When I turned Golden in, I wasn’t really expecting the Overmare to ask me to fully investigate her PipBuck. What could Golden be hiding? I thought to myself as I escorted her to Security.

We arrived at Security in no time. I placed her PipBuck on a nearby table, dispelled her hoofcuffs, and ushered her into the cell. I requested Intelligence to send one of their ponies to help me investigate the files on Golden’s PipBuck.

Much to my surprise, of all the ponies they could have sent, they sent Starlight. She trotted into the office with a scowl on her face. She walked towards me, before giving a cold glare at Golden. “I really expected better of you.”

Golden didn’t say anything back. All she did was hang her head in shame.

It hurt me seeing her like that, but I had to do what was asked of me. As Starlight investigated the PipBuck, I glanced over to Golden, who looked at me with tears welled in her eyes and a look of betrayal on her face. Before I could ask her about her problems, Starlight called over to me. “Hey, Seren,” she said, “you might wanna take a look at this.”

I trotted over to her, and she pointed at the PipBuck. “Did you notice the date on this activation message? It was two weeks ago.”

“Yeah,” I shrugged. “So what?”

She simply looked at me as if I was stupid. “Don’t you remember? Golden’s mother was poisoned two weeks ago.”

I blinked in surprise. “You don’t think there’s a connection, do you?”

She looked down and muttered, “Maybe, but I can’t say for sure…”

I didn’t think much of it and just brushed it off as a coincidence.

It was 6:30PM. Starlight had been looking through the PipBuck for a good forty minutes. The first couple of ponies on B-shift started to walk in to wait out the rest of their shift as C-shift started at 8:00PM. On slow nights, sometimes I would be asked to fill in for some C-shift ponies. I wasn’t sure if that would be the case tonight. I was usually on B-shift, the “liveliest” time of the day.

Starlight let out a sigh and finally said to me, “Seren, it’s finished.”

As I walked over to her, she continued, “I found the one suspicious file and three encrypted files. I was only able to break the encryption on one, though.”

Before I read the file, I gave Golden a glance as she laid there motionless and sobbing. I turned back to the PipBuck and read the file.

Your objectives for obtaining ARG#0064 are as follows:

1. Become Head of Stable Maintenance

2. Access Data Management Terminal 1

3. Hack the Overmare’s Terminal from DMT1

4. Retrieve file codename ARG#0064

5. Erase all traces of hacking

6. Deliver ARG#0064 to its requested destination

I took another look at Golden, who was now more nervous and with real fear in her eyes. I walked over to her, levitating her PipBuck and brought it to her face. “Would you like to explain this?” I asked firmly.

She lifted her head up and looked at me with tears streaming down her cheeks, sniffling, “T-they promised me freedom... freedom from the stable...” Another sniffle. “T-They said if I was able to retrieve the files, I would be able to leave...” She looked down shamefully, tears dripping onto the floor. “I c-couldn't tell anypony about it... nopony... nopony should've known... not even the Overmare...” She slowly drops her head back down onto the floor, starting to sob again. “J-just kill me already... it's pointless... I'm g-gonna die anyway...”

The two B-shift ponies looked over to the cell and one of them asked me, “Hey Seren, is she alright?”

“She’s fine,” I replied, “she’s just a little upset.” I turned back to Golden and asked her, “Why you?”

Before she could answer, the Overmare walked in. The two B-shift ponies stood at attention. “I’m here,” she said, with a hint of irritation. “Now what have you found out?”

I told the Overmare everything, and even had her read the file. She just stood there dumbfounded, staring in confusion at the message on Golden’s PipBuck for almost a full minute. Slowly, deliberately, her expression turned to a baleful glare straight through the cell bars.

“I had a feeling about you… but even I didn’t think things would go this deep,” she said, her voice low. “So you poisoned your mother, who just so happens to be the Head of Maintenance, and then you want to compromise the entire stable—my stable—by giving away our secrets? Did you really think you’d just get away with this?!”

Golden didn’t answer. She simply shook her head, a movement so small it was almost imperceptible.

Silence fell between them. I really didn’t like where this was going; I was already holding my breath. It was almost half a minute before the Overmare spoke again, in the tone I’d only heard her use when making announcements to the entire Stable.

“Golden Riversong, for conspiring to endanger Stable 64 and the lives of its citizens, and for the murder of Sharp Eye, former Head of Maintenance, I hereby sentence you to death.”

I froze.

Wait… what?!

Before I could even recover, the Overmare abruptly turned to face me. “Seren, as the officer who caught and detained her, I commend you on protecting this Stable from outside threats. As such, I order you to execute her.” She nearly yelled her last word, “Immediately!”

I didn’t answer, or even salute. I couldn’t. But the Overmare didn’t seem to care, as she hastily stepped away from the cell and walked right past me, straight out of the security office. The door slid shut behind her with a hollow boom.

And still, I was too stunned to even move, let alone speak. This had to be a joke. She couldn’t really expect me to…

“U-um... “ Starlight piped up. Her ears were flat against her head. “I’d… better go,” she said, barely audible. She sounded like she was holding back tears. When Starlight’s eyes met mine, I saw her mouth working soundlessly, trying to come up with something to say. Golden was her friend, too, I remembered. Probably a lot more of one than I’d been lately.

“I… ‘m gonna go.” She tore her gaze from me, then made for the door at a brisk trot, practically mashing the opening switch on her way out.

As she left, another B-shift pony looking to finish up her shift walked in. As irony would have it, it was none other than Combine herself. She greeted the other two B-shift ponies already in the room, but when she looked over to me, she said, “Oh, hi, Seren,” in a more dismissive and dark tone of voice. She noticed Golden in the cell in front of me, and asked the two security ponies, “What’s up with her?”

“Apparently the Overmare is convinced that she’s a spy and ordered Seren to kill her,” one of them replied.

“Oh, this should be good,” said Combine, chuckling in an evil manner.

I simply rolled my eyes and looked back at Golden, who was still whimpering from the Overmare's order. Between her sobs, she croaked out, “W-what are you waiting f-for...? D-do it... I don't belong here any-m-more...” She clenched her eyes tightly, still crying, waiting on me to do what I was supposed to do.

In truth, I didn’t know what to do. I was completely at a crossroads. The Overmare now saw her as a threat to the Stable, but I couldn’t just kill her. I just couldn’t.

I looked over to a gun and began to levitate it with my magic, but I quickly put it down. I just stood there deep in thought on what to do. In the back of my mind, I knew that if I didn’t do this, then another pony would just kill her anyway, but another thought came up in my mind: did she really deserve to die in the first place?

Just then I heard a shotgun cock behind me. “Get outta the way, Seren!” shouted Combine. “It’s the will of the Overmare.”

The will of the Overmare. I was so tired of hearing that. Whenever somepony doubted an order given to them by the Overmare, they would just have to tell themselves ‘it is the will of the Overmare’ for motivation. I personally hated this saying because it painted the Overmare as some sort of god when all she did was watch over the Stable. Nothing more, nothing less.

I turned around and looked at her sternly before shouting, “No!”

Combine immediately fumed with anger. “Fuck you, That bitch needs to die!” She rushed up and roughly shoved me out of the way. She quickly levitated the shotgun and took a random shot at Golden and missed, hitting the wall instead.

At that moment I immediately pulled out my baton and activated S.A.T.S, or the ‘Stable-Tec Arcane Targeting Spell’. It was a function of the PipBuck that slowed down time and allowed me to focus and line up my attacks on a target. I only had a limited amount of magical energy for it, so every shot needed to count. With three well-aimed swings, I knocked her out cold.

The other two B-shift ponies were paralyzed in fear at what I just did. Especially when I shifted to face them after taking down Combine, brandishing my baton in front of me. “I’m not letting Golden Riversong get killed!” I shouted. “She doesn’t deserve that!”

I picked up the cell key, turned to the cell door and opened it. “Golden, come on,” I said, “I’m going to get you out of here!” I knew in the back of my mind that I was committing high treason, but I didn’t care. The only thought in my mind was that she needed to get out of here.

I glared at the guards, who were just looking at me with disapproval. “I hope neither of you plan on stopping me,” I warned. They were still shocked at what I did to Combine, but I knew she wasn’t dead.

Golden slowly looked up at me, still having dried tear stains in her eyes, and slowly stood up onto her hooves, her face showing clear signs of panic. “W-what are you doing?!” she shouted. “You're gonna get yourself killed!”

I knew that the security that would most likely be after us would be C-shift, which was taking over in about an hour. I forced my most reassuring smile and said, “Don't worry, you’re safe with me.” There was only one mare I hoped we would not run into.

I escorted her out of her cell, gave her back her PipBuck which she spent no time putting it back on her right foreleg, and we started walking towards the doorway.

But as per my luck, just as we were walking out of Security, she walked in.

“Oh, uhh, good evening, Miss, uhm, Fairlaw!” I quickly said.

It was Fairlaw Baton. I figured she had come in to start preparing her briefing for C-shift. However, upon seeing me and Golden, she didn’t look too happy.

“So I hear reports of a spy in the stable who should be dead right now.” Her eyes narrowed. “And I see you trying to escape with her. What in tartarus are you doing, Seren?”

