Repetition makes perfection, this has always been clear.

Routines were important in stable 75, they guided us in every hour of every day. From our carefully timed eating breaks and activities to any individual tasks we were told to do. It gave life structure, for without it, our days would devolve into aimless meandering. But while our routines were strict and careful, I knew that the poor surface-dwellers had routines of their own. After all, surviving in the desolate hellscape that I had been taught about would easily be a full-time job.

Oh, those poor surface dwellers! Forced to coexist with terrible monsters and the horrors of the surface.

“Black Light!” Quick Check snapped, bringing me back to reality.

“I uhh… what?” I mumbled.

“Is your horn still hurting or not?” The doctor asked.

Truth be told, my horn was feeling great, barely even a bother. But then again, I should probably make extra sure that I’m at the top of my game.

“Oh yeah, it still hurts,” I said. It wasn’t a lie, lying was an evil pony thing. This was just a… preemptive health measure.

“Here you go,” Quick Check said, throwing me the jar of bounceback.

I tried to catch the jar with my magic, but in my sleepy haze, the spell wrapped around empty air. The jar continued along its journey, hitting me squarely on the nose.

“Owwww…” I whined, rubbing my nose with a forehoof.

My magic wrapped around it properly and lifted it up to my face. Where I absentmindedly popped one of the pills into my mouth and set the jar aside.

These pills are the best. I thought, chewing on the slightly strawberry-flavored medicine.

“That will be all then,” Quick Check said, writing down something on his PipBuck.

“See you later, doc!” I answered, starting towards the clinic door.

“Oh actually, I have an assignment for you,” Quick Check said before I could reach the hallway, “I noticed that Beaker Glass didn’t come by for a checkup yesterday. She took a hard hit to the shoulder, tell her to come by later,”

My PipBuck pinged in acknowledgment, its automatic task detection spell writing out the doctor’s order on my EFS.

“Will do!” I answered, smiling.

The wheel of stable 75 turned once more, lighting up the hallways with its artificial daylight as I made my way to the fillies' dorm. Today would be a slow day, nothing but classes I was too old to attend. At least it did give me a lot of time to spend in the library, not like I hadn’t read basically every book in it… several times.

I reached the dorm and opened the door to find the fillies already busy at work making their beds. It was rather amusing how they became a lot more efficient for a few days after sparring.

“Good morning Miss Black Light!” Light Show said, sitting next to her immaculately made bed like she did every day.

“Hey there!” I answered before lifting my voice to address all the fillies, “Get your saddlebags on, ponies!”

I walked up to my bunk and opened the small locker on the side that held my belongings. Since I couldn’t really take the same classes as the other fillies, I slipped on my saddlebags mostly out of habit. My PipBuck buzzed as its data tab updated with the contents of the bags, two pages of recycled paper, a recycled pencil, and a single daisy chip.

“Huh, when did I pick this up…?” I muttered aloud before eating the chip.

My right ear twitched in the silence that had befallen the room. I lowered my PipBuck and saw that the fillies had finished their housekeeping chores and stood silently next to me, waiting for instruction.

“Well! Off we go!” I exclaimed, standing tall and turning to face the door.

A quick check of my timetable laid out the day before us. Up first was history class, which, sadly, I had already finished years ago. But just because I couldn’t take the class it didn’t mean that my fillies couldn’t. And it was my duty as their elder to make sure they reached the classroom precisely when they had to.

We reached the mess hall just in time, being let in to eat once the colts arrived. I only got carrot chips, but I wasn’t feeling picky today so I didn’t really mind. The routine marked our every moment, as it had done every day, and as it would do for as long as we lived within our beloved stable 75.

I did have to wonder what my life would become once I graduated, however… once that structure disappeared. What would I find to fill my days once my PipBuck stopped updating its timetable? The little pony in my head sat on a large rock, holding one of their forehooves to their forehead to ponder the query.

Silly Black Light, remember what the research team told you, the surface is full of horrific dangers and ponies to help! There’s always going to be something to do! I thought, mentally kicking the rock out from under the pony.

Once I left the fillies at their classroom, I turned around and quickly made my way toward the library. Nothing like a good book to pass the time.

“Good morning Miss Meridian!” I chirped when I entered the room.

“Hello Black Light, do you need help with anything?” She asked, smiling warmly.

“Not really, but I’ll let you know if I need anything!” I answered, trotting towards the bookshelves.

I considered picking up the magazine from yesterday, but that one was better saved for special occasions. Instead, I walked towards the ‘miscellaneous’ section and headed for one of my other favorite books: ‘B. Marentine: Essentials of Alchemy, Revision by J. Marea”.

Ever since I could remember I had felt a… connection with alchemy. If I had to guess it was probably the more chaotic and experimental nature of it, after all, it was the predecessor to our current understanding of magic. Back in the ancient times when everything was new and colorful… and explosive. Truly it was night and day compared to the dull grays and greens of the technological age.

The book’s pages were rich with history and intricate alchemical matrixes, spanning centuries of unicorns experimenting on both their own magic and that of the world. Strange diagrams adorned with long-dead languages were flanked by the historian’s best guesses as to what they all meant. According to the foreword -which by this point I had all but memorized-, alchemy had been the result of trade with zebra shamans from beyond our shores. They had brought with them a special understanding of the inner workings of magic, which we wasted no time in applying and deepening.

And to think that so many centuries later those once fruitful relationships had turned into the engine of our world’s destruction. A simple exchange of texts and spices warped into an exchange of balefire and death. I guessed it did make sense. After all, nothing can be gained without something being offered up in return.

Finally, I came to the best page in the book, a full-page illustration of an ancient periodic table, the first one that was ever recorded. Of course, it had an impressive amount of inaccuracies, such as several elements that were actually alloys of real ones, and of course the complete lack of any elements of harmony. But those problems could be easily overlooked when you considered the absolutely beautiful art that accompanied it.

Beautifully stylized symbols and epigraphs written in gorgeous calligraphy were simply too awe-inspiring to care for something as minor as glaring scientific inaccuracies. It was rather funny, however, that gold and silver were on the top of the table, completely breaking the established order of the elements that were listed below. But given how the precious metals were represented by none other than the princesses’ cutie marks, it was also understandable.

The sun and the moon, two objects that were so real… yet so mystical at the same time. Meaning had been given to both in the shape of precious metals or magical components, even if in reality they could be simply described as tools that the princesses once used to make the day and night cycle happen.

The page next to the table included images of all the properties and uses of the different elements, which, yet again, were crowned by gold and silver. A collage of artifacts and ornaments adorned the page, as well as some specialized tools. But the thing that caught my eye the most was the picture of a smiling stallion, fully decked in exercise gear, holding out a large gold medal to the camera. The epigraph read ‘Gold is still used to this very day for competition prizes all over Equestria’.

If only you knew, Marea, if only you knew… I thought, disheartened at the thought that the highest prize I could receive down here were some kind words from The Overmare. Getting a medal must’ve felt so good, the ultimate praise possible. An entire glorious medallion made out of some of the most precious metals. Represented by Celestia’s cutie mark, no less, a veritable piece of divinity bestowed upon a pony who had completed a difficult test.

I closed the book and straightened my back, feeling the deep popping sounds that came from my spine. My PipBuck gave me some relief in the knowledge that the upcoming math exam was still a few minutes away. Reading to pass the time was a double-edged sword, but it was one that I knew how to wield.

If only I didn’t have to do that dumb test, I want to read more. I thought as I floated the book over to the bookcase. Wait… why not just ask for it? I realized, turning towards the front desk instead.

“Miss Meridian?” I asked, rousing the librarian from a light nap.

“I- uh… Black Light! Did you need anything?” She asked, wiping the sleep from her eyes.

The book landed on her desk with a loud thud, causing Meridian to jump in place.

“I want to take this book with me,” I explained.

She lifted the tome to her eyes and read the title.

“Why would you want to read this? You do know it’s just some made-up pseudoscience, right?” She asked, raising an eyebrow, “Why don’t you study something more enriching? Like magic?” Added the librarian, pointing at my horn.

I gave the librarian a toothy grin before answering.

“I just like it a lot!”

“Whatever you wish,” The pony muttered, “I’d tell you to bring it back in two days, but I’m certain nopony else will want to read that nonsense,”

I ignored Meridian’s criticisms and scooped up my book. There was no use in discussing such high concepts with a pony who clearly had a severely limited vision. When I went to put the book inside my saddlebag, however, I noticed a small white jar inside of it.

Oh, Quick Check is going to be angry. I thought, staring at the bounceback jar. To be fair it wasn’t that much of an issue, I just had to return it the next time I went to the clinic. With any luck, the doctor wouldn’t even realize it was missing. Surely not even a pony who has worked a job for their entire life could possibly have a list of everything in their work area! It wasn’t stealing, it was just an honest mistake. I reassured myself as I placed the book into the saddlebag.

“Thanks, Miss Meridian!” I said with a grin.

“You’re welcome,” The mare responded, readjusting her sitting to try and return to her nap.

