Cutie marks.

There are so many people out there, including many ponies, that believe looking at a pony’s cutie mark can give you some great insight into their personality. Bull. Shit. Personally, I think even they don’t fully believe it; it’s just some excuse to check out a pony’s flank. Ok, I’ll admit, there are some cutie marks that instantly make you realize this that, hey, pony might be messed up in the head. For instance, if they have a head on a pike as their cutie mark, you may want to avoid them.

On the other hoof, most cutie marks are so damn abstract that it’s impossible to tell what their special talent is suppose to be. Just look at Ministry Mare Twilight Sparkle. She has a star on her ass… how the fuck does a star equal magic? She’s far from being the only pony with a cutie mark that is utterly meaningless without a full explanation.

There’s also another group of ponies who have cutie marks that look nice, until you hear the story behind it. Like mine; a heart with an arrow through it. So many other pegasi have seen my mark and thought it was cute and that I must be a hopeless romantic or something like that. The truth behind it is that I’m good at manipulating the feelings of others. A flutter of my eyelashes here, a wiggle of my flank there and the occasion kiss, or more, and I can get damn near anything I want from a stallion. Looking back at it, I guess it’s no wonder I ended up being a prostitute. Though at least when I’m on the clock stallions, as well as the occasional mare, know full well that I’m only pretending to be interested in what they say.

“What should we do about that… thing?” I pointed my hoof at the robot, um cyborg… whatever the hell you want to call it, “We shoulnd't just leave somepony’s brain in there.”

If you care so much about it, then kill it. Otherwise just forget about it.

“Kill it? You can’t just kill a pony just because they got their brain stuck in a robot.” I couldn’t believe she was even suggesting that.

“Better than just leaving it like this,” chimed in Charon.

Was it so bad being stuck in a robot that you had to die for it? That… just seems really fucked up to me. Leaving them stuck here to wait for more ponies that aren’t coming isn’t an option either.

You don’t understand how robobrains work at all, do you?

“If I did I wouldn’t have freaked out when I first saw the damn thing.”

“They have to follow their programming, even if their minds are against it. I’ve actually had one with corrupted programming apologize to me while it was trying to kill me,” said Charon. “This one will stay here, following its programming, until the end of time.”

Or until it runs out of power. She shrugged her shoulder, though, in a vault that’s still working, that won’t happen for a long time.

The robobrain wasn’t responding to us at all anymore, despite us talking about killing it. It just stared ahead at the vault door, waiting to greet other survivors that weren’t going to come.

I did my best to come up with possible solutions that didn’t involve killing the thing. I had already killed a couple steel rangers today and I really didn’t want to get used to death, particularly with me being the cause of it. A gunshot snapped me back to reality and I saw the robot fall over, what was left of its brains and the brain juice was leaking from its shattered dome.

We shouldn’t waste so much time at the entrance.

So much for trying to save the thing. I wonder who they were before being put into that machine. I’m not going to get the chance to find out now.

Leading out of the first room there were two doors, besides the gigantic stable door. One opened itself when I stepped near it, revealing a long hallway, and the other just led into a small office.

Charon and I went into the office to see if it had any good loot, as Charon put it. On one of its walls there was a poster with some shadowy figure taking files from a filing cabinent. Written on the top was: Keeping an eye out for corporate spies is your duty; and at the bottom: Make sure to report all suspicious behavior to management. There was a computer sitting on a desk with a half open drawer right below it, revealing a small box of bobby pins. Not entirely sure why there would be a box of bobby pins here but I won’t look a gifted horse in the mouth. After pocketing my loot I checked out the computer. Most of its files were just rules and procedures for employees but there was also a note:

They actually did it. The fucking stripes actually went and did it. Everything was just fine until a news report came up on the radio saying that Cloudsdayle had been hit. After that it was Manehatten and then Fillydelphia. Then it was just static. The tvs weren’t picking anything up anymore either. Ponies in Baltimare came rushing to the stable by the hundreds but some of them didn’t have stable tickets. Those that didn’t were forced to leave, even the children. Dear Celestia how did it come to this?

I shut the computer down and left the office.

“Find anything good?” I asked Charon.

“Not unless you consider a broken mug to be good. You?”

“Bobby pins but that’s it.”

