Fallout Equestria: The Lost Empire

The Wasteland Has A Way Of Changing Those That Enter It. Will It Change You?”

Relief!

That was the only thing that I felt as my back laid up against the closed door of Stable 70. My magic that I still didn’t know how I got in first place had vanished and my revolver was lying right next to me with one less bullet in its six chamber magazine than normal. That one missing bullet having put a 44 caliber hole in the stallion that had raped me skull.

A laugh coming from me as I remembered his skull exploding from the shot.

“You think that this is funny!?!” Breeze shouted at the sound of my laughter.

“Relax, Breeze were still alive, aren’t we?” I said as I put the revolver back inside the saddlebag that was on the right side of my body.

“Relax, relax!” Breeze shouted holding up his hooves all dramatically. Something that I had to physically fight myself from not laughing at. “You just shot somepony! No, you just made somepony’s head explode. And you want me to relax!”

“So?” I said with a shrug as I walked passed Breeze. Breeze having an expected look of appallment on his face. Appallment that I honestly didn’t care if it was being directed at me. He didn’t know what the stallion had did. What he had did to me and he deserved to be killed.

“So you don’t even care that you had killed somepony?” Breeze asked me and I stopped. I had to end this argument once and for all and the only way to do that was to tell Breeze what he had done.

“No, Breeze! No, I don’t!” I shouted at the top of my lungs. “And you want to know why!?!” I continued to shout.

Breeze stood his ground and shouted back me. “Yes, I believe I deserve to know why you had just murdered somepony in cold blood. Tell me Eta! Tell me why you would do something so horrid!” Breeze shouted and my brain snapped and all my walls shattered. I couldn’t stand Breeze defending this terrible pony any longer.

“BECAUSE HE RAPED ME!” I cried out and all of Breeze’s anger seemed to vanish from him. “H-He raped me, Breeze.” I whimpered at Breeze as he embraced me in a tight hug. My head falling into his shoulders as he cradled it with his forehooves.

“I’m sorry, Eta. I-I didn’t know.” Breeze apologized to me, but I shook my head no. It wasn’t his fault, what he did was normal. I had just shot, no I had just killed somepony. It was normal for him to be mad at me for what I did. Even if I felt like what I did was justified.

“You have no reason to apologize to me. I am the one that took another ponies life…” I whimpered in Breeze’s shoulder, me becoming more accustomed with him touching me. “Even if he deserved it.” I spat bitterly as I image of his rock hard cock being shoved down my throat flash before my eyes. The image leaving me again once Breeze started talking to me again.

“It’s ok, Eta, it’s ok.” Breeze said softly as he patted the top of my head. I honestly didn’t know what I would do if I ever lost Breeze.

“No, it’s not. I know what I did was terrible, but it still doesn’t excuse what he did to me and I was just repaying the favor.” I said as I pulled out Breeze’s hug.

“I know.” Breeze said as he trotted over to my side. “So, where are we?” Breeze thought out loud changing the subject. Something that I was very thankful for.

“I don’t know Breeze, but there’s only one way to find out.” I said as I continued to walk through the rubble that littered the outside of Stable 70. I looked up to see that we were still underground. There being a ceiling of concrete directly above us. Some of the concrete having fallen down over the nearly two hundred years that whatever we were in had been a radioactive wasteland. It was dark and despite being a dragon and having better eyesight while in the dark. I still had to use the purple light of my Pipbuck to show me the way.

I continued to walk through the rubble with Breeze following close behind until we came a cross a large wooden door that was located on a forty-five-degree angle. The door having a few pieces that had rotted out from over the years and a small amount of natural lighting shining through. While it’s a door and doors lead to somewhere. I checked the doorknob on the door to find that it wasn’t locked.

“Uh! I wonder where this leads?” I thought out loud as I stared at the door.

“Well, there’s only one way to find out.” Breeze said as he gave the door a good buck with his hind the legs. The rotting door went flying off of its hinges from the impact. “Uh, I guess I didn’t know my own strength.” Breeze said as the both of us exited from whatever was hiding the entrance of Stable 70. Us finding that we're now standing on top of an old stage with a practically destroyed auditorium that would have seated a few hundred or so ponies or dragons easily before the Great War went and destroyed everything.

The ceiling of the auditorium going up about fifty feet and the roof was shaped in an almost dome-like shape of concrete. Some of the roofing having collapsed either from age or something else (my bet going on something else) and daylight was shining through the spare holes in the ceiling. The air was thick and made it difficult to breathe. Me catching Breeze having a cough every few seconds. I could feel the shitty air but being dragon seemed to make me more resistant than my pony companion. I chalked it up to having lungs that evolved to breathe while being surrounded by fire without problems.

The stage of the auditorium was nothing more than a shell of its former self, with most of the wood that covered it having rotten or even burned away given the shape of few surviving pieces. Leaving nothing back a concrete floor underneath. Concrete that felt really strange on my claws and scales. I was used to the metallic touch of steel from my years of growing up in a Stable. So the touch of something hard and rocky was foreign to me. Breeze seemed to be thinking the same thing as he poked the ground with his right forehoof.

