Fallout Equestria: Zebra Tails

by Scythe the batpony

Rating: teen
Tags: Original Character, My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic, Comedy, Adventure, Tragedy, Crossover, Dark, Zecora, Alternate Universe, Gore
Length: 5888

After losing her memory about her former life, one little zebra must accept that the world is no longer all rainbows and sunshine but is a place full of greed, power and death. But friendship is still a strong force, even in the strangest of places.

After losing her memory and finding herself thrust into a hostile wasteland, one little Zebra must accept that the world is no longer a nice place but a place full of greed, power hungry ponies and death at every turn. She well discover new places, friends, foes, secrets and reasons to keep on living as she tries to figure out her past life...but along the way she must make choices, and choices are what define us most of all.

Published 2012-10-22 22:40:01 UTC
Last updated 2012-11-04 00:17:16 UTC

Chapter One: Start

Chapter One: Start“If you’re going to call me anything, call me by my name.”

Warm.

I felt warm… weirdly warm. I opened my eyes only to be greeted by darkness. I kicked and bucked my hooves at the darkness in surprise, just as I had hoped the darkness was eradicated quickly, like I had a cover over my eyes taken off, and it was exactly that.

I was lying down on a small one pony bed, I was in an even smaller room that had a dresser by the door; its walls were plain and… gray. Just gray, no color, like the fun had been sucked out of the room kind of gray. Above me was a fluorescent, blinding light. I shielded my eyes with a hoof trying to get used to it, I realized on my hoof was some clothing, examining my body further, I realized that I was wearing some kind of suit with a plain yellow number stitched on that read 226. I could hear voices on the other side of the door, was it a door? It surely did not look like any door I had seen; well I don’t think I have even seen a door, what is a door? Wait! Who am I? Where am I? What am I?

Suddenly the door opened, confirming my suspicions that it was in fact a door and ending my panic. The door opened in an up, down motion, not swinging out, not sliding to the side, but up and down. A teenage looking unicorn stallion walked through the door with a smile, he then closed the door behind him; he had a light brown coat and was wearing a black leather jacket, his mane was jet black and gelled in an odd hairstyle, and he had this thing on his right forehoof, it glowed a light green. He looked at me with a smirk as he was checking me out.

“Hey sexy,” he said, scanning me with his blue eyes.

I was caught off guard his remark and I blurted the first thing that came to mind.

“Who the hell do you think you are?” I angrily yelled at him, his expression went from a smile to him cocking his head at me, but then returned to a smile.

“Hey baby, why the harsh language?”

Baby? BABY? Who the hell does this guy think he is?

“Who the hell are you and what do you want!” I blurted out at him furiously, his smile widened as he chuckled a bit.

“I am Buck, Buck Buckenten” He said taking a step forward as he still checked me out, I grabbed the blanket and pulled it over my body, he frowned at this.

“Buck, your name is Buck?” I asked in disbelief of what a hilarious name it was.

“Yes, that’s my name, got a problem with it?” He said with a hint of anger in his voice, I giggled at his remark.

“What’s so funny?” he asked in a serious tone as he walked over to the dresser and pulled out a fresh, neatly folded, suit with the same numbers stitched on it as mine, 226, and placed it at the foot of the bed.

“Your name… hahaha… name-name is Buck!” I said going into a full laughter now, Buck did not take kindly to this. He jumped on top of the bed and pinned me to the mattress; I struggled with him trying to throw him off, but it was in vain, he was already right on top of me. Our eyes locked as both of us slightly blushed; he shook his head and jumped off me, down back to the floor.

“I… I’m sorry,” He said tearing up, “but you're just… just… oh I’m so stupid!” He slammed his right hoof into the wall, making an impression. He was now sobbing, tears streaming down his face. I jumped out of the bed and went to comfort him, I placed a hoof on his shoulder and our eyes once again met each other. He turned his head looking down at the ground.

“Hay… its ok, we all make mistakes,” I said in a sweet tone trying to comfort him. He looked back at me with a smile; I motioned for us to sit on the bed.

*     *     *

"So that thing on your forehoof is a-?"

“PipBuck,”

“And what I’m wearing is a-?”

