The elevator dinged and the doors parted open. Dapple Gray led me across the hall to the only room on the 91st floor: the penthouse suite. We walked past rows of hanging picture frames of what had to be notable members of the Stable-Tec corporation.

I paused for a moment to look at a picture of three mares, one with a yellow coat, another orange, and the third white, holding each other’s hooves up high before a cheering audience. Behind them, a projector casted an image of a newly built Stable door, labeled with only the number ‘1’.

'Stable-Tec – On a Crusade to build a better tomorrow,' said the plaque beneath it. It took me a moment to recognize just who those mares were … I had seen them before in the textbooks at school. Apple Bloom, Scootaloo, and Sweetie Belle – the founders of Stable-Tec. How could I forget the very ponies that designed all the stables in Equestria?

I looked closer, craning my neck.

Dapple Gray cleared her throat, and I snapped out of it, cantering up the hall to catch up with them. With me in tow, we arrived at Mister Sterling's executive suite. As I watched Dapple Gray approach the door, I found that my heart was drumming against my chest. I felt a little sweaty, too. I trembled – not from fear, but from sheer anticipation.

I took a deep breath as the mare knocked on Mister Sterling’s door. Seconds passed, and a thin line of sweat trickled down the side of my face.

The door opened and a tawny unicorn stallion stepped out into the hall to meet us. He saw me first, catching my uneasy stare. His eyes flickered with perplexity as they turned to see me. One of his eyes was red. The other glowed with a soft green light, a long scar running down his brow over his eye.

Quickly composing himself, the stallion, older than his one good eye showed, creased his lips with a curt smile, opening the door wider. The faint sound of whining mechanical servos whirred beneath his shabby white lab coat as his slender frame stepped out into the hall.

“Sterling, sir,” Dapple Gray said, straightening her spine.

He brushed her shoulder with a forehoof and her posture wavered, somewhat.

“Thanks, Gray.”

He turned his weathered face to me, seized by a peculiar warmth I never thought I’d ever see in the frozen wasteland. “Hmm,” he murmured, studying me as he tapped a hoof to his chin.

“I’m the guy who runs this place," he said with a smile, scratching at his short white mane, "But people call me Mister Sterling.” He held out a hoof to me. I flinched as if he was drawing a knife. It was just a simple hoof-shake. But no one out there had ever been that kind to me until then.

His polite smile widened, but it only gripped my heart with hesitation. “What about you, my boy? What’s your name?” At least he didn’t call me colt, or kid - like everybody fucking else. He seemed like a nice guy … but …

I took his hoof, cautiously, and shook it. “My name’s Red Dawn,” I replied, unable to remove my eyes from the unnerving pair of multicolored orbs that were holding my stare. “I’m from Stable-”

“91,” he said suddenly, plucking the words right out of my mouth. I stood there with my lips parted open, confounded. “I never thought I’d see the day when those doors would open,” Mister Sterling intoned. One of my hooves came to scratch at the number painted on my right shoulder pad. It was muddled with a dark red stain that I forgot to clean off.

“I never thought I’d see the day …” he trailed off wistfully.

My hooves shifted uneasily beneath me.

“Uhh … have we met?” I asked, sheepishly.

He thought for a moment, even though I knew the answer to my own question.

“We will soon, I suppose.” The aging pony held the door open for me, and motioned me inside. “Well, come on in. We’ve got something to talk about, don’t we?”

Suspicion stifled the movement in my legs. I found it hard to trust a pony who knew more about where I was from than anyone else in the entire wasteland.

I glanced at Dapple Gray, who was giving me that stern ‘I’ll break you if you try anything’ look again. Nodding slowly, I stepped inside his office as Mister Sterling leaned out the door to have a few words with Miss Gray.

While they spoke, I glanced around his penthouse office, curiously. Soft yellow light casted shadows against the ancient, graying walls and the dark hardwood floor.

Potted plants, filing cabinets, and tables stacked with glowing terminals and flickering monitors furnished Mister Sterling's personal suite. A staircase led to a wide mezzanine with a couch, drawers, closet, and a bed that must’ve been there since the bombs fell.

Hanging from the walls were pictures of ponies in pre-war garb. One was of a pair of stallions tipping their hats to the newly built Stable-Tec tower – nearly the same as it was when I saw it outside.

Looking past the half-mooned desk at the center of the office, I peered through a wide, panoramic view of the dim, flickering city below. I trotted toward the window and placed a hoof against the glass.

It struck me that Poneva was much much bigger, once. City lights – indicative of life – grew sparser and farther in between the further I stared out into the distance. Beyond a gloomy graveyard of skeletal high rises, I saw only an opaque curtain of night.

