FALLOUT EQUESTRIA: RISING DAWN

Once upon a time in the magical land of Equestria ...

Everpony has nightmares. But we always wake up from them... always.

Within the safety of our white halls, our world was the stable, and the stable - our world. But when our luxuries failed us, we left our home in the pursuit of vanity: purified water. All this time we'd been sleeping, dreaming sweet dreams beneath the earth as the world writhed in unending nightmares.

Outside those doors, in the ashen drifts of the far North, we thought there was still hope to prolong our existence underground. But we woke to a frozen world bathed in eternal darkness. Here, the lights and warmth of my home are planets away.

Mutant abominations and the machinations of ancient, dark magic blacken the horizon and stomp out any hope to see the dawn of another day. The solution to my stable's problem was nothing but a means to an end as greater evils threaten not just my home, but the rest of Equestria, too.

Out here, it is foalish to hope for a rising dawn. Because everypony has nightmares. But some nightmares never end.

Chapter 1

Stable Problems

"RED DAWN!" Somepony screamed.

Hearing my name, I jerked upright and banged my head against the railing I had been leaning under and galloped across the grated metal catwalks towards the source. My brown coat flashed a brilliant white as an explosion bloomed from the center of the chamber.

An orchestra of whooping sirens howled a cacophony of bleeding notes that sent me into a daze. It was like the whole world was about to explode. Actually, it was probably going to.

"What's wrong!?" I screamed against the howling sirens as I felt something wet trickle out my ear. In the growing confusion and bedlam, hooves clopped frantically around me as ponies rushed to flashing consoles and terminals.

A pipe blew out in front of me, spraying the catwalk with scalding steam that would have cooked me alive. I fell to my chest, ducking as low to floor as possible. The steam seethed over me but not around me, and I thanked the First Law of thermodynamics for working as it should. Now, if I could just crawl under this and - another blew out with an explosion of shrapnel and boiling steam. I covered my muzzle reflexively; stray bits of shrapnel punctured my barding when a ceiling pipe blew out above me. And another. And another.

The hot air was getting hard to breath. It was as if my lungs were boiling from the inside out. I reached out with my horn and slapped on my breather mask. I took a breath of cold oxygen, crawled under the growing steam cloud and galloped across the catwalk. One of the pipes in front of me began to rattle and pop, boiling water spurting out of it from the over pressure.

I thought I could make it. I stepped into the path of an exploding pipe. I slipped into SATS and the world slowed. I saw the shrapnel veering sluggishly towards me, and in the time it would have taken for me to get eviscerated, I stepped out of the way just as SATS ended.

But that didn't save me from the backwash. My left hind leg nearly cleared the blast – I was so close. But not close enough.

The moment I felt its searing touch, I clamped my jaw shut.I let out a horrifying yelp as the water washed over my left flank. The boiling splash split apart the flesh of my coat and summoned up blisters. Within seconds, my leg gave up under me mid gallop. Tumbling end over end across the catwalk, I came to an almost complete stop when the unforgiving steel grating slowed my roll to a slide like breaks on a wheel. I've been burned before, but boiled? The water stuck to my bleeding, burning coat and continued to cook. Blinded with tears, I lifted my hind legs, bucking as hard as I could and shook my body vigorously, spraying a pair of fleeing engineering ponies with cooling, bloody water.

The boiling pain began to subside, but the bleeding blisters continued to leak crimson. This hadn't been the first time this had happened to anypony lately, and I was glad the Overmare ordered that we healing potions on hoof at all times while in engineering. Levitating a potion from the pocket in my barding, I pushed my mask up with a hoof and dumped its contents into my mouth, swallowing it with an audible gulp.

Goddesses - I was going to be cooked alive! I whinnied as I pulled my breather mask back down and struggled to flex my stinging limb. The healing potion's effect was not as pronounced or as immediate as I had hoped. I half limped, half galloped my regenerating flank to a console built into a, thankfully, pipe free wall. I tapped its screen and punched in the buttons that I hoped were controlling the vents above us. I dialed the fans to maximum and groaned with relief when the huge fan above the chamber began drawing the hot air into its spinning blades.

Luckily for me, that was not the end of it.

SCREEE ... a section of the catwalk broke away and the chamber quaked violently, throwing me to the catwalk once more. I saw ponies fly over the railing as a section of the walkway that I had trodden only seconds earlier tipped over and plummeted into the water below. The sound of metal on metal reduced my hearing to a disorientated hum. If they hadn't been impaled by the metal beams, they'd be fine, I kept telling myself through the acute ringing that accompanied my spinning disorientation.

I turned to see the rumbling shell that housed the spherical water purifier at the center of the chamber shriek with a dying mechanical groan. My heart beat once and thankfully not for the last time as the thing blew up like a star gone supernova, burning a blooming white flash into my retinas. The console behind me ignited in a blast of shrapnel and electrical fires licked at its shattered screen. I coughed and choked as I scrambled to my hooves, pushing through the billowing smoke to the muffled voice of a screaming pony mare.

I shook off my daze and peered through the lenses of my breather mask, rushing blindly through the steam towards her voice.

"It broke! Goddesses damn it, shit! It broke! IT BROKE!" Dew Drops cried out as my hearing returned. I realized that the high pitched humming wasn't coming from my ears, but from the smoking ruin of the purifier. To my surprise, once the smoke lifted, the machine itself was still, for the most part, intact. Only a crater the size of my forehoof reminded me that the thing had exploded.

The mare fumbled with the system's still working controls, tapping her hooves against the terminals keyboard like her life depended on it.

With a dying hum, and the purifier's high pitched mechanical whine faded to dead silence.

The steam that had been billowing out of the pipes around us choked to a sputtering stop. She turned to look at me with an expression of relief when the terminal exploded, showering her with shrapnel. She pounced back reflexively; the blur of her blue coat slammed into me and I broke her fall.

We thrashed blindly against each other's limbs until I bit down on her teal mane and pulled her to her hooves. I squinted through the smoke as ponies galloped past us, plugging steam pipes and spraying fire extinguishers into dancing flames. What the hell had just happened?

I rushed to the rails and peered downward. The water below me pulsated with a reddish glow while the sirens above us flashed like the stable itself was about to be consumed by balefire.

"It broke!" Dew Drops whined, blood seeping from shrapnel wounds under her breather mask.

"The whole system?" I shouted at her over the sirens, shaking her with both my forelegs. She shook her head and tapped her right ear with a confused look on her face. "Would somepony turn those off!" Engineering ponies scrambled past me, putting out fires and generally running away from the exploding steam pipes as the plugs popped.

How silly of me, was I the only one concerned about the smoking machine at the center of the room? The machine that purified our stable's water and generally kept everypony alive? I took a step toward the machine to make a closer inspection but the drying, raw skin on my hide sent needles through my nerve endings. I winced. Maybe the purifier could wait.

I roared in a voice that nopony else seemed to hear. With SATS recharged and my hit rate desirable, my horn glowed and I hurled my wrench at a console at the other end of the catwalk. It banged silently against the buttons and to my surprise, the sirens miraculously turned off. "The whole system!?" I shouted despite my voice being unimpeded by the whirring sirens. Pony shouts replaced the shrieking orchestra but she at least heard me this time.

"No - worse." She croaked, the hairs on her mane standing on end as she gaped at the smoking machine. "The Water Talisman. It's. Broken."

I blinked. Then I blinked again. Then I banged my head against the railing. Ow shit. I'm definitely not dreaming. This was a nightmare, it had to be!

"H-h...how? That thing is supposed to last centuries!"

She cried out every expletive in the books and dropped her wrench in despair.

"I tried fixing it, but it just flashed and disintegrated, I don't know! If I hadn't closed my eyes I probably would've been blinded."

Well, we're fucked. I looked at the smoking terminal in front of the machine and tapped my hooves uselessly against its still flickering screen. It flashed once, stuttered, and died.

"The stable... how long?" I said as calmly as I could.

"The hell do you mean how long -"

"How long do we have until our freshwater's gone!?"

"I-I don't know. W-we need to tell the Overmare!" Dew Drops turned to a mare who was running towards us. "Bulb Flicker! Tell the Overmare, get help, do something!"