The three of us walked down the hall. The bright lights of the stable were starting to give me a headache. Who, in Celestia’s name, decided that this much light was needed. Whoever they were, they’re an idiot and should be bucked in the head.

We eventually came to a split in the hallway. A sign was up to give directions; section A to the right and section B to the left.

“Wanna flip a cap to see which way we should go?” asked Charon.

Section A seems like a sensible starting point.

That seemed logical, I guess.

Ok, maybe not such a good place to start. The section A hallway led to two sealed, metal doors labeled substable A-1 and substable A-2. Each one was locked electronically and had a wall mounted computer next to them. Alpha has been typing away at the A-1 computer for the last half hour and has only grown more frustrated by the moment.

“Maybe we should just-“ I was cut off by a beeping sound.

Substable A-1 is now unlocked.

“Ahem, I knew you could do it Alpha.” She glared at me. “Well…we should get started.” I tried stepping forward, only to realize I wasn’t on the floor anymore. Oh and my body was now covered by a pink magical field.

No. Not we, just you.

“Wait, what? I have to go in alone?” Charon seemed almost as confused as me.

Do either of you ever think. If there are ponies in the substables, they haven’t seen the outside world since the end of the war. The only alicorns they know of are Celestia, Luna and Cadance. We don’t know how they’ll react to me. They may start worshipping me or they may think I’m some kind of monster.

Considering what I’ve heard about taint created alicorns, that second one was probably closer to the truth. Then again, I heard that from the Enclave and we all know how trustworthy they are.

And then there’s Charon. The last bit of news that did have from the outside world, from when their ancestors came into the stable, was that the zebras launched their megaspells and destroyed Equestria.

“She... may have a point there. A lot of ponies still hold a grudge over the whole war thing,” said Charon with a nervous laugh.

“So, I’m going in alone?” They both nodded in response. “I hate both of you.”

Enough whining.

Alpha pushed a button on the computer and the door slid upwards.

You are the first contact these ponies have had with the outside world in over two centuries, so try not to mess it up.

Going in alone… this can’t possibly end well. I took a deep breath and tried to push down any worries as I stepped in through the door, entering a small, empty room with another sliding door on the opposite end. The one behind me closed and the one in front of me opened, revealing a… town?

The room was huge and there were several buildings spread out in it. The ceiling was a giant screen with a video of the sky playing on it. Honestly, that part felt creepy. Maybe it’s because I’m a pegasus but there was just something disturbing about looking up and seeing a fake sky.

My attention turned from the screen to the busy town in front of me. There were plenty of ponies, all earth and unicorn ones, walking around and doing regular villager stuff.

“It’s one of the warmongers!” shouted out a pony, then the yelling and panicking came as they all started to freak the fuck out.

Gee, I wonder if this has anything to do with my arrival.

Four large, earth pony guards ran up to me, one in front and three baton wielding ones behind him. “Stop right there criminal scum,” shouted the one in front.

Yep, it’s about me.

The odd thing was that all four of the guard stallions were giving me plenty of room and I swear the three in back looked like they were hiding behind the one in front. It was almost like they were afraid of me.

“Put your weapon on the ground or... or else!” said the one in front.

Part of me wanted to ask, or else what, just to see their reaction, but I was suppose to make a good impression and all that. I grabbed the laser rifle from the side of my barding, which brought a wince from the guards, and gently laid it down on the ground, then I slowly backed away from it. “There you go boys, I’m unarmed. I’m not here to start any trouble.”

Finally getting a bit of courage in them, the guards rushed up over and surrounded me. “Come quietly and no tricks.”

They were taking me… somewhere. Many ponies were staring at me with a mixture of fear and hatred. However, there was an exception, one brown earth stallion way in the back of the crowd that only seemed curious. I don’t think I would have even noticed him, had it not been for the fact that his lack of strong reaction made him stand out. As we continued down the street, we passed a statue of a pegasus stallion. Scooteroll, founder of Stable-Tec, was written on the base. It has been a while since my last history class, but I’m pretty damn sure her name was Scootaloo and that she was, well, a she.

Anyways, they ended up leading me to some mansion that was easily twice the size of the other homes. Two guards stood in front of the double doors and eyed me wearily as we entered. The entrance room was probably bigger than my entire apartment. It had several doors along its walls, a pair of staircases leading up and one staircase leading down, which is where we went.

