song 8 FNV: Not My Vault 3:58

It wasn’t too different of a day in the Stable. The same terrible booze was served by the same indifferent pony in the same shitty bar; nothing better in life really. I was just sitting on a stool, drinking myself happy like every other working pony during the week, when I couldn’t help but notice something was a bit off. I couldn’t place a hoof on it, but it seemed a bit too quiet. It wasn’t until I heard the sound of clashing metal that I realized somepony was breaking the loud speaker in the hallway again.

“If these ponies were the ones to have to fix the damn speakers, then they would know what a pain in the flank it is to put it back together.” I scolded, forcing down the last of my liquor before storming into the hall.

The bartender shouted something about payment, so I just threw a week’s wages at him and continued out the doorway, ten bits should’ve been plenty. As I reached the door the sound of grinding metal didn’t cease. I guess the pony behind the damage wanted the speaker to be completely inoperable. Lovely. The louder it got, the more I wanted to ring the neck of whomever was making my job harder than it had to be, but the Overmare would probably have me scrubbing toilets for a month, and I’m too handsome to be doing that. When I stepped into the hallway I saw none other than Star Caster, an insufferable brute of a unicorn who just loved making my life harder, and who else but this teal colored asshat would be destroying the speaker.

“Star Caster, why are you breaking another Public-Address speaker? Don’t you have some mares to attempt to swoon or something?” With that, the ingrate stopped thrashing the already destroyed mechanism and turned to face me.

“Well if it isn’t Cock-a-phony, why you worrying about what I’m doing, eh? A little filly like you should worry about yourself.” He may tower over me, but I’ll be damned if I’m going to be scared of some slack-jawed moron.

“One, my name is Cacophony. Two, you’re breaking a regulated item in the stable, it’s my job to worry about those. And Three, you and I both know you’re only about half the stallion I am, so I’d suggest you don’t call me filly unless you need to be shown just how much of a stallion I am.” I said, squinting my eyes and grinning at him.

He was practically foaming at the muzzle by the time I finished my statement, but he knows better than to try and harm me. For one, the Overmare already had his flank for property damage, and if she gets him for assault as well, he can kiss his free time goodbye. Not only that, but he knows he can’t take me in a fight, we’ve proven that many times in the gym. I took a moment from leering at the meathead in front of me to gaze at the speaker. It was a mess of wires and broken metal, no way it was going to be repairable. I knelt down to pick up what was left of the shattered speaker box only for more of it to come apart. With a sigh I addressed Caster.

“Caster, this is the third one this week, what’s going on? You’ve got to be running out of bits to replace these.”

He glared at me with a fire in his eyes before speaking. “Don’t worry about my money bitch! Maybe if you told your precious Overmare to stop playing the same five songs every damn day I wouldn’t have a reason to break the piece of shit speakers.”

“You know that the music isn’t going to change anytime soon, it’s in place to aid in keeping everypony from killing each other. Just get over yourself and deal with it like everypony else who it doesn’t help.” by how quickly he slammed me into the wall I could tell he was less than happy with my response.

As I hit the wall I felt him lean all of his weight into his forehooves, holding me firmly to the wall. I would have attempted escape, but with the alcohol kicking in I was in a bit of a bind. Had he not been on the Overmare’s shit list already, I’m sure he would have loved to try and beat the life out of me, but instead he just growled and forced me to the ground.

“That mouth of yours is going to get you into a lot more trouble than you’re worth.” He said kicking the speaker as he stormed off toward the elevator.

“I’ll expect payment for the damaged property before the end of the week.” I called before the elevator doors closed. Normally he at least gestured out of disapproval, but this time instead he just scowled and glared as the doors shut.

I brushed off my uniform and got back to my hooves, less than excited about the work ahead of me to replace the broken equipment. I took a breath and gathered the bits and pieces of the PA system before trotting back in the bar, placing them all in my saddle bag that was hanging from a rack just beside the door. As I put my bags on, a familiar face trotted toward me. she was a pretty young unicorn; a maintainer like me, her mane an emerald green and held in a messy bun and her coat a deep gray. Her name is Fel spark, one of the happiest ponies I’ve ever met, and a good friend for many years. Sometimes she would be the only reason a day was good, making a hard day at work almost trivial. When she noticed I saw her, she picked up her pace a bit before giving me a hug.

