The cold mountain air made me shiver as I trekked across the mountain pass getting ever closer. The bandages across my wings slowly squeezed my body as I walked. The final bounty I thought as I made my way ever closer to where the whole thing would end. All of my time in the wasteland leading up to this one moment. I watched my breath freeze in the air before me as I thought of those I lost. As I came around the final bend I saw him. Finally, it was just me, him, and the audience of the dead in the mountain graveyard. I knew that today this was going to end…

A loud thud startled me from my sleep. I quickly raised my head and looked around to see if I could spot the reason I wasn't asleep. Scanning the room for the perpetrator I could hear some muttering outside the door. Suddenly the door sprung open assaulting my eyes with the bright stable lights. Quickly I shut my eyes and covered them with my dark grey wings as I let out a groan. Quickly after the eye destruction, I heard somepony enter.

“Oh sorry Moon forgot about the whole sensitive eyes thing,” said a voice. A voice I knew all too well, Sky Kicker a pegasus, fellow security pony, and my best friend in the stable.

“Oh you knew you just wanted to be a dick” I mumbled back slowly letting opening my eyes to get used to light

“Ok, you got me.” Sky chuckled

I groaned as I opened my eyes too much causing the light to sting them. “Is that the only reason you came here, if so you are a dead pony” I mumbled through my wings, dang light-sensitive eyes.

“Oh yeah, I almost forgot that your shift is in 5 minutes.”

“Haha, Sky very funny. I don’t work on Wednesdays dumbass.” this prick, I mean waking me up on my day off was one thing but then trying to convince me that I have work to… asshole.

“Uhh moon its Tuesday”

“No, it's not its Wednesday and I'm gonna prove you wrong,” I said looking towards my pipbuck flipping to the date. “See its wednesdayyyy…'' I said slowly, dragging out the Wednesday. Looking at my pipbuck I could see in amber letters that it was in fact Tuesday. “Oh… oh shit I'm gonna be late for work!” I yelled as I scrambled out of bed, eyes only slightly burning now as I ran around the room looking for a clean set of stable barding.

“This is what I was trying to tell you.” Sky said, shaking his head as he watched me scramble into some barding. “Good luck Shield Star looked like she was in a bad mood today.”

I watched as Sky left walking down the hallway thinking about how doomed I was. There was one pony in this vault who scared me and it was Shield Star. She was in charge of security and that thestral took her job very seriously. And anypony who didn't get punished. I was no stranger to these punishments, one time when I was younger and just joined security I had overslept, and the punishment she gave me, I made sure to wake up two hours before work so I was never late again. And that worked until today at least. Quickly I checked to make sure that my stable barding was wrinkle-free and made sure my purple mane was neat, another thing she would punish you for and I galloped for the security room. Running past ponies I turned a corner to the security wing and felt my blood run cold as I saw a Purple thestral no other than Shield standing outside the entrance looking annoyed. I slowly started to trot forward like a pony walking to their doom. I watched as her eyes locked on to me like a predator to prey. I let out a shutter as I could feel her eyes burrowing into me. When I made it to her I stood stiff as a board “officer Moonlight Reporting ma’am” I said giving her a salute with my wing. She just continued to stare right into my eyes.

“Officer Moonlight what time is it?” she asked in a stern voice. As I looked into her eyes to respond it looked like the depths of Tartarus in her eyes.

“Uh” I looked at my pipbuck The time reading 8:02 AM, I cringed “8:02 ma’am”

“And what time does your shift begin at officer Moonlight?” Please don't kill me was the only thought going through my head at this time as my mouth started to feel like sandpaper.

“8 o’clock ma’am” I looked at her as her body started to tense. I started to lean back.

“THEN WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU DOING IN THE HALLWAY AND NOT DOING YOUR JOB.” She yelled at me getting close to my face. I just stayed silent hoping it was a rhetorical question. “WELL ANSWER ME”. Welp fuck she wanted an answer.

“I overslept ma’am”

“AND THAT'S MY PROBLEM HOW, GET INSIDE YOU LAZY SHIT AND GET TO YOUR POST AND SEE ME AFTER YOUR SHIFT”. She yelled as she stepped aside quickly looking around. I could see ponies had stopped to watch the verbal lashing. Acting quickly I scrambled into the security wing and made my way over to the lockers trying not to think about what punishments she would give me. As I started to put my gear on. Slipping on my vest. I had thoughts of banishment from the stable. She can't do that can she, oh she probably can I’m so fucked. I started to panic. I felt somepony push my solder and say something.

“Huh,” I said through a daze and looked over my shoulder to see Steel Cuffs giving me a concerned look.

“I said are you good, I heard Shield all the way from here.”

“Oh yeah I was late she was pissed and my mind got away thinking of what punishments she might give me.” Suddenly I remembered one of those M.O.M. books on torture techniques, not helping brain I thought as I smacked my head.

Cuffs let out a laugh “yeah I know the feeling, that one time when I was caught banging one of the mares from maintenance I thought she was gonna geld me.” He patted me on the back “well I got door duty, good luck” he started to walk out.

