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

“Red!” I heard Dew Drops shout, “You’re going to be late!”

“Well fuck,” I hissed, throwing on my jumpsuit, dragging a comb through my mane, and rushing out the door. I ran into her and we tumbled to the floor in a tangle of limbs.

I looked into her cool 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, everyone was waiting for us. The Overmare regarded us with unnatural patience, tapping her hooves together as she stood on her hind legs against the podium.

Amber Fields lifted an eyebrow.

“You two are late,” she smirked.

“Late from a good night I hope,” Lightning Twirl grinned, giggling with her boyfriend.

My cheeks turned red once more and we took our seats before the Overmare.

About fifty other ponies – many of whom were engineers like me – were seated around us. Box Cutter, among many others of Shift C who sustained more severe injuries, were 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 everybody 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, shaking my head.

“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 aluminum tanks underneath the stable for centuries, and, while they may be clean, I’m sure the taste is going to get to them. But never mind that – what matters now is that we’re working on time borrowed from the ponies that lived before us.”

The ponies around me exchanged worried looks, murmuring among themselves.

“To be frank,” Peach Petals began, “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 only one we’ve ever 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.

“Everybody please settle down. I said we would get this resolved, and with your help, we will. We must, because the lives of almost three hundred people are counting on us.” Overmare Peach Petals 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 painted the 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.

“Beneath the engineering level, we have a six thousand gallon water tank. Stable-Tec was far too confident in their stables’ abilities to sustain their populations. But they at least installed a contingency for us to fall back upon.” She rested her hooves upon the podium, scanning the apprehension flickered across our faces. I took shallow breaths, squirming restlessly in my seat. There was no way we could survive with that much water. Not for long.

Not for long.

“Six thousand gallons …”

I stopped squirming. Six. Thousand. Nervous murmuring whispered among us. Dew Drops and I exchanged troubled looks.

‘Impossible,’ I thought, ‘It couldn’t be. Stable-Tec couldn’t have been that incompetent to not give us a proper contingency, could they?’

Six thousand was hardly enough for all three hundred of us. It just didn't make sense.

‘Those bastards. Those fucking bastards.’

Peach Petals’ voice echoed through my ears. “It’s not a lot.”

‘No shit.’

“But it will suffice – and I will gladly take what I can get. With our water usage reduced to maximum efficiency, and drinking water rationed properly, we should be able to last up to ninety days at the bare minimum.”

I grit my teeth.

“THREE MONTHS?” a pegasus mare hollered in disbelief, flapping her wings into the air. A hoof curled around her tail and yanked her back down to her seat.

Three months.

That was ninety days. Ninety days. Put it that way, and it didn’t seem so bad. But any number that told you how long you had left to live was still a difficult number to swallow. We had three months. Three months.

I wondered how much worse it would’ve sounded if she just said that. I gulped a lump of dread down my throat. I could already feel the months ticking by like seconds on a clock.

Our days were numbered.

"Now, now, my little ponies. Ninety days should be enough time to fix this, I believe,” she said evenly, trotting back up to the podium. She pressed another button and the projector flicked to a picture of Equestria. Names of cities and foreign nations, Ponyville, Canterlot, Manehattan, Roan, the Crystal Empire – some of them I knew, but all of them meant nothing to me. She pointed to one of the regions on the map.

“We are here, south of the Crystal Empire. Stable 91 was built not too far from a city named Poneva, which is near the Crystal Borderlands. One of my great grandmares down the line was from there. She worked for Stable-Tec.”

Stable-Tec. Stable-Tec built our stable. Everything we used daily, everything around us was built by Stable-Tec. They were the reason we had survived all those years.

And those idiots were the reason why we were done for.

“Now, my great grandmare worked at a Stable-Tec facility in Poneva. There, 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 everyone in the room.

“The Stable Door.”

It was quiet for a moment as everyone struggled to connect the dots. Me? I was struggling to figure out if that was even possible.

“You … you want to open the door?” I heard Lightning Twirl squawk, reading my mind. Everybody looked at her, and then at the Overmare.

