Chapter One: Inside
"We were not among the living."
Stable 64, our home, the only reason we were alive. We are the last alive. We need to help, we want to help. But can we? 'You shouldn't think about that.' I sighed. 'It will get your hopes down, and make you unfit. The Overmare won't be proud.' The metallic shine of the ceiling was all that I was focused on. I wanted to forget. Enter a different world, a different dimension. Eventually, reality caught back up with me.
"Hurry up!" said a booming voice, presumably Nightlight Nourish. I scrambled up, quickly looking down at my PipBuck for the time. 'Almost noon.' My eyes widened, "I'm gonna be late for my shift!" I jumped up, briskly walking down the halls, after all, don't want to get arrested, right?
I stared at Night's mane as I nearly tripped on the newly polished floors. The glimmer of the polish showing a blurry reflection as I walked. I got in just in time as the shift leader, Crimson Vision, who was a noble stallion that I respected, was about to open his mouth.
"Barely on time," he said, as I staggered to a seat. "Now that you are all here, we can get started on assignments for the day..." I bluntly looked at Night, "I sure hope I don't get Water Talisman watch, or whatever it's called..." Night smiled, "Oh, I bet you will..." I let out a half-murmured 'huh' while looking back to Crimson. Crimson approached me, giving me an eye for being late, and handed me my assignment.
The inscription on the bottom of the paper read: Water Talisman Watch. I stood up, "There is no way! This is rigged!" Crimson looked at me, smirked, then turned around. 'Just as I thought.' I eyed Night, who had just got the 'Air Purifier Watch.' She giggled softly, then looking to Crimson, who had just stepped back up to the pedestal he was recently on.
"Now, ponies, I trust you will do what you were given, for the sake of the Stable." Crimson boomed. 'For the sake of the Stable.' I walked out the door, head tilted down at an angle. Night passed by only to say, "I'll see you at lunch half-way through your shift!" How unfortunate, we had the last lunch period today. 'This Stable is run like a school!'
~~~
The water talisman made the usual hum that it did all the other times I had been with it. The dial on the water tank ticking slightly toward the yellow, but not anything major. The flowing water could be heard through the water purifier further down the corridor. I leaned against the railing. My muzzle twitched, ears popped up as several clatters came down from the hallway.
I saw the Overmare pass by the hallway, walking to what seems like the air purifier. She had a face filled with shock, like when you are told that your parents are dead. 'I've felt that before.' She was muttering something to herself, something abnormal.
Something wasn't right, and I knew it all to well. The feeling of your stomach dropping, the air kicked out from your lungs, although you were still breathing perfectly. I have felt it all.
I shook my head, trying to focus on the soft glow of my PipBuck, trying to rather not think about the past. I needed to focus. I turned on the Stable PA System on my PipBuck, listening to a musical artist I heard was very popular on the upper levels. The places where murals decorated the walls. The only things we have on the walls are old posters.
A yell echoed the hall. I jerked my head back. Something is going on. Another yell. The air suddenly became stuffy. I gasped for air, the oxygen becoming thicker and thicker... and thicker. I desperately reached for a respirator, and attached a long tube to a tank of oxygen. "What the hell happened?" I tried to yell, only being muffled by the mouth covering.
I ran to the source of the yells. I got closer, closer, until I saw a group of corpses all being huddled together by the Overmare, who's mask was littered with dirt. She was crying, no, sobbing. "Goddesses," she said, "This Stable- We're all going to die!" She dropped a corpse. I tried to swallow an ever-lasting lump in my throat, my hooves being brought to my face. Among the corpses was Nightlight Nourish. I began to cry, the tears getting jammed into my respirator.
The Overmare turned and looked up to me, "Go warn the other ponies, I'll try to wake them up." I looked down. "They're dead, and you are going to be as well, if you don't get the fuck out of here...." The Overmare shook her head in refusal.
~~~
'There's no way, I'm going to die, there's no where to hide from the mass of carbon-dioxide emitted from the susceptible breakdown of the air purifier.' The meter on the oxygen tank reaching the forty minute mark. I ran down the corridor and up a flight of stairs, quickly releasing my mask. "Good, there's still air here..." I lowered my breath. I ran down the dimly-lit halls of the third level.
Once the stairs were reached, I took a small gasp. My coat bristled as the air conditioners threw the remaining air at me. I twisted to my room, grabbing a whistle I had laying around, and brushed my mane rather quickly. My blue mane, with streaks of red, was untangled, as I slid the comb into a nearby drawer. I then smashed the button to open the door, and set off for the cafeteria.