“Where do you think we are?” Breeze asked her scanned the auditorium. His blue eyes falling on the many seats that were inside it. Them looking to be standard red, at least that’s what they would’ve been, seats that had been designed to fold up with they weren’t in use. Most of the seats, especially the ones that were closest to the stage had their padding turn out and were either stained by unknown means or looked like they had been caught in some kind of fire. I had no doubt that there had been a fire inside this large room.

“I don’t know Breeze, somewhere in Salt Lick City, but other than that I don’t know.” I said as my gaze now fell on the walls of the strange auditorium. The walls were covered by posters that I didn’t recognize. All of the posters had been faded from age but I could make out two of them.

One of them being of a large dragon with snow-white scales. The dragon having a striking similarity to the dragon from my dream. Minus missing half of his face and body, of course. The mysterious dragon on the poster having words where his front claws were located. I couldn’t read what they said, but I could read some graffiti that had been painted over it with some kind of black paint. The paint was also faded and looked to be about as old as the poster that it had been destroyed.

The words being ‘Lies, for true freedom join Sigma and the Zebras against Equestria.’

The words sent a chill down my spine. I didn’t know who this Sigma was but I could tell that he wasn’t a nice pony or dragon as it was more likely. I had never been to Equestria, but I had always seen them as the good guys in the war against the evil Zebra Empire. So seeing something that actually encouraged join the enemy scared me.

The second poster was even more, faded than the first, but it was still legible. The poster showing an elderly pink earth pony (me guessing that she was at least in her forties or fifties) with a puffy pink mane with a few streaks of gray in it. The pink pony having massive blue eyes that seemed to stare through your soul. The pink pony having a smile that I couldn’t decide if it was either happy or terrify. Much like looking at the two different sides of the white dragon from my dream. The words ‘Pinkie Pie is Watching You! Forever!’ being written in bold letters above and below the image of the pink pony. There looked to be even smaller words written on the poster, but they were both too faded and too far away for me to read. And really wanted to get away from that poster as soon as possible.

The poster was strange and frankly a little creepy if I was perfectly honest. “Weird, come on Breeze. I think it’s time that we figure out where we are.” I said taking Breeze away from staring at the same poster that I had been staring at.

“Right, lead the way Eta.” Breeze said almost robotically as we hopped off the stage and walked over toward the double doors that lead to the auditorium. The doors being made of a red colored metal. The paint of the metal having faded and some even chipped off from the years of being exposed to the wasteland of above. The doors having push levers that were painted to make look like they were made of gold. It was a nice touch and a striking reminder of what this place used to be. Before everything went to shit.

I pushed the level on the double doors and they both slowly creaked open. Breeze and I both exiting the auditorium and entering a long hallway that had a tile floor that was stained to a blackish brown color.

“Hmm, interesting.” I said as I walked down the hallway, Breeze following close behind.

“What’s interesting.” He asked as I walked up to a metal drinking fountain that was connected to the brick wall on my left side.

“Nothing, it’s just so… different than I expected.” I said as I, out of curiosity, pushed down a lever for the drinking fountain. A black sludge coming out of it. My Pipbuck going insane with beeping as the ‘water’ continued to flow out of it. The mobile computer thing on my left foreleg showing that whatever was coming out of it was both radioactive and poisonous, great.

“Don’t worry Pipbuck, I’m not that crazy.” I thought as I continued to walk through the halls. After a few minutes of wondering through the halls of the building that seemed to have been built over Stable 70, I finally looked down at the interface of my Pipbuck. Me remembering something about the computer thing.

“What are you doing?” Breeze asked, noticing that I had stopped in the middle of an abandoned hallway, and was playing with my Pipbuck.

“I’m figuring out where in Tartarus we are.” I said as I activated my Pipbuck’s Eye Forward Sparkle, or E.F.S for short. “There, perfect!” I exclaimed as my Pipbuck began to create a map of our surroundings. The Pipbuck labeling the building that we're in as ‘Alpha’s Schoolhouse for Dragons and Ponies’ I stared at my Pipbuck for quite some time in a state of shock.
We were in a school, a bucking school. You had to be kidding me.

“Eta, what is it?” Breeze asked me, breaking my trance.

“Breeze, turn on your E.F.S.” I said still looking the screen of my Pipbuck.

“Why?” He asked, her words beginning to fill with concern for me.

“Just do it.” I all but ordered for Breeze to follow.

“Ok…” Breeze said as he used his magic to activate the E.F.S. on his Pipbuck that was located on his right forehoof. Breeze’s blue eyes widening as he stared down at the portal terminal that was on his forehoof.

“Do you see what I’m talking about?” I asked Breeze, him nodding absentmindedly as he continued to stare his Pipbuck.

“Eta we're in a school.” Breeze said as I continued to walk passed him.

“I know.” I said as I turned a corner to find another long hallway that had many doors that lead into rooms on both sides. This without being a hallway filled with classrooms. The gaps between the classrooms being filled with metal lockers looked to have been originally painted green and yellow. The lockers on my right side being green and the lockers on my left being yellow. The paint being faded and many of them not being covered in paint at all anymore.

