Fallout Equestria: Sisterhood

Chapters

Prologue- Wayward Soul
Chapter1: Oh Sister, Where Art Thou
Chapter2: Everything To Gain
Chapter 3: Attack Of The Clones
Chapter 4: The Mess of Me
Chapter 5: Shanty Town
Chapter 6: The Maw
Chapter 6.5: In The Shadow of Giants

Prologue- Wayward Soul

Trust is a valuable commodity, not easily gained or found. You can’t trade for it; you can’t purchase it and you most certainly can’t steal it. It’s twice as valuable as food or water and twice as rare in the Equestrian Wasteland. Sometimes I like to think most of the nation’s supply of trust went up in flames when the Balefire bombs hit. Either way, if you don’t manage to get some of that valuable trust, you might as well leave and never return. Without trust, you’re nothing more than an outsider or worse, an outcast in our small little patch of home.

***

The toll of vessel bells and the smell of the humid air only a fishing wharf could hold assaulted my senses as I awoke from my hammock with a grunt. The last thing to recover from the heavy sleep was my eyesight as I struggled to remove myself from the comfort of my makeshift bedding. The rope made bedding threatened to drag me back to the depths of sleep as my struggle became futile. The black bliss of sleep had nearly recovered my soul before suddenly I was thrown to the ground, my hammock rolling and depositing me unceremoniously to the wooden floor. From behind I heard the faint laughter belonging to a mare I knew all too well. “Good morning……mother…...you devil.”

“Morning was an hour ago, Muddy Waters. You have work to do unless you’re taking the day off. Which you aren’t, so hop up!” The pale blue coat and paler green mane filled my vision as I rose to my hooves. Vivid Grove, my mom, was already trotting off with a half-formed smile. Somepony was pleased with themselves regardless of the evil they’d inflicted upon me. Yeah, I had work today and from what I recall, my older brother was pretty desperate to get my help looting some place up north along the river. I could see the faintest glimpse of her fillet knife and spatula cutie mark as she disappeared through the wooden doorframe. Checking myself over to ensure there weren't any splinters or bruised shoulders, I followed my mother’s trail to the small kitchen. Work wasn’t something I even needed to worry about considering I’m practically self-employed. That never stopped mama Vivid Grove from having a good laugh and tossing her three kids out of bed.

Our house wasn’t impressive by a longshot, but whose house was when you lived on a massive overpass that spanned the fake river below it. The smell of radigator steak overpowered the smell of fish that permanently filled the atmosphere around the town of Point Wayward. Oh yes, today was going to be a good day if the first meal was radigator. Relatively taint free and a little radiation never killed anypony. Immediately at least…. “I’m probably going to eat on the go, mom. Rough needed me for something today and I promised I’d help.” I wasn’t about to stick around after what mom said. If she was telling the truth, big brother was going to be livid with me. I was supposed to be there early in the morning, which meant he’d be a stage or two above just simple anger. The dictionary was going to have to come out for the next words to describe his coming wrath.

Without a word, the older mare gripped a spatula between her teeth and slid it under a particular large slab of gator meat before flipping over her shoulder. Not even a word of warning before having me do tricks to try and catch the meat between my own teeth like some dolphin! Granted, the meat hit home and I caught it effortlessly with my earth pony reflexes, but what if I hadn’t? I’m an earth pony, like my mother and father before me! Not some cat or circus animal! “Thanks for the meal and sudden workout. Say, where is everypony? Is dad still in town?” I asked as I carefully slipped on my scavenger’s attire. A nice brown coat with no less than 18 pockets, a duffle bag backpack and a pair of saddle bags to really drive home the fact it was going to take me longer to get home than it would to get to my destination due to the sheer weight of the shit I would be hauling home. And of course, to top off the ensemble, my sun-bleached red hat with a pair of goggles strapped around the top of the brim. It wasn’t weird that I also had a pair of goggles around my eyes and neck, bringing my total of these bad boys to three.

What? It’s a collection. I really like goggles, okay!

“Rough Waters is on the Market Pass, Clear Waters is down below in the fishery and your father is out on the water down river, near the falls. Now Muddy, please don’t forget your gun again. I didn’t buy this so you can leave it here.” Oh shoot, that might have been important. Of course, in a mother’s fashion, she had my dinky pipe revolver resting upon her trademark spatula. And like the rad-gator steak, she flung the gun at me sending it arcing into the air. It’s wooden mouth grip landing square in my teeth as I rapidly holstered the weapon in my leg holster before finally escaping my mother’s antics.

“Okay okay, you win this round, mom. I’m heading out.” She paused her cooking to glance in my directions and waved with a cheery smile. I thought I heard a ‘I love you’ through the spatula gripped between her lips, but mom’s special talent was butchering and cooking the more dangerous critters flowing through the Centennial River, not talking with cooking utensils in her mouth. “Love ya too! Assuming that’s……even what you said!” And there I was, out the door at last. The leather tarp that acted as a door did nothing to stop my rapid exit into the streets of Point Wayward Trading Post. Our home was a humble collection of scrap metal and driftwood buildings built over a x shaped double overpass with what used to be a highway beneath us. A long time ago it was used as a road for the rapid deployment of materials and military stuff around Equestria. Now, it was a flooded ruin that had sunk so far into the mud of northern Equestria that it had become a tributary for the Centennial River after a large enough storm rolled through. At least the overpasses were in decent enough condition to build our home here.

The stairwell that connected the top overpass to the bottom overpass kept the two parts of the settlement connected and helped with travel. The top, or Market Pass, was used for trading and other businesses. The bottom, or Residents Pass, was where the population made their homes. Below that, was the fishery and fishing wharfs that hung from the bottom overpass. A nice sized collection of buildings suspended by rope and steel cable from abandoned ships held the lower levels just above the water. When ships came through and needed to pass under, the buildings would be heaved up with massive wenches that pulled the buildings high enough to let large ships through. My big brother, Rough Waters, worked the market selling scrap and salvage. My younger brother, Clear Waters, was a fishing pony despite only being fourteen. I myself was only sixteen and Rough was eighteen. Dad, Deep Waters, was a proud fisher pony and was always on the water sailing for places to hunt the next river monster and put food in our bellies. The Waters family was dedicated at least. We fit the bill for the average Wayward resident.

Me? I was a scavenger. If you didn’t work on a boat or have anything to do with fish, you were a merchant. If you didn’t fall into either of these categories then you were a scavenger whose day-to-day life consisted of traveling up and down the river picking over dry docks, not so dry docks and waterside businesses from before the war. That’s my existence and subsequent outlook on said existence at least. My hooves carried me up the stairwell which led me to the middle of the market. Shacks full of goods and ponies looking to sell those goods were everywhere here which made it a little harder to navigate through the crowds of smelly sailors and eager merchants. The Northwest ramp leading down to the road below was where big brother Rough liked to set up shop and where I found work to keep the family going. Rough Waters was already waiting for me and judging by the frown resting on his face, he wasn’t happy at how tardy I was today. That more lively shade of blue coat just like mom’s topped with his light blue mane with traces of black going through it. No mistaking it because when my green eyes met his royal blue ones it was over. Upon seeing me approach, he waved off a couple of ponies he was talking with and rushed to meet me before I could get away. Maybe it was the fact I was trying, and failing, to sneak past his shop that spurred such a reaction, but with a steady stride he caught up to me with gusto.

“Let’s see. Pale green mane, unwashed and overgrown as usual. Smells like radigator meat. Jade green eyes and probably a light brown coat beneath that dirty jacket you’re so fond of. Unhealthy obsession with goggles. Nice try little sister, nice try.” I tried to run, truly I did. Facing the scorn and disappointed look only a family member could produce wasn’t on my agenda today. Tried being the keyword for today as my legs fell out from beneath me and I went sprawling along the asphalt. True to the words spoken by the merchant family member, my tail was a braided nightmare that was growing far too long. Something I was proud of to be fair, but it was also what he used to stop me in my tracks as a heavy hoof held my tail in place. A sharp pain rose up my hind quarters as he pulled my tail back. “You’re late again. When I asked you to not be late today because of how important today was, you said…...?”

No amount of puppy dog eyes or quiver lip was going to free me from this scolding. Didn’t stop me from trying. When that failed and his slowly increasing disappointment became more apparent, I relented and finished what he was saying. I knew that’s what he wanted me to do, it just embarrassed me to do it. “I said I’d be on time today…”

“You said you’d be on time. Should have known better. Look, time is extremely important today so let’s cut the crap and focus. Team effort today, and by team, I mean you. There’s really no one else on the payroll…” Rough gripped a sheet of paper in his mouth and dropped it in front of me. I wasn’t sure what it was until it unraveled at the touch of a hoof to reveal a map of the local area. Of course, what else did we use paper for besides wiping our asses here? Art? Ha, as if. “No room for the aloof personality Muddy. We got a big score coming from down south. Word on the river is something is happening up north near that Hoofington place. They got this ship full of Steel Rangers from Trottingham coming up the river in a day or two to back up some buddies in Hoofington and we’re going to be the first ones to get in on some trade with them.” Rough seemed unnaturally excited about the prospect of trading with the Steel Rangers. Of course, there was no love lost on them due to the fact they tended to seize technology for themselves and weren’t always keen on asking for it if they saw you in possession of said technology. You might get away with owning a working toaster or spark battery, but for the most part anything that used gems or magically charged tech was risking it when around those power armored ponies.

I rubbed my cheek as the fall had stung quite a bit, but it would take more than a tail stomp to keep an earth pony down. Especially a member of the Waters family! “Wait, hold on Rough. Aren’t Steel Rangers just glorified raiders? I’ve heard word on the ol’ rumor mill that some ponies tend to get robbed by those guys. What if they try to take our gem engines or our water talismans from our boats? We can’t exactly take on grenade machine guns and rocket launching power armor ponies with pipe rifles.” We barely survive the damn river leeches that are as big as a forehoof. A boat full of Rangers would level the town if they wanted.

Rough shook off the notion I was trying to pass and looked like he’d already made up his mind a while ago on this subject. “It’ll be fine! If we go out to Friendship and Freight up north and grab some working servos or something, we can trade for better weapons. Or at the very least a good bit of caps. Metal is always in high demand when you’re in that fancy power armor of theirs. They gotta have some kind of material to repair those tin cans, right?” He said the word ‘we’ a lot, as if he was ever going to make the thirty-minute trek from here to Friendship and Freight and fight off the feral ghouls that stalked the shipping company there. Maybe my tightening gaze was enough to convey my distaste for this whole scavenging run, because he stood at attention for all of two seconds before fishing something out of his own pair of saddlebags. From within the magic bags came forth the most delicious bit of prewar delicacy I could remember tasting. “If you bring me everything I need on this here list, I’ll give you a Sparkle Cola Cherry~.” Damn his special talent for being persuasive! The older stallion had his way of ensuring successful barters and this was no exception. His cutie mark was a bag with a bit sign printed on its side with three fishtails poking out of the top of said bag. Where had he even found such a rare drink?!

“I can’t argue with that reward. Fine, I’ll head out right away. Just remember your dear little sister when she fails to return and is ripped limb from limb by a pack of ferals. Woe, misfortune be upon me this cloudy day! My end is surely nigh!” I made the theatrics a little much, especially with the hoof over my forehead and fake dying. More than a few pairs of eyes were on the two of us as whispers began to break out. Score one for Muddy, zero for Rough.

Rough for his part wasn’t amused, but that was okay. He wasn’t meant to be, the pleasure was all mine. Heh. As quickly as a mole rat on an unsuspecting pony, Rough shoved a bag of ammo and caps my way and hurriedly began shoving me down the ramp out of town with his head. Maybe it was my endless chuckling and shit eating grin that got me this small bounty, but a win was a win. The more annoyed my brother got the better. “Let’s see here. A decent amount of .45 caliber rounds for my revolver. Very nice. An upfront payment? Why you’re too kind, dear brother. There’s a first for everything after all!!!”

“Just get the items on the list, Muddy and hurry home before dark. I know you can handle yourself out there overnight, but mother gets worried about you. And so does everypony else, so get in and get out. Got it?” As much as big brother liked to act his namesake and wear a rough business pony personality, he was always the worry wart. It was hard being a rough and tough pony here when everyone knew everyone else. Being an unnecessary asshole got you kicked into the river from the top of Point Wayward.

Plus, acting and pretending was my thing. Not a special talent or anything, but it was a fun little hobby. Not much else to do around town besides the shitty little hobbies you formed. I nodded to Rough and pulled him into a hug which he happily returned. Without another word, I made my way down the remainder of the ramp and left town. Time to get to work.

***

The day was cloudy as usual, not like it was even possible for sun to shine through that much with the permanent cloud layer cast over Equestria. It’d been that way for 200 years and no sign of changing anytime soon. Before I even fully left the ramp and made my way north along the river, my eyes wandered to a…. well, it was a thing. A black wagon of sorts with white stripes and strange markings around the base. Four wheels gave the wagon it’s way of travel, but no owner was in sight. Whoever parked their strange wagon here was probably in the market, or sleeping. The sight of such strange writing and color palette made my sides bristle like a startled opossum. Maybe it was best to hurry on towards my destination and not stare at somepony’s property. Just as I was turning to leave, I came face to face with the owner of the mysterious wagon. Of course, I nearly smashed right into him as I was more eager to leave than I had any right to. It didn’t help he was standing barely two feet from me like some sort of creep! As I quickly backpedaled to avoid an accident, I was mentally screaming and berating the stranger for having no respect for personal space. And when did he even get in my way to begin with? I hadn’t heard a single hoofstep other than my own!

“H-hey! Sorry, but could you not stand right on my…a-ass?” It wasn’t a pony I was getting angry at. The moment his striped hide came into view I knew it wasn’t a pony, but one of those zebras so many ponies disliked. He stood there, watching me silently as if he was looking through me rather than at me personally. For a moment, as silence held fast, I pondered the idea of just shaking my hoof in his face to see if he’d react. The moment I actually decided to try it, he opened his mouth to speak. His milky eyes bored into my own as if he’d finally acknowledged my existence.

“You are so alone my child. Even in a crowd you are plagued by loneliness. You drift between your jobs almost as if you were a robot following a program. Your days blend together, your interests forgotten and you struggle to bring yourself to care about any of it. I can see your destiny has alluded you, leaving you empty and…. without a special talent to call your own.” I could only stand there and gawk at the words thrown at me like rocks. The truth of them hit me hard like rain hitting an unprotected pony on the open seas. He wasn’t wrong, but that wasn’t what scared me. Anyone who knew me could come to that conclusion. No, what scared me was the fact he guessed correctly that my special talent had eluded me. I had no talents; thus, I had no cutie mark. Sixteen years I’ve been on this earth and yet my talent had never manifested. To say I was a late bloomer was an understatement. The thing was, I was always in my favorite cargo jacket which covered my flanks. A good number of the two hundred and eighty townsfolk knew I didn’t have it since keeping secrets in such a small town like the lack of a cutie mark was virtually impossible. So how did this zebra, the first one I had ever met, know I lacked one without seeing my blank ass?

“Don’t be afraid, my child. You are confused and scared, I’m sure. The sight has given me all I need to know, however vague. Though, in your case, the meaning of what visions I’ve managed to witnesses are quite clear.” Suddenly, his eyes lost their milky shade of white and black irises formed once again. I thought this crazy zebra might have been blind, but clearly that wasn’t the case. What was the case with this nut job anyway? Approaching the first pony he sees and starts going on a frighteningly accurate tangent about destiny and crappy personality traits wasn’t what I’d call a good first impression.

And boy was I about to let him know it. “Listen my striped friend, you and I have nothing to talk about. You really ought to work on your people skills before preaching about their destinies, or whatever it is you’re going on about.” I looked around quickly to see if anypony might be seeing this display of zebra craziness and wouldn’t you know, not a single pony was interested in dealing with the striped being before me. Some of the new arrivals to the market and guards were even turning away to avoid the awkward scene before them. I even saw one guard mare whistling to herself while facing away, but not enough where she couldn’t get enough information for dinner time gossip. Help a young scavenger out would ya! What does this town even pay you for!? Looking back towards the zebra, I notice just how old he was. He even had more wrinkles and gray hairs amid those black stripes than dad did.

“You didn’t rebuke my claims, I noticed. Maybe I’m on the right track and my sight has revealed things you wish to leave buried? Come then! Let us walk while we talk.” With a smile gracing his weathered features he took up a trot alongside me and, without asking for my opinion on the matter, made himself my traveling companion. The nerve of this zebra was annoying at best and I struggled to tolerate the idiocy from the aged outsider. I wasn’t a book to be read, nor a pony that wanted to be talked to. Heck, I barely talked to ponies outside my own family. Sometimes I barely talk to them! In the end, with a defeated sigh, I continued on my way north down the well walked path between the reeds and tall grass that grew like a wall within the fertile lands along the Centennial River. “My pony friend, if I may be so bold as to suggest another path. I’ve seen the area north of here and with certainty in mind, I can safely say the only thing waiting for anypony there is death.”

This day was becoming a slog and I haven’t even gotten to the hard part of scavenging, fighting for my life over pieces of garbage. “Excuse me for my skepticism, but did your ‘sight’ tell you that? I can’t risk going home with nothing and I’m not about to call it quits before even getting started. Excuse me for the disbelief…” I thought those words would be enough to get the zebra to leave, and for a minute I thought that might be the case as he began to outpace me and move ahead quite rapidly. After a few minutes of him walking ahead of me, I thought that was the end of that. It didn’t take long before all that thinking I was doing proved wrong. He stopped, moved to a bush and quickly pulled it aside to reveal what lay ahead of us. We’d traveled up a hill in the last few minutes of our thankfully quiet adventure. Now that we were elevated a decent bit, I could see what the old Zebra was talking about.

Fog. Not the normal kind that just obscures vision and proves to be a slight annoyance once it gets bad enough. The fog that comes off the waters of the Centennial is the kind that starts pouring magical radiation into a pony that stands too long within its cloud. Without proper doses of Rad-x and Radaway, a pony would lose their minds in the fog. Then they’d lose their lives as radiation worked wonders on pony anatomy. Well, that wasn’t always the case. Sometimes a pony didn’t have the good fortune of dying to the radiation and instead would shed their coats and skin to become a ghoul. Or, at least, that’s what I thought happened to them. All I know is not long after ghoulification, a pony could lose their minds and ability to reason with others. That’s how you get feral infestations.

Lucky me I just so happened to forget all about radiation supplies. There wasn’t supposed to be fog here, the weather just wasn’t right for it! I was sure of it, and yet there it was, saturating the land between me and my goal. Given my current streak of luck and hitting the ground with my head, my destination was probably also consumed by the unfortunate weather.

“My name is Shazan. Pardon me for forgetting to introduce myself. It’s not every day the Sight gives me a clear picture to work with. However, I did not need the Sight to know of the danger your land poses. I came to your town from here before the fog settled in. My eyes work just fine.” I’ve never seen another living creature give such a familiar, shit eating grin before. Score one for the zebra named Shazan. Zero for the stupid earth pony named Muddy Waters. A loss I’ll just have to accept as I reached his side.

Today was starting to look like a defeat for the Waters family altogether to be fair, but what else could I do? I wasn’t about to fail at the one task I’ve been given today. “Names Muddy. Muddy Waters to be specific. But today it looks like my new name is gonna be ‘fuckup’ once I get home and get chewed out for not waking up sooner and beating the fog here.” Yeah, this mistake was on me. No way Rough was going to let me live this down once I got home empty hoofed. I guess my growing gloom was apparent, because no sooner had I said the word ‘fuckup’ did the zebra start digging around inside some pouches he’d been concealing underneath his tail. At least I hope he’d been hiding it there and not up his ass. From within the pouch a flower was pulled. It wasn’t anything big or pretty given the fact it looked like it had been dried. It was when he decided to start sticking it up his nose did I suddenly get the impression this zebra I was rolling with might be some kind of drug fiend. Especially with the way his eyes crossed upon inhaling whatever was in that dried yellow flower. Hooves dug into the mud-covered ground as the zebra braced himself in some effort to remain upright while he rode out some sort of drug fueled trip. I was more than content just leaving him there to enjoy his altered state of mind when he clamped his teeth around my tail to prevent such an action. Eventually, someday, I was going to chop this thing down to size so people would stop using it as a floor mat.

“I can see it, my muddy friend. Your true destination and objective do not lay in this miserable place. To the northwest, but leaning closer to straight west, is your goal. By hoof and an hours’ time you’ll see the Sight has paved the way for faithful hooves. I can see it!” Shazan gave out one of the most ear grating wheezes I’ve ever heard before coughing violently. I thought I saw his eyes go from milky white to normal to milky white again before finally resting on his true eye color. Black pupils remained, although their tiny size suggested whatever he’d just done to himself probably wasn’t healthy. There was no way this sight crap was real. This had to be just a drugged-up zebra spreading his zebra witchcraft or something. Unicorns couldn’t even do what this zebra was claiming to do. Right? There wasn’t anyone back in Wayward who was reading ponies like books was there?

I was calling it quits. I wasn’t about to let a zebra overdose on magic mushrooms or some mutated fern in the middle of nowhere. “No. Not happening. I’m taking you back to the clinic to make sure you aren’t dying. You look terrible!”

“No no! I am fine Madame Muddy. Please, I beg of you. Travel to the west, northwest and see for yourself. Under the overhang of the largest rock, past the growing mosses and greens you’ll see a sight that is not meant to be. A door lost to time and to civilization. Or rather, a door to civilization. The Sight would not lie. I’ll return home on my own and rest within my wagon.” It was my turn to stop the crazed zebra from trying to run off. There was no way I could believe such crazy talk from a zebra snorting flowers and getting high right in front of me.

However, returning home with nothing to show for it was more than a little heart wrenching.

“Go my friend. I’ll be okay as long as you return and prove me right. Just give this old swamp born soul a day to recover. Honest.” He sounded so confident for a zebra shaking on all four legs. As much as my mind and semi good moral compass wanted to refuse and take him back to Point Wayward, my actual compass and gut said following his instructions was the best possible plan I could follow now that my original mission was a failure before it even truly began.

I pointed my hoof back towards the town. “Shazan, go home. I’ll follow your instructions, but you’re going to follow mine too. Get to the clinic, get some help and do. Not. Fucking. Die! I’ll never get to sleep if you died on the way back, or something. My conscience would never let me live this down!” He smiled softly and nodded; the energy visibly drained from his face now. Without a proper goodbye, I began to follow the compass and trudged through the brush in the direction between west and northwest. An hours’ time was all I needed right? Shouldn’t be too bad. If I couldn’t find this supposed destiny door then that was okay. I’d go someplace else to find salvage before night fell. So long as a little peace of mind came my way and the job was at least semi done, I’d be happy.

I’d be happier if I didn’t have to worry about a damn zebra stranger who’s name I’d already forgotten.

***

The longer I walked through the mud and pony tall grass, the more I began to suspect I was the dumbest mare in Point Wayward. There I was, giving some semblance of empathy to a zebra who was quite shameless in his display of chemical dependency. I actually cared if he was overdosing on his mutated fern or whatever it was he decided to stick up his nostril. I didn’t know if his zebra magic was some sort of future vision or not, and to be honest with myself I kind of didn’t care. Having some stranger trying to magic his way into my life, and more importantly into my head, wasn’t something I was eager to experience again. As if that was even real, assuming it wasn’t. There was no way Shazan would be able to tell who I was or what I was about just by huffing plant pollen! Absurdity is what that was.

The other absurd thing was me actually following his drug induced instructions. Travel an hour in the westward, northwestward direction and just hope I’d spot this over hanging rock? What if I got caught up on something and my journey took an extra thirty minutes? That was the primary thought running through my head as the hold ups finally presented themselves. The telltale buzzing of insects alerted me to the coming danger of possibly mutated hostiles. After about twelve minutes of walking, I donned my dirty green bandana and covered my nose and mouth with it. Combined with the goggles I always wore and my hat, I was fairly covered against the smaller insects like mosquitoes. What I wasn’t covered against was the mosquito’s larger cousins, the bloodbugs. Pony sized abominations that used to be the more annoying mosquito. Now? Now they were a deadly threat that could carry off smaller ponies provided they didn’t stab you with their needle-like noses first and drain your body’s worth of blood in a matter of seconds.

My eyes spotted the threat through the reeds and their bulbous tops. Three of the bloodbugs were swarming around a swamplurk, the new mutated variety of crab that had grown to be even larger than a pony. Usually, they walked on four chitinous legs and used their claws and tiny pincer things to tear the meat from bone on anyone unlucky enough to lose a fight with them. Didn’t help they were armored like a suit of combat barding. The swamplurk had buried itself in the mud to the point only its shell and small head poked above the watery dirt. A few bloodbugs were lying beside its resting spot, clipped apart by powerful pincers while the remaining three circled above trying to pierce its shell. Today was my lucky day. Well, maybe not, but this was a fight avoided. A bullet dodged. I was already well past the scene and on my way towards the unknown. I couldn’t have stepped in, murdered the insects and hunted the swamplurk for some delicious crab meat, but a couple of reasons prevented me from doing that.

Bloodbugs terrified me. Absolutely put the fear of Celestia and Luna in me. I’ll turn tail and flee any day over fighting those hell spawns.

The other reason was because I’d rather not fire off my revolver and attract more problems than I’d be able to solve. There were a few more instances of avoiding creatures and other unfriendly vegetation that delayed me. Swarms of bloatsprites, the occasional water worm and leech, spikey grass that poked my hide through my jacket like a doctor’s scalpel. I sighed heavily as I stomped a leech that was too eager to score a meal that it was just throwing its life away to nab. Judging by the position of the sun, it should be just about an hour’s worth of time having passed since I started this doomed journey. The progress I’d made wasn’t even that great given how awful these lands were with predators and mutated bug vermin. Another patch of tall grass was passed and left behind me and I stomped forward through the wet ground. I was more than ready to give up and admit I’d fucked up the entire days’ worth of scavenging to my older brother. The ground rose up slightly as my thoughts turned to a darker place. This was supposed to be an important job and I’d ruined it before it even began. Curse this broken sleep schedule of mine and Celestia take the fog to the pits of hell where it came from for fucking me. I could have been halfway done with the job had it not been for the radioactive fog stomping me down and making a bad day worse.

I was moping again. Complaining and whining were what got me through the crappy parts of the day. Not like anyone was out here to get annoyed at me. It was a good thing too, as the moment I was about to make the swamp know of how fed up I was, the ground disappeared out from under me. Before I knew it or even registered what happened, I fell almost sixteen feet down and landed in a shallow pony. Emphasis on shallow, given how I still hit solid ground and felt the terrible snap of bone breaking in my front right leg. My vision blurred and almost faded entirely into black as the air in my lungs was forced out and the pain sent my mind reeling. If I could just suck in a breath of fresh air and manage to not scream bloody murder, I could avoid suffocating and fish out a healing potion from my bag.

Crawling out of the shitty little pond that failed to break my fall, I plopped down next to the sheer cliff I’d just waltz off of and drained a healing potion of its contents. After this, I’d only have four more before any injuries were permanent and possibly life ending. I could feel the bones in my leg melt back together and the meat give enough room to make sure the bones were set before the full healing could take place. Nausea filled my head and my day's nonexistent lunch threatened to spill out. Maybe it was a good thing I hadn’t eaten the meal prepared for me by my mom. Probably would have thrown up if I had. Watery eyes remained as I turned my head to look at what exactly I had walked off of. Solid stone rock, with vines and rotting vegetation growing over the side to obscure what lies in the rock’s shadow. My non broken hoof wiped the tears from my eyes as shallow breaths returned to my lungs. Such a strange giant rock jutting out of the ground like my once broken leg did from the meat surrounding it. There, lying hidden by the rock’s shadow and overgrown vines was a wooden shack door built into the rock. “No fucking way. No Luna damned way…”

The zebra had been right. An hour walk and a giant rock led to a door so out of place it was almost comical. I’d be jumping for joy and bliss filled euphoria had I not been so damn angry at the zebra for not telling me more about the rock itself. Maybe I wouldn’t have walked over it and ate shit on the ground, breaking my leg in the process, had he said more.

***

Gosh, had it not been for the trauma of falling and breaking a limb in the middle of a swamp I would have been very okay with actually finding this supposed destiny door. Instead, I was bitter and angry at the world as my tender hoof pushed open the rotting wood door. Soft curses towards every little inconvenience slipped past my lips as my legs carried me into the safe confines of this hidden treasure trove.

Maybe treasure trove wasn’t accurate. The door led down into a narrow cave that looked like it extended underneath the rock and slowly transformed into a more stable tunnel that was actually built out of concrete. Cracks formed along the walls and ceiling which let water drops fall and puddles of rancid water form along the ground. Whatever was here needed to be looted before somepony else came along and took what I needed. Using my formerly broken limb was going to have to happen, as much as I’d rather not. A dull ache that made its way from the bottom of my hoof to the top of my shoulder would be a constant reminder that I was not a smart pony and should keep watch of where I was walking more often. With a deep inhale and small mental breakdown, I headed down into the unknown tunnel. First time being underground actually and I could safely say it wasn’t as pleasant as I’d imagined.

There wasn’t much light at all and the rancid smell coming from the pools of water made my already tear-filled eyes water even more. It reminded me of the time I accidentally played in sewage backup once the drainage ditch overflowed because I thought it was mud. A fun, refreshing day in the mud turned into a moment in my life I would never be able to escape. Ponies still reminded me of it ten years later. Spoilers, it wasn’t entirely mud.

Steady hoofsteps echoed through the tunnel that began to widen the further in I got. Concrete walls eventually gave way to a brown rust covered metal surrounding a machine along the far wall across from me. It looked like it was some contraption that was meant to move a giant vault door. Sure enough, a cog shaped wheel lay in its divots out of the way from the entrance it was meant to be plugging up. On the cog shaped door rested the numbers 98 in their cracked yellow paint. I wasn’t exactly sure of what I was looking at, but it had to be important for someone to build a giant ass door to guard it! My own house didn’t even have a real door, just a tarp we tied to the door frame to ‘lock’ the house up. Whatever this was, it was the jackpot I needed. Rough could sell whatever I found here, I’d get the finder’s fee of a lifetime or two lifetimes and those Steel Ranger weirdos wouldn’t jack our stuff after passing through.

“Alright Muddy Waters. Let’s do this. I can do this…” The whole scene before me was more than a little daunting, but as my hooves stepped past the threshold and into the rusted interior, the task at hoof presented itself. All around me were rusted walls and a control board resting behind some safety railing. It didn’t look like anything that I could salvage so ignoring that, I continued onward through a door on the right side of the room. More machines whose purpose I simply couldn’t identify. It was a single small room with a window overlooking the entryway. Maybe this was the door knob panel for the massive hunk of rusted metal. With nothing left for me here, I returned to the entry point and trotted to the opened door on my right which faced the opposite of the cog shaped door. This way held a little bit more promise as it was a long hall that led deeper into the facility here. Down the hall was a small gathering of radroaches. These bugs were the size of a small dog now which was a massive difference compared to the coin size they were previously meant to be. I didn’t even have to waste ammo as I stomped over their small bodies with delightful crunches. Radroaches were a nuisance and each one I killed brought me a little joy.

I had to wonder if someone was already here before me. Granted there wasn’t anything dead that I’ve seen, but the lack of valuables combined with the wide-open security door wasn’t bringing me any hope. I knew a picked over spot when I saw one and this was starting to check out as a picked over spot. Time would tell. Down the hall was a set of stairs that led even further down. Rust particles and thick clouds of dust floated all over the place. Without my bandana I might have been a little screwed health wise. Still might be, but again only time would tell. At the bottom of the stairs was a small hallway that led into a room with a handy sign above the door that glowed faintly. ‘Processing’ was the word over the door. Well, it couldn't be that bad. No delays or mysterious doors would stop this scavenger. With the press of the button located on the side of the doorway, the door opened upwards into the ceiling. Okay that’s new. Further on was something that looked right out of a clinic. Medical tables for ponies to sit on were thrown about and chairs on the left side of the room looked to be hooked up to a machine hanging over each of the five chairs. All of them looked broken except for the closest one to me. It glowed like an emergency glow stick, or a signal buoy that floated along the sides of rivers to warn nighttime sailors of the shore line to avoid running aground. Could this place be powered? Could be valuable if it still worked, whatever it was. So, like any good looter, I began to see about taking the chair and its helmet looking machine apart.

“Huh. Well, look at you. Bet I can sell whatever this is. Ugh, I mean Rough could. He’s got the gift for gab…” Some part of me wanted to try the machine out for myself to see what it did. I guess it wouldn’t hurt to try it out and make sure it was worth the effort. Of course, like a rookie scavenger, I was too caught up in the mysterious chair to realize something was coming up behind me. Without warning, a cold metal claw gripped the scruff of my neck and shoved me forward into the chair. Metal clamps closed around my midsection as the helmet came down and covered my eyes.

It was no use! The clamp around my torso kept me pinned in the chair and something had pushed me in. Did I have hearing damage because this is the second time today something has snuck up on me! “Welcome residents to your entry level medical evaluation and screening. We hope this process does not cause you any discomfort as we check all vitals and brain functions to ensure maximum efficiency health diagnosis. Please stand by for routine scans.” A robotic voice sung out to me in the most unpleasantly cheerful way it could. Someone was trying a little too hard on their scripts and it did little to alleviate my growing panic. As I struggled harder to break away from the machine, I could hear it powering down rather than up. A good sign maybe? Then I heard the damn robot speak up again. “It would seem the new arrivals are too panic stricken by the events happening outside. We do not blame you for these reactions. Please hold still as we apply a small dose of sedatives to help with stress and ensure no harm falls upon our waiting guests. Please stand by…”

The prick in my right shoulder spelled the worst possible outcome for me. I could feel the pain in my foreleg vanish which was a welcome event for sure. Then I felt the feeling in the rest of my body vanish alongside the pain. I couldn’t even bring myself to panic, or fight off the effects of the drug flowing through my veins as conscience escaped me and flung me into a world of black. “N-no……wa…. wait….” and like that I was gone.

***

Oh, the dreams I could have while under the effects of drugs I didn’t consent to. There were flashes of a zebra huffing brahmin dung from a paper bag, moon sized bloodbugs coming to drain the planet of its blood as if the planet itself was a living thing, the strangeness went on and on. I even dreamt of my mom and dad and the pleasant family dinners we’d have. Swamplurk was so good when it was cooked with hub flower spices and glowing fungus. Might not be the healthiest thing to eat, but you just haven’t lived until you sunk your teeth into one of those mutated crabs. Some ponies even bred them away from the town and supplied the market with fresh ‘lurk meat on the weakly. I was going to learn his name when I got back. Assuming I wasn’t being eaten, raped, tortured, murdered or some combination of these when I awoke. The worst part of the dream I was having was when I was snatched up by a robot with enough arms to be mistaken as an octopus. It tore me apart over and over in the matter of a few minutes starting with my hooves, my eyes, then whatever it was that kept me alive long enough to experience these new and terrifying pains. Just go for the heart first you asshat. Have your sadistic fun AFTER I’m gone like a good pony.

***

I wasn’t sure how long I was out. Any amount of time being unconscious was a death sentence in the swamps and bayous surrounding Point Wayward Trading Post. As the involuntary sleep ended, my eyes opened to the blinding light I’d never experienced before. Some lamp hanging from the ceiling was what I imagined the sun to be. Blinding and bright enough to hurt the eyes even under the cover of their respective eyelids. Looking left to right, I noticed the rust covering the walls and air was gone. Every bit of degraded metal had been replaced by a smooth paint job and clear metal walls. The air had the smell of stale oxygen that permeated those tanks divers use to breathe underwater. At some point I’d been deposited onto a gurney within some kind of medical center and left here. After a few moments of contemplating my situation, I panicked as the thought of being robbed set in. In seconds I’d patted every square inch of my body to make sure my pockets were still full of their respective contents. Nothing was taken surprisingly! Even my faded red baseball cap and goggles remained where they were supposed to, which was on my head.

“Hello? Is somepony there? For a moment there I’d figured I’d be mugged and murdered…. but I guess you’re not into that.” I wasn’t even sure who I was talking to. I wasn’t even sure if there was a somepony TO talk to. It didn’t matter so long as someone heard me and realized the mistake they were making. Why would they drag me down here and not even bother to stick around to help me out? Where was here anyway?

The only answer I got was silence. I was more than a little scared given my surroundings were completely foreign to me. Things just got weirder and weirder here. However, I had one job and I wasn’t about to call it quits no matter how much my legs shook! It was probably a side effect of that stupid drug, yeah that was it!

It took me all of two minutes to clean out the various medically marked boxes and first aid kits along the walls. A shot of Med-x to fight the pain, a single healing potion which was a little bit of a letdown and finally a couple tablets of buck. At first, I figured this place was already drained of valuables, but those thoughts were gone from my head when I thought about it. Why leave the few things I found? Surely even an amateur scavenger wouldn’t have left these. As I stored the new found stash of medical supplies, something tapped on a window across the room from me. I didn’t give it much thought as I went to leave. Just before I pressed the button to slide the door up, the tapping returned. Only this time it wasn’t so much tapping as it was somepony punching the glass. I looked back just long enough to give myself a heart attack at the sight. It was a pony, a freaking pony just smothering the glass with his purple hide and blue mane. He wore some kind of blue jumpsuit and had a device on his left foreleg. It must have been a sturdy piece of equipment since it didn’t even appear fazed as it was used to bludgeon the window in some vain attempt to destroy the glass. I backed against the door as if that was going to change anything.

His features showed one of pure anger. Each thump against the glass made the stout stallion grunt in exertion as the attempts to break down the window kept coming. “H-h-hey! Quit it. Fucking stop you fuck up! What do you think you’re doing?!”

“Jelly!” For a moment, my brain stopped processing what was going on. Jelly? What the hay was that supposed to mean? “Jelly!! Jelly. Jeeeeelly!” Okay, it was time to panic starting now! Enough was enough. Somehow this stallion made the word jelly sound like a rage filled threat and there was no way I was going to find out if it meant something else. Judging by how hostile he sounded when saying the silly word, and by how angry he looked at not being able to get in, it was safe to assume he wasn’t a pleasant pony. Dad taught me how to deal with unpleasant ponies from the ripe age of four years old so I knew what I needed to do. I pulled down my bandana first, then my teeth clenched down on the mouth grip of my pipe revolver as I drew the weapon and brought it to bear on my soon to be attacker. The taste of the trigger was something reminiscent of buttered bread made from the razor grain those homesteaders always sold in the market.

Anger rose up in me just like it did in this strange and creepy stallion banging on the window before me. “Okay asshole. I don’t speak your language, but you’re about to stark speaking mine.” My language was about to be violence here in a second. Okay, maybe what came out of my mouth wasn’t exactly that given I had a gun clenched between my teeth, but that didn’t matter to me. I turned back towards the door and quickly smashed my hoof against the button. The door slid upwards and my pistol came up to face the open-door way. I could already hear the pounding on the glass stop and heavy hoofsteps approach the door from the hallways around the right corner. The moment he rounded the corner and put his round frame into the door, my pistol barked its response to his aggression. A .45 caliber round struck him right in the sternum causing him to flinch back and scream in pain.

“J-Jellyyyy! Ha, Jelly.” He didn’t go down with the first bullet. Blood poured from the wound, but he smiled and charged forward as the hostilities didn’t end there. In a panicked response to seeing a stallion tank a bullet like that, I backpedaled away as fast as I could and continued to fire. Three more shots from my gun rang out in the enclosed space with only one actually hitting him. Luckily that was enough to bring him dropping to the floor in a heap at my hooves. I put another bullet into his flabby frame just to be certain, leaving me with only one round left in my pipe revolver. Six rounds might be a bit of a limiter if there was anyone else looking to take me on. Like clockwork mixed with bad luck, another, familiar, voice rang out through the halls.

“Oh Jeeeelllyyy!”

Well shit…

***

First kill jitters. My dad, Deep Waters, told me about them in detail in some vain attempt to help me cope with them when they arrived for the first time. My heart pounded so badly I thought I was going to die from heart failure. Everything shook, from my ears to the tips of my hooves. The bloody corpse I’d left on the floor, the thought of murdering another pony like an animal, the fact another pony was coming as I struggled to load the bullets into my gun, all of this was driving my body crazy. The more I fucked up my speed loader for the revolver and dropped it, the more I shook and the harder it was to load the gun. Hoofsteps were getting closer and closer and so to was my death if I didn’t manage to get more than a single bullet into my fucking gun. Before long, I abandoned the effort entirely. One bullet was still in the gun and it would have to do.

“No no no no! This wasn’t supposed to happen! I…I killed someone….I actually…..” Heartbeat in the ears like war drums, violently sick stomach, the shock of it all was getting to me. Slowly I inched around the body staining the white floors red as another body was making its way to the doorframe. Again, I heard the words that brought confusion and fear into me like a toxic brew of emotions. My gun was ready and the hammer cocked back with the flick of the tongue as I held the mouth grip tight between my hooves.

Again, the words from my victim rang out. “Jelly? Jellybeaaaaan?” How could somepony make the name of a prewar treat sound like a question? How could the pony I just murdered still be alive and pushing his way through the doorframe?! The same exact pony who fell at the bark of my gun was now locking eyes with me with the same rage fueled glare that the previous had. And like the previous, he charged the moment he spotted me.

“Raaaah! Jelly Jelly Jel…”

BANG!

I was ready and waiting, ignoring my body’s protests against the action. The moment he showed his identical face I was already on the attack with the barrel of my revolver stuffed into his familiar face and firing. Brains and blood showered me as the next pony fell like a ragdoll. My blood-stained goggles were ripped from my head and the gun fell from my teeth as I staggered wildly to the side of the room and vomited. Dad, when I get home assuming I survive this, I’m joining the fisherponies and living a quiet life catching fish! I was gonna need a minute or two to recover mentally and physically.

Hope the ear ringing isn’t permanent.

***

Shazan. That was his name. The zebra mother fucker who sent me on this cursed journey to find this underground hell. When I get out of here, if he isn’t dead already from drugs, I’d kill him myself. Then, I’d never touch another firearm as long as I lived!

After the jitters finally went away and the rolling ocean that was my stomach settled down, I picked up my discarded gun and began the process of reloading it properly with the speed loader. Dad was a smart pony, so looking back on his advice I probably should have listened when he told me to practice. I could have been beaten to death twice today because of that.

Doesn’t matter now I guess. I survived and the twins who attacked me didn’t. Speaking of which, those two ponies were freakishly weird. I only gave my handiwork a glance as I hopped over their still fresh remains and exited the clinic. Well I could go left or right to escape this stable I was stuck in. Without much else to go on, I went left which was the same direction the second twin came from. The clinic and its new occupants were left behind as I made my way to destinations unknown.

Now, one could say I was like an animal trapped in a maze. One would be right in assuming as much. The more I walked past doors and extra halls leading to Luna knows where, the more I realized I might be stuck here. Claustrophobia be damned I was not about to have another panic attack after murdering two ponies. There were no stairs, most of the doors were locked and the one elevator I found remained shut after pushing multiple buttons. Large structures like this ALWAYS had stairs, so where the fuck were they?! I needed out! “I’m gonna die here. If somepony doesn’t kill me I’ll die of starvation…”

Wait, no I wasn’t. Despite the resilience of the Waters family which we took great pride in, I had lunch still packed in my pockets! I was a moron for forgetting. With eager hooves and a little patience, I fished out the gator steak mom made for me earlier. It was still wrapped in cloth to keep it from getting dirty. Technically I was on the job despite my unfortunate situation and therefore I was allowed a lunch break.

“Good thing I didn’t eat this earlier. Foods no good if you puke it up.” I released the meat from its wrapping and took a large bite. If I started thinking about the twins and their brutal ends I would throw up again. I just had to force my lunch down and move on with what energy I had. There was no telling how long I was out cold, which meant I could be missing out on valuable calories to keep me alive! That and water… “M’not gonna die here. The reaper won’t take me like a starved dog in some bunker. I’ll be fine.” Take a bite, chew, swallow, sip from the canteen, stay alive.

Just had to stay alert and stay alive.

“……jelly…..jellybean.”

Ears perked up quickly at hearing a very familiar voice, again. No, there was no damn way that stallion was alive, either of them! I rushed to pack my things and begin abandoning my current path. Going in one direction would only get me so far in these halls, so it was time to pick up the pace and start taking a new approach. “North is no good. Let’s try heading east. Can’t go wrong with right.” With that, I was off like a rocket. Hooves bounced across the metal floor as I turned on the first hall on my right and galloped as fast as I could. Doors and more halls passed me by and every so often I could hear him down one path or another. Sometimes behind doors I could hear him saying that stupid word over and over! When I heard it, I went another direction and avoided anything that looked like a pony.

I had a feeling these weren’t ponies. Sometimes I’d catch a glance at one before they saw me and I’d find they all looked the same. Each and every one of these ponies down here in their blue jumpsuits looked alike, said the same damn phrase and got angry whenever they thought they saw me. Every stallion was the same purple coated, blue mane, mother fucker.

And there were a lot of them. I wasn’t that great at sneaking around, but I made due until I found the stairs. Stairs! My ticket to freedom from this tomb full of seemingly undying ponies who appear like a bad dream despite me killing them twice. Them, or was it just him? Were they the same pony endlessly appearing, or a bunch of mentally unstable siblings? Who knows, but more importantly WHO CARES!?

Seeing a way to freedom at the end of the hall nearly broke the emotional dam. I wanted to cry to be honest. In fact, I actually started to when I approached the stairs and saw they didn’t lead up at all. They only went down straight into the belly of this metal tomb. “Oh Celestia…I’m…not gonna make it out of here…”

It didn’t matter to me anymore. Forward was a better option than going back and stumbling around until one of those Jellybean ponies spotted me and brought a horde of lookalikes to join in on the frenzy. Even if they didn’t appear to have weapons, the ponies were all male earth ponies. It would only take a few to overwhelm me and stomp me to death, and from the sound of things there were far more than a few.

“No going back. Maybe…maybe I can find a service elevator like the ones in those old shipyards. I can figure it out after that.”

This area of the Stable looked like the engine room of a boat, so maybe there was some way to get up to the surface quickly. It’s all I had, so down I went. The large number four was left behind me and a sign with the number five greeted me soon after. Another level of the stable for me to fumble around in until I escaped or died. With a little extra patience, dying wouldn’t be on the menu. My ears swiveled back and forth as I hid behind the metal stairs I just came down on and eagerly awaited any sounds. Nothing so far…no hooves, no ponies saying the word jelly bean, nothing. The coast was clear!

“…..so….thirsty….”

Not clear! Not clear at all! The faintest of voices could be heard, raspy and dry. Female by the sound of it too. Somepony that might need help, but more importantly somepony that might be able to help me! And I needed all the help I could get if I wanted to get the hell out of this metal suicide bunker. So, without much thought or patience, I took off towards the sound of the voice. I had a chance and patience be damned. I was gonna take it.

“H-hey! Hello! Is somepony there? I’m friendly, don’t shoot!” I opened a door that led to another hall that looks no different than the ones from before with the sole exception of the sight of a pony’s tail disappearing around the corner. Unlike the purple coat and dark blue mane of the stable ponies, this tail was green and surprisingly long. I gave chase once more and slammed my hooves against the metal walkway full speed. “Wait! Come back. I’m not a bad pony, honest! I’m not…”

It was my turn to round the corner. The sound of hooves racing off again to the right around another corner, which only led back in the general direction of the stairs. Could have sworn there weren’t any paths other than this one from the stairwell. Caution to the wind and all other advice I built up for myself, I followed. This could be a trap, but those sibling ponies didn’t seem the sort to do traps, just rush head first at targets. “I said stop!”

I rounded the corner again, and like before I saw only the tip of a tail hurdling around the corner and breakneck pace. This time it went left, but unlike last time there was something else in the hallway, a body! It was another one of the jelly bean siblings clearly dead with a pencil shoved through the throat. Yikes, that's gross, but I didn’t let the morbid thoughts settle before I passed by the corpse and continued on. I was so close…

Bong

The sound of a body colliding with metal along with the cries of a female pony graced my ears. I could hear her more clearly as she wailed against something. “Nooo! Somepony, help! Help! The door…somepony unlock the door…” grunts and small yells of pain as the pony tried to bust down what appeared to be a solid door. That wasn’t the concerning part to me. What concerned me was the fact the voice…

The voice banging against the door was mine.