The heart of darkness. The heart of Poneva city. Out there, there was only darkness. The city limits had shrunk severely ever since the bombs fell, but where there was light, there was life. Even so, it was shocking to see so much of it in one small place. It was nothing but a horseshoe shaped glow that faded away into the black distance.

I wondered how many people lived out there.

The office’s door closed, and I heard hooves clopping towards me against the hardwood floor. “Six thousand souls,” the old pony said. I heard him before I saw him. Whirring mechanical servos sighed as he came to a stop beside me.

I glanced over my shoulder and saw the stallion looking out the window, too. “Six. Thousand. That’s how many people call this city their home.” He turned to me, asking, “You don’t see those numbers anywhere else in the wasteland do you, my boy?”

“I wouldn’t know,” I replied, simply, running a hoof through my messy mane. “I haven’t been out and about for too long.”

“Really? I wouldn’t have been able to tell you were new to the Northern Wasteland,” he said. “You look like you’ve seen it all.”

I closed my eyes for a moment, and sighed.

“I’ve seen enough."

I saw his gaze gravitate to meet my reflection’s gloomy eyes.

“And still, enough won’t ever be enough until you’ve finished what you came out here to do.”

My ears perked, and I met his weary gaze.

“You did mention that something happened to your stable? Your … water talisman?”

I let out a shallow breath, nodding. Mister Sterling turned and leaned his back against the window, folding his legs across his chest. “Stable 91,” he trailed off, touching his chin. “You're a long walk from home, Red Dawn.”

I snorted, the light in my eyes darkening as a humorless smile creased my lips. “I spent most of it running, not walking, Mister Sterling.”

He broke his gaze, turning his head away from me to stare out the window and into the dark city.

“I know how rough of a place the wasteland can be for a stable pony …” he trailed off, looking at his hooves.

A PipBuck with a dim teal screen encased his left foreleg.

“So you are from a stable?”

He nodded as I frowned at the way he was avoiding my eyes. “You remind me of myself when I left mine.” He lifted his a metal foreleg, its servomechanisms humming as he laid eyes upon his prosthetic hoof.

“Alone. Bloodied. Searching for something,” he trailed off.

“That why you tugged on Dapple Gray’s leash?” I smirked.

The stallion went silent for several heartbeats.

His servomotors yawned as he shuffled on his hooves. “I knew 91 would open its doors one day. But … I wasn’t expecting this. I wasn’t expecting you to be the only one."

Mister Sterling studied my face as my ears wilted like dying flowers. I could hear my nightmares rattling behind the closed doors of my mind once more.

He finally looked me in the eyes.

“What happened … how bad was it?”

I clenched my jaw, leaning against the window. “Not too bad. Yet. Our water purifier had a meltdown and it took our water talisman with it.”

His gaze wavered for a moment as he glanced off to the side, his mouth open in silence. “That’s why you’re here,” he said, not asking.

I nodded.

“Then you couldn’t have possibly left alone …” He blinked and went silent. I looked at my hooves and his eyes softened. “Oh … no … I’m so sorry.” Mister Sterling said in the gentlest of tones, “They were your friends, weren’t they, my boy?”

My jaw clenched as I let his question sink into my heart. I hesitated, breaths refusing to enter my lips.

“Six of us. We came out here looking for a new water talisman.” I muttered, “I’m the only pony who made it this far. I’m the only one left.” I looked up and Mister Sterling was thinking quietly once more.

I remembered – vividly – the shattered fragments of scrap metal that had remained of our talisman. The pipes shrieked. They exploded over my head like gunfire. I clenched my eyes shut. I remembered the way Amber Fields died. Remembered Lightning Twirl falling out of the sky. Remembered the chain of explosions that silenced those screaming slaves.

They were but flashes in my eyes.

I could hear them again. The snow furies. Fresh in my mind like blood that wouldn’t dry out. I cupped my mouth with a hoof, gasping quietly as Dew Drops' screams and their laughter faded away.

Mister Sterling caught the ghosts that haunted my dark eyes. I tensed as he laid a hoof onto my shoulder, nodding slowly, and telling me, without words, to take all the time I needed.

I looked away, staring at the floor beneath the gentle weight of his hoof. I closed my eyes for a moment, loosening up, the pony’s hoof still resting upon my shoulder. I opened my mouth to continue, but I clung to the words that hung from the tip of my tongue, inhaling sharply.

“We’ve all lost someone,” he said, echoing Gail’s words. Night Sky’s words. “I … believed that I’d lost everything I loved when I stepped out that stable door.” He squeezed my shoulder with a hoof. “But you, my boy, still have everything to lose.”

“I want to go home,” I murmured, thinking of Mom’s warm smile, and her loving, feathery hugs. “Though I’m not quite sure if I can anytime soon.” I bowed my head, my mane falling before my eyes.