“We’ll die if we step out that door!” one pony said.

“There’s nothing left out there!” said another.

“The balefire burned everything away!”

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.

“It is our only hope. If we open those doors, we may die. But if we remain here, we will die.” Peach Petals paused to let her words sink into our shaking heads.

Everyone fell silent once more. I didn’t know what to think – what to do. I had never seen the world outside in my life, 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 inside the stable.

And I couldn’t stop shaking.

Dew Drops wrapped a hoof around my trembling foreleg.

“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 anybody to go. All I ask is that six ponies volunteer.”

My ears perked up at her words.

“I’ll go,” someone said next to me. That someone 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. I can help fix this mess.”

“Are you crazy?!” I hissed, loud enough for only her to hear, “You really want to go out there?” She ignored me as she stood to her hooves. Gasps filled the air.

“You said it yourself earlier, Red … I know more about arcane devices more than anybody else in our shift. If worst comes to worst, I might be able to repair any talismans we find if they’re damaged.”

I held her hoof. “DD, please don’t do this … you don’t know what’s out there!” I begged.

She looked at me and said nothing.

“Thank you, Dew Drops. I need five other ponies.”

The room went silent. Nobody had the guts. I didn’t have the guts. My own guts churned as a rivulet of sweat trickled over my brow.

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

Lightning Twirl shot up into the air with a pomf. “You eggheads aren’t going anywhere without me.”

Amber Fields stood to her four hooves.

“Me too. If they go, I go.”

I couldn’t believe what I was hearing. “Amber, think about your colt! Your husband!” I blurted out. “You have a family to come back to!”

She looked hurt. “Red Dawn, you have a family too. Morning Dawn. Me. DD, 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 as shame and fear swept over me. Dizziness overcame me, and I clenched a shaking hoof around the back of somebody’s seat.

I could feel Dew Drops’ eyes upon me … boring into my hide, tearing me apart ... I shook my head furiously. What was she thinking? What the fuck was she thinking? There mere thought of leaving my home – my only home was insane. But the weight of my friends' stares threatened to crush me beneath. I couldn’t accept that Amber Fields’ was right. My home would be my grave if we couldn’t save it.

I weighed my options: stand up with my friends and die at the moment we step out that door – or wait there and die for sure.

Either way I’d be dead. Either way, they’d be dead.

My heart raced faster than I could breathe. I clenched my eyes shut so hard I felt like they were going to recede into their sockets. I couldn’t let my friends die out there. I couldn’t let Dew Drops die out there. I’d never be able to live with myself if I let her go and she never came back.

I trembled beneath their heavy stares.

My eyes clenched shut once more as I hung my head. I wanted to cry. I wanted to cry for us all.

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

“I’ll go,” I said, standing beside her.

“Red–” Dew Drops began.

“You go, I go. We never. Work. Alone,” I told her, my voice trembling.

The auditorium doors flew 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 flat on his face as everybody watched. Lightning Twirl fluttered towards him and helped him back up.

The Overmare’s expression flickered with both pride and sadness. Tears welled up in her eyes.

“Thank you … all of you – thank you. You will be stepping out into a world none of us here have ever seen. You will be stepping out into the unknown,” her voice trembled.

“You may not return.”

An unnerving silence fell upon us all. I turned and saw Dew Drops, her jaw clenched and her eyes fixed upon the floor. I wrapped my hooves around her and squeezed her tight as I felt her head rest against mine.

“My little ponies … 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 the ponies seated around us. “Until they return, I will need all of you who remain to monitor everybody’s water usage and make sure nobody exceeds the contingent five gallon limit.

“Should the worst come … should they not return, I will impose stricter limits and weigh other … options. But for now, I want you all to encourage everybody to not max out their daily rations – so please spread the word.” Peach Petals stared into the crowd, watching the fear and apprehension that wavered upon our faces in the heavy silence.

“You are all dismissed. Goddesses help us all.”

Everybody got up from their seats. Their movements were sluggish. Some were too stunned to even stand. The six of us made our way to the door, but a leg hooked around one of mine.

