“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.