I just stood there and said nothing, while her ice cold gaze remained locked on me. “Alright, give her to me, Seren,” she demanded authoritatively, causing Golden to shudder a bit. She continued, “Oh, and you will be put in the holding cell with her, because you are in just as much if not more trouble now.”

I should have seen that coming, but I wasn't going to let Fairlaw have her way. “No!” I screamed.

What was I doing? I was standing up to the Head of Security! I must have been insane.

She seethed in anger, gritting her teeth. “You dare go against the Overmare and plan to escape with a fugitive? I will have all three shifts on your ass if you don’t give her to me right now!”

“I’m not afraid of you, Fairlaw!” I shouted. In truth, I was actually terrified of what she would do.

Fairlaw shoved me out of the way, then whipped a revolver from her barding like lightning and fired two shots at Golden. She yelped and immediately tried to dodge, but even though the first bullet missed completely, the other caught and penetrated her left foreleg. Golden screamed out in pain and tumbled onto the floor.

And that was when several things happened at once.

Without thinking, I quickly turned towards Fairlaw and shouted, “You bitch!” as I pulled out my baton and swung it at her face as hard as I could. She didn’t have time to entirely replace her expression with surprise before it connected, knocking her out cold and leaving her in a heap on the floor.

"Holy sh— Take her down!" Like the flick of a switch, the two security mares snapped out of their shocked state, and I immediately heard the bone-chilling sound of guns being drawn.

Acting on instinct, I crouched as low as I could to make myself a smaller target. The first pair of bullets sailed straight over my head, but the third just barely grazed my leg and sparked off the wall right behind me. The guards may have recovered quickly, but I was faster. I swung my baton in their general direction with a quick burst of magic, causing them to yell in consternation and whiff their follow-up shots.

My eyes locked onto Fairlaw's revolver on the floor. Normally, I wouldn't have had the time to pick it up and aim before the guards riddled me with holes. When I slipped into S.A.T.S, though, it was like they were moving at the speed of molasses. I yanked the revolver off the floor with my magic, brought it up to eye level, and took aim at their heads. Sixty percent per shot. I wasn't likely to get a better chance.

BANG! BANG!

As luck would have it, both shots landed one after another. The guards' shouts went silent as the bullets entered their skulls, sending a spray of blood to coat the floor and much of the opposite wall. I wasn't surprised; Fairlaw's unique revolver, "One Shot," was one of the most powerful and accurate weapons in the stable.

A real killer.

I stared down the barrel of the still-smoking gun. There was no movement. No sound. They were dead. I'd just killed two security ponies who were just doing their jobs. Mares I knew, no less. I was a killer. A murderer. The revolver slipped from my magical grasp, clattering on the cold metal tiles below. Warm tears began to sting my eyes.

Oh, goddesses... forgive me…

It was only then that I remembered Golden Riversong, now completely terrified and bleeding from the injury to her leg. “Oh sweet Celestia, I’m so sorry, Golden!” I cried, “Let me get you a medkit!”

I quickly went to the front of the room, grabbed the medkit hanging on the wall, and tried to the best of my abilities to patch up Golden's foreleg. I wanted to be long gone by the time most of C-shift came along; it was already 7:15 p.m and evening briefing started at 8:00, which meant I didn’t have much time.

Golden sat up as I started wrapping a clean white bandage around her leg, and she briefly winced. “W-why?” she weakly muttered.

“W-why did you save me?”

“Because I refuse to let you die for no good reason,” I quickly replied. “Now hold still."

“S-Seren,” she hissed in pain. “You can’t stay here. T-They’re going to—”

I tied off the bandage with a firm tug, cutting Golden’s speech off mid-sentence. Now at least her leg wouldn’t bleed out anytime soon, but I still needed to find a healing potion for her. “We’re going to get out of here, Golden. I don’t plan on staying here, and you certainly can’t, either. Our only choice is to go to the Wasteland.” Great. Now I just had to deal with the entire Stable security force coming for us loaded for bear, and the easy task of opening the reinforced steel blast door leading to the surface.

Golden looked at me shakily. “Seren… what are you going to do?”

“I’m going to get you out of here, that’s what,” I responded simply.

“Ser—agh!” she tried to move her leg, but immediately stopped, seething in pain. “Why? Just… Seren, you can’t take on the whole Stable yourself! It’s over! Fairlaw and the Overmare are gonna get us no matter what, we won’t even get close to—”

“Golden!” I snapped, cutting her off. My eyes met hers with as much determination as I could muster. “You’re my friend. You’re one of the few ponies in this stable that I actually care enough for to do this, I can’t just let you die like this! What do they even have on you? Just a stupid PipBuck file! They didn’t even give you a chance! I could never forgive myself if I let them murder you like that! I don’t care what Fairlaw and the Overmare say; you and me are getting out of here. Okay?”

Golden just stared at me in shock. Finally, her body slowly started shaking, and she started gingerly moving her leg with only a wince here and there. “Seren…” she said quietly. “Y-you know they’re not gonna let you back in, right?”

“I’m pretty sure they won’t,” I replied. “I’m not sure how we’re going to get out of here, but I’ll think of something.” I was probably one of the worst ponies when it came to formulating ideas, but even so I needed to think of something fast.

I noticed Golden’s pupils shrink suddenly, almost as if she was going into a trance-like state. I figured it was probably the Med-X I gave her, but still I asked her, “Uh, Golden? Are you all right?”

She stood up very firmly and said in a cold, robotic voice, “I am fine. Now I must go down to Maintenance.” Suddenly, she galloped out of the room as if she was never shot.

I decided to follow her. I took one final glance at the gruesome scene I created in Security. I muttered under my breath, “I’m sorry,” before catching up to Golden.

I followed her through Residential, begging her to slow down and asking why she had to go to Maintenance. She didn’t respond; she just ignored me and acted as if I didn’t exist. I also questioned how she was able to run so fast especially after being shot with one of the most powerful guns in the Stable. I urged her to go slower because of this, but she kept running anyway.

We got down to Maintenance, which was completely different from the rest of the Stable. While the Stable was well-lit and relatively spotless, Maintenance was a bit darker and was cluttered with pipes and other strange machines that only ponies that worked in this dank place would understand. Also, since Maintenance was very big, it was easy to get lost in, but the many frightening sounds the machines made kept ponies from venturing too far into Maintenance. Also, there weren’t a lot of reasons any ponies who were not Maintenance workers would go down here.

We got to the Maintenance office, which was spotless compared to the rest of Maintenance. It was one of the few rooms in the entire Stable to have actual carpeting. In addition to being the office for the Head of Maintenance, it usually doubled as a residence for the Maintenance Head and any family they may have, featuring two bedrooms and a relatively large living space.

I caught up to her and yelled, “Golden Riversong!”

She turned around and said in that monotone voice, “Shut up. I need to do this.” Then she just walked straight into the room with the door marked “Data Management Terminal 1.”

I was taken aback from the sudden remark. She had never told me to shut up once in all the years I’ve known her. I didn’t know what was up, but she was acting like a completely different pony.

That’s when I remembered about the “sleeper agent” message on her PipBuck. Did that have something to do with this? But what could have triggered such a drastic shift in personality? This just wasn’t like her at all.

Not being able to follow her into the room with DMT1, I decided to look around the living space. For some reason, I was drawn to the kitchen, and upon seeing the table I muttered to myself, “This must’ve been where Sharp Eye died.”

I quickly exited the kitchen and looked at some of the pictures in the living area. I saw a few pictures of Golden with Sharp Eye. They really did love each other with all their hearts. I levitated one of the pictures up to my face, and again muttered to myself, “This must’ve been such a hard loss for you, Golden…wait, what…?”

With a start, I noticed that the picture frame was far too bulky for its size; it wouldn’t need all that space just to fit a picture. I turned it over with my magic, and to my surprise, I found a tiny little latch right on the bottom of the frame.

A frown creased my face; I probably shouldn’t be looking into other ponies’ private belongings like this, especially with Golden’s family… but… something just didn’t feel right. It would only take a look, anyway. I pried the latch open easily, and the back of the frame lifted open on a hinge; it was a secret compartment!

And then I almost dropped the whole thing right there in horror. Right there, in the compartment of Golden’s picture frame, was a single, tiny amber vial with a broad white label.

Potassium Cyanide

No.

No, it couldn’t be. There was no way… this was the exact same kind of poison that killed Golden’s mother… what in Tartarus was it doing here? In her family's only living space? Was it part of some kind of experiment, or… did Golden really…?

I shook my head angrily. No. No, I could not accept that. Golden wasn’t the type. She was my friend. I’d known her since forever…

But did I really? What was all that with her cold ‘sleeper agent’ mode, before? What was it that she wasn’t telling me?

Why?

Just then, I heard an agonizing scream of pain come from the DMT room. I dropped the vial to the carpet, almost threw the frame back on the shelf, and ran over to the metal door. “Golden!” I yelled. “Are you okay in there?!”

All I heard coming from the room were muffled cries of, “My leg, my leg!”

Frantic, I started banging on the door and yelling, “Golden, open up! Let me in! Let me help you!”

I knew that nopony except for the Head of Maintenance was supposed to be in the DMT1 room, but this was an emergency. I heard Golden grunting a bit as she crawled over to the button on the other side of the door. Seconds later, it swung open with an audible hiss, and I saw Golden shaking like a leaf on the amber colored carpet floor.

