Fallout Equestria: Every Lie

Chapters

Chapter 2 - Separation
Chapter 3 - Enjoy Your Stay
Chapter 4 - Blood and Gold
Chapter 5 - Sandtown
Chapter 6 - Bait
Chapter 7 - Mentality
Chapter 1 - Every Sunny Day

Chapter 2 - Separation

“Stable 71 was no home. It was a prison, and nopony realized it but me.”

I was so close to seeing them again, I was practically crying in joy. I could feel the cold metal of the Stable wall behind me, and was looking happily at the pocket knife on the cover of my bed. I wrapped it in my magic, a giant grin on my face as I picked it up. The blade shined in my eyes as I slowly pulled it closer, floating it at neck level. I took a deep breath as the blade disappeared under my muzzle, and I closed my eyes. Very soon, I’ll be joining my parents outside, away from the meanies and adults in here. I was almost there, I was almost—

—Wait, what am I doing? I dropped the knife between my hind legs as a thought came to mind. I remembered the big mess that stallion had made when he did the same thing. Why was I even listening to the stallion who showed me how to get out of the Stable? He was trying to make me look like a bad filly by making a mess like that! I thought that he was smart enough to help me but like every adult in Stable 71 he was just another stupid asshole. Well, at least I have some new words to call ponies I don’t like in the end. He was good in that regard.

I sighed in disappointment, knowing that even after two months inside Stable 71 I still could not get out. I was going to get out as the good little filly my mom and dad knew me as, not as a bad filly like everypony else in here. They were nice enough to keep me fed down here, but I was not going to go to school. Luckily, the words that stallion had taught me seemed to scare them away, which makes me giggle every time I think of it. They had all the right to be scared of me though, because I wasn’t going to hear another one of those bastards say my parents are dead.

That's what everypony thought, that the giant cloud they called a megaspell had killed my mom and dad along with all the other ponies out there. I wouldn’t mind if all the other ponies went away, but nothing is going to kill my mom and dad. They were too important to die, and I knew they were alive outside of this steel prison. I could feel it, and I could swear that some days I could hear their voices on the outside of the Stable door. Every day I went to the giant door of Stable 71 waiting for it to open, knowing that my parents were on the other side. The thought of them holding me in their hooves made me happy, and I knew that one day I would get out of here.

“Lucky?” I groaned at the sound of a soft voice behind me. It was that stupid fucking stallion that closed the door that everypony calls the Overstallion. One of these days I just wish he would leave me alone. “You’re going to come out of your room, right?”

The idiot must have thought I was his responsibility after closing the Stable door on my parents considering the amount of times he said sorry to me. I didn’t care how much he apologizes to me. He still caused my mom and dad to get really badly hurt. I was never going to forgive him for that, no matter what he tried to say to me. He had forced me to wear this stupid barding because of rules and other stupid things that kept me from opening the door outside. Everypony thinks we would die if the Stable door was open, which I thought was really just a big excuse for keeping me in here. I hated all of them, but I hated Stable-Tec more than any of the others in here.

Just thinking about those Stable-Tec officials made me angry now, even if my mom did work for them. They had built this giant metal cage everyone else called ‘home’, and they wouldn’t even let my mom in when she works for them. The PipBuck 3000 on my front left hoof was the one exception to this, because PipBucks were still really cool. Then again, it would be even more useful if I wasn’t trapped in this steel prison with nothing to use half its functions on. Why even have them if you had nothing to use them on? It seemed entirely pointless to me.

“Lucky Heart?” Right, that asshole was still there.

“Leave. Me. Alone!” I shouted at him, turning to see him standing in the doorway to my room. “How many times do I need to tell you I don’t want to fucking talk with you!” He didn’t leave, looking at me as if he was trying to show sorrow. I rolled my eyes and sighed before hopping off my bed. “Fine, I’ll get out of my room if you’ll just go the hell away and leave me alone.”

He walked away, leaving the door open for me as if he thought I wasn’t able to open it myself. I could care less who the Overstallion was or what goes on inside the Stable. Everypony had cutie marks in here except for me and had all these dumb jobs that they needed to do. I never paid attention to them, but they sure as hell paid attention to me. Seems like everything I did was something to talk about, and it was most likely insults about me. I would have hurt them sooner for doing the one thing mom said I was allowed to hurt ponies for, but unless they said it to my face why should I care what these dumb ponies think.

It was always so dull and creepy walking through the Stable’s halls, and I could not help but wonder why my mom would make a place like this. Maybe it was only this one Stable, I’m sure the others look a lot different. Besides my mom would never make a place that looks this unwelcoming. She would want it to be a place that felt welcoming to good foals like me, and I know she wouldn’t allow any of these mean adults in. Well, perhaps she would have let the weird stallion in, but I don’t think she would appreciate that yucky red stuff he got on the floor. Wonder where he went after all of that happened.

Not that I had time to think about it, mom and dad were waiting for me at the Stable door. They say you can’t hear anything outside of it, but I’ve learned that these ponies are much more stupid than me. I can’t say when I first heard them, but I could hear my mom and dad on the other side. To know they were alive made me happy, but at the same time more mad because of what it meant. All of these ponies were keeping me from them, trying to make me a bad filly probably.

Actually, what was it that made the sky look so dark that one day? Perhaps it was part of the war, but a giant cloud like that would not hurt my mommy and daddy. Still, nopony, even those stupid adults, would be that dumb as to think a storm could hurt you. You had to be really, really stupid to think that would happen, and I haven’t met ponies that dumb. Yet. That storm was probably a ‘coincidence’, if I’m using that word correctly. The bad ponies must have been somewhere else, waiting for me to hurt them.

“Mommy! Daddy! I’m here~!” I called to them, and I immediately heard their voices through the door. It must have been them. “Are you doing any better today? I can’t see you two but I know you must be all better by now. So tell me, can you open the door?” I put an ear up to the door, getting my hair out of the way. “Oh, just letting you know, one of those grown-ups who take care of the place tried cutting my hair. I told him why, but he just laughed at me… yeah, he had a cutie mark, so I should have expected that to happen… no I didn’t actually get it cut!”

I’m sure anypony who walked in at the time would think I look crazy, but that’s fine with me. I’m fine with being the crazy one, because that means the ponies who are calling me crazy are the ones who are crazy themselves. That’s how it works, or at least how I always remember it working. I don’t think I’m messing that up, and I’m not going to unless mom or dad told me to. Well, they haven’t so I’m going to continue with that.

“Oh, that weird pony I told you about, he’s gone,” I continued to tell them. “Kinda went poof and all that. He left a mess but I think he found a way out… yes, I’m considering doing something similar, but I… you two are okay with it? Well, you told me to only hurt ponies if they hurt me… yeah, they locked me in here. You know, suddenly-”

“Wake up, Lucky.” The voice that spoke to me wasn’t that of my parents, or of anyone else inside the stable. It came from the air, and I wasn’t sure what it wanted from me. “It’s time for you to wake up to the world and experience everything. This place is your prison, that is true, but even the hardest prisons have been broken out of by a pony in the past.”

“Oooh, are you an invisible pony? That means you have no cutie mark right?” I asked it, and while I wasn’t given a response I could only imagine that was a yes. “One sec mommy and daddy, somepony is here to help. Um… what do I need to do in order to get out? How do you know me?”

“We know each other Lucky, because I am you silly filly,” the voice told me, and I was in awe at the idea. It was another me talking to me! That means they must be smart. “Look, you want out, and the only ponies who can open the door are those working for Stable-Tec right? All you have to do is take the keys to the Stable door, and to do that you need to hurt the ponies that put you in here.”

“Oh, that’s just what mommy and daddy just said for me to do, but how much should I hurt them?” I asked, being okay with everything myself was telling me. They were me, which mean that I should listen to myself like a smart filly does. “Should I just poke them? Does that sound like enough hurting to get them to give me the keys?”

“Of course not silly filly, you will have to do more hurting than that to get the key,” Myself said to me, and I knew they were right. “They took you away from the ponies we loved most. That means they deserve to be hurt as much as you want. Besides, they’ll be okay in the end, because ponies simply fall asleep when you hurt them enough. So, hurt them all you want, and do it to the one pony who has hurt you the most.”

The Overstallion. I knew that was the pony who has hurt me the most. He is always making me do things I don’t want to do, and if anypony should be hurt than he should be. Of course, I’ll need more than just my hooves if I want to hurt him as much as he hurt me. No, he deserved to be hurt even more, because he has to be hurt for what he did. I should have thought of this sooner, and for the first time in two months I felt really happy. This could be how I get to my parents again.

“Thanks me, you are the smartest pony I’ve ever heard!”

“Hey mister Overstallion,” I called to the stupid stallion walking not far in front of me. He turned to me, seeming shocked that I would talk to him. “I wanted to talk with you about some stuff. You know, just stuff the ponies like you and others with cutie marks usually do.”

I hated this. I really, really, really, really~ hated this. I didn’t want to talk with a pony like him for the very thing I was going to talk about him with. All ponies with cutie marks just brag about what makes them special, rubbing their flanks in our faces to get it in. I wanted to hurt him so much just being next to him, so much that there was a word for it that I remember my mom telling me about. It was something she said to never do, but I was considering doing just that right now.

“Oh, well, if you want to,” The Overstallion replied. At least he could entertain me a little with how stupid he is, because then I would be able to laugh as I hurt him. “Well, talking isn’t different if you have a cutie mark or not, they don’t influence behavior. You are definitely a unique filly from all the others in the Stable, that’s for sure.”

“Well of course I am, because a good filly like me without a cutie mark is much smarter,” I acknowledged him with? No, that wasn’t the right word. Told him would be the smarter word choice, and it really influenced my point. “I must be different so I can’t get a cutie mark, and that makes me better than most ponies. Those minister ponies are the only exception, because the ministers are the smartest ponies in the world.”

“When you first got here I thought Stable-Tec was the smartest ponies,” he reminded me, and it was true. They were the smartest, before they abandoned my mom and dad, which made them the stupidest ponies. “Why did you change your answer?”

“You know exactly why,” I told him with a giggle. “Stable-Tec left my parents outside, why wouldn’t I hate them? I’m sure that once I get out of here, they will be the next ponies I decided to hurt. Nopony hurts my parents.”

“I’ve told you before how sorry I am, there is no reason to do that,” I don’t care about your stupid apologies you stupid stallion. “Why do you keep on denying that- Lucky, what is that on your flank?”

“Oh, you mean this little thing?” I looked down to my hip, and I smiled at the the knife I had retrieved from my room. I took it from its place tied to my waist and looked at him. “Funny you should say that, you stupid, dumbass, worthless, cutie mark stallion.”

I saw a look of shock on his face as I sunk the knife right below his jaw, just above his neck. I finally found out what the red stuff that stallion left in his room was, and suddenly I realized just how stupid I was for thinking it was right to do just like him. Yet, seeing that red stuff, or blood as I now realized it was, coming out of him made me happy. He didn’t understand what my reasoning was, mouthing the word ‘why’ to me as if he would get an answer. The stupid stallion should have known why from the very beginning.

“Don’t worry, everything will be fine,” I said as he collapsed on the floor. “Sleep well- no, that’s not enough hurting for him.”

I took the knife out of him, looked both ways to make sure nopony was watching, and then poked him in the chest with the knife again. More blood came out, and I couldn’t help but wonder where it was all coming from, though I decided it didn’t matter in the end. There was something about it that made me happy, seeing the blood come out, as if it was a form of accomplishment on my part. I giggled silently as the knife sank into his skin again, finding that he was indeed entertaining me rather well. At least the pain meant that he would sleep through all of this, though I wish he was awake to be entertained by this as well.

However, as soon as I was about to poke him again, everything went black.

“Wake up Lucky, it’s time for you to truly meet the world.”

I awoke to the floor. I don’t know how I got there, but the Overstallion must have done it once he woke up. Guards must have caught me harming him or something and thought making me fall asleep would fix something. I should have looked after each time I poked the Overstallion’s skin with the knife, it would have been safer. That way I could have kept doing it, as there was something satisfying with hurting a pony who had hurt my parents. Anyways, the voice told me it was time to see the world so I shouldn’t look at the floor.

However, when I did I realize I had no idea where I am, and I couldn’t help but feel… older? I looked at myself, or rather I looked down at my flank. I did seem a little taller, a few inches shorter than mom maybe, though I had no idea how many inches taller my mom was. However, that wasn’t what really caught my attention. It was all the weird, empty, dome sitting places that was interesting. I was still in stable 71, so I wasn’t to happy, but it was rather strange. Then I realized something wrong as I looked down to my hoof.

“My PipBuck!” I yelled, seeing that nothing was on my arm, and it thankfully included that stupid clothing all the other stupid adults wore- wait, why other adults? “Did I get… older somehow? Well, even if I did, still don’t have a cutie mark. As long as I don’t have a cutie mark I’m a good filly, not an adult.”

I know from being alive that you get older as years go by, and seeing that I was taller was one way to know I was older. Did that weird few seconds of darkness make me older? Maybe it was the voice that had told me to wake up, as it wasn’t the same one that other me used. My voice actually sounded a little different, though I knew it was mine anyways. Well, only young filly’s have no cutie mark, and as long as that was the case it didn’t matter how old I was. I was a good filly no matter what. The PipBuck was another thing.

“Stupid Overstallion must have must have taken it when he woke up,” I said to myself. “I’ll find him, hurt him, hurt Stable-Tec, and hurt everypony else who says bad about my mommy and daddy.”

“You’re awake, good,” the voice the talked to me was in my head, but like I had said it wasn’t the same voice. “Lucky Heart, right? Your name is Lucky Heart? Why are you so silent?”

“Um, why are you talking to me?” I told the voice, not feeling happy about it. “I don’t want to talk to you, because you probably hurt other me. They were smart and told me how to get out, but you will just make me a bad filly, or an adult.”

“Right, hates anything that could be a pony or have a cutie mark. Should have known this would happen,” this voice said that like I wasn’t hearing them, but I could. “Okay, listen. I’m a pony, but I don’t have a cutie mark. I’m like you, and I’m talking to you through something they, well, put in your brain. The names Broken Record by the way.”

“Stable-Tec did something to my brain?” I was angry and confused at that. Angry because that means they must be why I’m older, and confused because I didn’t know what it was they put in me. “Did they make me older to try and get me a cutie mark? What happened to other me? I don’t want anypony in my head.”

“Look, I understand, but you have nopony around you right now, and I can’t talk to you for long,” Broken Record said to me, though I bet they just want to get away from me because they thought I was crazy. I’ll make sure they know I’m not crazy. “Lucky, the stable door is open, all you needed to do was wake up to make it open. Why does she give me these notes when it’s going to make no sense?” Wait, this pony was upset at something before someone yelled at her and not because of bits? Perhaps they didn’t have a cutie mark and could be trusted. “Anyways the door was opened, and everyone else in Stable 71 has left but you. We didn’t want to send you out because, well, you hate them all.”

“They hurt mommy, of course I don’t like them!” I told the voice as it clearly didn’t know why. “They hurt my mommy and daddy so they should be hurt! Anypony who hurts or hates my mommy and daddy should be hurt back! I’m gonna find them, but first I need to find mommy and daddy.”

“I- alright, that’s fine, but I suggest you go outside before committing to that,” Broken Record, or Rere as that name is way to long, was clearly a smart pony. I need to get outside before anything else, because I wanted to be out of this prison. “Any questions should be reserved for a time later. Right now get outside and look at Trauston, because you’ll need somepony to help you.”

“Can you leave me alone now?” I told Rere, getting rather annoyed at how much she liked to talk. Guess even ponies without cutie marks have problems when they aren’t a cute little filly on an adventure. I was happy when she didn’t respond. “Thank you. So, let’s go find the exit.”

It soon occured to me that, again, I had no PipBuck. No PipBuck means no map, and no map means that I can’t get out of here. Well, I do feel smarter with being older, so maybe I’ll just use this older body that I now have? Yep, that’s a good idea. My body told me right, so I went right and saw that there was a door. Looking back to see what was in the other direction, I saw that it was the end of the room. Not a door, so not really important. As I walked out the door I found myself in a hallway, and once again relied on my smart older brain to pick where to go.

“I should gooooo… left!”

—-

Note to self: Left never gets you anywhere. Everything is to the right in this stupid stable, because Stable-Tec designed it so stupidly. Speaking of stupid, I need to stop using that word because it will make me seem stupid. I’ll find a word to replace it with later when I’m out of here.

Other than the countless wrong turns I made, proving that I’m just as smart as I was when I was in a younger body, nothing really happened in the Stable. Nopony was here, and since I’m the only pony here I must have scared them off. Ponies did scream when they saw the weird stallion’s blood, so they must have run out of the Stable because they were so scared. Thinking about it made me laugh, and once again told me that I was much better than any of them.

“There we go!” I yelled out as I finally found the Stable door, and just like Rere had told me it was open. “Must be night time right now, and mommy and daddy would hate it if I go out in the middle of the night. Did I really take this long finding the door? Oh well, let’s sleep in here till morning.”

Mommy and daddy always said that night time was bedtime, and I wasn’t going to complain about it. Mom and dad know best after all, as they are some of the smartest ponies in the world next to the ministers. I wonder what happened in the time I was gone, and if the ministers have done anything cool since then. Perhaps Minister Fluttershy managed to end the war, because that’s what a ministry of peace should do. Only one I didn’t really like was Pinkie Pie, though most ponies really don’t like Pinkie Pie. The difference between those ponies and me is that I would be willing to say that to her face.

“Why is the floor so cold~?” I whined, but cold floors were not what I was really bothered by.

The lack of mommy and daddy beside me, even after the stable door was opened, was what bothered me. Most nights I would be in the middle, snuggling up with them and falling asleep to good dreams. That first night without them in the Stable was the worst, as that night I had the first of many, many nightmares. Every night I had one, to the point where I was so scared to sleep I would do my best to stay awake. Worst part is, I never won a battle against bedtime.