She nodded, and scampered off to the exit. My horn glowed as I tried pulling out some of the shrapnel that had penetrated her bleeding hide, but she waved me off and gestured to my pipbuck instead.

I shook my head and attempted, with futility, to interface with the purifier's systems. No response. "DD, none of the systems are responding." I reported, tapping my hoof against my pipbuck's screen with frustration.

Dew Drops trotted towards me but slipped on a puddle and fell on her face. She groaned, looked at her hooves, then me, then her hooves again.

The sky blue mare glowed with a pink light and a magical field helped her to her hooves. The Overmare stood behind her, staring at the smoking machine with purple eyes that spoke of shock and growing despair. Well that was fast.

"I ran into her just as I was about to leave." Bulb Flicker said, rubbing her horn as she trotted next to her. Following closely behind them, three security ponies with weapons slung across their backs looked around with shock as Overmare Peach Petals came before us. I saw her gulp before her eyes darted to meet mine.

"What happened here? How ... how did all this happen?" she asked, the motherly authorative voice she often spoke with gone to be replaced by a trembling croak. You know something terribly awful has happened when the overmare herself sounded like this (she never, ever sounded like this).

I looked at her and glanced over my shoulder blade.

"The Water Talisman got fried, I don't know why, and neither does Dew Drops here." I replied, looking at my master engineer. You'd probably be expecting that somepony two years younger than you would be your apprentice and not the other way around - well, it might as well have been, because Dew Drops gawked at the smoking machine like a brainless monkey. She had as little of a clue as to how the water purifier blew up as I did. From the looks of it, I somewhat had a haunch that it had overloaded. No machine randomly scalds ponies alive with steam by just breaking down. It practically blew up in our muzzles.

"Is the damage repairable? Goddesses, please tell me it's ..." the Overmare asked with a hardly concealable pleading tone. "You, and you! You and you and you ..." She pointed her hoof at a group of scrambling engineering ponies. "Unless you want to die in a pool of diarrhea from shitting out contaminated water, find some way to fix this - now!" The Overmare commanded, the authoritativeness in her voice returning. I winced at what I had to say, but before I could say it, Dew Drops took the words from my trembling lips.

"Ma'am, the thing's fried, we can't fix it -"

The Overmare silenced her with a seething glare.

"I. Don't. Care." She snapped. "Find something … I-I'll try to find something. Just. Try. Everypony is going to die without freshwater." she whinnied.

"I-I-we'll try.. ma'am." Dew Drops eeped. I looked behind the Overmare and across the catwalk behind the open bulkhead, a small group of ponies had begun to gather. From their terrified faces and murmuring lips I could tell that they too knew they were utterly screwed. The Overmare and her security ponies swung around to face them and rushed to the bulkhead, herding the congregating ponies.

"Everypony calm down, the situation is under control. Return above floors and I will let you know personally once the ... issue is resolved ... and I promise you, it will…" her voice fading away as the crowd became more and more distant.

Surprisingly, even here, the engineering ponies had calmed somewhat. Though my ears perked at a few scattered, retching curses that some pony hissed here and there, the ponies weren't so focused on trying not to get cooked alive anymore and were instead more focused on trying to fix whatever had just happened.

Looking around me, the once pristine, silvery, teardrop shaped chamber looked like a tornado had blown through it. The cobweb of interlocking pipes that ran across the ceiling and the curved walls around the chamber had been ripped apart from the inside out. The valves that controlled the water pressure had blown out too, resembling metal trees that branched out droopingly from the gaping hole at their centers.

This was going to be a lot of work. I let out a hoarse sigh and wrapped a leg around a trembling Dew Drops. She rested her head on my shoulder while we stood there, looking at the broken machinery around us.

I turned and looked to her imploringly, my horn glowing with a scarlet sheen. She nodded, clenching her jaw while I dug the shrapnel from her coat. She shook as I pulled the last sliver of metal out of her hide. She opened her teary eyes and gawked at my hind leg.

"Dear Celestia, your leg –"

I nodded weakly. "I can fix that." Somewhat, I wanted to add. The blisters had stopped bleeding at least, but the flesh was raw and stinging. I levitated several more potions from my bag and downed them one after the other before I spoke. "But the purifier … ?"

Dew Drops shook her head, looking at me wearily.

"No. No you can't. The talisman isn't even there anymore." she answered, grimly, pointing a hoof at the smoking compartment that had blown open on the talisman's housing.

I closed my eyes shut and just shook my head. "How long do we have?" I asked again.

She shrugged. "A few weeks, a month or a few maybe? Depends on how fast we consume our reserves." Dew Drops murmured in reply.

An engineering pony with her apprentice in tow approached us.

"DD we need another talisman." Amber Fields said, her yellow mane glistening and dripping with water. She had been one of the ponies that fell into the tank below. I thanked the Goddesses no one got hurt. She lifted a reflective sliver of scrap metal. "This is all that's left of ours."

"Get the others," Dew Drops told her. "We need to find some way to ... I don't know - purify our damned water!"

The other mare's apprentice groaned, "Don't you get it? We're fucked, fucked I'm telling you! I'll be shitting out of my ass like the Overmare said -" a hoof struck her muzzle, cutting her off.

Amber Fields glared at her sniveling apprentice and nodded at Dew Drops. "We'll find a way .. we have to." she said, hauntingly before dragging her apprentice away from her.

I saw a stallion with a gray coat and a brown mane trot past me, head hung low.

"Box Cutter!" I said, calling out his name. He looked at me sullenly. "Are you alright?" From his bruised flesh and the deep gash on his back I knew the answer had to be no.

But he smiled faintly, rocking back and forth on his hooves. I trotted up next to him and my best friend leaned against the side of my body that hadn't been cooked. His coat was wet and still dripping; he must have fell in with Amber Fields.

"Fine and dandy, Red." He chuckled. I noticed the bump on his head.

"No, you're not." I grunted.

"You look pretty fucked up yourself, Red." He said.

"It's just a flesh wound," I replied, grimacing at my crimson hind leg. At least my coat was still there. "Nothing I can't fix with a few healing potions." I added, painfully. Goddesses, did it sting. I looked at Dew Drops who was staring blankly at the water purifier. "DD, help me get Box Cutter to medical .. I think he has a concussion." Box Cutter's eyes looked at me distantly. This was not good.

She nodded, but turned and said, "Everypony, listen up!" The engineering ponies turned to look at her. "Start repairs on the water purifier and plug those pipes. Re-divert the pumps to the reserves; if you can't, wait for the next shift. Until then … just … do something."

She took one look at my leg and shook her head. "You aren't carrying him with that." Since I had ran out of potions, she forewent her own injuries to administer her pocket's worth to Box Cutter's mouth one after the other until the gash on his flank stopped leaking scarlet somewhat. I nodded at her thankfully because Box Cutter was too woozy to do otherwise.

He let out a sigh as I levitated Box Cutter onto her back and she paced to the clinic, with me limping after her. Moving this fast wasn't going to help my leg, but I needed to see my friend through.

We left the dark, damp confines of the engineering level, its pony sized piping and grated floor turning into gray tiles and white wash walls.

Below on the hoof trodden halls, earth ponies and unicorns gave us concerned looks as we trotted past them in a hurry. The soft flapping of feathery wings caught my momentary attention and I saw that a flock of pegasi fillies were following us closely with frightened looks on their faces.

"We shouldn't have come this way." Dew Drops said softly.

I tried not to make eye contact with the bystanders. "Why not?" I called after her.

"Look at them, they're scared."

Just when I thought my leg was finally going to give up on me, a pegasus wearing security barding landed in front of us a yard away. Dew Drops was about to go around her when the pegasus called out to her.

"DD – oh shit! Is that Box Cutter?" Lightning Twirl said, her blue wings propelling her toward us. "The hell happened? I mean, I heard the explosions and everything." She said, blowing a strand of her white hair out of her eyes.

"The water–" I began.

"The water purifier overloaded. We're fixing it as we speak." Dew Drops stammered, nodding her head. She was keeping the truth from her, but she wasn't exactly lying either. "Box Cutter fell and well…"

"He's bleeding all over her barding." I finished for her. The gash on his flank was pretty deep.

"I'm still conscious you know..." he muttered as he lay limp on my back.

