Fallout Equestria: Desperados

Fallout Equestria: Desperados

Distortion, Part 3

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"When we all felt safe enough for it, we conducted a few experiments with the strange magic around Slowtrot. We achieved mixed results, but a consistent pattern. In the experiments, two things became apparent. One was that other magic stuck with him. it, fortunately, was more humorous than concerning most times. Two, often when a time loop is going to be formed, he would appear a few seconds before it happened, making the event inevitable and always surprising.

There was one other thing that would come up now and then, and it was him seeing the world slightly differently then it was. It would only happen in old places ponies rarely tread, as though the old stagnant magic had memories in which he could see.

Unfortunately magical studies are far beyond me and what I can theorize is only scraping the bottom of the barrels for an explanation. Still, if this world is all magic, then what does that make those who can tap into that magic/ Gods, monsters, or would they just become part of this world as though they were a force of nature itself?" ~ Azure Dice

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Star, Harp and I decided to eat all the food packets I still had. There was no way to know when the next time we would get to eat good fresh food like this ever again. We also were going to need the energy from it if we were going to deal with Spritz.

“Slowtrot, you say that this stuff is kept fresh… through time magic?” Harp asked before biting down on the burger. A look of satisfaction was on her face as she chewed. One of her eyes was still bloodshot, and would bleed a little, but had been getting better.

My own eyes were not much better, having woken up with some dried blood under them. Having checked my own health and Harps, the Lazarus Ambrosia was labeled as a minor mutation that was mostly beneficial, but didn’t stop us from worrying about it. As for the Peitho, it was labeled as a type of chem, of which we were still coming down from.

“Ya, the kelpie told me it was some sort of contained time loop. All real crazy stuff that’s beyond me,” I further explained. They both were interested in my trip and what Thorn was up to. For Star, she wanted to know more because Victoria was planning to go to Despoines and wanted to take Star with her. Harp, on the other hoof, seemed more concerned with the magic that was going on there.

“From what I remember about the history of magic, and my own ancestored experimenting with it themselves, time magic was always treated as the most dangerous of all,” Harp commented, then tried a ketchup dipped hay fry. Her eyes lit up as she bit onto it.

A slurp came from Star as she finished a soda that came within the packet. It was called Medical Fizz. it tasted like a strong and sweet ginger ale. “I thought ya said that time magic didn’t do anything. Like it fixes itself.”

“Mostly that’s true,” Harp answered. “It mainly makes time loops or unstable branches. But that doesn't mean it can't be harmful, such as using it to learn secrets best forgotten. Or getting stuck in a time distortion where everything moves at a far slower rate around you with no way to stop it. It’s why Celestia had any books on time magic heavily restricted to all but the top magic users in Equestria. My ancestor, Majesty, had written an arcane science article on the subject of time magic and why it is unfit for public use.”

I swallowed my piece of fish burger. “Oh, I remember, she was compared to Ministry Mare Twilight in being super magical. Possibly even more magical than her. Rumor was that she had secretly become Celestia's new apprentice, as Twilight was almost never seen with Celestia when she started her ministry, but Silver was.”

Harp looked concerned for a moment, staring at her bottle of soda with great interest. “Nothing in Silver's jornal said anything about being Celestia's apprentice. She mostly only ever wrote about having tea with the princess or how the war made her depressed.”

She then took a long sip of the soda, giving a slight squeal of enjoyment. “As for the article on time magic. Silver Magesy had thoroughly researched how prone to error that kind of magic was and how even if several ponies used the magic at the same time, in the same way, they always saw something slightly different. It was just an unreliable form of magic. Even the best magic users from ancient times, Starswirl the Bearded, gave up on it. Supposedly, the Ministries had tried to use that magic, and as we know, Stable-Tec did as well.”

“Ya. I’m still suffering from it’s after effects,” I commented.

