Snapdragon sighed and glared at the plant in front of him, running his hoof through his messy tangle of blue curls.

‘Why wont you live?’ he thought angrily, as he poked at the soil with a hoof, checking his measurements once again.
“Soil mixture is fine, soil moisture is fine, you have the right amount of artificial sunlight with the optimal light balance for photosynthesis… and yet,” he muttered while another leaf crumbled into his hoof, “Yet you decide none of that is worthy of you and you decide to expire anyway!”

Stomping angrily, Snapdragon flicked a wing open and swept the failed experiment into the compost before turning back to his notes, messily strewn about the metal desk in the makeshift lab he had created in his quarters. Flicking through them again and again he just couldn’t understand why his beloved namesake was refusing to grow. Snapdragons were a hardy plant, able to survive frost and all sorts of conditions, yet the snapdragon bulbs gown within the stable were spoiled and temperamental, refusing to grow until their environment was just right, which when you considered that the above world was a blasted landscape of hell and radiation, didn’t spell a great future for the floral industry of Stable 24.

Snapdragon began to recalculate the soil chemistry he would need, his mind becoming lost within a maze of numbers.

* * *

“SNAPS!”

He started awake, squawking in surprise as his wings flared out and he toppled off his chair, crashing onto the floor. Rubbing his head, he squinted up at the pony standing over him, now marked as his mortal enemy. A chocolate brown face came into view, surrounded by a puffy, curly pale yellow mane, topped with a cheerful grin. The face loomed closer and a loud, booming voice sang out, blowing Snaps’ mane back.

“It’s dinner time!! And I’m going to eat your share if you don’t hurry up!” Eclair giggled, turning and running from the room, pounding hoof steps echoing down the hall while Snaps scrambled to get to his hooves, wings flapping helplessly as they blew his notes around the small room.

“How does one earth pony manage to be so damn noisy?” he grumbled, finally folding his wings and setting off down the hall.

The atrium opened up before him, a marvel of StableTec workmanship. Stable 24 was buried beneath what was once known as Macintosh hills, and it was known as the most unusual stable to be built. As deep and the mountain was tall, the stable was enormous. It ran sideways in an L shape, twisting through the mountain range housing all the earth ponies and unicorns, while the atrium, 1300 feet tall, housed the pegasi. Hallways branched off this spacious cylinder, leading to living quarters and the main cafeteria, the business offices and schools, leaving it looking less like a stable and more like a hive. There were no stairs, only smooth marble walls, whereas large, strategically placed blocks and beams jutted out, providing hoof holds for the unicorns and earth ponies to grip as they flipped themselves up, parkour style.

Snapdragon stepped to the edge of the atrium, stretching his wings a few times, anticipating the cafeteria three floors below. It was hard work getting lift to fly up as high as he lived, but that was the purpose of this stable. StableTec locked their ancestors in here 150 years ago with a simple experiment, ‘Survival of the fittest’ quite literally. If you were unfit, you wouldn't be able to reach the food halls, schools or the administration offices. All ponies who attempted to break the experiment by bringing the food halls lower and more spread out, or not attending check in were met with meeting a mysterious and very unpleasant end, so the ponies living here just followed along. It was better than being outside, where the very air was poison.

Taking a deep breath, Snaps leaped from the edge, folding his wings in as he dropped like a bullet towards the food hall. He flared out his wings, skidding into the entrance and slamming into the wall, which was naturally met with Eclair’s peals of laughter.

“You could have waited for me, you know.” Snaps said as he was helped up by his sister.

“If I did,” Eclair snorted, “I wouldn't be able to see you fail at landing so hard!”

Grunting, Snapdragon pushed past Eclair and scanned his pipbuck at the check in box.
Each pony in the stable has their measurements and fitness tested by the medical team at a monthly check in, which was put into the main computer to calculate their optimal calorie needs, which, when their pipbucks were scanned, dispensed 3 healthy, balanced meals a day. A failure to report for check in resulted in a visit from Stable Security. Two failures meant a month in the refinery, retraining your body to be at peak physical condition. Three failures… well lets just say three wasn’t an option.

Picking up the plate of white porridge that was dispensed, Snapdragon followed Eclair over to a table in the corner of the cafeteria. Families usually ate together, and they were siblings, though they couldn’t have looked more different. Eclair was short and had a thick body, chocolate brown fur, a cute face surrounded by puffy pale gold ringlets. Her cutie mark fit her perfectly, a Chocolate Cosmos flower, or ‘Cosmos atrosanguineus’. Meanwhile, Snapdragon was tall and awkward, with a powder blue coat and rich, messy deep blue curls that cascaded everywhere, regardless of what he did to tame them. He was often mistaken for a mare, as everything about him just screamed femininity. Perhaps this was why his beautiful face was almost perpetually in a scowl, the other stable dwellers whispering often that his angry face looked just like a dragon, which suited his snapdragon cutie mark just fine.

It was this scowling face that at last relaxed into a smile as he watched her sister dig enthusiastically into her ration. They really were opposites, he thought, but they were also perfectly matched too. Two peas in a pod. Their parents were long gone, but they had each other.

‘So, have you managed to find a way to combat the radiation effect on the flowers yet?’ Eclair had paused eating long enough to startle Snapdragon from his thoughts with a question.

Snaps mouth turned back into a scowl as he began to eat.

‘Nope. It’s like if you just mention the word ‘radiation’ and they fall apart at the stem! How is your project coming along?’

