Fallout: Equestria-SURVIVOR

by SYNTH4

Rating: mature
Tags: Dark, Tragedy, Adventure, Crossover
Length: 37504

Flatfoot flees Stable 11 witht he hope of finding help and liberating the ponies trapped inside.

"Eighty years before the Stable Dweller…there was another stable pony."

Flatfoot has always tried to live his life with optimism. He's been put into a job that goes against his Cutie Mark, has few friends, and lives in a dark and depressing Stable. But through all of this, he still tries to make the best of everything.

His home, Stable 11, isn't like your normal underground bunker. For in this stable, ponies are forced to perform horrible acts of nature. As stated when the door closed, one pony is to be sacrificed every year. The price for not doing so: death to all in the stable. So the votes are counted, and a pony is killed.

But the rules of the election have changed, and Flatfoot has just figured it out. Now, his friends are in danger and the OverStallion wants him dead. With nothing for him in the stable anymore, Flatfoot flees outside to the Equestrian Wasteland.

His goal: find more ponies like him, and save his stable from the dictator that runs it.

Published 1970-01-01 00:00:00 UTC
Last updated 2015-12-11 02:57:14 UTC

Chapter 2: The Door Has Opened

FALLOUT EQUESTRIA: SURVIVOR

Chapter 2: The Door Has Opened

“The pony that will be sacrificed this year is none other than the chirpy maintenance pony himself...FLATFOOT.”

My mind shut down for a good five seconds before I got control again. My back legs wobbled so much that I fell back on my hunches. Sweat poured down my forehead, and I couldn’t remember when I started breathing so quickly.

Ponies around the atrium were starting to turn their heads towards me. Some had on a look of sadness, tears just barely escaping their eyes. Some looked upset, but had the deep sense of relief on them as well. Other were slowly shaking their heads while they smiled.

“Flatfoot, would you please walk up here to the stage please. There is much that has to be done,” said the O.S. from behind his podium.

I didn’t want to walk up there, I didn’t want to be at his mercy. I wanted to run, to get away from the stallion who now had my life in his hooves. But the guards had moved in front of every door, blocking all the ways out. Their horns were glowing, and all were pointed at me.

“Flatfoot, we mustn’t keep the stable waiting. You know we have to do this within the hour. Think about everypony here,” said the O.S., who wore a sincere smile...had to be fake.

Something grabbed me on the back and pulled me back to my feet. I looked back, and saw Dial standing behind me. She wore the most evil smirk I had ever seen on a pony, and no one else was even looking at her.

She gave me a push with her hoof. “Go on Flatfoot, walk up to the stage.”

I swallowed a lump in my throat and looked up towards the stage. It seemed like such a long distance away, even if it was just a few feet. The O.S. continued to smile at me, most likely with glee that no pony questioned.

Slowly, I moved my hooves and began walking towards the stage. Ponies moved so that I had a walkway up there, so now it would take even less time.

But I had barely moved a few feet when something slammed into me. I didn’t fall over, but he impact was enough to get me to stop. Hooves grabbed my face and turned it to my left. It was then I found out who the hooves belonged to.

“Zest.”

The look on Zest’s face made my heart split in two. Her eyes were scrunched together and watering so much that tears ran down her cheeks like a faucet. Her lips were trembling and her nose was beginning to run. Sobs left her mouth, but every time they did she began to choke up.

“I’m sorry...I’m so sorry Flat. I didn’t think a pony like you would be chosen, but you were. I should have done something...I don’t know what...but something. I’m sorry I couldn’t help you out…” she tried to say more, but she just started crying again.

I had never seen Zest like this before. What I was seeing now was a sad, broken pony who was losing somepony close: ME. Zest had always been known for teasing me and trying to get me jealous. But now, she was just somepony who wanted to be hugged and comforted.

At first I didn’t know what to do. Zest had never been like this, so I didn’t know what would make her better. But the more I thought, the more she pulled me closer.

And that’s when I knew what to do.

I wrapped my hooves around her and pulled her into a hug. Zest continued to cry, and gratefully returned the hug. I heard a few ponies awing at us, but I didn’t care. I was helping a friend, even if I was on my way to death.

But a moment later, I felt something grab my jumpsuit and pull me back. Zest got yanked back to, and the force knocked her to the floor. A large guard stood behind her, scowling at me. Another guard stood behind me, keeping his hoof on my shoulder.

“I’m so sorry to break up the moment...Zest. But I did say that no one was allowed to stop the sacrifice on his way up here. Lucky for you your display of affection has made me choose not to punish you. Guards, escort Flatfoot up here so nopony disturbs him,” said the O.S.

The guard behind Zest walked to my side, pushing me against the other guard. They grabbed me with their magic, and soon began dragging me towards the stage. My hooves scraped across the ground while they did.

Ponies amongst the crowd began saying things to me as I passed.

“Sorry about this Flatfoot.”

“I never wanted you to be the one chosen.”

“Good Luck Flats.”

“Tell Celestia I said hi.”

I was almost at the stage, when a voice rang out.

“NO, NO, NOT MY SON! I CAN’T LOSE MY SON TOO!”

I looked back around to see the sound of the voice. Ponies were moving aside as a figure came closer to the pathway. The last ponies moved out of the way, and Mom came barreling towards us.

Her face was covered in tears, and her eyes were blood red. She rang towards us faster than a wonderbolt, and with just as much determination.

But before she could get to us, two guards appeared out of the crowd and blocked her path. She tried to get past them, but they held her back with magic. Her hoof reached towards me, stretching past the shield of magic.

“You can’t have my son! He’s all I have left. Don’t you see what you’re doing; he’s important to this stable. We’ll all die without him,” she screamed.

“You’re right Lead Pipe, we will all die without him. And that’s why he’s being sacrificed; so that all in the stable may live,” said the O.S.

“I’LL KILL YOU FOR SAYING THAT!” screamed mom, who was now pushing even harder against the guard’s magic. But nothing could get through a shield that strong.

“Okay...well thank you for saying that Lead Pipe. Guards, escort her to the medical bay for psychological treatment. She’ll need some after what happens here today. And make sure they’re very thorough,” said the O.S. with a wicked smile.

The guards nodded and began pulling my mom towards the exit. I tried to turn and run after them, but the guards kept a tight hold on me. And I was pretty sure the only reason I couldn’t talk was because of the magic that surrounded my face. The guards once again pulled me towards the stage, while my mom continued to cry out behind me. I could feel tears gathering in my eyes, but none fell.

The walk seemed to get slower and slower the more we walked. Ponies and guards alike became sluggish and unresponsive. The lights flickered and everything seemed calm.

That’s when it finally hit me: I’m Going To Die.

This wasn’t fake or a joke, this was the real deal. I was going to be killed. By what, I didn’t have a clue. All that mattered was that my life was over. I was going to DIE!

After what seemed like forever, we finally reached the stage. The guards released their magic and stepped away from me. I breathed in a sigh of relief, glad to be out of their bind. Magic and me have had a history, but it ain’t always great.

“Flatfoot, would you come up to the mike please,” asked the O.S. I could hear glee in his voice, and sensed an evil smile he was trying to keep concealed. He was obviously having a great time telling me what to do.

Not seeing any other choice, I slowly walked up the steps to the podium. I could feel all the eyes in the room staring at me like I was a prisoner being led to the gallows. Which, when you thought about it, this was pretty much the same thing.

I stopped next to the podium and turned to face the O.S. He was looking at me with a calm smile, like the one a grandfather gave to this rowdy grandfoal. There was another buzz in the back of my head, saying I should beat the living crap out of him. But my reasonability set in again, and I held myself back. No use attacking somepony if guards are all around you ready to fire.

The O.S. turned to the large crowd of ponies looking at us. “Ponies of Stable 11, I present to you this year's sacrifice! This brave and fearless pony will be giving up his life so that all of you may live. He will be taking a journey not all of us can take yet, but one we will indeed take someday. I know many of you may be upset that he was chosen, but be assured he was the one the stable, as a majority, voted for. So now, I would like to hand the mike over to Flatfoot, so that he may say his final goodbye to all of you.”

The O.S. moved to the side of the podium, and ushered for me to step behind it. I didn’t see any other options at this point besides running, which would have gotten me killed faster than Celestia could raise the sun. So, slowly, I walked over to the podium. The O.S. whispered to me when I passed him.

“Remember, all the guards are watching you.”

“Thanks for the reminder ass hole,” I said before I faced the crowd, who all stared back at me. Eyes of sadness, worry, glee, and a bunch of other emotions I couldn’t decipher all focused on me. They all just watched and waited for me to say something.

I cleared my throat, hoping to get the lump I had out of it. The mixes sent out that screeching wave they usually do, causing a few foals to cover their ears. I stepped back slightly and tried again.

“Uh...hello everypony. If...if you didn’t hear the O.S., my name is Flatfoot. It seems like I’m the one who’s been chosen, by you, to be sacrificed this year. I’ll admit...I didn’t think this would happen to me. I knew that it was a possibility, but I never thought that I’d be standing up here moments before dying.” the last words stuck in my throat like a clogged apple.

A few ponies in the area began crying, while others just looked at me sadly. I looked farther back and found Zest where she had been standing earlier. Tears continued to flow down her cheeks in waves, splashing down to the floor. Good thing she didn’t wear mascara, or it’d have been running dry by now.

“...I, uh, I just wanted to say that things may look bad, but they will get better. You’ll all leave here today, mourn for a while, then get back to doing what you’re doing. I may be gone soon, but you’ll still be here; keeping this stable going. I will miss you all, but I’m also...Proud...that I get to do this for you. Because it’s for the good of you, it’s for the good of me...and it’s for the good of STABLE 11!” I screamed.

The crowd was silent for a few seconds. Their faces were all looking like I had just slapped them in the face. They didn’t know what to say.

But then I heard clapping. A pony, farther in the back, was clapping his hooves and smiling at me. Soon other did the same, until everypony in the atrium was clapping and cheering for me.

“Amazing Flat” screamed a pony.

“We love you Flat,” screamed another.

“Best speech ever,” called Caps, who was crying like a little foal.

The energy in the room was building, and it wasn’t sadness or misery: it was joy. Ponies were happy, even in this awful time. They weren’t thinking about what was going to happen, they were thinking about what I was doing. This actually got me to smile a little.

But the next thing I knew, I was being pushed aside and found myself once again between two stable guards. The O.S. stood in front of the mikes, and soon the whole Stable went quiet.

“That was a beautiful speech Flatfoot. I don’t think I’ll ever be able to top that. But now the words have been spoken, and it’s time for the sacrifice. Please follow me,” he said, before turning around and walking towards the door behind the stage.

The guards turned me around and matched me across the stage and down the steps to the door. I could hear ponies calling out more words of luck, but it all cut out when the door closed behind me. The guards moved away from me and stood by the door.

The O.S. turned to look at me. His smile was so smug you’d think he was the new rich foal at school with a lot of connections. Dial stepped next to him with the same expression.

“They really should be with each other, they can terrorize anypony they come across,” I thought.

“I’m very surprised at how you handled that Flatfoot. I was ready to blast you with my own magic if you spoke out. But instead you put on quite a show, one that probably tops all last speeches given by sacrifices. You really know how to keep up the act,” he said.

I narrowed my eyes, trying to hide any fear that wanted to crawl up to my face. “I can say the same to you. All that about “stable ponies choosing me” was pretty convincing. And let’s not forget when you acted like you were so surprised I was picked,” I shot back.

The O.S. smiled smugly “why thank you Flatfoot. I practiced in front of a mirror last night. I wanted to make sure I sounded realistic, and it turns out I did.”

“So you decided to make me the sacrifice because I found out the truth. Smart, I will admit, but I said I wasn’t going to say anything,” I said.

“Yes you did, but you can never be too cautious when dealing with a secret like that. I could already see you spilling everything during cider season. So to keep the secret safe, I made you the sacrifice. As simple as that,” he said with a smile.

I was getting more cross with this guy the more I listened to him. But I had a few questions to ask before I did anything I would regret.

“So tell me, since I’m going to die soon, why do you pick the sacrifices. Why is it that the ponies of the stable can’t decide,” I asked.

The O.S. looked at me like I had just cursed him out. “Why, because ponies are idiots that’s why. For years we let the stupid ponies of this stable get to decide who got killed every year. They ranged from good for nothings to high up officials. We lost many great ponies during those years. So, when I was elected Overstallion, I decided to make a few changes. From then on, I decided who was to be sacrificed. That way, I could make sure no pony who was valuable to the stable could be sacrificed. Then, our stable could live for years to come, and only have the best ponies living in it.”

My mouth dropped open in shock, and my legs began to wobble. This pony was mad, mad with power. He used his position to rig the whole process. Now no pony could make their claims. This wasn’t a democracy, this was a dictatorship.

“But it also means you yourself can’t be sacrificed either,” I said sternly to him.

He slowly rubbed his chin while he thought about it. “Well yes, that is another perk to this. But I primarily did it for the stable.”

“Sir, I don’t want to rush you when you’re enjoying yourself, but we really do need to get on with the sacrifice,” said Dial, who I had almost forgotten was there.

“Quite right Dial, mustn’t keep the computer waiting,” he said before turning to me, “now Flatfoot, please proceed to my office. The guards will escort you, but I believe you know where it is.” He said the last part with a smile King Sombra would have worn.

The guards walked from the door and positioned themselves on either side of me. The other guards began walking up the stairs, with the O.S. and Dial walking closely behind them. The guards on my sides encased me in their magic, and once again pulled me along.

____________________________________________________

It seemed like forever, but we soon reached the O.S.’s office. The doors opened and the seven of us crowded into the tiny room. I could see ponies in the auditorium outside the window on the fall wall. Some saw me, and began waving at me. If I could have moved my legs, I might have waved back.

“Alright Flatfoot, let’s get down to business. This is where you and I see each other for the last time,” said the O.S.

I looked around, a little confused. “Are you going to kill me here,” I asked.

The O.S. shook his head, and still wore a smile. “Oh no, not in here. Blood stains are so hard to get out of the wood. No, we have someplace else for you to go. From here you shall proceed to the Sacrifice Chamber. And there, well, the name says it all.”

The O.S. walked up to his terminal and activated it. He typed in a few codes, then stepped away from his desk. At that moment, I heard machinery grinding. Then the O.S. desk rose off the floor and up to the ceiling. Below it was a hidden staircase that lead to a large metal door. It looked grimy, and a few smears of blood could be see along the walls.

“Well, there you go Flatfoot. Go down these stairs and through the door. The computer will take care of things from there. Off you go now,” said the O.S., waving his hoof down towards the steps. The guards gave me an extra push, which did get me moving.

The fear that was running through my body was like nothing I’d ever faced before. My legs were barely able to keep myself up, and my teeth were chattering so much that I was afraid they would break. Everyone had their eye on me, and I couldn’t go anywhere but down from where I was.

So, I slowly walked down the staircase to the door. I looked back at the opening, seeing everypony looking at me either with a smile or a grimace. The O.S. walked to the opening, looking down at me with an evil grin.

“Remember….it’s for the good of the Stable,” he said.

I really wanted to go up and punch him in the face and break his horn. But I was just one pony against a group of five armed ponies. My odds were against me, and a pony knows that means to just do what you’re told. I turned back to the door, and with a few deep breaths, opened it. Hissing filled the air as it slowly swung open, revealing a long hallway behind it. There were lights above some pipes, and the walls had a small amount of rust on them.

I walked through the opening, but when I did, the door slammed shut behind me. I jumped a little at this, but overall I was okay. I was already scared, so something like that wasn’t going to push me over.

But maybe a strange voice would.

“Congratulations, martyr, your fantastic journey is only just beginning. Please proceed to the light.”

The voice was calm, like a mother talking to her scared foal. It definitely sounded like it was coming out a speaker, but the voice still sounded nice. My legs stopped wiggling, and my teeth stopped chattering. I didn’t know if this was some kind of hypnosis, but I did what it said. My legs began moving, even though I didn’t want to move.

The farther I walked, the harder it became to look at the end of the hallway. A large, bright light was shining on the other end. My legs were so focused on getting me there that I couldn’t even put my hoof up to block it.

“The light is calming and puts your mind at ease. Go to the light.”

That voice was beginning to sound less southing and more like a stallion luring foals to their untimely demise. The wiggling in my legs began to come back, but I was still able to walk. The light was getting closer, and it was so bright I had to close my eyes.

But soon, the light glowed so dim that I was able to open my eyes. I wasn’t in the hallway anymore, but a small room. There was another door on the other side, which looked like all normal Stable doors. Four spotlights were pointed at the door I’d just come through.

“Why would they want to blind the sacrifices,” I asked.

As I looked around the room more, the door at the other end of it began to open. A small amount of light leaked out of it, and a small gust of air blew outward. The door continued to open until it hit the back wall. Even with the light from the spotlights, it was still hard to see inside.

I slowly walked towards it until I was standing in the doorframe. The room beyond was very large, between the size of the O.S. office and the atrium. The walls were void of anything, except for the splatter of blood every few inches. The floor was also dirty and covered in blood. A few streaks rang through the stains at certain points, but I couldn’t figure out what they were.

In the center of the room was table with an old projector on it. A few wires from from it, down the table leg, and into one of the side walls. A large and plump chair sat next to the table, colored a very appropriate shade of red. To the left of that was a small circular table with a vase of flowers on it. They looked tall and healthy, so they must have been fakes. Finally, a large sheet covered the wall in front of the projector.

“Welcome, please sit in the chair. The show is about to begin."

“If that voice doesn’t shut up soon, I’m going to lose it,” I said through gritted teeth. I was being led to my death by a stallion who had died hundreds of years ago. The thought of that really pissed me off. But I couldn’t do anything about that more than I can do about this.

I walked up to the chair and looked around it. I didn’t see any needles, so that probably meant they weren’t going to poison me. I didn’t see any hatchets or knives either, which hopefully meant no stabbing. Plus the chair looked fairly clean, and comfortable to.

I slowly sat down in the chair, facing the white screen that hung from the opposite wall. I heard something click, and looked around. The projector had started up, and a Stable Tec logo appeared on it. But it soon scrolled away, and was replaced by a different picture. It showed a stallion relaxing on the beach with a pair of sunglasses and a picnic basket next to him.

"Greetings, martyr, and welcome! If you're here now, it means you've been offered up as a sacrifice so that your stable can continue to thrive. Currently, you may be feeling sad or angry. Perhaps you never got to have grandfoals, or to enjoy the pleasures of a fresh cigar. But march with your chin held high, soldier, and remember that each of us has an important role to play."

If this was supposed to make me feel better, then it wasn’t working. I did care about having grandfoals, and I already enjoyed a cigar before. Not only that, but this was telling me to the HAPPY that I was being sacrificed.

So yeah, the stable gets to live. I really am happy that they get to live. But to know that I’M going to die just made me feel like shit. And it wasn’t because others wanted me to, it was because I found out the O.S. secret. That was the only reason I was here. But my brain kept telling me their was nothing I could do, so I listened to the creepy speaker voice.

“For some ponies, their role might be to heal the sick. For others, it might mean they will build things, or become a wonderbolt. And some of us are meant to forfeit our lives for the good of the people. Sure, it might not be as fun as becoming a wonderbolt, but it's every bit as important.”

I felt a connection to what this slide was saying, except for the part about becoming a wonderbolt. I was an earth pony, and flying wasn’t something we could do. So when it came to career choices, wonderbolts weren’t an option.

The other parts of the slide did strike a connection with me.

As a maintenance pony, I’d gotten used to building and repairing things. It just came with the job requirements. I’d fixed everything from pip-bucks to Terminals. And when it came to building, I was just as good. My unfinished magic powered lamp still sat in my room. Maybe somepony in maintenance would find it and finish it. But that was probably just wishful thinking.

The other part didn’t concern me, but it concerned my best friend.

Zest may have been weird at times, but she was good at what she did. There wasn’t a surgery she couldn’t perform or disease she couldn’t cure. She was definitely one of, if the the most important pony in the Medical Bay. If I ever had a medical problem, I knew I could turn to her.

But I guess now, I’d unintentionally given her the worst disease anypony could get...sadness. She had been tearing up when my name got called, and even tackle-hugged me when I started to head up. She said she was sorry, that she wished she could have done something. While there was nothing she could have done, it still made stomach ache seeing her like that. I just wanted to hold her tight, and never let go until she was happy again.

Geeze, if I thought like that any longer I’d start crying too.

"Let's take a moment to reflect on the moments that made your life worth living. Think about that time you kissed your steady mare for the first time under the bleachers at the big game. Or when you snuck out after curfew to catch that new flick that your parents wouldn't let you see because it was too scary. Boy, were they right! And who could forget when you met the love of your life. What a looker! These are just examples.”