“I miss you mom, I miss you dad,” I said to the pony in front of me, and upon realizing there was a pony in front of me I looked up. “Mommy!”

Nopony was there, and I was lied to. The Stable, the sunny day, the PipBuck, it all suddenly seemed like a lie. Mommy being here was a lie, and the second worst lie I had heard so far, and no lie would beat the first. At least, that’s what I thought, because I still didn’t know why mommy said it was going to be sunny when she always knew when it was sunny. Mom can’t be wrong about anything, because she is really smart, so why lie to me? I’m the adorable little filly that she loves so dearly, but did I hurt them and make them upset.

“I want you here mommy, and I want you here too daddy,” I told the dust, because they were the only things I could talk to. The other me in my head was gone, and Rere was staying quiet for me. I then remembered that I wasn’t alone, because Dusty was there. “You will be there for me, right Dusty? I’ll leave you in the morning, but you will be with me through the night. Oh, oh, why do you feel so weird, Dusty? How about the other Dusty, or did I crush every Dusty because I was so big and strong. I’m sorry Dusty, I didn’t mean to hurt you.”

“You do realize that’s dust right?” Rere was in my head again, and I was happy about that. Dusty didn’t talk a lot, but he wasn’t dust. Perhaps she could hear me but couldn’t see me.

“No, Dusty isn’t dust you silly filly, he’s just a lot of very small white ponies stuffed together,” I told Rere, showing how wise I was once again. “Treat Dusty and other Dusty and other, other Dusty with respect. That goes for every other Dusty too.”

“Okay, I’ll treat every Dusty right and not call them dust,” I could understand why she was confused, because Dusty was so small he could go in my hoof and be squashed like a bug. I then realized I had been doing that to the other Dusty’s. “So, are you going to get up and sleep on a bed or is the floor really that comfy?”

“The beds are hard, not anything like they were when I was in them earlier,” I complained. “It’s yucky, stinky, and smells like it hasn’t been washed in over a hundred years.”

“Makes sense, considering that nopony has used them in a long time,” Rere must not have known about me till today, because I’ve been sleeping in those beds for two months now like everypony else. “So, I know you don’t want to think this Lucky, but what if you don’t find your parents? What if, maybe, you end up not finding them and won’t see them again.”

“Explore the city, because I wanted to do that before Stable-tec trapped me down here,” I told her, though I didn’t like what she was trying to tell me. “I’m sure mommy and daddy are in the city, because that’s where I last saw them.”

“Then you should go find them, they must miss you.”

I started to realize the only reason I was trying to sleep was because I was so use to that idea. I wasn’t really tired, and I couldn’t have taken all day to get here, so seeing it dark outside just made me think I should nap. Then I realized what would maybe happen if I did stay here. What would happen if they got hurt again? What if they are already hurt? They needed their awesome little filly, or big filly now, to protect them from harm.

“Thanks Rere, you are really smart sometimes.”

She didn’t respond, but she must have been tired. Knowing what this filly needed to do, I got up and made my way to the door. It was dark outside, and the idea of going out in the dark was really scary, but I had to be brave. I’ll keep mommy and daddy safe if anything hurts them, but I have to find them. So, I didn’t hesitate to take a single step outside of Stable 71, leaving my prison behind…

… and that’s when I realized that it was something else that made it so dark and scary.

Author's Note

Thanks to TK-JAY for taking over in getting this chapter edited for me.

Chapter 3 - Enjoy Your Stay

“You know, they call Tauston the city of isolation for a reason. Nopony goes in or out anymore.”

Sand. One look outside and all I could see was sand everywhere. It was like a giant pegasus the size of the city had flapped its wings and covered the whole city in the aftermath. Dust and sand covered everything, even the air itself, and I quickly considered going back in the stable. The problem there was that, for no reason, the giant rotating door closed behind me. I was stuck out here in this sandstorm, with no protection whatsoever. Hopefully it doesn’t cut like diamonds.

What was weird was that I could still see rather well, despite how much sand was around me. I took a step and looked down, and saw a piece of paper showing the city of Trauston on it. It was old, probably having sat there for the entire time I was in the stable. Speaking of which, I don’t think I was in their for two months anymore, because I didn’t see anypony around me. What I did see were skeletons, like the ones my tutor had showed me, but were was the pony they all belong to?

I must have seen a thousand different skeletons just in the area outside the stable, and I felt good knowing that these were all ponies I didn’t know or care for. They were leaning up against the fence, laying on the ground with their bones locked with others. It must have been much longer than two months if nopony was around, but why did they leave their skeletons behind? It doesn’t seem physically possible, but that’s probably what they all said.

“Heeellooooo!” I called out, hoping one of the skeletons would respond. They didn’t, but I continued to try. “Do any of you know where my mommy and daddy are?”

They didn’t answer, which makes sense as they all seemed to be sleeping to. I tried to pick one up and wake them, but they just fell apart. I tried to put him back together but I guess a pony can’t move as just a skeleton. Probably should have realized how stupid that sounded before trying it, but too late for that now. Still, bones must be pretty strong, and as I couldn’t find that knife I used to put the Overstallion to sleep, this might do.

To test it, I picked up a random bone from one of the skeletons and hit it against the wall. The bone broke apart, the area that I hit against the wall turning a small part of it into tiny little bits. Guess bones wouldn’t make for a really good defense if they were so weak, but I should’ve expect that when the pony is so stupid as to loose their skeleton. It was kinda fun to watch though, and when I saw the weird hat I remember those security ponies wearing nearby I didn’t care about what I had just done.

“Stable-tec, right?” I said as I picked up another bone, this one being the skull, and looked back at the skull. “A pony like you deserves to be hurt, and perhaps you won’t fall asleep like he did!”

I threw the skull into the wall, but unlike the other bone this didn’t break. That made me angry, seeing that he wasn’t going to be hurt like I was hoping, so I did it again. The skull still didn’t break, and I got more and more frustrated as I tried to break it and hurt him. I knew skulls were thick, but his was so thick he probably had a very small brain because of it. After a time I gave up on chucking it at the wall, and started to just small it into the wall instead. Finally, I broke it open, watching as the top of the skull broke open to reveal nothing inside. This pony didn’t even have a brain his skull was so thick.

“You deserve that, everypony who hurts my parents deserves that,” I tell the broken skull. “Once I find them, everything will be just like it should be. I’ll get another PipBuck, get my revenge on stable-tec for thinking they could take my mommy and daddy away, and finally see the Trauston Tower… are you sleeping!”

I thought somepony with such a thick skull wouldn’t fall asleep, but I could tell he was sleeping even without eyes. All these adults with cutie marks are so weak if they can’t stay awake when a filly like me hurts them. It made me angry, but by this point I was already really angry. I was out of the stable, but nopony was smart enough to admit what they did to my parents was wrong, and nopony would let me hurt them while they were awake. I sighed, and looked back out to the sandstorm in front of me.

“Initializing MentaBuck...” I fell backwards as my eyes were suddenly filled with those words, not knowing what was going on. I recognized the screen from the first time I ever turned my PipBuck on, but that was a PipBuck, not this MentaBuck thing. Then another new voice filled my head “ Welcome to MentaBuck, Lucky Heart II. MentaBuck is a Shadow Corporation technology that allows one to have the qualities of a PipBuck without the added hassle of carrying one around. In this tutorial, we will go over the basics of what the MentaBuck can do.”

“Can we please not?” I asked the smartypants voice that was in my head, but it didn’t listen to me.

“As one would expect, the MentaBuck has all the features of a normal PipBuck with the hardware installed on a chip connected to the brain,” So this MentaBuck thing is what was put in my brain that Rere used. So this Shadow Corporation must be a part of Stable-tec. “Maps feature all current post-war locations and conditions that were relevant at the time of this units implantation. You will also be able to use all features such as E.F.S. (Eyes Forward Sparkle) without needing to be connected to ones personally magic supply. However, due to your current age we have deactivated S.A.T.S. Because of data collected by Stable-tec. We don’t want good fillies and colts hurting others, and Shadow Corporation is dedicated to succeeding where Stable-tec failed long ago.”

“Yeah yeah, I get it,” Suddenly, something occurred to me that I didn’t even think of trying. “Deactivate tutorial you smartass, otherwise I’ll… find someway to hurt you with my mind.”

“We have also added some new features to keep test subjects like you safe in this harsh new world,” Turns out the voice was smart enough to know I wasn’t psychic, so much for that. Wait, did this thing call me a test subject? “This includes a hazard warning when near highly irradiated areas, and information on all known dangerous creatures in the world. Everything else is just like you remember it on the PipBuck. Have a nice day and thanks for choosing to support Shadow Corporation in the pursuit of a better future. Remember: we are geared towards the safety of the protection of everyone whether it be raiders, zebras, ghouls, and, of course, ponykind. You are the future just as much as they are, and the future must be brighter for everyone!”

Thank goodness that’s over. As she finished, my vision finally returned to me, and I was met with that same overlay I remember from the PipBuck as I did. It wasn’t the same as what I remember it being, noticing that the overlay was black with a yellow outline. I decided to test it out and found that I could easily look at the menu, and it had the same look to it as the normal overlay did. It was super weird seeing the PipBuck menu actually take up my eyes, but that’s what happens when something is attached to your brain.

However, this Shadow Corporation is clearly not Stable-tec, seeing as they were ‘in pursuit of a better future’. Was Stable-tec responsible for how things looked now? No, it was the war, somehow I knew that. I looked up, unable to see clouds among the amount of sand blowing around. It was strange, seeing something like this, but I wasn’t going to get answers to anything standing around here. I had to find mommy and daddy before they get hurt again, but would they still recognize me with how much time seemed to pass.

“Maybe they’re at the hotel still,” I said as if talking to somepony, but it was just my way of feeling less alone. Dusty was inside stable 71, and Rere wasn’t talking to me right, so nopony was around. “It’s kinda scary going anywhere without them. What if some adult or a group of fillies and colts with cutie marks find me and start hurting me.”

I needed a knife, or something sharp enough to poke people with to protect me. A sewing needle, a marshmallow stick, just something that could allow me to hurt others that might hurt me. Whatever these raiders were that smartypants voice mentioned were, they didn’t sound very friendly, and ghouls sound super scary. Perhaps, if I was very careful I could be friends with them, but no chances. Heading into the area standing between the fence and stable 71, I started to search.

“Pointy thing, pointy thing, pointy thing, pleeeaaaase give me a pointy thing,” I said as I scanned the ground. After some time I curled up in a ball on the ground. “Ow, ow, ow, why is the sand hurting me?”

I started to swat at the sand, but it didn’t go away. It kept on getting in my mane and tail, poking me, scratching me, and after some time I gave up on trying to get it off my body. I hated it, and I mean I hated it even more than that mean Overstallion. Mother nature should love good fillies such as me, but right now she is being the biggest asshole in the history of mean ponies. If I ever find out where mother nature lives, I think I’ll declare a war on her for doing this, but only after I find something.

Finally something caught my eye, but that was only because I had put my right hoof on it. The thing hurt, and I looked down to see exactly what it was. A pocket knife laid next to a skeleton, rusted badly by time and weather. It was still somewhat shiny, but you could tell that this thing was really really old. I scooped it up, and held it close to my chest as I continued to let the sand hurt me. I didn’t want to move, and the knife couldn’t help me in this case.

“Is everything okay Lucky?” Rere asked me, though my attempts to cry in such a dry place told me she already knew.

“Why does the sand hurt me?” I asked her, expecting her to know. “I don’t want the sand to hurt me. Why is everything so mean out here?”

“Lucky, nod if you remember the way to Central Trauston Hotel. That’s the hotel you stayed at the day the megaspells fell,” I nodded. This was the second time I’ve heard somepony talk about these megaspell things, the first being when my mom and dad were in our hotel room. “Okay, so I’ve finally figured out what this thing is in your brain, and activated it for you to use. I’ll see if I can get some of the restricted features off for you, but I’m setting a marker to the hotel. You’ll be out of the storm in there, and I’ll answer some of your questions then. You won’t find anything standing around in this storm.”

I didn’t like how Rere just talks to me in my head all the time. It’s creepy and uncomfortable, but at the same time she’s really smart. I like that, because at least then she had a reason for talking in my head to me. Actually, she must have been using this MentaBuck thing I have inside me, but how was probably really complicated. Knowing what I needed to do, I stood back up and looked at the ground, because the sand still really really hurt. I didn’t want the sand to hurt my eyes too, so I did my best to not let them get hurt. It was than I noticed the dot glowing white on the E.F.S. thingy both this and PipBucks had.

“Um, what did you do the E.F.S.” I asked Rere, but she didn’t respond. “Oh, right. Gotta go to the hotel and then I’ll get some answers. How did she know about the hotel when she was never there?”

Dead, that was the word that came to my mind as I looked around. It wasn’t like what I did to the Overstallion, or what I did to the skeleton back at entrance of the stable. Using one of those Stable-tec pony’s helmets I guarded my eyes from the sand, but even without it I could tell you the world was like. Death, the thing that happens when you get old and can’t move anymore, and the sleep that follows is so dreamless you can’t even see the nothingness that followed. That’s what mommy had told me it was anyways, and while it wasn’t the same here, the nothingness was what I could see, not the city.

Skeletons were everywhere, and I started to wonder if many of them were more than just asleep. This wasn’t near what the Overstallion had experience, and it made me sad to see that some many of these ponies didn’t share how badly they were hurt with me. The thing is, the street leading from the stable to hotel was narrow and on a cliffside. So many skeletons were on the railing, ready to jump off it, and some were missing certain bones because they were interrupted from their jump. Though stupid ponies like them wouldn’t have known that would be a bad idea, so once again I’m smarter. If I ever find where the Overstallion went after he woke up, I’ll bring him hear and tell him to jump. He might have fun with that.

The walk wasn’t long, but it was enough for me to know that this has been more than simply a year or two after. I must have been sleeping for a very long time after I put the Overstallion to sleep, because Trauston was really different. Windows were broken, metal was rusted, things were burnt, and there was a lot of sand. That was the big one, sand was everywhere, and not just in my mane. It was in buildings, on streets, on the walls for some reason, and it found its way onto my body in the most uncomfortable of places. As I came in view of the hotel, or the Central Trauston Hotel as Rere called it, I broke into a sprint.

As I reached the door I quickly opened it and closed it behind me, only to realize that the windows were broken. The storm didn’t find its way in, but sand was present inside of the hotel lobby. Everything seemed to be torn up, the seats nowhere near as fluffy as they would have been last time I was here. The weird thing was, not a single skeleton was present inside, and not a single pony was as well. I looked around the lobby, and than I heard something turn on behind me.

“That was One More Day by Trauston’s one and only piano mastermind Minor, and definitely a bit of a change from some of his more… heavy stuff, I guess we can say. His newest hit, coming straight from the folks who kept him and the rest of stable 76 alive,” The radio was on, and I heard Rere talking on it. Did she some manage to turn the radio on by herself? And why was she speaking on the radio. “Okay, no need to mince words, we all know The Shadow Corporation did that, so no need to gloat about them. Of course, they aren’t the only ponies out and about right now. I’ve received a message from today’s anonymous listener box saying that Gold the Bloody Ingot is on the hunt again. No idea what he could be after, but you know how Gold is, a mercenary like him is about to leave a dead body behind.”

“Oh, and The Shadow Corporation has also sent me a message, because they don’t care that the word ‘anonymous’ means they don’t need to mention their name,” The Shadow Corporation seemed like a big deal, almost as big of a deal as Stable-tec. The two must be related in one way or another. “They said that they’ve heard your request and will do what they can about the Grand Pegasus Enclave and getting them outta our city. Amazing what half a year can do to an agreement between the two, am I right or am I right?”

A music track I’ve never heard before started to play on the radio, and I was left with many questions. The pegasi were back, and that meant more ponies with cutie marks, and more adults as well. If this ‘Shadow Corporation” wanted them gone, than they must be good ponies, without cutie marks. I wanted to know about them, but I didn’t know where to find them. I decided to save it for Rere, because she seemed to know them.

“Maybe mommy and daddy are in our room?” I asked myself, walking over to the elevator. I pushed the button, but it didn’t work. So I pushed it again, but it still didn’t work. “Come on, open you stupid door. Everything you adults make break so easily.”

“Not like it would matter, that entire floor is fucked beyond even The Shadow Corporation’s abilities,” Rere told me, though this time it wasn’t from my head. I looked back, and suddenly found myself looking at an earth pony mare with a black mane and tail and a really dark grey coat of fur. “Don’t worry, I didn’t stalk you or anything. Technically, I’m not really here. I’m in my radio shack with all the records and CD’s I could ask for, and best of all I have access to every piece of technology the city has to offer. Comes from being old friends with a genius.”

“Rere?” I tilted my body to look at her flank, and indeed I saw no cutie mark on it. I stood up straight before I fell to my side, and smiled at her. “Hello Rere! Hope you don’t mind but how did you get here if you aren’t actually here?”

“Oh, that’s something about the MentaBuck I was told about after you left stable 71,” She told me, looking of into the sky as she sat on nothing. “I can project myself anywhere that your brain wants, but it feels stupid as I’m technically looking through the MentaBuck anyways. This will probably be the only time we meet in this method,” She looked back to me with a smile on her face, and I was happy a pony like this had helped me. If she had a cutie mark, I would want to hurt her for not telling me and maybe trying to hurt me. “Turns out it’s yet another way of The Shadow Corporation is using what Stable-tec managed to fuck up and turn into something that could revolutionize the future.”

“Why do you keep talking about these Shadow Corporation ponies?” I asked. “Why did they put this weird thing in me? Are they bad ponies or good ponies?”