He remained silent, nodding to himself in the somber quietude that followed. “And you’re hoping that I can give you what you came here for?”

I stared at him, trying to read his face. Trying to gauge his reaction at what I’d say next. He already knew.

“Come on,” he said, finally, trotting away from the window. “I’d like to show you something. Maybe I can raise your spirits a bit, my boy. And please, just call me ‘Sterling’.”

I hesitated as he started toward the door. He paused, glancing at me over his shoulder as he waited. I exhaled a breath I realized I’d been holding, and trailed after him as we exited his office to take another elevator ride several floors down the tower.

With an audible ding, the doors parted open and my nose crinkled at the same overwhelming scents that I smelled earlier. Only this time, they were far more intense. And I saw why.

Sterling beamed with pride.

"Welcome to the Hanging Gardens of Poneva, Red Dawn."

My eyes widened.

Towering above me, upon dozens of tiers of hydroponic gardens were trees, hanging vines, and green stalks – their fruits hanging proudly from their thick branches or blooming from their lush tendrils.

Networks of irrigation piping wove through the brush, trickling sparkling freshwater directly into their submerged roots. I followed Sterling down a hanging walkway between groves of apple trees.

Unlike the ones at 91, those apples were a mouthwatering shade of yellow, the same ones I was admiring on the first floor. Sterling looked over his shoulder and saw the curiousness in my eyes and decided to humor me. Brushing past a labor bot that was inspecting the arcane machinery around us, he picked an apple from a branch and floated it towards me.

I looked at him, unsure as he placed it in my open hoof.

“Go ahead: have at it,” he said, smiling.

With an audible crunch and a spray of delicious apple juice, I took a bite and swallowed. My retinas dilated to saucers as liquid heaven made sweet, sweet love to my taste buds and dribbled down my chin. 'Good Goddesses …'

It was as if Luna just squirted inside my mouth.

'So that's what she tastes like,' I thought.

Sterling chuckled as I took another bite, and another, and another. Before I knew it, the apple was gone, and I was puppy eyeing the ravaged core that rested upon my hoof.

He chuckled, “You got a little something on your lip."

I licked my lips ravenously and wiped away a stray apple chunk.

“Wow, this is fucking amazing!” I gasped. Sterling’s smile only widened.

I blinked and I cleared my throat, my cheeks reddening. “Sorry, I mean, they’re just … so … guh-hooooood.” A labor bot rolled before me and plucked the apple core from my outstretched hoof.

Sterling snickered, dismissing my outburst with a wave of a hoof. “That’s exactly what I thought when I had my first.” He sighed, looking up at the hydroponic gardens that hung above us. “They’re called ‘Golden Delicious Apples’,” he told me as my stomach grumbled. He picked two more, one for me and the other for himself. He tossed me one and I caught it between my teeth, its juices trickling down my lip.

“I think they’re my favorite,” I said, relishing in the sweet aftertaste that lingered on my tongue.

“They’re my favorite too. Heh, and Goddesses, whoever named them that named them right.” The old pony chuckled, plunging his teeth into the golden orb that floated in his levitation spell. I stopped chewing for a moment when he said Goddesses. That was the first time I’d heard someone other than me say that word out there.

“At 10 caps per pound, these are the cheapest apples in all of Poneva. Ponies scramble for these when my agents cart them out into the markets.” He took another bite, chewed, and swallowed. “Six thousand souls.” Sterling waved a hoof above him at the gardens that stretched up to the ceiling. “All this? Everything you see here? It still isn’t enough for everyone.”

I looked all around me, eyeing up and down at the hydroponic … plantation around me. “How is that ... possible?” I murmured.

Sterling led me down the catwalk, nodding at a pair of lab ponies that trotted past us. “Tell me, Red Dawn, what was your job at Stable 91 before you left?” the old pony asked.

“I was … I’m an electrical engineer.” I was going to say an apprentice engineer … but … “Yep. Electrical engineer,” I added.

He chuckled, “Well, you're not an arcane engineer ... but still, you must know a thing or two about water talismans, right?”

I thought for a moment, a sly grin barely grazing my lips. “Of course,” I replied. Thankfully, that wasn’t a complete lie. I knew a thing or two; I just didn’t know everything there was to know about them like Dew Drops did. She was the arcane engineer, after all.

“What can you tell me about them?” he asked.

I gave him the textbook definition. “Water talismans use purification spells to produce freshwater.”

I crunched into my apple, chewing victoriously.

He nodded as we trotted across the catwalk. “Indeed. The water talisman is an intricate lattice matrix of quasicrystalline superconductors that, when introduced to an expurgation spell, focus and replicate it exponentially, generating an arcano-distillation field to thaumaturgically purify a liquid or aqueous substance for consumption.”