Instead of a basement, it was a dungeon down here, complete with old fashioned iron bar cells. They took my bag and placed it on a table near the staircase, sat my laser rifle down next to it and then shoved me into a cell before leaving.

“Oh yeah, I should go in alone, we simply don’t know how these ponies would react to an alicorn or a zebra. Great fucking plan Alpha.” I started to pace back and forth in my cell, “And just what the hay is wrong with these people. Who calls a pretty pegasus a warmonger and then arrests her for no damn reason. Bunch of idiots.”

I looked around the dungeon, hoping to see something, anything, to give me a clue as to what was going on. Then I got my answer from a pair of posters along the side wall. The first one had a picture of the six ministry mares and Princess Luna with the caption: Mares led us to an endless war. Next to it was one with a shadowbolt wielding a pair of anti-machine rifles that read: Where mares tread, death follows.

Ok, now it was starting to make more sense. These ponies blamed mares for the war happening and probably for the megaspells being used. A soft clop drew my attention back to the stairs, where I spotted a stallion peeking around the edge of the doorway. Just as our eyes met, he backed up, to stay out of sight. Ember, it’s time to put on your game face.

“Hey there. Came to see the wild and dangerous mare?” He peeked out from the corner again. “Don’t worry; I don’t bite; unless you’re into that kind of thing. Would you mind coming out from there?” He slowly stepped out and into full view. Pink fur with a green mane? Wow, some ponies were really unlucky with their colors. “So handsome, you got a name?”

“I’m, um… I’m Vines. What’s yours?” His nervousness was actually kinda cute and once you got past the colors, he wasn’t bad looking. Not particularly great looking either, but within the fuckable range.

“Aww, no need to be nervous hon. I’m Ember. It’s a pleasure to meet you.” He was keeping a noticeable distance between us. I guess he was afraid that the evil mare was going to attack at any moment. I tapped on the bars a couple times, “I don’t know what you’ve been told about us, but mares can’t break through iron bars. You’re plenty safe.” That must have made him feel a bit better, since he came closer. “You haven’t actually seen a mare before, have you?” He shook his head.

“Um… where… where did you come from?”

“From a city in the sky.” He took a couple steps closer, with his ears perked up in interest. “Mind if ask a couple questions?” He shook his head in response. “First off, why are you down here? I didn’t think they’d let anyone see the dangerous prisoner.”

“I… I’m the son of Mayor Stallion, so they let me go where I want.”

Makes sense, I suppose. “On the way here I saw a statue of pegasus named Scooteroll. Who was he?”

“Oh, that’s the founder of our town. He saw that it was the mares that lead us to war, so he set up a town of only stallions. That way we could live in peace…” after saying that, he pawed at the floor. “Um, no offense.”

Wow. I thought the Enclave had perfected bs propaganda but Stable-Tec could give them a run for their money. I flashed a little smile at him, “No offense taken hon. So, do you know what your father is going to do with me?” Thankfully Vines was too bashful to make a stupid sex joke, despite me giving him the perfect opening.

“I don’t know.”

“Really?”

Vines nodded. “But I guess he’ll probably want to speak with you.”

I really didn’t want to have to charm the mayor as well. Who knew how hard charming someone who led a mare hating town was going to be. “Could do me a huge favor? In my bag there’s a box of bobby pins. Would you please get it for me?”

He looked back at my stuff. “I don’t know.”

“Hon, what could I possibly do with bobby pins? C’mon, I just want to look nice for when I meet your dad.” It was time to pull out my hidden weapon, the lost puppy eyes. “Please?”

“Um… ok.” He opened my bag and poked around in it, eventually pulling out the little box and pointing to it with his hoof.

“Yep, that’s it.”

He walked up to bars and pushed the box between the bars for me to grab it. Before taking it from him, I leaned in and gave him a peck on the tip of his nose, causing his cheeks to turn bright red. I took the little box and we said our goodbyes. I told him that we should see each other again and he apparently loved that idea.

I almost felt bad for using him like that but there was no way in Tartarus I was going to stay a prisoner for these stallions.