“Yeah, thanks” I mumbled as I started to slip my baton into my holster. Looking towards the schedule to see where I was to be today finding my name I looked it over and saw that I was posted at medical today. That's good, medical has working heaters and there are usually people to talk to. As I finished putting on my gear I walked out of the door and started my journey to medical. The walk to medical was quiet only a few ponies looked my way as I passed, mostly nodding as I did. As I got there I saw that the nurse on staff at the entrance was that one thestral stallion that never talked. I just let out a sigh as I looked around seeing the otherwise empty I walked to the side of the door and sat down on a chair. Waiting for something to happen.

I sat there for what felt like days switching between trying to get the stallion to talk and messing around with my pipbuck. It was a relatively slow day with only a few ponies coming in for minor things. My eyes constantly found themselves looking toward the clock counting down the time till 4 pm. At this point I could care less about any punishment Shield would give me at least the banishment would be more interesting than this. Finally, the clock struck 4 I almost let out a cry for joy as I stood up and headed for the door. As I made my way back to the security wing my nerves started to come back as I got closer. As I entered the wing I saw Shield in her office working on her terminal looking quite frustrated at something. I made my way over to her office and knocked on the door.

“You wanted to see me, Ma’am,” I said, peaking my head in. She grunted as she looked up from her terminal and nodded “ yes officer Moonlight take a seat she said waving her hoof at a chair” I quickly entered and sat down on the chair looking at her “so officer Moonlight you were late for reporting, as you know this is unacceptable we expect the best of all security ponies here in stable 31. For your punishment, you will be working double shifts in the maintenance levels for the next week starting tomorrow.”

“Yes, Ma’am”.Something pretty big was distracting her. She didn't even yell at me. Still Working for 16 hours a day in maintenance sucks. It's often cold and damp down there due to some leaky pipes.

I made my way over to the lockers as I started to strip down to just my basic barding and made sure my gear was clean and in good shape. I don't want Shield even angrier at me. Looking at the back of the locker I saw the .45 auto pistol that I had not used since I was trained to use it, was getting dusty quickly I pulled it out and started to clean it making each part was working and then reassembled it putting it back in my locker. As I started to walk out of the locker room my stomach let out a grumble. “What do you want?” I said looking at my stomach. To which it responded with a louder grumble.“Oh, right food” I haven't eaten all day.

I started to trot towards the cafeteria looking at the ponies along the way. In stable 31 there are three kinds of ponies. First, you had the pegasi making up around half of the stables population, then there are the thestrals who made up about the other half of the stable. The group that I am in is the third one is when a pegasus and a thestral have a kid there is a slight chance that they can have a hybrid pony. For me, it meant that I had pegasus wings, but had fangs and light-sensitive eyes that could see better in the dark yet instead of yellow my eyes are an ice blue.

“Hey, Moon your alive” called out a voice behind me. I turned around and spotted the familiar white coat of Sky Kicker trying to catch up to me.

“Yeah barley” I responded as I slowed down to let him catch up. He gave me a smirk.

“So… what's your punishment” I let my head back and groaned at this question.

“I got double shifts in maintenance for the next week,” I said with a frown as we made our way into the cafeteria.

“Damn that's rough I heard that some of the heating talismans broke down there and they can't get them fixed for like a month.”

“Your fucking kidding me this is gonna suck”. We got into the line each of us grabbing a tray as we made our way to the pink pegasus mare serving food.

“Hello Moon what’cha want I got grey goop, grey goop, or grey goop,” she said looking over at me.

“Ya know Peach that's a hard choice but I think I'll have the grey goop,” I said to the mare Peach Pie a good friend of mine.

“You got it one order of grey goop coming up,” she said as she poured some onto the tray. And for a second I thought I saw it move, eugh this stuff was always disgusting.

“Thanks, Peach,” I said as I walked away and waited for Sky to get through with his food. When he did we both walked to a table and sat down. I remembered something else about my meeting with Shield.

“Hey did you see Shield after your shift?” I asked him looking up from my food.

“No why?” he questioned back looking at me.

“Well when I came in she didn’t yell at me at all, that and she seemed very distracted by something on her terminal.

“Wait, you're telling me that Shield Star, the mare famous for tearing ponies a new one, didn't once yell at you when you went to see her.”

“No, not once she just said the normal spiel about expecting better and kicked me out,” I stated.

“Well it must be something pretty important to make her do that or maybe somepony” he staid with a thoughtful expression. “I heard she was talking to that one pegasus in medical with the pink mane.”

“The one that is afraid of his own shadow?” I said taking a bite of the grey goop. Ugh, this stuff just does not get better I thought as I shuddered and swallowed the fowl grey goop.

“Yeah that's the one” he responded watching my display

“You know somehow I would not be surprised in the slightest if those two hooked up”

“Yeah, really it's like one of those old movies.”Sky said before going on a huge coughing fit. I gave him a look of concern and started to move to help him when he raised his hoof in a stopping gesture.

“You alright dude?” I asked while still giving him a concerned look.

“Yeah yeah I'm fine, it's just this stuff does not get better... eulgh,” he stated matter of factly with a disgusted look.

I laughed at this and gave him a sympathetic nod “no it does not, it's almost like they make it taste bad on purpose.” I looked down at my own tray still seeing a large pile of the grey goop almost mocking me with the way it looked. Man, I hate this stuff.

