Chapter: 1 Home.

"Celestia wants this stable dead Tram. And I Intend to defy her."

Home.

What is Home? What... do you, consider home? Is it where your family is? Is it where you feel safe? happy? comfortable? Or is it just where you keep your possessions? Well, if all these apply, then in every case, Vault 84 is my home.

“ach! Ew!”

I opened my eyes and shot up in my bed, I quickly looked around my room.

“Water. Water. Water.”

I saw a glass of the liquid life on my night stand and quickly grabbed it with my hooves, I then put the glass up to my muzzle and began to sip it into my mouth.

*Swish.* *Swish.* *Gulp.*

I tasted my mouth and to my delight, the gross taste of my own breath had been purged by the healing powers of water. I swear the only reason I even wake up in the morning is because I can't stand the taste of my own mouth for more than 8 hours.

Annah in Medical tells me it's a genetic thing, that my mouth just gets dry when I sleep. Unfortunate? Maybe. but Nothing an ice cold Carrot Cola can't fix… speaking of which.

I rolled sluggishly out of bed and walked over to my cooler, expertly stepping over loose Clothes and trash as I mosied on over to it.
I opened the cooler lid and sifted around…

“Bingo” I whispered to myself as I pulled out the glass bottle.

“Get into mouth you!” I commanded the bottle as i pressed it to my mouth

Jeez unicorns were lucky, It may sound lazy but using your hooves to open bottle caps, just isn't easy. I placed a hoof on the bottle and started to press on it, with enough pressure and a little twist, it came off with a satisfying Pop.

My mood lightened as the cold burn hit my mouth and crawled down my throat, the yummy carroty taste was nice. I pulled it down and exhaled.

“ahh.. good morning Stable 84.”

My room was nice. Sure I didn't keep the cleanest room, but I was no slob. I had a bed and nightstand.. ok everypony had those. But I bought my own cooler! And I even had some posters, I turned my head behind me to look at the poster above my bed, one of a beautiful mare holding a Carrot Blaster,

“Zap that thirst.” Was the tag line written on it, catchy to be honest. “Oh what i'd do to have a life sized version of that Sex pistol. And the gun looks cool too! Hehe!”

I chuckled to myself as I walked over to my dresser, a photo of my parents rested on top of it. They had white coats like mine, I didn't just get the color coat either, both my parents had thick haired coats, blessing and a curse for me really, I do tend to sweat a bit more than most ponies.. but it is nice to never need a blanket, but even though both my parents were pegasi, I didn't get the wings. *sigh* guess celestia just didn't need another pegasus.

After slipping on my suit, I was ready to start my day. It's stupid. In the morning I wake up, get dressed, walk to the shower bay, get undressed, shower, redress than walk all the way back here to wait until my shift was up. I need a new schedule, Life in Stable 84 isnt bad, but it gets tedious at times.

I wonder to myself a lot, “We've been in this stable for such a long time. Why are we still here? Wasn't our goal to repopulate equestria or something?” I'm always up for repopulating haha.. *sigh*

After brushing my mane and pulling some brown hair out of my brush, which is a lot harder than it sounds with hooves, trust me, I officially looked like.. well, Me. Good ol’ me.

I was happy with how I looked, I wasn't exactly a Mare killer or anything, but I like to think i'm pretty average. I'm tall, not freakishly or anything, just a bit above average.

I have a brown Mane that goes down to my lower neck, and my eyes are brown as well. Ah yes.. almost forgot. My cutie mark.. Such a weird one, no one in the stable’s seen anything like it.

A saw with a violin bow being dragged over it, No my talent isn't destroying instruments. Apparently.. i'm really good at *Playing* the saw, like an instrument.

I was never Too happy with it, but it could be worse, I could have something really dumb, like a pipbuck or something.

I walked over to the mirror and peered at myself “Looking good sexy” it's good to compliment yourself. Right? After making sure I looked presentable, I walked over to my door and press the Activate button.

