Sixteen years of the same oatmeal, for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. Sixteen years Faunus had put up with the monotonous slop, an annoyance he determined to be a part of living in the Stable. In those sixteen years, his already pale blue coat had faded to a shade of near gray, almost matching that of the sterile metal walls. His mane had grown to a length that he liked, only having to cut it recently. Two weeks ago in fact. Because as if sixteen years of unflavored oatmeal wasn’t enough, the janitor mare just had to give birth to triplets, forcing Faunus into a shared, smelly room with another stallion.
“Disgusting,” Faunus thought to himself as he watched Lunk, his roommate, at the lunch table. He hated everything about him, from his dingy yellow coat to his mottled brown mane. “Could you please close your mouth?” Faunus asked in a somewhat rude manner.
“Why?” Lunk asked, belching loudly. He wiped his face off on his hoof.
“Because it bothers me,” Faunus said, averting his eyes.
“Everything bothers you,” Lunk said, then turned around and shouted across the room. “Hey Mixler, long time no see!” Faunus cringed as bits of half-chewed food landed next to his tail. A tall, lanky zebra approached their table.
“Hey, Lunk, how you been?” he asked, taking a seat. Faunus rolled his eyes. He didn’t mind Mixler so much alone, but when he struck up a conversation with Lunk, there was only one direction it was sure to go.
“Great, how you doing? Anyway, so I was eating lunch the other day, and out of the corner of my eye, I saw Shimmersweet. And dang, man. Talk about an ugly duckling. Four years ago, if you told me I’d be hitting on Shimmersweet, I’d have bucked you in the jaw. I got standards, alright?”
“Yeah, I get what you’re saying, man,” Mixler nodded, transfixed. Faunus stayed quiet, keeping his face in his bowl of oatmeal and pretending he didn’t hear anything.
“Well anyway, like I said, I saw her and she’s like, smokin’ hot. Like, really, smoking hot. So I walked over and put the moves on her…” Lunk continued.
“Aren’t you already dating Resonance?” Mixler asked. “Is she okay with this?”
“Relax, dude. What she don’t know won’t hurt her. Anyway, I put the moves on her, and she totally fell for me. We went over to my room like she was in heat or something, I swear. Just porked all day yesterday,” Lunk bragged. “Never met a mare who could resist a stallion with an engine cutie mark. We know what’s going on under the hood, you know what I’m saying?” He and Mixer laughed loudly, bumping hooves.
“And that’s about all I can take…” Faunus muttered. “I’m going to go check on the menagerie, make sure the animals are all okay,” he said to the two.
“Yeah, later dude, have fun,” Lunk said, barely paying him any attention as he grabbed another bowl of oats. Faunus excused himself from the table and walked into the hallway, past the flickering “Stable 25” sign that Lunk had yet to fix.
“What a repulsive individual,” Faunus said to himself as he walked, “Sometimes I wish he’d just drop dead right there, choke on some oats or something. Be doing this Stable a favor. I mean sure, it’s bad enough that we’re trapped in the same Stable together, but having to room with the same sleazebag, put up with his snoring, his womanizing, his disgusting habits every day until those damn doors open, and who knows when that’ll be?” He realized that his complaints had slowly grown louder to the point where he had nearly shouted the last sentence and stopped in his tracks, looking around to see if he had frightened anypony. The hallway was empty.
“Whatever. Can’t keep thinking like that, it’s bad for my health,” Faunus said, finally arriving at Stable 25’s menagerie. “Besides, whoever heard of a unicorn beating an earth pony in a test of strength? Someday, when the doors open, someday I’ll finally be free of that pest.” He opened the door and stepped inside, immersing himself in the familiar environment.
The inside of the menagerie was in sharp contrast with the rest of the Stable. Dirt and grass lined the faded metal floor. The air was warmer, and the room was full of life. It was a small menagerie, but Faunus had kept it well cared for, and in turn, it cared for him. Deep within the menagerie, shut off from the rest of the Stable, Faunus had felt a sense of belonging. Room number five was where he slept, but the menagerie was his true home.