I walked out of the library and stood in the empty hallway for a few minutes. Not having anything to do was just the worst feeling, it made me feel so… empty. As if I were a husk of a living creature instead of a complex pony full of life. Merely the demented ramblings of some higher being who, just like me, had nothing better to do with its precious time.

The sounds of fillies flooding the hallway brought me out of my ruminating, plastering a practiced smile on my face. I would be lying if I said I was nervous about the upcoming exam, something that could clearly not be said for the rest of the fillies. But just as with everything else in stable 75, you couldn’t escape the routine.

“Beaker!” I called out when I spotted the filly among the group.

The smaller pony’s eyes went wide at the mention of her name, but she relaxed when she realized it had been me who called her.

“Yes, Miss Black Light?” She asked, a hint of nervousness in her voice.

“How’s your shoulder? Quick Check told me to ask you about it. You got hit yesterday, right?” I asked.

The filly’s face went several shades whiter at my words.

“I’m f- fine,” She stuttered, lifting her right forehoof off the ground nervously.

“He knows you got hit, Beaker, why are you so jumpy?” I pressed, raising an eyebrow.

The younger pony bit her lip, but eventually, she couldn’t hold it in anymore.

“I tripped and hit my shoulder against the wall, it was my fault,” She blurted out.

So that’s why she didn’t want to talk about it. I realized. she hadn’t gotten hit, she’d just made a mistake. Granted, it was a stupid mistake, but a mistake nonetheless. Stable 75 didn’t take kindly to mistakes.

“Quick Check didn’t sound angry, he just wanted to make sure your shoulder was okay,” I reassured her, earning a nod.

“O- okay, I’ll go see him after the math exam,” She answered.

My PipBuck pinged in acknowledgment, displaying a ‘task complete’ message over my EFS. I loved this thing.

Noises came from within the classroom as it was reorganized into the exam format. I hope these fillies eventually become as calm as me. I thought, smirking as I looked around at the increasingly nervous ponies around me. Then again, I’m almost too smart for these tests!

At last, the door slid open to reveal none other than The Overmare, immediately casting a veil of silence over the chattering fillies. She took a moment to stare at all the young ponies before finally addressing us.

“Listen my dear little ponies, your next assignment will be a math exam,” She stated, “You will have one hour to complete it, best of luck, fillies” She added, stepping aside to let us into the room.

The Overmare sat down at her desk, in front of the large whiteboard that dominated the far wall of the room. And from there she observed as we made our way to our assigned desks.

I sat at my desk, wrapped the pen that had been left for me in the crimson glow of my telekinesis, and waited. As soon as The Overmare gave the order, I would flip my exam over and take in the complex problems that awaited me. This was going to be a breeze!

“Test start!” Said the overmare, starting her PipBuck timer.

With a crimson flash, I flipped the page over, knowing that the art of mathematics was not something foreign to me, and that I wouldn’t have any problems with passing this exam. I contemplated the black text on the page, taking in the complex arithmetic calculations that had been asked of me, and that I could easily complete.

Concentrate, you can do this. I told myself, and it was true as well. For every single year up to now, I had been at the top of my class in math, no other filly had ever come close to my grades.

I could still recall my first time taking an exam as if it had been yesterday, the nervousness, the confidence, and, of course, the knowledge that no problem could escape my grasp.

Once more I pondered over the problem before me, the one sentence that would define if my intellect was still above that of the other fillies. I hadn’t been taught much history, but I did know about the hundreds of brilliant ponies that had poured their intellect into the fine and precise art of mathematics. Truly, it was a thing of beauty, how seemingly esoteric and wholly alien concepts could merge with an idea as grounded and tangible as the apple.

“If you had seven apples, and your friend gave you four more, how many apples would you have?” I read to myself, whispering the words just barely loud enough for my own ears to hear. I felt every word as it passed through my lips, the warm feeling of friendship and the sweet taste of apples wrapping around each other to create a wholly unique sensation.

To think something as complex as math could be whittled down to a simple interaction between friends, to a gift, given from one pony to another. It was… beautiful, really. However, there was a saddening undertone to the problem, for it had clearly been created in the days before the megaspells dropped. At what other time could a pony have simply given something as valuable as an apple to somepony else without as much as a promise that the valuable food would someday be repaid?

Apples were a rare luxury in stable 75, only one was given to the best of the best at the end of every year. And to think at some point a pony could’ve had as many as seven apples! Not just that, but other ponies could have so many that they gave them away as gifts instead of prizes… unthinkable!

“Only ten minutes left, children,” The Overmare said, knocking me out of my ponderation.

It seemed that my thinking had taken up a substantial portion of the exam time, but it was nothing to worry about. After all, during my visualization of pre-war Equestria, I had come across the answer to the query that had been set upon me.

‘Onety-one’ I wrote proudly, grinning at how quickly I had reached the result. While I did feel slightly disheartened to know that the highest praise I would get for my excellent display of mathematical skill would be a good grade, I knew that it was just the way things were.

I strutted proudly out of the exam room, ready to enjoy my well-deserved free time. While heading back to the dorm would’ve been ideal, I couldn’t abandon my fillies. The library, however, was the second-best option.

Meridian was, once again, napping in her chair. There was no point in waking the older mare up, however, since the only thing I was looking for was a nice cushy couch to drop my flank on.

I opened the book once more, flipping through its pages absentmindedly. Gold is such a beautiful metal, I wish I had something made of gold. I thought, imagining how important such an item would make me look. No longer would I be a simple white pony with a brown mane, I’d have something bright and odd that really made me pop out from the crowd.

Maybe a headband… or maybe even a large collar or some bracelets for my rear legs, yeah, that sounds nice. I thought, looking back at the legs in question and trying to imagine what the accessories would look like. The best part is that it would draw eyes away from my blank fla-

The world exploded into colors and shapes as my head slammed against the roof in my ecstatic jubilee. A loud banging sound came from the front desk, probably Meridian being roused from sleep by a filly body slamming into the ceiling. But I paid her no mind as I shook my head to try and get my eyes to focus again and make sure I hadn’t just imagined it.

“Yesssss!” I shouted, “Yes! Yes! Yes!”

Right there, where I had expected to see nothing but my white coat, stood the most beautiful cutie mark I had ever seen. The combined alchemical symbols of gold and silver were now plastered on my flank. A simple depiction of a sun with a crescent moon coming out of its side.

Gold and silver, the sun and the moon… it was as if the world had heard my plea for a prize and had given it to me in the only way it could! The balance was perfect, black mark over white coat, effort and skill for silver and gold. It was so beautiful that my eyes could do nothing but weep tears of joy.

“Is everything okay?” Meridian shouted, having stood back up after falling from her chair.

“It’s better than okay! Look!” I exclaimed, pointing at my flank when the librarian peeked into the aisle.

“Oh my!” The mare said, a smile parting her features, “Finally!” She said, walking over to hug me.

“I have to tell The Overmare!” I shouted, breaking free from Meridian’s embrace.

I stuffed the book back into my saddlebag and ran out of the library, diving for the exam room like a white missile.

“Overmare!” I shouted as I flew through the door, “Overmare Number Crunch!”

“Black Light! What is the meaning of this?” The Overmare demanded with a bellow. Standing up from behind her desk to glare at me.

But I was far, far too happy for even her raised voice to put a dent in my joy. I said nothing, instead simply turning to the side and letting my flank do the talking.

Almost instantly, the older mare’s face warped from anger and frustration to a joy so radiant it could almost match my own. Glistening eyes and an enormous grin gave her an appearance that was so unlike The Overmare that one could’ve easily thought she was an impostor.

“Fillies! Classes for today are over, you all pass!” The Overmare announced, “We shall be celebrating Black Light’s graduation, at long last!”

My heart skipped a beat, I just couldn’t believe that the time had finally come. I had waited so long and now it was finally here.

“We will celebrate in the mess hall, everypony must be there in half an hour!” The Overmare continued, rushing into an adult door on the far wall of the classroom.

Once the oppressive presence of The Overmare had left the room, the fillies wasted no time in fully exploding with joy. They chanted my name and piled onto me, leaving me crushed under an immense group hug. We rushed out of the classroom and galloped down the hallways, eventually reaching our dorm.

“Thanks, girls! I’m going to be a hero!” I shouted at the top of my lungs when we had gathered in the room.

More cheers erupted from the crowd. It wasn’t every day that a new hero of the surface graduated from stable 75. But this time it wasn’t just a hero… it was me. It was my turn to walk up those steps and finally fulfill my mission.

“Does that mean that I’m going to be in charge of the fillies now?” Light Show asked once the cheering had died down.

“Yup! By tomorrow you’ll have your very own PipBuck!” I said with a grin, lifting my own to show her.

“Oh yeah!” She exclaimed excitedly.

We shared a laugh and finished getting our dorm in order to head towards the party. I stared longingly at my bunk, the same one that would serve Light Show tonight, just as it had served Gradient Bar before me. An endless cycle of bedding cycling as we grew older and graduated.

“Okay fillies, line up!” I ordered, possibly for the last time.

The young ponies jumped into place faster than they ever had before, clearly excited to go to the party. My party. I skipped along with them as we paraded through the halls. Several researchers were walking along us as well, more than I had ever seen before. They didn’t say much, however, merely limiting themselves to stare at my cutie mark.

