the melody still played out clear as day. Kit took a deep breath and began to hum softly, rehearsing the song as best as her clouded memory allowed.

The filly's sobs slowly subsided, replaced by a troubled, hiccup filled snore as she slipped off into the realm of dreams and nightmares. The hissing sound of the door opening sounded nearby, followed by the sound of hoof steps crossing the metal plating that made up the floor making their way steadily towards her.

"Where'd you go sis? Did you get the code already?" Kit asked without looking up from the filly held in her forelegs, a small smile appearing on her face as she felt the seven year old snuggle into her lap.

No answer came, but the hoof steps continued to move closer, each step creating a loud metallic clang as it impacted the floor. The pony was close now, less than a few meters, yet there was still no reply.

"Sis?" Looking up from the filly, Kit looked towards the source of the hoof steps and gasped, pulling herself and the filly away from the pony that was definitely not her sister! Instead, there stood a pale blue unicorn stallion, his left foreleg was raised off the ground, a jagged wound ram across the limb, dripping blood. The rest of the stallion's body was in no better condition, small cuts and bruises, caused by grenade shrapnel dotted his torso and back. But the that made Kit jump in fright were his eyes, large and wide, the pupils shrunken to mere pinpricks, one occasionally twitching. They were the eyes of a pony whose mind was erased, replaced by pure insanity.

He clutched a jagged piece of metal in his mouth, the tip stained with blood, as he advanced on the two defenseless ponies. Kit, thinking fast, quickly levitated the filly out of harms way as the stallion lunged, throwing her body to the floor with the impromptu knife heading for her throat.

• - -  - - -

As the door seals hissed shut behind her, Spree brought the combat shotgun up to eye level and began to steadily make her way down the halls, which had been spared the bloodshed and battle damage. She peered into every room which she passed, checking for anypony lurking in the shadows waiting to attack her from behind, finding nopony she moved on to the next. Coming across the medical bay, she stopped her progress to search through the near empty cabinets and medical cases, managing to scrounge up a couple of healing potions and a few rolls of bandages, adding them to the few medical supplies she had.

Restarting her search, she eventually found herself outside the final room on the corridor. A locked, sealed door barred her from entering and a barely visible, yellow sign above the door marked it as a 'classroom'. Spree paused, trying to decide if it was worth her time to pick the lock and take a peak inside, if only to stem the rising paranoia and curiosity.

Losing the internal debate, she took off her saddlebags and began rummaging through them with her hooves, annoyed by the amount of she had packed into them. She eventually found her box of bobby pins, along with a screwdriver. Lifting them into the air with her magic, Spree placed the bobby pin in the key hole, moving it around until she found the sweet spot. She then placed the screwdriver above and slowly applied a gentle pressure, gradually turning the lock clockwise, until it gave a satisfactory click.

"I still got it," grinning  to herself Spree replaced her tools and stood up straight, strapping her saddlebags back onto her back as she did so. Reaching out her magic to collect the nearly forgotten combat shotgun, Spree reached her hoof out to the door switch and flipped it. She quickly brought the shotgun to bear as the metal slid open, aiming it into the room with a look of pure concentration.

Her eyes widened and she took a step back, the shotgun clattering to the floor as her mind went blank, trying to comprehend what she saw. She stood stock still for a few seconds, her face contorted with disgust and disbelief, before she slammed her hoof back onto the door switch and closed it, shaking her head in an attempt to clear it of the images witnessed. Taking a moment to quell the rising sickness and anger, she turned away from the door and returned to plan at hoof, making her way up the final staircase to the Overmare's office.

Stepping into the last stretch of corridor she noticed two things. One being that there seemed to be a lot of furniture stuffed haphazardly into the small hallway and the second being the two rifles being pointed in her direction, the ponies holding them already pulling the triggers. Acting fast, Spree quickly threw herself behind a nearby toppled cabinet, the incoming bullets ricocheting harmlessly off of its thick metal. Taking a quick peak over her cover, she noted the position of the two lone earth ponies, who had set up cover at the far end of the corridor, hiding behind a ruined couch. The crack of one of the rifles firing forced Spree to duck her head back down, just as the round impacted the wall behind her, cutting a few wayward hairs loose from her scalp.

"Shit."

• - -  - - -

Panicking, Kit raised her hooves and forced the stallion back with all her might, keeping the blade just inches from her throat and no further, unable to summon any extra strength. Gasping with fright, she attempted to buck him off using her hind legs, missing his body completely and instead kicking the air uselessly.

Tears began to drip from her eyes as her shaking forelegs began to get pushed back, the sharp point inching closer and closer to her exposed neck. Her eyes began to frantically search around the room, looking for anything to hit the crazed stallion with. Her eyes stopped moving as they fell her saddlebags, laying about a meter and half away from her, the 10mm pistol laying spewed out just next to them. Concentrating the best she could, she tried to summon her magic to lift the sidearm. Her horn began to glow as her aura appeared, surrounding the weapon. It jiggled, barely moving an inch off the ground, before another rough push from the stallion broke her concentration, the edge of metal slicing into her neck. The gun clattered the floor as Kit pushed back with her dwindling reserves of strength, blood steadily streaming out the shallow gash, dripping to the already crimson floor.

