Fallout Equestria: Galvanized.

by Duskfall_Pony

Rating: mature
Tags: Thriller, Drama, Original Character, Adventure, Sex, Tragedy, Gore, My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic, Dark, Other, Romance
Length: 5962

The story of a mare, from beginning to end. Only a mare and her friend trying their best to survive in the middle of a war between two factions they have nothing to do with. Will the tides turn in their favor and give them some peace?

This is a story of an ordinary unicorn who finds herself in a monstrosity of a world. She has many hurdles to climb, mountains to move and ponies to kill to guarantee her own survival, and the survival of hundreds of innocent ponies around her. Will she be able to strive to victory? Or will the constant blows beat her down until she's nothing more than the average raider?
--
This is a prologue/intro the the story I may continue writing in the future. If you love it and want to read more let me know and I'll be sure to get to work, but if it doesn't receive many good reviews the project will most likely be cancelled. Thanks for your consideration and your read!

Published 2016-11-12 17:20:01 UTC
Last updated 2016-11-12 17:20:01 UTC

Prologue

"He quit. He told me that he doesn't want out in three years, or five years, he wants out now. The farm is going to his brother"

This year had been a great harvest. The wheat was drooping over with heavy heads, the peas were tall and standing straight, and SilverStalk had remembered counting over three hundred pods on a canola plant. The three hundred acres were so plump with crop that the family had hired a few other farmers, three from Stalliongrad, four from Ponyville and one from Canterlot, each with their own equipment, to make their way over and help.

And yet, they would never receive it.

It was a dew-ey morning, the windows glistening with condensed water and the grass seeming the same. The four mares that lived in their humble farm cabin were awake and already working in the morning. The rule that the three sister's mother had was, you get from seven to eight to get up, shower, eat, have your breakfast and do any other work you needed to do before you hit the field, and then from there they work until dark, with a lunch break of course. This left the three sisters very stressed after the last week of working in their wheat field.

Thornbush tended to her herbs, the scent of Sage, Cinnamon and Vanilla all flowed freely throughout their home. Silverstalk enjoyed her porridge breakfast, and Amethyst, the youngest of the three sisters, was playing with their golden-furred cat. The little filly had sore hooves and bandages on her stomach from where she'd tripped and been cut by stubble. and seemed less bright than she normally was, but the sisters's mother, Shallowshine, blamed it on the strenuous work. Despite her making it clear that Amethyst could sit aside for a while and take a day off of work to go and play with her friends, the kid always stayed and helped.

Finally, the clock struck eight and the four mares, sisters and mother, all grabbed their heavy horseshoes and their hats, and headed out to the field.

"Look mama... A shooting star," Amethyst pointed into the sky, her eyes glinting slightly.

"Don't be silly, little one. You can't see stars during the day," Shallowshine told her daughter. Amethyst had always been a different filly. She looked nothing like her mother or her father, and she acted differently and had a higher fascination with magic than the rest of her sisters had. Probably a result of her being the only unicorn of the three children.

"But... Fine mama," she looked back down and split from the other three, heading to her section of the fielt. She had a small pouch for water and a big hat with a hole cut in it for her horn. Every so often she looked up in the sky to see the shooting star again, a large glowing orange circle. It had been joined by another one, and she could see a third glint far off in the sky. She took her mother's word and let them go. She had a small blade that she used a a sickle, as her mother didn't trust her with the large blade.

An hour later the little purple filly had made up four bundles of wheat, and was almost ready to collect the stalks to make her fifth. She glanced at the sky again to notice more and more of those little shooting stars, the one she'd noticed was the side of a penny, if she was holding it a few feet from her face in her magic. She was starting to get worried. Clumsily, she ran over to her mother on the other side of the field.

"Mama!" she called from a short ways away.

"Yes my gem?" she called back, grunting as she lifted one of her bundles of grain into their cart.

"The shooting stars are getting bigger, look!" she panted and skidded to a stop beside the cart.

