Chapter 1: Eastern Wasteland
Chapter 1: Eastern Wasteland
“Even when you feel all alone and you feel that all hope is lost, remember that you are not alone…”
“Yeah right… and there aren’t clouds in the sky…”
Eastern Equestria.
Far beyond the mountain chain that holds what used to be Canterlot, across an extremely irradiated desert known as the Forbidden Zone, lies Eastern Equestria. Some ponies in these parts doubt that anything even exists past the mountain range that’s always in the distance. I sure hope there is. Things around here are far from ideal living conditions. Sure, there are establishments such as Stable City, Saddletown, and the smaller settlement of 3-Hoof, full of civilized, well-guarded ponies that have some sense of decency and direction. The rest of this place, however… not so much. You’d better have a good sense of what’s around you and watch your back, or pay someone to do that for you. There’s plenty of that to go around though. Equestria is bordered to the north-east by a once small, but proud kingdom of griffons known as Featherfall, so there’s no shortage of feathered mercs out here. Of course, they’d also kill you as soon as they’d protect you; caps speak louder than words most of the time.
Living here is, well, living. Going from town to town, hoping you don’t get a bullet in the head or a collar around your neck is enough to remind you that you are definitely alive. Not to mention all the nasty beasts every place. Have you ever seen a ghoul? They’re disgusting at best, a nightmare at worst (most of the time a nightmare).
Wow, I’m getting ahead of myself here aren’t I? Maybe a sip of this nice refreshing Wild Pegasus will do the trick… mmm, that’s better. Allow me to introduce myself. My name is Vanilla Moonlight, a dark-blue unicorn stallion with a medium length white-silver mane and tail, and a cutie-mark that looks like 3 wavy light-blue lines interspersed with small white dots.
All unicorns have some kind of special type of magic that they can use besides basic levitation. As I grew older, I found that I had a special connection to one of our most basic needs: Water. Most unicorn ponies can just pick up water with their levitation sure, but I had the ability to move it around me freely, as fast or slow as I wanted. I could also change the shape of the water to whatever I wanted or needed, like a big hammer to knock down walls, a key to open doors, or a bridge to get over a river or crevice with. Eventually I discovered I also had the ability to change the form of water into one of its other types: ice. Once I discovered this ability, I realized I could be a threat out here in the wasteland. Any nearby puddle or bottle of water could be changed into multiple spears of ice in just a few seconds. Of course, this ability caused considerable strain on my magic and body, so I can't just use it freely. However, it tends to be very convenient when you don’t have any weapons to defend yourself with.
During my youth, I had traveled the wastes with my mother, who was also a unicorn, a grey mare with long purple mane and tail and a limp in her step. She had injured her left hind leg in an accident when I was little, so I don’t really remember how it happened, but she said not to worry and that she was still alive and well, ready to defend me with her life. That was just the way she was. Even in the harshest of times. I was always first when it came to everything. Food, water, a weapon to defend myself, even toys and other forms of entertainment. Always about me…
My mother said I was so cute when I was born and that I looked just like my father. I didn’t have anything to compare that to though, because I never met him and she never said anything about him; it was like taboo to her, so I just ignored that question. In the Wasteland, you get what you can take, and nothing more. Try to force that, and you’ll end up dead, just like her…
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I am a wanderer. There isn’t really any safe place anywhere; even the cities have a short life expectancy. I guess I learned that from my mother too. Always try to move, never stay in the same place two nights, keep to the shadows, etc. But when you are starving, thirsty, desperate for even the smallest of meals or basic clean water, sometimes you have to ignore those rules. Unfortunately, this was her downfall. That, and an unending love for me.
It was just another grey evening in a small town ruins we called our fallback spot. Just a couple small buildings which were perhaps apartments before the war were still standing, with most of the rest of the towns’ houses and other buildings destroyed or stripped clean. We had taken shelter from the rain that night in the small alleyway between the apartments, building a fire out of garbage and small branches my mother had told me to collect. We had thought it was safe, but fate has a way of striking when you least expect it. The smell of smoke and the dim light in the alleyway had attracted some unwanted guests that night: raiders.
I was just about asleep when I heard a cry and a whisper from my mother, “Wake up Vanilla! Come; hide with me behind that crumbled wall.”
I woke up immediately and followed her. I had learned to keep quiet and just trust her when it came to things like this. She knew what she was doing. Soon enough, six disgusting, dirty raiders came through the north alleyway and made their way to the fire.
“Somepownays still here! They can’t ’ave gotten far! Search this place up and down, you retards! I’m getting hungray!” said one of the raiders, whom I assumed was the leader.
He and one of the other raiders, earth ponies, were carrying shotguns on their backs, a unicorn had an automatic pistol, and the other three, who were also earth ponies, had what looked like wood planks with nails in them. Even with mine and my mother’s magic, we couldn’t hope to beat them in a fight. The raiders began to spread out all along the alleyway, combing up and down trying to find us. For a few minutes we sat there, still as statues, behind the crumbled wall of the eastern building. Eventually the shouts and profanity stopped and we had thought they were gone, so mother decided to take a look around the wall. She was met with the dirty face of a mottled tan buck with a nail board in his teeth. “Oh no…”
At once the raider let out a squeal of delight, signaling the others and attacking my mother with a swing of his weapon. At that moment, mother took the nail board in her magic and away from the raiders mouth, then swung as hard as she could, cracking the skull of the pony before her. The body went limp and fell to the ground as she yelled out “RUN!” We picked up our saddlebags and dashed out from our hiding spot as the raiders closed in around us.
“This way, Vanilla! Use your magic to put up a wall and cover our escape!” as she nodded to the south entrance. I focused my magic on a puddle made by the rain and began to form a wall with it all across the alley. I focused hard again and used my power to turn the water wall into ice almost instantly, as sweat formed on my head.
“Hey! What the fuck it this shit?! Break this shit down you retards! They won’t get away!” Their leader spat as I heard shotgun fire pepper the wall I had made. It began to break almost immediately, and I regretted not having the time to put up a bigger, thicker wall, but there was no time for that now.
As we ran towards the exit of the alleyway, two more raiders appeared in front of us, both with what looked like pipes in their mouths as they blocked our exit.
“Get out of the way, damit!” I yelled as I focused on another puddle nearby and formed a dozen floating ice shards, and ran at them full speed. The looks on their faces were priceless. I drove eight of the shards into the left pony, a nasty looking tan mare with a blood spatter as a cutie mark, and she fell to the ground spurting curses and some other noises I couldn’t understand. The other raider took the chance to charge at my mother, so I turned and tossed the remaining shards at his backside, piercing his hind legs and flank, knocking him to the ground at mothers’ hooves. She put on a sympathetic smile as she looked at him for a second, and then crushed his skull with the nail board. At that moment the wall I had made fell, and the whizzing sound of a bullet went past my left ear.
“Yeaaahhh! We got you now you stupid fucks!” one of the raiders yelled. I tried to use the puddle next to me to form a wall around me and my mother, but it was too late…
The sound of shotgun fire filled the cold, late-evening air as I watched my mother fall to the ground, just a second before I formed a wall around the both of us, thicker and stronger than the last time.
“NO!” I screamed as I ran over to her side, kneeling before her still body. I picked her up in my hooves and saw that it was worse than I thought; she was bleeding through more than dozen holes in her chest and neck, and the blood was coming out too fast.
