Fallout Equestria: Brotherhood

CHAPTER 22: STABLE OF THE FORGOTTEN GODS

"The test subjects will undergo the worst form of pain imaginable. However, it is through this pain that new leaders will be born."

Adam awoke to the soft patter of rain hitting the corroded metal above him. He was laying down on a few piled up cloths on the damp ground with some dry hay scattered about the area around him. Adam himself was in an old highway drainage pipe with one end sealed off by fallen rocky debris. Neo had managed to collect a few things for them to rest on while they were on their way to the north. It was about five hours into their walk that the lack of sleep from the night before finally hit the two brothers. Unfortunately, rain had just started to come down on them as they went along, and it didn't take them long to find the drain which for the most part acted well as a temporary shelter.

In this shelter, they had decided to sleep some of the day off to regain some of the lost sleep they had from the battle at Arkcannon. But, the few hours they had tried to rest, went restless, and with the crude sleeping arrangement, they didn't seem any closer to resting.

It was grey outside, as the soft booms of thunder could be heard clapping in the far off distance. Neo sat at the entrance of the drainage pipe and looked out into the grim world silently. Adam tossed and turned on the cloths, hoping to gain a comfortable spot that didn't make his back feel like a continuous cramp.

What Adam did find nice was the fact he had slept at all, even if it was for a little bit. Though, just as he turned around to face his brother, his back pain ached once more. At that point Adam sat up and stretched out to relieve the pain.

With a tired yawn and a blink of his eyes Adam looked to his brother, "Brother? What are you doing over there? Did you get any sleep?"

Neo shook his head and sighed looking back at Adam. "No, the rain is about to stop though. Once it does, we can move out again."

"Is it irradiated like the rain we found on the way to Arkcannon?"

Neo stuck his hoof out of the drainpipe entrance into the rain. A few raindrops hit his hoof, and after few seconds slow ticking began start clicking away.

Neo pulled his hoof back in and looked at the small radiation meter in the corner of his Pipbuck. "It is, but not as bad as it was when we were on our way to Arkcannon."

"Huh," Adam sighed, "That's odd."

Just after he had said that, Adam stretched out his forehooves once more before getting up and gathering his things. Once he had collect his bags, Adam sluggishly trotted over to his brother's side and sat next to him.

Outside, there was what seemed like the ruins of an old roadside town. In front of them was a cracked road that lead off into the distance in both directions. Dead twisted trees lay damp and unmoved by a large stone building bearing the words, Entertainment Hall written in big green worn letters on the front above the boarded up doors.

Adam looked carefully at the building, and wondered what his brother was doing just staring at it, "Is there anything you see?"

"Nope," Neo muttered, "I've been looking for a way inside. I think there might be some stuff inside, but until recently the rain's been too heavy to go and check."

Adam didn't respond, but instead scanned the building as well looking for a way inside. He noticed a small sign on lower section of the buildings main sign. It said, "Bed and Breakfast inside."

The very thought of warm food and a bed at the moment was wonderful, but it was clear that neither of them would get something like that for a long long time. Though one thing caught Adam's eye. A small wagon was pushed against the wall, only this particular wagon's end was extended outward making a small gap that looked like a small pony could fit through it.

"What about that wagon over there?" Adam said pointing out the object.

"Yeah, I saw that already. I was thinking if we go check it out we can try and pull it open."

Adam looked up to the sky and noticed that the once lightly drizzling rain was now reduced to a few light drops every other second. "You think we could go now? It seems to have slowed down enough."

Even with the duster covering most of his body from the wind, Neo felt the chill of the air against his moist coat. The very thought of going out was hard, but staying inside the drainpipe would just leave them more cold and miserable. At least if they tried it would be dry inside the old structure.

Neo sighed, "I hate the rain, though if we move quickly we can get in there. Do you have your things?"

Adam nodded patting the saddlebags that rested on his back. "Alright then." Neo said.

Neo shivered for a moment before speaking once more, "Then, on the count of three, we book it over there, okay?"

Adam got up and readied himself for the quick sprint over to the cart, "One.... Two...."

"Three!" Neo shouted as they both dashed over to the side of the building ahead of them. All the while Neo shouted to himself as they moved feeling the chilled breeze against his already cold self.

"Cold! Cold! Cold!" Neo said coming up to the cart with Adam, and without saying anything but the word cold, he motioned Adam to take the edge of the wagon and pull it. Neo himself also took the other edge and pushed against it, aiding his brother in opening the way inside the building.

The wood of the cart scraped against the wet pavement of the cold ground as both brothers pushed and pulled on the heavy object. Within moments, the wagon was moved enough for both of them to enter through the crack that was before too small for them to go through. And eagerly, the two of them jumped inside the the hole in the building the cart had covered without a second thought.

Both of them stood there for a moment, inside the dark building shivering with their teeth chattering loudly. The good news for them was that it was dry inside, and relatively warmer than the drainpipe they had sought shelter in earlier.

"Damn, I'm freezing." Neo said shaking extra water off of him.

Adam while still shivering slightly nodded, "D-d-ditto."

Neo turned on his Pipbuck lamp, and pat his hooves on the old red carpet they stood on. "Dryness... I love that feeling."

Adam was still cold, but the shivering had seemed to subside for the moment. "Let's just hope we can find a place to sleep that’s dry." Adam said before turning his own Pipbuck lamp on.

With both their lamps on, the whole room was dim lighted. Shadows danced and moved about on the walls as their Pipbucks moved around. The room had a high ceiling, with a hole punched out in one corner of the room. A huge grey light shaft solely gave the room the extra light their Pipbucks didn't. A desk, which looked like it had at one time let ponies check into the building, was now cracked and dusty. Moldy red carpet covered the rest of the floor, while old hanging lights dangled high above.

On one wall were two doors, each one had an old sign above them indicating where each door lead to. Though, due to the weather and elements the words were faded, and unreadable. Old posters with propaganda against Luna and the war, covered several areas of the floor in large piles.

The two brothers came up to the two doors curiously, "Which do you think leads to where they had the beds? Or better, the food." Adam asked.

"Hmm..." Neo hummed, "Let's go through the right door first. Maybe we’ll find something in there."

The two brothers went through the right door into the next room. Inside was a massive auditorium. Old red chairs covered the room with skeletons slouching over in some of the seats. An old stage was positioned at the very end of the large room. In the center of the stage was a grand piano, which for the most part seemed relatively untouched.

Adam looked at the room in awe. "Look at this place! It's huge, can you imagine what kinds of things that were performed here?" Adam said walking slowly down the center aisle that divided the seats.

Neo walked with Adam picturing the sounds of hooves clapping after the pianist had got done performing. The cheers he imagine though, it was as if Neo himself could hear them crystal clear while they walked. Magical was the thought of being here when shows were performed. But never again would a concert or play be performed in this place.

Adam climbed up onto the stage, and examined the piano closely. The old floorboards creaked loudly as Adam walked around on the stage. Neo could hear the creaks echo off of the walls, while Adam put a hoof on the wonderful old instrument.

Neo climbed up onto the stage as well, watching Adam as he inspected how the piano worked on the inside before turning his attention to the white dusty keys. Neo stood over Adam, watching as he tried to play the instrument.

"I remember trying to play a harp once." Neo said.

"I remember how that went, you almost killed the teacher thinking it was a bow."

Neo flattened his ears in embarrassment, "Hey! I got good air with the little wooden stick I found!"

"I think that was Flipper’s bow, it might of went to his violin."

"Heck, I almost hit the apple on her desk too."

Adam chuckled briefly before returning to the keys in front of him. Then, with the lightest pressure he could, Adam played the first note on the piano. He smiled as the wonderful noise echo sweetly throughout the auditorium. He pressed another key with his other hoof, and soon, he started pressing several others. While he didn't make any sort of melody or song, the very sound of the piano making the whimsical notes was mystifying.

The sounds from the piano even vibrated the floor a bit, causing the weak wooden boards to creak loudly. After a few more notes Adam and Neo heard a loud crack suddenly pop as Adam played. Stopping instantly, both brothers looked down to see that the area around the piano had cracked.

Adam did his best to breath lightly, and not make any sudden movements. "Brother..." Adam whispered worryingly.

"I know, Adam, I know." Neo worried, as he scanned for a way to get him off of the piano bench.

Neo put out his hoof for Adam to grab, "Just grab onto my hoof and I'll gently help you off."

Adam nodded quickly, before taking Neo's hoof. While Adam moved, he held onto Neo's hoof. Making slow light movements Adam tried to get off the bench, and with each movement the ground creaked louder, while the wood snapped and popped more and more.