I stopped chewing. Sterling turned to my muddled expression, my mouth open so wide that he could see the half-chewed chunks drooling from my lower lip. I gulped, smiling sheepishly. That was a mouthful.

Sterling laughed. “Well, of course any stable engineer would know that!” he added as I stared at him blankly. “Don’t worry, I had to learn that too when I was an engineer at my stable.”

That bastard was testing me.

“Yes, of course,” I murmured. The pony snickered as we trotted along the catwalk.

“I was able to learn more about those talismans when I arrived here. This facility was one of the premier R&D centers for agricultural research in Equestria back in the day. Many of the botanical, biological, and arcanomechanical technologies used to grow and sustain plant life were developed here.”

What with the immense gardens and groves that towered over us, I wasn’t surprised.

We stopped at the center of the room overlooking a massive cylindrical machine that seemed to stretch up and down from and into the floors above and below us.

“Holy hell,” I muttered, unable to fathom the amount of work it must have taken to put the whole machine together.

It was gargantuan. It would take a several minute long trot to navigate around its entire circumference and a long elevator ride to get to the machine’s base. Pipes, branching out of the metal trunk, formed a vast network of piping that fed the hydroponic gardens.

“Any idea what this beauty is, Red Dawn?”

I touched a hoof to my chin. “It reminds me of the water purifier back home.”

“That’s because it is. This facility was used to research and develop new strains of fruits and vegetables that could be grown without conventional farming techniques.” He nodded to himself, saying, “You might know of a few, like the white apples grown in your stable - like in many standard configuration stables throughout Equestria. But they needed something to provide water for all their plants,” he said, marveling at the beauty of the arcane engineering before us. “It only made sense that the first water talismans were created and used here.

“During the war, Stable-Tec, with help from the Ministry of Arcane Science, researched the applications for advanced Crystal Imperial superconductor gems, which was the standard in the Empire at the time –”

“The Ministry of ... ?”

Sterling chuckled, folding his forelegs over his chest as he leaned against the railing. “You didn’t pay much attention in your Equestrian History class did you, my boy?”

“U-uh, sure I did. It’s just been so long.” I never thought I’d have to hear about the Ministries again after I graduated. I hated Equestrian history - but I passed that class. Passed, not aced - like I did with the rest of my classes.

They’re the ones who blew up the world, anyways.

Fuck'em.

Sterling cocked an eyebrow at me as I brooded, silently.

“Well the M.A.S did just what their name suggested," he continued, "They researched and developed new magical spells. They’re the ones who invented the mass expurgation spell, or the purification spells used in conjunction with water talismans.”

I nodded slowly. Again. “I knew that.”

“Unlike the flawed, reverse-engineered zebra talismans that Equestria used in mass-produced talisman designs, water talismans were built by unicorn scientists for quality over quantity, using imperial gems that were guaranteed to increase their efficiency and output ten-fold.

“Here, they developed the very talismans used in every single stable in Equestria, field testing them through their hydroponic agriculture research.”

My eyes lit up. “I-if they made them here, then you must have enough talismans to last hundreds of years!”

“Well,” he began, tapping his hooves together. I noticed that he wasn’t looking at me anymore. Again. “Water talismans were made in labs, not factories. They were constructed by hoof in batches, tested, and shipped, before another batch was given the green light to begin assembling.”

He paused, severity hardening his features. My ears drooped, my enthusiasm slowly dying away.

“The last batch of twenty never left its testing phase when the balefire came.” He averted his gaze to the water purifier. “That batch is currently being tested as we speak.”

I rubbed my forehead with a hoof, exhaling a breath I just realized I was holding in. “Wait, what? They’re being tested?” I scratched my mane incessantly, grinding my teeth. "Can't you stop the test? You don’t need twenty water talismans to feed this plantation, do you?” I gulped a lump down my throat as my heart fluttered with apprehension.

Sterling bit his lower lip. “This water purifier was built to test several water talismans simultaneously. Take one out ... and the machine ends its testing phase.” He looked at me with a grave expression. “It was already on when I first came here.”

I clenched my jaw, hoofing my face. “Well what’s that supposed to mean?” I whinnied.

Still unable to hold my apprehensive stare, he continued, “Many of the systems were offline and irreparable when we converted this facility into a hydroponics plantation. End the testing phase, and the purifier may not be able to run another test –”

“Please!” I snapped, suddenly, stomping my hoof. “Can you help my stable or not?”

The weary old pony bowed his head to his hooves.

“I’m sorry Red Dawn ... if I stop the test, the plantation will fall apart.” He chewed his lower lip, and shook his head. “No. I can’t help you.”