A small skunk crawled out from an artificial log and nuzzled against his foot. “It’s nice to see you too, Shadamanta,” Faunus said, levitating a treat out of a nearby food dispenser with his horn. A tortoise and a bluebird came out from their resting spots and greeted Faunus. Faunus felt lucky, so very lucky every time he visited the menagerie. Lucky that he had been born in Stable 25, the stable that housed a menagerie to serve as a preservation of species for posterity. There had originally been more animals, and different ones, he had been told, but with nopony to take care of them, all but the hardiest had died off. Now, with only three individuals of different species remaining, the preservation experiment had been deemed a failure. Still, it seemed wrong to abandon the creatures.
“With companions like you… who needs ponies?” Faunus smiled as he watched the animals eat. A shadow grabbed at his heart everytime he saw them, the knowledge that they were the last of their kind. In a way, that made him feel even luckier, that he may very well be the last pony to ever see them. He heard the door open behind him and turned around, surprised. Nopony ever visited the menagerie. Was it possible somepony here shared in his interest?
His heart fell as Lunk strolled in with a light green mare behind him. “Hey, Faunus, is it okay for us to use this room? The bathroom’s occupied, and Resonance is hanging around the sleeping quarters. Oh right, this is Shimmersweet, by the way.”
A vein throbbed somewhere in Faunus’ forehead. “How dare he,” he thought to himself, “how dare he come here. This is my place, my sanctuary. There is no way he’s defiling it with his disgusting habits.” Lunk walked over to the drinking fountain and hawked a loogie, leaving an ugly yellow stain on the polished metal basin as he waited for Faunus’ reply.
“Fine,” Faunus said, “just make it quick.” He was fuming on the inside, furious at himself for not drawing the line here, but took a deep breath and let it go. If Lunk annoyed him now with nothing against Faunus, there was no way Faunus was giving him any reason to be upset with him.
“Awesome, thanks. Uh, a little privacy please?” Lunk pushed Brightwings down on the grass, scattering the animals. Faunus sighed and left.
“This isn’t going to be a regular thing, is it?” Faunus asked at the doorway.
“I dunno… Oh hey do you mind locking the door on your way out?” Lunk asked with his back turned. Faunus obliged and walked down the hall.
Later, at dinner, Faunus sat down at a single-seated table and stared at his food. “Oats again,” he grumbled. Nothing ever changed. Was this all there was to life? Eating oats every day, putting up with a repulsive idiot, just waiting for the doors to open so he could move on to… who knows what?” A shadow passed over Faunus’ oats. Turning, Faunus spotted his roommate Lunk.
“Is this about the menagerie?” Faunus asked.
“I just wanted to let you know that I can hear you. All that muttering. I know you don’t like me, Faunus. But guess what? You’re stuck here with me, whether you like it or not. And yeah, in a sense, it is about the menagerie. You might not want to go back there if you’re a little faint of heart.” Lunk spit into Faunus’ food bowl and walked away, laughing.
Faunus stared, unmoving, at the disgusting yellow spittle trickling its way down his oats. His mind raced through a mixture of anger and disbelief. “Damn it. Damn it all…” he said, leaving his food behind. “If he so much as touched one hair on Shadamanta’s body, I swear…” His entire body was shaking with anger as he galloped down the hallway.
He opened the door to the menagerie and stood there for a moment as his mind registered what his eyes were seeing: A birdhouse smashed on the floor. Dirt in the water fountain’s sink, overflowing the basin with an ugly brown muck. Grass torn up and scattered everywhere. Walls plastered with mud. Two of the eight light bulbs had been crushed, and the specimen camera he had set up to observe Shadamanta lay broken in a corner.
Upon his return, the three animals of the menagerie came out of their hiding spots and clung to him. “Thank heavens you’re okay…” Faunus said, tears streaming down his cheeks. “That meathead has crossed the line this time.” The damage would take him a week to fix. “Who would defile a place like this?” he asked, crying to his animal companions. “Why would he do this? You never did anything wrong to him. It was me. Me and my big mouth. I’m sorry…I’m so sorry…” He gathered his friends up in a hug. But of course he knew why Lunk did this. If Lunk just beat him up, Faunus would get better. But this… this is where he’d feel it the most.