We finished the rest of the meal in silence. And by silence, I mean full of gagging from that nasty goop. Even as we were trotting away from the cafeteria I shuddered just thinking about it. I mean how can something that taste so bad be good for you in any way shape or for--

“Moon you their man?” A voice broke me from my internal rant about that disgusting food, if you could call it that.

“Huh, what?” I said looking over at Sky who was waving a hoof in my face.

“I asked if you had any plans for tonight,” he said, lowering his hoof.

“Oh, I was thinking about heading back to my room and trying to get as much sleep as possible before I get stuck with sixteen-hour workdays,” I said.

“Come on man” Sky whined “tonight is Wind Shards party you gotta come.” He had been planning to bring me to the party to help him with his master plan of finally bedding his colthood crush.

“Eh, I don't know man I haven’t slept much for the past week and the last thing I need right now is Shield to catch me asleep on the job,” I stated.

“Common man you don't have to stay for long, just long enough to help me.” Sky pleaded

“Nah man I don't want to risk it” yeah really I got off pretty good all things considered, but if I was late again so soon… I shuddered thinking about the consequences.

“Alright man,” he sighed and slumped “Well I need to go clean my room so see you.” He turned and started to trot away

“Yeah man, I will see you around, good luck tonight.” I slowly started to make my way back to my room. Walking down the hall I took a left and started up the stairs to my room. After a few minutes of walking, I finally came to the door of my room. As I opened my door I could see that my room itself needs to be cleaned soon. I stepped over a pile of something as I closed the door and leaped to the bed.

Mmm, nice warm bed.

As I woke up I blinked my eyes looking around the darkroom. Slowly I looked down at the pip-buck to read the time. I groaned when I saw the time at 7 am, welp time to get up. I rolled out of bed and fell to the floor as my limbs failed to comply. Ouch, that kinda hurt, well at least I'm awake now. With a quick shake of my head, I tried to stand up this time managing to get my legs under me. I switched on my pip-buck light to try and help my eyes adjust to the light and see under the bed if I could find a clean suit. After a bit of rummaging and a few select words, I managed to find a relatively clean stable suit. With my eyes more adjusted to the light, I stepped out into the hallway walking to the cafeteria.

As I walked I thought about what would happen on my shift if anything would happen. Finally, as I walked into the cafeteria I just opted to grab a nutrient bar from a rack before making my way over to security. As I approached the door I looked down at my pip-buck, 30 minutes early. That's good Shield cant get even angrier if I'm early. As I walked in I looked around and immediately noticed that there were a few ponies in the holding cell. Most of them had some sort of injuries, mostly black eyes and bruised muzzles. As I walked past I gave a questioning look over at one of the security mares Wind Flicker by the cell.

“Drunk fight” was the only words she said, as she continued to read the book she had.

I let out a small “ah” in recognition as I passed. Soon I came up to the lockers and started to put on my security vest and opted to hang the helmet at my side. Making sure my baton was attached to my side I went over to the notice board to see if anything had changed. As I looked it over I saw that I would be in maintenance with only 3 other security ponies. I continued to look around some more to see if I could find anything else when I saw that Shield the Security had issued out that all security personnel was to be carrying their firearms at all times. Strange… probably the drunk fight last night was a bit worse than what normally happens. Eh, not a big deal I started to walk back to my locker where I pulled out the recently clean pistol and slid it into the holster at my side. Alright, that should be it, I was uncomfortable with the pistol and the aspect of having to shoot somepony I would just have to get over it if the need arose. As I started to head for the door I heard Wind Flicker callout.

“Hey, aren't you double shifts in maintenance today moon?”

“Yeah I was late so now I got the whole week there,” I replied.

“ Damn that sucks, you should go see the quartermaster for something for the cold down there the heatings broke down there,” she said.

“Yeah you're right, thanks for the advice Wind” I replied. Turning around and heading towards the quartermaster's office.

“No Problem, don't need you freezing to death down there. Well, that's if the old stallion actually gives you something.”

I sighed at that. The quartermaster's name was Bronze, or at least that's what everybody called him mostly due to his bronze color. He was the quartermaster for security since before I was born, and he had a reputation for being quite stingy with the equipment he gave out. I made my way over to the door of the office and opened it, walking inside.

“Whatcha’ want” I heard a gruff voice say.

“Uh hello Bronze,” I said looking at the bronze stallion “I’ve got double shifts in maintenance and the uhh heating is broken down there…”

“That does not answer my question in the slightest.” Bronze responded.

“I need something to keep warm down there like maybe a jacket or something,” I said.

“We don't have jackets, now get out of my mane”

“Come on Bronze could you at least check. With the heating out and me down there for 16 hours I will be frozen by the time my shifts over.”

“No, now leave,” he said in a more aggressive tone.

Damn, this isn't gonna work, I will have to come up with a new approach. “Well if I get back half frozen with a cold and can't work I will just have to tell Shield you unwillingness, that you could’ve prevented this.”

“Alright alright I’ll go look just shut up,” he said as he went to the storage room behind him. Success yes, I pumped my hoof in victory. If there was one thing that everybody feared was the scorn of Shield. I could hear Bronze rummaging around in the back. After listening to him for a few minutes he came back out with what looked to be a duster.