Putting the bottle down, Harp then sighed. “Ya. The R&D Stable was a mess. It was infested with Twitcher Ghouls, as they were called. By just touching a pony, they could rapidly age or de-age a pony till they were dead. Then there’s the nightmare that was Labs D. It’s still all a blur, but time was so distorted there that it was worse than pure chaos.”

She then picked up the empty paket and looked at the magical symbols inside. Her nose scrunched up. “I don’t like this. Not at all. This magic feels off. Alive, but also not here.

“Anyways, if time magic could have been made so convenient, then the Ministry of Arcane Science would have used it a long time ago. Whatever is going on in Despoines, I can’t imagine it’s anything good.”

“And why the fuck is she calling herself Redrum? It sounds bad ass, but why?” Star asked while some food was still in her mouth.

“Maybe Quicktrot knows. She does have a part of Thorn’s soul as well as some of her memories.” I answered.

“Or we could just avoid that blight on the world,” Harp grumbled.

We spent a moment in silence before we all nodded in agreement. There was already enough trouble we were dealing with. Chasing after an abomination didn’t need to be one. We were no heroes.

Finishing our food and drink, we all felt far better than we should reasonably be. Now it was time to deal with the problem at hoof, starting with meeting the other prisoners on our side of the stable.

Trotting down to the atrium, the escaped prisoners had the same idea as we had and were currently eating a hearty portion of our side's food, of which we were not going to stop them. They needed the energy, even if the food they had was close to garbage.

Cherry and Bitter trotted over to us, already looking a little better than yesterday.

“So, enjoying your fest?” Star asked.

A slightly awkward smile formed on Cherry's face. “It’s shitty food, but being able to fill our bellies for once has put everypony in a better mood. Even those roasted rad-roches and what little we found in the cafetera were a big help. That said, it ain't going to last. The prison was already getting low on food when we all made our move, so we got like three days at best.”

Bitter nodded. “Same for our ammunition and explosives. Spritz’s followers had already grabbed most of the guns off the NCR during the chaos. What weapons we have found here are in no way usable. Same for medical supplies.”

“Maybe the locked rooms have some things still in good condition?” I asked out loud.

“Maybe.” Harp said as she scanned the atrium. “It looks like nopony has been down here since the door first closed. Stables were made to last, so anything that was properly stored would theoretically be in usable condition. Stable 50’s storage room could keep any preserved foods safe indefinitely, so it should be the same herel.”

“Also, it’s Stable-Tec. Those ponies didn't mess around when it came to making things last.” I added.

We looked back at Cherry and Bitter. Harp then gave them an order. “Alright, we need everypony to split into three groups. One to keep an eye on Spritz and her followers. Another to work on getting the rooms near the front open. Then a third to go scavenging the rest of the stable, along with clearing out the bugs.”

The two looked at each other then smiled before trotting back to the other escaped cons.

“So we really have become their leader,.” I commented.

“It’s that or Spritz,” Star said flatly.

“Fair enough,” I said with a sigh.

It didn’t take long for the groups to form up with the largest being the watch team led by Star and Tire Fire. It was up to them to keep an eye on Spritz and her followers. Incidentally, they also got all the rifles so that we could maintain some projection of power.

The next and smaller group was going to try and open the locked doors as well as take care of any odd jobs needed. With Harp in charge, I was sure they were going to deal with any negotiations if they would come up. Pilfer and Filch were obviously part of this group. Their skills as thieves would hopefully make short work on the old rusted doors. Cherry was also working under Harp, doing something about keeping the morale up until Spritz was dealt with. She had taken over one of the rooms on the second floor of the atrium along with a few other mares who were part of her gang.

That left me in charge of the rest. We were given a few pistols and improvised weapons. Our job to clear out the rest of the stable and find anything useful. Amralt and Bitter had joined me, of which having the big yak at my back made me feel a little safer. I had suggested maybe Star could do this, as fighting was her thing, but she then reminded me of her evil eye, of which she could use to defuse any fight that anypony tries to start. So I took a pistol and accepted my role.