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

“Thank you …” she whispered.

A winged security pony named Beryl came to us. “I’m sorry nobody else had the guts to do that,” she looked ashamed.

“Someone had to do it,” Dew Drops stated softly. “I … I’m about as scared as you are.”

I chewed my lower lip, staring down at my hooves. “I don’t want to go,” I murmured, “But it’s not about that.” I looked at Dew Drops, curling a hoof around her shoulder. “It’s … it’s about what needs to be done …”

We stood at the door as ponies walked past, thanking us as they left. The Overmare was the last to approach.

“Thank you,” she said again, meeting our eyes. “We’re on a very tight schedule, so you all will have to leave for Poneva tomorrow morning. Prep 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. Everyone got weapons training when they were younger. We learned how to disassemble them and put them back together. We even learned how to shoot them. But if what everyone believed was true … that there was nothing left to find up there …

‘Then we wouldn’t need them, right?’I asked myself, hoping I wouldn’t have to find my answer.

I just hoped to the Goddesses that we were going to be right. I wasn’t sure if I could …

Lightning Twirl caught my apprehensive gaze and read my mind. “It’s easy, just point, flip on SATS, and shoot! Besides, I’ll be here to protect you. Lightning Twirl: your local security pegasus – reporting for duty," she said, saluting.

She cocked her head at Star Glint, smirking. “He knows how to shoot too.”

“Yep.”

Peach Petals gave us an encouraging smile. “I know some of you haven’t held a gun since you were younger, but I’m sure Twirl can teach you. Get a lot of rest, and help yourselves to another dinner if you like. The armory and range will be open for you.”

She held out her hooves. We all hugged the Overmare.

“I believe in you ponies. You’ll come back … you have to.”

I sighted my carbine down range. Well, it was more of caved in tunnel with targets mounted on rails that ran down its length. The target was about twenty yards away from me, I estimated – well below the weapon’s maximum effective distance.

I know, I know. Laaaaame. But I needed to start somewhere, right? It had been awhile since I last used a gun, after all.

I braced the carbine against my shoulder with my magic, eyed down the iron sights, and pulled the trigger. In a flash of light and a puff of smoke, it rattled off a burst of lead that kicked up plumes of dust in the distance.

‘Balls.’

Narrowing my eyes at it, I threw on my training wheels. I watched as SATS plotted a firing solution, angles, numbers, and lines arcing across my line of sight to the target like twinkling, teal footlights. ‘Great.’ I couldn’t possibly miss this time. A teal marker materialized before me - and I lined it up with my sights.

All that in less than a second. Next to me, Dew Drops' carbine flashed once, ejecting a shell casing that sailed through the air as I pulled the trigger faster than it could fall.

The rounds perforated the center of the target, blowing a hole out the other side.

“Nice shot!” Amber Fields said through her mouth bit as she aimed her shotgun down range. She tongued the trigger and the weapon’s recoil nearly threw her off her legs. She spat it out, laughing.

“Wasn’t expecting that much kick!”

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

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

“T-h-i-sh i-sh fu-u-u-un!” he cried against the saddle’s rattling recoil.

And to my right, Dew Drops was punching holes in targets much, much farther than twenty yards out.

Ratatatat – Dew Drops cheered, pumping her hoof as the paper target fluttered to the floor in halves. I glanced at her dim PipBuck, and knew instantly that she didn’t even used SATS.

‘I’m terrible.’

Sighing, I slipped into SATS once more, sighted down range, and pulled the trigger. With short bursts, I grouped my rounds in and a few inches around the bullseye. I wasn’t that bad … with SATS, at least.

I felt Lightning Twirl land next to me.

“Good, you can shoot a 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.”

I figured, this time, I’d try without SATS. But my eyes traced the target’s equine silhouette nervously. I gulped.

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

Lightning Twirl gave me a strange look as I grinned weakly and tried again, this time with SATS.

This time, I peppered the pony’s chest with burst of 10mm bullets. A gout of blood spurted into the air 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 landing hits at the maximum effective distance. The rest of us were mediocre in comparison.