And just as Adam was about off, he let loose his breath feeling he was safely off of the cracked area. However, just as the breath had escaped his lungs, the floor cracked from underneath him, sending him off of his brother's arm and down into a dark pit below.

"Adam!" Neo screamed as his brother fell down into the pit.

The piano snapped, and rang out soul piercing notes as the whole thing broke down. Adam fell down on his back on the rubble with his head hitting the tender wood that gave in.

Adam's head was sore, but besides that, he hadn't fallen far. Neo looked up from the hole above him and called down to him. "Adam, are you okay?"

Adam sat up and rubbed his sore head. "Yeah..." He moaned, "I only fell a few feet."

Neo looked around the stage for a away down to his brother, "I think I see some stairs going down there. I'll be right down, don't move!" Neo said before taking off to the steps he had mentioned.

Adam patted himself down, and felt as the solid levitation saddle on his back managed to help guard his fall. This wasn't the only time that thing saved his life, and he was happy he had made it. Even if it broke more times than he would like. Getting up from the debris from the piano and floor, Adam looked around the room to see where he was.

The orange glow from his Pipbuck, faintly illuminated the room. All around him, old dusty stage props were lined up against the walls. Some of the props had large darkened sheets draped over them, while others were broken or decaying. Every object in the room was fascinating, and even though his body was a little sore, the many old pre-war items that surrounded him distracted him from the pain.

Curiously, Adam got up and start to inspect the odd objects. Swords, manikins with colorful costumes, and broken wooded trees filled several corners of the room. At the far end of the long rectangular room was a small staircase that lead up onto the stage, and down it came Neo in a hurry.

"Adam?" Neo asked coming down the stairs.

Adam turned his head slightly toward Neo without averting his gaze from the items in the room. "Yeah... I'm right here."

Neo approached him with worry in his eyes, and while looking Adam’s body over for injuries he said, "Adam did you get cut or something? Did your levitation saddle bust? Or..."

Adam shook his head for a moment, "Oh, no I'm fine. A little sore, but fine."

Neo sighed with relief, "Great. Now let's go find those beds, and let's try to avoid anything that looks like it would collapse on us."

Just as Neo started to move back towards the stairs, Adam spotted one last thing that caught his eye in the room. It was a door on the opposite side of the room. A room marked, "Restricted" in worn black letters.

As Neo started to walk towards the stairs, he noticed Adam move away from him to the other side of the room. Puzzled by Adam's actions, Neo trotted over next to him, "Adam, where are you going? The stairs are over there." Neo said pointing back to the stairs.

"I know," Adam muttered, "But this door over here... There's something about it."

Neo slowly walked next to him staring at the door Adam was going up to. "What about it? It just looks like a door to me."

Adam came up to the door with his brother, and together, they stood there looking at it. "Let's just look inside. Maybe we'll find something." Adam said looking at the rusted door knob.

"Just real quick," Neo said in an unsure tone of voice, "Then we head back."

Adam nodded to him, and pushed on the door. Surprisingly, it opened inwardly with hardly any force at all, as if it had been opened before. The door creaked open, which lead into a dark room with only the orange glow of their Pipbucks for light.

At the end of the room was a tunnel. A long tunnel which was circular and large in size. To them, it seemed to go nearly a hundred feet into the darkness at the end of the tunnel. Compelled by curiosity, Adam walked forward with his brother on alert as they advanced.

Their calm soft hoof-steps echoed gently along the tunnel walls, and as they got closer to what seemed like the end of the tunnel, they saw the faint dark outlining of what looked like a cog. At that instant, both of them dashed quickly to the end to see if what they saw before them was in fact the entrance to a stable. And as they came closer, the dark cog shaped figure began to take its full shape and color.

With wide awestruck eyes the two brothers stood before the grey metal entrance of the stable. "I-Is that a..."

"Yep..." Neo gulped finishing Adam's sentence.

A large yellow 43 at the cogs center glowed brightly as the light from their Pipbucks shinned up onto it. Suddenly, Adam had an idea. If there were ponies living inside, they might be willing to help them. That was, if this stable was anything like their stable. But they had never heard of another stable not being any different than their own, so it was worth a shot to see if anypony would answer.

"Brother," Adam asked, "Do you think there's anypony in there?"

Neo shook his head, "I'm not sure..."

"Do you think they'd be willing to help us if we asked?"

Neo thought about it for a moment and like Adam, he had the same thought. After all, no other stable he had heard about was bad. Then again, the topic of other stables was hardly a subject covered in their own stable. In a few moments though, Neo came to a conclusion, they would ask for entry. Because if they had never heard of anything bad from a stable before, then surely nothing that could be bad could come out of a stable. Especially if it was like their own.

There was a small control panel at the side of the door, which like their own stable was just the same in almost every way. "Let's try. After all, it can't be that bad, right? I've never heard anything bad about stables before. And if this place is anything like our's, then they should be pretty good folk."

Adam nodded at his brother and trotted over to the control panel Adam. The panel itself was decorated with several multi-colored lights and knobs, along with a small number pad bearing numbers from zero to nine. Adam looked at it oddly, and scratched his head while examining the panel. "Here, give me a sec. We might had lived in a stable all our lives, but the only time I've seen a panel like this was when we left our own stable."

Neo smiled at him, "Just take your time. If you can't figure it out, we'll head back."

"Don't worry, I can do it." Adam said confidently.

And just as Adam had said that, Neo noticed a small surveillance camera looking down at them from the top corner of the door. However, just as he turned his head to look at it, the camera snapped away from them, and back to looking down the tunnel.

"What the...?" Neo whispered suspiciously.

Then, the panel started to beep. Adam backed away from the control panel in shock, for the panel itself was putting in the code to open the stable. "What?" Adam said cocking his head to the side.

"Did you do that Adam?" Neo asked hearing the machines on the inside of the stable move.

Adam shook his head, "No, I just started to look it over when it just started to operate itself!"

Neo looked at him in bewilderment, "What? Like a ghost or something?"

"I don't know what is happening! It just..." Adam and Neo both froze as the sound of metal locking with metal could be heard. And, with a loud metallic screech, the stable entrance retracted itself, and rolled to the side. Light from the inside flooded the dark tunnel the brothers stood in.

Putting their forelegs to their eyes, the light for a brief moment was blinding, though it did not take long for their eyes to adjust to the light. Once their eyes were adjusted though, they both stared into the now opened stable.

Turning off their Pipbucks both of them gulped in unison. "Do you think we should go in?" Adam asked his brother.

"We've come this far..." Neo said in an unsure tone.

They both gulped once more and started to walk into the clean entrance of the now opened stable 43. The air as they came through the entrance was clean, and warm. Though, the faint scent of dust and charcoal lingered about. It didn't bother the two brothers though, so they went onward cautiously.

The entrance area was much like their own stable's. It had a ramp leading up to a door, which if they were not mistaken lead into the stable itself. A small control pad rested at the top of the ramp, and a large mechanical mechanism dangled from the ceiling about which extended out to open the stable door.

"Hello?" Adam called, as they went up onto the ramp.

But there was no response, and while looking to his brother, Adam asked, "Who opened the door if there's nopony at the control panel?"

Neo shrugged, "Maybe they're controlling it from somewhere else."

Adam didn't respond back, instead, the two brothers continued onward to the door at the end of the room. Upon approaching the door, it automatically pulled itself back into the wall with a quick series of clangs, and squeaks.

They both paused for a moment to look at the door, their stable didn't have automated doors. It was always press a button and they would open, but these doors must have some way of telling when a pony was near them. At the moment though, little could be done to find out why the doors operated the way they did; what was odd was the fact that they hadn't seen anypony yet.

The door had opened up to a large hallway, that went forward a hundred feet before stopping at another door at the very end. The wide metallic hallway had no distinct features apart from pipes and lights that ran along the walls.

And, just as the brothers went through the doorway into the dull hallway, a voice came on a loudspeaker which made their hearts skip in surprise. The voice in question, was a kindly perky male voice, one that sounded like he had just won the lottery, or was too hyped up on sugar.

"Hello, brave Equestrian citizen!" The voice boomed, "You have been chosen by our very own Stable-Tech Ironhoof district committee to take part in becoming a resident here at Stable 43!"

The voice seemed to pause for a moment, and as it did the brothers moved onward to the end. "Please, proceed to the end of the hallway for a quick, and educational introductory video!"

"Introductory video?" Neo muttered looking up towards the ceiling.