“Hi Phony!” she giggled as she relaxed her grasp. We work together on the maintainer floor so she gave me that nickname because to her ‘Cacophony is too hard to say’. “Did you hear all that racket? It sounded like somepony was breaking a speaker again.”

I chuckled a bit before speaking. “Yeah that’s because somepony was.”

She gasped before continuing. “Oh man was it Star again?”

“You’re two for two, keep this up I’m going to call you a cheater.”

“Oh man Phony, what is up with that stallion? He’s so aggressive all the time.” She said as we trotted out of the bar.

“I don’t know Spark; he and I haven’t seen eye to eye since we had our falling out, maybe the kitchen ran out of his favorite pudding again.” I said as we stepped into the elevator to go to the maintenance floor.

“I don’t know, he’s normally not this violent, but this week he’s been on a rampage. We’ve had to replace the speaker on every floor so far.” She commented as the elevator descended, “I wouldn’t be surprised if he found a way into the Overmare’s office and broke that one too.”

We shared a chuckle as the doors fought open, a mechanical grinding greets us as we stepped into our workplace, a small living room sized facility. The walls were a drab gray but being maintainers, we decided to decorate them with different “paintings” drawn in oil and other fluids. Standing at the farthest workstation was Tick Tock, an older Pegasus and my boss. He was a jovial fellow with an emerald coat. Spark’s and I’s workstations were across from each other on the side walls. Spark’s was neatly organized and mostly clean for our job, and mine... well mine was a bunch of scrap and junk from whatever I could get to tinker with. All of it was just worthless crap except one thing, my mothers’ violin. I refused to keep it in my quarters due to the fear that Star Caster would find it and treat it like the speaker earlier. I guess Tick Tock heard the door open because he turned to face us with a wide smile.

“There’s my two favorite ponies!” he said, walking toward us with stains on his coat and uniform. “How was the break?” Spark was the first to answer.

“Mine was great! I went up to bio to spend some time with Swift Wing.”

Swift Wing and I grew up around the same time, only about a year or so apart. He’s Spark’s coltfriend and he works in the bio and environmental sector a few floors above us. He’s alright, never spend much time with him because pegasi and earth ponies live on different floors and I’m normally always busy with work or practicing the violin. While I was trailing off in thought, Tick Tock patted my back, jolting me back to reality.

“You okay Cacophony? Didn’t stump you with that question, did I?” The old timer laughed as I set my bag down, a little embarrassed.

“Nah ya old coot, just got lost in thought is all.” I let the shards of speaker empty from my bags, much to Tick Tocks distaste.

“Again Caster, this is getting ridiculous.”

“You didn’t have to confront him about it ol’ timer, he was quite upset with me.”

Spark spoke up from her station, “Isn’t he always upset with you Phony?”

“You’ve got me there.” I said grabbing a schematic for the speaker and gathering a few parts I needed.

Tick Tock was audibly annoyed but didn’t comment further, instead choosing to kick a jukebox on and supply some background music. The schematic was relatively simple, a few wires connecting to a transmitter and a speaker assembly, the only thing that would make it difficult is if we didn’t have speaker assemblies pre-made…

“Hey Spark…” I called hoping to the goddesses that she had one left over on her desk.

“Yeah Phony?”

“Do you have an extra speaker assembly?”

“You owe me.” She cooed, levitating it to me.

“I am forever in your debt.” I said holding it in my hoof and inspecting for damage.

Once it passed my inspection I set it down to get my Maintenance Saddle on. I was always so impressed with this invention of Tick Tocks’ design. Much like a Battle Saddle from the Great War, this Saddle allowed Earth and Pegasus ponies to use more fine movements for things that normally unicorns would have to do. Using mechanical arms, the saddle made my job a hell of a lot easier, and unlike most of the Battle Saddles I saw in the books; these Saddles are operated via the PipBuck rather than reigns and body alignment. With my Saddle firmly in place I began construction of the PA speaker. Such a simple item was no match for my technical prowess, not to mention I’ve built quite a few in the past week.