“A Stable jumpsuit,”

“And I’m in a-?”

“Stable,”

“Which was created by-?”

“Stable-Tec,”

“And this stables name is-?”

“Stable 226,”

“Anything else I should know?”

“Well,” Buck said thinking, “the rest you can find out by yourself, I’m not a terminal here,” he chuckled.

“A… a terminal?” I asked having no clue what that was.

“Oh, right. Well a terminal is a storage device, like a memory orb, it stores memory for later use. That’s basely it in a nut shell.”

“Memory Orbs?” I asked confused. All these answers just led to more questions; Buck sighed and lowered his head.

“Look cupcake, I-“

“Don’t start with that crap,” Buck rolled his eyes.

“I don’t have all the answers, if you want I can take you to Doctor Nightingale.”

“Who?” Buck rolled his eyes, “Doc Nightingale is the stable doctor.”

“Oh, well um, ok sure.”

“Ok great, but there’s just one problem.“

“And what’s that?”

“You need to put on a clean Stable jumpsuit.”

“Now?”

“Yes, now.”

“As in right now?”

“Yes as in right now.”

“Right now right now?”

“YES RIGHT NOW!” Buck yelled agitated. I got up and picked up the Stable jumpsuit with my mouth and motioned him to go into the corner, he shook his head and simply said, “How are you going to get it off?”

From what Buck told me, this suit worked by a zipper, and usually required the help of another to get it off (if you’re not a unicorn that is) without ripping it or destroying it altogether.

“Fine, help me get this off.”

“Gladly,” Buck said gleefully with a smile as he walked over and grasped the zipper in his mouth, which was on my back, and pulled it down until the jumpsuit fell to the floor. I then grabbed the other suit and attempted to put it on but was thwarted in my attempt by not being able to reach the zipper's end with my mouth, but Buck assisted me.

“We’ll miss sexy flanks shall we go?” Buck asked with the smirk once again on his face.

Ok that is it, I have had enough of the name-calling, it was fine but “sexy flanks” took it too far.

“If you’re going to call me anything, call me by my name.”

“Ok, what’s your name?”

“My name is-“I was dumbstruck, I didn’t know what my own name was. “I-I don’t know.”

“How do you not know what your name is?” Buck asked confused.

“I can’t remember!” I screamed at him, his smirk turned into a bleak expression, he then placed a hoof under his chin as if he was in deep thought.

“How about scarlet?” he blurted out

“Scarlet?”

“Yeah, Scarlet. Cause of that big scar on your chest.”

“Scar?” I asked confused, “what scar?”

“The one on your chest.” He restated

“There’s no scar on my chest!” I yelled defiantly.

“Oh ok” Buck said sarcastically, “but Scarlet is a good name am I right?”

“Yeah you’re right, I like the name.” I said happily.

“So are you ready to talk to Doc Nightingale?”

“Yeah let’s go.” I said excited.

“Ok, but stick close to me, you don’t want to get lost in here trust me.” I chuckled at that as we approached the door, Buck opened it and I stepped outside into a world like none other I had ever seen before.

*     *     *

The stables gray halls were filled with Zebra going about their life's from room to room, Me and Buck trotted through the crowd together in a hurry. As we rounded a corner where the halls were surprisingly clear, except for five Zebras wearing leather jackets like Buck had on, the only difference being these had symbols on them. Buck turned a ghostly white.

“Who are they?”

“Trouble,” he said as he took off in the other direction.

I followed closely behind him with the five Zebra giving chase. Buck and I turned a corner only leading to a dead end, we were backed against the wall, and the only escape was the way we came, which was now blocked by those five zebra thugs. As Buck and I back up against the wall, we bumped into each other and shared the same, scared look.

“Buck, oh Buuuck!” One of the Zebra thugs sang as their shadows appeared on the wall in front of us..The group rounded the corner and stood their ground blocking us in this dead end.

“Ok Buck,” The Zebra in the middle started as he took a step forward, “Give us the girl and will be going, unless of course you want this to get rough.” The two Zebra to the left of him pulled out switchblades and grinned as they held them in their mouths.

“So what’s it going to be?” The group leader in the middle asked Buck.