If only my life had been that exciting. I’d never kissed a mare before, and there wasn’t anything new in terms of movies in the stable. Nothing for me to sneak out and see. This projection was shooting false info at me, and it didn’t make me feel better.

My whole body tensed a little, and I started to grit my teeth. For some reason, I was becoming very angry. The nobbing in the back of my skull, that was always being put out by my brain, was beginning to grow stronger. It felt harder to keep it down, and part of me wondered what was going on in my brain right now.

“Come on Flats...don’t get too angry. There’s nothing you can do...there’s nothing you can do,” I repeated to myself. I had to close my eyes and concentrate, because I felt like I was ready to burst.

“You’re stuck in a room with no way out and will soon face whatever they use to kill ponies. I can’t stop it, and I won’t try to. This is how I end...even if I don’t like it,” I said to myself.

“Do you feel that feeling stirring in your chest as you think of these things? Good. What you are feeling is peace. You've led a great life - living it has been its own reward. But, it is only the beginning.”

I don’t think this stirring was peace, but I couldn’t say what it was. I’d never felt something like this before. It was pulling at me, twisting the inside of my brain like spring. My breathing grew more rapid and the hooves pushed deeper into the upholstery.

“what...what is happening,” I asked through gritted teeth.

“Close your eyes now and imagine what joys await you in the next life - the afterlife.”

“Come on Flats, get yourself together. Calm breaths, happy thoughts. This is it: don’t die being like this. You are a good pony who does what he has to. I’m the sacrifice...I’m going to die,” I said, with my eyes snapped shut and my teeth pressing against each other.

“Can you see them? Good.”

And that’s when I snapped.

“...No...FUCK THIS!” I screamed.

My eyes shot open, and my face turned into one of great anger. My ears shot straight up, and my hooves stopped pushing into the chair.

My brain, the only thing that told me the safe thing to do, had gone quiet. Instead, the constant nagging in the back of my skull had fully taken over. My head kicked into overdrive, and big time.

“I am not going to be sacrificed. I will not going to be the O.S.’s pawn. I’m going to live, and I’m going to kick the O.S.’s ass for what he’s done. And nothing is going to get in my way,” I fumed.

I really shouldn’t have said that.

Just at that moment, I heard the sound of gears turning. It sounded like it was coming from the walls, so I looked around the room. Nothing seemed out of the ordinary, until I got to the wall on my right side.

A small door was lifting itself up and into the wall. Dust and grime floated down  and obscured the view. Once the door was all the way up, everything got quiet. The dust settled, and I saw what was on the other side.

It was definitely the biggest robot I’d ever seen. Four legs held it up at the bottom, all fitted with wheels. It had a large body with a small round head. Two arms sat on either side, each with a different weapon. The right arm was fitted with a grabbing claw that looked like it could cut through me. The left arm was a complete laser cannon. Tubes ran from the cannon to the robot, no doubt being the ammunition tubes.

The eyes on the robot turned on and off, almost like it was blinking. But then the lights came on all over the thing, and it slowly rolled out of it’s space. The head looked around the room, before landing on me.

“Yearly sacrifice identified. Please stand still while you are disintegrated. Resistance is futile.”

“Shit,” I said to myself.

The robot aimed it’s large laser cannon at me. I heard the sound of power building up in the back of it. The red light in the cannon grew bigger and brighter.

“Move Flatfoot, MOVE,” my head screamed.

I dove behind the chair just as the cannon fired. The beam of energy shot over my head and blasted against the wall behind me. A large black shot indicated where it had hit. To think that could have been me almost made me sick.

“Target not in visible range. Search for target. Execute on sight.”

I mentally cursed myself as I watched the robot begin to roll around the room. It’s cannon started up again, ready to fire when it saw me. It headed first to the wall on my right side, before slowly moving to the wall on the left side. Sooner or later, it would come around the chair and see me.

“Okay, think Flatfoot: you need a plan,” I thought. I’d never dealt with this kind of machinery before, but I was skilled in robotics. I’d helped the stable guards repair an old security bot a few years back. It failed again after a year, but it did give me some understanding of how robots work.

I carefully looked around the chair. The robot was going along the wall with the door I’d come through. That meant only one wall between it and me. If I didn’t come up with something fast, then I’d be barbecued.

The robot turned and looked at the door carefully. It had closed when I’d walked through, but it maybe thought I’d somehow opened it and gotten out. But I hadn’t, and looking at that door was a very stupid mistake.

I looked at the back of the robot, and smiled at what I saw. Sitting near the bottom of the middle section was a square piece of metal attached to a latch. Either that meant a battery compartment, or a control panel. The only problem: how do I get to it.

The robot stopped looking at the door and continued along the wall. It reached the corner, and began moving along the wall to my left. My time was running short, and I needed to get to that panel. I just had to distract it.

Then it finally hit me. I looked over at the table next to the chair. The only object on it was a small vase with a few fake flowers in it. I slowly snuck over to the table and picked up the vase. It was light, but not too light. No water was in it, and the flowers were glued to the bottom.

I moved back against the chair and looked for the robot. It was near enough to me that I could see it without looking too far around the chair. I had to act fast, or it would see me in a few seconds.

So I turned towards the corner near the door, and threw the vase as hard as I could. It soared through the air, before smashing into the wall with a loud CRACK.

The robot stopped moving along the wall. It turned around, and started moving towards the broken vase. I crept slowly from behind the chair and began sneaking up to the back of it. The robot was so focused on the vase, it didn’t even notice me.

When it reached the broken vase, it looked down at it. I moved in from behind and got close enough that I could open the panel. I unhooked the latch and swung the plate to the left. Beneath the plate was a crisscross of wires and switches. The dials had no name plates, and the wires all got tangled up in each other.

I had to hurry: the robot wouldn’t be occupied forever. It was already starting to look up from the vase. Panic would normally overtake me and I’d just run away. But for some reason, this just gave me more urge to focus. I scanned the switches, hoping to find the one I wanted.

And thank the goddesses, I did.

Located under some wiring near the bottom, I found the one switch that actually had a label: EMERGENCY SHUTDOWN.

I quickly reached a hoof out and flipped the switch. The lights on the robot quickly went out, and the whole machine became still. I slowly reversed away from the machine, hoping it didn’t come back online. But it stayed still and silent.

“Wow Flats, you did it. You took out a high performance Sentry Bot without destroying it. You are one smart pony,” I said with a smug smile.

But my happiness didn’t last long. I may still be alive, but the O.S. sent me down here to die. I couldn’t stay down here forever, and I’d die if I just walked back up there. I needed to use my brain again...I needed a plan.

I looked over at the door the robot had come through. Since it was so big, the door had to be large to. And it wasn’t just a small closet; it was another room. I walked to the door and peered into the room.

It looked to be the size of the room before this one. But what was in the room is what made my mouth drop.

Hanging on the walls was an assortment of weapons! Small guns huddled on one side of the room, while large ones sat on the other side. A table was set against the wall across from the door. Cases of bullets and tool kits sat neatly along the top. A long barrel shotgun sat against a corner, looking like it’d never been touched.

“Sweet Celestia. They have a whole room full of weapons down here. Did they never think a pony would beat the robot and get in here?” I asked myself as I walked towards the table.

Then again, they probably didn’t think a pony would be able to outsmart the robot. Maybe they thought only stupid or really scared ponies would be sacrificed. But that still didn’t explain what this was all doing down here.

I reached the table and looked over the ammunition that lay out in front of me. Assortments of bullets ranging from 9mm to 50 Caliber were all set in boxes along the top. Each one looked brand new, without any signs of decay or rust. The same could be said for the guns. All looked fully functional and shinny.

“Well, I’ve got a room full of weapons at my disposal...now what?” I asked. I may have been able to defeat one robot, but their was a whole section of soldiers up in the Stable. And if they saw me, they’ed either shoot me or capture me. Either way, I’d be right back here with the intent of being killed.

Plus, there was no place in the stable I could hide. Every part of the stable was checked regularly by the guards. Eventually my luck would run out and I’d be found. And I couldn’t ask one of my friends for help either. I’d be dragging them into this mess and getting them killed to. I couldn’t let that happen. But if I couldn’t do any of that, where could I go?

...Wait, if there was no place in the stable I could go, there was only one place I could go.

“Outside,” I said silently.

____________________________________________________

“I’ve got to be the craziest son of a bitch there ever was.”

I looked around the room for any kind of bag I could find. If I was really going to try and leave the stable, I’d have to be prepared. Water, Medicine...Protection. So I’d need a bag to carry everything in.

I opened a crate under the table and looked around inside. I found more ammunition and a few smaller guns, but no medicine or food and water. I shut the crate and moved onto the next one. I didn’t find any food, but I did strike a jackpot on everything else.

The crate was full of yellow medical kits and had a brand new saddlebag in it. The color was dark brown and had the standard Stable-Tec insignia on it. The medical kits were all stacked in neat rows, so I quickly picked a few out. Each one contained two cases of clean water, five rad-aways, some med-x, and five stimpacks. I picked a few out and dumped their contents into my saddlebags. I shut the crate and flung the bags onto my back. The weight was almost not there, and the padding felt great on my skin. I could move around without any disturbance, and the items didn’t move around either.

Now that I’d gotten that taken care of, I looked around at the guns hanging from the walls. I knew I’d have to defend myself once I got to the O.S. office, but I didn’t know which gun to pick. Some were small, so I could easily hold and store them. Some were large, which meant more power but a harder chance to fire right.

Plus, being and earth pony, I had to find one I could shout off with my mouth. I did see a few guns with mouth holders, and they seemed rather nice. Two that caught my eye were hanging very close to each other.

One was a small gun with a long barrel. The back end looked like a normal gun, but the bud was pointing sideways and looked like someone could hold it in their mouth.

 I walked over to it and pulled it down from the wall. It wasn’t too heavy or too light. I put the mouthpiece in my mouth to see how it felt. It fit perfectly and I could look right down the center of the barrel. I thought about putting some ammo in it and testing it out, but I didn’t have the time. I stuck it in my saddlebag and moved to the other gun.

This one was much different from the small gun. This one was large and had a much longer barrel. There was no piece for my mouth to fit on the end, so this one likely was meant for those who can use magic. It was probably a shotgun, so firing it with my mouth probably wouldn’t be a good idea.

“This could really come in handy if I’m facing something big. But I really don’t want to lose my teeth when I use it. There has to be something here I can use to help fire it,” I said.

I began opening the last two crates left under the table. The first one I opened had a few boxes of ammo and a few cans of syrup apples. Since I didn’t have any food, I grabbed the cans and put them in my saddlebag. Once again, I barely felt them in there.

I moved onto the last crate and opened it. And once again, the princesses were looking down on me with favor. Because sitting inside the crate was a brand new, unused, and perfectly clean battle-saddle. The leather back cover looked perfectly smooth, and the gun holders weren’t rusted at all. The firing mechanism didn’t have any missing or broken parts, so I hoped it all worked fine.

“Celestia, Luna, thank you both for giving me my ticket out of here. Praise be to Equestria,” I said, before carefully lifting the battle-saddle out of the box.

I set it carefully on the ground and went to retrieve the shotgun. It had a little more weight to it, but I was able to carry it over to the saddle. I slid the gun into the holster and set up the firing mechanism. Everything fit perfectly into place.

Once everything was set, I lifted the battle-saddle onto my back. It fit perfectly, and like my saddlebags, the leather felt great against my skin. Then again, most of the saddle covered my jumpsuit.

I tightened the leather straps under my belly and made sure it was loose enough it wouldn’t hurt, but tight enough so it didn’t roll around. I walked around the room a bit to see how it felt.

“Feels good and stable, and doesn’t really slow me down. Now, I think I should at least test this one. I’d hate for this thing to be dead weight,” I said.

I went back to the table and gathered up all the ammo I could fit in the loading slots. I attached a magazine into the gun, and walked into the sacrifice chamber. The projector was still on, but it only showed a logo of Stable-Tec. The Sentry Bot still sat quietly in the corner.

“Perfect target practice,” I said to myself. I walked back to the chair and turned towards the robot. I lined up the barrel right at the robots head. Once I did, I grabbed the fire mechanism with my mouth and pushed down on it. I heard a blast, and felt the gun push against the saddle. I stumped a little, but I didn’t loose my footing. Unfortunately, the bullet didn’t hit the robot. It smacked into the wall, flattened out, and fell to the floor.

“Shit. If I can’t hit anything, how am I going to survive out their. There’s got to be a way I can fire straight,” I said.

I began thinking about what I could do, when my pipbuck began to blink. I brought it up to my face and looked at the screen. The screen said “Press Me.”

“Can’t be much simpler than that,” I said, and pressed the screen. The words disappeared and another screen popped up. It had an image of a pony on it, and the letters S.A.T.S. on the top.

“What in the name of Celestia is this,” I asked myself.

A note appeared on the screen with some writing. I scanned over the document and was surprised by what I found.

“The Stable-Tec Assisted Targeting Spell, or S.A.T.S. for short, is a new feature on all Stable-Tec PipBucks. This spell, which can be used by Unicorns, Pegasus, and Earth Ponies, will allow you to get your eye in on all targets. Simply activate the spell with your head, and pinpoint your target. The spell will allow you to pick the part of your target you wish to hit, and make sure it lands a bullseye. Enjoy, and shoot responsibly.”

“Really...it’s that simple. Just activate this spell and choose what I want to shoot. Please tell me this isn’t some prank by Stable-Tec,” I said to myself.

But if this thing really did work, then I might have a shot, literally, at getting out of here. And personally, I’d rather try this and be proven wrong then not try at all. So, I looked confidently back at the robot. I concentrated hard, and mentally screamed “S.A.T.S., ON!”

It was like my eyes had become a telescope. My vision zoomed until it looked like I was right in front of the bot. But then it got weirder. The robot's left arm glowed green, which didn’t make much sense. I looked at the other arm, and was shocked when the light jumped from one arm and onto the other. No matter what part I looked at, the green light always encased it.

“Well, I guess that’s how it works. But, let’s see how it performs,” I said. I looked up at the robot’s head, which now glowed green. I cautiously bit down on the gun trigger, and pressed it hard. The bullet shot from the barrel and passed clear through the robot’s head. Sparks flew from it, but thankfully nothing exploded.

“Wow...this thing is AWESOME! Now, I can shoot whatever I want. Gee, I wish I’d known about this during my fight with Lock Pick,” I said happily.

“Well, it looks like I have everything I need to make it out of here. Now, let’s just hope the whole security force isn’t waiting for me on the other side. But if they were, I’d have to deal with them with lethal force.

I turned toward the closed door to the hallway. Once I walked through those doors, I’d be the enemy of everypony in the stable. It would be hard, but I was willing to pay the price. So, I walked to the door and pulled it open. Looking at the long hallway beyond, I walked through the door, leaving the dark sacrifice chamber behind me.

____________________________________________________

The walk back down the hallway was much faster than the first time. I paid no attention to the blood stains or the blinding lights behind me. The voice wasn’t saying anything, which was perfectly fine with me. That voice gave me the creeps.

I finally made it to the other side of the hallway. The door I’d walked through was closed. But I could see a small amount of light sneaking through the bottom, which must mean the O.S.’s desk was still up. Another thing on the list of good things happening to me.

I moved to the door and slowly pulled it open. Light poured into the hallway as I opened it more. I stopped when it was still mostly closed but I could look outside through the open part. I moved over to the opening and looked out.

As I suspected, the O.S.’s desk was still up in the air. The room seemed fairly quiet, but I couldn’t tell if there was anypony in it. I’d have to go up and see if anypony was there. So I opened the door more and slipped through. I kept my walking as quiet as I could, and slowly moved up the stairs.

When I was close to the top, I stuck my head up and looked around the room. The path to the O.S.’s office door was clear, and there was nopony behind the desk either. But as I looked around the room, I did spot somepony.

The O.S. was looking out at the atrium through his office window. His face showed one of pride and happiness; no doubt from thinking he’d gotten rid of me. Now he was probably thinking of how nopony would get in his way again.

But I wasn’t dead, and I was ready to kill him with my guns. But if I fired off a gun here, the whole Stable would be able to hear it. I had to find a way to incapacitate him without killing him. Plus, I had to get the passcode if I wanted to open the Stable door. It would either be on his PipBuck, or on his terminal.

“Ponies die, Ponies live. Those that die do because they aren’t smart enough to find a way to live. Those that live do because they can use their knowledge to have others killed instead. Flatfoot died, and I shall live. Seems we all have our place,” he said as he nodded his head.

I contemplated on what I could do. The O.S. was a unicorn, which meant he had magic on his side. If I tried anything, he could use his magic to counteract it. I need to stop him before he could use his magic. I need to be fast, and I needed to not be seen.

The O.S.’s PipBuck began glowing and shouting out “You’ve Got A Message.” Wow...Deja Vu.

The O.S. brought his PipBuck up to his face and opened the message.

“This is your chance; he’s distracted. Sneak up to him like you did with the Sentry Bot,” I thought to myself. So I moved up the last few stairs and maneuvered myself behind the O.S. I turned around and had my legs ready. Since I was an Earth Pony, I was going to use my natural strength to take care of this guy.

“Stable sensors reported the sound of gunfire only moments ago. Sensors say it originated from the sacrifice chamber. This most likely means that Flatfoot has been taken care of. I’ll report back to you when we have complete confirmation. Signed Dial,” read the O.S. He put his PipBuck down and smiled as he looked to the window.

“Well it seems that Flatfoot is no longer with us. Let us remember the pony as he was: A small and unimportant pony who stuck his nose into things it didn’t belong. Now I’m free of that pest, and won’t ever see him again.”

“Never might be sooner than you think,” I said sternly.

The O.S.’s body tensed up as if electricity was running through it. But just as fast he started turning around towards me.

“Now or never,” I thought.

I pulled my rear legs back, then shot them towards the O.S. I felt my hooves collide with the side of his face, and the CRUNCH that came with it. I looked and saw the O.S. stagger back to the wall. His nose was bleeding and a large bump was beginning to form where I’d hit. But he still wasn’t unconscious, so I went in for another blow. I made my hooves curve at the last second, giving him an good left hook to the left side of his face.

The O.S. staggered for a second, before slowly crumpling to the floor. Blood continued to flow out of his nose, and the two bumps he had just kept getting bigger. If I didn’t fucking hate the stallion, then I’d probably feel sorry for him. But he tried to kill me, so I was extremely happy.

I moved over to the body and put a hoof up to his neck. After a few seconds, I felt a slight beating of a pulse. He wasn’t dead, but he wasn’t going to be harming anyone anytime soon. I reached down and activated his PipBuck. Scrolling through the sections, I soon found the one labeled NOTES.

I opened the section up and scrolled through the list of notes he had on their. They ranged from simple repair notes to preparations for the sacrifice. All interesting, but all not the one that would help me out.

I was about to give up and start searching the terminal, when I hit the jackpot. At the very bottom of the list sat a note with the title: STABLE DOOR OVERRIDE CODE.

I tapped the file and looked at the options that it showed me: Delete, Open, or Transfer. I selected transfer and typed in my PipBuck registration code. The note icon rolled into a scroll and burned up. And a second later, a fire image blazed on my PipBuck before turning into a scroll that flew to my notes section.

“Alright, step one is done. Now it’s time for step two; getting out of this place without dying.”

I walked over to the office door and pressed the button. The door opened and I looked out into the hallway. I couldn’t see anypony in sight, and the Eyes Forward Sparkle didn’t sense anypony in the nearby area.

Since the coast was clear, I ran out of the office and down the hallway. The stable door was on the next level up, past the dining area. Once I got to the door, I’d be able to get out.

So I increased my speed and ran for the nearest stairs.

____________________________________________________

I made it to the stairs without encountering anypony. Most ponies chose to stay inside the rest of the day after a sacrifice was chosen. Some mourned, some slept, and some had a party if the pony sacrificed was their enemy. I’ve done all three over the course of my time here.

I jumped the last few stairs and found myself in another deserted hallway. An empty theater room sat on the right side with a note saying “Closed For Sacrifices. Check Back Tomorrow.”

The other side was the dining area. The door was open, and I smelled fresh food being cooked from the grill in the back. No doubt Whisk would be making comfort food for the ponies who needed it. I always had a few hooffulls when I was younger.

But I didn’t have the time to sit and remember. I shook my head and ran down the hallway. I came to a corner and duck to the left side. I continued running until I came across another door. It wasn’t for the Main Entrance, but I knew what it was.

