PONIES IN ARMS-3. MARECENARIES

DATE- CLASSIFIED
TIME- IRRELEVANT

I had wanted to talk to Smoky about what he was going to Manehatten for and why he had a few Stable Tech ponies on the train, so I asked him if he could extend his stop in Appleloosa and he agreed to do so. I already had all the information on the location's and size of the n.l.r unit in the town so I felt it was time to gather as much possible Intel as to what exactly Stable Tech was and who they were.

"Well to be honest I don’t have all the information I feel I should I mean they asked me if I could take them there but gave me no more information as to why. As for what is in Manehatten, I have no clue but what I can tell you is that Stable Tech has been making trips there nonstop for the last few weeks, each time I pick them up they load a lot of cargo and tell me to make it out as fast as the train will go. To be honest again with you I would much rather stay away from the place, it's still a radioactive wasteland with bands of thieves living there along with raiders who I am always on the lookout for, they scare the hell out for me when they ask to check my cargo, but a saving grace is the fact that Stable Tech travels with armed guards at all times and that often detours the raiders from even getting close to my baby. The only thing I have been able to figure out is that Stable Tech has picked up activities there ever since Blood Flank was killed this strikes me as odd since they had no real set times as to when they would go, but now they go on a weekly basis although why I have no clue, if it were me I’d stay the hell out of there. The radiation levels have stripped the paint off my train and I am forced to wear a radiation suit within 5 miles of the place. I know for a fact that the city used to be a beautiful place where almost a million ponies lived and now there isn’t a living soul anywhere to be found with the exceptions of the bands of gangs and raiders, why such a cool place to live and enjoy one’s self was ever destroyed I’ll never get, I do understand that it had become a major hub for the e.l.f in the first war and that the commander that gave the order felt he had no other choice, it would have been a slaughter had he sent any pony in to the place because it had been heavily fortified and it would have turned into a bloodbath for both sides. The first war now makes a hell of a lot more since to me though since having to bring the Stable Tech ponies there though, I have been able to only talk to one that I have gotten to know quite well and you know drunk ponies, as soon as they are nice and lose so are their lips. As it turns out, the fallout shelters under the city actually house many ponies who now live under the ruins of the city. On one trip there in particular I asked this pony if he would show me these underground shelters and he not only did that but he introduced me to the leader of it and even had me spend a night there since raider activity was high at the time and it wasn't safe for me to pull out of the city. If you have any real questions pertaining to stable tech id suggest talking to some of them, I’ll stay here for a couple of hours while you talk to them if you like."

I pressed him for anymore information he might have had knowing that eventually we would all be making our way there and he really had no more other than what he had given me already and the fact that Manehatten had an underground rail system that he would never in his life take again thanks to almost being killed by mutated creatures that had taken refuge in the tunnels under the city, it made since that creatures would mutate due to the high levels of radiation throughout the place. I then went to look for one of the Stable Tech ponies to gather any and all information he would freely give up to me. I found one in the saloon already pretty fucked up and talking his ass off about nothing in particular so I took the opportunity I was now given to talk to him. I trotted over to the bar where he was and instantly caught his eye so he bought me a drink which I gladly drank.

"Well hi there stranger you must be new to this town allow me to introduce myself, I am Ruby and you are?" He told me his name was Digger and that he was one of the ponies that helped dig the shelters and that he was on his way to Manehatten to which I replied, why would you want to go to such a place and that if it were me I would stay as far from the place as I could, trying to get him to tell me any and all he knew about the place.

