Chapter One : A Tear in Paradise
Chapter One : A Tear in Paradise
Ah history, honestly one of the more important subjects all things considered. A bit too much to cover in the little time I get with the students. At least with the younger classes it’s easier; they always want to hear about ponies fighting with swords and bows, and about how they came together to fend off the evil wendigos. Better than with my older students who try their best to look like they're paying attention when they're not and ignore the point I try to make about where fighting brought us. And speaking of fighting...
“Riddle and Baton, would you two please stop fighting! If either of you say another word, I’ll march the both of you straight to the Overmares office!” All I could do was sigh to myself as the two foals straightened up. They were starting to become a problem and I really didn’t know what else to do with them.
I looked over to the clock, only to see that their little distraction had run us up to the end of class. “Ok everypony, you’re dismissed for today. Remember to finish that assignment in the pre-Celestia era so you can turn it in tomorrow.”
I could see some rolling eyes and hear some grumbles, but most of them would probably do it for fear of the Overmare coming in and reminding them of the importance of learning...Through an hour long lecture.
One by one they filed out, but I could still see two ponies that needed a bit of extra class. “Riddle,Baton, I need you two to stay behind for a couple minutes. We’re gonna have a little chat about how to act in class.”
They walked over, heads hung low. “Mind explaining to me what happened this time?”
Riddle, as always, jumped in first. “He started it! He wrote mean names about me in his notebook and showed it to me when you weren’t looking!”
Baton looked taken aback and was about to argue, but honestly, I didn’t want to stand here the next hour while they bicker like an old married couple. “Riddle, the whole ‘they started it’ play didn’t work when you were younger, it’s not gonna work now. Swift, did you write mean things about Riddle? And be honest, because you know what happens if you aren’t.”
Ears flattening to his head, he hoofed over the notebook. Ahh the fear of an Overmare lecture, what a magical problem solver. “Thank you for being honest Swift. Now both of you are in the wrong here, Riddle you’re in trouble because instead of talking to me, you just started yelling at him. Now what do we do when we’ve done wrong?”
The two looked at each other and gave their simultaneous apologies. As annoying as it was that this happened so frequently with these two, the making up part was always kind of endearing.
I gave Baton his notebook back before turning the two around. “Now run along, you’re teacher is a busy mare.” And by busy I mean really dang hungry from not eating lunch to mark essays! But what can ya do.
“Yes ma’am!” the two of them yelled as they bolted out of the classroom.
Finally, I could pack up and head to the diner to grab a bite. Hopefully, Spark was still waiting for me, and hadn't run off to go gamble with the reactor level crew again.
* * *
Walking through the stables halls after class was always peaceful. My job had the rare position of ending right before most ponies finished for the day but after all the hustle and bustle of the new shift getting up. It was just me and the peace and quiet.
It’s funny that I’d come to appreciate these calm moments so much. I still remember back when I was a filly, my mom would always be yelling at me to stop running through the halls making a racket. I had been a troublemaker, not unlike the foals I had to deal with today. Oh the number of talking tos the Overmare had to give me! Overmare Bastion had always been a sort of stable mom to all of us: caring enough to let us live pretty freely down here, but strict enough to not let chaos rule.
A swift smack to the back of my head pulled me back to reality after I had walked straight past the diner. I spun around quickly to see Spark Plug shaking her head.
“What the Tartarus, Spark?! You could’ve just called my name or something!”
She gave me a deadpan look. “I did, you dolt. And besides, that was more fun anyway! Now com’on! I’m hungry and tired and don’t feel like standing in this hall when we could just sit down!”
“Wait, did you just get here? I thought your shift was supposed to end almost an hour ago?”
Spark had already started walking back to the diner, so I just followed along. All I got out of her was a sigh before we made it to a table and took a seat.
“Ya, it was. But then we got some weird warning notices from one of the terminals and had to look into it.”
Well that’s informative. “...Aaaaaand?”
“Stars if I know, Peach! Like I said, I’d never seen that warning before so I haven’t the foggiest what in Luna’s name it actually means!”
“Well what did the warning say? That’d be a start.”
She scratched her chin before looking at her pipbuck. “Right, I actually thought to write it down for later. Uh...no, not that...Definitely not that!”