"Listen, Box Cutter has a concussion, I think." I said. Lightning Twirl's blue eyes widened at that. "We need to get him to the clinic."

She trotted next to me. "I can fly him there. I'll use the aerial access tunnels – it's much faster." The pegasus mare offered. I transferred him to her back. He groaned painfully when Dew Drops' barding brushed against his flank. Hey, my coat was scalded and I wasn't complaining!

"Sorry – shit – sorry." I winced, trying to levitate him onto the pegasus. When I finally got him on her back, he hugged his forelegs around the base of her neck.

"Bite my mane or you'll fall off." Lightning Twirl said, spreading her wings.

"That what you tell Star Glint before you fuck?" he said, with a grin.

Lightning Twirl snorted, and took off, Box Cutter screaming about his head hurting as she disappeared in one of the holes in the ceiling.

I shook my head, chuckling.

We trotted through the living quarters past the unicorn and earth pony housing. They were circle shaped portals that each pony inside decorated with pictures they drew or pictures of themselves, friends, or families. I smiled as we walked past Dew Drops's room, who had tacked the doodles I'd drawn for our friends when I was just a colt on the surface of her door.

I looked up and saw the poofy pillow shaped globs of white cushioning that stuck out of the walls from metal beams far above us where the pegasi could land and chat above the 'clouds'. It was a simple reminder of what the world had looked like once outside. Farther above my head I could see the pegasi quarters; the entire pegasus tier was painted a sky blue with murals of great cities that hung above the clouds. The rooms closest to the edge had no doorsteps, but could be accessed from backdoors in a hallway where grounded ponies such as myself could get to – which I thanked the Goddesses and whoever designed the stable for because I wouldn't ever be able to see my mom if it hadn't been that way.

Everywhere I looked, ponies had tried to cover the boring whitewash walls around us with beautiful murals drawn by artists of both the past and the present. The murals depicted landscapes of green and skies of purple; fields of gold and shimmering seas of blue. Sunsets of ember light and moons that gleamed white against the twilight stretched across the walls – none of which anypony who'd drawn them had ever seen.

A herd of fillies and colts ran past us, laughing at each other in a game of tag, breaking me from my trancelike state as I admired the murals I'd walked past my entire life. One of them slowed, looking at my now scabbing leg as she trotted past.

We passed by open, dome shaped rooms where ponies lounged on white washed couches or cushions, eating dried carrot chips while listening to live music from the cello, guitar, and violin. The soft hum of the yellow ambient lights above me calmed my nerves. I almost wanted to forget that the Water Talisman was broken.

Even down here, several hundred feet underground in a bomb shelter built two centuries ago and spared from the balefire holocaust, I imagined life here to be just about as comfortable as it was up there before the war.

It was as if ponies had lived here since the beginning of time. If there hadn't been so few of us here, I would've believed that notion.

---

I looked down at Box Cutter who laid spread eagled on the clinic bed with an ice pack wrapped around his head. Bandages mummified his flank where he had been cleaved by a broken metal beam as the catwalk fell under him.

Me? I suppose I was better off. After a dose from an extra strength healing potion, the scabs on my leg peeled off and the flesh beneath went to a very interesting shade of pink. I got bandaged up and told to not run on it. Though the itching was really starting to bother me.

Box Cutter did in fact have a concussion, and had begun seeing things in his concussion induced confusion. I was glad Lightning Twirl got him here fast enough for the doc to wrap his head in ice so it didn't swell.

A peaceful yellow glow fell upon us from the lights above. The walls around us were patterned with swarms of butterflies of alternating colours – insects that were probably long extinct, but nevertheless pleasing to the eye. The ceiling was painted to resemble an open sky with sparse clusters of poofy clouds. I imagined that lying on a hospital bed in pain was probably better when your head was in the clouds.

The clinic's clean, sterile halls were mostly empty. Behind the pink curtains surrounding Box Cutter's bed, I heard a somepony groan. Several of the engineering ponies had suffered shrapnel wounds and second degree burns. I was one of them, but I'd only gotten off easily because it had been just one leg. I winced at the thought of my entire body getting cooked.

But for the most part, the stable was as healthy and happy as it could be. For now, I thought darkly.

For two centuries since the bombs fell, my stable had lived in relative luxury. Fresh water. Working toilets. Hot baths. Fresh food - if colorless apples and genetically modified veggies counted as fresh. We had it all here. I wasn't sure how long we could continue living like the way we were now with the Water Talisman broken. Water was always recycled. That poop water in your toilet? It's what you're going to drink tomorrow morning at breakfast. Not that it'll taste like anything (the ponies of the past had worked hard at making talismans that made life easier). It was recycled and treated. But without the talisman, that poop water is still going to be poop water when you go for a drink tomorrow no matter what you do.

"What happened?" I asked him, who, thankfully, was still conscious. "I tried accessing the systems but they were dark by the time I had my pipbuck up."

"Shit if I know. My console was giving me crazy readings and the entire room started shaking," he sighed. "Then the catwalk fell from my hooves and, well, I'm here now."

My brow furrowed. "What kind of readings, though?"

"The Water Talisman just couldn't take it anymore I guess. It overloaded. There was too much pressure in the valves and it overheated trying to compensate. It started boiling the water instead of treating it."

Dew Drops, who stood behind me harumphed. "That explains the explosions. But why? It's supposed to last us centuries."

I narrowed my eyes at her. "That's what I said," I looked back down at Box Cutter. "Stupid StableTec, giving us faulty machines." My toilet clogged up last week and I had to use Dew Drops's bathroom since then. Then the pipbuck around my leg tightened somehow and chafed me. Then the sliding door to the cafeteria closed on my tail.

And now the Water Talisman is broken, and my left hind leg was a pink raw mass because of it. I guess I've been blaming everything on StableTec lately. Stable problems, I thought with an audible sigh.

"There has to be another way. There just has to be." Dew Drops muttered. She looked at me hoping I'd echo her words. I just met her gaze with worried eyes for a brief moment before looking down at the alabaster floor beneath my hooves. Honestly, I was sure we'd have to be drinking poop water real soon.

"All the engineering ponies are meeting with the Overmare later today in a few hours. You and I will be going, Red." Dew Drops said finally after a few seconds of silence. "You need to come too, Box Cutter."

"He needs to stay in bed," the doctor's voice said behind the curtains. Stitches, the stable's local equine fixer pushed through the pink fabrics. He levitated a pen out of his white coat and jotted down notes on a clipboard as he gave the injured earth pony on the bed a look over. "Box Cutter hit his head pretty hard. He might lapse out of consciousness and hurt himself even more." Doctor Stitches gave the stallion a serious look, "I might even need to crack his skull open to relieve the pressure building up inside of it or it might blow like the purifier downstairs."

Box Cutter's eyes widened in horror. "Just pulling your leg." Stitches chuckled. I glared at him and so did Dew Drops. He had that sick sense of humor that scared the hell out of you and made you even angrier after finding out your mom wasn't really going to die from cancer. That bastard. "You do have a concussion though, so you still need to rest for a bit, maybe even for a while." Box Cutter groaned,

"Could be worse." Dew Drops grinned. "Your head could'asploded."

"Quit scaring me, this shit's serious." He pouted.

Dew Drops patted his rumpled mane comfortingly.

"You'll be fine. Take it easy. Red and I are going to grab a bite before the meeting."

I bumped hooves with Box Cutter and left the clinic, Dew Drops taking the lead.

We stepped out the door and I cringed as a pair of hooves wrapped around me.

"My baby, my baby!" My mom moaned, wrapping her wings around me. She pushed me into the door and my bad leg rubbed painfully against its frame.

"Mom – ow – please –"

"I'm so glad you're okay! I heard the explosions and I thought you were hurt! But my little colt is A-OK!" She cried, hugging me tighter as she buried my muzzle in her red mane.

"Miss Morning Dawn, your little pony got a boiling water bath … you probably shouldn't be touching him… at all." Dew Drops advised, suppressing a giggle.

Mom's ears twitched and she let go of me almost immediately. I could feel my flesh burning where the door had grazed me. I smiled painfully at her. "I'm fine, mom, really."

"Did you have dinner yet? Curfew starts in half an hour." She asked, raising a foreleg to rub my shoulder, but lowering it when she noticed the red marks under my brown hide.

