Where to Start [Lyra POV]
Author's Note
This is a one shot for now. Or least until someone wants me to add to it..
Where to Start [Lyra POV]
Celestia had promised all of us that the war would end soon. That it was going to be a great victory for Equestria. What happened was far from great. A friend of mine that was assigned to the frontlines sent word to me that things were going south for the soldiers on the front. Both sides weren't willing to give an inch and that they were engaged in hoof to hoof combat at times.
She was attached to the 501st infantry regiment. They had been hit the hardest during the war and were constantly sending squads on what amounted to suicide missions. She watched as a pony she had known her entire life had their head blown off from a Zebra sniper. I messaged her back that i was praying that she'd come home soon and that the war should end by then.
Gods how wrong we were. As a last-ditch effort, Twilight Sparkle a mare that i had known my entire life as was friends with, enacted what was later revealed to be a series of Doomsday weapons. Through my research of humans, and from talking to their friend Discord, i came to the horrific understanding that she had recreated a device known as a nuclear warhead. And to make it worse it was enhanced with Alicorn Magic with which the nuclear yield had been increased to a horrific degree.
Twilight seemed more disconnected the more I tried to stay In touch with her over the last few years. She sounded less and less like the friend i had known, and more like a complete stranger. The news that she was working on devices like this scared even me. I was the only mare that was deemed an expert on humanity, and Twilight was repeating their worst mistakes when it came to creating nuclear weapons. Most of the human race had been destroyed by those things, and here was a friend of mine repurposing them for Equestrian use.
I found out that both me and her friend Fluttershy had pleaded with her not to do this. These devices had been locked away for a reason. Bringing them back was only going to lead to more harm then anything remotely good. But Twilight refused to listen at all.
"I've weighed the risks, and deemed them necessary,", she said over the terminal connection. Twilight was beyond reasoning. She ignored everything that i was trying to tell her. I tried one last time before ending the connection.
"These nukes were locked away for a reason Twilight so that they'd never be used against someone's enemies again. They destroyed the very race that had created them. You do not understand the dangers they truly pose," I said before i hung up on her. I just sat there and silently cried myself to sleep. I knew Bon Bon would do home soon, but that feeling of despair still managed to set in. The friend i knew years ago, The Twilight Sparkle that i had even considered approaching to ask out, was gone.
The mare that i had been on the line with seemed like a complete stranger to me. I prayed to the goddess that something would make Twilight realize just how wrong she was about this.
I finally got all this equipment back in working order. Of course most of its radio equipment but there were a few parts that belonged to a Terminal. I found the rest of it tossed into a fire pit just out of the Trailer. i was able to restore the terminal and access its core memory blocks.
I should now be able to transcribe my thoughts on it given the training i received before entering the Stable all those years ago. This will be my personal memoir about what life was like before the world ended. There are so many thoughts to convey, so many memories to lose myself in. I wish you were Bon Bon. I wish we could share our last moments together in this blasted-out ruin that was once our hometown.
So many memories here. So many of my friends had just gone in a flash of light. And I was right back where I was standing. It was like the past was calling out to me, begging me to come back. Begging me to save them all and i couldn't. Somepony told me once that Time was like a predator with no teeth. It was something that was both a blessing and a curse at the same time. I can't even remember her name, if i could id have cursed her so much back then.
"Goddess i wish there was somepony to talk to." I thought to myself. I'd give anything to talk to another, i was that alone in the world. I would have given anything.
"Great,",I thought," I'm speaking to myself out loud again." I face-hoofed myself. Before i began talking to myself again i went back to scavenging for supplies. I had to get back to the trailer soon.
I can't even remember how many years its been since it all ended. Sometimes i feel like my mind is playing tricks on me. At night i can hear the whispers of the dead. Ghosts asked me why I survived and they didn't. It's enough to drive anypony insane. I swore i ran into Derpy the other night. She looked disheveled, her mane was a mess and she looked like she was missing some fur in places. She turned to see me and smiled.
"I wasn't expecting to see another pony here, i think i still have some mail for you," she spoke as she reached into her Saddlebag and passed me a letter. " Bye Lyra!", before I could say anything she was gone just like that.