And why wouldn’t they? It was stunningly beautiful, not to mention how clear its meaning was: gold and silver, the signs of the sun and the moon, silver and gold. It was my talent, nay, my destiny to be the very best at any time of day!

The mess hall had been converted into a true party room. Recycled paper confetti rained from the sides of a large banner that read my name. Bowls of daisy chips adorned all the tables, my favorite.

Gamma Ray and the colts arrived shortly after, any sense of rivalry between us forgotten in the sheer joy that flooded the room.

“Took you long enough!” He teased.

“It sure did!” I answered, immediately diving back into my daisy chip bowl.

Moments later the adult door opened once more to reveal The Overmare, an enormous, juicy and delectable apple held firmly in her magical grasp. Despite the chaotic celebration, The Overmare’s presence was still more than enough to get us all to quiet down.

“Fillies and colts, I want you all to give a round of applause to the latest hero of the surface, Black Light!” She stated.

A thunderous applause flooded the room, from fillies, colts, and adults alike. The Overmare raised a hoof to quiet us down again.

“It is not every day that a filly, nay, a mare graduates from between your ranks, let alone one as promising as Black Light,” The older mare continued, I couldn’t help but puff out my chest at the notion of being called an adult, “Her performance has been impeccable, and I hope she can serve as a template to create more excellent future graduates, give her a cheer!”

More applause followed her words, nearly as deafening as the thunder of my heart in my ears.

“Now we shall see her off! To go join all previous graduates in their epic quest to bring balance back to the surface!” The Overmare finished, floating the apple toward me.

I gracefully took it within my own magical grasp, bringing it ever so closer to my mouth. The room had fallen completely silent and I could feel the chills of dozens of eyes on me.

A loud, echoing crunch sounded out as my teeth broke through the crisp fruit’s skin, marking the start of the rest of my life. Cheers erupted once more from the gathered ponies.

“Thanks everypony!” I managed to shout over the celebrating ponies.

A while later, once I had eaten more daisy chips than I had in my whole life, the party was finally starting to die down slightly. I was in the middle of my… twentieth? Thirtieth? Bowl of daisy chips when I felt a series of taps on my leg. I turned to see none other than Dot Product, looking up at me with wide eyes.

“Hey there, Dot!” I said cheerfully,” drawing a smile from the filly.

“H- Hey Miss Black Light,” She mumbled, “I h- hope you have a good time saving the p- ponies of the surface,”

The little filly’s words tugged at my memory. Many years ago I had been in her hooves, saying the same words to Gradient just before she had left for the surface. Thanks to her I knew exactly what to tell the filly in front of me now.

“Thanks, Dot,” I said, smiling sincerely, “I’ll make sure to find you out there when you graduate too!”

“Y- you will?” She asked, her ears perking up.

I nodded, making a serious face.

“I promise,” I added.

Two small black forelegs wrapped around my left leg, pulling it into a hug.

“I’ll miss you!” She said, her voice barely a whisper.

I’ll miss you too, Dot. I wanted to say, but the words just didn’t seem to leave my throat. I decided to simply hug her back, holding the small pony in my hooves for a moment.

“Black Light?” The voice of The Overmare came from behind me.

I turned to look at the older mare, she was standing in the open adult door. The same eerie smile from before plastered on her usually serious features.

“It’s time,” She said.

I nodded and stood to address my fillies and the colts for the last time in a long while.

“Bye everypony, keep training hard! I can’t wait for you to join me and all the other heroes up on the surface!” I exclaimed excitedly, getting one last round of applause in exchange. I turned and took a deep breath before stepping into the adult section of the stable.

Truth be told, the adult section was not so different from the stable I had grown up in. The layout was nearly identical, with the only difference being the transparent floor that allowed the researchers to keep an eye on us. You could see everything from up here, they must really care about us to keep that close of an eye!

The Overmare guided me through a series of hallways and rooms, full to bursting with strange laboratory machines. One thing stood out as strange, however, and it was the sheer number of researchers. I had always assumed them to be a dozen at most, but as I made my way through this alien part of the stable I could see a dozen new faces in every room.

Finally, we took one last turn and came face to face with a closed door. My eyes drifted downwards through the transparent floor and I immediately realized where we were. We were standing above the entrance to the clinic, so, logically, this had to be the adult clinic!

The door opened to reveal none other than Quick Check, standing tall in his lab coat.

“Black Light! Here at last!” He said with a smile that was just a little bit too wide, “Sorry that I missed your party, but I had to get everything ready for you up here, come, come!” He added, gesturing to the inside of the clinic.

The Overmare and I walked into the room, which was nearly identical to the one below. The main difference was that where the clinic I knew had many different beds, this one had a single one in the middle of the room. The entirety of the walls were covered in drawers and shelves holding all manner of tools and machines.

“Get on the bed, please” Quick Check ordered, “We just need to run some final tests and then you’ll be ready to go,”

“Sure thing, doc!” I chirped before launching myself onto the bed.

The Overmare and Quick Check shared a look before the former gave a nod.

“I leave this to you, I have to go make sure the others don’t get too rowdy,” She said before leaving the room.

Quick Check walked up to me, a book held less than a hoof’s length from his eyes. I heard pages flip rapidly as the stallion focused on my flank.

“Do you feel any difference in the area?” He asked.

“No, not really, but I finally got my cutie mark! Isn’t it cool?” I exclaimed happily.

“Yes, yes, but are you certain you don’t feel anything strange? Like a pricking sensation?” He said, his eyes still focused on his book.

I went silent for a moment, focusing on my flanks.

“No, it feels the same as it always has,” I said, drawing a sigh from the doctor.

Quick Check pulled back and started to flip through his book again.

“Clearly symbological, but no clear symbol…” He mumbled.

“Oh, I know what it is!” I exclaimed, making the stallion raise an eyebrow, “It’s the alchemical symbols for gold and silver!” I explained proudly.

The doctor’s expression softened. He gave an understanding nod and then took a second book out of a nearby shelf, flipping through both at the same time. After a few moments, however, he let out a frustrated groan and lifted his leg to tap at his PipBuck.

“Okay then, just one thing left here!” He said, floating out a wide array of flasks and tools from the drawers around him.

“And then what happens?” I asked, almost jumping in anticipation.

“And then you’ll get your vaccines, and go be a hero,” He reassured me, an awkward smile warping his face, “now, get ready, this will hurt a bit,” He added, floating out a strange cylindrical tool.

I did my best to ‘get ready’, but I couldn’t help but yelp when the cylinder was pressed into my back. The metal bit into my coat, its edge easily slicing through it and cutting a round chunk out. However, almost as fast as the pain had appeared, it went away under the magic that poured out of Quick Check’s horn.

“Good, good,” The stallion said, dropping the small piece of muscle into a flask and quickly pouring the contents of another into it.

“What is that for?” I asked, watching as the bloody chunk bubbled inside the flask.

“Just some final samples, we won’t see you again, after all!” Quick Check said.

“Aww, don’t say that! I’ll definitely come back to visit!” I reassured him.

Quick Check grunted in response, floating a second tool off a nearby tray, this one was substantially longer and thinner than the one before. I felt something wet press against my back, just over my kidney.

“That was some anesthetic, you’ll just feel a prick,” The doctor explained as he floated the large tool over my back.

Just like he said, I felt a sharp stab on my back, barely even a prick. The tool was inside for a few seconds before pulling back out. Another surge of healing magic closed the small hole as if it had never been there before the stallion deposited a bloody mass into one of the smaller flasks.

“Just one more!” Quick Check said, putting the long tool inside a bag.

I braced myself for another painful sample, but was pleasantly surprised when Quick Check produced a pair of scissors instead. The doctor walked up to my face and snipped off a small lock of my mane, letting it fall into a test tube. Without saying a word, he turned and took all of the samples towards a small fridge in the wall.

A loud knocking sound came from the other side of the door, causing me to jump slightly,

“Allele?” Quick Check asked.

“Yeah,” A voice answered from the other side.

“It’s open, come on in,”

The door opened fully to reveal an old earth pony mare. Or well… old wasn’t exactly the right word for her, ancient would’ve been more fitting. Deep wrinkles covered her face, and what wisps of mane still remained on her head had turned as white as my coat. I had never seen this pony before.

“This is the new one?” The mare asked, pointing at me.

“Yep, I don’t have anything close to hers in the manual,” Quick Check answered.

I wonder what they’re talking about. I thought as the two ponies talked in their strange scientific language. My mind wandered over the different tools that were around the clinic, wondering when I’d finally go to the surface to start being a hero! I should probably look for some of the other graduates as soon as I get there. Whichever way they may have gone.

A hoof pressing against my flank brought my attention back to the two researchers.

“-unseparated symbols,” Quick Check was saying, “But the books have next to nothing on monochromatism,” He added.

“If you ask me, I’d say it looks more like a glyph-“ The old mare started, but she quickly fell silent, “Nevermind, we’ll have time to discuss it later, we shouldn’t keep her!” She said, breaking her silence once more.

I immediately perked up at her words.