“I wish I could give an exact answer, but that’s impossible,” Rere told me, seeming just as disappointed as I was about this. “The Shadow Corporation doesn’t really show itself to anyone except when it’s necessary, and even then you will probably only get one of there mercs-for-hire. The Ministry of Moral destroyed a lot of trust in the other ministries due to how open they were about what they were suppose to keep secret. Only thing we really know is that they don’t care whether you are a stable pony or a bloodthirsty raider, because in order for the best future all sides must be happy,” She leaned over one of the tables in the lobby, looking off to the skyscrapers in the distance. “So, in other words, how you portray them is entirely up to you. Someponies are all for it, while someponies like the Enclave want them wiped off the face of Equestria, and others just don’t give a shit and go on like nothing happens.”

“You really like to talk, don’t you?” I asked with a giggle, sitting down on the ground as I expected to be here a while. “So, since you said it was question time, why did I suddenly fall asleep when-“

“You were already asleep at the time,” Rere interrupted me, which was rather rude. Of course, that meant that the probably had something really important to say. “Everything that happened after entering stable 71 was a lie Lucky Heart, from getting your PipBuck to putting the Overstallion… to sleep. It was a simulation to test what happens when a pony’s brain is connected to a digital hard drive or some crap like that. The Shadow Company gave me the details when they asked me to bust you out.”

“Oh, so they are the ones who got me out of the stable, or helped you get me out of the stable,” I asked, and Rere nodded. “So, the Overstallion didn’t actually get hurt? I never actually put him to sleep.”

“Oh no, that’s the entire reason you went dark afterwards,” She told me. “The ponies weren’t connected to this virtual stable 71 evacuated everypony inside but you. They saw you as a danger, and had realized you weren’t like the rest of the ponies hooked up, the I don’t know how you were different. Nopony really knows what happened to them all after that, but it’s fair to say that the Overstallion will be... sleeping for a long time,” I wanted to hurt Stable-tec even more now, thinking that I’m a danger. It seems like they are the real danger nowadays. “Actually, many of them wanted to kill you, but one pony from The Shadow Corporation locked the device you were hooked too and made it impossible for them to shut it off. Okay, I’m tired of looking at myself, let’s do this the old way.”

Rere suddenly disappeared, and in panic I looked around to see if I could find where she went. She wasn’t in the lobby, that was for sure, and she wasn’t out in the streets either. Guess she could really project herself using the MentaBuck, which was actually really disturbing the more I thought about it. I tried to hit my head with my, thinking it could do anything, but I knew that it wouldn’t. I lied down, longing up at the city, noticing how old everything above me looked. Seemed like it could fall apart at any second.

“How many years have past?” I asked myself.

“Too many, Lucky Heart. Too many years have past,” Rere said, and while I couldn’t see her anymore, I knew that’s because she was once again talking in my head. “Trauston is nothing like it use to be. Nopony comes to the city anymore, and those who are here are stuck inside the city. Ponies who head out into the desert seem to just disappear altogether, and the Grand Pegasus Enclave is shooting anything that moves. Six months ago things were fine even if we couldn’t get out, but this treaty has been nothing but bad for everypony here. The Shadow Corporation don’t care who you are and what you think of them, but the last thing they want is a pony or group of ponies thinking they’re heroes.”

“Why do they hate heroes?” I asked Rere, so confused. “Aren’t heroes suppose to do what’s right?”

She didn’t answer me, and while I waited for her I looked up above. I know she said it was impossible, but there had to be a up. Rere probably had to take care of something on the radio, maybe picking a new song to play or delivering some news. I wasn’t going to just sit around while she did that, so I decided to look around to see if it was possible to get upstairs without the help of an elevator. I checked the lobby, and then I checked it again, and by the time I was ready to do a third I looked down a hallway I had thought lead outside. It didn’t, because I recognized at that moment a single table standing in the corner of the room.

“The dining room!” I said to myself, remembering the great meal that I had there. At first it made me really happy, but as I remembered everything I quickly felt sad again. “That was the last time I ate with mommy and daddy. I’ll have to come back here when I find them, that way we can start right back where finished.”

“Lucky, we don’t hate heroes,” Rere said to me suddenly. “It’s true that heroes are suppose to do the right thing, but what just cause does a hero follow? Their own path, and that path is one not everypony loves. The Shadow Corporation wants piece for all ponies, but heroes don’t care how good or bad you are if it’s against their cause. If you don’t believe me, I know somepony who will show you it.”

“Does this pony have a cutie mark?” I asked, though I already figured that they had a cutie mark to begin with. “I’m not going to listen to him if he has a cutie mark.”

“This is more than about what you do and don’t like Lucky, it’s about your safety,” She responded, not seeming rather happy about what she was saying. “Trust me, this isn’t a pony I would be sending you to unless he could be trusted. There’s a settlement near the center of the city called Sandtown run by a raider overlord named Bloodlocke. The ponies there may not be the… most comfortable individuals to be with, but they can keep you safe. Now, I can’t stay from the radio, so I leave it up to you Lucky. Just know that my friend wants… no, needs you to stay alive.”

Rere disappeared, and while I expected her to come back and talk some more, she didn’t. I waited a few minutes, but by that point I had realized she was done talking. Sandtown, Bloodlocke, or anything that sounded like dealing with cutie marks seemed like a terrible idea, and mommy and daddy were out there. Yet, I wanted to know why The Shadow Corporation hated heroes when ponies like the ministers and the princesses did so much for Equestria. Perhaps I’ll let this Bloodlocke explain why he hated heroes, and then go and search for mommy and daddy.

Then, I saw something flying in the sandstorm outside, and my attention quickly turned to that something in wonder. It was small, and I mean so small that I could barely make it out. Then I saw three other figures, more pony like in shape, chasing him. At least, that’s what I think I saw, but it could have just been more sand. I decided to take a moment to try and make out other shapes in the sandstorm, but that didn’t really work out so well. So, with that, I decided to head out and look for this Sandtown that Rere was talking about.

Everything felt the same as I went through Trauston, and looking up I couldn’t be feel scared and excited at the same time. Scared because everything was so different from when I was last here, and building looked like they wanted to fall on me. Yet, I was excited because of how many different places could make for a cool adventure. All of these places were abandoned, and that means no grown ups to tell me where I can and can’t go. Take that you stupid ponies!

“Um,” I looked at the body of a pony… I think. It was not a normal pony, and not anything like me, but for of a zombie of some kind. I didn’t know that zombies exist now, but maybe it was one of those friendly zombies. “Excuse me mister sorta-dead, is this the right way to Sandtown?”

He groaned, and then stood up on his legs, which still worked well… I think. Then he looked at me, and I realized that this wasn’t some friendly zombie, or really a zombie now that I saw him. Either somepony had glued him together, or all of his body parts were still there, and he had no pupils. He started running at me, and in fear I ran into a corner, which is both the worst and most stupid move a pony to make. I checked my flank, and despite what I had expect at that moment I still had no cutie mark, so I can’t blame this on that.

He didn’t stop his attack, and as he closed in I threw my knife at him. I had my eyes closed, to scared to look and see what if I would live or not. When I felt nothing bite me, I looked and saw that the knife had poked into his neck. I blinked, and then did it again as I expect the zombie thing to get up, but it didn’t. He was asleep, and that was all I could do at the moment, because that’s a pony can do to another pony even if they are half dead. I walked up and took the knife, and thankfully he didn’t wake up. Looking down the street I was facing at that moment, I saw a weird building off in the distance made of lots of pointy metal.

“Is that it?” I asked myself, before running down the street and watching as the building turned less into a building and more into a gigantic fence with a door on it. “I think this is it!”

I ran up to the door and waited, expecting it to be opened for me. Rere must have told them I was coming, otherwise why would she send me to a place like this? I didn’t seem to be the best of places for a filly like me, seeing the giant metal wires sticking out of the walls. I think there was some of those zombie thingies heads on the spiky parts of the wire. After getting tired of waiting, I decided to knock on the door and refused to stop until somepony answer.

“Okay okay, I’m coming you fucking maniac,” I heard somepony say, and looking around me I didn’t see anyone that could be a maniac. “Look, I don’t care who the hell you are or what fucking business you have with Bloodlocke, but I’ll make this painfully clear. He ain’t here right now, so we ain’t accepting your stupid-“

The pony who opened the door was nothing like the ponies in the stable, or even those before I had gotten trapped inside. She was wearing lots of metal, on her body, though it wasn’t like those metal ponies who had guarded stable 71. It was a lot of scrap mixed with more scrap and sometimes a piece of fabric underneath it. She was wearing a bag with goggles over her head, making her look silly as hell. I couldn’t tell what her coat or mane looked like, as the metal seemed to cover her entire body. I decided to smile and wave to her.

“Hello there,” I said.

“Get loss you piece of ghoul-food,” She slammed the door on me, and I looked at the ground sad. I stayed there for sometime before I heard the door open up again. It was the same mare. “Okay, that bitch of a radio mare has to Open Ribs to let you in, but we ain’t really in the position to accept guests so you’ll do. Head to the theater on main street, and if a little bastard like you survives and finds out where our leader has gone, then you come in. NOW FUCK OFF!”

She threw a satchel at me before once again closing the door. I hated this place already.

Chapter 4 - Blood and Gold

“Nopony wants to truly live forever, but some are forced to. I never felt remorse for those who have been cursed in such a way, but I wish I had sooner.”

I hated that mare, and I mean reeeaaally hated her. Nopony would hit a filly except for a stupid adult, and that’s exactly what she was. I wanted to slap her, but she wasn’t going to open the door for me anymore. Not only does she hurt a filly like me, but she leaves me out here to find somepony I don’t even know. What would it matter if I actually found him? He’d probably just hurt me like she did, because every adult hates me.

Everypony hates me. I say that more than I ever thought I did. My mommy and daddy were all that’s ever there for me, but that didn’t even have the option to keep ponies from bullying me. Cutie marks are so stupid, and everypony who thinks they are important are stupid too. Those fillies and colts hurt me because I didn’t have any, and the grown ups didn’t do a thing. Everypony just laughed at me, and I knew exactly what I would say to them now.

“I’ll kill you! I’ll fucking kill you!” I yelled at the top of my lungs, though I had no idea where the word kill had come to my mind. “I’ll hurt all of you till you sleep forever! I’m not some stupid fucking filly anymore, and I’m more grown up than all of you! So I’ll kill you! I’ll kill all of you for thinking your better than me!”

It felt good saying that, but I didn’t know where the word kill had come to mind. I’ve never heard the word, and this was the first time I’ve ever said it. Killing, it sounded bad, but at the same time right for what they all did to me. It kinda remind me of what I did to the Overstallion in stable 71, but that wasn’t what killing really is. All I did was put him to sleep, I haven’t killed anything before.

I looked out to the city of Trauston, and even though I didn’t want to I had to find this Bloodlocke pony. The mare must have thought I would be to scared to do anything like that, so I’m going to prove her wrong. I’m going to find this pony, and I’m going to tell him about everything the mare said to me. She said something about a theater, but where was this theater I was suppose to find? I remember hearing about one, but I didn’t know where it was. Rere must know, she seems to know everything about everything. Perhaps she’s mommy in disguise.

“Rere?” I called out, but she didn’t answer me. “Are you there Rere? I need your help, and I mean reeeaaally need your help… Rere?”

“Lucky, please don’t tell me you gave me a nickname,” Yay! One Rere found, and a very annoyed Rere at that. “You gave me a nickname, didn’t you?”

“Rere is much better than Broken Record, don’t you think?” I asked Rere with a smile. “It’s a lot simpler too, like Lucky? Please tell me you like the name, pleeeaaaase?”

“I’ll let this one slip, though only because you’re young,” She told me, though I didn’t really care too much about it. “So, guessing by the fact your outside of Sandtown and not inside, Ribs isn’t going to let you in unless you do something for them. Am I right?”

“Apparently that Bloodlocke pony isn’t here. They told me to go to the theater on main street and find him, but I just think nopony wants me inside,” I told her, looking at the sandy street under my hooves. “Nothing new, nopony but my parents have ever cared for me.”

“No, that’s not true Lucky,” Rere replied. “Yes, I was asked to do this, but I wouldn’t be if I didn’t care for you. My friend, the one that I said was a genius, was pretty close to you, even though you two both barely interacted and know each other very well. They don’t want me to give a name, but know that I’m here to help, and she wants you alive.”

Rere wanted to cheer me up, but it was impossible to feel happy. Without my mommy and daddy, I had nopony that I could talk to or play with. There was that one griffon back in Ponyville, but I couldn’t remember his name. Stable 71 was a prison, a place where bad ponies go when they do something bad, but I did nothing wrong. They wanted me away from my parents, but they can’t be dead, because they are smarter than anyone else.

“There are multiple theaters in Trauston, but only one on main street, and probably the most well known one as well,” Rere continued, taking control of the MentaBuck, moving over to the map screen, and putting the same dot I had seen earlier pointing towards the hotel on a large building. “Grand Luna Theater, one of the biggest theaters made in Equestria. I hear that some ponies left memory orbs of the performances in one of the upstairs rooms. Bloodlocke was always one for culture, a bit more so than raiders in the other parts of Equestria.”

“Wait, so everywhere in Equestria looks like Trauston?” I asked, looking at my surroundings. “Wow, guess the princesses fucked up big time, didn’t they?”

“Those really aren’t words a pony your age should know, but if anyone is at fault it’s not the princesses,” Rere told me. “The ministers are the ones who fucked up. The ones that Equestria saw as the greatest heroes in history screwed everything up. Two disappear, one was crazy, another left us all to die when the pegasi said ‘fuck you all’, and who the hell knows what happened to Minister’s Rarity and Applejack. Some good heroes are when you learn to rely on them in the same way a pet relies on its owner. Let the pet into the wild and it doesn’t know how to hunt or fend for itself.”

Was that the reason why Rere hated ponies being heroes so much? I knew that the ministers had made a lot of ponies angry, but why was she calling everyone else pets? The ministers didn’t see us as pets, and the ministers had tons of friends. I mean, the sisters of two of the ministers made Stable-Tec, though now that I think about it the ministers should have grounded them for that. No other pony would treat others as pets, not even the stupidest and most idiotic of adults are the dumb.

“Lucky, The Shadow Corporation has marked you as a ‘survivor’, somepony who is still alive from before the war, not a ‘stable-dweller’ like those of the other stables in Trauston,” Rere told me, and I was happy about that. I never lived in that stable, if the weird hardware thing she told me about was true. “Stable-dwellers have a bad habit of trying to do be more important then anypony should be. The world doesn’t need a hero like they so believe, it needs everypony to stand together. The only heros who are redeemable are those who don’t want to be remembered, like a mare in Manehattan who died and was never acknowledged by the Steel Ranger or Enclave.”

“Okay, I understand,” I told her, though it was really only the fact I understood she hated heros that I understood. She was one pony, and a good pony at that, but this Shadow Corporation is the one I need to find out about. “So, this dot thingy will show me how to get to… what did you call it?”

“Grand Luna Theater, and yes, it will,” She replied to me. “Get going, I want to know just as much as you why Bloodlocke isn’t in Sandtown… oh shit, last song just ended.”

Rere always seemed busy, but at least she takes some time to talk to me when she is free. She was the first kind pony I’ve talk to in… how long has it been since I last talked to somepony friendly? I didn’t know how long it has really been since mommy and daddy got stopped by Stable-Tec from entering Stable 71. I wanted to hurt something, but there was nothing around me but buildings, carriages, and sand. I wanted to remember what it was that my mom did for Stable-Tec, but all I remember is that she worked for them.

The dot in my vision cleared away as I looked up at the building to my left. Many of the buildings look the same in Trauston, I learned that from walking around it for the past hour. However, this was nothing like the other buildings in the city, being much smaller but also much wider. It was really fancy, or at least it must have been, as the windows were shattered and the door was kinda rusty. Why didn’t Rere tell me how much time has past? It doesn’t even feel like the same city anymore.

“Hello?” I called from the outside, expecting a response. Nopony answered, and I looked to the ground. “Stupid adults sending me out here, why should I care what they want?”

I was hoping that I wouldn’t have to go inside, as I wanted to experience it with mommy and daddy when I found them, but it wasn’t going to happen. I sighed and made my way to the door, only to realize that there was no door at all. Not needing to turn a door handle I headed inside, getting out of the sandstorm that continued behind me. It was nice getting out of it, but this storm felt stupidly long. My body was so covered in sand it wasn’t even funny, and I don’t like things that aren’t funny.

The storm got really quiet when I entered the theater, and the lack of light made things really scary. It was much darker in here than it was back at the hotel, or even the stable, but I could see. I walked around the main room of the theater, seeing tons of snacks on the floor and an abundance of popcorn. I looked to some large picture frames on the far right wall, but there was nothing inside them. I looked back to the snacks, considered how old it might be, and then took a pack of gummies. I instantly opened the pack and tossed a gummy shaped like the Minister of Moral in my mouth.

“Mmm,” It was delicious, even if it was really stale and really old. “If the gummy taste this good, does that mean the pony tastes just as good? Nah, nothing this tasty could be the same as somepony so mean.”

I suddenly heard a sound in the distance, though it was hard to make out what it was. Could be a door, a hoof stomp, or anything else it was so faint, but there was a lot of the same sound. It was all coming from the actual theater room, and in curiousity I walked over to the door. This time, there was actually a door I had to open, and upon opening it I was greeted with… nothing. I was expecting something really cool, like a movie or performance, but nothing was inside.

The seats were completely empty, save for a few bags and buckets of popcorn. The stage was empty, no performers or movies being shown on it. I looked up, seeing a pretty looking glass ceiling that had somehow remained intact. The sounds were still going, but they weren’t in here. I looked to every corner of the room, but still nothing. What was that noise? Where was it coming from?