‘What the hell is wrong with me?’ I screamed inside my head. I slammed a fresh magazine home and yanked the charging handle back.

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!”

Everyone froze and looked at me as if I just lost my mind.

“You okay?” Star Glint asked. He looked at Lightning Twirl and she just shrugged, eyeing me strangely.

I was hyperventilating and shaking all over. 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 pulled it away from my magical grip.

“You should sit down for a bit and rest,” he said, 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 you guys,” Star Glint beamed.

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

“What the fuck …” I muttered, scratching my mane.

I heard hooves clop behind me. I looked up and saw Dew Drops and her muzzle nuzzling my mane.

“Is my apprentice okay?” she asked softly.

I looked at my hooves, shaking my head. I peered 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, pulling me to my shaking hooves.

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

I started towards the exit but stumbled on my own hooves. Dew Drops kept me upright with a hoof 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.

“Night!” Star Glint and Lightning Twirl said simultaneously.

I was silent for the rest of the walk. I didn’t know what came over me. My mind was blank and I didn’t even realized that we arrived at my door. 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 beside me as I stared at my hooves. Dew Drops glanced at my bedside table and levitated to herself the picture frames of us and my family with a warm smile.

But her smile faded away when she saw the uncertainty that haunted my expression.

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

I sighed, shaking my head.

“I was shooting just fine – then Twirl had to put up that pony target. I just couldn’t do it. I got scared, and I imagined it was … another pony that I was shooting at,” I muttered, staring at the floor.

She said nothing for a few seconds as she rubbed my leg with her hoof. She always knew what to say, even when she didn’t say anything at all.

“I’m just scared,” I confessed, “I don’t think I can do it. I don’t think I can shoot anybody …” 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 Tartarus with you than anybody 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.” Her eyes fluttered away nervously. “I was really hoping you would. And you did. I honestly was having second thought 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.

“You know that’s not true,” she glared, scolding me. “You’ve always been able to fix anything you’ve put your mind to. We always have. I told you we can do anything … anything is possible when you have your friends with you, Red. Remember that,” she said, holding one of my hooves as her soft gray eyes gazed deeply into mine. “I can’t do anything without you.”

We looked at each other in the dim light for what seemed like an eternity.

“Dew Drops …” I began, until I felt her lips press against mine. I blushed and pulled away, wide-eyed and shaking. She looked about as surprised as I did.

“I-I’m sorry, I thought …” she began, her nervous eyes darting away from me. My brows furrowed as I hesitated, biting my lower lip as she turned her head away. But my heart hurled me onward. I leaned in close and gave her my flustered reprise.

As our lips met, she sat there in bliss, relishing in our kiss. A kiss I knew we’d both been working up the courage to do for too many years.

I gave in. I finally gave in. The floodgates parted, and my brain couldn’t contain my heart any longer.

Suddenly, the purifier, my queue, my cutie mark, the water talisman – none of it mattered to me more than the mare that sat next to me.

Slowly but surely, she returned to clarity and wrapped her legs around me, pulling me close.

“I wish we had more time,” she crooned, her lips leaving mine for the briefest of moments before returning to fill the void between us. In a few hours we’d leave. Leave the warmth and safety of our stable to venture out and into the unknown, possibly never to return again. We didn’t have much time left.

Dew Drops leaned against me and I felt her warm breaths upon the nape of my neck. “I wish you’d done that sooner,” Dew Drops whispered into my ear before pressing her lips against mine. My entire body went stiff as I felt her tongue slip inside my mouth.

‘Goddesses …’

My eyes fluttered closed. My heart throbbed faster than I could breathe. The taste of her tongue … it was intoxicating. I felt like I was going to melt into her hooves and become a steaming puddle of Red Dawn fondue.

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

She touched my cheek with a hoof, turning me away from that momentary distraction before she kissed me once more. I tried to do that tongue thing. ‘Ugh.’ Dew Drops nipped playfully at my lower lip before pulling away. She smirked. “You need to practice more often.”