I quickly rushed in. “What happened?” I asked her.

Her only response was, “Why am I here?! How did I get here?!” She frantically turned to me and said, “Seren, why am I in here?!”

“You ran all the way here from Security, told me to shut up because you needed to do this, and just went in here!” I told her.

“B-but I don’t remember doing any of that!” she whimpered, “W-why would I tell you to shut up? You’re one of my best friends!”

“I don’t know,” I replied, “but I think it has something to do with that sleeper agent message on your PipBuck. I need to dull the pain in that leg again. Do you have any healing potions or Med-X?”

She nodded, with tears in her eyes. “I-in one of the kitchen cupboards,” she said meekly..

With that, I quickly rushed to the cupboard, found the medical supplies, and brought them to her.

While administering the Med-X, I said to her, “The reason that your leg hurts so bad is because you ran all the way from Security to down here. That’s a long run.”

She nodded, and said, in pain, “I know…”

I tried to calm her and sit her down in the living area.

It was about 7:50PM when I finally got her to settle down. I asked her sternly, “Why don’t you tell me all you know about those files?”

She sighed. “Well, I don’t know all that much… all I know is that I picked them up from a strange radio signal around two weeks ago…” she continued, “They seemed strange as morse code, so I converted them to text…”

“And those were the files you ended up with?”

She nodded. She started pressing a few buttons on her PipBuck, before bringing it up to my face. “Here,” she said. “Read them…”

I assumed she’d removed the encryptions that Starlight couldn’t break when she looked at the PipBuck earlier. The file read:

We believe that Stable 64 is in possession of a very valuable document. We have codenamed this document ARG#0064, however its real name is the “Stable 64 Defense Plan,” which was written by one of the Stable’s previous Overmares.

We are very interested in seeing what this document has to offer, and we have a mission for you. Retrieve this document. With this file, you will receive three more files. A list of objectives for your mission, an address to bring the ARG#0064 to, and your sleeper agent activation code.

Get this document for us and we will guarantee you freedom from the living hell you know as the Stable.

~ Anonymous

“So they promised you freedom?” I asked as I finished reading.

She gave a weak nod, with tears starting to form in her eyes. “It seemed like an easy thing to do, but it ruined my life… I lost my mother, I don’t know how to do my new job as the Head of Stable Maintenance, and I almost lost you as a friend…”

I looked at her with a sad expression, before checking the fourth and final file that she received. It simply read:

Room 506, Tenpony Tower, Manehatten

That must be the address she was supposed to bring this to, I thought to myself. I asked her, “Do you know how far away Manehatten is from here?”

She said, “Not too far… about a few hours south on hoof, I think…”

I was surprised by the apparent fact that ponies were still living in Manehatten, as most ponies were killed when the balefire bombs fell many many years ago.

“Why did you want to leave the Stable, anyway?” I asked. “Aren’t you happy here?”

Golden looked off to the side and timidly said, “Well… I…” Suddenly, she scowled and firmly said, “N-no! No I’m not, and I’ll tell you why… it feels like this place is a prison sometimes…”

I could see where she was coming from. Life in the stable was pretty repetitive and boring. It was easy for ponies to begin feeling trapped in their own mundane lives. Even I felt it from time to time.

“I’ve had to live here like a rat in a cage… just running on a wheel… for almost all my life, Seren. I-I loved my mother, but… I never really had any chance to do anything else but Maintenance jobs. Everything was just… always the same. Fix a broken fuse here, reset a radio system there...” She pawed at the floor with her forehoof. “That’s why I wanted to leave… why I took that offer. I just can’t stay here anymore, Seren. I want… I want to grow up.”

I looked at her for the better part of a minute. Her eyes actually seemed different… there was something in them that I’d almost never seen before: resolve. Still… “You know that the Wasteland probably isn’t much better than here, though, right? You’ve… got nothing out there, except a contact you’ve never met in a city you’ve never been to.”

Golden nodded without missing a beat. “I know, I’ve thought about that. But even if this mess hadn’t started… I still wouldn’t want to stay here, Seren. I don’t want to keep running on that wheel… living in the shadow of other ponies day in and day out. I know it’s not going to be easy out there, but… at least there’s a chance. Everypony should have that chance, I think.”

“And nopony should have to go it alone,” I added with a soft smile. “I feel like I should go with you. I’m not sure what I could do, but I'm pretty sure we’ll have a better chance out there together. Between your technical skills and whatever I can dish out, I’ve got a good feeling about it.”

Golden let out a warm laugh. “Thanks, Seren… you always were my best friend.”

I couldn’t help but blush. We sat there in silence for almost a full minute, and I almost laughed at the sheer awkwardness of the situation, but I was eventually reminded that we still had a job to do. I broke the silence by asking, “This might be a weird question, but… can I see DMT1?”

“Nopony is supposed to see it,” she said with a sigh. “but I really have nothing to lose, so follow me, please.”

I went into the room with DMT1, following closely behind her. She walked over to the machine and timidly said, “H-here, let me show you how it works…”

She sat down and pulled up a huge list of all the terminals in the Stable. I looked at it and said, “Wow… that’s pretty cool…”

She gave a kind giggle and said, “You can see any file anypony ever wrote.”

Despite already knowing what it could do, I couldn’t help but be amazed. It was different actually seeing it with my own two eyes. It could’ve been a myth for all I knew.

Golden continued, “I was supposed to get the ARG file from the Overmare’s terminal, but this is what happens whenever I try to access it.” She scrolled down the list until she found the Overmare’s terminal number, and clicked on it. Immediately a notification appeared on the screen, saying:

“RESTRICTED ACCESS. YOU HAVE BEEN LOCKED OUT OF THIS TERMINAL.”

It really didn’t surprise me, seeing as it was the Overmare’s terminal, but it also made me wonder why the Overmare’s terminal was listed in the first place. If it couldn’t be accessed, why include it in the list?

“T-they expect me to hack it,” said Golden, “but I tried multiple times and always got this… I don’t even know if I can hack it…”

I thought to myself that the fact that she was locked out of the Overmare’s terminal pretty much removed all hope. Just then, an alarm in the Stable went off, with a voice over the Stable intercom saying:

“ATTENTION! BE ON THE LOOKOUT FOR TWO UNICORNS, SEREN STARFALL AND GOLDEN RIVERSONG! THEY ARE BOTH CHARGED WITH MURDER AND OTHER CRIMES, AND MAY BE ARMED AND DANGEROUS! IF YOU SEE EITHER OF THESE PONIES, APPREHEND THEM ON SIGHT! IF THEY RESIST, DEADLY FORCE IS AUTHORIZED! ALL MAIN OFFICES IN THE STABLE WILL BE ON LOCKDOWN! ANY PONIES SEEN OUTSIDE OF THEIR RESIDENCE WILL BE EITHER APPREHENDED OR SHOT ON SIGHT! SECURITY PERSONNEL ONLY! REPEAT! ANY PONIES SEEN OUTSIDE OF THEIR RESIDENCE WILL BE EITHER APPREHENDED OR SHOT ON SIGHT! SECURITY PERSONNEL ONLY! LOCKDOWN HAS BEEN INITIATED!”

With that, all the lights turned red and the door to Maintenance clamped shut. “B-but I never killed anypony!” cried Golden.

They’re probably charging you with the murder of your mother, I thought to myself.

Obviously this was Fairlaw’s doing. As Head of Security, she could initiate lockdowns with the Overmare’s permission. She could also ask all three shifts to work at once if need be.

Shit.

Golden cried and grabbed my legs. “What’re we gonna do, Seren?! I don’t wanna die!”

Deep down, I was just as sad as she was. On the outside, I was seething with rage. “I’ll tell you what we’re going to do. We’re gonna get out of here.” I looked down at her. “Do you have any weapons?”

She slowly let go of my hooves and stood up. “I… I do, but… Seren, you’re not really going to—”

“I will if I have to,” I interrupted. “It’s in self-defense.”

“I have a shotgun in the cabinet in my bedroom,” she said in a somber tone.

“Go get it,” I said, “I’ll stay here and keep watch for anyone coming.”

She nodded and closed the door to DMT1 and ran to the bedroom as I ran to the window, ducking down to keep myself hidden. I took a look around the once charming-looking Maintenance office, now bathed in an ominous blood-red light, and the strident-sounding sirens. It was as if I was in a completely different room than the one I was in fifteen minutes ago.

Out of curiosity, I looked at the clock on my PipBuck. It was 8:06PM. Apparently Fairlaw must’ve issued this lockdown directly after briefing C-shift. “Huh. Figures,” I muttered under my breath, still seething with rage against Fairlaw herself.

I then heard Golden yell, “Seren! You see anyone yet?”

“No, Golden!” I shouted back. “Just get the shotgun, all right?”

“O-okay!” she replied back.

She then came out of the bedroom a few moments later. “I’m sorry,” she whimpered, “I only have four extra shells…”

Six shots plus four meant that we only had ten shots. It wasn’t a lot, so I had to conserve my ammo. Even though it wasn’t much, I said to Golden, “Thank you, it’s good enough.”

She gave a weak smile.

I pointed at the door. “Can we get out of here?”

“You would think that, but, despite the fact that this is…” she paused for a moment and said with a sigh, “…my office… since this is a lockdown, I have to hack the door to get it to open.”

