Chapter 1
Routine…
That was my life in Stable 105. Endless routine, day after day AFTER FUCKING DAY.
Then again… I suppose my job as Head of Security, or rather a Protector as the Overmare insisted I call myself, was important. Given how shit flies sideways into the fan SO much around here I and all six other members of Security are SO desperately needed to keep what little peace can be kept.
Who am I kidding? The worst problems that I’d had to face were kids sneaking into the unfinished section to fool around. In my seventeen years in this job I have only fired my pistol at the target range closet seventeen times.
I leaned up, shifting my blanket. Doodle shifted in her sleep, pulling more of the blanket over her. I looked down at my daughter and smiled, leaning down I kissed her forehead, being careful of her stubby horn. She was all I had left of Honey, my late wife, she had my light orange coat and her purple mane.
I looked around our bedroom, every room in the living Quarters had been geared to saving as much space as possible so families of three or four would be confined to small rooms of about one hundred and twenty square feet. There was just enough room for our bed, a sink and a dresser for clothing. The walls were a dull gray that I washed every so often, now they were decorated with drawings that Doodle drew during her classes. When she should’ve been paying attention.
I sighed as I stepped over to my room’s sink and telekinetically pulled down the lightbulb string, bathing the corner of the small room in cold light. I turned on the faucet and splashed cold water over my face to get the sleep out of my eyes.
I looked up into the cracked mirror staring into my blue eyes, Honey always said they were my most attractive feature. I wetted my hooves and slicked back my undercut red mane. I turned off the faucet and flicked off the light, stepping over to the dresser. I opened a drawer and pulled out a clean jumpsuit, with the golden 105 on the collar and my cutie mark emblazoned on the flanks, a crossed pair of iron chains. I put it over my back and stepped back to the bed. Doodle was still sleeping.
Or so she wanted me to believe. I sat down and leaned over to her ear, I blew into it.
“Mrmm,” Doodle stifled a slight gasp, shifting her face away from me.
“C’mon, young lady,” I said softly, “You’re too old to be doing this.”
But she continued to play possum. I got up and stretched my neck side to side before my horn glowed as a cloud of purple magic enveloped her and lifted her a few feet into the air. It was getting a little harder with each passing year despite my daughter being small for her age.
“Daddy!” she squealed in surprise, flaying her limbs, “Daddy, stop!”
“Not unless you get up and get ready for school,” I said firmly as I spun her around to face me.
“Never!” she shouted definitely, “Ms Pool is always mean to me!”
“I warned you, young lady,” I barked back, flipping her upside down.
“Okay! Okay!” she squealed, “Now let me down.”
I floated her a couple of feet above the floor into the bathroom, turned on the faucet and splashed her face with water. She sputtered out some words as I wiped her off with a towel.
“If you just got up on your own I wouldn’t have to do this,” I said as I pulled her back into the bedroom over to the dresser and pulled out a smaller kid jumpsuit for her to wear.
“Daddy, please let me down,” Doodle begged as I walked out the front door into the hallway with her floating behind me, “This is embarrassing.”
“You’re embarrassed?” I scoffed, passing a couple of our neighbors who snickered, “I bet none of the other parents have to deal with their kids acting like this.” I’ve never been good with kids… as you can probably tell.
Stable 105’s Living Quarters had enough bedrooms for hundreds of people, but now there were only thirty of us in the Stable so most of the rooms were stripped of any useful materials for repairs and the skeletal remains were sealed off. The top floor had caved in following an earthquake about twenty years ago and the bottom, where everyone lived, had to be reinforced to prevent any further problems.
Though Wrench, the Head of Maintenance, assured my mom that the metal beams were strong enough for the foreseeable future, I knew it was only a matter of time before another earthquake would finish the job.
“Rough morning, Rusty?” an elderly earth pony mare asked from her room’s window.
“Just the usual, Mrs Strudel,” I sighed. Doodle scoffed as she floated behind me. Mrs Strudel worked in the kitchens, her pastries were old family recipes.
As much as I love my daughter, to be honest, I don’t think I should’ve been a parent, I’m blunt, stubborn and quick to frustration. Doodle and I don’t have the best relationship. She once told me that she wished that I wasn’t her father, that stung deep.
We entered the Living Quarters’ communal shower room. The room had two rows of shower stalls on opposite walls with a line of benches down the middle for people to sit down and change. The room was empty save for a couple other dwellers using the other showers.
I finally put Doodle on the tile floor, she picked an empty stall as I put our suits on a spare bench. Honestly this morning routine happened so many times that the other dwellers didn’t even pay us any attention. I picked the stall beside Doodle and turned on the hot water. I picked up a bar of plain soap made by the Kitchens and lathered up the soap to wash my mane.
“We should get you a haircut soon,” I said nonchalantly as I rinsed out the soap.
“Do you hate me?” Doodle suddenly asked.
“No,” I said, after a slight pause that was a little too long.
“Even though I killed Mom?” her voice cracked slightly with the words, “I-”
“Amethyst,” I said, turning her around to face me, her lilac eyes stared into my own, “You’re my daughter and I will always love you.”
Honey had been dead for almost ten years now, she died from health complications which led to Doodle’s birth. I had spiraled heavily after that, a few times I had even gone as far as to place my pistol’s muzzle into my mouth and almost pulled the trigger.
But I never could do it. Doodle needed me.
*** *** ***
The Atrium was the single largest room in the Stable, having stairs and walkways that connected to the upper level which led to Medical, Science, the Library, the School and the hallway that led to Security and the Overmare’s office. The lower level connected to the Living Quarters, the Kitchens, Maintenance and the elevator that led to the Door to the Surface, but the elevator was stuck about halfway up after its cabling had been damaged and broken during an earthquake almost a hundred and eighty years ago, leaving the ancient rusty ladder the only way up the crumbling shaft. I’d been up to the Door only once when I joined Security, it was a bit of a ritual, to show each officer that the Door was damaged beyond any chance of repair.
Doodle and I collected some breakfast bowls of light green gooey paste made from a combination of recycled organic materials with fruits and vegetables grown in Science called salient green. Honestly, while the stuff looked like boogers and snot mixed in piss, it tasted a lot better when cooked up and contained the daily amount of nutrients and vitamins to live with just one meal with periodic glasses of water throughout the day.
We sat down at the room’s only dining table and started eating. A few dwellers sat down around us as the day started, one of them came up to me.
“Hey, Rusty, thanks for getting my daughter to safety yesterday,” he said, patting my back.
“Just keep her out of Maintenance, Wrench got pretty angry when he found her in his office,” I bluntly responded.
“Right… Well, thanks again.”
