Changed Forever

FALLOUT: EQUESTRIA-BROTHERHOOD
Written by Noakwolf

CHAPTER 1: CHANGED FOREVER

The great war began, and ended. In the beginning it was a war of rifles, soldiers, and diplomats. But, as predicted the war changed. It was the last war. The war of the Balefire bomb. It was then that the world was plunged into a dark magical abyss of spell-fire. Pony life was purged, their own greed consuming them by the very bombs they created. The ideals of friendship and harmony gave way to greed and power. The very fabric of society tore itself apart with the end of the world.

But, it was not the end of pony life in the world. No. Rather, it was just another turning point in pony history. For whatever the bombs did not destroy was consumed by the wasteland they created. Although for some it was not the end. A company called Stable-Tech built high tech underground bunkers called Stables. It was with the creation of these Stables that lead to some being spared the horrors the wasteland offered.

Although Equestria died those many years ago, its neighbors where dragged down to the dark magical hell with them. Enter the Ironhoof Province. Once a land of powerful ponies, it now stands like it’s brothers and sisters, buried under a blanket of magical radiation. Although it’s history is lost, many ponies still remember the hate they had for their neighbors, and how greed killed the world.

In this Province there were two Stables built. Stable 43, and Stable 142. Stable 43 became lost with the dropping of the bombs, but Stable 142 survived. For you see, most Stables were not meant to save anyone, instead they were used to house abnormal scientific research tests that would effect the Stables inhabitants. Only a few selected Stables were built for civilian use, Stable 142 was built for testing food growth indoors and mass water purification as well as civilian usage. But one day the great door of Stable 142 shut closed, it was not until the Overmare of Stable 142 decided that any and all could leave at their own leisure. Many ponies discarded the idea of leaving, and so the law was forgotten about. Even though the law was forgotten did not mean that its residents couldn't leave.

So the law was exercised falsely, keeping its citizens from leaving, because you lived in the Stable, and you died in the Stable. The doors would never open again, or that was until that faithful day when two normal brothers would embark on a quest that would ultimately change the fate of the Province forever. This is their story.

The bleak grey walls of the Stable didn't help Neo as he sat down at a terminal organizing archive files. Neo was a fine moderately built earth pony stallion with steel eyes and a jet black mane. His coat was plain white, and his cutie mark was a black compass rose. It was unknown to him as to why his cutie mark was a compass rose, but it didn't bother him. After all, it could be worse. He had dreams of leaving his dull life in Stable 142 and trading his life in for something, anything better than the life he currently had.

His eye lids were heavy as boredom and sleep mixed together causing him to slowly fall asleep. *Thunk!* Went his head as it rested itself peacefully on the keyboard of the terminal. It was nice and dark in the room, so he found it easy to drift off into a light slumber.

Neo was the archive scholar. He never asked to be the archive scholar but that was his job. He smiled as he shuffled his head around trying to get more comfortable on the keyboard.

The huge metal door slid open and Flipper came running through it panting heavily. "Neo!" He huffed loudly as he tried to catch his breath.

Flipper was the same age as Neo, with the same boring job. "What?" Neo said tiredly as he shot up from his napping position.

Flipper was still panting fiercely as he tried to explain what was going on. "The Overmare... is coming... She... Is... Checking on us..." He said just barely catching his breath.

Neo looked at him curiously. "What?"

He lifted his hoof up to him for a second telling him to hold on. "Okay." He said finally catching his breath. "The Overmare is coming to check on us." He said before moving over to his coworker to check his work.

"Do you have those archives rearranged yet?" Flipper asked looking at the terminal Neo was sitting in front off.

Neo was still sleepy, but he wasn't going to let the Overmare find out that he hadn't completed his job yet. "Damn it!" He swore as he started to sort out files in the terminal.

Flipper was bobbing up and down nervously. "Come on, she's just down the hall!" He said, nudging Neo to work faster.

Neo was rushed and stressed, but that didn't stop him from sorting files any slower. One by one, he moved each individual file to its respectable place in the terminal. Then, with a press of the enter button, all the files were saved.

"Yes!" Flipper exclaimed victoriously, throwing his hooves into the air.