"Amethyst, what did I tell you about talking rubbish during work time?" Shallowshine looked at her filly and shook her head. "Now get back to-"

"Mama just look up," she pleaded, cutting her mom off. Something she didn't often do as she had been taught how rude it was.

"Fine, but if you interrupt me again I swea-" she tilted her head up, and suddenly stopped speaking. "Amethyst... Go to the house, into my drawer... Two tickets, bring them to me please," She told the little unicorn very sternly, but also with an odd calm that Amethyst had never heard from her mom before.

"Yes mama," she replied and galloped off, heading towards their small home. Halfway there her heart started to thunder in her chest and her vision became blurry, but she kept running as best she could. She could hear her mother shouting to her sisters, but it sounded like she was underwater. Her vision cleared enough for her to climb up onto the porch and she stopped, panting for a few seconds. After the blurriness had subsided for the most part she trotted up the stairs into her mother's room. She had a drawer in her bedside table that nobody was allowed in, ever. Only her mother. She used it to keep her most valuable things so she wouldn't use them. On the very top there were two slips of paper, 'Stable-73' printed on each of them. She ran into her room too, a sinking feeling in her chest that something was wrong. She had a small figurine of Princess Luna that she had grown attached too, and in her six-year-old mind she figured that it would be able to protect her in the event of a cataclysmic event. She held all three of the items in her violet magic and began her sprint out to her mother again.

Luckily, the gray mare met her halfway with Thornbush, and they both looked very very frantic. The little filly looked up at her mom and gave her the tickets, but the mare pushed them back. "Keep them love. Go with your sister, you're gonna be safe okay?"

She could see tears on her mother's eyes. "Wait mama... What's wrong?" she asked, wiping the droplets of sadness from her mother's cheek.

"Nothing my love. Just promise me that you will always be my good little filly okay? And I promos you that you will see the sunshine again soon," the older mare whispered to her filly, ending the conversation with a little kiss on Amethyst's forehead.

Before she could react, Amethyst was scooped up onto Thornbush's back and they were galloping off towards Stalliongrad. The little filly called to her mother and looked around for her other sister, Silverstalk, tears beginning to stream from her eyes.

"Mama! Why aren't you coming!" she shouted, but sobbed harder when her mom never answered. She held onto her sister and sobbed into her dull crimson mane, feeling the wind ruffling her own dark black locks around her ears. In the distance she could hear large thunderous booms, and she whimpered. Instead of the road to Stalliongrad, her sister sprinted down a steep hill with a large line of ponies at the bottom.

There was a large cave with lights bolted into the ceiling of the light. It was fenced off, with two gates open. One stallion was wearing a blue and gold uniform and was taking the line and writing down names on a piece of paper, most likely filling empty spots. The empty gate was taking tickets, and it looked like most anypony who'd bought a ticket beforehoof had already been admitted into... Whatever this place is, or they haven't shown up yet.

Thorn brought her to the empty gate, handed him their tickets and told him their names. He approved them, and the two of them ran towards a bright yellow light at the end of the cave, and the sound of ponies talking within...

Start New Game?

Yes >No

Save File 001
Level 1
Entering Character Creation Mode...

Author's Note

This is the inevitable beginning of my very first Fallout Equestria short story/Fic. I don't plan on having this as a main project so things like schooling and work will be more of a priority than this, but if I get a lt of positive feedback I'd love to write as much as I can for you all! If the story is for some reason hated though, the project will most definitely be cancelled, so please be sure to leave an honest opinion of the prologue and the first chapter. Thank you for the read, and I hope you have a wonderful day!

Special thanks to Kkat for creating Fallout Equestria, make sure you go and check out the original book!

Chapter 1 - Blinded.

Chapter 1

“I’m not the reason you’re empty, I’m not your scapegoat, a shoulder to cry on!”

“Hey Volt,” my cheery voice piped from the entrance of the reactor lab.

The room seemed full, but really only because of the constant hum of computers and the desk-sized nuclear reactor on the other side of the thick enchanted glass on one side of the room. The walls were a dark gray with a putrid swamp green stripe on the bottom to signify that this was part of the power district of the stable.