*** *** ***
Once there was enough space in the Security room for hundreds of members, but that had been four generations ago. Now it was empty, save for six chairs in front of my desk. As Head of Security it was my job to protect the dwellers of Stable 105 and execute the will of the Overmare.
Even if those two conflicted.
I stepped into the office and sat down at my desk. I flipped through the files on my terminal, and noticed a couple of the other Heads had sent intramails requesting assistance for various things. Normally you would assume that as Security we would be better utilized with securing critical areas. But because there were only thirty ponies in the whole damn Stable… well, to be perfectly honest we haven’t been needed for any security reasons for at least a hundred years. When my great great grandfather, Jade Pie, had put down a disturbance because of the increasingly poor food quality at the time. Hence why everyone ate salient green. I mean things were so peaceful here we didn’t even bother to wear any armor… wherever those old suits had been stored anyways.
I looked up when the door slid open and my fellow officers slowly walked in and sat down in their chosen seats. My fellow officers were Marble, Diamond Song, Sapphire Pie, Tool, Sugarwish and Nimble.
Marble was an earth pony mare, my second cousin on my mom’s side and perhaps the biggest pony in the Stable’s history, her black mane brushed on the tops of door frames when she stooped through them.
Diamond Song was an earth pony mare and the Overmare’s daughter and my first cousin and perhaps the prettiest mare in the Stable, she often sang in the Atrium during holidays.
Sugarwish was a unicorn mare and my second cousin on my dad’s side, her grandparents were the Strudels and she had worked in the Kitchens before her candy cane striped bullet cutie mark developed.
Tool was an earth pony stallion and was my second cousin once removed on my mom’s side. His parents and grandparents had worked in Maintenance before he gained his gold key cutie mark.
Nimble was an earth pony filly and the youngest member, having gained her cutie mark last month. But because of her small size and young age, being only a few months older than Doodle, she was mostly sent back to the School.
“Alright,” I started, smoothing my mane with my hoof, “Firstly, thank you for turning up on time today, Tool.”
Sapphire smirked at Tool, I’d caught the two fucking a couple of times when they were supposed to working. Homosexuality was discouraged because of the Stable’s extremely low population, but Sapphire was my little brother… so I mostly looked the other way.
Mostly….
“Sugar,” I continued, looking at the unicorn mare, “Congratulations on getting Bluenote back to his room yesterday, I know he must’ve been troublesome.”
She flicked some of her curly yellow and red striped mane nonchalantly, “He was easier after I took away his booze, Boss.”
“Ah, hell yes,” Tool clapped.
“Secondly, Marble,” I said, looking at the hulking mare, “I expect you to behave yourself when interacting with the kids.”
“But, Boss,” she whined, “It weren’t my fault they’s were playin’ tag.”
I put my face in my hooves and sighed, the mare meant well, but she was dumber than a sack of rocks, “I don’t fucking care if they were giving out ice cream, I expect you to act professionally.”
“Okey-dokey-lokey,” she mumbled, pouting.
Celestia’s sweet asschecks, Doodle was far easier to deal with, “I expect you all to act professionally… got it?” My officers all shifted around under my gaze, I barked a stern, “Got. It.”
“We got it, Boss,” they all said in unison.
“Good,” I said, leaning over to my terminal and typing in a few buttons, the ones with PipBucks beeped with fresh intramails, Heads and Security personnel due to a shortage, “Here are your job orders for today. Nimble, you may return to class.”
“Okay, S-Sir,” the filly squeaked out, getting up from her chair and leaving with everyone else.
I sighed, putting my face in my forehooves. I have been doing this job for seventeen years now. I was the longest serving member… since Dad died a few months ago. He had been far better at this than I am. Everyone in the Stable had liked him, he was charismatic… while I’m far too blunt like Mom.
I glanced over to Dad’s old name plaque, Turquoise Pie, “It’s our solemn duty to protect the Stable, Rusty,” my Dad’s last words to me drifted across my mind.
“I’m trying, Dad,” I muttered, rubbing my forehooves against my temples, “Celestia and Luna both know I’m trying.”
There was a beeping on my terminal, looking at it I saw it was from Sweet Peaches, the Head of Science. I felt a twinge of surprise, Sweetie and I weren’t on good terms, hadn’t been for almost a year now. So… receiving an intramail from her was very surprising. I mean, me waking up one day and finding myself a young colt again and my parents alive would be far less surprising than receiving this message.
I typed in a command and the note opened.
Head Officer Jasper Pie,
Come to Science at your earliest convenience.
Sweet Peaches
Head of Science
Yep, it was from Sweetie alright, she never called me by my nickname. I thought it over in my head for about a half hour before grumbling and heading out.
As I crossed the Atrium I glanced into the School’s only window, the Stable’s teacher, Ms Pool, was teaching the small class a math equation. All seven of the kids were paying attention… all except Doodle.
No, she was sitting at her desk in the back with a pencil in her pink magic… doodling in her math book… again.
I sighed and raised my forehoof to tap the glass… But then I thought better of it, turning away to continue across the Atrium’s bridge. I didn’t know what I was going to do with her, Doodle has always had problems with paying attention… like I did when I was her age. I sighed, not sure how best to help.
Science was the room where, well… all things relating to the arcane sciences happened, it housed the Stable’s mainframe, grew salient green and what-have-you. The room was rectangular with two smaller rooms branching off of it, one held the Hydroponics where salient green was grown, the other room was the Head’s office. The room had dozens of counters littered with ancient jury-rigged appliances for different purposes… Honey had explained them to me once, but I barely understood, technology wasn’t my strong suit.
The door slid open and I was greeted by the sight of a small earth pony mare balancing a tall wavering tower of papers and books precariously on her back as she slowly stepped over to a table on increasingly wobbly legs.
“Help?” she squeaked out when she noticed me.
“Celestia’s ass, Bluebelle,” I chidded as I enveloped the tower in my purple magic, lifting it up.
“I know, I know,” she said dismissively, “Be more careful.”
I rubbed my temple with my hoof before asking, “Where’s Sweetie?”
“In her office,” Bluebelle muttered, pouting, “Not helping me… as usual.”
I crossed the room and knocked on the door on the far side. There were several moments of rustling noises before Sweetie’s voice came through, “Come in.”
I hit the button and the door slid open, the office was even smaller with books and folders raised nearly to the ceiling. Sweet Peaches sat behind her small desk, face buried in a book. Her yellow mane was pulled back into a loose bun and her white coat looked disheveled.
“Didn’t expect to see you, Jasper,” she muttered, lowering the book just enough to see me, “You haven’t answered my calls for a while.”
“What do you want, Sweetie?” I asked as professionally as possible. Celestia, I was already regretting coming here.
“That’s it?” she asked bluntly, “We haven’t spoken face to face in months and that’s how you greet your sister-in-law?”