"DD and I were just about to go get something to eat. Don't worry 'bout me, mom. I'm fine … but the water purifier isn't." I said, frankly. "The water t-" Dew Drops clapped my mouth shut with a hoof.

"The water's going to be cold for a few days while we try to get the heater working. It blew out too when the purifier broke down. But we still have our reserves, so we should be fine for a while until we can fix them." Dew Drops finished for me. I glared at her. "We're going to an engineer pony meeting with the Overmare later tonight. We'll have it allllll fixed ASAP." She drawled.

"Oh ... okay." Mom said, touching a hoof to her lower lip. "Wear your sealed barding next time you're down at engineering," she said to me. "You two should go have dinner now, it's getting late."

"Yes, mom. And g'nite!" I said, before trotting off after Dew Drops who had begun making her way down the hall.

"Love you, Red!"

My cheeks turned scarlet and I waved goodbye. Dew Drops giggled at me. She must've thought that was cute. Well I'm not cute, okay! I'm a full grown stallion! I fix things! I'm an engineer, a worker, and a cynic! I am a lot of things, but I wasn't cute! Okay?

I let out a long sigh.

Somehow I knew that the meeting was going to be in vain. What else could we do? We don't have any extra talismans. This one was built in, and was supposed to be built to last – for the Goddesses' sake, why now?

10 generations ago my great great great great … great something grandmother and grandfather came here just as the bombs fell. It has been 200 years since the green fires we read about in the books scorched the land above us. Even underground, you could still see the seismic aftershock of the holocaust that had made life outside the stable extinct on the cracks in the walls in the upper levels.

2 centuries pass, and our talisman decides to break now. And its warranty was beyond expired. Speaking of warranties … no. StableTec, the Ministries – there was nothing left above ground. At least, that's what we've been told. The history books tell us that when the bombs fell, the earth split apart, lakes evaporated, trees disintegrated, and the world became a cold, empty crater devoid of life.

We were all that was left. Stable 29 was the only home I've ever known. Goddesses help us all –

Dew Drops stopped suddenly and I bumped my head into her flank. I blinked, gasped, and took a step back. She was looking back at me with a sly grin. Dew Drops swished her tail across my reddening muzzle.

"Pfft pwa –" I sputtered, my name beginning to match my likeness.

"Don't look so down, Red." She said as I trotted past her to the cafeteria. "We've lived here, our mothers lived here, and their mothers lived here. We'll find a way, I promise." Dew Drops bumped her flank playfully with mine and I winced.

"That hurts, you know?" I managed as my scalded hide tingled and stung.

"C'mon, let's get something to eat." Dew Drops and I entered the cafeteria and found that it was surprisingly rife with chatter.

The air was permeated with a normality and an everydayness that made my mane itch. Dew Drops caught the eyes of a hoofull of ponies sitting at a table nearby when they saw her engineer barding. She gave them a hearty smile and the two of us made our way to the cafeteria line.

Before I could lift a hoof, I felt something yank my tail. I glanced behind me and Amber Field's colt looked up at me with wide eyes.

"Mista Dawn, is the wawer tawisman bwoken?"

Pursing my lips, I glanced over at Dew Drops in hopes she'd answer for me. She mouthed no. I was awful with kids.

"I uh, no, it's just …" I stammered, scratching my mane as I searched for a delicate way to put this without scaring him. Even for his age, he knew that the Water Talisman meant life, and without it, meant death. Or whatever he thought came after life. "The water purifier is just broken," I said, "We can fix it, dontchu worry, m'boy!" I said, mussing his mane. "Go back to Amber and tell her Box Cutter's alright too, 'kay?"

"Thass wha Miss Pea Pewals said!" He gave me a relieved grin and scampered off. Thank the Goddesses I didn't make him cry. Overmare Peach Petals really knows how to keep everypony from freaking out and breaking tables against the walls.

"And you say you're horrible with foals. He's not bawling his eyes out thanks to you."

"Yeah well it's better that the young'uns don't know how screwed they are." I muttered. Dew Drops hooked her foreleg around mine and lead me to the line like I was her foal. Damnit, she's two years younger than me!

I shrugged her off with a bothered look on my face.

"You're so cute when you're annoyed, little Reddy. You really need to lighten up. We're not dying any time soon." The expression on my face persisted. She just pouted and wrinkled her brow. "I hope I'm not annoying you!"

"I'm two years older than you." I sighed, levitating a plate for her and then myself.

"You're still my apprentice." She cooed, before craning her neck towards me so that we looked eye to eye. "And I'm telling you to lighten. Up." Dew Drops said rather forcefully when I saw that the ponies in the line had overheard my quip about keeping the truth from the foals. Their faces went from oblivious contentment to that of fearful concern.

I sighed, grinning sheepishly. "Did I say we're screwed? I meant we, as in Dew Drop and I, 'cus it'll be our shift that'll have to fix the purifier." I said forcefully. The ponies looked away and began murmuring to each other. "I wouldn't want to make them shit their flanks before they drink the water when it actually goes bad." I hissed grimly, picking up a hoofull of slightly over steamed carrots and a few slices of what looked to be vat grown squash.

We took our seats next to another engineer pony from our shift. Star Glint and his marefriend, Lightning Twirl, were making cute little faces at each other.

I groaned, sticking out my tongue. "Yuck." I smirked when the two turned to face us. Lightning Twirl's wings pomfed as Star Glint gave her a wet smooch. Dew Drops wrapped a leg around me and pulled me close, puckering her lips.

I shrugged her off, again.

"Don't be such a tease, DD, you're making Red turn .. well, red." Laughed Star Glint, as he fixed his black mane.

"Oh come on, Red, you two look GREAT together!" Lightning Twirl snickered. "Unless Red's ... gay?"

I growled, "Gay? GAY? Me being straight or gay is the only thing bothering you? Am I the only engineering pony who's bothered by the fact that our Water Talisman is broken?!" I hissed loud enough for only us to hear. I leaned over the table, glaring at Star Glint, who shrugged in response. If anypony shouldn't be undisturbed by what happened today, it should be another engineering pony like him.

Lightning Twirl stretched a feathered wing over the pale stallion.

"You need to lighten up –"

"I work down at engineering. Engineering. Keeps. Every. Pony. Alive. And now that the talisman's broken, we can't do that!" I whinnied, folding my forelegs across my chest as I sat down.

Lightning Twirl pursed her lips. "So you're not gay?"
I sighed, levitating a carrot to my mouth. I munched on it bitterly as they waited for a response with playful expressions stretched across their faces.

"There's nothing wrong with … being gay – and I'm not!" I snapped. "I'm too busy." I spent most of my free time tinkering with random bits of machinery I'd find or fixing other ponies' broken possessions over at B block, the section on the living quarters level where myself and 49 other ponies live in. Right now, I had two radios and a keyboard on my queue.

I sort of became B block's handy pony. The red sun and wrenches crossed over my flank reminded me of the years I spent trying to find my special talent. After failing time and time again, as was normal by most ponies, I snatched at every opportunity I could to put it to practice. Now that I had it, all I was trying to do was do some good with it.

I wasn't exactly the sharpest tool in the shed, nor was I a social butterfly – but hell, I knew my way around a wrench and a screwdriver and I could fix almost – mind you, almost – anything, if given time. Well, except for the Water Talisman. I had neither the tools nor the capacity to do that anyways. That really bothered me. Maybe it was because an opportunity to get my hooves on something new to fix had eluded me? Fixing radios and terminals do get pretty old after the hundred somethingth time.

Nah. Maybe it was because our water would be contaminated without a working talisman.

"I can't believe you guys aren't worried about poop in your water."

Star Glint sighed, pointing at the bandages around his face.

"That explosion really got me too, but I'm not letting it bring me down." He said, "Everypony's going to get scared if you are too. It's best if they just knew that the purifier broke, not the talisman."

Dew Drops rested a foreleg on my shoulder.

"So stop being worried. I keep telling you we'll find a way but you won't believe me."

I opened my mouth but she cut me off as she added, "When we work together, there's nothing we can't do." Dew Drops said, nodding at Star Glint whose face went serious.

"Right." I scoffed, levitating another carrot into my mouth. "I'm surprised how much control the Overmare has over the situation."