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First on our list, we all had entered residential from the second floor. I had decided it would be better if we all stuck together and worked our way down, no need to risk an accident right now. A few of the scavenging team puffed up their chest, confident that they didn’t need to be so cautious. But they quickly decided to fall back in line when I put the freeky bunny mask on. The thing making me seem more dangerous then I really was. It was dumb, but it helped give me some athority with them.

The decayed hall of the dead stable wias silent for all except the clicking of bugs, in which a few ran to greet us as soon as we saw them.

We all made quick work of them, as everypony knew how to fight better than me, and a bug was no real threat to them. One of the ponies banged the dead rad-roches, of which I chose to pretend to not see. I really hope that the storage room was filled with food, because if not, we will all be eating roaches soon.

When we finally got to the main bend into residential, it looked like it split into two sections. Here I felt more confident in splitting up since we were at least able to hear each other in case something happens. This was also where we began to see posters plastered all over the walls. They were similar to the propaganda posters from the Ministry of Image, but instead of being anti-zebra, they were anti-other stable dwellers.

One poster warned ponies about the reds trying to sneak in and sabotage their side. Another was about them trying to poison the food on this side. There were also a few posters that were not talking about the other “red” ponies, but it was about how they were better in every way.

As we trotted further, the posters only seemed to get worse, depicting the ponies in red as some sort of sub-species of a pony. More a monster or beast than a real pony. It was like whoever had made all these had nothing better to do then pump out more and more hate.

“This is why you ponies messed everything up,” Bitter grumbled. “Always with them this, and they that. We Zebra would never fall into such a state.”

I wanted to counter Bitters accusation, but having lived it, she was not wrong.

A chuckle came from Amralt. “Zebra is true about pony, Zebra is not true about zebra.”

“Oh? What’s that supposed to mean, you big furry fuck?” she snapped back at him.

“Only that zebra is just as bad at smashing old things as ponies are,” he answered as he then ripped one of the old posters off the wall then tore it in half. “Zebras talk about honor and ancestors, much like yak. But unlike yak, honor and ancestors are the rules. It leads them. Yak’s, on the other hoof, see honor as a way to show respect, and ancestors as those to remember and learn from. Ponies hold onto old things and let them rule them, just like zebras.”

Amralt then looked down at Bitter, his smile now small. “Has Bitter ever been to zebra land? Seen how zebras there live? Or is zebra holding onto old memories left by ancestors, following them as though ancestors still live and still rule over Bitter?”

She snached the torn poster and ripped it into smaller pieces. “Fuck you! I know who I am and who they are. Let's just do what we came here to do.”

We entered what was the stable dwellers living quarters. It was a long walkway with ten doors on one side, a balcony in the middle that gave us a view of the floor below, and ten more doors on the other side. Stranger was that it didn’t seem as decayed as the rest of the stable. A bit worn, but not dead. There were Hearts Warming Eve decorations being hung between the balcony. Toys were left haphazardly along the food.

Picking up a buck ball, a small hoof reached out to grab it.

“Mister, please don’t tell my dad I was playing around instead of studying. He will be really mad if you do,” a small colt requested of me. He was likely no older than seven years old.

“Slowtrot!” Bitter said as she shook my shoulder. “You still there?”

The ball in my hoof was now deflated. The hallway just as decayed as the rest of the stable.

“Ya,” I answered slowly. “Just…” I trail off as I look over into the first room. I could see the skeleton of a foal under a desk. “Just hard to take it in,” I finally finished.

I trotted over to the long dead foal, passing him his buck ball. “Here you go. I’ll make sure to not tell your dad.”

Taking a deep breath, I then turned around to look at the others. “Let's do our best to not disturb the dead too much.”

Bitter and Amralt looked at me with some concern, but then nodded in agreement.

Our scavenging yielded little of anything useful as we began to check the rooms one by one. Some old stable barding, bedding that was not completely rotten through, and a few pipbuck 2000’s that could possibly be fixed up.