“Is this training day? I-I seem to be getting a lot of that right now,” I chuckled nervously, holding her close with my trembling hooves. But really, it was her holding me.

Dew Drops pursed her lips, eyeing me worriedly as she noticed the palpable trembling in my forelegs. “How’s your leg, by the way?”

“Fine, it healed pretty fa –”

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

“U-um … DD?” I said as I trembled at the warmness of her coat. Now her breaths were really close. “Wait –” but she silenced me with a wet smooch before I could say more.

I just closed my eyes and took her tongue lashing.

I pulled away, gasping for precious air as she waited, gazing down at me patiently with her half-lidded eyes. I paused for a moment, and that moment became seconds. Lying there, I thought to myself quietly as my heart pounded inside my chest – faster than I could breathe.

It felt like my heart was going to explode. I couldn’t move. I couldn’t speak. I could do nothing but lay there …

Frozen. Petrified.

As her muzzle hung inches away from mine, I found myself peering apprehensively into her gentle, gray eyes. They were the same familiar eyes I’d known and seen my entire life, but only until then had I ever looked into them and found myself so lost … and yet so found.

My whole life I had all the time in the world to look into those eyes … but only at that moment was I able to see. And I should’ve seen it a long time ago.

Realization dawned upon my face.

Goddesses. Dew Drops … she was so beautiful … and I was so afraid. Afraid that that was the only night we were going to have.

I blinked myself back into reality when I felt her hot breaths panting against me.

I knew what she wanted. I could see it in her flushed cheeks and her longing stare.

But Goddesses … I wanted more than that. At that moment, I wanted a future that I realized I should’ve wanted a long ago.

Our heartbeats slowed as the seconds ticked by.

“Red?” she said softly.

“DD …” I murmured. She cocked her head as I brought a trembling hoof to touch her soft, velvety cheek. “Could we … slow down?”

Several long heartbeats passed as I searched her eyes, afraid of what she’d say next.

I felt her body loosen up as a tender smile slowly stretched across her lips.

“Oh, Red …” she sighed gently, nuzzling me.

I closed my eyes and kissed her.

“I love you so much, DD,” I whispered, “I … I don’t want to make this night seem like it’ll be our last.”

She lowered herself onto my chest and snuggled up against me, and I squeezed her tight. Dew Drops cupped my cheek in her hoof and turned my head so that we could see eye to eye.

“I’ll love you, Red. Always …”

I ran a gentle hoof through her soft, bed-headed mane. A thin smile stretched across my lips as I watched her chest rise and fall, listening to the cadence of her soft breaths. I couldn’t believe it. I found it difficult not to stare. Lying there beside me, she was as beautiful as ever.

There was something about sleeping – vulnerable and helpless next to the mare I loved that made me love her even more.

Dew Drops squirmed, murmuring to herself in her slumber, before wrapping her forelegs around one of mine and hugging it close to her chest.

I sighed softly as I watched her sleep. I thought I loved her. No – I loved her. And I didn’t want to let her go. I didn’t want to let her leave the stable without me.

Tomorrow we would embark upon a journey into an alien world.

With her lying beside me, I pondered my life thus far.

For much of my teenaged and adult life, and until very recently, I scoffed at the thought of even finding a mate. Because if a stallion or a mare couldn’t find love in our stable and have a child, a stallion would donate, and a mare would be inseminated to bear a foal in order to maintain our stable’s population. It was dystopian, I know, but it was also rare ….

Still I always imagined I’d be alone for the rest of my life and become a nameless sperm donor for our stable, and that some mare would bear a child who would never know who its father was.

But as I lay next to her, I imagined … I dreamed … I longed for a life with her, and a family of our own. I lay there in silence, fighting the tears that threatened to well out of my eyes, trying to come to terms with the fact that there wasn’t any time left for us. For Dew Drops and I.

But Goddesses … I wanted more … I wanted a life with her … and I never wanted this night to end.

I looked away, closing my eyes. I didn’t deserve a mare like her. I was ashamed. There was never enough time – never enough time for her in my life. And I wanted to make time.