“Huh! Classrooms, I wonder what’s inside them?” Breeze said as she trotted up to the classroom that was one on my left. His horn lit up with his light blue magic as he tried to the doorknob on the door. “Damn, it’s locked!” Breeze exclaimed as he delivered a solid buck from his hind legs to the metal door. The door not budging but instead only injuring Breeze in return. “Eta could you give me a little help here.” Breeze grunted in pain as he limped away from the door. His left hind leg looking like it had pulled a muscle.

I just shook my head and rolled my eyes at Breeze’s stupidity and walked up to the door. I wasn’t fantastic at lockpicking but I didn’t think that I would’ve needed my claws to open the door.

I walked up to the door, turned around so that my rear was facing the door and brought back my tail. I then swung it at full speed, my tail ringing true. The force impact breaking the hinges that the door was hanging on and it went flying into the room. It landing in a loud crash.

“How do you make that look so easy?” Breeze said in awe as he watched my awesomeness. I felt a slight blush spreading across my cheeks at his compliment.

“It’s nothing really special, it’s one of the benefits of being a dragon.” I said modestly as I entered the classroom. “Come on, let’s check this place out.” I said as I entered the room, Breeze being not that far behind me.

I walked into the classroom to find that it was huge, it easily being nearly double the size of the school that was built into Stable 70. The room had carpet floor that was so stained that it was impossible to determine its original color.

There was a chalkboard that looked similar to the chalkboards that I had seen in the school that was built into Stable 70. Though one looked like it had been teaching the students something about the anatomy of dragons. I couldn’t tell anything further as the chalk on the board was both faded from time and seemed to be half-erased by someone else before me and Breeze left Stable 70.

The room was filled with desks with varying degrees of preservation. Preservation might be too strong of a word as even the best-looking desks still looked like it had gone through a megaspell explosion… wait it did.

There being five rows of desks with five desks being in each row, the desk all being large enough to hold dragons that looked to be my size or even slightly larger. Or, at least, most of them. The five desks that were at the rear of the room looking to be slightly smaller and more designed to hold ponies. My Pipbuck did say that this school was for both dragons and ponies. I found interesting as back in Stable 70, when I went to school I had always seat in the rear of the classroom. This school seemed to set up completely different with the dragons being near the front and the ponies at the back.

There was another desk, this one being made out of metal unlike the desk for students which were made out some kind of fake wood. This desk looking to be the one that the teacher used when the school was still be used.

I walked over to the metal desk and opened the two drawers of the metal desk. The drawer wasn’t locked and scrapped open revealing what was inside it. My Pipbuck scanning the contents of the two drawers and showing what was inside it on its display. The some of the contents being what I had expected to find, while other were a little weird and surprising to find in a school, even one that was nearly leveled by a megaspell explosion.

My Pipbuck showing the first drawer contained a wooden ruler, a clawful of wooden number two pencil (five to be exact), a box of staples for a stapler that seemed to be missing, and three brown folders that contained papers that were ruined beyond ability to be read (me only able to determine that they were for some kind of lesson plan that never happened).

“Boring… boring… and more boring.” I thought as I turned my attention to the drawer that was directly below the first one.
It was the second drawer that was interesting. The first thing that showed up on my Pipbuck was what really surprised me. The screen of my Pipbuck read 38 caliber revolver with a box of ammunition (50 to be exact).

“What in Tartarus.” I thought as I went through the drawer and found the small pistol. The pistol was pony-made based on the mouth trigger and looked similar to the one that Breeze had given me, just smaller and with a shorter barrel. The pistol was a six-barreled revolver that was already loaded with four bullets. The metal of the gun was in relatively good condition having only a small amount of rust on the top of the barrel and the handle. The revolver didn’t seem to have any kind of special markings on it. It was just a regular small caliber revolver.

“Maybe Breeze could use this.” I thought as I held the pony-made pistol in my claws.

“Hey, Breeze!” I called out to my unicorn companion. Breeze having been occupying himself by searching through the few desks that still intact. Each desk having a built in small cabinet for storage.

“Yeah, Eta!” Breeze said as he stopped what he was doing and trotted over toward me. “What’s up?” He asked as he stood in front of the metal desk that was standing behind. I thought of me being his teacher and him my student quickly before my eyes. I couldn’t stop myself from internally giggling at the sight. Eta, you are such a hatchling.

I regained my composure and asked Breeze about the odd revolver that I had found within the desk. “What do you think about this?” I asked and Breeze gave me an expected look of confusion.

“Where did you get that?” Breeze asked me, recognizing that it wasn’t the same revolver that he had given me back in Stable 70.

“I found it, in one of the drawers of this desk. Along with a box of ammunition for it.” I answered, Breeze’s interest looking like it increased a little bit.

“Why would a teacher need something like that?” Breeze asked, asking the same question that I asked myself when I first found the pistol.

“I don’t know, but… do you want it?” I asked, Breeze’s blue eyes widening at my words.

“You can’t be serious?” Breeze said as I held the small revolver in my claws.

“Yes, yes I am.” I said a little more bluntly than I had intended. “I already have a weapon and we don’t know what we will come across while we are out of here.” I said, my logic seeming to be affecting Breeze. “Breeze, I know that you aren’t a fan of guns, or really any weapons in general. But, can you at least try it out?” I asked Breeze as I extended my claws that were holding the pistol toward my unicorn friend.