“Little filly, are you okay?” I turned around thinking I had found Bloodlocke, but what I saw didn’t seem like a pony. It was a weird thing covered and strange black clothes with goggles and a weird pointy tail walking towards me. “What are you doing out here? You know it isn’t safe in a place like-”

“G-g-go away you monster… thingy!” I called out, taking my knife in my mouth. “I-I-I don’t taste good, but if you want something to eat I found some gummies! Take them, but don’t hurt me.”

“Calm down, I’m not here to hurt you,” It said, before taking off it’s head and revealing the face of a pony… an adult pony. “Look, I’m not supposed to do this, but if you need someplace safe to go I know-“

“Don’t lie to me you jerk!” I said to him, not believing the pony for a second. “Go away and leave me alone. You aren’t who I’m looking for, and nopony good would hide their face. If you don’t go I’ll… I’ll hurt you, badly. Poke you with this knife right in the chest!”

“Do you even know what your saying?” The question he asked was so dumb I didn’t bother to answer. He sighed, looked to his side, and then pulled out a thing I remember certain ponies having in the stable. It was a gun, or a pistol to be exact. “I don’t want to do this, no less to a filly, but that look in your eyes isn’t right. Then again, the Enclave wouldn’t want me bringing back a unicorn, even if she is a filly. I won’t ask for forgiveness from whoever was in charge of you but,” He pointed the gun at me, and for a second I felt truly scared for my life. “This… might be for your own good.”

A loud bang rang out, but not from the gun the stallion had been holding. It was no longer in his mouth, and he no longer had one to begin with as his head seemed to disappear. I felt a lot of different things suddenly touch my skin, but it was very different from the annoying sand that had gotten on me. Blood, like the stuff that had come out of the Overstallion when I put him to sleep, was now on me, along with other things I didn’t know. Part of me wanted to scream, but seeing an adult who had almost hurt a filly like me fall on his side with no head was rather funny. I looked at him, and tilted my head wondering what had happened.

“Fuck was that bastard trying to pull?” I heard a pony ask me, coming from the same direction the mean stallion had come from. I looked to the pony, and instead of another pony like the sleeping, headless pony in front of me, this one was really different. “Might be for your own good, heh, ‘own good’ my ass! Who the hell thinks like that? Another damned hero type for sure.”

He was a red earth pony, or rather he had painted his fur red in something that didn’t smell very good. You could see black fur underneath all that red, but even that was covered by some weird coat that looked like it had been worn to many times. I could see his mane and tail, both of which were black and short, the mane kept under a cowpony hat. Hearing him say this pony was the ‘damned hero type’ told me who he was, and noticing the pistol with an oversized middle area told me he put the bad pony to sleep.

“Well, now that he is settled with,” He said as he put the weird pistol away and looked to me. “I don’t seen your face before, and I know most of the motherfuckers who would blindly walk in and hold an Enclave soldier at knife point. Shit, haven’t seen a filly since good ol’ frontless got shot in the area’s his front legs use to be. I miss the poor asshole, or at least more than anypony else would care.”

“Are you Bloodlocke?” I asked the earth pony, smiling the way that always worked for my parents. Nothing says tell me more than a filly smile. “You are Bloodlocke, right? Rere sent me to Sandtown, but some stupid ponies there-“

“Rere? You mean Broken Record the radiobot?” He laughed, though I think it was at Rere more than it was directed at me. “Ah, this is not something I’ve had the pleasure of enjoying in months! The fucking Enclave comes in and starts to shit on everyone's parade, but that piece of disguised metal actually lets somepony give her a nickname? World has gone from mad to a fucking lunatic, just like it should have been.”

He just continued to laugh, and while I didn’t say anything what he said confused me. Why did he call Rere ‘the radiobot’ and a ‘piece of disguised metal’? She was a pony, I saw that with my own two eyes, and no pony could act so… normal. I’ll have to tell Rere about that name later, because I really don’t think it would be a good idea to talk with her right now. The earth pony just kept laughing, though, and even though he did stop it felt like weeks had past in that time.

“Sorry you had to witness me acting like a… even younger filly, but you would be correct,” He said as he looked to me. “The names Bloodlocke, or at least that’s what it’s become in the years since i started this raider shitshow. Trying to make a civilized society out of raiders is only something a stupid pony would do, but if Sandtown is any indication, it takes a true genius like myself to actually get anything going,” He sat down on a nearby seat, which still worked like it did after who knows how many years have past. “I own this part of the city, and more importantly I own Sandtown and it’s shops and bars.”

“Yeah yeah, you adults are so great and powerful,” I though, though I didn’t realize I was saying it outloud. “Geez, you sound so full of yourself that you could talk somepony to sleep.”

“You got me there,” Again, Bloodlocke laughed at what I said. “I like you and how you think, but word of advice for the future: Grand Pegasus Enclave doesn’t like hearing the word ‘no’ or anything like that. Now then, where did the son of a— of for fuch sake!” I heard a sudden crack from above us, and looking up I saw something big had landed on the glass ceiling. My view was obstructed as I was suddenly pushed under one of the theater seats. “Stay there if you want to live.”

“What’s happening?” I asked, but my question was quickly answered for me.

The crack sound soon became so loud I couldn’t even hear the shuffling of Bloodlocke’s hooves as he tore one of the theater seat free. Do what I could to look up, I suddenly saw that the glass ceiling had been broken, the figure of a pegasus falling with it. All of that glass hit the floor and broke, and the seat I was under saved me from getting hurt badly by it. The pegasus hit the floor, and I realized it was wearing the same weird suit that the other pony had been wearing. I saw her try to stand up, blood coming out of multiple different booboos. Then I hear something that almost made me lose my hearing.

BANG!

Something entered the pegasus’ body and quickly left it, causing some blood to fly out of her like my hoof would hit a puddle. She collapsed, and I saw all the glass sticking out of her. This pony must have been what caused the glass ceiling to fall apart, and if she was also part of this ‘Grand Pegasus Enclave’ then she deserved. That other one wanted to hurt me, and no doubt she would want to hurt me as well. Her body was soon blocked from my view as something landed in the large puddle of blood formed from the sleeping pegasus. It wasn’t a pony, it was a griffon, and if it wasn’t for what Bloodlocke said I would have rushed out and said hello.

“Heartbeat,” The griffin said, one of their talons putting another gun I hadn’t seen before to the pegasus’ neck. I pulled the trigger, and that same loud bang from earlier sounded through my head. He then put his talon on her chest. “Dead. Good. I’m done here Bloodlocke. Get my reward ready and meet me at Sandtown… wait.”

He turned around and saw the other pony who was without a head. He picked it up with his talons and then dropped it as he threw something into the sky. I heard something hit the ground moments later, but didn’t know what it was. He made his way in front of the seat I was under, and his head suddenly came into view. He was looking at me, and I looked back at him, and neither of us said a word.

“Don’t worry Gold, she isn’t one of them,” I heard Bloodlocke say as his hooves came into view. The griffin named Gold left me alone and turned to face Bloodlocke, not saying a word. “She was about to be decapitated the same way that asshole you just found was. Motherfucker said that it was for her own good.”

“I know, it’s obvious,” Gold said as he turned away. “Unicorn filly, not a pegasus. Enclave soldier has no head, and she has no gun. You killed him, then kept yourselves safe. Getting soft?”

“Like hell I am! Bastard almost killed a filly for his own self-indulged heroism,” Bloodlocke replied stomping a hoof on the ground. “I have a code, which is more than any other raider band could say. Look, the filly didn’t even seem scared about the blood, sudden decapitation of the pony in front of her, or myself. Clearly not a Stable-dweller, and she should be grateful she isn’t because I would have put a bullet through her as well.”

“Stable-dweller doesn’t mean hero,” Gold replied, before reaching a talon towards me and yanking me out. He held me for Bloodlocke to see. “Clean. Smells good, too good in fact. Sand in fur is only because of sandstorm, and blank flank means no PipBuck. Nine or younger in age,” He dropped me, though I had no idea why he was saying all of this stuff to Bloodlocke. “Defenseless. Only a knife. Quick kill if you want, but somepony would be angry.”

“You know Record?” I asked Gold, but he didn’t respond, shoving me to the side. He was the meanest griffon I had ever seen.

“Kill her, no more protection,” Gold stated to Bloodlocke. “Shadow Corporation would be angry. Broken Record would be angry. You know what happens then. I know what happens too. Radiomare is not a fun pony to mess with when angry.”

“Okay, okay, I get your fucking point,” Bloodlocke said as he put that weird pistol away. “Had no plan to kill her now anyways. You should have heard the thing, one of the greatest mouths I’ve spoken to in twelve fucking years before you showed up. Also, she might be a filly, but the way she acts is not normal, even if she speaks like one.”

“What do you mean I’m not normal?” I asked, not happy to hear that. “Lucky Heart is very normal, and a much better filly than anypony else in that stupid stable. They hurt the my mommy and daddy when they closed it, and I made sure the Overstallion got hurt for it.”

“When they closed it? Filly, you do know how long it’s been since that happened, right?” Bloodlocked looked at me with some concern. I knew it had been a long time but I nodded as I didn’t know exactly how long it has been. “Lucky Heart right? Hate to ruin your fantasy, but the stables closed one hundred and eighty three years ago.”

“One… one hundred?” I didn’t know what to say, here those words. “But… I entered the stable the day it closed. I watched my mommy and daddy get left outside, and I remember the Pip-“ I looked down to my hoof, remembering what Rere had told me. “Everything that happened in there… was a lie. Mom and dad, did they really get left behind? Did they really not make it in?”

“I don’t know what your mumbling about, but it ain’t worth crying over,” Bloodlocke told me, clearly not understand how scared and confused I was. “Ponies don’t live that long, and you would be a corpse by now if that was the case. Clearly something messed with your brain, because those Stable-Tec ponies lied to you.”

“Maybe, maybe not,” Gold said, and I looked to him with what little hope was inside me. “Stables had experiments, right? Could make you live really long if it’s possible. Mom and dad could be ghouls. Sane or feral, unsure, but possible. Don’t count on it, but possible.”

“Don’t go giving the filly false hope Gold,” Bloodlocke made his way past the two of us as he spoke. “Last thing you want is to have her cry if your wrong. Anyways, let’s get back to Sandtown, I’m done with this sorry-ass place.”

Gold followed behind him, and as I watched them I saw something glowing under one of the nearby seats. I didn’t yet have my answer as to why Bloodlocke hated heroes so much, but at the same time I wanted to check it out. Deciding to not get left behind, I quickly grabbed the small glowing orb and ran after them. At least that’s what I tried, because Gold was looking at me for some reason. He was a griffon, though nothing like the griffon I remember from Ponyville.

“Bloodlocke is cruel,” He told me, though I didn’t get the reason for it. “His ponies are mean, though worse than him. He is soft, though in denial of such things. You want to live long, here is advise: sleep one day, then leave. I’ll be doing the same, and I’ll take you somewhere.”

“What do you mean?” I asked him, but his glance changed from my face to the orb that I had picked up. He swiped it out of my hooves without much effort, and looked at it in curiosity. “Is something wrong or-“

“Not scared of blood, yet only makes them ‘sleep’. You specialize in eternal sleep,” I understood Gold less and less the more he spoke. “Eternal sleep is not eternal life, but death. You know death, like what happened when stable closes. Many ponies died, all because of war, but you don’t understand many other things. Like me, but you speak better,” He then took a bag from his side and placed the little orb in it. “This is for later, not right now.”

“Um… okay?” I had no idea what was going on right now, but one thing was clear to me. “Why do you want me to come with you? I figured that you wouldn’t want me around considering how you were acting earlier.”

“You are strange, even for a dweller,” Gold replied as he made his way out of the theater, me close behind him. “Parental figures are missing, that is not good. I’ll fix that with you, no price. Besides, as I said,” He turned back to me. “Too clean for a dweller living in dust and metal.”

Chapter 5 - Sandtown

“Sandtown, I remember that place. I met some good ponies there as well as many bad ones, but that isn’t the thing I remember most. All I remember is Gold, my first true family.”

“Bloodlocke! Oh thank heavens your-“ The moment the mare with the bag covering her face opened the gate, she received an uppercut from Bloodlocke’s hoof. “-Ugh, what the hell was that for?”

“Ribs, you know damn well why I just did that,” He said as he put a hoof around her neck and pulled her away from the door. “Your job is to open the gate for anypony without needed request, and considering she found me, you fucked up on part of that. You remember what I do to those who don’t follow my code right?” I watched as purposefully stepped on her back right hoof, causing her to follow to the ground. “Be lucky I’m only letting you off on a broken leg.”

“Bloodlocke please AAAAAH!” I heard a snap as the mare’s leg weirdly bended, one that was more than satisfying. Bloodlocke had told me how tough raiders could be, but I guess even they felt pain. “Alright, I’m sorry! Please just… just leave me alone! I honestly didn’t think she was strong enough to let in, so I decided it was AAAH!”

Everyone else inside of Sandtown was watching this, some more terrified of it than others. Some of the more weirdly dressed ponies were cheering Bloodlocke on telling him what he should do next. He didn’t turn to them, instead turning back to me, and I gave him a nod in response. I had told him of what the mare, Shattered Ribs as she called herself, had done when I first arrived in Sandtown. He was pretty pissed at the idea of that mare not letting me in, so he asked me what I would like to have done to her as payback. I hurt leg was probably better than she deserved, but I wasn’t interested in hurting her.

He made her plead and do a lot more stuff afterwards, but my attention was drawn away to the different ponies in the crowd. Some were more weird looking than others, having metal legs and other things and covered in scrap metal and other strange clothing. Some on the other hoof looked a lot like ponies I saw before the war. They were the ones who wanted Bloodlocke to stop, but they would probably do the same thing Shattered Ribs did to me. Nopony good leaves a filly out in a sandstorm, and that makes all of them bad ponies in my eyes.

Gold walked past me, not interested in what was happening in front of us, and decided to follow him. He was weird, but not in the same way that certain ponies in here was. I wondered if he had ever been taught how to speak correctly, as most of his sentences weren’t even full sentences. I was also able to see how weirdly he waddle now, noticing how he was slower on his left side when walking than on his right. I’ve seen much older ponies walk like that, but Gold didn’t seem anywhere need that old. Not as young as me of course, but he didn’t have wrinkles or sounded like a granny.

As much as I wanted to enjoy watching Bloodlocke make an embarrassment of Shattered Ribs, I found myself following Gold. We walked a good distance from the crowd, and it was at that point I saw how out of place Sandtown was to the rest of Trauston. Most of the buildings were small and roughly made, and when it wasn’t made of wood it was a simple tent. The only few exceptions were buildings with signs on them, which I decided to check out later for fun. Gold was walking to one of those buildings, and looking up at the sign I read ‘Perfect Skull Saloon’ written on it.

“That’s a weird name,” I said to myself as I passed under the sign and tried to walk through the doors. I say try, because the doors decided to swing back in my face as Gold let go of them. “Ow, that hurt.”

After shaking my pain, which I quickly learned only made the pain worse, I got up and opened the door. The place was loud, and I mean stupidly loud to the point I want to cover my ears. Many ponies in here seemed to be pretty crazy, or at least not in the most serious of moods. I quickly caught back up with Gold who had actually waiting for me now. Guess that means my attempts to be sneaky weren’t very good. I followed him up to a large counter and away from all the noise, which was something I was not very use to. He took a seat as I jumped onto one of the stools, which I was still not tall enough to reach sadly.

“Mister Gold, it’s good to see you again,” The pony behind the counter said as he held out a hoof. Gold took the hoof in his talon and shook it, holding a stern expression. “Figured you’d be coming around so I already prepared your drink, non-alcoholic of course. Does the filly want a soda or something? I would offer water but it seems somepony here has contaminated the supply.”

“Nah, I’m just here because he is here,” I pointed to Gold. “I’ve never been to a restaurant before. Are they usually this loud?”

“No. Everyone is drunk,” Gold explained as he took a sip of a drink I couldn’t recognized. “This is normal. Pony buys drink, wants alcohol, goes loopy, and gets loud,” He pointed behind us with a talon, and I bared witness to the source of the wall of noise behind me. “Hate alcohol, especially the taste of it. Not good for job either. Lucky shouldn’t have alcohol. It can kill younger ponies like you. Being killed means you can’t find parents.”

“Oh, thanks for telling me,” That’s kinda sad, but at the same time it reminded me how stupid ponies were. Why would anypony use something that could hurt them, especially good fillies like me. “So, what do you do Gold? You don’t seem like most other ponies here.”

“That’s because he isn’t,” I turned to see Bloodlocke sitting down to my right. “Not hard to figure out huh? Gold is a mercenary - or gun for hire if you like - who found himself stuck in the city due to that damn sandstorm. You pay them, they do the dirty work that others aren’t able to, or at least that’s how they are suppose to work.”

“Pony can’t defend itself, no use doing the work,” Gold explained as he handed the now empty bottle of soda to the pony behind the counter. “They shoot a gun, worth working for. They don’t know how to shoot? Why bother. Those ponies quickly die.”

“Unless the damn Shadow Corporation picks them up,” Bloodlocke countered, though I noticed he wasn’t very happy about mentioning them. “They say we don’t need outside help from Steel Rangers or Enclave, and for all us raiders that’s means hearth's warming comes every fucking day. However, it’s not so fun when they take and hides the innocents that make it so much fun. Ponies with good intentions are so much fun to have around, especially when they don’t understand how naive they really are.”

“It’s how the cycle works little lady,” The counter pony said as he handed another bottle to Gold and some dark brown, bubbly drink to Bloodlocke. “Heroes wish for a world where everything is good, but that can lead to stupidity. You can’t have a perfect world when achieving it means death. That’s why raiders are around, to remind the stupid fu-” He shook his head as he started to say that word. By that point I already knew what it was. “I mean fricken heroes that heroic intentions are nothing but a fairytale dream. Even the ministers must have been barbaric when push comes to shove, I just know it.”