“A few screws, some wire splicing, and now to solder these wires.” I said to myself, placing the mostly assembled item on the table and gathering the soldering kit.

After a quick inspection of the soldering iron I plugged it into the socket on my desk and, just my luck, a fuse shorted cutting power to my entire workstation with a violent crack. I swore under my breath but at this point in my day I couldn’t help but think that I somehow deserved this, like Celestia was cursing me for one of the hundreds of things I did earlier in the week. With my sockets fried, power off on my desk, and a deep feeling of “I hate this fucking job” I trotted to Fel Sparks’ desk and put the, mostly constructed, speaker next to her.

“Hey beautiful, my desk’s shit the bed again because I keep trying to do my job. Can you finish fixing this thing while I get my life together?”

“When you call me things like that how can I say no.” She said hitting me in the flank with her tail. “We really need to talk to the Overmare about getting you a new desk. That thing breaks every two hours.”

“Two and a half.” Tick Tock spouted over his shoulder, earning laughter from both of us.

“Like the Overmare would be able to get a new desk for me. I haven’t seen a supply pony come to our Stable in weeks.” I said, opening my desk to start fixing it.

“You know I haven’t seen any supply ponies either, maybe they changed their schedule to once a month or something.” Spark said finishing the speaker. “Hey, did you want to install this, or is your desk gonna be a bit?”

“I’ll take care of it by the end of our shift, it’s not like anypony on the lounge floor is begging for the Overmare’s playlist.”

“As true as that might be, it’s still required for any announcements the Overmare needs to make.” Tick Tock grumbled having just finished what he was doing and cantering to my desk to help me.

“It’ll be fine old colt, it’s only like 3 hours till we clock out. Let me finish my desk and I’ll make sure it gets done.” I said, a calamity of wires and connectors splaying out from my desk.

“Sorry kid, but that’s a no go from me. I got your desk, you go up and install that speaker.” He said grabbing me by the collar and pulling me away from my desk. “Plus, if I fix it, I know it won’t break again.”

I rolled my eyes, but I knew there was no way to talk him out of his decision. If he didn’t budge after the first try, then there was no second. I grabbed the speaker from Spark’s desk and started for the elevator but was stopped by her before getting too far away. Before I could ask, she turned to the old timer and suggested that she go with me. I was puzzled, but she used her magic to keep my muzzle shut.

Tick Tock didn’t look up from my desk, engulfed with the calamity that it was. “I don’t care, if he needs help then sure. Kid, your desk is a fucking nightmare, when you finish putting that speaker up, you need to beg the Overmare to spare some of the maintainer budget to getting a new desk. Ooh and a hot tub.”

He made himself giggle at the rhetorical request, but it would be nice of the Overmare to get a few new desks. I tried to voice that opinion but my muzzle was still locked by the emerald glow of Sparks’ magic. So, I just sighed and walked toward the elevator. When she released my mouth, I was quick to question her.

“Spark what the heck was that? I don’t need help to install a speaker.”

She sighed and turned to me with a concerned look on her face. Her bright lime eyes looking as beautiful as they were worried.

“Phony, do you think those supplies are coming?” she asked, a tremble in her voice.

I was more than a bit shocked. “W-what?” I stumbled over my words trying to think of what to say. “Of course they’re coming, Stable-Tec wouldn’t just forget about us. It might just be a bit late.”

I wish I believed it when I said it. The supply pony used to come every week, bearing all manner of important goods. They would be late every once in a while, but never like this. With each day that goes by we run lower and lower on resources. We maintainers have already been forced to cannibalize parts from nonessential units to repair the generators and water pipes.

“Listen Sparky,” I said putting a hoof around her, pulling her in for a hug. “I’m positive that everything is going to work out.”

