*zzzzzzz* Hello*zzzzzzzzz*
*zzzzz*hello! is th-*zzzzzzzz*
*zzzzzzz* one sec, just*zzzzzz* gotta tune th-*zzzzzzz*
*zzz*ah...I think...yes! There we go. You should be able to hear me. Now, there should only be three reasons as to why you are listening to this holotape. One: you are just a random pony who accidently found this and has no idea who I am. If this is the case, then you need to put this back in the box and put the whole thing back where you found it. Then you need to go far away from here, leaving no evidence that could be linked back to you. Trust me, it's for your own safety. Two: you are a member of the team of ponies that are currently hunting me down and you want to kill me. If this is the case then I am most probably screwed. Because of this, I am begging you to reconsider your mission. Please, you don't have to do this! There is another way, and if you just put this holotape back where you found it and leave, then I can save all of us. Please trust me on this. Three: you are the pony from the place that is labelled on the top of the box that this was in. If this is you, then the other things that I have left for you should come in handy for what you are going to need to do. But before any of that, I need you to go and find a secluded spot. A place where no-pony will find you. Then you need to listen to the second holotape that is in the box. When you hear what is on it, then you will no what to do. Right, that's it. I have to go now. They will find me soon. Remember, the second tape will tell you every thing that you need to know. Have you got all of that? It is very importa- crap! They're here! I've gotta go. Good luck, you're gonna need it.
Scarlet Shift, Over and out!
*zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz* RECORDING ONE IS OVER. PLEASE INSERT HOLOTAPE 2 *zzzzzzzzzzzzzz*
*zzzzzzzzzzzzzzz* HOLOTAPE 2 IS NOW PLAYING *zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz*
As the rusty hunk of metal (that could barely be qualified as a train) raced along the derelict rails, I looked around at the other ponies that accompanied me in the carriage that shook from side to side as it hurtled through the darkness of the underground tunnel. I let out a sigh and pressed my head back against the torn seat, trying to contemplate what had actually happened in the last four hours. I began to slip into unconsciousness but I was brought back by the sound of a young foal crying. Suddenly realising that I had to do something productive or I would drift off into insanity, I decided to check my bag: which was securely tied into the seat next to me. I opened it up and looked over the contents, one by one. The bag contained: a spare STABLE 72 jumpsuit, a small tool box, a pair of welding goggles, an old cassette player and headphones, a switch blade, a baseball and a picture of my parents and me when I had turned ten. I took out the cassette player and put the headphones on my ears. I pressed play. The song Heroes by my favourite musician: Aviators, came on and I closed my eyes. I turned over the past's events in my head, but I knew that there was only one way that I could truly process the information. My gift. I wondered whether or not I should risk tripping out and flashing back. I decided to go for it. I had time to kill. My eyes rolled back into my head and the world around me dissolved. I breathed out, " OK Scarlet, time to flashback... Let's do this!...3...2...1...SHIFT!"
My mind awoke inside the head of my past body. This was my gift. The ability to have a perfect recollection of recent events. It was a pretty crap superpower to be honest, but it was useful sometimes. I was pretending to fix a generator in the STABLE basement, when in reality I was working on the broken shotgun that I had found a couple of weeks ago. I heard the sound of another pony approaching me. I turned around and hid the weapon behind my back. "Well howdy doody there buddy!" Said the pony called Genther, in a strong country accent. "What might you be up to?" I felt my self answer " Oh, hi Genther. I'm just taking a crack at this generator. It's been out of business for six days now!" He smiled at me. "Well blow me down boyo! If you don't get your self a mechanic or engineer in the C.A.T. test I'm gonna eat my own hat!" I laughed. "I certainly hope I get a good score!" I replied. "When are your C.A.T.s by the way?" He asked. Still trying to hide my illegal gun, I said " in about a week!". We carried on the conversation for a while, before the over-stallion spoke into the loudspeaker- calling us all to the lunch hall for...wait for it... Lunch! I walked up into the main area of the STABLE and looked around for my parents. Ponies would often tell me that I was the perfect blend of both my parents. I had the raw strength and physical aptitude of my father: Crimson Rover, and the creativity and artist talent of my mother: Dotted Swirl. I had been named after the colour of my flowing red hair however, and my ability to consciousness shift. I know that Scarlet Shift sounds like a girls name but I can confirm that I am a male pony.
I'm gonna take a second now to describe myself, because you are probably gonna want to know who I am and why you should help me. I have a light grey coat, long red hair with a few black streaks, blue eyes and stupid crippled wings that I had to build a pair of exoskeleton enhancements for, just so I could hover slightly. Yeah, I'm pretty shit Pegasus. Fortunately, I make up for in engineering what I lack in flight. My legs have a fairly strong build, but my body itself was quite slender. I was also rather good at sewing. I know right, so bloody masculine! It wasn't all bad though. I managed to create an awesome hoodie, which was good because it set me apart from all the other jumpsuit wearing ponies in the STABLE. Anyway, back to the story...