'No,' I thought as my legs wobbled beneath me and my head started to spin. 'No, no ...

'No.'

“WHAT!?" I screamed, trembling as my heart quaked inside my throat. “You … you can’t?”

He shook his head. “No,” the old pony said firmly, once more.

'No. No? NO!' I collapsed against the railing, hanging my head over the edge as rivulets of sweat burned against my forehead.

Something shattered inside of me.

“Everyone in my stable is going to die …” I murmured desolately, staring into space with vacant eyes. “Everyone in my stable is GOING TO FUCKING DIE!”

Sterling took a step towards me.

“I’m sorry Red Dawn … I really want to help you –”

“BUT YOU CAN’T! YOU WON’T!” I shrieked, bowing my head as if ready to charge, “Your fucking plantation is worth more than other people’s lives!”

“Red Dawn –”

“YOU'RE ALL THE SAME! I SHOULD’VE KNOWN YOU WERE IN IT FOR THE CAPS LIKE EVERYONE ELSE – ”

“BE QUIET!” he roared.

I fell on my haunches, gasping for breath, my eyes widened to watery saucers.

“Six thousand souls, Red Dawn,” he said, his voice trembling. “Six thousand – and all this … all this isn’t enough. Our yields are hardly enough to feed less than a thousand ponies. But it’s all we have. We’re the only source of large-scale free labor in all of Equestria.

“We’re a clean business. A fair business. We pay our employees. We sell modestly. The other plantations – they don’t! They enslave ponies to work in their fields. They fund gangs and pay mercenaries to fight their wars and do their dirty work, and guess who’s caught in the crossfire?”

I closed my eyes, shaking my head.

“Us. You and I. The mom and pop's store down the street. The orphanage around the corner. Everyone who lives in Poneva is either a tool waiting to be used or fodder for their goons!” The weary old pony sat before me, looking me in the eyes.

“But so long as everyone can eat their food, so long as everyone can do their drugs, people will just looking the other way while they kill, and rape, and steal!

“Cut our production, and people will keep putting caps into funding more crime, more extortion, and more slavery in the north – in Equestria."

He held my shoulder, and I peered into his eyes. They flickered with sadness as he squeezed me gently with his hoof. But he blinked, and the severity returned to his stare. “People are trying to fight them. We are, too, in the ways we can. We’re trying to win this city back. But if we let them win … the entire north will become their playground.”

I shook my head, whimpering as I refused to believe it ... to believe that he was right. My stable would have to die so that six thousand would live. Six. Thousand.

My heart screamed that the 194 ponies back at home meant more to me than anything or anyone else in the world. Sterling – Gail – Night Sky – they could all go to hell with those six thousand for all I cared!

“I really want to help you,” he said, softly, “I know what it’s like to lose everything. To leave everyone you love behind ... But there’s more at stake here than just ... one ... stable. I’m trying to make this city … maybe even this wasteland a better place.” He pleaded with me, “You have to understand …”

I didn’t say anything as I lowered my head to my hooves. I couldn't … I just couldn't .... I just gave up.

I slammed my hooves into the floor as I rose to my fours.

“I wasted my time coming here. Wasted everyone’s time.”

I thought that maybe I’d just find someplace to die in the wilderness. Maybe I’d just run into a bunch of snow furies and get flayed alive. I didn’t care anymore.

I turned, and walked away.

“Red Dawn, wait -”

I kept walking.

“RED DAWN, STOP THIS INSTANT!” he shouted, and I froze. “Don’t walk away from me when I'm talking to you, my boy.”

“I’M NOT YOUR ‘BOY’!" I screamed, tears welling out of my eyes, "AND I’VE GOT NOTHING ELSE TO SAY TO YOU!”

Sterling clenched his jaw, pain flickering across his face. But he didn’t stop.

“Well I do,” he said firmly. “I can still help you!”

“Why?!” I snapped, glaring at him. “Why do you shake my hoof, just to push me away!? Why do you care about me? My stable?!”

Sterling's ears drooped as he looked at me with sad, weary eyes. “Because I was a stable pony - just like you,” he told me. “Because I lived in a stable … just like yours. Three hundred lives are still lives to save … what would I be if I simply chose one or the other? If I can help other ponies, I’ll do everything I can to try.”

“There’s no point …" I muttered. "I’ll find another way – I-I’ll search the entire wasteland if I have to!”

The old pony snorted, chuckling darkly. “You’d be wasting your time. No one would give up a water talisman as easy as I would.”

“As if I haven’t wasted my time already!” I screamed, baring my teeth. “It’s over, Sterling …”

Sterling grabbed both my shoulders, and shook me. Hard. “It’s. Not. Over! If I can replace those water talismans with something else … something ... better, you can have them all.”

