Finally something exciting.
Stable Life is about as exciting as watching paint dry, or watching grass grow, which I'm guessing somepony will enjoy, but for me that's a no go. I've lived in Stable 21 for what feels like forever and nothing exciting ever happens, except the shooting competitions that happens once a year, which for the last 3 years I have won without a hint of trouble. Oh I almost forgot my name is BlackAce or Ace if you prefer that, not to be confused with the card pony Ace of Spades. But anyway back to the shooting competitions, ever since I got my cutiemark in shooting sports I've held the record of the best sharpshooter in the stable. And despite the amount of times I've proven many pony's wrong (mostly security ponies) that I don't cheat or rig the game, they still say I'm a bucking cheater. But I guess in the next competition I'll give them a upper hand and rig the game so they have a better chance of winning, and I'll still win.
"Hey Ace, you done with those adjustments to the machine." I hear my mentor yell from the other room.
"No not yet I'm just writing down something in my journal." I yell back. My mentor Crackshot has been the stables armory master since before I was born, but he's slowly getting there in age and soon he says I'll be taking his job.
"Well get to it, the competition starts in just 30 minutes, and you know how those machines act." Crackshot says
"Ok I'm on it." I say as I move away from the terminal and get to work on the machines that control the speed of the targets. After about 15 min of messing with the machines I manage to slow down the other competitors targets and speed mine up, but just a little not enough to notice but enough to make a difference. "There we are." I say to myself as I finish working on the machines. After the competition I will show everypony how I rigged the game for them to win so I can prove that I was just better then them.
"Welcome everypony of stable 21 to the 50'th annual shooting competition. This time we have the following ponies competing, Blade, Arch, and our own 3 time champion Ace." The Overmare says as the competition is announced, and after my name is announced I hear lots of ponies cheering my name, or just screaming their muzzles off. You know now that I think about it, even though I am the champ of the competition and have been for the last 3 years, I'm confused as to why I'm still single. But no time to think on that I have a competition to win here. "All participants please report to your station and prepare to start." The Overmare says, and all 3 of us move to our respective stations. Now because the competition is being hosted in the shooting range who Crackshot is also the owner of I knew 4 days ago what location I'd be at, so I adjusted my spot to move the targets slightly faster, so they would have a advantage, but only me and Crackshot know that, I hope.
"Ready, Aim..." As those words start the machines start up and targets start to move across the platform, at the same time we all raise our weapons and prepare to fire our first shot. Now me being a unicorn I'm not allowed to use my magic for anything other holding the rifle I use. "Fire." The Overmare states and we all open fire at the first target. Now with the competition started I'm on my own and have no help from anypony, its just me and my rifle. All I hear from all the lanes is bangs from the guns and dings from the targets being hit, now me being a pony able to multitask, not only can I focus on my shooting, but listen in to the other shooters and hear for any misses, but honestly if they miss at that slow of a speed, that it just sad, I mean for Celestia's sake I slowed down their targets by like 2 notches. Thunk, speak of hades and he shall show himself, a miss already we just started. Now with this competition there are 3 main points, first there is the simple shoot the moving targets there are a total 25, next is accuracy, as the name implies just be accurate, lastly is a obstacle course with targets, basically hit all the targets in as few shots as possible, and get to the end as fast a possible. Thunk, thunk, thunk. And yet more missing from the other lanes, how can they possible miss those, ugh. Riiiiiiing. And that's game one in the pocket for me 2 miss, 23 hits. What I'm not perfect, but damn near close.
"And that concludes round 1, now we wait as Crackshot sets up for round 2, everypony is welcome to food and drinks until the second round starts." Says the Overmare. Unfortunately we shooters don't get to mingle with the others, due to an accident 5 years ago where some shooter got drunk and accidentally killed a fellow shooter, so for safety reasons we get our own food and drinks. After about 10 minutes we were all ready for round 2, the accuracy round. Now for this round you get 5 shots ,and the closer you can get them toward the center the better, also only one shooter at a time, just so everyone gets a fair chance and won't get thrown off by the other shooters. "And up first is Arch." says the Overmare. Once Arch was up to shoot everypony got quite and let him concentrate. Bang! And first shot missed the dead center by 1 ring, but still I'd say a good shot myself. After Arch got done shooting it was now it was Blades' turn. Bang! Bang! 1st shot was way off to the right and 2nd was way off to the left, no way I could lose now. After loading my gun and Preparing myself I took my first shot. BANG! and I hit the dead center like I always do, but my next shot was off to the left by a little to much, that's going to cost me big time. After we all finished we got the rest of the day off to rest and wait for the armory master to set up the obstacle course.