‘Slightly better, I have officially managed to boost the nutrients found within the petals, so we can start testing them in recipes soon.’

They went back to eating in a companionable silence, each thinking of the upcoming excursion to the surface. Several years ago the Overmare had announced that they would run out of food within ten years, unless major changes were made to the stables population and they found a way to get new soil. The soil that they grew their food in, was quite simply, burnt out, and couldn’t support plant growth much longer. At first ponies worried that the Experiment would be tampered with and began to panic, but instead the Overmare instructed a rule. Any pony over the age of 60 would voluntarily give themselves to the Garden, and by doing so boost the soil nutrients and preserve their food supply for an extra few years, giving the stable just enough time to find a way to grow flowers in the irritated soil above. Eclair was a part of the team that was changing their food nutrient content so that it would last the team long enough to get a variety of soil samples and come back. Snapdragon was going to be a part of the Excursion Team, doing on-site experiments with various bulbs, testing their growth in the wasteland and nutrient content. They were leaving in a month, and if he didn’t find a breakthrough about the radiation problem, then his part of the experiment would be met with failure and the continuity of the stables life would be jeopardized.

It was enough to make a stallion lose his appetite. Unfortunately, ponies of Stable 24 didn’t have that luxury. Wasted food was met with consequences.

Arching his back and feeling the muscles pop and crack, Snaps rose to his hooves and walked over to the disposal unit, placing his empty plate inside where the arms of the machinery within scooped it up for return processing.
‘Welp, time to get back to work.’

* * *

Exhaustion set in, but he had done it. All that the snapdragons had needed was to be infused with rad-away at the bulb stage, and then they grew in the soil just fine. It was such a simple solution that Snaps almost screamed with rage when he figured it out. He had spent the better part of the week infusing the supply that would come with them out into the wastes.
Eclair trotted into his room, her saddlebags overflowing and her eyes brimming with tears.

“Snaps! It’s today and after today you wont be here and I will be alone and you will be out in the wasteland and I bought your suit-” Snaps cut off the stream of words with an embrace around his sister.

“I will come back,” he whispered. “I promise.”

“You’d better.” she sniffled. “Oh! I bought your radiation suit. The stallion size wouldn't fit you so I bought a mares medium. Don’t be mad.”

Snaps laughed, his first genuine laugh in days. “How could I be mad? I’ve always looked like a mare, now I can dress as one too!”

Eclair wiped her eyes, giggling as she watched him step into the garish yellow suit. “That doesn't suit your coat at all!”

“Ugh I know! I don’t know how I’m going to get my mane into that helmet either.” Snaps said as he began winding his mane into a topknot, loose curls falling everywhere. Sighing, he let his hooves drop and his mane dropped back down with a ‘fwump!’

Eclair stepped over to him, and slowly ran her hooves through his mane, sorting it into strands for braids.

“Don't you talk to any strangers now.”

“Yes, mother.”

“Don't be getting killed now.”

“Yes, mother.”

Braiding complete, she turned him towards her and popped the helmet over his head where it connected to the suit with a hissing noise. Her eyes softened as she looked at her brothers stony face.

“I’m serious, Snaps. Come back alive.”

Snaps sighed, his voice coming from a speaker at his neck. “I cant promise that, we don’t know what its like out there.” He lifted a banana yellow hoof and touched Eclair’s face, the suit making a crinkly noise as it touched her. “But I will try.”

The siblings sat there for a while, leaning their heads against each other, breathing in each others company, until the speakers crackled and the voice of the Overmare echoed throughout the room, calling all excursion workers to the stable door.

As Snaps slowly flew down the atrium shaft, he was surprised that the suit didn’t hinder his wing power at all. That was StableTec for you, they thought of everything. He watched his sister as she gracefully flipped between beams and blocks, twisting her body to a perfect landing. She was always extremely agile, the way she navigated the stable was almost flight in itself.

He reached the bottom and reared in surprise. Lining the pathway to the door was almost the entire stable. They were screaming and cheering, cries of ‘Good luck!’ and ‘Come home safe!’ echoing throughout the entrance chamber. A sea of multicolored ponies, all pinning their hopes on this tiny little team.

Ducking his head in embarrassment, he began to walk down the catwalk. Wolf whistles and good natured jeers greeted him, as the suit did cling to his feminine shape quite well. Now blushing furiously, he caught up with the rest of the team and the carts containing supplies as they stood before the Overmare.

“Fillies and gentlecolts!” Her magically amplified voice silencing the crowd. “It is my greatest privilege to send these brave souls off on this scientific expedition in the name of preserving the future of Stable 24!”
The Overmare smiled kindly at the team.

“Your names will be preserved in our history books for generations as the incredible ponies who have risked their lives to bring us new soil. Thank you, and good luck.” She nodded to the security pony, who then flipped a switch and pulled a lever, triggering flashing lights and alarms as the stable door began to open for the first time in 150 years. The crowd surged against the guard rails, each trying to get a glimpse of outside, but Snaps only had eyes for his baby sister, right in the front row, her eyes locked on him.

“Form up!” Jackdaw, the head of the excursion team shouted. Snaps took one last look at Eclair before facing the door.

“Onwards!”

Taking a deep breath of the magical oxygen flowing through his suit, Snaps and the team stepped out the door, towards the unknown.

Author's Note

This is my first FOE story, set approximately 50 years before FOE events. Please feel free to leave constructive feedback.