“I think you can buck off Luke.” Buck said smiling.

“You little shit; you just signed your death sentence!” Luke yelled.

He nodded his head towards us sending the two Zebra with the switchblades slowly at us, Buck got in a fighting stance crouching low to the ground ready to battle his new combatants, I also got in a fighting stance beside Buck.

“Hey bitch, you’ll stay out of this if you know what’s good for you,” Luke warned me.

The two switchblade thugs were now extremely close to Buck, a couple more steps and they would be able to slash at him. I was not going to let that happen. I socked the switchblade zebra to my left in the jaw with an upper hook, sending him flying back, delivered courtesy from my right forehoof. The other Zebra approaching Buck was distracted by this and turned his head to me, Buck used this opportunity to jab his attacker in the jugular, forcing him to drop his switchblade. Buck then delivered a kick with his hind legs to the Zebras jaw sending him flying back to his friends.

“You two, go get 'em!” Luke yelled to the two other zebras to his right.

They charged at us hooves flying. I picked up the switchblade with my mouth that the Zebra had dropped from Bucks kick, and stood in-between the charging Zebras and Buck. One of them tried to tackle me; my blade met his neck as it sunk into his jugular, blood slowly trickled down the knife as he stopped dead in his tracks and slouched over. Buck took out the other zebra with a devastating blow as his hind legs met the Zebras skull making a sickly, cracking noise.

“Wha-what-“Luke just stood there in disbelief of what happened. He and the two remaining thugs ran the other way, far, far away from us. Both Buck and I were breathing heavily after that ordeal and were now leaning against the wall.

“So-wh-who were those guys?” I asked Buck, who was still out of breath.

“They're th-the Vau-“he paused to take a deep breath, “They're the Vault Dwellers.” Buck said before he fell to the floor, He was stabbed!

*     *     *

“So doc, is he going to be alright?” I asked Doctor Nightingale as we sat in her office as Buck recovered in the other room. Doctor Nightingale was a Zebra; she wore a white lab coat over her black, slightly grayish stripes. She looked as if she was in her mid thirty's; she was flipping through a file, presumably Buck's.

Her desk that she sat behind was cluttered with tons of letters, folders, documents, files… and one vary odd out of place folder, instead of the normal tannish yellow of the others, this one was a solid black and had a full grown dragon on it. Black Dragon was written on the front in big, white bold letters.

“Hey doc, what’s that folder for?” I asked.

“Which folder, I have tons.”

“This one,” I said pointing a hoof at the black folder.

“AH!” She screamed and snatched the folder up. “This folder is for special medical subjects,” she said as she placed the folder in a safe under lock and key. I tilted my head at her in confusion.

“Very special medical subjects,” She said as she returned to her chair and placed her hooves on the desk together. “So,” She started, “are you going to tell me what happened?”

“Oh, uh yeah, so me and Buck were trotting together-"

She interrupted, “together?”

“Yes, together.” She motioned me with a wave of her hoof to go on. “So like I said we were trotting together through a crowd of Zebra and we rounded a corner only to see five Zebra with leather jackets, Buck said they were trouble and took off the other way, I followed him and they chased after us. But we hit a dead end and were trapped by them.”

“And then?”

“We had to defend ourselves.”

“Why did you have to do that?”

“Because they were attacking us and one of them called me a bitch,” I snapped at her. The expression on her face went from blank to serious.

“Do you know what this Zebras name was?”

“Luke, I think.”

“You think or you know?”

“Yes, it was Luke, I’m sure.”

She pulled out a yellow notepad and picked up a pen from her desk with her mouth and scribbled something down, she then put the notepad and pen back where she got them and looked at me with a smile.

“Well then, I don’t want to waste any more of your time but I need to do some blood work with you and ask you a few more questions, is that alright?” She asked walking over to one of those door things and opened it.

Inside was another room, which had an examination table, some medical devices and some sort of device used by unicorn magic? I wasn’t sure. The floor on the other hoof was the same old boring floor that this whole stable hand, a simple mind-numbing gray.