I pressed the button on the wall and the door sprang open. On the other side sat the stable bar. A long counter ran along the back wall, with an assortment of wines and alcohol stacked on shelves behind that. Comfortable stools ran along the counter, and a few tables were scattered around the area. Behind the bar, cleaning a glass, was Tapper. He ran the bar and served all the drinks. His dark green pelt went well with his stable jumpsuit and rusty orange mane. His cutie mark, a shot glass, was just visible under his suit.

But then my head darted to another pony in the room. In the corner, sitting at a small table, was Zest. Her mane was slopped down and messy. Black streaks ran down her eyes, which were bloodshot. Twenty empty bottles sat around the table, and a half empty one was clutched in her hooves.

I ran into the room, past Tapper, and up to Zest. She looked even worse up close.

“Zest, what are you doing. What happened to you?”

Zest didn’t respond right away, and just continued to look into space. But then she slowly lifted  her head and looked at me. Her eyes were emotionless, and her mouth seemed covered in a mixture of different drinks. I could definitely smell it.

“...Not now Tapper….I’m trying to drown my sorrows. Maybe, maybe you could get me another drink? I think this one’s almost out,” she said, taking another sip from the bottle.

“Zest, snap out of it. It’s me: Flatfoot. Your best friend in the whole stable,” I said.

“Don’t be stupid...Flatfoot’s dead. I saw him get taken away by the O.S. He’s gone….gone forever.”

I was getting more annoyed. Zest had drank so much her brain wasn’t even working right. I had to snap her out of this somehow. But I didn’t have a clue on how to do it.

I turned towards the bar. “Hey Tapper, I need some help!”

Tapper stopped cleaning his glass and looked over at me. His eyes bulged out when they did. He quickly ran from behind the bar and up to me.

“Flats, what are you doing here? You’re supposed to be dead,” he screamed.

“So I heard. But you really didn’t see me when I walked in or hear me when I was talking to Zest,” I asked with a raised eyebrow.

He shrugged. “Hey, when you run a bar, you learn to tune out voices and ponies who aren’t directed at you.”

“Well right now I need some help.” I waved a hoof at Zest, who was still drinking. “I need to snap Zest out of this and fast. You’ve dealt with drunk ponies before, you must have some way of snapping them out of it.”

Tapper rubbed his chin. “Well, she’s a lot more drunk than most ponies I get. But I may have a way to get her going again. But you have to promise not to hit me when I do this.”

I raised an eyebrow again. “What are you going to do?”

Tapper rubbed his hooves together while a grin appeared on his face. I was starting to get nervous.

“I’m going to shock her out of her stupper,” he said.

“Zest is a pretty tough pony. What can you possibly do that will make her get out of this,” I asked.

“You’ll See. Now just don’t hit me when I start.”

He walked over to Zest and positioned himself on her left side. She took no notice of him and kept staring into space. I watched, waiting to see what kind of tactic Tapper was going to use.

Tapper reached his hoof towards Zest, before suddenly turning down and putting it between her legs. Zest’s eyes popped open faster than anything I’d ever seen. Her mouth opened and let out a high pitched scream. She fell off the chair and curled up in a ball on the floor, holding her neither regions carefully.

“OW...WHAT THE FUCK WAS THAT FOR TAPPER,” she screamed.

Tapper held a hoof up to his mouth, trying to hold back a laugh. If the situation was different, I might have laughed too. And I was glad Tapper had warned me before, because normally I’d have him down on the ground bloody by now.

“Well you were in a stupor, and there was a pony who needed to talk to you,” he said, still trying not to laugh.

“Whoever this fucker is, he’ll be getting the same beating I’m going to give you!”

“Aw come on Zest, I’ve been through enough already,” I said with a smug smile.

Zest’s eyes popped open and looked straight at me. She looked shocked, then began to smile. Her eyes watered, causing the black streaks to wash away. Pain not being a problem, she jumped off the floor and ran over to me. She wrapped her hooves around me, brought me close, and buried her face in my chest.

“Flats….it’s you. You're ALIVE! How’d you escape, how’d you find me….and where did you get that sweet gun and battle-saddle,” she asked, eyeing my new gear with a smile.

“It’s good to see you to Zest. But I don’t have time to explain everything. I need you to listen to me and remember everything I say….you too Tapper,” I said to the pair.

The two looked at me, confused. “What’s the problem Flats. Is something wrong,” asked Tapper.

“Something is VERY wrong. Look, the reason I was picked to be sacrificed was because I found out something big. Something the O.S. didn’t want getting out. The elections are rigged, no ponies vote counts. The O.S. is the one who picks who is sacrificed. When I found out, he picked me so I wouldn’t say anything.”

Zest shook her head. “Wait a minute…. the votes don’t count. The O.S. decides who gets picked. But….why would he do that,” she asked.

“Because he wants to make sure anypony important, like himself, doesn’t get picked. When I was fixing that fuse box, I overheard his conversation with Dial and found out. He caught me, and that led to everything else. I took care of him, but I can’t stay here. So….I’m leaving the stable.”

Tapper and Zest’s mouths dropped open, and their eyes grew wide. I figured they react positively.

“Flats, are you NUTS! Going outside is a death sentence! There’s nothing out there, and if there is, it’ll probably kill you. What’s the point to doing something like that,” Zest screamed.

“I agree with Zest on this one,” said Tapper. “I’ve heard stories about what’s outside the Stable, and it isn’t good. No pony has ever left this Stable, and the door hasn’t opened for 120 years. How do you even plan on opening it?”

I pulled up my PipBuck and opened the Override note, showing it to the two. “I’ve gotten the override code. Once I get to the door, I just have to type it in and I’ll be outta here.”

“How on earth did you get that?” Zest asked with a raised eyebrow.

I slowly rubbed the back of my head. “I….may have knocked the O.S. out and took it from his PipBuck.”

“You knocked the O.S. out! Oh, if he didn’t hate you before, he’s going to now,” said Tapper.

“Even more reason for me to get out of here. I don’t know how long he’ll be out, but I don’t want to be around when he wakes up. I need to get to the Stable door before any guards see me. Hopefully they…”

“ATTENTION STABLE 11, ATTENTION STABLE 11. THIS IS AN URGENT MESSAGE FROM YOUR OVERSTALLION!”

“Crap,” I thought.

“THIS IS A STABLE EMERGENCY! FLATFOOT, THIS YEAR’S SACRIFICE, HAS ESCAPED FROM THE CHAMBERS! ALL GUARDS ARE TO SEARCH THE STABLE AND FIND HIM! CITIZENS ARE TO STAY IN THEIR ROOMS AND NOT INTERFERE! IF ANYPONY IS CAUGHT HELPING THIS RENEGADE, THEY WILL FACE A PUNISHMENT GREATER THAN DEATH! BE WARNED: FLATFOOT IS CARRYING A RIFLE AND IS THOUGHT TO BE MENTALLY INSANE. ALL GUARDS ARE TO TAKE CAUTION WHEN APPROACHING HIM. BRING HIM TO THE O.S.’S OFFICE WHEN FOUND, BUT IF NECESSARY, YOU MAY SHOOT ON SIGHT! NOW FIND THAT STALLION!”

The speakers cut off, and the Stable seemed to go eerily quiet. But then, I heard the sound of hooves running along the metal floor. It was coming from everywhere, so the guards must have spread out fast.

“Well that’s just great. Now I have the entire security section hunting me down. So much for getting out of here silently,” I said.

Zest walked up to me and put a hoof on my shoulder, smiling. Under different circumstances, I might have blushed. “Don’t worry Flats; we’ll help you out. No pony tries to kill our friend and gets away with it.”

I wanted to smile, to say thank you for everything. But instead, I shook her hoof away and frowned. “Sorry Zest, but I have to do this alone. You heard the O.S.; anypony who is caught helping me will face extreme punishment. I don’t want that to happen to you, or anypony else.”

“So what, we’re just supposed to do nothing while you try and get out of this place,” asked Tapper.

“YES,” I screamed. I was wasting time, time in which the guards would be spreading out in the stable. If I wanted to get to the door, I’d have to move fast.

“Look, I have to bolt now or I’ll be caught.” I walked up to Zest and embraced her. “I’m….I’m sorry Zest. I’ll miss you, but I hope to see you again. Try not to do anything stupid okay,” I asked with a smile.

Zest sniffed and tried to smile to. “O….okay. But promise me you’ll come back alright!”

I giggled at the comment. Zest seemed to know just how to make me laugh. Even when I was in a life or death situation.

“Hey Flats, catch!”

I turned towards the bar just in time to see something flying towards me. I grabbed it in my hoof and examined it. It was a bottle of “Apple Arcs Top Notch Cider”, which the label said was over 150 years old!

“When you head outside, there’s going to be times you need to relax. Have this one on me, and show the outside just what a stable pony can do,” said Tapper from behind the bar.

I put the cider bottle in my bag, then walked up and held my hoof out to Tapper. “Thanks Tapper. I hope your bar doesn’t suffer from what I’m about to do.”

Tapper grabbed my hoof and gave it a firm shake. “My pleasure Flats. And don’t worry about me and my bar. If it does suffer, the I can always drown my sorrows in alcohol.”

I rolled my eyes at the thought, but figured he was only joking. At least I hoped he was only joking. But I pushed it aside, turned to the door, and breathed.

“Well, goodbye guys.”

And then I bolted out of the room and down the hallway towards the entrance.

____________________________________________________

I quickly got to the end of the hallway, but stopped before I turned a corner. My E.F.S was showing a red dot on the other side of the corner. I sneaked up to the bend and looked around at the other side.

The second hallway was shorter, and I could see the other end from where I was. A door sat on the opposite side of the hallway. A sign above the door described my destination: MAIN ENTRANCE.

But the I spotted what my red dot had been showing.

A guard was standing in front of the door, keeping an eye on the door and the hallway. He didn’t seem to notice me, so I must have been well hidden. He wore stand issue stable guard barding and helmet. A gun was holstered onto his leg, and was in easy range of unholstering. Since I didn’t see a horn on his head, he must have been an earth pony.

“Okay, I have to get past this guard if I want to get to the door. I really don’t want to shoot him, but I can’t just knock him out like I did the O.S.; he’s too far away. Come on Flatfoot, use your brain,” I thought. I ran through a few different options in my head, but it took me a minute to find a good one.

I moved round the corner and began walking towards the door. The guard turned around and jumped a little when he saw me. He instantly went for his gun and pulled it out of its holster. With lightning speed he pointed the end at me.

“Stop right where you are Flatfoot,” he called through a full mouth. His eyes looked fierce and his whole body wobbled. From nerves or adrenaline I had now idea. But I didn’t stop and kept on walking towards him.

“I SAID STOP, I’ll shoot if I have to,” he screamed.

I didn’t respond to his threats, and kept walking until I was a leg's length away from him. The barrel was so close to my head, if he shot I was dead. But I kept my cool and just smiled at him.

“Okay, I’ve stopped. So what are you going to do now,” I asked.

The stallion seemed a little confused about what I was doing. But he quickly put his fierce look back on. “I’m taking you to the Overstallion as instructed. You are in no position to refuse or resist.”

I raised an eyebrow questionably. “Am I? From what I’m seeing it’s your 9mm gun against my battle-saddle. I’m not an expert on guns, but I think a weapon like mine beats a weapon like yours every time.”

The guard looked down at the shotgun attached to my battle-saddle. His eyes grew wider, and his fierce demeanor soon began to dissolve.

“Where….where did you get that?” His voice became shaky, and so did the rest of his body.

“Doesn’t matter where I got it.” I could feel his confidence drain from him with every word I said. “What matters is that I got it. Now, do you feel lucky enough to go up against me with a toy like that?” I said, looking at his 9mm gun.

The stallion remained still for a moment, looking back and forth at our weapons. His pupils had gotten smaller, and his gun was now beginning to shake like the rest of him. Eventually, he lowered his gun back into his holster.

“No….no I don’t.”

“Good. Now I want you to get away from this area and not come back until further notice. If you see any guards on the way down, tell them the same thing. Failure to do so will result in painful injuries,” I said. I shifted my saddle a little just for emphasis.

The guard looked at me nervously before nodding. “yes, yes sir. I’ll, just, leave,” he said. He walked past me and down the hallway. I watched him until he disappeared around the corner with a flick of his tail.

“Wow, didn’t think that would work. But hey, I didn’t have to kill him, so that’s a bonus,” I said happily. I reached over the pressed the button on the wall. The door slip up and I walked into the entrance room.

I’d never been in there before, but it wasn’t exactly a classy room. The walls and floor were covered in rust. Old computers sat in a small side area to the left of me. Some rusty metal crates were stacked along the right wall, with a desk and terminal sitting in front of them.

A small section of stairs led to the lower area of the room. At the top of the stairs sat the door control pad. It looked fairly clean, but a few patches of rust coated the lower areas. Above the bottom of the stairs sat the door opening mechanism. It looked like a round tube with a pole sticking out of it. And at the other end of the room sat the large, cog-shaped, stable door.

“Wow, never thought I’d come into this room. Let alone come in here so that I could leave,” I said to myself.

I walked over to the stable door control panel. It seemed like a simple control panel; a keypad, a few blinking lights, and a small lever.

“Great description Flats. Good to know those years of working in maintenance have paid off,” I thought. But I shook those thoughts away and focused on the task at hoof.

I brought up my PipBuck and opened the fire containing the override code. According to the text, the code was “072574-LMF.”

I looked over the keypad and quickly typed in the passcode. Once I hit enter, a green light appeared above the small switch.

“Hopefully that means it worked. Guess I’m about to find out,” I said. I grabbed the lever with my hoof and pulled it down quickly.

BEEP, BEEP, BEEP, BEEP!

Alarms began ringing all around me. It wasn’t loud enough that I had to cover my ears, but I did grimace a little when it started up. I looked at the door and notice an orange warning light spinning above it.

Then the cylinder moved down, extending its pole into the stable door. Once it was in, it pulled back which brought the door with it. The screeching of metal against metal along with the siren was enough for me to cover my ears.

Once the door had been pulled out, it rolled to the right along a set of grooves. It tapped the wall and moved no more than that. I moved away from the panel and looked out beyond the door. All I could see was pitch black.

“Didn’t expect it to be so dark. Is the rest of the outside like this,” I wondered. “But it doesn’t matter. I can’t stay here, and out there was the one place I could go. Safety in the Stables doesn't apply to me anymore, or ever again. This is where my life changes.”

I walked down the stairs and began walking towards the open doorway. I stopped just before the entrance and looked at the blackness beyond. I hoped that my PipBuck light would be able to light my way.

“I know I have to leave….but….can I really do this?”

“Oh I believe you can do it Flatfoot.”

My head shot into the air before jerking around to look behind me. I hadn’t even noticed five ponies walking into the room.

Four were stable guards, each one a unicorn. They all had their guns drawn and pointing at me. The pony in the middle had two lumps on the side of his face and bandages covering his nose. He was giving me a death glare, and I knew why. I had just knocked his face up a while ago.

“Go ahead Flatfoot; leave the stable. Die outside along rather than in the comfort of your home. See how ponies react to your death being for nothing,” said the O.S.

“I’d rather die outside a free pony than die a slave to you in here,” I shot back. Anger overtook me again and what was left of my willpower was the only thing keeping me from shooting the bastard.

“You do realize that if you leave, you’d never be let back in. I’ll make sure the stable override code is changed and place guards at the entrance. You’d be stuck out there forever, and have nopony to help you. But it doesn’t have to be this way,” he said with a smug smile.

I looked at him questionably. “How so,” I asked.

“Well,” he started, waving a hoof in the air. “You could give yourself up right here and now. I’ll have the guards escort you to the sacrifice chamber and give you a choice. You can choose how you want to die. Knife, Gun, Hanging, you name it. Therefore the sacrifice is complete, and you get the satisfaction of choosing how you die. Everypony wins,” he said happily.

This stallion was fucking nuts. Everything that dealt with me ended in my dying. I really wanted to blast him with my gun, but then I’d have to deal with five high class unicorns and their guns. Guns were bad enough, but guns and spells were twenty times worse.

Well I wasn’t going to have it. Not this time, and not ever again.

“So I get to choose how I die?” I asked.

The O.S. smiled smugly. “Yes you do; anyway you want. Well, except maybe my explosives. We have to keep the chamber intact you see.”

“Alright then. I choose to die outside, ALONE!”

I turned away from the five and bolted out the stable door. I screeched to a stop a few feet outside and looked back. The guards still had their guns aimed at me, but they hadn’t fired at all.

The O.S. looked at me with disappointment in his face. He slowly shook his head. “Tsk, Tsk, Tsk. I had hoped it wouldn’t come to this Flatfoot. But it seems you’ve given me no choice.” He turned to the farthest guard on his right side. “Guard, shut the door.”

“Right away sir,” he said. The unicorn’s horn grew brighter, and the magic engulfed the control pad. The alarm bell rang out again as the stable door began to roll back into place. But the overstallion wasn’t done talking to me just yet.

“Know this Flatfoot: when you’re lying on the ground dying from Celestia knows what, remember that this is what you choose.”

And with that, Stable 11 door rolled into place, before sliding itself shut once more.

___________________________________________________

Flatfoot :

S.P.E.C.I.A.L

Strength: 8

Perception: 5

Endurance: 7

Charisma: 7

Intelligence: 8

Agility: 6

Luck: 10

PERKS

-Scavenger

-Large Guns

-Barter

-Fortune Finder

Chapter 3: I Got Shot Today

FALLOUT EQUESTRIA: SURVIVOR

Chapter 3: I Got Shot Today

The sudden absence of light almost made me freak out.

My breathing began to pick up again, and I felt another gnawing at the back of my skull. It kept screaming at me: “Run to the door. Bang on it. Try the override code again. Get back inside the stable. You won’t make it out here.”

“No, that’s not how this was going to work.” I left that place because I didn’t want to die for nothing. I wanted to live; I wanted to kill the asshole who calls the shots. If I went back, there’d be no way of accomplishing that.

I pulled up my PipBuck and hit the light switch on the front. The device shown a bright green light that lit up the area. I looked around at my surroundings.

The stable door itself was rusty and clearly showing its age. In the middle of the door was a faded number 11 that glowed slightly in the dark. Another control panel sat on the left of it, looking rusty but not broken. The floor in front of it was metal, before smoothing out to rough dirt.

I slowly paced around the area, getting a feel of the terran. I’d lived my entire life in the stable, so I had always walked on solid metal or tile floors. This was my first time walking on dirt, and it felt great! It scratched at my hooves and covered them in a fine layer of dust….or stone dust to be precise.

I stopped moving and shone my light across the rest of the cavern. It seemed barren except for a few boulders father up ahead. But then I looked below them, and saw a skull looking back at me.

I jumped a little in surprise, but still managed to keep my cool. I walked up to the skull, seeing the rest of the structure lying behind it. The bones were a little scorched, but overall it seemed fine. Nothing was sitting near it except for a sign with the words: We’re Dying Assholes. Let Us In!

I shook my head sadly, thinking this pony was lucky he wasn’t let it. He was able to die out here with a purpose: trying to get in. Futile, but at least he didn’t die because the Overstallion didn’t like him.

Not much better, but still better than the Overstallion option.

“Alright, enough gawking,” I said. I looked around the cavern, waving my PipBuck wherever I needed to look. “There’s got to be an exit somewhere.”

I left the skeleton behind and began walking down the cavern. The terrain was flat at first, but soon began to slope up. I had to climb over so fallen rocks a few times, but other than that nothing got in my way.

“How far down did they build these stables?” I’d studied books on the making of stables before, but none spoke about the depth or location of a stable.

I decided the best bet for me was to just keep walking until I found an exit. The slope was beginning to flatten out again, so I figure I must be getting close to the exit. But what I found instead wasn’t an exit.

I reached the top of a large slope, and found myself at the foot of a spiraling staircase. The structure was made of metal, and had rust all over it. I looked up as the stairs spiraled into the blackness above.

“This must be the way to the top,” I said aloud. I put my hoof on the first step and pressed down on it. I heard a slight groan, but the staircase didn’t fall apart. Good thing, because I needed to climb it.

I put my other hoof on the step above it. Once again, it creaked but didn’t collapse. I repeated this process as I slowly climbed up the staircase. The cavern walls reflected the light of my PipBuck, making everything seem brighter.

I looked up above me, and noticed a platform a few more steps up. A hole was cut in the middle to make room for the spiraling staircase. When I finally reached the top, I looked around the area.

The platform wasn’t very big, but it was roomy enough to walk around. A few open crates sat along one side, while a table occupied the middle. On the side opposite the crates was a small terminal station. Metal poles stuck into the floor, each with a small gate in between the others. A sign above the area read: ENTRANCE CHECK IN.