No weapons or food could be found, but there were plenty of rad-roaches around. Bitter was sure she could turn a lot of the old furnishings into weapons if we were so desperate for them.

As I trotted into another room, things again looked clean and well lit. An unfamiliar mare's voice then spoke up,. I was slightly distorted and muffled. “Did you hear? Pink Puff has been sharing letters with a stallion from the other side. So scandalous!”

The lights then dimmed, and the room looked decayed again. Like the other rooms, there was nothing of use to us here. Just a skeleton huddled up on a rotten bed and some more stable barding. I did find some old nightwear that had been chewed up a bit and some other mare’s clothing. It was not much, but I was sure some of the mares may like some new clothing, though I’ll be hoofing them over to Star first, just to be safe.

There was also a working terminal in the room. Most I’ve seen had burnt out long ago. Likely it may have been on for far longer than they should have been. Tuning it on, I found a long line of digital mail that was being sent back and forth from here. It went back years, and most looked corrupted. So, to sate my curiosity, I looked at the last few messages sent.

Tart Jam to Candy Corn - “Can you believe Pink Puff? I keep telling her to stop sending letters to that stallion. It was fun at first, but everypony is starting to get really riled up because of it. I think it’s because she's using those posters to make the letters, and the reds do not like what they see.

Candy Corn to Tart Jam - “Ya. She has a lot of nerve. Turns out the stallion's name is Root Beer, some gangster wannabe. My stallion got into a fight with him down in maintenance when he tried to sneak a letter back. I even saw what that letter was written on. It was a poster depicting us as some ignorant cultists. Pink Puff has got to realize there's no good in him. Where did we go wrong? I want our friend back.”

Candy Corn to Tart Jam - “Fuck! Nopony saying anything. Even security won't let us say anything or leave the atrium right now. But I’m sure I heard gunfire up near the stable door. I think the reds have finally gone insane. Everyponies is worried and the reds on the other side of the window keep looking at us. Is Pink Puff with you in residential? I know it’s her fault. You need to send her to the overmare. Maybe, I don’t know, maybe if she wants to be with one of them. Then she can just go stay on their side.”

Tart Jam to Candy Corn - “No. She’s not here. Ponies even tore up her room and found more of those damned letters, too. Scared her mother to death. They're mad. Real mad. I know we haven't been on good terms with Puff lately, but I don’t want to see her get hurt. I’m scared. If I say anything, then they might get mad at me next.”

I shut the terminal off, finally starting to figure out what had happened here. As I left the room, I could hear the faint sound of a mare crying. The feeling of fear passed through me.

“Sorry for scaring you, miss.” I said, hoping to quell that feeling.

Picking up my pace in hopes to get out of here sooner than later, my own feeling of wrongness must have been easy to read as Amralt stopped me.

“Pony Slowtrot is not looking well. Should pony take a break?” he asked, concen in his voice.

“No. I probably don’t, and no. We should keep going, Amralt. Let’s just say this place is… not right, but we need to finish looking around and clear out the bugs,” I told him.

Amralt looked around. A happy smile on his face turned stern along with a sense of sorrow. “Old yak tradition to smash home of a yak who had died. It’s to help yak move on after death. Some yaks will stay after death if yak have a place to return to. Some lost, others attached. By smashing Yaks home, Yak is free to move on. Here, ponies died, but home remains. This is not a good place, yak thinks.”

I nodded. “I think you might be right about that my friend.”

The second floor was soon cleared. We began on the first floor with much of the same results. Stable barding, bedding, some random bits of clothing and then the odd pipbuck 2000. I caught one of the mares with us wearing a random bunch of clothing. Nightwear with socks under a tattered stable barding.

They had a laugh as she teased me by trying to seduce me. It failed, but I would have lied if I said that the mare didn’t look good in it. I was just not interested in sleeping with an escaped criminal or catching what STD’s she might have.