"Good job out there Ace." "Nice shots." "I see a future winner already." Nothing but praise from the ponies of the stable, and it just made me smile like I just won the competition already, which lets be honest I probably have. After getting back to my bunk and settling down for the night, I overheard a conversation taking place just next to my room. "Is everything ready for the escape Crack?" Escape, what are they talking about, I say as I place my ear next to the wall to get a better listen. "Almost I just need to get a few more missiles loaded up and then we can tell that Overmare to fuck off, we're so sick of the bullshit of the stable, I just want out." Missiles since when did we have missiles, then I remembered a area of the armory I wasn't allowed inyo till Crack retired and I became the armory master. But why would they want out of the stable, didn't they listen in school everything outside the stable is liable to kill you. "Well try to hurry it up mate we don't want the overmare coming down here to see what we're really up to." Now fully unable to sleep because of what they said I decided to go talk to them about it, but as I went to get up I heard Crack say "Before we go I'm just going to say goodbye to Ace, after all he's like a son to me." Out of panic I lay back down putting my back to the door and pretend to sleep. Soon after I head the door hiss open and hoof steps coming toward me.
"Sigh I hope you'll understand why I'm leaving Ace, but I want you to know you were like a son to me and I enjoyed every moment we spent together." Then he gave me a small hug and said. "Goodbye Ace I hope to see you again soon." With that said he left and the door shut. After the door shut I had to cry because he was like a second father to me, he helped raise me, he was there when I got my cutiemark, he even showed me how to shoot.
6 Years Ago
"So little Acey thinks he can get his cutie mark in sharp shooting does he. Well only one way to find out." Crack said as I just stand there in aw looking at all the weapons and the shooting range and just how big it looks. "Well don't just stand there and look, get up to range one and lets see how good you are." After that little pep talk I deiced to walk up to first shooting lane and climb up on to the seat, then I saw the small rifle I would be shooting. From what I heard earlier I would be shooting a .22 rifle or as they called it a twenty two caliber rifle. "Now don't be scared Ace the rifle won't hurt you." Crack said as I looked hesitantly at the rifle. After a small time just looking at the rifle I hopped up to see out of the scope and saw a plus symbol, or as they called it the cross hair
"Now Acey take the cross hair and put it in the middle of the target, then breath in and breath out ,then hold your breathing, then pull the trigger with your magic." Bang. Next thing I know there is a hole right to the left of the center of the target, soon after I notice the other targets and try my luck at hitting them and with near perfect precision I hit eight out of ten on the first try. "Well well well, I think I know what you'll be doing from now on." Crack said after I was done shooting, looking behind me I saw why, a Sniper rifle scopes cross hairs were emblazoned on my flank. I soon jumped up and hugged him "Oh thank you, thank you so much."
"Hehehe no problem little Acey."
"Attention security breach in Sect..n o.e, .ll p.rso... ...." Then static, I knew what was going on, the escape that Crack was talking about. But why did they want to escape? From what I heard they just didn't like the overmare so why not just talk to her about it instead of planning this whole escape? Oh well I guess I can't do anyth... I got it! I could go and help them I thought so there wouldn't be any injuries. So after that thought I decided to get up and help out everypony. First thing I needed was a set of security armor, so after opening my door and running to the security station up a floor I grabbed a set of armor, even if it is a little big for me, I was surprised to see no pony there then again there is a breakout going on so I can see why its empty. And then ran to the shooting range on the same floor and saw the door to the room I wasn't allowed into was open. After grabbing what weapons I wanted, which was a .308 sniper rifle, and a 10mm pistol, I then grabbed as much ammo as I could carry, and started running to the stable door in hopes of catching everypony before they left.
BOOM! Soon after I started down the hall that leads to the stable door a massive explosions rocks the whole stable and sends me flying back about 5 feet. After landing on the floor I slowly start to get up and look at the stable door, to see the whole door blown clean off the frame. "No way, they said that door could take a direct hit from a balefire spell and survive. Maybe they only meant from the outside. Or..." Soon after that I hear as loud roar and I start to think the whole stable is collapsing, only to look behind me and see a whole herd of Stable dwellers running towards the exit, and taking me with them.
"Freedom!" "Run you foals, run!" "Wasteland here we come!" "Fresh air at last!" I hear different ponies yell as I'm carried from the stable out into the wasteland. Here lies Blackace killed by the wasteland. He was a great shot. I think before I hit my head on something and am thrown to the ground from the hit. After getting up I look around and what I see is nothing but barren land with smoke rising from different locations and all my fellow stable dwellers running off in some random direction. As I look back at the stable door laying on the ground I sigh and look off to the waste.
"Well Blackace time to start a new chapter in life. Welcome to the wasteland."
Welcome to the wasteland.
Welcome to the wasteland.