I buried my face in my hooves. “Do you ever clean that thing out?”
Her nose crinkled as she glared at her wrist. “Oh shut up, you're the nosy one who asked. Ah ha! Found it. Ok, so it said ‘Warning. Exterior damage of conduit plating. Structural weakening. Seek protocol 689-2095A.’”
Spark looked back to me while my completely blank expression could have been enough, I should still say something. “Well that’s...something!”
Her shoulders slumped and she rolled her eyes at me. “Thanks, Peach. You truly are a wealth of knowledge, you know that? Anyway, now that your nosiness has been satisfied, can we finally eat?”
The next hour went by as it usually did; me complaining about my problematic students, Spark giving rather unhelpful suggestions on the matter, and me doing the exact same for her problems. But after a while, she gave me this look. Somewhere between concern and curiosity.
“Peach, I hear you talk so much about the problem kids. And honestly… you talk about your days so- I don’t know… dismissively! I remember when you sounded excited to teach! Did something change?”
The question hit me like a brick to the face. It certainly wasn’t the conversation I was expecting to have tonight. “Oh no, it’s nothing of that sort! I guess I just spend so much time focusing on the bad students because… I feel like it’s a failing on my part. I do still love teaching!”
A smile began to pull on the corners of her mouth as I continued. “Getting to deliver knowledge to the next generation is such a rewarding thing to do! Just thinking that maybe, one day at least, they might carry that knowledge to the surface, rebuild society better than before by avoiding the mistakes of the past... It’s amazing!”
She chuckled at that “There's that enthusiasm I used to know. Maybe you just need to try and bring that kind of energy to your class more often. Who knows, maybe you’ll inspire the next 84 teacher!”
“You know, Lily Mist from my youngest class seemed pretty interested in teaching. Maybe she’ll take up the job.”
Spark burst into laughter and started getting up to leave. “She’s like six, Peach. She doesn't know what she wants to be yet! Maybe she’ll be Overmare or-”
I cut her off as I jumped from my seat looking at the clock on my pipbuck. “The Overmare! I have a meeting with her in five minutes!”
Spark said something, but I didn’t catch it because I was practically tripping over myself as I scrambled for the door. I had been so lost in our chat that I’d completely forgotten it! However, even as I sprinted full tilt down the halls, something caught my attention. A light scratching noise, not overly noticeable, but there. For a brief moment, I paused to try and see what was causing it. After a few seconds of looking, I found that it seemed to be coming from… behind the walls. It seemed minor at the moment, and I had somewhere to be, so I decided to bring it up with the Overmare at some other time. It was small anyway, and tonight she just wanted to ask about my class. So that’ll be a question for another day.
* * *
“So sorry I’m late, Overmare!” I flew into the room, only to find Bastion just sitting calmly sipping a cup of coffee.
When she saw me, she sighed and put it down. “I’m a busy mare Peachy Keen, please try to adhere to timings I give you more precisely in the future.”
I quickly took a seat in front of her desk and bowed my head. “Yes ma’am, won’t happen again.”
She leaned into her desk, that ever-evaluating gaze of hers boring into me. “So Ms. Keen, how are you finding your students this year? Any issues with the course material or other matters?”
“Not particularly. The students that proved troublesome in past years do seem to have gotten a bit better... Riddle and Baton are still an issue, but even they are starting to shape up.”
Her look softened a bit. “Ah, good news then. Well it sounds like you’re doing a fine job at your position, so keep up the good work.”
Actually, there was one thing. “I do actually have a question. I had one of my older students asking me about Celestia, and it was then that I noticed something that I’m embarrassed to have missed before now. There are some pretty major gaps in our information about her during some pivotal points in history... Do you have any idea why that is?”
From the look on her face, that would be a no. “Honestly, you probably know more than I do on the subject of what our texts include. Sadly a curse of the stable is never being able to get new sources of information. Unfortunately, we’ll have to make do with what we do know about her time as ruler.”
It was honestly the answer I had been expecting anyway. “I see… Well then, I have no further questions ma’am!”