“Just one bullet, that’s all I ask. That you just fire one bullet, and if you don’t like it then I bug you about guns ever again.” I said to Breeze, the yellow unicorn’s eyes locked on the small pistol that I held in my claws.

“Just one bullet.” Breeze repeated my words.

“Just one, if you don’t like then I won’t bug you about guns ever again.” I said to Breeze, his blue eyes still locked on the small revolver that I held in my claws.

Breeze let out a sigh before he spoke me. “Ah, buck it!” Breeze exclaimed as his horn ignited with his light blue magic and he took the small pistol out of my claws and levitated it on the left side of his body.

“So, what now.” Breeze said to me as he examined the revolver in his blue magic.

“Um… shot it at the blackboard behind me.” I said as I turned my head to the blackboard that was behind me.

“Um… ok.” Breeze said as he continued to hold the pistol in his magic. His magic was shaking and it was the only part of his body that was shaking. Breeze’s hind legs also shaking as I placed an old textbook in the center of the blackboard that Breeze could use as a target, it was actually a little cute to see in fact.

“Ok, there you Breeze. You can fire when you’re ready.” I told Breeze as I walked over to his right side.

“And I just shoot it?” Breeze said to me as he continued to levitate the small pistol in his blue magic.

“Yes, just tighten your magic around the trigger and… the gun will do the rest.” I said as Breeze used his magic to aim the pistol at the textbook that I placed in the center of the blackboard.

“Ok, let’s get this over with.” Breeze said as he tightened his magic around the small revolver and boom! The sound of the revolver going off broke the silence. The revolver wasn’t as loud as my own, but it could still make your ears ring if you weren’t careful.
It wasn’t a second later when the 38 caliber bullet ripped through the pages of the 500 or so page textbook that I set up as a makeshift target for Breeze. He wasn’t the best shot with the bullet hitting the box at the upper corner but at least he did hit the damn thing. A fit one on of itself since Breeze was shaking like a piece of garbage in the air conditioning of Stable 70.

I stared up at the yellow unicorn that was next to me and I could see the muscles on his cheeks fighting to keep a straight face. I could tell that he enjoyed firing that pistol. It didn’t surprise me, guns are fun.

“Not bad.” I said hitting Breeze lightly on the shoulder.

“Thanks.” Breeze said with a smile on his face. A smile that brought one to my own.“I think I’m gonna keep this thing.” Breeze said as he put the pistol in the left side of his body. “Just in case.” Breeze finished and I couldn’t stop myself from playfully rolling my eyes.

“Sure Breeze, whatever you say Breeze.” I said sarcastically as I walked passed my unicorn companion.

“What’s that supposed to mean?” I heard Breeze ask as I walked over toward the destroyed door of the classroom.

“Nothing Breeze…” I said as I turned my head to face. “Now come on, we still have an entire school to search.” I said doing a motion with my head for Breeze to follow me.

Breeze and I spent the next few half an hour or so searching through the rest of the classrooms that were in the hallway that we were in. Most of them not containing anything that was of any great value. The best that we got nothing more than a couple of rounds for a twelve gauge shotgun without a shotgun to go with it that I found in a teacher desk in the third classroom that we searched. I didn’t know why some the teachers of this school were armed with revolvers and now shotguns. Maybe it was safety percussion, this place was in a war against an army of zebras that didn’t hesitate to kill younglings.

We continued to walk through the school until we came across what look like to be the mane office of the school. I made passing looks at my Pipbuck every five minutes or so and there were flashes on my map of red dots. I disregarded the red dots on my map as I was yet to come across anything that was actually dangerous to me, outside of some supersized roaches. Roaches that freaked out Breeze every time that they got too close, but instantly retreated once they saw a purple dragon charging at them.

The one thing that did surprise me the most was despite searching through most of the building we were yet to come across any skeletons from either dragon or ponies. Not that I wanted to see the bare bones of someone that had died in a megaspell over two-hundred years ago. No, not at all.

Sweet Alpha what the buck is wrong with me.

Anyway, the desks inside the mane office of the room were similar to the metal desks that teachers of the school used, only that they had three drawers instead of two and they were smaller and more designed to hold papers instead of whatever the teachers held in their desks.
The desks were also slightly different than the desks that the teachers had by them all having a large terminal monitor on the upper right of all of them. I had seen several terminals back in Stable 70 and they were basically bigger versions of the technology that made up my Pipbuck.
I wasn’t the best when it came to what was known as hacking, but I knew what was enough to break into the terminals that were on the desks of the mane office.

Most of them contained protected documents for what I see was nothing more than school meeting that was dated over two hundred years ago. Meetings that I also assumed never actually happened.

I continued to search through the desks of the mane office until I came across one that contained twenty small metal bottle caps that had the words ‘Sparkle Cola’ stamped on them.

“Bottlecaps?” I said in confusion as I held one of them in my left claws.

Let me see.” Breeze said as he walked over toward me. Breeze using his magic to take one of the bottle caps out of the drawer and examining it in his light blue magic. I studied Breeze carefully, I still had no idea how I had magic seemingly in my claws and I took every opportunity that I had to learn what I could from my unicorn friend.

“Uh, strange.” Breeze said as he put the bottle cap back inside the drawer of the metal desk.