“It looks like this was where ponies came before going down to the stable,” I said as I walked to the terminal. I began to imagine what my Great-Great-Grandparents were thinking when they came down here that day.

Hundreds of ponies pushing and shoving, trying to get to the safety of the Stable. The guards that must have been trying to keep everypony calm while the megaspells rained down outside. The cries of foals and the mayhem that would follow.

Uck, I didn’t have time to think of stuff like that. I need to see if there was anything helpful up here. I trotted over to the terminal that sat on the podium. The screen was dark, but then I noticed the power switch was off. I push it up and watched the screen blink to life. Green light helped my PipBuck with lighting the room, and green words appeared on the screen.

“Stable-Tec Terminal for check in at Stable 11. Server has been offline for 120 years, five months, Two weeks, 1 hour, and 44 minutes. Please check with Stable-Tec mechanics for any questions relating to server problems.”

“Too late now. I highly doubt there are any technicians left,” I said. But I kept my focus on looking over the terminal. I scrolled through the notes and maintenance records, but none of that interested me. What did catch my attention was the list of audio files.

I’d listened to a lot of audio files during my time in the stable. Most of them were radio messages from soldiers or speeches given by the princesses. But that was all that was available. The Overstallion kept the more interesting files locked up. But now, I had a chance to listen to a few new ones. I clicked the one that was located on the top.

Entry #1: Well Stable-Tec is making us do these audio files as a way of better preserving all aspects of ponykind. I really don’t see why I have to do this. I’m just an employee who sits here all day waiting for the shit to hit the fan. But hey, I follow orders, so I’ll give this a try.

Entry #2: We had a dry run today for if, or as the boss says, WHEN, the bombs drop. We had a few volunteers walk through here today, and we had to work as if this was a real life situation. That meant handing out passes, ushering them down the stairs, and even closing the stable door. A whole lot of work for no pay off.

Entry #3: Mrs. Scootaloo, or as we're supposed to call her, Vice-President Scootaloo, visited the stable today. I had to lead her down to it and take her through all the rooms and hallways. She kept asking if everything was cleaned and readied for when the bombs dropped. I talked about our dry run a few days ago, and she seemed pleased with that. But then she asked me to take her to the Overstallion’s office. Once we got there, she made me wait outside while she “checked some programing.” I did what I was told and stood watch. I heard what sounded like machinery working inside, but didn’t go and see what it was. She came out ten minutes later with a half smile on her face. After that she left, and I was back doing what I usually do.

Entry #4: Working on a Saturday, just great. My wife wanted me, her, and our son Punch Bowl to go out for the day. The sun is shining and the temp. is just perfect. And where am I? Stuck down in this dark and damp cave. Goddesses this is torture. Stable-Tec puts so much effort into these stables, but where’s the proof those Zebra bastards will go so far that we have to use them. If I was in charge of Stable-Tec, I’d make sure that….”

The last entry was cut off by the sound of something exploding. I could hear rocks falling from the roof, and ponies running around shouting. I couldn’t hear what they were shouting, but I could hear the pony on the recording.

“My Celestia….IT’S HAPPENING! They did it, oh fuck, they actually did it. My wife, Punch Bowl, they’re still out there. I….I have to go find them. I….what is it Free Throw?

I listened to the conversation intently. I could hear two voices talking at once. One sounded panicky, the other sounded stern.

“WHAT, what do you mean I can’t leave? My family is out there, and I have to make sure they’re safe. Screw Stable-Tec and the Stables. I’m going out to find my family! Want to stop me, HA, just try!”

I heard the sound of a pony running, which was surprising given the amount of noise going on in the background. I waited a few seconds before another voice spoke up.

“....well it would seem that Cocktail has, uh, stepped out for the moment. We’ll probably have ponies running up here any minute now, so I’ll finish this up. I just got one message to say to whoever’s listening. Those Zebra bastards won’t kill our nation. Equestria is strong, and will fight as hard as we can do defend ourselves. Because while we may suffer, we’ll never fall.”

The recording cut out again with a resounding beep.

***

Numbness and apathy filled my body when the recording cut off. I didn’t know weather to feel sad or inspired. Even when fire was raining from the sky, a pony had still found time to record a loving message about his nation. About the ponies who lived in it, and the Zebras that tried to destroy it.

For some reason, that started to fill me with hope. So I decided to transfer the audio recordings into my PipBuck. “Maybe these can lift my spirits up sometimes….at least the last one.”

Once all the files were downloaded, I walked past the gates and found myself in another tunnel. This one had a metal floor, but the rest was natural rock. I looked up ahead and saw a door at the other end.

“Sweet,” I thought, racing towards the door. “I finally found a way out.”

I quickly reached the door, which looked worn out and ready to fall apart. The wood was splintered and in some places rotten. I grabbed the knob with my hooves, but then looked back at the hallway and the platform beyond it.

“This is it. When I step outside, there’s no going back,” I said to myself. But I didn’t hear any arguments from my brain, so I knew I had to leave.

Looking back at the door, I pushed it open and walked through to the world beyond.

____________________________________________________

The world beyond wasn’t much brighter.

I walked through the door, and was greeted by the sight of a large open area. Walls rose up around me, encircling me like a bowl. They stopped at the end opposite of me, leaving a large area that was my only way out.

Wind pushed at my face and through my mane. It smelled like a mix between sewage and grassbars they used to serve in the Diner. I looked up at the sky, and saw nothing but dark grey. No white clouds and blue skies like they showed in kids books.

“Alright Flatfoot, think. You finally made it outside….now what.” I had been so focused on making it outside, I hadn’t thought about what I was going to do when I finally got out.

I pulled up my PipBuck and pressed on the MAPS feature. A small map appeared on the screen, with a yellow blimp that represented me. A cog shaped image appeared behind me with the name “Stable 11” written under it.

“Okay, looks like I’m facing east right now. There’s a roadway not far from here, so that’s probably going to be the best place to start,” I said while looking at the areas surrounding the stable.

I put a marker on the road’s location, which thanks to my PipBuck, appeared as a little arrow in my vision. When I turned left, it pointed right. When I turned right, it pointed left. And when I looked forward, it pointed forward.

Now that I had a way of keeping me on track, I walked away from the door and across the barren area. There weren’t even rocks or boulders along the walls. Nothing but a wide open space filled with dirt.

Once I made it to the other side, I walked through the canyon until I reached the other side. A large field spread out in front of me, covered in dead grass and withered shrubs. I spotted the roadway a good distance ahead, and started walking towards it.

While I was walking, I got another message on my PipBuck. It was a signal from a radio station, but there was no name for it. Truthfully I was surprised that there was even radio out here, let alone a station. But since I was growing uncomfortable by the silence, I tuned the radio station to my PipBuck.

“HELLOOO WASTELAND! This is DJ Pon3, coming to you live from my studio in the fabulous Tenpony Tower. Looks like we got, surprisingly, a bit of news. Listen up fillies this stuff's important.”

The pony on the air sounded a little too happy for my tastes. His speech reminded me of Disk Jocky, the pony who ran Stable 11’s radio station. She had always tried to replicate the way radio broadcasters used to talk before the war. Not that she was bad at it, but it did get annoying after a while.

“Alright folks, our first bit of news comes from the town of Stalliongrad out in the south. The town has been recently attacked day after day by raiders. It all started a few weeks ago, but we haven’t been told how. So if you’re down in the area, or planning on going by their, you might want to stop by. Ponies from their are saying they need all the help they can get if the want to beat these savages. If you got the guns and the guts, they’re willing to pay for services.”

“Geeze, is that what it’s like out here?” I had always known that the outside was a dangerous place. We’d been told that since we started going to school.

But usually it was because of radiation and weird creatures. We’d never been told anything about other ponies and what they may do.

Another beep came from my PipBuck, which I quickly looked at. A small box had appeared on the map, south of the road I was walking to. There was no name under it, but I figured it must have been Stalliongrad.

I finally made it to the stretch of road I’d marked. My PipBuck told me that the road was called “Highway 10.” But now that I was here, I had to decide which way to go. I could either follow the road north and hope to find something that way. OR, I could go south to Stalliongrad.

You’d think I’d pick to go north, avoiding the town that was being pelted by raiders….whatever they were. But I had to think logically if I wanted to survive out here. I had no idea what was in the areas to the north, and if there was even a safer town that way.

Right now, Stalliongrad was the closest place to my location. And raiders or not, I need to find someplace where I could stay and figure out what to do next. So I put a marker on my PipBuck, turned until the arrow pointed toward it, and set off down the road.

***

I had been walking for a hour or two now, and still hadn’t reached Stalliongrad. The road was a lot rougher than the dirt or the cavern floors. I didn’t know if this a concrete or some other kind of material, but it did leave deeper scratches on my hooves.

Every once in awhile I’d come across some kind of ruined cart. Most were either sitting on the side of the road, or lying a little further away. I checked everyone I came across hoping to find something useful. So far all I’d managed to find was a few healing potions and bobby pins. Not really anything I was desperate for, but useful none the less.

I had walked a little farther along when I came across something. It was moving in the shrubs, keeping out of my sight. I couldn’t tell if it was a pony or something else. I was about to go and see what it was when it jumped out at me.

It had a large bloated body, and short stubby legs. It’s head slanted down to a rather large mouth. Big, sharp teeth pointed out it’s mouth, perfect for ripping flesh off another animal….or pony. It moved so fast that I barely had enough time to move out of the way. It soared past me before landing on the road and turning to face me again.

My E.F.S. showed the thing as hostile, but I already knew that. I readied my gun and slipped into S.A.T.S., picking the creature's head as my target. I bit the mouthpiece and watched as five bullets blasted from my gun and embedded themselves into the creature's head. It stopped moving and slumped to the ground, while the red dot on my E.F.S. disappeared.

I slipped out of S.A.T.S. and went to examine my first kill. It seemed much bigger up close, but I still couldn’t tell what it was. “Whatever it is, I killed it. And that means meat,” I said.

I knew that thing was probably irradiated, but I only had eight cans of syrup apples, so eventually I’d need to find different kinds of food. So I picked up my knife and began carving a large section of flesh out of the creature. Blood poured out of the cuts and covered my hooves. But I just worked through it until I had a large section of meat in my hooves. I wrapped it in some scrap paper I found and placed it in my saddlebag.

Once I did, I checked my PipBuck to see if it had a name for it. And surprisingly, it could tell what it was. The name of the item said “Radhog Meat.”

“So that’s a radhog? Well I sure hope they taste as good as they fight,” I said. But in all honesty I was just hoping it didn’t put me out of my misery. Maybe cooking it would help kill any unwanted viruses it might be carrying.

I left the radhog carcass on the side of the road, thinking another animal or pony might be able to make better use of it. I continued on walking for a while after that.

“Well, that was something” I said to myself. I could feel adrenaline rushing through my body, pounding at my head and legs. Sweat poured down over my face, but overall I felt like I’d just escaped from the stable five times over!

I continued walking in silence for another hour before I couldn’t stand the silence anymore. I’d turned off the Equestria One Radio signal a while ago, not wanting to hear anything else about towns getting attacked. But right now, I’d rather have anything than silence. I turned on my PipBuck radio and tuned it to the radio station.

“Alright ponies, DJ’s back and ready to fill your hearts with lead….sorry, I mean joy. I’d just gotten finished talking to a former raider a while ago, and it seems his words stuck to me.”

“What a freak this stallion is,” I said. The way he described things in a joking manner. It just….just…. “makes me want to shoot something.”

“Anyway listeners, I have one last piece of news for you before we get back to the tunes. Anypony who’s currently, or planning on, traveling past Fillydelphia might want to rethink their plans. The New Equestrian Military has been getting more and more violent to all those who pass by their city. Sometimes they shoot you, other times they forcefully drag you into the city. So my advice, stay out of that area and come to Manehattan. There’s plenty of room and lots of buildings you can make your own. And now, some music.”

A soft tune began to filter through the PipBuck speakers, filling the area around me with music. My brain became calmer when the tunes reached my ear. “Now that sounds nice,” I said a I continued on my way to Stalliongrad.

***

A few hours later I was walking over a small hill. I had left the road a while ago since it curved off in another direction. When I reached the summit, I spotted my destination in the distance. A large wall surrounded a number of large buildings, with a few towers at certain points around it.

“Finally, I was beginning to think I’d never get here,” I said while I walked down the hill. The area on the other side didn’t have any grass, but it did have a lot of rotten trees. They didn’t look at all like the trees I’d seen in pre-war books; with green leaves and a hard brown trunk.

“Radiation can really kill the mood of any environment,” I said while I walked past the rooting plants. The town was much closer now; I could see ponies walking along the top of the walls. They were all looking out across the land, some with guns floating next to them.

One of the guards looked over in my direction, before turning and shouting something to another pony. He looked in my direction, and soon most of them were doing the same. I couldn’t see the looks on their faces, but I imagined they didn’t seem happy.

As I got closer, I cleared my throat. “HELLO,” I called “How’s it going. Pretty good day hu?”

I expected the ponies to holler back. Either some kind of greeting or a holler to get lost. What I didn’t expect was what actually happened.

I was almost to the wall when I heard the gunshot ring out. Something whizzed through the air and struck me above my chest. The worst pain I’d ever felt rang through my whole body. I didn’t even have time to scream before I heard another gun go off.

This time the bullet hit me in the flank, spilling more blood over me. The wound from the first blast was already spilling my blood over the ground, mixing it with the dirt. My legs collapsed under me, too worn out to hold me up.

“Oh Celestia….this is painful. Is, is this it? Am I going to die?” I thought as I sat there bleeding to death. The pain was just getting worse, and it was hard for me to breath.

“Hey You!”

I looked up to see who had called….big mistake.

The moment I looked up, I saw something large and round coming straight at me. It hit me hard in the head and everything went dark.

***

“....I think he’s getting better….”

“....what’s a pony like him doing someplace like this….”

“....Think he’s going to die. He did get hit with those buck shots…”

“....Don’t doubt my medical skills Flank. I’m pretty good with a needle. But it was a nightmare getting all those balls out of him….”

“....well he’d better wake up soon. He’s wasting our supplies and our time….”

“....Then you should have thought about that before you riddled him with bullets. Next time think before you act….”

“....I told those two not to fire, but they didn’t listen to me. Next time it’ll be Spark and Zap who’ll be getting the wind kicked out of them….”

“....Well go talk to them now. I’ll send Spark in later to help you move him. Until then, do whatever you can….”

“....Yes Sir….”

The voices were so soft and far away, I thought I was dreaming. The pain from earlier was gone, but then I couldn’t feel anything. All I saw was darkness, but the voices seemed close.

But soon I began to feel my eyes again, and slowly started opening them. The light burned my sockets, but I didn’t stop. Blurred images flashed around me, but I couldn’t make out any of them. Three large lights sat above me, while the ceiling had a faint blue color to it.

The spinning in my head began to slow down, and the images became less blurred. I began to make out the face of a pony looking down at me. Soon my vision cleared enough that I could see her properly.

It was a bright red unicorn mare with a golden mane tied in a ponytale. She had on a white hat with a red cross stitched onto the front. A stethoscope hung around her neck, and a syringe was floating in her magic. She wore a pink nurse uniform, but it wa short enough that her bandage cutie-mark was visible She was smiling right at me.

“Oh good, you're finally awake. I was beginning to think you were either in a coma or brain dead. Guess we got to you just in time,” she said with a smile.

I didn’t know what to say at this point. I was lying in a strange place with a strange pony looking down at me. I wanted to sit up, but as I tried, I felt red hot pain spread through my body again. It seemed to emanate from my chest and flanks, so both ends were covered.

The unicorn mare put her hooves on me and gently pressed me back onto the table. “Don’t move, your injuries haven’t had time to heal yet. We’re going to move you to the recovery room in a while so you can rest. Until then, you need to stay still.”

I groaned and tried to look around the room. It was fairly big, bigger than most rooms in the stable. The table I was on was just one for three that sat in a row in the middle of the room. Cabinets sat at the four corners of the room, while the rest of the wall space was taken up by trays of medical equipment.

“I know you must have some questions,” said the mare, taking a seat in a small chair next to my table. “And I assure you they will all be answered. But please just wait until we move you. Then you can think properly.”

“I can think properly right now,” I said. My voice sounded more quiet and shaky than normal. My mouth was also dry and had the faint taste of iron to it.

The unicorn looked at me carefully. “Maybe, but I’ve dealt with a lot of patients who’ve said the same thing. Then they start talking crazy or try to find a way out of here. So until you’re moved, try to go back to sleep. You’re safe here.”

“And where exactly is HERE,” I asked, looking back up at the lights above me.

The mare looked uneasy “You’re in the medical wing of Stalliongrad hospital. Some ponies brought you in here a few hours ago, saying you’d been shot.”

“Yeah,” I said, feeling the bandages that covered my chest. “I remember that.”

“Well at least your memories are okay,” she said, trying to put on an amused smile.

It wasn’t amusing for me, not one bit. The pain, the bone crushing, tear jerking pain. I had never felt anything like that before, and then I got hit in the head. If the Overstallion had felt that when I hit him, then I was starting to regret doing it.

I wanted to ask more questions, but was interrupted by three stallions entering the room. Two had on barding and had a gun holster, loaded, attached to their forelegs. The third wore metal plates around his body and legs. His face remained uncovered, and he looked grimly at me.

“Well it seems you’ve finally woken up. Guess that means it’s time to take you to the recovery bay.” He turned to the two stallions behind him. “You two, take him there now. Cuddles will escort you,” he said before walking out of the room.

“Yes sir,” said the two. They walked over to my table, with Cuddles standing on the other side.

“Alright, this will be simple. I’ll lift him up with my magic and place him on the gurney. You two will walk the gurney to the room three doors down on the right. Please be careful with him,” she said.

“Right, we got it. Let’s just get this colt were he needs to go. I’ve got to get back to my shift,” said one of the guards huffily.

The other rolled another table over to mine. But this one had soft padding along it and rails on the side. Wheels poked out of the legs, and the whole thing seemed light weight.”

“Okay, I’m going to lift you up now. Please don’t move or say anything while I do,” said Cuddles. Her horn glowed and I was soon covered in red pulsating magic. I felt myself lift of the table and slowly get placed down on the gurney.

Cuddles smiled “See, that wasn’t so bad. Now you two, we need to take him to the recovery wing. Follow me,” she said. And she strolled out of the room with the two following behind her.

The hallway was fairly large and not very crowded. The paint was peeling off the walls in chunks. Old posters, long since faded, were still mostly intact. One or two benches, made from scraps of wood, were positioned near different doors.

Soon we left the hallway and moved into another room. This one was much larger than the other room. Beds lined either side, leaving the middle as a place to move. Most of the beds were empty, but some held either a sleeping pony or one reading a book. Some of those who were reading a book looked up and waved at me when I passed. I wished I had enough energy to wave back.

“Alright,” said Cuddles, stopping next to a bed at the back. A rather large window sat to the left side, while a small nightstand took the other side. “Place the gurney over here.”

The guards pushed me over till I was horizontal with the bed. “Now I’m going to lift you up again. Please try not to….”

“Can you just get it over with,” asked one of the guards. I could feel the anger radiating from his body.

Cuddles looked hurt, but she stayed quiet while she lifted me into the bed with her magic. “Good, now let’s go,” said the guards. They look the gurney and quickly walked to the door.

“Oh, I really hate those two.” Cuddles glared at the two as they left, but then turned to look at me. “Now, how do you feel? Are you comfortable?”

I shifted a little, trying to regain feeling in my body. “Yeah, I’m comfortable. Now can I start asking questions?”

Cuddles giggled a little, before bringing a chair over and sitting in it. “You sure are eager, I’ll give you that. And yes, I’ll answer any questions you have to the best of my ability.

“Okay….so what happened to me?”

“Well, you were shot at by some of our border guards. When they brought you in, you were bleeding from your chest and flanks. I worked as best I could to get the bullets out of you, but they were pretty far in there. I didn’t think you were going to make it,” she said.

I saw her brows dip lower than before. The scrunch in her eyelids made them droopier. In some way, I felt sorry for her. I thought she looked hurt. Her face reminded me of Zest's just before I scrammed.

“Glad I did,” I said, keeping my eyes on the wall ahead of me. I didn’t want to look her in the face, less my emotions start to show. I felt the bandages around me again, before noticing that I wasn’t wearing my Stable jumpsuit. In fact, I just realized then that everything I had was gone.

“What happened to my supplies,” I asked, maybe with a little more force than intended.

Cuddles gently patted her ponytail, looking more nervous than before. “I think they confiscated them when they brought you in. Guns aren’t allowed in the walls unless you’re a guard. And it would have been hard to operate on you if you had on any garments, so they took those off to.”