Then, right there in the middle of the doorway was the Overmare. She watched the two get themselves together at her presence. "I see you boys managed to sort out those archives properly?" She said giving them a cheerful smile.

They stood next to each other and gave her a sharp salute. "Yes ma’am." The two colts said in unison as they addressed the Overmare.

She just smiled at them cheerfully. "At ease soldiers." She said playfully to them.

They obeyed her and dropped their hooves back to the ground as they loosened up from the stiff soldier pose they gave her earlier. "Yes, we managed to get all four hundred and thirty six archives stored and checked." Neo said to her proudly.

She nodded to them both. "Good, good. I knew I could count on you."

She was such a nice pony. She was never mean, never strict, and she always help you with any problem. The reason she was treated as a dictator was because the former Overmare, which was her mother, was a cruel leader who ruled the Stable with an Iron hoof. Since her retirement her daughter took over and everyone was treated equally and fairly. She had a silky white mane, and a clean brown coat. She had one of the most kindest faces you would ever see, with a smile to match her personality.

Neo rubbed the back of his neck a little embarrassed by the way he acted. "Sorry, I still think you're your mom sometimes." He apologized with a sheepish look on his face.

She raised her hoof slightly and put it on his shoulder. "Its okay Neo. I understand my mother was a hard ruler, but she's retired, and I'm in charge now." She said softly while still retaining her smile.

"Yeah what he said." Flipper added sheepishly.

But the Overmare gave him a stern look. "Don't you think I didn't know about you running off to the Stable Pit, leaving poor Neo here all alone to do all the work." She scolded at him.

He backed away and folded his ears down ashamed. "Now you get to archive the next three thousand files, without any breaks." She continued, still keeping her temper down. Neo chuckled at the remark. He knew she wouldn't put a load like that on anypony, not even Flipper.

"Yes ma'am." He muttered quietly, hanging his head low with shame.

The Overmare turned back to Neo with her kind smile back. "Neo?" She asked kindly.

"Yes?" He replied.

"You have an appointment with me in my office tomorrow with Adam." She continued. "Three thirty sharp, no exceptions." She stated to him.

Neo scratched his head puzzled at the order. "Um, excuse me?" He asked curiously.

"Yes?"

"Why is it you need me and Adam tomorrow?"

She just started to make her way to the exit with her kind smile. "You'll see." She said before stopping in the middle of the doorway. "As for you." She stated sternly looking at Flipper. "You better have that done by tomorrow if you plan to keep your job." She said giving him a sarcastic look.

"Yes ma'am..." Flipper replied shamefully.

Then she looked at Neo again. "Neo, your off for the day, and there won't be any work tomorrow either so enjoy your free time." She said sweetly before she exited the room.

*Swoosh!* Went the door as it closed behind her. "Yes!" Neo cheered to himself while bringing his right forehoof into him.

Flipper moved to the terminal next to the one Neo was using and sat down angrily with his hoofs folded. "Oh you can't have any fun Flipper, bleh bleh blah." He mumbled to himself negatively.

Neo turned to his work partner with a slight smirk on his face. "You brought this on yourself you know."

"Shut up." He replied with a pout as he just sat there and looked at the green terminal screen. He was severely pissed and Neo knew it, but like he said before he only brought it on himself.

Neo turned away from the room and started to make his way to the exit. "See you later Flipper." Neo said to him, but he just sat there pouting at the screen.

Neo just shrugged and left the room with a skip in his step and a heart filled with joy as he made his way back home. This was the first time he had a whole day off, besides the weekends of course. Little vacations like these only came very rarely for him. The only thing that bothered him though was what the Overmare had said to him. Why did she want Adam and him? What could she possibly want? The questions never seemed to end. So instead Neo pushed the thoughts to the back of his mind and cheerfully made his way down the long metal corridors to his small living quarters on the second level.

Neo trotted down the grey corridors with only the colors of other ponies passing by to add an emphasis to the dullness the Stable gave off. Neo had trotted down this path before. Down the next two hallways was the Stable Pit, and down the next hallway was the bio-chambers. The Stable Pit was the bar and dinner that everypony loved to go to when he or she had time off. It was mostly popular with stallions and mares Neo's age, but a lot of older and even younger folks found their way there every other day. The bio-chambers was were they grew their food, from apples to celery, and from vegetables to fruit. You name it, the ponies in the bio-chambers grew it.