The stallion suddenly cried out, forgetting Kit entirely as he focused his attention on the small filly wrapped around his wind pipe. Taking the brief distraction to her advantage, Kit reached out again with her magic, grasping the pistol firmly, quickly floating it over to her side. Just as it reached her, the large stallion had managed to throw the yellow filly off him, her small body landed with a soft *pomf* into an overturned sofa. Shakily Kit raised the pistol and fired, the shot aimlessly veering off to the side, missing the stallion completely.

Kit quickly fired again, nearly loosing the pistol from her magical grip, the bullet again uselessly missing, pinging off of a metal locker in the corner of the room. The stallion gave a cringe worthy chuckle, his mouth contorting into a manic grin as he began to limp back towards his frightened prey. Crawling frantically backwards, Kit fired a third time, the round blowing out a light in the ceiling, causing sparks to rain down on the bloodied corpses below.

Kit found herself unable to retreat anymore with her back firmly pressed against the cold metal wall, the pistol still spazzing about in her magical grip, unable to temper her erratic emotion. The stallion continued to advance, his bloody hoof leaving a trail behind him as he uncaringly dragged it along the ground. Desperately, Kit fired a fourth time, the bullet sailing through the air and striking true, ripping straight through the stallions shoulder.

He howled in pain, the jagged metal piece falling from his mouth as he fell back, clutching at his wounded shoulder. Another shot, this one tearing into his abdomen, earning another scream of pain as he collapsed to the floor. The crazed stallion began clawing desperately for his fallen weapon, blood gurgling out his mouth as he dragged himself sluggishly along the floor, a grin still shining on his face. A sixth and final shot rang out, blowing a hole clean through his head, ending his insanity.

Kit stay stock still, tears streaming down her face and blood leaking from her neck, the gun clattering to the floor as her magic cut out. Her body shook as she curled herself up, her hooves cupping her muzzle as the tears continued to fall, her eyes never leaving the body laid in front of her.

She suddenly stiffened as another, smaller body pressed itself against her own, tiny yellow hooves reaching around her barrel in a tight hug. Kit glanced down at the young filly and scooped her into her forelegs, hugging her tightly as if she were a stuffed toy, earning a squeal of protest in return.

• - -  - - -

Being forced to cower behind a metal box as a pair of ponies took pot shots was not Spree's idea of a good time, in fact it just pissed her off. She grunted as a round scraped along the side of the locker, feeling the rush of air as it grazed past her hind hoof, missing only by a few inches. She needed to move, or at least shoot back, her annoyance growing with each continuous shot fired. Her combat shotgun lay in her lap, completely useless at the current distance between her and her targets.

A sudden roar of agony echoed throughout the vault, reverberating its way through the stairway behind her, originating from a someplace close, judging by its volume and clarity. 'Kitty!' Spree internally screamed, prepared to make a break from her cover and gallop to the aid of her sister, the echoes of gunshots made her stop in her tracks. The sound of the weapon reassured her, recognizing the distinct crack of a 10mm round being fired 'She'll be fine...I hope.' Spree squished her thoughts and turned her attention back to the situation at hoof, the stream of lead being thrown at her momentarily frozen.

Taking their pause as an opportunity, Spree leaped to her hooves and ran down the corridor, the combat shotgun floating next to her, unloading shell after shell towards the earth pony cover. Buckshot tore at the seat cushions tearing it to tattered shreds, along with the unprepared face of one of the earth ponies. The second quickly ducked back behind cover as his friend was blown into chunks by the 12 gauge rounds. The combat shotgun began to click as Spree pulled its trigger, its drum magazine empty of shells. Discarding the empty weapon to the ground, Spree drew her pistol, aiming it towards the seconds ponies position as she continues to run.

Hearing the loud clicking, along with the sound of the firearm falling to the ground, the last earth pony brought himself out of cover and prepared to fire his rifle at the fast approaching pony. His eyes widened as Spree unleashed a stream a bullets from her pistol, each finding its mark in his face and neck. He dropped to the floor with a faint gurgle, his body twitching with spasms before falling still.

Spree continued her dash, leaping over the decimated couch, landing a few hooves distance between the two freshly dead bodies. She slipped out the empty magazine and placed it into her pocket, floating a fresh mag into place with a click. Spree swaggered her way up to the sealed hydraulic door of the Overmare's office, a winning smirk appearing on her muzzle.

"Don't you dare come near me unicorn filth!" A voice hissed and crackled over the intercom, filled with hatred and disgust. Spree looked up at a camera mounted just above the door, gave a shit eating grin and waved her hoof. Winking at the pony on the other side, she raised her pistol and fired, blowing the small fixture into sparks and broken glass and then unloaded a few shots into the intercom speaker, silencing the Overmare's squawking.