It did not take them long to reach the end of the room, and like the door before it, opened on its own for them. This door lead into a much smaller room. There were two seats, seated in front of a large monitor. Two doors were also placed on opposite sides of the monitor. One door had a large green light over it, while the other had a large red light. The whole setup was confusing to both brothers, but the voice had mentioned this was where the video was. And seeing as there was a huge monitor meant that this was the introductory room.

Neo and Adam sat in the seats, and as soon as their flanks had made contact with the soft cherry-red cushions the lights went out. They squirmed in their chairs, eyes darting about the dark room when a murky green screen snapped on in front of them.

On the screen, loud clear music was playing as a small banner circled a rotating globe. The banner read:

"And now a message from the Ministry of Ironhoof Sciences, and the Ministry of Arcane Technology!"

After a few seconds, two unicorn mares in well-fitted suits, with the exception of the left who wore a pristine lab coat over it, faded into view on the screen. Each of them sat in large armchairs chairs next to one another.

"Hello citizen, and welcome to your new home." The finely dressed mare on the right said, "You have been selected based on your DNA or your skills with bioengineering to permanently stay here in Stable 43.

"Since you're here, that means the worst has finally been realized, and the world as you know it has ended. Millions have perished, our nation, our province, all have been blasted into the annals of history. This means, unfortunately, that it is likely our fair goddesses have as well."

"But do not fret," The lab coat mare said, "All is not lost. While here, you will be able to help create a new world. For it is with your efforts that we shall prevail through this world, now sodden with dark magics, and rise up from the ashes of the wasteland above, to rebuild society.

"Please continue through the door marked with a green light, and remember. Stable-Tech was made so you could rebuild the future, and create a better tomorrow. Today!"

As soon as the mare had finished speaking, the monitor went dark once more, and the lights flickered on. The door to the left marked with a green light over it made a soft whistling sound before opening up for them.

"Now, this is just getting freaky..." Neo said completely confused as to what was happening.

"I agree..." Adam added.

Neo hopped out of the his chair and stretched his left foreleg. "Well, that's enough excitement for for one day! Let's head back Adam before some more weird stuff happens."

Adam nodded while still dazed over what had just happened, "Yeah..." He muttered, "I second that thought."

As Neo came up to the door, terror filled him. The door that they had come through was closed, and it seemed as if there was no way out. "Adam..." Neo cooed in distress as he felt the wall frantically for a button or switch, "There's no button or switch on this door..."

Adam turned sharply to his brother and raced over to the door, "What!?"

Together they looked around the doorframe for a button, a switch, and emergency release -- something. Nothing. Neo placed his back to the wall and slid onto his haunches with bloated eyes swimming in a terrifying realization.

"W-We're trapped in here..."

Adam gave the door a hard determined stare before looking back to his brother, "No, somewhere there must be a control room that allows the residents to manually operate the doors in this stable. If we find it, we can get out of here."

"If we do find it, do you think you could control the doors and locks?"

Adam fixed the goggles on his forehead with a confident smile, "Sure I can. But finding it will be the hard part."

Neo got up, and patted Adam on the back. "If you say you can do it, then let's not waste any time. I bet the longer we're here, the weirder things will get."

Adam nodded in response and with determination about them, the two went off to the door marked with a green light. As they went through the door, the first thing they noticed was how clean the facility was.

Apart from the white sheen off the walls, dark scorch rims were streaked across every stable door. The hallways seemed the same as their own stables, even the rooms looked the same. That was, of course, the few they could enter. Every other room was locked, even the cafeteria was locked up tight, and with it all hopes of getting food.

Despite this small feature, they continued searching. Checking every corridor, and occasionally checking storage closets. For reasons not known to them, the closets were locked too, and the thought of locking something as simple as a storage closet was in of itself odd.

After climbing the last flight of stairs they could find, there, down a dim corridor, was a door marked in bright yellow letters, "Control Center." Eagerly, the two galloped down the hallway to the door, only for Adam to stop halfway to the room.

Adam had noticed a large windows on both sides of the corridor that gave viewers inside the lengthy hallway a look into the massive rooms inside. The reason this particular room caught Adam's attention was the many pod like capsules that seemed to be stored inside. On the other side of the corridor out of the other window was a chamber with three machines lined side by side. Each with piping and glass half-spheres running down the huge dark mysterious machines to chambers with iron pedestals perched in the center.

"Adam? You okay?" Neo asked.

Adam shook his head, "Wha? Oh, yeah I'm fine it's just those rooms..."

"Well, we're not going to worry about this place much longer," Neo muttered in a low tone whilst scanning the area around them, "The control center is right there. Let's get in there and leave before something weird happens again."

Adam recovered himself, and joined his brother in galloping back down the hall. As they came to the door, it like the first door they had seen in the Stable, opened for them automatically allowing them complete access into the control center. The control center was wide, with a large control panel lined with buttons of all colors repeatedly flashing on and off. Terminals lined the upper part of the wall, some on while some showed nothing more than blank static. Though, the oddest feature of the room, was a bed and drawer at the far end of the room next to the control panel. Likely, it was for those working overtime when the stable was fully functioning, but it seemed inviting enough, even if it appeared to have not been touched in years. It was clean, soft, and best of all -- normal.

Both of them came to the massive sea of buttons, scanning intensely for the section that controlled the doors. Adam was the first to find the controls near the farther left section of the panel, "Ah, here we are." Adam said coming to the controls.

With a smart grin Adam rubbed both his hooves together, "Don't worry, I'll have us out of here in no time."

Neo smiled back at him as Adam began working on getting them out, "Let's see, this should bring us the main menu screen... And then the selection screen...."

Keeling over the control panel, Adam narrowed his eyes at the terminal screen in front of him, "Huh..." Adam muttered.

Neo blinked at him, "What is it?"

Adam went back to sitting straight and shrugged at his brother, "It's just odd, usually I would think something like this would ask for a password. But it says that the user is already online..."

"Weird... Then again, what else isn't in this stable?" Neo added.

"At least it won't be an issue," Adam said continuing his work, "Because after I do this, all we need to do is let my code bypass the main controls to the doors near the exit. Once that's done, we're out of here."

"Great! It's just, how long do you think that will take?"

"Well, if these controls are anything like most other controls I've dealt with, it should take a few secon-" Adam paused with his eyes wide and fixated on the terminal screen in awe.

Neo waved his hoof in front of his face to gain his younger brother's attention. "Adam? What is it?"

"Well..." Adam moaned slouching over the panel disappointingly, "My code is going to finish bypassing the doors controls."

"Okay? Then what's the problem?"

"See for yourself," Adam sighed pointing to the terminal screen.

Leaning in closer to the screen Neo read the text to himself, "Bypass code traveling through system. Percent till bypass is finished, 1%. One hour, thirty minutes remaining."

Reeling back from the screen Neo's right eye twitched a few times, "One hour... In here... One hour..." He whimpered.

Adam shrugged, "Why this is happening is beyond my knowledge. So we'll have to wait till it's done moving through the system."

Neo picked Adam up by the shoulders and shook him wildly, "I thought you were the genius! I thought you could do anything!!!"

"Brother, please, stop shaking me!" Adam exclaimed while Neo shook him.

Neo blinked, and stopped shaking him, "Oh... Uh, sorry about that, I... Got a little carried away... Heh..."

Adam hopped down from his brother's forelegs and brushed himself off, "It's alright, but I may be good at fixing stuff, but when it comes to hacking the systems of a whole stable... I'm not the best pony for the job."

"Then we wait, huh?" Neo sighed.

"Eeyup." Adam replied.

"Yeah, so if you want to rest a bit you can," Adam said stretching his left foreleg.

Adam felt the levitation saddle on his back shuffle around, and with his hoof still in it's stretching position, he had an idea. This idea, he thought, if done properly, might get rid of the need for levitation saddles. Best of all, he knew how he could pull off the wonderful idea he had.

Neo, slightly tired, shuffled off to the bed at the end of the room and plopped himself down hard onto the bed sighing merrily as the soft bed caressed his body. "You know," Neo blissfully said feeling the comfortable bed, "This may not be that bad after all. Especially with this bed here."

Adam smiled at him before going through his bags for his screw driver. "Brother, I had an idea to help get these things off our backs."

Neo turned around in the bed to face his younger brother, who trotted up next to the bedside, "Huh? How?"

"I remembered an old attachment I put on our families Pipbucks to store extra stuff if we needed it. I also remember how I never finished it, so I thought that if I can take the levitation circuits and connect them via the attachment to our Pipbucks, then we'll have an easier and more convenient levitation."

"So... No more of these uncomfortable things on our backs then?"