“Why would someone have a collection of bottlecaps in a drawer?” I asked Breeze as I ran my claws through the collection of bottle caps. The sounds of metal clanging as the bottlecaps in the drawer hit my black claws.

“Why would one of the teachers of this school have a desk filled with shotguns shells?” Breeze asked me sarcastically, I couldn’t stop myself from laughing at his words.

“Point taken.” I said as I put a clawful of the metal caps in the saddlebag that all my water and medical supplies in.

“What are you doing?” Breeze asked me.

“I taking some of them.” I said as I put the rest of the metal in my bag.

“Why?”

“Why not, we don’t know what it is like out here. The ponies and dragons up here might use these things as money.” I said getting a suspected laugh from Breeze.

“Yeah, when somepony uses bottle caps as currency is when I see pigs fly.” Breeze as she trotted off to another side of the room.

The roof of the room had been destroyed and the light breeze of the day went through the room. The breeze sending a small shiver down my back as I walked through a rotting wooden door to a room that was at the end of a long hallway away from everything else.

The door was so rotted that when I touched with my claws it fall off its hinges and landed on the carpeted ground of the room in a loud crash. My body jumping at the sound.

“Are you alright, Eta!?!” Breeze called out to me out of concern at the sound of the crash.

“Yeah, I’m fine, this place is just falling apart!” I called back to my unicorn companion.

“Ok, call me if you need me!” I heard Breeze say.

“Will do!” I called back as I searched the room.

The room was about the size of the hospital room, maybe even a little smaller, that I tried in back in Stable 70. The floor of the room was a furry carpet that looked to have originally a light green color. The carpet now looking a dark green with black stains all over the place.

The room looked to be the office for the school principal given the by the wooden shelves that were filled with the records of the students of the school when it was still in operation. My eyes fell on a large bookcase that was behind a metal desk that was on the far side of the room. The bookcase having a skeleton head of pony with glowing red eyes. The skull still having some its flesh still on it. The skull was creepy but I laughed it off as I walked over to one of the brown shelves that contained the files of the students

Out of curiosity, the began to run through the files of the students. They were all dead, so what not invade their privacy.

“Are you still alright in there?” I heard Breeze call out to me from one of the rooms that lead to the principal’s office.

“Yeah, I’m fine!” I called back as I continued to scan through the student files. “You need to get your grades up, kid.” I thought out loud as I read the file of one the students.

“How’s the search going, Eta?!?” I heard Breeze ask from another room as I walked over toward the principal’s desk that was in the room.

“I have really found anything yet…” I began to say my movements and words coming to a stop when I walked around the other side of the desk and I was might by something that had expected to come across in this abandoned school, but it still shocked me to my core.

“Eta, are you alright?!?” I heard Breeze asked me as I stood frozen in front of a large dragon skeleton that was in front of me. The skeleton was of a dragon that was much larger than me. The dragon’s bony tail wrapping around its body as it seemed to have died while being stuck in the fetal position.

“Um… yeah, I’m fine. Great actually!” I called back to Breeze with my limbs shaking as I continued to stare wide eyed at the bony skeleton that was in front of me. My words being followed by a fit of nervous laughter.

It was strange this was the first time that I had seen a skeleton of another. I mean I had already taken the life of another before, so this shouldn’t have been that difficult for me to see, right? I had seen and committed death before, but this was different. I couldn’t explain it. I knew that finding skeletons inside a destroyed school was expected, but it was still shocking and difficult for me to see.

It might have not been seeing the skeleton of another that was so shocking, but how the skeleton had died. I scanned my eyes around and found a small six-shot revolver lying in his/her open right boney claws.

I slowly pick up the revolver, doing my best not to disgrace the skeleton that was in front of me and picked up the pistol in my claws. The pistol was different than the two pony-made revolvers that I had seen. This revolver was closer to the semi-auto pistol that I had fired in my dream last night. The revolver actually having a handle and a trigger for firing the weapon rather than the mouthpiece. I didn’t have a doubt in my mind that this weapon was created by dragon claws.

I examined the revolver in my claws and opened the cylinder to see if it was indeed loaded. I opened the cylinder to see that the revolver was loaded but it was missing one of the bullets, there being only five instead of the usual five. The revolver was chambered the same caliber that the revolver that I had received from Breeze.

I brought my eyes away from the revolver and back to the dragon skeleton that was in front of me to see that there was a large hole in the skull of the skeleton. My eyes went straight back to the revolver that I held in my claws. That was when a scary thought came to my mind.

“This dragon committed suicide.” I thought as I just now noticed the dark red coloration that was on the carpet that was around the body of the skeleton, the red coloration, without a doubt, coming from the blood of the dead dragon.

I put the revolver on the metal desk and began to search through the drawers of it. There had to be a reason for this dragon taking his own life or was it a she. Skeletons made it impossible to tell the gender of someone.

I continued to search through the drawers until I came across what looked like an old audio recorder. I took the recorder out of the desk and used my Pipbuck to download what was on it.

The recorder seemed to contained two messages, one a long message and the other a shorter message on the recorder that looked like it was over two hundred years old. I was surprised that it was still functional after all this time and the state of the office was in.