*Woosh!*

The door slid up and disappeared into the ceiling, I always wondered why we didn't just use regular doors, did these just.. look cool?

Then again though, I suppose these are regular doors. I've never used any other kind, I just know from school that ponies had these push and pull doors, they weren't even automatic! They were *manwell* Doors, or whatever the pre war ponies called them.

As I stepped out of my room, I heard a familiar mare's voice, “Hey Tram!” my ears twitched in that direction and soon I was face to face with the one and only, Annah.

Gosh she was cute, not drop dead gorgeous, but just the way she carried herself, so nice, so sophisticated, so… And she was on fire. No not her, something under her.

“hey uh.. what the hell is that?” I asked looking at the burning paper on the ground, she responded in that same classy voice, “Isn't it beautiful? Isnt fire just so.. Vibrant!”

When I was.. of age for.. you know, Annah was actually number one on my list, she'd always liked me, we've always been.. not friends but, acquaintances. Close acquaintances.

I’d considered asking her out but, I never worked up the nerve, plus i'll never forget what my old man told me. Dont. Stick your dick. In crazy. And not to be mean, but… Annah was nuts.

Not in the, “oh i'm so random” way. No. In the, “i will fucking cut you!” way. Did I mention Annah was a surgical pony in medical? I think she enjoyed her job a little too much.

Even when she’d lose a patient, it never seemed to have much affect on her. I always just assumed she was so professional that she didn't let emotions affect her at work. But when a mare operates on her own father, and than comes out smiling on a failed surgery? It tells you a bit about them.

“Uh.. yah I guess? Are you sure that's safe?” I asked her with a bit of nervousness, starting fires isn't exactly liked by security ponies, and I don't want to end up with a broken leg.

“Psh It's TOTALLY safe. And if you get burned, i'll promise to patch you up myself!”

she put a hoof to her fluffy chest and smiled as she said this, her wings stretching out a bit, she also stood up all the way, exercising her good posture and subsequently looking over me. She was a bit taller than me, and super tall for a normal mare. Annah’s eyes widened a bit as she stomped her hoof onto the small fire she started.

Well great. I now knew what sizzling pony smelled like. I winced as I saw her do this, “What the fu-” I was cut off by Annah yelling, “Hello Cherry Top! So good to see you!”

I looked behind me,and sure enough there stood Cherry Top, the Security guard of section C, Cherry was cute, she had dark pink hair and light pink fur, hence the name. Like a cherry with another cherry on top.

She was a good security pony too, never gotten any probation, or a misconduct charges, but she also was a good.. normal pony, you'd think most civilian ponies would be reluctant to hang out with a pony who could put them in jail right? But, no!

Well. not with cherry at least, but even though she was nice and friendly, I doubt she’d take Annahs ‘Art display’ lightly.

Cherry sighed as she said, “ hello Annah. Why is your hoof smoking?” she asked like she already knew the answer. Annah had been caught starting fires about 2 times already, another time and it was 2 days in the jail cell.

Annah laughed as she said, “What could you possibly mean? Oh this? Psh.. this is.. nothing.” I couldn't tell if she was laughing out of humor, or crying from the pain in her hoof.

Cherry face hoofed and said in an annoyed voice, “uhg.. not today.. not today.” she walked off grumbling to herself, Must of been a long night, Evidenced by the bags under her eyes, she's a night guard, meaning she sleeps during the day and patrols at night, I think she needed a day or, well, night off.

Second she was out of sight, Annah let out a loud “OWIE!” and lifted her hoof to see the damage, her once Blue coated bottom hoof was no longer coated, Nor Blue.

Her skin was showing, and not even the regular pinkish color of pony skin, it looked bad. Blood red and bubbling. “Ew! Yuck!” I said as I jumped a bit and backed into the wall, seeing the pained look in her eyes, I realized what I said was less than sympathetic, I quickly did damage control.

“uh I mean, are you ok?” smooth tram.. real smooth. She gave me a, ‘no i'm not ok’ look. I had the feeling “yuck” and “ew” aren't the best things to say to a mare who just hurt herself.