*     *     *

After the blood work was taken care of, Doctor Nightingale led me into what looked like a therapist’s room. She told me to lie down on the red sofa as she too sat down in her own chair a couple of feet beside me. I sat down and it was actually quite conformable, I started to drift to sleep but Doctor Nightingale snapped me out of it with a loud pounding of her hoof on the metal floor.

“First question, what is your name?”

“Scarlet.”

“Ok, Scarlet. When were you born?”

“I don’t know”

“Ok, who are or where your parents?”

“I don’t know.”

“Ok, do you have any special talents?”

“I don’t know.”

“Ok, do you remember how you got here?”

“No.”

“Ok, what’s the last thing you remember?”

“Wakening up in a bed today and feeling warm,” I answered as I sat up.

“Do you have any memory at all before you woke up today?”

“No, I don’t.” I answered realizing how startling that was, to have your memory just erased, not remembering even a fragment of my former life.

Doctor Nightingale was scribbling something on her yellow notepad once again; she set it down and looked at me.

“No further questions, you're free to go, lets me call a ZSF guard to escort you to your room, you don’t what that gang jumping you in the hall now do you?”

Suddenly the door opened revealing a full-grown zebra wearing black padding all down his body, his face was covered with a helmet attached to a visor shielding his face, and it had the same stitching that everyone else had on their clothes, 266.

“Follow me little one, I’ll escort you to your room,” The stallion in body armor said in a deep voice. I got up and followed him down a hallway leading to my room.

“So what does ZSF stand for?” I asked curiously, he stopped walking and turned his head to me.

“ZSF stands for Zebra-security-force, we enforce the law down here in stable 226, were like royal guards of the old Zebraca in its glory days before the war.” He said in his deep grumbling voice as we started to walk again, after a few minutes we were at our destination.

“Here you go,” he said as he opened the door, “be safe now and don’t fall in with the bad crowd you hear?” I nodded my head, “good, now get some sleep, you’ll need it in the morning, lights go off in about 20 minutes so be sure to be asleep by then,” I nodded my head as I entered the room and closed the door behind me. My bed was freshly made with a note on the wall beside me, I walked over and read it.

“Hay Scarlet, if your reading this that means you just left Doctor Nightingale’s place, I hope you enjoy the freshly made bed. Oh and don’t worry about me, the nurses patched me up and I’m doing great, it’ll take more than a knife to stop me. Well sweet dreams, I’ll be here to wake you up bright and early in the morning, so wear something nice for me in the morning will yeah?

,Best of luck, your friend, Buck.”

Cute, well Buck you certainly do try hard don’t yeah? Well it was sweet of him to make my bed; after all, he was stabbed.

I removed the Stable jumpsuit I had on; (luckily for me Doctor Nightingale showed me a trick how to remove the jumpsuit by yourself,) and threw it in the corner of the room, I jumped into the bed, covered up and drifted off to sleep as the lights shut off.

*     *     *

Foggy.

The swamp I had somehow found myself in was covered with mist from head to toe, making it incredibly hard to see in front of me, every direction was just covered in a blanket of mist. However, I saw what looked like a light through the mist; I followed it, its glow growing ever stronger with every step I took towards it. I had reached a cleaning with no vegetation around it at all, just a circular stone ground with a green sky above it which was covering this land. There was an adult Zebra meditating in the middle of it, dust and cobwebs were all around her, as if she hasn’t moved from that spot in a very long time. Her coat was striped, her main was a striped Mohawk, she also had on neck rings, leg bracelets and hooped earrings. I stepped forward on the stone ground.

“Ah, who is this? Another visitor I see. Come and sit, for questions you have many, but I will only answer three.” The zebra suddenly spoke in a rhyme as she stood up whipping the dust and cobwebs off her and then sitting back down beckoning me to join her.

“So I only have three questions?” I asked as I joined her sitting on the ground.

“Yes, this is true, for three questions you have. But now just two,” she said in her rhyming tongue.

Great, I already wasted a question, good job Scarlet, good job.

“Ok, so only 2 questions huh? Ok, um, who are you and why am I here?”

“Ah, little one. My name is Zecora, I once lived in Everfree, but since my death I have been stuck here meditating,” She said with a pause. “You are here because it is your destiny, for you to be free. But you are in danger little one, you must be wary of others you see.”