We quickly went through the rooms. At that point we werew mostly looking for just bugs or pipbucks rather than anything else. I then found what was most likely Pink Puff’s room. Unlike the other rooms, this one was a mess. The bed was thrown over. All the drawers were open and trash was all over the place.

Seeing a folded poster on the ground, I picked it up and saw writing on the back.

“Your eyes are like the golden artificial sun that feeds us our apples.

Your coat is like the orange glow of heated metal.

Your mane, a pink cloud that brings happiness.

Let me tell you the ways I love you.”

...

I stopped reading poor attempts at poetry in the love letter. The poor stallion was even worse than me at trying to woo a mare. Turning the letter over, I look at the propaganda poster it was written on.

It shows a blue pony holding an apple with a skull and crossbones on it and passing it to a smaller red pony. Text under the poster, it reads “Don't trust them. Everything they touch is poison.”

Dropping the letter, I turned to leave the room. Clearly it had nothing we could use.

“It’s her fault. Where are you hiding that treacherous whore?!” a warped and muffled voice yelled out in anger from the room.

Looking back, I saw a swirl of mist and the outline of ponies in the motion of throwing things around. Among the outlines. I saw one crawling to a side room of that ruined room. I knew it was a bad idea, but I trotted to that room.

Opening the door, the second bedroom was not in the same disorder as the main room. On the bed was a skeleton holding a picture frame. The room itself was painted with bright colors and had several long faded paintings sitting on shelves. All the artworks were of landscapes, but the coloring was off, as though the pony who painted it had never seen the outside before… likely they never had.

“Sorry for disturbing you,” I said before finally leaving.

With both floors done and what rad-roches we could find now dead, we returned to the atrium with what little we could find. At the very least the residential area was clear, and if the other ponies wanted to, they could pick a room for themselves.

Personally, I didn’t want to go back there.

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Star Charter grinned as she looked at the mare who had dressed herself up. “Well it’s no guns or food, but at least we can have some style.” she commented.

An excited looking Cherry rushed down the stairs. She grabbed the dressed up mare then looked at me. “Oh please tell me you found more,” she begged hopefully.

I nodded and tossed over one of the bags filled with barding and other clothing, as did the rest of my team.

Cherry dug into the bag. She pulled out random bits of cloth, looking quite happy now. “Oh my! It’s all still in relatively good condition. Just needs a little bit of magic to patch them up. Oh yes.” Whistling sharply, several mares quickly trotted over. “Ladies, we got some work to do.”

Star and I watched as most of them then followed Cherry upstarts and into the room that she claimed. This included a few of the ponies from my team and hers.

“So, what else did ya find?” Star asked.

I pulled out one of the pipbuck 2000’s. “We found a bunch of these, some bedding materials, and enough rad-roches to have a feast.”

She nodded. “You should take those pipbuck’s to Harp. She might know what we can do with them. Her team has already gotten into security, so now might be the best time.”

Gathering the pipbucks, I told the rest of my team to take a break and trotted my way to Harp.

Entering through the open door of security, it was just as rusted as the rest of the stable was with the same stagnant air. The place was fairly spacious all considering with the front part having two desks with ancient paperwork still piled on it. Further back was what looked like a locker room and an armory. Off to the side was a small prison where a lone skeleton sat.

“Let me out! We didn’t do anything, It’s their fault! My daughter is just being tricked by that red bastard!” An angry voice yelled out. It was muffled and distorted as I saw a mist like finger bang at the prison bars.

“You alright, Slowtrot?” Harp's voice took my attention away, returning to a still quiet room. “You look a bit pale.”

I sighed. “Well, I don’t know. I think I’m seeing ghosts, or I am going crazy.”

Harp’s eyes shifted to the prison for a moment. The one bloodshot eye she had was a bit better now, but twitched a little as she strend them. “Who knows. The magic here is very off. It also moves around, as though it has life, but it’s very much stagnant.” She then patted me on the shoulder. “Let's just say you're not going crazy just yet.”

“And how can you be sure of that?” I asked.