I stepped around the final corner that led to the fear struck pony. When my eyes rested on her, I froze with a sense of shock I’d never felt before. Terror, awe, bewilderment, it could have been any of those for me. Because when she turned to look at me she adopted the same features. I was looking in a mirror, I had to be! Because the face that looked back was mine! I was looking at the one and only Muddy Waters…

“Stay….away…s-stay away!” I’ve seen stray animals less afraid than the creature before me. She had every feature I had, except her coat and mane were clean and unbraided. It seemed like she was in the process of trying to braid her tail when I came along given its shoddy shape. “You….can’t…”

I stepped forward and slowly closed the gap between us. I had a feeling that this was going to end badly, and another feeling that she might be responsible for the dead pony we ran past earlier. “What are you? You can’t be me. This…this is insane…” I said more to myself.

“Shut up! Stay where…where you are okay. And give me back my things.” Her things? That’s not true at all. Everything I had was mine because I earned it. This had to be some kind of sick joke from a unicorn, or maybe I was drugged and in some kind of trance. The closer I got the more I began to suspect this wasn’t a magic prank, or some kind of drug dream. She seemed real, she seemed like me. That couldn't be possible, right?

I responded to her statement by taking off my hat, my goggles and removing my bandana from around my neck and tossing them to the floor at my hooves. My face was revealed fully just to be clear who truly owned what, because I was Muddy Waters. I have no idea who she was. “These are my things. Now mind telling me just what the hay this is and why you have my face?!”

At first, she looked shocked by the revelation. Then she pulled a complete turn around in the mood department and pointed a hoof at me before yelling “Brahmin shit! That’s…this is insane. You can’t be me. I’m me! Those are my things and I can prove it. You’re just a damn thief who drugged me!” Oh, this was something else entirely. At least she wasn’t afraid anymore so talking was easy. Now, she was just angry and yelling much like I would if I thought someone took something from me.

“Wroooong! You probably drugged me after shoving me in that chair. I’m willing to bet you’re some kind of…..well I’m not sure, but you sure aren’t Muddy Waters.” She was right. I was right. This is insane!

The imposter stomped her hooves with half hearted fury only Muddy Waters could manage. “You got a radi-gator steak in your left shoulder pocket wrapped in my mom’s clean dish rag. Open up the pocket.”

“I…..” she was right, but how could she have known? I removed the contents of the disputed pocket and sure enough it was the steak I had snacked on earlier to gain some energy. When she spotted the teeth marks her expression darkened.

Stunned as I was, I didn’t move to stop her when she snatched my food away and began to eat it like a starved ghoul. Even cold, it tasted better than nothing. “This….is my….shit. You’re…a damn….phony pony!”

“But….” She knew about the drugging, and about the food, which could only mean she had to be Muddy Waters. There had to be a way to make sure, and luckily I thought of one. “Okay, okay hold on. Mom made that for me this morning. That’s MY lunch, well technically breakfast since I didn’t wake up on time.” A small fact that led me to my current predicament. Life could have been easier had I just taken on the day's task when I was supposed to.

Her eyes widened upon hearing what I had to say. No longer was she eating, so I took the liberty to snatch back the half eaten steak and start eating it myself. “But…..that’s what happened to me…are you…”

“Am I what? A clone?! A magic copy? Listen sister, I’m the one with matted ends and the smell of fish on me. You? You look like you haven’t been outside this stable!” I got her there and she knew it. Her eyes fell to the floor, then to her mane as it dragged along the metal floor without its braid. Sure enough it was clean with no damage to it to be found, while mine was more than just a little dirty. The tips of my green mane were turning a darker green, almost black thanks to my poor hygiene. Knowing this, the doppelgänger began to shake as the sudden realization hit her like a falling boat.

Muddy, or whoever she was, looked to her hooves and dragging mane with a clearer understanding now that things were coming to light. She hadn’t been washed by some pervert and robbed of all her possessions, but rather she’d never been dirty in the first place. None of the things she assumed were hers were ever hers to begin with. To top it all off, even the name Muddy Waters belonged to another mare. “No! No, that's the dumbest….it can’t….that’s…” no words existed that could truly translate what she was feeling and to be honest with myself, I didn’t want to know. That level of despair can jump off the top of Wayward for all I care and drown in the flood waters below.

There was nothing left for me here. The food she could have, but my things stayed with me as I adorned my favorite hat and bandana along with the goggles now gently used and bloodied from the murder prior. “I don’t know you. Or what you are for that matter. Maybe if you follow behind me and NOT murder me in the process of escaping this place……I’ll….we’ll help each other.” I had to hold out hope that this was a bad dream. If I started referring to the dazed mare as another me, well, I’m not entirely sure I’d maintain the fragile sense of self I’d established in the past 20 or so minutes. I was already feeling the onset of insanity just trying to figure out this fairy tale nightmare I was in.

***

The door the mare tried to escape through earlier proved beyond my ability to unlock. I asked her why she thought she’d escape that way, just out of curiosity to the thoughts behind running the way she did. Her response gave me pause and another clue to the nature of the stable. “The door wasn’t locked before….I swear I was inside earlier. It’s a storage closet for parts and electronics…”

I looked back at her to get a feel for her state of being. It wasn’t good. Eyes were puffy and red from repeated breakdowns along with the ragged gaze she kept firmly on the ground. Poor mare has been through some real shit down here, but so have I. It was a blessing I got a complete sentence out of her at all. “Keep it together. Maybe it locked automatically when you closed it. Security system maybe…I wouldn’t doubt it.”

“I know you wouldn’t…” this was going to be more of a chore than I thought. The hay did that even mean anyway? Maybe she was a bit more affected by killing the pony from earlier than I was.

She did murder him with a pencil after all…

We weren’t eager to return to the upper level. At least I wasn’t. The only option available was forward. Once we got back to the stairwell the path was obvious. Down the hall leading opposite the stairs was a tiled floor leading to a large double door. It looked like the doors you’d find on a merchant vessel to me. Metal, imposing and with those metal levers over its surface that controlled the locking mechanisms inside that kept the door firmly closed. Scavenger instincts told me this door led somewhere important.

“You don’t wanna check the other little hallways before we try this door?” The copycat spoke up. Strange as it was, I guess she had the scaver instinct as well.

“It’s not worth it. If the doors lock on their own then I’d rather not waste time trying every door. We still need to escape…and get home.” No, don’t think about it! You can come up with an answer to what might happen if I brought home a twin sister much much later. “Hey…wait just a minute. Where did you even come from?”

We paused in the middle of the looming hallway and turned to face one another. I looked into her eyes trying to read her, but she looked past me and into the door that looked impossible to open. Oh don’t tell me… “I walked out of that room at the end there. It wasn’t closed when I came out, just wide open. It closed once I got further down this way. That’s when I got chased by the freak who could only say jellybean over and over…then killed him…” Celestia damn it.

“Any idea on what’s in there? Ya know, since you were in there…” I asked.

“Y-yeah…” she paused with a look of unease worming its way into her expression. Those familiar green eyes never looked away from the door as she explained what happened. “I was in that rusty ass room, the one I thought I was gonna get sick in cuz’ of the shit floating in the air. Got trapped in the chair, drugged, freaked the hell out and suddenly I’m soaked to the bone on a floor that reminds me of a pre war house bathroom. These tubs were there and this big glass tube was hanging from the ceiling above the tub. It’s all hazy, but I woke up in there with none of my shit. Can’t tell ya how long ago that might have been.”

Talk about freaky. I couldn’t have come up with that kind of story if I tried. No way she’s lying about this. Assuming she’s me, which I’m totally not because if I started to dwell on this any longer I’d have another panic attack…I really really didn’t want to deal with the prospect I had another sibling who was a walking talking version of me. Okay Muddy, let’s start walking and pray to dead goddesses that this isn’t some comic book mad scientist type of crap. “I hate to say this, but we might as well give it a look before trying the elevators again. If this is floor five…we’ll have to fight or sneak our way through four more floors of those stallions before we’re home free.”

“No!!! No…I-I mean…I can’t.” My copy didn’t seem thrilled. Neither did I. It made sense she might be a little shook over what happened. Plus, we both know my sneaking skills were donkey ass. Only luck and a prayer got me through the fourth floor.

“I know, I know…just come on and let’s find a way inside.” I said as I walked past the shaken mare and approached the doors intimidating frame. No keyhole so no poor attempts at lockpicking. Explosions were out of the picture too. Door looked like it could stand its own against any attempts at a forced entry. The only thing I could think of to get in was to knock, or ask nicely.

KNOCK KNOCK

I turned so fast my head nearly collided with my flanks. Here I was thinking about knocking as a crude joke, but my supposed duplicate decides to actually KNOCK ON THE DOOR! “Hey! What do you think is going to happen if you actually banged on the door?! Somepony could hear us!”

“I'm just doing the only thing I could think of that isn't a guaranteed waste of time. So…probably the same thing you’re thinking of.” Oh. Well this wasn’t good for my sense of self. Of course she knew what I was thinking, or guessed correctly with unholy amounts of luck. Either way, things were pointing towards a closer relationship between the two of us that I really didn’t want to have.

……or did I?

I shook my head. No time for intrusive thoughts, only survival and escape! “Okay one…you can hush. Two…” I didn’t have time for another point to scold my copy with. Before I could continue with my cleverly thought of scolding remarks, the metal door towering over us decided to open. With the shriek of metal and the clacking of moving parts the door slid to either side and folded in on itself before continuing to slide into the walls. Similar to currents being parted, the door opened before us until it was out of sight.

“…..holy crab apples would you look at that!” Me and my new friend with the magic hooves yelled at the same time. Our thoughts on the matter were practically the same, utter shock and bewilderment at the fact that knocking yielded results beyond just looking dumb. Well I had to give props where it was due and take the loss.

I reached over and patted her on the shoulder. “I apologize profusely. You win. I concede defeat…”

“Why thank you, me. I look forward to our next bout…” we shared a look that very easily shared our thoughts on what had just happened. A look of barely contained laughter and a love for the foolish theatrics we only really did with our brothers…

Our brothers. I forgot they were only MY brothers for a second there.

“Alright, let’s go.” I told her as I stepped through the doorway and into the unknown. We were off again, once more into the breach. She followed close behind and entered alongside me into familiar territory. At least for one of us.

***

The lab itself was something beyond my wildest fantasies. Not even the comics did the whole crazy lab environment justice compared to the world I found myself in. Terminals long since powered down lined the walls on the left and right side of the room with a door on the far end leading to even more unknowns. Cables snaked up the walls and into the ceiling like vines eating their way up the side of a beached cargo ship and through rusted holes. Some led to the door across the room and slipped underneath the welp kept floor. I was so amazed at all the lab equipment in the center of the lab that I lost myself in the wonder. The other me wasn’t so lost in the scene as I.

“There's another door on the right behind the terminals. It’s a little hidden, but it’s there. And there’s a door going from that room to another. I’ll show you….it’s where I came from…” she walked ahead and past the stacks of papers and equipment over to the door behind a workstation terminal. The stacks of paper almost reached the ceiling while the vials and chemistry sets definitely gave me the vibes I was looking for. Kind of reminded me of a drug lab, but cleaner.

“H-hey! Don’t leave me here. I get anxious when I’m alone in a shit pit…” my eyes darted to the far side of the room where another door sat with an untold mystery behind it. I’d get back to that once the first mystery was solved. Then after that I’d leave this place and never return! No amount of scrap was worth the nightmare this place put me through. The cherry on top was having to deal with my hallucinations and other traumas too.

Still wasn’t entirely convinced the other mare I was following now was actually me. I bounced back and forth between her being a sign of insanity or a robot. So far, I’ve yet to settle on a possible explanation.

I saw her standing in the doorway holding it open just in case anything happened. Her familiar green eyes turned to face me in a sideways glance. “There’s not much here. Just a terminal and a console with a whole lot of buttons. Nothing turned on when I tried messing with it earlier. Doors locked that I came from earlier too.” She pointed with a hoof at the door sitting in the corner opposite of us. Above the console she spoke of was a thin window looking into the next room. Centuries of not being washed didn’t obscure the strange room filled with pony sized glass tubes hanging over bathtubs. The whole thing looked like a mad scientist’s locker room with the floors being composed of clean tiles and drains for Luna knows what to come out of those glass containers.

I paused for a moment to soak in the sight. What was I even looking at? “…you uh…you don’t think I’m some kind of lab experiment…do ya…?” My copy turned to me, and I to her. I didn’t know what to think to be fair with her. For all I knew she was my evil twin, just a lot more pathetic looking and devoid of grime.

I was about to put in my thoughts on the matter, but the moment I opened my mouth to say something, someone else spoke up instead. I’d be glad for the interruption to help me not think on the topic had they not scared the both of us like newborn foals. “Experiments imply that the product still needs testing, my little clone. We’re far past that stage…”

My…clone…turned towards the door we came in from in a panic. She must have thought the voice came from behind us, but I turned my head upward. I remember that voice. Sixteen years of not bothering to remember the voices or names of ponies around me, but I’d never forget the voice of a pony that whispered artificial, soothing words into my ears while drugging me! “Hold on a damn minute. You’re that robot voice from the medical examination room I had to pass through to get into the Stable!!! You fucking whore!” There must have been an intercom in here, because the voice responded with a cold robotic chuckle. It sounded feminine, but what was once believed to be artificial pre-recorded words turned much more emotion driven and…eager.

“I hope you hold no hard feelings. I did what I had to…what I’ve always done…when some lost soul found their way in here. Let us bury the hatchet….and talk. There’s much to discuss~.” I wasn’t so forgiving. Hell, I was down right angry. Being ambushed and attacked wasn’t something a pony from the Equestrian Wasteland just forgave.

I spotted my supposed clone, as she’d been called, keeping an eye on the previous room to make sure nopony got behind us. Good Muddy Waters don’t forget to pack their instincts when they dive into a scavenger run. “Discuss? You want to talk after dumping me deep underground full of crazy stallions who all look the same? Not to mention making a mare that looks like me?! Where do you get off?! I ought to teach you a damn lesson, punk! I….we had to murder ponies today…I’d never killed somepony before. Do you know how that feels?”

The voice was silent. At least for a moment. Then she returned with her voice resonating from the intercoms in multiple rooms. “My friend, death means nothing to me anymore. It’s life that means everything to me now. That’s why I’ve been producing copies of ponies. It’s been awfully lonely these past few years, and I’ve yet to produce a working clone thanks to the damage….until now. That’s why….that’s why I need you…” she paused unexpectedly. Before I could respond she blurted out “well technically I don’t need you anymore, but let’s say for the sake of sanity that you and I could reach some form of mutual agreement. Would you be interested in aiding me with a task?”

From the corner of my eye I could see my clone shaking her head no with breakneck speed. I didn’t blame her. She had to murder her attacker with a pencil while I had the luxury of not getting so personal with my own self defense. “….I kind of don’t want to. You’re kind of….well you’re an asshole for starters. Secondly, unless you want to redo the first impressions I’m not interested in whatever you’re selling.”

Her response wasn’t what I would expect from a robot. From the start of this conversation I was getting the impression I was talking with another pony. “Like I said, I don’t technically need you. But, as a show of good faith and proof of my desire to….redo first impressions, I’ll unlock the door to the freight elevator. The door to the loading dock will be opposite of this room. I do hope you’ll come to your senses and consider what I have to say…”

Wait, didn’t need me? From the sound of things it sounded like she did, but wasn’t eager to be so forward with that fact. “What do you mean by not needing me? That room over yonder have something to do with that?”

The intercom buzzed. “Heh….heh heh. I guess it couldn’t hurt to tell you. You already know by now your clone over there is a perfect imitation of you. You’ve come to that conclusion in the hall once you met. If I can make a perfect copy once, I can do so as many times as I like.”

A stomp of a hoof and the frustrated squeak from the corner and my supposed clone was ready to say her own piece of mind. She didn’t look too happy with the voice. “That's bullshit! She said she wasn’t interested, I’m definitely not interested, so what makes you think another one of me is going to say something different, huh?”

“Because if I fail to persuade one of you, I can make another. And another. And another! Until I find the correct combination of words that will convince you to help me! I’m only reaching out to you two for my own convenience. I’ve already extended my apologies and given you the freedom to take the elevator to the upper floors. If I wanted, I could have just let you rot down here until you decided to join me. I’m TRYING to be civil, young lady.” A little lost composure didn’t seem to deter this stranger. With an audible groan that translated to a staticy buzz, she was back to her gentle, slightly more reasonable self. “All I ask is that you return once you’ve reconsidered my offer. I have much to offer and you stand to gain much. However, do not tell others of this place. It’s all I ask…just….don’t.”

I already had an idea of what would happen to other ponies who were unfortunate enough to stumble into this cursed stable. Context clues painted a dark picture with a lot of jellybeans and no survivors. “Fine! Maybe I’ll come back…when I get this mess sorted out and cool off. BUT! If you don’t have anything I want I’m not taking this job of yours. You picking up what I’m putting down?”

Another pause, this time much longer than the one before. I could only guess she was thinking it over. “I am…picking up what you have put down. A strange expression, but I understand. Thank you…the elevator is ready when you wish to leave…” with that, a click within the speakers could be heard. Then there was silence, she was gone.

“Well that settles that. Come on, let’s go.” My clone didn’t say anything. She only offered a curt nod before stepping in line behind me as I made my way towards the freight elevator. Freedom was offered and by the goddesses I wasn’t going to turn down a get out of jail free card.

***

The freight elevator was a simple thing. Larger than the standard elevator by at least double the length and width. The loading dock wasn’t anything special either, just crates stacked to the high ceiling and garbage littering the floor. My hooves crunched paper wrappers and rotting garbage alike as the pair of us moved to leave this place. Whether or not it would be forever was up in the air.

“Hey…”

The clone spoke up behind me. Talking wasn’t something I was terribly interested in, but she sounded depressed almost. I’d never heard my own voice sound so sad or defeated before. I turned my head and checked to see what was wrong. “What’s up? Something on your mind?” She nodded.

“Can we talk? Just for a bit?” Ah yes, the existential dread I’m more than aware she was feeling. It was a matter of time before her own attempts would fail at keeping herself together. Mine weren’t far behind in the failing department.

This was going to be a lot longer than a bit, I could tell. So I sat down and rested my back against a plastic container before nodding. “…w-we didn’t ask who she was. Why? Don’t you wanna know who we’re dealing with?” I shook my head which left her with a more speechless expression. Seeing my own face do these things was an experience I wasn’t going to forget anytime soon.

“I don’t care. She means nothing to us, just like all the ponies back home. It’s why we have no friends, remember?” From speechless to annoyed, her face shifted quickly as she took the opportunity to stomp.

“That’s bullshit! We didn’t make friends because you….me….WE…can’t bring ourselves to care! But now? I care now. I want to know more about why she….” She stopped. I stepped in.

“Why she created you. That’s the reason.”

“Yes! I’m not real! I woke up today eager to eat mom’s cooking and make some money so I can buy Sparkle Cola. Now I’m ending the day with…the sense that I’m not….I’m not real. I’m not real and you are! I was a pony with a name and now I’m NOPONY…” she was speaking through clenched teeth with a few tears already making their way down her cheeks. I felt bad, which wasn’t something I usually did on my own. The ramifications of what was going on hit her a lot harder than it did me, because in the end I could go home and hug my family knowing they still loved me after all the fucking up I did today. I could see where she was coming from, because I’d be the same way if that happened to me.

Waking up one day and suddenly you have nothing left. No hard earned trinkets or caps, no clothes or items, no family to support you when things got rough in the wasteland.

This mare was well and truly alone. So I stood up, stepped up to the crying mare and wrapped my hooves around her tight as I could. She didn’t deserve this. She didn’t ask for this, but it’s what life handed her and that wasn’t fair. I’m more than positive those thoughts were shared between us. “Muddy Waters is a name I’m fine with sharing. This whole trip was bullshit from the moment I found this place. So I understand…” she didn’t respond, not at first. It took a few minutes of crying before she made a move. Her own hooves wrapped around me and returned the hug.

Hugs were nice. They always made me feel better when a day was just a little too hard, a little too much. “Th-thanks….I…wanna go home. I want mom…” another problem with an even uglier face than the problems we just got over. How in Celestia’s dead Equestria was I supposed to explain this to mom or dad or my brothers?!

There’s not a chance in hell they’d believe a drug using zebra high on flower stuff told me where to find a functioning Stable full of clone ponies. Oh, and I brought home a friend who’s an exact copy of me in every way. Guess I have a twin sister now….wait. That’s not the worst possible outcome. A twin sister.

“Listen Muddy. You’re me, and that’s cool, but we gotta get one thing straight and keep it straight.” I broke the hug and stared as hard as I could into her eyes. It felt like staring into a mirror and having a dissociative, out of body experience. Like I wasn’t looking at myself, but at the same time I was. “…….we have to find a way to break this to mom and dad. BEFORE we get home.”

A choked laugh was her initial reaction. Hey, that’s a good start! At the very least I didn’t have to suffer the cries of myself the entire way home…maybe. She wiped her eyes with a hoof and smiled. “Clear and Rough are going to freak out so hard when they find out….still…we didn’t give that voice back there anything to work with. We didn’t ask for anything WE could work with. What’s gonna happen now?”

I already had a solution in mind. Dumb as it was, a job was a job. Even if it was the sketchiest, most suspicious pile of crap job I’d ever seen, the opportunity was too good to pass up. If we wanted something, chances were it was down here in this Stable regardless of what that something might be. It was a treasure trove of scrap and valuables, a dragon's hoard. “We make money and survive, like we’ve always done. What she wants can’t be much different from what the usual job is. Find something somepony wants and get paid.”

“You….you don’t want answers? To ya know…questions? I mean like, there’s the whole cloning thing…whatever that means.” Not sure what a clone even was, but it couldn’t be too far off from what a copy was. They sounded the same after all.

I sighed, “no…not yet. I’m gonna have to sleep on this. I’ve had a long day. Plus we need to deal with you and our parents first. Foal steps…” I really just wanted to go home and take the rest of the week off. This whole day, this whole Stable, was absolute bullshit to the highest degree!

“I guess we’ll ask questions next time. Assuming there IS a next time.” Her mood increased so that’s a plus. My own mood was a little brighter despite the emotional trauma today. With that out of the way we turned and pressed the button on the wall to call down the elevator.

It was high time we got outside.

***

Ding

Another floor passed as the elevator carried us up slowly, but surely. Me, and by extension the other me, collapsed on the sides of the elevator too exhausted to keep standing. I looked at her with the very edges of my vision and saw her looking a little less miserable than before. I wondered to myself what she saw when her eyes glazed over me.

Ding

Another floor. The third floor was left behind, two more to go. The number on the top of the door slowly shifted to two before the elevator came to a halt. A long drawn out ding sounded, signaling the stoppage of the machine. “Finally! We can get out of here.” She said with a hope bursting forth I didn’t share. This was the wrong floor, so why were we stopping? I corrected her and pointed at the number.

“Wrong floor. Somethings not right!” This time we looked at each other with a little less hope than before. What positivity we had vanished when the door opened and a familiar voice greeted us with a heart stopping shout of alarm.

“Jelly? JELLY! Jellybean!”

Teeth bit down on the mouth grip of my revolver, but I wasn’t fast enough to bring it to bear as the jellybean clone surged forward and smashed into me like a wagon, shoving me back into the rear wall of the freight elevator and knocking the air from my lungs. My own clone didn’t fare any better in such close proximity. Either we were just weak for earth ponies, or this stallion clone was a monster up close. No sooner had I slumped to the floor, the other Muddy Waters delivered the most solid buck I'd ever heard to his ribs, in which he responded with a glee filled laugh and smashed her face with a right hook.

Seeing I was too dazed to fight, the cloned stallion began to wail on the defenseless Muddy trying her best to cover her face as the stallion punched her hooves again and again with meaty thwacks. I struggled to breath, but through the pain and fear of suffocating I managed to keep my grip on my revolver. I raised my head and prepared to fire.

“Ha ha! Jellybean.” A kick to my head was all I managed to gain. This stallion, which I’d assume his name was Jellybean by now, was fast with his reflexes and perception. The moment I moved to fire he noticed and responded with the nastiest single hoofed buck I’d ever received. Now it was my turn to get an ass beating as two front hooves found their place in my side. I’d be impressed at the capabilities this guy had despite his pudgy body….had he not used them to bludgeon me over and over. Just as reality began to go black from the pain shock, I heard salvation in the form of an ear piercing BANG that ripped through the elevator into the neck of Jellybean. The corner of the elevator was washed red, the stallion stumbled and like that the nightmare was over as another Jellybean dropped dead from a gunshot wound.

“Holy……oh Luna….I’m gonna be sick.” I’d never looked at myself with such amazement before, but the clone with my face stood there with a weapon clenched between her lips shaking like a leaf and looking pale.

I pressed the button to go up before any more animalistic clone ponies arrived. “Nice shot me. You saved my ass…” I sounded terrible and probably looked about the same. One of my eyes was starting to swell and my mouth produced the slurred words of a pony deep into a drinking session.

“T-thanks…those things are a lot tougher when….hey…why isn’t the door closing?!” The elevator doors buzzed with power but didn’t respond to the button mashing. Did the close door button even work? The longer we sat there the worse the situation became. Any moment a Jellybean fucker would round the corner and spot us. They’d have to be brain dead to not investigate the gunshot. “Muddy the door isn’t working!”

“I know! Push…push the body out. I’ll check the outside panel.” At first I thought the door must have suffered damage because of the gunshot, but everything seemed fine when I pressed the buttons. They lit up fine when I pressed the first floor button, at least. When I checked the panel on the outside I found the problem. A strange circular key was jutting out of the panel and twisted inside. A key ring was there too which hung from the strange key still inside the elevator. I twisted the key to see what would happen and sure enough, the elevator dinged. “I got it! It should work now.”

The jellybean body was rolled out through the door and into the hall where the stench of blood and Celetisa knew what else filled the area. It wasn’t a good feeling to see two more Jellybeans round the far corner and a third following behind them. At first I was happy to fix something and be on our way, but misery loves company and wasn’t about to leave despite its overstayed visit.

“Get in. Get inside right fucking now! Hurry!” I panicked. How could I not after seeing three of those ponies begin their run straight for us? I grabbed my own clone and yanked her through the door by the tail and slammed the button hard enough to send a shock of pain through my hoof. She screamed, I screamed in return. And all the while the door closed with an agonizing slowness. When the door finally closed the Jellybean clones were practically sticking their noses through the crack before it disappeared. Finally we were moving again. Finally!

My clone looked over to me and our eyes met. Yeah, we looked pretty bad. There was an obvious fact hanging in the air that made both of us want to tear up and weep, but we were proud members of the Waters family. There was no way we were going to cry after getting our assets beat by a fat pony who could only say the word Jellybean…

Didn’t mean I didn’t sniffle the rest of the ride up to the surface.

***

It was decided that we’d swallow our hatred of spending caps by washing it down with a couple healing potions. I gave one to my brand new best friend for eternity and one to myself, though we both wanted to initially only take half each. I gotta admit, at least I was consistent even when I was a clone. No, I wasn’t being stingy about giving others a healing potion! It was an idea we both shared equally.

Healing potion only did so much though. After that it was the healing bandages that held remarkably less effectiveness, but would have to do. The swollen left eye of mine was wrapped up good as well as my badly bruised midsection. If I had damage to the ribs the healing potion took care of it. The other Muddy Waters took a beating to her hooves and head, both of which were wrapped with the last of the bandages. Hopefully with some luck, and depending on how many times we got lost, our injuries would fade before we got home.

“There’s the entrance! We…we made it.” It hurts to walk. It hurt to breathe too, but we made it regardless. The moment we reached the top floor I was glad to see the rusted remains of the medical screening room a short hallway walk later. Apparently this area wasn’t the first floor, but the ground floor. Basically a floor zero which was weird to me, but I stopped caring the moment I stepped out of the elevator and into familiar territory.

“We’re gonna make it after all. Kind of got worried near the end there…hey! At least we got two each, right?” A barely maintained smile, that’s all I could muster with my face hurting. It was one she didn’t return.

Her face fell. “I’d rather not think about….killing another pony. Especially now that I know I’m…like them…doesn’t make it easy to process.” Oh no, this wasn’t gonna slide. Her depressive sighing told me everything I needed to know.

With a little more eagerness than I initially meant, I walked alongside her and brushed shoulders to let her know I wasn’t about to leave her like this. When we got the exit, she was the first to poke her head out of the wooden shack door. No light, which meant it was nighttime. Nighttime in the wetlands surrounding the river meant getting home wasn’t just going to be dangerous, it was going to be impossible. The creatures of the bayou and western swamps came out to play in swarms when the sun set and the moon came out.

Or as much as the moon could given the permanent cloud layer. Details details.

“You listen here and listen well. Those things we killed down there were NOT ponies. Doesn’t matter that they looked like earth pony stallions, they weren’t ponies. Real ponies don’t say one word over and over and try to murder others…well okay raiders do that, but that’s something for the elder ponies to think about.” I poked her in the chest before continuing. “I…WE…didn’t kill anypony. Just some more monsters the wasteland likes to throw at us. You with me?”

Heh, I could see the gears turning in my own head. Sure enough, her line of reasoning came back around to match my own as she nodded and lost her drooping frown. “I-I guess. It makes sense. I’m not like those things. I’m…im a good c-clone. Whatever that means.”

“We don’t know, but like I keep saying it doesn’t matter. You’re a pony, you’re a…well a sister I guess. My sister.” I shrugged and pushed her forward to get us outside. Nothing changed out here, but there was no telling how long I’d been underground. That was a question I regretted not asking, but emotions flared and reasoning jumped out the window and into the river.

“Well….” I began, but was interrupted almost immediately.

“Such a deep subject for such a shallow mind.” That was dad’s favorite saying whenever I started a sentence with the word well! I was at a loss for words…so I responded with a shoulder check to give her a love filled nudge. Tough love that is.

Funny as it was, I was glad this pony was me. “Oh, we are going to have SO much fun. I sense a lot of self reflection in the coming future.” I said as I started to walk back inside. Again, she followed and together we went to camp out inside the cave entrance to Stable 98.

“I guess we’re staying here till dawn then? Probably for the best. I’d rather not get chewed up or eaten after surviving the Stable…” the yawn that followed spread quickly, as I found myself doing the same almost immediately after. Exhaustion was setting in now that the adrenaline was well and truly used up.

“We’ll wait here, head east just as the sun comes up and follow the river south. Maybe we can catch a boat, but chances are we’re on our own. It’ll be a decent walk back to Point Wayward” that was all the planning I had come up with so far. It wasn’t much, but home was one agonizing trip back and neither of us was eager to start. Not in our current state anyway.

“That’s a good plan if I’ve ever made one before” the clone said with a tired look in her eyes. She moved to make herself comfortable against the rock wall in the lower half of the cave entrance, so I moved to join her and nestle against her. “Thanks for the body heat. Nothing weird about cuddling with yourself.” My clone, my sister, wore the worst smug I’d ever seen grace my features.

A blush found its home in my expression which I quickly hid. “We are not getting into the….whatever you call it. I’m not doing this for me! Just trying to…to help? I have the cargo coat here, you got squat. So be grateful! And for fucks sake don’t make this weird.”

“Just playing around. Get some rest, we’re gonna need it…” she spoke for the last time, falling silent as she faced the cave wall. I faced the opposite way, our backs pressed against one another.

“Goodnight, me. Gosh this is gonna be a weird trip…'' heh, weird. If today wasn’t the weirdest, tomorrow probably was going to steal that title. And let me tell you, as I fell asleep the nightmares I had felt more like bad omens than anything. Definitely weird…

***

Pain, misery, a drowning sensation coming shortly after taking the largest whiff of yellow and black smoke. I was high out of my mind floating through an ocean of pain. No sooner had I emerged on the other side I was back into another world of sights and sounds, all of which served to overload the senses. My heart raced, my body shook itself apart at the seams, an endless noise so high pitched it drowned all other sounds and drilled the elevated note into the core of my brain.

I was either going into shock and about to die, or having a stroke. Either way, life was suffering and only death could free me now.

Death did free me in the end. Amid the rainbow swirls and high pitched wine, a single word in a strangely familiar voice reached my ears. I wish it hadn’t because that word was going to trigger my fight or flight reflexes every time I heard it after today. “Jeeeellybeeeean~.” One bloody thwack later and I was gone. One stomp was all it took to splatter my head like an expired pumpkin. Next thing I knew, I was in a place of nothingness splayed out on the white sands of a sandbar. I couldn’t get up nor could I move my body well enough to crawl away from the rising tide that threatened to swallow me. First it took my side as the water flowed onward, then it went up to my eye and ear before reaching both sides of my head. Submerged, I laughed one last time as death literally washed over me.

***

Sleeping on the ground wasn’t something I was going to be doing again for a good while. My skeleton felt like hell and the injuries I sustained felt even worse. As I stood up tall and shuddered under the various cracks my bones gave out, my clone did the same in almost the exact same fashion. Now I know what an out of body experience felt like.

“…uuuuugh! My back!”

Her groans echoed through the cave entrance as did my laughter despite feeling the same way. “Lessons learned number one hundred in the past couple of days. Cave floors are not comfortable.”

The early day air was moist, like always, with the feeling of sucking down water just by taking a breath always on the mind. Humidity wasn’t bad just yet either. The journey east was under way shortly after snacking on what remained of the day old radigator steak and the various snacks I brought. After that, we were out of food. Water was close to running dry much the same. An hour walk should get us where we started assuming the best.

The journey itself wasn’t bad, but after about 40 minutes of aching bruises and battered bodies, we were slowing down hard. The predators of Centennial River wetlands would have an easy meal if we were spotted by anything larger than a radroach.

“The sun is almost fully up….” The other Muddy spoke up. At first, I was inclined to believe her. Then after a few seconds something clicked. That wasn’t the sun poking through the reeds, that was a fire! A camp! “Wait…you seeing what I’m seeing?”

“Uh, yeah! It’s a fire, which means ponies…or something smart enough to use a campfire. Come on, let’s see if we can get some help.” Caution was thrown to the wind, again, as we changed course. I was praying to whichever princess would listen that it was just some homesteader's hovel cooking on an outdoor campfire. When we got closer those hopes left faster than a fleeing foal. Seeming to be the theme of this entire adventure was getting my hopes up for nothing.

Trappers. Ponies that held a relationship with the ponies of Wayward that could only be described as ‘extremely tense’ whenever I asked about them as a youngster. None ever offered an explanation, or just refused to do so claiming I wouldn’t understand. The camp was filled with colorful buoys, lobster traps, spears and harpoons and the occasional bear trap. And of course, there were ponies clad in the hides and carapaces of their various kills with a few of those kills being strung up and gutted on vertical racks. They lived in dome shaped tents made of leather and bones from larger critters. Just then, I heard a whisper behind me. “Maybe we should go around. We’ll make it to the river eventually…”

“Alright. Let’s back up and find another route. Maybe we can….” I turned to look back at her, but the eyes I found meeting my gaze didn’t belong to me like my clones did. No, these eyes were red instead of green and belonged to the dirtiest green colored stallion I’d ever come across. He might have been blue-green, but the grime from the wasteland showed well over his coat. The next thing I noticed was the bear trap looking hoof weapon he had pressed against my clone's neck.

“You two might be the dumbest little critters who ever did stumble into our camp. Now why don’t you go ahead and start walkin’ and no funny stuff, got me?” That bear trap hoof looked like it could take the head right off the pony if he punched them with it. At this point all I could do was obey and start walking. I was right to assume he was marching us into the middle of their camp to expose our trespass into their place.

“Lookie here y’all! Got a couple of scabs that need pickin’.” His announcement brought out half a dozen other ponies all clad in shells and gear looted from boats and harbors. One pony was even wearing a lobster trap as a helmet that obscured their features. The rest just looked angry that we were there. “Now y’all’s gonna explain to me real slow like, why you was skulking around and be honest. Imma tell if you ain’t honest.”

“We gonna eat em? I betcha we can find a reason to string em up and dry em out!” One pony from the tiny crowd shouted. I wasn’t aware trappers fed on pony meat, otherwise I would never have run the risk of approaching a camp! This wasn’t just bad, this might be the damn end of us…

“We uh….we got into some trouble out west. Trying to get home, back to Wayward. We weren’t meaning to trespass, honest! Just…” I was a bundle of fried nerves. So many strangers who I’ve never seen before looking at me like I deserve to get eaten for the crime of just wandering too close. Some ponies back home, dad especially, always said Trappers weren’t much better than raiders. That was a sentiment I was coming to agree with.

“My sister and I got jumped by some ponies out west. Took our salvage and our food. We needed help badly and came to the first ponies we saw. That’s the truth!” She spoke suddenly so my lapse in conversation wouldn’t cause more problems. That’s what I assumed anyway. So far the various Trappers surrounding us seemed to take what she said into consideration. We definitely got our asses beat back in the Stable, and from her perspective she truly had lost ownership of everything she thought she owned. Wasn’t technically a lie…

The Trapper from before hummed before walking in front of us. “Now, I’m not inclined to believe what a filly has to say especially if they is from Wayward. However!!! I do declare that poaching on Trapper turf is thee most egregious offense one could inflict on us here. That goes for predators AND ponies. You’re all just meals, so we can’t be letting ponies take what’s ours.”

That was the weirdest way of saying murder wasn’t allowed I’d ever heard. Robbing and murdering ponies wasn’t allowed because it was considered poaching? Well I guess I’ll take what I could get. After a moment of pause, the dirty stallion continued. “My name is Crab! Defacto leader of this here hunting party. Now, so long as you ain’t poaching on our land, we’ll let ya be and we won’t even take what’s yours. Alls fair in love and huntin’. However!!! I’m a charitable pony indeed, I do say so myself. Let’s make a trade. Whatcha need little missies?” With the excitement over, the other Trappers went on with their business. At least two of them spared glaces our way hoping maybe they could bargain for something of their own, but after taking a proper look at our sorry states they huffed and turned away. I guess they expected something more than a pair of beaten twins with nothing to show for their adventure.

“Could you….lead us in the right direction? We’re trying to get home, me and my…” he interrupted me with no hesitation. Or remorse, rude.

“You and your twin sissie need a lift? That’s all? Hehe~! We can do that. A boats down by the river we got parked up on the party spot. But a trade is a trade. What’s your offer?” He was a very talkative pony I was starting to realize. That and his constant smile made him seem a little unhinged. Maybe a diet consisting of almost entirely irradiated meat wasn’t a good thing to do to your body.

“I…..I….well I got…I got drugs? Managed to hide them…I got…well I don’t have much.” Defeat tasted awful. All I had was the clothes on my back, some of the medical supplies I found in the Stable clinic, my compass and gun, the goggles collection I lovingly wore and that was about it. I wasn’t about to offer up caps when the price was dictated by somepony outside of Wayward. That was a good way to get overpriced services and lose everything!

His smile only grew as another trotted alongside him and faced us. It was the pony with the lobster trap helmet! And as it turned out, it was a she as the voice of a mare spoke up. “Oh Crab, let’s go easy. They’re youngins after all. We’ll just go ahead and take a pair of those goggles and those drugs. Poor things look like you could use some drugs.”

So it was, I lost one of my favorite pairs of goggles, the Med-X and the tablets of Buck I’d found. I guess it didn’t matter since we got off easy and we had safe passage back to Wayward. I could only guess that the lack of monsters in our adventure back home was thanks to these ponies considering the semi fresh corpses still being gutted and chopped apart around their camp.

“Is it safe to assume we’re getting off easy compared to most others?” That was a question I didn’t want to ask, but curiosity was killing me.

“Well that’s a yes and a no.” The mare spoke up through her helmet. I really wanted to see what was inside, but the lobster trap she had around her head obscured everything! “You’re lucky it was us who found ya. Some of the groups like to eat pony as much as they enjoy a good swamplurk or gator. We’d eat ya too if things get harder around here.”

The pony named Crab was next to speak his piece as the four of us walked east toward the river. “Things ain’t like they used ta be. Fog rollin’ in more frequent, animals gettin ornery even before we shoot em. Soona or later, we’d gonna be pushed out if we don’t step up. We was actually gonna go to Wayward today anyway at some point. Might as well do it now. Ammo is getting scarce round here cuz of the crap the bayou’s been spitting out.” I spotted the weapon he needed ammo for. A lovely lever action dangled across his back and from the look of it, it was more than well used. The wood showed signs of rot from the moist wetlands air and the metal wasn’t much better.

Minutes passed as the trek continued. I didn’t have much to say really. Neither did my clone. If I had trouble communicating to ponies I wasn’t comfortable with then she’d have the same problem. Which meant we were a couple of loners who’s only friends were an exact duplicate of themself. It wasn’t until we finally got to the river that the sound of flowing water returned to me and brought a sense of relief. We were one step closer to home. The boat the trappers talked about sat docked inside one of the more northward docks belonging to Friendship and Freight, which meant we were a lot further north than I thought. That’s what happens when you don’t check your compass.

“Alright kids, a deal is a deal. I expect we get a little something extra from whoever’s looking for their lost children.” Not a nice way to start a conversation with the strangers you decided not to kill, but I’ll take it anyway. Her boat in question was a little aluminum thing with strange harnesses on the sides. The front was tied to a hanging hook held up by rusted chains meant to keep titan sized cargo ships in place. I expected nothing less from a shipping lane freight company from before the war.

Suddenly my newly acquired sister decided to voice a concern she had once we got down to the boat and hopped in. “Hey! I don’t see anything you could use to get this thing going. Where’s your spark generator, or your water talisman that pushes you forward?” Crab just smiled his usual happy, and creepy, grin and pointed a hoof into the water besides the boats, right next to the harnesses.

I looked over and so did my sister. “CREEEE?!” We screamed at the sudden noise as a pair of eyes accompanied by a fang filled maw poked out of the water. I’d never seen a dolphin before, let alone the post war ones that were born in taint filled waters and magical radiation. I have to say though, I was as terrified as I was in awe.

“You use these mutant dolphins to drive your boat?! That’s…..that’s fucking awesome!” I felt a hoof grab my shoulder and pull me back slightly away from the boat's edge. It was the lobster helmet mare.

A faint chuckle sounded from the dark helmet. I stared into it to see if there was a pony inside, but the dark net covering hid her well. “Alright sweetheart, let’s not excite the dolphins too much. Don’t want them to get any ideas. Oh! Speaking of ideas, I forgot to introduce myself back there at the camp. I’m Lobster! And this is my hubby who I love more than anything.” Her hooves grappled around the stallion named Crab and pulled him into a surprise hug.

I didn’t even need to look at my clone to feel her deadpan expression, mainly because I had one of my own. Crab and Lobster? What a pair… “Lobby, don’t be so rough. Remember what them homesteaders we’d been talking with said. Gotta keep cool so we ain’t disturbing the baby.”

“Oh?! You’re expecting? Congratulations on the baby. What are you going to name it?” For the first time since our meeting in the Stable, me and my clone were stumbling over one another to ask questions as sporadic as possible. Something about the occasion of having a baby always caused a celebration back home, so hearing of one out here in the wild brought a child-like excitement for a celebration. Unfounded, yes, but I didn’t stop us.

“We’d gonna name it Shrimp if it’s a colt or filly. We like the sound of it.” Lobster just hugged him tighter and giggled like a school filly, while our own excitement faded immediately. Our deadpan expressions returned with a vengeance so strong it threatened to mold our faces like that forever.

I turned to my sister and whispered “I’m starting to sense a theme here.

Her response was similar to mine. “Kind of reminds me of a certain father who named all his kids after water.” Oh yeah that’s right, mom and dad purposely doing that to keep a theme. I’ll never understand how dad convinced mom to go along with that, but after Clear Waters was born I had a sneaky suspicion there was something strange going on.

“Alright lil doggies! Giddy up!” The boat rocked forward, then backwards, tossing us from one direction to the next. “Y’all might wanna take a seat little fillies. You end up in that there water you is good as gone.” When he spoke those words my flanks hit the bottom of the boat. As did my sister’s since great minds think alike. The dolphins looked like they could chew the concrete off a dry dock, so I REALLY didn’t want to know what would happen if a flailing pony happened to fall in next to one.

Speaking of the dolphins, I risked peeking over one side to see the creatures pulling the boat like some kind of wasteland fantasy ride. These Trappers managed to capture and tame two dolphins and use them like some kind of propulsion devices. How did they get to swim forward or turn the boat? Well that answer came to me along with the sickly sweet stench of bloody meat. Two slabs of raw fat were dangled over the creatures by fishing rods Crab and Lobster were holding onto. When they wanted a dolphin to slow down they dangled it closer and let the creature have a bite before holding back up again. And when they wanted the boat to shoot off down south towards Wayward they held them out in front of the boat and let the creatures work hard to catch up to the delicious fat that would never get any closer unless their masters reached their destination.

“…okay, I’m freaked out. I thought pony eater dolphins were a scary story told to misbehaving foals…” I tried hard to hang onto the side of the boat as the bumpy ride had me fearing for my life and the possibility of being eaten alive by things I wasn’t even aware was in the water until today.

“And I thought Trappers were raiders! Everypony back home never had anything nice to say about y’all…” I felt my sister's question was a little too soon, but the Trappers didn’t seem to mind. In fact, they seemed almost gleeful at the comparison.

“These here beautiful creatures was found waaaay up north out in the east coast. We like to capture em and breed em so we’s can domesticate thems baby dollies. They ain’t natives, but theys eat ya down to the bone. Makes em eager to serve, so long as they get the pleasure of killing sometimes. You thought I was joking about em didn’t ya~?” Crab was all smiles and smug posture with that last sentence as we shook our heads no. Now it was Lobster’s turn to answer a question.

“You fillies best not go around talking all that talk about us being raiders. As much as I enjoy a good kill, we aren’t going out of our way to just murder anypony. We only murder ponies we don’t like!” Now I wish I could see her face even more. I needed to know if she looked as happy as she sounded when talking about murdering another living breathing pony…

I swallowed my fear for the tenth time in the last twenty four hours and asked another question. “You like us though right?” Somehow, that got a laugh out of Lobster. Without answering the question, she removed her homemade armor of swamplurk shells and tanned hide to reveal her faded red coat and a sliver of cherry pink mane. There was truth to her being pregnant too. Easily seven or eight months in and close to popping! How did she manage to hide that thing under all the armor?

“Hun, I understand what a mamma feels now when she sees her little demons being the best they can be. I wasn’t gonna rob a pony of that. To be honest, it’s the only reason I ain’t killed ya two. Y’all just seem like the sweetest thangs!” I wished for whatever could hear my prayers to not let my face show the absolute horror I was experiencing. A brush with death disguised as a loving pair of ponies and we were none the wiser until she told us the truth.

Now I understood why the relationship between Wayward and the various Trapper camps was stuck at ‘extremely tense’.

If my clone really was another me with the exact details copied down to the smallest one then I had no doubts our experiences were the same right now. I wanted to go home and never leave the house again. It’s a feeling I was for certain with no room for doubt that my clone was feeling too. Today, and almost all of yesterday, absolutely fucking sucked!!

“I…I wanna go home…”

Author's Note

Although I'm not new to fimfiction or reading fanfics, I am new to writing one. Made an account just for this little passion project not too long ago. Criticism is appreciated.

Chapter1: Oh Sister, Where Art Thou

Pain. Everything hurts. With each bounce of the boat over a coming swell my body hit the aluminum boat's floor with a small but agonizing thud. As our journey moved forward down south, I risked a peak at the fellow scavenger I’d befriended on the ill equipped venture. Her, the mare who saved my life and helped when I needed it most.

The mare who shared my face, my name, my everything. Me!

My clone. Still didn’t understand what that even was, but it was a word used to label the poor creature who found herself pushed from her own life’s story and into some new, terrifying existence. She too was staring at me with a single eye, though not because hers was swollen shut after a nasty beat down. I winced hard as she viewed my many facial injuries and cringed. I’d do the same as I spied her wounded forelegs covered in bruises, though she favored one leg more when trying to make the pain go away.

Yeah, the leg I broke yesterday after the fall. I hurt too much to ask if that was the case, but as the boat bounced again I struggled to even breathe through bruised ribs.