“Alright, this is what I found, a leather duster from one of the first ponies inside the stable. You better bring this back in good shape after your shift or double shifts in maintenance won't be your biggest problem.

“Alright, you got it,” I said shrugging on the duster. With the armored vest on the duster fit perfectly. As I headed out of the office I could see a few ponies walking in to start their shifts. I ignored them as I left the security wing and started down to maintenance. Slowly as I made downwards I could feel the air cooling to an almost freezing temp. I pulled the duster tighter in an attempt to keep warm. As I descended into the vault.

After the third hour in maintenance, I was really starting to hate my life. Walking around the maintenance area the only thing that kept me from freezing down here was the duster and constant movement. I made my rounds around the maintenance levels finding nothing but leaky pipes. It was looking to be another boring hour when suddenly my pip-buck beeped. I looked down to see that there was a message on my pip-buck. Flicking to the message tab I read “missing pony Dawnstar, last seen heading towards maintenance last night, tag unavailable.” well looks like I’ve got a pony to find, and an important one too, if I remembered correctly Dawnstar is one of the terminal tecs. One of the few ponies who keep the stable’s terminal systems running. Like the door controls, life support, etc. Yeah having one of those break was not a nice thought. Well, where could she be? I had already been in the upper levels so chances are they’re on one of the lower levels of the stable.

Great even deeper in the stable. I let out a sigh as I turned and headed to the stairs and started to head down. As I made my way down deeper into the vault I turned on the tag and tried to find Dawnstar's, only after about a minute of fiddling did I realize that the message saying that tracking is not working. That must mean either they are in a tracking dead spot, don't have their pipbuck on, or found a way to disable tracking. The last two were the more concerning because those would have had to be done on purpose when the former one could just wander into one of those. Hopefully, it was the first one that would limit the areas I would need to search. With that in mind, I decided to check out the dead spots first. Those were all on the bottom level of maintenance by the reactors, at least it might be warmer there. As I walked to the dead spots I let my mind wander. My mind wandered from thoughts of my friends to mares then to the gun at my side. I looked down at the pistol looking at its dark shape. Such a small device yet capable of killing millions but only if there was a pony to will it. I could only hope that I would never meet that pony.

As I continued trotting I noticed my EFS started to bug out. I must be entering a dead zone then, I continued trotting slowly looking around as I did for signs of Dawnstar. As I continued to walk I couldn’t help but feel unnerved by the area around me. The constant humming of the generator along with the splashes my hooves made in the puddles of water from the leaky pipes… wait there were too many splashes.

I stopped and listened and soon I heard it again, water splashing along with a weird chittering from right around the corner. I unholstered my baton and silently crept closer to the bend. When I reached it I pushed myself against the wall and prepared myself for whatever was around the corner. As I breathed in slowly and let it out, as I finished my exhale I jumped around the corner looking all around to find… nothing. “Huh that's weird,” I said to myself, holstering my baton, “I swear I could hear something here,” I said as I looked left to right and down the hall.

Me and my big mouth. The chittering happened again but this time more aggressive and from right above me. Slowly I turned my gaze upward as I sent out a silent prayer to the princesses. Please be a broken pipe, please be a broken pipe, please be a broken pipe I thought as my gaze slowly turned upward until I was looking upward at the dark ceiling. Raising my pipbuck revealed that it was in fact not a leaky pipe, but instead a rather angry rad-roach. One that as soon as my pipbuck light hit it was lunging at my unprotected face.

And as much as I want to say that I deftly lept aside or that I batted it out of the air with my hoof, that didn't happen. No instead It landed directly on my face causing me to scream like a filly and run around like a pony with its head cut off. It wasn't until after I ran smack dab into a wall crushing it with my head did I regain my senses.

“Ewww” I yelled out in disgust as I tried to wipe the crushed rad-roaches fluids off my face. I gagged when I realized that some had gotten into my mouth. Why me was all I thought as I scraped the rad-roach off my face.

Finally, after my face felt the cleanest it could get without a tub of bleach I looked around taking in the rest of the situation. First thing I looked at the duster and saw that there were rad-roach guts on part of it. Well shit… Bronze is gonna be pissed. Well, that's a problem for future me I thought as I looked around for more of those nasty roaches. Seeing that the immediate area was clear I unbuckled my helmet from my vest and put it on my head sliding the visor down. Better safe than sorry, don't want to repeat that incident ever.

After securing my helmet I started to walk again. As I continued to walk down the halls I looked around for Dawnstar. Man, this is boring, I wish there was somepony down here to talk too. At least that would help with making this place less creepy. “This sucks” I muttered softly under my breath. ”fucking walking around in the dark, cold, infested hallways, I just had to choose security. Join security they said, you’ll help keep ponies safe they said…” a voice inside my head argued that by helping find the missing pony I was helping keep them safe. “Well maybe if ponies didn’t wander off into maintenance by themselves I would have to be here in the bottom level of maintenance acting like an exterminator” I argued back. “And now I’m arguing with myself… oh if only mom and dad could see me now.”

At that last sentence, I winced. The thought of my parents was a soft spot for me. I still remember the day that I got the news.