She sniffled a bit, stifling what was nearly a tear. “Are you sure?”

“Am I ever not sure of myself?” my comment receiving a snicker. “You and Swift are gonna live to be as old as Tick Tock, raise a little foal, and be happy.” I paused to give her a smug look, “And if I’m not the Godfather, I will be upset with you both.”

She laughed at my remarks, making me feel more comfortable, but I couldn’t help the thought eating at my mind: Was everything going to be okay?

As the doors opened, I ended the hug and we stepped out onto the lounge floor. It felt different than before, only a few hours passed since I was here but everything felt wrong. There weren’t the normal noises of glasses being filled in the bar or the light chatter of ponies conversing, just an unfamiliar and uncomforting silence. I looked around trying to find anypony, but it was just us in sight. I looked over to Spark, who also looked weary of the area.

“Sparky,” I shuddered, my voice filling the soundless corridor. “Where is everypony?”

She hesitated, peering into the bar before she spoke. “I have no idea Phony… I think I see somepony in here.” She said creeping to the doorway.

I followed closely behind her, a tinge of fear crawling up my spine. She stopped suddenly, her mouth agape as I pushed past her. At first, I couldn’t tell what I saw, it just looked like a chair had been upturned and laid sideways. To my dismay as my eyes focused I saw a much more gruesome scene. Trails of crimson lined the walls, tables and chairs, ponies of all kinds and colors laid lifelessly in puddles of blood. It was only a brief moment before the silence was broken by Fel Spark, who screamed at the sight of her Coltfriend lying dormant in the middle of the room. My heart wretched as she collapsed beside the Pegasus, screaming and pressing both hooves into his chest, trying to force life back into her partner.

My eyes began to swell at the sight of my friend of many years, groveling into the coat of her special somepony, this was until my eye caught the shine of a knife from behind the bar. It was just a long kitchen knife but it was held by the faded teal glow of magic, magic that I was too familiar with. I forced the tears from my eyes, instead choosing to face this head on. I placed a hoof on her shoulder, when she looked up to me I gestured to the knife. She stunted her sobbing and placed her hoof over her mouth, looking from me to the knife and back.

“Phony,” she whispered frantically, “I-I’m scared, do you think that’s who did it?”

“I don’t know Sparky, but I’m going to find out.” I said getting a horseshoe from my saddlebag.

I walked slowly, methodically, placing each hoof softly to not make much noise as I crept toward the bar. As I closed the distance I heard breathing, no not breathing; it was pained and shallow, he was choking. I didn’t know if he was going to stab me with that knife, but I couldn’t take any chances. Whoever murdered all these ponies was right behind this bar, and I had a good feeling as to who it was. I lowered my body, ready to pounce on the knife to remove it from the magical grasp. Playing the situation in my head it seemed less and less reasonable, but I’ll be damned if I let this bastard hurt Spark. With one last deep breath I leapt around the corner and grabbed the knife with my teeth, rage filling every facet of my being. That was until I saw him.

“S-Star Caster?!” I shrieked, dropping the knife. The teal unicorn lying in a puddle of blood with his right foreleg thrown a few feet away, the sight was nearly enough for me to vomit.

“Caco…” He paused, coughing a generous amount of blood onto the floor between us. “I tried to stop them.”

I rushed to his side, trying to do what I could to keep him from bleeding. he was bruised and cut all over, blood soaking his coat in various spots each punctuated with a cut of differing lengths. I ripped the sleeve of my uniform with my teeth to try and create some kind of bandage. I could hear him trying to say something but I was too wrapped up in trying to help him that I ignored him. In my haste I shouted for Fel Spark to come over, I didn’t want her to have to see this, but I couldn’t keep him stable by myself. Before I could continue my makeshift bandaging, Star put his hoof on my face, halting me and giving him my attention.

“Caco,” he wheezed, his PipBuck began flashing red but when I looked down he pulled my face back to look at him. “I’m on borrowed time kid, listen to me.” I nodded, trying to give him my full attention.