“Hello Rain,” a strained voice replied from the doorway, before hoofsteps clicked against the steel floors and an electric blue mare sat herself down beside me on the incredibly hard blue chairs Stable-Tec had so graciously installed here before the war was over.

The reactor had three control rooms, one for the cooling rods, one for the push rods, and the other to regulate water and steam flowing through the core. Rain and Volt were stationed in the cooling rods section, so most of their job was waiting for a pony from power or steam to radio them their status and insert the correct amount of cooling rods into the reactor for the situation at hoof. Everything seemed to be going very normal.

“How are you this morning? You’re late again,” I pointed out, making my face into a concerned frown.

“How do you think?” Volt let her head fall onto the flat monitor in-front of her and sighed. “I don’t know why but I can’t seem to get any bucking sleep. I feel like garbage and I’m barely eating,” the mare grumbled. “What’s wrong with me?”

“I can’t tell. Maybe it’s radiation sickness? You were spending excessive hours down here on the job when you should’ve been off duty a week ago,” I pointed out. I flicked a switch to nudge a cooling rod two inches out of the vat of water as I noticed temperature dropping below its norm.

“Well, whatever it is, it can kindly kiss my tail,” she retorted to the glass of the screen her face was pressed against.

‘When our shift is over at Lunch I can bring you to the med wing, if you need some company in the waiting room,” I suggested, though towards the end I could feel my voice start to falter and my face started getting warmer by the second.

“Thanks for the offer Rain, but I think I’ll be fine today,” she lifted her heavy head up to read her half of the panel, her droopy eyelids threatening her falling asleep again.

“You can have a nap if you want, I can cover your panel,” I offered again, nudging her shoulder. “Use one of the fire blankets.”

“As long as i’m still getting paid for this,” she chuckled dryly and stood up, gladly leaving her chair and pulling the heavy black blanket out of the red box on the wall marked ‘In case of fire!’. She spread it on the floor and curled herself up, and I noticed within minutes that she was out cold.

I let out a small sigh and sat in the middle of our two panels, keeping read on the temperatures of the reactor in-front of me.

“If only she knew…” I whispered to myself quietly.

The rest of the shift was quite boring, and I barely got any radio calls as today was just a steady day. We only ever really needed to fluctuate the amount of cooling rods if a push rod was depleted and the team shut down it’’s sector to replace it. Having no such occurrence meant I was bored. That lead to me making cool little designs on the bland metal walls with my shiny magenta magic. Swirls and abstract designs marked the whole of the room while I kept track of the core’s heat. was in the middle of a heart made of gears before the lunch alarm rang.

I sat up straight in my chair, quite startled, and the glow from my horn faltered and died along with the stencils on the metallic walls. I quickly timed out and nuzzled Volt awake, helping her fold up the blanket.

“Wow… I really needed that nap. Thanks Rain,” she yawned and timed herself out of her shift as well. She looked a lot better, her mane was less scraggly and her voice had returned to it’s pretty melody instead of the strained mumbles.

“Of course, always happy to help,” I told her.

“As always. But I did wanna ask you one more thing before lunch,” the blue mare told me as we walked through the main power level hallway to the elevator that lead up to the atrium.

“And what’s that?” I listened, my ear closest to her perking up.

“What did you mean by ‘if only she knew,’ ?” she looked at me expectantly.

I stopped dead in my tracks. My hooves seemed to lock up and I didn’t want to move anymore. Volt, a hoofstep ahead of me turned her head and glanced at me, concerned.

“Well?” After a few moments of the filling hum, she suddenly frowned at me, as if I’d done something wrong. “Rain? Spit it out,” she knew it had something to do with her.

“I…” my jaw threatened to lock up. “If only you knew… how much I cared for you…” I said very slowly, looking down further towards the ground with every word. “How much I would really do for you if you asked…” my muzzle could feel the coldness radiating from the steel tiling and I felt a swarm of radroaches in my stomach, my nerves catching up on me.

“That’s what it was? You wanted to ask me out?” Volt stared at her for a second, not looking any more impressed before letting out a giggle. “Rain, you’re not mature enough for me. Not just that, you’re a mare,” she snickered and turned to leave.