“Nonono, oh no! Stay with me Mom! Hey, hey stay with me! Hold on, you’re going to be okay! Just hold on! I’ve got some bandages in my bags and…”
“Vanilla, stop…” She opened her eyes and looked right at me with tears in her eyes. “S-Save yourself… don’t waste those bandages on me… you might need them…”
I began to feel the tears form in my eyes as I spoke, “But if I don’t, you’re going to die, Mom! I can’t let that happen!”
The gun fire and sound of boards hitting the ice got ever louder as the leader screamed at the top of his lungs, “Neeaahhhhaaaaa! Why don’t you come out and play, little pony?!?! I broke my other toy, but I still wanna play more!” The ice wall started to crumble as I tried to keep my mother with me.
“I won’t let you hurt yourself for me, baby…” she said as I felt her body spasm in my hooves. “I am your mother… now do what I told you… and get… out of here…”
I began to cry as I yelled out, “I won’t let you down mom, I just won’t…”
She interrupted me as she whispered, “Remember what we always… talk about… you take what you can get… and nothing more…” I watched with a rising fear as she closed her eyes, and spoke with the last of her energy. “I love you… Vanilla Moonlight… and … nothing more…”
As she said her final words and then went limp in my hooves, the wall fell and the gun fire ceased. The lead raider approached me and snickered, “Now, my little retard, I’m going to play with you until you break too… hehehahaha!” The raiders surrounded me in a circle as the leader got closer and closer. The rain started to get heavier, as if the goddesses themselves were weeping for my loss. But nothing had gotten through to me, just hate and anger passed through me now.
As I lifted my head and looked straight into the lead raiders’ eyes, still holding my mother in my hooves, I focused my magic on every droplet of rain in the alleyway. Each rain drop turned into a tiny, sharp needle of ice as a chill came over the area.
“What the fuck is this now? Some little fucking show to put on before you die?” The leader sneered.
I continued to look at him with my piercing gaze as a second layer of overglow covered my horn. “You killed… my mother…”
The leader pointed the shotgun inches from my face. “Maybe, if you give us everything you have, we might let you have a head start before we kill you, too!”
“You DID take everything I had, you shithead!” I yelled as I rose to my hooves. “Now I’m going to take back what you owe me…” The ice needles I had made began to rotate in the alleyway and slice up everything in the area, the flesh of the raiders included. “Nothing in the wasteland is free… You owe me for her life, so I’ll take your lives... as PAYMENT!” I screamed as I filled the alleyway with icy death.
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That was 6 years ago, just about. After I gave my mother a proper burial, I decided that I would take it upon myself to protect the weak, try to be the good guy, a hero of sorts. Of course, this only made me a bitter pony, eventually demanding payment up front in the form of caps, booze, and guns in that order. The reputation that i had wasn't anything special; i was just another merc or gun-for-hire like the rest of the lone wanderers out here. Drinking didn't set me apart from the rest either.
I took out an almost empty bottle of Wild Pegasus and frowned. “Aww man, I hate running out of booze.” I said as I walked west down what used to be a major highway of sorts. As I downed the last of the delicious numbing nectar, I came upon a small shanty village that reminded me of those old western towns they used to build back before the war. Hey! Yes, I’m a drunk wanderer with less than optimal survival gear and only one weapon to speak of, but my mother still taught me a few things, like history and simple math. So back off! Anyway, this small town consisted of what looked like a dozen or so crude houses and one larger building in the middle.
“Oh, please be a bar, please be a bar.”
As I approached the town, I began to hear gunshots in the distance. Not uncommon for the wasteland, so normally I don’t pay much attention to it. This time however, the sound was coming from the other side of the town. I started to trot a little faster and brought out a pair of binoculars I had found in some old ruins not too long ago, and took a look in the direction of the gunshots.
It looked like the town ponies had gathered on the west side of town and were barricaded behind makeshift metal and dirt walls. I quickened my pace and ran into town to ask what was wrong. As I approached the barricade, I realized exactly what was wrong. The red and black armor or the ponies attacking the town made it all too clear… the Crimson Tide. The major slave trading “business” in Eastern Equestria, the Crimson Tide was basically an army run by some sadistic ponies up north. For every 20 ponies out here, one of them is a member. They say they want to do good for the land and that they need help, so they pick up “volunteers” who become slaves, and run them into the ground until they are useless then shoot them because they are taking up space. Of all the terrible things you could do to a pony, taking away his freedom is the worst.
I have had run-ins with the Crimson Tide multiple times in the recent past, mostly because they tried to put a collar on me. Lately they have been stepping up their "recruitment", not just attacking caravaners or the occasional wanderer with a couple members, but instead sending larger groups and attacking small and relatively undefended towns. At the rate that they are going, they'll have the whole of Eastern Equestria in their hooves in just a couple years.
One of the ponies of the town saw me coming up to them and shouted, “Welcome to Jackknife stranger. I’d give you the tour but as you can see, we’re under attack by those damn slavers. You got any combat experience boy?”
I ran up and took a position next to the colt and took out the one weapon i had, a rusty hunting rifle I had procured earlier in the week. “Sure I do. This is the wasteland after all. But I don’t have too much ammo for this shit rifle; don’t suppose you have any rifle ammo, do ya?” I asked as I loaded the rifle with six of the nine bullets I had.
“Of course we do. Sandy! Toss me a box of hunter rounds, will ya?” He shouted at a brown mare with a golden mane and tail standing atop a makeshift guard tower.
“Fresh blood out to help us poor townsfolk huh? You sure he ain’t just some Tide spy tryin’ to flank us from behind?” The mare gave me a nasty look before turning around and firing her rifle to the west.
“I doubt it,” the colt said. “The Tide likes to show off what they got, and I ain’t never seen a member not wearing that uniform. Now give me those damn bullets before we all have collars around our necks!” The mare, Sandy, just gave me another bad look before she kicked a box off the tower and to my hooves.
“All right, how many Crimson are out there?” I asked the silver colt as I levitated the rifle and aimed down onto the highway.
“I think a dozen or so. There were more but we took care of ‘em. But we’re running out of hooves to shoot them with. We already lost Hiccup and Barshine. Lefty and Vector are wounded. It’s just Sandy, Blackberry, and I, plus you.”
I assumed that Barshine was the bartender, and the words just fell out of my mouth before i could think, “Oh no, the bartenders dead?” Wow Vanilla, of all the bad things to say… The colt just gave me an irritated look before pulling out a shiny apple-looking thing out of one of the boxes. A grenade.
He gave it to me and said, “You got magic! Use it to throw that thing as close to those slavers as possible!” I took the explosive ball of fun and pulled the pin. As I tossed it out towards the slavers, I heard the screams of “Get down!” and “Look out!” The explosion blasted apart the ground in front of one of the slavers and both of his front legs were blown off. A lucky piece of shrapnel whizzed through the air and caught another slaver in the neck, knocking him to the ground and making him bleed out. Two down, ten to go.
I heard the twin crack of a battle saddle and saw two more slavers go down. I turned to see a larger black stallion with a green mane and tail, whom I could only assume was Blackberry.
He gave me a smile and said, “Howdy there stranger! Playin’ target practice with us today?”
I gave him a smile back and said, “Sure, what’s your high score?”
Blackberry just laughed, “My record? Seven, and I already got five today! I’m gonna beat it, just three more kills to go.” The silver colt just glared at the large black stallion, and Blackberry suddenly got serious. This colt must be like the sheriff or something. Then I felt the intense stinging sensation in my right front leg and knew that I had been shot.