Faunus slowly looked up, taking in the full account of the damage done. The water could be cleaned, provided he unclogged the drain and let the purifier run its cycle. Light bulbs were easy enough to replace. The mud could be scraped off the walls, and maybe a fourth of the grass could be kept alive. He would work hard on the birdhouse, and fix it up within a week. The camera was unsalvageable. Although…
Faunus approached the broken camera and retrieved the tape. “Let’s hope that idiot didn’t think of this,” he said to Shadamanta, as he headed off towards the computer room.
“Hey, Faunus, have you seen Lunk anywhere?” Resonance asked as he entered, igniting a spark of anger in his eyes.
“No. I haven’t,” Faunus snapped, then stopped. Perhaps this was the right moment for exacting his revenge. Yes. His life was ruined, and Lunk was already angry with him. He had nothing to lose. “Actually…” he continued, “there’s something important you should see.” He loaded the tape into a nearby computer and prayed for luck.
Luck was on his side, and the screen flickered to life, showing an image of Shadamanta pawing at the ground. Resonance came over and watched. “That’s your pet skunk, isn’t it?” Faunus hit the fast forward and stopped shortly before Lunk entered the menagerie. Resonance gasped as she watched the scene unfold.
“That… bastard…” she said, as her eyes narrowed. Faunus hid a smile as he watched the mating session commence. They finished rather quickly, and Shimmersweet got up to leave.
“You go on ahead, there’s something I gotta take care of first,” Lunk called to her. He then turned around and seemed to notice the camera, cursed, and kicked it. The screen went dark.
“Rats,” Faunus muttered. He was hoping to pin the damages on Lunk by turning the film over to the Overmare. Oh well, making him lose his marefriend would have to be enough. Faunus retrieved the tape and turned to leave. He would have to destroy this.
Resonance stopped him with a hoof against his chest. “Hold on,” she said, in a dangerous tone. “You hate Lunk, don’t you? You had no reason to go and tell me this.”
“Was it that obvious? If you go to the menagerie, you’ll see why,” Faunus said. “Now if you pardon me, I’m going to go crush this tape and dump the remains in the garbage.” He tried to avoid her, but she stopped him again.
“No. That bastard cheated on me. And you’re going to help me get my revenge,” Resonance said, knocking the tape out of Faunus’ hoof.
“Hey!” Faunus shouted, turning to retrieve it. Resonance forcibly pulled his head back and kissed him, catching him by surprise. All he could see were Resonance’s dark purple eyes, a color one would never expect to find in a Stable like this, her snow white coat as clean as the spotless walls of the Stable, her rich black mane as soft as Shadamanta’s fur, and her cutie mark of a tuning fork amidst a wave of sound. All he could smell, all he could taste all he could sense was this foreign body pressed up against his own. The kiss ended, and Resonance pushed him onto the floor.
Bewildered, embarrassed, and completely overwhelmed, Faunus allowed himself to relax. A bittersweet warmth surged through his body as they mated, a mixture of lust and hatred, shared by the both of them. He found that he enjoyed it, enjoyed the revenge on Lunk, the mutual defilement of a pure and beautiful thing. An hour later, they had finished. Resonance got up and left before Faunus could say a word, strolling down the hall as if nothing had happened.
“The videotape,” Faunus thought to himself. “Gotta destroy it.” He willed himself up with shaky legs and found the tape in the corner, crushing it into a crumpled mess of plastic. There was no way it could be read now. Depositing the mess in a nearby wastebasket, he headed back to his room to sleep.
Lunk was already there, snoring loudly, half passed out on the bed. There was no way Faunus would sleep there tonight. He took his pillow to the couch outside and felt himself drift to sleep.