Everything hurts…

Eventually my thoughts swam to other things to try and escape the constant throbbing from my face and chest. Home. Point Wayward. A little slice of heaven located in the armpit of Equestria. North of Canterlot, but south of the Hoofington valley. Neighagra falls is a little ways south of Wayward and where the Centennial gets its start. Fillydelphia was way out east, but rumors managed to reach us despite the fact that the only outlanders that show up here are ones that managed to get a boat functional.

Something about a slave empire taking root there. Didn’t need to tell us twice about not visiting.

I wanted to ask about any rumors that might be new or interesting, if only to pass the time and ease the pain, but the moment I looked at the two trappers focusing on steering the boat my ambitions died in my throat. Conversation was over and it wasn’t going to get started anytime soon. Maybe this was why I didn’t have any friends or remember who anypony was. My ability to socialize was non-existent and I had no motivation to change that.

“Luna I’m pathetic…” my voice rang through my ears barely audible over the crashing waves and constant screeching from those horrifying dolphins. I wasn’t the one to speak the words, however. I opened my eye and cracked a smile.

My clone was in the same boat as me in a metaphorical and literal sense. “I’m glad our brains are in sync. Makes it really easy to tell what’s going on with you.” I said with a whisper. She responded immediately with a soft hoof punch to my muzzle.

“If I guess what you’re thinking, can I have a pair of goggles back?” You little rodent…game on! I nodded gently and moved closer to listen in. “You suck at talking to ponies, so you sit there and wait until somepony talks to you because you suck ass at starting things with others besides your family…”

I didn’t even bother responding. All I did was slide off another pair of precious goggles and hoof them over. The only thing I was happy about was that my other self didn’t seem smug about being right like I normally would. Instead, defeat was written on her features probably like it was written on mine. I certainly felt defeated.

“…..y-you can always talk to me…us? Yourself?” I can’t believe this was even happening. I lost two pairs of goggles, multiple healing potions and got an ass beating for this adventure and all I managed to gain was a mid-life crisis at the age of sixteen and a sister. She spoke again, this time with some actual worry. “It’s not talking to yourself if you’re talking to me is it…?”

Finally, I opened my mouth and responded “I’m not doing this with you until we get back. I’m….”

“ALRIGHTY KIDS!!! WAKE UP YA’LL!” Panic shot through me and right behind it was pain as the jolt shook me to my core. That fucking mule. What was her name again? “We’re bout here. As promised and to honor our agreement, we have delivered you to Wayward. I do hope the jostle wasn’t too harsh.” The journey was coming to an end. Of course another one was coming up almost immediately after we arrived with the X shaped overpasses of Point Wayward coming into view. I wasn’t even aware we’d entered the tributary leading here, but that was in the past. Home was finally in reach.

I snorted and my clone laughed at me for doing so. A couple of peas in a pod. “Well my dear sister, the first thing I’m doing when we get home is paying a visit to a zebra. Crimes may be involved…” my turn to start a conversation. Weird, I didn’t have nearly as much trouble talking to myself as I did with other ponies.

“That should give us enough time to think of a way to explain…our situation…to mom and dad!” A look in her eye, oh yes that look. The one I had whenever I got into the mood for pointless theatrics to entertain myself! Together we turned to our saviors, and almost murderers, and spoke in unison.

“Thank you for bringing us home!” The stallion who went by Crab, or at least I thought that was his name, lost his perpetual smile. Something I took pride in was finally getting this photogenic stallion to get rid of that creepy grin. Of course, the mare he was with wasn’t the most pleased, but who cares?

“Kids, imma be honest with y’all…I said you two were sweet, but now you’re down right strange. Don’t ever do that again…” mission accomplished. The mare with the lobster trap helmet was definitely thinking less of us now.

With a curt nod we departed the boat. I wanted to ask why they decided to moore so far from the dock area we had, but the gentle woosh of the dolphins squirting water from their blowholes was a reminder of what these boats were. It didn’t take a sailor pony to figure the answer out. “Now you two best behave now. And uh, don’t be a couple of ‘tards and wander up in somepony’s camp like y’all did back there. I do say, I ain’t neva seen anything more dumb then that there!” I looked back to the Trapper with the thick accent as he waved us goodbye. Together we waved them farewell in return.

I may not remember them after today, but I’ll be damned if I ever forget that advice.

***

We were home, at long last the shit storm we endured was at an end. I’d never take the safety and lack of killer clones for granted ever again! However, before we returned to mom and dad, there was a certain zebra two Muddy Waters wanted to get even with. Sure enough his black and white striped wagon was where we last saw it.

“Alright…we’re going to get answers, starting with this fucker” I snarled as I unholstered my revolver and carefully gave it away to my newfound family member. As much as the adventure was a pain filled bust, I did gain a friend. A sister. A sister who gladly took the weapon since I was down a functioning eye after the dive into Stable 98.

“I like the way you think. Doesn’t even matter if he was right, there ain’t a thing called the Sight! This was a set up…I can feel it in my bruised legs and forehead.” With the revolver clamped between her teeth and tongue on the trigger, I motioned for her to step to the side and let me go first.

A few over eager knocks later…..a voice. This one belongs to a zebra with a dead giveaway accent only a zebra could have. “Who might be at my door? Is there something I can help you with?” The striped zebra in question opened the door with his eye peeking through the crack. When his eye landed on me, I grinned with a devilish anticipation. “Ah! You! You return at last, just as I predicted in the waning moments of the sight. Do tell, have you found your destiny yet? I am eager to hear the tale.” This time he opened the door in its entirety. Even through the goggles I wore and cargo coat it was obviously me so long as I kept my hat and bandana off my head.

What he didn’t expect was to turn his head and spot the other me resting against the side of the wagon with a revolver pointed at him. Quickly I checked to see if the guards were as useless today as they were yesterday. Sure enough, they didn’t give our being here a single glance. Bored as they were, excitement was brewing down the ramp from their guard posts without their notice. “Yeah…I found something like that. Why don’t we step inside and talk about destiny real quick.” His slack jaw and wide eyes didn’t stop me from shoving him into his own wagon with all the strength of an injured earth pony.

He stuttered wildly as his attempts to back away ended once he bumped into the wall of his wagon. “I-I-I can’t believe it. N-no! This-this can’t…b-but how…impossible…” by now my clone had entered and quickly shut the door behind us. Inside was as weird as the outside, with vials and strange talismans hanging from every wall. Surprisingly, there was a lot of swamp themed trinkets and souvenirs in here. Presumably, from wherever zebras come from.

“You are going to tell me everything and leave NOTHING out. Why did you send me to a fucking Stable? Why were there crazed duplicate ponies there? What was my ‘destiny’ even supposed to be?!” Now it was my clone's turn to start unleashing the verbal barrage.

“And what’s MY destiny huh? I deserve some answers since I didn’t ask to get made into a complete copy of the mare you sent on a suicide mission! Answer me ya fucking tribal!” She made her fury known which I was impressed by. I never talked like that to another person before, which to be honest I wish I could do more often.

But for the most part, the Zebra named Shazan simply shrunk down and tried his best to avoid setting off the fuse that was my newly found sister. “I swear! By the bearers of prophecy before me and those that come after, I had no knowledge of what might lie beyond the Sight. Nothing could have foreseen THIS!” His hooves motioned to the copy cat pony I’d come to appreciate in the small amount of time we’ve been together. I wanted to believe him, but how could I believe in something that sounded so…so stupid! So infuriating! My clone pushed on without me as I stood there, stunned and enraged.

“I got the shit kicked out of me! I had to murder things that looked like ponies, but weren’t! No, before you ask they weren’t ferals, but do you have any idea what we went through down there?!” The way he trembled under the hate filled gaze of my clone made me think that maybe, just maybe, he had some clue of the trauma we suffered down in the Stable.

I shook my head hard and placed a hoof over the shoulder of the mare. “Unclench the gun, Muddy. He’s got nothing. I don’t care anymore…”

Reluctantly, she complied and turned to slide the gun into the holster around my leg. Her outrage still poured from her glare like a raging river and there wasn’t anything I could do about that. She had a right to be pissed.

“I am terribly sorry about what happened. I’ve forced you down a journey you can’t turn away from now. I was acting without thinking of the consequences. Lost in the excitement of clearer visions with no regards to consequences. I have forced a confrontation with destiny early…” his words echoed through my mind. There was no telling what he meant by that last part without some more context, but that was a luxury I couldn’t afford just yet. I’ll have to head scratch on that later.

“Hate to break it to you, but saying sorry isn’t going to change the fact I have a twin sister now and bruised bones. Your date with destiny was something you bargained for and now you got it” I huffed as I sat down and released the tension building in my back. Everything still hurt and no amount of used up bandages was going to fix me.

“We’d be a lot more forgiving if you offered us something other than scarily accurate drug fantasies.” She stood tall and continued. “My sister is exhausted. So am I. Maybe a few dozen caps to buy us breakfast? You owe us that at least…” to be honest I was surprised. Maybe her different experiences down in the Stable did something to her, changed her differently than it did me. I know I wouldn’t still be here trying to squeeze a frightened elder zebra for caps normally.

Caps that he actually provided in the end with a shaken smile and a spooked body posture that screamed ‘frightened kitten’ to me. Without further delay, I scooped up the clanky money and turned to leave. “I hope you’ll stick around. This isn’t over yet. I got this feeling it’s only just starting…” I spoke while collecting myself and the caps into a pocket.

“Hey what was your name again?” In typical Muddy Waters fashion, my sister forgot the name of the zebra already. She really was me, bad habits included! Well ain’t that a hole in the boat.

“My name is Shazan. It’s been a pleasure speaking with you, new acquaintance. I must inquire though, who are you? Are you truly one mare in two bodies, or will you split and forge your own identity?” It didn’t take a crystal ball and hallucinogenic flowers to see his words were resonating with my clone. She didn’t respond at first, so I took my chance to step in like she did for me.

“We are Muddy Waters. Unless things change, or by some miracle we get our cutie marks, I’ll happily share the name. We’re sisters, after all…especially after what happened in the Stable…” that got a semi bashful look from my new family member and a look of approval from Shazan. I was happy with both, proud even!

And he seemed proud of me too. “I am thankful that not all was misfortune and hurt. Perhaps this experience was something…I’m not sure…positive?”

I looked to my fellow Muddy Waters and she in turn looked at me. It was time to express how we truly felt. Together, we looked to Shazan and wore the deepest scowls we could muster. “Yeah no. It was pretty freaking awful. Don’t ever pull that shit again.” We spoke in unison for the second time today and much like the first time, it put a deep discomfort in our audience.

“…..p-please accept my apologies, Miss Waters.” With head held low, Shazan offered another hoof-ful of caps. Who would have guessed two heads are better than one~?

***

We ended up telling Shazan what happened, at least the semi-important bits. We left out where exactly we found the Stable or that there was someone living inside that didn’t scream the words ‘Jellybean’ at us before attacking. The more we talked about our near death experiences, the darker Shazan’s expression became. There was a feeling deep inside me that felt uneasy looking at the Zebra with such a dark tone written all over his face. Maybe it was the stripes…

“My friends, from what you have told me this sounds like a very familiar story I’ve heard once before. I have yet to hear of a tale from a pony Stable that has ended pleasantly. Had the Sight told me it was a Stable that held your destiny, I would have told you to abandon hope.” I didn’t know enough about the pre-war stuff to argue with him, so I had no choice but to take what he said at face value and hope it wasn’t bullshit. Could have sworn I’d heard a story or two about Stables, but they didn’t seem like the scary campfire story that Shazan made them out to be.

I raised my hoof to stop him there. It was going to take some time to process this. “Okay, so what you’re saying is Stables are bad news, I can understand that part after yesterday. What I don’t understand is why? What the hell is a bunch of fake ponies doing in a Stable and where are the actual Stable ponies?” Shazan for his part just shook his head and frowned.

“Looks can be very deceptive, young ones. Take that advice into your hearts as you step into the future. Speaking of which, I believe you two have someplace to be.” I wanted to hear more about the Stables! He just told us about stories, so why was he so quick to get us to leave before sharing em’?

My clone butted in now that she was done counting caps and stuffing a bag full of our prize. “Did the Sight tell you about another journey we gotta pursue? Heh heh…”. Shazan looked at her and smiled warmly as he walked past her towards the door and opened it. As I watched him, I noticed a sheet of paper pinned to the door frame. He must have noticed, because he took the sheet in his mouth and ripped it down before depositing it at our hooves.

I felt a shiver go up my spine when I read the words, ‘Missing Pony Update: Muddy Waters’. I looked at Shazan, nervous. “No. I did not need the power of the Sight to guide me. This bulletin in town was more than sufficient” he said slowly. Why did I feel like he was one upping me for something my sister said?

Speaking of, she responded in kind. “Woah! Okay, so why didn’t you let us know we were missing earlier? That would have been REALLY nice to know!” Her anger was reflected by my own, as the two of us demanded answers. Only I let her talk for the both of us. So far, she was good about saying what I was thinking and vice versa.

“...I do believe…I had a very pressing concern with my life being threatened. By you. Do you remember?” Fuck! Yeah we remember, and this was mostly our fault. A bad attitude cost us that information when we collectively decided to point a revolver at an innocent zebra and force our way into his wagon.

Ears drooped low as our time came to leave. We’d overstayed our unwelcome. “...I’m…I’m sorry Mister Shazan…I think we ought to go home and try to explain this to our parents.” For all the harm we did by threatening him, he was collected about the ordeal and let us walk out the door unopposed. As we made our way up the overpass leading to Wayward, I turned back to look at the wagon and waved at the zebra goodbye. He returned the gesture with a smile and shut the door, disappearing behind it.

“I…hope he forgives us. I feel kind of bad now…” Muddy Waters whispered into my ear as I raised my green bandana over my muzzle and equipped my goggles. Together, with my faded red hat I was concealed from view. I had to tuck my long hair into my coat too, just so nopony got the idea that it was me underneath this scavver’s attire.

I looked at her and spoke with as cool a voice as I could manage, despite my nervousness getting worse. “Let's focus on getting home without telling the entire town there’s two of us now. I’m not looking forward to telling the family, let alone letting all of Wayward know…” I bit my lip underneath my mask and prayed this wouldn’t end in disaster. By the lack of response I got from my sister, I had enough evidence to suggest she was feeling the same way. “Right now…you gotta be Muddy Waters. If two of us show up in town, it won’t end well. Ain't no way we're going to get away with something like this, and I highly doubt we’re going to be able to convince the entire town we were a pair of twins all along.”

Nopony was that dumb. Still no response from her, which worried me. She looked ready enough, so I pressed on and began the march back home through the streets of Wayward. I spared a glance behind me and sure enough, she wordlessly followed. Good.

This was going to suck even with her cooperation. I didn’t want to imagine having to do this by myself.

***

Worry. I couldn’t escape it. I walked down the cramped streets of Wayward between shops and taverns as I followed the mare who was me, and yet not me. Hell, I wasn’t even me today and not just in the metaphorical sense. I was disguised for a reason and that reason filled my shaky soul with so much worry. Guards would occasionally stop my clone to let her know she’d been declared missing and should go home immediately. In our small town I probably should have known who these ponies were, but for the life of me I never bothered to learn their faces, or names. Now that I was pretending to be somepony else, I stopped to look at them all. I was at a loss for just how many ponies I didn’t recognize that were obviously locals judging by how they dressed and smelt.

Dad always says to walk a mile in somepony’s horseshoes, but I didn’t understand what he was trying to say until now.

Muddy turned to me and waved me closer as the central market was upon us. The stairs leading to the residents pass was right there and beyond it, home. It took no time at all to work our way through the even more crowded buildings to find which one belonged to the Waters family. I stood besides the tarp that acted as our door with Muddy preparing to go in, but I hoof on her back stopped her. “Shhh, hold up…”

She waited and together we listened. Crying, hiccupping, the whole nine yards of grief could be heard coming from our home. It sounded like mom was besides herself after hearing we’d been lost for who knows how long. That left a feeling of hurt inside my chest knowing I caused this, though I wasn’t alone.

Through hushed whispers, clone Muddy spoke, “I’ll go in first. Get her settled down, then you come in and explain what's what…alright?” Even through the concern she had for our family, determination shined through her. I felt it too and nodded grimly at what we were about to do. I expected someone to faint from shock after the reveal in all honesty…

“Alright…for the family…” I responded. After that, she pushed her way through the tarp covering and went inside while I peeked through the crack between the tarp and the rest of the doorframe. Hopefully, this would end better than the rest of our day. “Go get ‘em sis” I whispered to nopony in particular.

Seconds past as the crying stopped. I expected shock, but what I didn’t expect was the entire family to be there. Dad, both of my brothers and of course, the terrified mom who was wrapped in the hooves of everypony as she wept for her lost child. When her eyes rested on my sister, she flung herself from the comforting embrace of her family and rushed to tackle hug the clone she thought was her daughter. Then the tears flowed once more as the shock vanished, replaced by sweet relief instead. “My baby!!! You silly silly filly, what in the world happened to you?! You look like you fell off a building you blasted child…” It didn’t take an invitation for everypony else to join in on the group hug. I could have sworn even dad was crying, though he hid it well behind his gruff exterior. That brown stallion with the darker blue mane and similarly colored scruffy beard was obviously holding back emotions, but the events of a missing child hit him just as hard as it did mom.

“Muddy Waters! You scared us all to death, in my case almost literally. I damn near had a heart attack out there when I heard you’d disappeared!” Partially scolding, somewhat joking, that was the Deep Water’s way of dealing with the emotional turmoil, I guessed. For some reason, while inspecting the bandages around my clone's head, mom was suddenly busy giving my clone a sniff. I wasn’t the only one to notice what was going on, since Rough Waters and my little brother Clear Waters gave mom strange looks.

Little bro was first to speak up, to my surprise. “I-uh….mom…whatcha doing? You’re being spontaneous again…” his meek voice gave rise to my older brother’s suspicions. He took the chance to chime in where the youngest Waters left off.

“Yeah mom, you….you doing okay there? I know Muddy smells worse than a wet dog most days, and you get on to her about it, but maybe now isn’t the time?” What a back-hoofed way of showing concern for your little sister, Rough! Even though I felt betrayed by that, he was right in both my lack of hygiene, and my mother being strange.

For her part, she ignored her son's words and buried her head in her daughter’s mane for a brief moment before recoiling in what I assumed was shock. That wasn’t right though, what could she have noticed that I didn’t? Something wasn’t right, but the first one to put that coming fact to light wasn’t me, it was Vivid Grove. “You…you aren’t Muddy…”

No fucking way… she couldn’t.

But she did. Everyone stopped the family reunion when mom jumped back in a defensive stance and glared daggers at my other self. “You are not my daughter! Who are you?!”

“Sweetheart, what’s wrong? What are you saying?” Dad tried to understand what was happening, but this came too fast for him to process and stumbled trying to figure out what was going on before him. His attempts at defusing his wife were fruitless.

“My baby smells like sweat and cable grease on a good day. Muddy washes once a week when she doesn’t lie! She thinks I don’t know, but I do…and you!” She pointed a hoof at my clone with venomous intent. “You smell like the day you were born…your mane feels washed, not greasy at all. So before I throw your hide into the river, you best tell me where my daughter is. Now!”

No! My mom could tell the difference, and despite the shame filling my shaky body, I was more concerned with my clone. Her body was shaking too, and probably for similar reasons. As fear flowed through me I was damn sure it was going through her in spades. It was scary seeing mom so angry, but for me it was scary how quickly she noticed the deception. Of course I found out the same way when I confronted my clone down in the Stables. That pony with my face just didn’t have my musk, or my apparently bad body odor according to mom…

After a tense moment, the other Muddy responded. “Look, I can explain! I’m Muddy Waters, I promise. There was an accident….and a S-Stable! A-and….and….and for f-fucks sake. Can you lend a hoof already, Muddy! Luna above, get off your ass and get in here.” Her words fueled by anger pushed me forward in a way I didn’t know possible. Before I could blink, I was standing in the door and removing my bandana and hat.

“……..”

“…….”

Nopony was saying anything. The only message I got from my family was pure and utter bafflement judging by all the slack jaws and wide eyes. You’d think they saw a ghost or something.

“S-so uh….I can totally explain, but I think mom has her own ex….explanation to…to do! Like when…when were you gonna tell us, or me, that I had a twin sister! Huh? Bet ya didn’t e-expect…that?” My poorly spoken attempt at humor to break the ice that had grown in our home yielded mixed results. Expected, of course. It was when dad looked at Vivid with a shocked expression that I felt something I said didn’t land the way I wanted it to. She looked at him with an equally shocked expression, then proceeded to pass out with a thud as she crumpled to the floor.

“WHAT THE HELL MUDDY?!?!”

My entire family shrieked as they rushed to help mom from her collapsed state. Even my own clone, my literal flesh and blood, screamed at me as she joined in on the bandwagon. I had a small fantasy that she'd betray me and make me look like the fake Muddy to my own family, but I didn’t expect her to betray me like this!

Oh no….what have I done?

***

Dad and Rough ended up carrying mom to my parents bed in the leftmost room. We only had three rooms in this house and one doubled as a kitchen/ living room combo. The other belonged to the kids which now included two Muddy Waters. Thankfully, dad and my brothers were oddly calm at the surprise twin reveal. So no one ended up in the river yet. Which was good!

What wasn’t good was the absolute scolding me and my twin got from dad once mom regained consciousness. “Muddy Waters! How….good Celestia above, how in tarnation did you manage this? What…..I-I can’t even begin to wrap my head around this young lady!” I learned a new word today from Rough and Clear, flabbergasted. That was a very accurate description of my dad, who paced back and forth as my mother and brothers watched. “You disappear for TWO DAYS….two days, Muddy! A crew had to come out to the falls to pass this information along to me. And when I return home to form a party to search for you, you’re nowhere to be found.” He began another round of pacing before starting up again once he’d caught his breath. “Then out of the blue, you return home…with a twin sister. Where in Luna’s dead Equestria did you go that could result in a…I don’t even know what this is! And where did you get those injuries, more importantly…?”

Me and my twin sat in the far corner, heads held low in shame as our father interrogated us. I was glad we went to Shazan first, because the practice we got by telling him would prove invaluable for getting things straight in our heads.

So we told the family as they sat quietly and listened. We spoke of finding the Stable after the fog forced our course change, conveniently leaving out Shazan as his whole ordeal would never be believed anyway, and continued until we got to the part where we told our separate stories. Clear sat next to my clone as she spoke of waking up alone and confused, eventually having to murder something that looked like a pony with a pencil. It wasn’t difficult to figure the experience wasn’t pleasant and Clear was quick to offer emotional support to her with soft back rubs. Clear Waters was always a kind soul, if a bit shy around most ponies. Somehow, he did better than me at being social which I envied a tad.

When I told the story of waking up in a clinic of sorts before being attacked by the same attacker, all eyes were on me. I took over from there, telling of the deaths I caused, the eventual descent into the Stable and the events after meeting my new sister. Mom let out a shaky laugh when I told her how I determined who was the real Muddy Waters. Rough moved to sit beside me when I got the part about the elevator and our ass beating we received before putting down the last berserk clone pony and escaping. I even told them about the voice asking for my assistance which I denied, but left the possibility of a change of heart in the air.

That part got a look from dad, who was put off by the whole thing. “Muddy, I’m glad you’re safe, but this story….this is insane. Had you not brought home a…clone? Had you not brought her back I might never have believed you. I have a whole roster of questions I want answered, but let’s discuss the mud dragon in the room.”

The worst part that was yet to come had finally arrived. Talking about the experiences was one thing, but what to do about them was another. Namely, what to do with my clone. All eyes were on her now and she wilted under the weight of our gazes. Now I know how Shazan must have felt when we did what we did to him. “Look, guys, can’t we just….” A loud clop sound silenced me. Mom had tapped her hooves together to shut me down before I even got started.

“Muddy, you don’t need to say anything. I want to see her up close, so come here please. Let me see you.” Mom waved over my clone who obeyed silently. I felt terrible that she was being subjected to this. Had I woken up one day to realize I’m not who I thought I was, I doubt I would have lasted as strongly as she did. We had each other though, and I wasn’t about to change that. “What’s your name, child?” Mom asked.

The clone responded in kind. “I…I don’t know. I was Muddy Waters when I woke up for the first time…” sorrow filled every word from her lips and it rang in my heart to hear myself sound so…depressed.

Seeing this unfold before her, Vivid placed a hoof on the clone's chest and sighed deeply. “You look like my daughter, and act like my daughter, but how can I know you are what you say you are? I can’t tell what you say is true…so, with that in mind, why don’t you tell me something only Muddy would know. If she knows it, then I probably know it too. Hehe~.” Pleading eyes turned to me. Those jade green puppy dog eyes bore a hole through me I didn’t want to acknowledge.

I coughed… “What? Do you want my permission or something?” Clone Muddy upped her game with the pleading look. Rough found it oddly amusing, probably because he wasn’t on the receiving end for once. “What do you want from me? Validation? A point in the right direction?”

“I want to tell mom about her secret we know about, but never told anypony. Ya know, the one about her and dad’s…” As my clone spoke, I moved to shut her up by clamping my hooves around her muzzle. Dad seemed eager to hear while mom was just confused. Good, they didn’t need to hear what we know.

My one good eye started into her clamped face. “We aren’t going to speak of that, I promised myself never to tell. Understand…?”

She pushed me aside and stood tall. She wanted to say it, but I wouldn’t allow it! It was too embarrassing an experience and it would embarrass mom and dad too. Despite this, she pressed on. “Yes, but it’s the only way…mom, dad…” I cringed as she turned to face them and spoke again. “I know….I know that you two go down the river, sometimes, and pay a visit to a Homesteader who lives in a beached boat. You ask to use his shed some nights because…” I’d never gotten the chance to see dad in action before now, but the way he moved like a flash flood to stuff a hoof into my clone's mouth was awe inspiring. The act alone me and mom were grateful for.

“Okay okay! You’re definitely Muddy Waters without a shadow of a doubt, so please do NOT say another word. I believe you.” Mom looked ready to pass out again. Her face was flushed red as she stood up and walked over to me and my clone. There, she wrapped us both in a warm embrace and hummed softly.

“Let’s agree that you aren’t lying and call it good. I may not have given birth to ya, but that doesn’t make you any less my daughter. You got her heart and her passion, and that’s enough for me.” Eyes widened after hearing those words. I pulled away to see my clone with tears filling her eyes again upon hearing our mother’s words.

Trying to not cry again, clone Muddy whimpered as she went in for another hug. “M-mom…I’m sorry. I was so scared you…that you…might..." As mothers do, Vivid pulled the clone into a tight embrace and gently rubbed her back as she broke down in our mothers hooves. The scene was so heartwarming I felt tears coming on as well. Frankly, I was just happy that she was accepted at all, but this was a good outcome I could get behind.

“Shhhh, you’re gonna be okay. It’s okay, mommas got you. I would never abandon my children. If you’re Muddy Waters then you belong to me, ya hear?” The clone didn’t respond, only sputtered and wept after hearing the tender words offered by our mom.

A hoof was placed on my shoulder. Looking back I saw Rough staring down at me. “So does this mean we have a new sister? Like for real? I’m okay with it if everypony else is. She’s practically a twin, so not much is gonna be different.”

Dad and Clear nodded in agreement, they were on board with it. I’m sure Clear could get behind having another sister to spend time with and Rough was eager to gain another employee. Mom and dad we’re probably just glad everypony was safe and sound. All in all I found myself smiling, unable to complain. “We are the same. We risked our lives helping each other and we aren’t going to separate now! Plus, I’ve always wanted a sister. I think this is a good thing.”

A bright and cheery smile found its home on my face as the mood was at an all time high. Nothing could sour this for us and I was glad things turned out for the best. When dad asked a question, I almost didn’t hear it over how fast my thoughts were racing. “So Muddy…how exactly did you two get home with all those injuries?”

Cheerfully I replied, “Oh, yeah. We fucked up and wandered too close to a Trapper camp. They were nice though and let us ride with them back to Wayward. Why do you ask?” When I looked back the cheery mood had vanished. Mom was practically strangling my newfound sister as worries struck her hard. Dad and Rough alike looked ready to scream at me again. “Uh, what’s the problem?”

Dad responded quickly, and with barely disguised hate filling his words. “Muddy, don’t you ever…EVER…speak with Trappers. Those ponies are no good mongrels. You could have been killed! I’m surprised they didn’t take a leg off you two for bringing you back. Good goddesses above!” Dad was pacing again, not a good sign. Maybe I shouldn’t tell him they freely admitted to wanting to butcher and eat us. Rough just sucked air through his teeth and looked away, not wanting to get involved. Enough had been said already that he didn’t have anything to offer other than stern words, I’m sure.

“We’re sorry dad. It was an accident…I didn’t know…and that means she didn’t know either…” my new sister explained quickly. Yikes, should have kept that part of the story to myself, maybe told a little fib to soften the impact a bit. Either way, lesson learned as if it hadn’t been learned already.

“That’s okay, but please don’t deal with those ponies again. They’re bad news, sweetheart.” Dad was over his speech already. If he wanted to say something more profound, he didn’t bother with it. What was done was done. “Do we have an understanding? They aren’t to be trusted, believe me..." he spoke up once more.

A pair of nodding heads was his only response. He was happy with it at least and left to enter the living room without us. Probably to remove the worry from his mind and calm down. Clear just smiled and nuzzled against his new sister before following dad out. Rough seemed to have other ideas before leaving just yet.

He trotted to my sister and smiled, holding a hoof for her. Within his grasp was a bottle of Sparkle-Cola Cherry, as promised. “Welcome to the company, little sis. If you maintain this level of hygiene and promise to wash at least once every couple of days, I’ll give you a bonus in pay. Work begins whenever you two heal up! And uh, don’t be late you two. Just because you’re a copy of my sister doesn’t mean you have to act like her. You could be even better, who knows? Heh...”

The clone just smiled, laughed at his joke and eagerly swiped the soda pop to take a swig of the 200 year old, peculiarly preserved soda-pop. A part of me wanted to scream at losing out, but another bigger part was just happy a crisis and emotional shipwreck was avoided. I was happy for my sister and her well earned reward.

I chimed in finally, “Okay okay let’s not make fun of me while I’m still here. I have pride to maintain.”

For some reason, that got a larger laugh out of Rough and mom than I would have liked, but the bruise on my ego was nothing compared to the bruises I sustained from the Stable. When my sister noticed what was going on, she paused her consumption of my favorite drink and gave the last half of the cola to me. Something I was eternally grateful for.

Another item added to the list of things I’m eternally grateful for.

“Here. I know we wanted this before the Stable crap went down…I’m willing to bet I still want it after the fact, huh?” My sweet lovable sister who I could relate to unironically. Where have you and the Stable full of wacky science been all my life? I won’t lie, I chugged the shit out of the cherry flavored drink, to which my mom tossed her disapproving stare my way shortly after.

Even so, my grin couldn’t contain itself. “It’s great to be me~. Oh mom, you should have seen the stuff down there. Straight out of a comic or somethin’. It’s gotta be some kind of megaspell magic or PipBuck technology that made all those clone things.”

With the four of us still in my parents bedroom and emotions weren’t at an all time high, I wanted to shift focus to the Stable. Mom was interested in it, but Rough was deeply invested in the possibilities. His merchant mind was probably thinking about all the things we could sell to afford some place else to live. What was that tower called with all the rich ponies in it?

Mom was her usual calm self again, but smiled at my mention of the cause of our collective traumas. “Muddy, maybe we should give this Stable some room for now. Let it sit while you two troublemakers collect yourselves.” She seemed exhausted mentally from the events of today.

I felt her pain, but felt this needed to be discussed. “Mom, whatever was down there created a twin sister, it made an army of a pony who can only say the word Jellybean. If we got enough muscle we could take it for ourselves, become top dogs! Pay off some of our debts and even get dad a new boat…or at least repair the current one.” I thought that was fairly reasonable. It was a shithole full of unknown dangers not including a particular stallion who loved saying jelly beans, but what if the voice could provide a substantial enough reward? “Rough. You’re with me on this, right?”

Big brother Rough Waters had his thinking face on. We all looked at him awaiting his response. Finally, he shook his head and huffed. “I don’t know. On one hoof, scary science that makes little sisters. On the other hoof, painful, uncalled for death and destruction.” Not the answer I was looking for…

“I thought you were super eager to get stuff to sell to those Steel Rangers. Whatever happened to that?” Sister Muddy chimed in too, equally eager to gain something from all this even if we had to try again.

Defeated, Rough looked down and away from us. “….they never turned up. My contacts must have been high or something. There weren't any sightings of powered armor ponies or their boats coming up or down the Centennial. Even if you did what I asked, which I’m glad you didn’t, we wouldn’t have anypony buying our shit. Must have had another way to get to Hoofington. Probably a coastal port, or somethin'..."

There was sympathy from mom at her son's lost business ventures, but that was only a small setback. I pressed on, “There’s gotta be something in the Stable. That voice offered me a job essentially, why not go back and take the chance?”

“If you two had such an amazing chance to gain something from this nightmare, why didn’t ya take it when you had the opportunity hoofed to ya?” Mom raised the question to which we only responded with confused looks at first. We didn’t have answers ourselves, so that was a loss for Muddy. One I would struggle to correct just to see all my pain be worth something.

“We uh….” I rubbed the back of my injured head, lost and confused about how to explain our fuck up. Luckily, the other Muddy had my back.

“We weren't in the right mood at the time. She was pissed, I was depressed, and together we just wanted to go home. It was a long day…err, two days apparently. Not sure how long we were out for…” yeah I was still confused about that. I remembered the drug and waking up in the Stable, but now long was I knocked out for? An entire day? Seemed nuts to me.

“How about this then.” Rough offered. “Come meet me back at the stand tomorrow and I’ll see if I can think of something in the meantime. This is bigger than any of us, so don’t get any ideas without my say so, okay?”

Mom didn’t approve. Judging by her look at all three of us, we didn’t have her backing at all. “Now listen here, I think I’ve heard enough. I speak for your father when I say we thought we lost our daughter today. I’m not going to stand by and lose my baby girl like that again. Especially now that I have two to look after. I love you both, but please listen to your brother. No funny ideas…plus, we’re going to have a long talk about privacy and how you shouldn’t follow ponies to their special get-togethers.” Her warm hug brought us together, me and my sister, but her cold glare stole the idea of venturing back to the Stable from us. Maybe it was for the best.

But the thought still lingered in my mind. What kind of Stable technology made ponies? And who was that voice in the speakers?

I had to know. We had to know…

Author's Note

I have allot of inspiration for the setting and general atmosphere. Not to mention I work on a boat. I hope as you read you can spot some references. :)

Chapter2: Everything To Gain

Nothing to lose, everything to gain.

After the gamble of a lifetime and positive conclusion to the introduction of my new sister to the family, things were looking up. Of course I too was looking up, but not in the spirit sense. Me and my clone were bedridden and banned from leaving the house together for the time being. Money didn’t grow on trees around here so wasting healing potions on us was a no go, so mom and dad decided we’d do our healing the old fashioned way. A second hammock was set up in our shared room so the two of us could rest until our bruises and battered bodies could do their thing.

“Oh Muddy, I have lunch for you two. It’s something I got a good deal on in the market and I think you two are going to love these.” Mom sang happily as she entered our room with two strange looking fruits hanging from her saddle bags. They looked like some kind of bloated pear mixed with an octopus. Carefully she sat them down in our hammocks for us to grab a hold of. Weirdest thing was, despite how weird they looked, the fruit smelled nice and was as big as three apples combined. “Now before you girls start eating we’re going to go over some ground rules.”

Uh oh, that didn’t sound pleasant. “What kind of rules are we talking about?” Together me and the other Muddy spoke up with equal amounts of worry from the both of us. We didn’t even mean to speak in unison this time. It was an unspoken agreement we wouldn’t do that to mom or dad since it tended to creep ponies out. Sure enough, mom sprouted a deadpan look almost immediately.

Vivid Grove’s eyes bounced back from me to the clone. “I had a different rule for rule one, but now the new rule one is you're grounded if you ever do that to anypony else. Rule two, if you go out together you need to wear something that covers you up. I would have gotten the doctor to heal you two, but the same doctor helped with your birth…ponies are going to know something is going on if two of you suddenly pop up. So keep this a secret no matter what, understand?” We shook our heads in agreement.

We had an idea to just tell everypony there were always two of us from the beginning, but that would be a little difficult if the clinic spotted us. It’s not like anypony else could refute the evidence of a twin sister except for the actual town doctor.

“Rule three. For the love of Luna DON’T follow us when me and your father go out on a date! I shouldn’t even have to explain this.”

I did it once as a filly just out of curiosity and swore never to speak of it again when I learned too much. Together, the Muddy Waters weren’t going to live this down anytime soon. “Yes ma’am…” this hurts. Hurts my soul.

“And finally rule four, if you’re going to go against my wishes and try for that blasted Stable, then at least prepare for it and take some help with you.”

I mean we were going to do that, but mom seemed to understand our desire for the unknown and possibly valuable. “What makes you think we were going after the Stable? It’s full of crazy clone ponies. We’d need an army to take it.” That thought alone was pushing me to try anyway. If I could get back down there, I could make my own help.

“Sweetie, don’t play dumb with your mother. I was an overeager explorer and prospector when I was your age, ya know? If my momma told me to not go after a fortune, you could damn well bet I already had a pair of saddle bags with essentials packed.” The smirk she wore felt familiar. When I looked at my sister I remembered she had a similar look at one point during our adventure. Maybe the apple fell pretty close to the tree.

“Rough said he had something he wanted us to meet with him about. We’ll check in with him.” We’d need his help after all.

“As long as we’re on the same page. So help me Celestia and Luna, do not do anything stupid out there. You’re a big girl, but I’m not gonna lose you. So play it smart, and play it safe.” Mom pointed her hoof to her eyes before quickly pointing to us. Yeah, she was watching out for us, but more likely she wasn’t about to let us get go before she knew we were ready.

“Thanks mom for siding with us. We’ll play it safe.”

“We know where to go and how to avoid trouble.”

With a nod, mom left and went back to her own devices. Dad wouldn’t be happy about us going, but the wealth we could have by going back would make up for any risk. We just had to win.

A plan was needed too, but I’d leave that to Rough. For now, it was sweet, easy living and fresh food.

***

Easy living didn’t come easy after all. That night, the distant roars of irradiated beasts plagued us. Like a ship's horn the monsters within the swamps bellowed their mighty calls and shook the native ponies to their cores. I was usually asleep by now happily skipping the nuisance of listening to wild animals all night.

“Mating seasons here for the bog-crawlers.”

Took me a second to realize Clear Waters was still awake in the padded mattress beneath me. He took after dad when it came to being a fisher-pony, so it made sense he’d know what was going on when I didn’t.

“When the fog rolls out from the river, or the western swamps, the bog-crawlers go into heat around this time of year. They’re signaling to potential mates across the river.”

I’d never seen one of those before. I always made sure to avoid trouble or anything that looked like a monster nest. Pretty sure if they were as big as their mating calls, I wouldn’t have survived an encounter. With a whisper I asked the question floating around in my mind.

“What do they look like? Are they big fuckers like mud dragons or Swamplurk queens?” I’d never seen those either, but the stories from outlanders and local sailors alike described demons that could sink ships and turn ponies to mince meat.

He shook his head. “They’re not that big, but they’re big enough to clear the deck of all life if they get aboard your boat…”

What a lovely picture to have painted in my mind. Before I could press for more, he continued with the faintest of whispers. “They used to be tiny. Back before the war I think they used to be shrimp. Now they’re full of taint and Luna knows what else to make 'em that size. Evil monsters those things…”

It left me wondering how ponies survived out there in the wilderness. Homesteaders typically left Wayward to make their own lives elsewhere, usually in some hovel or self-built house hidden from wanderers and predators alike. Trappers did the same, but instead of hiding they were the things animals and ponies tended to hide from. At least according to dad.

***

“Alrighty then! Glad you two trouble makers could…make it…”

We were up, no longer content with laying down when there was the possibility of a grand and luxurious future just waiting to be taken. Rough was kind of surprised to see us so early and more than a little shocked to find both of us arriving at his stand of junk and junk accessories. Just as he was servicing a customer, the Muddy twins arrived on the scene clad in the usual dirty cargo outfit I enjoyed. My sister, well…we had to steal from dad’s clothes to fashion her something to cover herself with.

“...Muddy…Is that dad’s old barge hoof outfit and one of mom’s towels? Scavenged rags dress code was a joke ya know.”

The red jumpsuit, now blacked from years of cable grease stains, was a good fit for the scavenger sisters and mom wouldn’t mind one of her old towels being used as a head covering. It was genius to be honest, but I could do better. Eventually.

“Doesn’t matter! What matters is we have an opportunity to push the Water’s family out of this cramped lifestyle. You did want to talk to us about that, right?”

His eyes darted from one side to the next before grabbing a hold of my jacket collar and pulling me behind the stand. The other Muddy followed close behind. “Hush. We can’t let just anypony hear…alright, yes I did wanna talk about it. I don’t know what momma thinks, but I know dad isn’t gonna be happy about it. However, what he doesn’t know won’t hurt him. So let’s be quick.”

There was a moment I wanted to talk about that, but the moment disappeared as soon as it presented itself. Rough was already fishing out a large trunk from under some tarp behind his stand. When he pulled it free and opened it, my sister immediately went to town poking her nose into it.

“Well I’ll be shark bait, when did you own so many pipe guns? You looking to protect yourself, or deal some damage?” Her snark was contagious. I'll give her that. It got me smiling with an urge to laugh, but I kept it to myself.

Rough Waters rolled his eyes and snorted, “Oh I’m not the one looking to go head first back into danger. These are for you and the ponies down the ramp.”

Other ponies? Me and my twin looked at one another before staring a hole through Rough. I put as much threat and venom into my stare as my sister spoke out. “You can’t be serious. You want us to hire other ponies to do this? We don’t need help! We don’t want it.”

“Yeah! Me and her can do this all day, as long as it takes. We even promised mom to be careful when she flipped on her side about this.”

He shook his head and sighed, clearly annoyed. “You two came home with an extra version of yourself and bruises up and down your sorry hides. It seems like a job for a whole crew of mercs to handle, not two teenagers with no experience. This is all a part of the plan I came up with in my free time.”

Rough was swift to grab a sheet of paper from the trunk and lay it out before us. It was an entire bullet point list of steps to secure the Stable. “That’s a long freaking list dude. You got a lot of free time, I bet.”

“Shut it Muddy. Business has been ass since the last of the easy spots ran dry. Scrap just ain’t as valuable when the only scrap left is barely usable garbage. Now focus, sis’. We got a job to do.”

Step one, grab the local mercenaries or just anypony willing to do odd jobs and arm them if necessary. Step two, get to the Stable’s lower levels and secure the creepy lab. Step three, reach the maintenance level and shut down the power long enough to disable life support. Step four, escape the Stable and seal the door long enough for everything down there to suffocate and die. Step five was to return a day later and equip a diver’s suit with an oxygen tank and switch the power back on before the tank ran dry. Everything else was just to clean up, take inventory, and bribe the hired help with a spot in the Stable to not spread the word about the fresh bounty. Frankly, I thought the plan was abysmal, but I couldn’t think of something like that even if I tried.

My plan would have been just to shoot everything until we won, or die trying. Probably would have ended up dying, but it’d still be a wild ride up until that point.

“As you can clearly see, this plan will definitely work so long as you figure out where the doo-dads are that make the air breathable down there. I figure that’ll put down those Jelly ponies you mentioned.”

“Jellybeans actually, and yeah…not eager to get the crap beaten out of me a second time.”

“Then that settles it! Now hurry on and nab yourself some extra hooves. Plenty of scavs looking for work since the scraps runnin’ out.”

Before he could rush us out from behind his junk stand, my sister dug her hooves into the asphalt and stood her ground. “Now wait just a moment! Where did you get all these guns and ammo from? This looks like some serious caps right here.”

“…well…” I could see the gears turning inside Rough’s head as he debated on the next words to come from his mouth. After a moment, his ears drooped low. “I’ll be honest, little sisters. Business is rough, no pun intended. The last of my caps went into the guns. Mom came to me earlier and bought the ammo.”

He knew about mom before we did. Go figure she’d lend an invisible hoof to help.

“That last venture was my biggest score and you know it fell through. If this don’t work, McGreedy is gonna shut me down. I’m putting all my eggs into this basket and praying it works.” With the beans spilled and the truth out, it was no wonder he was doing this for us. And probably why he was so eager to see us succeed.

“Uuuuuh, who’s McGreedy?” Yet again my sister joined me in unity as our words combined. Thankfully, Rough rolled his eyes and went with the flow.

“You’ve lived here, on this planet, in this town, for sixteen years and you don’t know who the council is? He’s the top dog, the main council pony. More like a merchant’s guild to me, but he’s got the most successful business here so he’s throwing the most weight around.” Rough sprouted a nasty glare as his thoughts must have turned to this McGreedy stallion. Just under his voice I could have sworn he whispered ‘fat ass too’.

“I don’t talk with anyone. I’m not much of a conversationalist, if it wasn’t obvious.”

“Believe me I know. You always did manage to get on the wrong side of the gossip cuz of it.” Ouch. That surprisingly stung, even though I didn’t care to chat with other ponies most of the time. I blame myself.

“Alright alright that’s enough now. Let’s go before dad figures out or mom changes her mind.” Have I mentioned how much I love the way my clone thinks? Together we bundled the weapons into our duffle backpack and bid our farewell. Rough told us to stay safe, and we said we would, but as we walked down the ramp towards the ground the group of ponies Rough mentioned were walked passed and ignored by us.

Sure they were waiting for a client that was told would come, but there was a problem of us not actually wanting their help. Not that I could talk with them if I wanted to, I was genuinely unable to start a dialogue with strangers and it was becoming more apparent as I looked outward instead of clinging to my own personal bubble. That still wasn’t enough of a motivator to get me to change that, which led to Rough’s hard thought plan to be ignored just like the mercs.

“I’m guessing we have the same idea on what we’re doing?” Muddy eyed me looking for a response. Of course I could freely talk to myself, that wasn’t an issue.

“Yeah. Where one sister could be made, why not more? Think about it. This is our shot at a future, why risk sharing it with those nobodies when we could share it with ourselves.”

“Regardless of how many ‘ourselves’ there are? How far are we going to take this?”

I smiled with a grin I could only assume looked devious. I tried at least. “Why…as far as we can take it dear sister. As far as we can reasonably take it.”

***

The journey back to the Stable wasn’t what I’d call a challenge. We knew the way, but retracing our steps wasn’t the hard part. It was making sure nothing killed us on the way there. When we got to the bottom of the ramp and laid our hooves on solid dirt, our eyes trailed to where Shazan’s wagon once was. We could only assume after our aggravated assault and forced entry he wasn’t willing to stick around and risk other attacks.

Thinking back on the whole ordeal made me feel like shit for all of five minutes before the thought was crushed under my apathetic nature. Still needed to work on that, someday.

“We got like, what, a third of the way to Friendship and freight before we went west?” Sister was in charge of the compass while I was in charge of the map.

“It was between west and north west, an hour's journey I'm pretty sure.” I said that with as much confidence as someone who refused to believe they were lost. Because we might have been a little lost given the fact neither of us kept track of how long we’d been walking.

You see, if we had a third Muddy Waters there would be enough brain power between the three of us to remember that key detail.

We did see a familiar face after a while, which came in the form of a swamplurk with two bloodbug stingers jutting out from its shell. They were broken and bloody like arrows sticking out of a wild beast and their rightful owners lay dead and in pieces around the swamplurk’s burrow. I gripped my revolver between my teeth and my fellow Muddy Waters grabbed her own single shot shotgun. A clean Romare-o with a slug round inside, courtesy of big brother Rough.

With no distractions the swamplurk turned its beady eyes to us and clicked his mandibles before charging us, its head lowered now to put its hard shell between it and our bullets. I fired once, the hammer coming down and unleashing a 45 caliber round against its shell, but the mutated crab was undeterred.

“I’ll kill it. Come on! Come get me ya overgrown shellfish!” She waited with frightened patience as it got closer and closer. Sure enough, the moment it realized it was now in range to snip my sister in two it raised its head and screeched. It’s battle cry was met by the roar of a shotgun slug tearing its body a new hole just below the head and into its torso. As it reeled in pain the other Muddy took her chance to back away as she loaded another slug into the Romare-o. I took my chance to start rotating around it. And popping another shot into its leg. It turned with my movements, tracking me with those unthinking eyes and rushed to put me in its claws.