"Yep." Adam said coming over to his brother, and collecting his levitation saddle. "I'll get to work on that as we wait, if you're going to rest, put your arm out onto the panel. While you rest I'll add the circuits."

"Sounds good to me," Neo yawned loudly.

Adam smiled at him before gathering all that he needed onto the panel to begin work on his new idea. Though, just as Adam had started to get his tools together, a terminal right in front of him flashed on with audio dairies archived in order.

"What the-?" Adam thought.

"What is it, Adam?" Neo mumbled in a drossy manner.

Adam read the rest of the content that was on the screen to his brother, "There's a set of audio diaries here... Some videos too. Left over by a Doctor Peptide, who, according to the brief summary, worked here when the Stable was working."

Neo sat up, "Maybe they can tell us a bit more about the place."

"Yeah, I'll set them to auto-play while I work and you rest up a bit."

Neo laid on the bed, putting his right hoof out onto the control panel for Adam so he could upgrade his Pipbuck. "Just start playing them when you're ready," Neo yawned, "I'll be listening."

Adam chose the first audio diary, and set it to play.

"My name is Doctor Peptide. It's happened, hasn't it? The world is gone. Torn asunder by war, and whipped clean of life by dark fire. I guess I should have expected something like this when I was chosen to come live here. Though, deep down inside, I feel like the very moment that my eyes saw the cryotubes, we would awake to a world long gone, that nopony ever wanted to exist. Yet... There it is. We've been asleep for more than one hundred and fifteen years waiting for the enhancement potions to age... I hope what we do here can make a difference... I hope we can do something to bringing a future back to the world above."

The voice on the audio-log sighed heavily, "I was told by some others who woke up with me that making these logs would help relieve stress. That it would keep me from going insane. But what is science but testing insane theories? I digress. I'll make more audio dairies once we've begun testing in the next week."

"Day seven, seven forty-three PM. We started testing today. I thought we'd do some more data collection on the potions, get them read, and like the rest of the week all the chief would need me for was to do some work with combining the tinctures' amino acids. That, and there was something mentioned about positive fertility. Well, after the first day, I now realize what we are doing. Several pegasi were put under cryogenic sleep as well, and they were confirmed with positive fertility... This is the part that threw me off. While we haven't started this section of the testing yet, I'm not quite sure how I feel about it... Basically we drug the female pegasi with the chemicals and proceed run tests on them. The drugs should cause a child to be conceived for a week before it becomes ready to scan for probability. Then, we begin the procedure, and the normal unicorn, earth pony, or pegasus is tested on. We splice all of the three genes together with the potions... and... and... I... I didn't sign up for this, but there was a talk that if we do it, we'll go down in history as heroes... I-I've never amounted to anything as high as that, and to think that I would go down history as a hero is... I-I'll make another dairy once we've began testing again..."

"Day fifteen, eight PM. At first, I had second thoughts if I could go through with it, but after some convincing from my colleagues, I went in and did my best. I was assigned female number 343, and she's quite lovely... Drugged, but lovely. I basically make sure her vitals are in order, and monitor how her heath is. I'll update the log when we perform the next stage of testing."

"Day twenty-three, eight o'five PM," The voice on the recording sighed disappointingly, "We had performed testing on the subjects. When the testing began, we had expected good results. Instead, the few who were ready... I didn't know this, in fact, I almost lost my lunch when I heard it. We were testing on children. The children we created with the test subjects. But we got... These hideous monsters. Malformed, and disfigured. But then again, creating an Alicorn is much more difficult than we had hoped..."

"Day forty eight, sheven thirty-sheven... P... Pee? I dunno... Lot's of days have passed... Yep... But you know what? I'll tell you what, heh heh... I've got the besht job ever! All I do is tesht, fail. Tesht, fail. Tesht, and guess what? Fail again! Yeah... I love it..."

The pony sounded as if he was taking another swing of whatever it was he was drinking before continuing, "AH! That's good stuff... The other guysh and me, we're pals. We love our job. LOOOOVE LOVE gotta have love love ahahahaha!"

"Day thirty, six PM. After that incident a few nights ago where we decided to get alcohol involved, I've had trouble sleeping. Our testing goes on though, and we've made some progress -- it turned out that the subjects that were exposed to high amounts of taint, and they genetically mutate slowly over time. And with the help of the mutagens we've already put into our fertile subjects, we've seen less deformity inside the body and the head of the creatures they produce."

"There's no time for the date! We just hit a breakthrough! It turns out we can accelerate the growth at which the fertile subjects grow. From small infants to fully grown adults! All in less than a week! It's taken much time, but we found altering some of the genes works wonders. I'm about to see the final results now. I'll update the log once I've observed results of this new adult testing."

"I... I've never seen this before... T-the subject spoke... It said a complete sentence. Though, the very words it uttered still linger clearly in my mind. The only three words it said was... Celestia, help me if I can repeat them... 'Please kill me.' Though, it was speech, I'm starting to think that we're getting too deep with this..."

Adam paused the recordings, and stopped his work. With his emotions churning inside him, he stared deeply into the terminal screen in deep thought. "T-that was..."

Neo looked up at him somberly, with his arm laid out on the panel and his Pipbuck's inner workings exposed. "Should we go on? Listening to that bastard ramble on about the shit he did?"

"Let's see if something happens, maybe it will tell us why everypony in the stable is gone," Adam said clicking continue on the terminal, and returning to work on upgrading his brother's Pipbuck.

However, nothing played. And for a few moments the two brothers wondered why. Adam checked the list on the terminal, what was there though was odd. As the next several parts of the playlist where text logs. So, just to see what they were Adam opened the first one.

It said, "Day thirty-seven. Watched the subject. Tested. No new results."

Adam opened the next one, and like the previous log it said, "Day forty-five... I wonder if the bar is still open?"

And the next one said, "Day sixty-three. Fucked. All fucked. All of it. This dumb place. This dumb chair. Fucked. FUCKED. FUCKED!"

Adam, had decided that the next dozen might yield something, so he opened them all side by side on the terminal screen. Only, for what seemed like weeks he repeated the same thing again and again. The more he read the more drawn out the brief messages seemed. Until, having gone through all of the text logs, he managed to find where the audio dairies had come back. And with an uneasy press of the play button on the control panel, the dairies had started to play again.

A long drawn out pause could be heard with nothing but sighs in the background. "What is my life? For weeks, we’ve done the same thing. Every week I go, come back, wait a few days to test, fail. I then go to bed, and wake up ready for a new day. Even with the small intervals between waiting for the foals to grow up and the next testing session, I sit and do nothing. Everyone here is cold. The walls confine me, and, even as I sit here, they seem to close in around me. What is my life? Am I to continue with this endless cycle of repetition till the day I die? Going week after week with no end to this madness? There are even sometimes I can hear the screams of those I murdered here. Haunting my thoughts, telling me of the lives they could of had and the potential they could have brought to the world."

The next long was dated the day after the last one was made, which for the most part puzzled them as all the previous ones had a week, or two between each log. "Day... Oh, I don't even care anymore. I just went to visit my test subject. But, while in the room with her on the testing bed laying there, with tubes and drugs keeping her alive, I just stared at her. Wondering. Just... Who was she before she had been brought down here? Was she a teacher, or a student? With all the treatments we've given them they look as if they hadn't even aged a day... At all. Though, I wonder what she was like. Did she like art, or music? Or to dance, and go out with friends? These questions rattled in my mind as I watched her unconscious body... You know... I think I'll lower the drug dosage... I'll see what happens."

"Day seventy-four, six o'eight PM. She woke up! I-I... Well didn't know if I could wake her up, but she did! I have to keep the dosage low though. They have scanners that pick up if she still has the chemicals in her system. However, I found that if I keep the dosage to a controlled low she will regain consciousness, and the scanners should think nothing of it. Clever, if I do say so myself. Though, I think in about two weeks or so, she should be back among the world of the living... Or really, the world of the awake, as it were. I kid myself, I'm just so thrilled! I haven't felt this way in months, maybe doing this was a good idea."

"Day eighty-nine, eight o'eight AM. It's been a few weeks since I've started lowering the dosages on her. I visit her often in secret. If the others ever found out what I was doing they'd lock me up, and do Celestia knows what to her. As such I've been very careful when seeing her. Coming to her only in the early parts of the morning. She's still a little groggy, but she's capable of speech now. I haven't had a full conversation with her, but she can respond and understand me. I hope that within a few more days she'll come all the way through."