I found my mother trotting to our usual table in the mess hall. She hugged me when I came up to her and we sat down. She told my that my father was talking to the over-stallion, so he would eat later. I stuffed my face with crispy hay-fries, while my mother tucked into a dandelion and daisy sandwich. It was all well and good until the alarm started. It took about five seconds for every-pony to realise that we were in the middle of a freaking crisis! Almost instinctively, I threw myself onto my mother and pushed her to the ground. This was lucky ,because a few seconds later there was a loud explosion. The glass shards from the window of the over-stallions office crashed into the seat that Dotted Swirl had been sat on only moments before. Two ponies were thrown out of the office, carried by the momentum of the explosion, and crashed into one of the dining tables. One of them got to his hooves almost instantly, and came running towards me. It took me a few seconds to process the fact that it was my father: Crimson Rover. He skidded to a halt in front of me and said "Good you're both here. Now you have to listen to me. Scarlet, take your mother back to the room and press the button hidden under the bobble-head on my desk. Go into the room that appears and hide!" then, when he saw my gun that had fallen out of my pocket in the commotion "You'll find some ammo for this. Shoot anything that enters without speaking first!". He picked up my shotgun and gave it to me. I was confused. Actually, confused is an understatement. I had literally no idea what in the name of sweet fucking Celestia was going on! I started to speak. " Dad, what are yo-" I was cut short by another explosion, this one followed by a loud roar. My Dad grabbed my shoulder. "Just fucking run!" he shouted at me. I didn't need to be told a third time.
I grabbed my Mum's hoof and we sprinted down the metallic, grey hallway. I tried blank out the loud screams and...was that... gun shots? We didn't stop until we got to the door of room 124. My Mother held her pipbuck over the scanner and the door slide open with a loud hiss. We pelted into the room and I went straight for my Father's desk. I picked up the small, collectable, STABLE-TEC bobble-head and threw it at the emergency lock button. The room 124 door instantly closed. I smashed my hoof down on the hidden button. I heard my Mother gasp as the double bed moved away, to reveal a secret staircase. We looked at each other for a moment before my mother began to throw essentials down into the basement and I ran in to investigate. It was a small room. There were: three sleeping bags, lots of crates and a terminal. I flung open the crate marked ammo, and began to sift through it. I grabbed some large red capsules and looked them over. These were shotgun shells. I had read about them in the STABLE library. I loaded seven of them into my weapon and put the rest into my saddle bag. When my Mum had finished gathering supplies, she ran into the room and I pressed the 'close hatch' button.
We were sat there in silence for a further two hours, before I asked "What's going on?". My mother did not answer. At that moment there was a knocking on the hatch door. "come out." said the voice of my father "It's safe now." I opened the door and we walked out into the remains of room 124. My father was standing in the middle of the room, cuts and bruises all over his body. He spoke "It's alight, I think that they're all go-" The bullets from the chain gun tore through him before he could say another word. I barley had time to scream before my father's dead body fell to the ground, revealing the creature behind him. It was a pony, but it was at least twice the normal size and three times as strong. His sickly green skin peeled away around the mouth, showing off his long pointed fangs. The chain gun that he was wielding was almost as big as him, and the end of it was smoking. I pulled out my shotgun and aimed it at the mutated pony's face, but I was too slow. The beast smiled and pulled the pin from a grenade. I dived into a pile of books and braced my self for the explosion, as he threw it. Strangely, there was no loud boom. There was only the sound of blades flying through the air, followed by a scream. I stood to see the empty spike grenade fall to the floor. I looked to where the knives had hit and I was horrified. I saw the corpse of my mother, nailed to the wall by the shrapnel from the grenade, blood pouring from her wounds. The mutant laughed and pulled out a makeshift rifle, pointing the barrel at me. The bullet hit me in the foreleg, but I felt no pain. The mutant looked surprised and he put another round into my flank. I didn't even flinch. The creature then unloaded the rest of the clip into and around me. Nothing. Now the monster looked confused, angry and slightly scared . I cast my eyes down to the ground and began to laugh. Anger burned in my heart. This bastard had to die. Still laughing psychotically, I picked up my shotgun.
I looked up at the beast and began to speak. "....ha...haha....hahahahahahaha.....Oh by all the divine power of the sun god Celestia... I AM GONNA FUCKING RIP YOUR FUCKING THROAT OUT YOU MOTHER FUCKING SON A OF A BITCH!!!" With that, I put all seven shotgun rounds into the creatures stomach. He fell to the ground and I picked up a metal pipe. "YOU ARE GOING TO FUCKING DIE FOR WHAT YOU DID!!!" I smashed the pipe into the mutated freak's skull. I then grabbed a shard of glass from the remains of my father's terminal, and stabbed it into the monster's throat. Yellow blood erupted from the wound, showering me in gore. The fucker was finally dead. Just then, my mind started to fade and my consciousness returned.
I awoke on the train once more. My power had run out, but I could remember the rest of the days events without it. After the super mutant attack, the STABLE was evacuated. Luckly, STABLE 72 had the only evacuation system that connected it to the STABLE next to it. The emergency train was not supposed to be used unless the situation was utterly hopeless, and since our STABLE was flooded with mutated psycho-ponies, this qualified as utterly hopeless. The underground train line had not been used for more than 200 years, so it took about fifteen minutes to get the evacuation cart into working condition. We were all pushed onto the train and shipped off to STABLE 73. News of what I had done to the super mutant spread through the survivors like wildfire. Ponies were looking at me with fear in their eyes. I was more worried about how it had happened in the first place. The guard told me that the mutants had probably been digging a tunnel and accdently stumbled upon our STABLE. The creatures had attacked the first things they saw. I looked around at the other ponies that accompanied me in the rusted hunk of metal that could barley be qualified as a train and... Well, you know the rest. Now it was time to return to the present.