"If a leader like Peach Petals tells her little ponies everything's going to be okay, everything's going to be okay." Lightning Twirl stated as a matter of factly.

Maybe we are going to be okay? Maybe we can figure out some way to purify the water ourselves. I mean, my ancestors didn't settle this stable without knowing something like this would ever happen. Then again, something like this WASN'T supposed to happen.

"Maybe you're right. Maybe we aren't going to die swirling around in poop water." I said with forced enthusiasm.

"What's with you and poop water?" Dew Drops asked, narrowing her eyes at me.

I shrugged, popping the squash slices into my mouth. I levitated a cup of water and eyed its contents carefully before gulping it down.

"I'm going to go make sure they got the pumps connected to our reserves." I said getting up from my seat. Dew Drops wrenched me down back to my rump and I cursed under my breath as my bad leg bumped the edge of the seat.

"Don't you dare think about going there without me. We never. Work. Alone." She stated. "Besides, just let the next shift deal with that. Let the ponies who didn't get blown up with steam and shrapnel connect it." She looked at her pipbuck, "Their shift starts in 10 minutes anyways."

I folded my forelegs over one another on the table and rested my head on my hooves. Dew Drops gave me a hug and I just sat there. My eyes caught Star Glint's amused smirk, and I turned and wrapped my legs around her.

"You should get some rest. The meeting is later tonight." Dew Drops said softly.

I got up from the table and, after waving my goodbyes to Dew Drops, Star Glint, and Lightning Twirl, I was off to the living quarters.

---

I opened the door to my room and waddled in through the darkness as it closed behind me. The lights flickered on and I was bushed. I slunk into my bed and lay out my legs with extra care to not graze my hind left against something hard. I rested my head on a pillow and I stared blankly at the ceiling. I was glad Dew Drops stopped me before I could make my way to the engineering level again, because now that I was on my mattress, I felt exhausted.

My room was pretty bland. I had a bed, a couch, a fridge, a closet, a bathroom (which was still clogged, by the way), and a study table topped by stacks of books by the door. On my bedside table was a lamp, and a strange wind up pony shaped toy I'd fashioned from alarm clock parts and some LED lights; it rang when you twisted its tail.

Stacked in one corner were boxes full of scrap metal and wires. On another corner was a shelf with this week's handy pony queue. I levitated a radio towards me and set it down at the edge of my bed, giving it a thorough look over. I needed to rewire its AC cord. It looked as if somepony's foal had tried to see how far the cord could bend.

I levitated it across the room back to its shelf and stretched out my legs, yawning. I looked at my left hind leg curiously and unraveled the bandages. My flesh was a very light shade of brown now and the itching had subsided. I gave a sigh of relief.

Rolling over towards the bedside table next to me, I glanced at a picture frame of a foal, my mom and a unicorn I hardly knew. I didn't know my dad too well.

You look just like him, my mom told me. I had his brown coat and his red eyes. We did look alike, I thought as I levitated the picture in front of me. My mom's red mane and white coat were a polar contrast to my dad's. I did have her hair though, I thought as I ran a hoof absent mindedly through my scarlet mane.

He died in an accident when I was just a baby. I looked at the unicorn stallion in the picture. He looked happy, and I bet he enjoyed his job every day of his life until a pipe blew up in his face. Or so I was told. Funny, I had pipes blowing up on my face just this evening and nearly died myself. When I got my cutie mark and filled the horseshoes my father left behind, I never once thought that I'd ever die from doing it. The white coated pegasus mare – my mother - hugged me as I smiled a wide, toothless grin.

Only now did I realize I could have died down there at engineering. I could have died. I looked at the picture frame next to it and saw a picture of myself, Dew Drops, Amber Fields, Star Glint, Lightning Twirl, and Box Cutter posing in front of a picture while holding the results of our CAT (Cutiemark Aptitude Test) tests. Dew Drops was hugging me as I bumped hooves with my best friend. Amber Fields, Lightning Twirl, and Star Glint were jumping for joy behind the three of us as the camera pony snapped the picture.

My eyes focused on Dew Drops. I remembered what she was like back then. She was the same smart, helpful, and humble pony she is today. I always admired how fast she learned things. She'd disassemble a radio once, put it back together, and reassemble it without looking back at a manual.

Me? It took me 20 radios before I finally memorized what piece went where and why. She did teach me, you know? Actually, most of what I know today was a result of my apprenticeship under the younger, fully fledged mare.

I sighed. My mom loved her. I questioned if she loved Dew Drops more than I – hah! Nah. But really, I mean, who couldn't and who wouldn't?

Looking back now, I don't think I would've gotten my cutie mark without her help either. My crusade to attain my cutie mark had been one of trial and error. I spent a few years trying everything, but I hadn't enjoyed any of the jobs one bit. Drawing? I got good at it, but there wasn't much to draw in an underground bunker. Cooking? Awful. I hurled too many times. I even tried working at the orchards, but bucking apples all day was too mundane.

My mother never wanted me to work down at engineering, but the satisfaction of watching a broken terminal come back to life was, to me, almost as intoxicating as the hard cider from the Stable's orchards.

One day, when I was just a colt, and she, a filly, Dew Drops was replacing a light bulb in her bedside lamp; she was nice enough to show me what end went where and how I had to screw it in place.

Not long after, my mom asked me to replace the flickering light in our bathroom, From then on, I realized that fixing things was just exactly what I wanted to do. The CAT test had been a redundant reminder that I was going to be an engineer just like my late father.

I fixed Star Glint's alarm clock. I fixed the sound system in Amber Fields's quarters. I even fixed Peach Petals's faulty terminal. All that mattered to me now was being able to fix things that broke. I'm Red Dawn, and I fix things.

Had I been younger, I would've thought I could fix anything.

My only regret was that I should I have been there to lend Dew Drops a helping hoof. I had been too busy wondering why the chamber's water level had been receding until it was too late. Maybe if I'd gotten there in time ... no. Today had been a stark reminder that some things were beyond fixing. That Water Talisman was beyond anypony's expertise; conceived by minds long dead and manufactured with arcane technology long lost.

Now, myself and the rest of engineering had to focus on finding a way to fix our Stable's freshwater problem before everypony died from disease or dehydration. You couldn't really fix dead.

I rolled over and sighed as I levitated the picture closer to see the newly formed cutie mark on my flank. It brought the slightest of smiles to my face as I laid my head down and closed my eyes.

That day was probably the happiest day of my life. Well, finding out my mom didn't have cancer was probably the happiest, actually, but this had to be the second happiest. My eyes caught the blue filly hugging the brown coated colt and I closed my eyes.

If I had died, I would've left all that. My mom. My friends. I thought about my mom crying as they fed my body into a cremator. Thought about my friends mourning for the pony that pushed them away every time he tried to get work done.

I could have died.

---

A hoof rapped loudly against my door, yanking me from my slumber.

"Red!" I heard Dew Drops shout, "You're going to be late!"

"Oh shit." I hissed, throwing on my uniform, combing my mane, and rushing out the door. I ran into her and we fell to the floor in a tangle of limbs.

I looked into her gray eyes, and turned red at the warmness of her coat. I scrambled off of her, apologizing as I helped the mare to her hooves.

She just smiled at me and we hurried off to the assembly room one floor above engineering. When we got there, everypony was waiting for us. The Overmare looked at us patiently, tapping her hooves together as she stood on her hind legs against the podium.

"You two are late." I heard Amber Fields drawl.

"Late from a good night I hope." Lightning Twirl giggled with her stallionfriend.

I turned red once more and we took our seats around the raised platform the Overmare stood on.

49 other engineer and security ponies were seated around us. Only Box Cutter was out for the count.

"I'm glad you ponies are here." She began, eyeing Dew Drops and I with a look that said 'Get here on time next time'. I looked away, pretending I didn't know what she was implying. "But our Water Talisman is broken, you all know this. I managed to keep everypony from panicking …for now. And I am thankful you ponies didn't spread the word." The overmare smiled thoughtfully, and added, "Very smart of you all

Dew Drops glared at me and I sighed.

"But we can't keep the rest of the stable uninformed forever. Sooner or later ponies are going to notice the taste in their water. Our reserves have been sitting in tanks underneath the stable for centuries, and, while they're purified, I'm sure the metallic taste is going to get to them. But never mind that – what matters now is that we're working on time bought for us by the ponies that lived here before us.