“Fair enough,” Quick Check stated, turning to smile at me, “Are you ready to be a hero?” He asked.

“I’ve been ready for years!” I said, puffing out my chest in pride.

Quick Check let out a chuckle before walking towards the door, which Allele was holding open.

“Stay right there, we’ll give you your vaccines and then you’ll be ready!” He said right before the door closed.

I could barely keep myself still. It finally happened, I was going to make it. All my training, all my hard work, all my existence had been building up to this moment. I couldn’t have been more ready, my mind was quick, my legs strong, and my senses sharp. The burning feeling in my chest was so extreme that I was sure it would melt through my stable barding at any second.

Before I got the chance to bounce off the bed, however, the door slid open once more.

“Hello,” Said Sample Array, walking into the clinic with a cart.

The hairs on the back of my neck stood on end at the sight of the stallion, but they quickly calmed down. He’s part of the research team, and the research team only want what’s best for us and the surface. I reassured myself. The cart that the unicorn was pushing held a large bottle and a syringe. I hated syringes.

But it was necessary, I had gone through far worse than a vaccine to get here.

“You won’t feel a thing!” The unicorn said, taking the needle out of its protective casing.

I watched as Sample Array took the bottle in their magic, reading the peeling label for a bit before placing the syringe within it and filling it with a thick green liquid.

“Hey, why does the bottle have a skull and crossbones?” I asked, pointing at a part of the bottle where the white label had peeled off, revealing a red label underneath.

“That’s because it’s… uh… very, very deadly to viruses and bacteria!” The green unicorn said with a nervous tone, turning the bottle so that I couldn’t see the label anymore.

I guess that makes sense. I thought to myself, trying to take a deep breath to calm myself down.

Sample Array walked up to my side and took my right forehoof in his magic, aiming the syringe at the veins in my knee. I hadn’t ever gotten a vaccine there, usually they went into my shoulder. I had to look away to avoid passing out, but the sensation still felt horrible, as if a burning sludge were making its way through my veins. Almost immediately, I felt sick to my stomach and tasted something coppery in my mouth, what a strange vaccine.

“It shouldn’t take longer than ten seconds,” The unicorn said as they replaced the syringe on the cart, but their voice sounded distant and distorted.

Oh, good. I thought, my inner voice feeling sluggish, as if I had just woken up. Just have to count to… ten, let’s see… one… two… uhh… what was the third one? Was it four? The thought echoed around my mind as my vision collapsed into darkness.

Slowly, consciousness seeped back into my mind. I knew not how long I had been unconscious for, but I could feel that my barding and saddlebags had been removed. My mouth felt pasty and dry, and my head throbbed painfully, what happened? I tried to move, but my limbs felt frozen and sluggish.

“-Should do it, if you damage the cutie mark we’ll get a sharper one and try again on the other side,” A voice said somewhere to my left.

“That would be all, I’ll take the samples to the main freezer when I’m done,” Another voice, deeper-pitched, answered from my right.

I heard a door open and close. I tried to open my eyes but I could barely manage to crack them open enough to be blinded by a bright light. Warm air hit my right flank, somepony’s breath, I guessed. What was going on?

“Okay so let’s see…” The pony said, a stallion, I realized now that my ears were working better.

The sound of pages being turned reached my ears as the stallion continued to talk to himself.

“Make an incision above the area…”

An incision?! I thought, alarmed. Straining against my frozen limbs, I desperately tried to move. Who is that? Where am I?

I must’ve managed to twitch, because the pony next to me fell silent after giving an alarmed yelp. I continued to struggle, but couldn’t manage to move. The low buzzing of telekinesis reached my ears when something cold was pressed against my snout, just under my nostrils.

The sudden sensation shocked me, flooding my body with cold as if a bucket of icy water had been poured on me. My eyes finally opened fully, blinding me with the bright white light that hung from the ceiling. They quickly refocused on the small glass pane that had been held against my snout, probably to check if I had been breathing.

“What the-?” The stallion’s voice asked.

I forced my head to the side and saw the recoiling face of Sample Array.

“You!” I shouted, quite a difficult task considering my jaw wasn’t responding yet.

The unicorn’s eyes shrank to pinpricks as they panickedly scanned the room. A flash of telekinesis erupted from his horn and a scalpel floated off the tray that had been left by my bedside.

I managed to heave myself off the bed mere instants before the scalpel sank into the spot where my throat had been. What little air I had been able to draw into my lungs was quickly knocked out when I hit the floor, forcing me to cough.

I knew there was something fishy about that bastard! I thought, rolling away from the bed when the stallion in question swung the scalpel blindly at me. My legs sluggishly tried to lift my body off the floor, but I was forced to roll again when the scalpel flew at me.

A snapping sound escaped from the medical tool when it hit the floor, sending the deadly edge flying out of the stallion’s magic field. My own horn sputtered and sparked when I tried to channel magic through it, leaving me with nothing but a headache. Sample Array threw his broken weapon to the side and quickly replaced it with a bonesaw, glaring at me with murderous intent.

The saw swung in an arch towards me. My foreleg dragged itself up just in time to catch the tool. It hurt, but it wasn’t a serious injury. The pain, however, injected warmth back into my legs. I flicked the saw aside, completely ripping it out of the unicorn’s magic.

I whirled on the ground and placed both my rear hooves on the side of the bed that separated me from my opponent. With a groan, I sent it flying into the stallion. Slowly, I struggled back to my hooves, but the green pony remained under the medical bed.

Something was wrong with me. My vision was blurred and my ears were ringing. I could feel my heart thundering in my head, but its rhythm was off.

I quickly glanced around the room I was in, trying to spot any other hostiles. For now, I was alone. The glance had also revealed two things: In the first place, I was still in the stable’s adult clinic, In second place, I should’ve really thought twice about moving my eyes around so quickly.

“Owwwww,” I whined, holding my throbbing head in my hooves.

As if my own foolish actions hadn’t made my headache bad enough, an incredibly loud alarm started blaring from the hallway. Was the stable under attack? I turned to look at Sample Array, watching as his right forehoof pulled away from his PipBuck.

“Damn it!” I shouted when I realized that he had probably signaled his co-conspirators.

I jumped at the pinned stallion, launching myself into the air. A loud banging sound came from the unicorn’s head when the dropkick connected, whipping his skull into the floor. That should keep him out of commission.

He couldn’t have been alone, I need to find the other baddies before they hurt one of the fillies! I thought, the pieces of the puzzle slowly falling into place. I knew this stallion seemed off from the first second! I had to tell The Overmare right away.

I looked around the room again, spotting a familiar pair of saddlebags that sat on a neatly folded set of stable barding. With practiced ease I slipped back into my clothes, my hooves still slightly sluggish.

My ears picked up the thundering of hooves outside the door, too heavy to be one of the researchers. I looked around for anything I could use as a weapon. Glancing over the tool-covered trays before letting out a triumphant chuckle when I found the perfect weapon.

The door started to slide open just as my magic finished wrapping around a steel tray that had been left next to my near-autopsy bed. I quickly threw away the many, differently-sized scalpels that were littering the tray and brought the metal rectangle to bear in front of me.

I didn’t immediately attack, after all, I didn’t know if this was a researcher that had come to see what the problem was!

My eyes went wide at the sight beyond the door. A pony stood before me, completely covered in black and blue armor. Their head was protected by a helmet, its visor concealing the features beneath. The only exposed part of the pony was the mouth, which was holding onto a ten-millimeter pistol.

On reflex, I swung the tray at the pony before they could take a shot. Their gun and several teeth went flying to the side with a loud gong sound.

The pony collapsed to the side, bringing both forehooves up to hold their broken jaw. Their misery didn’t last long, however, because in a single motion I replaced my tray with their discarded pistol. A single shot rang out, right between the helmet and the neck of the armor suit.

This had to be some kind of cue, there was no other explanation. Where had this strange pony gotten that armor? And why were they attacking me?

“Think Black Light, think!” I said aloud, my mind fighting against its own slowness.

I’ve got to Tell the Overmare, I hope she’s safe. I decided it was the best course of action. Whenever something wrong happens, we are to tell The Overmare. But where is she?

I walked up to the open clinic door and peeked outside, trying to see if there was anypony out there. Maybe I could find a researcher and get some help! I just had to-

A gunshot rang out from the hallway, followed by a searing pain in my right ear. My head whipped back into the clinic as quickly as I could, avoiding a second shot entirely. There were more of these ponies out there, at least one more. My mind raced to formulate a strategy.

Being a unicorn, I could easily blindfire down the hallway to make whoever was shooting at me take cover. But what if they had hostages? I couldn’t just hope for the best! I didn’t have enough time to think about it fully, I’d just have to trust my gut.

The gun flew out of the door, drawing fire from the unseen enemy that missed completely. I quickly whipped the pistol to the side and downwards, firing twice. I hoped the shots would bite into the grate floor instead of bouncing into a possible hostage, and that the sound alone would make the shooter take cover. I jumped out of the clinic and launched down the hallway, running away from the shooter. Several shots rang out behind me, but none connected.