“Well, it seems like it’s our only option,” I said.

She gave a weak nod and started to work on the door. I kept watch at the window, keeping low with the shotgun in my hooves. Fortunately, it took her only about thirty seconds to open the door. I immediately darted through, with Golden trailing behind me.

We walked through the hall, with the sirens blaring and bathed in more ominous red-light. I hated this red light. It made things so unsettling. As we walked to the end of the hall, I heard the door at the top of the steps open. Realizing that it could be security checking Maintenance for us, I urged Golden to back away as I stayed closer to the door.

It was at this moment that I turned on my E.F.S on my PipBuck, the Eyes Forward Sparkle. It’s a function that allowed me to see who is hostile and who wasn’t within a certain radius. Most ponies in Stable 64 didn't even know of the function. The Stable had been peaceful for so long that over time security just stopped using it and forgot it was there. I’m not even sure if Fairlaw knew about it.

Upon turning it on, many green bars appeared, most of them in the direction of Residential and a few red bars. In fact, there were too many. There were so many bars that my EFS was all green and red. Realizing this was not going to be of any use to me I turned it off and just had to rely on my senses.

Just then, I heard a mare’s voice call out. “Is anyone in here?!”

I did my best not to reply, while Golden sat at the end of the hall with a blank expression on her face. I thought I recognized the voice, but my mind was moving too quickly to put a name to it. I was only ready to kill whatever was waiting for me and Golden behind that corner.

Before I could even as much as go into S.A.T.S., a shot rang out and I was immediately blasted with buckshot, sending me flying back about fifteen feet until I landed on the hard ground, making me fumble the shotgun from my hooves.

If I hadn’t been wearing my security barding it would have definitely killed me, but that shot did a number on my barding, punching a huge gaping hole in the chest area. I didn’t think I could take another hit like that.

Laying disoriented on my stomach, I slowly looked up and saw two ponies approaching wearing security barding, one of whom was levitating a shotgun smoking from the barrel. The shotgun pony came up to me and took off her helmet as the other one went towards Golden.

“What’s up, bitch?” the mare spat.

Quickshot. One of the best shots in the Stable. I should’ve known.

I couldn’t do much by just lying there on the ground, so I simply looked up at her in pure hatred and said, “F-fuck you, Quickshot…”

“Yeah, I get that a lot,” she said triumphantly as her horn glowed, forming a pair of hoofcuffs around my forelegs.

I was in too much pain to think about Golden but I figured her situation was pretty much the same as mine. The only difference was that she’s not nearly on the verge of death.

Just then I heard the other mare say, “Security, this is Glitter, the suspects have been apprehended. Awaiting further orders, over.”

I heard Fairlaw's voice over the speaker respond. “Ahh, good work. I knew I could count on you two. Bring them up to the Overmare’s office as soon as possible.”

“Roger that,” Glitter responded.

“Well then, that’s that,” Quickshot said. She then looked down at me, scowling. “Come on. Get up. I know you’re a pussy but this is ridiculous. I’ve seen fillies that are more resilient than you.” She then deftly kicked me in the stomach as she trotted towards Golden's direction, with me grunting out in pain.

Then as if from nowhere out of my blurred vision, I saw at the end of the hallway a pony completely covered from head to hooves in a rust-brown colored cloak, levitating some sort of revolver. It looked like she was aiming at me, so having nothing else to do I closed my eyes, thinking it was the end.

A shot rang out, followed by a thud. “Quickshot!” I heard Glitter scream. “Security! This is Glit—” Her call was interrupted by another gunshot. Judging from the fizz and the sound of metal cracking, I could only assume the mysterious pony had destroyed her radio. Then another gunshot. I then heard Glitter scrambling for a weapon. From what I heard, it sounded like she found a shotgun. She cocked it back, and started firing blast after blast at the mysterious pony. I closed my eyes and tried to ignore the fact that there was an intense gunfight happening right in front of me.

I heard two more shots from the revolver before hearing a flat thud besides me. I opened my eyes again only to see the cloaked pony at the end of the hallway putting her revolver away. “Both of you need to leave this place right now!” the mare shouted authoritatively. Before I could ask her any questions, I saw her run opposite of the direction to the stairs leading up to Residential, going deeper into Maintenance.

I probably wasn’t going to see her ever again.

After allowing myself a few more moments to think, I used my magic to get rid of the hoofcuffs attached to my forelegs and used two healing potions and a Med-X to get myself back on my hooves.

Now free to move and no longer in pain, I was finally able to see the scene that took place behind me. Two dead security mares, their lifeless bodies seeping blood all over the floor, and at the back right corner of the hallway, Golden, in hoofcuffs, was curled up into a ball, shaking in complete terror. I walked towards the scene, trembling a bit at the sight of the two dead ponies in front of me. It didn’t help that the hallway was still bathed in that same unsettling red light. The continuously blaring lockdown sirens didn’t help, either.

I looked at Quickshot, now completely lifeless. “The best shot in all of Stable 64.... killed by a single bullet to the back of the head.” I then looked over to the other security mare and I noticed the two bullets that shot her dead were in very small unprotected areas of the security barding. Upon seeing this, I was stunned, and thought to myself, how could she have known where those unprotected areas on the security barding are? Only security ponies know that! It couldn't have been luck or S.A.T.S. These particular unprotected areas were undetectable without prior knowledge of the security barding worn by the security ponies in Stable 64.

Despite me aching to know how she knew about those unprotected areas, I didn’t have time right now. Whoever she was, she was right. Golden and I had to leave this place right now. I quickly ran down to the hallway to where Golden was. I looked at her. I had never seen her so scared in my life, but we had no time to waste. I quickly dispelled her hoofcuffs and said to her in a firm voice, “Come on,

Golden, we need to get out of here!”

She didn't even seem to hear me, so I tried again.

“Golden... come on! We need to get out of here!”

She only continued to sob and curled up into a tighter trembling ball. It was then that I had finally lost my patience with her. I stomped my hoof and yelled, “GOLDEN RIVERSONG!”

She didn’t respond but she very slowly rose to her hooves, still shaking like a leaf and an uncontrollable sobbing mess.

“We need to get out of here before more of them come! Do you want to die or do you want to leave?!” I asked, still upset at her.

She finally managed to say, “I-I'm n-not cut out f-for this, S-Seren… M-maybe you should… g-go on with… without me…” She was barely able to speak at all, nearly choking on her own words. I looked at my completely broken friend and decided to do something I rarely do and lie.

“Golden,” I started in the most sincere voice I could muster, “look at the two dead security mares in front of you.” I paused for a moment to give her a chance to look over to them, which she did. I continued, “This is what life in Stable 64 has become… is this what you want? Or do you want whatever the outside has to offer?” I said this knowing that the outside could only be worse, but we needed to get out of here right away. I knew other security guards would be coming any minute.

“I… I-I want the out… outside,” she croaked.

“Then please wipe those tears and follow me,” I replied. “And I promise we will leave this awful place together.”

She did exactly as I asked and tried to snap herself out of it. I smiled and said, “That’s the Golden I know. Let’s go!”

Before I could start galloping down the hallway, I felt Golden put her hoof around me. I looked at her and said, “What?”

“Umm… can… can you please walk me past the… um… them? I-I just… I don’t have the stomach for this kind of thing yet…”

Realizing my own fear of walking up on the scene earlier, I softly said, “Sure. Just stay with me.”

As Golden and I walked back past the scene, I saw my shotgun laying next to Glitter's dead body and picked it up using my magic. Seeing it next to Glitter’s body made me worry. It was my shotgun she shot at the mystery pony with, and not with Quickshot’s like I had hoped.

As Golden and I reached the other end of the hallway, I looked at how much ammo was left in the shotgun.

“Oh shit. There are only two shots left,” I said under my breath. I couldn't see or find Quickshot’s gun for extra ammo, so I just decided to keep going. We had no time to go back and look, anyway. I then remembered that I had extra ammo.

Just then I saw Golden going up the stairs. “Golden, wait a minute! Let me reload!”

Golden turned around and looked at me with fear in her eyes.

“Trust me, I don’t like it any more than you do, but Security has orders to kill us and we need to take these precautions,” I said as I reloaded the shotgun.

Golden just stood silently as I approached her and went up to the door to Residential. “Please… whatever you do, stay behind me.”
With that, she nodded and we both walked through the door to Residential.

We got into Residential, with the hallways still red and sirens still blaring.

Residential was a big area and it was likely most security ponies were looking here for us. Though the hallways of Residential were bathed in this awful red light, the actual residential areas had their original lighting and were soundproofed so as to not disturb the residents.

As Golden and I got into Residential we immediately darted into the hallway on the right and turned left into another hallway. Just then I heard galloping and caught a quick glance of two security ponies heading down into Maintenance. Obviously the backup sent to check on Quickshot and Glitter.

I didn’t want to stay in one spot in the hallways for too long because of how exposed we were, so we had to keep moving. I motioned Golden to stay low as I slowly emerged from the corner and started walking down the hallway, with her trailing behind me.

The whole Stable was on lockdown, which meant all of the Residential living spaces were sealed shut. Knocking or banging on them won’t help because I doubt anypony would want to get involved, and plus it would only attract attention.