I stared down at the blank paper on the living room table. I sat there staring at what should have been an essay on the history of the M.O.A., one that was due the next day. I let out a snort as my head fell to the table causing the pencil to bounce to the floor. This was dumb, why did I need to write a paper on some long-gone ministry that was just dumb.

A knock at the door broke me from my brooding. Ah, a distraction I thought as I approached the door and pressed the button to open it. At the door was a midnight blue pegasus stallion, one that worked often with my father. What was strange was that his eyes looked a bit red and puffy.

“Ah hello, little one” the stallion paused “is your mother home?”

“Uh yeah… one second,” I said to the stallion. He just nodded in acknowledgment as I turned around. Ok, this was a bit weird, the stallion almost looked like he had been crying but that can't be right. I started to walk towards the room my mom was sleeping in, due to her late nights working at medical.

I entered the room and went to the bed that my mom was sleeping and started to nudge her sleeping form. “Mom, mom wake up there's a stallion at the door to see you,” I said as I saw her yellow eyes open up.

“Huh ok Moonie honey I will be out there in a second,” she said as she started to get out of bed.

“Ok mom” I replied as I made my way out of the room. I looked at the stallion in the doorway “she will be out soon” I said, as I jumped up onto the chair at the table and looked back at the paper and let out a small snort of disappointment that the page had not filled itself out with the history of the M.O.A.

I watched out of the corner of my eye as my mom walked to the door as she got closer her body language shifted from one of a tired pony to one that was concerned. About what I didn’t know, maybe she had a paper she had been putting off too. That thought made me laugh, seeing my mom in my position trying to write a paper that she had put off. With that, I ignored the adults and went back to trying to write this paper. Trying my hardest to focus, but a weird sound from my mom kept disturbing my thoughts, it almost sounded like choking.

It wasn’t until the fourth time I heard the sound from my mom did I realize what that sound was… she was crying. Why was she crying? That's not good, I jumped up and ran over to her.

“Mom, what's wrong?” I asked with a concerned look she turned around to look at me. Inside her yellow eyes, I could only see pain and sadness instead of their usual cheery brightness. As tears rolled down her face she tried to say something but couldn't get anything out as she kept crying, so instead she just grabbed me into a hug and I put my hoof on her back trying to comfort her. Then I realized that the stallion was still there with his own sad look. He looked at me then opened his mouth to speak yet no words came out as he sat there as if trying to think of what to say

“Son I have some bad news for you,” he said in a slow grim voice. I looked at him over my mother's shoulder with a concerned look. What could be bad enough to reduce my normally happy mother to tears? “Your father is dead.”

Oh

At those words, the world felt like the world slowed down and yet sped up at the same time. So many emotions were going on inside my head yet I couldn’t express one. I wanted to scream, I wanted to cry, to do anything. Yet all I could do was sit there with my mother in my hooves and feel nothing…

The months after my father's death was hard. My mom was so stricken by grief she barely left her room for most of the day. I had to do my homework by myself and had to eat meals alone on most days. It was hard but I managed, yet my mother couldn’t. It was 3 months after my father's death she passed away. And honestly, if it wasn't for Sky Kicker I might have been there with them.

Suddenly something moved in front of me. Shaking my head I got rid of the thoughts of my family and pulled out my baton not wanting to repeat what happened before. Holding the baton in my mouth I snuck forward. Looking all over the halfway as I moved ever closer to where I saw the movement.

A rad-roach the size of a small foal sat attached to a wall looking away from me. Quietly I transferred my baton to my wing and quickly brought it down on the mutated roach causing it to explode. I hate rad-roaches, they always have to pop, getting their guts all over the place. Looking around I could see a few more rad-roaches down the hall now looking at me due to the sound I made squishing their comrade. And by the chittering, they were making they weren't happy with me.

There were 4 of them I could see but there could be farther down the hall. I readied my baton as I stared down the rad-roaches. I stepped slowly forward closing the distance between and the rad-roaches. When I was around 10 meters away the rad-roaches charged me, letting out their chittering war cry as they closed the distance. The first rad-roach got its head smashed in by the baton. From my first swing, I kept the momentum by swinging it to the left hitting another rad-roach. One of the rad-roaches got close enough to try and bite me. Of course, that did nothing, thank you stable tec barding I crushed it beneath my hoof as I turned to the last rad-roach and kicked it with my other hoof causing it to hit a wall, curling into a ball as it died.

Looking around I could see that there were no more rad-roaches I holstered my baton. I looked at my hooves. I saw they were now covered in rad-roach blegh. I cannot express how much I hate rad-roaches. I mean they are everywhere they got their creepy-ass antennas and did I mention I hate getting their guts all over me. As I sat there with my pity party of one about rad-roach guts I heard a sound. Not the chittering of a rad roach or the hum of the reactors. No, instead I heard what sounded like crying.

I slowly moved towards the sound, keeping myself as quiet as possible. As I came closer to the crying I could make out a mare's voice.

“I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry,” the mare’s voice said between sobs. That must be Dawnstar I thought. But why would she be crying? I peeked around the corner and saw the dark purple form of Dawnstar sitting in front of a terminal.

“Dawnstar,” I called out as I walked around the corner. She froze, her body going rigid. “Dawnstar you need to come back with me to security, you were classified as missing.”