Either over eager to murder me or too frenzied from pain, but it didn’t take the cautious approach this time. It’s head was up and it’s eyes bore into mine as I lined up another shot. Again my revolver roared, its shot echoing through the air as the bullet mulched one side of its face, but again it continued to charge. A second later and I was forced into the defensive, quickly turning to run as it got close enough to take a snap at me and only getting some tail hairs for its trouble.

“Muddy! Crabby is giving me a haircut, I need some shotgun over here!”

“Bring him to me, I’ll finish him off.” Gun loaded and a fire in her eyes, I trusted her which meant I trusted myself. I moved and moved fast past her as she raised her gun through clenched teeth and waited for the beast to reveal its wounded maw. It raised a pincer to strike down my sister, but she was already firing by the time its claw came down to bat her aside. The slug ripped into its shoulder connected to the claw that slapped her aside, severing it and finally ending the Swamplurk with a satisfying crash into the mud.

“Well hell. You alright sis’?”

“I’m golden. Just a bruise, but holy cow aiming with a long weapon is harder than I thought.”

I shrugged. “Guess that’s why they use battle saddles with the longer shotguns. Mouth grips only get you so far. Or we could be unicorns and cheat by floatin’ em’ around.”

Her huff told me enough about what she thought. I already knew our shared opinion on battle saddles, cuz I hated them. Chafed my back all up and prevented me from using my backpack.

“Hate unicorns. So damn lucky” she muttered as we left the swamplurk corpse behind us. Yeah, we didn’t have high opinions on unicorns. We were jealous they could float their guns around and not have to worry about dental problems.

***

Killing a swamplurk was easy pickings. There was some concern about leaving it without harvesting the meat, but we were on a schedule. Plus the gunshots were loud and would almost certainly attract the curious and the hungry. Sure enough, the curious and hungry came, but not the kind we were expecting.

“G-get down. Get down now!”

I whispered to my sister as loud as a whisper could get for her to duck. She hadn't spotted them, but I had when I saw the rustle of the tall grass and bushes along with the splash of hooves trudging through the many streams and tributaries lining the wetlands. From the muck they emerged, trappers. They made no effort to conceal their movements as they hurried off into the distance towards the area we were just at, the very place where we fought the tainted crab.

“Oh shit…you think the shots got 'em’ riled up?”

I didn’t take my eyes off the group of three trappers as I whispered into my sister's ear. “They’re going straight for the swamplurk. Didn’t the last trappers say something about poaching?”

She nodded. “Yeah. We can’t risk running into more creatures. We’ll have to fight ‘em with our hooves, otherwise those ponies are gonna come running.”

“But we were just defending ourselves. Not like we were hunting it, it was hunting us!”

She shook her head and pulled out her compass to get us back on track. “Those ponies don’t seem like the type to care about that…meat is meat in the end.”

As we snuck away from the area to avoid getting hunted again by a different kind of predator, I could only think about how horribly things might have gone had we stayed and tried to get a snack from the ‘lurk. Wouldn’t end well that’s for sure.

Luckily time passed by with relative silence and peace. Plenty of things we had to get past quietly to avoid bringing another hunting party our way from the local trappers. Bugs, leeches, the occasional feral ghoul that we had no idea why it was out here, but still let it be as it slept silently in the puddle of mud. I think I’ll call these ghouls swamp ghouls.

Eventually the large rock poking into the horizon like a claw pointing west was spotted yet again. Its moss covered structure made it look like a downed tree on one side, which was probably how I managed to not notice how high it got before falling off due to my own stupidity. Instinctively I rubbed my hoof as a phantom pain came from upon recollection of the memory. My sister was copying my idle fidgeting exactly as I was, her own hood hurting despite never having broken it herself. Technically speaking.

Watching her copy me without realizing it gave me the worst out of body experience I’ve ever had so far. It was like looking at a mirror that was reflecting the wrong perspective, but the subject of its reflection was still me.

“You uh…..ahem. Are you ready for this? The plan is simple, simpler than Rough’s simple plan.”

“O-of course! Of course…reach the freight elevator, get to the bottom, find the owner of that voice…make new clones of ourselves. Take the Stable…”

I was, in all honesty to myself, scared of going back. We’d gotten beat up so badly last time that it was a miracle we made it home. For how overweight and out of shape the Jellybean loving clones were, they hit hard and took punishment like a swamplurk. Except when we hit them in the head or neck. That seemed to put down the crazed clones no problem. I puffed up my chest and shoved the fear aside just long enough to make my approach to the wooden door and push past it. My sister followed close behind as always, though she made an effort to walk alongside me this time. Together we descended into the dungeon of doom that was Stable 98.

The cave, the rusted medical room, the hallway leading down deeper that continued forward but stopped at a metal door, then a small backtrack to find the hallway that led to the freight elevator. All of it was left behind as we marched forth into the unknown. Finally, the elevator itself where we had the piss beaten out of us. A fond memory better left forgotten. Preferably forever.

“Anyway we can take the elevator and not meet our ends at the hoof of a pony who can only say the word jellybean?”

I had an idea. That little key thing that was shoved into the panel just outside the elevator where all the buttons were was still in my pocket. It had the handle of a key, but the part that was supposed to be the rest of the key was some cup shaped object. There was a matching circle slot that fit the cup looking key just under the elevator panel, so I placed the key inside with my teeth and tried turning it.

“Maintenance mode activated. Elevator lock out engaged. Calling elevator.” A mechanical voice poured from ancient speakers as the familiar sound of moving machinery could be heard beneath us.

“I think this will work. It’s how that one clone stopped our elevator and made it not wanna work last time. Maybe it’s an elevator key for maintenance ponies.”

“I trust you, but I’m keeping my shotgun pointed forward. Not looking to get jumped again. Never again.”

The pair of us waited for the door to open. As it dinged, I too readied my revolver. We both let a breath of relief go when the doors opened revealing nothing. I took the key from its slot and checked to see if there was anything else inside that could help keep the darn thing moving without interruption. There! A similar circle slot for the lockout thing. Slipping it in, I heard a buzz from the speakers that repeated the previous line to us. My clone pressed the button to the fifth level downward, while I sat down for a little relaxation before we had to deal with interacting with strangers again.

“I’m glad I kept that thing. If I leave it here, I'm pretty sure the elevator ain’t gonna move.”

“It’ll be our only way out. Better hope you’re right, for both our sakes.”

The tone of worry my sister had wasn’t misplaced, but I could have sworn I had my confidence in me. Since she was Muddy Waters in every way, I expected a bit more blind bravado and a general lack of caring. Guess this Stable had a humbling effect on her, but not so much me. I had faith in me, which meant I had faith in her. Even if we didn’t inspire much in the way of hope for ourselves.

The doors opened as we hit the final floor to reveal a familiar loading dock. Huh, the body of the clone we killed wasn’t in the elevator I noticed, but the blood was. Nothing down here either. Everything was as we left it. So without a word we moved forward towards the labs. Multiple doors opened effortlessly as we crossed their thresholds, but with each one we came up to I could hear the disengaging of locks just before we pushed them open.

It was a scary feeling hearing somepony open doors for you and never being able to see them.

“Hello. Helllllooooooo! Hey lady, we came back. Didn’t tell nopony about the Stable….okay I lied, we told our family, but cross my heart we didn’t say where it was.”

“Hey! Voice lady! We survived that bullshit with the elevator too. Thanks for the heads up before the ass beating, dick head!”

A sudden crackle of ceiling mounted speakers startled us as we turned towards the source of the noise. In the corner of the room a black box echoed the words of our mysterious host.

“I saw what happened on the cameras. I’m so sorry you experienced that, but with the lock out tag out key it overrode my commands. Luckily you defeated Jellybean, or at least one of his many variants. I’m happy you’re alright and have decided to return…”

If she took offense to my sister's words, she didn’t show it. Not that she was showing anything, but it was something to remember for later. “So what do you want from us? You tried buttering me up last time I was here to help out, so here I am. Let’s make a deal.”

“Ah yes, I do have need of you. However, first let’s get to know each other. Face to face. Please holster your weapons. I’m putting much trust in you. All I ask is that you do the same for me. Enter the observation chamber across the room from the loading dock door.”

That room with the window into a room full of glass vats? I remember that room. Neither of us could forget it, especially my sister for her own clone related reasons. Together we followed the instructions and made our way inside. From there I noticed no changes or new faces. Before I could comment, the other Muddy voiced her concerns.

“So where’d ya go? What happened to the face to face, hmm?” Annoyance dripped from her words like rain drops, but I could only fault her so much. This place had bad juju for me, but very bad memories for her. Of course she’d have a short fuse here.

“Let’s clear the air and start fresh. A second first impression from me to you, my new friends. And hopefully by the end of this meeting I can call you my next best chance for the restoration.”

Restoration? What was she talking about? The stable? I guess it didn’t matter right now. I didn’t even bother trying to make my lack of understanding known as we waited for our host to arrive. Sis was looking through the door we came in in hopes of catching a glimpse of the voice's owner, hoping maybe she’d pop up behind us with a face that didn’t belong to the other clones here. What we ended up getting was….well I can’t really explain what I saw next without sounding like a liar.

From the ceiling a panel opened, leaving a square hole in which a jar lowered itself before us. Well not a jar, but a glass dome with a robotic eye tracking us as it moved along tiny rails circling the glass dome. What was in the dome you ask? Well I’ll tell ya…

IT'S A FREAKING BRAIN!

Nerves clung from the brain to what I could only guess was a severed unicorn horn that poked out from the glass dome with seals around it to prevent leakage. Well severed might not be the right word, but it wasn’t connected to any head I’ve ever seen before. This was the cherry on top for the mad scientist aesthetic I envisioned for this whole laboratory full of nick nacks and a preserved brain.

“….”

“………”

“……………”

“Your silence is not inspiring confidence, Ms. Waters.”

The dam broke for the both of us as we panicked. “Sweet Celestia’s beard! It’s a fucking brain in a jar!”

“Holy shit! What in the hell?!” Sister was taking things about as well as I am.

This revelation was going smoothly, even though my heart was racing a mile a second and my thoughts scrambled like eggs. The mare speaking to us this whole time was a bloody unicorn brain in a jar. Okay, breathing first! In, then out, then repeat until the shock goes away. In and out and shake it all about.

“Are we going to gloss over the fact you met a living breathing copy of yourself and made friends with it, but THIS is what’s beyond imaginative comprehension? A mare’s brain on full display?”

Yikes. When she puts it that way… “okay okay, I’m freaked out a little. Cut us some slack. I have so many questions…like what hap…”

“WHY DID YOU CREATE ME?!”

I was shoved aside as my sister took the center stage of the conversation and rushed to ask the question I’m sure has been on her heart for a while. For the brain’s part, her mono eye rolled in its socket to look down at my sister with a blue glow bathing the other Muddy. That eye was more than it seemed.

“I created you because I have captured and cloned every last would-be looter and scavenger to make their way down here. I need aid in my endeavor to restore not just the Stable, but the machine it’s meant to house. My life’s work, my mentor's vision for an Equestrian victory during the war. I’ve been trapped here, alone, stuck with these corrupted clones of the late maintenance manager, Mr. Jellybean. You ask why I created you? Because eventually I’d find a candidate, a template, that would make it through the machines corrupted code and breed a new generation of clones that could do more than fuCKING SAY THEIR OWN LUNA DAMNED NAME!”

The eye became red as the brain within twitched and spasmed with clear anger. So the other clones were just saying their name over and over? Weird, but insightful.

She continued on without stopping. “I’ve been waiting here for somepony like you to show up. The others all gave life to inadequate clones who couldn’t do more than spout their own names and foolishly try and kill everything that wasn’t them. Jellybean was a combat engineer during the war, so with him dominating the Stable and producing endless reinforcements, cleaning up the scavengers and their respective failures was quick and painful. Though not by my hoof. That’s why I NEED you. You’re my only hope.”

This was a lot to take in, but I’m glad we finally got some answers. I guess that would explain any missing scavengers amongst the ponies of Point Wayward or the Trappers. Anypony who came down here likely didn’t make it past Jellybean. Heck, we almost didn’t. Without my clone helping me, I’d be a goner.

“So you’re telling me I’m just a test to see if Muddy could produce clones that DON'T go crazy?”

“Yes. That is correct. Since you passed, I’ll dub thee…Muddy Water’s Proto Production Type. Now we can move on to the Mass Production Type, pending your original’s answer to my next question.”

Her metallic voice bounced around in my noggin for a moment before I was able to process all the new information. I kind of didn’t like the way she talked down to my sister and not just because her brain was on the ceiling in a glass dome.

“I still have questions. You answer them and I’ll see about helping. Depending on what you need me to do…”

I was surprised, and a little disturbed, to see the brain move its front up and down as if it were nodding. “Alright then. I’ll humor your inquiries. Ask away.”

“First, who are you? Second, what is all this? I thought Stables were meant to keep ponies safe, not create clones.” I remembered a zebra who spoke or Stables as if they were evil spirits looking to cast black magic on the innocent.

“Too bad we scared away the one living creature who might have told us something about Stables.” I wasn’t the only one to remember it seemed.

“My name is Helix Twist, second in command of Project Mirror Mirror. If you look through the viewing class to the next room you’ll see just the tip of the iceberg for Project Mirror Mirror and what became of it after being shelved by the Ministry of Arcane Science. Fucking Twilight Sparkle. I hope she got what she deserved when the bale fire reduced my country to cinders and fallout.”

Sounds like somepony has unresolved hatred for another pony. Helix Twist sounded like my kind of pony if I ever cared to remember anyone besides myself. Besides that, one question has been answered. Now for the next dozen or so and we might get somewhere. “I got a good hoof-ful of questions, but what I really want to know is what you need me for?”

“Yeah! We aren’t exactly the smartest pony around. Doubt we’d be able to help fix your project.”

For Helix’s part, her robot voice just let the sweet giggles go as her mono eye swapped between me and my sister repeatedly. “Baby steps. Let’s take things one step at a time. Although fixing the project is the ultimate goal, we need to address one key issue. Getting my Stable back from the living failures that are the Jellybean clones.” The red tint of her mono eye returned with a vengeance.

“We had an idea about shutting down life support and sealing the door so the clones would all die. I think you’re going to tell us why that plan wouldn’t work, right?” I’ll admit, I was a little sure of myself with that one. Maybe even smug about it, but the validation I felt when I watched the brain nod its gray matter again felt nice.

“Naturally. That is a terrible plan. First, there is a legion of Jellybean clones, most of which are located within the engineering level just above us. You’d need an army to clear them out of their favorite floor, considering Jellybean was the maintenance manager before the nightmare began. He’s done well keeping the Stable running the last century, which means oxygen.”

This was an ear full, but useful all the same. She continued, “Secondly, the Stable door has been reported as damaged. Likely it has rusted open due to the intense moisture in the air. The screening room and main entrance have suffered similarly, but the door beyond has kept the moisture out. The only solution is to simply kill them all I’m afraid…manually.”

Crap. That was bad news, but not unexpected news. After all, my own plan was to overpower the other clones with my own. Speaking of which, no more beating around the bush. With my sister remaining silent in contemplation, I took my opportunity to ask the obvious.

“We can do that, though we can’t do it alone. You made my sister, why not make more Muddy Waters?”

“My dear, what makes you think I haven’t already~?” Her mono eye turned to the viewing glass window above the consoles.

I guess she wanted us to see into the room with the hanging vats. When we pressed our heads to the glass and held our hooves close to our eyes to try and make out what was on the other side, my out of body experience returned with more than just a vengeance. It came to throw a mid-life crisis at me at the ripe old age of sixteen!

There, in the tile floor room that looked like a large shower room was the six glass vats from before with one still being broken. The rest were full of a clear liquid that kept five new clones floating within. Their manes floated in all directions as they slept soundly with closed eyes and peaceful smiles plastered on their features.

“Luna and Celestia, full of grace…this is…this is nuts…”

Helix turned her mono eye towards us again and flickered in some kind of simulated blink. “Impressed?”

Sister remained silent, which was unlike me. I responded to the question since she wasn’t willing to put any words in. “I guess. I expected this, but good goddesses. Kind of just hits me more than I thought. Still…”

“You still need them regardless. When you’re ready, place your head in the helmet so the personality copy can commence. It’ll be just like the first time you had your head in one of these. Only less drugs.” Her instructions were clear. The center console opened and a helmet with wires and bulbs sticking out was raised up for a user to wear.

Slowly I raised my hoof to take the helmet, but it was met by another hoof stopping me. Sister was ready to talk now, and the look in her eyes spelled she wasn’t ready for this. There was a desperation in them that gave me pause as I looked upon my own face.

“What about me……..w-will I be forgotten about? When you got so many clones…what will you do…wi-with m-me.” Her body shook as the weight of uncertainty set in. I wasn’t alone in my identity troubles it seemed.

I huffed in response, placed my hoofs on her face and squished those familiar cheeks. “You stop that. You’re my sister. I love you like I love myself, which is a hell of a lot! Not in an egotistical way, but you get what I’m saying. We….we are bond sisters forever and ever! Are you picking up what I’m putting down, sis?”

Oh, maybe I shouldn’t give motivational speeches to my clone. Tears filled her eyes as she let a sob escape before wrapping me in a hug and holding on for dear life. Something inside me felt strangely warm and fuzzy about this as I wrapped my hooves around my sister and returned the hug.

“T-t-t-thank you!!!” She cried as her emotions ran down my shoulder and over my cargo outfit. Not that I cleaned this thing anyway, but still. Gross.

I’m also happy to report she only cried for two whole minutes! Existential dread really hits hard, huh?

“Touching as this is, I believe it’s time to move our quest along. Ah! Before I forget again you will need this too. Go ahead and slip these on. The machine to your left will assist in the process.”

Two manipulator arms came down from the hole Helix Twist arrived through. Their three clawed hands carried one PipBuck each. The spindly mechanical limbs placed the advanced pieces of technology in front of us before curling back into themselves and receding into the ceiling. We took them as instructed, but I was busy with the helmet. While I went ahead and placed the device over my eyes and mane, my sister went to the machine and placed the PipBuck over her right hoof and held it above the left most console.

Another set of manipulator arms with some kind of tools worked the PipBuck over until it was secured on her hoof.

“Spell matrix coming online. Memory transfer in progress. Copy data initializing. All systems are functional. Vital signs are normal. Mirror Pool binary engram activated. Please stand by…”

I couldn’t see what was going on, but I could catch a brief flash of light bouncing off the clean floor as the helmet plugged every memory I owned into a computer and spat it right back out into five separate bodies. It was like watching my entire life flash before my mind’s eye. Boy let me tell you it was an experience and a half!

I just wish my life wasn’t so shallow.

Wishing for something and actually striving to get it were two separate things and I wasn’t the striving type usually. “Did it work? Can I take off the helmet now?”

No answer was given, but the helmet was lifted off my head and carefully tucked itself back inside the console it came from. Panels clamped shut around it, concealing the fact there was a helmet here at all. Now it was just another machine with data flowing through a small screen so rapidly I couldn’t even make out individual numbers or letters.

“Copy and paste sequence has been successfully completed. All vitals are strong…awaken my children. The time to take back what is ours is here.” Helix was certainly eager about the whole ordeal. Her mono eye and brain were gone, but I could hear her voice coming from the other room where the hanging glass vats with my clones were.

My sister was too transfixed on what she was witnessing there to talk to me. Her wide eyes and slack jaw wasn’t the expression I felt myself wearing in a scenario like this.

“Okay, I’ll bite. Did it work? Where are the other Muddy Waters?”

“Sis’ you gotta see this!”

She ushered me over with the hurried wave of her hoof. I pressed my face to the glass like before to see the other side and bear witness to my new births. From each vat a clone of Muddy Waters was flushed from her glass womb in a torrent of liquid that filled the tub the body had been dropped into. As the strange viscous liquid drained into the tub and disappeared, she stood within and peered from the edge of the tub while rubbing her eyes clear of the liquid she’d been preserved in.

All five of them did, with movements so synchronized it looked like a perfectly rehearsed scene in some kind of play. There wasn’t the slightest hint of deviation as they rubbed their eyes in an attempt to see for the first time.

“Where the fuck did I just end up?! I took a bath a week ago! Celestia damn it.”

Oh. So this is why my sister was so shocked. Watching them move together like one mind in five bodies and speak in unison like a hive mind was more than a little surprising, albeit greatly disturbing to listen to. Now I know how other ponies felt when they heard us speak in unison.

And it only got worse when the clones finally rubbed their eyes clear and looked on in a silent horror at the viewing glass they, in their own minds, were just on the other side of a minute ago. Then they looked at each other and finally themselves in a terrified, yet curious manner.

I tapped on the glass to get their attention. “Heeeeeey! Let’s keep it together bitches! No time for mind boggling nonsense! Out of those tubs and let’s get to work.”

At first I thought my clones were about to lose their minds in there, but the reality they found themselves in wasn’t one they couldn’t handle. With a shake of their heads and a slap of the cheeks, they were hopping out and forming a line on the other side of the door separating the control room with the cloning chamber. Occasionally the shaky legs would result in a few bumps and awkward apologies. At least I’m polite when I’m not isolating myself.

The door slid open and I was met with five pairs of eyes looking for guidance. Pretty sure they already knew what I was going to say, they were me after all. “You heard the brain in the jar. This Stable rightfully belongs to us! We have the guns, we have the gumption, let’s kick some ass!!!”

Sister stood beside me as a sense of determination filled the rooms we occupied. I could see it on their faces as the words of agreement left their tongues. “Yeah! Muddy Waters forever.”

“Let’s get em’ sisters!”

“Jellybean is going to hate us after today, that’s for sure.”

“Payback for the ass beating he gave us.”

“How many did ‘what’s her name’ say we had to get rid of?”

That’s a great question. I turned to my bonded sister who was still blown away by the cloning process and the sudden addition to a PibBuck on her hoof. Seemed like she was still trying to get used to all the things it was doing to her. I also needed to get mine attached at some point.

“Does the PibBuck say how many Jellybean clones there are sis?”

“O-oh! Well yeah, let me check the agenda…”

A moment passed as the group of Muddy clones bundled together around me, our eyes focused on the device wrapped around our sister’s hood. Another moment passed before something changed. Of course the change was her face falling into what I could only assume was despair. Maybe a little horror sprinkled in?

“Well? What’s it say?”

“Wow you look like you got bad news and worse news.”

“This can’t be a good sign.”

Now I was getting worried. Just a tad though. Nothing could be that bad right? “Sister, you gonna show us the number or what?”

Oh she showed it to me alright. By shoving the PipBuck in my face for me to see for myself. There on display under a tag labeled ‘What’s yours is mine’ was the mission objective ‘claim Stable 98. 207/207 remaining.

“TWO HUNDRED AND SEVEN JELLYBEAN CLONES?!?!”

***

PibBuck added to inventory. You’ve gained access to stats and level tracking!

Level up: level 3

Story Perk added: Perfect Template.

-you made it through the machine and can speak more than two words. Wow, science! You can be replicated once every twenty four hours. Try not to abuse this.

Perks already listed: Strong Back.

-All those years of scavenging have paid off, ya pack mule. You gain +25 to carry capacity.

Perks already listed: Fundamentally Unlikable

-Your low charisma S.P.E.C.I.A.L stat has hampered your abilities of communication. You cannot initiate dialogue with most forms of intelligent life unless you are spoken to first with few exceptions. Speech checks cannot be passed. Vendor prices have increased by 33 percent. You should probably find a way to fix this…

Author's Note

I'd like to thank the readers who take the time to give my little attempt at a fic a chance. Someone out there loves you all, and that someone.......is me. Thank you.

Also like to thank the legendary Katt for making this universe for us to play around in.

Chapter 3: Attack Of The Clones

I only need three people in my life. Me, Myself and I.

***

There was shouting, hoof stomps, the occasional plea to calm down, but none of that was going to change as the weight of what we were meant to do here bore down on us. My sister and her fellow clones were all upset at the prospect of murdering over two hundred ponies. Granted the murdering part wasn’t what got them angry. It was the fact there were only seven of us and over two hundred Jellybean clones to clear out. Clearly we’d underestimated how many hostile, animalistic clones could be down here and to be fair to my many selves...this was not what we signed up for.

I mean yeah we signed up with the express intent to murder things we didn’t really consider ponies, but this was a whole different ball park. It was overwhelming, monumental even! I guess the real issue was the fear of not having enough bullets and health potions to kill them all. Kinda morbid to think about, but I couldn’t care less. And if that was my outlook on things I could only assume my sisters felt the same way. So as they shouted up at the brain in the glass dome named Helix Twist, I was busy checking out my own Pipbuck. I think Helix said something about a 3000 model with some letter attached to the number, but I already forgot what it was.

“Hey wait a minute…why does the perk list say I’m unlikable?! Everypony quiet! This is serious!” I pushed past my sisters as they grew quiet, my words entering their ears and bringing about a new sense of anger and confusion among them. We all looked to the brain for answers.

Her blue mono eye stared down at me with an expressionless glow. After a moment, she spoke. “Curious. Have you identified the S.P.E.C.I.A.L statistics as of yet? You may find a source to your troubles there.”

My sister, the one who I held a personal bond with amongst the rest, looked to the rest of the new clones who eyed her back with visible anticipation. That alone made her flinch as she raised her PipBuck and began to scroll through it. “Can you tell me what that special statistic is supposed to mean?”

“Couldn’t be special talents. We’re all still blank flanks.”

“Yeah, it kinda sucks. I don’t feel special.”

“But sis, we never feel special. We’re just background ponies. Always have been.”

“Don’t let the PipBuck weigh you down. We like being out of the spotlight, remember?”

A loud ‘AHEM’ roused the Muddy Waters from their collective conversation and brought the attention back to the brain in the dome. “The Special Statistic is what makes you special. The Stable was equipped with visual presentations that could explain it all, but the short version is it represents your strength, perception, endurance, charisma, intelligence, agility and luck. Not sure how luck is measured, but I'll chalk it up to Stable-tec having something up their sleeve with that.”

“Oooooooh! Clever!” Seven Muddy Waters were all equally impressed with the clever use of the word special. Just wish we weren’t so in tune with each other that we kept speaking in unison.

“Now go ahead and read what makes you special, class. Since you’re all the same you should all have the same scores. Strange that you all came out without cutie marks. Usually those carry over in the cloning process.” Her eye turned to me now. Probably expecting an answer, so I checked the screen and looked at the slide that had a happy stable mare with five bars all filled. I wasn’t going to comment on the fact I didn’t have a cutie mark. Bleh!

One over each limb so I guess that meant I was healthy. Still trying to get used to all the different things in here on the screen and in my vision, like the new compass and strange detection thing that showed a dot where each sister stood. I made it to the screen that showed me my special numbers or whatever and looked at each one to figure out what made me special.

Ugh, saying it like that left a bad taste in my mouth. Like the words cutie mark, or moist.

“It says here we all have a six in strength. Good hustle girls, we’re not wimps!” That got a good laugh out of everypony except Helix. Feeling good about things, I continued. “Seven in Perception. Good eyes, I guess. Five in endurance. I think that's good…..oh…..one in charisma. Explains a lot. Five in intelligence. Two in agility and one in luck.”

Wow. As much as I wanted to debate the results of the scores, they made too much sense. I wasn’t very agile and couldn’t sneak well. Every step I took was obvious, but I could trek across the wetlands with packs full of useful crap and not break a sweat. The charisma score was the most damning though. It was clear as day, but it still left me speechless as I thought hard about why I had such a low score there and what it meant going forward. Luck was also low, but what has luck done for anypony? Couldn't care less about luck.

“.................well then! Now that everypony is educated on who they are, why don’t we return to the plan in motion.”

It was a round of ‘yes ma’am’ from the clones and myself. Respecting the elders was just what we did, even if they were a two hundred year old unicorn brain. When she had our attention, her eye began to glow before shutting off suddenly. “No, how about I use my magic. I’ve waited and plotted for over a century. I can show off a tad…”

I was silently wondering if that unicorn horn sticking through the glass dome was usable or not. Sure enough the little bastard began to glow as a magical projection formed over the floor. Some of my new clones saw they were in the way and swiftly moved to make room without saying a word. From the looks of it, the projection showed a floor plan for the entire science level of the Stable. “What’s the plan looking like, boss? You got our hooves, so what do we need to be doing here?”

“The plan won’t be easy, but you've taken care of the hard part…well the hard part for me. Weapons. Eventually the Jellybean clones will return down here to create more of themselves, so the first step will be to annihilate any clones who respond to my first alarm system.” The area leading towards the stairwell was highlighted in red. “Jellybean has been essential in maintaining the Stable. The fact his clones overran the Stable initially has been a small boon for the complex. He will respond if warning sirens go off and seek out the problem that needs fixing. Do you understand what needs to be done when he arrives?”

Yeah, we knew. Each one of us shook our heads as my bond sister began to pass out the various pipe weapons and ammo. There was a spare bolt action pipe pistol that was left in the bag, as even amongst the desperate those kinds of weapons went unused. Like how even the most thirsty of ponies here refused to drink tea that wasn’t sweetened, at least in Wayward. “We got all the understanding right here. Kinda confused on the part where we kill two hundred savage clones in a small hallway though.”

Another clone spoke up after the first. “That’s going to be a big pile up. They’re not going to keep climbing over each other like ferals are they?”

“I’m not sure what you’re referring to as feral, but I can assure you I’ve already thought of this and planned around it. Observe.” The projection on the floor changed to the next level of the Stable, which was far wider and more spread out than the science level here. This Stable wasn’t built as deep as I thought a Stable would go, but instead built with width in mind rather than depth. “The engineering level is where most of the fighting will take place. As soon as enough clones perish in the chokepoint down here, you seven will advance to the next one I’ve set up. I can control the doors and their locks, which will be essential in creating chokepoints and kill zones for you. After each one is deemed unusable, I’ll guide you to the next location where more clones will funnel in your direction with mechanical failure alarms.”

I can only imagine how much effort it took to detail each and every path the hostile clones could come from and where we should go to perform the best. I didn’t help that I was there on that level when I first awoke down here. Helix did say she controls the doors and their locks which would explain a lot. Might also explain how I managed to sneak past various rooms full of clones.

Without her locking the doors I might have been found and beaten to death. I also might not have met my bond sister and friend had she not locked her out of the closet. I’d need to address that at some point. Also need to address the fact I’m calling my first clone my bond sister. I liked the sound of it, but also I had nothing else to call her beyond saying my own name. Another thing for another time.

“The plans solid, we got the guns and ammo and we got the guts. Only thing now is…when do we start?” One clone spoke up, not sure if she was one of the more talkative ones but she was eager to finish this. If she was, then I was too.

Helix just responded by opening the doors leading out of the clone control room and giggling softly with her electronic, feminine voice. “Why, right away of course. Assume your positions and the alarm will sound. I advise you all to only fire at intervals of two ponies while the rest prepare and reload. Conserve your fighting strength as best you can and pick targets accordingly.”

Just as we were about to leave I looked back at all of my clones, my sisters, and eyed each of them. They returned the stare with confusion, but said nothing. “Girls, I love you all to death. So don’t actually die out there. You’re special to me, but not because you are me! Don’t uh…don’t take that the wrong way. Look, just play it safe, like mom said. And don’t worry about any of that life stuff. We’re gonna figure this all out later. Probably.” The speech was obviously not the best, but it was enough for my selves to understand what I was trying to say. There wasn’t much of a possibility of misunderstanding yourself was there? Eh, I assume not. “Look, I…we got a one in charisma! Don’t expect too much from me. I’m doing my best up here.”

“Do we always sound like this?”

“I just realized I sound different when I hear my own voice.”

“We really did linguistically stunt ourselves. I blame you, Muddy Waters.”

“Who’s side are you Muddy’s on? We can’t kick ourself like this…even though it’s true. Sorry original, it’s gotta be said.”

I spied my bond sister looking at me with apologetic eyes, but she didn’t need to say anything. Anything my clones said to me was just self reflection at this point. The feeling was coming on that I was going to learn a lot about myself in the coming storm, and some of those things might not be all that tolerable. Hell, I might even annoy myself with some of my own habits at this rate.

***

It was time. Together we gathered as many chairs and piles of crap we could find to form a makeshift barricade near the base of the stairs. It was kind of strange how the stairwell was open to the rest of what was supposedly meant to be a secure area. Anypony could just waltz in like I did initially. Come to think of it, maybe I was led here since Helix had plans in motion before I was ever brought into them.

Eh, another time.

With chairs, desks and trash cans we did as best we could. The trap was set and our guns were loaded. “Alright Helix! Let’s see what these one trick ponies can do in a firefight.” Four of us were on the barricade, with two behind ready to take action. The last sister was in the back reloading mags as we passed them back to her. If we needed her, she’d be ready to assist.

“I did mention Jellybean was a combat engineer and saw active service in the war, did I not?”

For the briefest of moments I could have heard a feather hit the floor because of how deathly silent it had become. We didn’t even get a chance to react to the sudden realization before the quietest ‘oops’ could be heard over the speaker system before the alarm sounded. “Stable structural integrity failing. All non essential personnel evacuate immediately. Maintenance crews report to science sectors immediately. Alarm. Alarm. Stable structural integrity failing…”

The lights went red and the automated message repeated again and again as we braced ourselves for the coming fight.

“Girls…..I don’t think I like Helix Twist very much.”

***

BANG

The gunshot echoed through the corridor as the first of what would be many Jellybean clones tumbled down the stairs with a bullet lodged in his forehead. The tools he’d been carrying smashed down each step with clangs that were almost as loud as the gunshot, at least to me. When his friends noticed they’d lost a member of their party, they too dropped their tool boxes and charged with their telltale language.

“Jelly! J-Jellybean!”

“Ho! Did ya see that? What a shot!” One sister was happy to see this wouldn’t be as dangerous as she thought as she readied her gun again and fired another .38 round at the approaching hostile force. My vision was lit up with red dots snaking their way over my display. It didn’t take a high intelligence to realize red was bad.

“I got the one on the left. Somepony get the fucks down center. Keep ‘em away!” I shouted over the screech of Jellybeans roaring in anger and charging us headfirst, which we responded with shouts of our own as we fired our guns into the group. I counted the dots, six in total. After the one on the stairs died, five.

BANG BANG. BANG

I fired my revolver, striking a Jellybean twice and dropping him. Four. The third shot went wide and bounced off the bulkhead of the Stable walls. My first sister fired her shotgun at one she’d let get close. He was about to jump the barricade before a slug round found its new home in his sternum. Like a light, his red dot flickered out and vanished on my compass hovering atop my vision. I guess that meant he was a goner.

Three left. We got this.

For being a combat engineer, Jellybean didn’t seem to mind he was being peppered by .38 rounds from my newest sisters. Nor did he bother attempting to take cover, opting to simply beeline straight for us as four sisters blasted the runners again and again. Another clone made it to the barricade, but with a few more shots and a round from my revolver he dropped dead against a trash can. The last two never made it down the hall. They died after the dozen or so rounds brought them down early.

“Je…..lly.”

Another red dot faded to nothing. Six clones were put out of their misery with only two hundred more to go. It was grim work and our hearts were pounding against our chests like mad, but we survived!

“Good……good work Waters! Proud of you all. Nothing we…it’s nothing…we can’t handle.” Out of breath so early into a job was a bad sign. I wanted to take a break already, but there was still the daunting task ahead and we’d only just started. Maybe it was the killing that made me like this. I’d never killed so many things before besides the odd group of feral ghouls and roaches.

“I wanna know something. Do these guys have guns too? Ms. Helix? I want answers, please…” My bond sister was the one finally stepping back into the spotlight. She looked to the ceiling for any signs of the brain, but all we got was the voice over the speakers.

“No, there are currently no guns or weapons within the Stable other than the occasional kitchen knife in the obvious locations and a baton left behind here and there. The residents took what they could before they rushed to leave during the evacuation. You are free to keep your distance from these clones without worry of them returning fire.”

That was oddly insightful and answered another question itching the back of my mind. So the residents aren’t dead, they left. Interesting. “Thanks Twist, appreciate ya.”

“Such manners. I’m surprised they still exist after the world ended. Anywho, prepare for the next wave. The alarms are still sounding and the next door will be unlocked. More will come.” With that, the speakers crackled and popped before shutting down and leaving us to the shrill sirens of more alarms.

True to her word, more red dots appeared in my vision. “Sis, you got the mags loaded back there? I’m counting eight this time with my PipBuck vision.”

I turned to look back and check on her and all I got was a speed loader for my revolver shoved in my face with six bullets ready to go. “This would be easier if I wasn’t shaking so damn much and had, I don’t know, magic to shove bullets in faster. I’m gonna get calluses on my tongue from this.”

Right, because us earth ponies had to load things by hoof or mouth. Wasn’t fun. But neither was the thought of one of the Jellybeans closing the distance and getting their hooves on us. We were all familiar with how that would end if they got close. Despite their obvious lackluster intelligence and below average stamina, Jellybean clones were brutally direct when it came to hoof combat. No amount of overweight flab was going to slow down those hooves when it came to an ass beating.

As I looked over the carnage and awaited the second wave, I couldn’t help but notice the bodies of our adversaries. Some were older, much older. Fattened by years of no physically significant activities and worn down by age, some of the clones looked like they’ve been down here a long long time. A couple were the exact opposite, looking young and still fit. Granted, the signs of age and laziness were beginning to show.

Dots appeared in my compass, indicating the next battle was underway as I thought about the future we were trying to steal. Could we become something like this? Mares old and young wearing each other's faces, living in a quasi harmony down in a Stable…

“Jelly! Noooo Jellybean.”

A small laugh emerged from my throat as the thoughts formed a new excitement in my soul. I raised my revolver and fired, the gunshot’s echo bouncing around the thick metal corridor like the bullet bounced around in the skull of the first Jellybean clone I attacked. He spasmed before falling to the floor as another group ran past his lifeless body and charged. Second verse, same as the first.

“Fire in sequence. Keep a steady stream of fire upon them until they are defeated.” Helix’s voice sounded above us, but I paid it no mind. I followed the directive as my other selves opened up with their weapons.

This time eight clones charged our firing line. Seven still stood until my sisters shot the rest down again and again with sporadic bursts of bullets and shotgun shells. Seven, six, five, two. They dropped like stones in the river one after another. One sister flicked a selector switch on her weapon before unleashing a volley of .38 bullets into the last two clones who managed to nearly reach the barricade together. The fully automatic weapon tore them to shreds and put them out of their misery rather quickly.

“I need a hat and some clothes, cuz when I get the chance I’m giving Rough the biggest hug ever!!!” The sister with the auto pipe rifle shouted with a happiness I wish I was feeling. Oh, that’s jealousy I’m feeling right now. Well hot damn ain’t that something.

Damn. I really wished I knew that it was an auto gun. I wanted to use it too!

“Focus sis, focus. We’re still neck deep in this crap.”

“Heh heh, any other clones get the odd desire to just….I don’t know…say your own name repeatedly and go nuts?”

The entirety of our group turned to face the sister who’d just made that joke. The Muddy Waters reloading the magazines suddenly turned very red as the well deserved embarrassment set in. Good, you deserve to be embarrassed. I was embarrassed purely by association as I'm sure every Muddy Waters was.

“O-oh calm down y’all! For Celestia's sake it was a joke.” The more she tried to avoid eye contact the more red her face became. Before she turned into a tato or something I grabbed her with two hooves and swapped positions with her. You don’t get to make terrible jokes and avoid consequences.

“Congratulations, you just earned front line duties for that. I thought I’d learn my lesson with making poorly timed jokes.” It wasn’t like I was forcing her to fight, she happily volunteered the moment she tried her hoof at a little light hearted comedy. I’m just glad I was able to learn from my mistakes and by that I mean from my clones. Truth be told I just needed to keep my damn mouth shut and everything would be fine.

Again the red dots came. I could see them dance across the compass in my vision before suddenly vanishing again. Turning my head I could somewhat track the dots, but only in the direction I was facing currently. There they were! The dots returned, but no sooner had I spotted them they blinked out of existence. Turning back towards the stairs I spotted them again, only this time they weren’t disappearing. My best guess was that the next batch of attackers was directly above me and heading straight for the stairs.

“Heads up Muddies, I’m counting five on the compass. Put 'em down again. Check those guns first though.” They were doing their part with nods of acknowledgement. Now it was time for me to do mine. I’d reload the mags, they shot the Jellybean clones dead, any clone of mine who needed their rest would get it as we swapped who had to put bullets into the magazines. At this rate we’d have the Stable taken within the day.

I just wish Rough had bought extra magazines with the bullets. This was annoying to deal with.

***

Three hours. It’d been three hours of nonstop fighting. Well it wasn’t much of a fight, but a slaughter. Again and again the alarms sounded, Helix would unlock a door someplace above us and a steady stream of angry clones would rush our position. I learned some valuable lessons in those three hours.

The first is death stinks. The corridor was awash with the smell and sight of blood, its pungent odor mixing with the stench of gunpowder and vomit to create something I didn’t think possible. A smell worse than mildly irradiated fish. Things had deteriorated so horribly and so rapidly that Helix shut off the alarm to give us a break from the adrenaline rush. We were all shaking pretty badly, with me and my bond sister having emptied our stomachs already while the rest dry heaved.

The second thing I learned was that we didn’t know when enough was enough and kept using the same corridor as a kill zone much to Helix’s annoyance. I see what she meant now when she said this area would become unusable. The bodies caked the floor to the point there wasn’t any space devoid of the new crimson river we’d made here. We’d got far too lost in the moment to understand Helix’s reasoning for moving on, but now it was too late. Each of us was going to have to wade through the viscera and up the stairs.

The third thing I learned was that I did not have the stomach for this. I didn’t have it when I killed my very first clones in the clinic, so why did I think I could stomach the sight of our deeds now? It made me wonder how trappers could do the things they do and not lose sleep at night. Or regular raiders for that matter.

My ears rang constantly after all the abuse from firing guns in an enclosed space for so long. We’d made cloth ear plugs after the first hour from rags, but the help they offered was miniscule. Kind of wished we’d made some kind of hoof wrappings instead as we left the kill zone and advanced upwards. It was worse than anything my worst nightmares could have cooked up, but I don’t think it's very hard to imagine just what we were going through. “Helix. Helix we’re at the top of the stairs and moving inwards to the next spot.”

“Understood. I’ve activated emergency lighting to guide you. Please remain vigilant.” That brain’s voice was starting to scrape away the tolerance I had left in me. My head hurt, I was nauseous from the smell of death, our hooves were caked in gore from wading through the grizzly scene. I dared not look back down the stairs at the trail we’d left behind. Forward, there was only forward towards the next area and the next group of clones that needed dying.

“Pssst, sister. Look at this.”

I turned to look at whichever Muddy clone was asking for me. To my elation it was my favorite clone, my true sister. She was eyeing her PipBuck again while walking alongside me. “Yeah? You find something new on that thing?”

“It’s not the PipBuck I’m looking at. It’s the mission thing. I don’t know how it can count all the Jelly clones down here, but the numbers don’t add up. Trust me, I counted.”

That was strange. Sure enough the number had gone down significantly since we started, but it was still at one hundred and thirty nine clones remaining. That was massive, but a far cry from the number from before. “So what's the problem?”

“We only shot fifty five clones down there. Come on Muddy, do the math. There’s more clones gone than the ones we killed. Who else is killing down here?”

This was no longer strange. Now it was just plain creepy. My head was on a swivel now as I checked behind us, down every hallway we passed, any place I thought an attack could come from. For all I knew there was an army of Jellybean clones behind every wall and locked door waiting to get out. Or maybe something else was down here. Something worse.

“Uuuuuh…H-Helix? We might have a problem.” I didn’t have to wait at all before Helix was poking through the ceiling. Being as skittish as I was at the moment, I may have jumped upon hearing the noise her open hatch made. Luckily we were in the back of the formation so none of my new sisters saw that.

The blue glow of the mono eye illuminated the dark not already illuminated by the red flood lights and exit signs. “Yes? Something you need? We have no time for hold ups so let's be quick about it.”

I coughed with more than a little trepidation. “So we were looking at the numbers and saw there's more dead Jellybeans than confirmed kills. Know anything about that?”

For all her worth she looked like she wanted to respond, but simply didn’t. Or ya know, as much as a brain in a jar could look like anything other than a brain in a jar. Her eye tiled to one side to simulate confusion before finally she responded. “Well…I didn’t want to bring this up before, but I guess I should tell you. Jellybean has been down here a long long time with no food sources available to him. He was a pony who solved practical problems and didn’t care much for farming. So when the denizens all evacuated, Jellybean was left with an immediate problem. Who would grow the food in the hydroponics bays?”

…Oh no.

“So the only real solution the Jellybean horde had at its disposal was…cannibalism. His clones have been relentlessly cloning and eating new generations of himself for over a century. The process has been unending since the day the door opened.”

By now the group had come back for us since Helix Twist’s jar couldn’t leave the spot she emerged from. Of course they turned around and returned only to hear the enemy we’d been brought to face were a bunch of pony-eaters. What’s one more detail to leave out after the first couple?

“You’re shitting me” one sister exclaimed.

“That’s such bull shit” said another.

The sentiment was, yet again, one of anger. Now it was my turn. “You could have told us that before we took the job. So happy to know if we get killed here we’re gonna get eaten by a bunch of out of shape pre war clones!”

“Hush! I’ll hear none of it from the filthy mouths of you, Muddy. I’m surprised you are this upset over a smaller detail. Do ponies or whatever else that inhabits the hellscape above ground not eat each other like the Jellybeans do? I would have thought cannibalism would be commonplace after the apocalypse.”

Well I couldn’t argue against that. “Well…I mean…sort of? Yeah we got cannies’ above ground. Just…Uuuuugh! Don’t leave any more details out! Wayward grown ponies respect straightforwardness, not this beating around the bush crap.”

“Yeah! What she said.”

“Give it to us straight, doc.”

“Don’t lead us on no more, Helix!”

Heh, that’ll show her. Muddy Waters doesn’t take that crap from anypony. “Alright sisters, let’s skedaddle. We got work to do!” And there she was, my bond sister, leading her various selves back into the abyss of the Stable to fight our rivals down here, our fated foes. Of course I followed behind. I left Helix without saying another word more.

***

We had time as we prepared ourselves. We’d been led to a nice little hallway that ended at the restrooms of this floor. Somewhere there was a clinic around here that I’d woken up in, but I doubt I’d see it again while we still had work to do. So, while my sisters and I prepared and checked our weapons for faults and our magazines for fresh bullets, I counted. The numbers from before did not add up. We killed fifty five clones in the level below. Sixty eight were dead in total. That left…thirteen. Even if the other Jellybean clones were cannibalistic like Helix said, could they really murder and eat that many ponies in the span of a few hours? There’s no way they’d need that many corpses to feed themselves…right?

I must have been pretty lost in thought, because when a clone of mine put her hoof on my shoulder I jumped like a scared filly. “Woah! You alright, Muddy?”

Her, one of the new sisters created for this very mission. I looked into her eyes like I’d done so many times over. Sometimes I gazed into them looking for pieces of myself to see if I was really in these bodies. The answer always came back as a yes. “Y-yeah. Yeah I’m good. I’m golden, sis’. Just freaked out is all.”

“We got your back, so long as you’ll have ours. The Waters family sticks together.” She smiled with a happy grin. I couldn't help but return it in kind. It felt good seeing myself so happy and inspired.

“I love y’all, have I said that already?” I looked to each of my clones who returned the gaze with looks of understanding. I don’t know if any other ponies wildly cloned themselves in the past, but for what it was worth I enjoyed my time with my selves. This, the experiences we were having down here, would remain our closely guarded secret. Nopony else could ever learn of what we’d found, of what we were doing. “Alright…Let’s do this. Helix, ready when you are!”

As if on queue, the alarms rang once again and somewhere nearby, a door was unlocked to the relief of the pony clones inside. The relief would be cut short as a quick investigation into the repeated alarm would bring a curtain call of death upon them. Another group of Jellybeans charged and again they met with the business end of Muddy Waters guns. This was just the process that had to be followed and maintained if success was to remain a reachable goal. We’d move on to various dark hallways and set up in places Helix instructed us to go. From there it was rinse and repeat with breaks in between to fix our weapons and reload our magazines.