Annah rolled her eyes and said in a daunting tone “Uhg. Great. I'm gonna have to heal up my hoof now. Well.. I guess on the bright side, it shouldn't take more than 2 hours.”

She examined the bottom of her right hoof, “wait. I'm right hooved! Crap. 4 hours.” she looked down at me and said “oh yah did you hear about the meeting coming up tomorrow?”

what? What meeting. I don't recall hearing about a meeting. “uh what?” I said with a slight worry, I mean her hoof was smoldering, and she wanted to talk about a meeting?

“yep whole stables gotta go, it's in the Stable’s central hub, apparently Lave-.. I mean, the new overseer is going to address everyone there”

her expression saddened bit, “first time she's addressed the general population since her father passed. I was the one who operated on him. I.. I did my best.”

I felt bad. Not guilty.. but, Annah was trying to confide in me, and I had no idea what to say.

“uhm, Hey look, we all make mistakes. Now go.. Go fix your hoof silly.”she grimaced, I could tell that's not what she wanted to hear.

After a moment, she nodded and slowly walked down the hall, she left the pile of ash in front of my door. With a quick tailwhip, it was dissipated into the air.

“hehe. Fuck you dust.”

I walked up the hallway and took a right, I was going towards the central hub, as I approached the central hub door, I could hear the chattering voices inside grow louder and louder, as the door shot up, I got the full extent of noise that only 400 ponies talking could make.

I never liked the hub, was always so crowded. Looking around the room I saw the good old stage. The same stage Mr. Tandi would give his overseer speeches on, the same stage I graduated on, hell. The same stage my parents had their funerals on. It was the only part of the room I liked, Had sentimental value to me, but I imagine that was the same for a lot of other ponies.

I looked around for the door marked, ‘Water purifier/bathing’ I looked over to my right and trotted off. As I left the hub behind me, the voices were replaced with the sounds of running water, “ahh.. shower time, The best part of my day.”

As I opened the door to the bathing area, I saw the mare door, and the stallion door, pretty obvious which one I belonged in. As I walked through the door, I saw other stallions bathing themselves under the shower heads, there were exactly 20 shower heads, and luckily, only about 4 other bucks in here.

As I began walking to a vacant part of the shower room, I heard a familiar voice call over to me. “Hey! Tram!” I looked to my right, and what I saw was the naked Deer body of my best friend, Doe. Yes doe. Apparently his family were very fond of deer, specifically female ones.

“Hey buddy! When did you get moved to bathe time 2?” I asked happily, it was good to see him, even if it was in the hot foggy shower room, ever since we both turned 20 and got our jobs, we didn't see each other as much.

He got stuck in Maintenance, while I got biology Teacher. Hey at least I didn't have to work with toilet water.

Doe looked at me and grinned, “Ever since I got PROMOTED TO HEAD OF MAINTENANCE! BOO YA MUTHA FUCKA!” he yelled with glee, earning a “quiet down!” from another stallion a few shower heads away.
He rubbed his neck and gave a quick “Sorry! Just excited!” he looked at me happily,“You still stuck teaching kids what Grass looks like?” he said snarkily.

“Hey! How are we supposed to grow food if we don't know herbology?” I said trying to muster some pride.
Ill admit it. Herbology may not be so important when we have a slight lack of.. well dirt, And plants… herbology sucks.

He gave me a “hehe whatever man” and went back to washing his blue mane, I decided to actually start taking my shower, I placed my hoof on the button and applied pressure, as the warm water came out I looked over at doe.

“Hey, have you heard about some meeting tomorrow?”

the warm water felt good on my coat, I always loved the feeling of warm water on my thick coat, felt almost orgasmic haha.

“Meeting? Yah I heard about it. But probably not what you heard.”

Doe looked around, before continuing in a quieter voice.