“I’ve seen you with mares before,” I somehow blurted out without my voice cracking. As soon as the words slipped I felt my face go hot and I stepped back once, raising a forehoof up to my chest as a sort of instinctive shield. “O...oops…”

“Wait you spy on me? Oh my Luna how more ridiculous could you get? What a stupid little mare. I can’t believe you thought you’d ever get with me,” Volt began to walk off, snickering to herself as she turned the corner.

I felt something inside me break. Years of hope, gone, and any happiness I had left for the day, whisked away into nothingness. All I could do for a few seconds was sit there, and when I did move again I just let my haunches slide to the floor. I leaned against the hallway wall and sniffled, listening for the elevator that had taken Volt up to the atrium level. I waited there for ten minutes at least, until I heard the bing of the doors opening and the next shift of ponies flooding out to start their positions on the reactor. As they all left I boarded the metal box alone, and let it raise me up past the atrium and to the living quarters. My floor, number four south. Every level except for the atrium and the reactor had four different sectors, one for each direction of the compass.

I trudged out of the open door and headed off to my room. I hated showing emotions in public, so as soon as I stepped into my living quarters I could feel hot tears running down my cheeks and landing on the floor. I wasn’t even hungry anymore. I didn’t want to go to my shift later today. I didn’t want to get up from my bed, which I had curled up on by now, ever again.

I had known Volt since as long as I can remember. She was two years older than me so I had never had any schooling with her, and it was only last year that I had been put on the reactor team with her. I had always admired her from afar, and before my job had only ever talked to her a couple of times. Never had I actually spied on her, it was more like witnessing her walk in her room with a mare’s lips glued to her neck before the door closed. Yet she had claimed my lovelife for all nineteen years of my life, only to throw it away today.

I didn’t realize how long I had sat in there crying, ten minutes? Maybe a half hour? But I heard a knock at my front door.

“Rain Shade?” I heard a familiar voice from the other side. Yet I didn’t get up and answer it. I didn’t want anypony to see me like this. “Come on Rain open up, you didn’t come get lunch after work, I’m worried” the voice tried harder to beg me out of bed.

“G-Go away…” I mumbled, but seemingly not loud enough as the next thing I heard was:

“I’m coming in,” and a hoof tapping at the keypad lock on my door. I heard the door open and knew it could be one of three ponies. The Overmare, Volt, or my best friend.

In ten seconds flat I heard my bedroom door slide into the floor like it always did, a hiss and a little squeak towards the end. After another few moments I felt something bounce on my bed and something warm wrap around me. I didn’t have to open my eyes to realize who it was and what they were doing. I felt pathetic from crying, but I didn’t stop nevertheless.

“Awe Rainy, what’s wrong?” my best friend Sunshine asked me as she lay atop me, her hooves protruding beneath the blankets and wrapping me in one of her sinister, evil, warm… soft... - I pulled my mind away from her embrace, and sighed, trying to wipe my eyes on the blanket.

“Nothing’s wrong Sunshine I…” I sniffled again and a lump formed in my throat. “I just… Hurt my horn… is all,” I lied to her.

She in turn playfully smacked my horn, causing it to actually pinch with pain momentarily. “No you haven’t, silly. Now tell me what’s really going on or I’m gonna tie you up with blankets and tickle it out of you,”

I giggles a little from the threat, though nearly choking on another sniffle of air that my body demanded at the same time. “Only if you get off of me.”

“Fine, but I get to keep hugging you,” she reasoned.

“Oh alright…” I reached a hoof up to shove her off of me, and sat up. Not setting the hoof down, I rubbed my eyes and waited for the bubbly yellow mare to re-attach herself to me again.

Once her hooves were firmly in place, she sat down and looked at me more seriously. I suppose the silly act was to get me to stop crying, and I suppose it had worked to an extent. Sunshine was the psychologist in our med-wing and everybody praised how much she could help a pony with a few words and a smile. I had been lucky to know this my whole life, and I knew I could always turn to her if I needed something. Even if I was stupid and ran off to cry alone first.