It wasn’t until the third section of the engineering level did problems begin to present themselves.

“Where’s the .38 caliber rounds? I’m out…”

“Here! It’s my last spare mag, don’t waste it!”

“There’s a fuck ton coming our way, watch out!”

“My…My gun jammed. I gotta get the casing out, fuck! Watch my back.’

We had hundreds of rounds for the pipe weapons, but the .38 bullet was proving to us why it was such an inexpensive round. It took six to ten bullets to kill Jellybean, which is way more than I expected to kill anything pony sized. We were down to nothing now and were hanging by the skin of our teeth against an unusually large group of Jellybean clones. So many poured out of a door down the hall that it was all hooves on deck for this fight. Even as we fired with almost wild fury, the attackers still advanced.

It was here I realized Jellybean really was a soldier despite his age and the complacency of Stable life. I realized this when I saw him lift the hole filled corpse of his fellow clone up and use it as a meat shield while slowly advancing on us. More followed suit and even as some of them met with failure, the ones behind them picked up the trick and did the same thing until it worked. The only guns capable of shooting through a pony were my revolver and my bond sister’s single-shot shotgun.

As if the problems weren’t bad enough, down another hallway behind us I could hear a door click with the sound of a lock disengaging.

“Muddy, the clones are aware they are under attack. Some of them are beginning to pick the locks on the doors with improvised tools. You must fall back to the previous section, now!” Helix’s voice echoed through the area over the sounds of gunfire, but it was too little too late. One sister shouted as another group of clones emerged behind us, effectively cutting us off from escape. It was…oh shit. This was it wasn’t it?

“Four of you turn around and fight them off! One of you help out in the front, just keep it up. We can still win this!” My bond sister issued her orders and the rest followed them as I blasted through the body of a Jellybean and hit a still living one on the other side. With him dropping dead another leapt over the fresh body and charged, but he too met his end as my sister fired a shotgun shell into his chest. For the price he was paying, Jellybean was getting closer and closer. I swear I could see the wrinkles in a particularly old Jellybean’s face as he got dangerously close before a single .45 caliber round tore into his upper chest and another into his neck, dropping him.

Unlike us, Jellybean was climbing over the bodies of the fallen with ease. As I replaced my gun’s spent bullets another got close enough to earn a shotgun shell to the head, obliterating him like an abused watermelon. Now two of us were reloading, but another Muddy Waters had us covered as she sprayed down the remaining two hostile clones. Her bullets meant nothing to the last two clones who used the bodies of their comrades as cover, but their attack had stalled. That was good enough for me. About time they wisened up.

“We got this side, how’s things over there?” I could have smiled. We were winning again. That’s what mattered the most.

At least I thought we were. “G-get off! Get him off me!” Panic filled me as I turned to see Jellybean grabbing a hold of a sister’s gun, by the barrel no less, and yank it from her teeth before turning it back and slamming the stock into her head like a club. As she went down he moved to crush her like a bug, raising both forehooves to beat her to a pulp like he had me.

I didn’t know what to do, my body wasn’t listening as the panic ate away at me. I raised my weapon, but time seemed to crawl painfully slow as I watched his hooves come down.

“NO!!!”

Something clicked. My ears filled with the sound of a machine whirring to life before the world went from a slow crawl to an absolute stand still. The panic went into overdrive as I watched the still form of my foe just stand there frozen like a statue. Or a cockatrice victim, same thing. It was nothing I could have imagined I could do even in the wildest circumstances, but it was true. I’d frozen time! I could do some potentially dangerous things with this, like kill the fucker hurting my clone!

His name appeared in my vision, along with a number beside it. Jellybean 812 was what the magic identified him as. Percentages lined his various body parts giving me an estimate on…I wasn’t sure to be honest, but there were five of them around his body highlighting the same body parts the PipBuck used. Wait, that must be it! It’s the freakin’ PipBuck. I moved my eyes to the rest of the room and saw a sorry sight before me.

The clones were failing to keep Jellybean away with their guns dry of ammunition. One sister was highlighted by the spell now with her name appearing at the top of my vision. Muddy Waters 03. Well that was helpful, but not who I wanted in my crosshairs. The other hostile clones, now numbering at eight, were fast approaching our wavering formation. I picked the closest one who was trying to murder my new sister naturally.

And naturally I picked the chest with an 80% chance to hit twice and the head once. Only a 49% chance to hit him in the face, but that didn’t stop me from trying. That expression of hatred locked into his face was the last thing I saw before I tried everything to release the spell. I focused on the PipBuck and sure enough the spell was released. When it went down my body reflexively moved to fire twice into Jellybeans chest with a swiftness to make any gunslinger proud. His chest erupted like a blossoming flower made of blood pouring from him in slow motion while his head was removed from his body from the third bullet.

“You can kiss. My. ASS!” Oh Celestia I was feeling it! I could do this, WE could do this. I fired my revolver’s final three bullets into the approaching crowd with two hitting, but not killing their marks and the third burying itself into the hide of a dead body shield. Damn it all they were coping the other side and using the dead as shields.

I reloaded using my speed loader and fired again and again until I could feel the heat radiating from the cylinder of my revolver. Six more shots mixed with the plethora of gunfire and only three more Jellybeans died from our combined efforts.

We were running out of fighting strength and there wasn’t much else we could muster after the final bullets were exhausted. Now our guns became improvised clubs once Jellybean realized we weren’t firing anymore. He charged one final time with numbers on his side and raw strength to tear us apart with.

Maybe I spoke too soon. Maybe we weren’t gonna win this. In fact, we were about to die down here. Surrounded and alone…it couldn’t end like this…

“Ha! Ha ha, Jelly!”

“Jelly…..BEEEEAN!”

“Jel-jellybea…ACK!”

Another blip on the compass just appeared behind the attacking clones. Only this one wasn’t red, but blue. And whoever it was just made extremely short work of a Jellybean clone as only four red blips remained on this side. I saw them with the severed head of a clone between their hooves, its face permanently marred with the expression of terror.

Whatever or whoever they were, their clothes were that of patchwork leather covering them from mane to hooves like some sort of butcher's outfit. Even their face was covered, minus the eyes which were blue. No, I was wrong. Not a butcher, a hunter. A trapper!

Before Jellybean could even react the trapper was upon the group of clones, grabbing one from behind and bending his head back so far I saw his mane reach his flanks before a terrible snap filled the air. The trapper kept going with a fluid like motion, just drifting between targets with zero hesitation. The next Jellybean turned to deliver a powerful hoofstrike, but by the time he’d turned and swung the trapper was already beneath his swing and delivering a couple of their own.

It was beautiful in a horrid kind of way watching Jellybeans ribs cave in and puncture his lungs, making his gasp of pain the last air to leave his ruptured organs. The fourth Jellybean could only watch as a speeding hoof slammed into his neck, crushing his windpipe so quickly he hadn’t realized he was done for. One step, two steps and like that he was on the floor scraping at his neck in a vain attempt to get the air flowing.

I was surprised the last Jellybean even tried to fight, but he did a better job than the rest. He at least got a better chance to land a hit while the trapper was distracted on the fourth one. Still didn’t matter though as his swing was not only deflected by rapid hooves, but used against him as the trapper gripped tight and swung him over their shoulder and into the floor. After that it was a quick turn of the head and the trapper snapped Jellybean’s neck like a worn out rope.

“H-H-Holy shit…” a sister raised her rifle to fire at the stranger, but all that came from the gun was the click of death. An empty mag’s final gift to the wielder before the end came. Luck must have been with us despite the odds, because the blue blip never turned red. Instead the trapper moved past us so fast I barely made it out of the way before they were dancing over the corpses like stepping stones in the river and upon the Jellybean clones like a radigator on easy prey.

These clones were better prepared to fight, however. The moment the trapper got close a body was chucked at the new fighter who deftly evaded it only to get a buck for their efforts. Even as they were sent sprawling, the Jellybeans never made it to their target before the trapped was back up and smashing a clone in the face so hard I saw teeth fly. The second Jellybean clone got a headbutt for his troubles, then a punch in the mouth that shattered everything from his nose to his upper jaw.

“Luna be damned, look at ‘em go! Who is that?!”

“Who cares?! Get your sister off the floor and carry her, we gotta move. Now…”

We were just backing away at this point to give the trapper all the space they needed to brutally beat Jellybean to death. And that’s exactly what they did. The trapper moved from smashing one clone’s head against the metal wall until his skull cracked, to biting into the neck of the clone who’s nose they shattered and tearing it out with their teeth. Beneath the crimson liquid I could have sworn I saw a blue coat, a light blue coat.

The blips were gone now, their owners dead. With them gone the trapper turned to us who were still conscious and glared before charging us this time. Without warning we were about to be the next victims! This was not how I wanted to die!

“Hey hey hey, hold on we can talk about this!”

Me scrambled like disorganized chickens and tried to avoid the newest addition to our attackers, but before I could glance to see if the blip had suddenly changed the trapper was already past us. If I had been paying attention I might have noticed the Jellybean with the smashed windpipe standing up behind us and preparing to crush me beneath rage filled hooves.

Only he never got that chance. His hooves came down with equally strong hooves pushing back up against his own. I’d been knocked out of the way just for the trapper to take my place. From my new position on the floor I got the best seat to view the trappers hood and mask fall from their face. No, it was a mare with blood stained lips and a green mane. And let me tell you, those lips got a hell of a lot bloodier as she bit into the neck of the final Jellybean clone and ripped into him like a fucking feral ghoul.

Green mane, light blue coat. No. No way, it couldn’t be. I activated the PipBuck spell again to highlight the trapper, targeting her head and looking at what her name was. Maybe the device on my arm could alleviate my horror…

It didn’t. In fact it only confirmed it.

Vivid Grove, my mom, was tearing a stallion's throat out with her bare teeth. Let me tell you, as I released the spell without targeting anything I could have sworn I saw her not spit out the pony gore she’d bitten into, but swallow it raw.

Our eyes met. She looked at me with shock, I looked at her with uncontrollable fear. Then she spoke. “…S-Sugar. I can explain…please…don’t be scared…”

BANG

I don’t know who shot, but I saw who’d been hit. Mom’s eyes widened as blood poured from her shoulder, causing her to collapse where she stood.

“Muddy, please forgive my lack of appearance. I’ve shut down any further attempts at Jellybeans, or anyponies, lockpicking the doors. Fortunately I arrived when I did.”

Helix’s casing was hanging from the ceiling again with her horn glowing pink. At some point she’d arrived without us noticing and picked up the bolt action pistol we’d neglected to use. With telekinetic power she chambered another round.

“I’m unaware of who this is, but I’ve taken care of the intruder for you.”

“Helix you fucking moron! That’s…..that's our mom!”

***

The next hour or so was tense. I’d even go as far to say it was more tense than the near death situation we were in prior to finding out my mom was a trapper.

She’d survived, albeit barely. Fucking pistol was chambered in .308 caliber ammo. Who makes a bolt action pistol like this?! Gah, it didn't matter! What mattered was us getting mom and my sisters to the clinic on this level. Helix showed us the way through the maze of hallways and rooms to find it. From there it was a process of getting the bullet out of mom and getting a healing potion into everypony.

Not sure what kind of armor mom was wearing, but it was tough leather for sure. Didn’t stop the bullet from tearing her shoulder open, but it kept her from dying at least. Helix helped too, using her magic and knowledge of…whatever it was called, to get the bullet out. I think she said biology?

“Alright girls, how are we looking? Who’s still good?” I asked the room. Two sisters looked down at purple bruises and swollen injuries. Another sister nursed her bruised face from when she got her own gun used against her.

“Four of us are good to go. Some ponies got hit hard though.”

“Yeah. I think I lost a tooth…”

“I think my leg is cracked. It hurts to stand on it.”

“Mom got fucking shot.”

That was a revelation we were all still coming to terms with. Mom, the mare I thought was a plain housewife who’s special talent was cooking meals, was actually a trapper. Now I wondered if the meat she’d practiced with in the past was a creature’s or a pony’s. There wasn’t any room for doubt in my mind when I watched her bite into those clone's necks. She’d swallowed the chunks she bit out of Jelly’s cloned flesh without any hesitation or reservations.

At least mom didn’t bite off more than she could chew. Okay that was bad to think about. Way too soon to be joking about this.

“Alright then. Let’s focus, get ourselves together. Myselves? No, we’re focusing. Right now!”

Phew, it got hot in here. Frazzled nerves and crashing adrenaline was kicking my flanks up and down. At least I wasn’t the only Muddy Water’s to feel the strain return after the fighting was done. Exhaustion and fear were in great supply unlike our ammo and food. With depleted fighting strength I highly doubt our mission can continue like it has been. Just then, my sister, or at least one of the new ones, clopped her hooves together and coughed loud enough to get our attention.

Once she had our collective eyes on her, she spoke. “I think I got a plan, but we need to figure some things out. Since Jellybean was the pony responsible for keeping the Stable together, who’s gonna do that once he’s gone? I’ve been asking myself that since we started.”

Another sister raised her hoof and meekly said ‘us’ but we quickly returned to a smaller stance when we all shook our heads. We were all in agreement that keeping anything beyond a knot together was well beyond us.

“Why kill them all anyway? Feels like we could get away with locking some of them up to do fixing jobs and stuff.”

I’ll admit, I was impressed with myself. As the room filled with the slow agreements of my sisters, I looked to the one I was closest to and scanned for any sort of reaction or hint of what she was thinking. When her eyes turned to meet mine, she smiled and huffed at me. “Don’t get a big head because we can come up with good ideas from time to time. There’s only about fifty or so left. What’s stopping us from locking them in the important areas and making them fix things when we need it?”

“Would you like me to identify all the probable outcomes to this and why it won’t work?” Oh yeah, Helix was still hanging from the ceiling as per usual. I swear she must have some kind of little train tracks in the vents given how she follows us. Not that it was a bad thing, I appreciate her helping mom.

“You’re going to tell us anyway so go ahead. Don’t let us stop you…”

“I thought it sounded like a great plan. Why should we have to take care of the Stable when he’s been doing it over and over again for centuries?”

There was this hint of frustration from the static that bubbled from her speakers. Maybe it was the twitching of her brain inside the glass dome, but I swear I could see the gears turning in her head as she tried to formulate her various responses. Now I wondered if she did this when she was still a pony.

“Do NOT be fooled by his clear disabilities and cognitive decay. Jellybean is a clever creature. When he first emerged from the tubes in his current state I did all I could to prevent him from escaping. When he managed to hack his way through and threaten the populace I did my best to prevent his return to the labs and keep him contained in maintenance. I’m sure you noticed the stairs lead straight into the labs despite this being a secure area, yes?”

We nodded, completely engrossed in her story. “He took the arc welders and cut away the bulkhead of the Stable! There’s supposed to be walls blocking the stairwell from the rest of the Stable, but that clearly isn’t the case! I’ve tried everything and every time that clever clone finds a way around me. So unless you can achieve what I could not, I suggest another strategy.”

She was telling the truth about that, for sure. Those clones were unlocking doors and swarming us by the end. Had mom not followed us down here and intervened, we wouldn’t have survived that. However, there were plenty of them still remaining and hadn’t yet escaped Helix’s lockdown. This plan could work, but we’d need time to think of every possible way to contain the rampant Jellybean clones.

“What about food? I’m getting kinda hungry…”

“We can’t even feed ourselves. How are we gonna feed the beans?”

A laugh from behind drew our attention. At first I thought it was Helix laughing at us, but when I turned I saw mom trying to contain herself while laying on the bed we’d placed her in. “I think I may be of help here.”

“MOM!”

The seven of us rushed to her side and surrounded her in hugs. I didn’t know if she’d make it, but thank Celestia she had. “Mom, what are you doing here? How did you find this place?”

She just scoffed and patted my head. “Did you really think me and your father would allow you to wander into danger? I may have helped out indirectly, but I would never allow my baby to go into such a dangerous place alone. So I put some old tricks to use and tracked you here.”

Now it was her turn to ask questions. As she looked at my new sisters I could tell what she was going to ask about. “So, Muddy…when were you going to tell me you were playing with dangerous technology and…making new siblings? I hope you realize just how badly grounded you all are.”

“When were you going to tell your family you’re a trapper! Does dad know?!” I practically shouted, barely able to contain myself. I wasn’t sure what I was feeling, but it bordered on anger and sadness.

For Vivid Grove’s usually sunny demeanor, her eyes fell as she spoke. “He does. We first met when I tried to kill him and his friends. Wasn’t the best day of my life. I wanted to hide that from you all, Rough, Clear, yourself. Selves…that’s why I planned to never speak of it.”

“W-what…”

“That’s not the story you told us as fillies!”

“Yeah! You said you met dad after he saved you from falling over the guard rails in the market.”

“Everypony calm yourselves. This is no time for division in the ranks.” Helix was quick to step in before the Muddy clones got antsy. Her eye turned to the mare at the center of all the attention and huffed in her electronic voice.

“I for one am very very impressed with how you handled yourself madame…”

Mom answered the hanging question. “Vivid. Vivid Grove.”

“Yes, Vivid. Are you perhaps a surgeon of some form? The way you smashed the third and fourth ribs was nothing short of surgical precision. Your destruction of the jugular tissue and crushing of wind pipes was also very inspiring. I was awestruck at how well you know pony anatomy to the point you could use such precise strikes to cause the most damage. Even the headbutt was masterful. You took almost no injury and dealt a hefty blow to the Jellybean clone.”

For all that said, mom took it surprisingly well. A faint blush formed around her cheeks as she shied away slightly. “M-my my, I’ve never been complimented on how well I fight before. No…no I’m no doctor. We were taught at a young age to take down beasts and ponies. It’s hard living when you’re the smallest predator on the food chain, but we hold our own…I’ve also seen the insides of both enough to know where to hit the hardest. Special trapper technique I learned as a filly to pop another pony's lungs.”

Well fuck me, mom really was a trapper to her core. That meant I was the daughter of a trapper, a pony who could smash ribs and eat ponies throats like a radigator. It would have been cool to know if it wasn’t so shockingly terrible.

So I had to ask the obvious. After all, Wayward ponies enjoy straightforwardness. “Um, mom? Did you ever eat another pony?” Nervous anticipation filled my voice as I asked.

She smiled, rubbed my cheek and sighed. A mother who wanted the best for her children is all I saw as I searched her eyes for some kind of answer. “No. I haven’t eaten any ponies….”

Luna be praised! Sweet relief.

“The things I ate threw away what made them ponies a long time ago. Slavers, raiders, mutants. Those aren’t ponies. Those are monsters no different from the beasts we trap and hunt. And we don’t let any meat go to waste~.”

…oh. Well shit. I’m the daughter of a pony eater after all.

***

Level up: Level 4

Perk added: Adrenaline- feel the rush! You gain +6% damage increase for each kill up to a maximum of 36% for 30 seconds. Timer refreshes with each kill.

Author's Note

Took me a while to get this one out. Sorry friendos. Had to find a new apartment and things got nuts for a while there. Will try to upload at least once a month, if not twice.

Chapter 4: The Mess of Me

Maybe I don’t have a magic touch. And maybe I don’t have a talent as such.

***

I don’t know how long we consolidated ourselves within the clinic. It was stuffy and uncomfortable being underground for so long. We had to adjust to the new environment mentally like all Stable dwellers, or so Helix claimed. The PipBuck on my arm said it was well into the afternoon, around four to be precise. With our time limit running out it was decided we’d set the next phase of our plans in motion.

I sent two sisters to find what Helix described as a maintenance office so we could find a way to deal with the rest of the Jellybean clones. It wasn’t much but it was our best source for a clue.

That left five of us to deal with mom who was more than off-put by the new additions to the family. We were equally concerned about her being a former cannibal and trapper. Currently she was studying one of the sisters carefully. I believe she’s trying to do what I did and find any sort of indication that there was something wrong. Try being the key word since she sighed and wrapped the new clone in her usual loving embrace.

“I just don’t understand where I went wrong. I didn’t know you were so….lonely. I thought you enjoyed the solitude like your brother, Clear. And your…your clones…they're perfect. How can this be possible? What kind of magic show are you running down here, brain?”

Helix Twist, for all her growing number of issues that needed solving, was surprisingly relaxed and open with mom. “You’re witnessing the beginning of an era. One that will show only a fraction of the potential the old Equestria could bring upon the world. The wonderful fusion of magic and machines I and Doctor Doublit created…that is my answer to you, ma’am.”

“From what I could tell, all of us are perfect copies of each other. There’s no difference between us.” I wanted to say more, we all did, but Helix stepped in and continued for me. Much to my chagrin…she had a nasty habit of doing that.

“That’s why I’ve taken such an invested interest in your daughter. Not only does she have the proper ability to function after the cloning process, but her mental faculties have proven remarkably resilient. It used to take weeks of training to properly prepare a pony to become a clone or witness themselves outside of a mirror. However, Muddy Waters has adjusted to the mental strain with relative ease. Surprising as this is, I have to commend your ability to raise such a fascinating creature, Grove.”

“Creature?!”

What a back-hoofed compliment! I didn’t think you could insult and praise someone in only two words, but there it was. Naturally we stomped our hooves in anger, but mom shushed us immediately. And naturally we obeyed without question.

“That’s enough, Muddy. Now, as much as I want to grill you for answers, I’m having trouble coming to terms with so many…so many…well daughters. Tell me, Muddy. Why this? That’s all I want to know.”

That’s something I wanted to know too. To be truthful to myself, I already had an idea why. Best guess was that I just didn’t find the appeal of interaction, so I never bothered. However, when it came to myself? I didn’t have any trouble speaking to myself. Yeah, that would normally sound weird and be a good sign of some troubles in the noggin, but not when it’s applied to me!

“I can’t explain it, mom. It’s hard to talk to others. It’s hard to talk in general. To others I mean.”

A collection of nods from the Muddies confirmed I had hit the nail on the head. With that, mom sighed and patted me on the head. “It’s alright, dear. Everypony has something going on that’s not always right or makes sense, but that’s what makes us special. Someday you’ll find yourself and everything will just click into place afterwards. If it can happen to a former trapper, it can happen to anypony.”

“I’d still like to hear the story of how you and dad met.”

“I wanna know what it’s like being a trapper!”

“Forget about that, teach us how you do those amazing hoof to hoof techniques! You were amazing out there.”

Another thing mom and I would have to get used to was the fact every thought I had now had a voice. Whether it came from me personally or from a thought I could possibly have, so long as there were enough Muddy Waters around every opinion and every idea would have a say now.

Grove managed to pull through far better than I would have. “I’ll tell you the story later tonight, it’s hardships no pony should have to endure, and you need a lot of knowledge of pony innards and hoof combat before I can teach you anything…which I won’t, because it’s too dangerous.”

“Aaaaaaaw!”

“Maybe we’ll try again another day.”

You can’t blame a mare for trying. I applaud the effort, but I knew she’d say no. Pretty sure we all did.

“Hey hey! Somethings coming!” One of my sisters called out as she prepared her empty rifle. Sure enough after becoming silent the sounds of hoofsteps echoed from wall to wall. From the hallway outside somepony was moving towards us as the sounds got louder and louder.

My heart raced as we prepared for confrontation, but surprisingly mom wasn’t bothered at all. In fact she smiled and patted the guard Muddy on the head. “It’s okay, calm down girls. I can’t believe you don’t recognize the sound of your own four hooves. No, wait…eight hooves. There’s two outside.”

I couldn’t figure out how she can hear so well through walls made of metal. It took another couple of seconds before I could even see them in the PibBuck’s compass and sure enough there were two blue dots. Maybe it had something to do with her background as a trapper.

Moments later the door opened and two members of the family stepped inside. My sisters had returned, one of which was carrying a box on her back. It had a single word on it scribbled in black marker. Banzai.

“You’re not gonna believe what we found! Loot and valuables for days! Days I tell you. Tools, building materials, metal, you name it.”

The sister carrying the box set it down for us to see. There was a myriad of unknown tools and such within the box, all of which would fetch a mighty fine price back home. I could see the stacks of caps we’d get if we brought this to the market. Every single worker would sell their foals for tools preserved in such great condition.

“This was all in the maintenance office? I thought it was just an office?” I asked with confusion evident in myself and all my sisters who stayed behind with me.

“That’s what we thought, but damn…it’s practically a supply closet in there. If we sell that office off, we could be rich.”

My first sister approached the box to take a look inside personally. Then she turned the box to the side to take a look at the word written on the side. “What the heck is a banzai?”

“Maybe I can be of assistance once again.” The faint blue light of Helix’s mono-eye washed over us as her brain case descended from the ceiling. “If I recall, Banzai was the name of Bean's stray cat.”

“So what…we just pacify a bunch of feral science experiments with fluffy critters?” One sister had the mind to crack jokes to lighten the mood, but Helix’s eye stared at us motionlessly.

Then she giggled, or maybe it was just static. “I’m pleased at the effort to bring ideas to the table. Jellybean did love his cats. Perhaps it’s not too farfetched to make the attempt, however silly it might be.” Before we could retort, she vanished into the ceiling as a gentle static hummed in my head as the tasks updated within my Pipbuck. In the left corner of my vision, the words Below the Surface, appeared with a laundry list of tasks beneath it.

Restore the Stable to working order.
Restore food production
Restore Project Double Mirror
Deal with the Jelly Bean clones
Optional: (Find a way to pacify the Jellybean clones)

“You just had to open your mouth.”

“Girls, behave.” Mom stood in the middle of our number with a commanding presence. “Let’s hurry up and get sorted. There’s a lot to cover and we’re running out of time. We have a lot of bits and pieces to mop up off the floor before it starts turning sour and we still have the goal of helping your big brother. Now, I have a suggestion that will solve the second issue.”

Right. If we wanted to keep the stable to ourselves, letting all the clone corpses rot was going to make that very unpleasant. The sisters who stayed behind would have to solve that problem themselves.

“Are we not going to loot this place?”

“We could be rich! We could have everything we ever needed…”

Grove stomped her hoof to silence the growing protest. “We don’t need to ransack this place, girls. This isn’t ours to do as we please with, it belongs to somepony and you need to respect that. Now, despite the gunshot to my shoulder, I think Helix is a respectable mare brain. These tools you want to sell aren’t yours. They’re her’s. And so is everything here…”

“While technically, you are correct Miss Grove…” The speakers screeched to life as the electronic voice of Helix Twist blared through with a loud pop. “...There are things here I’d be willing to part with. In a gesture of good faith and as a reward for your hard work.”

She’s listening to us even when she’s not around. So much for privacy.

“There are over one hundred living domiciles within this stable. Many of the former residents had to evacuate in a semi-rushed fashion. I have no doubt there might be things you can find within. I’ll leave the doors unlocked when you’re not busy. Feel free to take residence here as well. After all…”

“We have much work to do. Together.”

***

And just like that, we had our objectives. Helix had a massive list of things she needed us to do both inside the stable and outside. We already knew what had to be done inside, which was clean up duty.

One of mom’s ideas for us was to store some of the more well off bodies to feed the Jellybean clones. As much as I’d rather not share with those freaks, the hostile clones were the only ones capable of maintaining the Stable. A fact I’d have to remedy myself somehow. Another one of mom’s ideas was to sell water instead of scrap or valuables despite the offer made to us by Helix.

We did not have fresh water on the surface, nor the resources to reliably purify it. Purifiers were expensive to make and didn’t last long without needing new parts. That left the people of the Centennial River to almost exclusively survive off of brahmin milk and the occasional fruit juice. Explaining what a brahmin was to Helix wasn’t easy. Down here was a source of infinite clean water and all it took was the turning of a faucet. Liquid gold at the tip of our hooves! No brahmin or caps needed!

So we loaded up as much water as we could, filling every bottle and water skin we had. Rough was going to have to change his business model, but he’d have to cope with how things turned out.

The rest of our missions were from Helix herself…

Find somepony to help restore Project Mirror Mirror. Find a way to deal with the remaining Jellybean clones. Find a way to fix the Stable door.

“Don’t mean to sound like a gloomy foal, but these tasks seem kind of…I don’t know…Impossible? Where are we supposed to find a pony with the smarts to fix either of these things?” One of the new sisters spoke up as the rest looked on with expectant glances.

“I’m sure you’ll find somepony. It’s a vast existence we live in, after all.” Helix had yet to return, but the stable carried her voice and sight all over the place. “I’ve waited around one hundred and fifty years for this. I can afford a few more. Just find somepony you can trust.”

With that, the speakers went dead. Now all that was left to do was go home and rest. “Alrighty then. Here’s the plan…” I noticed each of my new sister’s were already pairing up with each other, finding their own bonded sibling to attach themselves to. All except one who sat dejected by herself. I made sure to pull this one next to me and my own favored sister. “We’re going to go home and come back tomorrow with food and supplies. I want everypony to clean up as much as possible. Leave the mopping for later, just focus on getting rid of the corpses. After that, we clear the rest of the Stable.”

I didn’t expect my other selves to be very happy with doing this, and they weren’t, but they nodded anyway. This was just something that needed doing no matter how disgusting it was.

We left soon after. Taking the freight elevator back to the top most floor we eventually returned to the surface with the setting sun greeting us as much as it could from behind the unending cloud layer. Honestly I was just glad the hard part was over and we only got moderately hurt this time. With my new sister’s safe and our bags full of future caps, I’d say this was a huge win for our family.

“It’s been years since I cooked up pony meat…” Not what I wanted to hear from the mare who raised me!

“Mom what the actual fuck?!” My sister and I’s voices echoed together, our collective shock and disgust only making Grove laugh.

“Oh don’t be that way, I’m mostly kidding. But honestly, Muddy…we don’t have a way to feed those clones. Yours or that stallion’s. It will take all the water we have to buy enough food and that’s assuming we feed that Jelly fellow…himself…” It was a grim reality, but no worse than what we dealt with daily in the wasteland. It’s an eat or be eaten world up here. “Do you understand what I’m trying to say?”

“Yes. We do.” Sister responded with a cold understanding.

“Don’t worry. I’ll be coming back tomorrow to deliver the food for you. I’ll cut up the clones and prepare them so none of my daughters have to. Just promise you’ll keep this a secret. All of it…my past, the Stable, all of it.” The slight warble in her voice, I could have sworn mom sounded almost scared. Who wouldn’t? Her daughter found out she was a cannibal in the past and was taking it a little too well. Not to mention the horrors down beneath our hooves we were responsible for now.

“To our graves. None of us will say a word.” Reassurance. Not just for her, but for us too. This Stable was our secret we’d never give up. It was rightfully ours! And what happened in the Stable is going to stay in the Stable. No matter the cost.

***

Five blips on the compass, all red. Hostiles were right in front of us on the path hidden in the bushes. The tall grass and sickly green vegetation hid many creatures, but with SATS I had a good idea what was looking to jump us. The silhouettes of five ponies could be seen and the first one targeted was identified as a…longshoreman? That wasn’t right. That was the nickname given to residents of Point Wayward.

I wasn’t the only one who noticed that coming ambush. Mom put herself in front of us protectively and whispered low. “Muddy, stay behind me. We’re not alone…”

There was no chance I could hit any of them if I wanted to. SATS gave me a zero percent chance to land any shots. Not to mention I’d used up everything I had in the fight below ground. All we had was mom, but she was still limping heavily from the gunshot wound to her shoulder.

The bushes rustled as the group slowly began to emerge, aware that we weren’t about to come any closer. I spotted two stallions and three mares all armed with various lever action rifles in various states of misuse. All of them were pointing those rifles at us confirming their hostility.

“I was wondering when you would show back here, you little shit. You know how long me and my crew spent waiting for you out in this shithole?!” A single stallion stood in front of the rest with his eyes locked on me for some reason.

I was confused for a moment before realizing who these ponies were. These were the hired guns Rough set us up to meet to get their help this morning. “You’re those ponies from this morning, the mercenaries…”

“Yeah, the one’s your brother said would get a juicy gig today and never did! I should have known that story was full of crap!” In the fading light of the closing day I could see his anger plastered over a rough earth ponies face. Then he began to advance on us, his weapon swaying to point at each of us.

He continued “Me and my gang passed up some good work thinking we were gonna have it made today. Seeing as that didn’t happen, we decided the best way to make up for our losses was to take whatever you found out there in the swamps.”

With a rack of the lever the stallion chambered the first round and kept his rifle centered on mom. “So that’s it then…you’re just going to kill us? All over a lost score?” Mom spoke with as much bravado as she could, but it seemed like a futile effort.

“Drop everything you got and I’ll consider it.”

“Bastard…” I whispered under my breath as I dropped the bag full of our newly acquired water and supplies. All that effort and cost just to have somepony else rob us blind in the middle of the swamps. If ever there was a pony I’d remember it would be him. I’d remember that face and make him pay for this.

As his goons kept watch on us, the leader grabbed the backpack full of our things and took it with him, tossing it over his shoulder towards the group with a happy smile. The weight of the bag being a clear indicator that he’d hit a haul just as hoped. His patience having paid off, he shouted “Take the bag Dry Spell and make your magic useful. It’s heavy.”

A unicorn mare in the back grabbed the bag mid flight with the glow of telekinesis before turning to her boss. “The fuck are you saying my name out loud, jackass?! Now they know who I am!”

“It’s ‘cuz I wasn’t planning on letting ‘em live, idiot.” This pony was a real bastard, but he wasn’t stupid. As he produced a knife, I figured he knew if he shot us any trappers would hear it and come hunting. “It’ll be a lot less painless if you stand still. Can’t have you screaming back to Wayward.”

For what it was worth, mom stood between us and the gang that was about to finish us off. I wanted to cry, run, fight, anything other than sit here and let them kill us. I noticed something new once mom blocked our line of sight. Something I’d neglected to watch once the gang stepped forward.

The red dots on the compass multiplied.

The thunk of something fast and quiet hitting meat sounded over the group, followed by the massive thud of gallons of water and supplies hitting the soggy dirt. The lead stallion turned back to find the mare holding our things was very much gone. A crossbow bolt sticking from the side of her head as her dot vanished along with the traces of life in her eyes.

Mom wasted no time in charging the stallion, a hoof already finding its purchase beneath his jaw in a bone shattering strike that cracked his teeth so hard that the knife he once held split into pieces along with the teeth that once carried them. “RUN.” She screamed.

Before I ran I could see them. Trappers. Three of them were already here attacking anything that moved. The group of them looked just like mom when we first saw her earlier today, faces concealed and bodies clad in leather backed armor made from the prey they hunted.

Gunfire erupted as the gang that ambushed us was ambushed in kind. Another of their number quickly succumbed as two trappers opened fire with some kind of hunting rifles and the third reloaded a nasty crossbow. Bullets ripped through the brush and trees as we turned tail and ran for our lives. Screams echoed through the swamp as the wounded grew in number.

“Kill! Kill for the Moore!!!”

The air cracked as the bullets roared past us. I turned to see mom still fighting as she grabbed a rifle from one of the gang ponies and broke it’s stock over the head of an attacking trapper before turning what was left of it on the pony she stole it from.

I watched as mom killed others, but these ponies weren’t some freak science projects from below ground. These were ponies like us, they were our neighbors maybe. I watched ponies from my hometown fall victim to death’s jaws.

I couldn’t watch anymore. I fled alongside my sister into the thinning swamp towards the river in a vain attempt to escape. Even over the gunshots and screams of pain I could hear something following us with a sinister buzzing of wings. “Sis, we got…we got bloatsprites on our ass.”

“You’re damn right you dooo! Ah ha he heee!”

A lone trapper was following us and closing fast. Some crazed pony was completely covered from hoof to mane in some kind of leather armor that resembled a butcher's coat, his face concealed by a gas mask resembling a bird. Behind him was a swarm of bloatsprites.

“Go my pretties, kill. Kill for the Moore!” Another gunshot whizzed past us. We weren’t going to be able to get away at this rate and no amount of fighting would save us. Not if he was attacking us with a bunch of those damned mutated bugs he was using like attack dogs. Speaking of bugs, one of the bloatsprites landed on my sister’s back and bit into her mane and yanked hard.

She responded by flicking her head to the side and smashing the cursed creature into a tree as we swiftly ran by. Bile and bug juices splatter across her face and head as the trapper chasing screams in rage.

“No, noooo! I raised that one from a maggot to a proud sprite I tell ya. From a fucking maggot!” His roars of rage overpowered even the sounds of the countless wings buzzing all around us. Bloatsprites were swarming us like roaches to rot. By this point I found it laughable.

What a horribly stupid way to go. Bloatsprites of all things. No bigger than the head of a pony and squishy like overripe fruit, but here we were. “You’re fucking insane!” I didn’t get a chance to say anything further. Before I knew it my legs were swept from under me and the cloudy green sky greeted my vision. The next thing to greet me was the barrel of a gun.

“Let me give a parting bit of wisdom, little rabbit. Life ain’t measured in time. It’s measured in calories. And I’ll be sure to get my fill when I cook your fat over a spit!” His voice, so full of childlike glee, was the most aggravating thing to listen to.

Without thinking I activated SATS and time slowed to a snail’s crawl. The trapper in his strange and creepy armor stared down at me with his emotionless bird mask, a horn sticking through its forehead glowing blue. Unicorns and their fucking magic, go figure. I aimed straight for his floating rifle and targeted it once. I was glad it considered my earth pony hooves as weapons, because the moment I released the targeting system my hoof shot for the gun, knocking the barrel to the side just as the bullet left its deadly home and splatted the left side of my head with mud.

He must have been spooked by the seemingly unimaginable reflexes for his own reflexes faltered when my right hoof smashed against his stupid mask and shattered the glass goggles within. Now his roars of anger turned to screams of agony as glass filled his eyes.

“Y-you whore! You worthless scab! Fuuuuck!!!” The nameless trapper screamed and screamed, but for all the hollering he did, it didn’t help his situation. I took the rifle he used against me into my teeth and checked how many shots were left. Two. That was plenty. I didn’t need SATS to put this monster down, I just had to put the barrel against his chest and press the trigger.

BANG

Blood erupted from a fresh wound like a blooming flower growing out of his chest. For all the pained wheezing coming from the bird mask, he still stood despite the damage. I wanted to be angry, but found myself relieved I wasn’t going to be eaten by a cannibal. “You can eat my entire ass, stupid bastard.” That armor, whatever it was made of, wasn’t going to save him a second time. I was going to make sure of it. As I racked the bolt to chamber a new round, I heard my own voice screaming in a mix of pain and anger behind me. Sister!

My bonded sister was surrounded by bloatsprites and taking them on as best she could. Insect blood and bits of bloatsprite caked her clothing as she wailed on them with nothing but her hooves. They popped and flattened under her fury and disgust with great ease, but there were a dozen or more attacking her from all sides!

“Gaaaagh! That really hurts!”

The Pipbuck she had attached to her hoof made an amazing club as it bent and tore the putrid monster’s bodies with each bash of its metal frame. With each sprite smashed, three more would replace it and the bite marks were starting to take their toll.

My solution was brutal and effective. The rifle was now my club that broke the flying vermin again and again, caking the butt of my newly acquired gun with ichor that brought bile rising through my throat. The smell of bloatsprite innards was eye watering. Even after the last sprite fell to the sisters, one pest still remained.

The clone me was eager to dish out the pain dealt to her as fire blazed in her eyes. Our hearts raced as we approached the wounded trapper. “Unicorn magic isn’t going to stop me from tanning your hide you fucking raider. Ya got nothing left…” Sister spoke low and menacingly which sent a shiver down my spine. My own voice seemed foreign to me, but I enjoyed the display.

The trapper still stood in his place, blood dripping from the shattered eye socket of the mask and from the wound in his chest. He struggled to breath, but still he laughed at us, mocking us.

“Don’t need it…..Just need….a little kick…” He should be dead, but he persisted longer than he should have. Without warning he pressed the nose of his bird mask into his face and grunted in pain as the sound of some pressurized injection erupted from the beak.

I saw the bar above his name in the EFS start to rise.

“Oh no you don’t!” I raised the rifle to fire, but before I could even line up the shot his magic activated and jerked the rifle into the ground barrel first. Accidently, I squeezed the trigger once he jerked the rifle and I tried to wrestle it back. With a boom the barrel exploded, sending little bits of shrapnel into my hooves and cheek.

“Sister!!!” The trapper rushed forward on newfound strength. His hooves kicked my sister aside before he was on me again. I raised what was left of the rifle to block him as he grappled it, both of our hooves now fighting for purchase on the ruined weapon.

I could see his purple eye through the smashed goggles of his mask. It wasn’t bleeding anymore, but there was still glass penetrating his skin around the socket. The eye was completely repaired. “What’s the matter, can’t stand the sight of blood?”

“Just can’t stand the sight of you!” My sister wasn’t done yet. With a surprise shoulder check she tackled him away from me. He responded by blasting her with magic, knocking her aside again with a pained yelp. I responded by smashing the leftovers of the rifle against his head just like mom did.

And yet the trapper wasn’t going down. He was far stronger than the Jellybean clones. It made me wonder just how strong the trapper hunting parties were out here in the watery wasteland. “Yeah? Yeah?! YEAH?! Who else wants some?! I’ll fucking kill you all!” He roared with animalistic fury. Pain wasn’t going to bring this pony down and I had no more tricks up my sleeve. Our eyes locked.

“I do…”

Before I knew it, mom was on him like a leech. Her stolen lever action rifle wrapped around the trapper's neck tightly as she began strangling the life from the monstrous trapper stallion. Grove wasn’t letting go now matter how hard his body flailed and no matter how much he struggled Grove kept choking the air from his lungs with the cold wrath of an enraged mother. His last ditch attempt to free himself was to waddle his way to the stream nearby and plunge back first into the water.

I ran to the waters edge screaming for her to surface, but only bubbles answered my calls. “Mom! Mom, get out of there!”

I waited with racing heartbeats flooding my ears. With each second my fear and adrenaline grew as I wagered my own chances with jumping in. Before long, a dot disappeared from the compass with only a blue dot remaining. It belonged to mom.

Like a seapony she emerged from the water with heavy, rattling coughs. Water poured from her mouth as she inhaled air greedily between coughs and gags. I was at her side in an instant to help her out of the stream and onto land. Together, we’d survived the attacks. Mom wasn’t interested in that though. “Muddy…your sister…”

Wait, where was the other me? The last I saw her she was… “Muddy!!!” Hurt. And I had no idea just how bad she might be injured. I did not see where she ended up after being blasted by that unicorn's magic, but she couldn’t have gotten far. “Muddy?! Sister, where are you?” My shouts echoed through the damp air, but I got no response.

Her blue mark still appeared on the compass at the top of my vision, so she must still be alive. “Sister, hang on! I’m coming!” No matter how fast I got there, the feeling I wasn’t going to make it on time tore into me. It was just one blast of magic from that trapper, how bad could it be? As my hooves churned through mud and marshy soil I reached the small, sunken pond my sister landed in, but much to my own shock her wound was bad. Very bad.

Half submerged in water was my clone, her chest sizzling with magic damage. Dad’s old red jumpsuit he wore on the boats was melting to her flesh from the intensity of the magic she took to the torso. Before I could even process what I was seeing, I was fishing out the healing potion we’d saved up and immediately started helping her drink it as best I could.

“Come on sis, stay with me. We…we only just started. You can’t let a unicorn end ya!” Those words came as a whisper as I held my sister’s head in my hooves and forced the healing potion down her throat. Slowly her health rose on the bar given to her by my EFS. She’d live, but the pain was noticeable on her features. It would only get worse as I took a small blade and began to cut away the melted material. “How are you holding up?”

“M…..Murky….” Through gritted teeth my sister looked up at me and began to speak. At first I thought she was talking crazy, but she continued. “My name…I want…want to be called…Murky Waters.”

A name. Here she was suffering in a hole in the ground with magic burns over her chest and she came up with a name for herself. “It’s very fitting, sis. I’m sure it’s been on your mind for a while, huh?” The blade cut through the uniform with ease, then it cut through seared flesh which held parts of the fabric to her chest in a blackened mess.

“Fuck! Y-y-yeah….yeah it was. I know it was bad for you too…gagh! Easy with the knife you horse!”

“Stand still! It comes off now, or it can come off after infection sets in. Your choice, Murky.” Murky spat on the ground and shoved the damaged remains of her mask in her mouth to avoid screaming or biting off her own tongue. Med-X was added to the grocery list after this. “Mom should be on her way. When she gets over here we’re going home, together.”

Before I was finished cutting the fabric away, Murky spit out her own makeshift gag. “W-ha…no, no. The water, our stuff, big bro’s shop?” The worry in her eyes, it hurts to think about our failure, but life isn’t always about winning. It was a pill we were going to have to swallow sooner rather than later.

“We should be grateful to Luna above that we’re even still alive. We nearly lost our lives today! Again!”

“But we never had this kind of trouble before. We looted the bits of the bayou and eastern swamps for years. Why attack us now…?” Tears were gathering up ready to spill as the pain of today’s events were taking their toll.

Two hooves found purchase on our heads suddenly. I would have jumped had the hoof not kept me in place. “Because, girls…things aren’t going so well these last few years. For anyone. It’s not the first time ponies have gotten desperate, or bold, and it won’t be the last.” Mom moved past me to grab the newly dubbed Murky Waters from the ground and hoisted her across her back with relative ease despite the swelling face and battered body from the fight. Grove looked worse than both of us, but managed to force a smile as she walked on shaky hooves.

“M-momma…? Why are…why are trappers so strong? That unicorn kicked like an earth pony.”

Mom just sighed heavily as we walked back east towards the river and away from the deeply setting sun. “Well, when I was your age I…” Grove didn’t get the chance to finish speaking once the sound of a gun chambering a round filled the air. The worst part was there was nothing red on the compass, only blue. In fact there was a lot of blue, but none of it I could spot with my eyes, nor abusing the SATS to try and target creatures through the bushes and trees.

“Cuz, little mare, we ain’t got no choice.” From above!

No, the voice wasn’t from above, but when I looked I found the eyes of a trapper looking down from the tree pointing a familiar crossbow at us. “You oughta watch ya’ self my friend.” A mare’s voice whispered in my ear so soft I almost didn’t hear it, but I knew she was close from the feeling of a pony’s breath on my neck. The feeling of a barrel of a gun pressing into my chin came shortly after. “You smell that? That right there is the smell of fish stank. You ponies reek of Point Wayward, yet you got one o’ our armors wrapping your ugly hide. Tell me, trapper, who’s group you with?”

The mare walked in front of me and took my weapon from me. Another unicorn with a similar bird mask adorning her features, only this one was covered in a cowl and had no eye protection. I could see the bloodshot eyes, irises shrunk and wild with a hunger in them that scared me. Just like the other member of her group she too was followed by insects, but her’s were disgusting bloodbugs. They followed her every hoofstep and orbited her body like flies around dung.

“Don’t be shy now, I don’t bite the living. Can’t say the same for my pretties. Ha!” The trapper mare stepped in front of mom and locked eyes with her.

Mom just scowled and spit on the ground before answering. “I ain’t with a group. Haven’t been for years. I…” Mom stepped back as the trapper levitated a sinister looking blade inches from her eyes.

“And yet you wear our armor? And don’t think I didn’t notice the blood stainin’ your pretty little teeth. You might think you’re some civilized city mare, but deep deep down in your soul you’ll always enjoy the ways of the Moore.” I couldn’t see her face, nor the face of the pony in the tree staring down at us, but I could tell every word she spoke was spoken with the widest grin possible. I had to wonder with all the dots flooding the compass if there were more trappers lying in wait, or if they were just more critters buzzing around. “Hey, little mare. You’re almost an adult aintcha?”

Now she was talking to me? Why? “I’m sixteen…about to be seventeen.”

“Well ain’t that something. Glad to hear it! Just means that you’re old enough to travel to the Moore, little one.” I must have worn my confusion like I wear my hat because the trapper mare just barked a revolting laughter before pressing the gun further into my chin. “If you wanna see your momma and sister again, you ain’t got no choice.”

BANG BANG

Too fast, everything was happening too fast. Before I knew what was happening, two bullets hit me in the chest. They didn’t penetrate my skin, but shattered the moment they impacted my ribcage and released a green ooze that numbed my senses and forced time to come to a crawl around me.

The world spun as I dropped to my knees and watched as mom was shot in the flank by a crossbow. She too dropped shortly after, but to me it felt like a lifetime watching her go down so easily. Whatever they hit us with, it worked its way through our system and left us helpless. Then the mare returned, her eyes boring down on me like a hawk bore down on fresh meat.