"Well my pretty you obviously haven’t been there have you? If you had then you would know that even though yes the city is in ruins there are several underground shelters throughout the place and those are quite nice to be in, they are governed individually from any outside influences making laws a lot more easy to keep up on the equestrian government system has failed causing a power vacuum of sorts within the land I’m sure you have noticed this am I right? Well when the first war broke out in Equestria we were already up and running you see we had advanced knowledge that something was about to happen thanks to our being in the know with both Luna and Celestia. Stable Tech was formed originally with one intent, and that was to provide ponies with a safe place to stay in the event of any bombing in any place no matter the city or town we would go there and build shelters at no real cost to the government, it was a very lucrative business and we were approached by not only the government but the e.l.f as well to provide them with underground facilities in which to hide from enemy's and to do top secret research and development on some of the technology you see in today’s battle field including the armor you see the n.l.r.s.p wearing. I have worked for stable tech almost as long as it has been around and to be honest I would much rather be in the heat of battle then having to fill out reports all day long and deal with asshole over ponies of these now out of control shelters in Manehatten. That is why we are on our way there in fact, one of the over ponies of our biggest one there has gone mad with power and has cut any and all communication with Stable Tech off, we travel with our own military forces to solve such problems, often times having to replace the over pony of the place with one of our own pony's and bring order to the place once more. Speaking of which I have noticed you have a lot of military looking ponies with you in this bar and the fact that you are wearing oak clusters, you're a major aren’t you?" To which I said yes.

"Interesting I thought so but wasn't going to say anything, hmmm in that case we are always looking for ponies to join our special forces team and it just so happens that we have a bit of a situation. You see we have lost touch with one of our shelters in Saltlick city and seeing as ponies have basically been banned from ever going there by the griffons maybe you could act as a mercenary group to uhhm gain access to that shelter, by force if need be. I know the stories of Scar and how he has fallen off the radar ever since the death of the one pony he trusted with any information and that no pony has heard from him ever since that but something tells me that if you can find and talk to him about the possible bad situation there he may understand that we don’t wish to invade but rather find out just what the hell is going on in that shelter. It would be greatly rewarded with one of our non used shelters in the city they come fully stocked with an armory medical unit chow hall you name it is like home, and it would be all yours if you did this for Stable Tech. Of course such a request should be slept upon we plan on being in Manehatten for about a month and if we haven’t heard anything from the shelter in Saltlick city by then I may just come looking for you to help Stable Tech out.

As for Stable Tech's involvement with the n.l.r, it is a sad thing to have to deal with them. You see dealing with the e.l.f was bad enough but we got paid really well by them where as now with the n.l.r we don’t see a dime until our work for them is done. A lot of the cargo we pull out of Manehatten is material we are trying to keep out of the hooves of the n.l.r and moving it to a secure underground facility in the heart of Caulifornia in the middle of the Mojave desert far from the reach of the n.l.r the vast majority of the stuff is simply old worn out parts from the shelters, however since Blood Flank was killed we have had to start moving weapons grade plutonium from a nuclear power plant there that the e.l.f was using as a facade to come up with its very own nuclear weapon, a few of which have not been accounted for since the beginning of all of this new situation with the rise of the n.l.r and Luna's government takeover. With no Celestia to be seen anywhere any pony who now works for Stable Tech also works on a fringe agreement with the n.l.r that being if any weapons grade plutonium comes up missing from this facility Stable Tech will be held fully responsible for what the n.l.r considers war crimes against Equestria and comes with a sentence of death, however after seeing how the e.l.f made themselves known to all as the n.l.r with the perfectly executed ruse of attacks on Equestria on the second anniversary of the end of the first war, we at Stable Tech had a bout of conscious thought as to where the nukes came from and most if not all of us made a vow to have all of the rest of the plutonium removed from the secret research labs under the power plant so that no more nukes could be used against Equestria. Stable Tech is not just a government pawn anymore we help ponies now whereas before it was all about the money and quick payment, however after Manehatten was blown off the maps by the very same product that we all thought was powering the city Stable Tech no longer wanted anything to do with building shelters or research labs for the now n.l.r, several ponies were tried for not following government orders and were executed for their acts and I lost several close friends. Well young filly I have got to be going but stay in touch ok, we just may end up calling upon you for a bit of help."