But I knew that I’d just have to make that night last. I sighed and hugged her close, her eyes fluttering open for a moment before she floated away back to her peaceful slumber, her legs still wrapped around me.

Lying there for hours with her in my hooves, I stared at the ceiling and dreamt wistfully of a life we might never have. A life I wanted so badly. I didn’t want to think about what might’ve been waiting for us outside those doors.

Blinking away my tears, I looked over her shoulder and saw the picture of myself and my parents. I needed to tell my mother that I was leaving.

I knew that she wasn’t going to be happy to hear that. In fact, I knew that Mom was probably beg me to stay. I was only comforted by the fact that when I’d leave, my mom, the mare who gave me life and raised me by herself would at least be safe.

I needed to save my stable.

I gently pulled away from Dew Drops’ forelegs. She fidgeted sleepily as I pushed a pillow in my place.

“... huhn … Dawn …” she murmured.

I felt my eyes well up with tears once more 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 climb up a tall staircase. I trotted up the steps, my clopping hooves the only sounds audible in the silence of the curfew.

I reached the top floor and a gray-coated security mare shined her flashlight in my face.

"Red Dawn?" Silver Dove, a pegasus quarter regular called out to me.

I knew it was past curfew. She did too.

"Hey ... I just wanted to visit my mom before tomorrow," I began.

She bowed her head and waved me forward with a wing.

"Go ahead," she said softly with a smile. "And good luck out there tomorrow. Stay safe, Red Dawn."

I rested a hoof on her shoulder and nodded before we parted ways. Trotting through the hall, I found myself outside Mom’s apartment.

I knocked, and a few seconds later, Mom opened the door. I just woke her up but her face lit up at the sight of me.

“Red, what are you doing up so late?” she asked, cocking her head.

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

She eyed me worriedly and motioned me to step inside.

The door closed behind us and we sat together on the couch. The same couch I played ‘fly pegasus fly’ on and banged my head on the table when I was just a colt. I didn’t have wings like she did.

It was hard to believe I was going to leave all that behind. Leave her behind.

“Your mane is all messed up,” she said trying to straighten my hair with her hooves.

I gave her a nervous grin and her eyes widened.

“Oh, I know that look … that’s the look your father used to give me when he’d 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 with wide eyes, her bottom lip quivering as the blood drained from her face. 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 grasped my shoulders with both her forehooves. “I might never see my little colt ever again!”

“Mom! I’m not your little colt anymore,” I groaned. Her eyes welled up with tears as she shook her head, not wanting to accept that I’d be leaving her behind … and never coming back. To her, I’d always be her baby, and she wouldn’t – she couldn’t let me go.

“I’ll be fine, I’ll come back – I promise! We can do this … we can save our stable,” I told her as her shoulders quaked with sobs and tears streamed down her cheeks. Mom squeezed me so tight I didn’t think she’d ever let go.

A darker part of me wasn’t even sure if I’d be able to keep my promise. I … I didn’t want to leave her all alone. I gulped down my tears. I tried to swallow the cries that were clawing their way out of my throat – but the sound of my mother’s sobs wrenched open the tear ducts that I had dammed tight for too long.

I hadn’t cried since I was a foal. I guess, even then, I was still a foal. To Mom, I’d always be her little colt.

I cried out and wept into her mane like a baby. All my life she cared for me, and all my life I saw it as an annoyance, her overprotectiveness irritating me at every twist and turn.

I remembered earlier, outside the clinic, how I was so dismissive of her love for the only family she had left. So much shame. So much regret. In my life, I would have done so many things different.

It was time to make up for the words I never said enough to the only mare who deserved it more than anybody else in our stable.

“Mom –” I sobbed, stumbling over my words as tears streamed down my cheeks. “I … I love you."

She hugged me tighter and said softly, her voice trembling, “I love you too, Son … I’ve always loved you – I’ll always love you no matter what happens ...” She kissed me on the forehead. “I know you’re not a colt anymore, but a mother can only dream,” Mom chuckled, wiping her cheeks. “I’m just 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 settled into 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 her teary sobs. “Your mother loves you so, so, very much.” She squeezed me tight and I laid my head against hers. “I know your father loves you too.”