~~~
I stopped and blew my whistle. "EVERYONE!" I yelled. "THE OVERMARE WISHED FOR ME TO INFORM YOU OF A DECREASE IN OXYGEN, TO THE POINT OF DEPLETION!" I tried to act bold. Now this was out of my comfort zone my a mile. Every pony looked up for a second then looked back down, a few sources of laughter being heard in the corner of the cafeteria.
Crimson Red slowly walked over to me, with full embarrassment. "What the hell do you think you're doing?" he said. I turned red, "Well, fuck it, you have to believe me, everything I said was true, except the part that I sounded important. But the rest... Was..." The air got thick once again. I trailed off in words as everyone tried to gasp for as much air as possible. I clutched my respirator in a hoof and brought it to my muzzle.
"Why didn't you listen to me? Am I that unimportant to the point that you'd die.... No, they just didn't believe me. Arcane sciences were state-of-the-art after all..." My muffled voice said with a frown. 'That was a bit hypocritical, you know you would of done the same.' I rushed down the corridor, and up the flight of stairs to get to the first level. Passing my the beautifully painted walls without a second thought.
The ponies strolling down the bright halls of the first level took a second glance to a lower-class engineer pony, decked out with respirator gear. I had to reach the Stable door. I needed to escape. I sure as hell had a better chance of living than in here. I galloped up to the entrance, or in this case: exit, of the Stable, staring back at the oblivious party of security ponies waiting behind me, batons in hoof. I gulped down the lump from earlier, typing in an override code I had taken from the Overmare's body once she had died, and smashed the big green button with the label of 'OPEN' on it.
Flashing yellow and orange lights filled the room as the homegenous steel door of the Stable slowly opened, steam reppelling from the massive door swinging open. And at that moment, I realized what I was doing. Everything happened so fast, I couldn't realize anything before hand. I was leaving my only home, my only haven. What was outside? No one knew, with an exception of the books we read when I was a filly.
The guards behind me stepped back, jaw dropped in awe, as the darkness of a tunnel outside filled the warm, cuddly appearance of the Stable. I was certain, that I could survive whatever the outside could throw. I was brave, a bit too brave...
And without further thought or notation, I walked out, as the guards hurriedly closed the door. And from that, the only light I ever saw was that from my PipBuck. The blue glow reminding me of a life I left.
-FOOTNOTE: LEVEL UP! New Perk: Iron Coat- Bullets from Small Arms fire do 30% less damage.
Chapter Two: The Void
The doors closed with a clang leaving me and a dark tunnel ahead. The darkness was widespread, and not a single source of light was sighted, with an exception of my PipBuck, which had little affect on the darkness. I had an urge to vomit whatever was left in my stomach as an unbearable stench came to be the farther I walked down the tunnel. It smelled like rotting fruit, covered in age-old cheese. The stench got to the point that I began to run back repeatedly, just to get a whiff of fresh air. I wasn't used to this. Not at all. I waved my PipBuck's light near the walls of the dirt tunnel, finding nothing but gravel and dirt.
That was until I stepped on something. The crackle echoed the long dirt corridor. As I moved my hoof, the crackling grew louder until I lifted it. I jerked my leg around, the light showering the object. What lay there was a cracked skull, of what seemed like a stallion. Upon further inspection, the rest of the bones were laid out, in a format that looked like it was cowering, or protecting, something or some pony else.
Now I really needed to vomit. The burning sensation tingling my throat. Of course, these were the corpses of the ponies, desperately trying to get inside the Stable as they're skin was melted away by destruction itself. They were helpless. While the outside world was burning, we were all living happy, working, lives. Unaware of the situation.
I trotted further down the hall, the stench now becoming more familiar to my senses. I brought my PipBuck up to my attention, staring at the happy, galloping pony used to display any physical abnormalities. Under the pony read the name: Sunrise Gust, in big, bold, letters. I sighed, looking down, further releasing my foreleg.
I walked to a newly found door at the suspected, end of the tunnel. Once I had left the tunnel, the closest place to home in the outside, I would have an unfamiliar land to greet me. What could I expect?
I pushed open the door with a hoof, as the wind began to make a howling noise. All that there was a pure darkness, with a red-ish tone to the invisible ceiling. I looked up, a massive void engulfing me, making me want to cower down. What was this? What was the outside? It sure as fuck wasn't what we had learned about. Unless...
The ground was paved in gravel as a notification appeared on my PipBuck. 'Grand Mare Freeway. I nearly cringed at trying to figure out how my PipBuck put a label on this dead land. As I stood still fitting together pieces of what to do, and how to do it, I decided to keep on going.