After a few minutes of tinkering with the lock, along with a couple snapped bobby pins, it finally clicked open, allowing Spree access. She placed her tools back into her saddlebags and slipped out a full magazine for her pistol, using it to replace the half empty one. Confident that she was ready, Spree pointed the small firearm towards the room and flipped the door switch, bringing it hissing open. The Overmare greeted her from the other side of her desk, holding her own pistol firmly in her jaw, glaring daggers Spree's way.

"I tholf nu nuth t' com fthere!" The cream coloured earth tried to shout, her voice garbled and muffled by the pistol grip stuffed in her mouth, Spree stared back in confusion.

"What? I can't understand you."

"I thaid, I tholf nou nuth t' comf fthere!" The mare repeated in irritation, taking a threatening step forward, saliva beginning to drip from her chin. Spree shook her head, as a faint chuckle escaped her mouth, amused by the scene in front if her.

"Olay, here's how we do this, I put my gun down and you put down yours. You give me the other half of the stable door code and then I'll leave. Sound good?" Spree raised her eyebrow, staring closely at the older mare, awaiting her response. Finally, with hesitation, the earth pony mare slowly lowered her gun onto her desk. Spree followed suit, floating her own pistol into its holster, then sat on her rump, smiling cockily in the other mares direction.

"Why do you want the code? It doesn't work, It never has, the whole Stable is permanently sealed shut. We're all going to die in here, if not from a gunshot, then a slow and painful death from dehydration, starvation or suffocation." The Overmare planted herself back down into her leather seat, brushing a stray grey strand of hair out of her vision. She sat staring forward with a grim expression on her face, keeping her weary, green eyes focused on her unwanted guest.

"Is that why you killed those foals Miss High Arc is it?" Spree replied coldly, checking over the mares engraved placard, displaying her name for all to see. Her demeanor quickly performed a sudden one-eighty as she remembered the classroom and its unfortunate inhabitants.

"What foals? I have no idea what you're talking about." In an attempt to feign innocence, the earth mare leaned back into her chair, but was unable to meet the judging blue eyes that seemed bore into her very soul.

"Stop lying, you know I saw them, you've been watching us with your little cameras the whole time."

High Arc heaved a deep sigh, glancing briefly towards the lilac unicorn glaring daggers towards her. If looks could kill, Spree would've turned the aged mare inside out and strung her up from her intestines. Wincing, the mare looked towards her desk, specifically at the spit coated handle of her pistol.

"Yes...I had those foals...put to sleep. Told them it was a flu injection, said it would keep them safe from the unicorn germs, poor dears believed us...Then we got them to take a nap. We had them overdosed on every drug we had left in the medical bay, forcing them into a coma. Their hearts stopped whilst they slept, completely painless. It was...for the best." Her voice sounded weak, hollow, as if she was trying to convince herself that her actions were necessary, that what she did was the only option available.

"For the best? You had all those innocent foals killed because it was 'for the best'!? Did you stop to think about everypony else in the stable? Killing each other because you were too selfish to share the only source of water available? What about our foals!? Do you know how many died because we were forced to give them unfiltered water!?" Spree screamed, leaping the distance between her and High Arc, pressing her snout forcefully into the mares face, forcing her back in her seat.

"You unicorn filth are of no concern to me, only the well being of my ponies is important. You can all go rot in Tartarus for all I care." The earth mare spat back, pushing the enraged pony backwards with her fore hoof, wiping spittle off her face with the other.

"Heh and where are your 'ponies' now? Oh that's right...they're all dead, along with every 'filthy' unicorn, along with nearly every innocent foal in this stable, because of you. You could have stopped all of this before it started, saved the lives of everypony!" Spree stepped back and smirked, a sense of pride and joy overtaking as she watched the mares expression turn to one of dawning realisation, her face turning sickly pale.

"Now...about those codes?" She continued, casually placing a hoof onto the circular desk, leaning over towards the floundering mare, staring intently at a fleck of blood that had long dried onto the back of her free hoof.

"The...The password for my terminal is Apple Core, get the codes and get out...I-I have things to do." High Arc muttered, her voice devoid of emotion, her lifeless eyes staring at the pistol lying still on her ancient desk.

"Thank you for the assistance, I'll just be on my way," giving a sly wink, Spree trotted up to the terminal, entered the code and downloaded the codes needed to access the door, as well as a file named 'For Overmare's Eyes Only'. Haven gotten what she came for, she quickly vacated the room and sealed the door, leaving the broken mare alone with her regrets. Taking a pause in the hallway, she perked her ears and listened.

*Bang*

Smirking with satisfaction, Spree hurried her way past the two broken corpses and over their wrecked barricade, galloping through the winding corridors as quickly as physically possible.