I shrugged him off and sneered, “Oh yeah? With what?”

“The other plantations purge their water with old world machines – maybe even magic that no one else has ever heard of or seen. If we win … if the World Tree somehow took their land, those machines - that magic, we’d have enough food to feed the entire city, all six thousand souls … the settlements outside … maybe even the entire north.”

“Somehow …” I muttered, burying my head in my hooves. “SOMEHOW?” You’re betting my stable’s life on a … on a ‘SOMEHOW’?”

“If we beat them … I’ll be able to give you more water talismans than you’ll ever need – enough to last you hundreds of hundreds of years.”

My eyes widened. “I-is that a promise? Hahaha!” I chuckled mockingly, a cruel, bitter grin stretching across my lips. “Dapple Gray told me how much bigger they are, how much more dangerous they are, and you want to steal from them?

“You’re either dreaming too big or you’re fucking insane, Sterling!” I screamed.

I paced back and forth restlessly, sweat trickling down my forehead. “I’m running out of time. They’re running out of time,” I said, trying to lower my voice. I couldn't.

“I don’t need your hypothetical BULLSHIT! I need solutions – now!”

The old pony stared back at me in silence.

My eyes fluttered closed and I hung my head. He reached out, and I flinched, batting away his hoof as he tried to keep me from shaking. “I’m sorry Sterling …” I sobbed, seeing the pain in his eyes, “But how … HOW CAN I SAVE THEM!?”

I held my breath, trying to keep myself from coming apart. But I couldn’t. I let out a quaking sob. I let out another. Another failure. Defeated. Again. I leaned over the railing, strands of my disheveled mane falling over my eyes.

“What the fuck am I going to do now?” I whimpered softly, cringing at the intangible agony - the despair that writhed inside of me. I went there thinking I’d find hope. Thinking I’d find salvation.

I didn’t find shit.

“How … Sterling,” I began, my voice trembling and uneven, “How can I choose them over the ponies I love? My mom … my stable… I can’t … I-I just can’t! If you can’t help me now … then ... then it’s already over.

“I promised them that I’d find a talisman. Please … I can’t choose … I can’t betray the dead ..." I sniffled. "Six thousand ponies … shit! If letting my stable die is right, then I don’t know what right is!”

He closed his eyes and I turned mine away. We stood there in silence as the water purifier hummed in the somber silence.

Sterling's voice gently parted the curtains between us.

“If you won’t do it for us, do it for your stable. Your … family. Do it ... because there’s no other way.”

I covered my eyes with a hoof, shaking my head vigorously.

“BULLSHIT! There … there has to be another way!” I cried as he watched me in silence.

“M-maybe I could look for one of those dead stables … take theirs.”

“If looters haven’t already,” Sterling murmured, plucking the words right out of my thoughts.

“Fuck! Maybe m-maybe … maybe I could go south, find someone,” I babbled, “Someone … someone …”

He just stared at me, saying nothing even as I fought to shrug off the thoughts that screamed exactly what he wanted to tell me. I couldn’t bring myself to accept that he was right ... that there was no other way ... that I had to bet my mother’s life on someone’s dream.

I would move entire mountains to save her – to save them all! If there was even the slightest chance, I’d wrench the earth apart to find one! If there was even a chance …

But what would I be if I turned away from my only chance – even if it was the smallest one there was … the only chance there was left to save Mom, to save my home …

My heart was tearing itself apart - torn between two worlds, a nightmare, and the other, the only world I’d ever known.

I whimpered, cradling my head in my hooves. The old pony was right. There was no other way. A tear slaved down my cheek.

“How can I trust that you won’t just fuck me over? How can I trust you won’t just fuck my stable over?”

The pony gave me a hard stare.

“I can’t make you trust me, my boy. But I’ll be damned if I can’t make you trust that you’d be doing the right thing.”

“The right thing,” I chuckled, shaking my head.

It was the only thing I could do.

And I’d do anything – anything – to save my stable.

“My hooves are tied,” I whispered, uttering a curse beneath my breath as I shook my head, slowly. “But I can’t go home empty-hoofed. If I can't, I might as well just die ...” I turned to him my pathetic gaze, my eyes watery and bloodshot. “How?” I asked, finally, “How can we stop the plantations?”

“The resistance,” he answered. “We’re not alone. No one ever is. The Orphanage, the Fallen Angels – we’re all working against the slavers. But they’re the ones on the front lines, the ones who do the real work.”

“The what? The Orphanage … the Fallen Angels?” That emblem I saw on that orange mare’s wagon started to make sense. “How … how can I help? How would I help? I’m just one pony.”

Sterling grinned. “You don’t look like the type to sit around in a lab and do what we do here,” he said, as I fidgeted on my hooves. “Find them. Join them. I don’t know where, but that’s what you need to do.”