I could only sit there before realizing that it was Derpy and not another ghost. I kind of smiled a bit. At least seeing her alive brought some comfort to my soul.
Where should I start? At the beginning? yeah, that sounds better than the other idea I had.
My name is Lyra Heartstrings, and i had a good life.
Until i bore witness to the end of that world, and so many ponies that i had once been friends with. You see we were at war with a neighboring nation-state, the Zebra Nation. A number of us had been selected for entry into several underground bunkers called Stables. We were to live in them until the time was needed to exit and hopefully repopulate our homeland of Equestria.
That was the plan at least. I kept hearing on the radios that Stable Tec's own President, Scootaloo, was reassuring ponies that everything would turn out alright and that one day we would rebuild our great nation of Equestria.
Of course, Bon Bon never believed a word of it. Even with us being married, and others telling her how eccentric i was said to be, she was always the one that stayed level-headed for the both of us. It's why i married her.
Lyra Heartstrings, Journal entry #1
end terminal transcribing.
By the Goddess, I miss you Bon Bon. She could feel the tears begin to well up inside her. She could feel her chest heave as she begun to sob into hoof. Transcribing her thoughts and feelings started to dredge up some painful memories. She deluded herself into thinking that she was the only one from the Stable that had left.
She sat there and lost herself in her memories. A lifetime worth of experiences hadnt prepared her for any of this. And yet she still felt like she had a new look on life. How long had it been now? Almost 90, maybe even 200 years since she ended up alone in this trailer? It felt like just yesterday that Lyra and Bon Bon were having their usually lunch together. She had lived to see the Apocalypse and survived.
Most of the ponies she had known throughout life were dead now. Turned to dust long ago and their ashes were swept away by the winds of time. There were times she tried to end it only to wake up and realize that attempting suicide was pointless. The magic radiation from the Megaspells had contaminated her own internal magic and made her immortal. Unicorn magic is strange like that.
Lyra would have gone insane years ago if she hadnt kept herself grounded. She needed something to hold on to so that radio equipment in the trailer gave her something to look forward to. She had found some record players and got them set up to play over the radio. The only other radio station was a place called Tenpony Tower. She tracked the radio signal it was broadcasting and found something interesting.
Ponies. Going about their day, buying goods and looking overall happy. It reminded her of the world she had been a part for years. She trotted up and waited in line behind two others. When it was her time to purchase she pulled a bag of bits from her saddlebag and dropped it on the wooden stall's counter.
"I'll take some of those garlic bread loaves in back, and a few radishes if you have any."She said. The stall owner nodded and came back with her items. She levitated her bits into his hoof and thanked him.
"Btw, Do you know if there's a radio station in town? I'm kind of new here." after that, he pointed her toward the tall tower at the end of the street. "Thanks", she said as she walked off in that direction.
The Tower was decorated on the outside with a large neon sign that read " Welcome to Tenpony Tower, next broadcast will be in a few hours". Lyra noticed the guard pony and walked up to him.
"Is there anyone in there, or should i come back at another time?" She scratched her head as she asked the Guard if anypony could enter or not.
"You can go in just make sure not to break anything ok?" he opened the door with a hoof and ushered Lyra into the building. As she entered she saw a ton of posters all over the walls. All of Vinyl Scratch at various points in her life. As she walked down the halls of the tower a voice came over the intercom.
"Come on up," The voice said. It was almost familiar to the mare, but still distinct. She walked up the stairs till she came to what was obviously an office center that was cluttered with DJ equipment scattered everywhere. In front of Lyra was a grey coated unicorn with a spiky electric blue mane.
Was Lyra seeing things or did this mare look like VINYL!? The one in front of her could tell she was a bit confused at the sighting.
"You alright there?" she asked Lyra.
"Yea, it's just that you remind me of somepony i used to know," Lyra was a pony from another time and she was still trying to act as if nothing had really changed.
"If it's who i think, Yea she was my ancestor. btw, the name's Homage." She was so calm telling Lyra her name. Homage knew who Lyra was and didn't want to scare her off. She knew who she was, just not that she was from the past.