“Fuck damit that hurts!” I yelled as I took aim down my rifle’s sights and fired at the closest Crimson I saw. I fired 3 shots at my target; the first two just grazed off the armor the pony was wearing, but the third shot hit him right between the teeth. The pain in my leg got worse as I shifted positions, then I aimed again at the closest red and black armor that was still standing. I saw my target, but before I could fire this one dropped. I looked over at Sandy and she just smirked before taking another shot and hitting one of the slavers in the shoulder. She only took two shots and two ponies were down. I wish I was that good.
As I looked down my sights, I saw one of the unicorn slavers take out a long tube-like weapon and lift it over his head. “Shit! A rocket launcher! Everypony, get down!” The silver colt yelled before I heard the sound of it firing.
WHOOOOOSH-----------------------------KABLAAAAMMMM
The rocket hit directly in the middle of the barricade, sending scrap metal and dirt everywhere. My rifle was knocked out of my magic and tossed a few feet away as i was knocked to the ground. Blackberry was sent flying back into town, while the silver colt fell to the ground beside me. “Fuck me, I’ve been hit.” He said as Sandy fell off the tower with a thud and lay there, moaning. I reasserted myself and levitated my rifle back to me, took aim down the barrel, and fired. Or tried to fire.
“My gun is jammed, shit.” I looked around for anything else useful, and then it hit me. “Hey, hey silver! Do you have any water I could borrow?”
He struggled to his hooves, and then looked at me funny. “T-The names Freeshot. Why would you want water in a time like this?”
I gave him that I-know-what-I’m-doing look and said, “Just trust me on this one. I’ve got something to show you.” He shook his head, then nodded in the direction of the town’s center, and I saw a well standing next to the larger building. Just what I needed, I thought to myself.
I limped over to the well as fast as I could as the sound of gunfire continued and looked down into the pit. Sure enough, there was plenty of water, though I’m sure it was irradiated, just like everything else in the wastes. But radiation didn’t affect my magic the same way it did my body, so I lifted a good sized amount of water out of the well and limped back to the now destroyed barricade. When I got back I noticed that Blackberry had actually managed to get back on his hooves and run back to the barricade ready to fight again. What the fuck was he, a Steel Ranger?
As I approached the half destroyed barricade, Freeshot asked me, “What do you plan to do with that? You know it’s just water, right?”
I gave him a big smile and snickered, “Just watch.”
With the remaining five slavers closing in and Sandy and Freeshot out of the fight, it was time for me, the stranger who didn’t even live in this tiny town, to step up. I focused on the water and formed it into ten medium length spears, and then I used my special magic to turn them into ice in an instant. Blackberry just looked at me like I was the single greatest pony he’d ever seen.
“Woah! That’s fuckin’ cool dude! How’d you do that?”
I looked over my shoulder and said to him, “I’ll tell you after this, ok?” I hid behind what was left of the wall and told Blackberry to do the same.
The slavers were foolish enough to just come waltzing into town, not thinking that there might still be ponies able to fight them.
“You got enough collars, right? Don’t want to leave any potential goods behind.” I heard one of the Crimson say.
“Yeah yeah, don’t get you tail in a twist Knockoff. I got plenty.” I heard one of the others say. As soon as one of the slavers came around the barricade, I threw two of the spears right in his chest, and he fell, spasming before the other four could react. I took this moment of opportunity to leap from behind the dirt wall and toss the rest of my spears at them. Seven found their targets, stabbing three of the slavers and knocking them down. The last Crimson Tide slaver, a unicorn, tried to levitate out his rifle, but I dropped the spears and focused my own magic on the rifle. I managed to take it from him with relative ease, as he was still in shock from the surprise I gave him.
As I floated the rifle to me and aimed it at him, he gave me a most terrified look. I aimed down the sights, and then asked him, “How much are you getting paid to do this, huh?”
He stammered and answered slowly, “I-I-I’m getting p-paid 1,000 caps for this, w-we all are, or were…”
I looked up from the gun to look him right in the eyes. “So, was it worth it?” Before he could answer I pulled the trigger and turned his head into slush.
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“Thank you for all your help, Vanilla Moonlight.” Freeshot said as we stood inside the large building in the middle of the town, which was a mish-mash of a hospital, general goods store, sheriff’s office, and yes, a bar.
“Yeah dude, we couldn’t have done it without you. If you hadn’t come along when you did, we’d all be in dead or worse, slaves.” Blackberry chimed in.
Sandy was the last to speak. “The whole town wants to thank you for your efforts, so please take this as a token of our gratitude.” She tossed me a bag filled with 300 caps, two dozen rounds for my new and recently repaired rifle, some fresh water, and… YES! A full bottle of Wild Pegasus!
“Well, you are all very welcome. Tell the doc thanks for patching me up, and make sure to get yourselves ready for another attack. You never know when something bad will happen.” I gave them all a big smile as I talked. “Thanks especially for the booze. Man I love this stuff.”
“Just go easy on that tonight. I know you’re going to celebrate your victory and all.” Freeshot warned. I knew that!
“I’m always careful. It’s how I grew up.” I glanced over at Blackberry, who looked anxious, so I asked him, “Hey Blackberry, what’s up?”
He looked at me all bashfully, then blurted out, “Show me that sweet magic trick again! It was so awesome!” I looked at him with a smirk on my face. He was like a hardened bad-ass on the outside, but a little colt on the inside. I couldn’t help but laugh at him, and as he got a confused look on his face, I took out one of the bottles of water in the bag Sandy gave me.
“I think I can do it one more time before I go.” Blackberry lit up like a campfire as I levitated the water out of the bottle, the spun it around me at a high speed.
“Yeah, that’s it! Awesome!” He yelled out. Some of the other ponies that were here to congratulate me had gathered around from the sound of Blackberry’s enthusiasm. “Oooohhhh, ahhhhhh…” The ponies were in awe, like they’d never seen a unicorn do tricks like this before. It felt good; not in a show-off kind of way, but in a way that made me feel like they needed this, even after what I had done for them not two hours ago. Anything to get their minds off the wasteland just a minutes trot away from this building. You take what the wasteland has to offer, nothing more.
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As I said my goodbyes and trotted west out of Jackknife, it was beginning to get late; the clouds were a darker grey now. I guessed it would be a couple hours before it got dark out, so I decided to wait until then to find some shelter for the night. As I kept going down the highway, I managed to scavenge a couple things. A couple saddlebags with four bottles of Sparkle-Cola, some bandages, and a canteen half full of irradiated water had caught my attention, more than the skeletons that they were attached to. Those poor souls…
After about an hour and a half of trotting, I came upon a pretty big hill on the north side of the highway. It was almost dark and I could see a few small buildings near the top of the hill, so I thought I might go check it out and see if I could find a few things or even a place to rest for the night. As I made my way up the hill, I could see the faint silhouettes of the houses. They were mostly destroyed, with a couple of the houses somewhat intact. When I got within a few meters of the place, I began to hear small rustling in the bushes and shrubs that surrounded the top of the hill and all of the houses. At first I just thought it was the breeze, but after a minute I could sense that it wasn’t just the wind. Maybe it was just a few irradiated critters?
Critters it was, although not of the four (or more) legged kind. Bloatsprites, and lots of them, came out of the bushes and started to shoot those spike things at me. I managed to run beside one of the houses to take shelter from the little horrors’ attacks. I wanted to save my ammo and my clean water, so I took out that canteen I had found and floated out all of the water that was in there. As I began to form the water into small spikes, I heard a shriek from somewhere inside the little town. I finished forming my weapons and turned around the wall to see a small figure, which looked like a young filly, running for its life from almost a dozen bloatsprites! I jumped out of my hiding spot and yelled, “Get down!” as I flung the ice spikes in the direction of the nasty creatures. I heard the distinctive popping sound of dying bloatsprites as four of them dropped to the ground.