“Good, this was all my fault Cacophony.” He said as Spark came around the corner, eliciting the same reaction as myself. He ignored her so he could speak directly to me. “They came in while the speaker was broke. It was a bloodbath Caco. None of us knew until it was to late, and none of us escaped.”

“Who did this? Where is security?” I asked looking back to Spark for a moment, her face one of stunned disbelief.

“Raiders, they said they were supply ponies and when we opened the Stable door they slaughtered the guards on standby. The rest of security never got the message because the PA is broken.” He said visibly upset. “I tried to defend who I could but there were so many.”

Spark quickly grabbed my saddlebag ran out to install the speaker while I tended to Star, his PipBuck now flashing at an alarming pace. He was on death's door, and there was little that could be done but Goddesses be damned if I wasn’t going to try.

“Star,” I said laying a hoof on his cheek. “I’ll be back in a sec, please hold out.” I said standing and rushing behind the bar.

I searched frantically, pulling drawers and cabinets open with ferocity. Junk, bits, bullets, nothing useful was in any of them. Frustrated, I jumped over the bar and ran into the hall, and Spark nowhere in sight. Though pondering where she could be I had little time or care to explore that idea, instead I ran to the security post in the Stable door area. If I was right, there would be a medical supply kit near where the guards were posted. For Stars’ sake, I hoped I was right.

With little time to be spared I did the only sane thing in this situation and forced open all doors on the Lounge floor via an override provided to the maintainer ponies in case of mass evacuation. I couldn’t help but think how unfortunate it was that all of us were on shift and down stairs, but what’s done is done, I needed to get through this place quick and those doors were the only things in my way. With every door opened on the floor I rushed through bulkhead after bulkhead until I reached the Stable guard post. Yet another fight area, blood soaking from wall to wall, many of the faces that laid on the ground were friends of mine. The Stable door was agape, like the guards tried to close it but were stopped in the midst of closing. As I scanned the area I saw between two bodies a small box on the ground pale yellow with three butterflies with pink wings on the top, and it looked unopened.

“Thank the goddesses.” I said running to the box, trying to avoid stepping on bodies if possible. Before I reached the box, I heard something that shook me to my core. It came from outside the Stable.

“It’s in here, those fuckers killed our guys.” a gruff voice shouted as the sound of many hooves pounded the ground.

I panicked, the ponies that killed all of my friends were right outside, and I had little I could defend myself with. Without thinking I grabbed the box of supplies with my mouth and ran for the bulkhead. As I escaped, I heard one of them shout, “I saw one!”, which only made me run faster. After getting a few doors in I looked at my PipBuck, trying to get the override up again before those bastards could get much further. Once I had the override opened I initiated the lockdown, my PipBuck warning me that the action would force all doors to be accessed via an encryption only provided to key personnel.

“Gotcha,” I said, inputting my pin and forcing the entire floor on lockdown, “Let’s see you get through this you sick fucks!”, I yelled as the doors around me slammed shut and locked to the bulkheads. I only had a few doors to go through before I got back to Star and could give him proper aid.

After getting through a few doors I heard a loud metallic sound and the ground shook below me. Something told me that these doors were more temporary than I thought before. Once I got through the final door, I reapplied the override to the doors I left open in my haste to get to the bar. Nearly completely winded from all of this running, I used what energy I could spare to gallop into the bar. I ran to around the bar and was more than relieved when I saw Star still breathing.

“Star!” I yelled after placing the box down, “I’m back, just hold on a bit longer. I’m getting you out of here.”

The puddle around him grew substantially, I don’t want to think about what would have happened had I arrived even a moment later. I opened the medical supplies box, grabbing some gauze and doing what I saw in a safety brief a few months ago. I could hear explosions getting closer and closer as the raiders forced their way into the belly of our home. I didn’t focus on them though, I had a pony to save. I wrapped the gauze around the stump that was left of his foreleg to try and keep what little of his blood was in him from spilling out when I applied the Stimpak. After a getting the bandage applied I looked at his PipBuck’s status page, he was hanging on by a thread. Without a second thought I plunged the Stimpak into his chest, the gauge at the top quickly depleting and the vitality indicator on his PipBuck raising to stable. I heard him shriek as his body and the medicine worked in tandem to mend the smaller wounds he had. After most of the small cuts were healed I took a bottle of painkillers from the box and poured a few into my hoof.