We both stood up and she gave me a nod of her head. “Then that will be all Ms. Keen. Thank you for your time, and enjoy the rest of the night.”
* * *
Those gaps in what we know were still bothering me. I mean, I’m a teacher for Luna's sake! And I can’t even give a full history of arguably the second most important pony in our history! How could we just be miss-
The scratching was back.
It sounded louder too and I could have sworn I heard low growls, but that was probably just my imagination… hopefully. My mother always did say I had an active one. I had half a mind to turn around and march back to Bastion’s office to tell her about it… but scratching? Was I really going to knock down the door of the busiest mare in the whole stable just for some false alarm about some sounds I didn’t like? Worst case scenario, some critters had managed to dig their way into our stable and were probably just curious what it was, right? There was that incident twenty-seven years ago, where there was apparently a breach made by some giant cockroaches.
Focus, Peach. Stay in the here and now.The walls had been reinforced twice over since that accident. There’s no way anything was getting into the stable now, and eventually whatever was scratching at the walls would realize that too and scurry off to stars knows where. No, this wasn’t something to bother the Overmare about. There were more important issues to focus on.
Issues like what in Luna’s name I was going to do about Riddle and Baton. I swear those two are going to be the end of me. I needed to get them sorted out by the time my next meeting with the Overmare came around. I couldn’t have them keep disturbing class and I couldn’t have Bastion thinking I wasn’t fit for my job just because I couldn’t get two foals under control. I guess I could just try sitting them further apart...
Maybe I’d been muttering to myself or doing something strange because a security officer seemed to have taken notice of me and was heading my way, because tonight needed to be more complicated, obviously.
She stopped just shy of me. “Peachy Keen right?”
I nodded. “That would be me.”
“I was told to go and find you. Apparently one of your students was suspected of stealing an item from another resident.”
Of course. For what felt like the thousandth time tonight, my face met my hoof. “Is the suspected thief either Riddle or Baton?”
The officer looked a bit surprised and turned to her pipbuck. “Yes… one Swift Baton, age-”
“Twelve,I know.” I walked past the officer, heading in the direction of security trying my best to maintain a level head. “And of course I wasn’t done with them tonight. I know the way so let's get going.”
While we were walking, I could still hear the faint sound of scratching behind the wall every now and then. I guess I could bring it up to the guard, maybe she knows more.
“Have you guys noticed the scratching by the way?”
They nodded. “Yeah, but we think it’s just some pests again. Nothing to concern yourself with.” Well that was a relief. See Peachy? Nothing to worry about. Especially since I have two problems that don’t seem to go away no matter how hard I try.
* * *
It didn’t take long to snake through the familiar labyrinth of stable halls to reach the security office. It was always such a pain in the flank to get here since Stable Tec decided to place it right at the entrance. I suppose they had their reasons but they still could have made it a little bit easier to get to. It wasn’t often that I ended up here, so the place always seemed so alien to me. The main room was about the size of a living room, and just had the main desk, along with some seating for visitors, and lockers for the guards on shift. There was also the security chief’s office and doors to other areas like the armoury, cells, and break room. But since I was being escorted, I headed straight to Chief Lock’s office.
The door slid open to reveal her already talking with a pony I didn’t really know personally, but knew well enough as the only adult without a cutie mark. Lock had looked up just as I’d entered. “Good to see you Peachy! Sorry about the short notice.”
I took a step in the room, letting the door slide shut. “Not a problem chief.” Okay, that was a lie. It was a problem. I still had grading to do, and you know, sleep! I swear I’m going to personally kick both of their asses when they grow up! No no, it’s fine, they're just foals, I’m sure they’ll learn...eventually.
She cleared her throat. “So, to get you up to speed. Riddle Books’ father came by not long ago, telling us that Swift Baton had stolen her favorite comic. Steel Craft here was actually nearby when it happened.”
The stallion in question turned to me saying, “I overheard the argument between the two, then saw one of them that fits Baton’s description running off with something in his mouth that looked like a comic book.”
I scratched my head… Okay? “Well it sounds to me like you have everything you need, so why do you need me?”
“Peachy, I asked for you to come so we could try and gauge why it happened. They’re still foals, so I don’t want to be too harsh on them, and knowing why this happened might help.”