"Day ninety-three, six PM. Her cognition is fully restored. I was lowering her dosage yesterday when she suddenly snapped awake and panicked. She started screaming and yelling at me in mad confusion. I can't say I blame her. She's been through a lot, more than she will ever know. It took some time but I calmed her down. I explained to her the best way I could as to what happened. She broke into tears. I just hope she doesn't do anything brash while I'm not there."

"Day one hundred and five. In the past few weeks I've been sneaking extra food from the cafeteria into the subject's room. Since she's not on the drugs and tubes anymore, she has to eat normally. I visit her as often as I can. I try my best to comfort her by bringing books, and talking to her. She's actually quite an interesting pony. She was a cook before she was brought down to the stable. From what she had told me, she used to cook at a dinner three towns away in Hoofston. I can still tell the tests bother her, and I hate to be a part of it now, but every now and again, I look back into those once scared eyes and see something... Something other than the scared unsureness. I'm not sure what it is, it might be her adapting. Maybe? I don't know. I'll continue to update the log more often. Oh, and before I sign off a reminder to myself. Make sure you shave next time you go see her, she was giving you a weird look at your chin-scruff."

The next log had him humming soft tunes to himself in a giddy, childish manner, "It's been several weeks since I made another log. Know I said I'd make them more often, but really this... This is something. We talk, laugh, and even I sneak her back to my room to listen to music and dance. I found a way to trick the security programs using a few lines of code inserted into the scanners. Father always thought the coding club was a waste of time, well who's laughing now? We think hardly anything of the testing now. It's just something that seems to get in the way of the fun things. Sometimes, we read things together, and we even watch old pre-war films. She's really sweet, I'm sad that she had to be subjected to all of this. And while the testing goes on with no sight of progress being made at all, I'm content. I feel alive around her, like my body is lighter than air. It's magical... I've... Never known what love feels like before... Is this what it feels like?"

"Day one hundred and seventeen. Okay Peptide you can do this. Today's the day. I've been with her for so long now, and just a few nights ago I looked into her eyes and saw something. I think she feels the same way about me that I do about her. But I've been cowardly, I've loved her and yet I'm too scared to come out with it and tell her. No more, I'm going to march over to her chamber and confess. Or damn it I'll piss myself doing it!"

The next log on the playlist had two voices, one was Peptide while the other was a mare's voice, "This is Flare. She's the one I've been talking about."

"Uh, hi I guess." The mare's voice chuckled merrily.

"Well, if you read the date this is recorded, you'll find it hasn't been too long since I've updated this old thing. She's going to sleep over in my room. For the first time. Nopony ever goes into the chamber, and as long as she's there for the scanning on testing day she can stay here. For once, things are look up, even if we're not getting anywhere with our research."

"Day one hundred forty-nine. Something weird has happened during the testing. We tried to keep some of the subjects alive while in their normal state. The adults and foals alike, reported hearing voices, and seeing dark figures with symptoms of severe headaches. One scientist found that some kind of chemical in red wine calms these symptoms. Good thing the stable has plenty of wine, nopony was drinking it in the first place, everyone here's a whiskey drinker -- trust me. Now, it at least serves a purpose, it's the very least we can do for these suffering souls."

"Day one hundred fifty-two. I found in a storage closet an old Mr. Handy robot. Flare and me spent the last two days working on the robot. It didn't take us too long to make it run again, but the only issue we had was that it didn't know what to call itself, so we came up with the name A.L.F.R.E.D. as his new name. The name stands for: Artificial. Levitating. Friendly. Robot. Emergency. Drone. While the name itself doesn't make much sense we still thought it was funny. He's been helping me with my work, and I have to say he's been a wonderful helper."

"Day one hundred seventy-six. This stable is going mad. Every scientist has grown corrupt with power. They think they're gods or something because they can choose whether to keep a subject alive or not. Hell, some don't even test anymore. They just drink heavily, and even get into fights. Just this morning a guard shot a scientist who was drunk, as he tried to rape her. Flare and I have stopped testing altogether. The Overmare said that she'll look into the situation and address what needs attention. Which, in my opinion, she needs to do something about the whole damn stable."

"Day one hundred and ninety-nine. I've been looking into ways we can leave the stable. It's forbidden to do so, but if the whole place goes to hell, we need to get out of here. But the Overmare did put a lot of effort into putting the trouble makers behind bars, so, hopefully, it won't come to us leaving. I've also been talking to A.L.F.R.E.D. in private about... Well I'm sure Flare might hear this... I should delete this before she finds out what I'm planning to do... You know what, just don’t say anything. It might be safer that way."

"Day two hundred and three. I proposed to her today... She smiled at me, with tears gently rolling down her cheeks she said yes. I-I've never been so excited in my life before. Me, of all ponies, is going to get married. Heh, who would have thought. I talked to A.L.F.R.E.D. about performing the marriage. In a few days we'll be married... With all that has happened since I got out of the cryogenic pods I feel that it was all worth it. But that small pain of guilt has been inside me for a few days now. I thought if I forgot about it the feeling would go away. But I've been done things I'm not proud of, to so... many ponies... I need to lay down for a few minutes and think some things over. I have to shake this feeling off."

"Day two hundred and sixty-sixty. I was running through some old logs of mine, deleting them in hopes to keep Flare away from my surprises I had for her before the wedding. I was up late the night before, and with the lack of sleep, I hadn't realized I deleted several extra logs. Fantastic. I will say that the wedding did go well. In fact, we've already talked about having a child. A real child. We talked about it for that last few days, and having thought it over we think the life we can give our child here would be fine. It's just... There isn't any other children in the stable, none for him or her to meet anypony else. That is why we've come up with a plan. I've hacked into the stables outdoor monitoring system, and I’ve been checking for radio waves. I managed to pick up one, something about a DJ... I'm not sure what, but they talked about going there if somepony needed refuge... Or at least, that is what I think it said. I'll have to look deeper into it later."

"Day five hundred and seventy-four. He's a boy... My baby boy. I-I'm at a loss of words... I'm a father now. Me, of all ponies, a father. Surprisingly, with the help of the chemicals, our son was born healthy. He shows no signs of mutation that seem to damage his body physically. Flare and I have named him Red, based on his crimson colored coat. Though at the moment, we like to call him Little Red. But just to be on the safe side, I'll have to keep watch on our boy though, and see what happens, and make sure nothing out of the ordinary happens."

"Day five hundred and seventy-eight. I can't believe this... My son is the key to fixing this stable's problem. For months we've gone week after week of testing with little to no sign of decent progress. But my son... He's one hundred percent perfect for genetic melding. If he was to undergo the DNA merging he would come out a full blooded Alicorn. But the pain that would cause him... I won't subject my son to that kind of pain. Not after all the pain I had caused to so many others. But his I.Q. is an odd thing on it's own as well. He's very intelligent, showing amazing brain structure and nerve impulses even at this extremely young age. I'll try and see if I can teach him the Leader curriculum Stable-Tech made in the event that we had succeeded. I just want to see how he does, but that is, of course, when he is older. For now, I plan a way out of here. The Overmare has been acting strange though, as she mingles more and more with the few more corrupt of our group."

Adam screwed in the last screw into his own Pipbuck, concluding the upgrade he added to his and Neo’s Pipbucks. At this time though, both of the brothers had noticed the recordings had stopped. However, Neo lay in the bed levitating an empty shotgun shell above his face. "I feel bad for that guy... At first, he was an asshole, but I guess he changed for the better. But the way he talks about his wife, it reminds me of..."

Adam relaxed himself while sitting on the floor smiling with memories of their time with their mother in their own stable. "Do you think Dad loved Mom the same way?"

Neo rolled his eyes and frowned at Adam's statement, "If our father really did love our mother that much, he wouldn't have left us. I remember the look on her face several years ago when you were just a foal. She was so torn up by what that stupid stallion did. If he's alive I'll..." Neo quickly halted any further hateful comments towards their father.

Adam had lowered his head, giving off a look of deep sorrow, "I never got to know dad..."

Neo sat up in the bed, feeling an awful sense of guilt in his chest. "I'm sorry Adam. I-I know you wanted to meet him, it's just he hurt mom by doing what he did for no reason..."

"It's alright," Adam added raising his head, while retaining the look of sorrow in his eyes, "Let's listen to the last bit. The override is almost done going through the system..."

Neo moved himself back till he came up to the wall next to the bed. Laying his back against the wall, he sat up and nodded for Adam to continue the audio-dairies without saying a word.

There was a gap between the audio-dairies. Days, months, and even years between the time older dairies and newer dairies were made. What puzzled Adam was that, while he looked through each audio log many had been restricted for hearing. This was odd, considering that all of the files up to this point had been free for them to hear. Though, there was little Adam could do about it, so he continued to scroll through the dairies to the next available one.