“Danger?” I asked trying to wrap my head around her rhymes, “what danger? And who am I?”

“I’m sorry little one, but you have used all three, you must go now, wake up and be wary of others you see,” Zecora said vanishing into thin air.

Everything around be turned to nothing, just empty black space. The stone I was sitting on turned to dust and I went falling into a seamlessly endless tunnel with a bright white light at the end growing closer as I fell. The light wrapped around me as I continued to fall, suddenly I hit something, which I presumed was the floor, very hard ending my decent and jolting me awake with a cold sweat dripping down all over my body.

Once again, the same blinding fluorescent light with its annoying buzzing sound stared me in the eyes with its blinding rays. I sat up and noticed Buck was standing in the doorway, and he had a present. It was only a simple small box with some wallpaper decorated with hearts covering it, but a gift nonetheless.

“Hey, glad to see you awake,” He said smiling “I brought yeah something; I think you’ll like it.”

“What is it?” I asked curiously.

Buck drifted the gift over to me with his levitation and sat it down in my lap; he then walked over to the right side of the bed and watched me open it. I tore away at the wallpaper and opened the box. Inside I found something astounding.

Inside the box was a PipBuck like Buck had on, but instead of the metallic looking cover like his PipBuck had, this one was decorated with a white and black zebra colored pattern.

“It’s… it’s beautiful.” I said astounded.

“Yeah, I made it myself,” he said with a wide smile.

“You made this?”

“Yeah, after all I am the PipBuck technician in the Stable, no matter what those damn Quant’s say.” Buck said spitefully.

“The who?” I asked having no idea the Quant’s were.

“The Quant’s are the ruling family of the Stable, I was supposed to mate with their daughter, seeing as my family and the Quant’s are the only pony families in the stable. Betty and Eddie are the Overmare and Overstallion of the Stable and oversee all the operations that go down here, but I’ve chosen not to mate with their daughter, so as punishment I’m not allowed to mate with anyone under penalty of death.”

“Oh, I’m so sorry Buck.”

“Don’t be, it’s alright,” he said looking down. “Well then you should get dressed, you got school to go to.”

*     *     *

After I got dressed and slipping the PipBuck on my right foreleg, I followed Buck to a hallway entitled school, as we walked down the hallway I could see tons of children ranging from foals to filly’s and colts in every room as we walked down to my classroom.

“Well this is it, room 115. Have fun,” Buck said walking away.

“Wait! You’re not coming?” I asked befuddled.

“Yep, I don’t come to the Zebra school.” He said turning a corner disappearing.

“Oh look there she is!” A mare announced from the room pulling me in and dragging me to the front of the room. “Class, this is our new student I was talking about, go ahead darling, introduce yourself to the class.” The Mare announced to the class, she was an old Zebra; her black stripes were now a solid grey do to her age.

The class that lay before me was quite small, only about ten students in the classroom sitting in three rows of desks, five desks in each row. Odd that there would be five desks open, I realized that all the students were in their teens and glassy eyed, and it was dead silent in the room.

“My name is Scarlet,” I said breaking the silence. “Other than that I don’t know much, I’ve-“The whole class spoke up, “lost your memory?”

“Yes, how did-“

“We all have, it’s ok, please sit.” They all answered in perfectly synchronized voices. I trotted over to the empty desks and took a seat in the back.

“Now that’s that done with, let’s start with the warm up,” the teacher announced. The whole class groaned as she wrote something on the chalkboard in front of the classroom.

“Ok class, figure this equation,” she said pointing a hoof at the board. ” Nineteen forty two minus one hundred thirty four equals?”

“One thousand eight hundred and eight,” The class answered in unity.

“Right, and one thousand eight hundred and eight divided by eight equals?”

“Two hundred twenty six,” the class answered again in their creepy unison.

“And two hundred twenty six divided by two is?”

“One hundred thirteen.”

“Very good class, very good.” She expressed happily.

*     *     *

After a few hours of math problems, which I didn't really care for and fell asleep. The bell rang wakening me from my slumber.

“Good work class, see you tomorrow.” The teacher yelled as the class got up and left the classroom.