I got a closer look at the little figure as it ran by me. Yes, that was definitely a filly, maybe a colt. It was wearing a cloak, so I couldn’t see its face or anything. But what the heck was a kid doing out here at this time of night, with no other ponies around to protect them? My attention was focused back on the creatures as two more joined the six I had missed with my first attack. I sighed as I brought out one of my bottles of fresh water and began to form it into more ice spikes. These things were such a nuisance! It wasn’t even worth wasting water on these nasty things, but I had no other choice. Before I was done making my weapons, the bloatsprites got within firing range of me and began to attack. I managed to dodge all of them but one, which grazed my flank and drew fresh blood.
“Oh crap, that’s gonna sting later.” I muttered to myself. I finished my spikes and then got an idea as I glanced down a dead end between two houses.
I ran towards the dead end with the stupid creatures following me, and then stopped as I reached the wall. I turned around and within a few seconds, the ugly things filled the entrance to the alley. Before they could attack, I focused my magic on the entire width of the alley, and fired my weapons at the disgusting things. They fell into my trap perfectly, and all of them burst and hit the ground as my spikes shot out of the alley. Satisfied, I made my way back to the center of the town and looked around for that little kid. Hopefully they had gotten to safety.
I began to call out for them to come and see me. “Hey! Hey kid! Come on out, I took care of those things for you! Don’t be afraid, I won’t hurt you!” I trotted around the area for a good few minutes calling out before I gave up. “Huh, guess they ran really far away. I hope they're okay.” I said to myself as I started to go back the way I came. Right as soon as I hit the edge of the empty town, the kid came out of the shadows and stood in the small dirt road I took that ran up here.
“Hey, there you are! What are you doing out here this late at night, all alone? Don’t you have somepony taking care of you?” I began to feel anxious when the kid just stood there, not saying a word and barely moving, for a couple of minutes before it looked up at me and took off it's hood, so I could clearly see their face. Yep, that's a filly alright. She was a cute little yellow filly with a short spring green mane and pretty blue eyes.
Before I could ask her any more questions, she spoke up in the cutest little squeaky voice, “Yes, he’s a unicorn all right!” I was so confused… Who was she talking to?
WHACK!
I felt something hard smack the back of my head as I fell to the ground. The pain was intense for a few seconds, but it began to fade as I started to fall unconscious. The last thing I heard and felt was a shuffling of hooves and a chain being put around me. But that wasn’t the thing that bothered me the most.
This little filly took off her cloak before I closed my eyes, and I saw the most unusual thing… were those… wings?
Footnote: Level up
New Perk: Survivor: Living in the wasteland has hardened you. You gain +10% Rad resistance, +1 damage threshold, and a +10% bonus to your movement speed. Neat!
Chapter 2: Stable Slave
“I can’t stand standing still! Standing still is sooooooooo boring!”
Slavery.
No matter how you look at it, it stays the same. No matter what form it takes, it’s still slavery. Although, being a slave to the Crimson Tide would have been much much MUCH worse. At least here I have shelter, even though it is kind of cold. Then again, I really liked my freedom, and being stuck in this one place was almost like a nightmare that became real to me. I liked my freedom of choice, the ability to move, run, and sneak freely. I had lost everything I had, and had been forced into this predicament, this… locked cage.
This place… it’s so… grey. No colors to speak of whatsoever. At least in the wasteland you had more than one color to lay your eyes upon. Like brown, or light brown, or even dark brown sometimes. But not here. The place was like a sad painter’s mural, with no inspiration or feeling put into it. Just a sad, numb, spiritless, and cold painting with no feeling or life to it. If I had known exactly where I was, I might have felt better, but I didn’t, not since being tricked by that damn filly and knocked unconscious. I had no idea how long I had been out, only that I had been standing in this room for what seemed like days.
Whoever had kidnapped me had me hooked up to some sort of device in a small grey room, about the size of those bathrooms you see in ruined business or industrial buildings. There was a terminal, which I suspected was connected to the machine next to it, on the far side of the room, out of reach. The device had four shackles gripping my legs just above my hooves, and thick poles were attached between the shackles and also to the ground, keeping me firmly in place. I could sit down with a struggle, but no lying down as the poles got in the way, and boy was I uncomfortable. In addition to this restriction of movement, I also had an odd device strapped to my horn, on the base resting on my forehead. The device was slowly humming and making quick beeping sounds every once in a while, but that was not what was bothering me. The device was slowly forcing me to cast my magic on the machine in the opposite corner of the room, for what purpose, I did not know. But it was straining and making me weak, not to mention the pain of the overuse of my magic. I tried to focus my magic on something else, like the shackles keeping me in place. Before I was able to fully encompass them in the light blue glow of magic, the spell broke and sent a wave of pain through my head. I guess casting two spells at once was much harder than I thought.
After a time, I began to resent, hate myself for what I had done.
“Why the fuck did I help that little shit? Things like this are bound to happen to the good guy eventually… I’m such a fool! Damn, I really wish I had my Wild Pegasus right about now…”
I wallowed in self-pity and anger for a while before the door to the room swung open, taking me by surprise. In stepped an earth pony, who looked like a guard of some sort, with a kind of jumpsuit on and a pistol on his side. He was holding a thin silver rectangle in his teeth, and after a second of looking at it, I realized there was food on it! That got my attention faster than the urge to ask him what the fuck was going on.
“Oh, yesyesyesyesyes thank you for the food sir! Can I call you sir? Oh boy that looks so good!” I stammered as he crossed the room over to where I was standing. He took one look at me before he tossed the tray on the ground and then walked off with pieces of what looked like colorful chips and one fresh looking apple sprawling over the ground. I tried to reach out and get my teeth on the apple, but it just kept rolling away. Then I tried to focus on it, but as soon as I managed to wrap it with my magic, it imploded and sent a nasty shockwave of pain through my head. The guard looked at me with a dirty grin on his face.
“Enjoy, you magic using freak!” He sneered as he laughed out of the room. The door shut, and I was alone again.
I sat there, or rather, stood there, for a minute trying to understand what just happened.
“What a dick. Now I’m gonna starve… and what did he say about me? That I’m a freak? What, does he not like unicorns or something?” I muttered as I tried to focus my magic on the chips nearest me.
After a few tries, I managed to gather them all, but I started to have one killer of a headache, and the device on my horn wasn’t going to give me a rest. Slowly, I began to eat the flavored color chips, which tasted very stale and boring, but at least they filled me up somewhat. The only thing left was the apple still sitting in the middle of the room, but with my splitting headache I wasn’t going to attempt that, lest I pass out or hurt myself or my magic.
A few minutes after I had done eating and given up on the apple, the door opened again, and in stepped that little filly that got me in this situation. She had put on her cloak again, thinking she could hide from me, but I knew exactly who she was. As she approached, only one word passed through my mind.
“Why?” I said, trying to say it as sad as possible. “Why? Why would you trick me like that? I was helping you, you know.”
She trotted up in front of me and sat down to face me, then took off her cloak, revealing the same outfit the guard was wearing earlier. As I opened my mouth to ask why again, she got this look of worry on her face.
“I’m sorry, mister unicorn, but I had to. We had everything going so well down here until the power generator over there stopped working. We needed to find some way to get it working again, but then the Overmare had found that thing on your head, and told us to find a strong unicorn with powerful magic, but to make sure we didn’t go too far out, but then I found you, and…” The little filly spewed the words out like a waterfall.