I guess that’s a fair reason. “Well to be honest, I don’t entirely know. Those two have been at each other’s throats for as long as they’ve been in my class. Oddly enough, I’ve spoken to their parents, and their folks get along famously.”
As I racked my brain for some reason to explain their behavior, the door behind me slammed open. The guard standing there looked panicked, more panicked than any guard I’d ever seen. “Chief Lock, we have a situation. And it sounds really bad!”
As if to back up her point, her radio crackled to life. The voice that came through was frantic and ragged from yelling, and just barely audible over the screaming in the background.“They’ve broken through into Maintenance Hall C now! We need help! Evacuate the stable! They’re fast and incre-” She got cut off by a thunderous roar that shook me to the bone.
There was screaming, then whimpering, then the most heart wrenching thing of all… silence.
Dear Luna, how I wish that’d been all because the silence didn’t last. It was followed by a sickening wet tearing and the heavy splat of meat hitting metal . The screaming quickly started back up before the radio fell silent with a sharp crackle.
The chief stared blinking at the silent metal box for a moment and then immediately hit something under her desk. The stables lights turned red and sirens started to blare. “Stay here!” she shouted as she galloped past Steel and I. “And Lily, if I give the word, evacuate the stable!”
With that, the chief was gone, leaving us with that awful screeching siren. What she had said didn’t really mean much to me at the moment. All I could think about or process were those sounds. I’m not stupid, I know what had happened to the poor guard on the other end of that radio. I just- I didn’t want to accept it.
Apparently I wasn’t the only one in shock. The officer we had been left with, Lily apparently, hadn’t done much either. If she was supposed to be guiding us, she wasn’t doing a very good job of it. I didn’t know what to do… So the three of us stood there in silence for what felt an eternity. Was Chief Lock okay? My students? Spark?! Did this have something to do with the pests scratching at the walls earlier? How did they get in? Oh Luna… I should have said something to Bastion! I was a fool, I brushed it off, and now- I shook my head. My legs were trembling but then I felt a hoof on my shoulder.
I looked over to see Steel Craft. “Look, I’m sure it’ll be okay. All of security must be headed down there. Between them and Chief Lock I’m sure they’ll take care of whatever it is.” He tried to smile, but the worry was evident. I wasn’t fully convinced, but it helped.
Well, it did until Lily’s radio went off again. We both looked at her for the news, the assurance that the breach was under control. “Lily!” Chief Lock’s voice cut through the screams. “Evacuate the stable! Get as many as you can out of here, but the moment you see me, close the door. Understand?!”I was frozen. Evacuate? Nopony had ever left the stable.
Lily looked at the radio, her mouth agape. ”Do I make myself clear?!” Lock shouted again.
The poor guardspony, jolted back to her senses. “Y-yes ma’am!”
She turned to us and gestured for us to follow her. Her eyes were panicked. “Okay, you two head to the door, it’s just down the hall. I’ll stay and send out the evacuation message and meet you there to open it.”
Finally. Something we could do other than stand around waiting and not knowing. Without a moment’s hesitation, we sprinted out of security. As we neared the door, the siren cut for a second as the PA system crackled to life. “All stable residents, we are experiencing a major breach in the lower levels. Please proceed to the entry area for evacuation.”
Once again, I was left to just sit and wait. I paced back and forth, my hooves just couldn’t stay still now. The red hue of the room and the blaring alarm kept me on edge. Where was everypony?! And what in Luna’s name had gotten into our stable! There’s no way that roar belonged to a cockroach. Not even those giant ones had made it bad enough that we had to evacuate. Whatever had gotten in, it was big, bloodthirsty, and-
A rattling to my left sent me into a panic, and my heart sank to my stomach. I started to slowly shimmy away and I looked around frantically for something to defend myself from the monster that had surely started to break in.
Steel’s head popped up from behind some boxes, a screwdriver in his mouth. He looked over at me with this quizzical look. “What? If we’re going to need to go out topside, we’ll need supplies, right?”
“Ugh, you scared the crap out of me!” I scrunched up my nose. “I thought you were one of the things in the stable. Also how can you be so calm right now?!”