“Travel north, little one. Follow the river till ya get to the Moore. Our kin, your kin, will be waiting…” Her voice echoed in my head as if she was speaking with a thousand voices all chiming in to give me my new orders. I had no choice in the matter. I certainly had no choice in the coming hoof that smashed into my face seconds later.

The last thoughts running through my mind before blackness took a hold of me was how they managed to trick the compass. Surely there was a mistake…surely.

***

The sensation of floating is all I feel now. Maybe it was the drugs coursing through my body, or maybe it was the fact I was currently under water and unable to breath. Below me was the wreckage of a wooden ship mangled beyond repair. Its shattered remains hung in the water like a silent grave just beneath the waves with rotting planks floating lazily around me. I was about to begin swimming to the surface when I felt the rush of water beneath me, alerting me to the fact I wasn’t the only one down here.

That's when I saw it emerging from beyond the wooden ship. It was massive, unbelievably so compared to anything I’d ever seen or heard of. Its body was the head of a dragon with multiple sets of eyes on each side. Behind it was no less than a dozen tentacles longer than most pre-war vessels. Those slitted eyes all looked in various directions in search for something.

That’s when I looked down at it, and each eye it had rotated to look back at me with unfeeling gazes.

In my heart I knew I’d never make it out of this alive, so I sat and waited. We stared at each other for what felt like hours, but slowly it began to sink beneath the depths where sunlight never reached. The last I saw of the leviathan was the glow of its eyes piercing the abyss below me as it retreated…

…and again I drowned with lungs full of radioactive water.

***

It was dark when I awoke. The nightmares that tore at my sanity when I slept only got more vivid with each one. The world was still a blur to me and my senses fed me all kinds of strange sensations, but a couple of things were clear to me as I struggled to my hooves.

My outfit was stripped from me and only bandages remained where my pocket covered jacket once was. A trapper stood over me with a crossbow strapped across his back. Last, but not least, my backpack was lying in the dirt between us. The only light we had was a planted torch on the side of a well traveled path. The road to Wayward.

“I hope…you won’t resent us for this. When we saw your family getting robbed, I thought we were just going to kill those five attacking you since you looked like one of us. Trappers don’t kill trappers, but…boss was like a shark and he was smelling blood ya see.” The faceless trapper stood still with every bit of his features obscured just like his comrades. The eyes of the bird mask reflected the torchlight, making him appear terrifying in the dark like some sort of night creature.

“Why’d you take my mom and sister? What did we ever do to you people?” I whispered, unable to form any more strength from my voice.

“The trapper clans don’t take kindly to lone wolves. Your momma is in deep shit, so that’s why. Your sister is…a way of making sure you come to collect. Or pay. It’ll take a lot from you to set them free.”

His hoof kicked my water filled backpack. An understanding was starting to form in my drug-addled mind about the situation I was in. “If you wanted something from me, why not take the water?” I whispered again.

“Who said anything about paying with material things?” His grumbling response left me confused, with more questions being added to the growing list.

What could they possibly want from me then? I was a nopony, who had nothing. “What do you want then? What could a pony like me possibly offer in return for my family?”

The trapper was silent and unmoving, but eventually after a moment he stirred. “Travel to the Moore, make your blood known to our master, Broadsides. If he acknowledges you and your sister, you might get out of this alive. You're the spawn of trappers after all.”

“And if he doesn’t?” I asked, yet I was afraid of the answer.

“It depends on Broadsides. Be there tomorrow before sundown, otherwise I can’t promise your momma won’t end up a stew or steak.”

The bird mask wearing trapper brushed past me without another word and strode into the night, vanishing from my sight, then my compass shortly after.

With the crinkle of static, words appeared on the side of my vision.

The Jaw of Death: Rescue Vivid Grove and Murky Waters from the Moore.

Sure enough, a marker appeared on my compass pointing somewhere north east of where I found myself. I don’t know how the Pipbuck knew where I was supposed to go, but even with the help I was lost on what to do. I needed to rely on somepony for help, anypony willing to save me. The only problem was…I was alone. Nopony was going to rescue us this time.

My chest stung as the drugs faded and my mind cleared. Looking down, I saw how bruised and swollen my chest was where I’d been shot. I also noticed something else upon a quick inspection of my body. Adorning my flanks was a cutie mark, a pair of pale hooves raising a strange symbol to the sky like an offering. It looked like a sideways eight as green as my own eyes. I knew the color well given how much I’d been staring at my own face the past few days.

Maybe I didn’t have a crazy special talent to help me conquer the wasteland, but I was done being a nopony. I was done with the way I used to be.

I was done feeling worthless.

***

Level up: level 4

Perk added: Lone Wanderer

-You don’t need anypony to hold you back. When travelling alone you gain +5 damage threshold. Travelling with clones doesn’t negate this.

Author's Note

It's been a while. Long story short, I moved apartments, got a new job, got very tired of writing the entire fic on my phone, waited a year to get a crappy laptop and finally got a new job as a security guard. Took me a while to get things settled, but I can freely write on a laptop now while at work!
Expect updates to actually happen again!

Chapter 5: Shanty Town

Looking all around, trucking on down, cuz I gotta get back to my shanty town!

***

I’ll be the first to admit, I wasn’t sure what to do next. I was lost, confused, in pain and to top it all off, I was terrified about what was about to happen. My mom and my sister were about to die, and it was all my fault. All I could do was go home and collect what I needed for the trip without alerting the rest of the family as to what happened. Maybe I could escape this whole situation and get mom and sis back before anyone else found out.

Oh, who the hell am I kidding? There was no way one young mare out of her depth would be able to pull this off.

Wobbling home with the drugs still clouding my senses, I managed to walk up the ramp leading to Wayward and stumble my way through the door of our home. Slowly, as to not wake my sleeping brothers, I took everything we had to prepare for the trip. Healing potions, saved caps, ammo, some cans of food and water to get me through.

Most of the water I left behind with a nice little note for Rough saying “Congrats, you’re a water merchant now. You’re welcome. Good luck today. Be back with more later.” I was relying on Rough to make caps today while I saved mom and Murky. Not that I’d allow him or Clear to find that out.

“Bullets, food, water, med-x, healing potions…now all I need…is a little help.” Because for once, I needed help. The choice wasn’t mine to make anymore, not after the thoughts of what will happen to my family if I don’t do what the trappers say. Plus, after watching some of the ponies from my hometown turn raider and rob me, I wasn’t about to return to the wasteland alone.

So that's what led me to where I am now, stumbling through the torch lit streets of Wayward with only a waypoint and a dream to guide me.

Well, maybe I wasn’t the only one. The small colt I tripped over was there too.

“Watch where you’re going! You're an actual circus clown, ya know that?” The young colt picked his chin up off the ground and turned to see his assailant, which was me. He was a small thing, no older than maybe eight or nine with a bobby pin and hammer crossed over one another for a cutie mark. His dirty blue coat and peach colored mane blended with the dark making him hard to see. It was also kind of hard to tell he was there given how dazed I still was, but that was neither here nor there.

I wrapped my hoof around his and yanked him back to his hooves. “Uh…sorry. Didn’t see ya there, kid.”

“Literally how? I…I don’t even care. I gotta get stuff done and open the shop.” Shop? As in a merchant's shop? Before He could leave, I stepped in his path. “Do you mind, or is there something you want? Talk to me when the shop opens, idiot.”

Instead of giving him a retort of my own, I began to ask “You’re a merchant? What do you sell?”

“No, I’m just on the merchant council because I happen to own a bottle cap making machine…I’m gonna assume you’re not very bright, so I’ll let you in on a secret. That was sarcasm.” Council? Like the same council that the mayor was a part of? That meant…

“You’re a freaking council member?! How old are you?” This colt was small, small enough to still be in the schoolhouse like I was when I was growing up. His eyes were filled with annoyance as he stared up at me, but eventually he relented.

With a sigh, he turned to a nearby shop covered by tarp and began to part the leather to make the counter visible for customers. “I’m eight years old. Names Bobby, but you should know that. I’ve seen you around town for as long as I can remember. Everypony knows who I am since I became a council member a couple of years ago.”

A leader of our community here in Point Wayward since he was six. It was a splash of cold water realizing I was so purposefully disconnected from Wayward I didn’t realize this information sooner.

“So, what is it you sell? Must have a pretty successful store to get in the council.” Yes, let's butter the colt up in the hopes he’ll not think I’m a loser. Maybe I can buy supplies from him before sunrise and head out sooner too!

“Bobby pins.” Huh?

My eyes drifted to the store name hovering above the counter. In bright red letters it read ‘Bobby Lobby’. “You sell…bobby pins? That’s enough to get you on the council?”

“And bobby pin accessories. Any would-be looter or scavenger worth their salt is going to buy my entire inventory if they get the chance. Whenever a ship passes through carrying outlanders, I sell out. I sell lock picking lessons too…when I’m freaking OPEN that is…” His little hoof pointed at the plaque that had the hours of operation, none of which are anytime soon. “You can bother me or one of the other two councilors during store hours. Now beat it.”

“W-wait, hold on a minute. I’m not interested in any of that or buying stuff. I need…information.” I put on my best puppy eyes and placed my hooves on the counter so he couldn’t block me out with the tarp. “Can you tell me how to get to a place called The Moore?”

I’d never seen a ponies eyes shrink so quickly, nor become fearful in the same manner. Bobby went from annoyed to afraid far too quickly and that was enough to concern me. “Y-y-you ain’t got any business asking questions like that. Do you even know what you’re saying ya stupid mare? The Moore…ain’t no pony got business with The Moore that still alive. What do you want with trappers?”

“Now that's no business of yours, is it Bobby?”

“Fine then. Ponies like you are bad omens anyway. You want information, it’ll cost ya.” He drove his point home by tapping the counter as he stood safely behind it. I wasn’t in the mood to argue or shake him down, so I placed a few caps on the table which he happily swept behind the counter. “Talk to a pony in the bar near the center of the market pass. He’s an old drunk named Longshore.”

“Alright then, next question. What is The Moore and what’s so special about it?” Of course, more questions came at a higher cost.

For my trouble, all I got was silence as Bobby pursed his lips and tapped the counter once more. I put a few more caps on the counter, but Bobby simply eyed me while tapping the counter again. All I could do was groan as I was extorted for more caps.

By the time I gave Bobby enough, he’d taken twenty caps from me. “The Moore is trapper central. Every trapper clan operates out of The Moore. You go there, you’re going into the lion's den. Everypony should already know that though. The fact you don’t says a lot about your brain.”

“Have a goodnight, Bobby. Thanks for selling me information, ya little goblin.” I walked away knowing full well that I just bought information I could have found out myself given enough time. A little over twenty-three caps gone and for what?

The little colt wasn’t going to let go without one last quip, however.

“You realize it’s five in the morning, right Waters? Yeah, I know your family. Tell your brother he owes the council money!”

***

The only bar/ hotel in Wayward was located right in the middle of town in a circular building called the Wheelhouse. It was a universal constant that every place of civilization needed a bar to keep the inhabitants nice and drunk so long as they had money to pay for it. Naturally the streets were empty at this time of day, but the many shops and scrap metal buildings were so close together the town still had a cramped feeling to it.

The door was illuminated with the interior lights of a still active establishment, the music lulled all who passed by to enter whether they wanted to or not, and the usual drunk was being thrown out violently. The aura was too perfect.

Speaking of drunks being thrown out, I was looking for one…but I may have neglected to ask what he even looked like. The most recent toss out looked like a young, handsome earth pony, stallion with an ivory white coat and olive-green mane. As he lay in a daze in front of me, I couldn’t help but chuckle at the poor bastard on the ground.

“Heh, well you wouldn’t happen to be a stallion named Longshore would you?” I leaned down to make sure he heard me. Sure enough, he looked up from his position on the ground and gave the sultriest smile I had ever seen in response.

With half laden eyes he spoke “I must have died from that hit, because I see paradise right in front of me. What’s your name, beautiful?”

…What?

I don’t think I’ve ever been stunned by what somepony had said before, or if I did, I can’t remember it. This was a huge first for me. I was struggling so hard on what to say that I failed to notice the active red dot entering my compass.

“Onyx Black, you limp dick bastard! So glad you haven’t changed one bit you silver tongued snake. Now that we’re out of that shithole for a bar, I can mop the street with your brains. Along with the new hussy you’ve picked up.” The sudden crack of a whip brought me back to reality.

A unicorn mare was exiting the bar clad in inky black armor with a red eye on the chest and shoulder pads. Her appearance was, in all honesty, breathtakingly beautiful and I wasn’t even gay. At least I don’t think I am.

A flowing mane of bright cherry red combined with a coat of steel gray. The blood red eye shadow she wore matched her blood red irises too, which honestly left me in awe at how well a pony could look. Oh, and she was the red contact on my compass too as she unfurled her whip and took a crack at the downed stallion before me.

While I was able to step out of the way, the stallion on the ground wasn’t fast enough to stand up before the whip tore a gash into his side with a sickening crack across his flesh. “Woah! Hey, watch the whip you lunatic!”

“Well next time I’ll aim for him and hit you instead. How’s that sound, hun?” Despite her being a unicorn, she didn’t use magic to control the whip. The way she flicked the entire thing back into a coil around her hoof with a simple twirl of her wrist meant she wasn’t just some crazy mare swinging a whip around for fun. She knew how to use it. “For a backwater town mare, you look like you could do some damage. You’ll make a good warmup now, then I’ll strip the cutie mark from that bastard's flank later.”

“Come and get me then, bitch.” We were at a standoff. The real fight began, and would end, with whoever got their weapon to strike first. Could I pull my revolver out before she was sending another slash my way? If she hit me with that, I doubt I’d be able to stand the pain. I had one chance, so I activated SATS to draw my weapon for me. Even with the spell active and my weapon firmly clenched between my teeth, I wasn’t fast enough to match her speed.

I didn’t even have time to fire as I watched in slow motion the whip already speeding towards me, inches away from my face as I dropped the spell in a panic. The tip of the whip wrapped around my revolver and yanked it from my mouth painfully. Before I knew it, she had my gun in her magical grasp and was pointing it at me.

“Don’t feel bad, hun. I’ve been putting down upstarts like you for years. At least you can say you died braver than most ponies I’ve buried. Heh…”

CLICK

The dooming sound of an empty gun was all she got for her efforts. A part of me was thankful I’d neglected to feed my weapon and yet I’d be dead in any other situation.

“Who the fuck walks around with an empty gun?! You worthless dung pony!” In a renewed sense of anger and aggression, the armored mare restarted her assault with the whip with a flurry of cracks. Each time she was halfway through a swing I activated SATS again to slow time and see which way she was attacking me from.

First slash was horizontal. As SATS went down again I ducked the strike completely and charged. Another strike, this time coming around from the opposite direction diagonally. Again, SATS slowed time, and I prepared myself to move out of the way. The whip was coming inches from my body, the air parting in a thunderous boom like lightning each time. As time slowed down for the third time, I could see the worry in her eyes grow as I advanced.

I almost felt sorry for her. To her it probably looked like I was some super pony with incredible reflexes. In reality I was just abusing Stable-Tec equipment in ways it probably shouldn’t have been used, but that wasn’t even the worst thing I was about to do with my Pipbuck.

The funny thing about using a whip was the closer I got the less she could get a good swing off. By the time I was actually about to use SATS to bash her head in with the Pipbuck, she was backpedaling rapidly and avoiding the blow. It didn’t matter to me because the cooldown timer for the Pipbucks spell didn’t activate so long as I didn’t actually use it. Meaning I could close the distance no matter how many times she retreated!

“Where is that big talk now? Not so tough when you’re turning tail” I taunted. It was a move I was going to be forced to regret as I watched her jump and twirl midair, her whip slashing around her in a deadly arc that I was far too close to avoid. The salt in the wound phrase didn’t have shit on a whip when it carved through flesh and cloth like a cleaver chops through meat.

The ground greeted me like an old friend as I dropped with a fresh wound to the place I’d just been shot in earlier. The pain, no the agony, brought my mind to a breaking point as I watched the mare draw closer with the most punchable smirk on her pretty face. Her eyes were full of a sinister anticipation as she readied the whip above my head. “Everypony is all talk until they feel the bite of my whip. It’s like you foals never learn.”

I was ready to take a beating right then and there, but help was just a few feet away in the form of a complete stranger tackling the mare before she could strike. The white coated stallion from before shoulder checked the whip wielder to the ground and jumped on top of her the second she tried to get off the ground.

It was a bit of a…compromising position.

“Hey Rose, remember the last time we were in this position? Sure felt nice, I'm su-AACK.”

Poor guy was finding himself short of breath now that the armored mare, who’s name was Rose, was wrapping her whip around his neck with magic. “I said it once and I’ll say it again. You’re coming home with me. In chains or in ropes, I’ll let you decide.” The stallion's eyes bulged as Rose strangled the life out of him. He was two steps from blacking out as he stumbled off the mare and desperately tried to claw at the whip with hooves.

As one might expect, he wasn’t very successful. I picked myself up with shaky hooves as the stallion fell unconscious. His movements all but ceased, yet his dot still appeared on the compass. That was about the only indication I had he was still alive.

But now it was my turn again and I was going to make an effort to remember his sacrifice as I charged once more. Poor Rose only had a moment of realization before I grew close enough to activate SATS once again, this time with a ninety five percent success chance to smash her head in. And boy let me tell you just how satisfying it was to watch a unicorn activate her magic far too late to stop me. Just as SATS was triggered, Rose threw my empty gun at me to no effect as I attacked and batted the firearm aside.

The Pipbuck struck true. The added weight of the device was more than sufficient to knock the armored mare around as I bashed it against her head with SATS. The slow motion allowed me to watch her face contort under the impact of Stable-Tec’s most prized hoof terminal. Her hooves tried to block my next swing, but my Pipbuck just blew straight through any defense she pitifully attempted. By the time I was done beating the hell out of the mare named Rose, her face was bruised and discolored with a few teeth missing. Finally, she was out cold.

My heart was threatening to burst from my ribs and my lungs screamed for fresh air, but I was victorious. I won. “Fucking…unicorns. You get…what you deserve.” My hoof touched the nasty cut across my chest. It came back with blood dripping down my hoof, but I was okay for the most part. At least it didn’t catch me in the face.

“Hey sweetheart, how about a healing potion? On the house.” The stallion from before caught me off guard suddenly. The last time I checked he was strangled unconscious or dead, but here he stood sneaking up behind with me a healing potion in his magical grasp. Wait, magic?

Wasn’t he an earth pony? “Come on, beautiful. Take it. Brought to you by Red Eye’s prettiest goon.” I was so confused that I took the floating potion without a word and gulped it down like a shot of rum. “Ol’ Black Rose here won’t need it. I’m sure she’ll manage assuming ya didn’t give her brain damage. Ha!”

“Um, thanks for the help back there. Kind of saved my bacon a bit.” Was I blushing? Luna, I sure hope I wasn’t. He was so nice for no apparent reason and it was making me feel things. It didn’t help that he was handsome. “Uh, what was your name again? A-and how are you even standing?! I just saw you get strangled unconscious!”

“Onyx. Onyx Black, at your service. No relation to the mare you just beat up.” I didn’t notice it when he first talked to me, but this stallion just oozed with charisma. Every word, regardless of what it was, felt sultry in nature. His fluttering eyes, the way he ran his hoof through his mane, everything about him was…well I couldn’t nail it down. But I was enjoying every second of it. Kind of weird his name was Onyx Black considering he didn’t have any black colors to him. “As for your second question, let's just say I have quite a bit of practice holding my breath and leave it at that, sweetheart.”

Nope, not gonna think about that. Just gonna forget I even asked. “What was that all about anyway? She seemed eager to get her hooves on you.”

“Oh, well I might have been a slave at one point back when I was barely an adult. So five or six years ago? Got out by…ahem, well seducing my way out of it. She didn’t take it very well. Didn’t help I never paid wasteland child support.” His little smile formed with such subtle eagerness, as if remembering some fond memory, that it left me dumbfounded that he could even smile at all right now.

“Seducing your way out of…slavery? I mean, sure. If it works, it works. Doesn’t seem to have stopped them from trying.” Then Black Rose was a slaver. One of Red Eye’s in fact! That would explain the red eyes on the armor she wore and her thirst for the suffering of another pony. Not even trappers are that sadistic and they’re cannibals. “Safe to say you’re a smooth talker then, outlander?”

Onyx rolled his eyes and chuckled as he lifted the knocked-out Rose onto his back and began to head back into the bar he’d been ejected from. “Well, the mares certainly don’t complain about my tongue work. Eh heh heh.”

Sweet Celestia, I could learn a thing or two from this one.

***

The bar wasn’t anything special. I can’t remember who ran it, or how many outlanders stayed here during their visits, but if you wanted something done you came to the bar to do business for it. A bounty board for various jobs was here and always had some sort of scavenge requests that needed filling. It was how I made my living, but Rough was always the one to bring them to me. I rarely came in here myself, so the place felt foreign to me despite me living in this town my entire life.

The odd feeling didn’t end there when I looked at the counter. At this time of day you’d rarely see anyone awake, or so I thought. There were two mares there sittin’ at the counter hunched over the bar with drinks in their hooves, a stallion passed out with a thick jacket covering him like a blanket in the corner, and a feline creature standing behind the bar cleaning the counter. I could only guess the creature was female since I’d never seen a cat person before. She had snow white fur and purple eyes that stared me down as Onyx and I trotted through the front door. Her hair was also tied back in a ponytail. Maybe I’d copy that at some point…

Then the feline spotted Onyx who I only just realized had picked up the KO’d slaver and brought her body inside. “Well well, you’re alive and only mildly bloody! Pay up, Brownie.” The tall feline smacked the table in front of the pony she was talking to, a chocolate brown unicorn mare with the same cherry red mane as the slaver I’d just beaten unconscious. Judging by the black clad armor she wore, she was probably a part of Red Eye’s slavers as well. “Come ooon, a bet is a bet.”

The softest of grumbles could be heard as the assumed slaver dumped a hoof-full of caps on the bar which the feline girl happily took. “No way that cock for brains managed it. Can’t be possible.” Soft, yet incredibly monotone was all I got from this stranger. When she turned to look at me I knew she had to be related to Rose. “Ah…that’s how. It couldn’t be that fuck up, so it must have been you, right?”

Shit, she was talking to me. “In my defense, I was going to walk on by. She totally started it.” Was I about to have to fight another slaver? I figured maybe the best time to return was later, perhaps escape was my best option. The longer we stared into each other’s eyes, the more nervous I became. The slaver mare before me didn’t have a shred of emotion in those dead eyes of hers, which made it worse.
“....I believe you” She said, devoid of any emotion. Then she turned around and continued her drink, refusing to acknowledge our presence any longer. It was a situation I was glad to let stay that way.

“Yep, lemme tell ya Brown. Your sister put up one hell of a fight, but my new gal pal….eh, whatever her name is, beat the crap of her! It was beautiful to behold.” Onyx was over the top with his description of things, but he got the message across. He had a theatrical air around him as he recanted the fight to the mare who seemed painfully uninterested. The only thing she cared about was getting her sister’s body back from the stallion, who twirled about aimlessly as he told the tale. He was so animated while the slaver mare kept following him around the bar in a futile attempt to retrieve her compatriot whenever he stood still longer than a couple of seconds.

The second mare at the bar just kept her head down and muttered “Oh my princesses above, someone make him shut the fuck up…” She was an earth pony with a lovely wheat yellow coat with a mane the color of fool's gold.

I sat down next to her and gently nudged her side. “Hey, you wouldn’t happen to know anypony named Longshore, would you?”

“Hmm? Oh yeah, he’s the bag of bones and spite sleeping on the pillows in the corner.” Her yellow eyes looked me up and down. “You’re the one who beat the crap out of Black Rose? Huh, you’re quite something for a younger mare. Don’t suppose you can beat up the horn dog carrying that shitty slaver around on his back, would ya?”

“Wh-why though? He seems like a nice stallion and he saved me out there. Not much of a point to pick a fight now…”

“Seems is the word of the day darlin’. That Onyx is a pump and dump chump. Why do you think we got Red Eye’s army in our town? It’s cuz of him!” The pony I sat beside growled like an angry animal. There was hate in those eyes, a personal hate reserved just for him.

She continued before I could speak “He’s a two-bit sex fiend from what Brown Rose has told me and frankly, I believe her…even if she and her sister are slavers. He’s flirted with me, the bartender, my mom…”

I was beyond overloaded with this mare by now. Her ranting was making me dizzy, and I was eager to put a stop to it. “Okay okay I got it! Look, I’m only here to talk to Longshore to help me get to a place called The Moore. I might even ask mister casanova over there for help.” Her reaction was immediate, as I expected when I brought up The Moore.

She paled at the word ‘Moore’ and grew disgusted after hearing I might be asking him of all ponies for help. “You can’t be serious. That’s insane. Plus, if he ends up going, then I have to follow him. I’d rather not visit trappers without something for them to eat other than me.” As her head slammed down against the bar I could hear her mutter under her breath but couldn’t make out what she said.

“Uh, you’re just a local and he’s an outlander. Why would you have to follow him?” I asked, confused as to what was going on between her and Onyx.

She looked up at me from behind her hooves and stuck her tongue out in disgust before sharing her story. “My family owes him for getting our debt settled with the magistrate. Stupid asshole fucked her brains out and it was good enough for her to settle the debt between us and the council. He’s been trying to get with me ever since.”

A clear picture was painted in my mind and for once I felt like I could understand another pony other than myself. Though, I wish I hadn’t. Onyx Black was a sneaky devil and I was falling for his trap, hook line and sinker. However, I was beginning to hatch some plans of my own as I looked down at the mare’s cutie mark. Not out of perversion, but curiosity. It looked like a bundle of some sort of wheat or barley and judging by the mare in question, she could be a ticket to solving another problem of mine.

“Say, what’s your name ma’am? I’m Muddy Waters and it’s a real pleasure to make your acquaintance.” I held out my hoof for her to shake, which she accepted with a smile as she rose to her full sitting height.

“Razorgrain, happy to be here, Miss Waters. Now, I can see the gears turning in your noggin there. Whatcha got cookin’?”

“How about this?” I had a plan coming together and I was quite happy to be able to form it on the fly like this. One step closer to get my mom and sister back and one step closer to getting the Stable in order. “You bring my brother, Rough, any extra grain and seeds you got and I’ll make sure you get fresh water sent your way. Do this, and I’ll get mister mating season over there off your back. Sounds like a plan, new friend?”

“You’re a clever filly, I’ll give ya that. You got yourself a deal, new friend.” Oh, I was feeling good after that. My first successful barter! Rough would be so proud if he knew what was going on. I must have been smiling ear to ear because Razorgrain pointed at me and laughed. “Well since you’re so happy about our deal, why don’t you go do your thing with that old hodgepodge Longshore over there and meet back with me in a day or two. I’ll have what you need by then, depending on how much water I get.”

“Tell him Muddy sent ya.”

I’d given her the details on where to find Rough’s shop and hoped for the best. If things work out, I may be able to get some food for my sister’s before they starve. Or worse, turned cannibal themselves.

***

The Rose sisters were gone thankfully and all that was left was me, two ponies I’d come to know and the cat lady behind the bar I’d never seen before. Longshore was out cold, snoring every so often with the occasional burp mixed in. He smelt like booze and shame.

A middle-aged earth pony stallion with a goatee of silver and a spiky mane to match. His coat was a darker shade of brown to my own, but nowhere near as rich as Brown Rose was. Patches of his hide were missing in the places I could see, and faded scars dotted his left cheek and mouth. He looked rough, but no one lived that long and made it to his age without a few bits of wear and tear to show for it. There was a custom in these parts to respect the elders of a community and beyond in a wasteland where most die young.

Even if they were sleeping on the floor of a bar and smelled like a carcass.

“To be clear, you want me to help you go to someplace called the Moore, and in return you’ll find me a place to hide from the consequences of my various sexual exploits across the wasteland?” I was regretting this. I really was, but Onyx had a way of talking to ponies I hadn’t seen before. Assuming he doesn’t have a mare in the Moore with a foal waiting to gut him upon his return, he might be able to help me talk to this Broadsides pony I was supposed to meet.

I sighed “Yes, but this is a separate deal from the one with Razorgrain. I want you to back off her. Considering you owe me for saving your ass, it’s only fair you do me this favor. We’ll be even.”

He smirked and rubbed his hoof back through his mane to flatten it backwards as he turned to me. “Yeah? That why you’re offering me sanctuary? Heh heh, no offense gorgeous, but I doubt your little hovel here is going to suffice for that. If slavers can find me out here then the bounty hunters and other bottom feeders won’t be too far behind.”

“It’s a Stable. Ponies don’t just waltz into this place without getting eaten. They gotta take the river to get here safely or fight their way through the bayous and bullshit out there. Stable is inland, well-hidden and guarded. Outlanders will be the last ponies to find it.” I was gonna leave out the part where a drugged-up zebra was the one who guided me to it in the first place. Onyx didn’t need to know that bit. No one did…

The stallion remained quiet for a moment before sticking his hoof out which I accepted in a lovely hoof shake. “You gotta deal. Hey barkeep, a couple rounds for the new business partners over here! Place it on my tab, beautiful.”

A hearty laugh was the response he got which she made known as she walked on two legs to us with two shot glasses carefully balanced on a tray. “Aaaahahahahaa! Yeah right, you fucking outlander! Ha ha haaaa, you really think I’m dumb enough to fall for that? Up front, or you can pay with your tongue…” When she extended a sharpened claw underneath his lips, I began to think she didn’t mean a kiss, but something more literal.

Onyx, in all his wisdom, quickly agreed and floated a dozen caps for the two drinks with his green magic. “Tough crowd tonight. Ya know it wouldn’t be the first time I’ve bought something with some tongue-in-cheek actions, eh heh.”

I stood by and watched Onyx pay for that remark as the feline woman knelt down and licked the side of his face. His cheek rose against its owners will like it was somehow attached to her tongue. All he could do was try not to cry out in pain, which he seemed like he really wanted to do. But the seductive stallion stood his ground and only cried a moment.

“Yeeeeep! Yep yep yep, that only hurt a lot. Okay, point proven” he said as he struggled to hold back his tears. The feline woman just stuck her tongue and quietly laughed as she turned to walk back behind the bar. I didn’t know cat tongues had so many spikey look things on them. “Alright, let me show you how it’s done. The first of many escapades we’ll have together, I’m sure.” One of the shot glasses floated in front of me, which I took in my teeth and gulped it down quickly.

The burn of alcohol was unfamiliar to me. I nearly coughed it up from how rancid it tasted and felt going down. If I wanted to drink piss I’d visit the latrine outside of town. Gross! Onyx didn’t drink his but held it underneath Longshore’s nose and cooed gently as the old stallion began to stir.

“Good morning grandpa, I got you your medicine. It’s time to get up, gramps.” The smell of alcohol slowly roused the earth pony from his drunken slumber and sure enough, the stallion gulped the shot down without even opening his eyes as if he was locked in a booze fueled trance. “How's the headache grandpa? Feeling the years fade away with that shot?”

“Sunny, it’s gunna take a helluva lot more booze to get me off this comfortable floor. Beat it kid” Longshore grumbled as he stirred on the floor, unmoving.

Onyx kept going. “I got a young and pretty mare here with a bottle of rum going to the first pony to take her on a boat ride.” That was enough to get Longshore to rise almost instantly. At first, he wobbled, but he steadied himself and donned his captain's cap in a flash.

“Keep your mares, leave the rum…wait, boat ride you say? Well damn, if I gotta…just so you’re not caught unaware, this trip is a one-way trip. You wanna come home, I’m gonna need payment, booze, or chores done.” His terms were clear, yet acceptable. I could provide any of those things, but I wasn’t keen on losing more caps than I already had.

Oh, he was looking at me with a growing annoyance. Guess it was time to pay up or get lost. “How much for a trip to The Moore? I’ll buy you as much rum as you need, I just need to get there before nightfall.” Damn you Onyx for forcing me to buy alcohol. What would Clear think if he saw me buy bottles of this crap?

For once, I didn’t get the doom and gloom reaction that most ponies gave me when I brought up our local cannibal raiders. The one I did get was hard as steel as Longshore’s eyes narrowed and his lip stiffened. “Young daughter, they’re already dead. No use in feeding the monsters upriver.”

W-what? “Hey! I-I didn’t…even say what I was going there to do…I just…” Longshore interrupted me with a harsh bark and stomp of his hoof.

“No! There’re only two reasons to go walking into that pit of vipers and it’s either to get someone taken by them or join them. Kid, if you got folk taken by them you oughta give up. They’re already stew by now. If you’re looking to join 'em’ then we don’t have any business to discuss.”

No, no it couldn’t end like this! My family was still alive and if I didn’t follow that trapper mare’s instructions, I could bet my kidneys they’d be butchered by sunrise. Longshore just shook his head, muttered something about being sorry for my loss and turned away to leave. I was about to stop him and force him to help me even if I had to pull a gun on another innocent soul. He wouldn’t stand in my way to save my mom and sister, but before I could react…

…Onyx was stepping in the way and gently placing a hoof on Longshore’s shoulder. “My good stallion, my friend here has lived here her entire life in this place. Surely, she knows the attempt to save somepony would be futile unless she had good reason to think otherwise. And just look at her face. Does this little mare look like somepony who could rape and murder something?”

The old stallion paused to think. I could see his eyes dart between Onyx and myself as his thoughts raced. Finally, he blew a breath he’d been holding through his nose and waved a hoof to follow him. “You both owe me a bottle of rum and my usual travel fee for going to The Moore. And they don’t rape ponies, they eat ‘em. Soils the meat they say.”

Educational as it was, I still found it morbid to think about. Another thing trappers did right for the wrong reason. I experienced their revulsion to poaching first hoof, but only because I was about to be murdered by a non-trapper which was something they were quick to rectify. At least Onyx was proving a worthwhile investment already. “Gladly. Say, Onyx…how did you…” He stopped me before I could finish.

“It’s all over your face. You got the look of worry and desperation written on ya so I assumed it must be family you’re after.”

He was right, but he wore such a proud aura that I couldn’t let him have the satisfaction in its entirety. “Y-yeah. Trappers took my sister and mom. Demanded I travel upriver if I wanted to see them alive.” The words ‘ain’t gotta choice’ echoed in my mind. The trapper mare was haunting my thoughts just as much as Jellybean was and I killed him dozens of times.

“That doesn’t make sense though.” Longshore interjected quickly “Trappers don’t take prisoners very often. Hell, I thought twas just some rumors of weird trapper behavior since I’d never seen any cases myself.”

I whispered quietly “Rumors?”

Longshore nodded gravely and lowered his voice in kind. “Before I go on, open your mouth. There’s something I need to see.” His steel gaze went without falter as I felt my resolve begin to waver. What was going on here?

Wordlessly, I obliged. For a moment, Longshore just stared into my mouth without saying anything. Then he hit me with another question, but this one I wasn’t prepared for. “Which one of your parents is it?”

“I said my mom was taken, didn't I? Don’t tell me you’re hard of hearing.”

He growled in response “I don’t mean which of your parents got taken, I heard ya the first time. What I mean is, which one of your parents is a fucking trapper.” A steel gaze turned into one of annoyance, bordering on anger. What the heck did he see that gave him that idea?!

This was bad. Longshore must know something, some trick, to be able to sniff that information out so easily. Now that he was on the right track, he took a step forward as I began to take a step back. “Hey! You got something to say, old man? You got some nerve saying that kind of bullshit!” If he thought I was trying to act tough then he was eager to call my bluff.

“You got the teeth of a trapper. I’ve been alive long enough to know the maw of a trapper and what it looks like right before they try to bite your damn head off. Now, I’m gonna assume what your friend here said is true and that you have indeed lived here your entire life. So, I’ll ask again…which of your parents is a trapper?”

I looked away, defeated. “It’s my mom…she was a trapper a long time ago.”

“That’s what I thought. Then the rumors are true.” He spoke with a grim expression as a new realization donned on him. “Trappers don’t take kindly to runaways. They either get pressed back into one of the clans or killed. If they wanted more than I can only assume they want you as well.”

There wasn’t anything to go on that pointed to that conclusion, or at least that I could see. Longshore was old though, so I didn’t ask questions. I just accepted his words and left it at that. It still pissed me off knowing I was being exposed so brazenly. “I’ll do anything to get my family back. Anything…but keep your little discovery to yourself, Longshore. Don’t spout that crap, got it?!”

Longshore grumbled, but nodded. The feline woman behind the bar coughed to make herself known too, probably because she heard what the old stallion had said about me. “I don’t get many trappers in my bar. Kinda wanna know how you can tell just by looking at her pearly whites, Longshore. Enlighten us!” She slid a shot glass across the table even though we weren’t anywhere near the bar. As it slid to the edge, Longshore appeared in a flash to catch it between his teeth and knock it back without hesitation.

That stallion just cleared the bar in only a second despite being in his forties. Holy cow…

“Trappers been eaten meat for over a century. They’re the longest lasting band of raiders I’ve ever come across, and it shows with their teeth. They got defined sharp teeth in the corners like an omnivore despite ponies being herbivores and their jaw line is stretched just enough to accommodate wisdom teeth.” For a washed-up sea stallion, Longshore knew his stuff and for that he had my respect. He knew things about me I didn’t even know myself.

Satisfied with the answer, the feline appeared at my side and wrapped a comforting paw around me. She had this mischievous look at her face which he made no effort to hide. “My my, I wasn’t aware we lived among pony eaters. Let’s hope the brahmin and fish appease the appetite of our little friend here. Eh hue hue” she giggled playfully at my expense.

“And you are?” I asked.

“Names Catrina, pumpkin. I’m the new owner of this bar and happy to make your patronage once you get a little older…and richer.” She twirled her arm up high before suddenly dipping in bow befitting a noble. It reminded me of what I saw in plays the local towns-ponies would sometimes put on, so I returned the gesture in kind. Maybe I was just being a little silly, but a display of random theatrics was always something I could get behind.

Maybe Catrina wasn’t that annoying after all.

“Muddy Waters. Happy to meet a cat like you.” Our eyes met for a few more moments before she let out a small chuckle and purred happily before wistfully returning to her place behind the bar.

The old stallion let loose a loud ‘ahem’ before waving us out the door. The time to move was now and delays would no longer be tolerated. I found myself rushing alongside Onyx as we made our way out the door and to the lower levels of town towards the docks. It was now, or never.

***

If the upper level of Point Wayward stunk of fish, the lower level was rancid with it. Barrels of freshly caught, and only slightly irradiated, fish were scattered all along the makeshift scaffolds that were the lowest level. Down below there were a few vessels tied to the shore on these concrete pillars with horns keeping the ropes in place. One of these ships belonged to Longshore I assume. Sure enough, our captain ushered us onto a platform that slowly descended to the flowing water below and next to one such vessel. A pre-war ship with a large paddle wheel on the back with a proud ‘Devil Fish’ emblazoned on the front sides.

It had two decks with the top sporting the captain's wheel and some additional sails. The bottom held a few pews that looked like they were looted straight out of some church. In the back were some rooms for us to take shelter in for now. The fatigue of the previous days was beginning to catch up to me as I spotted a nice bed to lay in for the time being. Perhaps being drugged into unconsciousness overnight didn’t count as rest like I had hoped.

Longshore came to greet us along with two other stallions. Both of them looked equally tired and sported bandanas over their heads. “Alright you louts, listen up. We sail upriver during the dawn. If we’re awake you can damn well bet that trappers and other manners of creatures are too. I want all hooves on deck for this trip and that goes double for leech duty. Eyes to the horizon and the shore.”

Exhaustion wracked my body, but there was still work to do. I could only wonder how my sisters back in the Stable were holding up without me. I still had a duty to return with supplies, otherwise they’d starve. Hopefully they’d be taken care of in the hooves of Helix Twist. It didn’t take long before I began to wonder about Murky and mom. They were in a bad way before being taken and Murky herself took a nasty blow to the chest from that unicorn trapper.

I prayed to Luna and Celestia that they’d bring some form of protection to them as I got up and walked towards the front of the ship as we departed from home and took to the main river. The spray of river water greeted us with a crash against the ancient hull of our vessel. A wake-up call for the weary like a splash of cold, irradiated water to the face

Eventually hours passed as the sun rose over the polluted wasteland we called home once more. The glow of a covered sun cut through the hanging moss of the swamp trees, bathing us in an eerie light as we passed close to the shore. The river was wide, but the reach of the forest was sometimes even wider. I hoped the swamps out west weren’t slowly becoming a part of the infamous Everfree forest, if such a thing was possible. Then again, that forest corrupted the laws of nature like it corrupted the earth beneath its roots.

“Eyes up, deckhoof” one of the crew members blurted, rousing me from my thoughts as he held up a metal stick with a glowing tip. A metal barrel with a fire at the bottom was alight with a couple more prodding sticks jutting from it. “Rivers a nasty place to be caught off guard. Gotta make sure them damn leeches don’t crawl aboard. If anything else latches on to the sides, grab one of us. We’ll handle em’.” Swamplurks or gulpers came to mind. A heated poker would probably just piss those things off.

This was one of the many chores Longshore probably had in store for me assuming I wasn’t going to pay in caps. Which I wasn’t, so as the sailor offered me a poking stick I happily accepted and leaned over the edge to spot my prey. Occasionally my compass would pop up with red marks and I’d lean over to deliver a burning jab towards any black demons that tried to worm their way over the side. It was a fairly self-explanatory job which I took pride in. Every time a filly sized leech appeared I’d give it a nasty, sizzling poke from the heated end of the prod. Their rubbery skin burned and cooked with each stab I delivered.

I smiled each time they shrieked in pain too. I’d almost consider this therapeutic had the sailors not been watching me constantly.

Wait, somepony was talking on the deck above me. No, it was two ponies and one of them was Longshore. “So, a mare in every port huh?” His usually drunken demeanor was gone, replaced with a voice of thinly veiled annoyance.

“Uh, can’t say I follow, friend. Could you elaborate on that?” The second voice belonged to Onyx Black.

“You know what I mean. I heard just about everything back in that bar. That’s the kind of stallion you are. You’re just a wanderer who picks up and puts down a mare wherever he goes. Ain’t that right?” Longshore didn’t sound very happy about things when he spoke. More like very disappointed now.

Onyx replied “You have good ears for a stallion passed out on the floor. I won’t hide it, I’m not a commitment kind of stallion. Besides, Black Rose was a slaver from Red Eye’s thugs. Who cares what happens to a slaver?” He sounded so sure of himself, so smug. It’s like he didn’t care about the kid he left behind. Well, it’d be a safer bet to assume it was more than just one given his disposition.

Longshore, for his part, snorted in disgust. “Actions have consequences, son. Actions have consequences…I should know.”

“Right. I’ll worry about that when the consequences learn to catch up to me. Heh.” Onyx ended the conversation there dismissively with a sly chuckle.

Arrogance. Such blatant stupidity from a stallion I’d offered sanctuary too. The next leech I jabbed had a little more anger behind it as it screeched and felt back into the river water with a hiss. I was wondering if I’d made the right choice in recruiting him for this, but it was too late to have regrets. Maybe a sudden and swift betrayal was in order. If he didn’t care for other ponies maybe no one would care that an outlander met his maker out here in the boonies.

The trees thinned out eventually as we continued north. Further down the river began to turn east, then back north east again. I’d never been this far up the river, never this far from home. At some point in my musings I failed to notice a leech make it on the deck. When I did realize it, I noticed the leech wasn’t even alive, but dead and being pecked apart by a hungry vulture.

Vulture? Aren’t those scavengers? Damn bird must have gotten it after I stabbed it.

I looked up. There they were, a dozen or so vultures circling above us in a perfect circle as we sailed up the river. Funny, I thought seagulls were the birds to follow ships.

“Muddy. I need you to stay calm and whatever you do…” Longshore was at my side with a hoof on my shoulder, keeping me in place and facing forward. “...do not look behind this boat. We picked up a shadow, maybe two.”

What? This wasn’t making any sense to me. “What are you talking about, captain? What do you mean by shadow” I asked, puzzled.

“Kid, thems vultures. Vultures only circle like that when somethings dead…” he gulped, a look of worry in his eye as he turned slowly towards me. “...or somethin’ is about to die.” In his hoof was the broken remains of a mirror that once belonged to one of those mechanical carts pre-war ponies used to drive. Longshore was using it to view the back of the boat as he leaned over the side ever so gently. In the glimpse of the mirror, I spotted a familiar sight.

The picture of an aluminum line-boat being pulled by mutated dolphins.

Trappers were on the prowl.

***

Level up: level 5

Perk added: Intense Training

-You gain +1 to a S.P.E.C.I.A.L stat of your choice. You chose Charisma.

Companion Perk added: Lady Killer

-As long as Onyx Black is your companion, you deal 15% extra damage to the same gender, but take 15% extra damage from the opposite gender.

Author's Note

This chapter is what you'd consider filler me thinks, but you're going to love what comes next. A teaser for you. Chapter 6: The Maw
Also, huge shoutout to Fallout 76. Thank you for letting us milk the brahmin. It was very interesting to learn brahmin milk works like a poor man's rad-away.

Chapter 6: The Maw

We’ll plunder and feast on any pony, any beast.

***

Years. It has been years since I started my isolationist life of a nopony scavenger picking through garbage for valuables. I did what I was told, and I didn’t ask for much. Work was safe so long as I stuck to the places that were cleared by mercenaries and the town guard. For years I contributed and never got into trouble. Things were peaceful.

But I was young. I was naive. As the crew began to panic around me and prepare for a fight we surely wouldn’t win, I thought about how wrong things had been in the past week. All my life I rarely had to worry about what the future held so long as I kept to the path and kept to myself. One fateful day of straying beyond the well-worn path of a scavenger led me to places I wouldn’t even go in power armor.

Who was at my side during today’s myriad of problems? A single fucking unicorn who only wanted to rut his way into the sunset.

“So, I heard we’re all about to die” he spoke with such a playful tone that it made me rethink a lot of my recent life choices. The first being recruiting him.

I responded curtly “No we are not. We don’t know that yet.”

“The crews weighing their odds swimming to shore and running through the bayou. We both know how that’ll end.” Ninety nine percent of outlanders like Onyx only get here by boat. If trekking through the wetlands was a possibility, then maybe Wayward wouldn’t be in such a sorry state to the point its citizens turned raider. Maybe we’d actually get some caravans to visit us.

In times when death was shadowing us, all I can really do is think about how much better things could have been. If only…

“Looks like somepony is losing a little hope there.” That stallion's annoyingly playful demeanor snapped me back to reality before I started to spiral further. “Hope you’re not planning on swimming for it. Are you?”

I spit at his hooves and snarled “Nopony is stopping me from getting to The Moore. Now grab a weapon just in case this gets ugly.” His unfaltering smile didn’t give me any clues as to what he was thinking, but I could tell he had something up his sleeve.

“My dear, what makes you think I don’t have a weapon already?” As unicorns do, his horn lit up with green magic and flashed brightly before dulling back to normal. In his hooves as a cloth wrapped rifle which he removed to reveal a strange weapon I’d never seen before. Yet, when I looked at its design closely, I was less than impressed. To me, it looked like four smooth pipes stuck together to form a crude multi-barreled weapon. It even had four comically large firing hammers, two at the top and two at the bottom. The worst part was how long it was. It was easily a head taller than him.

Onyx went to explain himself, but I cut him off quickly. “What in Luna’s mane is that hunk of junk? Did you weld that shit together from toilet pipes or something? And where were you hiding that?!” It didn’t even have a magazine, or anywhere the bullets went in for that matter.

“I’ll have you know this is a piece of equestrian history. Well, four pieces welded together and modified heavily, but it’s still a beautiful artifact. One I can use to hurt things, but I’m a lover not a fighter, sugar.” I watched as he loaded straight gunpower down each barrel at the same time with his magic before stuffing each barrel with a metal ball and ramming them all down as far as they’d go with a rod he’d take off the side of the weapon.

Dumbfounded as I was watching him, we were still under threat. “Fine. Take your pipe cannon and get ready. Those trappers are here for a reason and it’s probably us.”