“But aren’t heroes suppose to be good?” I asked, the question ending with Bloodlocke slamming his drink on the table. “I see my mommy and daddy as my heroes, because they were the only ones who truly cared for me. Isn’t that what heroes do? Aren’t they supposed to do what’s right?”

“If that was true, then there would be no such thing as villains,” Bloodlocke told me, before deciding to invade my personal space and fill me vision with his eyes. “You see, the difference between doing what’s right and doing what a hero would do, is that the former is willing to do what others believe is right. The other thinks they’re so good that they think they deserve to be bowed down to and for everyone to become their bitch. I’ll tell you one thing: I ain’t bowing to some Stable-born idiot.”

The way he spoke about heroes were weird, and I didn’t quite understand it all, but I think I knew what he was trying to say. What is good to the hero isn’t good to somepony else… yeah, that sounds like what he meant. I still had a lot of questions for him, but in the time it took me to figure out which one to ask him Bloodlock had suddenly disappeared. His drink was completely empty, and my first thought was to look at the floor.

“Nope, not there,” I said to myself as I saw nothing but sand covered, wooden floors under me.

“Ha, sometimes it amazes me how quickly that bastard can down a bottle and walk completely fine,” The counter pony said with a smile. “Guess he has to drink quickly with everything he has to do these days. The Grand Pegasus Enclave make life a living hell, and it seems like somepony is dying every damn day.”

I’ve heard ponies talking about this ‘Grand Pegasus Enclave’ before, but I had no idea what it was. The way everyone talked of them made them seem like bad ponies, and if I was correct that means they were the weird looking ponies with the strange tails. Guess all the stupid pegasi decided to go completely evil since I was last here, but that didn’t seem right. Even stupid ponies know not to go evil, because they would be caught or put to sleep super fast. I looked to Gold, who seemed to know what I was thinking.

“Enclave are pegasi. Live in the clouds, say they are going to help, and do nothing,” He told me, as he handed his second bottle of soda back and motioning he was full. “They came here, made Shadow Corporation mad. Lots of fighting happened after. Enclave made treaty, they haven’t honoured it, but say they’re good,” He sighed. “Has caused Bloodlocke a lot of trouble. He can’t stop all of them. Called me in, but said I was only doing a day. Gin understands.”

“Mister Gold here doesn’t do long-term assignments unless there is a good reason,” The counter pony, or Gin I guess, explained as he leaned on the resteraunts counter. “You have to have a damn good reason for him to stick around more than a day, and threats or pleads won’t work. Most of the time he decides how long you get his protection.”

“Lucky is special. I’ll help her for time,” Gold explained to Gin, something that seemed to be a shock to him. “She’s looking for parents, and parents likely looking for her. Family shouldn’t be lost. I’ll make sure she has what I didn’t,” With that he got up, and said one last thing before walking away. “Her life needs protecting.”

With that, Gold left, leaving me with Gin at the counter who watched with me as Gold limped off. “He… didn’t have a mommy and daddy?” I asked, and I could feel something burning inside me as I thought about that. “He seems so much nicer than most ponies here, why did the abandon him.”

“Lost, not abandoned. Difference is your might still be alive while Gold‘s chances of finding his are slim to none,” Gin told me, sighing as he started to wash a dish with… something clearly not ketchup on it. “He’s one of the few residents that weren’t originally born in Trauston, but you don’t see many griffons for the same reason you don’t see a lot of pegasi. Gold is special in that he has found a way to easily fly through these endless fucking sandstorms, but his parents were not so lucky,” He saw my curious glance at the red stuff on the plate. “Oh, this happens a lot. You get one of Bloodlocke’s stallions or mares in here and they’re gonna try and crack someones skull open. Blood is frustrating as hell to get out of things.”

“Huh, sounds fun,” I said, which seemed to make Gin freeze in place. “What? The pony probably deserved it, right? Besides, there is something about blood that’s rather funny to me.”

“Next time Lucky, try to hold your likeness for blood back,” I quickly learned after leaving that Rere had not only been listening to me the entire time I was in the saloon, but had noticed how interested I was in that funny red stuff. “I’ve been tracking your reactions and stuff since we last talked and… I think your parents loss and the bug in Stable 71’s system might be the cause of your interest.”

“Nah, I just really like blood,” I told her as I walked through Sandtown, looking around at all the weird ponies, or raiders as they called themselves. “I was a little scared of it the first time I saw it when killing the Overstallion, but seeing it felt good. I felt like seeing it come out was a way of telling me that it was right. Kinda sad that he didn’t actually fall asleep though, I wanted to hear him plead for mercy,” Stopped walking as I realized something. “Wait, what is this bug you just mentioned?”

“The Shadow Corporation locked the device you were attached to so that the others in the Stable couldn’t kill you, but they had to actually enter the Stables mainframe to do such a thing,” Most of that went over my head, but I remembered the entire thing about Shadow Corporation saving me from all those mean ponies. “The server is fragile, so fragile that by simply hacking into it things got fucking weird inside the virtual version of Stable 71. I contacted some of my friends inside Shadow Corporation, a bit of a plus of being the radiomare, and asked if this might have caused any mental damage to those inside… it did.”

“No it didn’t. I’m totally fine!” At least that’s what I believed, because most of this made little to no sense for me. I was familiar with virus and stuff like that from my mommy telling me, but last I checked they couldn’t hurt a pony. “You’re just worrying Rere, I’m completely fine. Everything I did inside the Stable was completely on my own accord.”

“Lucky, it won’t change a thing anymore, but that’s wrong,” Rere told me, and just hearing her say that sent a chill of sorts up my spine. “They were watching you at the moment it all happened Lucky, from talking to the Stable door and yourself, acting even less like your age, and killing the Overstallion. Your personality was thrown off because of how badly designed the server was, creating a virus that might have changed yourself.”

“Well, I’ll just live with it then,” I said with a shrug finding myself at one of the metal walls surrounding Sandtown. “Besides, even if I wasn’t fine then I am completely back to normal now. It was all just a dream, and a really believable dream at that. Oh, actually Rere, I wanted to ask you about Gold and his… speech problem.”

“I figured you would ask that, and I’ll explain as much as I can without putting you in danger… oh, wait one second,” It has quickly gotten to the point where I can tell when Rere is or isn’t around. When she was watching me, I felt like someone else's thoughts were being stuffed in my brain, but it was really subtle. “Okay, back, had to start the next tune. Ever heard of the song Zebratown? Wait, of course you haven’t, you’ve been in a Stable for the past hundred and eighty years. Anyways, Gold. His family is from past the mountains boarding northern Equestria.”

“Um… what does that have to do with anything?” I tilted my head in confusion as I asked that question.

“It’s where he is from that explains why his equish is rather… bad,” Rere said with hesitation, followed quickly by a sigh. “They speak a different language, and as you can imagine learning equish is rather hard when things have been nuked to hell. The limp is from an injury he obtained when he was young. Flying is hard in this kinda whether, and despite how easily he can do it now, flying in a sandstorm is something I would advise against.”

I felt her presence leave my mind, and I looked up to the sky. I immediately regretted that, getting way more sand in my eye than anypony would want. If the sand wasn’t bad enough, just the sound of the storm was starting to get on my nerves. Stupid sandstorm, why don’t you just kick the bucket like the Overstallion was kind enough to do. My neck was really starting to hurt from having to look at the ground all of the time, but it was the only way for my eyes to not hurt horribly.

I suddenly felt something fall on my back and head, the cloth soon covered my eyes. I saw a talon pull it slightly over my eyes to the point where I could still see what was in front of me, and tie two strings attached to the cloth around my neck. I decided to look up, and to my surprise the sand no longer hurt my eyes, and turned to see who it was that had did this. It was Gold, looking at me with what I assumed was a smile, but that beak made it difficult to tell. I didn’t know how long he had been following me, but he seemed more than a little concerned despite that smile.

“You’re different. Never seen pony like you,” He told me as he sat on the hot, sandy ground beneath us. “I like that, being different. Most raiders are the same, but Bloodlocke is different. He cares… somewhat. Has a code, doesn’t harm foals, helps those who are different,” He pointed to a pony farther down the wall talking with a colt. I didn’t realize it at first, but the foal was actually missing one of his hind legs. “Ponies like her, left behind to die. Bloodlocke made her a raider. She is happy, and that is good.”

“So most raider’s aren’t nice ponies?” I asked Gold, and he responded with a nod. “I see, and thanks for the cloth. It’s uncomfortable from the sand and heat but I’ll take it. Better than having sand in my eyes at least.”

“Thank Bloodlocke, not me,” Gold said, and I saw him suddenly look up in the air. “You hear? Enclave. Bad ponies are here. Get ready.”

I tilted my head in confusion. “Ready for what?”

They were here, the Grand Pegasus Enclave that everypony seemed to hate or fear. The ponies didn’t show their faces as they were covered in black masks. Their tails were pointy, curling up and facing the crowd that currently surrounded them all. Raiders held guns of various kinds at them, and the Enclave did the same to the raiders. I still had the sight of the last enclave soldier I met in my head, and I wasn’t happy to see them. I wanted to rush forward and stab the one in front of the rest, show them how much better I was than them, but Gold held me back.

“In the name of the Enclave, we order all of you to lay down your arms,” The lead pegasus said, his voice quickly making me annoyed. “This settlement is our territory now, and if you want your lives surrender and point the way to the mare or stallion in charge.”

“There is no need,” Bloodlocke walked past us and tapped Gold on the back. He picked me up and held me to his chest as we walked in front of the crowd. As soon as Bloodlocke was visible to the five Enclave soldiers behind their leader pointed their guns at him. “You got a lot of guts entering here, and as you can see everyone here is absolutely pissed about it.”

“Like you care Bloodlocke,” The Enclave pegasus said stepping forward. It was then that he noticed Gold and me. “Well, seems like you aren’t the only thorn in our side that has finally showed itself. Gold, the merciless killer who has been killing my soldiers left and right. This day is only getting better,” Than he looked at me, and I could only imagine the scowl that was under his mask. “Who the hell is this?”

“Touch Lucky and Sandtown isn’t the only thing that’s gonna land a bullet in your head,” Bloodlocke warned the pegasi who was now looking back at him. “You know what Record does to anyone who tries to interfere with her orders or plans. That mare is everywhere, and you’ve probably heard about the last time one of your soldiers tried to attack her.”

“Ha, like a radiomare is capable of anything like that,” The pegasus told Bloodlocke, looking back at Gold and I. “Hand her over, a foal like her shouldn’t be around something as dangerous as you.”

“Try and take me and I’ll hurt you really badly,” I warned him, revealing the knife that I currently had clutched to my chest. “One of you meanies tried to kill me earlier, and that means all of you are bad ponies.”

“Sir, her eyes,” This wasn’t the first time somepony had mentioned my eyes, but the way that the Enclave soldier had said it to the lead pegasus made him seemed scared. Hearing how scared he was actually felt good. “You see it too, right?”

“Yeah, your right,” The lead pegasus suddenly placed a gun in my face, and I heard everyone else take out one as well. “Can’t have two of them around, it’ll just complicate things. Fire on my signal.”

As soon as he said that another figure rushed past us and threw the pegasus to the ground, and in a matter of moments all attention was drawn from me to her. A shot rang out, and before I knew it gunfire filled my ears. Gold was quick enough to jump backwards, his wings lifting us high into the air, and then dropping down behind a nearby building. It all happened so fast that I couldn’t catch everything that had gone on. What I was sure of, however, was that the Enclave soldiers wanted me dead. Bloodlocke soon joined us, behind the building.

“Get Lucky out of here while you have the chance, there were more Enclave waiting outside of the gate for shooting to start,” He told us as he picked me up and placed me on Gold’s back. “Only chance of getting out of here is going to be flying, understand? Me and my ponies will hold them off.”

“What is going on? Is there something wrong with me?” I asked, though I wasn’t really scared of that. In fact, I was actually rather intrigued to find out what was going on.

“Best you don’t know, now get the fuck outta here!”

Before I could say anything Gold took off, and in an effort to stay on his back I bit down on his neck fur. The sand had been bad enough on the ground, but even with the cloth covering my body this was horrible. I immediately wanted off, but one look at the ground told me it was not a good idea. My only option was to cling to Gold and hope that the sand would stop after some time. The sound of gunfire sounded far now, and I knew we were getting farther and farther form Sandtown with every second.

Then, something past my head, and then another one did. It was much bigger than the sand, and a look behind me told me exactly what was going on. One of those mean pegasi were shooting at Gold and I, a large gun attached to his back. Gold hadn’t seen the pony, but his sudden left turn told me he had seen the bullet. The griffon effortlessly dodge the bullets, and considering I could barely hear them that was impressive. It was then I saw him rushing straight toward the glass window of a building in front of us.

“Hold!” The griffon shouted, and I held his neck even harder than I had before.

The sound of the window shattering filled my ears as Gold collided with it, and I found myself thrown from his back and into a pile of papers on a desk. The sound of gunfire followed us, and as I shook the mountain of papers off of me I quickly made my way under the desk I had landed on. Gold dropped down for a moment in front of my hiding place and gave me a small bag. While I had left the bag that the gate mare had given me, I liked Gold enough to take it and see what was inside. What I found inside were throwing darts, lots and lots of throwing darts.

A shot sounded through the air, landing an inch away from Gold’s feet as the griffon took back into the air. Fire was traded by the two as they flew back and forth, using the multitude of desks in the room to hide. Both landed on the desk above me multiple times as they fought, and the continual drops of blood that formed as they past. I got an idea, and I checked quickly to make sure I still had my knife on me. I still had it close to my chest, though I hadn’t even noticed it was there till now.

I waited for the Enclave soldier to pass by again and land on the desk above me. He would fly from the desks from the left and right of mine occasionally, but never once did he land. I was growing impatient, wanting the bad pony to die at this exact moment, but it wasn’t coming. I rubbed the blade of the knife with my hoof, anticipating the moment he landed. I now understood why Gold had given me the darts, but I wasn’t going to need them.

Then it happened, and as he landed I came out from my hiding spot and jumped on him. I threw the knife into his back, getting a satisfying cry of pain from the pony as I did. He tried to get back up into the air, but Gold had grabbed a dart of his own and threw it into the Enclave ponies wing, instantly sending him to the ground. Before he could take a gun out or shake me off, I took the knife out of his back and plunged it into his neck. The blood that splattered on me as it happened felt wonderful, and I was urged to take the knife out of the ponies neck and throw it back in.

“You enjoying this?!” I asked the pony, getting no response. The moment I realized he was dead made me sad. I took the knife out, getting no joy out of stabbing a dead pony. “Come on~! Why do all of you stupid adults die so quickly?”

“Lucky’s okay?” I glanced at Gold, not seeing a single wound on his entire body. “No. I don’t see happiness. What wrong?”

“Why do they always die so quickly?” I complained, Gold being the first to have no reaction to me saying such a thing. “I wanted to hear him scream like the Overstallion did, but he died even quicker than that asshole did,” Threw the knife into the dead pegasus’ leg in anger. “What’s the fun in hurting a pony if you can’t hear them yell in pain.”

“Note: neck is fatale area. Will kill instantly,” He said as he pointed to his own neck. “Don’t encourage torture, but legs are good. No organs in legs.”

“Okay,” I nodded, with a smile. I took the knife out once again and put it in the bag Gold had given me. He strapped it around my waste since I’ve never had to do it before. “So I’m guessing we’re not going back to Sandtown, huh?”

“No. Not with Enclave there,” He answered as he lifted me onto his back. “I take you to place. A Stable, where Shadow Corporation was started. No longer there, but they left things,” He made his way back to the window, ready to take to the air again. “Things to get rid of Enclave. To make them run away.”

Author's Note

I had hoped to get this up yesterday, but a day doesn't make a difference. I just want to say right now that I'm going to be taken a little longer in terms of getting these chapter done and up, because I've learned writing a chapter every week with another story going on is way to hard. Still, hope you are all enjoy it so far! Please give me your feedback, it would help me improve this story more in the future.

Chapter 6 - Bait

“In this world, someone will see death a dozen times, whether real or fake. The one thing they will never see, is the joy of the old world.”

Flying was not fun, and I made sure to tell Gold this was a last for me. I hated how the sand scraped me as it rubbed against my body. I hated how little this cloth did to actually keep the sand from getting in. However, the thing I hated most was the horrible noise of all the sand that scratch the cloth covering my body. It reminded me of whenever my mommy and daddy would use sandpaper, but that never went on for this long.

I remember something about a Stable 68 in Trauston, but the city was so big it needed even more than two. In fact, according to Gold, Stable 68 was actually two separate stables that shared all resources between each other. Water, food, tools, and even air was shared to the point that not many ponies actually survived inside. Gold told me that the Shadow Corporation didn’t hate the idea of two stables sharing resources, but Stable-Tec didn’t think out how much they would both need.

“One side fell silent. After, the other thrive,” Gold told me. “The Enclave arrived. Tried to destroy the Stables, and Shadow Corporation stepped in. Saved all residents, and keep them safe. That is when they abandoned the other.”

I looked up at the clouds covering the sky. This Grand Pegasus Enclave was quickly becoming a pain in the ass. They tried to kill me twice, and I didn’t feel any enjoyment in killing them back. They were just bad ponies who believed themselves to be good, but killing fillies are not something good ponies do. Thankfully, I haven’t seen anymore since the little fight we had earlier.

“So, heard about what happened in Sandtown,” Rere’s voice caught me off guard slightly, but it was nice to hear her again. “Didn’t really expect that to happen, but I’m glad your okay. My friend would be furious if I let you die.”

“How the hell did you find out about that?” I asked quietly, not wanting Gold to hear me talking. He would probably think I’m crazy if he saw me talking to nopony. “It hasn’t even been a day.”

“I have my ways, just trust me on that,” Rere replied. “I’m not kidding when I say I’m glad you got out though. Now that they know about you they’re going to want you dead faster than the zebra’s nuked Equestria.”