I interrupted her and asked, “Whoa whoa whoa, slow down there kid. What do you mean ‘down here’? What err, who’s the Overmare? And why did you need to wear that cloak if you have a uniform just like the others here?”
She looked at me with the most confused look I had ever seen. “Down here? What do you mean? This is a Stable, Stable 37 to be exact, and my home. Haven’t you ever heard of a Stable before?”
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After a long and confusing conversation, I managed to finally understand what was going on: I was in Stable 37, I was being forced to run a machine, and that this filly was surprisingly nice and understanding despite having done what she did. After she explained what a Stable was and who the Overmare was, she trotted over to the apple I had failed to grab, picked it up, and brought it over to me for me to eat. Needless to say, I was very thankful. But now that all the technical terms and information were out of the way, I decided to poke more into just what was going on, and exactly who this little filly was.
“So,” I began, “What is your name, little filly?”
She looked up at me and smiled, “How about you tell me your name first, and then I’ll tell you mine.”
I just chuckled, “Hmm, sure why not. My name is Vanilla Moonlight.”
She kind of lit up at that answer, like a name was supposed to be pretty or something. “That’s a pretty and nice name! Okay, I’ll tell you mine. My name is Morning Breeze, although most of my friends call me Breezy, so you can just call me Breezy too!”
Morning Breeze huh? I had to admit, that was kinda cute for a name. Maybe I’m just used to hearing names like Crusher, or Bloody Spear, or some other nasty names like that.
“So, are we going to ask questions like this all day, or are you going to leave me?” I asked as she trotted in a circle in front of me.
Eventually she said, “Yeah sure, just make it quick, cause my dad nor any other guard ponies know I’m down here.”
She then walked up real close to my face and whispered, “I’m actually not supposed to be down here, fillies aren’t allowed to go past the first basement level.”
I paused for a moment and thought about the pony that had whacked me in the head. That must have been her dad. Then I had to ask the question, “So, your dad is a part of the guard ponies down here then?”
She looked at me with enthusiasm as she beamed, “He’s not just a guard! He’s the head of security down here in the Stable! The only pony that has more authority than him is the Overmare!” She squeaked. If I could have put a hoof over my ears at that instant, I would have. That squeak was both the cutest and most deadly thing I had ever heard.
“Now it’s my turn!” Breezy said as she bounced around the room. Clearly, she was having much more fun than I was. “You’re the first unicorn I’ve ever seen!” She suddenly got very serious. “You don’t seem very evil… why is that? In all my books and the stories the older ponies tell me, the unicorns are super bad ponies that only hurt and kill others. So why are you different?”
This question caught me off guard, but then again, it also made sense. The security pony earlier had treated me like garbage just because I was a unicorn, and not just because I was the slave. So I had to keep all my other questions at the back of my mind for now, as I asked, “What do you mean? Sure, there are all kinds of bad ponies out there, but just because you are a unicorn doesn’t mean you’re evil. Same goes for earth ponies and pegasi…” At the word pegasi, she stood up and unzipped her uniform and slipped it off, showing me that yes, she did indeed have wings.
After she did so, her demeanor changed from happy and perky to sad. She was acting like she had done a bad thing, and then told me something I didn’t see coming.
“I have to hide being a Pegasus, because one of the most important rules in Stable 37 is that no non-earth pony is allowed to live here. My dad says that I must hide this from all the other ponies in the Stable, because if they found out they might tell on me, and that would be the end of me…”
I swallowed as I thought about what that meant before asking, “End? What do you mean? Like they’d kick you out or something?” As I waited for the answer, she began trembling, like she was really scared of her secret. She quickly put her uniform back on then stared me right in the eyes.
“You won’t tell anypony, will you? Please don’t tell anypony! I’ll get killed if you do! Anypony that is born in this Stable must be an earth pony, cause if they are a unicorn or a pegasus, they are killed right on the spot!”
Now there was seriously something wrong with that! What kind of awful ponies would do that? Okay, raiders, slavers, bandits, and addicts aside. Killing an innocent new born just because it isn’t an earth pony? What the fuck? But then that begged yet another question.
I asked Breezy in a worried tone, “So what am I still doing here? Shouldn’t I be dead if they hate non-earth ponies so much?”
“Because they… we need you to run this power machine. It powers almost everything here in the stable. Without it, we would be forced into the outside, and both you and I know how bad it is out there. We wouldn’t last a week!”
“And that must mean that your dad has been keeping your wings a secret too then? If they know what you are at birth, how did you manage to live?”
“Because there was an ‘accident’ and the doctor didn’t get to look at me properly before my dad took me into our room…”
We could have continued the conversation much, much longer, but we heard hoofsteps outside the door and the same security pony as before came in with a bottle of water, which I assumed was for me. He took one look at Breezy and just nodded to the door and said, “You know you’re not supposed to be down here Morning Breeze. You don’t have free reign everywhere, even if you are Plaster’s daughter.” Breezy nodded but didn’t say anything, and picked up her cloak before she ran out the door.
I had so many things to ask and get answers for, but it seems as though everypony except Breezy had some irrational fear or hatred, or both, of me. The security pony threw the bottle of water at me, hitting me in the cheek.
“I thought you might catch that one! My bad.” The buck just laughed again as he exited the room.
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Four days had passed since I was taken prisoner, or at least I thought it was four days. The device on my horn continued to sap my magic and my strength even when it was nighttime, according to the Stable ponies anyway. Even as I tried to sleep, standing up mind you, the device just kept on using my magic against my will. What little sleep I got was fevered and nightmarish with the constant headache I had and the uncomfortable feeling of standing for days at a time.
The only company I had was the guard pony that came in to give me my food and water, and Breezy, who had snuck in and out of the room behind the guards back. She was very clever for a filly, managing to sneak in snacks and things for me to keep myself entertained. A few books and magazines were the only things she had brought to me, but that was better than nothing.
“UGH, I am so BORED!” I sighed as I shifted my weight around to try and get comfortable. As I said this, the door opened and Breezy came in with a bag around her neck.
She skipped over to me and sat the bag down in front of me then said, “Well, it’s a good thing I came here then! I managed to get some things together for you to do, and I thought we could talk for a little while too.” She dumped the bag of contents out onto the floor, and began to sort them out. There were a few things that would keep me occupied that she brought along, including some dice, a deck of cards, a book that looked like it was for fillies, and a toy sky wagon.
“What would you like to do first, Vanilla?” She asked as she sorted out the items before me.
I looked at what was provided and said, “Well, how about the cards? Do you know how to play Rummy?”
“Yeah sure! Me and my dad play it sometimes when he’s not on guard duty.” She put the other items in the bag and began to shuffle the cards on the floor all in a pile. I was kind of confused at the way she shuffled, but it made sense as I thought about it. She doesn’t have magic after all, so what other way was there to do it? After a time, she gathered up the cards and dealt them out between us.
I tried to levitate all my cards in front of me, but the pain in my head prevented me from that. Instead, I just picked on card up at a time and looked at it, then set it down and picked up the next one. Two 4s, one a spade and the other a heart, a 6 and an 8 of clubs, and a queen of diamonds was my hand. I decided to be the nice pony and let Breezy go first.
“Okay! Here I go!” Breezy said as she picked up her first card from the deck. She lit up like a lantern, and put down three cards in front of her.
“6, 7, 8! And I get to discard a card too! Hmm, I think I don’t want this one!” She said as she tossed down a king of diamonds. “Your turn!”
I picked up a card with my magic and looked at it quick, a 10 of hearts, and then tossed it away into the pile. “Nothing. Your turn.”