I wanted to get out of the hallways as quickly as possible, which left only one option. “Golden,” I whispered.

“H-huh?” said Golden, her voice a bit shaky.

“We’re going to make a stop at my residence to get out of the hallways and hide there for a bit. Just stay quiet and we’ll be fine, all right?”

“B-but, the lockdown…”

“I know,” I agreed, “but I just hope that my dad’s in there to let us in…” I could’ve used my keycard to get into any residence, but I left it in the Security office when I went running out after Golden.

“W-will he?”

“I don’t know,” I said, frowning. “But it’s our only way to wait this out a bit until it’s safe.”

“But… wouldn’t they check there first?”

“Yeah, but hopefully they would have checked there by now. They might check it again, so we can’t stay there for long.” I peeked around a corner leading into another hallway on the left. “If you have a better idea, then I’m all ears.”

“I… I don’t…” she said, her voice trailing off.

Hallway was clear. I turned my gaze to her to check on Golden, and saw her shriveling form. She was constantly looking all over the place, her mane and coat starting to get drenched in sweat. I turned to her and placed a hoof on her shoulder, which seemed to calm her down a bit. “Hey,” I said to her. “You’re doing fine. Just keep following me and you’ll be okay.”

She took a deep breath and let it out, and gave a brisk nod. “Okay…” Suddenly, I saw her eyes widen, and then she grabbed me and dragged me into the hallway left of us.

I grunted, trying to regain my balance. “Golden, what—”

She quickly covered my mouth with her hoof, and started to peek around the corner.

Cautiously, I decided to take a peek as well, and saw a couple of armed security ponies emerge from another hallway ahead on the left side. Then they stopped and started looking around. I quickly pulled Golden back into the corner, my heart now beating furiously. Both of us leaned against the wall, trying to control our breathing. I tuned and focused my ears to listen.

After a few moments that seemed like hours, I started to hear the sound of hooves clopping away. Slowly, I decided to take another peek around the corner. When the security ponies trotted down the end of the hallway and took a left, I briefly looked down the hallway in the opposite direction. With the hallway clear for the moment, I emerged from the corner and motioned for Golden to do the same.

Unfortunately, the patrol was on the same route to get to my residence, so we had no choice but to follow them. I didn’t want to risk any chance of encountering them head on.

We made our way down to the end of the hallway and took a peek around the corner. Sure enough, there was the door to my residence a bit down the hallway on the left side, but the patrol was still making their way down slowly. Painfully slowly. I briefly turned around and took a glance behind me. The hallway we were in was clear for the moment, but I knew that if a patrol emerged from one of the hallways from the side they’d be able to see us. Which could be any moment now.

I turned to Golden. “Watch my back. If you see a patrol coming, tell me.”

She nodded, and turned around and started watching down the hallway.

I continued peeking around the corner, still seeing the patrol casually making their way down.

“P-patrol coming,” I heard Golden whisper.

Crap! The patrol was still in the hallway, but we had no choice. I growled and pulled Golden alongside with me as we went around the corner and crouched down. I kept my eyes locked onto the patrol still ahead of us, feeling my heart start to thump faster. I even felt that I was starting to sweat.

Okay, you can do this, Seren. My residence is right there. Just stay low, and you’ll be just fine.

I cautiously crept up to the wide, rounded-rectangular window of my residence, and peered inside. Please be in here, please be in here, please…

I immediately lit up as I saw my father sitting on the couch in the living area. I tried flailing my hooves around to get his attention.
After a couple seconds he looked up, his eyes widening. He quickly got up and bolted to the door and opened it, and ushered me and Golden inside.

We rushed in and he quickly closed the door and turned to me, his face showing clear signs of panic. “Okay, what the hell is going on, Seren?! The first thing I hear over the intercom is you being wanted for murder, and before I knew it I was forced to stay in here with Security constantly on my ass about you! I want you to explain yourself, right now!”

I started to sob, and hugged him. “Dad, please! It wasn’t my fault! They tried to kill Golden for no good reason! I… I had to defend her!”

“No good reason?” He pointed at Golden, raising his voice. “Seren, isn’t she the one who poisoned her mother?! And yet you choose to defend her? Are you out of your mind?!”

I heard Golden start to whimper, finally pushing me past my breaking point. I slapped my father as hard as I could and screamed, “No! She didn't do that! Shut the fuck up!”

I didn’t realize what I had done until I saw my father stumble backwards, still stunned at what I did. “Dad, I’m so sorry!” I shouted, helping him up. I hugged him and burrowed my head into his chest, sobbing. “I… I didn’t mean to do that! It was just you were shouting and then I—”

“It’s… it’s fine, Seren,” my father said hastily, rubbing my back for comfort. “I was just… so worried about you…” I looked up at his wistful face with tears still in my eyes. “Look, Seren, I know that you can’t stay here for long, but I need answers.” He then took a glance at Golden. “And maybe some proper introductions are in order.”

I nodded and let go of the hug, wiping the tears from my eyes. He walked back to the chair he was sitting on. I turned to Golden and said, “Golden, this is my father. His name is Oculus.”

Golden looked up, still a bit hurt from earlier. “Well,” she softly said, “he certainly looks like you…”

Well, maybe a little. We had the same shade of gray for our coat color but that was about it. My father wasn’t even a unicorn; he was an earth pony. He also had dull blue eyes and a white mane and tail.

“Well... I love you, Seren.” I heard my father say shakily from the chair.

I was confused at the sudden remark. “Um… I love you too, Dad, but what does that have to do with anything?”

“Security has orders to kill you,” he replied in a very sad voice. “They told me upfront… They’ve checked here multiple times already, threatening to even arrest me just because I’m your father. I managed to stop their pestering by convincing them that I would turn you in if you came here.”

A sudden chill ran up my spine. “D-dad… you wouldn't actually do that, w-would you?”

“If I was, I would’ve done it already,” he replied. I sighed in relief, but then he continued. “It really wouldn’t matter anyway. You’re going to die either way, so I guess I'll leave it up to you. If you want me to turn you in, I’ll… do it.” He shook his head, his eyes shut to keep the tears from falling. “This is just too much for me… I… I don’t want to lose you Seren… you are all I have left… what will I do if you die?”

He then got up and walked over to a table across the room and picked up a framed picture. As he lifted it up, I recognized it immediately. It was a picture of my mother smiling with her foreleg wrapped around me. I was only a filly then, but I knew that was the last picture we took before she died.

He held the picture in his hooves, wistfully staring into it. “Do you remember your mother, Seren? Do you remember Cosmosia?”

I quietly replied, “Vaguely.”

He continued, slowly shaking his head, his voice trembling. “Oh, she would have been so proud of you... she would have loved to see the fine mare you grew to be...” He let out a sigh. “I’m not sure how she would feel about this.” He then put the picture back on the table and gently laid it face down.

I wanted to ask him more about her, but… “Dad. That actually brings me to why I'm here. Golden and I don't plan on dying.”
My father turned around and looked at me in complete disbelief. “You… plan to kill all the other twenty-nine Security ponies in the stable?”

“No,” I said. “I'm planning to leave the stable with Golden.”

He froze, before muttering, “Are… are you insane!? Nopony ever leaves the stable!”

I shot him a glare, letting him know I was dead serious.

His ears drooped down as he said, “Holy shit, you are really planning to do it…” He then tried to talk me out of it. “Seren, honey, please! Do you know how awful the wasteland is?!”

I quickly shot back. “You know I know you are just as clueless as I am.” I softened my expression. “I'm sorry, Dad… it’s our only option.”

He hung his head and muttered, “I can't... I can’t even…” He then walked to the kitchen area and came back to the chair carrying a large bottle of whiskey in his mouth. He put it on the table, sat down, and took a sip.

At that point I looked through the window and saw that Security was passing by the residence again. “Shit! Golden, get to the bedroom, quick!”

We both bolted to the bedroom. My heart stopped when I heard a knock at the door. Golden became instantly stricken with terror. “Seren, you don't th—”

“I don’t know!” I hissed. “Just be quiet…”

I heard Oculus say, “I'm coming.” He opened the door and we were able to hear the conversation, and to make matters worse, I heard a voice I never thought I would hear.

“Good evening, Oculus. A bit early to be hitting the booze, isn't it?”

Even Oculus seemed surprised that she appeared. “Wha… Fairlaw? What are you doing here?”

“Oh you know, just checking up… making sure you aren’t hiding anyone from me.” Golden and I both started to shake uncontrollably. If Fairlaw ordered another search, we would most definitely be found. I sat there and prayed to Celestia that would not happen.

“Look Fairlaw,” I heard my father say. “Your goons have already turned this place over twice, and—”

He was interrupted by the sound of a revolver cocking. I heard Fairlaw shout, “My WHATS!?”

My father stuttered and said, “Um, y-your Security team, I mean!”

She hmph’ed in response. “That’s better. You will treat Security with respect. Anyway, I think another search of your residence is in order.”

“Oh for fuck’s sake,” my father said, “it’s been twenty minutes!”

“Yeah, and?”

“Do you honestly think anything has changed?”

Just then I heard a new voice. A mare. “Umm, Miss Fairlaw, with all due respect, twenty minutes is a pretty short time interval between searches…”

Oculus continued. “And besides, I even told Security that if I saw them I would turn them in.”