I walked out the door feeling groggy, I was suddenly and violently grabbed and pulled away from the crowd by an unknown attacker, I was dragged into what looked like a large janitor closet. The door shut behind me as I was thrown into the corner of the room, three Zebra stood around me pinning me in the corner, the Vault Dwellers.

“Ok you little whore, you’re gonna pay for what you did.” Luke said angrily as he stood in the middle of his two remaining gang members.

“What we gonna do to her Luke?” The one to the left asked.

“Well I’m glad you asked Paul,” he paused. “Well first we’re gonna have our way with her,” he chuckled and cracked a smile. “Then we're going to beat her to a pulp,” Luke suddenly pulled out a switchblade and placed it to my throat. “And if you make so much as a peep I’ll slit your neck; you dig?” I gulped and slowly nodded.

All three of them smiled wickedly as they moved closer and started forcefully kissing me. They then started to unzip my Stable suit but suddenly stopped do to the door opening.

“Luke! Let her go, or I’ll have you know who after you.” Buck warned Luke with a serious expression on his face as he cocked a revolver he had in his magical levitation field.

They all turned wide-eyed as they looked at Buck, Luke stepped forward.

“Come on Buck, you wouldn’t kill us would you? If you fire that gun, everyone in this corridor will hear it and investigate. You’ll be arrested and be sent to the crematory and we wouldn’t want one to die now would we?” Luke said with a hint of sarcasm. “So why don’t you run along and let us finish out business, you dig?” He said returning to his normal, rude tone. Buck just cracked a smile and pointed the gun at Paul.

“Not if I put a silencing spell on it Luke, or have you forgotten that I’m a unicorn?” He pulled the trigger and shot Paul in the left foreleg. Paul cried in pain, but the gun made no sound.

“He bucking shot me!” Paul cried as he put pressure on the bullet wound with his other foreleg.

“Shut up Paul, next one goes in your head if you don’t be quiet. Now Luke, let her go.” Luke turned a ghostly white.

“Le-let her go Butch,” Luke stuttered.

The Zebra to my right backed away unpinning me from the corner, I quickly trotted over to Buck and hid behind him.

“And if any of you ever, EVER mess with her again; it won’t be just bullet wounds you’ll have to worry about, yeah dig? Come on Scarlet, let’s go.” Buck closed the three in the janitor’s closet and remotely locked it using his PipBuck. “Have fun you three, the ZSF will be here in about 15 minutes, see you around.”

“Buck! OPEN THIS DOOR!” Luke yelled.

Buck and I just walked off, I was mentally rattled by what just happened, they were going to have their way with me, thank god Buck was there to save me.

“Hey,” Buck started as we walked down the corridor. “You ok? Did they do anything to harm you?” He asked worried.

I shook my head and replied, “Well other than them trying to have their way with me then treating to beat me to a pulp afterwards and Luke putting a switchblade to my throat, I’m fine.”

“Well don’t worry about them Scarlet, they'll be taken care of and you’ll never have to see them again.”

“Huh, what do you mean?”

“Don’t worry about it-“He paused, “have you messed with your PipBuck at all?”

“No not yet.”

“Well you should tonight, you’ll need to learn all the features if you want to make it in the Stable. I even added something special in yours.”

“What?” I asked looking at him.

“Well that would ruin the surprise now wouldn’t it?” I nodded, agreeing with him as we walked to my room.

“Well here we are, lights go off in about oh let’s see here,” Buck lifted his foreleg and checked his PipBuck. “In about 3 hours, that’s enough time to grab some food, you hungry?” He asked still flipping through his PipBuck.

“Am I ever, I haven’t eaten in a day, or at least I think.” I said pondering this. Buck put a hoof on my shoulder.

“Well if you’re hungry why don’t we go grab a bite to eat down at the cafeteria, my treat, what do yeah say?” I smiled happily at his offer.

“I’ll take that as a yes then, come on follow me.”

*     *     *

“Was that good or what?” Buck asked me as we lay together on my bed. I answered his question with a grunt of approval.

We had been in the cafeteria for little over an hour and I was stuffed full, they had all kinds of food to choose from like salad and salad, and vegetables and… oh yeah did I mention, more salad!