"To be frank, and to be as terse as possible, all I will say is that no – we don't have a replacement. That Water Talisman, the one we've had for 200 years, was the only one we had."

The murmuring died away to panicked chatter.

"So we're going to die here?"

"What about my filly? We can't live without fresh water!"

"How are we going to fix this?"

"Poop. Water." I said, loudly. Dew Drops smacked me on the back of the head.

"Everypony please, calm down. I said we would get this resolved, and with your help, we will and we shall. We must, because the lives of 250 other ponies are counting on us." The Overmare punched a button on the podium with her hoof, and a projector flickered at the back of the room. An anthill view of the stable's infrastructure appeared on a white screen behind her.

She trotted up to the projection and tapped her hoof on the roll down screen. The picture rippled slightly at the touch of her hoof.

"100 feet below our stable is a one hundred thousand gallon water tank. I estimate that one hundred thousand gallons, if rationed to 5 gallons per pony a day, will last us about 2 months, maybe even longer, if each and every pony uses half of that ration or less."

"2 MONTHS?" A pegasus mare shouted, flapping her wings into the air. A hoof yanked her back down to her seat.

"Now, now, my little ponies. Two months is too much time, I believe." She said, trotting back up to the podium. Her hoof pressed a button again and the projector flicked to a picture of Equestria. Names of cities, Ponyville, Canterlot, Manehatten, Hoofington, Crystal Empire – all of them I knew, but meant nothing to me, faded out of my focus as she pointed to a region on the map. "We are here, north of Canterlot. Stable 29 was built not too far from a city named Poneva. My great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great," her face looked like it was going to turn blue. "-grandmare was from there; she worked for StableTec."

StableTec built our stable. Everything we use daily, everything around us was built by StableTec. They are the reason we were still alive today.

"Now, my great times 8 grandmare worked at a StableTec facility in Poneva. They manufactured and distributed talismans of all sorts. The Water Talisman was one of many of these."

This time, we all went silent.

"There is only one thing between us and Poneva, my little ponies." Overmare Peach Petals said gravely, leaving the podium and stepping to the edge of the stage to meet eyes with everypony in the room.

"The Stable doors."

It was quiet for a moment as everypony struggled to connect the dots. Myself, I was struggling to figure out if that was even possible.

"You … you want to open the doors?" I heard a Lightning Twirl squawk, reading my mind. Everypony looked at her, and then at the Overmare.

"But there's nothing out there!" one pony said.

"Just darkness, blackness, a void!" said another.

"We'll fall off the world if we leave those doors!"

The history books told us that the world outside was gone. That we were the last vestige of civilization on the planet. That we were the last of ponykind. What the Overmare said next sent shivers down my spine.

"It is our only hope. To open those doors, we may die. But to remain here, we WILL die." Peach Petals paused to let her words sink in our heads.

The ponies went silent once again. I didn't know what to think – what to do. I've never seen the world outside, and I wasn't sure I wanted to. The only other pony in my family who had ever been outside the stable was 200 years dead. The only life I knew was a life in the stable. What the Overmare suggested was nerve wracking.

Dew Drops wrapped a hoof around my trembling foreleg. I couldn't stop shaking.

"I want to send out an expedition to Poneva. I want to know if we still have a chance." Her expression turned grim. "I won't force anypony to go. All I ask is that six ponies volunteer."

My ears perked up at her words.

"I'll go." Somepony said next to me. That somepony was Dew Drops. My jaw dropped as I whirled to face her with wide eyes. "I couldn't fix the Talisman and it blew up in my hooves when I tried. I'll go."

"You're insane!" I hissed, loud enough for only her to hear. She ignored me as she stood to her hooves, and everypony gawked at her.

I held her hoof. "DD, please don't do this … you don't know what you'll find out there!" I begged.

She looked at me and didn't say anything.

"Thank you Dew Drops. I need 5 other ponies."

The room was silent. Nopony had the guts. I didn't have the guts. My own guts churned and I felt like puking out my dinner.

"I'll go too! I'm not letting my friends walk out that door alone!" Star Glint declared, jumping to his hooves.

Lightning Twirl spread her wings with an audible pomf. "You wrench-heads aren't going anywhere without me!"

Amber Fields …

"Me too. If they go, I go."

"Amber think about your colt!" I blurted out. "You have a family to come back to."

She looked hurt. "Red Dawn, you have a family too. Morning Dawn. Me. Dew Drops. Star, Twirl, and Box. If I don't go, there won't be any family left alive to think about."

I turned my eyes low, ashamed and angry at myself for speaking out. Was I being selfish? I beat myself up in my thoughts. I felt Dew Drops's eyes boring into my hide. What was she thinking? What the FUCK was I thinking? The weight of my friends' stares threatened to crush me beneath. I weighed my options: stand up with my friends and die at any moment we step out that door or wait here and die for sure. Either way I'd be dead.

My heart was racing faster than I could breathe, and I clenched my eyes shut so hard I felt like they were going to recede into their sockets. I ground my teeth and smacked myself mentally. I couldn't let my friends die out there. I couldn't let Dew Drops die out there. I'd never live with myself if I let her go and she never came back.

47 other ponies stared at us as I trembled under their heavy gazes.

I looked at my hooves. I wanted to cry. I wanted to cry for us all. My friends – Dew Drops – they were all volunteering to go and I didn't want them to go. I didn't want to go.

I gave out a trembling sigh and stood to my hooves.

"I-I'll go. I'll go with her … you all." I croaked, standing beside her.

"Red–" Dew Drops began, trotting towards me.

"You go, I go. We never. Work. Alone." I told her, my voice trembling, as I echoed her words from earlier, this time in a voice that everypony heard.

The auditorium doors burst open, and a bed headed Box Cutter stumbled inside.

"Don't you ponies go do anything without me!" he shouted, his head still wrapped in bandages. Box Cutter tripped on his own hooves, falling on his face as everypony watched. Lightning Twirl fluttered towards him and helped him to his hooves.

The Overmare's expression shimmered with both pride and sadness. Tears welled up under her eyes.

"Thank you. Dew Drops, Star Glint, Lightning Twirl, Amber Fields, Red Dawn, Box Cutter – thank you. You will be stepping into a world none of us here have ever seen. You'll be stepping out into the unknown." Her voice trembled, "You may not return."

Dew Drops was looking at her hooves, and I hugged her consolingly. She rested her head against mine.

"I would gladly come with you myself, but the stable needs me here. The stable needs you too, and you and you and you." She said, pointing her hoof at us and then the rest of the crowd. "Until they return, I will need all of you who remain to monitor the water usage and make sure nopony exceeds the 10 gallon limit. It would be even better to not max out one's daily ration, so please encourage the minimum among your fellow ponies." Peach Petals tipped her head upward as if balancing an apple on her nose, panning her gaze across us all.

"You are all dismissed. Goddesses help us all."

Everypony got up from their seats. Their movements were sluggish. Some were too stunned to even get off their rumps. The six of us started to the door, but a leg hooked around one of mine.

A teary eyed unicorn, a mare I barely knew from another shift approached me.

"Thank you…" She whispered.

A muscly security pony came to us. "I'm sorry nopony else had the courage to do that." He looked ashamed.

"Somepony had to do it." Dew Drops stated softly. "Don't be ashamed. I … I might regret this."

"Nopony should be ashamed," I added. "Not even I want to do this." But I was Red Dawn, the fixer pony, damnit. I fix things! And I'll fix this too. "But it's not about what I want." I looked at Dew Drops, leaning against her. "It's what we need to do."

Dew Drops sobbed audibly.

Ponies walked past our group, thanking us as they left. The Overmare was the last to the approach.

"Thank you." She said again, meeting our eyes. "We're on a very tight schedule, so you all will leave for Poneva tomorrow morning. Prepare your gear and pack rations to last at least a week or longer. You'll be armed, and you'll be ready." Peach Petals tapped her pipbuck. "I'll have the security ponies clear you all for armory access."

I gulped.