Hell, no other words to describe what the land looked like outside the stable, just hell. Plants, dead, craters everywhere, water... looked surprisingly clean compared to everything else. Sigh Nothing, just nothing is out here. But where can I go, the door to the stable was blown clean off and I doubt that the door could be put back on, the thing has to way like a million pounds or something. Sighs. "Where do I go from here, it's not like there's a town a hop, skip, and a jump from here." And just as I say that I hear something beep on my pip-buck, looking down I notice a town nearby on the map. "Dodge junction huh weird, but maybe that's where the rest of the stable ran to. Welp might as well check it out." After running through my items again just to make sure I had everything I start making my way to dodge junction.
After walking for what felt like 4 hours I see a town or small village appear over the horizon. "Finally maybe I can relax there and figure out where my stable went." I say as I walk to the small town. Not three steps in and right in front of me dirt kicks up and I hit the ground behind a small rock I see. Then after a second I hear the gunshot. Bang!. "Damn, not even a day outside the stable and already the world is trying to kill me, thanks a lot Celestia." After looking around where I am, I see a small hole that I could use to see through the rock and get a line of sight. Once I crawl over to the hole I pull out my rifle and slowly poke it through the hole and take aim... "Wait, what the hell am I about to do, why should I shoot somepony who I don't even know? I mean they did shoot at me but maybe that's because they don't know me. Yeah that's gotta be it, I'll just talk them out of this." After that little thought I decide to talk to them but I'll leave my rifle aiming through the hole. "Just in case." I tell myself. The moment of truth. I slowly poke my head up only to have another bullet pass right next to my head nearly hitting me in the ear "Shit shit shit." I say as I once again hide behind the rock. "Well I guess talking's not an option." After that I take my rifle and look through my scope, and try aiming for the head.
BANG! "Mother fucker!" I yell as I forgot I'm not wearing any earmuffs or don't have any earplugs in. "Why of all the guns I grabbed, did it have to be the loudest fucking one." Looking back through the scope I see nothing but a red mist floating in the breeze, and a lot of blood painting the small wall the pony was standing in front of. "... D-did I just do that... " I say as I continue to look through the scope and just stare blankly at the now dead pony I just shot.
BANG! "Ok no time to dwell on that now." I say as another shot goes off hitting the rock I'm hiding behind, and chipping off a small part of it. I slow my breathing from the last pony I killed, and start looking at the roof tops to see if I can see anypony. And sure enough on the landing below the pony I just shot, there's another pony with a pistol trying to hit me through the small hole in the rock. "Wow either these ponies are beyond stupid, or they think they're hot shit." I then take aim and take the shot. BANG! DING! "Fucking hell!" I exclaim after I miss the shot. After calming myself down again I re aim and fire a second time hitting the offending pony right above the mouth. "ANYMORE FUCKERS WANT SOME!" I yell to draw out anypony I can just to make sure I'm alone.
After 10 minutes or so, hard to say for sure considering I've been staring though my scope looking at all the rooftops, windows, and doors to make sure that's all them. I take my eye away from the scope and just sit there staring up at the sky.
"Why.... why did they shoot at me. I didn't want to kill them I only wanted to find the ponies of my stable." As I say this soon I feel something drip on me, after looking and seeing it's water I relax thinking I need to feel some rain, and maybe I'll calm down. TICK TICK TICK TICKTICKTICK "Thought to soon." I say as my rad counter on my pip-buck starts going off in this rain. So I grab my rifle and walk in the closest building I see and relax inside, out of the rain. "Might as well take a look around and see if there's anything of interest." I say after putting my stuff back on my back.
Wow either these ponies were really into caps or I'm going crazy. I think after finding 2 small tins full of caps, labeled as such. "Ugh why can't I just find some ammo for my gun after having to waste 3 rounds." I say mildly annoyed at having to waste ammo on ponies who could of just left me alone. Hmmm whats this. I think as I grab a wet piece of paper with the words "Plans" written on the top. "Let's see."
Plans
1. Capture any ponies and hold them in cages.
2. Wait till we have enough ponies to make some money.
3. Sell ponies for caps and get drunk and high as fuck.
4. Kill anypony we don't sell.
"..... OH THOSE FUCKS ARE SO DEAD IF I FIND ANYMORE." I yell after reading that. Ponies selling ponies like slaves, all for fucking what, just to get high and drunk, what a wastes of air I fucking say. But one good thing did come from reading that note, now I know why they were collecting caps. it must be currency in this new fucked up world. After this thought I go back to the two tins of caps I grab both and put them in my back pack only to check my pip-buck and see that it shows how many I have. How in Celestia's holy name does this device know that this is now money... you know what fuck it, I don't care anymore, ponies selling ponies, shooting others on sight, caps as cash, fuck this day I'm going to fucking bed. After this last thought I laid down on a bed near the wall and curl up with my pack to make sure I don't lose it, and slowly nod off to the sound of the rain.