Just out of curiosity I pressed the longer message that was also had another older date and it began to play in the earphones that were connected to my Pipbuck.

“Recorded 237 years, 5 months, and 18 days ago. Journal entry 054: The thirty-second day of the forty-fourth year of the reign of the Third Alpha.” The first recording began, the words sounding like it was part of an automated system that the recorder created.

“Another boring day at Alpha’s School for Dragons and Ponies…” The recording said, the dragon talking sounding like a gruff accent that I couldn’t place.

“Another one of those pony brats was sent to my office today.” The dragon on the recording said, him without a doubt being the same dragon that had killed himself only about a yard from where I was listening to his personal messages. I’m not a snoop, I’m just trying to get some information as to why someone would shoot themselves.

“I don’t know why we teach these four-legged monsters if it was up to me I would kick them all out and go back to teaching exclusively to dragons. Like it should be.” The dragon on the recording said. I had to stop the recording at his words.

I couldn’t believe what I was hearing. Why would someone say something so terrible? I pressed the button on my Pipbuck to continue the recording and it just got worse.

“But it’s not. I don’t know what the Alpha intends to achieve by letting ponies into our own school system. But what do I know, I’m just the principal of the most renowned secondary school in the Empire.” This asshole continued to rant into the recording. As the listened to more and more of his words. The more and more I became less and less sympathy for this guy putting a bullet through his forehead.

“But whatever, the will of Alpha is better than mine apparently.” He continued as a knock on the door was that currently in several pieces at the moment was heard. “Come in.” He said as I heard the sound of the door opening.

“Sir, your meeting with the member of Stable-Tec are here.” I heard the voice of a young mare say. Her voice was warm and welcome inclusion from the racist asshole that I was currently listening to. The company that she was talking about ringing a bell in my brain. I having seen that company name sometimes around Stable 70. They must have been the ponies that built the Stable in the first place.

“Thank you Sugarlily, you can go now.” He said and I heard the door to the office being closed. I had to give this dragon one thing, he got one really great recorder.

“Yet alone have those vermins as members of my own staff.” He said under his breath the moment the door had closed. I starting to regret listening to this recording.

I heard the door to the office open again and the clatter of hooves on the carpet as a pony entered the room.

“Hello Miss Bloom, please take a seat.” He said pleasantly to the pony that entered. Him hiding his racist ideals toward ponies very well.

“Thank ya’, and please call me Applebloom.” A young mare said in an accent that reminded me of some of the earth ponies back in Stable 70. I then heard the sound of a wooden chair being pulled out and the young mare taking her seat.

“I hope that you don’t mind if I record this. Striking just to document the events that happened today?" The dragon asked. At least he had the decenticy to let the mare know that she was being recorded.

"Certainly, documentation is one of the most important parts of a company." She said in a pleasant voice.

“Anyway, I would like to thank ya’ for allowing me and all of Stable-Tec for being able turn your wonderful school into one of our state of the art Stables.” The young mare said happily, though I could still sense a little worry in her voice. Given the current state of the school, she had reason to be worried.

“It was a pleasure. I am always for the forwarding of my species.” The dragon said in response.

“Now, I have your word that your contruction of your so-called Stables will not interfere with the learning of my students.” The dragon said to the young mare, me imagining him making air quotes with his claws at ‘so-called’. “Because I last thing I would want to do is make more difficult for my students to learn what they are required to.” He said with a level of sarcasm that would’ve my sarcasm meter explode.

“You have my word along with the word of all of Stable-Tec that the construction of Stable 70, as we are gonna call it, will not interfere with any school activities. Construction will not begin until after the current school is over, until then you are free to do with the school you please.” Applebloom, I believe her name was, said. The young mare either not noticing the dragon’s sarcasm or simply not caring.

“Excellent, I am sure that you along with your Alpha will be very pleased when the Stable will be finally finished.” Applebloom said to the dragon.

“If it isn’t too much ask I would like to know how what this ‘Stable’ will look like when it finished?” The dragon asked Applebloom in a polite tone.

“Of course, I actually have brought some of the planned blueprints for the Stable with me today.” Applebloom said to the dragon. I then heard the sounds of papers being taken out of a saddlebag.

“Ya see here that we plan to have the Stable be built right below the auditorium.” I heard Applebloom say with the sound of a hoof hitting, I assume, a large blue piece as she continued to explain the construction of the metal bunker to the dragon that was currently resting with a bullet hole in his skull a only a yard from where I was listening to his recording.

The concrete structure underneath the stage makes a perfect opening for the Stable door.” Applebloom continued to explain, her sounding like she had spent several rehearsing this moment. I had to give her something is was one Tartarus of a salespony.

“Hmm… I see.” The dragon that was recording the conversation said and I could swear that I heard the heart of the pony stop as silence fell upon the recording for a few seconds.

The agonizing silence was finally broken after about ten seconds “Do you know what the living quarters would be like?” The dragon asked Applebloom and I hear her breathe out a sigh of relief.

“Oh yes, the living quarters are right... here.” Applebloom said as I heard her rummaging through papers. “The Stable is going to be one of the largest that Stable-Tec has ever built and will have three distinct levels. With the halls being made larger than other Stables so that dragons could easily navigate.” Applebloom explained what would eventually become my birthplace over two hundred years later.