“Now tell me, you know I won’t tell anypony,” she told me sincerely.

I let out a long sigh, and looked down at my sheets. “Fine…” There was something about her hugs that just made me feel like spilling my heart out to her anytime she gave me one, and this was no exception. “Remember Volt? The mare I had a crush on for so long?” I asked her first.

“Had? Aren’t you still madly in lo-.. Er, yeah, I do. Go on,” she slipped, looking at me apologetically.

My ears drooped down and my body seemed to just wither over, and I felt hollow again, like in the hallway. “She found out and… She laughed. She said I wasn’t mature enough… S-Sunshine she… She laughed at me…” my voice was shaky and the sniffles came back again. I could feel Sun trying her hardest to keep me from crying, rubbing my back and using those weird friend powers she seemed to have to make me feel comfortable, but it only barely worked this time.

“Rain that’s… Horrible. If she said something like that and acted that way, then you don’t need her. She doesn’t deserve you,” she told me. “You can find a hundred and twenty Volts in any power outlet in here,” she gave a wan giggle, trying to cheer me up.

It only worked a little, and I faltered a smile for a few seconds. Something in her voice seemed more pure, sincere in a way I hadn’t heard from her before. Like she meant these words for me and me only.

“Hey, don’t you frown again, I seen you smile,” she nudged my shoulder. “Where’s my happy little raindrop?” she rubbed my sides, knowing I was extra ticklish there.

I started to snicker, covering my face with my hoof and shaking a little.”S-Sunshine sto- eheh… Eh… heh… Stop ple- hah… nng..” I tried my best not to let my laughs become anymore than a snicker, but eventually the torture was too much to bear and a grin ripped across my muzzle, and laughs escaped my lips. I flopped over on the bed, trying to hide under the covers again, squealing and giggling like a little filly as she traced her hooves along my torso.

“There she is!” she shouted with glee, not letting up at all. She poked and rubbed at my sides, belly and hooves until we were nearly just play-wrestling on my bed.

After about three minutes of giggling, squealing and my cries for mercy, she finally let up, standing over top of me.

Half-covered up in blankets, my mane in my face and my tail somehow wrapped around my right forehoof, I looked up at her. We were both panting, and she seemed to be satisfied with her work. I’ll admit, she did cheer me up a lot. She had always been there to do that, even… When mom died. I pushed that thought away and brushed my black mane from my face, a few peppermint green hairs still sticking in my eyelashes (but oh well), and then worked on unraveling my tail. After a few moments, I was done and she stared down at me.

“Are you happy now? Nothing is wrong?” Sunshine asked, her golden and brass mane shielding any other view I could have other than her face. Probably somewhat intentional.

I responded with “Yes Sunshine, you seem to make everything better somehow,” and she grinned, now completely satisfied.

“Good. Now can I ask you something, now that you’re not all cloudy?” she lost the grin and seemed content with just a small, hopeful smile.

“Uh, sure of course. Ask away,” I relaxed below her, finding the pillow with my head.

“Seeing as you’re not so tunnel-visioned on one mare now, would you maybe… Give me a shot?” her confidence seemed to dwindle towards the end of her sentence, but she maintained the little smile.

“A shot? Sunshine you know I don’t drink- wait… You mean…” it took a moment for things to register in my mind, but eventually the cogs started to turn. “You want to… With me?”

She gave only an eager nod.

“I…” my mind was so full of mixed emotions now. Some of heartbreak and others of nervousness, clouded by my most recent confusion and urgency to find an answer. What if I said yes? Was it weird to date your best friend? Would other ponies think I was crazy and needed to date the psychologist? What would… What would Volt... - No! Do not think about her anymore Luna-dammit! But… What if I said no? How long had she been waiting to ask? What if I crushed her dreams just like Mine had been earlier? I had certainly felt the love in her hugs and almost everything she’s said before, but I just assumed that was friendly…

She looked concerned, seemingly reading my pupils, which hadn’t left hers the entire time. “Rain? Are you okay? Did I overwhelm you or do you nee-”

I put my hoof to her lips, taking a deep breath, and then closing my eyes. I thought long and hard, what seemed like an eternity welled up to be about three seconds. And then finally I said it:

“Yes.” It was the most monotone, bland, boring ‘yes’ I could’ve given, but it did the job, and I was soon to find out.