"My name's Lyra, nice to meet you Homage," she said as they shook hooves.
"So what brings you to our town?" Homage said as she showed Lyra around.
"Needed supplies while i get some equipment i found working again." It really was like being around Vinyl. She felt calm around her even more so then with Bon Bon. They had been friends in Music school before Lyra went off to Celestia's School for Unicorns. Homage even had that same cocky grin that Vinyl would get.
"Why dont you stay for the night? I have a friend coming by later and we can all chill together." She was also straight to the point , just like Vinyl. Lyra figured why not. She needed the company.
"Sure," She said. With that Homage showed Lyra some of her music collection until her friend showed up later tonight.
"Btw, whose your friend?" Lyra asked.
" Her name's Pippers", Homage said sitting in her office chair. It was more of the gaming chair to be honest. She had found it in its box just tossed next to the trash cans down the road from the Radio Station tower. She hauled it back to her place before anypony could complain.
"I look forward to meeting her." Lyra was going to have heart attack though. Pippers could be a striking reflection of her. There was a knock at the door right as Lyra sat in the other office chair. This thing was more comfortable that lawn chair she had back at the Trailer.
"Im back Homage," a familiar voice let out. Pippers was carrying three bags of groceries with her magic. Lyra walked and picked one up her own. Homage had to do a double take. As Lyra and Pippers stood next to each other, it was like seeing a mirror image. Same manes, size, and type of fetlocks.
"Im Lyra btw," she said as she and Pippers shook hooves.
She wasn't aware that her friends had the same misfortune happen to them and now they were searching for her in what was left of a dead world. Lyra lay back down in her bed and closed her eyes hoping that her dreams would carry her away from this world. She dreamt of better and happier times in her life. She prayed to the goddesses for the strength to make it through the next day.
She knew they were long dead by now but she still did it out of habit. There were times it felt like Luna's presence was right there next to her, easing her pain. Even if she did see Bon Bon again, would she still be the same mare that she had always known or would this violent wasteland strip her spirit away from her.
Flashback.
It was a calm day as far as she was concerned. Lyra was in the process of transcribing her latest Anthology Report onto her computer terminal. Right as she finished her thoughts and hit the enter button with her hoof, she heard Bon Bon call out her name.
"Lyra, are you on that computer again?", Bon Bon looked at her partner with a stare that screamed get over here and help with the cooking on it.
"I was just transcribing my thoughts,", The mint green unicorn said with a look of annoyance, " Ever since the discovery of that human skeleton last year, Celestia has asked that i keep her apprised of any more findings,", and it was true, even though Bon Bon still thought that Lyra was crazy when it came to the existence of humans.
" Let's get ready for lunch,", Bon Bon told Lyra as she stuck her head in their fridge. While she was doing that Lyra sat down and turned on the television, TV was a recent additon to every home in Ponyville. Little did she know that had been around longer then Ponydom had existed. It was one of those things that Celestia had kept secret apparently.
As it started to get mid day, the news came on.
And Lyra and Bon Bon froze where they were standing when newscaster started talking. Both of them could tell that something was wrong when they watched the expression on his face go from that of , " everyday forecast", to ," Oh my god," .
"We're receiving word of massive explosions taking place in Fillydelphia and Manehattan,", there was an unbearable amount of silence,"By the goddesses, we've just received word of a megaspell being detonated inside of Canterlot,", with that both Lyra and Bon Bon turned when they heard a knock at their door.
Lyra got up to answer it, and found a Stable-Tec rep standing in front of their house. To cut it short he told them that they were both on the list to gain entrance into the local Stable. Stable 21. Both of them grabbed what they could carry and rushed outside in time to see that the Royal Guard were evacuating Ponyville. The Stable in question had been built into the ground close by.
As they made it to the entrance, Lyra turn around to watch Ponyville become engulfed in the blast of a Mega Spell bomb. A part of her died inside when she realized that not everypony that had been accepted into the nearby stables would be able to survive. Half of the town was leveled from the shockwave. The outer portions of the town would burn down from the fires that were formed as a result.