The next log was not a audio-log. Instead it was a video, while not that long it still was odd seeing a video recorded among the audio and text logs. On the screen two ponies sat directly in the center of the video, one pony was a tired looking brown earth pony, while the other was a small red unicorn with emerald gleaming eyes, and a dark black mane.

The small colt sit on a chair right next to his father, gazed with wide eyes directly at the screen in wonder of the odd machine his father was showing him. Peptide smiled at him, and pat him gently on the head.

"This is a terminal son. It's used to help ponies with important things."

The young one didn't answer, but instead gave quiet wonder filled oohs. "It can also record things, for other ponies to hear and see. Like right now, I'm making a video of us. Say hello to all the ponies out there, Red."

The little one was shy, reeling himself back now knowing that other ponies were possibly watching him. Peptide ruffled his mane playfully. "It's okay, Little Red, they aren't watching you right now, we're just making a video that we'll show Alfred."

"Oh, will momma watch too?"

"Yep, she'll watch it to. But right now, show the ponies the cool trick you learned today."

There was a small set of three marbles put in front of the colt, each marble lay side by side undisturbed for the colt before them. With a few curious blinks at the marbles, Little Red leaned closer to them. "You mean the spinny trick, dad?"

"Mhm, that's the one." Peptide said with a nod.

The little colt smiled now understanding what it is he needed to do. With his eyes fixated on the small glass spheres, his horn was soon encased in a faintly glowing magical aura. Within moments, an aura of the same red crimson color covered the marbles, and focusing slightly harder on them they started to float up into the air. Once they had been lifted, the colt started to spin them around and around in the air in circles.

"Very good! Soon you'll be able to do all sorts of things with magic. Maybe later you'll be able to pick up Alfred!" The stallion chuckled.

The video then ended with the two ponies laughing merrily. It was heartwarming to hear them being happy. But just as soon as the video ended, another video came up next automatically. It looked as if Peptide was reading something to his son with his wife next to him, a book that neither Adam nor Neo could identify, "And then with powerful joyous hoofsteps, the knight came back to the village having slain the evil dragon. The town rejoiced as he came trotting through the village square, and with cheers of joy the ponies celebrated their hero’s return. And everyone, even the knight, lived happily ever after."

"Wasn't that a good story, Little Red?" Peptide said.

"I liked it, I especially loved the part where the knight fought the dragon in the evil castle." A soft mare's voice added.

"Where did you get the story, dad?"

"I brought it with me from the outside."

"What is the outside like?" The little colt asked.

"Well... I'm not too sure right now son. It's probably much different than it was when I was your age."

"What was it like when you were my age?"

"Hmm, well. It was a wonderful place. The sky was blue and white clouds floated high in the sky. Cities were bustling with ponies, and life for many of us was good. New inventions came every month that made our lives more fun. Even the terminal over there was made when I was growing up. But back in the day, me and your mother dreamed like this. And the heroes were everyday ponies, and ponies did good things for each other."

There was a slight pause in the conversation. "Dad. Momma. When I grow up, I want to be like the knight in the story, and help ponies with the problems in the world."

"That's a very good dream to have, Little Red," The stallion said with a warm smile.

"But first, you'll have to wait until you grow up and get big and strong. Because now it's time for young knights to go to sleep, you can't save the world if you're all sleepy!" Flare cooed softly wrapping the young one in her forelegs.

The next video was dated a few years since the last one was made, and like the last log, this one too was a video. In the main living room of Peptide's stable living quarters sat Little Red, only this time, he had changed from a small colt to a young buck. His father was standing in front of him with a large chalk board with several graphs drawn on it, while Little Red was watching intently as his father gave him a education lecture.

"Now, Red, if a territory is lacking in resources what is the best method to asking neighboring countries if trade is an option?"

The buck remain silent for a moment, before sitting straight confidently and answering sternly, "It is best to first check relations with the neighboring countries. That way, it is easier to evaluate whether any of the countries would be willing agree to a trade between our two factions. If however, there is a chance multiple nations may be persuaded, it is always an option to gain the support of both."

Clapping his hooves together in applause, Peptide nodded his head proudly. "Very good! Though, you must also take into consideration that in every situation, you must be willing to have something to offer as well. That is how trade works, after all. Though I am very proud with your answer! I'm sure when we get to this semester's test you'll do well."

"I've been studying hard, dad, if I hope to become a good leader one day, I need to understand all of these concepts." Red stated.

"Indeed," Peptide chuckled patting Little Red on the back, "With that mindset, you'll have no problem at all in the open world."

The video had ended, and another came up in it's place automatically. In this video, Peptide was standing in the doorway, with saddlebags filled with papers, and notes. Little Red was at a desk in the living room of Peptide's stable living quarters. A large textbook was opened in front of the colt, and he concentrated hard on what he was reading. "I'm going to get your mother. I'll be back soon, and remember not to answer the door for anypony."

The colt turned around in the rolling chair he sat in towards his father, "Alright. I'm almost done with this chapter of the advanced leadership guide."

Peptide smiled at him, "Good, when I get back, we'll pull out a board game, you've been studying hard, and it's about time we've had some fun."

"Sure thing, dad, I'll see you when you get back."

Opening the stable door, Peptide said his last goodbye and left to get his wife. Though, as soon as he had left, the buck hopped down from his chair and went to a drawer at the corner of the room. Just before going into it, Little Red scanned the area behind him one quick time before opening the bottom drawer. From the angle the terminal camera was, at it was difficult to see what Little Red was looking for inside the drawer. However, after a few seconds of searching, he pulled out an old red oakwood music box.

The young buck smiled at the box sitting it down on the floor next to him. Just as he opened it though, golden carved words on the top of the music box could be seen. While the words were upside down, it was still easy to tell what they said. These golden letters which had been carved onto the top of the music box where, "Happy Birthday Red! Love Mom & Dad."

Though, within a few seconds, the words on the top of the box seemed to fade from the brothers thoughts, as calming chimes came from the musical box. The music box played a haunting melody, the likes of which neither of them had heard before. Unfortunately, after a few moments the music had started, the video cut off, and a small list of the last audio dairies started.

The next log was with Peptide's voice alone. His tone while speaking was uneasy, and urgent, "I've stopped testing all together. Things are becoming too chaotic as of late. Nopony comes to work anymore and instead, they just find their unconscious test subject and have their way with them for however long they want. Days go by quickly, and each new day brings something worse. The stable is going to hell and it wouldn't be long before they find out what I've done. What made matters worse though, was the fact that some scientist overthrew the Overmare. They claimed that her ideals of restricting their urges, and continuing progress with the tests was a poor choice. I have to get my family out of here. We’re running out of time."

The next log was a dated a few weeks since the last audio diary, "I've done it! I've finally found a way to get out of here unseen! If I can hack into the main central computer I can lock down the path to the stable entrance, and with some luck, go unnoticed. Once we're out we'll have to move on from there. But to be honest, I'm more scared of getting out of the stable than going into the outside. Oh, and a reminder to myself, make sure that when you are done hacking the system, to hurry out as soon as possible. While my plan may work, hacking the system will send off a little red flag to all of the higher ups here. So I need to act fact if we're going to get out. Within the next few days, we'll get ready to leave. I'm going to say goodbye to this hell hole. Once, and for all."

The next log was dated a week later. Though, in the background urgent rushing than the sounds of ponies packing could be heard, "Honey, stop messing with that thing! We need to get going!" Flare called to him.

"I know, but I need to delete this information. If they ever found out we even had him, they might come out looking for us! The least I can do is cover our tracks."

Flare's voice was hinted with a mix of nervous tension and uneasy anxiety, "Okay, but please be quick dear, I've got Red and myself packed and ready to go. We're just waiting for you."

"Okay, I'll try my best to hurry, and- Ah shoot! It's recordin-" The log cut off while Peptide was in mid sentence.

The next log puzzled the two brothers, as this log was transferred from a security recording off of another terminal. Panic could be heard in all the voices of the family. Loud thunderous booms could be heard in the background, followed by the sound of demented screams of mad ponies. Based off of this, the brothers assumed that the three ponies were locked in some kind of room.

"Damn it! We were so close!" Peptide swore as the mad ponies continued to beat on the metallic door in the background.

"How did they manage to find us?" Flare exclaimed.

Peptide stammered lightly, "I-I... It must have been the hacking I did to get us out of here... There's no other way they could have found us!"