And as he dreamed, his mind drifted. He relived the moments of his past most clear to him, the ones of greatest happiness and greatest sorrow. The discovery of his cutie mark. The passing of his parents. The defilement of his menagerie. He was on a plane of nothingness, facing the three events that had so defined him, wondering if they had not occurred, what would have become of him. And as he pondered, an earthquake arose, shaking the three scenes and plummeting them into a bottomless abyss.
“Faunus! Wake up!,” A stern voice commanded. He groggily opened his eyes.
“What time is it?” Faunus asked, looking around. A small crowd of ponies had gathered in the hallway where he had slept that night.
“About half an hour after your roommate was discovered murdered in his sleep,” the voice said. As Faunus’ vision focused, he realized he was talking to the Overmare. “You wouldn’t happen to know anything about this, would you?” Faunus’ heart raced as his mind weighed the situation. One the one hoof, he would never have to put up with Lunk again. On the other, he was probably going to be blamed for murder.
“N-no,” he stuttered. “It wasn’t me! I just slept outside because he was snoring!” He said, looking around wildly. All eyes were on him.
“Then would you mind answering how he was murdered in a locked room when only you had the key?” The Overmare pressed him.
“They must’ve stolen it from me when I was sleeping. I don’t know! I didn’t do it!” Faunus protested.
“Faunus, stop. Look. All of us know you hated Lunk. I was planning on making different rooming arrangements in just a couple of days. But this is going too far,” the Overmare said. Faunus began to talk, but she stopped him with a raised hoof. “I would like to give you the benefit of the doubt here, but you should first know that I have access to the security cameras. All of the security cameras. Including the ones in the menagerie and the computer room. That’s right… I know. I know what he did, and I know what you did.” The crowd began mumbling amongst themselves.
“Now the footage from the camera is a live feed, and nopony was awake at the time of the murder, but all of the evidence points to you. We do not have a death sentence here in the Stable. You are therefore exiled to the Crystal Wastes,” the Overmare said solemnly. “You have an hour to pack your things.”
“No… NO! It wasn’t me! I didn’t do it!” Faunus shouted, but the Overmare was unmoved. The crowd dispersed, leaving the two of them alone.
“I’m sorry, Faunus. As Overmare, this is my duty. I can relate to your predicament, but we cannot have a murderer living with us in this society. You need not worry about your menagerie, we will find someone to take care of it…” the Overmare continued, with almost pitying eyes. She looked around and noticed nopony was left in the halls.
“I’ve watched you grow up from a young buck into a strong young stallion. I was there when you got your cutie mark, at every birthday. When your parents died, I brought it upon myself to raise you as my own. You know it pains me to do this. Here…” she pressed a key into his hooves. “Outside the door to the stable, there is an arms locker. Inside, you will find some supplies and weapons. I can’t garuntee your safety, but you deserve a fighting chance. This is the key to that locker. Remember, one hour.” She turned around and walked off.
“I don’t think you did it,” Mixler said, approaching him. “Yes, I know you hated him, but doing this kind of thing… that isn’t you.” He placed a reassuring hoof on Faunus’ quaking shoulder.
“Distraction or revenge…” Faunus muttered, staring gloomily at the walls that had housed him for sixteen years.
“Excuse me?” Mixler asked, looking puzzled.
“After something terrible happens, a pony will turn to one of two things. Distraction,” his mind drifted to his animal companions, “Or revenge,” an image of Resonance appeared in his thoughts.
“So who would have taken revenge on Lunk?” Mixler asked, indicating the crime scene with a hoof.
“Hard to say. Anypony in here would have something against Lunk,” Faunus mused. “But to go this far… Wait. There’s somepony I need to see.” Faunus galloped down the hallway at full speed, into the common room. Everypony stared.
“Has anypony seen Resonance?” Faunus shouted, and the room grew silent.
“I think I saw her heading to the menagerie,” a pony on the couch said. Faunus cursed and turned around, galloping towards the menagerie.
The door was open, letting out the controlled temperature. Faunus shut it as he entered, spotting Resonance lying face up in a patch of grass, one of the few patches that had survived Lunk’s rampage. “YOU!” he yelled.