“Being head of maintenance doesn't just come with a new title and paycheck, I also get classified info. Me, Cherry top, Tasmo, and Ms.Tandi all met last night in her office, she said the stable could be in big trouble. She didn't go any farther than that though, we mostly just discussed that we all need to set good examples and keep the peace through tough times. I won't lie, i'm worried. She seems like a nice mare, but can she really replace her father? No if you ask me.”

he said continuously looking around, making sure no one else heard, he than went back to washing his orange chest.

Well shit, What does that even mean? ‘the Stables in trouble?’ do we have another STD outbreak? Or maybe a food shortage? Celestia forbid the generators were no longer working.. My interests were officially peaked now, but I guess i'll find out tomorrow.

“Hey guess what bud? After the meeting yesterday, me and cherry totally boned.”

Doe said confidently, giving me a pervish laugh afterwards, my jaw dropped.

“What? No way. Your joking.”

I didn't believe him, cherry wasn't gonna put out that easy.. right?
“no joke dude. Totally did. Got a scratch to prove it, she accidently nicked me with her horn, you know how sharp those things can be? Jeez.”

He turned to me and pointed to his chest, sure enough there was a little cut right next to his right front leg. I didn't want to believe it, Doe. Doe! Doe seriously got laid before I did? Come on Celestia! Throw me a bone here! Literally!

I was honestly impressed though, cherry was a nice catch, even if I was jealous, I congratulated him.

“Nice job dude.” and I offered him a hoof bump

That's something I liked about Doe, if he had one rule, it was to never leave a hoof hanging. He punched my hoof and a loud *Clop* sound echoed in the shower room, the same stallion beforehand said in a harsher tone.

“Jeez will both of you shut up?!”

Me and Doe exchanges looks and gave him a quick, “Sorry” in unison. After a few minutes of silent washing, Doe turned off his water and said,

“Well about time I go report to work, see you around Tram”

He grabbed a towel and began to walk out of the shower room, as he pushed the door button I said,

“Yah later buddy”

and just like that he left, I stayed quiet for the duration of my shower, when I was done, I turned off my water, and went to grab a towel.

“Crap. They're out.”

I was pretty bummed, I loved the warm towels, so fuzzy yet smooth. Whatever, guess i'll be air drying today. I walked over to the door and pushed the button twice, a moment later the vent above the door began spewing out warm air at a huge rate, think of it as a giant full body hoof dryer.

Once i'd been fully blown, hehe. Blown. I re-dressed, and began walking back down the hall to the hub. After walking through the room of noisy ponies I went through the door marked. ‘Schooling and personnel’ I still had 20 mins till my day started, as I walked down the hall, the noisiness behind me got replaced with the noisiness in front of me.

Kids, kids everywhere were yelling and laughing with each other, I looked around and saw the door to my classroom. That's how it worked, the extent of the school was a long hallway with many doors, 3 of each subject, all with 1 teacher, we had about 12 subjects. But I don't remember them all, lets see.. there's history, herbology, Kinesiology, math, equestrian, and.. science? Eh there's more but I only need to remember one subject anyway.

Each subject had 3 teachers, one for younger kids, one for older kids, and one for troubled or *special* kids, I luckily got older kids. Well not really kids, teens, there 14 by the time they get to me. I used to teach the young ones, but it wasn't for me so I requested to move up.

As I walked into my class I saw the same old desk, chair, and terminal I work at. Sitting in the chair, I open my drawer and pulled out a magazine labeled. “fashion and more fashion”

I wasn't big on fashion, but it was something to read, and that's how I spent the next 20 mins of my free time before my first set of students piled in, ready to learn about.. plants. Yay botanist, aren't you the greatest job ever..

Jeez I though the day would never end, Today, like most days was pretty uneventful, I taught kids how plants eat from the sun, pretty hard since none of us had ever actually seen the sun, just pictures in books. It's also pretty hard too keep students interested in something they'll never use.. well, hopefully not never.
When we finally migrate from the stable and go out into equestria, there's a small chance it could be a few days until we find some naturally growing plants, and more importantly, edible ones. They'll thank me then.