“Did he say that?” asked Fairlaw. “I can’t remember.”

The mare’s voice replied again. “He did, Miss Fairlaw.”

“Well,” said Fairlaw. “This is your daughter we’re talking about here, and frankly I don’t think you would have the guts to report her. I think you're lying.”

My father scoffed. “Bitch, I don’t even—”

BANG!

The sound of glass shattering echoed through the bedroom door. My heart skipped a beat, but I could easily guess what it was she’d shot.

“Don’t you ever call me that again,” growled Fairlaw.

My father didn’t seem fazed from the shot. “Well, thanks. That was my last whiskey,” he droned.

“Yeah, well, tough shit,” she snapped back.

“Look,” said my father, “Point is, I don’t care about Seren anymore. As a matter of fact, you see that picture over there?”

“Yeah, what of it?” asked Fairlaw.

“That’s a picture of Seren and her mother. The reason why it's face down is because I don’t care about her anymore. I already lost my wife, and now the same’s going to happen to my daughter. The fucking stable can take everything I have at this point and I wouldn’t care, so I swear to Celestia and Luna that if I see them I will turn them in. Okay?”

For a brief moment it went quiet. All I could hear in the background were the lockdown sirens. Then Fairlaw broke the silence by saying, “Fine. I will send two ponies here in a half-hour for another search. And Oculus, let me tell you something.” Her voice suddenly grew dark. “My revolver has one bullet left, and if I find out you were lying, I will personally see that it ends up in the back of your head, and I will make Seren watch. Got it?”

Oculus quietly replied, “Yes, I understand.”

I heard her holster her revolver. “Good.” Then I heard her trot out into the hallways, shouting, “Everyone, back to your routes!” With that, the door clamped shut.

Golden and I were still in a state of complete shock and terror. Oculus stumbled into the room and threw himself on the bed. “Fuck it, what’s the point anymore?” he groaned.

“Dad?” I timidly asked. “Where were you all day?”

He sighed and said, “I really didn’t want to tell you until it was ready, but down in maintenance, I discovered a small sealed-off part of the stable. Not even the Overmare knows about it. It’s pretty spacious and could make a decent shelter, so I started fortifying it. I was planning on sleeping there tonight and being back by the time you woke up tomorrow morning, but I came back here because I thought it would be suspicious if the father of one of the ponies wanted for murder just so happened to be missing.”

“Why?” I quietly asked.

“If Stable 64 ever comes under attack, I’ll be able to get ponies in there and potentially save hundreds of lives.” He got out of the bed stood up and said, “Would you like me to mark its location on your PipBuck?”

I thought for a moment, and quietly replied, “I’m not sure how it would help me in any way, but I guess it couldn’t hurt.”

I stuck out my foreleg as he walked over, brought up my map, and marked the location. I looked at the map and saw the location, and nodded. “Okay, thank you.”

He nodded back, and firmly said, “Right. We need to get you out of here.” He then walked over to a floor safe in the corner of the room, opened it and gave me a large hunting knife. “If you find any security ponies anywhere else in Residential, sneak up behind them and stab them in the back.” He then gave me a round metal device I have never seen before.

“Uhh, dad? What’s this?" I asked.

“That is a Stealth-Buck,” he replied. “It lets you turn invisible for a healthy amount of time, and they are very rare. Only use it if you absolutely need to.”

I put it away, smiled, and croaked, “Thank you, dad.”

He looked at me and said with a trembling voice, “Well… I guess that’s it then…”

I started to get misty-eyed as I walked over to him and gave him one last hug. At that moment, we both broke into tears. My father said, “No matter what happens, you will always be in my thoughts. Please stay safe, honey…”

“I love you, dad,” I whispered to him with tears in my eyes.

With that, we finally let go of each other. He looked over to Golden, who was also trying as hard as she could not to cry. “I’m sorry that all of this happened to you, Golden,” he said. She glanced up at him as he continued. “I know you didn’t do anything wrong, and don’t worry, Seren will protect you with her life.”

I gave a brisk nod in agreement.

“T-thank you,” said Golden.

“Well, you both better leave, Security will be back here soon,” he said.

We both ran into the living space and looked out the window. After seeing no patrols, we exited the residence and swiftly made our way further down the hallway.

After a few minutes of sneaking that felt like hours, we finally made it to the last hallway in Residential. Golden and I were both still high on adrenaline, and fortunately I didn’t have to use the hunting knife even once.

I took a peek around the corner, and saw a security pony patrolling the entire hallway. At the other end of the hallway to the right, I saw the staircase that led up to the atrium. Unfortunately, the security pony was pacing up and down the hallway, making it impossible for us to get by her without getting caught. I didn’t want to use the Stealth-Buck because I felt like it wasn’t worth it just to kill one pony. I didn’t want to use the hunting knife either, but… the way she was patrolling gave us no choice.

I then saw her turn around and start walking in our direction. I pulled back from the corner and brought the knife to my face. As I heard her hoofsteps come closer, I became more anxious as my heart started beating faster. I knew that there was no way for me or Golden to hide from her. No matter what we did, she would see us, so I would have to kill her quickly by aiming for her neck.

…oh Celestia, I’m actually thinking about how to kill her…

As she approached the corner, I jumped in front of her. I heard her gasp right before I plunged the knife deep inside her neck. After stabbing her, I motioned Golden to follow me. We said nothing as she bled out while we ran up the stairs leading to the atrium floor.

We finally got to the main atrium floor. The lockdown alarms could still be heard and the hallways were still lit in that awful shade of red. Coming up into this floor, I knew killing Security would be unavoidable here and I cringed at the thought of having to having to kill more innocent ponies.

The moment we got to the top of the stairs, a security pony saw us and screamed, “HEY! Stop right there!” She started galloping towards us with her pistol drawn. We quickly darted to the left into a hallway, and before we knew it we were at a dead end. Having no other choice, I pulled out my shotgun and readied it. “Stay behind me, Golden,” I said sharply.

Then I saw the security pony round the corner, and saw me levitating the shotgun, stopping her dead in her tracks. I pointed the shotgun at her head and coldly said, “Take as much as one shot at us and I will blow your head clean off.”

It was at that point that the security pony took off her helmet. When I saw who it was, my heart sank. I took a few steps back as I stuttered, “A-Arcanea?!”

She glared at me icily and said, “What was that about blowing my head off?”

My magical grip on the shotgun started to falter. “D-don’t make me do it, Arcanea, ‘cause… I will if you shoot!”

At that moment, I was expecting her to just shoot us right then and there, but then I saw her soften her expression. “I’m supposed to kill you on sight,” she said.

I looked into her eyes, now visible with sadness. “Wait… are you...?”

She glared at me again, before letting out a deep sigh, holstering her pistol. “I can’t… I’ve never had to kill a pony before, let alone a friend…”

I was relieved to finally meet a pony that didn’t want to blast me in the face. I lowered my shotgun and said, “Arcanea, can you please help me and Golden get out of here?”

She tilted her head. “Well, if you’re planning on leaving the stable, the only way you can do that is through the Overmare’s office since Security barricaded the hallway leading to the door.”

“I know,” I said, “and that’s where we’re going, but I need you to help clear out the atrium first. I… I don’t want to have to kill any more ponies…”

She thought for a moment and said, “How about you and I shoot each other?”

“W-what?!” I exclaimed. “Arcanea, I’m not going to shoot you!”

She raised a hoof, stopping me as she continued. “You hit me and hide in that utility closet there.” She pointed at a sealed door to my right. “When they come to check on me, I’ll tell them that you ran back into Residential, and when they all go down there, you two can make a break for it. It won’t be long, but it should be enough time for you two to get inside her office.”

I still didn’t want to shoot her, but as far as plans go I didn’t have any, so I nodded and said, “Okay, let’s do it.”

“Alright,” she said. She then walked over to the utility closet and unlocked the door with her key card. She went back and when we were in position, we aimed at each other. “Non-lethal,” she said. I nodded, and with that, we both shot. I was able to hit her in the leg, and as soon as she fell both Golden and I darted into the utility closet.

The closet itself was very cramped and there was barely enough room to fit two ponies. Almost instantly, I heard the sound of hoofsteps approaching, and then I heard a muffled female voice shout, “Arcanea! What happened?!”

I cringed as I heard Arcanea grunting in pain, before she muttered, “Th-they shot me and… w-went down to Residential…”
“Right,” the female voice said. “Let’s go!”

Then I heard another female voice say, “Hey guys, I’m going to look after Arcanea!”

I recognized the voice right away. It was Liaison, who was a very kind pony from A-shift, and was Arcanea's best friend.
But she was also Fairlaw's daughter.

I knew she didn’t have any problems with me normally, but I highly doubted she would let us go, especially seeing how seemingly determined she was to walk in her mother’s hoofsteps because by tradition if something were to happen to Fairlaw, her daughter would take her place. Everypony in Security knew that she was too timid and kind for a Head Security position, or even Security in general. The only reason she was in Security besides tradition was to make Fairlaw proud of her. She also acted tougher and more courageous than she actually was for the same reason.

I then heard Arcanea say, “N-no, Liaison! I’m fine! Just go down and search Residential with the others. I can take care of myself!”
“No, you need medical attention! Just hang tight, I’ll get you some healing potions!”