Her eyes opened wider than I thought was possible and she grinned from ear to ear. The golden mare let out what seemed to be some speech, but ended up sounding like a squeak and a gurgle to me, and then leaned down and hugged me. It wasn’t tight, like one might expect, but instead is was gentle and tender. She didn’t have to tell me how much she’d been hoping for that one word, because I felt it in my chest. I could feel her shaky breathing and her heart beating against my chest, and her soft brass-colored locks fell over my neck and shoulders.

“T-thank you so much… For giving me a chance,” I heard her say as a half-whisper, and then she fell silent.

I replied by giving her a gentle nuzzle on her forehead. I couldn’t feel the redness in my cheeks until now, or how tense I had been. I relaxed again and then slowly circled my forehooves around her yellow body. We lay there in silent bliss for what I wished could’ve lasted for eternity., but it sadly didn’t. After an hour or so of just shy snuggles my work alarm went off and Sunshine grudgingly got up off of my tired body. I already missed her warmth and the cute honey smell that her perfume provided, but I knew I had to get up.

Begrudgingly, I sat up and ran my hoof through my tail, looking nervously over at Sunshine. I can’t explain why but it felt like every moment I was out of her hooves meant I was more sleepy and wished to be with her even more. I can’t explain love, but I felt it for Sunshine, at least a little bit already. There’s a difference between romantic love and friendly love, and she’s trying her best to turn that friendly love all over to romance, I can see it in her eyes. And she’s slowly succeeding.

I shook my head, breaking through that wall of thoughts that had kept me sat there so statue-like for the last minute and shut the alarm off. I stood up, to be greeted with Sunshine pulling my forehoof back so that I faced her on the bed.

“Hey Rain?” she glanced at me with sweet eyes.

“Yeah Sunshine?” I replied, smiling at the sight of her laying upside-down, smiling at me.

She pulled me closer and planted a soft peck to my lips, turning what felt like the entirety of my purple coat red with blush. My first kiss. “Be safe,” she finished, and after noticing me standing still in shock, she tapped my cheek with her hoof. “Go, you have work to do,” she looked up at me and giggled.

I stammered at first but then nodded and turned, dashing off. I could almost feel her eyes on my flanks as I sprinted out of the door. I pushed the lock button on my door with my magic as I took off towards the elevator, catching it just as if was about to close. It was a large platform, at least five meters by five meters square, and would hold about twenty ponies at once.

I stood there with the few ponies coming from their rooms as well and then we began moving down to the atrium to pick up anypony still on their lunch break. After that stop, I looked around at who was in the elevator with me, and was surprised to see no Volt. I was dreading going on the same shift as her again and was tempted to head to the Overmare and request a different shift, but decided I’d stick it out for the day. But to my avail, there she wasn’t. Rad-stem, Dew-drop, Lightning Shaft, Green Rose, all the other ponies I worked with, but no Volt.

I smiled a little bit after that and with my mind more at-ease, I went to the locker rooms to grab my RAD-Suit. This shift I would be on fuel-rod replacement, so I definitely needed the radiation-proof suit. I headed to the air-lock room and sat down. The other pony doing the swap with me I recognized, she was a pearl-white mare, her red mane nearly overflowing out of the helmet that attached to the suit via air-lock. She looked rather frustrated, but not at anything in her immediate surroundings.

Hey Scarlett, what’s wrong?” I asked, nudging her shoulder. “You seem angry.”

“I’ll tell you what’s wrong is that Volt called in sick again and not I gotta do her job and maker her money. Stupid bitch wouldn’t know sickness if somepony stuck it up her flank,” she muttered to me.