I blindly ran through the alien adult stable. While some parts were essentially a one-to-one copy of the stable I was used to, many hallways and rooms were completely foreign. There was no sign of the many researchers I had passed on my way to the clinic. Could they have been taken hostage by that armored pony and their associates?

Eventually, I came to a small room with only one other staircase leading out of it… and up. Many lockers lined the walls, filled with yellow rubbery suits held firmly in plastic bags. A single sign hung from the staircase, reading ‘entrance’.

I turned to look back at the hallway from which I had come. Three black figures turned the corner behind me, guns at the ready. I fired twice at the first pony. Both bullets hit, but they did little other than slow the charging enemy down. I, on the other hoof, was very much not armored, a fact that was swiftly brought to the front of my mind when the attacking ponies opened fire.

There was only one way out of here: up the staircase. With the sound of bullets ricocheting off the walls and steel steps around me. My rear right leg suddenly started to feel sluggish, with a muted feeling of pain coming from halfway up my thigh. Of course I would be unlucky enough to get a muscle cramp while getting shot at!

The stairs ended in a large room. A large machine hung from the ceiling, pointed towards the cogwheel-shaped door of the stable.

Okay, you’re going to get out there, find the others, and come back here to save everypony! I thought, the plan falling into place now that my head was clearer. All I had to do was open this damn door.

I gritted my teeth, fired up my horn, and wrapped the entire bulk of the door in a crimson haze. I grunted loudly, clenching my teeth in effort as I pulled on the door with all my arcane might. A loud hissing sound came from the door as a yellow alarm light started to flash above it. My neck started hurting from the magical strain, but the door barely budged. Who designed this damned thing?

The sound of hoofsteps forced me to rethink my strategy, looking around the room for something I could use to try and pry the door open. My eyes finally fell on a small console that flanked the door, and I wrapped my magic around it instead. If I could pull it out of the floor I could use it like a makeshift crowbar. Right before I started pulling, however, I noticed the large red label reading ‘Door controls’ that was on the top of the console.

“Perfect!” I said aloud, switching my focus from using the console as a crowbar to figuring out the controls. There! A large green button that said ‘open’ was swiftly crushed under my hoof.

After a loud buzzer noise, the device in the middle of the room started to extend towards the stable door just as the three impostors reached the top of the staircase. I quickly brought my pistol up to bear and let off two shots, forcing them to retreat down the stairwell and take cover.

The door was slow. Painfully slow. Bullets ripped past me, pelting the wall near me with holes. I jumped to the side to avoid becoming a pony-shaped strainer, but quickly got back up on my hooves and shot back several times. I had to keep them out of the room as long as possible. They definitely knew I didn’t have much ammunition left.

Movement drew my eyes to the stairway, so I moved my gun on instinct and fired off a shot at the figure. A cacophony of noise came from the stairwell, I had either hit a weak spot or the pony had tripped in the shock of the shot. I took aim at a second figure, but the gun didn’t let out its wonderful song, instead giving me a dry click.

I turned around desperately to look at the door. It had finally inched open enough to maybe let a pony though. Before the imposters realized that I had run out of ammo, I threw myself at the crack in the door, barely fitting through. I started to drag myself through the opening, my back pressed hard against the edge of the door frame and my chest touching the rough steel of the door. The cogwheel shape kept turning, for a moment, I worried that it could crush me, but the sounds of gunfire blasted that worry out of my mind.

The door suddenly came to a stop. What the- I started to think, but the plate of steel started to move again… in the opposite direction. I doubled my efforts to drag myself through the gate as the rapidly closing door slowly started to press on my chest. Just… a little further…

“Gha!” I exclaimed as I finally slipped free of the stable door.

My heart was beating loudly in my ears, but even over its thundering drumming, I could hear the colossal door closing completely. Had they given up on killing me? Or had they decided that it wasn’t worth it to risk losing more of their wretched numbers? Either way, it didn’t matter, I had to get help as quickly as possible.

That, of course, would imply getting out of… wherever I am. I looked around the darkness, trying to see if there was anything I could make out. The darkness was absolute, for all I knew I could’ve actually died and become stuck somewhere in-between.

The inky void of darkness pressed down on me like barding that was too tight. My breaths became shakier as the adrenaline from my escape started to wear off, filling me with shivers and cold. My right rear leg was still terribly cramped, an intense burning feeling that went straight through it.

I just need some kind of… light! I thought, triumphantly, after remembering that I had a computer strapped to my foreleg.

I brought the device up to my face, its monochrome screen lighting up when it detected the movement. The dim green glow pierced the darkness tentatively, but the screen didn’t have enough strength to reveal anything other than the leg it was attached to. A window popped up on the screen, showing a limping pony with their rear right leg wrapped in bandages and a sad face.

What a dramatic diagnosis program, I’m not even hurt that bad. I thought with a chuckle while I flipped through the options menu.

At last, I found the ‘flashlight’ option and turned it on. Like a green sun, the light dawned in the strange space I had come into. The first rays of light struck the surfaces around me: concrete, twisted rebar, and rusted pipes. Some kind of basement, I realized.

Another notification brought my attention back to the PipBuck screen, where I saw a message reading ‘Discovered: Red school of Baltimare’. The tag marked itself on my map screen, it then dawned on me that I had no idea where I was supposed to go. My top priority had to be rescuing all the ponies in the stable, but I had no idea how I could do any of that!

“Okay Black Light, you can do this…” I told myself, listening to the ominous echo of my voice in the damp basement, “First thing’s first, you need to get out of here,”

My PipBuck pinged yet again, detecting the verbal task the moment it left my lips. The line of text on my EFS read ‘find a way out of the basement’. It was simple, but it helped greatly with calming my breathing.

I raised my foreleg, pouring my green light on my surroundings to try and get a better look. The derelict remains of several machines lay directly in front of the immense stable door, possibly generators or some kind of water pumps. The door itself was essentially identical to how it looked from the inside, with the only difference being the large yellow ‘75’ that was painted on its center.

Directly across from the stable door, I spotted a series of metal bars that didn’t look like pipes or like wreckage. A closer inspection revealed it to be the railing of a staircase, the rusted steps leading up into the darkness, outside of my light’s range. It was a rather daunting perspective… going up into the dark and away from my beloved stable. But what else was I to do other than charge towards the surface and finally fulfill my destiny?

“Let’s do this!” I exclaimed, resolute.

The second I tried to take a step forward, however, my rear legs slipped back, sending me tumbling onto the floor once more. I got up again and shook my head, apparently I had been standing in a puddle of some black liquid, probably sewage or something equally disgusting. But I wasn’t going to let a small slip-up put me down! I was going to do this!

I walked towards the staircase and started to make my way up the steps, hoping that the ancient structure didn’t collapse beneath me. The heads of rust-encrusted bolts taunted my every step, would they disintegrate as soon as my hoof fell upon their step, or would they hold fast and allow me to continue my advance to the surface? Truly there was no way to know until I finally committed and not only planted my hoof firmly on the poorly maintained surface of the ancient steps, but actually took the leap of faith needed to rest my prodigious weight upon them as well. Be it fortune, be it fate, but as I continued to press on, the stairs held fast until I had finally reached the top.

The light that poured from my PipBuck lit up the metal rectangle of a door. It wasn’t a sliding door, like the ones I was used to in the stable, but a hinged door like I had seen in historical pictures. I gave the knob a twist with my magic, just in case. Unsurprisingly, it didn’t budge, the thick layer of rust on the doorframe holding it firmly in place. For my second attempt, I wrapped the entire door in my telekinesis, grunting with effort while I tried to pull it free of its hinges.

I didn’t start all out, not wanting to put much pressure on the platform beneath me. Slowly I started to increase the pressure, and a bead of sweat fell down the side of my face while my magic intensified.

With a mighty creaking sound, the door finally tore off the wall, flying off into the darkness below from the excess force. A clang came from the depths as the door collided with something metallic, most likely the stable door.

The now-doorless doorway opened into a small room. Some natural light poured into it from a doorway on the opposite wall. It appeared to be some sort of storage area, judging by the rows of boxes labeled ‘storage’ that stood on rusty storage racks around me.

I walked up to one of the boxes, pulling it out of the rack and taking a look inside. A couple bottles of Moke glue were all I found. Why use an entire box to store a few bottles of glue? That’s pretty wasteful. I thought, looking into the next box over. My sight was met by three small black devices, red and yellow wires came out of them, with a spiral antenna poking out from the ‘top’. Why was this in a schoolhouse? I wondered, but it didn’t matter, I had to focus.

The door leading out of the storage room led me into a lobby area. A large U-shaped desk dominated the room, with a closed door on each side. Directly across from the desk, stood the remains of a double door that may have once been made out of glass. The entrance to the school. As soon as my gaze passed over the doorway, my PipBuck’s compass pinged and marked it with a light blue arrow, confirming that the door that led into the sunlight outside was, in fact, the exit.