“No I can't, they're coming, if I’m up there they’ll kill me.” She muttered. Her tone of a pony that wasn’t quite sane.

“Dawnstar if somepony in the stable is trying to kill you, you need to come with me to security." I said slowly closing distance between me and her “We can keep you safe from them and we can help stop them.”

“No no no” she muttered under her breath. She looked at me and stared into my eyes. “I’m sorry please forgive me, they made me do it.” She pleaded with tears streaming from her eyes. ”They said that they were coming in anyway, they said that if I helped them they would spare me.”

“It's going to be ok Dawnstar no ponies mad at you, who made you do what,” I said in a neutral voice. Ok wasn’t expecting to do this today, I just need to get close enough so I can stop her if she does anything irrational and figure out what has her so afraid.

“Outsiders… they said they were going to get inside anyway, they said if I gave them the door override code they would let me li--” her eyes narrowed into pinpricks and her posture changed. She was looking at something at my side. I followed her gaze till I saw that it rested at the .45 auto pistol at my side. Oh no please don't do anything irrational.

“You're trying to kill me!” She screamed out, reaching for a 10mm pistol at her side that I somehow missed. “Stay back or I will kill you, I have come too far I won’t let you kill me now,” she yelled out from around the mouth grip of the pistol. The one that was now pointing at me… shit.

Ok, Moon keeps calm, remember your training. I can’t use my pipbuck to call for backup due to the deadline so there goes that option. I just have to wait for an opening to disarm her. Just keep her talking. “Hey hey, calm down,” I said trying to keep my voice as calm as possible. I unclipped the holster letting it fall to the ground and kicked it over to the side. “See look, I’m just here to help.”

I could see the pistol shaking in her grip as she aimed at me. Her eyes looked all around the room rapidly. I just hoped she wouldn’t shoot me. “It's ok Dawnstar, you can talk to me who is coming?” I questioned.

“No you're lying, you're just waiting to kill me” she paused. “I won't let you!” she screamed as she pulled the trigger. I flinched expecting to be shot dead yet that didn't happen. I opened my eyes and looked at Dawnstar. She had a panicked expression as she tried and failed to pull the trigger over and over again.

She forgot the safety… I ran at her deftly unsheathing my baton as I charged. I closed the distance in under 5 seconds and I brought my baton down on her muzzle, it gave out a loud crunch as she dropped the pistol to let out a scream of pain. Yet she didn’t go down instead she swung her hoof at my head. I ducked under her hoof and swung my baton in a vicious uppercut bottom of her jaw. I watched as her head snapped back from the force of the hit. She fell to the ground unconscious, or at least I hoped she was unconscious. Please don’t be dead. I grabbed her pipbuck and flipped it to the medical tab. Reading her vitals off the screen I could tell she was going to be alight. Oh, thank Celestia I didn’t want to add killing a pony to the list of things I did today.

All right I just need to get her back to security. As soon as I get out of the dead zone and I can radio for support. Ok sounds like a plan I thought. I walked over to the now unconscious Dawnstar grabbing a pair of hoof cuffs from my vest placing them around her hooves. Ok now if she were to get up she can’t fight or run. Next order of business I walked over to where my pistol was and picked up the holster reattaching it. Next, I went over to where the 10mm was laying on the ground and picking it up, and throwing it into my saddlebags. Can’t leave that out here somepony could get hurt.

After making sure I wasn’t leaving anything important behind I walked back over to where Dawnstar lay and bent down to pick her up. With a little bit of effort, I was able to lift the mare onto my back. Damn, she was heavy, this may take a while.

Goddamn, how can you weigh so much I thought as I walked down the dark hallway with the unconscious mare on my back. After what felt like an eternity I finally started to approach the end of the dead zone. I could tell by my E.F.S. was starting to look less fuzzy and staticky.

As my E.F.S. came back into focus several alerts popped up on it. All of them marked as urgent. I lifted my pipbuck to read them. The first one read

Automated Alert: Stable door overrides activated. Main door opening.

My jaw dropped when I read that I quickly looked at the still unconscious mare on my back, she actually did it. She wasn’t insane… this isn’t good. I quickly read the next message. It looked like it was sent by one of the door guards

Attention to any security ponies there is a large group of well-armed hostels entering the stable. They have already shot Thunder and Quick Wind. I need reinforcements.

The rest of the messages were the same as the last, always asking for backup. The last message was sent about a minute or two ago. Shit okay, this is bad. Some of the messages were saying to regroup in security. Acting quickly I dropped Dawnstar off my back. She wasn’t my priority and would just slow me down and started galloping down the halls and up the stairs.

Come on got to go a little bit faster. I gotta get to security. As I climbed the stairs I could start to hear gunfire. I reached the floor, that the entrance to security was on, and ran out of the stairwell. As I exited the stairs I came up behind three ponies that I could tell didn’t belong here. They all wore makeshift armor made from different bits of scraps. They all also were armed with rusty weapons. Rusty weapons that were being moved to point at me.