“Pipe cannon?!” Onyx huffed in fake annoyance and held his gun high. “It’s called a musket you uncultured sow. Equestria didn’t just invent the bullet overnight you know. Show respect to the jezail.” Onyx wasn’t the first pony I’d seen that named their weapon, but he was definitely the last pony I’d think who would. It wasn’t a mare’s name like I would have expected from a pony like him either.

With Onyx prepared and my own weapon loaded, unlike earlier, I too was prepared for a fight. Only this time mom wasn’t here to rescue me when I got into a fight I couldn’t win. There was no place to run now. “Captain? What’s our situation? Are we good, or not good?”

As I called up to the captain on the upper deck, he peered over at me from above and held his hoof to his lips with an angry ‘shhhhhh’. “Quiet you crazy foal. We’re in the middle of a standoff here if you haven’t noticed.”

“Then answer me. What’s going on back there?”

Longshore looked back with a worried gaze before responding. “Two shadows tailing us. One on each side, probably to flank us or box us in. They looked heavily armed too. Probably hunting parties. Must have hidden in the reeds as we passed by and tailed us from the bayou an hour back.”

How long had they been stalking us? No, the better question was why haven’t they killed us yet?

“Captain, the enemies upon us!” Trappers were moving in, but for what I had no clue. Everypony here was assuming they were following us to hunt us down, but I had this feeling of uncertainty. When we fought that swamplurk in the swamp, a hunting party rushed in for the kill. They wasted no time in responding to gunshots, but these trappers were biding their time. Why?

My answer was about to make itself known soon enough as no less than six dots entered my compass, all blue. I wasn’t going to fall for that though! Trappers had no qualms attacking even if they weren’t hostile at first. Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice? Not going to happen. It was just as Longshore said too. The splashing of water as something churned forward with great effort sounded around us as one ship appeared on our right, followed by another on our left. It was then, as I saw the trappers up close, did I realize there were far more than just six. Each hunter was standing so close together their dots merged into one, when in reality there were at least ten in total.

The first boat I spotted had a group of them silently eyeing us down with hungry and hateful looks in equal number. The boat contained a hunting party of radigator skin clad ponies with armor mostly made of studded leather and radigator hide. Standing at the tip of the first ship was a large pony, but beyond that I couldn’t tell anything else. They were covered so thoroughly in radigator skin that I couldn’t tell a single feature other than their chest armor was the preserved upper part of a radigator’s head and their gear was covered in sharp teeth pulled from the maw of the gator that covered them. I assumed he was the leader.

The other boat flanking us was filled with ponies in familiar butchers garb and leather armor, with the unblinking eyes of beaked face masks staring back at me. “Oh shit…”

“Friends of yours, darling? Sure hope they’re not here for you.” How did he…oh screw it and screw Onyx for being so damn playful in a situation like this.

“Fuck off, Black!”

The trapper standing at the front of the radigator themed ship drew a folded weapon from his back. As he did, it extended to its full strength, revealing to be some kind of mechanical lance with a wicked blade standing at its tip. Funny enough, I could see the blade was in the shape of an alligator's head, or maybe I was just dreaming that up.

He called out with a thunderous voice, but not towards us. “This the one you’re after?”

A chorus of cheers and strange cawing noises echoed from the other trapper boat. Was it vengeance they were after? “H-hey, what’s this about, huh? I’m doing everything you ponies told me to do. What else do you want from me?”

“Yeah, that’s the one!” One more familiar thing to add to the list was the voice of a mare I’d only met less than a day ago, but easily stayed in my mind as one of the few unforgettable experiences I’d gone through in my life. The mare who shot me in the chest with some kind of poison bullet, she was back and hunting for me. “Looks to me like the lost pup is well trained. She can even follow orders! How cute!”

With horror I watched as the two boats closed the distance and pulled alongside our ship. They were going to board us. It took only a moment for one of Longshore’s crew, the stallion who originally handed me the leech poker, to lose it and jump overboard into the irradiated river below. Fortunately, or unfortunately, for him the trappers were fast as lighting. He’d only just made it over the side before a beartrap connected to a tether bit into one of his legs and bit down hard enough to reach bone. It stopped him from falling into the water and even pulled him back aboard our ship much to his agony.

Some kind of variation to that beartrap-hoof weapon we saw days ago in another trapper camp, but this one was more like a fishing rod reeling the poor stallion across the deck as he screamed his way to the opposite end of the ship. One of the beak clad trappers was reeling him back like a freshly caught trophy fish which left a sickening trail of his blood in his wake. Longshore was quick to step in and grab his crew member.

He hollered “That is enough! We have paid every tithe you’d demand of us time and time again. We do not deserve whatever fate you got in store for the filly. Please! Don’t do this!” I don’t blame him for kinda throwing me under the cart here, but none of that seemed to matter as none of his pleas were answered. Like me, he too was ignored.

CRASH

Our ship rocked to one side as something heavy landed on the deck. The leader from the gator theme trappers boarded, mechanical spear in hoof. As he did, two more boarded us from the other trapper boat. The first being the unicorn who shot me along with a creature I’d never seen before. Granted, it was still a pony, but a pony with wings that flapped against the forces of gravity and allowed it to jump farther than anything I’d seen before.

A pegasus. A real life pegasus. For all the bird masks and cawing these psychopaths did, this was the first time their features felt fitting. It didn’t make the pony any less of a psycho though, as the feathered pony’s hooves ended in twin meat hooks each with dried blood smeared all the way to its knees. “CACAAAAW! Everypony on their fucking bellies, now!” The winged pony screamed out to which we responded by obeying.

Damn! I wanted to fight, but what could we possibly hope to do? There were more trappers here than back in that camp we ran into all those days ago. It seemed like no matter where I went, these pony eaters were out in force.

“Oh ho ho ho! Look who came! Look at who actually came, it’s you!” That damn unicorn was so happy to see me again, but I was itching to unsee her. A part of me wondered how many shots I could get off with SATS before the rest of them turned to fill me with holes in kind. “You know, I was preparing all night to come and grab you from your little shanty town kickin n’ screamin’. I even got another group of killers to help. I guess your help weren’t even needed, Riptide you ol’ crocodile.”

“Alligators. We ain’t got ‘diles here, stupid bitch.” The deep and reverberating sound of his voice did not match the appearance of a cold-blooded killer, but who was I to judge? My EFS made sure to properly identify the gator skin covered pony as he finished reeling in the poor crewmate still stuck to the bear trap. His pained screams were silenced with the hard stomp from Riptide’s hoof.

The unicorn removed her mask. Her dilated eyes glared down at me with a sadistic smile growing on her muzzle. “Oooooh baby, the pup has come to find her momma and kin. You’ve taken a lot of work out of today, but also a lot of the fun!” She got right up to my face, something my nose was taking personally. Luna’s mane, she smelled worse than I do and I rarely bathe. Her coat and mane were so dirty there was no telling what she really looked like beyond the matted hair and blackened mud. “Come on, guess as to why I came all this way? The real reason.”

My first response, like any good earth pony, was to headbutt her as hard as my prone figure could allow. I must have hit her right in the nose, because when I looked back up, she was bleeding heavily from both nostrils. “You talk too much, stupid bitch.”

The only reason the trapper mare didn’t immediately try and kill me was the large stallion named Riptide holding her by the tail with a hoof. “I’ll skin you alive!” She hissed and screamed, but the gator clad trapper held her at bay.

A hearty laugh sent my heart skipping a beat as Riptide laughed and chucked his ally across the deck and straight off our ship with a heavy splash of water. “Don’t get in the prey’s reach, stupid bitch. Now then…Teaja, go make sure Nightfall doesn’t drown. I’ll handle this one.”

The pegasus, now named Teaja, giggled and skipped back to her own boat with more than just a bounce to her step. Every movement was aided by the flapping of wings. Those creatures were a strange bunch. “Name’s Muddy. Any reason you and your lot are stopping us from…doing what you ponies told us to do?”

With a curt nod, Riptide picked me up off the ground as if I was a sack of tatos and hoisted me to my hooves. “Had to be sure you’d come. We learned a lot from Plague’s group. Plague being the pony your momma managed to take down. They’re uppity about losing a leader to a lonewolf, but that’s not what got two groups on your tail. What got you here and not stuck on a campfire is we found out your momma is somepony pretty important to the boss. That makes you important, too important to not make a grab for.”

“Ahem, if I may…” Onyx butted in with all the air of a confident stallion could muster. “My partner in crime here meant to say thank you for such kindness and mercy. We owe you our lives…assuming you don’t plan to eat us, that is.” He sauntered up to the comparatively much bigger stallion and stuck out his hoof. “Onyx, Onyx Black at your service.”

As expected, Riptide turned towards the outlander with a painfully slow movement akin to an alligator moving in for the slow, yet steady kill. “I will disembowel you and use your skin to wipe the sweat from my taint the next time you approach me on equal terms, outlander. As far as I’m concerned, the only pony who’s going to die would be you. Outlanders are always in season.” The cold gaze of a hungry trapper bore into Onyx’s soul, but if it affected him, he did not dare show such weakness in front of a predator like Riptide.

“Yes sir. Forgive me, sir. Will never happen again.” With Onyx firmly put in his place, Riptide huffed and turned towards Longshore and his last crewmate.

“You…” Riptide growled towards the aging captain with all the bite of a real alligator. “My boat leaves, your boat follows. Don’t fuck it up. Tithes will continue as normal, understood?” If Longshore had any objections or concerns, they were left unsaid. He could only muster a nod of understanding as the trapper boss kicked his unconscious crew member towards him and left him rolling all the way to Longshore’s hooves. None of them deserved that, but I’d make it up to him. I’d find a way to repay the damages my presence brought. “And you…”

Riptide was pointing a hoof in my direction this time. “Me?”

“Yeah. You. I brought a lot of ponies today ‘cuz the boss wanted you. Do you know why you’re important?” I wasn’t even aware mom was a pony eating trapper until yesterday! Why is somepony I’ve never met doing this to me of all ponies in this shithole?

With a sigh of frustration, I answered “No. I only found out my mom was a cannibal yesterday. This is all brand new to me.”

Riptide walked right up to me just to show the sheer difference between us. He stood a head and a half taller than to the point I was craning my neck to look up at him. Beneath his gator skin hood and face mask were a pair of pale green eyes that were devoid of a ruthless hunger than I’d seen in previous trapper ponies. “Then you’ll find out, as I have. I’ll let the boss tell you. I’m sure he’ll enjoy your shock as he did ours.” So much for not getting too close to the prey, but in reality there was not a damn thing I could have done to harm him.

Slowly the large trapper turned and moved to return to his own boat. His eyes never took their sight off me as he moved to leave. I imagined his pale green orbs rolling in his skull to face me even as he looked completely away from me. His guard wouldn’t lower no matter what, that much he didn’t leave to the imagination.

“Oh! And by the way…” Riptide turned to face me one last time with only a stoic side glance. “I’m leaving Teaja to watch over you. No more delays, not from trappers and not from beasts.” More orders and more unwanted company. Great! Exactly what I needed.

“You know I don’t need a foalsitter! You fucking…” A hoof found its place on my shoulder and started to pull me back.

The hoof belonged to my charismatic companion, Onyx. “Now now, Ms. Waters. Let’s not say something everpony aboard this ship will regret.” For once his little sing-song voice was starting to crack. Yeah, maybe he was right. Riptide must have left an impression on the ‘not fighter’.

All that was left for us was to continue forward as the trapper boat began to ride away in the path we needed to travel. He leads, we follow. Not that we had much of a choice, but as time went on I was beginning to understand choice was a rare commodity. A luxury few ponies in the armpit of Equestria could afford. Maybe I already came to that conclusion in the past, but it was something I was going to be reminded of at every possible opportunity.

***

The splash of water brought a sense of peace, one I found myself missing every time the noise ended. It reminded me of the waking hours back home. The waves crashing against the bulwark beneath our town were something you’d get used to, even look forward to after a while. I always wondered why that is until today, as I stood at the front of the ship alongside Onyx and the new crewmember, Teaja.

Teaja was a strange one. We weren’t exactly sure when she boarded our boat again, but once the second trapper boat left to follow behind us Teaja just kind of appeared.

A trapper with light leather armor draped in leather and hides like some kind of ratty skirt to keep her safe. Her purple body was visible, with light pink splotches across her hooves and neck where she’d clearly been injured in the past. A dirty gray mane covered only half her head. The other half was scarred with two jagged lines shooting down the side of her head. Of course, the cherry on top was she was a pegasus, something I’d ever only heard stories of.

To me, this mare was as alien as she was crazy.

“Teaja oh Teaja oh TeaJA!”

The sound of the water against the bow of the ship did little to cover her sporadic singing, which was almost exclusively her name most of the time. I think it put off the rest of the crew, who gave the trapper mare a wide berth. Even Onyx, who I was sure would try to woo her with his charms, kept a reasonable distance.

I looked over to him with a shit eating grin as Teaja stood beside me. She’d taken over the leech duty, but instead of knocking them away she was stabbing them clean through with ease. I couldn’t even break the skin on those things, yet she was making kebabs out of them and eating them when she managed to pull them apart with her meat hooks. “Hey, Onyx. What’s the matter, not feeling the itch no more? I haven’t even heard a single compliment or flirt from ya.”

For a split second I could have sworn I saw a flash of annoyance on him before he quickly rebuilt his usual poker face. “Sorry, doll. I’d sooner try my luck with a hellhound again before I stoop to bedding raiders. Been there, done that, doesn’t end well. Besides, she seems a little…” He looked to Teaja who was cooking three leeches over the fire barrel we were using to heat the poker. “...feral for my tastes.”

“Ehe, Teaja likes your words, silly stallion. Maybe Teaja strip your cutie mark and turn it into rag. Make fine trophy for Teaja.” Feral, maybe…but Teaja was well aware of what we were talking about. She was smarter than she looked. And smelled. I’d have to be cautious around her, otherwise the next bit of skin she tears could be mine. For now, this was the second most peaceful encounter with trappers I’d had. It would be a learning experience for everypony on board, that much was certain.

“Kid. Kid get up here.” Longshore stared down at me from the top deck.

“Alright. On my way, just gimme a second.” I had a hunch Longshore wasn’t going to be very pleased knowing he’d gotten himself in deep with a situation that he’d rather avoid altogether. At least the unconscious stallion that’d taken a beating earlier was going to be okay and not lose a leg.

When I got to the top, Longshore met me at the stairs. It was just us at the top. “Kid, I gotta ask…do you know just how bad things would get, could get, when you decided to take this journey? Do you truly know the consequences of what you’ve chosen to do?”

I scoffed. “Of course I do. That's why I’m here.” I wasn’t going to repeat myself to him. He knows why I’m going out of my way to step into danger like this.

Or perhaps, I didn’t. As Longshore turned to me with tired eyes, he sighed heavily. “You know what's coming for you and your family, I get that…but do you know what the consequences are for everypony else?”

That was something I didn’t know. Maybe I didn’t care to, but I’d be blind if I couldn’t see the effects recent events were having on the old stallion. “Something tells me you do. Care to share?”

He sighed again but nodded. “This isn’t my first crew. I’ve had several over the years, but many were taken too soon from this world. If not from monsters, it was from trappers. You gotta understand there's a difference between being evil and doing wrong. The problem is you never know which a trapper might fall under…until you find out far too late. I’ll pass this advice to you since you’re young and haven’t made such mistakes, yet. If you expect the worst, you’ll never be disappointed in a trapper’s company.”

“I…I understand.” What was I supposed to say? Mom was a trapper, but that wasn’t something you could leave behind evidently. She chomped those Jelly Bean clones just fine even though she’s been a mother for almost two decades. That being said, mom wasn’t evil. She just…did some bad things. Right?

“Good” Longshore knocked me out of my stupor before I could go any further into it. For that, I was silently grateful. “Now get ready, we’re almost there. Don’t expect a ride home after all this is over. And you can bet your ass I’ll be collecting on your payment in the near future too.”

That’s perfectly reasonable, I concluded. At least he wasn’t raising the price.

As the next half hour passed, the fog had begun to roll in. The lead trapper boat was gone from our sight in short order, same as the boat tailing us. If I didn’t know any better, I’d say this was the perfect opportunity to escape. Fortunately, I did know better. Those pony eaters would have our heads on stakes before noon if we even tried. Not to mention Teaja who was still aboard eagerly snacking on cooked leeches.

Longshore had some Rad-X for us to take, but I refused. The risk of developing cancer was always there if you had rads in you, but I knew a little secret the other ponies took for granted. Brahmin milk would purge that crap out of my system one way or another, hopefully. Didn’t mean I didn’t pocket the one he did give me, however.

“Hey, captain. We’re not gonna crash and die, are we?” Onyx was coming up the stairs with his usual swaying self and half smile. “I’d hate to deprive the world of such wonderful ponies such as myself and yours truly over there.” Oh, now he was pointing to me after saying that. I was about to smash him back down the stairs when Longshore snorted and stopped me dead in my tracks.

“Kids these days. No faith I tell ya. I’ve sailed these waters my entire life. I could navigate this river on my sleep walks. Besides…” He pointed a hoof up at the sky with a slight chuckle. “It’s not hard to tell where we need to go when you can see the damn thing.”

Longshore told no lies. Just above the fog I could see a massive bridge spanning the river in its entirety. It stood so tall I thought I was going to get sick just imagining the view from up there. That must be it, the Moore.

“Say, Longshore. Why do they call it The Moore? What's that supposed to mean?” I figured it was something symbolic, or in another language the trappers made up.

He just looked at me as if I was dumb and explained “You grew up in Wayward, right? Mooring is just a way of saying you’re tying a boat to a dock.” Well now I feel dumb. As we got closer, more of the bridge came into view little by little as the fog lifted in pieces. “Oh, some folk got thick accents out here. The way they say the name makes it sound like they’re saying ‘The Maw’.” I was about to ask, but before I got the chance, Teaja yelled from the front of the ship.

“There she is! Hunt and cull in the name of The Moore!” There, I saw why some ponies might think this place was called The Maw. All along the underside of the bridge were the dried carcasses of giant creatures and monsters hanging by thick iron chains in regular intervals. They hung low and evenly spaced out, giving the bridge the appearance of a fang filled jaw.

I spotted swamplurk queens, sea serpents, giant hermit crabs, large shrimp-like creatures that I assumed were the local bog crawlers, and one large turtle looking monster caked in dried mud. Every so often there wouldn’t be a giant monster hanging from the bridge, but the desiccated bow of a destroyed ship with each still bearing the name of the ship it once belonged to. Trapper kills on the water I assumed. Had things gone differently, it might have been the bow of Longshore’s ship being hoisted into the air as a testament to a glorious kill alongside the wetland’s many beasts.

Of course the view wouldn’t be complete without a swarm of vultures and seagulls flying over the bridge eager to snag whatever they could from the trapper settlement that lay upon the ancient bridge. The smell of cooking meat and death filled the air as our ship pulled alongside a dock located just short of the bridge itself. Fog rolled off the water all around us, casting us in a dread filled aura.

“H-holy shit…the smell…” The constant stench of death and gore assaulted me with relentless persistence. It reminded me of the fight in Stable ninety-eight with all the clones dead in horrid piles of meat on the stable floors.

Teaja laughed with a wicked glee and wrapped her hooves around me. “Smells like home cookin’. Maybe Teaja will let you have some if there is leftovers. I warn you, we got a good haul on pony meat just yesterdaaaay.” More insane giggling from the trapper mare. By Celestia I had a sick feeling in my gut about just who that pony meat might belong to.

Finally, we landed next to a dock with good enough supports not eaten away by barnacles and still semi-intact bollards to tie down the Devil Fish. My Pipbuck was kind enough to inform me that the dock was called Rainbow Docks and that the massive bridge standing above us was called the Rainbow Bridge, although I hadn’t technically discovered it yet. From my own experience and by looking at the map, it would have taken days traveling by hoof and that's assuming we got here with all four hooves still attached. By river the trip was only a matter of hours.

Of course we weren’t the only ones landing. I have no idea where Riptide’s boat went, but the boat behind us was still here and eager to see whatever this was all the way to the end. I watched as their boat got as close to the shore as their dolphins could manage without beaching themselves further away from the dock.

“Well kid, this is where we part ways.” Longshore coughed into his hoof with an expecting look. I just rolled my eyes at him. “If you survive this foolish endeavor you’re putting your life on the line for, meet me back in Wayward. I’ll take my payment in rum, spiced and unopened.”

That went about as well as I could have expected in all honesty. “And if I don’t survive?” He just shrugged at that without offering any actual answer. It made me think he wasn’t truly invested in payment. Maybe he was just helping out in the end.

Whether or not he was helping me to my salvation or my doom remained to be seen.

“Now get going kid. This is trapper territory and they’ll eat your friend there alive given the chance. I’m getting out of here before they charge me five hundred caps a head just being here. Or worse.” He gave me a hearty salute and I returned it in kind. “Good luck, Muddy Waters.”

“Thank you kindly, oh captain my captain.”

***

It was only mid-day. We were making great time and all that stood between us and a kingdom of cannibals was a path leading from the docks to the bridge above. If we moved fast we could beat those mask loving trappers to The Moore. Also I was just eager to outrun them considering they had a score to settle with me. Nightfall’s last words to me before being tossed into the river were something about skinning me alive.

“So…” Onyx broke the peaceful silence as he’s prone to do. “I know that you know that I’m not going to be able to fulfill my end of the bargain we made.”

That almost made me trip on my own hooves. “W-what’s that supposed to mean? I promised you sanctuary and you promised me to help get my family back!” He didn’t sound like he was backing out of the deal voluntarily, but if he did I wouldn’t be too upset at the thought of having the stable all to myselves.

I did not have faith in my abilities to handle things going forward without him though. He’s the only reason Longshore took us this far. “Listen. Your raider buddy back there was about to gut me on the poopdeck just for being friendly. I’m all for making new friends, especially ones with benefits, but good looks and a pleasant smile aren’t going anywhere with this lot. I’m not sure how much help an ‘outlander’ is going to be, doll.” Gone was his usual smirk and haughty demeanor he liked to wear. He wasn’t just feeding me a load of crap, he truly believed that.

That left me in the one place I couldn’t be. In charge.

“You think I can just talk my way out of this? I got nothing on you. I need you for this. I…” When Onyx stopped me in my tracks, I tried to push past. I didn’t get very far with him stomping my tail just like Rough did. One of these days this body part is going to fall off.

He laughed at me and smiled. “Confidence is all you need. Don’t let any other emotions or doubt inside that little heart of yours. Trust me, you wear your emotions on your sleeve, friend. Don’t think about anything other than completing your goal today, otherwise you’ll slip.”

I’d have to follow his advice, but that was easier said than done. I was about to yank my tail out from under his hooves, but the moment of silence we shared gave us something else to think about. The faintest sounds of pained grunts and cries could be heard just ahead of us. No matter how long we waited with your ears perked up, the cries never stopped or faltered. Just the continuous sounds of anguish echoed around the overgrown trees and broken concrete buildings covered in moss.

I moved forward and Onyx obliged by releasing me. Together, we raced towards the sound of somepony in dire need of help.

As we rounded a particularly massive tree a single blue dot appeared on the compass. I didn’t need the compass hovering in the top of my vision to know there was only one pony still alive here. Along the path in front of us was a straight road. Along the road were old lamp posts that held gruesome looking cages hanging from the tops that only looked big enough to squeeze a single pony inside as long as the pony stood at their hind legs. Each cage held a corpse being picked apart by crows and vultures alike. Most of them were already long past being dead with the acrid stench of corpse bile covering the area like a toxic cloud.

All but one. For within a long cage at the very beginning of the line of cages stood a stallion squeezed into the metal to the point of being unable to sit down. Not that he could if he was able. As me and Onyx got closer to see if we could help, we realized the torture this stallion was going through. A metal slab, sharp as a razor blade, was tucked between his legs. Just another part of the cage it seemed. If the strength in his legs gave out he could kiss his guts goodbye. Judging by the blood dripping steadily from his legs, I think he’s come to the same realization through a painful lesson.

“Oh…oh Luna, please. Please you gotta get me out of here.” When our eyes met, I instantly knew who this stallion was. The son of a bitch who was going to murder and rob us with his gang of bastards yesterday. “No….no no no, not you.” Now I know where Teaja and the trappers were getting the pony meat. I had a hunch, but I was just happy it wasn’t mom or Murky.

“We seem to be running into a lot of ponies who know you. What a social butterfly you turned out to be. Shame that most of them don’t like you.” Onyx laughed as he waltzed up to the cage and began to inspect it, looking for some way to open it. Me? I had no intention of opening it.

I called out “Don’t bother, Black. This one earned what’s coming to him. We’re leaving.” Walking away was my first desire. Onyx didn’t budge though, and when I realized he wasn’t following I turned back. “The hell are you doing standing around? Let’s go!”

My companion didn’t move. “We can’t just leave him here. No creature deserves to get tortured like this. What did he do that gets him this kind of end?”

Rage. I can’t say I’ve ever felt so angered that my vision began to shake uncontrollably. Today though…today I felt rage. I turned on my hooves, stuck a hoof into Onyx’s chest and get right in his face with all the hate my heart could muster. “That garbage scum was going to kill my family yesterday for a bag of water and some empty guns. He was one of us, a resident of Wayward! We could have been neighbors for all I know, but he was going to kill us and the only reason we didn’t die is because everypony got caught in a trapper ambush yesterday!!!”

“I-I’m sorry! I’m sorry, but please I didn’t mean anything by it. We were just desperate, yeah! I got kids to feed. Come on, please don’t leave me like this…I’ve…I’ve been up here since the attack. Please, just let me loose and you’ll never see me again. Honest!” Judging by the stink and the growing pool of a foul liquid and Luna knows what else growing beneath his cage, I bet he’s been up here for almost a day once the sun starts to set.

Maybe I would show a little mercy. Because after all I’ve gone through, I needed a way to truly vent this growing anger in me. “You know what, fine. Fine! I’ll let you loose. I don’t think the trappers will be very happy about it, but I hope they can forgive me like I’m forgiving you.”

“T-thank you! Thank you so so much. Just…just crank that wheel on the side down there and it’ll lower the cage. Please, hurry…” Like he said, he was hoisted in the air like a flag with a crank holding the chains in place. I wasn’t going to be the kind of mare who would let a pony in need suffer.

So, as I inspected the crank something else came to mind. A more fitting punishment for a raider looking to get by at the expense of others. All it took was a good kick to break the crank and watch as the entire length of chain was let go in an instant. The cage came tumbling down like a cinder block and smashed into the ground with a roaring clang of metal.

A blue dot no longer appeared on the compass.

“Muddy…” If Onyx disapproved, I did not care. It had to be done. It was mercy compared to what trappers would have done to him. Given the fact he was already bloodied, and by the looks of it he also had a crossbow bolt in his stomach, he was better off with this fitting end. “I don’t enjoy killing when it ain’t necessary, but…”

“He was a raider and a murderer. Besides, we don’t have jails back in Wayward. Barely enough space to house everypony. He’d hang for what he did anyway…everypony gets what they deserve.” I spit on his corpse. The blade that threatened to carve his taint like wet paper now thoroughly split the stallion’s lower half down the middle, the pain too much to bear. This wasn’t a clone either, but a true pony. A thinking creature at one point.

And now my first true kill. I didn’t even know his name.

My companion walked alongside me with a snort. “Well you got the confidence now. You just gotta use that unwavering determination to get through this. The very same ya used to murder that guy.”

I almost laughed and I think Onyx saw that, but he kept quiet as he waited for me to lead on. I remember when I first awoke in the stable and had to kill that clone of Jelly Bean. I remember seeing the state my sister was in when she killed her first clone. We genuinely thought we killed a pony then, but dismissed it after justifying the whole ordeal as just putting down a creature not much different than a feral ghoul. We stood by that decision and never looked back on what we did later to the rest of them. Just animals, we said.

This pony in the cage wasn’t an animal, he was a pony. Yet, my reaction was stone cold. No panic, no crying or sick feeling in my stomach. Nothing. I couldn’t muster anything as I looked at the fresh corpse. “Let's just go. It might not be the last one for today.”

CLAP CLAP CLAP CLAP

Maybe I was feeling a bit more than nothing after all. Suddenly my heart was racing and my revolver was firmly between my teeth in an instant. Two trappers were behind us, Nightfall and Teaja along with the rest of their beak mask allies. “Ah ah ah, let's not get ahead of ourselves. Here I was going to make you pay for that stunt back on the Devil Fish, but maybe I was wrong about you. Maybe you ain’t prey after all.” Nightfall just kept her mocking claps going. I can only guess that she and the rest of the hunting party she brought watched what I had done.

I figured they’d be angry at what I’d done. Maybe they’d be angrier if I freed him after all. That was something I’d never know, but I didn’t want to know. I just wanted to free my family and finally go home.

Teaja was back too, much to Onyx’s discomfort. Without anypony telling her, she took her place at my side again as if the order to keep watch of me still applied. She didn’t say a word either, just kept giving me glances that reminded me of the way my sisters looked at me.

“Well let’s get going. Moore awaits, meat.” The trapper Nightfall brushed past us down the cage filled path. I expected a fight, or at least some threats, but what we got was something else. All that was left for me and a confused Onyx to do was follow behind the group of cannibals and hope none of them get peckish along the way.

The road leading to the bridge was behind us along with the various meat effigies they’d made out of some poor, unlucky ponies. In front of us was a brand new sight to behold, albeit equally scary. A wall unlike any other I’ve seen stood before us covered from top to bottom in the shells of various creatures from around the wasteland. “Oh shit, they got it covered in swamplurk and mirelurk carapace. Now that’s a fort if I've ever seen one.”

That got a confused look from Onyx, who turned to me in a hushed voice. “Uh, what’s the difference between a swamplurk and a mirelurk. They’re the same thing aren’t they?” He may have not been hushed enough, because several trappers including Teaja and myself all turned to him with disapproving stares. I could hear more than a few of them whisper things like ‘fucking outlanders’ and other such crude remarks towards the outlander named Onyx.

“Poor poor outlander. Teaja will put you out of misery, no need to suffer such small brain.” At first I didn't notice her still beside me, which made me jump though I’d never admit to it. She was even taller than me, yet she just kind of faded away into every background whenever you took your eyes off her. The other thing I noticed as we walked up to the massive steel slabs that made the doors of the wall was that Teaja no longer had her meat hook claws equipped. For a time I genuinely thought she had the lower parts of her hooves replaced with them given how she was walking on them earlier. “Teaja will make fine meat pie from your flesh. Finer fertilizer from your guts! Ehehe.”

“Teaja my dear, let's save the pleasantries for another time. Maybe next year. Or maybe we can do your idea when you learn to talk.”

Oh, snarky Onyx was fun to listen to.

Upon the wall sat a lone intercom that Nightfall began to speak into. With a press of a button she began. “Hey, open the fucking gates. Thought I told you pricks to hold it for me.”

“Broadsides said no, and that it was a stupid idea. You probably should have seen this coming Night” The unknown voice said through the intercom. The more the pony on the other side spoke the angrier Nightfall got, but before she could scream at the pony through the box the doors jolted and began to lower like some kind of drawbridge.

The feeling of a lump in my throat grew as the trappers began to move past the threshold and into a place I was honestly scared of entering. Beyond the door could lie anything. My salvation, my doom, maybe even something worse.

“Come on, gorgeous. Don’t get cold hooves now when we’re so close.” Onyx teased and pushed me forward not once, but twice.

“I’m going, I’m going! Lay off the flanks, hotshot.” Gee if anyone ever heard that without context it might sound like something Onyx would be into. Without wasting more time I was on my hooves and walking into cannibal central with only an outlander and a feral pony supporting me. That second one was a little debatable.

***

The Moore was unlike anything I would have expected from pony eating raiders. From the look of things it wasn’t much different from Wayward. Although every building was actually just a hut made from thick leather and carapace from the creatures that were native to this region of the land once known as Equestria. The smell wasn’t of fish like it was back home, but of fresh meat and an endless stream of smells you’d normally only experience in a kitchen.

Well that is if the smell of burning hair was also in the mix, but considering where we were it probably was for them.

The other thing I noticed was everypony here was clad in leather, but it wasn’t the armor I’d come to know when seeing one of their hunters in the wild. Just…normal clothes for once. The only ponies here though were the young, the old and the injured. There were dozens of foals playing in the street which was much wider than home’s. A group of colts and fillies were chasing a giant rat through the tents and hunts in an attempt to catch it. Probably for food if I had to imagine.

“Say, nice place ya got here. Not nearly as many skulls and bones as I would have imagined. And no body parts and carcasses strung up for decorations either. Color me impressed, Teaja. I’ve clearly underestimated you.”

I made absolutely sure Onyx could see the weird look I was giving him before stopping in the middle of the street. “Did you not see all the corpses in those hanging cages back there, or are you just blocking out the memory somehow?”

Onyx had the nerve to laugh at me as we continued forward. It took him a few seconds to cease his annoying laughter which I was almost certain was meant to make fun of me. “Muddy, those weren’t decorations. Those were warning signs. It’s all very nuanced. You’ll understand when you see a raider camp.” The words Onyx told me before came to mind about being confident. Was he just confidently spouting bullshit, or was he speaking from experience?

Wait, maybe he was showing me something. An example of how I could go about meeting this Broadsides pony.

“Enough talk! We are wasting time. Broadsides is waiting for us further in. He is not a pony you want to keep waiting, so move it!” Nightfall calmly reminded us we had a date with the trapper’s all powerful leader. Or at least as calmly as her crazed self could manage, which only attracted a few stares from the surrounding locals.

Even some of the foals who were chasing the rat stopped to stare at the newcomers who were walking into their home without being brought in like a fresh kill. Their eyes held a sense of wonder and curiosity at seeing me and Onyx. I’m sure we were the first non trappers they’d seen alive. Many were no older than Bobby back home. “R-right. Right…”

Past the plethora of huts and tents was the largest structure of all. If the front looked like a fortress wall to me, this was the castle it guarded. A massive structure fit for a king made of driftwood, scrap metal and the bones of the slain. This was the only place I’d seen so far that had actual able-bodied ponies too. The guards standing watch over the structure were outfitted in the heaviest armor I’d seen a trapper wear. Thick metal armor and helmets backed with various hanging leathers and studs covered them completely, blocking out the ponies within. Bones and the faces of broken skulls adorned their armor too, giving them a savage, tribal appearance. They too were armored with those mechanical folding spears.

I also noticed my pipbuck labeling them as ‘Trapper Bonebreakers’ as our group got close to the castle, if something so ugly could be called that.

The inside was much the same with the only light being the light flowing in through the cracks and the roaring fire from a hanging chandelier made of bones. I guess it was some kind of dining hall like they used to have in the pre-war days, but I don’t think dining halls had the hollowed corpse of a bog crawler hanging from the ceiling. Well, there's the hanging decorations Onyx mentioned. At least there weren’t any pony corpses that I could see.

Within the walls was an equally long table covered in meat and fruits with dozens of well armed and even better armored ponies. One of them was Riptide who I recognized from his radigator skin armor. I needed no introduction to who Broadsides was. He was the widest pony I’d ever seen and he sat at the far end of the table. As we entered the room, every trapper there grew quiet. The music I hadn’t noticed at first died down to cast a sudden silence over the hall. That’s when Broadsides stood tall, then proceeded to stand even taller with the assistance of sentry bot legs that carried his massive blubbery hide.

Broadsides was an enormous creature with layers of fat rolling down his body that ended with two stubs where his hind legs should have been. There was no mane atop his head, nor tail as far as I could see. His bluish gray body dotted with scars and burns had a white streak leading from his lower belly all the way to his lower jaw, making him look like a shark. That comparison was validated even more when his toothy grin made itself known. His entire mouth was filled with shiny metal teeth, each sharpened to fine, skin ripping points. “AHOY! And so it was that the daughter would come for her mother. A fine bait, a finer trap. Truly a catch I can be proud of, ah ha hA HA HAAA!”

The waves of fat rolled like the tides as he laughed his head off at his own words. None of the other trappers laughed with him, but kept their eyes on me and me alone. This was it, this was the lion's den.

“I came as demanded. I’ve done everything you ponies asked. So tell me, fat ass…where’s my mom and sister?!” Retaliation is what I expected, maybe a slap or a beating, but what I got was silence. Not a single reaction from anypony except for Broadsides who chuckled gleefully.

“I like this one! Ah ha ha, I like this one a lot! But let’s see if your bark is as good as your bite. Cuz I got what you’re after…” With a mighty clap of his hooves, a great covered platter was brought out that was being carried by at least three trappers. As it was set on the table in front of Broadsides he lifted the cover with his hooves. Mom and Murky were both tied down together with that strange swamp fruit stuffed into their mouths. Fruit that Broadsides promptly scooped out of their mouths and ate himself without even chewing. “You must be the Muddy Waters I’ve been told so much about. That right?”

“Muddy, wait. I…” Mom tried to say something, but I cut her off.

“Yeah, I’m Muddy Waters. And you’re the one who had my family kidnapped. The so-called leader, Broadsides. Am I wrong?” I pushed past the gathering trappers and forced my way to the opposite end of the table to get a good look at the trapper the rest felt fit to rule. Our eyes met with unwavering determination to not break concentration on one another. The words of the past came back with stern reminders not to back down and stay strong. If I failed, he’d know. I could not let that happen.

We sat there in a room filled with silence, staring each other down, unblinking. As my eyes started to water, Broadsides made the first move and blinked. “Yes. I. Am! And let me tell you, let me tell all of you that ain't been here on the first go around, the prodigal daughter has returned to me.” He pointed to mom. No, no wait… “And she has kept our traditions even while away from our table as trapper doctrine dictates from the ancient hunters. The circle of life continues!” Now he was pointing to me. His mad grin and wild eyes blazing with excitement that burned with the fire light.

“W-woah, hold on one second. What do you mean?” I didn’t get a response, only the hooves of trappers lifting me up from behind and into the air as Onyx screamed my name before being shoved to the ground. Was I failing already? What did that fat bastard mean?

He laughed again with his gut bouncing with renewed vigor. That's when the music began, and the trappers shouted their praises to their obese overlord. “And she has spawned me grandchildren. More meat for the hunt, more dominance over the land. Let the beasts and ponies fight, die, and feed with celebration at the return of the daughters. Show ‘em what it means to be a trapper, my ponies!”

Not like this! I did not want to die like this. I didn’t care that the dots were all still blue, I know trappers were capable of being hostile despite that. Before they could properly restrain me, my revolver was already whipped out and back into my teeth. SATS went active immediately with every activation targeted for Broadside’s face. Then I released the spell…

…and nothing happened.

I looked to my right. Riptide was there, his pale green eyes looking directly into mine as his hoof wrapped around my gun with blinding speed. A gator claw was wrapped around the frame of my revolver and jamming itself between it and the hammer, preventing it from firing. Although something told me his claw wasn’t a part of a dead gator as it wiggled and moved under the impact of a striking hammer. Panic set in as I watched his once normal irises turn slitted beneath his hood.

“What are you?” I asked knowing he wasn’t about to tell me. Riptide didn’t say a damn word as the rest of the trappers began to sing and bring out great pots almost the size of broadside himself. The gator theme trapper reset the hammer of my gun before ripping it from my teeth, his eyes never leaving mine as he did so.

“NO VOICE IN OUR EARS BUT THE MOORE’S.” Broadsides roared as the music kicked up its pace and the rest of the trappers began to hum alongside it.

“We baste to the boon of a harpoon. We’ll plunder and FEAST, any pony any BEAST.”

The whole room was abuzz with the thrill of singing the song of trappers. Each trapper joined in as the chorus of them sang together.

“Doesn’t matter, we’ll snack to the bone!”

“The stragglers we eat and consume. Each one of our bellies a tomb!”

“They scream and they run, but they’ll spoil their meat. They’ll spoil the fun!”

“CUZ THE TRAPPERS ARE COMIN’ TO GET YAAAA!!!”

For a brief moment the music and singing stopped. Then it returned with three times the fervor with every trapper now singing in unison. Unfortunately for me and now Onyx, both of us were being tossed into the air and caught by the crowd of trappers filling into the dining hall.

“YO. HO. Outlanders keep trudging to our midst, feeding our guts. Our bottomless pits!”

“Tear! And chew as we kill for The Moore! For power and blood is what we’re doing this for!”

Broadsides landed two of his four wheeled sentry legs onto the table and lifted the platter carrying my sister and mom on it straight into the air with a single hoof.

“Crunching and biting we KILL FOR THE MOORE! For the power in the blood is what we’re doing it foooooooor!!!”

With a thunderous howl and clang of the platter, Broadsides dropped both mom and murky onto his stomach before bouncing them off and on to the table with a crash. The whole room filled with the cheers and howls of dozens of trappers all raising their blades and spears into the air with a zeal I’ve never seen before. They were unified, proud, and eager to let us know just what it was they were for.

Me? I was just a pony being tossed onto the same table alongside my family. Wooden plates scattered as my body rolled across the table like a foal's ball until I landed next to Murky. “It’s a pleasure to meet you kids. Shame I couldn’t get to see the rest.” Broadsides was even larger up close. The heat and stench emanating from him could knock out a manticore, I was certain of it. At least he wasn’t as bad as Nightfall, but still.

As I looked up at him, he looked down with a grin full of metal teeth. “You’re…are you saying you’re my grandpa? There is no fucking way. Come on, this is a joke! You’re fucking with me!”

“Well, adopted really. No blood between us, but your dear ol’ momma was the only one I ever got to call…family. Let me tell you…” He paused for a moment before rubbing his wide stomach and burping so strongly I thought I could see the stink coming from his jaws. “No…wait, let me let your momma tell you. Seeing as my lads have informed me of my absence from your family's stories. Must be strange finding out you’re kin to cannibals, eh heh heh.”

Mom just looked away, ashamed. Eventually she opened her mouth to speak, but her words came out with barely held together emotions. “It’s…not a story I like to tell. My parents were pony eaters and so was I…but they died during one of the wild hunts, a ritual event to cull the monsters of the swamps once their numbers got too swollen. My mother was pregnant with me when…she…was killed in the fighting. My father died trying to save her. I’m only alive because of Broadsides…but he wasn’t a trapper king back then before I left. You were just another pony then.” Her eyes full of unspent tears looked up at the monstrous pony that she called father, awaiting his response.

One he gave without his usually jolly tone. “It was a bad year then. We all remember it so many decades ago. Swamplurks got out of control under our watch, we went in to put them down.” The stumps that used to be his hind legs wiggled in place, useless and scarred. “We all lost something to the beast’s queen that year. Some of us couldn’t get those pieces back, even with the miracle drug they call hydra. I was one of few who survived the onslaught, missing my legs and eye, half my skin melted off from the albino queen’s acid. We lost a lot of good hunters then.” I didn’t notice he was missing an eye, but when he smacked the back of his own head and a single glass eye plopped into his outstretched hoof I understood my mistake. There was no way I could meet his face with a gaping hole where his left eye should be.

Broasides slumped in his sentry bot chair, no longer sitting upon the legs that assisted him like a king, but a stallion remembering a darker time.

“I crawled through the mud and the acid and I knew there was one of our number with a child. When I found her dead, I ripped your mother from the corpse’s belly and waited through the night to keep her safe. Used the healing potions I had to keep her alive even as ‘lurk spawn nibbled at me nubs. When I was rescued, hydra did me no good. ‘Lurk acid fucked things up inside deeper than magic or sciences could fix. Didn’t stop me none! I raised your momma good and propa, till she ran away that is.”

“So that's it then…” I stood up and jabbed a hoof into Broadsides belly with a cold hate filling me. “Your goons shoot me in the chest with some poisoned bullet. Force me to meet you just so you could…what exactly? Tell me you’re my grandpa? I’ve been through so much shit lately and it was all for this?! I…” A hoof pulled me away from the trapper right before I jabbed him again.

With fearful eyes that I’d see quite often lately, and yet not often enough, Murky pulled me back and into a hug. “Sis…please shut up. Just go with it. For now.” Her voice was so shaky that my hate melted and turned to concern for my clone. I looked at her body to find it bandaged and cared for, but her face was pale and her eyes red. She looked starved but determined to keep me in line. Her bonds were also gone. At some point some trapper must have cut her and mom loose.

Pretending she was still a clone of me wasn’t something I could do anymore. We didn’t agree on things at the moment, but she’d lived a vastly different life than me in the last twenty-four hours. She was her own mare, but still a sister I cared for. “Okay…okay, I’m sorry.”

“Don’t be!” Broadsides chimed in as he scooped us both into a hug. His body felt like gelatinous quicksand that I might sink into and never emerge. “I had my best hunters make sure you got here. Shame they couldn’t bring you the first go around, but ya did help kill one of us. Not a lot of ponies left to carry you both through the muck and sludge out there. Speaking of which! I’d say it's about time I told you the reason I made sure you came out all this way.”

With another clap of his hooves, two trappers disappeared into some back rooms out of sight. The rest of the horde of hunters took their seats again with the extra guards taking up positions along the walls. I was shocked at the level of control one pony could have over a band of above average raiders. “I heard rumors from some pretty smart ponies on my way here. You’re not too happy with mom running away I bet. Does all this have something to do with that?”

The large trapper crossed his hooves as best he could and huffed. “I’m more upset over the lack of letting me know if you were even alive.” He glared down at mom with a gaze I’d felt from dad on more than a few occasions. “If I really wanted vengeance, or a return to the fold, I wouldn’t have brung her spawn along too. No, what I want isn’t your momma coming back…” A pair of wooden doors crashed open from behind Broadsides as the two trappers who left had returned bringing in a massive, covered platter like the one mom and murky were brought in on. The aroma clashed so heavily with the stench from the rest of the trappers that I thought I was hallucinating it. The scent of fresh steak with the oh so delicious tang of seasonings and spices filled the air along with steam from a dish served hot and ready. That’s when Broadsides made his intentions known. “It's you two I want in our family now.”

The dish wasn’t the cooked steak from some animal. As the platter was set down and the cover removed, I saw not the body of a hunted animal, but of a hunted pony. The head was gone and fresh swamp fruit stuffed into its exposed neck hole. The body was cooked thoroughly with no skin left, but if I had to guess it belonged to one of the ponies who attacked us yesterday. Every trapper in attendance was eagerly awaiting what would happen next as Broadsides laughed from the bottom of his heart as our horrified expressions.

I knew what was coming. The writing was on the wall. I just didn’t want to acknowledge it, nor did I want to acknowledge the fact Murky was staring at the corpse with a hunger in her eyes she couldn’t keep hidden. That same look must be in mine as well.

Neither of us had eaten since before the fight with the clones. It’s been well over a day since we’d had anything to eat.

“Muddy, please. Don’t.” Mom begged us not to partake in the obvious, but Broadsides shushed her immediately with a hoof to cover her mouth.

“You are daughters of Wayward, but after today you will be daughters of the hunt! Return to your blood roots, join us. Because if you will not return to the fold, your mother will.” He made it clear what he wanted from us as he pushed the platters towards us. I wanted to vomit at the sight, but there was nothing in me to throw up. I was starved, beaten, and exhausted from the lack of rest. All of this combined made the orange flesh seasoned and glazed with carefully crafted sauces so…so tantalizing.

But I would not become a trapper. Never. “I…I can’t accept this. We can’t accept this bullshit. I’m sorry, but we’ve already set out to become homesteaders. We don’t belong to Wayward anymore, we belong to ourselves. We belong to the Sisters.”

Seeing Broadsides nearly choke on his own spit was hilarious to me, but I couldn’t show it. Not after telling such a bold-faced lie. Even Murky was giving me a confused look, but I let her know it was going to be okay with a wink.

“What?! You? A homesteader? Little filly you look like you can’t even take on a molerat by yourself, let alone the crap lying in wait in the brush of the swamps. You think I’m gonna let you spoon feed me that bullshit?” Both of his hooves slammed on the table that nearly sent me and Murky into the air.

Confidence. Don’t be a pussy now, Muddy. You can’t feel fear, only confidence. “Me and my sister tore our way through a horde of ferals underground along with the rest of our homesteader sisters. We stuck together out there through a bloodbath. Then we beat down one of your best hunters! And to top it all off, I knocked the crap out of a Red Eye slaver in combat armor back in Wayward with nothing but my own two hooves! Don’t think for a second I won’t rise to the challenge. Even if it means climbing over a mountain like you!” Those weren’t exactly lies, just half truths. But if I believed them, then maybe I could convince him to believe it too.