After hearing her gallop away, I heard two knocks on the door. I quickly opened it and we both emerged from the closet. I looked down to my left and saw Arcanea sitting against the wall, the wound on her leg still bleeding.

“Here, drink this,” I said, bringing out my last two healing potions. I brought the potion to her mouth and tipped it, getting her to drink it. After the second potion, the wound slowly closed up and the bleeding stopped. She let out a relieved sigh and said, “Thanks.”

At that moment, I hugged her and said, “Thanks for everything, Arcanea…”

She slowly returned the hug and said, “Well, that’s what friends are for, right?”

I finally let go and stared at her, probably for the last time. “I’m going to miss you, and dad, and everyone…”

She smiled. “I’m gonna miss you, too.” She then glanced at Golden, then to me. “You both take care now, alright?”

I nodded, and with that, we both said our goodbyes and walked down the hall towards the atrium.

Upon entering, I saw Liaison coming down from one of the staircases levitating a couple of healing potions. When she saw us, she yelped, and started drawing her pistol. I quickly drew my shotgun, causing her to flinch. “I don’t want to hurt you, Liaison!” I shouted. “Just let me and Golden through!”

I could already see the fear in her eyes, but she held her ground and kept her pistol aimed at us. “I… I can’t do that, Seren! Orders are orders!”

I cautiously took a step forward. “Look, Liaison, you don’t have to do this. Fairlaw—”

“Stop! D-don’t take another step!” she shouted.

I stopped. Then, carefully, I said, “Just… lower your gun and let us through, then I won’t have to hurt you, or Fairlaw.”

She scowled and started approaching us, making us back away. “Y-you… you killed innocent ponies, and now you tried to kill Arcanea, my friend!”

I firmly kept my shotgun aimed at her, but it didn’t seem to deter her at all. “L-look,” I stammered, “I can explain, just—”

“No!” she shouted. “I’m- I’m not scared of you Seren! I’m gonna make my mother proud and I’ll do it by killing you!”

She fired two shots at us, forcing us to run back down the hall, this time towards the cafeteria.

Upon entering through the back door, I saw Liaison appear at the front door pointing her pistol at us. “I’m not an idiot, Seren!” she shouted. “I know this stable like the back of my hoof! You will not escape me!”

“Liaison, I don’t want to have to kill you!” I shouted back. “Just let us go!”

“NO!” she screamed. “I’m not sure if you know this yet, Seren, but I’m going to become the Head of Security someday, and I need to set a good example!” She fired another shot at us again, causing me and Golden to duck behind the nearest table.

“Fine,” I muttered. “Have it your way.” I got up from the table and fired two shots at her, one of them hitting her and causing her to flinch. While she was distracted, I ran towards her with my baton and smacked her in the head as hard as I could, causing her to tumble to the side and fall down onto the ground. She looked up at me with panic in her eyes and tried to get up, but I smacked her again this time on the back, pushing her back down.

At that point, her whole body was trembling. “P-please, I’m s-sorry! I-I’ll let you go, just please don’t kill me!”

I looked down at her and glared. “Begging for mercy, huh? You didn't seem to want to show me any a second ago.”

She looked off to the side and said, “I-it’s my job, Seren. Just… let me go and I promise I won’t tell anypony I saw you here!”

I sighed and said, “I'm sorry, Liaison, but... I can't take that chance.” With one more swing of the baton, I knocked her out cold. Golden gasped at the sight, but I ignored it and said, “Give me the shotgun, Golden! We need to get out of here before Security comes back!”

As Golden walked over to me while levitating the shotgun, she asked, “You didn’t—” she gulped, “—kill her… did you, Seren?”
I looked down at her in sadness and said, “No. She’s still breathing.”

Golden let out a sigh of relief. I grabbed the shotgun with my own magic and cocked it back, and with that, we both got up and made our way out of the cafeteria. We then went up the stairs that led up to the Overmare’s office, grabbing the two healing potions that Liaison left behind.

We made it to the door to the Overmare's living space. Much to my surprise, it was unprotected. Golden quickly went to work to hacking the door. She then let out a grunt and said, “this one may take a while…”

I instantly became worried as I knew Security would come back up any minute, see Liaison's unconscious body and immediately rush up to inform Fairlaw of her daughter’s injuries. I couldn’t use the Stealth-Buck because one of us would still be caught. I started to sweat bullets. I could see that Golden was just as worried, trying as hard as she could to hack the door as quickly as she could.

Finally, after a couple minutes, the door slid open. “I… I can’t believe I did that so fast,” she said in amazement.

“Me neither, Golden, but come on. We gotta get in there before Security gets back!” I said.

At that moment, I heard a voice from the atrium shout, “Everypony, back to your stations!” Wasting no time, we got through the door before it snapped shut behind us. Golden fiddled with the door a bit, before saying, “I made it so that the door can’t be opened from outside, so nopony will be able to follow us.”

Suddenly, out of the Overmare's office walked a scowling Fairlaw, levitating her revolver and pointing it at us.

I pointed my shotgun at her. She just stood there unnerved, glaring at us, not saying a word, so I decided to break the silence and said, “Good evening… Miss Fairlaw.”

Her brow furrowed even more, intensifying her glare.

“Look, Fairlaw,” I said, “Do you think I wanted all of this to happen? Because I really didn’t. I refuse to let Golden die just because of a suspicious file and with no evidence to prove she committed any sort of crime. I didn’t want to kill anypony…” I paused, with tears starting to form in my eyes.

Fairlaw just stared at us with pure resentment in her eyes. I spoke again and said, “Fairlaw, please… the very last thing I want to do is hurt you, but I will if I have to. Please just let me and Golden leave…”

“And give me one good reason to do that,” she finally said through gritted teeth.

I gulped and meekly replied, “Nopony else will have to die…”

“Oh, like that really fucking matters to you,” she retorted. “If it did, you wouldn’t have killed any of my security ponies to get up here. Give it a rest, you bitch!”

Just then we heard a voice on Fairlaw’s radio. “Fairlaw, are you there?” asked a muffled voice. “We have very serious news! Your daughter was found unconscious in the cafeteria!”

A chill ran down my spine when I saw her eyes widen in shock. The pony continued. “she’s still alive but she’s knocked out and there is a bruise on her back! We also found a security baton not too far from the body! We think Seren did it! We haven’t found her yet, but we’ll keep a lookout for her!”

“T-thank you. Proceed with first aid Protocol,” she said shakily.

Fairlaw stood there for a few moments. “Y-you hurt Liaison…” she managed to stutter, before letting out a loud cry in rage. “That’s it! I'm fucking done with you two! Nopony EVER hurts my daughter! Now you die! You first, spy cunt!” She then pointed the revolver at Golden and fired, hitting her in the chest, causing her to stumble back and fall onto the ground. She then pointed her revolver at me, and I flinched as she cocked it back.

Click.

Fairlaw let loose a particularly vile oath. It looked like her revolver actually lived up to its name. In lieu of a bullet, Fairlaw simply threw the gun at my still-blinking eyes. I reacted faster, however, and simply ducked low to avoid the improvised projectile as I whipped my shotgun up to chest level.

Suddenly, I saw Fairlaw charging straight at me with her taser drawn. Not wasting a second, I slipped into the cold trance of S.A.T.S.

Ninety-five percent at point blank.

BLAM! BLAM!

Two blasts of buckshot rocketed straight into Fairlaw’s face. Her body fell to the ground with a thud, ending her reign of “justice.”

It was only then I noticed Golden behind me, who was lying on the floor in a growing pool of blood, choking as she was barely hanging on to life. “Golden!” I quickly ran to her and brought my hooves to hold her head up, trying to comfort her. “Golden, please don’t die… please, stay with me!” I hastily brought one of Liaison’s healing potions to her mouth, urging her to drink it. “I’m not gonna let you die! Drink this, quick!”

I poured the contents of the potion into her mouth, slowly closing up the wound in her chest. I urged her to drink the last two healing potions to heal it, and with that, the bleeding stopped as the skin quickly sewed itself back together. She stopped choking as her breathing normalized, allowing her to shakily get back up on her hooves.

I was exhausted and could have used one for myself, but Golden's survival was more important to me and I was going to make sure she left the stable, even if I died trying to make it happen. Golden stood up and said to me with tears in her eyes, “T-thank you…”

She hugged me tightly, and I returned the hug as I smiled back. “You’re welcome…” I let go of the hug and said, “Now come on, Golden. Let’s confront the Overmare and get out of here.”

She gave a confident nod, and with that, we both walked into the Overmare’s office.

When we arrived, the Overmare was seated at her round desk, with a pistol visible on the top. “Hello, my little ponies!” she gleefully greeted us, making me cringe. “What can your Overmare do for you this evening?”

We both just glared at her, not saying a word. She continued and said, “My, my… you two look awful! How about you both take a nap in the guest room? Or perhaps I could get you some tea?!”

The fact that the Overmare was being so nonchalant about this made it obvious that she was playing her mind games on us. I wasn’t falling for it, so I said, “You know why we’re here, Overmare. Just give us the Stable 64 Defense Plan and we’ll leave quietly.”