Neo had never been in the bio-chambers before, and come to think of it nopony he knew had been in there before other than his mother of course. Then again, he didn't know everypony in the Stable.

He stopped every now and again to observe passing mares his age that he found attractive, but before they could turn around or realize that he was looking at them he would quickly turn his gaze away and continue on his way. A lot of the mares his age were fillyfoolers, so they weren't really interested in stallions, and those mares his age that were into stallions were all taken by the security guards. In some ways being a security may actually be more boring then the job he was currently holding as a archive scholar.

He was almost home before he saw a small group of ponies come trotting down the hall in a small mass. The group was lead by Greaser. Greaser was probably the worst name he had ever heard a pony be given, but his slick black mane, and fabulous orange coat made all the ladies quiver at his hooves.

Neo lowered his head as he approached the mass. He hoped that none of them would notice him as he made his way to his living quarters. "Just don't say a word and they won't notice you." He thought to himself as he carefully maneuvered his away around the crowd.

"And I said, hey that's my sweet roll punk!" Greaser shouted proudly to his group of followers as the chatted about completely random things. They were way to busy to notice tiny Neo slip past them as they made their way to the Stable Pit which was in the other direction.

Neo raised his head up as he looked behind him to check if the herd had moved on. "Whew." He sighed before trotting down the rest of the hallway.

There at the end was a small automatic sliding door. It was just like the others in the Stable, but the only difference between this door and the others was that it was labeled with a the number 62 in bright yellow. As he approached the large door he looked to the side of the door where a small yellow keypad lay. He plugged in a series of numbers into it, and with a small beep, it opened.

Neo happily made his way into his home with a small cheerful smile. His home was nothing special, it was just a single room with all the essentials. A bed, a sink, a few drawers and a desk with a terminal. He imminently went over to his bed and plopped himself on it.

"I love you bed." He muttered to himself as he turned over now facing the metal ceiling.

"There's not much to do right now." He thought to himself as he closed his eyes. "I'm not hungry, I don't know where Adam is, and I really feel like just sleeping." He thought to himself as he relaxed his muscles, and he then slowly drifted off into a deep sleep.

In his sleep he just saw darkness. Then he started to think to himself, "Was the outside like this? What would life be like outside of here?" The more he stared into the void the more deep the sleep became. Question after question raced through his mind as he thought more and more about it. That was until he heard a small metallic tapping.

*Tap, tap, tap.*

He opened his eyes slightly and sat up from his comfortable position on the bed. There was somepony at the door. *Tap, tap, tap.* It went again.

Neo stretched as he made his way to the door to see who it could be. *Swoosh.* Went the door as he opened it to see who it was.

"Hi brother." It was Adam.

Adam was his younger brother. He was five years younger than Neo, and in some ways a lot brighter. He was a kind soul. He never wanted to wrong anypony. It also didn't help that his name was Adam, which wasn't really an average pony name. Because of this he got picked on constantly by the other fifteen year-olds in his class. He had a brown mane, and a solid blue coat. His eyes were a bright emerald green, and his face and voice made him seem three years younger than what he really was.

Adam just looked at him with a guilty look on his face. "I'm sorry, did I wake you up?" He asked.

"Yeah, what is it Adam?" Neo grumbled tiredly as he scratched his neck.

Adam gave his brother a kindly look. "Mom wants you over for lunch today."

Neo's eyes popped open. "Lunch?" He asked curiously. When he went to sleep it was 6:00, now its lunch time. That meant that he had been asleep way longer than he had originally thought.

Adam looked puzzled. "Yeah, why?"

"I went to sleep at six yesterday!"

"Whoa, that means that you've been asleep for a good seventeen hours."

"I know! And that means that part of my free day is up." He said toning down his voice.

Adam just looked at him before coming back to topic. "So, are you going to come for lunch?"

Neo thought about it for a moment. He did feel a bit more hungry than before he went to sleep. Plus other than going to the Stable Pit there wasn't a whole lot to do.