“Sick? But she was perfectly fine on the morning shift. Tired, but fine. I suppose with all those extra hours…” I suggested as the air-lock triggered and we were let out into the reactor chamber.

“What extra hours? You mean when she takes stallions down here to the coolant room to get them off? Yeah, real good overtime,” Scarlett rolled her eyes sarcastically.

I lifted the fuel rod with my magic and floated it carefully to the reactor sector, 2 North was the sector we were re-filling this time. The design was really four reactors in one, and this was the second of the two reactors in the stable. Each reactor had four boilers that were all controlled by the main control room and the same mechanism. Each boiler was linked to a separate turbine, and they all fed into the main power grid.

“Wait she’s been bringing stallions down there to fuck? For how long?” I asked, slightly shocked. “And why?”

“Who the hell cares why,” her crimson magic joined mine and our hold became more steady on the rod. “About two or three months now. Actually, I walked in on them doing it on your chair,” she snickered and helped me raise the threaded end into it’s spot on the sector cap’s mechanism and we started screwing it in.

“Oh dear Luna, why would you tell me that?” I nearly gagged and shuddered from the thought of it.

“Because it’s funny,” she came back at me, jokingly of course.

“Well… I guess thanks for the insight,” I told her grumpily. If I had known how much Volt was well into other ponies, I probably would’ve given up years ago. Nevertheless… No Rain, stop thinking about it. No. Stop. Bad unicorn.

In my frustration I had let go of the fuel rod and it was starting to pull down on the lid, Scarlett straining and shouting at me, but I had seemed to have gone deaf for a few moments, locked in thought.

“Shit! Sorry Scarlett,” I rushed to grasp the rod with my magic again and helped her screw it into place, nice and tight. When we were done, she scowled at me and left me to lower the lid myself.

After a few moments of checking the seals and the hydraulic pressure on the lid, I declared the swap a success over radio and walked to the air-lock. Scarlet punched my shoulder - I deserved that - and didn’t look at me for the rest of the quarantining our suit exteriors went over before we were allowed to go back into the stable.

Once we were out, we were free for the rest of the day. The one benefit to the most dangerous shift was you spend ten minutes there and get the rest of the shift off. I took this time to swiftly return to my room, happy to find Sunset napping on my bed.

When I woke her, she was ecstatic and pounced on me, both of us crashing to the floor in a pile of warm fuzziness. She finally let go of the hug and kissed my nose, her eyes beaming with happiness.

“Thank Luna it wasn't all just a dream,” she spouted before kissing my nose again.

“Of course not Scarlett,” I told her and nuzzled her cheek, standing up once more.

“How was work?” she questioned as soon as I was on my hooves again.

“Like any other day, pretty boring,” I replied, not telling her about what I had learned from Scarlett.

“Well, that’s good. What do you want to do before it’s curfew? Anything you want. We can go out for dinner, head to the orchard or just watch a movie,” she suggested.

The stable had amazing food in the more classy restaurants, and the indoor apple/orange/banana orchard was a lovely place to sit and enjoy the freshest air in the place, but I really didn’t care what I was doing at that point.

:Anything, as long as I’m with you,” I told her, eliciting a huge smile from her golden lips.

“I was hoping you’d say that,” she replied in a soft coo, and she took my hoof, leading me to the couch that faced my terminal in the living room/ kitchen. The living quarters were designed with an open, modular design, so that meant that the kitchen was also the living room, and the only two separate rooms were bedrooms and bathrooms. Everybody’s quarters start off the same until whoever lives there spices it up with their own flare and made it their own.

She lied down on the comfy blue nylon and invited me by holding her hooves open, and I obliged.Laying beside her, nestling up in her warm yellow hooves, the familiar smell of honey filled my nostrils again. I loved it. The relaxation, the warmth, the feeling of her fur against mine, it was something I had never experienced and was now sad that I had missed it for so many years.

We were so lost in each other that we didn’t hear the scream from 4-S - 48, eight rooms north of us.

Level Up!
Level - 2
new Perk Added:

Emotionless I - You show your shock, sadness, anger, and fear 25 % less. Positive emotions are not affected.