I raised an eyebrow, “And where would my stuff be now?” As much as I wanted to forget that place, I was feeling more naked than ever without my jumpsuit. It had always felt snug and warming to me, even when I came outside.

“They’re either be in the storage warehouse, or in Mayor Drops office. They really don’t tell me where everything goes when they bring ponies in,” said Cuddles.

I groaned, thinking of all the things they could be doing to my gear. “And how long,” I asked questionably “before I can go get it all back?”

Cuddles shook her head. “You can’t walk for at least another day. And I don’t feel comfortable letting you leave for at least three days. I take care of ponies here, and I don’t want you to go out there until you’re fully healed.”

I wanted to tell her she was wrong; that I could go out now and feel fine. But my body was killing me, and I needed these wounds to heal. Feeling defeated, I slumped back into the bed.

“Fine, I’ll wait. But I won’t be happy about it,” I said crossly.

“I can deal with that,” said Cuddles. She used her magic to float a bottle of liquid over to me. “Drink this; it’ll help your wounds and make you fall asleep faster.”

I grabbed the liquid in my hooves and looked it over. “And how do I know this isn’t poison?”

Her eyes scrunched down and her mouth curved into a smile. “If I wanted to kill you, why would I spend all that time taking those bullets out? I could have done nothing, and you’d have died soon enough.”

“Point taken,” I said, rolling my eyes. I brought the bottle to my mouth and downed the liquid. It had a sugary taste to it, but had the feel of cough syrup.

Cuddles took the bottle from my hooves. “Now just try and get some sleep. I’ll come by and check on you later.” She walked around my bed before disappearing around the curtain.

Sighing, I laid back and looked up at the ceiling. “First day out of the stable. I’ve shot a creature, found a town, and gotten shot myself. Great start to my new life.”

I closed my eyes, and found myself falling asleep not long after.

***

“Flatfoot….Flatfoot, time to wake up buddy.”

I opened my eyes slowly, and saw a pony looking down at me. He was dark brown, with a black mane. He wore stable guard barding and had a gun holster attached to his leg (which was empty). His cutie mark, a guard baton, sat on his flanks.

“DAD,” I screamed, jumping out of bed and giving him a hug. “How was work last night?”

Dad hugged me back, “Oh it was normal. Nothing new….that is until I came across a THIEF!” He said the last word with a little dramatic emphasis.

“Really,” I asked in amazement.

“I sure did.” He carried me to the couch and sat down in the middle. I crawled closer to his face and listened carefully.

“I was down near the armory when I heard the sound of something moving on the other side. When I looked through the window, I saw a pony taking a gun from one of the cases.”

“NO,” I said, not believe what he was saying.

“Oh but he was, and he thought no one could see him. But I wasn’t going to sit around and let him get that gun. So I grabbed my baton and charged into the room. He was so surprised he didn’t even have time to use the gun on me. I charged at him and hit his head on the left side. He went down faster than a falling rock,” said Dad with a smile.

“Alright dad,” I said, jumping up in the air.

“It does sound like a surprising night.” Mom had walked into the room, smiling at the both of us. She gave dad a kiss on the head, before walking over and sitting by me. “All we did was play a game of cards. This little law enforcer won every single time.”

Dad rubbed my head, making my mane go all over the place. “Good job there tyke. You’ll be an expert poker player when you’re older at this rate.”

“CHASER! I don’t want our son to know about this stuff yet. It’ll cloud his mind and send him down the wrong career choice!”

“And what if is cutie-mark is a deck of cards? Then he’ll probably work in the stable’s game lounge,” said Dad with a smug smile.

Mom rolled her eyes. “I hope it doesn’t come to that.” Then she looked down at me with a smile. “Now, how about some breakfast Flatfoot?”

“Yeah, I’m hungry,” I said, jumping off the couch and running to the kitchen. Mom and Dad, both laughing, followed behind me.

***

I woke with a start, breathing heavily while sweat covered my body. It took me a moment to calm down, and then another to remember where I was. Everything came back again: leaving the stable, traveling to Stalliongrad, getting shot, the hospital. It seemed like a bad dream, but from the sight of the bleak ceiling above, it was real. I sat up slowly and looked around the room.

The place was empty except for me and three ponies sleeping a few beds down. I checked my bandages again, and saw that they’d been changed. The didn’t have any blood stains on them, and they felt/looked cleaner.

The pain in my chest and flanks had gone down substantially since I’d fallen asleep. It now felt like a minor cut and not a gaping wound. I swung my hooves over the side of the bed and set them on the ground.

“No pain so far,” I said, and I put my front hooves on the ground next. My legs wobbled a little, but I was able to keep myself up. The pain had increased slightly, now feeling like a deep gash. But I ignored it and started walking towards the door.

None of the sleeping ponies woke up when I passed. Although one did start talking about pies and rainbows….weird. “So this is what ponies are like outside the stable,” I asked myself.

I was only a few feet from the door when it opened. Cuddles came in with a tray of food floating above her head. Her eyes widened when she saw me.

“What on earth are you doing out of bed,” she asked while placing the tray on a nearby table. She ran up to me and began pushing me back. “You need more rest. Back into bed.”

“Hey, hey, wait a minute,” I said. I raised my hooves up and gave her a push back. This mare was now starting to get on my nerves.

“Look, I can walk now,” I said, walking in a circle around her for emphasis. “So that means I’m fine. I need to leave and get my supplies.”

Cuddles shook her head angrily. “No, you need to rest. Walking is good, but I said you need to stay for at least another two days. Your wounds won’t heal properly if you don’t rest.”

“I have med-x and healing potions in my saddlebags. If I can go get them, I’ll be fine. You can’t just make me stay here like a prisoner.”

The more time I stayed here, the more time Stable 11 suffered. The Overstallion was probably doing terrible things to the residents, and all because of me. I had to do something, but I couldn’t do that if I was stuck here.

“You’re not a prisoner, you’re my patient. And that means you can’t leave until I say you’re fully healed. Now please go back and rest,” said Cuddles. She didn’t seem like she was demanding it. It felt more like she was begging me to do it.

I wanted to retort, but was stopped by the sight of another pony walking into the room. He was a dark grey unicorn with a blue mane. He wore a white lab coat, and a pair of glasses sat on his nose. He smiled at the both of us as he walked in.

“What seems to be the commotion in here. We don’t want to wake the other patients,” he said happily.

“Too late,” called a pony from one of the beds.

Cuddles turned to the unicorn. “Dr. Remedial, this pony needs to rest, but he refuses to listen to me. I’ve tried to make him see reason, but he keeps insisting that he’s fine. Please help me get him back into bed.”

I looked at the doctor with a vengeful look. “I assure you I’m fine. I can walk on my own and don’t feel much pain anymore. I just need to go and get my supplies.”

Dr. Remedial walked over to me, pulling a stethoscope out of his jacket. He put the two end into his ears and put the other end on my chest. “Do you have any weakness in your legs?”

“Uh...no. My legs feel just fine,” I replied questionably.

“On a scale of one to ten, how would you rate your pain?” he asked while putting the metal bit on my lower chest.

I thought for a moment, getting a good feel of what my body was saying. “I don’t know….a four I guess.”

He put his stethoscope away, before putting his hoof up in front of him. “Last question; how many hooves do you see?”

“One,” I said.

He put his hoof down and smiled at me. “Well it seems this pony is in fine working order. I see no reason for him not to go walking around.”

Cuddles looked flabbergasted at the remark. “But….but sir….”

Dr. Remedial looked back at the mare with a questioning face. “No buts now Cuddles. This pony has the right to leave whenever he wants to. I don’t want you keeping ponies here just because you strike a fancy with them.”

Cuddles tensed up while her cheeks turned bright red. From anger or embarrassment I couldn’t tell, but she stayed like that for a good few seconds. Dr. Remedial looked back at me.

“Do take care of yourself my young friend, and try not to get yourself riddled with bullets again. It can be hazardous to your health,” he said before turning away and walking to check on some of the other ponies.

I had a good feeling about that pony; he seemed nice and knew how to talk to others. Plus he got me out of this place, so I was happy.

I turned back to Cuddles, who was looking sourly down at the ground. Her cheeks were still slightly red, but the color was slowly starting to disappear.

“Well then, I guess, I’ll just go,” I said. Cuddles still looked down at the ground, but she wasn’t scowling anymore. “Uh, thanks for the help Mrs. Cuddles.”

“Miss.”

“What,” I asked.

She looked up at me with a blank expression. “It’s Miss Cuddles; I’m not married. And even then, just call me Cuddles. Everypony here does.”

“Oh, okay then….Cuddles. But like I was saying, thanks for patching me up and, well, saving my life,” I said nervously. I didn’t want to say anything else that would upset her, so I tried to pick my words carefully.

She half smiled at me, which I guessed was a good sign. “No problem; it’s my job anyway. Helping ponies and getting them back up again.”

“Well you certainly do a good job,” I replied “I guess I’ll see you around then.” I started walking towards the door, but found a leg blocking my way. I looked and saw it belonged to Cuddles.

She looked at me nervously, with her cheeks turning red again. “Um….I’m about to give the patients some food. After that I was planning on getting some myself. Since you didn’t eat yet, I wanted to know if you’d like to join me?”

“Oh,” I said. She was asking me to join her for breakfast, and was quite nervous about it. I remembered what Dr. Remedial had said: “Just because you strike a fancy to them.”

Could that mean that Cuddles….no, that probably wasn’t true. I mean, who would fall for someone like me. My mind quickly brought up Zest, but I shoved that out of my head for now. Maybe Cuddles just wanted to make friends, and was too nervous to make any. Now, she was trying to do so.

“I mean, if you’d rather just leave and get your supplies, I’d understand. I wouldn’t want to keep you here any longer than you wanted to,” she said nervously.

I smiled at the mare and gently took her hoof. Her pelt felt soft and clean, which felt great against my dirty hooves. She quickly looked up, her cheeks becoming even more red. Her eyes were shining bright like a polished diamond, and they were staring right at me with anticipation. Now I was starting to get nervous, and my hoped for smile now became a nervous grin.

 “I’d love to join you Miss Cuddles. But to where shall we be getting our meal?” I asked, my smile turning into a smug one as I talked.

“Oh….uh….in the cafeteria. It’s four doors down on the right. You can head down there if you want. I still have to hand out food to the other patients,” she said. She sounded less nervous, but not by much.

I did a slight bow to her, like I’d read about in most romance books. “Very well then, I’ll meet you down there,” I said before rising back up and walking into the hallway.

***

Once I found the cafeteria, I walked in and looked around. The room was about the size of the atrium back in the stable. Long tables were placed around the room, filled with plates and utensils. I spotted the kitchens on the other side, with ponies bustling about carrying pots and pans.

I walked over to there, hoping somepony would see me. I large earth pony was walking by when he looked over at me. He smiled and walked over to the counter. “Hello there, ready to eat some good food?”

I tried my best to smile. “Uh, yeah.”

“Excellent, pass please,” He said with a smile, putting his hoof out towards me. I looked down at it questionably.

“What do you mean pass,” I asked.

Now the stallion was looking at me questionably. But I couldn’t tell if it was because of the pass, or the bandages that covered me. “You know, your food pass. You didn’t lose yours did you?”

“No, I never had a pass. I just got here yesterday,” I said.

The stallion retracted his hoof, now looking at me even more questionably. “You're the pony who got shot outside the walls aren’t you?”

I rolled my eyes; it seemed everypony knew about me. “yeah, that was me.”

“Well I’m sorry to tell you this, but I can’t serve you anything. You have to get a pass before you can get food. It’s how we work here,” he said.

“Seriously?” I asked. I was hungry now, I could already feel my stomach starting to grumble. “Can’t you make an exception for a pour stallion who got shot?”

“No can do,” said the stallion, shaking his head. “Orders are orders. Talk with one of the guards if you want to get one.”

“That won’t be necessary Batter.”

I looked back and saw Cuddles walking up to me. Two slips of paper floated next to her, then over to Batter. “Two passes; one for me and one for my patient.”

Batter looked over the papers, before giving them back to Cuddles. “Alright then, he’s cleared. So,” he said looking at me with a toothy grin, “what do you want?”

“Uh….” I’d never had food outside the stable before. I was used to getting mashed up apples and water for breakfast. I could only imagine what they had to eat out here.

Thankfully Cuddles saw my confusion and stepped in. “We’ll have two bowls of Sugar Apple Bombs. And this time, no spoiled milk,” she said.

Batter laughed a little. “Alright, two bowls coming right up,” he said before disappearing behind a door. He soon came back, balancing a tray with two bowls on his head. Cuddles encased it in her magic and floated it next to us.

“Thanks Batter,” she said before turning and walking towards a table. I followed along behind her.

“No problem Cuddles. You have fun with your coltfriend,” he called out.

Cuddle’s eyes narrowed, and her mouth puckered up as her cheeks turned red once again. She found and table and placed the tray in the middle. I took the side opposite of her and sat down.

Cuddles floated a bowl over to me, before picking up and spoon and digging into her bowl. I looked down at the substance in my own. “So….what do you call this?”

“Sugar Apple Bombs. Best cereal in the wasteland,” said Cuddles through a mouth full of food.

“Is it good?” I asked questionably.

“Just try it.”

Still not sure, I lowered my head and gathered a few pieces in my mouth. “Sweet Celestia….THIS IS GREAT!” I thought.

They were sweet and had the great taste of apples to them. I quickly dug into the rest of it, splashing milk all over my face. When I finished, I looked up at Cuddles. Her eyes were squinted and her mouth hung open a little bit.

“What?” I asked.

She slowly started to smile. “I’ve never seen another pony eat like that. You must really like Sugar Apple Bombs.”

“Hell yeah, that was the best food I’d ever eaten. Am I allowed to get seconds,” I asked hopefully.

“Sorry, but we only get one pass for breakfast. We don’t have that much food with us, so we have to ration it. But don’t worry, we have even better food for lunch,” she said.

“Sweet,” I said. Life in the wasteland may be dangerous, but getting to eat that kind of food was totally worth it.

“So,” said Cuddles, pushing her empty bowl away, “where exactly did you come from. I’ve never met a pony like you before.”

“I came from Stable 11, up north from here,” I said.

Cuddles’ eyes widened with wonder, and she leaned closer to me. “Oh, I’ve never met a stable pony before. What was it like living down there. I hear you have clean water, great food, and nothing dangerous to worry about.”

I rubbed the back of my head, not sure how to tell her. My stable hadn’t been great, but I wanted to spare her the horrors of the truth.

“Well, we did have clean water, and the food wasn’t bad. I wouldn’t say life was perfect though. We had to worry about the piping, electrics, and the occasional radroach,” I said, remembering all the dangers I’ve had to face.

“That doesn’t sound too bad, we have those problems here in Stalliongrad. So what made you want to leave,” she asked, leaning even closer to me.

I thought about what I could say. I couldn’t tell her about the sacrifices, and what I’d done when I got picked. The truth would probably hurt her innocent mind.

“Let’s just say I made somepony mad, mad enough that I decided it would be best if I left.”

“Oh, what’d you do to make him so mad,” she asked.

I was beginning to sweat a little; keeping up the secrecy wasn’t going well. I had to end this soon.

“I….I really don’t want to talk about it. It’s just too painful to bring up,” I said, making my voice sound low to help with the scene.

It paid off, because Cuddles backed away, looking sadly at me. “Oh, I’m sorry. It must have been hard for you to choose to come out here. I mean, you did end up getting shot after all.”

I waved my hoof at the comment. “Hey, I’m alive aren’t I? And it’s thanks to you that I am. Can’t say how much thanks you deserve.”

Cuddles rubbed her ponytail again, which I found surprisingly cute. “It’s just what I do best.”

“So what about you,” I asked “what’s your story?”

She continued rubbing her hair nervously. “I was born out in the wasteland, near the ruins of Manehattan. My parents came across this place a year later, and I’ve lived here ever since.”

“So have you ever gone outside the walls since then,” I asked. She didn’t seem like the kind of pony who would survive outside. But then again, I thought the same thing about myself when I left the stable.

“No, I never go outside. It’s dangerous and there are raiders everywhere,” she said sadly. Her squinted eyes looked down at the table, keeping me from looking at them. “Plus, they said I’m needed here. I help Dr. Remedial when I can, but I think most ponies see me as his assistant.”

“Well I don’t,” I said blatantly. This pony had saved my life, yet others saw her only as a helper. That just wasn’t nice, or fair.

She looked back up at me, her eyes sparkling with glee. A smile formed on her face, making it look even cuter. “Really?”

“Yeah really. You saved me from dying, and did a great job getting those bullets out of me. But I have to ask, did you enjoy removing the bullets from my flank?”

Cuddles put on another sour face, looking away from me. “Shut up.”

“Hey, I’m only joking. I had hoped my sense of humor would still be intact,” I said.

“You didn’t get hit in the brain smart ass,” said Cuddles, who was smiling once again. She opened her mouth to say more, but then a bell rang across the room.

“Shit, time for me to head back to work,” she said, gathering up our dishes. “I’ll see you around Flatfoot. And if you want to get your stuff back, I’d talk to Mayor Drop. He’s probably in his office; it’s in the building at the center of town.”

I watched her give the tray to Batter, then head back to me. She came close and wrapped her legs around me in a hug. “And try not to get into anymore trouble. Not that I wouldn’t mind fixing you up again.”

I chuckled at the thought, before returning the hug. “I’ll try my best.”

Cuddles stepped away, “Good. Well….I’ll see you around.” And with that she turned away and walked out the door. I was left alone in the empty cafeteria.

“Man, I wish ponies were more like her,” I said. “But now I got to go and get my stuff.” So I walked to the door, and headed left down the hallway.

***

Once I’d reached the front door, I walked out into the city of Stalliongrad.

“Sweet Celestia,” I said in amazement.

The city was even larger up close. Skyscrapers, like the ones in books, rose high up into the air. Sidewalks lined the streets, and vendors were set up near some of the intersections. Ponies walked through the streets, or were shopping at the vendors.

I walked down the steps and looked down the street. “Now, which way to the mayor’s office?” I probably should have asked Cuddles that before she left.

I saw a pony walking towards me with his saddlebags full of….something. I waved to him to get his attention. “Excuse me, could you tell me how to get to the mayor’s office?”

But the pony didn’t even look at me, and he continued on his way without stopping. “Okay, rude much,” I said. The ponies in the hospital seemed way more friendly.

Another pony came walking down the sidewalk, and this time I stepped in front of them. They tried to move around me, but I kept moving in front of them.

“Sir,” he asked crossly “can you please get out of my way. I have places to be.”

“Well so do I, but I need to know how to get there. Can you please tell me where the mayor’s office is?”

The pony stopped moving and huffed. “Take the road south to the statue. Once you’re there, take the left road and you should come to a large building. His office is inside that.”

“Thanks,” I said happily, and started walking down the road. The pony walked away, muttering things about “ponies these days.”

***

I got to the statue a lot faster than I’d thought. The area was surrounded by black grass and old, crumbling benches. At the center of it all, on a pedestal, sat the statue.

It depicted an earth pony with messy hair, a tie, and an hourglass cutie-mark. There was an inscription under it reading:  “You don’t just give up. You don’t just let things happen. You make a stand! You say no! You have the guts to do what’s right, even when everyone else just runs away. -Doctor….” The last part of the name was scratched out, so I couldn’t tell his full name.

I reread the quote a few times, thinking about it’s meaning. “You have to keep going and keep fighting, even when the odds are against you,” I said to myself.

I looked at the statue for another few minutes before I headed down the left street. A few minutes later, I found the building I was looking for.

The outside seemed surprisingly intact, and most of the windows weren’t broken. At the top of the building sat a large clock, and in front stood a small fountain. No water ran through the pipes, but dirty water did fill the basin

I walked up to the front door and pushed it open. The atrium beyond was rather large, with staircases heading up to the next level on either side. In the middle of the room sat a large desk with terminals and papers all over it. A small unicorn mare sat behind it, reading a book. I walked up to the desk.

“Excuse me, I’d like to speak with Mayor Drop,” I said to the mare. She looked up at me from her book, but then looked back down.

“Name,” she asked.

“Uh, Flatfoot,” I replied.

“Do you have an appointment?”

“No,” I said.

She pushed her glasses further up her nose, still looking at the book. “You need to have an appointment to see the mayor. He has an opening tomorrow morning, I can schedule you in there.”

“WHAT, but I just need to get my stuff back. Can’t I just go up without an appointment. I’ll be out super quick,” I said. I really didn’t want to wait another day to retrieve my supplies.