As they entered the Stable, Lyra let her mind wander. How long would it be before they could go top side again she thought. It had been estimated that the radiation from the magic used in the Mega Spells could last at least 50-100 years. And that was according to the so called experts that Celestia usually relied on.
Lyra got the feeling that it could be longer then that. Being down here though made her think of the pony that was right beside her. Could her and Bon Bon last that long. Would they be among those to leave when the time was right. Or would she die down here.
She snapped back to reality when Bon Bon nudged her and told her that they were at their Stable certified quarters. Apparently Bon Bon could tell something was weighing on Lyra's mind. But she felt it wasn't place to ask what was wrong just yet. They were both tired from the trip down here.
As they both lay down, Bon Bon began to silently cry into her pillow. All those ponies that didnt make it were gone now. A flash of light, and poof, turned to dust.
What none of them realized was that it was only a matter of time before life in the Stable spiraled out of control. And that Lyra would be at the center of it all. Out of one hundred and twenty ponies that entered the Stable, only four would walk out of that place.
Getting to the door of the Stable was more difficult then they thought. Upon the Overmare's orders any and all ponies that tried to make it to the door after Lyra left were to be shot on sight. What happened next was nothing short of a blood bath. One of the first to charge the barricades erected near the hallway to the door was Amethyst Star, one of Derpy's eldest daughters. It would have broken Derpy's heart to find out that security guards gunned down the purple unicorn in mid gallop. The bullets tore right through her neck, chest and abdomen, sending the mare vaulting through the air before she fell to her side with a sickening splat.
"By The Goddesses, Vinyl they KILLED HER!,", Octavia screamed. That was the first time in the cellist's life she had ever seen a pony die in front of her eyes. Her and Vinyl had alread made it to the Stable door when the megaspells had Ponyville. Octavia didnt look back like some of the others had. She had been to scared to.
Vinyl had a look that no pony had ever seen before, not even Tavi. It was a look of pure unadulterated rage. Vinyl dropped the concealment spell on the double barrel shotgun that she been hiding, and opened fire on one of the Security Guards. The buckshot from the 20 gauge round tore right through his chest, killing him instantly. That and the slugs were laced with magic, so they tore the Guard's stable barding like it wasnt even there.
Before the next Security guard could open fire she put a slug right through his left eye socket. His body hit the ground with a sickening thud.
"I'll be right back,", she told her friends. There was a coldness in her voice that chilled Octavia's soul. When she returned she came back with the passcode for the Stable 21 Vault door.
Her coat was also covered in blood.
Vinyl had put a slug into the Overmare's chest. The Three of them had to leave now she said or risk getting caught. With that they opened the door to the wasteland. None of them had any idea of where Lyra had disappeared to. There was no note, no "hey I'm heading this direction", nothing.
They were completely in the dark. But what they did know was that the three of them had to stick together. Vinyl quickly realized that they were on the outskirts of Ponyville. As they walked back towards the town, Bon Bon noticed a trailer parked on a cliff over looking the town.
"Maybe we should check over there,", she told Vinyl and Octavia. The three of them headed in that direction, unaware that somepony was watching them. When they got there they found a camper trailer filled radio equipment and a haypile bed. But what caught their attention the most was what was spray painted onto the inside wall. It sent a chill down their spines.
" I'm all alone. Everypony else is dead. My name is Lyra Heartstrings. Let it all end."
"I'll be seeing you in all the old familiar places,", the song repeated over and over on the radio that was set up in her trailer. It reminder her of a better time before everything in her life and the world had gone to hell. All she could do was reminsce about the happier times in her life. She missed Bon Bon so much right now that it literally hurt her soul to think about her other half for too much longer. She levitated the whiskey bottle to her lips and took a swig before setting it back down. Somewhere out in the wastes another pony was sitting at their security desk doing the same thing. Not realizing that her own ancestor was alive and getting drunk.