Since it had gotten darker, I assumed it was now night and it was my chance to escape. However, without a screwdriver, this was going to be tricky. I decided on using a couple of the bobby pins pressed against each other in place of the screwdriver. I held the two in my mouth and the third between my front hooves. With the lock facing the other way, I had to try to do this through the bars. The only good thing about this is that if a guard saw me, I’d look so ridicules that he wouldn’t be able to guess what I was doing.

Ok, I think I found the sweet spot… snap. Fuck! After replacing the broken bobby pin, I set to work on attempt number two. Gently, gently… click. I silent thanked Specter for teaching me how to pick locks as I left the cell. I hovered a bit off the floor as I made my escape, doing my best to remain silent.

After I grabbed my bag and my rifle, I flew up the stair and went for the front door. I opened it to see a guard on the other side starring right at me. In hindsight, escaping through the front door was probably a bad idea.

“So… it’s a beautiful night out tonight, huh?”

“The prisoner is escaping!” he yelled out and many of the lights in the mansion came on in response.

I went over his head and flew as fast as my wings would allow towards the substable entrance. It only took a few moments for me to be at the main door, which of course was shut. I turned back to see torch wielding guards getting closer. I bucked at the door, hoping that Alpha or Charon would hear it.

Alpha, if you can hear this thought, open the damn door. Now.

The guards were closing in and I began to wonder if I’d have to shoot them. Killing the rangers was one thing. They were armed with guns and power armor, but these guards had no way of fighting against someone with an energy weapon.

Thankfully, the door slid open. I rushed out, going straight towards the computer and closed the door.

I take it that things didn’t go well?

“No things did not go well, Celestia damn it. That substable was nothing but a bunch of mare hating stallions.”

“Are… are you serious?” asked Charon.

“Yes! They’ve been told since being here that mares do nothing but spread war and death. Hell, they treated me like I was some kind of monster.”

Hmm… odd.

“Yes it’s freaking odd. I can’t believe that the idiots have bought that lie hook, line and sinker.”

No, that isn’t the odd part. What’s odd is that they still have a population after two hundred years but don’t have any mares.

Ok, she had a point there. How the hell do you reproduce without having mares around?

“Anyways, thanks for opening the door. You got me out of there just in time.” Alpha and Charon gave me a pair of confused looks. “What?”

“We didn’t open the door.”

“Then who did?”

I’ll look into it. In the meantime, you have another substable to check out.

“I’m going in alone again, aren’t I?” Alpha nodded. “I hate you two.”

Charon put his foreleg around me, “Look on the bright side, what are the odds of there being two substables full of mare hating stallions?”

Knowing what I do of Stable-Tec, I wouldn’t put it past them.

“Thanks Alpha, I feel so much better now.”

This was probably going to suck but looking through the stable is what I’m getting paid for. Alpha opened the substable door and then closed it behind me. Here we go again.

Just like the last substable, there was a town built here and a giant screen with a video of the sky playing. Also, I was getting stared at by the few ponies that were still out and about at this time. Though there was one big difference, they were all mares. However, knowing my luck, I’m sure they were probably told that pegasi are evil or to not trust ponies with red eyes or something that make them all hate me.

It didn’t take long for a group to approach me and act all cautious while doing it. “Uh… hi,” I said with a wave, doing my best to look friendly.

“Greetings,” said an old, grey mare in mare in front. “I am Overmare Blossom. What is your name and where are you from?”

“Ember and I’m from Las Pegasus.”

“So, there are other ponies that survived,” she seemed genuinely shocked by that. “How?”

“Other stables, cities in the sky and ponies that were far enough from the cities to survive. We’re like insects; we’ll never completely die off.”

“This calls for a celebration!” she exclaimed to the cheers of all the ponies around her.

Ok, this is going better. A lot better actually. In fact, it’s going too good… I got ten to one odds that the screen will fall and kill us. Oh and somehow, it’ll be my fault.

Despite it being at night, the whole town showed up and seemed to really love seeing the mare from the outside world. The only thing that made me a bit uncomfortable was that the feast was at the Overmare’s mansion, which happened to look exactly like Mayor Stallion’s mansion.

It didn’t take too long before all the questions came rushing in. “Did the princesses survive?” asked one mare.

“How many cities survived?” asked another.

“Why didn’t anypony come and check on the stables sooner?” asked the third.