Suddenly, the Overmare’s voice became very cold. “Oh, is that all you want? Do you really expect me to just simply give you the stable’s most valuable document and let you leave? Just like that?” She stood up from her chair, slamming her hooves down on the desk. “Let me ask you something, Seren. Why do you choose to help her?”

I took a bold step forward as I shouted, “Because she’s my friend and she doesn’t deserve to die!”

A knowing smirk creased the Overmare’s features. “Oh? She doesn’t deserve to die? What about the other ponies that you’ve killed to get up here, huh? Did they deserve to die?”

I tried to respond, but nothing came out of my mouth; I was at a loss for words. As much as I hated to admit it, she was right. Those ponies didn’t deserve to die… they were just doing their jobs. I hung my head in shame and became lost in thought, causing me to drop the shotgun I was levitating to the floor.

The Overmare noticed this, and smugly said, “Yeah, that’s what I thought. You know what you did was abhorrent, and now you realize your mistakes.”

My train of thought was just a jumbled mess. Throughout my entire life I always tried to do the right thing. I only wanted to help Golden leave the stable because she doesn’t deserve to die and because she’s my friend, but I never wanted to kill anypony.

But I did. And I did it four times.

I was a murderer…

I started to tear up, when all of a sudden I heard Golden say, “Maybe none of this would have happened if you weren't so fixated on having me killed, with no proof I did anything wrong. If you just gave me a chance to explain to yo—”

“Be quiet, you cunt!” the Overmare shouted, cutting Golden off. “And don’t get me started on you, traitorous little bitch! You are the catalyst for ALL OF THIS! I know that you’re a spy, here to sabotage the stable! MY STABLE! And you think your little ‘sleeper agent’ message wasn’t obvious enough?! If you think you’re going to get out of my stable alive, then I will personally shove this pistol up your plot and fire upwards and—”

BLAM!

The Overmare fell onto the ground. She yelled in pain and clutched her right foreleg, which was now seeping with blood. I turned to my left and saw Golden levitating my shotgun with her magic, the barrel still smoking. Then I heard her mutter through gritted teeth, “Shut. Up.” As she dropped the shotgun to the floor.

“Golden, what did you—”

Before I could finish asking the question, I saw her run to the Overmare’s terminal and said, “Seren, hold her down!”

I glanced at the struggling Overmare, who was trying to get up and muttering obscenities towards us. I went over to her and pressed a hoof against her torso to pin her to the floor. Golden then asked her, “What’s the password to your terminal?”

The Overmare responded, “Give me one reason that I should tell you, you treacherous cunt!”

Golden glanced at me and tilted her head towards the shotgun, and said, “Seren.”

I picked up on her hint. I took hold of the shotgun with my magic again and levitated it towards the Overmare’s head, and pushed it against her skull.

The Overmare let out a loud, agonized growl, followed by a hopeless sigh and said, “The password is… ‘tranquility’.”
Golden entered the password into the terminal, and immediately went to work. After a few moments of typing, she turned to me and asked, “Do you know where I can get a download cable?”

I looked down and glared at the Overmare. She wilted under my gaze and said with resignation, “In the guest room… in one of the drawers…”

Golden trotted away from the terminal and into the guest room. I heard her rummaging through lockers and drawers, until she finally came back levitating a cable. Without wasting any time, she went back to the terminal, connected it to her PipBuck, and started downloading a file, which I assumed was the defense plan. After a bit more typing into the keyboard, she turned around and the Overmare’s desk began to rise a few feet, revealing a set of stairs leading down to an underground passage.

Then I heard the Overmare mutter below me, “There, you won. Happy?” I glanced down to her as she continued. “Can you please let me up and just leave my Stable?”

Golden nodded. “Yeah. Let’s go, Seren.”

I got off of the Overmare. I struggled a bit to regain my balance before following Golden down into the passage.

After a bit of walking down the passageway, we emerged and found ourselves in a small enclosed area within the stable’s entrance room. The area we were in had a set of terminals and other mechanisms lined up against the wall. A large, rectangular window with curved edges was carved into the wall, revealing the rest of the stable’s entrance room. To the far right, there was a closed door with a sign above it saying, “DANGER: ACTIVE TURRETS INSIDE, ENTER AT YOUR OWN RISK.”

Golden sat down and examined her PipBuck, then asked me, “Hey Seren, would you like to see the defense plan?”

I nodded and walked over to her as she stretched out her hoof, revealing the file on the PipBuck to me. Before I read it I said, “Let’s see what we risked life and limb for…”

The Stable 64 Defense Plan

In the event of an attack, the security team will mobilize to the [DATA CORRUPTED - FILE CANNOT BE READ] through the Stable’s emergency service tunnel located in the room with DMT1.

Turret Deactivation Code
F0E220112PHOS

Turret Activation Code
120316OSF0E0H

Emergency Service Tunnel Code (enter into DMT1)
101424HEF0EOS

Stable Door Override Code
F0EOC122511

Stable Door Room Lockdown Code
FSAJRRDTSPPS_42X310//

“So Golden, what do you make out of these?” I asked her.

“Well, I have to enter the first code in the terminal or else the turrets will kill us,” she responded. She then got up and walked over to the terminal.

I didn’t think Golden was in that weird trance state again, but something was off about her. Being curious, I asked, “Golden, are you… okay? You don’t seem like yourself.”

She let out a deep sigh and slowly turned to me. She timidly said, “I… it’s just… after all the times that you’ve helped me and stood up for me, I felt that… I should start doing the same…”

I approached her and laid a hoof on her shoulder. “Hey. We wouldn’t have gotten here if we weren’t in this together.” I gave a soft smile to her. “Even in Residential, you were willing to pull through it all. Heck, if you weren’t watching my back, things probably would’ve ended very differently.”

She gave a soft smile in response.

I tried to further lighten up the mood by saying, “Hey. At least you didn’t faint on me while we were going through Residential.”

She chuckled lightly and softly said, “Yeah… I guess so… Let me put these codes in, and then we can finally leave this place.” She then turned back to the terminal and typed in a few words on the keyboard. After a keystroke, I saw the turrets in the entrance room stop moving, and the light of the sign over the door flickered out.

“Now for the door,” muttered Golden.

I approached the window to see what was going to happen. Just then I heard the alarms go off in the room as the various mechanisms of the door began sliding into place. Then I heard a hiss of steam, followed by the sound of scraping metal as I saw the giant gear-like plate slowly being pulled inwards. When the scraping stopped, the door slowly rolled off to the side, revealing only complete darkness and… dirt?

We walked out into the entrance room. Golden stared out into the darkness with fear in her eyes. I said to her, “This is it. We made it.”

“Y-yeah, we sure did,” said Golden, obviously trying to hold back her fear.

We both slowly walked to the open door. It was at this point that I decided to turn on the flashlight on my PipBuck, with Golden doing the same. I took in one more deep breath, before letting it out and said, “Okay… here we go.”

With that, we went through the stable entrance and started walking down the cave. For the first time ever I had walked on a surface that wasn’t metallic or carpet. The feeling of dirt under my hooves felt very strange, almost as if I was sinking into it. I tried not to pay it much mind, and trotted on, further into the darkness.

At that moment, I noticed that I wasn’t hearing another set of hoofsteps behind me, so I stopped and turned around to check on Golden. “Hey, Golden?” I called out to her.

She just stood there, looking back at the stable entrance, the lights of the stable being the only source of illumination in this dark… cave. I knew she was hesitant on leaving, and honestly I couldn’t blame her. The stable was the only home we had, and the only place that we knew and were familiar with.

I trotted back to her and said, “Golden? You coming?”

She shook her head to snap herself out of her thoughts. “Yeah, sorry, I was just… taking one look back…”

Suddenly, there was the hiss of steam and the sound of moving metal, and moments later the door sluggishly rolled back to its original position. With a loud scraping sound, it finally sealed shut, plunging us into darkness, our PipBuck lights being the only source of illumination.

I looked on and said, “Well, no turning back now.” I glanced at Golden, her eyes still fixated on the door. I tapped her on the shoulder. She looked at me, which then I said, “We better get going.”

She weakly nodded, and with that, we both continued walking into the darkness, not knowing on what lies ahead of us.

After a few minutes of walking through the cave, in the distance I noticed a faint glow, perhaps an opening of some kind. I motioned Golden to follow me, and we both ran towards it.

Before we knew it, right before our eyes, we had reached the Equestrian Wasteland.

Footnote: Level Up
New Perk: Security Mode - Maybe some of the skills you learned as a security mare can be of use to you in the Wasteland. Your Melee Weapons and Sneak skills are increased by 5.

Author's Note

Oh my goodness, if this chapter wasn't a doozie and a half. Here is chapter 2, and if you have read this far, then congratulations, you get a platinum star!

No, but in all seriousness, I hope this second chapter was worth your time, a LOT of work went into it. Between the first 2 chapters, this took 5 months to write, and I really hope people are happy with this finished product. Chapter 3 is being worked on and it will come out as soon as I deem it ready. As of writing this, it's not even close. Of course, I couldn't have done this without the help of some very ~~Unfortunate~~ people who worked on this with me to make the story the best it could be.

Special Thanks to:
KitRifty and Setokaiva for getting this project off the ground
0__0 and PersonalGamer for their tireless edits
and themusicdude3 on deviantart for the titlecard

Also special Thanks to Kkat for writing the original Fallout: Equestria