She looked at me. Her eyes reflected a sense of worry and dread. “It’s not my first time in a place like this. Similar feeling with the ancient dead all around me. My friend… she was seeing things, though she didn’t want to tell me.” Harp paused for a moment. The dread in her eyes grew a little. “That was also when her magic started to change.”

Shaking her head, the more calm expression returned to her face. “Just trust me, places like this tend to play tricks on the mind... So did you find anything?”

Unsure how to respond to most of what she said, I just gave her the bag of pipbucks. “Not too much. We figured you might be able to use this stuff. So, how is scavenging going here?”

Her eyes lit up as she pulled out a pipbuck. “Oh, nice! If we can get some pipbuck tools, I might be able to fix these babies up.”

Putting the pipbuck back, Harp then pointed to the locker room and armory. “Pilfer and Filch are currently trying to crack open a few locks. As soon as we get our hooves on some guns and armor, the sooner we can relax a bit.”

“Solid plan. Then should I take the team to maintenance now?” I asked.

Harp took a moment to think, then shook her head. “No. There's a door to the other side of the stable there, so you might run into Spritz’s group down there. I’m thinking, once we're more secure here, we can send Star down with a few fighters, just in case. You should go to the orchard next. The Overmare’s terminal had a note about keeping some important stuff in a room back there. Something for special occasions.”

Sounded good enough, but now I had another question. “Say, did the overmare’s terminal have anything about what happened here? Like what killed everypony?”

She looked down, a sense of sadness on her face. “Nothing outright saying what they did, but I was able to put the pieces together. I don’t know why, but it seemed that the overmare had the ability to gas the other side, and possibly the other side did too. The last entry was about her going to the trigger room to threaten the other side to stand down… they clearly didn’t and they both killed each other.”

It put a horrible taste in my mouth. “Why would Stable-Tec even set that…”

My words tailed off as I remembered watching the video of Apple Bloom apologizing to Healing Herbs for leaving her with the burden of fixing the stables. She had let a bad idea take over, and now the stables would harm far more than they would save. It was a message ment in case Applebloom never made it to the R&D Stable, it left Healing Herbs to take up the responsibility. Phobetor had ensured that would never happen, both by possessing Healing Herbs, and by using me to delete the video left for her.

“Right. The stables, in the end, were not made to save anypony, just to conduct stupid experments.” I said with a huff.

Harp now looked confused. “What do you mean?”

Taking a deep breath, I then explained. “It was something I found in the R&D Stable, a message from Apple Bloom. It seems that they wanted to not just save ponies, but change them. Make them better. I think she didn’t realize how big of a mistake that was until it was too late. She said something about having two large airships ready to be used to fix the stables in case the war ended the way it actually did.”

Harp went slack jaw for a moment before face hoofing. “I know those ships. They never left the Marewaii Islands… wait, no. One of the ships has actually been spotted on the west coast. The one the DJ mentioned.”

“So over two hundred years late to help anypony,” I noted flatly.

Her ears drooped as she sighed. “I know, but evepony thought nopony else survived. The Islands were hit so hard it was a miracle that the metro even held out the way it did.”

This time I patted her on the shoulder. “Better late than never.

“Say, once we get to the west, maybe you can give me a tour of the Marewaii Islands. I never actually got to enjoy my time there the last time I was there.”

She then gave me an awkward smile. “Funny, that. We can even visit your grave.”

I don’t know why, but that made me chuckle. “Now that would be interesting to see.”

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Having gathered what ponies were available, we entered the long dead orchard of the Stable. It was all dimly lit. The sun sphere which was meant to give nature-like light had long since gone dark, thus turning what should be a life sustaining place into a creepy dead forest.

The rad-roaches had infested this area too, but they seemed more scared of us here. Many were running away into some vents. The few that sayed to fight were quickly killed and bagged.

A loud crack spooked everypony as one of the dead apple trees cracked under Amralt strength.