“Aww, maybe you’ll get a better one next time.” She squeaked as she picked up another card from the deck.
“Oh yea, a 9! I’ll just add that to my 6 7 8, and then I’ll get rid of this one!” She chimed as she tossed a jack of clubs into the pile. “I’ve only got one more card, so I think I’m gonna win!”
I smirked as I slowly drew another card. “It’s not over till it’s over.” I said as I looked at my draw. A 5 of diamonds was the pick, and so I tossed one of the 4s into the pile.
“Nothing again? That’s too bad.” She said as she drew a card. “Aww man! I can’t use this!” she complained as she threw the card onto the pile. It was a 7 of hearts, and so I got this big grin on my face as I took it up with my magic.
As I lay the cards out in front of me, she got a surprised look on her face as I said, “Straight!” I discarded my other 4, my last card, and calmly said ,”I win, wanna go again?”
She looked at me with squinted eyes as she smiled. “You lucky pony, Vanilla! Next time you won’t be so lucky!”
After a few hands of rummy, I had won all but one of them. I could see that Breezy was getting frustrated, so I asked her if she wanted to stop.
“Yeah we can stop. I never lose that many games to dad. You are one lucky pony Vanilla!”
“I don’t feel very lucky…” I said as I looked around the grey room.
It took her a moment to realize what she had said before she apologized. “Uh, sorry about that. I didn’t mean to make you sad about your position here.”
She rubbed her leg and looked uncomfortable and awkward, so I piped up and told her, “Hey now, don’t worry about it. I’m stuck here and there is nothing I can do about it. Just dealing with what I’ve got here, even though you were the one that got me into this situation in the first place.”
Breezy raised her voice and complained, “Yeah but… you don’t deserve to be in this place all stuck like this! I should have waited longer and found another unicorn who was bad, and not good like you…”
I shook my head as I said to her, “You only did what your father told you to do. It was for the good of the stable, right? You had to help out since this is your home and all. And besides, if you went after another unicorn who knows what they would have done? They could have been a raider and just killed you on the spot for fun, or a slaver that would drag you away from your family and friends, never to be seen again. The wasteland is not a place that just gives things up. It takes things much more often.”
She looked even more awkward as I continued, “This doesn’t mean I don’t hate this place for what it has done to me. If I could destroy this place I would.” This brought a sadness into her eyes as she began to tear up.
“I’m sorry Vanilla! I really am! I just didn’t want to live in the dark, or be forced to live outside or…” I stopped her mid apology as I shifted around to try and get more comfortable, “It’s not your fault Breezy. You are just a filly, you didn’t know any better, and even if you did, you were thinking about the other ponies here in this place. You only did what you thought was right, and I can’t stay mad at you for that. I forgive you.”
The sound of the power machine continued to hum as the only sound in the room for a good few minutes as Breezy absorbed what I had said to her. In my mind, I knew she was not at fault, so I had to forgive her. You can’t blame things on kids that only do what they are told, because they don’t know any different.
After a short time, Breezy gathered her things back into the bag she had brought and slung the bag around her neck. “This isn’t right.” She said as she began to trot towards the door and out of the room. “I’m going to try and fix this and right my wrong, even if you do forgive me, Vanilla. You did me a favor by accepting me, the real me, wings and all. I’m going to return that favor, just you wait.”
As Breezy walked out to door and left me alone, I got this feeling that you only get when you have a relationship with someone. That feeling in your chest that kind of hurts, and kind of doesn’t. That feeling that something bad is going to happen, and that you should do something about it. But it was worse for me, because there wasn’t anything I could do. Breezy could be making a huge mistake and there was nothing I was going to be able to do to stop her.
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After days and days of the constant use of my magic, my health had begun to deteriorate faster and faster. The small amounts of food I was receiving were not enough to keep up with how much energy my horn was using against my will. I had gotten little sleep as even during the night they needed some energy to keep the place running, and even when they didn’t, they had two guards to watch me as I slept, in case I tried anything funny. Like I could! If I tried using even the most basic of my combat spells I would double over in agony with the severe strain on my magic.
I had begun to lose weight at a considerable pace, and that didn’t help out my morale any. And that wasn’t even the worst part. The only times I had things to do were when Breezy had come to visit. During the rest of my time, boredom clawed at my already aching mind, as if my head didn’t already have enough to deal with. At this point, I didn’t even feel like taking a sip of that sweet Wild Pegasus. All I wanted to do was sleep for a year, maybe two, and go outside and shoot something, preferably the ponies keeping me here. The only thing that was keeping me going was the compassionate and caring Breezy.
As time went on, I got more and more information out of Breezy, and we were beginning to become close, which was odd, considering the way we met. Most ponies wouldn’t be so forgiving. I had rubbed off on her enough, I thought, that she was beginning to really see me as not a unicorn, but a pony just like her, and that made her happy. The way she was rubbing off on me was a different story. She had the brightest outlook on everything, besides her Stable’s ridiculous rules, and this was helping my mood to change for the better. She was very concerning, and the times she would bring me a snack or a book to read showed how much she really cared. Over time, she had convinced her dad to let her come down here and entertain me; it was for my morale she had told him. It’s not like I could stop doing what they wanted though. The device on my horn was still churning away, and I realized that I had been casting a magic spell constantly for oh, I don’t know, two weeks? I was barely able to talk to or listen to Breezy when she came to talk to me in the last couple of days. This morning, when she came down however, she had the brightest look on her face, like the whole world had suddenly become a bright and shiny place. I tried hard to smile as she came in with the security buck that always brought me my food (he hasn’t changed at all, by the way. He’s still a dick.).
“Here’s your breakfast, freak.” He sneered as he tossed an apple my way, this time overthrowing me by a foot and hitting the wall beside me. “Oops, I had better work on my aim for next time, huh?”
He giggled as he turned to go outside the door, then looked at Breezy and said, “Better hurry, kid. Today’s your big day here in the stable. I wouldn’t want to miss it if I were you.” After he left us be, Breezy ran up to me and gave me a big hug. That was unexpected.
“I’m so happy right now Vanilla! So happy! And do you know why? Go ahead, take a guess. Give up? Okay I’ll tell you. Here it goes…” She said with heart melting enthusiasm before taking a deep breath. I was not prepared for how loud she was going to yell at me. “Vanilla, I GOT MY CUTIE MARK!!!!!!! It’s so AWESOME!!! Want to see it?”
Before I could open my mouth, she had stripped out of her uniform and spun around to show me her flank. There, in the light of the grey room, was her cutie mark, which consisted of a few blades of grass gently wafting in the breeze, as shown by four thin, wavy light purple lines.
“Isn’t it just the greatest thing ever?! I’m going to have my cute-cenera today! It’s going to be the most bestest time… and all of my friends are coming, and it gonna be the greatest! We’re going to play pin the tail on the donkey, and eat cake, and…”
As she was boasting, she looked at me and how bad of a shape I was in. I was panting hard and sweating so bad my mane was stuck to my neck. She looked somewhat embarrassed as she realized what she had said before muttering, “Well, almost all of my friends…” She came up and gave me a hug, then told me, “I’ll bring you back a piece of my cake later tonight, along with a special present I’ve been saving just for you, okay? Hang in there, Vanilla… I’ll see you in a few, alright?” Her expression was enough to get me to smile back at her as best as I could, but I was in no condition to speak properly.