So Neo gave his little brother a small warm smile. "Sure, I guess there’s no better way to spend my day off than to have lunch with you and mom."

Adam jumped up in the air with joy. "Great!" He exclaimed jumping in the air.

Adam turned around and made his way back the way he came, but then he stopped for a moment and looked at his brother with curious look. "Aren't you coming brother?" He asked to Neo.

Neo returned the same look to him. "Why? What time is it?"

"Eleven forty-five."

Neo was surprised he had really slept that long. He felt great because of the long amount of sleep, so apparently he needed it more than he thought. "I guess I could go now." He said stepping out of his doorway.

Adam gave him his warm smile again as he waited for his brother to come with him to their mothers living quarters. Their mother lived with Adam, and since they lived on the same level in the Stable it was easy for them to see each other and it was nice that they got to live close to each other.

It was only a few minutes before they reached their mothers living quarters. It had a big 67 imprinted on it in the same yellow numbers. Neo used to live with his mother and Adam, but then when he turned seventeen he decided to try to live on his own. That wasn't really saying much considering that he only lived down a few hallways away from them. Adam visited his brother frequently, and he also used his brothers living quarters to hide from bullies that chased him.

Both brothers loved each other. After all, family was the only thing they had in the Stable. Even if Neo was five years older than Adam they both found some way to get along.

Adam tapped on the grey steel door for their mother. The door slided open exposing their mother on the other side of the doorway. "I see you took up our offer for lunch." Their mother greeted them with a smile as the door fully opened.

Their mother was one of the head research officers for the bio-chamber research team. She was a unicorn with a solid blue coat and green emerald eyes. Her mane was long and smooth, like a field of wheat. She was a good mother. She raised them well, teaching them right from wrong and how to be the best ponies they could be. Most mothers in the Stable sent their kids off to school or let them wonder on their own while they had fun doing whatever they pleased. She always found time for her sons, even with the hectic busy life she lived she would still find time to spend with her boys. Her smile melted their hearts, she was what few would call a heavenly spirit. But she was just as smart as she was pretty, and she always wore a lab coat. Always.

"Yeah, I figured why not?" Neo said as he entered her and Adams living quarters, Adam followed after his brother.

She had almost all of the food prepared on the small table in the corner of the room. "I have it almost ready, all I need is you boys." She said with a warm smile.

Their living quarters were considered a mansion compared to Neo's one room living space. There were three doors in the main room, each one leading to a different room. The main room had a red carpet with a series of small chairs placed around it. In the Stable you had two options for dinning, either you took food from the mess hall or you ate at the mess hall. Every now and again their mother would bring food back to their home so they could eat together as a family.

The small table had four metal bowls, three of which looked like dinning bowls while the fourth was a bowl holding extra fruit. "Who's hungry?" Their mother said as she made her way to the table.

Adam dashed to the table and sat down at one of the three chairs. "Mmm, I can't wait!" He said, gazing at all of the fresh fruit.

Neo made his way to the table with his eyes locked on the food. "It looks great mom, how fresh is it?" He said sitting down at the table.

"Its freshly picked. I got it today fresh from the bio-chambers." She said with a warm smile as she joined them at the table.

Once she sat down she used her horn to levitate the fruit from the middle bowl and place a fair portion in each bowl. When she was done she levitated the middle bowl off the table. "Dig in!"

Adam's mouth was watering extensively. "Oh boy!" He said before digging into the meal she had got for them.

Neo wasn't as enthusiastic about eating as his little brother was, but it was fresh food and that was a treat.

Together they ate and enjoyed the afternoon telling each other about the previous day. Neo told them about his terminal story with Flipper and the Overmare. Adam told everyone about how he was building his own Pipbuck attachment. The only odd thing was that their mother never truly told a story, rather she just sat there and listened. It was almost like she had something she wanted to say, but she just sat their watching her boys enjoy their meal together.

After the meal their mother started putting the bowls back in their places in the small cabinets next to the table they had eaten at. "Did everypony enjoy that?" Their mother asked, looking at her full sons.

Neo and Adam were rubbing their stomachs with big grins on their faces. "Yeah that’s some of the best fruit I've had in a long time." Neo commented cheerfully.

"Yeah, I'm stuffed." Adam moaned blissfully as he patted his full stomach.