Out of reflex, I triggered S.A.T.S. and time slowed to a crawl. In the slowness of S.A.T.S. I pulled out my pistol and queued up 1 shot to each of their heads. S.A.T.S. showed a high chance of each shot landing. All I had to do was accept and S.A.T.S. would guide my aim and help me kill three ponies. That made me pause, did these ponies deserve to die… was I ready to kill them? Yet what choice did I have if I didn’t shoot them they would shoot me. Closing my eyes I hit the accept button. I’m sorry was all I thought as my pistol barked three times.

I heard three wet thuds as the bodies hit the ground. Slowly I opened my eyes and saw that all three of the ponies had neat holes drilled into their heads. I had just killed three ponies… fucking hell. I shook my head, not now brain moral dilemmas later saving the stable now.

I checked the mag on my pistol seeing it had 4 more bullets in it. I looked around my E.F.S. and I could see a few more red blips moving a lot faster than the others. They must be close… fun. I peeked around the corner where I could see 5 stallions in the makeshift armor. As my eyes examined the rest of the hall I gagged. How the hell could they do that to ponies much less foals. Down the hall, I could see dead ponies all of which had their legs broken before their heads were smashed in, but what made it worse was the fact that among those were foals. Foals that from what I could see a few of them looked like they were raped.

At the sight of the broken bodies of the foals, something within me snapped. All the hesitation I had about killing these attackers was gone. These things weren't ponies but monsters and the deep burning rage inside of me told me to kill. And may Celestia have mercy on their souls because I won't, of that I was sure.

“Hey, you motherfuckers!” I yelled as I rounded the corner. The invaders turned to look at me with looks of surprise. “ go fuck yourself!” I entered SATS. As time slowed down I took a moment to calm myself as I looked at my list of potential targets, Though on another note ‘go fuck yourself’ come on brain think of better one-liners. I decided on targeting the two closest to me with both headshots, saving my third shot for when I had a better shot on what my SATS labeled as raiders. Executing the spell I watched in grim fascination as I watched the bullets burrow into the skulls of the raiders and explode out the back in the slowness.

The moment that SATS finished I fired the last two shots at the chest another raider who was carrying what only one who was insane could call a shotgun. He fell to the ground with 2 holes in his lower neck. He was dead or soon to be. I dived back around the corner and hit the mag release dropping the mag before sliding home a fresh one and pulling back the slide. My attack was done in under 5 seconds.

Finally, the raiders broke from their shock, one yelling “ Ima gut you for that!” as he charged around the corner with what looked to be a sledgehammer. Sorry but I’m going to have to pass. I prefer my guts inside, I thought as I clenched my jaw and fired 3 shots into his chest. He fell to the ground with a surprised look. Sorry there but gun beats sledgehammer. I waited for the last pony to come around the corner but nothing happened. Damn, he’s got enough sense to not charge me. Damn it I need to hurry up so I can get with the other security ponies. Taking in a deep breath I came out from around the corner with my pistol raised. Quickly I aimed at him and fired 3 shots. After my first shot, I felt something slam into my chest causing my other two bullets to go wide.

I fell back around the corner falling to my flanks as I patted my vest. Quickly feeling I found the round was stuck in the kevlar weave vest and had not penetrated. Thank you stable tec for overengineering just about everything. I could tell the stallion was still alive around the corner as I heard him grunt. I looked at my gun and dropped the now empty mag. And inserted a new one. I counted my rounds 7 in the new mag and one in the chamber. As I sat there I thought about how I could take out the last stallion. If I did that again he would be ready and I don’t think I would be able to get as lucky the second time. If only I had some way to slow time or almost guarantee a hit. I smacked my head, I had something that did just that SATS. Now I just need to get his eyes off the corner. Looking down at the dead raider at my hooves I got an idea. I holstered my pistol as I picked up the body ignoring the blood that flew onto me. Tensing my muscles I got ready to execute my plan. I threw the corpse out into the hallway and quickly followed it with my pistol drawn. My plan worked and the raider took the bait firing into the corpse before he realized It was not me. I activated my EFS as he realized his mistake. At the range, I was at SATS only predicted a 60% chance to hit his head. It was my best choice as the armor he wore on his body could protect him from my rounds. Queuing up my 3 shots on his head I hoped that at least one would connect, I wouldn’t repeat that stunt. The first shot went wide slamming into the wall ineffectively, the second when it was a hit only just grazed the raider's cheek, the third round went directly into his right eye causing it to explode as his body fell to the ground.

Quickly reloading I looked around to see if there were any more raiders. The hallway was empty, I slowly started my way down the hall making my way towards the entrance of security hoping there was anypony left there. As I continued to creep I kept my eyes and ears open for any hostiles.

I came to the door to find it blown open from the outside, I could hear fighting within. Flicking the safety of the pistol I went around the corner scanning for targets. So far I couldn’t find anything but some dead raiders and unfortunately fellow security ponies. I continued on approaching what sounded like two ponies struggling. Listening close I could hear the two ponies fighting in Shield Stars office. Reacting quickly I came around the corner to find Shield Star engaged with a raider. Entering SATS I queued up 2 shots on the chest of the raider. Triggering SATS my felt the spell guide my aim and firing 2 rounds directly into the chest of the raider.

“Thanks for the assist officer Moonlight.” she panted out as she sat down. I looked at her and I could see that she had wounds all over her body.