He threw me a saddlebag before going back to scouring through some boxes. “Making plans to leave.”
Ah yes, very insightful. “What’s that supposed to mean?”
He stopped looting for a moment. “Fixating on what’s happening would drive me crazy. So I’m focusing on preparing for the outside world. Now, do you wanna help? We probably don’t have much time before Lily comes to open the door.”
It seemed maddening to me… but he had a point. It actually helped clear my mind a bit more. I looked around the room, realizing that I’d never actually been here before. It wasn’t that big, and mainly consisted of a couple steps that led down to a small walkway that ended at the huge cog-like door. To the left and right of that little walkway were small landings with an assortment of shelves and metal boxes, the ones Steel was currently rooting through. Now that I felt like I had my bearings back, I grabbed the saddlebag and made my way to some boxes. I think this room was meant to be a staging area for expeditions to the surface, because I found plenty of useful items. Canned food, matches, a sleeping bag, and even a healing potion! I popped open another box and spotted a survival knife. Not really my thing but I should probably take it.
“Both of you, get to the door!”
Before I could grab the knife, Lily had flown into the room. She looked petrified and started quickly entering a password into the control panel next to the steps. Steel looked at me, and we both threw on our bags and ran to the big metal door. It didn’t even register in my mind that nopony was behind her. Nopony.
Lily pulled the lever. A large device hinged down from above us and connected to the door. Steam shot out from the vents on the side, the door’s protesting shriek nearly burst my eardrums as it was slowly pulled towards us and then rolled to the right, A gust of air rushed in. It smelled stale and old. The door finished rolling and revealed a dark cave, and thanks to the bright red lights above us, I couldn’t really see far into the cave.
Steel nudged my shoulder and the two of us hopped out of the stable and turned to wait for Lily. I couldn’t see what she was looking at exactly, but she was staring back into the hall, mumbling something. Suddenly she pulled the lever back up, holding it there until we heard the door start to roll back into place. She looked back into the hallway one more time before she started to run towards the steps down to the walkway. But then her security vest caught on the control panel. She struggled with the vest, and looked at us pleadingly.
I started to trot towards her, but felt a hoof go around my chest to keep me back. I looked over my shoulder to see Steel gritting his teeth with a pained expression carved into his face. “Don’t. We need to get out of here. If you go in there and that door closes, we’re as good as dead!”
Once again, he had a point.
An awful, shitty, good point. I turned away, I couldn’t bare to look at the mare I was leaving for dead. Only a few steps into the cave, I heard her scream and I made the horrible mistake of turning to look.
The door was just about in place to start sealing shut, but through the fleeting crack between the door and its frame, I saw it. The creature stood on two legs… it looked a bit like the pictures of dogs I had seen in our books only... wrong. It’s snout had long jagged teeth sticking out, sharp scales like plates grew out of its body in certain places, It’s tail didn’t have any fur and I could see the bones, It’s claws were long like kitchen knives and dripping with… Lily’s blood. The seven foot tall monstrosity had swiped its claws through her like a hot knife through butter. And the last thing I saw before the door shut was its piercing bloodshot eyes as they stared back at me.
* * *
Thankfully, once the door had shut we were plunged into darkness. Which meant our night vision kicked in, and we were able to navigate through the cave. It was pretty unremarkable, and as much as I was enjoying the silence for a moment, I was happy when Steel decided to strike up some conversation.
“So what do you think it’s going to be like up there? On the surface I mean.”
I guess I had never really thought of that. “Maybe it’ll be like the pictures in my books? Trees and grass and green everywhere?”
He rubbed his neck and gave a forced chuckle. “I don’t know about that. From what I remember in history class, Equestria and the zebra’s dropped balefire pretty indiscriminately. I just hope it isn’t just blasted hellscape.”
And with that, the conversion ended, leaving it deafeningly quiet again. We walked for about fifteen minutes in silence before we both spotted a wooden looking door in the distance.
Once we got close, Steel spoke again. “Hey, before we go out there, I gotta ask. How are you doing?”
I had spent the whole walk trying to ignore everything I had just seen. And with that simple question, it all came back at once. The one that hit hardest, was the last thing I saw of Lily, the mare I left to die being cleaved in half. Blood and insides turned outside. The memories of that were more than I could handle.