“What. Do. You. Want?” I repeated coldly, “I’m very busy.”
“Don’t lie, Jasper,” Sweetie chidded.
We glared at each other for several tense minutes before she sighed, putting the book down she asked, “How far are we?”
“What?” I asked, slightly blindsided by the question.
“How far apart are we… genetically?”
“I… you’re my third cousin.”
“Exactly,” she suddenly snapped, coming up close, “We’re the furthest apart, everyone else is either siblings, first or second cousins…”
I started to understand what she was getting at… and it was a sickening feeling.
“Our ancestors had roughly one hundred and twenty original dwellers… mostly from four large families, the Songs, the Wishes, the Peaches and the Pies,” she looked up at me, a serious look in her green eyes, “Jasper… we’re becoming dangerously inbred.”
I had to admit she was right, my own parents had been second cousins, her parents were first cousins. There were only… what… seven kids in the Stable? And all of them were first cousins. A few of them had birth defects, Doodle’s stunted horn and limited magic were proof enough.
“Well… what do you want me to do about it?” I asked, “It’s not like the Overmare is gonna listen to me any more than you.”
“We need to leave,” Sweetie insisted, undeterred, “If the Door mechanism could be repaired-”
“And then what, die up there on the Surface?” I asked incredulously, “Or do you intend for us to become mole-ponies in the Caves like in some B-roll sci-fi flick?”
“No!” she shouted angrily, slamming her forehoof on her desk, “I don’t know how, but we can’t survive down here for much longer!”
“The Door can’t be opened!” I shouted in frustration, “It may as well be welded in place, besides the tunnels beyond might have collapsed centuries ago!”
We continued shouting at each other for hours before the Stable’s PA system squawked to life, “All Security personnel, immediately report to the Overmare’s office.”
I sighed in relief, though it wasn’t by much. I turned to leave.
“I’m sorry,” Sweetie suddenly said.
I turned to look at her.
“About your dad’s death…” she clarified, “Maybe if I had just been there a little quicker-”
“No, it wasn’t your fault,” I interrupted, turning away, “I don’t blame you.”
*** *** ***
The Overmare’s office overlooked the Atrium with a large circular window behind a large circular desk where the Overmare could direct the Stable from the mainframe. My Mom had been the previous Overmare for about seventeen years, but she had died from a stroke about four years ago. My aunt, Ruby Song, took leadership shortly after.
My aunt sat behind her desk tapping on the terminal in the mainframe. She swung around on her swivel chair and watched us as we walked in…
She greeted us as Tool rushed in before the door slid closed, I sighed and shook my head at him. Sapphire however laughed at the stallion’s discomfort.
I turned back to the Overmare, “What seems to be the problem, Ma’am?” I asked as professionally as possible.
“About fifty minutes ago, one of the outermost sensors detected something large deep in the Caves, about ten minutes later, a second line sensor picked up the same large mass coming closer to the Stable. We’ve calculated that it will reach the back door in at least forty minutes.”
“Head Officer Pie,” the Overmare said, turning to me, “I’m authorizing the use of lethal force for this mission, we don’t know what’s out there, but you and your officers must protect the Stable, now go.”
“Yes, Ma’am,” I said as professionally as possible, as I led my officers to the unfinished section.
*** *** ***
The door slid up on its rusty hydraulics with slight difficulty till it was about half way up. I sighed as I crawled under. The room was ancient, likely sealed up at least four maybe five generations ago, with heavy clouds of dust wafting in the light from the hallway.
“Did Stable-Tec even bother finishing our Stable?” I've asked the same question many times in my life.
I crawled into the room, my other Officers following close behind me.
“This is really creepy, Sir,” Nimble murmured, looking around at the ancient room frame.
“It’s just an empty room, Nimble,” Sapphire said, trying to reassure the filly.
“Yeah, sure,” Tool chimed in, “At least until the ghosts turn up-”
“GHOSTS?” Nimble practically jumped over three feet into the air.
“Lock it down, Tool,” I barked, he snorted dismissively.
We carefully walked through the unfinished section toward the outermost room where a door led to the Caves, a system of rooms and tunnels that were sliced through solid rock when Stable 105 was being built. The door had been electronically sealed to keep the mutants out, giant rats, radmoles and giant beetles mostly.
Sapphire wiped off some dust and grime from the window beside the door, revealing the soupy darkness beyond. I entered the Overmare’s code into the terminal connected to the door and with great effort the thick rusty slab of metal started to rise, the sound of rusty metal screeching against rusty metal filled the room before it was up. Past the now open doorway the Caves loomed. I flicked on my PipBuck’s flashlight and pointed the beam into the thick cold air. A beetle the size of my head scampered off into the darkness, water trickled down the rough walls pooling in the dusty gravel floor.
I took a deep breath to calm my nerves before turning to the others, “Remember the plan, find what the sensors picked up and report back here. Marble and Sapphire, you take 1, Diamond and Tool, you take 2, Sugar, guard the door. Nimble, you’re with me in 3.”
They all nodded. We crossed the doorway and stepped onto the dusty gravel. I unholstered my 45 Auto pistol, standard issue for Security. I telekinetically racked back the slide loading a round into the chamber and held up in front of me. Nimble followed close behind me as we split up. My hooves shuffled the cold gravel with each step as we followed the tunnel. The tunnels were fairly mapped out though that was nearly two hundred years ago… and with the earthquakes, the map that did exist was almost certainly wildly out of date. The sensor we were looking for was fairly deep and we didn’t know which tunnel would reach it.
Hence why we were splitting up.
I watched my other Security officers’ blips disappear on my Eyes Forward Sparkle spell until only Nimble was left.
“Sir?” Nimble spoke up, voice echoing against the curved walls slightly, “Do you know what we’re even looking for?”
“Just something big enough to set off the sensor,” I answered with a shrug.
“It’s probably just another mole or rat,” she continued, “Just seems like a waste to send all of us out here.”
I couldn’t help but feel like she was right. We all were taught that nothing could possibly live on the Surface… save for possible mutants according to the ancient sci-fi flicks the Library still had access to.
But that was just fiction… it had to be.
Suddenly I stopped in my tracks, finally noticing something. Nimble bumped into my back.
“Sir?” Nimble asked.
“Do you hear that?” I asked.
“Hear what, Sir?” Nimble asked again, fear setting into her voice, “Don’t do this to me, Rusty.”
“The silence,” I answered, “Why isn’t there any ticking?”
“Ticking, Sir?” Nimble asked.
While I didn’t know exactly how close to the Surface we were, I did know we were about thirty minutes deep. The last time I’d been this far in was about seven years ago and my PipBuck’s geiger counter had been ticking by now.
But it wasn’t.