"Peptide! Let us in! We know what you've done! Give us the boy, and that freak of yours before you make things worse for yourself! Open up! Before we break open the door! Let! Us! In!" A muffled stallion's voice called out to them.

"Dad, that's the only way out! What are we going to do?"

There was a pause from Peptide, as he nor any of his family members said anything. Based off of the silence though, Neo and Adam assumed he was thinking. "The vent! Quickly!" Peptide yelled.

"But dad, it's only big enough for me... What about you and mom?"

Peptides voice was clear and urgent, "Son, just get through it, and get to the stable exit. The code to get through it is 013ID."

The buck could be heard crying in the background, "But dad, they'll get you and mom! I don't want to go without you!"

"I know it's scary, but it's our only shot at having a normal life. But listen to me, son... We love you so much. Just go, and find the exit. We'll be right behind you, I promise."

Once again, the muffled stallion cried out to the family as a loud hissing sound had started, "You hear that, Peptide? Now, you are going to pay! And that bitch is the first to go!"

Sobbing came from all three of the ponies in the room, "Dad... I-I don't want you leave you. You and mom are all I have... Please, dad. Please!"

"I'm sorry! It has to be this way! Go! Now!"

"They're about to break through!" Flare screamed in panic.

"Please dad..." The buck whimpered.

"We'll find you! We'll find you, I promise!"

At that moment, a loud explosion followed, and with that the recording ended. That log... It had left Neo and Adam wide eyed, with tears gently rolling down their cheeks. Though, as they came to the last two logs they wondered why these logs were put here, and why all the odd things in the stable had been happening. Things still didn't make sense, and they hoped by the time that the last recording played that things for him might turn out for the better, and that hopefully their questions would be answered.

With that, the semi-last recording played. It was Peptide's voice, and his alone. His tone was heavy, and mournful with a deep sense of sorrow lingering about it. "....T-they... They killed her... They killed my wife... I was there, with her in my hooves, and they ripped her away from me. She screamed my name, and held me back as they drug her off to the side and... Flare, I-I'm so sorry..." Peptide lost it, and started crying heavily.

"One shot... One shot is all it took, and I saw as she died right there... W-what did I do? I payed my dues, I understood my sins and crimes! Was I never meant to be happy? To have love in my life? I've killed so many innocent souls, for what? Science? No... I understand those deaths are on my hooves and mine alone! I pray to them, and hopefully they will hear me... I want forgiveness... Please, I'm so sorry... I'm so sorry... Now, my son is alone... Somewhere, in a world he knows nothing about... And here I am... Locked away in my quarters with nothing more than this terminal, and a bed... But if I don't do something, who will?"

There was a pause from Peptide, "This whole stable is corrupted... I need to do something, or they'll go out there and find him... And I won't let that happen..."

The last log was made nearly four days since the last. A loud clatter could be heard in the background, with the sound of small hollow metal objects rattling, "This is it Peptide... You're almost there... When we came here we were taught about the stable cleansing system. In the event a infectious biohazardous material was released into the air, a section of that stable would be sealed off, and purged by fire leaving nothing alive inside. I've spent the last few days working my way into my stable quarters controls. Once I've got the door..." The rest of the recording faded before stopping entirely.

But, just as the last one had ended, one more log appeared below the last log. This one was made only two days after the last, and like the others, it started to play on it's own automatically. The loud sound of the stable's alarms could be heard in the background, with the sound of muffled voices panicking faintly as Peptide spoke. His voice was slow, and tired while he made the log.

"Day... Well, I guess it doesn't matter now, does it? I've done it. Within two minutes, everything in this stable will burn alive into a fine ash-like powder. All those ponies we tested on... All of those poor, poor souls who suffered through all the things I and the residents of this stable did to them will finally be at peace. My only regret is that I didn't get to see my son one last time... I only have this picture in my lab coat pocket to remind me of that brief time I had here... And for once, I was happy and loved..."

A few loud metallic hoof beats could be heard in the background, with a stallion calling out to Peptide in a muffled voice, "Peptide! Open the door! Don't do this to us! Think of all the good things we've done together... Stop this madness before you do something you'll regret!"

"Heh," Peptide chuckled blandly, "I've already done things I regret. And this is my only way to fix everything. If I were to go out and find my son they would have to shot me, threw my body into a furnace, and forgot I even existed."

Peptide sighed heavily, "...At least this way, no more lives will suffer because of this place. Not mine. Not the test subjects, and not my son... They've talked about finding him, and now they'll never get him. I just pray to the goddess they protect him as he is out there..."

Peptide had started to choke up, sending him into a light sob, "Alfred... My old friend. Please, I can't *static* without knowing if *static*... There has to be some way? Is there?"

"Well, master," A kindly proper voice answered, "I do *static* if that is your wish you must act fast, you have less than a minute left."

"...Alright. We'll do it. It will be worth the wait." And it ended. The last of the recordings, and at that moment the program Adam had set up finished now unlocking the door out of the stable.

Though, it was as if the program was made to delay until the recordings were finished, but neither of the brothers payed attention to it, nor did they care if they had. Listening to the last words of that stallion on the recording was gut wrenching. A sour, churring feeling tossed around in their lower stomachs, for they had found out what the stable was, and how it became what is now. Thinking about it, they could understand why there were burn marks on the doors, and why all the other doors in the stable were locked, minus a few exceptional doors of great importance. But, if there had been a total cleansing of pony life in the stable, why there was any kind of ash? No remnants of the ponies that had once lived here, minus the logs that were provided.

There were still questions that they were left unanswered, although, at the moment, all they could do was sit back on their haunches and absorb what they had just heard.

Neo looked down to the ground in mournful respect, "Why is all this happening? Why were we given all of this information? To hear this guy story... I-I don't understand."

Putting his things away back into his saddlebag, Adam felt the same feeling of sadness and confusion fester inside him. Because, like the pony they had heard in the dairies, they too lost almost everything they loved. And it all happened so quickly.

"I just hope they're resting... The very least we can do is leave now. This isn't a stable anymore, this is a tomb." Adam muttered lowly.

Neo found it hard to pick himself up for a moment. The information still weighed heavy on him, though when he did stand up again he sighed while looking at the many terminals covering the wall in front of them. "Yeah... You're right. Even if I've got more questions about this place I don’t think I could stay here much longer..."

Both of them sluggishly made their way to the room's exit. The whole stable was a mystery, and it was best if it was left locked away. Just as they came up to the door though, an odd sound caught their attention. It was the sound of a jet. Not a very loud jet, but a jet nonetheless. What was more odd to them, was the fact that the noise was growing louder. And after hearing about the things that had happened in the stable, for all they knew it could be a terrifying mutant monster or giant cyborg creature.

Neo got out his shotgun and readied it to fire. Though as he pulled on the locking lever of his gun, a rusty ear grinding noise squealed as the lever moved. "Ah, great! Not now of all times!"

Adam got a 10mm out of his bag, that had less than half a clip of ammunition. "Is it jammed?" Adam asked in a worrying tone.

"I don't know... Let's hope not..." Neo said nervously as the noise grew more clear.

Adam gulped, "Yeah... Let's hope not..."

Gritting their teeth with anticipation sweat started to form on their brows. The noise was now loud and clear, for whatever was coming to the door was there, waiting for them on the other side. And, with a loud swoosh, the door opened.

On the other side of the door was a floating robot with a large sphere like head connected to a long jet that allowed it to be suspended in mid air. Several small twig like arms surrounded the machine on a metal ring that surrounded it. But, it was the large single light in the center of the sphere that immediately caught the two brother's attention.

Neo and Adam yelled fiercely in unison, with SATS ready to lock onto the floating figure. Though just before they had done so, the robot moved back in shock and cried in terror, "Please! Don't shoot! I don't mean you any harm!"

The two brother's panicking battle cry died down as they saw the robot cower before them. They both lowered their weapons and blinked curiously at the robot, "Excuse me?" Neo asked.

The robot had put some of it's more long arms in front of it's large head to protect itself. "I-I said I mean you no harm, good sirs! I am merely a droid!"

As the robot was practically trembling before them, Adam had noticed several large white letters on the robot's side. These words read, A.L.F.R.E.D. only the last D in the name was worn and chipped.

"And how can we trust you, huh? Just because you're a robot doesn't mean you aren't dangerous." Neo said sternly.

"No, wait," Adam said interjecting his brother, "I think we can trust him."

Neo looked towards Adam with bewilderment in his eyes, "What? How come? For all we know, one of those wacko scientist that used to live here programed him, or-" Neo stopped in mid-sentence looking at Adam, who smiled back at him causing his sentence to come to a halt.

