"While you were out, I spent SIX HOURS trying to reach a coffee cup up on a shelf.
When I finally got it down I was so happy, I cried. I HATE MY LIFE!"

* * *

Message 0114B Welcome to the Alpine Peninsula Division!

[In]

To: Doctor Shimmer

From: Doctor Fall

Welcome to the research team, Doctor Shimmer. I really do hope the transfer from Manehattan was as stress free as possible. While it may not be as glamorous or prestigious as working HQ, I think you will feel right at home with our Alpine Peninsula branch.

Before you get working, you should know which team you’ve been assigned to work on- you’re on Stable 65. I’m assuming you already know what project Stable 65 has been assigned, as your former department reviewed the project proposal.

Per your previous department’s feedback, the team has taken numerous precautions to prevent the introduction of unauthorised ponies into the stable population. We have verified pure lineage of every stable applicant for 65 going back three generations.

Despite this, it is still entirely possible for unauthorised ponies to be birthed from anypony with relatives past the fourth generation, of which at least one hundred residents have been confirmed to have. You must understand- it is too late to resign their admissions to the stable. The only thing we can do now is make final adjustments to the stable policies before we submit our work to corporate.

You MUST figure out a way for the stable to deal with the birth of unauthorised ponies that doesn't interfere with the stable’s primary experiment, or involve terminating the ponies in question.

You have six weeks until we have to submit the stable policies.

Doctor Fall, Division 5 Head Researcher
Stable-Tec

* * *

According to everything I've found on the terminals, databases, and the hoofful of books in Stable 65, the average stable is supposed to house about 2000 ponies. Stables all have slight variations in design, but overall they have a few common traits:

a security wing, usually including a police-grade armory and a holding cell, was included to keep order and protect the residents in crisis. This usually connected to the overstallion/mare's office, where the head of the stable made their important decisions;
a clinic, with a fully stocked storage and surgical center, provides emergency care for those who get injured while working. Close by is the atrium, the social and literal center of the stable. The atrium connected all of the different sections of the stable, while also housing the common room and the cafeteria;
a maintenance wing, where all the water, sanitation, power, and hydroponics systems are located. That is where all the food, water, and power is created to sustain the stable.

Stable 65 had all of these, and yet we were doomed to fail from the start. We could have had the best hospital equipment, straight from Bridge City School of Arcane Medicines, the strongest power armor, straight from the Ministry of Technology. There could have been magical utilities that required absolutely no maintenance- no reactor coolant, water filters, or fertiliser- and we still would be cursed to perish in horrible, painful deaths.

For that, we have Stable-Tec to thank. It turns out that those bastards had an ulterior motive for every single stable in Equestria. None of us knew it while inside, but the way every stable was run was slightly different.

Stable 29 was entirely run by a computer, which Stable-Tec told residents was controlled by them (HINT: IT WASN'T). This computer had no morality, and solved problems without considering the ethical consequences. When the water tasmanian started to fail, it began killing off "weak" residents to "preserve the stable". Eventually the entire population of the stable fell into chaos, with ponies being slaughtered in "accidents" left and right.

Stable 1 was designed to trap all of the leading members of the ministries, only set to open after two generations of dwellers had perished. That door never let anypony out, however, as the pink cloud from the balefire bomb that struck Canterlot seeped into the stable and killed everypony inside.

Stable 89 was over stocked with mass amounts of highly addictive and destructive chems, leading to the stable becoming a hub for addicts and criminals across the wasteland. A shantytown called flank grew around the stable out of the need for places to dump wasted addicts.

Stable 83- well you get the idea. Every stable had some kind of strange experiment to it. Something that could only be done to a contained populace in a controlled location. On paper, the stable's main goal may have been to preserve ponykind, but in reality it seemed to focus heavily on twisted social experiments.

* * *

WELCOME TO ROBRONCO INDUSTRIES (TM) TERMLINK

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Welcome, DOCTOR MOONLIGHT SHIMMER

1 Available record(s) in system:

Stable 65 Project Research [Log ⅞]

//coughing// Hello? //unintelligible// Is this thing working? //unintelligible// Well, //coughing// this is doctor Moonlight Shimmer. //unintelligible// As the assistant researcher for stable nineteen, it is my monthly duty to document the team’s progress in refining the stable’s procedures and policies. //coughing// This month has been a critical time for our team, as we are now only one month away from //door// //unintelligible// deadline //impact sound// //deep breathing// doctor Shimmer! You’re needed in project development immediately! //paper crumple// Now? //unintelligible// I’m in the middle of something! //impact sound// Snowfall just made a huge breakthrough on the unauthorised problem, she has a way to prevent //unintelligible// genetics! She said you had some contacts at a college in Bridge City who could help? Fine. Fine. Let me just grab //door// //unintelligible// How //impact sound// I //unintelligible// turn this thing off?