I looked down at my PipBuck, the dial on the geiger counter should’ve been flickering between the green and yellow sections, but instead it was firmly in the green. The Surface was supposed to be bathed in lethal radiation, right? What the hell was going on?
“Sir?” Nimble asked, getting my attention.
I looked up, she was pointing her flashlight down the tunnel to a fork leading off in two directions.
“Alright, let’s split up, you take left.”
We went down our selected tunnels. I followed my path for about ten minutes, twisting and turning a few times before opening upon a larger chamber with a couple other tunnels sliced through the walls. Nimble stepped out of the tunnel closest to mine.
“Anything?” I asked.
She shook her head, “Just some bugs.”
We looked around the chamber, I’d never been this deep before. There were piles of gravel shoved up against the walls and a large lumbering piece of rusty machinery that slightly resembled the drills used by Maintenance… just much bigger.
“What happened?” Nimble asked, poking a gravel pile, “W-why aren’t there any skeletons?”
“Maybe the old workers got into the Stable?” I guessed as I brushed off some dust and grime from a flat panel and saw an ancient label that read Pie-Horne Industrial.
“What?” I breathed, a cold shiver going up my spine, why was my name on this piece of ancient tech?
“S-Sir,” Nimble said, getting my attention again, she was pointing her flashlight at a large smoldering crate of stones and gravel sitting between the tunnels we came in from, something shuffled behind it.
I pointed my pistol toward it as I stepped closer, “Someone there?” I asked, carefully stepping closer, “Come on out slowly, we don’t want to hurt you.”
Suddenly a head poked out from behind the crate… a colt’s head. A colt I had most certainly never seen before, “What the hell?” I breathed, lowering my pistol. The colt was so covered in so much filth and grime that I couldn’t tell his mane or coat colors. He looked between us, tears bubbling up in a pair of black eyes with glowing red irises.
He squeaked some strange words quietly, voice trembling.
“What?” I asked, confused, glancing back at Nimble, who shrugged, “Hey, are you alright, kid?”
The colt looked around the room furtively before slowly stepping out. I noticed he had a pair of small bird-like wings that covered his ribs and metal hoof cuffs on his forelegs just above his hooves.
Nimble squeaked in fear, shrinking back behind me.
He continued speaking his strange language, coming closer. His voice was pleading, tears dripping from his eyes streaking through the filth and grime on his cheeks.
“Woah, calm down, kid,” I tried to reassure him, holstering my pistol, “Don’t worry, you’re safe now. We’re not gonna hurt you.”
The colt then suddenly spoke in heavily accented and fragmented Ponish, “Please… they… kill… Moma.”
“And now you’re dead, Mutt!” a gruff stallion’s voice echoed behind me.
Nimble and I whipped around, standing in the tunnel leading deeper into the caves was a stallion wearing a patchwork suit of armor made of curved rusty metal plates, padded leather and fraying cloth over a cracking piss yellow rubber suit. His face was covered by a black gas mask with a pair of goggles with cracked yellow lenses. But what caught my eyes were the pair of armored wings that were held at his sides like the colt.
He reached a hoof up to the goggles and raised them up to his forehead, revealing a pair of sunken bloodshot yellow eyes.
“What the hell?” I muttered, getting up, raising my pistol, “Who the hell are you?”
The stallion ignored me, instead glaring at the colt behind me with animalistic hatred, “You’re gonna get it when I drag your broken corpse back.”
The colt started crying as the stallion stepped closer. Nimble backed up to stand beside the colt.
“Stop!” I shouted, holding up my pistol threateningly, but the stallion ignored me again. I pulled the trigger.
BLAM! BLAM!
My bullets struck into his armor plates, denting them but doing little else. The stallion lifted up a strange looking makeshift metal rectangle box from under his wings and a beam of piercing red light suddenly lit up the room.
“Look out!” I shouted at Nimble as I dodged to the side.
BRZZZT!
It just barely missed my shoulder by mere half inches. I aimed my pistol, entered S.A.T.S. and fired multiple shots, striking his neck and abdomen, ripping through the cloth wrapping and the leather padding.
The stallion stumbled back, clutching at his gushing wounds, beams fired from his weapon striking and scorching the rocky walls and ceiling as he fell back into the dust.
I rushed forward and telekinetically picked up his strange weapon. He stared up at me with fear creeping into his eyes, gargling blood seeped through the bullet holes in his neck and pooled in the dusty gravel.
He moved his lips trying to form words.
“What?” I asked, leaning down a little closer.
He suddenly grabbed my collar with his wing and pulled me close enough to hear, “We… w-will… rise… a-again…” his choked words were barely whispers, his head slowly slumped back as his eyes slowly clouded over. His wing went limp and fell to the dusty floor.
I stared down at the dead stallion… the stallion I had just killed. The reality of the moment slapped me. I felt my heart race, I gasped for air as a thousand thoughts per second slashed through my brain as reality began to melt for what felt like an eternity before near-instantly reasserting itself. The chamber stopped spinning, everything was eerily quiet.
“Hey, Nimble, you alright?” I asked after collecting myself.
But there wasn’t a reply, “Hey Nim-” I started to say, turning around.
The chamber was empty save myself, the colt and the strange pony, “Nimble, where are you?” I called out, shining my flashlight around the dark room and tunnels. I looked around where I thought Nimble had been before the attack.
Maybe she’d run to get help? Suddenly I heard a crunching sound as I stepped into something. Looking down I noticed it was a small pile of hot smoldering ashes.
“What?” I asked, confused as I shifted through the pile… discovering a 45 Auto pistol covered in smoldering heat stains.
I stared down at it, horror dawning as I realized what I was doing.
*** *** ***
I stood in Science, looking through the window down at the colt as Cherry Drops, the Stable’s only doctor, carefully scrubbed out the filth to then clean and treat his wounds. He must’ve been at least Doodle’s age, but must’ve been a third as heavy. I could see his ribs poking through his off white coat.
How the hell could he still be alive?
“He should pull through,” Sweetie said, stepping through the connecting door and standing next to me, “Though judging by his injuries he’s certainly been through a lot.”
I didn’t say anything, replaying the scene of Nimble’s smoldering ashes sitting there in the dust in my head over and over. She must’ve been hit by the beam that had just barely missed me. What was I going to tell her parents, they had trusted me to keep her safe until she was old enough to do her job properly.
I mentally kicked myself over and over, I’d been so fucking stupid! Why didn’t I tell her to watch the damn door?! Maybe Sugar could have dodged the beam like me? Or maybe she would’ve died instead?
“Jasper?” Sweetie asked, placing a hoof on my shoulder, “Are you still with me?”
I blinked my eyes a couple of times before saying, “Sorry… I just-”
Sweetie suddenly pulled me into a hug, whispering, “It’s not your fault.”