Which I think he actually bought. His hoof carefully rubbed his chin in thought as the trappers in the room looked on, waiting for his decision. After careful deliberation, Broadsides spoke. “You got fire only a trapper in these parts could have. My ponies also told me what you did to that stallion on the road leading here. I gotta say, I’m impressed. So…tell ya what. If you become a trapper here, I’ll let you go be a homesteader out there. Prove to me you have what it takes, that you got the strength, to survive against all odds.” He held a fork in his hoof and stabbed the utensil into the back of the cooked pony. “I’ll make you a new deal. Partake in the forbidden meat, take our pilgrimage to the lands to the far north and reach the H.M.S Luna. If you can do all of that, I will be satisfied with your families cutting ties to us.”

I may have succeeded in not being forced to join, but I wasn’t able to back out of having to eat a fellow pony. Even as the idea repulsed me, my body was far more eager than my mind. My tongue was watering and it took a quick gulp to avoid drooling. Hunger and exhaustion were a horrid combination, but anything was tasty if you were hungry enough. Maybe that's what creates trappers in the first place.

Me and Murky looked at each other with sunken expressions of dread, but we knew what we had to do. Taking the fork, I ripped a large chunk of meat from the hind leg and slowly placed it beneath my teeth to chew. Oh I cried when I ate that pony, I cried and cried…but not from the trauma I was experiencing.

I cried because of how delicious, how savory this pony tasted. When it was Murky’s turn, she wept alongside me and mom, though I expected mom was crying for very different reasons. Before I realized what was happening, I was going back for seconds. Then thirds. I was just…just so hungry. I was starving! By the time we were done, the trappers and Broadsides cheered with weapons raised high. We’d eaten the entire leg of this poor pony. Satisfaction soon turned to disgust, then nausea once the hunger finally dissipated. It felt like hours, but it couldn’t have been more than a few, repulsive minutes gorging on one of our own species.

“Uh uh uh! If you vomit, I’ll make you eat it again. Not a single calorie goes to waste out here, none!” I figured as much. Vomiting would be too easy for us to get out of this mess.

“S-shut up. I just…I just…” The crackle of my Pipbuck echoed in my head as words appeared in my vision. Into the Maw was now labeled as complete with the objectives having been reached. I don’t know what or who was updating this thing on my wrist, but I was happy for the pleasant distraction. A job well done. Mom and Murky were both safe and not trapper food. For that I was infinitely grateful. “Thank you.” I begrudgingly said to Broadsides who’s smile grew like his gut when he inhaled.

“Welcome. Most ponies would have broken down there. Their resolve wouldn’t have lasted like yours. For that you’ve earned my respect.” He held his hoof out for me to bump which I returned shakily. The mechanical whirring of the sentry bot's legs kicked up as Broadsides began to roll away and leave the dining hall. Before he left, he had one last thing to say to us.

His head turned just enough to give us a glance as he said “A sisterhood, eh? Well then, show me what you lot got in store for the wasteland. It’s sink or swim in the wetlands. Don’t disappoint.”

The rest of the trappers gave me various praises and positivity, but their words I tuned out. I tried tuning out a lot for the next hour as me and Murky contemplated what had happened. Even when I tried to not think about it, or justify it in my head, the thought of what horrid act I’d done wasn’t going away. There would be no ignoring this problem, but the taste in my mouth was still there telling me it had been worth it. Damn the trappers, damn them all. What was worse was how mom was taking it. She didn’t need to say it for us to understand why she was hugging us so hard and crying into our manes with soft whimpers.

This wasn’t the life she had wanted for her children, but it's one we were a part of now. Whether we liked it or not.

***

Level up: level 6

Perk added: Cannibal

-You’ve partaken in the forbidden flesh and found it succulent. You gain health and action point regeneration when you consume the flesh of your fellow ponies including ghouls, alicorns and zebras.

Companion Perk added: Soul Bonded

-There are many like this one, but this one is mine. As long as Murky Waters is in your party you gain +1 to all S.P.E.C.I.A.L stats. When Murky is not in your party, you gain -1 to all stats instead.

Author's Note

This one I was very late on releasing, but it was bigger than the usual chapter. Also I wasted 2 weeks of the month. Huge oof on my part.

Chapter 6.5: In The Shadow of Giants

The different lives I lead, my body lives on lead. The last two lines might read, incorrect until said.

***

My name is Muddy Waters. A small-town mare with a lot of potential, or at least that's what I’ve come to believe. After all, when there are five of you all working together to complete a task there's nothing you can’t accomplish! For example…

“Miss Waters, I believe you missed a spot.”

…cleaning dozens upon dozens of corpses from a Stable one floor at a time. The work was brutal and on more than a few occasions we struggled to hold down a fresh wave of vomit. Luckily, we weren’t born with food in our stomachs so we didn’t have to worry about wasting a meal. In fact we haven’t had a meal since the battle down here. Which was yesterday.

I growled at the hovering robot that worked alongside us as we mopped up buckets worth of blood and other fluids I dare not think about. “We’d work better if we had some food in our systems and a break every now and again, you flying squid.” The robot with its three metal arms just stared at me, unblinking, with his three metal eyes.

The Mister Handy fluttered over towards me with its bloodied buzzsaw pointing in my direction. It wiggled it at me menacingly before huffing. “You and I both know the only thing to eat here is what's in these bags. So do be a dear and hold a stiff upper lip when it comes to performing the tasks at hand. Especially since neither of us was made for such…unscrupulous work.”

I held no respect for the machine, but I did respect Helix for reactivating them once the threat to the Mister Handy units was gone. A century of deactivation did little to stop the machines from hacking the hostile clones to sizable chunks for proper transportation to the crematorium. None of the Muddy Water clones, nor the original herself, had even heard of a crematorium before. Same with the Mister Handy robots that hovered about gathering the corpses and chopped them up before depositing the bits within the trash bag pile. These were the first robots we’d ever seen active.

But there were only so many Handys, and as the work carried on into the night and onto the next morning, we wondered if the original was having as much luck as we were.

“Hey, Five! The blood on the upper floors is starting to dry out. We don’t have enough hooves for all this. Can’t we go make more clones to help?” Another of the Muddy Waters clones rounded the corner with a dark red mop dripping with watered down blood and viscera. At some point the other four clones had partnered up in pairs, leaving me, the fifth clone with nobody to call a bond mate. It did leave me in a position to give out orders as the rest fell in line seeking constant direction and guidance.

It left me wondering if I was always so ready to do as others commanded.

“I was wondering about that myself.” Helix hadn’t really told us much, only that where the cleaning supplies were and where to start. The Mister Handy robots just did all the heavy lifting, but we were stuck to mopping and dealing with the surviving Jellybean clones. “You know what, let's talk to Helix about that. There’s a lot of work to be done, let’s see about reducing it.” The Mister Handy scoffed at us for dropping our mops as his buzz saw whirled to life before cutting into the body of another Jellybean clone.

***

Summoning Helix Twist was the easy part. A simple button press and she was there above us with her glass dome encased brain looming over us as it slid from a hatch in the ceiling. Convincing her was another matter.

“I thought I explained to you already that the process needs the original. Without her here, your next batch of clones would be woefully out of date. The last time a clone was made was before the seizing of the Stable.” Her brain shook back and forth in a disapproving manner. “How would you feel standing in a lab one moment, then waking up in a bathtub days into the future? The mental strain on new clones only gets worse the further in time we get.”

It took me a moment to process that. It made sense. I was freaking out a bit when I realized I was no longer the original who had everything. “Okay, but it’s only been a day. I bet the new clones would be happy they get to skip all the hard parts. Plus, why can’t we get our memories cloned? We’re the same mare as the original, right?”

Again Helix shook her brain before lowering herself further to the point she was at eye level. “It is hard coded into the machine that transfers your memories. Those talismans and coded enchantments will not accept copied memories it’s responsible for. Dr. Doublit made sure his creation could not be misused regardless of whoever might have found themselves in ownership of the technology. We wouldn’t want some never-do-well creature using this as a form of quasi immortality, would we?”

As much as I didn’t want to give her credit, she was right. I could live forever if all I had to do was repeatedly clone myself. The work I had to do still took priority and we could still manage new clones, even if we had to coddle them to keep them from freaking out.

“Okay, we get that, but we still want more workers. Even if it’s not for the Stable, we still need ponies on the outside finding us some food. Otherwise we’re going to have to dig into the Jellybean rations.” Me and my sister looked at one another with a hint of worry. As much as we liked to joke and say things we didn’t mean, there was a real chance mom’s plan to feed the Jellybean clones working on the Stable’s more important systems might extend to us as well.

After all, those corpses in the lower levels were just another resource and the Jellybeans were already accustomed to self cannibalism. Why feed them real food when they’ve been eating each other for possibly decades? Gruesome, but no worse than the world above ground.

We sat in silence as the brain twitched and slid around its glass casing. Occasionally we could hear murmurs and hums coming from Helix’s speakers, but we let her do her hidden work in peace until finally she chirped. “Right! I’ll allow this breach in protocol if you can do one favor for me. I’ll need the rest of your sister’s help for this. Consider it a personal request, in good faith.”

“Anything.” Our voices aligned in a harmony only a pair of twins could maintain.

Within the hour the sisters came together as soon as they could. Navigating what could only be a metal village took time, but eventually all five of us had found ourselves on the second level down. The other three sisters were together, but two of them were clad in the blue jumpsuits that Stable dwellers wore with a big 98 on the back and flanks. I could only guess they’d found those and immediately took them for themselves.

“Where’d you guys find jumpsuits?” The clone travelling with me asked as she circled them with admiration clear on her face. “I want one!”

“We found them here actually.” One of the clones with the jumpsuits pointed down the hall to a large sign that read, ‘HABITATION’ on it. “This is where the Stable ponies' houses were. We took a look in one since all the doors are unlocked. We didn’t just camp in the infirmary like you guys did, we camped here.”

“They got the comfiest beds and hot water! We took showers and baths for hours in ‘em.” Hot water was an unheard of luxury back home. Water was a luxury, so cleaning oneself with it was not something you did often in the wasteland. Muddy Waters did it even less than the normal pony, and by bath we mean jumping in a stream and hoping the radiation wasn’t too bad.

“I’m aware of your overuse of water, Miss Waters. You and your sister spent three hours showering, each. I will have to teach you rationing once the more important matters are resolved. Speaking of which…” The lights went out, then came back on without warning. I did notice one hallway's lights refused to come back, but another hallway was bright and cheery further into the habitation area.

“Understood. Come on sisters, let’s move.” We didn’t need any Pipbucks to know when we needed to follow along. The only lights on it seemed were the ones leading us someplace, but to what we were uncertain.

“Hey!” One sister called out. “What’s our mission this time? It’s not to kill something is it?”

Helix responded over the loudspeaker this time since she hadn’t moved from the elevator entry area. I wasn’t sure why. “You are being led to find somepony very precious to me. I have no doubt this pony died over a hundred years ago, but I do not have the strength to do anything about their predicament myself. I…I will…you’ll see soon enough.”

Cryptic and unhelpful, but it was better than nothing. A corpse. Or perhaps a ghoul was lurking somewhere here. Either way, we were meant to do something about it. Bury it, cremate it, whatever. Helix commanded and we obeyed, so long as something came from all this at least.

The further we went on, the creepier it became. Each dwelling had some semblance of a front yard in front of it like you’d see in a book or movie from a pre-war projector. It was clear this entire level, which meant to house close to one thousand ponies, was abandoned. Like walking through the world’s cheeriest ghost town. Every clack or clatter of the machinery which kept this place running spooked us something fierce. Even with the lights on and the place devoid of blood or rust, it still felt like we were walking in the shadow of the dead. A generation long past and a place only they had interacted with some time a hundred years ago. I wasn’t sure when this place was left behind, or what happened to the dwellers, but it couldn’t have been good.

Halls were labeled like streets and every so often you’d find some kind of restaurant or place that provided a service like laundry or something. A small store built into the wall here, a massage parlor there. It was an exciting concept if it wasn’t one forced on ponies. Just being down here for a day was already making me wish to see the irradiated world above again.

“Hey, look!” Damnit! One sister in front had yelled so suddenly, I nearly jumped out of my skin. Up ahead was a single light illuminating a corner that held a lone door. Nothing impressive or notable about it, just a door. Probably some kind of broom closet. “Is this it?”

“Indeed.” Helix spoke up again through the speakers, but refused to show herself. Why? “Please…enter. It is but a small room for utilities. And…retrieve him.”

It was my turn. Carefully, my hoof pressed the button on the side of the wall to activate the door. As its mechanisms shifted and the door swooshed up into the frame beyond our sight, we saw something within the darkness. Something gruesome.

A lone pony skeleton covered in dust and cobwebs sat in a closet as I figured. The floor was covered in decades old matter I could only assume came from the now bone dry skeleton. From the looks of it the pony had come into this closet and never came out. Even as they died of starvation or something equally slow. “Helix…”

“I know. I should explain. It took me years, countless years of searching and watching of security footage, but I eventually found him. Dr. Doublit. My mentor…my best friend.” Another hatch in the ceiling opened. Finally Helix had joined us, but she seemed far more reserved and the lighting of her casing was dimmed, almost vacant. “We were the only ponies to stay behind during the evacuation. We forced everypony out so quickly once the feral clones began to breach the labs and make their way into engineering. I was already a brain by that point and…h-he refused to leave me behind. Not that it mattered, I can’t leave this place without a proper robotic body, something we just didn’t have.”

“He didn’t plan on leaving without you. So he just…didn’t leave.” A sister moved to enter the closet and get a good look inside.

“Is it safe to assume everypony evacuated because of Jellybean?”

“Yes.” Helix’s horn shone bright as she projected another image on the wall with magic. Slowly the image began to move. It looked like security camera footage, probably something from her long memory. “This Stable was made to protect ponies, but that was only a bonus objective at best. Not even a secondary objective. Its main mission was to judge the survivability of ponies in dangerous working conditions and the mental strain it would have on other occupants.”

Wait, was that what the others were talking about before? About the Stables being bad or something? “Explain…”

“Scientists from Stable-Tec were here, not just from our project, but from Stable-Tec’s own projects. Before Stable-Tec, me and Dr. Doublit devoted our lives to preserving Equestrians. The best way we could do that was to find a way to win the war without throwing ponies into meat grinders in no-pony land. Doublit was the brains behind most of the project, I was just there to help him since he…”

The sister from the closet emerged, albeit slowly and as gingerly as possible. “Hey there’s something on this guy's head. Looks like a crown or something.” When she emerged, she carried the skeleton out with her. She tried her best to slide the poor stallions' remains across the floor and avoid damaging them. On his head was a black crown-like device with a glass orb stuck within a socket on the crown. One noticeable feature beyond the strange device was the fact the skeleton had no horn.

“Since he wasn’t a unicorn. And now you see the problem, I can’t touch him with magic while he’s wearing that device. It’s a recollector. It's for non-unicorns to be able to store and view memories from memory orbs, like the one plugged into the device currently.”

The sister dragging the skeleton into the hall stopped once the doctor was within sight and fully exposed to the light. It felt like graverobbing, but it was a favor we agreed upon. “So what’s stopping you from picking him up with magic?” She asked.

Helix’s eye turned to the doctor's remains and stayed locked on to his form while answering. “If a unicorn’s magic touches a memory orb, it will activate and bring the pony in question into the orb. I would be forced to watch whatever is inside until the memory is complete every time I grab the skeletal remains.”

One of the jumpsuit clad sisters grabbed the device and removed it from his head as carefully as she could. Once off, she wiped it clean. “So rather than get butchered by the rampant clones, he hid in this closet and just…kept watching memories on repeat until he died.” The first sister who initially pulled him out went back in and brought a bag of orbs out with her. There must have been six or seven in the bag alone.

“What caused all this? What did Stable-Tec do down here? Don’t tell me they unleashed these clones on all those poor ponies.” Another sister spoke up “And how did Stable-Tec start making clones in the first place? We want answers and we won’t get brushed aside again. We’re not backing down this time.”

A chorus of agreements followed the sister’s words. I chimed in my support for her as well. We wanted to know just how wrong things had gotten before our arrival. For a moment or two, I thought Helix’s silence meant she had clammed up and wasn’t going to talk. Then she surprised by lowering herself to eye level and spoke in a low tone. “Fine. But let’s do this after we send his remains to rest. If not for me then please do it for him. Your true creator…” I found myself surprised yet again by just how much emotion a robotic mare’s voice could hold, but sorrow was palpable within the lone ceiling light’s embrace.

“Alright then. Let’s give him a proper funeral.”

***

When the tears began to swell in my eyes I checked to see if no one was watching before wiping them away. The atmosphere was like a typical funeral, only the music the many Mister Handy robots were playing was just making it that much sadder. Even Helix’s light remained dulled and her mono eye remained firmly planted on Doublit’s skeleton. Her horn glowed with magical aura as the doctor's remains were lifted from the bag we’d placed him in and gently onto the crematorium slab.

She did her best to arrange his bones in a way to give him a still pony appearance instead of a pile of bones. The amount of care and respect she placed in him was something else entirely. Even after the passing of lifetimes since his death, she still looked up to him like a pony would to Celestia or Luna. “I pray his soul is at peace. Forgive my failures, professor. I will not fail again…never again.”

With that said, she pulled the lever which began the process of rolling his slab into the furnace and closing the door before igniting the flames and burning what was left of him to ash. Ashes to ashes, dust to dust.

“Allow me to thank you all for accommodating my request,” Helix whispered. “You have no idea how long I waited to be able to finally grab a hold of him and bring his body to a proper rest. He deserved better than a broom closet for a tomb. You have my thanks…and my respect.” Helix’s voice warbled and shuddered as if she was trying to hold back the floodgates of sorrow. If any of us noticed it, which I’m sure we all did, we dared not say anything about it. We simply gave our quiet thanks and let her continue. “Now…ask your questions once more and I shall answer them all. You deserve that much.”

I mustered the resolve I’d been saving for sometime and began my request in earnest. “What happened down here. Start from the beginning, your beginning.”

Helix blinked and replied “Very well.”

She began to speak softly and slowly. “I was just a university student in Canterlot. What I wanted most was to understand the pony mind and body so I could heal ponies from the war. Some scars were on the outside, but many bore scars on the soul. It haunted them like a specter looming over them, washing their every emotion in despair. A broken hoof was easy, a broken mind was nearly impossible. That challenge was what I meant to conquer, but fate had other plans.”

A projection was cast over the dark metal walls of the crematorium, the same spell Helix used to display things or moments of importance. What we saw was the mirror image of a still breathing, still whole Helix Twist. Her messy orange mane and light blue coat were full of life I didn’t expect to see from a mare like her. When she smiled while holding up a graduate's doctorate I could see she still had braces in her teeth and hope in her eyes.

She didn’t say it was her, but I knew in my heart this was the still living, much younger version of the scientist. The old world was so alien I felt like the brain in the jar descending from the ceiling was more pony than the young, happy mare standing in front of intact structures in Canterlot.

“I wanted to work for the Ministry of Peace. I wanted to follow in ministry mare Fluttershy’s hoofsteps. She was everything I aspired to be and more, yet…” The light returned to Helix’s glass dome, this time with a familiar red tint to it as her brain matter shook. “...yet I was drafted. The ministry, Equestria, didn’t need doctors at home. They needed them out there, on the frontlines. All that effort to put myself through university, all that effort for a doctorate and yet I still get pushed to put my life in danger. It was not fair to me or all I had achieved!”

The image on the wall changed. This time it was Helix and a new pony, a middle aged stallion with some weight to him stood beside her. He had a greying white coat with a head covered with an amber mane tied back into a ponytail with the same color beard neatly cut. “Is that…” I was about to ask, but Helix answered right away leaving no room for specifics. She didn’t need them.

“Doublit. He was my professor who I studied under while working on the final stretch of my tenure at university. When he heard I was being drafted, he pulled some strings to get me a job at the Ministry of Arcane Science instead. I owed him my life and that's what I gave him. He told me he needed someone of my skills in mental health and pony biology for a project the M.A.S was working on, so I jumped at the chance to avoid the war. The Great War…” The image on the wall shifted. Now it was a picture of a small pond within some kind of cave. It glowed with a brilliant blue light which illuminated the cave, as well as Helix and Doublit.

I raised my hoof to interrupt. “He wasn’t just some professor, was he? Sounds like he was a scientist for Twilight Sparkle.”

Her mono eye rotated around her dome and when it had found me it made sure to stare into my soul. I remember the parts of Helix’s hatred for Twilight when the original spoke to Helix about the subject, but beyond that I didn’t care to remember the rest. “We both were, after that agreement. Project Mirror Mirror was to be our life's work. Everything revolved around that ancient pool of water called a mirror pool. From its waters you are born. And every other clone from our project for that matter.”

“Wait wait wait! Now hold on one second.” I turned to see one of the stable jumpsuit clad sisters raise her hoof. “You said you were working for the M.A.S, but all your lab stuff is sitting in the bottom of a Stable and you even said it was supposed to be hidden. So what happened to the M.A.S?”

“I’ll tell you what happened. Project Mirror Mirror failed.” Again the image on the wall changed as Helix twirled to face it and change it one more time. “We were tasked to use the mirror pool to create soldiers to fight in the place of actual ponies. A limitless supply of expendable manpower we could throw at the zebras all the while ponies born and raised in Equestria and beyond could stop wasting their lives on a stupid conflict with tribals.” Helix sighed, defeated. “You have no idea just how close we were to greatness.”

This time the image showed a red, earth pony stallion with a blonde mane. He was tall, burly, and the very definition of stoic. The very sight of him made me blush at just how strong he seemed. A real stallion. “W-who’s that?” I wasn’t sure who asked this time. My attention was fixed on the hunk’s photo.

“He is the brother of the ministry mare in charge of the Ministry of Wartime Technology. His name was Big Macintosh and he was supposed to be our perfect specimen. Perfect in every way we could have imagined.” Her eye turned from us to the image she was projecting before continuing. “We had a strict guideline on just who was to be cloned. He needed to be strong, physically fit, clear of any present or future disease, unwavering in the face of the enemy, capable of leadership, loyal to ponykind and Equestria, but most importantly he had to be mentally sound. Mares weren’t even considered to be genetic templates for the cloning process.”

There were a bit of mixed feelings in there, but the biggest was confusion. Big Mac seemed to be perfect for the role just by looking at him. “If you had him, then why did it fail?” I asked, but more like demanded. “How do you fail when everything is supposedly perfect?”

“Because of that bitch Twilight Sparkle!” Helix roared to life with a fury she’d never displayed before. “We had everything! Every goal met, every requirement fulfilled, every expectation for our project was satisfied. And yet, when we submitted our application for Mic Mac’s return from the front, we. Were. DENIED!”

The projection faded as Helix roared in a metal scream that felt like the howl of a wasteland horror. The voice box that helped her speak crackled and distorted her rage, but she remained focused on her hatred enough for us to see just how terrifying the remnants of a mare scorned could truly be.

“She never even gave us a reason. Every effort we made to use him as a template was met with a slap to the face! When we said he could save thousands of lives and win us the war, she didn’t give a damn about any of it.” Her mono eye twitched and shook with rage as it rotated back to the wall. Her magic formed another image over the wall, this time of the ministry mare herself, Twilight. “She ruined us. By the time she finally gave us the go ahead to request his transfer, he was dead. Died a fucking hero saving Princess Celestia’s life against an assassination attempt.”

My heart was starting to beat its way through my ribs as the adrenaline took hold. Helix held a hundred years worth of hate in her heart and she was letting it show. “B-but couldn’t you have found somepony else?”

“THERE WAS NOPONY ELSE!” She screamed. “Every miserable pony we cloned was either a coward, couldn’t handle the existential nightmare of being a copy, couldn’t stand themself, or failed one of the other requirements we had. We even expanded to mares just to try and lock down a candidate.” Her metallic voice huffed with a burning fury that finally showed signs of petering out.

Then she sighed, lifted herself above us and cut off her magic. Her emotions were spent and her hatred subsided. For now.

“The project was perfect. Our work was flawless. It was the template we couldn’t make perfect. When we failed to meet our deadlines, Twilight had the project mothballed and ordered the entire thing shelved. Our dreams were crushed before they even fully got off the ground.” Helix sighed again, this time with an air of depression circling her brain like a vulture.

I wish I could have hugged that brain in a jar. An ancient pony who met nothing but failure in every venture she pursued, now stuck as a brain encased in glass and strange fluids. “I…I’m sorry to hear that…you didn’t deserve that, or this.” I waved a hoof around the room. “You didn’t deserve to be trapped here because the world ended, but you haven’t explained how you came to be here. Or what ‘here’ even is yet…”

“You’re right.” Her dome lowered again as the Mister Handys moved to open the now extinguished furnace and remove the slab that once held Doublit’s bones. “We made our complaints known about the discontinuation of our project, but all we did was paint targets on our backs. What we managed to create, or rather manipulate, made us knowledgeable about just how to magically create bodies and how to fill them with pony memories.”

The magic on the wall shifted to show a site I’d seen a few times in my life as I scavenged through old buildings and houses long since abandoned after the great war. A picture of a poster featuring a pink pony creepily staring us down with some kind of message now unreadable. That was Pinkie Pie, the scariest pony we ever learned about back in the Wayward school. Of all the ministry mares in our history classes, she was the one who inspired fear in us more than any other figure in those old textbooks.

If I remembered some of those old pre-war posters I’d seen, I had a feeling that was probably the point.

“That knowledge made us dangerous in the eyes of the Ministry of Morale. The M.A.S agreed. So they decided the best course of action until the war ended was to store our memories alongside the project itself for safe keeping.” Again another change in the image Helix projected. This time it was another poster from the old world with a sneaky zebra about to pounce on an unsuspecting pony from behind. “Just in case zebras ever came for us, or worse, we decided to defect and take our research with us.”

The sisters alongside me all cringed at the thought of what might have happened. “But you didn’t get your memories taken, right? You worked on that project for so long it seems. They would have had to take years from you.” Or more, but I didn’t want to think about that.

Helix just nodded quietly and shut down her spell. “Memory is what makes ponies people. It is what defines us beyond our core personality traits. Had Doublit not used connections he’d gathered during his professor days, me and him both would have woken up entirely different ponies one day after a deleted visit to a M.O.M facility. And believe me, Pinkie would have gladly done that had Stable-Tec not gotten involved.”

Stable-Tec, the boogie man of the past that everypony I talked to about the matter seemed to have remarkably negative opinions of. “Tell us about Stable-Tec! Nopony ever gives us a straight answer about them and we’re tired of wondering.”

I watched as Helix Twist managed to roll her mono eye camera before looking back to us with contempt. How she managed to convey that emotion with only one eye and nothing else was a feat in and of itself. “They knew about Doublit and they knew how passionate he was. Old contacts combined with Stable-Tec having insiders into the ministries supposedly top secret projects meant those ponies knew what was about to happen to us. We only knew about it because they warned us in advance. And they offered a solution to our predicament.”

At this point I was sitting alongside my four fellow clones as we watched Helix’s slideshow continue. This next image was herself and Doctor Doublit sitting in chairs similar to the one I…or rather the original, sat in during her first arrival to this Stable. The helmet that copies memories like the one in the lower labs was covering both of their heads.

“Wait a second…n-no, you’re a clone too” one sister said. “You escaped using a clone,” another said.

Helix sighed again, seemingly exhausted. “I don’t know. I’ll never truly know for sure. The Ministry of Morale wanted memories, but if they saw the memory of us being cloned they’d know we were a copy and go after the real Helix and Doublit. So, we removed the memory of the entire process ourselves.” Her mono eye glowed a brilliant blue just like the water from the mirror pool picture.

So Helix and the doctor were cloned, but removed the memory so they wouldn’t know which is which. Clever. “It's like a bait and switch. Or something. You just gave those ministry goons a clone with altered memories and you escaped underground, right?”

The brain just sat in silence for a few seconds, then blinked. “It’s…hard to say. We wiped the memory from the clones so they’d think they were the originals, but in order for the entire plan to succeed we had to wipe the plan from our memory too. The process had to be seamless before the clones' memories were imprinted. Pinkie was…very thorough with suspects and their minds. I’ll leave the rest to your imagination.”

“But you know of the plan! Doesn’t that make you the original?” My sister said, though which one I wasn’t sure. The rest echoed the sentiment.

Again, Helix just blinked. “I only know of the plan because I watched a memory orb. There is evidence to suggest I’m the clone and evidence to suggest I’m not. The unknowing nature of the situation is what helped the plan succeed. We could leave no room for errors when it came to the M.O.M. Then again, it was Stable-Tec who was the outside party helping us. If anyone had any true grasp on the situation, it would be them.”

“Woah, hold on again” I shouted. “Helix, don’t tell me Stable-Tec was the mastermind behind this.”

Her brain simply nodded.

“You’re kidding” every sister except me shouted. The feeling we had was mutual. Helix gave her dream to Stable-Tec.

“I’m not. Stable-Tec was the invisible hooves that guided us after the memory wipe and the one who gave our memories back. They never needed our equipment, research, or the bloody enchanted water. All they needed was us.” The next image to appear on the wall was Helix Twist clad in the same blue jumpsuit as my sisters. She was working in the same lab we were born in with all six glass tubes still intact and hanging neatly from the ceiling.

“So they give you everything you’ve ever needed to keep the project going, but why would Stable-Tec want cloning technology?” She said she was going to give us answers if we asked, so I was going to ask the tough questions.

Though, maybe I should have expected tough answers. Because when Helix’s eye turned to me with its blue robotic gaze I began to shrink back under its renewed intensity. “Because, Muddy, they wanted it to add to their already existing experiment going on here. We were just a bonus, but that wasn’t the reason they gave us when they gave us their sales pitch on why we should take their offer.”

“And that reason was?” I said.

“To preserve our life’s work. To preserve us. It was an offer we couldn’t refuse. When we saw Stable-Tec’s predictions come true, and what happened to our other selves, we graciously accepted. After that, we were down here well before the bombs ever dropped on Equestria. The records, like our duplicate’s minds, were wiped from Stable-Tec’s database and our lab here was the same.” A cold laugh echoed from her brain’s speakers as she lowered herself to reach eye level. Then she shot forward to stare me down, eye to eye.

In the sudden staring contest, I found myself the loser quite quickly. “We didn’t realize Stable-Tec had ulterior motives for us and our work. They integrated everything into a command room, the very lab you stumbled into after your births. From there we studied and perfected our work, all while Stable-Tec was using it to replace ponies they murdered!”

Her brain didn’t leave my side as her eye spun around on its rail and began to project another image on the wall. Only this time it moved. The video was of an earth pony like me in a blue jumpsuit, a Stable dweller. It wasn’t anything special, just some pony working on some pipes behind a removed section of wall paneling. At least it was until the piping suddenly exploded as the pony stuck their head into the wall with a flashlight. The poor pony didn’t stand a chance against that kind of blast. In a way I was thankful Helix suppressed the image of the now headless corpse slumped against the wall as two more stable dwellers came to investigate the sudden and tragic death.

“I…What…” I stuttered. Helix turned back to me. “Helix…W-what was that…?”

“That?” Her cold laugh bounced off the walls of the crematorium so harshly I wanted to cover my ears. “That was the experiment! Ha haaa! How would ponies react to the sudden, untimely deaths of their fellow dwellers and the sudden resurrection of the recently departed? Isn’t it fantastic?” Her laugh was so dry I could feel dehydration fast approaching. Or maybe it was the rapid drying of my mouth as the shock set in. Murder? Just like that?

“Don’t be surprised,” Helix continued. “Saving ponies was never the goal. Not for this Stable at least. The goal here was to perform a social experiment so cruel that it pushed pony’s minds to the breaking point.”

More footage played across the wall, this time four all at the same time. Each one was another pony going about their day before some accident would occur. A loose bolt shooting out into the neck of a nearby stallion, a door malfunctioning and slamming shut as a mare passed underneath, a steel beam falling from the ceiling and crushing a poor filly. The worst one was the sudden disabling of the combat prohibitor on a Mister Handy robot. The last words that the poor janitor heard was something about a zebra infiltrator before he was sawed to pieces. Shazan was right. Damn that zebra.

Stables were the stuff of nightmares. A personal hell for the unlucky survivors of the end of the world.

“You were a part of this? This cycle of murder and rebirth?” I asked. I already knew the answer, but I wanted to hear her say it, to admit it. Or maybe I wanted to be wrong.

From the sullen tone in her voice, I knew right away I was right. “W-we did not have a choice. They gave us everything we had ever asked for. They saved our lives! We didn’t expect the bombs to actually drop, nor did we expect the Stable-Tec scientists working with us were conducting their own experiments until it was too late.” Her brain shook in its casing as the memories forced the image she was projecting to change.

Green mushroom clouds rose over the horizon like titans dwarfing the poor souls down below, casting the light of death over Equestria. There were…just so many. “Armageddon” I whispered in a hoarse voice.

Her brain nodded again. “Our world ended, but my world wasn’t over just yet. As the Stable door closed our new lives began underground. Voluntary self exile became involuntary in the blink of an eye.” She blinked a few times, turning to each of us as she continued. “ After that, the real work started. The work we couldn’t say no to, otherwise we’d find ourselves on the receiving end of Stable-Tec’s booby trapped bunker.”

Helix took a short pause to take a deep breath before continuing. I wasn’t sure why she did that or made those noises. The poor mare doesn’t even have lungs or a mouth.

The projections ceased as Helix turned back to our group. “For decades we worked in silence. When Stable-Tec killed off some poor soul we brought them back, but only once. The limitations were known by the others, so they took their time and picked targets like reapers. Then they had us reintroduce them right back into society as if nothing had happened.”

I couldn’t imagine the horror of seeing somepony just die like that, only to reappear the next day like everything was normal. “I can see how that might leave some ponies a little fucked up.” Or a lot.

“It was agonizing for us and them,” Helix explained. “ I tried my best to give council to those who needed it. Those poor ponies were suffering enough from being trapped underground. Cabin fever was rampant, but things only got worse as ponies were forced to ignore the evidence of their eyes and ears as ponies they watched die suddenly walk among them again with no explanation.” The soft warble in her words returned, making her sound like she wanted to cry.

“Some passed it off as stress related delusions, as if they were going crazy.” Her eye turned away suddenly as if she couldn’t bear the sight of us. “Some of them did go crazy. Some killed themselves as the mental stress piled on. I could not save them then…Stable-Tec forbade it.”

I crossed my hooves and turned to the still hovering Mister Handys and smacked one against its pincer arm. When one of its eyes turned towards me I pointed to the door and tried to shoo them away. After what felt like an eternity of playing charades with a robot, the Mister Handy understood and motioned for the rest of the clean up crew to follow it out.

This was a moment the sisters and Helix needed alone. Slowly, I brushed my hoof against her glass casing. “I…don’t blame you for what happened here. There are some real monsters up there on the surface and I don’t mean the mutants. You’re not alone.” The metal mono eye turned to look up at me and I gave her the most sincere smile I could muster in return.

“Glad to see not much has changed in the two centuries I’ve been down here,” she muttered sarcastically.

The two sisters not wearing anything stood up and coughed quietly to get our attention. “So with that out of the way, what happened here? Where is everypony?”

Helix twist said nothing, did nothing, except for stare at the wall for almost an entire minute. As we waited, I contemplated shaking her dome or tapping on it. That is until her horn lit up without a word and began to play another bit of footage.

To my shock, this one was from Helix herself.

***

The world was tinted in a color resembling blue or some mix of blue and green. There were data displays along the corners of her vision showing her a constant stream of numbers and letters in jumbled sequences and moving too fast for me to read for more than a second. Of course her entire perspective was above the rest of the ponies as she hung from the ceiling.

“Doctor, the latest updates have been sent to us. You should be receiving them shortly. The recycler has syphoned enough power for a quick copy and paste job.” Helix said with an air of stability and emotion she didn’t display in the present. Her single eye focused on the chunky stallion she’d shown us earlier, Doublit, though his age had increased dramatically. What was a university professor barely into his forties was now a withered stallion who’s beard had grayed out entirely and body had shriveled with age I’d never seen before. He was like a ghoul, but still living. Still sane.

His tired milky eyes gazed up at the brain above him with a hard look that expressed nothing but exhaustion. “I already know who the next bastard is going to be. The reports can remain unread, unless you’d rather read them. They just make me angry now…” His voice trailed off as he set to work on the terminal in front of him. It was the same viewing area that was connected to the room full of glass pods. Each of his hooves, despite the age, moved with precision and well practiced skill as though he’d typed the commands hundreds of times.

Helix chirped again as new data crossed her vision in rapid order. “The mirror water distillation process has started, Doctor. The new clone is ready and waiting for memory transfer, sir. Vitals are stable. Subject is in stasis now and awaiting your word.”

Doublit rubbed his face with his hoof and sighed, the years of toying with hapless ponies at the beck and call of Stable-Tec had worn him down and it showed with every breath leaving his lungs. “He isn’t dead yet, but in a few minutes I have no doubt those lab coats will come in here demanding the replacement. Let’s go ahead and start the sequence and get ahead of the game so they don’t stick around like last time.”

They must have pony deaths on a damn schedule. So much so, that Doublit was preparing new clones in advance like a sick routine he could predict with how frequent it was. I could feel my blood boil at how casual it all was, or had become, for them. Death meant nothing to ponies like them. Like pre-war raiders. Like animals.

“Jellybean, how is he…going to go out, sir? It will take some editing to make this story align and I thought…” Helix asked, but Doublit raised a hoof and shook his head.

“We discussed this before” he stated, “you don’t have to get into these things like I do. It’s not healthy.”

Helix scoffed. “I’m a brain in a jar. Let’s worry about my mental health when the bio gel degrades. Until then, let me help you. I hate seeing you suffer alone after all these years.”

This couldn’t have been their first argument about this. Though, I had a feeling it would be their last. If Helix was showing this, it could only mean one thing. This was the doomsday for the Stable.

“Doesn’t matter,” he said as he rubbed his eyes with his hooves. “If they sent the update on the schedule it means they already got everything they need to proceed. We’ll just sedate him and let the doctors upstairs deal with the bedside bullshit.”

As Doublit typed away at the terminal and began reading the report for himself, Helix responded with a simple “Of course doctor,” before looking back through her own data scrolling through her vision. For a few moments of silence and tapping, there was peace and quiet. Everything seemed relatively boring.

Then the lights flickered before sputtering out entirely, casting a darkness over everything.

“Helix? Helix?! Are you okay?!” Doublit called out with terror in his voice. It was strange to think a little dark might cause a grown stallion to panic, but I remembered Helix was hooked up to the Stable like a jack-in-the-box toy. As the power died so too did Helix’s. Only a message scrolling across her vision was any indication Helix wasn’t currently dead.

‘Warning. Primary power grid failing. Brownout detected. Activating emergency power supply.’

“D-d-doc…doctor. I am…experiencing power fluctuations. Something is-is-is…wro-wrong. Wrong.” Helix sounded more like a protectron variant than a pony as her systems worked

through the emergency power start up process. “I’m…I’m reading…power failure on all levels. We have blackouts on levels one through five.”

Even if Helix was struggling with power, she was still well enough to use magic through her horn which she used to cast a gentle light spell. It quickly filled the immediate area with a white light which illuminated a worried Dublit. “As long as you’re still powered, that's all that matters.”

“No.” Helix responded quickly. “We’ve had a power failure during a memory installation process. There is no telling the damage dealt to our systems or what could be happening to the clone. We must…”

With a quick stomp of his hoof, Doublit silenced her. “We will wait for the backup generators to kick in, then we wait for security. There’s no telling how the clone might react if their memories are damaged. They could be unstable, dangerous even. We must be cautious.”

I had the good intuition to realize no amount of caution was going to prevent the future from happening. Helix, the ever cautious and faithful student, turned to the door separating the control room from the one filled with the six clone vats and used her magic to manually lock the door. “It would not be the first, sir” Helix spoke in a hushed voice. A dark story for another time if I remembered to ask about it.

“It is not,” he replied “But let’s pray it is the last.” Dim red lights filled the room as emergency power restored partial system access to the Stable. The gentle hum of local generators kicking in replaced the emergency lighting with the standard one as things seemingly returned to normal.

Kerthump

It was crazy just how short normal lasted. The familiar sound of a body hitting wet tile sounded from the other side of the thankfully locked door. The two pre-war ponies may not have known what was coming, but I did. My suspicions were confirmed when a familiar stallion's voice echoed through the room in a confused, angry roar.

“Hrrrrng. J…Jellybean. Je…JELLY.” The metal door rang out as one kick slammed against its metal bulwark, then another. And another.

“Helix! Talk to me, what’s the status of the subject?”

Fresh data was racing across Helix’s vision as she struggled to understand exactly what was happening. “Doublit, this doesn’t make any sense. The release sequence was started, completed, and now the system is reinitializing for a second cloning process…are you issuing these orders?” Error codes lit up the corners of her vision as she stored one error away just to be bombarded by two more.

Even as the good doctor typed furiously away at his terminal, the errors came in even greater force than before along with strings of corrupted code. “The system is stuck on the last command sequence we gave and is rebooting itself endlessly. It’s draining the Stable’s power grid and forcing brownout warnings on every sub system we have down here. I…”

Crash. Crash.

Again and again Jellybean bucked away at the metal door. Each time he struck made Helix’s vision shake. “I’ve read Jellybean's file. When he calms down, and he will, that stallion is going to find a way to unlock the door and break free.”

“Helix…I…I’m sorry.” Whether he’d given up or simply ran out of options, Doublit ceased his attempts at trying to fix the situation through the terminal and moved to dawn the coat he’d worn in the university photo. “We have only a moment before the system begins the next process and cycles an entire batch of faulty clones. I can’t stop it without shutting it down first. So, first things first. Can you access the security cameras in the power plant? That’s where Stable-Tec’s next accident was going to take place.”

The jar bound mare nodded, or as much as her brain could, and swapped the streams of code and numbers for a window looking into another room entirely. Helix must have complete access to everything in this Stable from her perch in the ceiling. The power plant the doctor wanted to view was a mess as expected, but something was immediately clear when Helix gazed through the cameras and focused on the blacked corpse of what I could only assume was the original Jellybean.

Bolts of lighting streaked from two charged pylons atop a pair of large generators and into the crispy corpse over and over, but sometimes those bolts would jump from Jellybean’s body to a control panel in the wall. Sparks would fly as the terminal was repeatedly overcharged and attacked by the power surge that ran out of control. “It’s bad, sir. Very bad.” Helix said. “Total loss of control over the grid and the main control panel is being damaged with no way to safely access it before the next blackout. Not without joining Jellybean.”

Defeated and weary from what would have to come next, Doublit sat against the wall and stared up at the ceiling. “Contact the Overmare. Inform her of the situation and let her know the Stable will be compromised soon. We have no choice but to evacuate.”

“But sir, I…” Helix wanted to suggest ways they could save the Stable, stop the machine, anything, but she didn’t get the chance as the system began the cloning procedure. As it did so, alarms sounded.

“Spell matrix coming online. Memory transfer in progress. Copy data initializing. All systems are functional. Vital signs are normal. Mirror Pool binary engram activated. Please stand by. Warning, power grid daily allotment has been exceeded. Brownouts imminent. Please stand by.” The automated system blared its warning as Helix’s vision swam once the power to her brain container began to wane.

“Do-do-doctor! I am so s–s-sorrrrrrry.”

“Helix!!!” That was the last word Helix Twist ever heard from Doctor Doublit before unconsciousness took hold of her. Her systems just couldn’t take the strain as the Stable’s power grid was being consumed so greedily by Stable-Tec’s own version of Project Mirror Mirror.

The rest was history. The few scraps of footage from Helix’s point of view were of her brief bouts of consciousness between power failures from each new wave of Jellybean clones being created. Sometimes she’d wake up to find Stable security fighting off waves of much younger Jellybean clones, other times she’d wake up to find security guards dead and Jellybean opening up panels in the wall to start hotwiring doors to escape further into the Stable. Alarms blared as automated voices demanded any who could listen to evacuate.

“This is an emergency alarm, code red. All essential and non-essential personnel evacuate. Evacuate. Rally point destinations have been updated on Pipbuck maps. Please follow all evacuation procedures at this time.” The robotic voice repeated again, but only got about half way before Helix passed out yet again as power failed.

It was a waking nightmare for the ponies down here, but maybe it was better than sticking around this deathtrap of a Stable. The world above was a cruel one, but a tortured existence could be avoided if you strived to build a better future. Down here, torture was all that was left.

What I failed to notice was Helix’s fake breathing becoming more strained as the memories she was projecting continued. She could have used her mono eye to project things like she did before, but the glow of her horn meant she was using magic this entire time. Now she was either at her limit with the magic usage, or the memories were opening old wounds. I suspected both to be the case.

“That’s enough, Helix,” I said loudly so she could hear me. “We’ve seen enough. We…I don’t want to see anymore.”

A hoof gripped my shoulder suddenly as a sister came up from behind me. “Did the Stable ponies escape? Please, I want to know. Please tell us they escaped!”

For Helix’s involvement in all this, I was surprised to see her brain nod in its casing as her eye turned towards us. Despite everything that had happened there was some light in this dark tunnel at the end. “Doublit made sure there were rally points for the dwellers to follow once they made it to the surface. High ground was key, so some old overpasses, bridges, and natural landmarks were mapped on their Pipbucks. You’d be surprised, or maybe not, to find the population of the Stable was quite high despite the fifty years of isolation. Some were instructed to head to one waypoint while others were instructed to go further north.”

“If that is the case, then that means…”

“That is correct. It’s very likely you are the product of Stable-Tec’s successful protection of a small population of ponies. Or perhaps, it’s failure to destroy them.” Helix seemed so pleased with herself at this revelation. To further show us just how likely her theory was, she displayed one last image. A Pipbuck styled map appeared on the wall with locations and personal waypoints marked. Point Wayward Trading Post was one such location that overlapped with one of Doublit’s waypoints.

Another was someplace called ‘The Moore’. A location north along the river that we hadn’t discovered yet. Or even heard of. If we did, we’d since forgotten.

A sister called out to Helix, “Hey what’s that spot on the river called? Never heard of a place called that.” A chorus of agreements sounded from the rest of the sisters as Helix coughed in her usual pretend way.

“I’ve been keeping tabs on the original Muddy Waters since she left through her Pipbuck. She's heading to this location now, but for whatever reason, I can’t say.” Helix spoke matter of factly, but I couldn’t shake the uneasy feeling growing in my gut as a marker showing Muddy’s location popped up in the middle of the river far more north than the Stable was.

Whatever she was doing, it wasn’t returning to her new home or family.

Plus, I had this sneaky suspicion that Helix twist wasn’t being entirely honest, but I didn’t have any reason to doubt her. So why did I suddenly not want to believe her? Something wasn’t adding up.

“She’s gotta be on a boat. Do you think she got caught by trappers again?”

“What if she’s being carried away by a ‘lurk?!”

“Enough. All of you.” Helix stepped in before general worry turned to panic as the unknown was left unexplained. “I can only assume she’s completing the tasks I’ve set out for her and that is to bring this Stable back into operational capacity. While she does that, let’s see about getting the next generation of Muddy Waters up and running.”

Before she returned to the ceiling, her emotions corrected and her drive restored, she grabbed the ashes of the late Doctor Doublit and floated them gently into a prepared urn which she took with her as her glass dome and the urn entered the ceiling hatch and vanished. Now our job was to reach the lower level and await our new sister's creations.

As we rode the elevator back down my thoughts were on our original self and her venture north. Eventually she’d run into the place called The Moore and meet whoever lived there. I prayed when she got there she’d find civilized ponies and avoid trappers. If Muddy died, so would our dreams of a new future.

Because if I was being honest, my stomach hurt so bad that I would eat just about anything right now. I hope she comes back with food.

***

Level up: level 6

Perk added: None

-You’ve postponed choosing a perk as you’d rather the original Muddy Waters chose for you instead. Not that you even could without a Pipbuck.

Author's Note

The holidays break is over and we return to our regularly scheduled program. I can't help but wonder just how many characters one can make out of a single oc. Time may tell.

I just wanted to make a lore dump chapter without just dumping heaps of lore for no reason or make walls of text. Plus I didn't want to just leave behind all those clones.

Also fanart! Art by @mamaskally on twitter (currently X)