"Why couldn't we have just died that day, we'd be together again,"the lone mare thought to herself. The radiation from the megaspells had made her immortal in the most unlikely sense. It was the last thing she was expecting. usually you had to become an alicorn or accomplish some worthy task in order to be ordained for that type of position. The fact that it could happen by accident was a new one to her. Some considered it to be a curse rather then a blessing. On one side you'd be able to survive almost anything dangerous. On the other you'd have to endure outliving everypony you cared about and becoming more and more isolated over time. But for her she tried to see the benefits. If she got shot her wounds would heal at an insane rate and her strength and endurance were now double what they used to be when she was just a normal unicorn.
It was days like these that she wanted to build a time machine just so she could travel to the past and warn her friends of what was to come. But at the same time she remembered how she had heard stories of another unicorn that tried to do just that and nearly destroyed their life. It was said that the mare in question had just vanished in a bright flash of white light and that there was another winged unicorn that had been chasing her. The more she thought about it the more she realized that the other mare's description matched that of her friend Twilight Sparkle. Could what they had seen been a version from another timeline? And if so did that mean that the other unicorn create this entire timeline on accident?
That was not something that Lyra wanted to focus on today. She had to keep working on this radio equipment. Since as far as she knew Vinyl and the others were long dead so it fell to her to being some semblance of talent to the wasteland. What better way then to create her own radion station. She had heard of a pony doing the same out of Tenpony Tower and decided to give that pony some competition. What she didn't know was that mare was related to a friend of hers. And if she ever really met her it would be like staring into a mirror image of Vinyl Scratch. Even Vinyl didn't know this, and she in fact was still alive thanks to the same magic contamination that had taken place with Lyra. In fact, She see her friends sooner then she'd pray to.
It felt like it had been forever since they had left the Stable. What Vinyl didn't realize was that they were almost 150 years old as of right now. The world had died while they had been stuck underground for the longest time. After they came across an abandoned bunker, that was when reality sank in. The reactor of the Stable they had been in had been leaking coolant into the air system.
If they hadn't left when they did, they might have died or worse. The worst being that they could have been changed into Ghouls. The radiation would have stripped them of their sanity and personality, leaving only a raving, hungering, sack of flesh with no higher brain functions at all. The radiation had an adverse effect on the lot of them, Lyra included. It had basically made them immortal when she really thought about it.
They could never die of old age, their reflexes were enhanced, and their bond was stronger then anything previously recorded. She knew there would be trying times ahead, and that if they stayed together they'd make it through this. It was a shame though that Twilight and her friends weren't around to see this. Or at least that's what Vinyl thought anyway. She didn't know that three of them had actually survived the end of the war.
Twilight's whereabouts had gone dark towards the end. She had last been seen fleeing into the basement of the Ministry of Arcane Sciences. reports had stated she had told somepony that there was something of importance that she had to see to in the basement of the compound before the alarms had started to sound. She disappeared down a maintenance shaft and was never seen from again when the evacuation was complete.
Vinyl had always though it rare for a mare like Twilight to just up and leave like that. Maybe the stress of the job had gotten to her back then, or the fact that her friends began to drift apart. Vinyl couldn't know that a few of Twilight's friends had found unnatural means to survive the apocalypse. Rarity had found a way to become immortal, but it meant doing the unthinkable. Spirit fission was not something to take lightly. It meant splitting one's soul into pieces and then using an object or more to maintain a connection to the world until the spirit could be reformed or placed into a new host body altogether.
Fluttershy ended up undergoing Cryogenic suspension. No one knows what happened to Applejack or Rainbow Dash. There were rumors that AJ had left her Ministry post to sign up with her own Steel Rangers division. Anything that helped her take her mind off of separating from her friends.
There was also the fact that at the same time the war was going on, the Changelings and Chrysalis had gone silent. There was no way to tell if they were still alive or had been wiped by the Megaspells. For a brief moment though, Vinyl heard a voice echoing through her mind, almost like a telepathic link had been formed with her.
All the voice said was ," We are coming to devour this land of its love, nothing can stop us, or me, now." Vinyl knew whose voice it was, and more so, what was about to grace the wasteland with its presence. And all she was could do was shutter at what was in store for them all.
On the way here, Vinyl thought she had seen movement in the ruins of Ponyville. She pulled out her binoculars to spot several crudely armored ponies dragging something behind them and then tossing it into a metal cage that they later hoisted up onto one of the branches of the Old library. Little did she know that the being in the cage was Derpy, and that she'd be saved another stable dweller a few nights from now.