I felt tears threatening to fall as the shock from the event broke, “Why her?” I asked, my voice cracking, “She wasn’t even twelve yet, she had so much ahead of her-”
“Jasper, it’s not your fault,” Sweetie interrupted, moving me so I was staring into her green eyes. Just for a brief second I thought Honey was back. “You killed someone very dangerous. You protected the Stable. And you couldn’t have known what that weapon was or what it could do.”
I started to say something, but the words wouldn’t come.
After some time to think I turned to look over to the examination table where the Surfacer lay stripped of his armor and gear. His gaunt body was covered in numerous scars and old injuries. Whatever he’d been through looked perhaps just as bad as the colt. I gingerly picked up one of his wings in my magic and flexed it out to full length. I didn’t know what to have expected, maybe it was mechanical, but no… it seemed like a natural limb, like my horn.
“They’re mutants?” I asked Sweetie, even more confused.
“Not necessarily,” she said past the book in her mouth.
She put it down on the counter and flipped it open to a specific page, it showed a pony with wings like the stallion.
“They’re pegasi,” she said, “A type of pony that lived in the skies before the world ended.”
“This is a pegasus?” I asked, bewildered, of course I’d been taught about the pony subraces, but I’d never seen one. Dad had told me stories from when he was a kid about an elderly dweller who was born a pegasus but with shriveled wings. Wait if he was from the Surface…“Shouldn’t the radiation have killed them?”
“Evidently not,” Sweetie said, closing the book, “There’s something else, the geiger counter isn’t picking up much radiation from him and none from the colt.”
So, my own counter might’ve been right. The Surface radiation must’ve weakened somehow.
I picked up the strange weapon. It looked like someone had gutted a spark generator and squished in the parts into a vaguely rectangular box shape. I flipped it around a couple of times trying to figure out how it even worked before I noticed a square slot in the left side. Pressing at it, the square sprung open on a hinge spewing out a small cylinder that skittered across the floor. Picking it up I noticed it was a spark battery. Maintenance used rechargeable ones in some of their smaller appliances. I slid it back into its slot and the weapon made a high pitched chime sound.
My PipBuck pinged an alert sound to me, looking down at it I saw that the inventory sorting spell had labeled the weapon as a magical energy rifle.
“Okay, so that’s what it’s called, but how do I make it work?” I asked myself as I started pressing different buttons.
BRZZZT!
Suddenly a red beam shot out from the front nozzle and crossed the room in a near instant, zapping a bowl of salient green that Bluebelle was holding in her hooves, reducing it to ashes.
“My lunch!” she shouted in distress.
I decided to put the weapon down and turned to Sweetie, “Keep an eye on the colt for me. Call me when anything changes.”
“Right,” Sweetie said, sighing.
“Something wrong?” I asked.
“Nothing…” she breathed out after a moment, “I just-”
Suddenly the PA system squawked to life, “Head Officer Pie, report to the Overmare’s office immediately.”
I grimaced, turning to leave.
*** *** ***
The door to the Overmare’s Office opened and Sapphire rushed out, “Sorry, Rusty, no time to talk.”
Overmare Ruby Song sat behind her circular desk with her face in her hooves.
“So, how is the Surfacer?” she asked dryly, glancing up at me.
I furrowed my brow, that’s all she had to ask? “Sweetie said he should pull through.”
“Dammit,” Ruby groaned, slumping into her forehooves again.
“Cut the shit, Ruby,” I said sternly, “That pegasus from the Surface is barely irradiated and the colt is clean!”
“Dammit!” Ruby shouted as she banged her hoof against the desk as she slumped back in her swivel chair, “Why did this happen now?”
“What is it?” I asked, careful to keep my anger in check, “If you know something, you’d better tell me right now.”
She looked up to face me, it took her several tense minutes before she spoke up, “The outermost sensors have… detected the Surface radiation… The radiation has been… gone… for about eleven months now.”
It took me several moments to understand what she’d just said, “What?” I asked, my breathing stiffening.
“Rusty,” she started carefully, “I understand that you’re probably mad-”
“WHAT!?” I shouted, anger filling my voice, “You’ve known that the Surface is habitable… for a fucking year NOW?!”
“Turq and I argued about it for months… but when he… died,” Ruby explained, backing up a step as I stepped closer, “I knew I had to do what I thou-”
I cut her off, telekinetically grabbing her jumpsuit’s collar and pulling her closer, “And WHEN EXACTLY were you even going to THINK about telling the rest of the damn Stable?” Ruby’s eyes widened as I pushed her back into her swivel chair, “My father, your brother, died of an aneurysm all because you wouldn’t let any of us LEAVE!?”
“You’d better have a FUCKING good reason for why I shouldn’t kill you right now!” I shouted, pushing the muzzle of my pistol into her temple hard enough to draw blood.
I’d just lost a fellow officer and one of the only children in the Stable to some insane Surfacer, I just learned that my Dad’s death could’ve been avoidable, fuck that we all could’ve been on the damn Surface for the past year now! Furious doesn’t even come close to what I was feeling right then, I was seething with a blinding hatred for this selfish bitch.
I don’t know how long we glared into each other’s eyes, it could’ve been minutes or maybe hours, but eventually the Overmare closed her eyes and sighed before she finally spoke, “I’m… sorry, Jasper.”
That… took me by surprise, my aunt has never ever apologized, ever. “I didn’t know that anything was still up there… I had to do what I thought was best.”
I kept my pistol dug into her temple as she continued, “The radiation in the local surface area had been at problematic if not lethal levels for over two hundred years, but then about eleven months ago… it just suddenly… just vanished. Like something had cleared it away.”
I stared down at her thinking over what she was telling me. All that any of us knew was that there had been some kind of massive war that led to us being trapped down here for so long.
“So… you were just… what?” I asked, words stiff, pistol still raised, “Just gonna ignore reality?”
“What were we supposed to do?” Ruby asked, voice cracking slightly, “Send our scant population up there? Just to be picked off by thirst, hunger or by Celestia-knows-what?”
I gritted my teeth, as much as I hated it, she did have a point. We didn’t know anything about the Surface, not even where in Equestria the Stable was even supposed to be located. All of the information we did have had been destroyed by an insane Overmare centuries ago.
“I did what I thought was best…” Ruby continued, “For the Stable… for our chances for a safe future.”
I stared down at her for a long time, thinking her words over…
“Maybe we could survive here for another couple of generations before we really had to leave…” Ruby continued, hanging her head slightly, “But now that we know the Surface has life up there… It’s only a matter of time before something super dangerous shows up and kills us all.”
She looked me in the eye as she said, “Which is why you have to go up there and survey the area.”