"Ma'am, are you sure we'll need them?" I asked with uncertainty. Everypony got weapons safety lessons when we were younger. I even got to hold and shoot one. We learned how to take them apart and put 'em back together, and we learned how to use them. I just wasn't sure I'd be able to shoot... something.

Lightning Twirl caught my apprehensive gaze and read my mind. "It's easy, just point, slip into SATS, and shoot!" She said, "Besides, I'll be here to protect ya. Your local security pegasus reporting for duty. Star Glint knows how to shoot too." Star Glint nodded with acknowledgement.

"I know some of you haven't held one since you were younger, but I'm sure Twirl can teach you." Peach Petals said, with an encouraging smile. "Get a lot of rest, and help yourselves to another dinner if you like. The armory and range are open."

We all hugged the Overmare.

"I believe in you ponies. You'll come back … you have to."

---

I sighted down range. Well, it was more of a really long tunnel with targets mounted on rails that ran down its length. The target was about 20 yards away from me, I estimated.

I levitated the carbine in front of my face, and pulled the trigger. In a flash of light and a puff of smoke, it rattled off a burst of lead that peppered the saucer shaped target a few dozen yards across me. I fired another, and this time the center of the target blew out from the tight placement.

"Naishot!" Amber Fields said through her bit as she aimed her shotgun down range. The earth pony tongued the trigger and the weapon's recoil made her stagger. She spat it out, laughing.

"Wasn't expecting that much kick!"

"Just plant your back legs firmly and let your body do the moving, not your neck." Star Glint said, trotting up to her, fixing her posture.

Box Cutter shouted wildly as he bit down his battle saddle's bit. He unloaded with both of the submachine guns that juttednout from his sides into a target not too far from the railing.

"T-h-i-sh i-sh fu-u-u-un!" He said against the saddle'srattling recoil.

Ratatatat – Dew Drops squeaked and dropped her carbine.

"Celestia's labial bits – don't fucking drop the gun!" I heard Lightning Twirl shout.

"Sorry …" I turned, setting mine down and levitating hers to the air for her. She took it with a nervous smile, and I proceeded to fire rounds down range. With short, controlled bursts, I eviscerated the target and filled it with holes.

I felt Lightning Twirl land next to me.

"Good, you can shoot piece of paper." She interfaced with her pipbuck and the round target sunk below the range and a new one appeared. This one was in the shape of a pony. "Try now."

Ratatatat – and I missed every shot. I realized that I was breathing heavily and the strength of my magic grip was waning.

Lightning Twirl gave me a strange look as I grinned weakly and tried again.

Okay, this time, I peppered the pony's chest with burst of 10mm bullets. A spray of crimson followed and the pony crumbled to the dust in a heap. Wait.

The blood drained from my face.

I ejected the magazine and leaned against the railing. The others were still firing down range. Twirl and Star were putting shots at the maximum effective distance. The rest of us were mediocre in comparison.

The hell was going on with me? I inserted a fresh magazine and pulled the charging handle.

I focused this time, entering SATS and aiming for the pony's – no, the target's head. The burst tore the damn thing off in a fountain of -

"SHIT! Goddesses damnit!"

Everypony stopped and looked at me as if I'd just lost my mind.

"You okay?" Star Glint asked. He looked at Lightning Twirl and she just shrugged, looking at me too.

I was hyper ventilating and shaking all over. What the fuck is wrong with me? It was just a paper target. Just a target. Not a pony. I blinked several times, and all I saw was its white, flat surface.

Box Cutter trotted over and bumped my shoulder with a hoof.

"Hey brony, you're shaking …"

Star Glint bit down on the carbine that floated in front of me and took it from my magical grip.

"You shoush chit down for a bit'n rest." He said through his teeth, patting me on the shoulder. Star Glint spat the gun out onto a table. "Really, I think that's enough. Besides, Twirl and I'll protect ya." Star Glint beamed.

I didn't say anything. I just sat on my rump in front of the railing and stared at the pony target.

"What the fuck… " I muttered, scratching my mane.

I heard hooves clopping behind me and Dew Drops stood over me, her muzzle nuzzling my mane.

"Is my apprentice okay?" she asked softly.

I looked at my hooves, shaking my head. I tipped my head up at her and shrugged.

"What's up?" Amber Fields asked, trotting towards us.

"I think he's just had enough for today." Dew Drops said as a matter of factly, magically lifting me to my shaky hooves.

"You should get some rest, bud. We're leaving pretty early tomorrow." Amber Fields said putting a hoof on my shoulder. I smiled at her sheepishly, nodding.

I started towards the exit but stumbled on my own hooves. Dew Drops held me in her magical grip as I exhaled softly.

"I'll take him to his room. You guys have a good night, okay?" She said, hooking a leg around mine and leading me out the door.

"Take it easy, Red." Box Cutter said as I bumped hooves with him weakly.

"Nite!" Star Glint and Lightning Twirl said at the same time.

I was silent for the rest of the walk. I don't know what came over me. My mind was blank and I didn't realize that we had at the door to my room. I reached out with a hoof and missed the panel by an inch.

"I'll do it … what's your passcode?"

"E-G-P-R-2-9." I said shakily.

The door opened and closed behind us as she helped me to my bed. She sat next to me as I looked at my hooves. I flicked on a lamp by my bedside table. She levitated the picture frames to her face and she smiled as she looked at them.

Her smile went away when she saw me staring at my hooves.

"Red Dawn, what happened? Why were you shaking?" she asked, setting the frames back on the table.

I sighed, shaking my head.

"I was shooting just fine then Twirl had to put up the pony target. I just couldn't do it. I got scared, and I imagined it was … another pony I was shooting at." I said, my eyes fixated on the floor in embarrassment.

She said nothing for a few seconds as she rubbed my leg with hers. She always knew what to say. Even when she didn't say anything at all.

"I'm just scared. I don't think I can do it, I don't think I can shoot anypony …" I rubbed my forehead with a hoof, furrowing my brow. "I shouldn't have volunteered, I'll just get you all killed."

She touched my chin and tipped my head to face her. "Don't say that. I'd rather get stuck in Hell with you than anypony else."

I smiled timidly. "Really?"

"Really." She said. I could feel her breath on my muzzle. She was really close. "I'm glad you came with us. I was really hoping you would. And you did. I was doubting myself until you stepped up."

"Why would you?" I asked. "You're smarter than me and you can shoot a gun – you're better than me at everything." I whinnied.

"I told you we can do anything … as long as we're together. Anything is possible, Red, when you have your friends with you. Remember that." She said, holding one of my hooves. "I can't do anything without you."

We looked at each other in the dim light for what seemed like an eternity. Then I felt her lips press against mine. I blushed and pulled away reflexively. She looked about as surprised as I did.

"I-I'm sorry, I thought …" she began, looking away while scratching her mane. I leaned close and kissed her back as she wrapped her arms around me.

"I wish we had more time." She said, softly. "I wish you'd done that sooner." Dew Drops added before she tongued the inside of my mouth.

How the hell did she learn how to do that?

"I'm sorry … I'm just trying to be good at what my cutie mark says I'm supposed to be good at." I admitted. "I'm so damn busy all the time." I trailed off, my eyes glancing at my handy pony queue.

She kissed me again and I tried to do that tongue thing. Ugh. Dew Drops pulled away and laughed. "You need to practice more often."

"We need to practice more often." I corrected her, running a hoof through her mane.

Dew Drops pursed her lips together, looking at me questioningly. "How's your leg?"

"Fine, it healed pretty fas –"

She rolled on top of me and laid me out on the bed.

"Um …" I said as I felt the warmness of her coat on mine. Now her breath was really close. She pressed her lips against mine before I could say anything and gave me a wet smooch. I just closed my eyes and took her tongue lashing. "Where'd you learn how to do that …"

"I had a few stallionfriends." She said chuckling. I narrowed my eyes at her and she caught on what I was implying. "Oh no … this – just instinct, I guess. I've never gotten this far before."

I breathed, relieved. "I haven't either."

"Course you haven't." she scoffed, licking my muzzle.

I shook my head, muttering, "Oh fuck me, I totally set myself up for that one."

The blue mare grinned wickedly, biting her lower lip and batting her eye lashes.

"Oh… I didn't mean – I –"

And she pounced.