“Well scarlet I better get going; I don’t want to be late.” Buck said as he sat up.

“Late for what?” I asked to lazy and full to sit up.

“Oh I-I’m taking another job to help provide for my family.”

“Oh, well that is very noble of you, well you better be going. I don’t want to keep you waiting.”

“Yeah, thanks Scar. I’ll see you around k?”

“You bet, see yeah.”

“See yeah.” Buck closed the door behind him.

Well Scarlet, good for you. You got yourself some free dinner and a nickname. All in all a good day, except for those creepy kids, and that gang… and Buck shooting one of them, what was his name? Paul? Yeah Paul, well he deserved it.

I broke my inner thoughts with bringing the PipBuck to my face and flipping its knobs and switches until I got to a screen entitled E.F.S, I clicked on the show more button, what spanned before me was a wall of text with a Textbook definition, I scanned over the text and read it aloud.

“The E.F.S or Eyes Forward Sparkle, is a sight altering spell which, when activated, changes the PipBuck users perception of nearby living creatures. Any nearby life forms of a certain size will be assigned a color, either red or yellow. Red life-forms have been identified as hostile by the spell, while yellow indicates neutral or friendly lifeforms. The spell can occasionally identify lifeforms through walls and other solid matter, making it a valuable tool to any Stable-pony. The spell only shows lifeforms in a plane parallel to the ground. Vertical height is not given, which can make it difficult to determine the exact location of lifeforms in multistory buildings.” I activated the spell and saw an astounding number of yellow dots. I quickly shut it off and drifted to sleep.

*     *     *

I was awakened by the loud unmistakable noise of my door opening and closing. It was after dark hours as I called them, since the lights were still shut off. I lifted my head to see what looked like two zebras walking away from my room with the faint glow of their PipBuck lighting their way, I got up and stealthily followed them down the hallway, in which they turned into a room and shut the door behind them. I could hear slightly familiar yet muffled voices from inside side; I placed my ear up to the door to get a better listen.

“So how’s it coming?”

“Good, she has no memory of her former life, project Black Dragon was a success for the subject.”

“Tell me, as her handler. How is she responding to the memory loss?”

“She’s taking it better than the other subjects before her previously have.”

“Is she getting emotionally attached to anyone?”

“What do you think?”

“Buck," wait, did she say Buck? “You can’t do this with every mare you are assigned to.”

“Well it’s not my fault; I had to save her from those Vault dwellers!” So it was Buck, but who was he talking to? I pondered this question as I pushed my ear harder against the door. “Speaking of which, where are they?” Buck asked.

“They're right here, bring em in boys.” I heard yells and screams as who I presumed were from the remainder of the Vault Dwellers.

“Hey let us go man! We didn’t do anything!” The scared and frightened voice of Luke clearly stuck out.

“Well then Luke you shouldn’t have messed with somezebra who was under the protection of The Stallions Left Wing.” Buck explained to Luke.

“The stallions left wing? Bu-but there just the caretakers of the Stable! They don’t have the jurisdiction to zebranap us!” Luke shouted sounding fearful for his life. “When my mom finds out what you did to us yo-“Luke’s protest was cut off by a loud crackling noise.

“Buck you just broke his jaw,” The mare whose voice I now recognized as Doctor Nightingale sounded extremely pleased.

“Oh no, is there is anything we can do for him?” Buck expressed sarcastically.

“Looks like will have to give him a bionic jaw, oh what a waste. Oh well, send them to the special doctors quarters for further examination!” Doctor Nightingale shouted, the other two-gang members were shouting curses as they were hauled off to a fate presumably worse than death.

“Oh my god is this what Buck meant? Oh, god I have to get out of here!” My mind screamed.

I attempted to run back to my room, but lost my footing within the first step and fell face first on the door where Buck and Doctor Nightingale were having their little talk about me. Suddenly the door opened and I fell flat on my face, looking up I saw Buck with a sadistic smile on his face.

“My, my, my, what do we have here?”

Footnote: Level Up.

New Perk: Natural luck: You gain +1 extra point of Luck every five levels that you level up.