“Rules are rules hon. If you have any gripes, take it up with the guards. Now either accept the appointment or get out of here before I call security,” said the mare, who still wouldn’t look at me.

My anger was rising steadily, but I didn’t want to cause any trouble. “Fine,” I said, then turned around and headed for the door. But before I reached it, I ducked behind an overturned desk.

“Yeah right, no way I’m waiting for tomorrow. Now, let’s see if my sneaking has gotten any better since the stable.” I crept behind the desk, then slowly made my way to the stairs. The secretary didn’t seem to notice me, but that may be because she was engrossed in her book.

I made it to the stairs, and slowly made my way up. I checked back at the secretary, but she still didn’t notice me. Once I reached the top, I crept over to a large set of double doors. The sign next to it said: Mayor’s Office.

I opened the door slightly and slipped inside. The room behind it wasn’t very large. It was half the stable’s atrium, but it was definitely more decorated. Old black and white photos hung along the walls. The carpet was old, but still had color to it.

At the other end of the room sat a large wooden desk. A terminal sat on the right side, and a lamp sat on the other end. Behind the desk sat a very dressed up pony. He wore a top hat, a black jacket, and a monocle on his eye. He was looking down at some papers when I walked in.

“Excuse me,” I said. The pony looked up at me, his eyes half closed and his mouth formed into a frown.

“Who are you?” he asked questionably.

“My name is Flatfoot sir,” I said while I approached the desk. “I was the pony that got shot outside the city.”

The mayor raised an eyebrow. “Oh yes, I remember you. I saw them take you past here towards the hospital. From the way you looked, I thought for sure you were going to die.”

“Yeah, I’ve been told that a few times,” I said when I stopped in front of the desk. I could see a small nameplate on the desk reading: Mayor Sweet Drop.

He put his papers aside and put his hooves together, looking at me questionably. “So to what do I owe this visit?”

“That’s the thing sir, I came to get my supplies back. I was told you were the one who had them,” I said.

The mayor looked me over for a minute. “yes, I have your supplies. They were delivered to me while you were being operated on. I must say I was impressed with what you were carrying.”

“Uh, thanks. So, can I have them back now?”

The mayor looked under his desk, then pulled a large bag out from under it. He tossed it to me, “here’s everything we took from you when we brought you in.”

I opened the bag and saw everything I had. My battle-saddle, while covered in blood, still seemed undamaged. My saddle-bags didn’t have any tears, and still had all my medical supplies, cans of food, ammo, and pistol. Even my stable jumpsuit was there. It had a few tears in the front, most likely where the bullets hit.

“Alright, it’s all here. Thanks for this,” I said while I started putting on my jumpsuit. It felt good having it back on again. Even though it didn’t help with the bullets, it made me feel secure.

“Not a problem at all,” said the Mayor, waving a hoof at me. “We wouldn’t want to rob you of supplies that weren’t ours. We’d be no different than the raiders that attacked us.”

I put on my saddlebags and  then started on my battle-saddle. “Well it looks live I’ve gotten everything. Thanks for the help mayor. I’ll just be going now,” I said. I began to walk towards the door, but he mayor wasn’t done.

“Hold it right there Flatfoot, I never said I was done talking to you,” he called out. I stopped walking and turned back to the mayor. His eyes glowed with anger, and the look on his face reminded me of the overstallion.

“What else do you need to talk about,” I asked.

“What we need to discuss is Medical Supplies. Ever since raiders started attacking us, we haven’t been able to send scouts out to get more. And then you came along, making us use even more supplies. We’re dwindling down, and soon we’ll have nothing,” he said, banging his hoof on the desk for emphasis.

“So what does this have to do with me?” This seemed more like there problem than mine.

“It involves you because we had to use some of our most valued supplies to save your life. So, I believe you owe us for that,” he said sternly.

“What, how’s that fair. Your guards shot me, and You were the ones who decided to patch me up. So I don’t think I owe you anything,” I shot back. No pony was going to force me to do something for them, not again.

The mayor got up and walked around the desk. He stood in front of me, and I just noticed how bigger than me he was. “We patched you up because you would have died if we didn’t. What my soldiers did was not right, but we still did it. Now we patched you up, saved your life, and you Still think you don’t owe us?”

I wanted to scream back at him, saying everything he said was right. But his towering figure began to make me nervous. “Not only that,” I thought “he had a whole squadron of guards at his disposal. It’s not looking so good for me.”

Defeated, I breathed heavily. “Alright, I’ll owe you. What do you want?”

The mayor’s sneer became as victorious grin. “I’d thought you’d never ask. What I want you to do is somewhat simple. To the west of here there is an old building that belonged to the Ministry of Peace. They specialized in medicine and magic repair. What I need you to do it go out there and collect as many medical supplies as you can.”

I thought it over for a moment. It didn’t seem too hard, but I knew that most jobs came with a catch, or something they wouldn’t tell you. “Is there anything else I should know about this place?”

The mayor’s grin turned flat, with his eyes narrowing. “I guess I should warn you. The building is said to be the home to some raiders. They aren’t the ones attacking us, but all raiders are dangerous. I’d say take a gun, but it looks like you have that covered,” he said, eyeing my saddle.

“So you want me to go to a building filled with raiders and collect medical supplies?” I asked. This already was sounding like a bad idea.

“Yes, quite simple isn’t it. Collect those supplies, and we’ll all be even here. But I’ll make you an even better deal. Kill all the raiders in the building, and I’ll pay you 400 caps. Sound good,” he asked.

Now I was even more confused. “Caps?”

The mayor rolled his eyes. “Oh right, you’re a stable pony. Well then I’ll be the one to inform you. Bottle Caps are what we use as currency here in the wasteland. Bits are just outdated, and not in strong supply. But bottle caps are everywhere, so we use them instead. Got it?”

This all sounded too stupid to be real, but the look he was giving me told me it was real. “Okay, I’ll take the job.”

“EXCELLENT!” screamed the mayor. “Well then you’d better get going. It’ll take you some time to reach the hub. It should be marked on your map.”

I looked at my PipBuck’s map, and saw another blank box not too far away from Stalliongrad.

“Well,” said the mayor, walking back behind his desk “I’ll see you when you get back Flatfoot. And remember this; if you try and run away, my guards won’t miss the next time you come near here,” he said sternly.

I swallowed a lump in my throat, trying to look confident “Don’t worry sir, I’ll fulfill my promise.” I turned around and started heading towards the door.

“After all, how hard could this be?”

Perks Gained:

Lady Killer-

Do 10% more damage to females in combat. Out of combat, you get to use unique dialogue options when talking with the opposite sex.

Chapter 4: Good Girl

Something has gone wrong. We don't seem to have an archived copy of that chapter.

Chapter 1: Truth and Lies

FALLOUT EQUESTRIA: SURVIVOR

Chapter 1: Truth and Lies

“Oh Celestia…why do we have to do this. It’s unethical, it’s cruel, and it’s against everything that makes ponies who they are. But here I am, holding the life of one pony in my hoof. How can anypony do this and not feel like they’re the epitome of evil?”

I looked down at the piece of paper that sat on my desk. The whole area was filled with many different projects I had been working on the past few months. Some old pip-bucks I had been trying to get working again, a lamp I was rewiring to run on direct horn magic, and a few other bits and bobs I won’t bother going into detail about.

I was sitting on a small chair in front of the desk. I had been sitting there for a good half an hour now, looking at the paper and thinking about what it meant.

It’s not really something everyone LIKES to do, but it’s something everyone HAS to do. Personal opinion didn’t matter down here. The only thing that mattered was the good of everypony.

And sometimes…sometimes that means you have to be the bad guy.

But I guess I should do some explaining first,  just so that you get caught up to speed with what’s going on.

My name is Flatfoot, I’m an earth pony stallion living in Stable 11. Even though my cutie mark (a sheriff’s badge) probably means I work as a guard, I’m anything but that. Instead, I’m a maintenance pony. I keep the Stable running and make sure that if anything’s broken, it gets fixed.

The reason I’m a maintenance pony and not a guard...because The Over Stallion said so. Maintenance is one of the most important jobs available, and I was chosen because they were running low at the time. Guess it just as they say: for the good of the stable.

What are stables you might ask…well that’s a more depressing topic.

You see stables are basically underground bunkers that are meant to house ponies in the event of a catastrophic attack. They were made back during times of war between the pony nation of Equestria and the zebra nation of Zebrica.

Many ponies and zebra died during the war, and both nations were constantly at each other’s necks. I’ve been told that ponies back then couldn’t even go outside without worrying about being wiped out by the Zebras.

This went on for a few years, until the day the Mega Spells dropped. These were the most powerful weapons ever made by anything with four hooves. And when they went off, there was no hiding from them.

So many Mega Spells were dropped on that day that the pony nation was almost completely wiped out. Those in Stables were spared the horrors, while those that survived outside were left to contend with a cruel and dangerous Wasteland.

I guess you think I should count myself lucky my ancestors had signed up to live in a Stable right. That since I’m living the perfect life I should be as happy as a party animal.

Well guess what, life down here doesn’t leave a lot of room for smiles…at least not at this time of the year.

You see life down in Stable 11 is a little different than life in other Stables. While the other ones get lives of happiness and friendship, we get a life of worry and death.

It all began around…120 years ago, on the day the Stable door closed for good. My great, great grandparents were told to go to the atrium with the rest of the Stable’s inhabitants. That’s when the main computer came online…and gave them a chilling message.

It said that if the residents didn’t sacrifice one pony per year, everyone in the Stable would die.

And that was it, just sacrifice one pony per year. No reason why, just what would happen if we didn’t. Great way to welcome hundreds of ponies to their new home!

But as you can guess ponies didn’t want to sacrifice anyone. Not only did we know little about WHY we had to do it, but it just wasn’t right. How can anyone be cruel enough to actually select a pony to die.

However, when the lives of hundreds of ponies are on the line, things tend to go in the way of the masses.

The Over Stallion was the first one to be sacrificed. Not because ponies wanted him to, but because he volunteered to do it. The reason why: No One Knows! He just said that he was going to be sacrificed and that was that.

Of course after that, it was almost total anarchy in the stable. Thankfully a pony named...Braeburn...or something like that, took command of the stable.

Ponies quickly adjusted to their new lives, and sacrifices continued for years afterwards. At first the decision was made using a random voting system. But this didn’t go on for long; ponies didn’t like the idea that it was a matter of chance between life and death. Tensions became fierce, and so a new plan was made.

Starting the year after, a voting system was put into place so that the stable as a whole could decide who was to be sacrificed. Ponies found this to be a better option, and that’s how it's been every since then.

Now, like every year, I looked down at the sheet of paper on the desk. The name of every pony in the stable was listed on it, each with a small box on the left side.

“Okay Flatfoot, you can do this. You’ve done it every year so far, so you can do it this year. Just check a name and put it in the ballot box” I said to myself, trying to make the feeling in my stomach go down.

“Let me think…I could vote for Lock Pick; he’s always breaking into other ponies things. Then there’s Stitch; never really did forgive him for putting that tack on my seat in school. But…maybe I should vote of Beaker.”

“I’m surprised you even have to think about putting that bastard's name down.”

I jerked back and looked around for the sound of the voice. I didn’t have to look hard, because standing by the door to my room was a dark blue unicorn mare with a short brown mane. Her heart (with a scalpel running through it) cutie mark was just visible in the dim light of the hallway. She was smiling at me so smugly it was like she’d caught me jerking off.

“What are you doing here Zest? Don’t you have some ponies internal organs to tie in a knot” I asked, turning back to the paper on my desk.

Zest laughed and walked right behind me, putting her hooves up on my shoulders.

“Why do you think I came here big boy? I wanted to know if I can turn your large intestine into a balloon animal” she said in a seductive voice.

I swallowed a lump that had formed in my throat and tried not to show fear in my face. Even after knowing Zest for a good fifteen years, she still found new ways to make me nervous.

“You’re just kidding…right” I asked, maybe with a little too much hope in my voice.

Zest started gently rubbing my shoulders and whispered in my ear “Maybe, but like I’ve said before: I’m always looking for volunteers. If you’d like to donate your large intestine…”

“I’m going to cut you off right there Zest. No way will I lower myself to be your personal play device” I said, shaking her hooves off my shoulders.

Zest came to my right side and gave me a typical puppy dog face. “You don’t have to be so mean Flat. I’m just trying to live out what my cutie mark says is my special talent.”

I snorted and continued to go down the list of names on the paper. Trying to get Zest to leave on her own is usually the only way to get her to leave at all.

“Your special talent is performing operations on ponies in the medical bay. NOT harassing ponies in their room while they’re trying to make a really important decision” I said sternly.

Zest snorted, but in a more comical way. “How hard is it to check the name of a pony you don’t like? I voted for Beaker in less than five seconds. Everyone who knows him knows that he’s the one that’s going to be sacrificed. You’d be crazy not to vote for him.”

“As much as I would love to put his name down, I have to think about what’ll happen if I do vote for him. Remember, he’s the head of the Stable’s research labs. If he goes, it’s going to be tough finding a replacement.”

Zest walked over and plopped down on my bed, keeping her eyes on the rusty ceiling. Her expression had become more concerned and serious: a rare occurrence for her.

“I’ll admit; a part of me agrees with you. Those who can work in that area are becoming scarcer. So the ones we have there now are more valuable than any of us. …But it doesn’t mean I’m going to change my vote. And I know you’ll still vote for him” said Zest, lifting her head to look at me.

I wanted to say that she was wrong, that I was going to make the decision that was the best for the whole stable. I was going to be the older stallion here and make the right choice.

But that’s never how these things work. Every year, the asshole of the year is chosen to be sacrificed, because everypony wants him dead. And as much as I didn’t like to admit it, I had done the same thing. Every time I had to vote, I voted for the one I hated the most. Now…I was going to do the same thing.

I took a pencil off my desk, and almost too slowly, I lowered it down and check a box on the paper. The name next to the box was: Beaker.

Zest walked over and looked at my decision. The smug smile on her face grew and I waited for the gloating to start.

“Well Flat, looks like you did the right thing after all. Just think about it: years from now, our grandfoals will remember how their grandparents rid them of having a very annoying pony be able to reproduce” she said, grabbing my shoulder and sliding her hoof across air in a dramatic fashion.

Her words had an effect on me, but not in the way they should have.

“What do you mean OUR grandfoals” I asked with a cocked eyebrow.

She turned to face me, still with that seductive look on her face.

“Well who knows? One day you and I could be drunk, walk into a room together, and make some…MAGIC…happen.”

“Makes me glad that I’m an EARTH pony. I prefer to stay away from anything magic. So sorry to burst your bubble Zest, but you’ll have to wait a little longer to be a mom” I said, taking the piece of paper in my mouth.

“Not if I really wanted to be. Ratchet’s said a few times that he wouldn’t mind having a little fun with me. So you’re not my only option” she said.

“Then why don’t you go and talk to him in your seductive voice. He’ll probably enjoy all the attention you’d give him” I asked, walking to the door and pressing the OPEN button.

I walked out into the hall with Zest following me. She never really gets it when somepony wants to get rid of her. It really showed when she was a kid and always got out of detention, AND ALL BY NOT SHUTTING UP!

“I would, but he’s working at the moment. Probably fixing something in the reactor room or the water filtration plant. He’s a real he-stallion you know” said Zest.

And that’s another thing Zest loved to do: trying to get me jealous. A lot of ponies say it’s because she likes me, and part of me thinks that’s true…or at least hopes that’s true. I’ve never really been a sticker for the mares, so having one that liked me and was pretty isn’t something most ponies would pass up.

But to be honest the only reason she does try to get me jealous is so that she can get under my skin. At first I fell for her little act, but as the years went by I became more aware of what she was trying to do.

But I couldn’t ignore her forever, and part of me wanted someone to talk to during this depressing time. Most residents became emotionally unstable when election week came along. From tears to cries of rage, we’ve had it all come through the medical bay.

“Changing the subject; do you know anyone else who’s voting for Beaker? Or even more informing; anyone who is voting for either of us?” I asked with a hint of nervousness in my voice.

Zest smiled, not smugly, but continued to look ahead. “Well I know Zap and Zip are voting for me, and that Tin Can is voting for you.”

“Figures: you accidentally dump soup on him ONE time and you get labeled for life. He votes for me every year, and he’s one of the few that do,” I said while I rolled my eyes.

“Yeah, but just be glad that more people hate him than you. As long as you aren’t the most hated pony in the stable, you’ll never have to worry about being picked,” she said with another smug smile.

We walked through another door and into the atrium. A few ponies were mingling around on chairs scattered around the area. Four fillies ran by in a game of tag while some of the elderly watched.

The sight filled me with hope and sadness at the same time. The Stable had one restriction when it came to voting: Don’t vote for anypony over 80 or younger than 10. The elderly were given the right to live out the rest of their life if they had survived long enough.

Hopefully sixty years from now, I’ll be sitting in a chair watching foals have fun with other young ponies. My wife will be beside me, and I’d reminiscent about years gone by.

Young foals were also given leeway in the election. Ponies though that foals should have some time to grow and have friends, before being able to vote. There innocence was one of the reasons these elections were bearable.

But that’s when the sadness kicked into full gear. Seeing those foals reminded me that eventually, the restriction would end for them and they could be sacrificed. Their childhood would be the only happy years that they would get to experience…and that just wasn’t fair.

I shook the thought out of my head. I couldn’t change what was necessary, so worrying about it wasn’t going to help me. I began walking towards the door on the other side of the atrium.

However, just when I had walked a few feet, I saw somepony…somepony I REALLY didn’t want to see right now.

A Maintenance pony with a dark cream pelt and a dark amber mane and wrench cutie mark was scrubbing away at some of the rust on the wall. He turned away from his work and wiped his forehead with his hoof. He gave a quick look around the atrium, and when he spotted us, trotted over to where we were standing.

“Zest, how’s it hanging? I heard from Lock Pick that you operated on old Cranks yesterday. Tell me, is the old coot still bucking or is he sipping cocktails with Celestia?” he asked with a smile.

“Don’t worry Skycap; I was able to keep him down here on Earth. However, you should have seen the inside of his middle section! I swear that certain parts of a pony are not supposed to be green,” said Zest.

I rolled my eyes at the thought of Zest not seeing anything weirder than that. She handled all the major operations in the stable. And trust me; we’ve had our fair share of weird illnesses in this metal paradise.

Skycap turned his attention away from Zest and looked over at me. His smile grew even bigger, which didn’t make me feel any more comfortable.

“Hey Flatfoot, good seeing you again. I haven’t seen you come out of that room of yours since Friday. Maintenance has been wondering if you dropped dead or just passed out. Don’t hate me, but I went for dropped dead,” he said, still smiling.

“Wow, some friend you are Cap. If I were in that position, I would go and maybe check on my friend to see if he was all right. That’s the right thing to do anyway,” I said with a frown.

Cap was ready to say something, but then looked down to where I had tucked the ballot sheet into my stable jumpsuit. Before I could even react, he had whipped it out and was looking it over.

“Hey, give that back!” I yelled. I tried to get my paper back, but Cap put his hoof out far and used the other to hold me back. His grin became even bigger when he found the box that had been checked.

“Ha, no surprise there Flat. Beaker is the lead in this year’s election, and there is no way he can get enough ponies to vote for someone else now. He’s going to be sacrificed whether he likes it or not,” said Cap as I snatched the paper back and tucked it deep inside my jumpsuit.

“Whatever Caps, I wasn’t doing it because everyone was doing it. I don’t like Beaker just as much as everyone else does. He votes for me every year just because I made him look foolish ONE time.”

“One time is all it takes Flat,” said Zest.

“Alright, enough of this. I am going to cast my vote and then head back to my room for some good me time. You can follow if you want Zest, but it really doesn’t make a difference to me,” I said sternly.

I turned away from the two and headed towards the large door and the other end of the atrium. A large sign with an arrow pointing to it said “TO BALLOT BOX! DON’T FORGET TO VOTE!”

As the door opened, I heard two pairs of hooves coming up behind me. I turned around and saw Zest walking towards me with Cap following closely behind.

“Both of you are coming with me?” I asked with a raised eyebrow.

Zest and Cap began rummaging through their jumpsuits, and soon both pulled out pieces of paper with ponies’ names on them.

“We need to cast our votes to Flat. After all” said Cap, and he put his head up and spoke with a high authority voice, “It is the duty of every pony in Stable 11 to vote every year for the one who is to be sacrificed. It’s for the good of you, for the good of me, for the good of STABLE 11!”

Zest did a small clap while Cap bowed and smiled at us.