Resonance turned. “Me?” she asked, watching him as a cat would a mouse. “What is it, do you want more?” She giggled.
“No! You don’t get to joke!” Faunus shouted, galloping onto her and pinning her down. “You murdered him, didn’t you,” he whispered in her ear.
Resonance flashed him an evil smile. “Of course. It only made sense, given the circumstances. I did you a favor, too. If he ever found out, you’d be in some real deep trouble.”
“You mean like the trouble I got into for being accused of murder?” Faunus snapped, refusing to get off of her. “You are coming with me. We are going to clear my name.”
“Mmm… no. I don’t think we are,” Resonance said. “You see, I’m just a musician. I didn’t commit any murder. And here I am, this poor little innocent musician being pinned down by the Stable’s first proclaimed murderer… You’re not doing yourself any favors, you know.” Her smell drifted up towards Faunus, tickling his nose. Damnit all, why did she have to smell so good?
Resonance gingerly slid her way out from beneath Faunus. He didn’t try to stop her. “Well then, if that’s all you had to say…”
“I’ll kill you,” Faunus muttered. “I’m already guilty of murder. I have nothing to lose.”
“Isn’t that what you said last night?” Resonance asked slyly. “I learned a lot about you from our… session. You’d never kill a sweet little musician like me. Here’s something for you to learn. You always have something to lose.” She exited, leaving the door open with a self-satisfied smirk as Faunus’s face turned bright red from a mixture of anger and embarrassment.
“Damn it all. Just… damn it,” Faunus said, and let forth a resounding scream that nearly shook the walls of the stable. He screamed, mourning the loss of his menagerie, he screamed at the hatred he felt for Resonance, he screamed at the Overmare for her clouded judgement, and he screamed for the fear, the uncertainty of what was yet to come. Oh, how he longed to run her through with his horn and turn that smug smile into a look of shock, to draw blood from her side and stain her white coat red as she lay dying, helpless, to put a scar on that beautiful, taunting face that had caused him so much pain.
A striped head poked its way into the menagerie. “Faunus?” Mixler asked, looking around the ruined menagerie.
“Go… Away…” Faunus said.
“Your hour’s almost up. Anyway, here. Don’t let anypony know you have these,” Mixler stealthily pressed a small satchel into Faunus’ bag, out of the view of the security camera. “They’re some supplies I sneaked out from the medbay. Good luck out there.” He patted Faunus on the shoulder.
"Hey, Mixler..." Faunus said. "Keep an eye on Resonance." Mixler nodded and left.
"Will do," he said, on his way out.
Faunus gathered his emotions, letting forth a large sigh. The animals of the menagerie came out to comfort their friend. “Hey guys. I’m gonna go away for a little bit,” he said as the tears he had held back for so long streamed down his cheeks. “I might not be back, and you can’t come with me. They’re gonna take good care of you out here. I’m sorry for everything that’s happened,” he said, taking a final treat out of the wall dispenser and placing it on the ground. Shadamanta looked from the treat to Faunus, confused.
“Go on, eat it, it’s what you deserve,” Faunus said, nudging the skunk forward. Shadamanta embraced Faunus’ head in a warm fuzzy hug, patting his mane.
“It’s time to go,” a voice came from the door. It was the Overmare.
Faunus got up, placing a couple bottles of water into his saddlebag at the last minute and followed her to the stable doors. She wiped the dust off of the keyboard and keyed in a code. And with a screech and a groan, the heavy stable door that had not budged for as long as Faunus could remember slid open.
It was bright outside, with a clear path to the exit. The survival locker the Overmare had mentioned was clearly visible to the left. Faunus took one long, last look at the Stable that had housed him for years. “Faunus. Don’t die out there,” the Overmare said.
“Wasn’t planning on it,” he replied, stepping bravely out into the world. The door rolled shut behind him, leaving him alone in the light.
________________________________
You have gained a perk! Animal Friend: Animals will not attack you, provided you don't provoke them. Some may even come to your aid.