Sunlight bled into the building through the shattered crystal, lighting up the hundreds of dust particles that had been stirred up by me for the first time in who knew how long. However, aside from the thick layer of dust that coated the furniture and the glass shards that had fallen onto the floor when the door broke, the room was remarkably well-preserved. I walked out and into the lobby proper, taking in the benches that were placed on the sides of the front door, and the long-dead potted plants that still sat in their pots on the desk. The glass shards on the floor reflected the light further into the building, showering the roof and walls with minuscule dots of brightness.

I knew that I should get to work immediately on finding the other graduates, but I’d be damned if the steel jaws of curiosity hadn’t locked themselves around my head and turned it towards the interior of the building. After all, what was just a few minutes of exploration in the grand scheme of things?

The door on the left of the desk was already slightly open, sliding completely open with only the smallest of pushes. Behind it was revealed a simple hallway, with doors numbered from one to four on either side. At the end of the hallway stood a fifth door, which was completely ajar.

I walked up to the door curiously, poking my head inside. The room beyond was a spitting image of a stable 75 classroom, with identical desks and layout to boot. A large blackboard hung on the far wall, with the faded remains of an ancient class still somewhat distinguishable on it.

“The mitochondria is the powerhouse of the cell…” I read aloud, the rest of the board was completely illegible.

The only thing of note in the classroom were the discarded saddlebags that lay beside each desk. Some were completely undisturbed, others had clearly been kicked aside in a hurry. Out of curiosity, I opened one, finding nothing but a pencil and a clear plastic bag with some unrecognizable sludge inside, maybe it had been food at some point.

I didn’t see a point in going into the other classrooms, not like there would be anything of note in them anyway. Instead, I made my way back towards the lobby and turned to face the other door. This time, however, I noticed something behind the desk that I hadn’t seen before. A small pit formed in my stomach when my eyes fell upon the skeleton that was draped on an overturned office chair. The remains of what may have once been a colorful shirt rested among the bones, with a small plastic pin that read ‘Miss P’ still attached to it.

Like all the other colts and fillies of stable 75, I had been shown photos of dead and grievously wounded ponies in an effort to prepare me for my duties as a surface hero, but this was… vile. To see a lifeless body was one thing, in some cases, you could almost think that the pony was just sleeping despite their injuries. Or in other cases a pony that had clearly died in the line of duty from all manner of weapons. But to see a completely degraded skeleton however, especially one that seemed to have just died while doing their job as a receptionist, felt deeply wrong.

I averted my gaze, unable to bear the sight any longer, my eyes tried to focus on anything other than the bleak scene behind the desk, eventually falling on the crimson puddle that was starting to accumulate underneath me.

Huh, that must be the sludge I stepped in outside the stable. I thought, staring at the dark red trail that had been left in my wake as I walked through the room. Some of it almost looked like droplets-

That’s blood, isn’t it? I thought, the little pony in my head facehoofed. Indeed, on my right rear leg, which I had foalishly believed to simply be cramped, I saw a small hole that was currently in the process of bleeding profusely. The sight of the wound seemed to remind my body that it was supposed to be feeling pain, sending me to my knees in an instant.

I was forced to lift the leg off the ground when the pain got too great to stand. Somehow, the lack of strain seemed to worsen the wound, making blood pour out of it at an even faster rate. With every beat of my heart, blood splattered the floor around me, covering the long-abandoned tiles in a fresh coat of crimson. It was ironic, really, that I had started my journey injured and with nothing but an empty pistol and myself for defense.

Should probably stop reflecting on the floor and focus on not bleeding out. I told myself, shaking my head. I looked around desperately for anything I could use to stop the bleeding, giving a tentative glance at the skeleton’s bow next to me. This was a school where fillies studied, there had to be some kind of first aid kit. Wait a second… I thought, glancing at the door with the classrooms. If the classrooms are similar to the ones in the stables, shouldn’t the bathrooms be the same too?

Hoping that the school had a bathroom, I dragged myself through the other door and was met by another hallway that led to a staircase. I looked at the other doors that lined the walls, seeing a maintenance closet, a teacher’s room, and…

“Bingo!” I exclaimed when my eyes read the ‘bathroom’ sign.

I stumbled into the small room and tried to wave my PipBuck light around the darkness. This was no easy task, considering I had to balance myself on just two legs. But it paid off when I spotted the first aid box. It was hung on the wall where it had been in the stable’s bathroom. The only difference being that it was a light yellow color as opposed to the stable’s plain white.

My crimson magic wrapped around the metal box, opening the lid with such desperation that I nearly ripped the entire thing off the wall. One of the rusty screws that held the box against the wall gave way under the force, leaving the container hanging from a single point. I lifted my PipBuck to light up the inside of the box, trying to find anything of use.

A roll of bandages was the first thing I saw in the box, and it was all I needed to see. I took out the roll with my magic, ripping it out of its spot so quickly that several items went flying out of the box alongside it.

There we go. I thought as I finished wrapping my leg with the thin fabric. The magic that had been woven into the bandage immediately got to work on alleviating my pain, almost letting me set my leg down again.

I looked around the floor for the items I had sent flying, but all I could find was a small metallic object. I picked it up in my magic, bringing it up to my eyes to see it better. One of those little mane pins, I realized. There was also a single bottle cap, with another two still inside the first aid box. Who in their right mind would just chuck garbage into a first-aid kit?

“Okay, let’s get going, I need to find the other graduates,” I said out loud, making sure my PipBuck picked it up.

The text appeared in my EFS. I doubted I could forget it, even if I tried, but it would still serve as a reminder. All I needed now was a direction. I looked back at the hallway, noticing how I could easily make out my tracks among the drops of blood. I hadn’t noticed any tracks leading out of the school, so this dust was probably new.

I tried to think of who I could look for rather than where. Sunbeam had been the last graduate before me, but he had been gone for several months now, there was no way to know what direction he had gone in. Or… I realized, looking at the open front door, is there?

Slowly but surely, I limped my way towards the entrance to the school, peeking into the cracked street outside. A long, single-story housing building stretched out to either side in front of the school, as far as I could see.

A ceiling of thick clouds hung above me, bringing back memories of the pictures I had seen in history books. Pictures of cities in the clouds, buzzing with pegasi. I looked up and wondered if there were any pegasi up there. Would they look at us? Observing and examining in the same way the researchers had done with me and the other fillies? From a certain point of view, it was a comforting thought.

Not everything was comforting, however, an eerie veil of silence hung over my surroundings, gone was the low hum of the stable’s ventilation ducts and the buzzing of lights, replaced instead by a horrid stillness. An intense feeling of paranoia flared up inside me as I stared into the empty street, it felt too quiet, it felt… wrong.

I stepped through the shattered glass of the front door and walked into the emptiness that lay before me. Not even a hint of a breeze was blowing outside, the entire world seemingly frozen in time. By all means it felt as if I had walked into a photograph from the past.

The clouds above took on a new sensation now that I was in the open. No longer was it a ceiling, instead, it was as if a curtain of sadness had been drawn over Celestia’s sun. And there too, time was stagnant, with even the clouds seeming to be frozen in the sky. I stepped forward once more, stepping onto a few shards of glass that were sprinkled on the ground outside the schoolhouse. I winced at how loud the sound was in the dreadful silence of the street.

“Come on Sunbeam… where did you go?” I asked out loud, looking to either side of the deserted street. My voice echoed back to me ominously.

There didn’t seem to be any indication that a pony had gone through this street for centuries, let alone months! A glance at my EFS compass revealed that the street ran from east to west, but that was all the information I could get from it. My wounded leg forced me to sit on my haunches, letting me concentrate. My PipBuck pinged, informing me that I had, in fact, gotten out of the schoolhouse.

If the others didn’t go east or west, what direction could they have gone in? I thought. We had been sent up here to serve as heroes for the poor, defenseless surface-dwellers, meaning that everypony before me probably headed straight towards trouble. But there seemed to be no trouble here, or anything at all, for that matter.

That was when a realization struck me like a freight train, I did know what direction trouble was in! Whenever things went wrong, ponies said that things had ‘gone south’. Something about that direction was clearly associated with chaos and mischief, perhaps the maregnetic field of our beloved world concentrated all the trouble in that one singular direction. Why else would it always be referred to as an omen of bad luck?

It was so obvious that I couldn’t believe it had taken me so long to realize. Emboldened by my intelligence, I turned around to face the school once more, seeing the path that led around it.

“I will be back as soon as I find help!” I proudly announced, my gaze fixed on the spot where I knew my stable lay. And I was off to adventure!

The streets of Baltimare were… unnerving, to say the least. Something about the vast emptiness felt terribly wrong, and worst of all, I could all but swear that I wasn’t alone here. Be it the ominous dark depths of broken windows, or the empty alleyways, I couldn’t shake the sensation that at any given moment I would turn around to spot something just barely slipping out of my sight.

I knew it was nothing to worry about, my empty EFS was all I needed to be certain of my loneliness. But while the isolation remained, the silence did not. Not two blocks away from the schoolhouse, my PipBuck started to let out the most grating clicking noise I had ever heard. I lifted the screen to my eyes to try and find what it was trying to tell me, but there was no warning window, no message at all.

What’s wrong with this thing? I wondered, whipping my leg down and hitting the machine against the sidewalk. The noise persisted. If there was one thing that you could be certain of with Stable-tec it was that their products were hardy. I stared intently at my EFS, trying to figure out what was making that damned sound.