“Why me?” I asked, my voice still heated. My aunt stared at me as I continued, “What about Sapphire or maybe Tool?”
“I don’t trust those damn faggots of your’s,” She spat bitterly, “Fuck, would Tool even come back?”
I lowered my pistol and turned away from her. As much as it stung me to admit it, she did have a point. Tool had no immediate family left, both of his parents and his older sister all died when half of the Maintenance tunnels had collapsed from damaged structural supports a few years ago. He didn’t have anyone else he really cared about… save for my brother… and that was highly debatable.
“Besides, I know I can trust you to come back,” Ruby continued, getting up and putting a hoof on my shoulder, “For your daughter if not the Stable.”
I stared out the circular window overlooking the Atrium as I thought it over. I noticed Doodle in the crowd outside of Medical, trying to see the Surfacer. If we really could live on the Surface then there was a chance that Doodle could have a better chance at a better life than she did down here. Growing up, having children and waiting to die to be cremated and her ashes be mixed into a plaque and put up on the wall like everyone else.
No, I had to give her a chance at a better life.
Wasn’t that the job of a parent?
To give their child a better life?
Trait: Skilled: You’re skilled, but not experienced. You pick up on skills a bit easier than others, but you gain 20% less experience overall.
Chapter 2
I told Doodle, Sweetie and Sapphire about the Overmare’s plan.
Needless to say Doodle was beyond upset, Sapphire was absolutely furious that the Overmare was sending me up there and Sweetie left the room and returned an hour later with a data tape in her mouth.
“If groups of people are up there use this to barter with them,” she said, handing me the tape, “It’s information on salient green and some other things from Science.”
“How will they be able to use it?” I asked, inserting the tape in my PipBuck.
“The tape has instructions on it.”
That evening I sat in the Atrium, looking up at the Remembrance Wall, the wall opposite the Overmare’s circular window where every nameplate of every dweller was placed after they died. Yes, every single past dweller’s name was attached to the wall, hundreds of names in a pseudo family tree, all the way back to the first generation at the very top.
Mom always said it was our duty to bring the plates with us when we eventually returned to the Surface.
To fulfill their final dream.
Growing up the idea of returning to the Surface had always felt laughable, we were stuck down here and eventually we would die out down here too. A dusty forgotten tomb dedicated to the sins of those who destroyed the world…
But now it was a very scary fact that we would leave.
I thought about what Mom would’ve done if she was alive today. She always hated living down here… Dad always described her as a songbird caught in a cage. Safe sure, but not free to live as she wanted.
Would she have been as cautious as the Overmare and waited?
Or would she have been willing to take any chance to leave?
I didn’t like the answer…
I stared down at Nimble’s plate, placed under her grandparents… with enough space for her parents’ plates when they died.
Her parents broke down when I told them the news, her mother was beyond consolable and her father tried to strangle me.
I couldn’t blame them…
It was very late when I got up to go to bed.
*** *** ***
I stood in front of the door to the Caves the following morning, Sapphire and Sweetie stood with me, Doodle had locked herself in our room and refused to come out. Or even say goodbye to me when I left.
I tried to focus my mind on the job ahead… but it stung deep.
I was wearing the Surfacer’s armored suit over my jumpsuit, Black Bolt, a unicorn mare from Maintenance, had spent most of the night looking over the armor, patching the holes and adjusting it to fit me a little better. Though she had to remove the sleeve and armor plate where my PipBuck was latched around my foreleg.
I quickly triple checked my small saddle bag on my flank, the flask of water, the bottles of salient green, a healing potion, roll of bandages and three spare magazines of 45 Auto bullets my pistol were still in place.
“Alright, Jasper,” the Overmare said, standing near the door to the rest of the Stable, “Remember, just survey the immediate area and report back in one month.”
I nodded… as professionally as I could. Sapphire typed in the code into the terminal and the door screeched open.
Suddenly Sweetie took my head in her forehooves and pulled me into a kiss, when our lips parted I stared at her in confusion.
“For luck,” she clarified, “Sapphire and I will watch over Doodle while you’re gone, so hurry back.”
I promised her and stepped up to Sapphire.
“Hope you’re not expecting a kiss,” he joked, offering a weak smile.
I instead pulled him into a hug, “Try not to burn down the Stable while I’m gone, little brother.”
“No promises,” he said back, returning the hug, “Stay safe out there.”
We let go of each other as I pulled out my pistol and stepped out into the cold air. The door slid closed behind me.
It was slow going at first, but I knew there had to be a way through. A number of times I had found deadends and looping tunnels.
When I reached the room Nimble had died I stopped and knelt down, “I’m sorry I couldn’t protect you, Nimble. I promise to do everything I can to prevent that again.”
It felt like hours before I finally came across a large chamber where piles of moldering crates and rotting wooden beams pushed up against the walls. Rusty metal carts on decaying metal rails led to an angled elevator on the far end beside a small control panel and a very long rusty stairway that led up a long tunnel that sloped steeply upward toward a bright pink light.
“Well, that would explain why nobody’s found us before now,” I muttered to myself.
I stepped up to the elevator panel, but it had no power. I noticed a leg thick cable snaking across the dusty floor toward a small rusty metal building. Stepping inside I found a large rusty generator.
“Well, here goes nothing,” I muttered, clapping my forehooves together before getting to work.
But after an hour without any luck I gave up and went back to the elevator’s stairway… there must’ve been a thousand steps… at least.
“Right,” I muttered, looking up, “If there’s no other way.”
It was at least an hour of climbing before I finally crawled over the last step, one thousand nine hundred in total, and collapsed in the cold dirt and warm pink light. I laid there for a long time as I caught my breath. As I pulled out my flask to get a drink I noticed something, the air felt cold against my sweaty fur. The air in the Stable had always been regulated by the air talisman, kept at about seventy decrees all day long. So this cold hard air felt… very weird.
Also it was a lot quieter, there wasn’t the buzzing of overhead light bulbs or the low constant hum of the spark generator made the Surface quieter. I sat up and looked around, only for my vision to be slightly blurry. I felt very confused by that, but after a few moments my eyes slowly adjusted to the openness of the Surface. I quickly realized that after a lifetime of being confined to Stable 105’s tight hallways and small rooms, the very thought of not being in a tight space hadn’t even occurred to me.
When my eyes had fully adjusted to the eerie pink light I saw I was standing in a small town with a number of small moldering huts surrounding an open semicircle with the opening of the shaft in the side of a large mountain. In stark contrast to the Caves, the clearing was littered with hundreds of pony skeletons of all sizes armed with the rusty lumps of metal scattered around ancient makeshift barricades.
My PipBuck pinged me an alert, checking it I found that the map function had opened and had marked my location as the Whitestone Mines. I checked my geiger counter… and yes the dial was still firmly in the green… not moving at all. I tried to keep my hope from growing more hopeful that we could at least settle here if not nearby.