“What! I wanted to see if they could be smashed good. They smash okay.” Amralt told us.

It gave me an idea. “Say Amralt, can you keep smashing them? We can at least use them as firewood. Everypony else, help gather the pieces.”

Bitter trotted up to me with a flat look on her face. “You sure? Better to clear this area out first. I mean, this place just gives me a bad feeling.”

Looking around, I could see dark shadows dash between the trees. Some with white eyes.

Nodding, I told her, “Ya, I know. But they can't hurt us… I hope.”

She cocked a worried eyebrow at me, then followed as I continued to the back.

There was one door at the back of the orchard. It was for apple storage. Expecting the smell of piles of two hundred year old rotting apples, I covered my muzzle and opened the door. What greeted Bitter and I was more stagnant air, just like the rest of the stable.

The Zebra trotted in first, looking around. “I guess even time destroyed the rancid stench of rot.” She knocked over a crate, spilling dust and what looked like sticks. “Here's what's left of the apples. I don’t think we can eat them.”

Totting to myself, the two of us looked around. We found mostly empty boxes. Our luck then turned around when we found a bunch of containers listed as emergency preservatives. It was filled with jars of apple slices soaked in some sort of preservative fluid. But that still didn’t mean they were edible, so we Ro, Sam, Bowed, for who takes a bite.

I lost.

What entered my mouth was the most bland tasting, textureless apple I had ever had the displeasure to eat. But it was edible.

“Damn. This is about as bad as the prison food,” Bitter complained as she finished eating one of the slices. “But it should buy several more days at least.”

“That’s good news. Go tell the others. Maybe we can serve this with the rad-roches,” I told Bitter before looking around a bit more to see if there was anything else to find.

Something eventually caught my eye. It was two out of the place barrels with several tubes and wires connecting them. The thing was hidden behind a few of the large preservative containers, just out of sight of anypony not looking for something. Next to it were a few crates filled with sparkle-cola bottles, but the liquid in them was mostly clear. The caps were slightly damaged.

Opening one of the bottles, the smell of booze hit my nose along with a faint hint of apple. Taking a sip, the stuff was strong. Real strong, and not that bad.

“It will be okay, my sugar bun,” a wispy voice of a stallion caught my ears.

“You sure? They seemed so angry with me. I’m scared.” This time it was a wispy mare’s voice.

“Ya, sugar. I got a plan, you see. We’re ditching this joint, you and me. We just need to wait for them to calm down and run for it,” The stallion said as I looked around for the voices.

“But you don’t know what's out there,” the mare said.

Getting closer, I found two skeletons embracing each other. A smaller skeleton had a blue armband on and was wearing a pink tattered dress under her stable barding. The other larger skeleton had a red armband over a black jacket that was over his stable barding. I was sure that they were Pink Puff and Root Beer, the two having spent their last moments in each other's hooves.

“I don’t care what's out there. Not as long as I have you,” the voice of Root Beer trailed off.

“Yes. So long as I have you, I can do it,” Pink Puff’s voice faded, agreeing as though chasing the voice of Root Beer.

Sighing, I took a step back and went to grab some of the apple booze. I was going to need some after today, and I know everypony was going to be ecstatic to have some as well.

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“The idea is that we create that same atmosphere as the war, but between just ponies. Both overmare’s will be given a key in which will release a gas on one side of the stable, in which they are to be told that it is to protect them from aggression from the other side. To keep the other side in check, so to say. The ability to print propaganda posters will be given freely to each side and contact between them will be limited. My hope is that they will learn to break through the propaganda and become one stable. If they do that then there's hope that the war will not happen again. But if they were to fail and make the same mistakes as we have, well then good riddance. The gas key can only work if both are used, so one side can't just kill the other off. Meaning if they use it, they are signing their own deaths as well.

Oh Scootaloo, are we really doing the right thing here? Why use actual gas? Why not just send part poppes down? It feels like we're just dooming Equestria even more than it already is.” ~ Apple Bloom.