“What is it? What do you-” I asked the device, but just as I did I spun around enough for my compass to display the eastern direction. There was a single blue bar on it, pointing at one of the abandoned single-story houses. My gaze hardened and focused on the building.

I cautiously approached it, listening carefully for any sound from the inside. My forehoof fell on the door steps, pulling me closer to the door. I held my breath and placed my ear as close to the door as I dared, but heard nothing.

“Show yourself!” I said, pulling out my pistol and cocking it. The gun had no ammo, sure, but the sound may be enough.

No reply. I watched as the bar in my EFS moved slightly, clearly whatever was in there had heard me. But the lack of an answer could mean that they were waiting to ambush me. Not wanting to give them the chance to get ready, I took a couple of steps back and crouched, taking a deep breath.

I flew at the door like a bullet, hitting it with my full body weight. The ancient wooden door exploded inwards along with me. I lit up my horn, charging a magical beam, but I couldn’t spot a target. My eyes scanned the area where the blue bar was pointing at, finding nothing.

“I can see you!” I shouted at the bar.

The room I had come into was some kind of living room, as could be clearly seen from the furniture. I followed my EFS and came to look at the kitchen, which was connected to the living room with a counter. Whatever was in there was definitely hidden behind that counter.

I took a step forward, but a feeling like an ice pick stabbing into my back made the hairs on my neck stand on end. On instinct, I threw myself to the side and fired my horn into the counter. The thin wood gave way immediately, sending the crimson beam directly through the piece of furniture.

A cacophony of noise came from the kitchen, proving that there had been something there. And not just that, but the wood had been thin enough to allow them to shoot at me through it! My horn fired up again, sending three more beams into the counter. The sound of pots and plates falling finally stopped, sinking the house back into silence.

I walked up to the kitchen cautiously, keeping my horn lit and ready. A strange smell reached my nostrils, a peppery, sour scent. Just for good measure, I shot another beam through the counter, adding a fifth scorch mark to the brown wood. There was no noise this time, and my EFS was quick to confirm that the bar was no longer there.

On the other side of the counter I saw multiple metal pots covering the floor, probably kicked aside by whatever had been hiding there. But where I expected to see a bandit or some other dangerous creature, I saw a strange brown mass. A mess of twisted legs and scorched wings made up the form of an almost unidentifiable creature. Clearly, it was some kind of giant bug.

I crouched next to the creature, trying to get a better look at it.

“Wow… that’s one ugly-” I started, but was forced to jump back when the creature twitched.

I screamed and fired at the creature, hitting it with four beams. As soon as the last one hit, the entire bug let out a crimson glow before disintegrating into a pile of ash.

“Showed him,” I huffed.

I looked around the house for a bit, trying to spot anything that could be of use. However I did find it odd how the nearly-intact house hadn’t been looted. The kitchen especially held all manner of rotten food and cooking utensils, completely undisturbed. The incessant clicking of my PipBuck did little to alleviate the feeling of unease as it echoed through the empty building.

After checking the cupboards I finally found the door to the house’s pantry. A foul smell seeped into the air from behind the door, something had probably died in there. Just to be sure, I charged up my horn and turned on my PipBuck light, putting a hoof on the door to open it.

With a grunt, I pushed the door open, revealing the inside of the pantry. It immediately became apparent what the source of the smell was. The floor was covered in a puddle of black sludge. In the middle of the puddle was a small animal carcass, about the size of my head, firmly held in a rat trap. My horn powered down now that I knew there wasn’t a threat.

And to think a rat could come to its end so long after the trap had been set. I thought, pulling my gaze away from the trap and towards the racks on the walls. Oh yeah.

I smiled when my eyes fell on the rows of what seemed to be food cans in the pantry. They would probably pale in comparison to stable food, but a quick check revealed that they were still centuries away from becoming inedible. I still need to find ammunition. I thought as I moved my empty pistol out of the way to fit a can of tomatoes into my bags. With any luck I should be able to find some ammo before needing to use the thing. Not like it would be needed anytime soon with how deserted everything looked.

My PipBuck’s clicking eventually came to a stop once I crossed into a more destroyed area. The effect was almost instantaneous, gone was the sensation of wrongness and of being observed. Melted away by the picked-clean ruins of the streets of Baltimare, now this was what I expected of the surface, not eerie deserted houses.

“Shouldn’t be much longer before I find somepony, I need to find anypony that needs help,” I said out loud, getting a confirmatory ping from my PipBuck.

A sound made my right ear twitch. It wasn’t my PipBuck clicking, it was a different sound. Gunshots! I realized, whipping my head around to look in the direction of the noise. Conflict! Here I come!

Over rubble and cracked pavement I ran, slowing down only when I was certain that the fight was taking place just one street over. The house that separated me from the battle was almost completely destroyed, but it would serve as cover. My EFS finally picked up on the combatants.

Two clusters of blue bars appeared on my compass, one on each side of the ruined house before me. I walked up the remains of a staircase and got as close as I dared to the edge of the collapsed wall, peeking out to take in the scene.

Closest to me, on the left, I saw a large pile of rubble behind which were seven figures, all draped in deep blue robes with reinforced patches of armor. All of them except one. In the middle of the group stood a large stallion. An incredibly bright yellow mane poured out from under a golden headband, flowing down and onto a bulky chestpiece like a cascade of gold. I felt my jaw dropping at the mere sight of him.

Something about the pony’s armor stuck out to me, possibly the color, but I couldn’t help but focus on it. The boxy outline, the scratched up logo on the chest… A steel ranger! I realized.I remembered reading about those some years ago. But this suit of armor was rather… incomplete, from what I could recall the steel ranger armor was supposed to cover the entire soldier from hoof to head. Yet the stallion before me wore only the chest piece, leaving his legs and head unprotected.

Well even if he doesn’t have the whole thing on, it’s probably some damn good armor. I thought, admiring the white finish that had been applied to the metal. But that didn’t answer any of my questions. Who were these ponies? And who were they shooting at?

“Sir! The supply caravan is gone!” One of the robed ponies told the tall stallion.

“No matter, we will follow them to Junkyard,” Said the armored pony.

Another one of the robed ponies crawled closer to their leader, speaking just barely loud enough for me to catch the words.

“We have them outnumbered, sir, should we advance?” One of the robed ponies said.

“I am aware,” The large stallion said, his voice drowning out the other pony’s, “There is no need for us to attack, if they are truly that desperate for the supplies, they will come to us,”

Desperate for supplies…? Just who were they fighting?! I raised my head over the wall to try and get a good look at their opponents. And my heart dropped.

Oh no… was the only thing I could think of when I finally caught a glimpse of the others. Hiding behind a twisted scrap heap was a group of five ponies dressed in dirty rags. They looked starved and frightened, firing with weapons that seemed closer to scrap heaps than actual guns.

One thing was clear to me, they looked nearly identical to the ponies in the shooting gallery mural. They had to be the surface ponies. But if those were the surface ponies, then who were the others? I looked back at the group that was underneath me, they were clearly too well-dressed to be the defenseless surface ponies that I was meant to protect. Nopony could dress that well in this horrible wasteland without something sinister being involved.

I recalled what the ponies had said, pieces of the puzzle falling into place. Whoever the robed ponies were had clearly separated the poor surface-dwellers from their supplies and were planning on killing them when they tried to fight back! And it doesn’t help that they’re hopelessly outgunned. I thought, watching as the robed ponies returned fire with their well-maintained guns.

My PipBuck seemed to ping in agreement, marking the surface dweller group as my objective. They need my help.

“Remember, we want to capture them, not kill,” The leader said, keeping their head down as the surface ponies gave another valiant attempt at recovering their supplies from these tyrants.

Capture? It was worse than I thought, not only were these finely-dressed miscreants trying to take their things, but they also wanted to enslave them! A burning pit of rage lit up in my chest.

My mind raced to form some sort of strategy, I was heavily outnumbered. But I noticed that they seemed to depend on their leader a little too much. I needed a plan, and I needed it now!

“They’re moving!” One of the ponies next to the armored stallion said, poking her head out from the rubble and hiding it quickly when a couple of gunshots rang out.

“Wait until they get closer, then we’ll do as we practiced,” Instructed the leader.

Not on my watch!

I waited until I heard the surface dwellers start firing again, planning on using their gunfire as a distraction. Immediately, I started to feel that buzz inside me, as if I were standing in the shooting gallery. My body was ablaze with energy, my heart slowly becoming more and more deafening.

In a clearly practiced motion, the robed ponies organized themselves into a V-shaped formation with their leader at the rear. A good formation to defend their leader from the approaching ponies, but a terrible formation to protect him from any attack from the rear.

I lept from the ruined house, rolling onto the cracked remains of the sidewalk. Like a spring I bounced back to my hooves and charged the armored stallion. You’re mine! I thought triumphantly as I closed the gap.

“Sir!” One of the robed ponies shouted, turning their battle-saddle to take aim at me. But I was too fast.