Before their mother had finished putting the last bowl away she looked down at her Pipbuck for the time. It said "3:23 pm."
Her eyes shot opened as she turned quickly to her sons with a worried face.

"Boys, your going to miss you appointment with the Overmare!" She shouted at them.

They just looked at her puzzled. "What are you talking about?" Adam said to his mother with a raised eyebrow.

Then it hit Neo again. "Damn it!" He said as he facehoofed himself. "I completely forgot about that!"

Adam looked to his brother for answers. "What are you talking about brother?"

"We have an appointment with the Overmare at three thirty!"

"We do?" Adam responded.

Neo hopped down from his chair and made his way to the front door. He could feel his weight had increased from the meal. He pressed the button that opened the door to the rest of the Stable from their mothers home. "Come on Adam!" He yapped at him trying to get him to hurry up.

Adam to could feel that his weight had increased. "Okay, lead the way. You know more about this than I do." Adam said as he waited for his brother to go.

But just before they turned around to leave their mother stopped them. "Stop!" They halted instantly.

When they turned around to see what she had to say, she just held her forehooves open for them, her eyes looked like they were about to cry. "Don't leave just yet." She muttered sadly as if she was about to burst into tears.

Neo and Adam looked at each other and went over to their mother to give her a hug goodbye. As they embraced her she let out a few tears, "I'm so sorry..." She whispered to them as the hug continued.

Neo barely noticed what she had said and asked, "What mom?" She let them go and backed away from them. She tried to wipe away the tears she made as they had embraced.

"Oh, its nothing..." She quietly whispered to herself mournfully.

The brothers were puzzled by her behavior, one moment they were laughing and thankful that they were together, the next she was practically crying.

Adam took a step forward. "Mother? Are you alright?" He asked softly.

"Yes... I'm fine, now just run along..." She cried a bit more.

Adam turned slowly to the door and walked out. Neo stood there watching their mother. "I'm sorry if something happened, I hope you'll feel better once we're back."He tried to make her happy with a smile, but it had no effect on her.

"Goodbye mom." Neo said sadly before trotting out the door to catch up with Adam.

"Goodbye Neo... Adam..."

They dashed to the Overmares office at top speed as dodging and maneuvering their way through the steel halls of the Stable. As they went on their way Neo had two questions in his mind. One, how did she know about the appointment, and two, why was she crying.

The more he thought about it the more confusing it became. Adam didn't seem to notice how she knew about the appointment, but then again he didn't know about the appointment until a few minutes ago. Still why was she acting this way, and why did they have to see the Overmare. Neo was in deep thought over the situation, or that was until Adam stopped him with his right forehoof.

"We're here." He said to his brother as he snapped back to reality. To his surprise they were at their destination. In front of them was a large steel door with a large 01 written on it.

Neo lifted his right hoof up to the door and knocked on it soundly. *Tam, tam, tam.*

The door swooshed open as the Overmare greeted them with a welcoming smile. "Come in boys, your just in time." She said stepping to the side allowing them to come inside. The brothers walked into the Overmares office and waited for her to give them permission to sit down.

"Please, sit." She said to them as she moved to her large round wooden desk.

The room had large terminal screens lining the walls, and a round porthole window to look out into the bio-chamber. She made her way to her leather chair and sat down neatly. Neo and Adam each took one of the two chairs in front of her desk.

"Boys. Do you know why I brought you here?"

They both shook their heads in unison.

"As you know already, when a Colt or Filly turns ten in our Stable they are taught how to run the water pumps." She stopped for a moment to give them a quick glance. "It is your duty to help work the purifiers when I instruct it. It is your turn to watch over them for the day."

Both brothers sat up strait as they made huge abnormal grins. "Really!" Adam exclaimed happily.

She didn't smile at them, instead she just nodded at them and continued with what she was saying. "Yes, and you will get payed the normal amount for working the pumps."

Working the pumps was one of the highest paying jobs in the Stable, and it was one of the most special. You only got to work there if the Overmare personally assigned it to you, and she didn't just choose anypony for the job. It was still a mystery to Neo as to why she would pick an archive scholar and a fifteen year old to watch one of the most important places in the Stable. He had so many questions, and to few ponies to answer him.