“Why did they want me dead to begin with? I did nothing to hurt them,” The question had been bugging me ever since the fight. “I just got out of the Stable, and I don’t know anything about them except that the are bad ponies.”

“I want to know just as badly as you do Lucky, but my friend is not telling me what the hell is going on,” Rere’s voice backed up what she was saying, sounding like she was only able to guess at what was really going on. “Look, they want you dead, and at the moment that’s all we need to know. I’m tracking you current location, and I’ll meet up with you and Gold in a matter of- oh shit!”

Without any idea of what’s going on I suddenly felt Rere’s presence leave me, and as I turned back to reality I realized that I could finally see the ground again. Most of the area was filled with streets and buildings, as expected of a city, but something caught my attention not too far in the distance. What was once a city quickly dissolved into nothing, and I mean nothing. No buildings, roads, ponies, and strangely enough even the sandstorm dissipated as we entered. However, the moment we enter I suddenly felt like I was being forced to the ground.

“Wh… what is-”

“Don’t talk. It’ll pass,” Gold said, though I didn’t really have much faith in those words of his. “Megaspell dropped here. Caused gravity to act weird, especially to unicorns. Called Nebula One. Something to do with magic. Everything has to do with magic,” He turned to me curiously. “You know magic?”

“N-not really,” I admitted, doing my best to speak against the growing pressure. “I… know t-teleken-whatever it is. I don’t know it w-well, though.”

“Don’t worry. Out soon,” Gold told me, smiling. “Keep talking. Why you don’t know much?”

“W-well, the first time I… put a hole in the kitchen wall,” I said, the slight pause actually being purposeful, and not a cause of the constant pressure against my body. “And the second time, and third. In other w-words I’m not very g-good with mag- can we please get out of here!”

The pressure was actually starting to make me hurt, and I had no idea how Gold was able to stand this. It hurt so badly I swear that somepony must have been laughing at me, thinking I’m just a stupid little filly. I shook that thought away, and looked at my hooves, reminding myself how much older I now was. I was older after waking up in Stable 71 compared to when I entered the Stable. It was a scary thought, but I was no longer a filly. I was a grown mare, right?

“If Lucky uses magic, make sure I’m not here,” Gold said. “I can’t help you dead.”

By the time we made it out of the area hit by this megaspell thing Gold mentioned, we had started making our way back to the ground. There was an actual city again, instead of the nothingness of the area we were just in, and more importantly I knew where we were landing. I saw an alleyway with a unusually large open area in the middle of two buildings. The alleyway opened up into a large platform with one of those giant Stable doors laying on the ground. The numbers “68” were painted onto the door with paint, which hadn’t yet been scrapped off by the endless storm around us.

My question as to where we were when I saw the words “Stable 68 exterior” next to my vision.

“This is 68. Shadow Corporation used this till taking tower,” Gold told me as we landed next to the door. “It’s safer here. Enclave calm down. Then we search for parents. I’ll contact radio mare. She’ll be helpful.”

“You mean Broken Record?” I asked the griffin, but he didn’t answer me. Instead, he walked over to the door, looking over it as if it would fall apart any second. I walked up next to him, looking around at the totally normal gigantic door on the floor. “So this is the side that didn’t make it? Everypony died here because those stupid Stable-Tec ponies thought-“

“Don’t move,” Gold said as I attempted to step on the door. He took his gun out, angled it into a crack between the platform and the door, before speaking to me. “No mechanism underneath. I touched it, and it went down. Hold ears.”

He didn’t give me enough time to cover them before sending a shot out with his gun, and in a matter of seconds the door disappeared into a large hole beneath it. I finally got my ears covered as the sound of scratching metal filled the air. It was worse than sandpaper, or the sound one of those tools mommy and daddy used to fix the house sometimes. It got less noisy as time went on, and it all ended with a loud thud at the end. I let go of my ears and looked down at the hole that had taken the doors place. Actually, it was less of a door and more of an elevator now that I think about it.

“Mechanisms must be broken. We go down, I contact radio mare, and you see what they are,” He explained as he motioned to his back. I looked at it and then looked back at him.

“Um, who are they?”

“Lucky don’t like pronoun game?” Gold asked me. Having never heard of this ‘pronoun game’, I shook me head. “Oh. Gold loves pronoun game. Makes targets angry. They say “Tell me who sent you!” I go “They did.” I shoot. They die. Everyone happy!”

“Huh, I’ll have to try it sometime,” I said to him. It would be a great way at getting back at any adults that made me mad, and if that’s the case I have a lot to say to the pony inside of Stable 71. “So, we going down?”

“Only when Lucky gets on back,” Gold said as he once again points to his back, wings already spread. Didn’t take him for the impatient type, but he did seem anxious to get into the Stable.

I looked at the hole in the ground, and it immediately wanted me to say no. Stable-Tec made these places, and they were all bad ponies now. They took me away from mommy and daddy, put me to sleep for a hundred years, and wanted me dead. I wanted to tell Gold all that, but I knew he was a good griffon. He didn’t have a cutie mark and he wasn’t an adult pony so he was much smarter than most ponies. Bloodlocke was smart too, but he doesn’t matter all that much.

Mind made up, I jumped onto Gold’s back with a smile. He made sure I was comfy before jumping into the giant hole in the ground. We weren’t really flying, but falling wasn’t really the right word either. Gliding also wasn’t correct as he did sometimes flap his wings up in the air. Hm, falling and flapping at the same time. I sat on that thought as Gold continued to go down the tunnel. Finally, the word hit me.

“Fapping!”

“I’ve come to realization. This will be long day.”

After Gold explained to me not only how wrong I was but exactly what fapping is, we reach the bottom of the hole. To embarrassed to look at him, I got off his back and saw that the way in had been blocked. The elevator didn’t land flat on the ground like I thought it would, slanting up as if a very strong pony was holding it from underneath. There was a opening, but it was rather small. As smart as he was, I don’t think Gold would be able to fit through. Looking to him, I saw him looking at me with a glance that told me all I needed to know.

I walked up to the gap and lowered myself to the ground. I thought back to all the games of hide-and-seek I use to play with my mommy and daddy. I would always try and find the tiniest place in the house to hide, and in this case I had to do something similar. I squeezed my head through easily, as well as my front hooves, by my shoulders didn’t want to do this. Knowing that Gold was expecting me to get through the gap, I did my best to ignore the feeling of my back scrapping on the entry way as I pushed out of the elevator and into the stable. I fell to the ground, landing on my back and making it hurt more than it already was.

“Fucking growth spurt,” I mumbled to myself. “Now how am I going to hide in the cabinets during hide-and-seek.”

“You okay?” Gold asked as he looked down at me from the Elevator’s platform. He nodded up to him as I got onto my hooves. “Gold don’t know why no gear underneath platform. Press button and fixed. If not, that’s bad. Head into Stable after. Explore.”

He pointed to a small panel on my side of the elevator, and I couldn’t help but notice how familiar it looked to the one back in the hotel. I walked up to it and pressed the button in the shape of an arrow pointing up. Before I knew what was going on, tons of sounds I didn’t recognized filled my ears as a giant pillar came out from underneath the elevator platform. It pushed the platform up, but it was still just as slanted as before. I watched as Gold disappeared, and I suddenly felt very scared.

I looked behind me to the room the elevator ended at. It looked too similar to Stable 71, and for a moment I thought I had somehow ended up back in that prison. I expected to see a bunch of angry adults shouting at me, saying how I had been bad. I tensed up, remembering how some of those mean adults back in Ponyville use to treat me. They hated Stable-Tec, and they didn’t like me because my mom worked for them. I shook that thought out of my head instantly, and brought my knife in front of me.

“You will protect me, right?” I asked the knife, and I imagined it saying yes to me. “Thank you knifey. Oh, can I call you knifey? Of course I can, because nopony else is going to name you.”

It was then that I heard something coming from right in front of me. Laughter, but not the kind that I thought of whenever I was picked on for being a blank flank. It was like the laughter I had when playing with mommy and daddy or when they tickled me. I looked up, expecting to see another me, but instead I saw somepony else. A filly, maybe a year or two younger than me, talking with a mare whose face I couldn’t see. It was weird, ice cream without chocolate syrup weird, and to me that was as weird as it got.

“Thank you for coming again miss head of Shadow Corporation!” The filly said in an echo voice. It was at that moment, when I heard her voice echo, that I realized I wasn’t looking at something happening right in front of me. However, the weird part was that the voice the filly used was the same as mine. “You haven’t been around lately. Is everything okay?”

“Oh don’t you worry your little head. I’ve just been busy keeping everypony up in the city safe,” The mare said, and I couldn’t help but notice the really long mane that she had. It looked a little similar to mine actually. She has some good taste in style if it really was similar to mine. “Listen, I don’t know if you’ve heard, but things are getting dangerous down here in 68. Your tech ponies are saying that the air filter might break in a few days from now. So, as much as I hate to say it, we’re moving everypony out of the Stable.”

I noticed something wrong about that, or more specifically I noticed how different this felt compared to that of what Gold had told me. If this really was Stable 68, why was the Shadow Corporation already around?

“But it’s so dangerous up their,” The filly told the mare, seeming worried.

“Yes, and that is why we’re going to take all of you someplace where you will be safe until anypony here is willing to head into the city,” The mare explained to the filly. She seemed like she was about to say something, but stopped for some reason. “Actually, why don’t we tell your parents as well. I’m sure they would want to know what’s going on.”

The filly nodded and turned to go down a hallway on the left side of the room. Before she even reached it both the filly and mare vanished in front of me. They really weren’t ever there, but I was unsure what to think as I stepped over to where the mare had stood. It felt terrifyingly real, but I don’t know why it scared me so much. All I really wanted to know is who that filly was, and why her voice sounded exactly like mine.

“Exactly… like… mine.”

I looked to the hallway that the filly was going to head down before fading away, and I knew that I would learn who she was if I went do there. Following that thought, I made my way over to the doorway. Everything was dark, and the only sound I heard on my way there was that of the elevator behind me. I didn’t like the dark, but that wasn’t because of the mare in the moon or anything like that. I’ve heard of what the Ministry of Morals does to those they see as bad, and I remember the posters of Pinkie around Ponyville. I looked to knifey, and then back to the doorway.

“You’ll protect me if they come after me, right?” I asked knifey, a smile creeping on my face as I heard a faint ‘yes’. “We’ll put them to sleep and watch them cry. I’ll cover you in blood, like you seem to enjoy so much, and then we’ll see just how long they can last.”

I gripped knifey in my mouth as I started down the long, spooky hallway. It didn’t take me long to consider heading back the way I came, but by that time I could even tell where I was anymore. I heard something close behind me, but it was so dark I couldn’t tell what it was. I decided it was best to just keep moving forward, hoping that I would at some point find a light. Instead it seemed to stretch on, making me feel like I wasn’t even moving; as if somepony was holding me by the tail and letting me think I was making progress.

I heard something open to my right, causing me to let out muffled scream as I moved away from it. I wasn’t able to move very far before I felt something brushing against my fur, causing me to jump back into the middle of the pitch black hallway. I looked to see what had touched me, only to learn that it was just the wall. First mystery solved, I looked to my right to see exactly what had opened, finding that a doorway had opened up.

“Hello?” I called into the room. No answer came, and it made me worried as I considered my options. I decided it was better to investigate then continue walking nowhere.“Please don’t be a ghost, please don’t be a ghost.”

The moment I entered the room the door closed shut behind me, freaking the hell out of me and causing me to dive to the other side of the room. I backed myself against the wall and took knifey in my hooves, waiting for whatever had closed the door to make itself known. It didn’t come, but in that time I quickly realized that there was a strange lump against the wall. I crawled over to it and rubbed the strange lump with my hooves, realizing it was both really long and not actually attached to the wall. I followed it up, and I quickly found that what I thought was a wall turned out to be a couch.

Then, what I touched seemed to fall forward. It grabbed me around the waste and brought me to the ground, giving me enough time to recognize the lumps as hooves. My fear was right: the Ministry of Morals was here. Shaking free of the pony’s grasp I quickly grabbed knifey — who had fallen on the floor — and striked the pony in the chest. I continued to do this a few more times, but the lights turned on in the room. It was at that moment I found that the pony I had stabbed was already dead, his insides visible and gross looking. I didn’t find it very scary, but I was rather disappointed. I looked at knifey, hoping that I had gotten some blood on it, only to see the blade covered it sticky, brown stuff.

“Ew,” I had to turn away as I got a whiff of how how bad the body smelled. “What the heck happened to you knifey?”

“Ahahahahaha. That was priceless, absolutely priceless!”

I looked behind me to see exactly who was laughing, and my eyes went wide at what I saw. It was an alicorn. She was rolling on the floor, with a mint colored mane and a dull, light green coat. She had a cutie mark (which instantly explains why she was laughing at me) that looked one of those annoying alarm clocks mommy and daddy always had. I also noticed she had a very large weapon with a box-shaped body to it. I knew alicorns were supposed to be royalty, but I instantly hated her for what she just did. She recovered quickly from her laughing fit, only to start speaking again in clear excitement.

“That was the best reaction I’ve managed to get in… probably fifty-five years I must say,” The alicorn said to herself. Her voice was high pitched and childish, which did catch me off guard with how tall she was. She clapped her hooves together as she tried to hide how bad she was with an innocent smile. “Today’s your lucky day Olive Branch. All that worried you had when following this filly around finally paid off. All you had to do was jam the radio, jam the elevator, rig the lights, and hope to Celestia things would go right, but it did. Well, now that I’m good praising myself,” She finally looked to me, a smug grin replacing that innocent smile. “Would you please tell me your name so that we can start my game.”

“Why should I tell you?” I asked the alicorn, pouting. “You know, I could stab you right here and Equestria probably wouldn’t care.”

“Oh, you wound me small fry,” She replied insultingly, leaning back and holding her chest as if seeing a puppy that was too cute for anypony to see and live. Just like with her laughter, though, she recovered quickly and was in my face in seconds with a less happy face than I had seen her with before. “Okay, seriously though, tell me your fucking name or I magic you into a pretzel.”

“Lucky Heart, not that you need to know,” I spat back, trying to look even more upset than she was. “And as I said I can stab you and-”

“-nopony would probably care. Yeah yeah, I heard you the first time,” She rudely interrupted. “Look, you put me in a happy mood so I’m gonna ask that you keep any comments about me to a minimum until after I explain why I just did that to you,” She backed up a little, cleared her throat, and continued. “You see, I have this little game I like to play. I call it ‘Stable Baiter’. You need two players and I go around Equestria finding Stable Dwellers stupid enough to leave their Stables and force them to play.”

Hearing that only made me hater her even more. “Force ponies to play isn’t very nice.”

“Well your not very nice miss stab-the-overstallion,” Hearing her bring that up quickly caused me to do a double take. How the fuck did she know about that? “Anyways, this is my first time playing it in Trauston and the Shadow Corporation has been nothing but a bag of shits in terms of cooperation. They see me hanging around any Stables and they shoot at me, so I’ve had nopony to play with. You, on the other hoof,” She touched my nostrils with her hoof as she said that. “Seem to be a very special pony. I don’t care how much the Shadow Corporation is probably watching you, I was dying to have you as my new playmate.”

“Still not interested,” I told her, though she didn’t really seem to care.

“Well to bad. You’re playing and I’m not taking no for an answer,” She said, hitting me over the top of the head with her hoof. “You see this gun? It fires shotgun rounds at the rate of twenty-five rounds per minute and has over two hundred loaded into it. If you continue to refuse, I will show you exactly what it does to ponies. Still want to argue?” I didn’t know what half of that actually meant, but I did know who she was planning to use it on. I decided it would be best to keep quiet, seeing the trap she was trying to set. “Good. So allow me to explain the rules real quickly.”

“You see, Stable Dwellers have this form of naivety about the world around them,” She explained as she floated around the room on her back. “They don’t know anything, and they are certainly not prepared for what they will undoubtedly see. I’m sure you’ve already notice that though, so I’ll skip the entire ‘raiders, ghouls, and radroaches’ section and get to the actual game rules,” She took out what seemed to be a medal of some kind, like the one you got at athletic events. “You have one year, and over the course of that year I’ll give you a series of miscellaneous tasks to carry out in a certain timeframe. You complete the task in the time I give you, and I, Olive Branch, will reward you with a little bit of my history.”

“And why would I want to know that?” I asked.

“Come on, don’t tell me your not interested in learning how an alicorn other than Celestia and Luna came to be,” Olive Branch answered, and I had to admit she was right. I was a little curious, but I still didn’t see why she was making me do this. “Look, I understand that I have absolutely no reason to be here, but you caught me at the peak of my boredom so you’re going through with this no matter how little story impact it makes. Oh, and just letting you know, if you don’t complete the task I’ll kill you.”

That last one took me by surprised, and to an even bigger extent it made me even more angry at this alicorn. Celestia and Luna were nice, or at least as nice as somepony with cutie marks seem to get, but she was definitely not. As if being forced to play a game I didn’t want to was already bad, she’s now threatening to kill me. I wanted to do the same thing to her, but the giant gun on her back kept me from making an advance.

“You also loss if you die, though that’s a little obvious,” She continued, not caring to explain why she would kill me in the first place. “Anyways, I’m pretty sure your griffon friend is going to down here in not to long, so I’ll come back later with my first task.”

Before I could say a word, Olive disappeared in a flash, leaving me both confused and shocked at everything that just happened. I don’t know how long I stood there, but in that time Gold had managed to find me. He looked around to see what I was staring at, only seeing the wall.

“Is Lucky pretending to be statue?” Gold asked, but it his question wasn’t answered. Instead, I asked something that I really hope he knew the answer to.

“Did an alicorn just… threaten me?”

Author's Note

So, this story is going to include a lot of characters that have either been in fics that I've long ago stopped writing or were in stories that I never actually released. I figured I just give you some background on these characters when they pop up.