I hesitated for a moment, narrowing my eyes at him. “Why the hell don’t you know where to find them? I thought you worked with them?”

He shook his head. “The Orphanage keeps their safe houses a secret to protect themselves from everyone else. They’re afraid of snitches and moles stabbing them in the back.” Sterling gestured me to follow him as we made our way back to the elevator.

“I … I would’ve thought the city would be more supportive of them,” I murmured.

But I knew that Poneva was a brutal, uncaring place. Only the strong survived. Everyone else was a victim.

“They’re just … afraid,” Sterling said, softly. “Say or do anything that makes the plantations tick, and they’ll find you. Make you pay." He snorted, "They’ll even pay you to change teams.”

The elevator dinged from floor to floor.

I chewed on my lower lip, uncertain. “What if they don’t even need me?” I asked, quietly, staring at my hooves. I wasn’t a fighter. I was pathetic. All I had done so far since I left home was run.

So I wondered: what use could I be to them?

Sterling shook his head at me. “There’s too few of us and too many of them. No, they need everyone and all the help they can get,” he said as we reached the ninety-first floor. “But we have what it takes to win. The plantations built for themselves a time bomb waiting to explode. Sooner or later ponies are going to get sick of them. All we need to do is push the right buttons.”

“I’ll still need to find them,” I murmured. I blinked, and groaned, hoofing my face. “What about the Angels? Do you at least know where the hell they are?”

I followed him to his desk where he took a seat in a chair behind it. He gestured for me to take one too. “I don’t deal too much with the Angels – all I know is that they’re ... somehow on our side, too. They’re very clandestine. They’re aggressive. Standoffish. Dangerous. The Orphanage calls them terrorists. Me? They’re just another part of the resistance.”

“I ran into one today,” I began, running a hoof through my mane. “Ran her wagon off the road …”

“You’re lucky she didn’t kill you, my boy.”

“She almost did.”

The old pony chuckled, darkly. “You’re better off looking for Salacity’s Orphanage. We give them portions of our yields to support their relief missions throughout the North. They’re good ponies, Red Dawn. The kind that just want to make this wasteland a better place.”

“Where would I start?”

“Ask around Old Town. There’s bound to be someone who knows, there. Check the inns, bars – places ponies frequent. The wasteland’s a very small place.”

My hooves came to my face, rubbing the bags beneath my tired eyes. Soon, I thought, if the wasteland kept it up for me, I’d be looking too old for my age just like Sterling.

“Do you really think they can be stopped?" I stared at my hooves. "This ‘resistance’ sounds pretty … dislocated.”

Sterling folded his legs across his chest.

“We can do it,” he told me. “I’ve dedicated my entire life to this place, to these people … I’m in too deep to think otherwise now, my boy.” The old pony looked away for a moment.

“The Orphanage and the Angels might not agree on some things – on how to deal with the plantations, but their goals remain the same." A warm smiled stretched across his cheeks. "That, at least, is worth fighting for.”

I chuckled softly. He really did believe that. I wasn’t sure if I could ... but seeing that the look on his weary face … hope. He had hope. In a place like that, hope was for dreamers ... and Sterling was one of them.

But out there, I knew ... I knew that dreams were better than reality … better than that nightmare … more so if someone could make them become a reality. If there was hope for the wasteland, then it lied within ponies like Sterling.

I sighed, rubbing at my weary eyes. “Then I’d better damn well start looking. Soon,” I said, finally, narrowing my eyes out the windows.

“It won’t be easy, Red Dawn.”

“It’s the only way,” I muttered. “But I want to know what I’m getting myself into. What about the plantations?”

He rested his hooves upon the table in front of me, leaning toward me. “The East Eden Company’s led by Winter Blossom. She and I … we were business partners once. Didn’t like the way I ran things, so she went ahead and started her own. She attracted the Blood Brothers gang and hired her own private mercenary army. She’s charming. Vindictive. A savvy businessmare.”

“Her own fucking army?” I blurted out. “What the hell am I getting myself into …”

“Then there’s the Sunny Days Company. Alder Blaze runs the drug business in Poneva with the Silver Horseshoe Society and the Palomino mafia; he likes a good smoke. Likes it a lot. More than other ponies. Get in his way, and he’ll smoke you too.”

He stared at me the way my mom did when I told her I was going to leave the stable. “You need to be careful out there.”

I cocked my head. “You seem to care a lot about a pony you just met.”

Sterling lowered his eyes to his desk.

“I was just like you when I was younger. No one gave a shit about the lone stable-dweller.

“I found out the hard way that the closest thing to being cared for was to care for someone else,” he said, his smile bittersweet. “You made it this far. The least I could do is lend a hoof to a pony who went through hell to get here. Otherwise, your journey would’ve been for nothing. And I know what it’s like to be in vain.”