Neo's grin died down a bit as he raised his right hoof in the air. "Yes?" She said to him.

"Why did you choose us?"

She looked down at her desk grimly. "At this time I can't tell you. But, what I can tell you is that you'll be working there for the next six hours. Then you will get your pay, and you will be able to go back home." She said still retaining her grim look.

After the meeting was over, both brothers left her office and made their way to the purifying chamber. Neo was a little upset that the Overmare didn't answer his question as to why she had him and Adam doing the job, but once again he tried not to stick to the million questions racing through his mind.

As they trotted down to the purifying chambers, Neo decided to bring up the Overmares behavior with Adam. "Adam?"

Adam was in a rather content mood as he replied to his older brother. "Yeah?"

"Did you notice the way the Overmare reacted back there?"

Adam thought for a moment, and his brother was right. She was acting a little more gloomy than normal. "Now that I think of it, yeah she was acting a bit strange."

Another thing that bothered Neo was the idea of having a free day and then being given a job, good pay or not. It didn't really matter, after all they had been personally given this assignment by the Overmare herself.

Neo's deep thought managed to spread to Adam, now he was in deep thought. He was thinking about all the things they learned in class the day before. One of those things was clouds and evaporation.

Adam was curious now about clouds and the outside. "Brother?"

"Yeah."

"What do you think its like on the outside?"

Neo was a little taken away by the topic Adam chose to talk about. "Why do you ask?"

"Yesterday in class we studied evaporation."

"So?"

"We learned about clouds. Brother, what do you think clouds really look like on the outside?" Adam said looking up to his brother for answers.

He didn't answer, rather it was him this time who stopped him before they bumped into their destination. "We're here." He said as he placed his hoof in front of Adam.

The door was much larger than most of the doors in the Stable. In the middle were the words, "Stable Water Treatment Room." In bright yellow lettering.

Just like outside of Neo's living quarters there was a small number pad. Before they left the Overmare gave them each the code to the chamber. Neo went over to the pad and punched in the code, and with a click and a beep the large door slid open.

A loud humming noise filled the air as soon as the door opened. Both of them flinched a bit at the instant change in noise. The chamber had a small control room that branched off to the side next to the entrance. It was a decently sized chamber, with three large steel boxes pumping hundreds of gallons of clean water through them with each passing second. On the side of them were large metal slabs with pistons slamming into them as they released pressure from the machine.

The control room to their left was almost like a small hallway with hundreds of tiny little dials and buttons covering the room. Their were two small chairs in the room with a long glass window above the buttons.

In one of those chairs was an old buck with a white mane and a ragged old green coat. He was Caretaker. He was the official work pony for the Stable Water chambers. Although the Overmare did assign others the duty of taking care of the water purifying chambers, this did not mean they always looked after them. So whenever the Overmare didn't assign anypony to work at the chambers, she would make CT do it.

He was sleeping in one of the chairs with his nose pointing to the ceiling. "Snnnk!" He snored loudly.

Adam went up to him cautiously. "CT?" He said before poking him in the gut once.

"Snnk!" He snored.

Neo was hatching this brilliant joke in his mind were if he tried to act like the Overmares mother than it would scare the living daylights out of him.

Neo looked at his brother with a devilish grin. "Here watch this." He chuckled as he put his mouth close to the old bucks ears.

In his best Overmare impression Neo shouted in his ear. "Mr. Caretaker! How dare you sleep on the job!"

The bucks eyes shot open as he blasted off his chair. "What!" He shouted as he fell to the ground.

Adam and Neo started to burst out into an almost insane form of laughter.

From the ground he looked up at the laughing strangers with a confused look. "Heh? What the? Who are you? An'wheres the Overmare?" His voice was raspy like an old record player.

Adams laugh started to die down a bit. "We're here to take over sir." He said wiping a tear from his eye.

The old buck got up with a dazed look. "Whut?" He said leaning closer to them with a hoof to his ear.

Neo raised his voice a bit. "We're here to take over your shift."

"Oh. Well, you know what yer doing?"

Adam and his brother nodded at him. "Yes sir." They said in unison.