* * *

Stable 65 was no exception. We had our own twisted social experiment, one inspired by an old story ponies used to tell celebrating Hearth's Warming.

It was a touching story, about the roots of the three races, back when they were just three squabbling tribes fighting over resources. They all realise one winter they're fucked without each other and join together to survive, live happy ever after, bla bla. The moral is, teamwork can be good. Whoop de do.

Well, some sick fucker from Stable-Tec took inspiration from that and crafted up the experiment for Stable 65. The ponies in the Hearth's Warming tale fought in the start because they didn't trust each other, right? The only reason they started trusting each other was because they had no other choice; they were going to freeze or starve to death if they didn't work together. So, what if a bunch of unicorns, pegasi, and earth ponies were all put in a hole together, segregated by race into different parts of the hole, and given everything they needed to survive. Would they be able to trust each other?

* * *

RE: Message 0125C Request from Stable-Tec

[In]

To: Doctor Shimmer

From: Doctor Stitch

I’m not surprised you contacted me, considering your company’s announcement of a faculty in Bridge City in conjunction with scientists from our school. What I’m surprised about is the request you made.

While I agree, this level of genetic modification is well within my capabilities, I must question why you would need this in the form of a megaspell? And why you don’t want me to use it in person? Do I really have to point out how foalish it would be for me to give you this kind of power without knowing what you are going to do with it?

No way in hell am I going to help. Consider your request officially denied. You will have to find some other way to complete your task, whatever that really is.

P.S. Childus Deformus, seriously? I’m not a fucking idiot, I work for MoP for a reason.

Doctor Stitch
Professor of Pony Biology, Bridge City School of Arcane Medicines

* * *

There was just one issue with this experiment- the pegasi. Stable-Tec wasn't completely incompetent, they knew that packing a bunch of pegasi in a box underground would be incredibly unhealthy for them. Pegasi are used to living free, flying around in vast, open spaces. The only stables with Pegasi in them are in the mountains, with much of the stable being open flying space.

Stable 65 is situated just south of the kelp packing town of Maneterey, dug into a hillside. The Stable's barely 100 feet above sea level. There was simply no way for the stable to accommodate pegasi (in any way that didn't suck for them). However, rather than scrapping the whole idea, Stable-Tec decided to modify the experiment. Rather than having earth ponies, unicorns, and pegasi, the stable would just have earth ponies and unicorns.

It seemed like a perfect plan- if you can call purposely stirring up hatred between two groups stuck in a confined area, with enough munitions to slaughter each other many times over, following them witnessing the rest of their county burn to death in a horrifying balefire attack: perfect.

There was one issue. Two actually. They didn't fully consider the repercussions of two things; distant relatives and the ability for ponies to try and destroy what they don't understand.

* * *

RE: RE: Message 0126A Stitch Won’t Help

[Out]

To: Doctor Fall

From: Doctor Shimmer

There is, one last thing we could try.

The projections estimate anywhere from 1-3 unauthorised born in the stable over a period of 40 years. There is a very high chance any kind of hazards from a megaspell event will clear within 40 years of containment. 40 years is plenty of time to run the stable’s project as well.

We could spun this to corporate as an additional situation for the experiment? You said it yourself- we have no idea how the residents would react to a unauthorised pony. Our experiment’s potential flaw could be a potential learning experience.
The essential stable systems are already protected and the necessary protection-of-life procedures and policies could easily be added. With these in place, there is little chance either residents or unauthorised could come to harm.

We could also remove all references to unauthorised ponies in the stable’s included media and literature, to further add to the surprise of the residents at the inevitable birth.

What do you think?

Doctor Shimmer, Division 5 Assistant Researcher
Stable-Tec

* * *

My name is PG-13. That stands for pegasus thirteen. I was technically the 14th pegasus to be born in Stable 65, but I'll explain that later. As the location of my birth suggests, neither of my parents were pegasi. Nor were their parents. Or their parents-parents. Somewhere, deep in their lineage they both must have had somepony who was a pegasi.

I'm not sure why I was the one to get just the right ratio of mother's and father's genes to get wings, but I'll never regret having been blessed with this gift- for without it I would have never gotten the opportunity to escape Stable 65.

* * *

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Author's Note

WAHOO
This was fun to finally start! Thanks to Kkat for creating such an captivating universe that I just had to write a story in it. Note this is my first Fic so there's probably so many mistakes and it probably sounds like a ~~five year old~~ IDIOT wrote this. You know what you could do about that?
Leave a comment. Not just autistic internet hate. Constructive criticism would be prefered.
PEACE