A bullet fired from a unicorn’s revolver flew past me, but I was already making my way up the debris pile. I launched at the blonde stallion like a white missile, aiming at his exposed neck with the only weapon I had available. His eyes went wide and he opened his mouth to shout something, but he quickly found himself unable to speak when my horn’s tip pierced his neck. A spurt of blood flew out of the wound, covering my face and the stallion’s once-immaculate robes. But I didn’t relent, pushing harder and harder. My horn broke out of my opponent through the stallion’s cheek, but even then I didn’t stop. Dragging the stallion’s body along with me up the last stretch of the rubble pile.

Many gunshots sounded out from the recovering robed ponies, but by the time they managed to aim at me, I was already jumping over the edge of the rubble pile. I rolled down the debris along with the lifeless body of the armored stallion, ripping my horn free of his neck as we fell. Bullets flew past me, missing me by sheer dumb luck. But my luck wouldn’t last much longer, not unless-

A second set of gunshots came from further down the street, causing the robed ponies that had charged after me to collapse. I peeked over the fallen Stallion to see that the surface dwellers had charged the rubble pile, capitalizing on the chaos from my attack.

I can’t let those defenseless ponies do the fighting for me! I thought as I quickly looked over the armored stallion’s body for any weapons. My eyes fell on a revolver that still sat in its holster and I grinned as I pulled it free. Now I was in business.

“For the surface!” Was my battle cry as I ran back up the debris mountain.

A shocked pony met my gaze as soon as I broke the crest, trying to aim his battle-saddle at me, but I was faster. A loud shot rang out from the revolver, blasting the pony’s head apart. An instant of shock hit me at the sight of the damage. This thing was powerful.

A wicked grin split my face as I jumped onto another robed pony, crashing into them with my full weight. We collapsed onto the floor, but I was quick to get up and raise my revolver. Three opponents, way too much for even me to aim at properly before getting lit up. Fighting against my instincts, I begrudgingly fired up my PipBuck’s assisted targeting spell.

SATS immediately took charge of my magic, speeding up my perception to a point where time seemed to stand still. All the more time to feel just how wrong this damned spell was. Where was the fun in letting a machine aim for you? Whatever, it would have to do. I selected my targets and released the spell, feeling it whip my weapon around and quickly send a shot into each of the robed pony’s foreheads. With how close I was to them there was no chance of missing. But even still, I hated using SATS.

I now stood proudly over the last remaining pony, the one I had tackled to the floor, my hoof firmly planted on their chest. I need to say something inspiring for the surface ponies… But what? I thought, before the ideal words came to me, hopefully the rather slow-looking surface ponies would be able to grasp their meaning.

“In your blind pursuit of possible slaves, you became yourselves slaves to your own lack of rear vision!” I told the robed earth pony.

“Get off me you insane bastard!” The pony screamed, clearly missing the point.

I pulled the trigger, sending one last oppressor of the surface-dwellers to the afterlife. Blood, brain matter, and bone fragments splattered the floor and rubble around the pony. I had to admit, I was impressed with this revolver, from the frightening power to the beautiful engravings.

“Drop the gun!” Somepony shouted from above me.

An audible harrumph left my mouth at the demand, I had literally just gotten the gun! I turned my head to look at one of the surface dwellers. The stallion looked even more sad and pathetic up close, extremely malnourished and dressed in what could barely be considered a harness. A strange contraption was strapped to the pony’s side, attached to his battle saddle. Some kind of rifle, I realized, no doubt assembled from parts taken out of at least four other weapons.

The pony’s right eye was concealed by a crude eyepatch which, while succeeding in covering the eye, did little to cover the hideous scar that took up half his face. His dirty red coat stuck out among the grayish rubble, drawing even more attention to him.

With absolute care, I unloaded the last bullet from the revolver and left the gun and ammunition on a nearby rock. I then turned to look at the stallion again, where I noticed that two of his friends had joined him. One of them was a mare, her yellow mane held in a messy bun by a piece of electric wire. The other was a deep blue stallion, who seemed significantly less battle-ready than his companions.

“I mean you no harm,” I explained, talking slowly so that their surface-dwelling minds could understand me, “I want to help you get your stuff back!”

The stallion that was aiming the strange rifle at me shook his head in confusion, obviously shocked as to how I had grasped the situation so quickly. I slowly rose to my hooves, giving the ponies a wide smile.

“Whut?” The eyepatch-wearing stallion asked, somehow managing to raise an eyebrow despite only having one.

I sighed at the need to explain myself further, but I wanted these poor ponies to trust me, after all.

“I overheard these miscreants saying that they were going to follow the supply caravan to a place called the junkyard, those were your supplies, right?” I asked, trying to be helpful.

The stallion that had asked for clarification cocked their head to the side and raised an eyebrow. Eventually, he turned around and raised his voice.

“Uhh, boss? We ‘ave a problem,” He said.

“What is it now?” A stallion’s voice asked from behind the pile.

The sound of hooves climbing up the rubble brought my attention to the side of the red stallion. A dirty orange mane held in place firmly by a red bandana appeared from behind the rocks. By the time the pony finally came to a stop atop the debris pile, all the others had fallen silent. He wore a blueish vest, held against his chest by a long bandolier. His left foreleg had a leather bracer that was so thick I nearly confused it for a PipBuck. He eyes me up and down, raising an eyebrow at my discarded weapon and ammo.

“Are you insane?” He asked.

“Oh don’t worry, I am completely sane!” I said, tilting my head a little to try and shake off a chunk of pony flesh that was still impaled on my horn.

“O… kay?” The stallion replied, looking at his companions.

“The point is, have no fear, I will help you for as long as I live, have no fear while Black Light is here!” I puffed out my chest with pride at finally being able to be a hero. I had been planning these phrases for years now.

The bandana-wearing looked behind him for a moment at the bodies that covered the debris. He looked back at me, his dirty orange mane falling over his eyes. After a moment of consideration, he gestured for his companions to stand down.

“You got any more weapons on ya?” He asked, keeping his green eyes on me.

“A ten-millimeter pistol in my left saddle bag, but it has no ammo,” I answered. For an instant, I thought about taking the gun out of the saddle bag myself, but drawing a weapon with no ammunition in front of a pony aiming a gun at me didn’t sound like a great idea.

“Burning, go check,” The stallion ordered.

A fifth pony poked her head out from behind the leader,

The mare that stood to the leader’s right, who I assumed was called Burning, slowly made her way towards me. She was pretty short, her head barely reaching above my haunches, and her coat was a pale yellow. Her deceptively strong jaw bit onto my saddlebags, pulling them open.

“Yep, she’s tellin’ the truth,” Burning confirmed after checking the gun within the bag.

“Okay then how’s this sound, if you give me that little bullet you left next to your revolver I’ll let you keep your guns,” The leader stated.

Immediately I wrapped the tiny bronze object in my magic and threw it at the stallion, grinning. He appeared suspicious, but quickly relaxed his expression.

“Well then,” He continued, seemingly surprised by my cooperation, “Name’s Double Cross, pleasure to have ya on board!” He grinned at me, showing that he had a couple of missing teeth.

Less than a day on the surface and I’m already helping ponies! This has to be some kind of record! I thought, making a mental note to ask the other graduates when I met them how long it had taken them to find ponies to help. Surely they were nowhere near as good as me!

“She’s my second in command, Burning,” Double Cross explained, gesturing towards the mare who had just searched my saddle bag, “These two are my muscle, Shrapnel and Barbed Wire ,” He added, pointing at the eye patch-wearing pony and at the mare with yellow mane in turn.

“And I’m Pot, the cook,” Finished the stallion that stood on Double Cross’ left. That would explain his large cooking pot cutie mark. The blue stallion had a bit of an odd inflection in his voice, almost as if he were singing the words instead of just speaking.

“Pleasure to meet you!” I said happily.

“Just stay out of the way and follow us… Or something,” The stallion said, lifting his hoof to point at the horizon, “We need to move if we want to get to them, especially if they’re really headed for Junkyard,”

I nodded, trying my damnedest to keep myself from exploding into a joyful screech. I still couldn’t believe it, I was actually on the surface, just like I was supposed to!

“Move it, ponies!” Double Cross boomed. And we were off

STABLE-TEC UNIFIED OPERATING SYSTEM

COPYRIGHT 1624 - 1626 STABLE-TEC

Biographical Registry System v.147

Full name: Tempered Jubilee

Classification: Female unicorn – 27 years of age – C355E3B-MD0F0C0-EFF7F7F

Cutie mark: a bar of differentially tempered metal

Tempered Jubilee was a joyful and energetic mare who served under Temperance’s command. Having grown up in the downtown ruins of Baltimare, she always saw the virtues as the ponies who had allowed her parents and her to live peacefully. This admiration became devotion once she was old enough to join up with the followers of virtues.

Her seemingly endless patience and cool-headedness were the driving factors behind getting assigned to Temperance. The stallion in question chose her specifically to journey with him not just for their aligned worldview, but also for her impeccable aim with her pistol.

Tempered Jubilee passed away during a gunfight in the eastern Baltimare ruins, a skirmish that would take the lives of her, six other followers of the virtues, and Temperance himself.

Author's Note

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