“Here Star, take these.” I said, his pained screams dying down to a low groan.

“Caco…” he moaned, still obviously in pain but sounding more cognizant than when I first found him, “I’ll… I’ll be fine.”, he said putting some weight onto his remaining foreleg and attempting to stand. His horn glowed as he lifted his severed leg onto his back.

“Hold on there, big guy.” I said, getting under his body to support him. I could feel how weak he was, his legs could barely support him and his right foreleg was still bleeding through the bandage.

“Thank you, Caco…” I heard him whisper, “I-I’m sorry for causing this, It’s all my fault.”

“It’s not your fault Star, there’s no way you could have known a raider group was going to attack.” I said supporting him as we walked toward the elevator, “Let’s get you to the medical ward.”

Before we could get to the hallway I heard the elevator doors open and a herd of ponies trotting out, I looked up and saw Fel Spark amidst a large group of security ponies. I shouted to get their attention and a few of them turned toward us, a majority posted up near where the explosions were coming from. One of the security ponies spoke up after noticing Stars condition.

“Sir! We’ve got two survivors, one badly injured. I’m going to get them to the medical ward.” She said, running toward us. The pony she was talking to nodded while remaining focused on the door where the raiders would eventually end up. When she got to us she asked us our statuses.

“Ma’am, my name is Cacophony, no prominent status effects.” I said, formal status reports helped prevent further injury from improper handling while transported to the medical ward.

“Thank you, and what about him, is the extent the foreleg?” she asked, getting under Star to help walk him to the elevator while I walked on the opposite side.

“No Ma’am, he had multiple cuts and bruises prior to emergency care, Stimpak was applied.” I was told it’s important to mention if Stimpaks were given to ensure overdose of the medicine wasn’t possible.

“Thank you, I’ll get you two to medical. I’ll give them the information you provided while you get taken care of.”

“T-thank you, Ma’am.” Star Caster said, getting some of his weight onto his legs and helping us support him to the best of his abilities.

Before we could reach the elevator, I felt a quake in my hooves as the bulkhead that stood between us and those psychotic fucks was blown wide open. The shockwave blowing myself and many of the other ponies to the ground, those that weren’t forced to the ground began firing blindly into the smoke. I felt a sharp pain in my chest as I opened my eyes, looking down toward myself I saw what looked to be a unicorn horn lodged into my chest. I vomited onto the ground in front of me as the realization that it was a fresh horn hit me. With my ears ringing and everything spinning as I laid next to Star, I saw blood and bullets flew through the air as each side took losses. I looked for the pony that was helping us only to find that she had a large piece of the door lodged in her head. Star was knocked unconscious by the explosion so I bit down on his uniform and used what strength I could muster to try and pull us toward the elevator only for Fel Spark to run in and drag us with her magic.

“Phony! Don’t worry, I’m getting you help” She said, crying as we descended into the belly of the Stable.

When the doors opened I was blinded by the lights, everything seemed so much brighter than before, and everything sounded fuzzy. I don’t remember laying on a bed, but somehow, I got here. I heard something about supplies and not being able to help for some time. I tried talking but all that came out was groans. I couldn’t move very well, but I was able to turn my head so I could see Star, he was blurry but I knew it was him. He went into some tube. I must have blacked out seeing as I don’t remember getting into this tube, but I don’t feel pain anymore, just numb and confused. After a bit of time I didn’t feel anything anymore, what was going on? Where was I? Where is Star?

I heard somepony say something about stasis, I guess that explained why I was in this tube, but how long did they plan on having me here? Before long it just got really cold, and I fell asleep.

Author's Note

This took forever to write, but it's done and Chapter 2 is currently in the works. I'm having another editor work on the story with me as well as my main so I can provide the best story possible.

Thank you to anyone who reads this and I love you all

♥