Once I got home, I prepared myself some food, ate said food and then began to lay down. My head pounded, and my eyes hurt, I was having trouble sleeping to be quite honest, I think it was effecting my mood. Maybe.. maybe I should see medical about that, but I don't wanna bother them, they have bigger shit to deal with. I closed my eyes and stared at the back of my eyelids for a long while.. the last thought to cross my mind was, “I wonder what that meeting is about.”

I awoke in the middle of the night to a slight pounding on my door, uhg.. no. Why.. i contemplated pretending not be home. But that wouldn't of worked. Where else would i be?

I looked to the door and rolled out of my comfy bed, i walked over to the door and pushed the button.

“i swear if thi-” *Whoosh* My eyes went wide “uh. Uhm. Oh uh.. Hello Ms.Tandi”

There she was, the new overseer of the whole vault standing right before my eyes, Before she was Ms. Tandi, she was just.. Levete, shy,cute, levete. I remember seeing her in class with me while i was growing up. Ponies think having a security pony for a parent is bad for your social status, but the OVERSEER as your dad? That's not good for your image..

I awaited a response and didn't get one, “Long time no see levete?” she didn't respond again, She didn't look right either, her mane.. usually prim and properly brushed looked knotted and shambled, her vault suit looked faded and stained, as if she'd been wearing it non stop for a while, she looked around, making sure no one else was in the hall. She looked at me and said in a riled voice.

“It's ms. Tandi to you. Mr. Tailfeather. Let's be adults. May i come in?”

I was stunned, the overseer wanted to talk to me in private? I hope it's good.. maybe I won the best teacher ever reward?

“Uh yeah sure, um i mean. Yes you may”

I stepped back and gestured inside my room, as she stepped in, i could see there were rips in the butt of her vault suit, i did my best not to look. She looked around and recoiled a bit, she saw my chair and decided it'll do and she took a seat.

“you have the room comparable to a child, Tailfeather..” she said it as if the words tasted gross as she said them. Her face turned red… her usual white cheeks were now as red as apples, her face saddened.

She spoke while sounding remorseful, “I'm.. i'm sorry tram, you may call be levete if you like. I'm a guest in your room and i'm being very rude, forgive me, i'm just.. very worried. Please, sit… on your bed. We need to talk about the Stables future”

I must've looked so confused, because.. I was. I was happy to see that the shy, nice, polite, Levete i used to know was still there and thriving, but it was overwhelmed by worry, i quickly plopped myself down on my bed spread and said,

“hehe, i knew that wasn't you, you couldn't of changed that much”

she joined me in a small laugh, than her worried expression returned as she spoke “Look.. you're a former biology teacher yes? Before we dropped it from the curriculum?”

what an odd question.. i gave her a weird look and said, “Uh yeah, yes i was.” She brightened a bit, “Then you are quite knowledgeable in.. well… sex. Correct?”

Now it was my turn to be red, was she coming onto me? Gosh i hoped she was coming onto me. Celestia please let her be coming onto me. “Yeah you bet, i'm very knowledgeable when it comes to pony reproduction.” i said this with false confidence,

“than let me ask you this. We've been down here for 4 generations. We started with 200 ponies, now we have 400. Do you get what i'm hinting at?”

I didn't. Lets see.. uh.. we doubled? Is that what she wants me to say? Or maybe.. oh maybe we do have another STD outbreak! And most of the stable infected! Or uh.. she noticed the confused look on my face and deduced my answer was no.

“Look. Ill put it blunt. This generation, our generation, will be the last pure blood generation. 90% of us share blood. And that means?”

It took me about 3 solid seconds to catch on, i shuddered and my heart rate rose as I said “Oh.. Were out of diverse bloodlines? The stable.. is.. Gonna be inbred?!” she shushed me with a hoof and whispered to me, looking angry.

“Celestia wants this stable dead Tram. And I, intend to Defy her.”

Hoof-note, Level up. Perk granted: N/A

Author's Note

I hope anyone who read this enjoyed doing so, Next chapter should be out within the next week or so, Depending on how this is recieved, you can expect much more from me :P