"Meh, alrighty then, if yeh say so." He grunted angrily as he walked away from the two pranksters.

Neo and Adam could hear the big door slide open as the old buck made his way home. "I'm sure he'll forgive us." Neo said with a smile.

"Yeah, he's had worse." Adam chuckled.

Adam looked out the big window that was above the controls. "Wow, look at all the piping." He said in amazement, gazing at all the technology in the room outside.

Neo took one of the chairs and started to go over some of the pressure gages. "Yeah." Neo said blankly as he went through different buttons on the control pad.

Adam pouted at him before sitting down at the other chair. Adam started to look at the main pressure, the little needle on the dial moved almost at the half way point. "Brother, the pressures a little off at the second pump."

Neo sighed, "Okay, I'll go check it out." He complained.

Adam just smiled at him before returning to his work.

Neo made his way out of the slender room and into the main pumping system. The large pistons hung over large iron slabs, every other second they would hold themselves over the a slab before slamming straight back down with nerve racking might.

Neo looked at the pistons to see if anything might be wrong, but it looked perfectly fine to him. He looked back to the control room and shouted to Adam. "Everything looks good here!" He shouted to him from the railing that divided him and the pistons.

It was at this exact moment that the Stable started to shake violently. It only lasted for a few seconds but it was powerful enough to knock Neo off balance, causing him to fall over the railing.

His right forehoof landed right under the large piston. Then like lighting the piston came crashing down. *Clank!* Neo felt a terrible gut wrenching pain fly through his body as his right foreleg was crushed completely. His whole arm was completely removed from his body. His blood and bone covered the dark iron slab as his warm blood oozed out his side.

"AGH!" He shouted as he felt the pain engulf him. He layed there, helpless right next to the slab. He was shivering with pain, as his blood started to gather in a warm pool around him.

Adam was slightly shaken from the small quake, but that wasn't what truly bothered him. What bothered him was the terrible cry of pain he heard coming from the pumps. Then it hit him. "Oh no, brother..." He thought to himself as he dashed out of the control to inspect what had happened. When he arrived he was stunned with fear at the gruesome sight. His brother was next to the slab quivering at what used to be his right foreleg.

Neo's voice was rough and he was choking on the pain as he tried to look at his brother. "A-Adam... G-Get... H-help..." He stuttered as he moved around slightly in the pool of his own blood.

Adam stood there in full shock with his eyes wide with fear. "Brother?" He whimpered quietly as he looked at the remains of his brothers old foreleg on the iron slab.

With the last bit of strength Neo mustered all breath he could into one final yell. "Adam get help!" He shouted before his body went numb in the red pool.

Adam snapped out of his traumatized state. "I need to get help! His lifes in my hooves! But what do I do!" He panicked to himself as he looked around the room for a way to get help quickly.

Then he remembered the self alert button in the control room. As quickly as he could he raced over to the control room and he instantly started to scroll through the sea of buttons to find the self alert button.

The self alert button was a small glass covered red button in the middle of the control panel. Without giving it a second thought he slammed his left hoof down on the tiny button. The glass tore at his flesh as he heard the loud alarm go off. "Warning, the alarm has been set off in the Water Treatment Area. All security personnel are to arrive there imminently." Said a feminine voice from the speakers.

Adams hoof was hurt and bleeding from the glass shards that had made their home in his flesh. He was crying, he was so scared. Adam decide to limp over to his bleeding brother and wait for help to arrive.

Neo tried his best to move his head. With the little will he had left he looked up at Adam from the ground. Adam was in tears holding his bleeding left hoof. "I'm so sorry brother... I'm so sorry..."

Neo's body gave way to the numbness, “I’m really going to die... So this is what death feels like..." He thought to himself as the darkness slowly covered his vision until there was nothing but an empty void.

Footnote: Level up

New Perk: Momma’s boy: You gain +2 skill points in all your mothers skills like science and medicine with every level.

Would you like to level up Adam as well?

Yes-

No

Foot Note: Level up

New Perk: Swift learner: +10% XP whenever XP is earned.

Proofread by:

Myself

RaiderRy4n

(Please note that my writing get's better as it progresses, and I am trying my hardest to brush this up so thanks if your still reading!)