Those words are said every year when election time came around. The computer would pump that message through the PA systems from day one to the day of the sacrifice. Every pony in this stable knew it by heart. It was not just a message, it was a reminder that what we were doing was for the good of the Stable. Therefore, in a sense, it was for the good of Ponykind.

“Alright, no use standing around. Let’s go decide who’ll be killed this time” said Zest as she pushed past me and continued down the hall. Cap followed closely behind her. Letting out a deep sigh, I followed them to the Ballot box.

____________________________________________________

The box was located near the Science labs on the lower levels. A security guard was standing next to it so that no one could tinker with the votes. A riot helmet covered his head, and leather armor covered his back. He eyed us as we approached but did not say anything.

I spotted the Stable issued 9mm gun that was latched onto his belt. One shot from that in the right area, and I’d never have to worry about what went on in this Stable again.

I had a feeling he saw me look at it, because then he shifted his belt so that I could see it even clearer.

“I’ve never had to use this in my whole time as a guard. I personally wouldn’t have any problems using it for the first time. No funny business, any of you” he said sternly.

“Yes sir” I said, keeping my eyes locked on the box next to him.

I took out my slip of paper and dropped it in the box. Zest and Cap did the same after me.

“Alright you all voted, now beat it!” said the guard sternly.

“Geez, calm down snappy. You need some Pinkie Zip. I’ve had them, and they REALLY keep you energized all night” said Zest with a smug smile.

The guard just grunted and turned away from us. Zest was going to say more, but I pulled her away before the guard arrested her on disorderly conduct.

“Why’d you pull me away? I could have given him a piece of my mind” said Zest as we walked back towards the atrium.

“That’s exactly why I pulled you back. I didn’t want to wait next to you in the medical bay while they pulled a bullet from your flank. One of these days you’ll do something stupid and I won’t be there to help you” I said as we walked through the door to the atrium.

Zest was about to retort, but was interrupted by a ringing noise. Looking down, I saw my pipbuck was alight and the image of a scroll was on the screen. It was also the one making that beeping noise.

“Oh, wonder who’s calling this time,” I asked as I pulled the pip-buck closer and opened the message.

It was short and didn’t have a lot of big words…just how I like it.

“Flatfoot, it’s Screwy. I got a message on my terminal that there’s a wire malfunction in the vents above The Over Stallion’s office. You’re the closet pony to the office, so I need you to take care of it. Go to the vent on the wall on the far left side of the door to the office. Open the grate, climb in, and locate the fuse box. Fix the wiring and report back to me when completed.”

“As a side note, The Over Stallion has been complaining about sounds coming from the ducts. He suspects that Radroaches have gotten in there. So be careful when you’re climbing around. Au revoir and good luck my friend.”

I groaned as I lowered the pip-buck away from my face. I didn’t want to go crawling through that might have Radroaches crawling in them to. I’ve dealt with those things before, and they aren’t very friendly. Don’t believe me; I’ve got the scar to prove it.

“Sorry guys, I’ve got work to do. Screwy needs me to fix some wiring in the ducts over The Over Stallion’s office” I said to the two.

Cap and Zest both showed different expressions. Zest looked like she was holding in a laugh and trying not to scratch an itch. Cap had a mix between sorrow and relief.

“Well good luck with that Flat. Last time I had to go into the vents it was right above the waste disposal plant. …Yuck, I can still feel the burning in my nose” said Cap.

“But hey, look on the bright side Flat. Maybe you’ll catch The Over Stallion doing something REALLY embarrassing. Then, you’ll have some pull in this place” said Zest.

I rolled my eyes again. Anything that Zest thinks about is usually a bad idea. Plus, if it has any chance of making somepony she knows powerful, she’ll push them to do it…no matter what.

“RIGHT…well I’m going to head off and fix that wiring. I’ll talk to you both tomorrow before they announce the sacrifice. Try not to get arrested before then Zest” I said as I walked to the door to the upper levels.

Zest put her hooves under her chin and smiled sweetly.

“What, little old me?”

Cap began laughing, and as much as I didn’t want to, I began to smile. I really couldn’t stay grumpy this whole time, or I’d just be like everypony else in this stable. Best try to make the best of a good situation.

I walked to the other side of the atrium and opened the door to the floors above. I was ready to fix that fuse box, and hopefully, get back with enough time to sleep.

“After all, how much trouble can fixing a fuse box be,” I asked myself as the door closed behind me.

____________________________________________________

On  the other side of the door sat a flight of stairs. They stretched upward towards the top levels of the stable. The overstallion’s office was on the next level up, so I had to go to the one above it to get to the air duct. I already had a few tools with me, so I didn’t see the point of going back to my room to get my tool box.

I’d been taught early on how to handle things without much on hoof. Sure it was a little challenging, but it’s a skill that I wouldn’t want to be without. Course, there’s not that many chances to use this skill down here. Most of what you need is pretty much within reach.

But hey, when you cutie mark is a sheriff's badge and you're good at fixing things, it  just proves that sometimes the mark doesn’t make the pony.

I reached the top of the stairs fairly quickly, and found myself in a small hallway. There wasn’t anypony in sight, and the only shred of life was the bleep that was coming from my PipBuck. The bleep let me know if somepony is nearby if the population drops below twenty. A nifty little addition that Stable-Tec added.

I walked away from the stairs and towards the hallway Screwy had indicated in her note. The floor here was rough from the lack of proper maintenance in the area over the last few years. I had to step carefully so I didn’t get cut on the rust.

I jumped over a rusty patch and landed around the corner in another hallway. Like the last one, there was no pony in sight. But this one had clean floors, so I could walk normally. Good thing too, because my legs were starting to ache.

My eyes landed on the surprisingly large air grate at the bottom of the wall on the left side. The grate looked dirty and damaged, most likely from the radroaches that were supposedly crawling around in there.

I walked over to the grate and gave it a small tug with my hooves. It jiggled a little bit, but didn’t pull out.

“Ha, think a few screws are going to stop ol’ Flatfoot do you? Well think again” I said as I rummaged through my suit looking for a screwdriver. I found one and began removing the screws.

“Alright, let’s just hope I can find the box...and not get bitten by radroaches while I’m at it” I said as I pulled out the last screw.

I grabbed the vent and pulled it away from the wall. Placing it next to the opening, I kneeled on the ground and looked down the vent. It was too dark to see anything, and I couldn’t hear anything moving around.

“Alright, here we go” I said, and I began to crawl through the duct.

Years of dust began to cover me as I crawled farther into the vent. The light from my PipBuck helped me see where I was going. My eyes scanned the walls of the vent for the fuse box I was supposed to repair. Wires ran along the top of the vent, so I just followed them. Eventually I’d come across the fuse box.

However, it wasn’t going to be a comfortable task doing it. This vent may have been big, but so was I. My head kept scraping against the top, and I sometimes got stuck when I came to a corner.

“Don’t worry Flats, you’ve been in situations worse than this. You’ll come across that fuse box any time now,” I said, trying my best to smile.

Unfortunately, I came across something else first. I just turned at a corner vent when I found myself face to face with a radroach. The thing was about five feet long, and his soulless eyes were looking right at me.

I kept still and tried not to breathe too loudly. Normally radroaches attack the moment they see a pony. But this one just looked at me, not moving an inch. It was a stiff as a board, and not even it’s pincers were moving.

My instincts told me to slowly back away, but my curiosity told me to poke it and see what it did. This was the first radroach I had ever seen that hadn’t attacked me on sight. When you come across something like that, you want to know why.

So I slowly raised my hoof up and gave the creature a poke.

Nothing happened.

I poked it again, this time a little more forcefully. Again, it didn’t do anything. I even flipped it over, and it didn’t even twitch a leg.

“Dead. Must have been recently, or else it would have decayed more” I said with a little more relief in mind.

I pushed the carcass into another vent and continued on my way. I hoped that every radroach in the vents were dead to, but I put my hammer closer to my hoof just in case.

After another four minutes of crawling around the vents, I found the fuse box I was supposed to repair. It sat on the right side of the vent, a few feet away from another grate. The outside looked fine, but I knew to never judge a book by it’s cover.

I reached a hoof up and pulled the hatch open, and found a complete mess inside.

Wires were criss-crossing all around the inside. A few were unplugged and others were burned out altogether. The lower wires looked alright, which meant I needed less materials.

Reaching into the pocket on the back of my suit, I found some spare wires and my flat head screwdriver. I put them in front of me and began pulling out all the damaged wires. Once they were all laid out on the floor, I started putting the new ones in.

A few minutes later, all the wires had been replaced and the old ones were safely tucked into my suit pocket. I gathered my tools and pulled my PipBuck up to my face. I quickly wrote down a note to Screwy, telling her I’d fixed the fuse box.

“Well, got that done. Now I can head back to my room and get some sleep. I want to be wide awake when they announce the sacrifice. Don’t want to fall asleep like last year” I said as I began to reverse back to the grate.

“Another one for Beaker. Well I must say, this colt doesn’t have many friends down here does he.”

I froze where I was, both with shock and curiosity. That voice was talking about Beaker, AND said he had a lot of votes. How could the voice know that.

“Where’s Dial with the next sack of votes.”

The voice sounded close, and didn’t seem to be an echo from down the vents. If that’s true, then there’s only one place it could come from. My eyes instantly went to the grate a few feet in front of me.

Slowly, I crawled over to the grate. Light was flowing through it, and I could feel the air pushing past me and down into the room below. Once I got close enough, I looked down through the grate.

The room I was looking at was large, larger than most rooms in the Stable. A few mainframes ran along the walls, and a window was on the wall in between them. I could see the upper half of the Atrium through it. A large half circle desk sat in the middle of the room. Stacks upon stacks of paper covered the whole area, and even more were stacked around the desk.

My eyes tried to take the whole thing in, but then I noticed a pony sitting behind the desk. He was a cerulean blue unicorn with a dark white mane. His eyes showed ones of age and his judge mallet cutie mark sat on his flanks. Signs of a beard showed on his chin, and his hair looked even whiter in certain spots.

My eyes widened and my mouth dropped open. “I’m above The Overstallion’s Office” I said quietly to myself “and he’s counting the votes!”

The O.S. shifted through more papers. No sign of emotion appeared on his face; he just looked at the paper, wrote something on his terminal, then moved on. He was like a well oiled machine; never skipping a beat.

I crawled a little farther over the duck, so I could look down clearer. He didn’t seem to notice me, and I doubt anything could distract him from the most important job in the stable.

But at that moment, a dinging sound rang through the room. The Overstallion, not even looking up, pressed a button on the side of his desk. “Name” he said with no emotion.

“Dial sir. I’m here with another sack of votes from the ballot boxes” said a voice through the intercom.

“Very well, come on it then” he said, and pressed another button on his desk. The door in front of him opened, and a small earth pony mare walked in.

She had a yellow mane with a red coat, and a steam dial as her cutie mark. Slung across her back were two full sacks, no doubt filled with votes for the election. She dropped them right next to where the overstallion was sitting.

“Thanks for bringing the votes Dial. I’ll send out a message to all the residents later tonight, telling them they have to vote by midnight. Hopefully Everypony will cast a vote this year. I don’t want to deal with another shortage for the records.”

The more he talked about the election, the more I smiled. The overstallion was a very responsible pony, and he definitely had my respect. Having to count all the votes every year must be a very challenging job. But he did it anyway, and that’s the reason he was O.S.

Dial took a chair from a corner and pushed it besides the O.S. She took and seat and looked over the stacks of paper covering the desk.

“I don’t understand why you bother counting those votes anyway. The votes don’t decide who gets sacrificed, so why go through all that trouble?”

My ears shot up and my eyes popped wide open. The words rang through my head with the vigor of profanity. The front of my hooves began to shake, and I had to lay them over each other to calm them down.

“What...what did she say,” I asked myself, with nervous sweat starting to pour down my head.

“Because Dial, part of my job is to count all the votes and log the data in the Stable computer. If I don’t do this, the computer will think we’re not sacrificing anypony this year. Even the most brainless ponies know what happens if we don’t sacrifice anypony” said the O.S., who was STILL counting votes.

“But you can just put in whatever you want into the computer. You already pick who gets sacrificed anyway, so I don’t see the point in wasting your time. You need to live your life a little, which doesn’t involve spending all your time in this room. There are other ponies out there that would love to spend time with you,” said Dial, who I noticed was fluttering her eyes. But her actions went unnoticed by the O.S.

“I’m a little more preoccupied with keeping this stable up and running. Spending time with mares isn’t really a high priority for me. You should feel the same, because I need all hoofs on deck until tomorrow. I don’t want a repeat of what happened five years ago.”

I kept silent as I listened to the conversation the two were having. I didn’t want to believe what I was hearing. I didn’t want to know this...I didn’t want to know the truth. But I was; I chose to listen in, and now I was paying the price for it.

“You can’t worry about what happened that year sir. All ponies know that if they are chosen, then they must be sacrificed. Even if it was you who picked him and not the majority of the stable. You did what you had to do” said Dial.

“But what I didn’t expect was for him to be packing a gun. Fool waited till we arrived at the chambers before springing on us. If the computer hadn’t seen him as a hostile and taken him out, I shudder to think of what he could have done. I don’t want to have a repeat of this, so I need you to make sure the armory is well protect. I don’t want any ponies getting near there until the sacrifice is over.”

Dial stood up and made a small bow to the O.S. “I will do what you wish sir. However, some note from you so that they don’t think I’m up to anything would be nice.”

Keeping his eyes on his work, the O.S. pressed another button on his desk. A slip of paper slid out of a slot on his desk, and Dial took the paper and stuffed it into her suit. She turned to walk out the door, giving her flanks a little wiggle when she did. But this time the O.S. did look, and he smiled a little.

___________________________________________________

My mind was racing with the new information I had just heard. The O.S., the most respected pony in the stable, had been lying to us all this time. The votes didn’t matter, HE was the one who decided who was sacrificed. We were completely at his mercy, and we didn’t even know it.

I knew that I couldn’t stay up here forever: I had to get out.

There was a nag a the back of my mind telling me I had to go and inform anypony who would listen to me about what I had just heard. Ponies had to know this, it couldn’t go on!

But the majority of my brain was telling me to keep quiet and try not to grab attention. When you know something like this, you’d better not draw attention to yourself. Especially when it involves the most powerful pony in the stable.

Still arguing with myself, I slowly began to reverse away from the grate. I held my breath and hoped that the O.S. and Dial wouldn’t notice or hear me. I kept my legs squished together so they wouldn’t hit the sides, and lowered my head away from the top. Hopefully I could make it to the grate without attracting any unwanted attention.

But of course, stuff like that never happens to me.

Just as I began to crawl back, I felt a vibration on my foreleg. The light of my PipBuck turned green, and then the voice began to blare out.

“ATTENTION, ATTENTION, YOU’VE GOT A MESSAGE! YOU’VE GOT A MESSAGE!”

I mentally cursed myself and tried to click away the message. The image of a scroll burning up kept flashing on the screen, and my clumsy hoof work didn’t help make it go away. My inventory and Health stats flashed up instead, and the voice kept screaming out that I had a message.

Finally, I slowed my hoofwork down and found the off button. The scroll burned up and went into my file storage. I breathed a sigh of relief, glad that it was over.

But just then, I realized everything had gone quiet. I didn’t hear the shuffle of Dials hooves, or the sound of flipping paper from the O.S. My mind began to go into panic mode again, and I had another bad feeling. Slowly, I looked down into the room. Dial was stopped in front of the door, her face in one of shock/despair. The O.S. had looked up from his papers, but his face still showed no emotion.

“Dial...was that your PipBuck by any chance” he asked with a raised eyebrow.

Dial still seemed shocked, and swallowed a large lump in her throat. “N...no sir. Was...was it yours” she asked.

“No, it was not. Since it wasn’t mine and it wasn’t yours, you know what that means right” asked the O.S., whose eyes had suddenly become cross.

“No sir, what does it mean” asked Dial nervously.

The horn of the O.S. began to glow, bringing more light to the room. But the moment it did, I saw the same light wrap around my front hooves. Keeping the sudden surge of panic under control, I tried to tug my hooves away. But the magic held onto them like they were encased in concrete.

“It means we have a visitor with us. Why don’t we let him in” asked the O.S.

I suddenly felt a sharp tug at my hooves. Before I could react, I felt them get pulled towards the grate, bringing my whole body with them. They were pulled against the grate with so much force it broke like a cracker. My body was dragged through the opening and free fell onto the hard steel floor. My back collided with the broken grate, causing a ripple of pain to go across it.

My PipBuck began to ring out, stating things about bruises and possible cuts. I ignored it and slowly began to rise off the floor. My legs were wiggling with pain, and my back now felt like someone had put a hot knife into it. My teeth gritted against themselves while I tried to work through the pain.

But when I lifted my head up, my eyes fell upon the face of the O.S.

He looked at me with the stinging face a disapproving father would give to his foal. His eyes were filled with hate and loathness that any other kind of creature would have run off in fear. He brought his hoof up to his suit and dusted some...dust...off of it.

“Well hello there my young friend. How nice of you to drop in on us. I must say you didn’t give me enough time to prepare, my office is a complete mess” he said, still with a disapproving scowl.

I didn’t know what I could say in this situation. The most powerful pony in the stable had caught me listening in on him. Now I was trapped between him and Dial, who was still shaking by the door.

He quickly pointed his hoof at me, squishing it forcefully into my nose.

“State your name, occupation, and most importantly; the reason you were in the vents above my office!”

It took me a minute to collect my thoughts. Ponies say it’s hard to speak when under pressure, and I can confirm that 100%.

“Uh...my name is Flatfoot sir. I’ve been a maintenance pony for almost six years sir. I...I was up in the vents to fix a fuse box that had blown out” I said, with fear flowing out with every word.

“Do you have any proof that you were fixing a fuse box?” he asked crossly.

I swallowed another lump in my throat. “Yes sir, I have a note from Screwy with instructions for me to repair it,” I said, and I quickly pulled the message up on my PipBuck.

The O.S.’s horn glowed and magic wrapped around my PipBuck. He forcefully tugged it (and myself) over to him and read through the message. When he was done, he dropped my leg and stared coldly at me.

“Well it seems your story checks out...on your reason for being here anyway. But I’m not focusing on why you’re here. I’m more interested on what happened after you repaired the fuse box. So tell me, how much of our conversation did you hear?”

Sweat poured down my head while I tried to answer his question. No way I could tell him the truth, and I couldn’t say I didn’t hear anything. There’s a icepops chance in Tartarus that he’d believe me. So, I compromised: “Uh...I just heard the part about you wanting Dial to make sure nopony gets into the armory.”

The O.S. stepped closer to me, his eyes still mentally burning holes in my brain. His head was not only half an inch from mine. I could feel his breath on my face and the point of his horn on my forehead.

“Are you positive that’s all your heard? Not a single thing about anything else?” he asked.

“No...no sir. Nothing more than that, I swear,” I said, trying to sound as convincing as possible.

The O.S.’s horn glowed, and once again wrapped me in magic. But this time he focused on my face, squishing it with the force of a body builder. Pain erupted through my head as he pulled me even closer. If he hadn’t raised his head slightly, then his horn probably would have pierced my head.

“So let’s say I was to go and get Beaker. Say I had him perform the most powerful truth spell he knew on you. So powerful that you’d spill every secret in your mind to anyone who asked. If I were to do that, would you still be saying the same thing? Choose your answer carefully,” he said sternly.

His magic continued to crush my face into my skull. The pain was worse than any headache I had ever had. If he didn’t release his grip soon, my head would pop like a magic bubble.

“Yes, yes I would sir. I swear I didn’t hear anything more than what I told you,” I said through gritted teeth. Tears began flowing down my face, and my legs were so numb they were about to give out.

The O.S. kept looking at me with a disapproving scowl. But then, he stopped channeling magic and let me head go. I dropped to the floor, breathing heavily. I rubbed my temples, hoping to get the beating to go down. I’d need about twenty pain relievers after this.

The O.S. looked down at me with his non-emotion face once again on. But something was different about it: now I could feel hatred just lurking behind it.

“Alright then, I believe your story. You seem to be telling the truth, and the truth is always the right thing to say,” he said, then turned around and walked behind his desk.

“You're free to go...Flatfoot was it. Dial will escort you back to your room. Make sure no one bothers him” he said to Dial, who nodded in agreement. “I hope to see you at the ceremony tomorrow Flatfoot, but I don’t want to see you any time before then. Try and have a good day..and try to keep out of trouble while you’re at it” he said, then went back to looking at the “votes”.

Dial stepped forward and waved a hoof towards the door, indicating me to follow her. Slowly, I got up from the floor and turned to face the door. I didn’t look back at the O.S., but I could tell he was staring at me. I slowly followed Dial out of the office, and the large door closed behind me the moment I stepped into the hallway.