“Each level being for living quarters for the residents along with other rooms that are required for the Stable to function for an extended amount of time.” Applebloom explained, her explanation being interrupted when the dragon asked her a question.

“What kind of rooms specifically?” He asked the young mare. Applebloom didn’t get delayed the question as she continued talking.

“Maintenance, storage, a fully functioning built-in hospital, you know those kinds of buildings.” Applebloom said to the dragon without pause, though I could sense that she was leaving out something else. I couldn’t tell why, it was just a feeling.

“Also a state of the art Overmare office! One of the best designed yet!” Applebloom said with pride.

“Yeah, more like a torture room of death if you ask me.” I spat out as I continued to listen.

“Overmare?” The dragon asked not familiar with the term.

“Oh yes, of course!” Applebloom said, me imagining her facehoofing herself.

“The Overmare, as we call it, is pretty much the Principal or Mayor of a Stable. She makes sure that the Stable is functioning at maximum efficiency and maintains order.” Applebloom explained to the dragon.

“And by maintain order I assume that you don’t mean rape the residents of the Stable when she doesn’t get her way. Right?” I said sarcastically as I continued to listen to the young mare speak.

“She?” I heard the dragon ask Applebloom.

“Yes, she. It is customary for a mare to be the Overmare of a Stable. Hence the name of Overmare.” Applebloom said to the dragon, her saying her words in manner most of seemed obvious to her.

“It’s not that the leader of the Stable is a woman that I have a problem with. I, and all over residents of the Dragon Empire, are completely for gender equality.” The dragon on the recording said, his words taking me, and I assume Applebloom as well, off guard.

“It is that the leader of the Stable is a pony that I have a problem with.” The dragon said to Applebloom beginning to show her his true colors.

“Well…” Applebloom stammered as she nervously laughed off the dragon’s words.

“This is just the very first Overmare and it is customary, and a start business strategy to have somepony from Stable-Tec to run the Stable for the first ten or so years of its lifespan.” Applebloom said to the dragon and I couldn’t stop myself from calling bullshit on her words. Through the two hundreds years of the Stables existence the Overmare was never a dragon. Either being male or female.

“Hmm… I see.” The dragon said not sounding convinced.

There were a few moments of silence with me only being able to hear the sounds of distant chatter coming from other rooms in the office of the school. The unbearable silence was finally broken by Applebloom.

“Well, I believe that have made some really good progress with this matter.” Applebloom said quickly, her sounding like she wanted to get out of that room as quickly as she possibly could without offending the dragon that was she was currently sitting across from.

“You will hear from another of my business partners in the comin’ weeks and months for any updates and/or changes.” Applebloom said as I heard her picking up her papers and shoving them into so kind of bag.

“I look forward to it. And hopefully this Stable that you are building will never actually have to be used.” The dragon said to the young mare. He imagining a huge smirk on her face.

“Yeah…” Applebloom sighed as if she had already accepted the idea of the world being destroyed in balefire. I couldn’t tell by the recording how long before this was before the destruction of the world, but I guessed it was at least over a year before hand. “Hopefully.” Applebloom whispered just loud so that only she would hear but the recorder was somehow able to pick it up. Seriously this guy had a really great recorder, especially given that it was over two hundred years old.

“It was certainly a pleasure to meet you, Miss Bloom.” The dragon said to Applebloom.

“Same to you, and I surely hope that this Stable will be nothing more than a safety measure.” I heard Applebloom say, the sound of the door to the office opening in the background.

“Certainly, I would hate to see this pointless war come to a point where we would all have to hide in steel bunkers like rats.” The dragon said as I imagined Applebloom’s muscles tensing up at his words.

“Right…” Applebloom said, the awkwardness in his words only seeming to grow. “Well, it was pleasure it finally meet you and another of my business partners will be here in the coming weeks to discuss the final touches for the construction of Stable 70.” Applebloom said as

“I look forward to it, Miss Bloom.” The dragon said and I heard the door to the office close. Applebloom having left the room leaving the dragon alone in the small room.

“What has our Alpha gotten us into this time?” I heard the dragon ask himself as the recording finished with a buzz of static.

Huh! So this school was turned into a Stable in some collaborative effort between Equestria and the Dragon Empire. An effort that from words the dragon on the recording not everyone was pleased about. This school also seemed to have something against ponies. And now that I think about it the Stable also seemed to have something against dragons.

As I continued with my thought something the Overmare said when she… raped me came to my mind.

“...finally the mission of this Stable is complete.” I heard the Overmare’s sick words say in my mind. I made sure that I quickly shook the thought out my mind as soon as it began.

I wasn’t going to relive that shit again.

A school that seemed to have something against its pony students having a Stable built underneath it that had its dragon residents raped to a point that it made it nearly impossible for them to have… children. I really don’t want to think about what the Stable did to its male inhabitants. Were these two things connected somehow or was it just some crazy coincidence?

No, I’m just being paranoid and rushing to conclusions, right. Right?

I sat there for a few seconds as I thought about the message that I had just listened to.

I wouldn’t say that the message wasn’t useless per se, but it didn’t help answer why that there was a dragon skeleton laying next to me with a bullet hole through his skull.