As she waved goodbye and stepped out of the door, I realized what she had just said to me. Wow, was I really that far gone that I couldn’t even think straight? I don’t know how much more of this I can take, I said to myself, before going back to that realization. She had said that not all her friends could come; she really thought of me as a friend? How wonderful, someone who can be there when I bite the dust from exhaustion…
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A few hours had passed since we had last talked, and I had hoped that she would make it here before I passed out and never woke up again. I began to vomit uncontrollably, shaking ravaged my already weak body, and I collapsed backward in a painful twisting motion that sent shocks through all my legs as I could no longer stand. As I lied there, weak and pitiful, I began to think just what kind of cycle my inevitable and lame death would bring about. Would the ponies of Stable 37 go out and find another unicorn to abuse? What if they couldn’t find one, or were too afraid to go too far away from their home? What if they managed to go far enough to Jackknife and kidnapped one of the unicorns living there in peace? Of course the ponies there would fight back, and both sides would end up killing each other and leaving only death in their wake.
I could not let that come to pass, but I also could do nothing about the current predicament I was in. I was too weak to move, let alone run, even if I didn’t have these damn shackles on. I started to realize that I was going to let everypony that had known me down. The Jackknife townsfolk, my long gone but hopefully still watching over me mother, and even Breezy, who for the first time had a friend whom she really felt connected to. Sure she had other friends, but she had to keep a terrible secret from them, unlike me who she could share everything with. Tears began to form in my eyes as my body started to spasm once again. No Vanilla, keep these tears back, you can’t let Breezy see you in such a sad state, especially on such a happy day for her. Just hold on for a few more hours… let her give you that slice of cake, even though you’ll just throw it up… and that present she wants to give you… take it with a smile…
Every moment until Breezy showed up was one big blur. I think I had passed out from the exhaustion, but the next thing I knew her concerned face was standing over mine.
“Oh good, you’re ok! I thought you might be done for.” She said as she sat down next to me and held the piece of cake in her hooves. It did look pretty tasty, but there was no way I was eating that without getting sick again. That’s when I realized that Breezy had something on her leg that wasn’t there before. I had seen one on the guard that had given me my food. It looked like one of those computer terminal things that are scattered throughout the wasteland, only a much smaller, more compact version.
At my expression, she giggled and said with a matter-of-factly tone in her voice, “This is a Pip-Buck! Everypony gets one on their cute-cenera. They are these cool little computers that go on your leg, and once it’s activated, this little genius will do almost everything for you! It has a sorting tool that organizes your stuff that you carry around, a radio wave detector so that you can listen to radio broadcasts, and even this cool program called S.A.T.S. that when activated, helps you aim your weapons better!”
“Cool…” I muttered.
“Oh yeah, one more thing, it’s part of your present… a hacking tool.”
When she said that word, I perked up at the implication of what that meant.
“Yeah, I can just go over to a computer terminal like this one,” She pointed at the terminal on the wall next to the power machine, “or something similar and just input the right password and bam! I can get just what I want!” She then walked over to the terminal and started to go to work.
I tried to get to my hooves as I moaned, “Does that mean what I think it means?”
Breezy smiled the most honest of smiles. “Yes”
“I’m going to set you free, and help you escape. Of course doing this will brand me a traitor, and everypony here will try and hurt me or worse, and so, I’ve decided to come with you.”
“W-What? No, no you can’t do that, it’s too dangerous and…”
“Yes Vanilla, I’m coming with you whether you like it or not. I will have nowhere safe to go once this is over, and besides, safety in numbers and all that, right?” Breezy had a very stern look on her face which I guess meant that she wasn’t taking no for an answer.
“Unfortunately, I was unable to find your belongings, so you will have to just leave empty handed.”
I was totally ok with that. I mean heck, this little filly had just become my best friend and bad-ass rule breaker in one. I was going to live to see another grey sky, to feel the wind run through my mane, and to taste freedom once again! It had only been two weeks since I lost that freedom, but it had felt like an eternity, and then some.
With a soft click, the shackles came apart and I slowly stepped out of them, glad I still remembered how to walk. The thing on my horn ceased to hum and I broke it off with a quick smack of my hoof, and the machine started to shut down. I walked over to Breezy, who had just finished with the terminal, and picked her up in my hooves and gave her the biggest hug I could muster.
“OH-oh-okay Vanilla, you’re welcome! Don’t crush me until we get out of here okay?”
I quickly felt my face turn red as I dropped her and we both started for the door. When the door opened it led into what was a hallway with the same dull grey color as the room I was just in.
“Okay Vanilla, just stick close to me and we should be ok. The power should cut out soon. We will use the darkness for cover and sneak out of here before they even know we’ve gone.” She then pointed to the left and began to trot in that direction. The hallway was somewhat long, with two doors on either side, which had the words maintenance, supply, armory, and wares above the door frames. As we walked down the hallway, the lights began to go out one by one, slowly shrouding the hall with darkness.
When we got to the end of the hallway, there were stairs that led upward ending with another door. Breezy ran up the stairs and stopped at the door, taking out her Pip-Buck and connecting it to the small case by the door. I had to guess that the power had left the doors and now they were stuck shut, but Breezy managed to open it with a few button presses. After she was done, we walked into a big rectangular room with a big semi-circle dome as the ceiling. There were two catwalks up above, and there were a total of six doors on this level, and I assumed there were more up where the catwalks were. At this point, the lights in this room were flickering or going out altogether.
Breezy motioned for me to follow her along the right side of the room keeping close to the walls. I heard some shuffling inside the rooms next to us and upstairs as a feminine voice came over the speakers. I was surprised that they had power, but then again maybe they had some kind of back-up power to use.
“Attention all Stable 37 residents. This is your Overmare, Peanut, speaking. I have issued a level red security breach. All security guards must do their rounds as designated by their superiors. All residents must stay in the rooms you are in. Any ponies that are in the hallways or other non-room areas must stay where you are and wait for security to come and relocate you to a safe area. Please do not panic and follow the orders given to you.”
As the Overmare spoke, the last of the lights went out in the big room we were in, and I couldn’t see a damn thing. I felt something brush up against me, but it was just Breezy telling me where to go next.
“I know this place like the bottom of my hoof.” She whispered as she guided me through the room alongside the right wall and to a door on the opposite side. “Even in the dark, I know where everything is. Come, this door will lead up to the main level and past the Overmare’s office. After we pass that, it’s a straight shot to the room where the Stable door is located.”
We quickly made our way across the room and to the door that blocked our way upstairs. Breezy again hooked up her Pip-Buck to the door case and after about 30 seconds she had the door open again. As we began to go up the stairs, we heard voices behind us.
“I heard a door open. Let’s go check it out.” I heard a buck say as the sound of trotting got closer to the bottom of the stairs. We quickly ran up the stairs, and then made a quick right into another hallway that was longer than the last one. There were a few points in the hall that were indented for things like garbage cans and water fountains and… wait, water fountains? Oh man, finally some refreshment! I quickened my pace until we came up upon one, then Breezy hid underneath the fountain and motioned for me to do the same. But I was too thirsty and needed this to treat some of my weakness. I took a few long gulps of the fresh water until Breezy grabbed my leg and pulled me under the fountain as well.
“Shhhhhh, stay still and silent until those two guards pass us.”
Just as Breezy said, the two guards we had following us trotted into the hallway and paused for a moment. One of the guards motioned for them to separate and cover both ends of the hallway. The other guard went the opposite direction of us, while the one that motioned was coming right at us. I held my breath as best I could and stayed still, even though my body protested because I had already been still for two weeks. The guard eventually got within spitting distance before stopping and looking around. He then let out a sigh and kept walking in the direction we were supposed to go. Once he got about halfway between us and the far door, he turned around and sat down. He then started to talk into a speaker that was attached to his shoulder, saying, “Plaster, this is Kickstart reporting in. The Overmare hallway is clear and there is no sign of the escapee. Returning back down to the lower atrium with Drake and continuing the search.” He then stood up and trotted back past us and met up with the other guard, and they proceeded back down the way they came.