---

I ran a hoof through her mussed, yet still delicate teal mane as she lay next to me. I watched as her chest rose and fell, listening to her soft breaths. Her forelegs were wrapped around one of mine which she hugged close to her chest. I smiled, laying my similarly disheveled mane onto a pillow.

I sighed softly as I watched her sleep. I thought I loved her. No, I loved her. I didn't want to let her go. I didn't want to let her leave the stable without me. But we had to leave tomorrow morning. There was never enough time – never enough time for her in my life. And now I wanted to make time.

I knew I wasn't going to be able to, and my smile faded away. I looked over her shoulder and saw the picture of myself and my parents. I looked away somberly. I needed to tell my mother I was leaving.

She wouldn't be too happy about that. In fact, she'd probably beg me to stay. I was only comforted by the fact that when I left, my mom, the mare who had given me life and raised me by herself would at least be safe. For a while.

I needed to save my stable. We needed to fix this.

I gently pulled away from Dew Drops's forelegs. She fidgeted sleepily as I pushed a pillow in its place.

".. huhh … Dawn…" she murmured in her sleep.

I felt my eyes well up with tears as I pulled the blanket over her and left my room. It was night time, well – night time in the stable I guess. The lights were off except for the glowing footlights that lined the floor in the halls of the living quarters.

High above me, the rooms where the pegasi slept had to be reached by a brisk, long climb around a tall spiral staircase. I trotted up the stairs, my hooves clopping against the gray tile making the only sounds in the quiet of the curfew.

I reached the top floor and a security mare shined her flash light in my face. She saw me and nodded as I trotted past her to my mom's room.

I knocked, and a few seconds later, my mom opened the door. I'd just woken her up but her face lit up at the sight of me.

"Red, what are you doing up so late?" She asked.

"Mom … I need to talk to you." I said with a grim look on my face.

She looked worried, and gestured for me to step inside.

The door closed behind me and we sat together on the same couch I played 'fly pegasus fly' on and hit my head on the same table that lay at the foot of her bed when I was just a colt. I didn't have wings like she did.

"What's up? Your mane is all mussed up." She said trying to straighten my mane with her hooves.

I gave her a nervous grin and her eyes widened.

"Oh I know that look … that's the look your dad used to give me when he's done something funny."

"That's beside the point mom. I need to tell you something and you need to promise that you won't freak out like you usually do."

She thought for a moment, and nodded, zipping her hoof across her lips.

I told her everything. My mom just stared at me wide eyed, her bottom lip quivering. I told her about the water talisman breaking, and then the meeting with the Overmare, and how I volunteered with Dew Drops and the others to go help find a new one.

"Red … why … y-you step out that door and … I might never see you again!" She held me with both her forelegs. The Water Talisman was the least of her worries. "I might never see my little colt ever again!"

"Mom! I'm not your little colt anymore …" I said, almost abrasively. I sighed. "I'll be fine, I'll come back – I promise!" I said as her shoulders began to rock and tears began to stream down her cheeks. Mom squeezed me so tight I didn't think she'd ever let go. I hugged her back and cried with her. I wasn't sure I'd be able to keep my promise. I … I didn't want to leave her all alone here.

I wept into her mane like a foal and she rubbed my back with her hoof. "Mom, I don't tell you this enough but –" I sobbed suddenly, unable to formulate words as I bawled. "-b-but I love you." I cried.

She hugged me tighter and said softly, her voice trembling. "I love you too, son." She kissed my forehead. "I know you're not a colt anymore, but a mother can only dream." Mom chuckled, wiping her cheeks. "I'm glad Dew Drops is coming with you. She's a good mare and I trust that she'll keep you safe."

I grinned sheepishly.

Mom looked at me with her watery amber eyes. "Whatever you do … whatever happens ..." Mom's quivering lips became a warm smile. "I don't know how many clocks, radios, and terminals you've fixed, but what I do know is that you can fix this. Do your best, like you always have. If you don't come back …" She trailed off, not wanting to finish.

"Whatever happens, I'll … I'll be proud of you, my little fixer pony." Mom said again, choking on tears. "Your mother loves you so, so, very much." She hugged me again and I rested my head on her neck as we sat on the couch together. "Your father would be too if he were here."

"I wish he were here." I whispered through sobs.

"He's always been here. He's watching us from the Everafter. He's watched you grow and become the engineer pony he wanted you to be."

I pulled away from her, but still holding her shoulders with my forelegs.

"If I go … I'll always be here too, okay mom?"

"Don't say that!" she snapped, looking away. "Please … I can't lose you too. I don't know what I'll do …"

I wrapped my forelegs around her and she wrapped her wings around me protectively as if the shadows that stretched across the walls were going to eat her baby colt.

"I love you son." She whispered.

---

It was time to go. We all stood in front of the door clad in black security barding, battle saddles, coats, balaclavas, gas masks, oxygen tanks, and everything else we needed to survive an irradiated, post-apocalyptic shithole.

I slung the carbine around my neck and checked my pipbuck again to see if I had everything. I checked and rechecked until I was satisfied I hadn't left anything behind. I looked through my inventory and eyed two items it identified as 'PICTURES x2'.

I smiled. They'd always be with me so long as I could still lift things with my horn.

I looked back and saw my mom among the crowd of almost a hundred ponies who stood a few feet away from us six. I lifted up my gas mask, pulled down my balaclava, and grinned at her, waving my hoof in the air. Mom cupped her mouth with a hoof and wiped away glistening tears before she smiled back. She stood on her hind legs so that she was a head taller than the rest of the crowd, pointed at me and shouted, "That's my colt, Red Dawn! Can you see him! That's him! My baby colt!"
Dew Drops bumped my flank with hers and we both laughed, waving at her again as the crowd cheered at us all. Peach Petals had informed the entire stable of the ordeal. Right now, we had everyone's expectations weighing down like planets on our shoulders.

The Overmare trotted toward us before looking at a windowed guard post one floor above us. She nodded and the ponies inside hovered their hooves over the door's controls. Peach Petals tapped a hoof on her pipbuck, overriding the door's lock.

"Goddesses guide you all. We'll be here waiting. I know you ponies can do it." She said, her voice trembling as she blinked away tears. I wondered how she felt, sending six of her ponies to their possible deaths. I couldn't have felt worse than the overmare or my mom.

"Thank you ma'am." Lightning Twirl said, saluting her.

Everypony had said goodbye to their families, and, like my mom, they too were cheering at us as we trotted toward the door. Dew Drops was wearing a blue and white striped scarf her mother had given her. I'd seen her mother wear it once. It made me think of the pictures I'd taken with me; it seemed as if we all wanted something to remember our loved ones by if we didn't get to come back. Or didn't come back in time. I gulped down a lump in my throat as my heart drummed against my chest. I needed to be strong. I needed to save them all.

A circular lock on the door spun and sunk into the door's surface. Wisps of steam leaked through it as it began to part. I closed my eyes and clenched my jaw; my heart felt like it was going to burst from my chest. I could barely breathe.

I opened my eyes and only saw another door. I gawked.

"What the …"

"That's a buffer zone. Please step into it. This will be the last you'll see of the stable when these doors close behind you until you return. Goddess speed, my little ponies." The Overmare said, saluting us as a tear streamed down her cheek.

I heard a grating metallic drawl and the doors began to close like curtains on a stage. My eyes caught sight of my mother's face and she smiled at me one last time before the doors shut.

The impenetrable steel door's lock spun into place and shut me off from the rest of the stable – and apparently the light as we stood there fidgeting on our hooves in almost complete darkness.

We waited there for what felt like hours, when the whole chamber began to rumble beneath our hooves. I gulped and my heart rate began to rise. I was shaking again, and I felt like I'd melt out of my barding and seep through the grating below us.

But I felt a leg wrap around me and I knew it was Dew Drops.

I need to be strong. I can do this. We can save the stable.

With a hiss, my ears popped and the door in front of us began to open. I raised a hoof above my muzzle, expecting to be blinded by the searing beams of natural sunlight. I expected to see a land flattened by the balefire bombs of my ancestors. I even expected to be sucked out of the door and into the open stars of the space I learned about when I was just a colt.

Through the widening crack between the parting doors I saw only darkness.

Only darkness.

Footnote: Level Up.

New Perk: Fixer Pony - +5 Small Guns, +5 Repair