"This terminal says that it was used to access Stable 21's mainframe through a remote connection."Bon Bon spoke as the others rummage through the containers that were still in the compound.
"Huh,"Vinyl muttered," Let me take a look," she said. It didnt take her long to gain remote access to some of the encrypted data that was still hosted on the terminal connection. What she read was enough to make her blood run cold. The Overmare of the Stable had received a coded message from a group masquerading as Stable Tec. The message ended with a logo that clearly didn't belong to them. It was a symbol that Vinyl had seen right before entering the Stable with Tavi and her friends.
It dawned on her like Celestia's warm sun rising over the horizon. The Symbol was that of the Enclave. She knew them all to well. She was one of the ex-officers. The Enclave were made up of all three races. Their goal was to reclaim Equestria from the ravages of the war that had turned it into a wasteland. But, Vinyl knew that was not their " primary" goal. They were searching all these decades for something called Project Pegasus. It was alleged that the entire project was designed to create the perfect super soldier. A being that was faster, stronger, and more agile then the typical foot soldier that the Royal Guard was equipped with.
Vinyl had put her old life behind her when they had gotten their spot in the local Stable. She wanted so desperately to bury it in the past. After she saw the message on that terminal she realized she could never escape it no matter how hard she tried to. She was going to have to tell the others at some point, she just wasn't sure how they'd take it. Or if they'd believe her at all.
While Bon Bon and her friends looked for Lyra, something was developing in the sister Stable of Stable 21. Life in Stable 22 had been uneventful after the Doors closed. At least that's what the residents were told. The Overmare had secretly been contacted by a group claiming to be from Stable-Tec. They asked her how the population was faring and she told them that everything was in the green.
"Good," The pony on the other terminal told the Overmare,"We'll be in contact with some additional updates in the following weeks, for now maintain your current lockdown until you hear back from us." After ending the conversation the pony turned to another sitting next across from her desk.
"So, you think she suspects we're playing her?" The pony asked their companion.
"No, She seems to believe fully that we're from Stable-Tec and that we'll give her the all clear signal." She was a pegasus with a greying rainbow colored mane. Just like her ancestor before her, she was steadfast, but unlike her namesake she was extremely loyal to her nation and the rebuilding of Equestria. She had to work her flank off to prove that she was nothing like the mare that shared the same blood as her.
The only thing the two of them had in common has the loyalty they showed to others. Unlike the one that came before her , this mare knew who she was truly loyal to, and had shown extreme dedication on more then one occasion. She was not going to repeat her descendants mistakes. At least that's was she had been told all her life. What she didn't realize was that she was in fact a clone of the original Rainbow Dash. There was one other like her, but that one had been engineered to look different. Unknownst to this one, the second clone was actually just a new body with Rainbow's consciousness downloaded into it by Twilight Sparkle during the war.
She had been put into Cryostasis just like her, but that process was monitored by a supercomputer and set to wake her when the time was right. This one was found by the Enclave and brainwashed into thinking she was just blood related, when it was so much more than that. Her world would shatter if the two of them ever met each other.
She was the best soldier that they had. And she was quick to advance through the ranks. She achieved the rank of Seargent in the span of 12 years. They knew that they had 3 Stables that had to be secured as of this moment. They had spent decades searching through some of the remaining stables in the hopes of finding something called " Project Pegasus". The records they had found from Pre-war Equestria had indicated that the Ministry of Arcane Sciences had been working on Augmenting pegasi and unicorns to be used as 'supersoldiers' in the war against the Zebrahan nation.
They had finally narrowed it down to Stables 22, 18, and 42. Now they just had to narrow the search down further until they had the correct one. Because in one of the Stables in question there was a Cryostasis unit secured near the CMC maincore of the structure. They had to get to it before somepony else found it and tampered with it.
Inside that chamber would be the key to securing the Wasteland and that restoration of the Equestria that they had always envisioned.
The mare's name was Rainbow Dash. First Seargent of the Grand Pegasus Enclave. And the last pony that two others would ever expect to see again.