Broken Record
At the moment, the only one we've seen in the story so far has been Broken Record, who was going to be the main character of my cancelled story Fallout Equestria: The Wilderness. In that story, she was the radiomare of the Stable before a lottery that takes place every few years forced into the Overmare position with no training. Saddly, due to not making it all that far into the story I wasn't able to develope her character much, and the version of her here is far more aggressive and irritable than in The Wilderness.

Chapter 7 - Mentality

“It’s funny how much you learn in a matter of hours. To bad less than half of it all probably stays in your head, and who knows how to use that retain information will be.”

—-

“Olive Branch. Yeah, I’ve heard the name,” Rere had gotten in contact with us after Gold set up a portable communicator in the Overmare’s room. Turns out she wasn’t able to find me at all after entering the Stable, and after explaining what had happened she got rather angry. “Usually when somepony tells me they saw an alicorn, I would say it’s common nowadays. However, Olive Branch is a bit of a strange case.”

“What does radiomare mean?” Gold asked. The griffon didn’t believe me when I had told him about Olive, but I could see the concern on his face when Rere confirmed what I had seen. “All alicorns artificial. All work for Goddess. Olive must be one of those.”

“Then you would probably be surprised to hear that every bit of that is wrong,” Rere shot back, a slight hint of enjoyment in her voice as she one upped Gold. “Her mother was artificial, though not in the same sense as most alicorns. The poor mare was experimented on by some alicorns around one hundred and five years ago and became one herself. That’s all we know about the parents, and there would probably be more records if that mare’s daughter hadn’t destroyed it all. That said, she is the only naturally born alicorn known today.”

“She destroyed her families records?” I asked in shock. Erasing your own family, that sounds horrible.

“Anything that the Steel Rangers, Enclave, or anything else anypony had on them,” Hearing Rere say that suddenly made me realize exactly why that meany was acting like her history is a reward. “Nothing on her parents, and for the longest time nothing on her except for that game you mentioned. She has been playing it for the last sixty years of her life.”

“Any info on alicorn?” Gold asked.

“You’re gonna have me kissing the Shadow Corporation’s hooves for knowing this, but I do have some stuff,” I heard Rere walk away from the microphone for a bit after saying that. She returned a few minutes later. “Anyways, Olive Branch. Ninety years old, heritage unknown, but just from interacting with her you can tell she is not connected to the Goddess,” She explained. I could hear the sound of paper crinkling on the other side of the radio. “She’s been suspected of killing many ponies who have left Stables outside of Trauston, but her existence is not very well known. Those who do survive this game of hers says that they probably wouldn’t have made it out alive if it wasn’t for her little challenges.”

“She showed up in Trauston around five years ago. It didn’t take long till she got on the Shadow Corporation’s wanted list after killing a mare from a Stable for not completing a challenge of hers. Since then they have done their utmost to keep her from getting another pony to participate. That said, no pony has ever managed to lay a hit on her before, and that includes the best the Shadow Corporation has.”

“Wanted criminal,” Gold said in response to hearing everything. “Alicorn kills for enjoyment. Not like me. I kill to live and eat. No reason for her to make game.”

“Well, she doesn’t see it completely as enjoyment. She is more than willing to talk if she is found, and her reasoning for this was both twisted and sensible,” Rere replied. “Lucky, she is going to expect a lot out of you. She uses this to see if Stable Dwellers are prepared for the wasteland, and there is absolutely nothing I can do about this. Again, the mare is like mirage; you fire a shot at her and it just goes through her. It’s like she isn’t even there. I don’t know what I can do, but I’ll make a visit and see if there is anything I can do to help.”

“In that case, we start training now,” Gold said, searching through a bag he had brought down with him for something.

“Training?” I tilted my head in confusion. My answer was that of a small, wooden gun with a dart placed into the middle of it. I recognized it as a crossbow from the picture books my mommy read to me.

“I see you hate guns,” Gold said, guessing correctly at how much I hated them. I’ve already been on the receiving end of a gun barrel three times (or two since Olive only threatened to put that gigantic gun to my head). “Therefore, we teach range with something else. Crossbow from home. When done, it’s yours.”

—-

“Fuck!” I exclaimed as the bolt fell out of the crossbow again. “I’m starting to hate this thing too. Why can’t I just use knifey for this?”

“Only fool fights gun with knife,” Gold reminded me for what must have been the ninth time. He watched from afar as I tried to place the bolt back into the crossbow. “Lucky learns crossbow. No time for full lesson, but can learn to shoot. Shooting most important part of using firearm.”

Firing was the only easy part of the entire process in the entire thing, and the first thing that Gold showed me. That was a part I did like about the crossbow. The feeling of holding it in my mouth, as strange as it was, felt right. Pulling the trigger also felt good, and the soft sound of the bolt flying away was also better. It felt better than a normal gun did, but nowhere near as comfortable as knifey.

“Hey, Gold,” I called to him, taking the crossbows handle out of my mouth. While it did feel right in my mouth, the wood was still not entirely pleasant. “You’ve been here for a long time, what was Trauston like before this mean ponies arrived.”

“Lucky speaks of Enclave,” He asked as he cleaned off a gun he had called a shotgun, and I nodded my head in reply. “Business better. Earn more, worked more, nopony always on tail. Good life,” He turned to me, putting down the gun. “Enclave lives to complicate. Maybe Shadow Corporation does something, but probably not. Try not to interfere unless they want to.”

During that entire explanation I finally managed to get the bolt into the crossbow. I looked down the room we were in, Gold having stack a group of cups on a table. They haven’t moved once since he set them. He said that firing is the easiest part, but I think he was lying about that. No way would it actually be that difficult.

“How about Lucky, what was pre-war Equestria like?” Gold asked me, his question catching me off guard and causing me to miss the target. “If simple thing throws you off, you die. Firing is easy, hitting it is difficult.”

“Wish you had said earlier,” I told him angry, putting on a pouty face despite knowing he was immune to it. “Old Equestria was… not something I learned about. Other than my mommy and daddy, the only other thing that I ever talked to was my tutor. He was a griffon, looked a lot like you actually. Still, my mom and dad kept me safe from all the mean ponies in the world. Old Equestria was full of those.”

“Guess it not too different,” Gold stated, pointing the shotgun at the table and firing. He easily knocked all the cups down, though I swear he must have cheated. Those cups definitely had a forcefield or something around them. “What about stuffed animals or toys. I had toys. Then I came here and lost them all.”

“Well, I did have a teddy,” I answered, thinking back to my old teddy bear in my room. “I named him Tokyo. We did everything together, but then one day he disappeared. It was a lot more lonely at home after that, especially with my mommy and daddy always working.”

“Would you be happy for a reunion?” Gold asked. “We already looking for ma and pa. We find them, we might find Tokyo.”

“You really think he’s still out their?” I replied, the thought of seeing Tokyo again after so long exciting me. I could see a quick frown appear on Golds face as I said that, but it was quickly replaced by a smile.

“Megaspell destroy many things, but some survived just as ponies, griffons, and zebras,” Gold explained. “They say that precious things always find you. If Tokyo is precious, then we will indeed find him.”

I repeated those words in my head as he set the anti-crossbow cups back up. Precious things always find us, I’ll have to remember that for the next time someone says I’m wasting my time. Gold might talk strange and walk strange, but he was clearly smarter than I was. Not as smart as mommy and daddy, but still really smart.

“Do you think we could find some of your toys too? They must be precious to you if you remember them,” I asked Gold, though he didn’t seem to hear me. No, I’m sure he heard me, but maybe he just didn’t want to answer. “Sorry.”

“No need for sorry. Lucky has right to be curious,” Gold replied, turning to me as he set up the last cup. “As precious as toys are, I don’t want to search. Trauston surrounded by storm. Nopony leaves after entering. Some say Enclave made it, others say it was Shadow Corporation.”

“Well that’s mean, but I guess staying in one place isn’t new to me,” I said, mostly to myself. “Once I find mommy and daddy, I guess we’ll need to find a new home. Ponyville is too far away to walk.”

Gold’s response was not one I expected. He hugged me, but not in the simple way that I saw most ponies hug each other. One of his talons held my front hooves while another layed on my back, head leaning on my own. It reminded me of how mom always hugged me before going off to work, though she also would whisper to me those two wonderful words: “Be strong.”

Instead, Gold said something different. “Olive won’t touch you. Same for Enclave and Shadow Corporation. But more so, I won’t let you find yourself.”

—-

“Do you want to know how to activate it?” Rere asked me later that day, most likely talking about the orb that Gold had given me after training. It was the same one he had taken from the theater. “No magical knowledge is required; all you need is a horn.”

“If only unicorns can use it, does that mean earth ponies and pegasi can’t keep memories?” I asked. Rere had explained to me how these weird orbs worked, though none of it made any sense to me. “Seems like something only stupid ponies would do.”

“Well, considering how most unicorns viewed us pegasi and earth ponies… they probably didn’t care,” Rere told me. “It was hidden from the public eye, but a lot of tension built up between the three tribes during those last few months of the war. The ministries didn’t try to fix it, instead hiding it and using our ‘strong bonds of friendship’ as some sort of StuPiD FuC*& ProPoGanDa,” Her voice suddenly seemed to change, sounding stranger the more angry she got. “It SiCkenS Me, th0sE &*$($ UniWhOrEs. WhY cOulD’T they All JUSt DDDDDDDIIIIIIEEEE.”

“Rere,” Her voice was starting to scare me. I suddenly heard a coughing fit on the other line. “Rere, is everything okay?”

“No, nothing is okay right now Lucky. I’ve been feeling this way ever since I woke you up,” She told me. “It’s gotten worse as of late, the rampancy. I… I might need to leave the radio shack for a few days to get this check on. ”

“Rampancy?”

“I’ll explain some other time, I… I need to disconnect right now,” Rere said, and like she just disappeared. Times before I felt as if someone was their but now… nothing.

I got off the bed that I was on and rushed out the door, feeling something horribly wrong. Rere had turned really creepy and I had no idea why this ‘rampancy’ thing was involved. She hadn’t acted like that before, and even the most stupid of ponies don’t say those things in front of a little filly. I ran down the hall, trying to find Gold, hoping he could tell me something, but I quickly ran into another problem.

I was lost in this stupid stable. Every hallway looked that same, every door and room had the same stuff, and it was so quiet and dark that I everything seemed to stretch forever. I ran up and down, up and down, again and again, until I finally decided to curl up in a corner. The orb was the only glow I had, and I held it tight as if the one thing I could see was trying to get away. I was alone again, like back in Stable 71, but this time there was no one around. I hated being alone, and I hated everypony leaving me.

“I hate all you dumb ponies!” I shouted, not noticing my horn lighting up. “I hope you all die! Die terribly, gruesomely, and think about what you’ve done to me! If you don’t… I-if you don’t die on your own-”

I felt my hoof grab ahold of something sharp, and stabbed it in front of me. I thought I hit somepony else, but in the end I felt that sharp thing attack me instead. The feeling I got from it was horrible, and despite not wanting to I looked down to see what had happened. I saw knifey sticking into my leg, the same red stuff that all the bad ponies had coming out of where I stabbed. That wasn’t right, I don’t know why but seeing red wasn’t right. My horn stopped glowing, but I didn’t notice due to my eyes being stuck on that red stuff.

“B-blood?” I asked in shock, feeling betrayed by the knife in front of me. “Knifey, why did you hurt me? Aren’t we friends? If you are supposed to protect me then… why did you hurt me?”

“It seems like you’re more likely to die than all these ‘stupid, dumb ponies’ you keep mentioning,” Another voice called out. The lights suddenly turned on in the room, and I found that I was currently in the Stable’s kitchen. I looked to where the voice came from, and I saw the last pony I wanted to see: Olive Branch “And here I thought you liked blood.”

“Go away,” I pleaded, on the verge of crying. “Besides, I’m sure this is just the bad parts of me going away. Only bad ponies have blood after all.”

Olive Branch sighed. “You really do sound like that bitch of a leader,” She replied, laughing at me in my face. “You know, I was going to tell you where to find Broken Record or whatever the fuck her name is. In fact, I might know how to help her, but now-”

Upon hearing that, I rushed over to the alicorn and hugged her leg, my own still bleeding. I didn’t want to cry, because good ponies don’t do that, but I couldn’t stop myself. I was so scared, and the wound hurt so much, and I might lose a friend if I didn’t do anything. Olive Branch, though she is an ass, is my only hope, and I needed her right now.

“Please,” I begged. “Please help me. Tell me or I’ll… I’ll hurt you like knifey just hurt me!”

“Ooh, I’m shaking in my boots right now,” Olive Branch said. I smiled, knowing that I had somehow gotten an alicorn to be scared of me. “Since you asked so nicely, I guess I could help you out.”

My grip on her leg gave way as she turned around, leaving me hugging air. She bent down and gave me a kiss, a smile on her face as she did it. I hated how happy she was, being such a bad pony and mocking me. I know she was bad before, but when I’m done with her I would have to kill her now for how bad she is. Nopony mocks a good pony like me, especially when they are hurt.

“MentaBuck, open map. Authorization code one four one nine two six six” Olive Branch said. Without me doing anything, the MentaBuck’s map opened just as she told her to. “Detail complete area of map.”

“Map area restricted to Trauston, Equestria,” I was rather upset that the MentaBuck was doing what it told her to. “Current authorization is unable to remove restrictions. Please contact the Shadow Corporation CEO for-”

“Yeah yeah yeah, don’t care,” Olive Branch said. I guess ponies around me can hear the MentaBuck’s voice too. That was upsetting, seeing how I wanted it all to myself. “Set marker at twenty-five, fifty-four. Set name: robo-shack.”

“Marker set,” As the MentaBuck said those words, a little flag appeared on my map around an area away from the main city. “Warning: Unauthorized access detected, shutting down.”

Olive Branch didn’t seem too happy to hear those last few words.

“Robo-shack?” I asked, tilting my head.

“You find out when you get there,” She replied, patting me on the head. A poutted in reply, not happy that someone other than my mommy and daddy was doing such a thing. “Anyways, I’ll be taking me leave now. You got five days to figure out how to save your friend or else you’re a dead filly.”

Olive Branch started trotting off yet again, but this time I wasn’t going to let her get away. The way she acted to me, the fact that she wanted to kill a filly, everything about her made her a bad pony. Working through the pain, I ran at her screaming, but before I could poke her with knifey her hoof contacted my face, sending me flying into a nearby table. I let out another scream, this time in pain as I saw that knifey had once again stabbed me, though this time it was in the belly. I was about to cry again, looking up to Olive Branch as she disappeared into the darkness of the Stable’s hallways.

“I’ll… I’ll…” I searched for the right words to use, and after a time, I finally found them. “I’ll kill you! I’ll kill you like I do every other bad pony! You hear me?! I’m gonna stab you and slice you and butcher you till you’re nothing but blocks of meat!”

As my shouts continued, I heard one thing from her. “What a poor, misguided thing you are.”

Author's Note

I should just point out that this is not what I had originally expected to do with this chapter, nor had I ever thought I would return to it after so long. Yet, here I am, revisiting old stories and doing what I can to try and bring them back. Every Lie may not be the most popular of those, but it is something I've put my heart into, and with all my heart I'm gonna get as far as I can with it.

Chapter 1 - Every Sunny Day

“Perhaps the biggest lie—even if accidental—was that it was supposed to stay sunny that day.”

“Look, mom, the Stable! It’s so big!”

Every word I said brimmed with excitement, the same feeling that hypnotized me as I watched the giant metal door from inside the carriage. Hypnotized. That was a big word for somepony my age, but I liked it. I felt so smart saying that word. I could feel my tail against my nose as it flicked. It tickled, and crossing my eyes to look at my muzzle I could see the hairs of my long, messy mane resting on top as well. I couldn’t help but jump up and down a little in our carriage.

“Lucky, sweetie, if you're never going to let me cut your tail then please keep it under control,” Mom told me. I sat back down, my tail hanging between my hind legs. I leaned on my mom, and she tightened her hooves around me in return. “You excited for the tour tomorrow?”

“Why can’t it be today?” I whined, upset I was going to have to wait even longer to see a Stable from the inside.

“Dad is waiting at the hotel for us; you wouldn’t want him to miss this, would you?”

Oh, Mom was right! Dad had never seen a Stable either. My mom was an employee of some ponies named Stable-Tec, so she always got to see Stables. My mom and dad had taken a vacation to do this, and it was already so worth it.

Just a cute little filly named Lucky Heart with her mom on an adventure out west. I was that cute little filly of course, because every great vacation story should start with a cute filly! I’m nine years old, and have a long purple mane and tail with funny stripes of blue going down them. Add that to my yellow coat, and you got a cute filly on a magical adventure in the Equestrian Midwest. First stop, the huge city of Trauston. It must have been as big as Manehattan, maybe even bigger!

That Stable thing, number 71, was finished just this week. I didn’t really know why they needed such huge places, but there was supposed to be a war going on. I didn’t know anything about it. I didn’t even know what ‘war’ means! It sounded cool though, like some Power Ponies adventure.

Mom and dad never told me what the war was over, but it must have been a really big fight if what I’ve heard is anything to say. If this fight is anything like the fights I had with my older sister, they should say sorry and make up in a few days or weeks. Actually, more like months because it’s been going on for a really long time.

“Why did dad leave ahead of us, mom?” I asked. The question had been bothering me ever since he left. “I wanna explore the train with him.”

“Daddy had something to do. I know he is just as upset about missing out on the ride as you.” I loved mom when she said things like that. Compared to other adults, she was really cool.

She wasn’t scary like most grown-ups, who were more concerned with ‘working’ and bits than playing with fillies like me. Then again, most of them would do what all the ponies at school did to me my first year. They would tease me and push me around, or just avoid me because I was a “blank flank.” I never went to school again after that because my parents didn’t want meanies like them to hurt me. Thinking about it always made me look at my flank, which was just as yellow and blank as always. I vowed on that first and only day at school that I would never get a cutie mark and never become like those bullies. I’m sure most adults are so mean and stupid because of their cutie marks, and I won’t be like them.