“I wish he was 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 I know he always wanted you to be.”

I looked my mother in the eye, my forelegs still wrapped around her.

“If I don’t come back …” I murmured, “If I don’t come back … I’ll always be here too, okay Mom?”

“Don’t say that!” she snapped, looking away. Mom pulled me close and hugged me tight, not wanting to let go. “Please … I can’t lose you too. I don’t know what I’d do if I lost you both.”

She folded her wings around me protectively as if the shadows that stretched across the walls around us were going to eat her baby colt.

“I love you, Son,” she whispered.

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

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 that I didn’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.

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 my mask, pulled off my balaclava, and grinned at her, waving my hoof in the air. Mom cupped her mouth with a hoof and wiped away tears as she smiled back. She stood upon her hind legs so that she was a head taller than the rest of the gathering crowd.

Mom 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 finally filled in the entire stable on our ordeal that morning. At that moment, we had everybody’s apprehensive expectations weighing down like planets on our shoulders. There was a sort of fearful optimism in the air. And hope. But mostly fear. You could see it in everybody’s eyes.

As I pulled my balaclava over my muzzle, I was glad that they couldn’t see it in ours. At least not in mine. My mask hid away the uncertainty that lingered upon my face. I wasn’t sure if I could say the same for my friends. Yes, they were nervous. But Lightning Twirl – especially – she looked as nervous as a wing-sprinter shuffling behind the starting line.

She was leading us, after all. Lightning Twirl knew this well as she let out a long and drawn out sigh, stilling her shaking body.

She was ready.

We were ready too. No. We were as ready as we’d ever be.

The Overmare trotted over before peering up 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 stable 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. “You have to. You just have to …”

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.

Everybody had already said goodbye to their families, and, like my mom, they too were waving their final farewells as we made our way toward the door. Dew Drops was wearing a blue and white striped scarf her mother gave her. It was her mother’s favorite – a hand-me-down from her mother’s mother. It made me think of the pictures I took 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 a lump down my throat as my heart drummed against my chest. It felt like I had weights tied to my hooves. Every heavy step was a step further away from the only home I had ever known.

I gulped once more. I needed to be strong.

We needed to save them all.

A circular lock on the massive, cog-shaped door spun and sunk into its surface. Steam leaked and hissed through the cracks as it began to part, uttering a deafening metallic roar that threatened to melt me into the steel grating beneath my hooves. 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 great, cog-shaped door. I choked on my panting breaths.

“What the …”

“That’s the airlock. Please step into the vestibule. Until you return, this will be the last you’ll see of the stable when that door closes behind you. Goddess speed, my little ponies,” the Overmare said. I watched her force a sob back down her throat, her chin trembling as she steeled herself and clenched her jaw tight.

I heard a grating metallic groan and the doors began to close behind us like curtains on a stage. My eyes caught sight of my mother for the last time. I couldn’t watch as a mixture of fear, pride, and sadness played across my mother’s face. She wiped away the tears that were pouring down her cheeks, as she too mustered the courage to smile ear to ear at the only family she had left.

I grinned back behind my mask, promising her with my honest eyes that I’d return.

Then the impenetrable steel door slammed shut 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.

Then the whole chamber began to rumble beneath our hooves. I gulped and my heart rate began to rise. I was shaking again, and I could feel butterflies fluttering inside my stomach. I wanted to hurl.

But I felt a leg wrap around me.

Dew Drops …

‘We need to be strong. We can do this. We can save our stable.’

With a hiss, my ears popped and the door before us began to part open. I raised a hoof above my muzzle, expecting to be blinded by searing beams of natural sunlight. I expected to see a land flattened by the balefire bombs that annihilated 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 darkness.

Only darkness.

Footnote: Level Up.
New Perk: Fixer Pony – You are obsessed with maintaining a wide variety of machines, devices, and contraptions. +5 Small Guns, +5 Repair