I stared at him quietly, my ears drooping. “I … thank you," I whispered. "When those turrets opened up on me, I thought I was doomed. Thought my stable was doomed. You saved my life.”

Sterling gave me another faint smile and looked down at his hooves. “You … remind me of someone I used to know. He was a lot like you. A hard-headed kid. A good kid.”

My bloodshot eyes softened. “What happened to him?”

Sterling stared down at his forehooves.

“I left him behind when I left my stable.”

A long silence hung over us as he sat there. A part of me waited for him to say more. He didn’t.

Sterling just sighed, resting his muzzle on his hooves. “Us stable ponies have to stick together. We’re a dying breed out here in the wasteland. Not too many stables have been opening their doors … those that do … those that do haven’t always been coming out alive.”

“How’d you know?" I asked, "About Stable 91, I mean?”

The stallion paused for a moment, meeting my eyes before replying, “My terminal’s connected to Stable-Tec’s monitoring network. This facility was used to keep track of progress on the north’s stable construction projects. I know everything from project specs, equipment, population size, which ones are currently online … which ones aren’t, and so on, and so forth.”

“Fair enough,” I said, peering into his multicolored eyes. A few moments passed by in silence until he looked away. “Time isn’t on my side, Sterling. I need to go. Now.” I said finally, standing up from my chair. “I don’t have time to just sit around.”

“Indeed. Before you go, I’ll radio Dapple Gray to pack you some supplies. Fresh food – fruits, a few potions.”

I nodded quietly. I needed all the help I could get - all the help he was willing to give. The pony trotted to the door, holding his PipBuck to his muzzle. “Wait here while I ring her up.”

Several minutes later, Dapple Gray and the same security ponies that escorted me earlier were outside the door, and Sterling was chatting with her outside. She didn’t sound too happy. Something about packing lunches for stupid kids. I rolled my eyes – but in the process, I caught sight of the terminal sitting on his desk.

I hesitated. Sterling seemed to know a lot about the stables in the region. He seemed to know a lot about 91. I clenched my jaw as I eyeballed his terminal. A part of me didn’t want to do it, but the other wanted to know more about that peculiar pony.

I wondered, 'How did he know I was from 91? How did he know so much?'

My hooves found themselves upon the terminal’s keyboard. He’d left it on. I scrolled through its contents, glancing over the monitor every now and then as I clacked away on the keyboard.

I craned my neck, keeping one eye on the door and another on the screen.

<REGIONAL ARCHIVES>

Clack.

'There we go,' I thought.

REGIONAL ARCHIVES

Stable 91.

Stable 95.

Stable 98.

Stable 103.

Stable 105.

Stable #$%$

S$@!& #^&&

*$@^ & #$%

I pursed my lips as I entered the very first entry, noting the gibberish at the bottom of the screen.

< Stable 91. >

Stable 91 Goal Summary

Narrowing my eyes curiously, I clacked a hoof on the keyboard.

ACCESS DENIED.

'Damnit.' I frowned, wondering what it meant by ‘goal’. For what other purpose was my stable built besides keeping everyone alive when the bombs fell? It was a fallout bunker, not a lab experiment.

My eyes took a furtive glance over the terminal’s screen, and Sterling was still chatting away outside. I didn’t have time to linger.

I decided I’d check out the next entry. Clack. Snippits of information, and some more gibberish flashed before my eyes.

I gulped and kept scrolling down.

Stable 91

Starting Construction Date...

#$%#$#@#$

E%$#$% Const%&$##%$ %ate..

##*&%@#%#

Maximum N#$#ber of Occu&ants...

300

#$%@@$% Control Sys#$#

#$%#@#

Pri#$@ P%w#r Supply...

Ge##ral Arc%$#%s Spark Gene%#tor

#eco%##%y @#we# S$%%&#...

%$#$

N%# St#$&#%# Equi%$&#t...

#ou%d &qu%&$%nt (item%&$ in $#&o #3%##46-2A)

Musical%^#$$#&*@#$&^$*&#&*^$^#&**29

#(&$^&((#*$&^^&#&))(*#$&8-012*(*^#^$*

St&tus …

I scrolled down to the bottom and entered the final entry. I needed to know how he knew.

<St&tus …>

Clack. The screen flashed and I glowered at it, swearing under my breath.

****ERROR****

File Corruption Detected.

Please Reinstall Operating System Software.

I stared at the monitor, perplexed. I returned to my seat and reclined in the chair, pondering curiously the tawny pony whose head was still outside the door.

He lied.

Footnote: Level Up.
New Perk: Educated - You gain two more skill points every time you advance in level.