“Now’s our chance Vanilla. The way out is just down this way. Come on!” Breezy said softly as she crawled out from under where we were hiding. I managed to get to my legs with difficulty and followed her closely.
For the third time, Breezy hacked the door in a matter of seconds and forced it to open. Inside the room was a few crates and boxes, a computer terminal next to some short stairs, and a small room that was open on the right side. The thing that impressed me the most, however, was the giant steel gear-like door that was dominating the far side of the room. It had a large number 37 painted in yellow in the middle.
“This is it, the Stable 37 entrance. All I have to do is press this button and it will open without a fight. Be prepared to run though, because it will make a horribly loud screeching sound when it opens, and all the guards will be on us like foals on candy.” Breezy pointed at the giant door and said, “Get ready to run. I’m pressing the button in 3… 2… 1…”
The giant gear shaped door hissed and whined as it came inward towards me, slowed down and stopped, then began to rotate to the right. That’s when the loud screeching sound started. Before the door was even halfway open, Breezy had run through it and then yelled back at me, “Now! Come on Vanilla, this is our chance!” I trotted at a somewhat fast pace past the door and out into a small cave. The cave was cold and damp smelling, so I guessed it was sometime during the late evening or early nighttime.
“You gotta be faster than that! The guards will be on top of us in just a few seconds and then it will be all over!” Breezy yelled and the door finally came to a loud stop. Breezy ran up to the entrance of the cave and the motioned for me to hurry and catch up. I ran as fast as my aching legs could carry me, and managed to get to where she was standing. My aches and pains were excruciating, but I steeled myself against the pain and sat down before checking out my surroundings.
Breezy ran out a few steps onto the hill in which Stable 37 was hidden, and then stopped and looked around like she was scouting the area. I caught up to her and panted, “Which way do we… go now?” She looked up at me and then pointed in the northeastern direction, towards some trees down at the bottom of the hill.
“There is a river behind those trees. We gotta get there before the guards catch us in the open.” She said as she began to run out towards the tree line. She had only taken a few steps when the sound of a shotgun loading sounded behind me. I turned around to see an off-white buck with a brown mane standing just a few feet away from me with a security uniform on.
“Breezy! Not another step! You have a hell of a lot to say for yourself, little filly.” The low gruff voice of the buck yelled. I looked to see Breezy frozen in place as she looked slowly around to where we were standing. “I told you that talking and being nice to this unicorn scum was going to end up getting you in big trouble.”
“Dad?! Oh no… Please listen to me!” Breezy began to protest as she ran up to stand beside me. “This unicorn is good! He’s not evil like the ponies in the stories! He’s just like me, different!” Breezy whined as she took off her Stable 37 uniform, revealing her wings.
The buck just looked disgusted by the sight as he kept the shotgun pointed at me. “I am your father, head of security Plaster, and I tried to teach you right. I sacrificed a lot of things just to keep your secret. Do you know how hard it was to keep having a pegasus as a daughter a secret? If the Overmare found out about what I did, I would be exiled from 37 or worse! I have done so much for you and this is how you repay me? By betraying me and helping this shit stain of a pony run free?”
“Please dad, I know you can find another way to fix the stable! You’re a very smart pony and you could do this without having to torture innocent ponies like Vanilla…”
“Innocent? Look at what this scum has done to you Morning Breeze! He’s corrupted you to work for him with some kind of dark magic!”
I let a snicker slip out at that one. I couldn’t believe what this pony was saying. These Stable ponies really were superstitious, or crazy, or both. I tried to inform Plaster by saying, “There is no such thing as mind-control magic, and even if there was I couldn’t use it with that thing on my head sapping my magic.” He got a couple steps closer while keeping the shotgun pointed at me.
“Shut it, you freak! Now Morning Breeze, put your uniform back on and follow me into 37, and we can forget that this ever even happened…”
Breezy got a look a fury in her eyes as she yelled, “No, dad! I’m not following your stupid rules anymore! I’ve felt trapped in that uniform ever since I can remember, and now that I have this feeling of freedom I don’t want to go back! I realized what a terrible thing I had done when we stuck Vanilla in shackles and forced him to live as a slave. This is not how it is meant to be! You’ve tried to make me into something that I’m not my whole life, and now I’m taking matters into my own hooves!” Breezy flapped her wings and then actually managed to lift herself of the ground and began to hover in the air beside me.
“If that is the way it’s going to be, I have no other choice!” Plaster yelled as he pointed his shotgun right at his own daughter! Breezy got a look of horror as she screamed out loud. In the same moment that Plaster pulled the trigger, I pushed Breezy out of the way and we both fell to the ground. Fresh pain seared in my left hind leg as a couple of the buckshot pieces buried themselves into me.
The buck looked confused for a second, and then muttered, “Why would you do that? She’s just a pawn that you are forcing to do bad things with now. She isn’t my daughter anymore…” He then pointed the shotgun back at her before saying, “Yes, Morning Breeze, this is how it was meant to be…” Before he managed to pull the trigger again, I wrapped my magic around the shotgun and tore it away from his grip. The pain in my head was unbearable as I threw the shotgun down the side of the hill before slowly standing up and looking him straight in the eyes.
“You would kill your own daughter just to keep a secret as trivial as being a pegasus? What the fuck is wrong with you?” I fumed as I struggled to stay standing with the weakness and the new pain I had just received. Then I noticed the canteen around his neck. I focused my magic on the canteen and tore it away from his as well, breaking the strap in the process.
“W-What are you doing with that?” Plaster said as he backed off a few steps. I took out all of the water with my magic, the pain screaming in my ears as a couple more guards showed up behind Plaster. I surrounded Breezy and myself with a semi-circle of water and cast the freeze spell on it, turning it into a floating shield.
“Let’s go Breezy!” I yelled as I began to run down to the tree line. Breezy got up immediately and ran next to me as we rushed down the hillside. A few seconds later gunfire peppered the shield I had made, and since it wasn’t a whole lot of water to begin with, it started to fall apart. We just kept running as the guard ponies yelled things like “Stop them!” and “They won’t get away!”
As we came upon the tree line, I saw the banks of the river Breezy had mentioned slowly getting closer. I picked up the pace as more and more gunfire could be heard from behind me, the occasional bullet hitting the ground or a tree next to us. Once we got to the river, I focused as hard as I could on the water before me. I almost blacked out from the pain this brought, but I just pressed on and told myself that there would be time for rest later.
“What are you doing?” Breezy asked as she looked in awe of what I was doing.
“Making our ticket out of here! Now once I finish jump in and I’ll follow you!”
After about 30 seconds I had managed to make a small lifeboat-like craft of ice on the water, and immediately Breezy jumped inside. I staggered on my hooves as I stumbled into the craft and pushed it out onto the river. The river carried us towards the west as the gunfire continued, some shots just missing us by inches.
After a few minutes the gunfire ceased and the Stable 37 ponies were no longer chasing us. After I had made sure that it was safe, I asked Breezy, “Will… will you take care of us? I’m going to … pass… out…”
“Vanilla? Vanilla!” Breezy yelled as the world backed away from me and I fell into darkness.
Footnote: Level up
New Perk: Sleep Tight: Whenever you sleep for at least 8 hours, you gain a slight boost to your physical and magic prowess for that day.