"Brother, this is Alfred."

"What?" Neo said in a confused tone of voice.

Then, quickly looking back to the robot, he looked harder at the frightened machine. And like Adam had said there on the side of his head was his name in large white letters. "You survived?"

The robot peaked over it's arms to look at them, "Y-yes... Yes I did..." The robot whimpered.

Adam gave the robot a friendly smile, "It's okay, I'm sorry me and my brother didn't know who you were at first. With all the crazy things we've seen and heard in this stable we weren't sure what to expect." Adam said reassuringly.

The robot lowered it's arm slowly, "Oh... I see. It's just that when the master told me about you two, he said that you would be more... Well, more welcoming to me."

Adam and Neo both widened their eyes at him, and in unison they said, "Master?"

"Oh, yes. The master was the one who locked the doors. And before I forget, he sends his apologies for the confusion, but in order to get any help, some tiny precautions must be taken."

Neo glared at Alfred, "So, he locked us in here for what reason? And who does he think he is? Locking ponies up in a place they know nothing about. It scared us half to death with all the freaky stuff that's been happening!"

"To be fair, the master did see that you two willingly wanted to come in."

Neo flattened his ears while frowning at the robot in embarrassment. Neo tried to ignore the the previous statement, and instead get some answers from the robot, "And who is your master anyway? I thought everypony in the stable was... You know, dead."

"Well, yes. But my master has been waiting a long time for somepony to come here. He's one of the few things left, minus myself of course. In fact, my master has been dying to meet you two. Though he had to be cautious, the last pony to come here was awfully rude. Taking research and chemicals and mumbling his plans of becoming some kind of terror god or something when he found out what this stable was made for."

"The Professor..." Neo muttered angrily under his breath.

"What was that?" Alfred asked.

"What? Oh, nothing... I was just, remembering something..."

"Ah, I see. Well, if that's the case we shan't waste anymore time! Please, gentlecolts, follow me." Alfred said turning around.

"And where do you plan on taking us?" Adam asked.

The floating robot looked back at them, "Why, to meet my master of course! That was the whole reason he let you in."

Neo and Adam looked at each other, and without saying anything both of them could tell what the other was thinking. If they went and saw his master, the last of their questions could be answered.

Turning their heads back to the robot, they both nodded at him. "Alright. We'll go with you." Neo said.

"Jolly good! It won't take us long, and my master even said that once you've met him you are free to go."

"Then lead the way, we'll be right behind you." Adam said with a smile.

"Very good, please right this way." The robot directed them.

All three of them went down the long clean hallways of the stable on their way to see Alfred's master. As they went down the hallways though, the question of who his master was made anxiety fest and churn deep inside their stomachs. But at the same time, their question might finally be answer.

The three had gone down several corridors, and nearly three flights of stairs. It was clear to both brothers that by the time they had gone halfway through the stable that it was clearly much larger than their own. Though, just as they had started to understand how truly elaborate the stable was, Alfred brought them to a large steel door mark with a giant 1.

Moving over to the side of the door, Alfred opened the door and let them in. "Right this way, please." The robot said formally.

The room was long with empty metal boxes stacked, and piled against the walls. On the floor was torn up pieces of paper, and what looked like a dusty untouched locker laying at the base of a tall computer at the end of the room. The computer had a small screen, and an array of lights flashing on and off on its lower sections. A thin green horizontal line could be seen in the computer's screen's center. However, the only real controls that seemed to be on the odd machine was a keyboard and large red button.

After Adam and Neo had entered the room Alfred hovered closely behind them. "Master, I've brought them just as you've requested."

There was no response, and as the two brothers came up to the computer they blinked at it while cocking their head to the side in curiosity. "This is... Your master?" Neo asked hesitantly whilst looking back to Alfred.

"Yes..." A low humming voice answered.

In surprise both Adam and Neo snapped their gaze to the tall computer before them. "W-what?" Adam stuttered.

"I'm Alfred's master..." The voice replied. As it spoke the thin green line on the screen moved in a rhythmic pattern.

Both brothers gulped, "You wanted to see us?" Neo asked in shocked awe.

"That is correct." The voice responded duly.

Adam took a deep breath to calm himself before replying to the machine, "And why did you wanted us? Why did you lock us in here?"

"The master saw the Pipbucks you had and realized what kinds of models they were. We did a quick scan and found that the Pipbucks you two wear come from our sister stable. Though, we needed to test you first. If you were willing to listen to the recordings all the way, instead of doing something else, and understand this stable's story, he would send me to speak to you. If you didn't listen, he would unlock the doors, and drive you out with the purging alarm."

"So, you're the one controlling the stable?" Neo asked again.

"That is correct. And you've passed my small test."

"What was the point of all of this? Why do you need us?" Adam questioned stepping forward.

"I kept you here because you've seen the outside world. A place I have no eyes to. To survive the purge, I needed to seal myself inside the stable's control mainframe here."

Neo recalled the last recording, and how it was cut off before it could finish. And, with wide eyes he uttered quietly, "Peptide?"

"Yes. I went by that name at one point. Though, those days are long since dead."

"But how are you trapped in there? Where is your body?" Adam asked.

"My body burned away, like all the other living things in this stable. Alfred helped put my consciousness inside the stable's control mainframe as a last chance to answer my last question..."

Adam stared deeply at the computer's screen with sadness in his eyes, "Is that why you need us?"

"Yes."

"We may or may not be able to help you. But we can do our best." Neo added.

"Very well. Inside the locker in front of me is a music box. Please take it."

Adam went down to the locker and took the box from metal container. The music box was dusty, however it seemed to be in decent condition despite the events it had went through. And, after looking it over for a moment, he put the box inside his bags.

The bodiless voice muttered sadly, "Now... I just want to know... Is my son still alive?"

Neo and Adam looked at each other mournfully before returning to the computer, "In some of the recordings you see my son... Is he out there? Is he okay? Is my baby boy still alive?"

Neo thought long and hard about what the computer had said, and to tell him his son might be dead would completely destroy what was left of him. For it may not be decades until another pony like them comes around. Though, Adam felt inside him it was best to tell the truth.

"Well..." Adam muttered unsurely, "He's-"

Neo interjected him quickly with tears building up in his eyes, "Fine..." He stuttered, "He's fine..."

"Really? Is he alive? How is he?" The voice responded in a hopeful tone.

Neo looked up at the computer with a smile, as tears rolled down his cheeks, "H-He's doing well... He has a home, and friends... We met him before in a town..."

"Friends? A home?" The voice choked in happiness.

Adam looked to his brother worryingly, "But brother."

Neo put his hoof on his brother's shoulder and looked at him with the same smile he tried hard to keep with the tears rolling strongly down his cheeks. "Adam... He's happy."

Adam realized what his brother was doing, and his eyes began to water. "Yeah..." Adam muttered sadly, "He's living a happy life."

The voice sighed heavily, as if a great weight had been lifted from him, "My son is alive... I always knew he'd make it... Deep down inside I knew it!"

"There's just two more things I want to ask you two." The voice spoke again.

Both brothers tried hard not to break down into tears in front of him. So Neo tried his best to smile at him warmly, "W-what is it?"

"Please give him the music box... It was... Special to him."

Neo wiped away some of the tears on his duster sleeve, "I'll make sure he gets it... I-I promise"

"Good, that's all I needed to say... I have spent my time thinking about what I've done. The ponies I've killed, and the horrible things I've done to them. I have made peace with the goddesses wherever they might be... But being trapped inside this system has cost me... I'll soon give out, and the power to this control mainframe will burn out. As my existence has caused the system to heat."

The voice sighed one last time, "These boxes held coolant capsules, and I am on my last one... I will live a few more years, as this is the largest..."

"But I ask you to do one last thing for me..."

"Y-yes... Anything..." Neo stuttered.

"I can rest now... Knowing my son is alive is all I needed to know. So please press the red button on the keyboard... And kill me..."

Foot Note: Level Up

New Perk: Whisked away: The universe is on your side as it guides your bullets. Weapons with lower than 45% durability have 15% extra accuracy.

Foot Note: Level Up

Would you like to level up Adam as well?

Yes-

No

New Perk: Steel Coating: Bullet and Magical energy damage reduced by 15% when wearing leather, metal, or power armor.

(AN: If you liked this chapter go ahead and give it a like! If you really liked it go ahead and comment! That is... If you want too. I had lot's of fun with this chapter, and even made me tear up a bit. I just hope you enjoyed the chapter too! Thanks for reading!)

Proofreaded by:

LyonAzakura

Noakwolf

Thefullmetalbrony