“We don’t know what’s up here,” I quietly scolded myself.
I picked up the magical energy rifle and searched the town. Most of the buildings were dilapidated and ruined by the ravages of time, but a few of them seemed upright… enough. I checked a couple of them, but the only open one looked like a barracks with over one hundred bunk beds, most were pushed up against doors or windows and crudely welded together to form makeshift barricades with dozens of pony skeletons. Whatever they were fighting against must’ve been terrifying because most of those were damaged, destroyed or blown open by something with a crazy amount of force.
I didn’t find anything of use though before I reached what I assumed was the Overmare’s office. Inside a unicorn mare’s skeleton wearing a moldering suit leaning back in a swivel chair behind a small metal desk where a small faded photograph of a stallion and a mare with three foals standing in front of a large waterfall and a large lake sat.
The nameplate on the mostly destroyed door said Mari Song.
“So,” you’re a Song then?” I asked, mostly to myself as I checked over the skeleton… spotting a large hole in the side of its skull and a rusty 45 Auto pistol lying on the moldering carpet beside it, “Well, your family survived, mostly at least.”
I looked through the desk and found a couple of magazines and a box of one hundred 45 Auto bullets, a valuable find. Rifling through the other drawers I found a stack of papers in the bottommost drawer. I flipped through the papers, most of them were so damaged that I couldn’t make anything out until I found a just barely legible page covered in black smudges.
-ken back to ____ and no prizes for what’s about to happen.
Listen, I don’t trust that bitch Applebloom! Her___the___Head, right? What’s keeping her from ratting us out? You’ve heard what____did in Canterlot, we won’t last three fucking minutes! Dad said we need to get____Stable before shit goes sideways!
I put the papers down and left the building.
As I left the mining town I noticed a rusty metal sign hanging in the crumbling fence,
Stable-Tec Private Property
Trespassers will be persecuted by the fullest extent of the law!
The area surrounding the mining town was a landscape of large hills dotted with rocks, partially buried by long dry grass. I followed a dirt swath cut through the grass down the hillside for about an hour before I reached an ancient crumbling set of metal tracks that headed northwest to southeast, slicing through the hillside.
After a long moment of consideration I decided to head southeast.
*** *** ***
After hours of walking the hot bright sun was finally setting behind the mountains casting me in gray shadows. The cold barren rocky hills seemed endless as the tracks sloped down as it snaked down the mountains for miles.
I was beyond exhausted, my teeth were chattering so much they were almost tap dancing. My whole body was numb from the increasingly icy winds slicing through my clothing and armor down to my bones. I knew I’d collapse into unconsciousness and freeze to death soon if I didn’t find somewhere closed off to sleep.
I desperately shone my flashlight around the hilly landscape for any safe place before spotting a large angular shape a ways down the hill in a blackened trench. Stepping closer I saw that the shape was a large vehicle that vaguely looked like a big bird made of badly scorched black and silver angular metal paneling and a bubble like window with a spider web of cracked glass partially buried in the dirt and a set of broken wings with weaponry that looked like bigger versions of my rifle and machinery haphazardly tossed around the smoldering crash site. Shining my flashlight at the end with the broken window I saw a painted outline of a large sword with wings over what looked like storm clouds.
Alright… this was very creepy… but it’s not like I really had any choice as I looked around the vehicle for a way inside, spotting a circular hatch that was slightly ajar.
Opening the hatch I jumped back as a pony fell through the opening circle and collapsed in the smoldering dirt. After my heart calmed down I noticed that it was a pegasus… and then I noticed she was dead… most likely had been dead for awhile now judging by just how stiff she was when I flipped her over. I noticed she was also wearing a rubbery suit with mismatching patchwork leather and metal armor, the same as mine.
I shined my flashlight into the vehicle and found at least a dozen other dead ponies, a couple were pegasi wearing yellow rubbery suit armor while the rest were unicorns and earth ponies, but all were strewn about the cramped space. Likely having died when the vehicle crashed.
I climbed inside and closed the hatch to keep out the cold wind, of course that would do fuck all for the cold air inside the vehicle. I was still freezing to death and I had to make a decision… I offered an awkward prayer to the Goddesses as I searched over the pegasi for anything to keep me alive and found a small device with a red gemstone in its face.
“What are you?” I asked, pressing the gemstone.
After a few seconds it started glowing with a dull heat that slowly chased away the bone splitting cold.
Slowly…
As the space slowly warmed up I climbed up a short ladder to the cockpit, that’s what they’re called right, and found another pegasi wearing a single piece uniform made of gray cloth and some quilted padding over his shoulders. He was slumping over what I reasonably assumed were the vehicle’s controls, a large scorched hole in the back of his head just below a black flat cap.
“So that’s why you crashed,” I muttered through shivering teeth.
I looked over the hat before putting it on my head over my horn as I stepped back into the lower cabin. I offered another awkward prayer to the Goddesses before carefully moving the bodies to the opposite side. As I moved them I noticed that all of the non-pegasi all had blackened eyes like the colt.
“Were you all related to him?” I asked, “Well… he’s safe now, so don’t worry about him.”
I took a moment to rummage through the containers above the seats… sense I was already robbing the dead. I found a few packets labeled as Emergency M.R.E., a bottle of cold water and a few magical energy weapons, some of them looked like pistol versions of my rifle and some others had three gemstones at the muzzle, but they were all broken from the crash… or maybe from what looked like weeks if not months of jury-rigged repairs, judging by just how miss matching the exposed parts looked.
I sat down on the open seats and balled up there in the cold darkness shivering like crazy until the space warmed up enough for sleep to finally catch me.
*** *** ***
It was probably the second roughest night in my life.
My body was very stiff and my bones ached as I stretched out my limbs…
But… I was alive.
After a quick breakfast I took the heating gemstone and continued following the tracks. It was several hours before I came across a small wooden shack down a little dirt path. I stepped closer to it, my PipBuck told me that I’d found Park Ranger Cabin 7.
Unholstering my pistol, I pushed the door open to the shack’s main room. The place looked well ransacked with the ancient moldering furniture turned over, a fridge sitting in the corner and rusty cans and glass bottles and other clutter spread all over the floor.
“Hello?” I asked, “Anyone home?”
I stepped around, looking through every nook and cranny and found a bottle of whiskey. I pulled on the fridge door’s handle, but it was stuck. After checking around I found there was nothing else of use. I righted a chair and sat down for a break, I pulled out a bottle of salient green and chowed down.
As I ate lunch I noticed that the crisp cold air was getting easier to breathe, back in the Stable the air was regulated by the talismans for air purity. Maybe that was why I almost froze to death last night.