I stared at the second and final message on my Pipbuck for a few seconds before I finally pushed the button, the final message beginning to play. I was first met by the same robotically opening that I was met with during the first recording.

“Recorded 233 years, 1 month, and 23 days ago. Journal entry 123: The forty-ninth day of the forty-seventh year of the reign of the Third Alpha.”

What happened next made it so that I had to pull out my earphones as I was met with the loud banging of something pounding up against the wooden door of the office.

“Buck!” I shouted in agony as I covered my ears as they rang from the noise. My ears feeling like someone had just fired a gun next to them.

“Are you alright, Eta!” I heard Breeze call out to me from another room. Breeze’s words were muffled as my ears tried to recover from the recording.

“Yeah, I’m fine!” I called back, I could barely hear myself speak and my throat was hurting from my words so I was probably yelling at the stop of my lungs at that moment. “Go back to whatever you were doing!”

“Ok, call me if you need me.” I heard Breeze say, my hearing seeming to have repaired itself.

“Will do Breeze!” I called back to my unicorn friend as I went back to my Pipbuck.

I rewound the recording the point where I could my earphones and continued listening to the recording.

“How am I still alive?” I heard the dragon from the previous recording say, his words just above a whisper and filled with panic.

“SLC has been hit.” I heard him say and that was when I began to hear the pitter-patter of what sounded like rain falling from above. Me having a tiny suspicion the ‘rain’ wasn't actually rain.

“Those zebra bastards finally did it. They destroyed the world. They blew it up, those damned dirty animals!” I heard him shout, the pounding on the door becoming even louder.

“I have nothing else to live for. My country is destroyed, my family is dead, and I about to get overrun by a horde of mindless ponies that seem to be neither dead nor living.” I heard him say in defeat.

“If anyone is hearing this turn back now. I leave this message as a warning to any future generations. If there even is any future generations.” He said in defeat as I heard the sound of a revolver being loaded.

“They’re coming for me.” He said as the pounding on the door had reached a point that I had to lower the volume of my Pipbuck in order not to damage my ears any further than they already were.

“They, who's they?” I thought as I continued to listen to the recording.

“Ironic, I spent all this time at this Alpha fore shaken school slamming my pony staff and now they are going to be the ones that end up killing me.” He said his words only making even more confused.

“No, I am not going down. I am not getting by a race of degenerates.” I heard him say as I heard the sound of the hammer on the revolver being pulled back.

“If I am going to die, it will be on my own terms.” He said and I continued to hear the sounds of the door being torn apart by the swarm of seemingly zombie-ponies that were behind it.

“My name is Black Diamond and I will only die on my own terms.” The dragon said, me learning his actual name for the first time.
I then heard the sound of a gunshot and then silence. The recording coming to an abrupt end with the end of buzzing static.

“This dragon was killed by zombie-ponies, how is that even possible.” I thought as the final message ended. That was when the appearance of the dragon from my dream came to me. He was both alive and dead. What did he call himself, a ghoul? Is that what attacked this dragon. Are those the things that forced him to take his own life.

Wow! Was I actually feeling pity for this dragon all of the sudden.

My thoughts were interrupted when I heard a beeping coming from my Pipbuck. I looked down at it to see that my minimap was almost entirely filled with red dots. I had first ignored these dots as nothing more than radroaches, but after hearing this dragon’s dying words they took a new meaning.

I scanned my map trying to find the white dot that signified myself, but I just couldn’t. I looked again and again but I just couldn’t find myself. That was when a tiny white dot that was almost entirely covered by a red dot caught my eye. The white dot was me and the red dot was a...

I then felt something hot and wet hit the back of my neck. My ears perked up and I could hear the sounds of growling that would expect from a wild animal coming from directly above me.

I slowly turned my head to look at the bookcase that was above me. My blue eyes locked on the head of a pony that I had noticed when I entered the room. I had first thought it was nothing for than an old skeleton that the Principal had when the school was opened. Oh, boy was I wrong!

“Um… Breeze!” I called out to my unicorn friend that was in another room.

“Yeah!” I heard Breeze call back. The zombie-pony that was above me snarling at me.

I could only see the pony’s head but it was still uglier than anything I had ever seen before. Most of its face having decayed and now only having a small flap of skin over the pony’s lower jaw and two burning red eyes that stared directly at me.

“You haven’t seen anything… strange… have you?” I asked Breeze as the zombie-pony above me scrummed as it tried to attack me. A growl coming from the zombie-pony as it struggled to free itself.

“No, why?” I heard Breeze say. I swallow a mountain-sized gulp in my throat as I responded.

“Um… no reason.” I said laughed nervously as the zombie-pony above me broke one of its forelegs through the plaster wall of the office.

The zombie-pony above me continued to scrum as it shook more and more plaster out of the wall. The yellow plaster falling out of the wall and barely missing from hitting me in the head.

“Food!” The zombie-pony grumbled as it body broke out of the wall and it pounced.
And I screamed!

Level Up! New Perk: First Time Leader-- You have lead expedition into the wasteland of above for the first and seem to be excellent at it. Your Charisma has been permanently increased by one point. This perk can be upgraded.