Things were seeming to go from bad to worse.
It had been a week or so since Written Script had been outside of the Stable. He was having a hard time adjusting to being stuck in this thing for the rest of his life. He had managed to escape the outskirts of Ponyville before the Mega Spells had gone off. He wasn't sure if anypony else he had known had made it to the other Stables.
He was lucky to have made it to Stable 22 at all. It was the only one that had been built at the edge of the Everfree Forest.
No pony else understood Stable Tech's decision to build it there, but there had to be some reason. he just wouldn't be around to see it.
"How's the analysis Dr. Hooves?", Written asked the pony next to him in the lab. Dr. Hooves was an odd one, to say the least. He either kept to himself or was always obsessing over something he was working on. Written had heard rumors that Hooves had made it the edge of town right as the bombs went off. He had been seen with a filly unicorn on his back.
No pony mentioned where or not she had made it to the Stable before the door was sealed.
"It's going alright Written, those samples you brought are showing some interesting results, to say the least,", his voice betrayed the thoughts that were going through his mind though.
One month Later.
" Doctor, somethings wrong with Written Script,", The panic in the mare's voice got him off his flank immediately.
When he arrived at Written's quarters what he saw shocked him. Written was clutching his chest as he let out a horrible cough. The Doctor pulled out his sonic emitter and began scanning him right then and there. The emitter detected a number of spores coming not only from Written's coughing fit but from the air vents as well.
"What the hell is going on?", he thought to himself. He decided to go and ask the Overmare if she was aware of what was happening. To his surprise, not only was she aware, but she also put the entire Stable on Lockdown.
She then told him that anything they discussed further regarding this was to be deemed Classified as per Terminal instructions from Stable Tec.
Direct orders from not only the President of Stable Tec, Scootaloo, but also from another source. Hooves decided to wait until everypony was asleep before looking into this more. Something was going on here, something that seemed to betray the idea of the Magic of Friendship. He had seen something like this in a previous life. The more he thought about it, the more he realized that he had been to a dystopian wasteland at once in his life as a timelord.
That world had destroyed itself with Nuclear weapons and forced the survivors to escape to underground bunkers called vaults. he also remembered hearing a name of a scientist that had been rumored to be working some kind of case study.
He pushed that aside as he got back up to hear knocking on his door.
He opened it to see Stable Security standing in front of him.
" We need you to come with us quickly doc,", The guard sounded more worried then threatening. They escorted him to the infirmary, and what he saw would have broken the heart of the next stallion or mare.
The Infirmary was filled with sick ponies.
It was taking him everything he had to figrue what was making them all sick. That's when he looked up and saw a faint green mist coming through one of the ventilation ducts of the Stable. Something was being pumped into the room that was causing all of this.
Dr. Hooves took this to the Overmare, who already looked as if she had known about what was happening. She told him that what she was about to say could never leave this room. He acted like he agreed with her and allowed the Overmare to explain.
The gas was coming from an adjacent cavern system that she sent a team to explore. One of the security guards that had gone with them had come back covered in small bite marks, as well as being covered in some kind of pollen or muck. he could feel his conscience pushing him to confront the overmare, but he decided to wait until he had more evidence of what he was uncovering.
The look on Dr. Hooves face was a mix of emotions at that moment. He wanted to ball his left hoof up and smack the Overmare for what she had proposed, but he knew that would either get him killed or land his flank in the Stable's Brig. He told her that he'd think about the information she had just shared with him.
At the same time that was going on , he was unaware that there was a certain mailmare wandering the Wastes. And that her life would be out of his hooves to rescue, despite how much he cared for her. This mailmare would experience things that no pony should ever have to endure.
"Something isn't right," he thought to himself. Why was all of this medical info encrypted? He needed to get access to it so he could figure out why the air filtration was failing in the Stable, and so he could find out if the Overmare was aware of it all or just lying to cover her own flank. There were times he wished that Derpy was with him, she had her own way to keep him calm during times like this. It was too bad she was stranded out in the wastes. She'd have gone mad if she learned what had happened to her daughters.