I quickly ran over to a small cluster of rocks against the side of the cave, and emptied the contents of my stomach onto the ground. After throwing up all I had in me, I just collapsed onto the ground and sobbed. I must have looked like a filly, but he just walked over and sat next to me.
He started to gently stroke my mane. “Take your time Peachy. We’ll head out when you're ready. For now, just try and relax.” Even with everything going on, Steel was calm and here is was reassuring me. I felt so small next to him.
And in that moment, it hit me. The realization of what that stupid metal door closing meant for all the ponies still inside, for all the ponies I’d grown up with. All the students I’d taught. My friends, my family, my entire world trapped behind that door with the butchers that would tear them to shreds like they had done to Lily. I felt sick to my stomach and would have thrown up if I hadn’t already done so. Instead I just laid there, crying my eyes out like one of my younger students. Thinking about them only made me cry all the harder.
I don’t know how long we stayed there like that, but once I had composed myself enough to talk again, I sat up. “They're all gone. Everypony I knew in the stable is gone now.” I don’t know why I said that. There was no way Steel hadn’t already realized that. Maybe I needed to say it out loud just this once for it to finally finish sinking in.
Steel managed a smile. In the face of all this death behind us and the unknown in front of us, he could still smile. “Well that just means we gotta stick together. It’ll be you and me against whatever it is out there right?” That made me want to try to smile as well.
“Yeah.” I looked down at my hooves and nodded. The smile wouldn’t come right now. I still needed some time.
“You feel ready to move? Cause we should probably get going.” Right. I didn’t know if that monster was going to come after us, but I didn't stick around to find out. I still wasn’t in a great place, but I was feeling good enough to move again.
“Alright, let’s head out.”
We both got up and headed to the wooden door, pausing as we reached it. We both looked to each other and nodded. I reached out and grabbed the door, throwing it open, and we stepped outside.
I was greeted by the dark colours of… night.
As I looked into a seemingly endless horizon, I made the mistake of looking up to where the roof would be. I fell back onto my butt as my stomach twisted from vertigo as my heart sank. The sky fell away from me, just a massive sea of grey that stretched forever. I’d read about it in books, seen pictures of it too, but they’d all failed to show how vast it was. How far that grey blanket of darkness stretched;. I couldn’t stop myself from looking up, it just kept going. I spun around, twisted my head every which way, and it was there, all around me ready to either swallow me up or crash down on me. Maybe both at once.
In all of the pictures there weren't any where the clouds filled the entire sky without even so much as a break, but that was research for another time. First was getting my bearings.
I’m not quite sure what I imagined when I would think about the world above, but this wasn’t it. A field of dead grass and dirt stretched out from the mouth of the cave we stood at. The land was featureless, with sparse trees that looked gnarled and dead. I had to keep forcing myself not to look back up at that massive sky that demanded my absolute attention. To the left and a long way into the distance, I could make out the looming shape of mountains. Just on the horizon to the right, I was able to make out a much smaller group of mountains, and there was just enough light that they seemed to be a pink hue to them. Strange.
“Hey Peachy, look just northeast of us! I can make out what looks like a small town.” I squinted at that grey landscape and started looking in all directions, but I wasn’t sure where to look and everything looked like rocks and trees.
I sighed. “I’m such an idiot, I forgot to bring a compass of my own!”
He looked at me like I was joking, before realizing I was serious. “Peachy, activate your Eyes Forward Sparkle, it has a compass feature.”
Oh... So I am an idiot. How could I forget that E.F.S. existed? I activated the feature on my pipbuck. A small compass wheel popped up on the screen and I looked to the northeast. Soon enough, I saw I realized what I had thought were rocks were actually the tops of roofs in the distance.
“Huh. Well it’s more direction then we had a minute ago. Time to hit the road?”
He smiled. “Yeah, let’s go see what this crazy new world has to offer.”
I don’t think what happened on this night will ever actually leave me, but I think that’s for the best. It’ll stay in my mind; a lesson that at any moment, life can rip everything away from you. But life moves on, and I had to either move with it, or get left behind.