____________________________________________________

I kept my thoughts to myself as Dial and me walked to my room. Ponies watched as we passed, but didn’t take much notice of us. A few small fillies giggled as we passed, and I could only wonder what was going through there heads. Dial walking so close to me was a pretty good clue.

But my mind wasn’t on the ponies that were watching us. My mind was still on what had just happened to me. I started off just fixing a fuse box, and ended up learning the biggest secret in the whole stable. Plus to top it off, The O.S. now looked at me as some kind of criminal.

We passed through the doors that lead to the Living Quarters. Dial steered me straight to the door of my room. She pressed the button on the wall and watched my room door spring open.

“Alright, you’re to stay here until the ceremony tomorrow. If you are spotted outside before that time, guards will be on you faster than you can say “party pony”. Have a nice day” said Dial, who gave me a forceful shove into my room. The door closed behind me and I was alone once again.

Naturally, nothing had changed since I was last in here. My old PipBucks and magic-powered lamp were still sitting on my desk. Papers overflowed my wastebasket, while a stack of blueprints sat on my nightstand. The sheets on my bed were unruffled, and my closet door remained shut.

Sighing, I trotted over to my bed and buried my face in my pillows.

“Why...why me? Why did I have to get that job? Why did I have to have such curiosity? WHY DID ALL THIS HAPPEN TO ME!” I shouted through the pillow. I lifted my head up so I could breath again.

“The worst part about all of this is knowing the truth. Our votes count as nothing; it’s the O.S. who picks who dies each year. Somepony who would normally not be picked is sacrificed just because the O.S. says so. How did it come to something like this?” I asked as I turned around so I lay flat on my back.

An occasion twinge of pain would shoot up my back every few minutes, but it passed just as quickly. Dial had given me a stimpack on our way here, so the pain was starting to die down. Right now I needed to get some sleep.

I closed my eyes, hoping that I would drift off to sleep quickly.

Unfortunately, my mind was in the mood. No matter how still I laid, or how hard I shut my eyes, sleep never came. I tried this on and off for an hour with no success. I was ready to start counting sheep when the door to my room opened.

I quickly sat up and looked to see who had entered.

A dark grey earth mare with a dark brown mane walked into my room. She wore a smile on her face that would make just about anypony smile with her. Bags hung under her eyes, and her jumpsuit looked dirty and patched in places. Just below her suit sat her cutie mark: a water pipe with a bandage over the center. She walked over to my bed and smiled at me.

“...Mom, what are you doing here?” I asked while I climbed down from my bed. I walked over to her and quickly gave her a hug, which she gladly returned.

“Well, I was talking with Cap’s mother a little while ago, when she mentioned something rather interesting. She said that you were spending time with Dial today. Not only that, but a little pegasus told me that she was your new marefriend” she said with a smile.

“What..what, NO. She just walked me back to my room, with orders from the O.S.” I replied hastily. Just the thought of me and Dial doing anything made my whole body shiver.

“And do you mind explaining why the O.S. asked her to walk you back to your room?”

My mind started racing for an answer. I couldn’t tell mom what had happened up in the office, less the O.S. sends guards to take care of me. So I did what everypony hates to do to their mother: I lied.

“Uh, I was fixing some wires...in...the O.S. office an hour ago. He was thankful for my services and saw I was tired and asked Dial to escort me back. He didn’t want anypony to bother me” I said in the most convincing way I could.

Mom raised an eyebrow as she studied me. She always had some kind of instinct that let her know when I was lying, but she never got it right all the time. I still got away with plenty of things when I was a foal.

Mom sighed “Alright, I’ll believe you this time Flatfoot. But I really do hope you actually try and find a mare for yourself. I want you to have a great life, no matter how short or long it might be.”

I snorted (in a funny way) and turned around. “Sorry mom, but this colt’s going to stay a bachelor forever! No mares for me, it’s just going to be this colt right here,” I said confidently.

Mom smiled and shook her head. “Sarcasm, another wonderful trait of yours...just like your father.”

The moment she said this, both of our smiles turned to frowns. Mom’s eyes widened slightly and then looked down. I sighed and turned towards her, before walking up and giving her a hug. He waited a moment before doing the same.

It had been almost seven years since dad had disappeared from the stable. He was the only earth pony that worked as a guard in Stable 11 at that point. He worked the night shift, so I didn’t get to spend much time with him. But whenever we did, he’d always tell me stories about life before Stables, and how his parents used to live during the war.

Sometime he’d even allow me to stay up late and come with him to work. The ponies on duty didn’t mind having me around, and they’d even let me work the cameras sometimes. Other times I walked around the Stable with dad, looking for anyone who was breaking curfew. I usually fell asleep after an hour or so, and dad would walk me back to mom so she could put me in bed. When I woke up, I’d go to the door and wait for him to come home.

But that all changed one night a few years ago.

I had just reached the age when I got my own place in the stable. Dad would come by my room and ask if I wanted to help him out that night. I only agreed to it once, since I was usually trying to work on other things. But he didn’t mind, and would always come by to see how I was doing. Then in the morning, he’d open my door, force me out of bed, and tell me about all the things he had done that night. Thanks to him, I now wake up early in the morning.

But one night, things were different. When he came by my door that night, he didn’t seem as cheerful as he usually was. His eyes kept looking all over the room, as if he was worried somepony was watching him. His legs shook slightly and his teeth occasionally chattered. I asked him if he was okay, but he just said he was fine and quickly changed the subject.

He told me he’d talk to me in the morning, then quickly left.

I shrugged it off as dad just getting old and didn’t think too much about it. The next morning I woke up and right away noticed something wrong. I had woken up by myself; dad hadn’t arrived yet. Soon mom came and asked if I’d seen dad, and that’s when I began to worry. I went to the guard station and asked if anyone had seen him, but no one had since last night.

Guards and volunteers searched everywhere but couldn’t find him. Nothing had gone missing from his locker, and no drops of blood could be found. Other guards didn’t have a clue where he went, and a whole bunch of theories began to go around.

One pony even said he might have actually left the stable. If that was his plan, I know it wouldn’t have worked. The door that separated Stable 11 from the outside world was sealed and locked over 120 years ago. Only the O.S. had the passcode needed to open it. So I’d like to see how he could have gotten him to give the code up.

But whatever happened, it still became hell for me and mom. She’d lay awake all night, hoping that they had found dad. She stopped being cheerful and only spoke when someone yelled at her (usually because she didn’t answer). Not even Aunt Med could get her out of her stupor. It was only when they called off the search for dad that she knew she had to move on.

As for me, I took the whole thing a little bit differently. I helped out in the search, and even interviewed ponies in my spare time. I asked security to check all the cameras, and even inspected every terminal available to me looking for evidence. But after two weeks, I came up with nothing. Security hadn’t found him on the cameras, and it just got “better” when they called off the search. After that, I followed mom and tried to move on.

“I’m sorry...I shouldn’t have brought him up. I should have known what happens when we talk about him” said Mom, who was still hugging me tightly.

I patted her back gently “It’s okay mom. We don’t want to forget dad, so talking about him is good. There’s no use ignoring something in the hopes that it will go away.”

Mom stepped back from the hug and wiped a tear from her eye. Her frown turned back into a smile “using my own words against me? Now I know how you feel.”

I smiled “hey, sometimes you do give good advice. I didn’t just think of girls and candy when you were speaking “words from the wise” all those years ago. I listened, and kept those words to heart.”

Mom wiped another tear from her eye and smiled a little more. “Good to know. But I think it’s time for me to head out Flatfoot. And I think you should go to bed now; you need to be wide awake tomorrow morning.”

“Yeah, I don’t want to fall asleep when they call my name.”

I smiled at my comment, but then my head jerked to the side. Pain spread from my cheek and rippled through my skull. My already throbbing head now felt like a sewage pipe had been dropped on it.

“Don’t you ever...EVER...say things like that. No one in their right mind would even think about picking you to be sacrificed. Your mind is so valuable to this stable that we’d be all but screwed without it. Plus, I’d personally kill all those who would make you the sacrifice,” said mom with the meanest scowl I’d ever seen on her face.

I gently rubbed my now sore cheek, hoping to get the pain to go down. Mom may not have had the best mind, but I didn’t get my strength from dad.

“I know you shouldn’t have. Now I’m heading back to my room, and I expect you to go to bed in the next half hour,” said mom. She raised her nose indignantly and walked towards the door. She raised her hoof and smacked the hydraulic button. The door quickly rose up and she walked out.

“You can’t tell me what to do mom: I’m not a foal anymore,” I called to her.

The door was just about to close, but before it did, she called back to me.

“You’re right, you’re not a foal anymore. But you are still my son” she said, before the door closed completely.

I groaned slightly while I turned back towards my bed. I jumped into the air and landed back first on the mattress. Slight pain rippled through my spine, but once again it quickly subsided. I hoped this wouldn’t be a recurring theme and that it would heal relatively fast.

I thought about all the things that had happened to me over the last few hours, and how my life would probably never be the same again. The future I had always dreamed about could now be just that...a dream.

I thought about this for an hour, before my mind became bored and I finally fell asleep.

____________________________________________________

But my wakeup call wasn’t exactly the most refreshing.

“Wake up Flats, it’s killing day!”

My brain hadn’t even started up yet when I felt something large land next to me on my bed. The impact caused the mattress to ripple, causing ME to fly off the bed. I hit the floor with a solid thud and rolled across it until I hit the wall.

“ouch...okay, who’s the wise colt,” I asked as I slowly got up from the floor. I turned towards my bed, ready to kick that buck till he needed more than sixty stimpacks.

“Hu, maybe you hit your head too hard there Flats. Because if I’m not mistaken, I’m no colt.”

When my eyes fell on my bed, I didn’t see a colt standing there.

Instead, Zest was lying down with her hooves crossed over one another. She smiled normally at me, but I could see glee streaming through her jumpsuit-blue eyes.

I frowned and walked over to my bed. Zest looked up at me, still with a smile, that I could tell she was hoping would get her off the hook. But instead, I raised my hoof and gave her a slight tap on the head.

“What’s the deal with waking me up like that Zest. I could have broken a rib, or a leg for that matter,” I said grumpily. It happens when I’m woken up from a good sleep.

Zest rubbed the spot where I’d tapped her, but still had a smile on her face. “I tried shaking you awake, but you were out like an atrium light. I even tried slapping you in the face, but that didn’t work either. So, I did the last thing I could think of: flinging you out of bed.”

“Ugh...if I don’t wake up next time then just let me sleep. You know how cranky I get when I’m woken up early in the morning,” I said while walking over to my dresser. I grabbed the handle in my mouth and pulled it open. Sitting neatly in rows were all my stable issued jumpsuits. I picked one out and began removing the one I had on.

Being an earth pony, this was one of the hardest parts of my day. I had to wiggle my head out of the suit, then work it down my front legs. And when I got that done, I had to reverse the process on my new jumpsuit. This was the only time I wouldn’t have minded being born a unicorn.

Zest jumped off the bed and did a few stretches. I started pulling the clean suit over my head, but soon found it to be stuck. I tried pulling on it with my free hooves, but it wouldn’t go down. As I tried pulling again, I heard the sound of hooves approaching.

“Here, let me help you with that.”

I felt Zest bite down on the end of the suit, and then she began pulling. I did the same with my hooves, and soon the suit slid over my head and slinked up my legs. I quickly adjusted the bottom half so that it wasn’t folded, while keeping it short enough so my cutie mark was still visible.

“Thanks for the help Zest. I don’t know how long i’d have been at that without you” I said while turning to face her. But the moment I did, I found our faces so close together our noses were touching. I looked down at them then up at Zest. She did the same...so we were now looking right at each other.

My brain was telling me to back away and say I was sorry. But I stayed rigid as a stone and kept looking at her. I breathed and my nose inhaled the sweet scent of apple cinnamon, filling every crevice of my head. I didn’t know if it was perfume or some kind of shampoo, but I really liked it.

It was only then that I looked down at Zest’s cheeks, and I didn’t see the color of blue. Instead, her cheeks were starting to turn a light shade of red. For the first time in my whole time knowing her, Zest was actually blushing. I couldn’t tell if it was embarrassment or nervousness, but the shade just kept getting darker.

I wanted to stay like this a little longer and see what happened, but I knew I couldn’t. Instead I quickly stepped back and put a hoof or so’s distance between us. I thought I saw Zest frown slightly, but it was gone just as fast.

“uh...so...Zest...did, did you come to wake me up for a reason. You never usually do it,” I asked nervously.

Zest sighed slightly before looking at me with her normal smirking demeanor. “I came to wake you up because they announce this year’s sacrifice in twenty minutes. All ponies in the stable are to be present or risk sewage cleanup duty. Knowing how much you hated doing that last time you were punished, I decided to help you out. So I woke up early and came to get you. Didn’t expect you to be so hard to wake up.”

I smiled to before playfully punching her on the shoulder. “Says the mare that once slept two whole days, even after she was rolled down a flight of stairs and rubbed by just about every pervert in the stable.”

“To be fair, I was highly drunk at the time. What else did you expect to happen: It was cider season. That’s my favorite time of the year, and something as small as consequences isn’t going to stop me from enjoying it.”

I let out a small laugh, then began walking over to the door. “Come on Zest, we’d better head to the atrium. Like you said: we wouldn’t want to be late.”

I reached a hoof up and pressed the OPEN button. The door slid up and locked itself into place. A few ponies quickly ran past towards the atrium. I could hear talking all throughout the halls, and feel the rumble of hooves on the floor.

Smiling at the energetic behavior she was showing, I followed behind her as my room door shut behind me.

____________________________________________________

Me and Zest quickly merged into the crowd of ponies that were making their way to the atrium. Old ponies, young ponies, mares, colts, were all seen throughout the crowd. A few foals were there too, since ALL ponies had to be present at the announcement.

Zest kept her happy smile plastered on her face the entire way there. Besides her smile and my blank expression, every face of every pony was either scared or nervous. I know I should have been to, but I didn’t want to show my concern.

In reality, I was as scared and nervous as any other pony in the stable. Unlike all of them, I actually knew the truth about the goddess awful act. I didn’t want to think about it, but I couldn’t keep it out of my mind either.

It wasn’t long before me and Zest reached the atrium. Hundreds of ponies filled the bottom and top floors. Guards were stationed at all the doors, each one looking dead center at the stage near the back wall. A large podium stood at the center, and microphone wires ran from it to speakers around the atrium.

Zest and me walked further into the crowd of ponies. Occasionally I saw one with a look of disinterest or boredom, but most showed ones of fright or sadness. Foals were either talking with their friends or tightly holding their parents.

The whole sight made my insides churn.

When Zest finally stopped near the center of the atrium, she looked around at all the ponies and guards. She squinted her eyes and frowned as she did.

“Something wrong Zest,” I asked.

“...Is it just me, or does it seem like there are more guards on duty than there normally are?”

I tilted my head, not understanding what she was saying. “What do you mean?”

“Just look around you Flat. Normally there’s one guard for every door and one for the stage. But now there’s two guards at each door and four near the stage. They’ve more than doubled the horsepower this year,” said Zest, who was still looking around.

My initial thoughts labeled it as nothing too unusual, but then that itch in the back of my mind kicked in. Just yesterday I had found out the truth about this, and now more guards had been called in.

And if that wasn’t enough, the final nail in the coffin soon presented itself.

I felt a hoof touch me on the shoulder with a good slam. I turned my head around, looking for the owner. Looking at me with a face that a mother would give her lying son was Dial. She wore her normal stable jumpsuit, but was now wearing a gun belt with it.

Trying to show that I wasn’t afraid of her, I smiled smugly like Zest. “Morning Dial. I see you let your mane down today. Didn’t have enough time to style it this morning? You should probably spend more time sleeping and less time rubbing your flanks in the O.S. face.”

Zest started laughing, and I almost did to. Dial’s face went from annoyance to pure hate, but she shook that off and put on one of patience instead.

“I’m not here to help you make jokes Flatfoot. I’ve been sent to give you a message, directly from the Overstallion.”

“Oh, this I gotta hear,” said Zest, who quickly ran over to us with anticipation on her face. But Dial wasn’t having any of that.

“This message is for Flatfoot only. No other pony is allowed to hear it,” she said.

Zest raised an eyebrow “And how do you expect that to happen when we’re surrounded by ponies?”

Dial grabbed my face with her hooves and pulled me close to her face. A few nearby mares giggled at this, which caused my face to turn red fast. I looked back at Zest, who looked like she was ready to kill.

“I’ll whisper it to him. Now be a good filly and leave us for a moment. You can have your coltfriend back after I’m done with him,” said Dial.

I wanted to explain that I wasn’t her coltfriend, but Zest nodded and turned away before I could say anything. Dial looked back at me with a wicked smile. Her mouth moves close to my ears.

“The O.S. wanted me to tell you why there are so many guards this year. He’s been worried that certain ponies will...speak their mind...during the announcement. Therefore, all the guards have been told to shock anypony who says anything that would bring ponies to worry or be scared. Plus, all those who are close to the pony will face equal punishment. He hopes you enjoy the show, and that you don’t have to deal with the guards.”

Dial moved away from my face, looking at me with an evil smile. Then she turned on her hooves, slapped my face with her tail, and walked away towards the stage.

Zest watched her leave before walking back towards me. “So, what did she say? What’s the scoop Flat?”

My eyes shot up to look at the nearest guard, who was looking at me and Zest with the concentration of a meditator. His horn magic flickered for a moment, and I felt a slight tingling in my right hoof.

“Uh...none of your buisness Zest. Just some stuff I have to do for the O.S. later. Nothing more nothing less,” I said, trying my best to smile.

Zest looked like she was about to respond, but was cut off by the speakers turning on. All the ponies in the atrium stopped talking and looked up at the stage. The door behind it opened, and the O.S. walked out. He was wearing a new O.S. jumpsuit and had shaven whatever remnants of a beard were left on his face. His hair was unkempt, but it worked well for him.

As he made his way up to the podium, ponies began clapping and cheering. Zest just did a small clap while I stayed silent. No way could I ever clap for that stalion again.

The O.S. reached the podium, where the mics had just turned on. He raised his right hoof, which caused all the ponies the quiet down. The guards stood at attention, raising their right legs up to their forehead in a solute.

The O.S. lowered his leg and turned to the crowd in front of him.

“My fellow stable ponies; it is unfortunately that time of year again. It is the time where one pony will be sacrificed so that all other ponies in the stable will be able to live. Now I know many of you are scared or worried that you shall be picked this year. But I want you to remember that if you are picked, you are making the biggest contribution anyone can do for the stable. You shall be saving the lives of all the ponies around you. Every single one, saved because you made the ultimate sacrifice: yourself.”

The ponies in the crowded once again clapped and cheered, but I continued to remain silent. All he was saying was bullshit and I was the only one who knew so. To everyone else, he was speaking words of wisdom.

“Now it is time to reveal the name of the pony who was voted by the stable to be sacrificed. When I call the name of the selected pony, I want him or her to immediately come up to the stage. If the pony refuses to or tries to run, the guards will forcefully take you away. Now I hope that doesn’t happen, but it has before. Now, I do believe it’s time to see who has been picked. Dial, if you please,” he said, waving a hoof in Dial’s direction.

Dial walked up to the stage with a small blue envelope in her mouth. Making a great deal of it, she walked up the the O.S. and held the envelope out. He took it in his magic before turning back to the crowd.

“When I call the name of the pony selected, please come straight to the stage. Ponies may say their goodbyes while they are walking here, but no pony is allowed to stop him so they can have a long talk. The sacrifice must be done within the next hour.”

The crowd silently talked to one another, but none had any objections. Nopony ever did.

The O.S. increased his magic, tearing a side of the envelope off. A smaller piece of paper floated out and unfolded itself in front of him. Ponies watched with anticipation while the O.S. read the piece over. When he was finished, he lowered the paper and looked at the crowd with a smile.

“Well I must say I didn’t expect this pony to be the one picked this year. I hadn’t even met him until a while ago, but he seems to have quite a record to have as many votes as he did.”

Everypony in the atrium was holding their breaths. Zest looked more nervous than ever, and I could see Caps a little distance away. He was shaking so much you could make a milkshake with him.

But I ignored him and turned back to the O.S. He was now looking more serious, and spoke with a tough voice.

“Who would have guessed that this pony would actually be this year's sacrifice. I didn’t expect it, but you all did.”

I wanted him to say who it was and get it over with. The feeling I was getting from the area was starting to make me sick.

“The pony that will be sacrificed this year is none other than the chirpy maintenance pony himself...FLATFOOT.”