I think that was the day I also stopped mom from cutting my mane and tail. I remember telling mom that if I look weird I would not become a cutie-marked bully. She still cut my mane and tail, but we worked out something she called ‘cutting a deal.’ As long as I promised to work on math and reading and all those other things with a tutor, she would only cut my mane when it was long enough to touch the ground and when my tail was long enough for me to bite. Mom once asked me if I hated all cutie marks, but I’d told her that mom and dad were exceptions. Besides, my mom working for Stable-Tec was an important thing these days and my dad was a judge who brought baddies to justice.

Other than that I was a normal unicorn… though I didn’t get out much, not that it mattered in the long run. I was happy, mom was happy, dad was happy, and after two years I’ve kept myself from getting a cutie mark. Hanging out with other fillies and colts would only be bad for me, and my idea was working. If I was going to keep doing it for the rest of life, than I would never get my cutie mark, and that would be great! I liked my tail long anyway, even if it wasn’t the best when walking in big crowded cities.

The carriage door opened, and a really old and wrinkly stallion peered inside at me. I was hoping it was dad, but after seeing this creep’s face, I shuffled back till I was nice and cozy in mom’s soft belly fur. It didn’t last long as my mom got up, causing me to fall on my back. She thanked the scary old stallion before telling me we had arrived… wherever we were, I didn’t know. I waited for the stranger to turn away and stop staring at me before finally making my way out.

When I stepped outside I saw what had to be the biggest building I’d ever seen. It was so different from anything in Ponyville and so… occupied by adults. Mom and Dad are the only adults I usually see and being around so many ponies was scary. I stayed right next to mom's belly, feeling safe as we trotted to a door to the inside of the giant building. I didn’t like it, having all these ponies around. I wanted to leave immediately as we came to some clear glass doors. Than I saw the stallion inside, and rushed the doors to jump and hug him.

“DADDY!” I shouted as I jumped up to hug his neck. He was here! My dad was already here! “I missed you, daddy!”

“I missed you too, Lucky,” he assured me, giggling. The stallion behind the counter next to him laughed too, but his laugh was way creepier. “I’m so happy to finally take you out on a vacation with your mom and I, and you were so brave standing around all those grown-ups on the way here.”

“The bravest filly I know,” I turned to see mom standing behind me, smiling as she rubbed the top of my mane. “And the cutest one as well.”

“Stop, mom, they’ll stare at me!” I pleaded, already receiving a funny face from the stranger behind the counter. Sadly, my plea went without answer as she continued. “Besides, you’re making my mane really messy!”

“Sorry, sweetie,” she teased as I put on my best pouty face. She smiled and leaned down to eye level. “Listen, after breakfast we will go to our room and you can relax away from all the other ponies. I’m sure you're hungry though right now, aren’t you?”

My tummy rumbled, and I giggled in response.

“I thought so. How about you go ahead of us? We need to check into the hotel and we’ll be right there.”

I nodded with courage in my eyes. This was my first true quest on my mighty adventure, or it would have been if it wasn’t right down the hallway. Ugh, why did everypony lack a sense of adventure? All adults cared about was doing boring old work, making bits, or really anything boring. I wanted to explore! I was going to be the best adventurer in Equestria! OK, maybe not as good as Daring Do, but I was still going to make great discoveries.

I looked back as I heard whispers, and saw a concerned look on my mom’s and dad’s faces. I stopped walking to the tables and started heading back in worry. I hated to see them frown, and I was going to make sure there was no frowny faces on this trip. That’s what a daughter does after all, or at least what I think they do. Any sad faces would only make this adventure worse, and it was my duty to end them. With that in mind, I quickly galloped back to my parents, ready to do anything possible to turn those frowns upside-down.

“Mom? Dad?” I asked with great concern. “Is something wrong?”

“Oh, it’s fine sweetie,” Mom assured me, giving a hug in response. “I’m just worried about the Stable. If it’s not finished like they said it’s supposed to be...” Mom shook her head. “Sorry, I shouldn’t be worrying about such things, especially with the letter Stable-Tec sent me. Caramel, honey, would you take care of everything at the front desk? I’m ready for some breakfast.”

“Of course,” my dad said cheerfully.

My mom smiled in response. “Come on, Lucky, let's go eat.”

All the adults looked really funny in their fancy shirts, especially with the way they looked at us. We had picked a table far away from all the other ponies in the dining room of the hotel, and I sat in the corner of the room so nopony could step on my tail. After what felt like forever, some funny-looking ponies, who reminded me of penguins in their black and white suits, asked me what I wanted, and after my mom made me answer they left. Ugh, it felt so weird talking to an adult other than my mom or dad. Both of them think it’s cute though, so maybe I should do it more. Maybe after they stop stepping on my tail.

“Sorry to keep you waiting,” Dad said as he joined mom and I at our table. “Things took a bit longer than expected. It’s crazy what the war is doing, with the pegasi leaving us and the report of… well, you know what's happening.”

“What do you mean, dad?” I ask, tilting my head thinking I might get a better answer that way.

He smiled at me rubbed the top of my mane. “Oh, it’s nothing to worry about, Lucky,” he told me as our water arrived at the table. “So, I assume you're excited to be out of Ponyville for once?”

“Well duh!” I replied, standing on my chair and placing my front hooves on the table. “It was so cool riding the train and watching all the trees and rivers turn into deserts and mountains. I’ve never even seen a desert before, and that makes it even cooler! I wanna see everything, from the Stable-Tec buildings to the giant radio tower and even the top of that really big mountain we saw on the way here. I want to go to the Stable-Tec place first, though; I wanna get a PipBuck.”

I remembered my mom going on and on and on about those funny PipBuck thingies. I didn’t know half of the words she used, most being really long and science-y, but they seemed really important to Stable-Tec. They had maps inside them and some other really cool functions. I’ve wanted one for so long, but every time I asked mom said I had to wait till I was ten. Stupid Stable-Tec officials with their stupid rules. I’m just as smart as any of them. Luckily, my birthday is tomorrow, and my mom promised to get me one as a gift! Take that, you stupid boring adults!

“She’s been talking about it all day,” I could hear mom say to dad, giggling. “I think our soon-to-be ten-year-old is a little excited.”

“Of course I’m excited!” I exclaimed, trying to make my eyes sparkle like they always loved. “I’ve been waiting since I was six to get one, and tomorrow I finally will! Of course, I’m also excited to see the Trauston Tower.”

My dad laughed at that, but I knew he was happy for me. He always laughed, which I liked about him. He almost never seemed to be in a bad mood, and when he was I, was just the thing to cheer him up. Such is the job of a filly, or at least a good filly like myself. He knew just how long I’ve been waiting for my tenth birthday, especially since I’ve been talking about it for the past week over and over again. The important thing of course is that whatever was troubling him was gone.

Oh, and the food here is incredible. I’ve never tasted food so good in my life, and considering how good cooks my mom and dad are, that’s something. I can’t even describe how it tasted, it was that good. The cooks may be adults but they're good at what they do, that's for sure. I ate every last bit, finding myself rather full at the end of it all. Dad told me what number our room was — number 314 on the third floor — and said I could go see what it looked like.

By the time I made it to the third floor, I had almost forgotten the room number. Of course my luck saved me as it was the first door on the left when I reached it. I opened the door to see what was probably the most beautiful room I had ever seen in my life. The living room was much bigger than any room at home, and it had the biggest windows I’d ever seen. They were the first thing I ran to, pushing the curtains to the side and viewing the huge city below me. It was so busy, one of the busiest cities in Equestria since the “war” started. So many adults were below me, and as I looked over the edge I felt like I was going to fall. Let me just say, that wouldn’t have been fun.

My next destination was the couch, to make sure it was comfy. Turning around to the sofa, I belly-flopped onto its cushions face-first. Yep, it was just as fluffy as I imagined it to be. I felt like I was melting into the cushions, and I think I might have fallen asleep for a few seconds. I could have spent forever just resting on the couch, but I decided to get up and look at the bedroom to make sure the bed was perfect.

I opened a door next to the couch and saw a gigantic bed on the far end of it. It was beautiful, better than the beds we had at home. Not that my bed wasn’t nice, but their bed had a large blanket with flowers printed on it, with clear blue pillows. It reminded me of all the nights I spent sleeping with mom and dad, especially the nights where I would cuddle up with mom. She always looked afraid when she first fell asleep, but calmed down when I hugged her. I wanted to spend the first night doing just that, not wanting to see another nervous face on my parents.

“Wha- what are we supposed to do?” I heard mom whisper as she entered the main room behind the door. She was scared, or at least she sounded that way. “We can’t just tell Lucky, you know how attached she is to us. What if the zebras really are about to launch a megaspell? What are we supposed to say to her?”

“Gingersnap, calm down,” My dad said to her, and peeking through a small crack in the now-closed door I could see him looking at her with worry. His front hooves were on her shoulders, and she was… crying? “Lucky means the world to you and me both and we still have plenty of time to spend together, or at least I hope we do. We both know she will be safe when everything happens.”

“B-but you know who she’ll blame,” My mom replied. My ears had fallen back at everything I was seeing. “You know how she feels about others, and how uncomfortable she is around anyone besides us. I don’t want to know what might happen to her. I don’t want to see my little filly harmed.”

“Stable-Tec would never hurt Lucky, sweetheart,” Dad replied as I opened the door just a tiny bit more. “They want to keep ponykind safe, and they would treat Lucky the same as they would you and me. Security wouldn’t hurt her just because of you.”

“It’s not security I’m worried about; it’s everypony else in the stable,” My mom told my dad, and I could now see she was crying. I opened the door fully, but couldn’t find it in me to step up and tell them I was here. “She hates older ponies, and anyone with a cutie mark. The only other pony we’ve met that she gets along with is that old griffon, and I’m doubtful there are any griffons in the stable. When she realizes what's happening she’ll… she’ll-” She looked to me, and even more fear filled her eyes. I felt embarrassed for listening without telling them, or doing something when I had first heard mom. “Sweetie, you… weren’t listening, right?”

“I… was,” I wanted to lie, but knew it was better to tell them. I had so many questions “Mom, is everything alright? Are you afraid of me hurting somepony? What… what’s going on?”

“Oh, sweetie,” She said as she rushed forward and hugging me tight, giving me just enough room to breathe. She was still crying. “Everything is going to be alright, I promise. Everything is going to be fine. You and dad and I will be perfectly fine and I will never leave your side. The sky still has the sun, and the sun will shine all day long. I would never want you to hurt anypony unless they hurt you, us, or anypony else you love. Of course you won’t, I know you won’t hurt anypony. I can assure you that we will have-”

Before she finished, a strange sound seemed to come from the window. It gradually got louder and louder before fading and repeating that cycle. Mom’s tears only got worse after that. “We will have… the best vacation. Nopony will say otherwise, and nopony can stop us from doing so. Now, would you like to go to the stable?”

Hearing this made me smile, maybe it was nothing. “Of course! I’ve been waiting ever since we left Ponyville!”

Mom stood up, wiping the tears from her face. “Hop on,” she said, smiling and pointing to her back. I did just that, jumping onto her excitedly. She nodded quickly to dad before we all rushed through the doors. “Now, I’ll tell them we’re coming sooner. You just rush past them and through the stable door, alright?”

“Anything for you mom,” I said happily as I hugged her. “I’ll do anything for you and dad.”

Everypony seemed to be running to the Stable as we made our way down the street. Seeing all those ponies, I could tell why mom wanted me to go through first. If I got through the stable doors before all of them I didn’t have to worry about the swarm outside of it. The completion of the stable must have been a much bigger deal than I thought if this was the reaction. Mom wasn’t crying anymore, and I was brushing my fur up against dad's, loving how soft it felt. The only annoying part was that loud siren noise and everypony else shouting. It was too much noise, from too many stupid adults. I gave glares to anypony that got tooo close to us, squeezing mom tighter so they didn’t take me away. They would do it, I knew they would if I didn’t scare them off.

When we got to the stable, there were dozens and dozens of ponies hitting the gates, shouting. Big metal ponies with silly looking blocks of steel attached to their backs made sure a clear path was available. It was for mom of course, considering that she had the most important job of all next to the princess's and therefore took first entrance. A pony in a funny-looking blue shirt wearing a PipBuck on his leg and an oversized helmet on his head stood in a gap in the fence. It took a lot not to laugh at how stupid and silly a lot of the ponies greeting my mom looked.

Mom let me off her back and nodded to the pony with the oversized helmet. As soon as I was off, I ran straight to the pony with the blue shirt. He told the two other metal ponies behind him to step aside. As he let me pass, I felt like the most important filly in the world. I was so excited to head through the giant rotating door, I didn’t pay any attention to anything else. It was like I was one of the princesses, having the privilege to be one of the first inside Stable 71. When I finally ran through the door, I found that two dozen or so other ponies that weren’t dressed in silly blue and yellow uniforms had also come in. As I got off the platform I joined the others in looking outside, only to notice something terrifying.

My parents were still on the other side of the gate, waving to me with smiles on their faces. I was stunned to see them surrounded by the shouting stallions and mares, half embracing each other. Why weren’t they coming through? This was supposed to be a family thing, and mom was supposed to announce Stable 71 opening to visitors! I took a slight step forward before the ground started to shake, sending me and many other ponies to the ground. Looking past mom and dad, I saw the sky was gone, replaced by a large balloon shaped cloud. The ground only rumbled more and more, and as the world outside the Stable darkened, I realized what was happening.

“Close the door!” I heard a stallion say, probably not even realizing my parents were still out there. When the door actually started closing, my heart began to pound inside my chest.

“Wait! Stop!” I shouted as I ran towards the door. One of the ponies with the oversized hats grabbed me as I tried to exit. “Let me go! My parents are still out there!”

“Nothing you can do for them, miss, I’m sorry,” he said, acting like he was smarter than me. I kicked and squirmed trying to get him off me. “They aren’t allowed in if they aren’t on the list.”

“I don’t care about whatever this list, they’re my parents!” I told, kicking him off for a couple seconds before he grabbed me again. “This is supposed to be a vacation! We’re supposed to visit the Trauston tower, my mother’s going to give me a PipBuck for my birthday tomorrow!” I gritted my teeth as I finally screamed to the stupid stallion. “GET OFF OF ME, YOU DUMB COLT!”

I could see that the door was almost closed, and in a last desperate attempt I bucked free and ran. I dashed to the door, but the gap had gotten too narrow for me to squeeze through. I looked out to see that the sky had turned a sharp red. My parents saw me, and smiled. I knew they weren’t happy smiles, seeing tears run down their faces. I followed along with the metal door as it rotated shut, watching my mom blow a kiss to me one last time. With that, the door closed, and the ground’s shaking subsided.

Turning around, I saw everypony staring at me with wide eyes. It seemed as if they were unable to believe what I had done. Not that I expected any less; they were all just dumb adults who only cared about themselves. Even the fillies and colts at my age were dumbfounded by my actions. They all had cutie marks, though, so they were probably waiting for no adults to be around to call me stupid. Idiots, they are all idiots! I was angry at all of them, for just standing there while my parents…

No, they can’t be dead. I’ll never say they’re dead, but how much did that earthquake hurt them? I didn’t want to see my mom and dad in pain. However, my mind couldn’t help but imagine how badly hurt they were. They were suffering, all because of some stupid list! I finally looked away from all the ponies behind me, resting my head and front hooves on the door.

“Come on, get up,” I heard somepony say, and looked over to see the stallion that had closed the door in the first place. “There's nothing you could do, not with the megaspell. You're safe, just remember that’s what's important.”

“Don’t tell me what’s important, you stupid stallion!” I screamed at the top of my lungs. “My mom and dad are… are dead because of you! Leave me alone!”

He stepped back, looking at me as if I was crazy for saying such things. He was the crazy one, leaving my mom and dad to get hurt, or die as he probably would say. I could hear him talking to all the ponies behind me while I cried, tears falling to the floor. Nopony bothered me, and I was happy for that. I didn’t want to be around anypony, and wanted to hurt them, but I didn’t because my mom and dad wouldn’t want that. All I wanted was my parents and no one else. By the time I finally stopped crying, everypony near the Stable door was gone except for the ones in those stupid hats and the stupid stallion that had closed the door. He laid down a similar-looking blue barding with yellow sides and a big number 71, as well as a PipBuck.

I knew what he expected me to do, but I wasn’t going to do half of it. I’m not going to listen to that jerk and put on that dumb uniform, especially after what he did to my parents. I only picked up the PipBuck, putting it on as I’d been dreaming of since I was six. However, as I turned it on I wasn’t happy like I should have been. A single tear fell onto the screen as the words ‘Initializing’ came up on screen. I could hear my mom and dad in my head wishing me a happy birthday, as if they were looking from the other side of the door.

“Thanks, mom and dad,” I said with a weak smile, “I’ll make sure I put it to good use, and that they’ll pay for what they did.”

Author's Note

This is something I’ve been working on for a long time, and not something I created and plotted on a whim like Reminders before it. Fallout Equestria has very few protagonists that are elementry school age, with the only big example I can think of being that of Pink Eye’s protagonist. However, my plan for Every Lie isn’t to create what Pink Eyes was, but rather to look at a filly whose personal views are so different from that of the public that she outcasts herself. Kinda like a more socially isolated Starlight I guess you can say.

Again thanks to Kalash93 for editing this, and for all the others that looked at it as well. You all made this story what it is, even those of you who simply encouraged me to write and take my time. On an even more important, thanks to the Fallout: Equestria FiMfiction group for help with some of the stuff we’ll be seeing later in this fic.

I don’t want to go into further detail due to having the possibility to spoil things later, but nonetheless I hope you all enjoy!