“Ladies, please, one at a time. Our guest can’t answer all your questions at once,” said the Overmare. She nodded towards me and the crowd went silent, waiting for me to speak.

“Well, Equestria the country doesn’t exist anymore. Princess Luna died in the megaspells attack.” There was a collective gasp from the crowd and a few of them started to tear up. Can’t say that I blame them for it; I had just said that one of our goddesses is dead. “As for Celestia… I can’t really say that she’s alive but she’s not actually dead either. From what I’ve been told, her soul is trapped inside the central SPP tower.” I was met with several confused stares.

“How… how is that even possible?” asked the Overmare.

“You’re asking the wrong pegasi. I don’t know the first thing about magic so I have no clue why her soul is trapped there. All I know is that she controls its security system and her soul is causing an impenetrable forcefield to cover the tower.” There were a bunch of low whispers among the crowd. “Anyways, most of the nobles and military leaders also died so there wasn’t anyone really left to rally behind and continue Equestria.”

“Earlier you said that ponies survived by being in the cloud cities. Didn’t the zebras target them as well?” asked the Overmare.

Great, now we get to the part that can and will turn awkward. “Um… after Cloudsdayle got hit in the first series of megaspells, the pegasi covered the entire sky over Equestria with clouds and constantly moved around our cities for several weeks, keeping the zebras from being able to target them. They still got in a couple lucky hits, but when it was over, nearly all of the cloud cities were still in one piece.”

“I don’t understand,” said random mare number ten in the crowd. “If the pegasi mostly survived, then shouldn’t you all and the survivors on the surface have tried remaking Equestria’s government?”

This part of the explanation was going to suck, so much for me being on their good side. “Um, my ancestors sort of decided the best thing for us to do was to just forget that the surface ever existed and stay isolated. Oh and we created our own country: The Grand Pegasi Enclave.”

“So, you just left the ponies on the surface to die?” asked a random mare.

“For the record, I didn’t leave anyone to die. My ancestors on the otherhoof… yeah, that’s exactly what they do.” I figured it was best the leave out the attack against the surface ten years ago. They were probably upset enough without knowing that we not only left the ponies on the surface to die of radiation, starvation, etc, but also flat out killed many of them recently. Oh and how we kept the cloud cover over Equestria, forcing the ponies, zebras, etc on the surface to live in a permanent twilight. You know, it’s no wonder so many surface ponies hate us pegasi.

The whispers were starting to get a bit more intense. I couldn’t hear what they were saying, but it certainly didn’t sound nice. “Now, now, we can’t blame her for what her ancestors did.” She turned back towards me, “So then Ember, it’s only fair that we answer any questions you have, so is there anything you’d like to ask?”

Alpha’s question about how the stallions in A-1 reproduced came to mind. “This is probably going to sound weird but how do you reproduce? I don’t see any stallions around here.”

“Stallions… bunch of no good, lazy bastards…“ she mumbled for a bit longer about how much stallions sucked. Really, it wasn’t all that surprising that they were also fed a bunch of bull. “Sorry about that but discussing them is generally not done in polite conversation. Anyways, every couple of months or so some robots show up in town with vials of synthetic sperm for us to use.”

Since there’s a substable of just stallions nearby, I kinda doubt that the sperm is synthetic. “What do you do with any colts that are born?”

“Oh, the robots take them away.”

How nonchalantly she said that was a bit on the disturbing side. “One final question, can you open up the door leading out of your town?”

“…no.”

“No?”

“There is no way for us to open the main.”

See, I knew something was going to go wrong. Celestia damn it, why did I have to be right about things. Now I might be stuck in here for who knows how long.

I waited for the party to settle and for the guests to start leaving before stealthily making my way back to the entrance… well, ok, it wasn’t that stealthy but better than last time.

“If my luck decides to pick up, maybe it’ll be open… yeah right.” I stepped up to the first door and it opened like normal. Shockingly, the actually substable door was also open and had Alpha standing there, thank Celestia.

We need to talk.

I followed her out and she closed the heavy door. “So, talk about what?” I asked.

I found out a bit more about why the A-1 door opened for you. The substable door computers are all linked to a central server.

“And?”

Idiot. That means that someone or something not only has access to that central server but was also watching you and knew when to open the door. For all we know, they could have been watching us since we first entered Stable 113.