I noticed a large picture frame on the floor under the bed. I picked it up and blew off the dust. It was a faded map of a massive vaguely crescent shaped mountain range that easily covered hundreds of miles of southeastern Equestria labeled as the Maritonian Mountains.
“Huh,” I muttered, looking over the map, “Well… now I know where I am.”
Suddenly my PipBuck pinged an alert to me, checking it I saw the map had updated with the location of a marker relatively close by, maybe a few more hours if I continued following the tracks.
*** *** ***
I was very exhausted when the sun was setting behind me as I finally caught sight of a small town built on opposite banks of a river with a long concrete dam holding back a large lake connecting both sides of the town. According to my map I’d found the town of Good View. And to be honest the town did have a very good view of a massive valley that spread out for hundreds of miles before disappearing off into the horizon.
On the dam’s central section a collection of ramshackle buildings were built up with smoke trails lifting up from it. I felt excitement rise in my chest, there really were people alive up here and maybe they were even friendly. I tried to keep my hopes from rising.
Many of the town’s ruined buildings were all boarded up or dilapidated with the rusty remains of dozens of wagons littered the streets. But I noticed there was a lack of skeletons around, I thought that was weird because according to the town’s sign at the entrance, the place had a pre-apocalypse population of nearly two hundred. So wouldn’t there have been more skeletons? Unless they all survived and left when the world ended.
As I reached the lakefront I had a clear view of the dam and the massive forty foot span of missing dam which separated my side of the town and the ramshackle buildings, allowing dark water to spill over the side down a three hundred foot fall down the mountain. I looked around for some way to cross the span before spotting a couple of long swaying cables connected to large posts on both sides.
I knelt down behind a big mailbox and thought about my next move. I knew nothing about this settlement, but there weren’t any signs saying to keep out… So maybe they were at least tolerant of outsiders.
Or maybe they were psycho cannibals that were gonna kill and eat me…
“This easily has to be THE dumbest idea I’ve ever had,” I bitterly muttered before I got up, “Well, there was that threesome…”
Don’t ask.
My pulse quickened and cold sweat rolled down my back as I slowly stepped closer and closer to the walled settlement. My hooves clicked on the pavement, echoing into the dark freezing night. Suddenly my E.F.S. told me that there was a single yellow blip dead ahead of me, though I couldn’t see anyone.
“Hello?” I called out to the blip, raising a forehoof.
There was only silence though. Right, not creepy at all.
“Hello?” I repeated, louder, “Anyone ho-”
Suddenly the yellow blip turned red.
BANG!
I collapsed in the street as white hot stabbing pain sliced up my leg. I quickly dragged/rolled myself behind some nearby cover.
“Dammit!” I bitterly grunted in pain as I quickly checked my foreleg, the bullet had struck me just above my PipBuck. It felt like it hit the bone, the lower part of my limb hanging limply.
I pulled out my bandages and wrapped it tightly around the oozing bullet hole in my foreleg before putting the rest back into my saddle bag, not that it did much good, my blood was already soaking through.
“Fuck,” I muttered as my mind raced with thousands of thoughts per second, I wasn’t going anywhere with my broken leg not that I would be getting far with that hidden sniper.
My heart was pounding in my ears as I pulled out my magical energy rifle. Suddenly the street was flooded by very bright lights from the walls. I leaned out of cover just enough to see a large cable car armored with rusty metal plates slowly crossing the gap on the cables with at least four red blips. It felt like it took hours before the cable car reached my side. The doors swung open and four ponies wearing leather and fur lined armor over dark blue outfits and wielding weapons stepped out.
One of them, the leader by my guess, was wearing a suit of impressive armor made from blackened metal with a large white fur pelt tossed over one shoulder. They turned to a smaller pony wearing a strange looking cloak and asked them something that almost sounded like Ponish… but it wasn’t. The pony stubbornly replied something in the same strange sounding language, moving their cloak to reveal a large rifle held in a cloud of green magic.
They kept saying a word that caught my interest, Enclave.
The leader turned away and ordered something to the others, who fanned out looking for me.
My heart pounded in my ears as I lifted my magical energy rifle and entered S.A.T.S. I targeted the closest pony, a scrawny looking one wearing a fur lined dark blue coat three sizes too big and wielding a 45 Auto pistol in their mouth. I tried to calm my breathing, summoning my strength to will myself to pull the trigger. This wasn’t the Caves again, where I could hesitate.
These bastards attacked me first…
And fired a shot.
BRZZZT!
The red glowing beam crossed the twenty foot span in a near instant, striking the pony squarely in their chest. Their pistol dropped, clattering on the cracked pavement as they suddenly erupted into rainbow color flames turning into a pile of smoldering ashes and burnt clothing.
BANG! BANG! BANG!
Bullets sparked against metal as the others shot at my hiding spot, I lifted my rifle over the top again and fired blindly.
BRZZZT! BRZZZT! BRZZZT!
Two of the beams whiffed, missing the closest pony by inches, but the third beam hit their shoulder. Melting into the metal plate, causing them to trip up and drop the baseball ball in their mouth as they tumbled across the pavement.
I leaned out and pulled the trigger again to finish them off… only for a click and dull buzzing sound to answer. Shit!
“Stop firing!” I shouted, ducking behind cover again, “Stop firing! I’m not Enclave!”
Bullets continued riddling my cover, sparking and denting with each strike. I threw my empty rifle to the side as desperation quickly creeped in. Maybe it was the quickening blood loss or maybe my general exhaustion, but I couldn’t think of a way out of this alive. I couldn’t run with my broken and bleeding leg, nor was I gonna get very far with the cloaked one with the rifle lurking around, but I couldn’t surrender since they clearly didn’t understand me… or maybe they just didn’t care.
Judging by the way they were shouting at me… it was probably the latter.
At that moment I made a harsh decision, I was most likely going to die… And if this was my end, sudden as it was, I resolved myself to take as many of these bastards with me as I could.
I pulled out my pistol and racked back the slide, “I’m sorry, Doodle,” I whispered, tears welling in my eyes.
Memories of my daughter flashed through my head. The morning she was lifted out of Honey’s opened belly was the strongest, she’d been at least two weeks premature and was small enough to fit in my forehooves. Cherry Drops had kept her in Medical for another month to make sure she was healthy. Everything in my life had shifted after that day, I couldn’t be free spirited anymore like Sapphire. I had a daughter to care for.
But now I was about to die and there’d be no way for her to know.
CLANK!
Suddenly something landed in front of me, ripping me out of my thoughts. Looking up I saw it was a metal apple with a fading yellow stripe.
“What the-”
Ka-BOOOM!
Level Up: Long Trotter: Your endurance has increased by one point.