“Ma’am your injured wait here I’ll get some medical supplies,” I said about to run out of the office to search for any.

“Wait!” she cried out then winced in pain. “Moonlight it's too late, there are too many of them for us to deal with. The stable is lost. They already killed most of the security ponies. You need to flee the stable.”

“What and leave everyone else here to die.” I argued, “ all due respect ma’am I can't do that.” I finished sternly.

“Celestia damn it Moonlight, if you stay here you're going to die, just leave, let this stable have one survivor,” she begged me.

“I’m sorry ma’am I can’t just leave you here.” There has to be a way to help her I thought as I looked around the office searching for something to stop the bleeding.

“Officer Moonlight,” she barked, I looked over at her as she sat against the wall. “ I am ordering you to flee the stable.” her tone was strict. Yet as I looked into her eyes I could see they were pleading with me to listen. I took a deep breath and looked again into her eyes.

“Yes ma’am,” I said. She looked relieved at that.

“Officer Moon use my escape tunnel. It is activated by my terminal and goes to the vault door. There is also a stealthbuck in my desk in case you need it to sneak past any guards. Be careful and don’t die Moon.” she said I made my way to her terminal and found it unlocked scrolling through the options I found the escape tunnel option and clicked it.

The wall behind me gave a hiss as a hidden door opened revealing a hidden tunnel. I opened the desk and found the stealthbuck and threw it into my saddlebags as I entered the tunnel I turned and gave Shield Star one last look. “Ma'am,” I said, giving her a salute with my wing. She nodded back at me and motioned with her hoof for me to go. I gave her a final nod and turned down the tunnel. It wasn’t long that I heard a few gunshots echo down the tunnel. I flinched at those before going from a trot to a gallop as the raiders discovered the escape tunnel. Running as quickly as I could I saw a dead end with a terminal next to it. The exit I’m almost there I thought as I ran up to the terminal and luckily it was unlocked. Quickly hitting the open door option on the terminal I activated the stealthbuck and watched as my body disappeared, wow that's a really strange feeling not being able to see your hooves. As the passageway opened it revealed that I was in a hallway right next to the stable door. As I exited the tunnel the door started to close behind me. Hopefully, those raiders can’t use a terminal well. But just in case I should get out of here as fast as possible. I beelined it to the entrance to the stable trying to stick to the shadows as much as possible to help hide the shimmer of the stealth device.

As I entered the front of the stable I could see the giant cog door sat open a strange sight for sure. But what alarmed me more was the small group of ponies that looked like they were wearing makeshift steel ranger armor all guarding the front door. Okay, thank you stealthbuck, if it weren't for it I would probably be doing my best impression of swiss cheese about right now with the firepower they were carrying. I skirted around along the edge of the room still staying in the shadows trying to avoid getting close to the armored ponies. Come on just a bit further I thought I was almost out the door and home free come on just a bit further. I was about to walk through the door when something entered. ‘Ok, what the fuck is that’ was the only thing that could go through my head as I watched a giant pony creature thing? Entered the stable. It looked like it was once a pony but someone decided to replace parts of its dark fur with crimson red dragon scales. From the side, I could see that its eyes were like dragons and its face was covered in scales. Okay just sneak past the creepy monster thing… easy peasy right. I was halfway out the door when a raider burst into the room behind me

“Boss,” he yelled “boss we found an escape tunnel that leads to right outside the here, and we saw one of the stable ponies use it”

The creature snorted and spoke in a deep rasp “I don’t think a stable pony could get past here with all of the firepower we have.” he motioned to the 8 armored ponies in the room. OH thank Celestia I thought he doesn’t believe the raider. I went back to sneaking out of here...

“Uhh boss” I heard the raider say, I looked back over my shoulder to see the raider looking at me. But that's not right he shouldn’t be able to see me I thought. I looked at my hooves and saw that they were in fact no longer transparent.

I slowly raised my head and saw the dragoon pony was looking at me. I gave a small smile and nervously gave a little wave “uhh hi” I spoke in a small squeaky voice. His dragon eyes narrowed at me as he let out an aggravated snort

Shit…

New character

Name: Moonlight
S:5
P:4
E:5
C:8
I:7
A:8
L:3

Tag:
Speech
Sneak
Small guns

Traits:

Trigger Discipline: unlike most ponies in the wasteland you learned to aim for the weak spots on a hostile. You fire guns 25% slower but do 10% more damage and have a higher chance to cripple a targets limb

Wild Wasteland: Some things tend to not make sense in the wasteland. Whether it's Pinky Pies ghost or the spirit of Discord you don’t know, these things don't come with a manual. But anyway enjoy your new wild wacky wasteland (watch out for zetons)

Author's Note

~~If your reading this chances are that there will be a few mistakes with grammar and spelling because instead of waiting for when I get back from camping to do editing, I decided that nah fuck that I'll post it before I go. if you find any mistakes you find just point them out to me and I will fix them when I get the chance too.~~
I went an edited it

on another note I would like to thank kkat for creating this universe, and somber, heartshine, and eldee for inspiring me to try writing myself. And if you somehow haven't checked them out I highly recommend them.

And finally I would like to take a minuet to just appreciate all of those who write cause damn, writers block hits different at 2 am.