Author's Notes:

once more, this is more or less a finished rough draft in need of editing, I'll do my best to keep the spelling errors to a minim, but the grammar is were I am weakest. Other then that, I hope you enjoy the story.

As I went through the tutorial I was surprised to find that the V.I. had left me a audio message, "dear new user, this program is your heath and management assistant V.I. This program will provide higher detail in the state of your heath, and will provide organized management of your inventory. This program can, if approved by the user, be vocally activated, and has a text to speech function for any book to study. Remember that your pipbuck is not a toy, so to follow the instructions of your teachers, and stay in school." I was following it until the teacher part, and I'd ask about it, but the others were busy working.

The V.I. left a three other notes, one was about not being late for class, of which was not a problem for me, the other two were about change in the pipbuck systems. One change was that of the E.F.S. that life-forms detection thingy, it had a red bar for hostile, yellow bar for neutral or non hostile, but also a blue bar for tagged allies, of which can be turned on and off. The second was another change to the E.F.S. that other then the compass, the rest of the E.F.S. will fade out of view when not in use. This I liked, as my vision was not cluttered with stuff, and it was a lot of stuff that would appear. The E.F.S. would show basic information about my inventory and data from the top, and basic information about my heath and surrounding from the bottom, but only when it is needed to be seen.

The rest of the tutorial was as I could expect, showing me the my stats, items, and data. The screen for my heath was both simple to understand, and highly detailed, of which the V.I. recommended that I start a diet. my inventory showed the two MRE's and the cola bottles, the cola's were listed to be nearly half pure caffeine. and in the Data I found the map function, along with the route I sould take to get to the cafeteria. I now understood why ponies liked having thees things on, they were super useful, I even found a note and calendar function on the pipbuck.

After following the rout my pipbuck gave me, I found Zaan in the cafeteria, and he agreed to show me around residential when I asked. It only now hit me, on our way to the residential area, that I was now alone with a zebra, so all the stupid stuff from Applewood would now raced through my head. I knew that all they said bout zebras was propaganda, but it was also all that I knew about zebras. It was awkward to say the least, as each time I tried to think of a topic, the propaganda would rush back to the forefront, stuff like eating foals, savage rituals, and black magic, that kind of stupid stuff.

I also knew that I almost believed it all too, that is if it was not for my paranoid buffoon of a father, being a military pony he actually believed that the zebras were evil, but he also believed more that the ministry's were going to come to make him disappear one day. He would always tell me to believe half of what I saw, and nothing what I heard, often when drinking, sometimes when sober. My mom left him not long after I learned to talk, so I only saw him once are twice a month, but it was enough to show me what I did not want to be. One day he up and vanished without a word, I was not surprised, but still annoyed that he never said goodby.

"mister Slowtrot" Zaan was looking at me with some concern to it, "are you okay?"

"Oh... I'm fine, what is it?"

"Well I had asked you about what you were doing before you were brought here, but you didn't respond" he then tapped on the metal doors in front of us, "also, were at the elevator."

"we need to take an elevator?" I asked, feeling a bit stupid after.

"yes Slowtrot, unless you want to take the stairs?" he asked, giving me a mocking look.

"right, sorry, I'm still a bit out of it, I used levitation today, and accidentally hit Emerald with a mug," I was not going to say it was on her head, and that she might have a bump now.

Zaan was a little taken aback, but quickly retained hi composer, "so they got that to work, I always wanted to try my hoof at levitation, Under Brush keeps on teasing me with hers," he chuckled a little, I did too.

"Oh, on the job thing, I had actually lost it recently, so other then the deathtrap pipbuck I have on, this is actually a good opportunity for me." I said a bit sheepishly, hoping he would not pry further, nopony needs to know I suck at keeping a job.

"That's a shame, from what I've been told, work has become harder to find lately."

"That's true, the ministry's found that robots were more efficient at farm labor, they even got contraptions that can harvest and make cider in seconds, all it needs is a unicorn or two to operate it. It's all for the war effort they say, but now the city's are filled up with farm pony's looking for work."

Zaans head hanged a little low "my parents said something like that would happen, they always loved harvest time, hiring all the ponies around to help them harvest the walnuts on our farm, to think it's all been replaced by robots is sad to say the least."

"Your family grows walnuts?" I tried to not sound surprised.

"did, we were moved to zebra town when the war turned for the worst." his voice had lowered a bit, making me feel a bit sad to hear. "but it's not all bad, it's were I met my wife, and not long after we got our job at Stable-Tec, it's actually a funny story."

The doors to the elevator opened up, reveling a large room, it looked like it could hold over ten ponies in it before they got cramped, "that is a big elevator," was all I could say as I stepped in, Zaan followed me, pressing a button as soon as he was in. "how big is this place?" the elevator doors closed, and the began to rise, pushing down a wait onto me.

"well residential is considered a big stable on it's own, and each of the labs are as big as a small stable." I didn't know what big meant in terms of a stable, so I gave him a look. "Residential can hold a population of up to five hundred, and the labs can hold at most one hundred ponies, I think."

"and how many labs are there?"

"there are four labs, under residential, so that would come to around to a population of nine hundred that could live here," Zaan was rubbing his chin with his hoof now, "though labs C is all lab stuff, and never been down to labs D, so around seven hundred would be a closer number."

seven hundred ponies was a big number, but looking at Zaan, the question I asked June came back, as well as the propaganda that infested my head. When the elevator came to a stop, it almost made me forget what I was about to ask. "I have one other question, it's just that you and the doctor are the only zebras I had seen in years, and so I was wondering, how many zebras are here in this stable?" Zaan simply gave me a smile, and walked out of the elevator, I followed.

The hallway we entered from the elevator split into three directions, but Zaan whent strait. The looks of the stable was a lot different, then it was in the labs, the gray gave way to blues, reds, and yellow, making it feel a lot warmer. Zaan was already at the door at the end of the hall, a sign that said atrium handed above it, I didn't know if I was walking slower, he was walking faster, or it was both, so I trotted to catch up to him. "If my count is right there are one hundred and forty three zebras, and a little over two hundred ponies living in residential alone right now," he the grinned as pressed the button to open the door, "just be careful, they can get a bit aggressive, but they mean well."

Among the many ways I did not want to die, this one was now at the top, I could not count them all, their were just so many of then, so many foals!

The atrium of the stable was quite large, two floors high, and each side had eight independent rooms. Each of the rooms had different activity's from what I could see, one had an arcade, another was a small theater, overall it looked like a fun place to be. But no matter were I looked fillies and colts were there, earthponys, unicorns, pegasus, and zebras, the few adults here looked a bit overwhelmed, I myself felt doomed.

"Don't worry Slowtrot, just follow me, and they sould leave you alone." he walked through the crowd casually, I followed, as a bunch of foals watched us with their big eyes, just waiting for me to fall behind.

"DADDY!" A filly spoke with a squeak and rushed though the atrium, latching onto Zaans leg, "we got to do hoof panting today, and and I made a panting of the orchard, and and I think I might get a painting cutie mark." The filly was a unicorn, with a pink bow in her powdered blue mane and tail, and her white coat had black stripes. "we we even made our own cutie marks!" Her flank was a mess of small multi color hoof marks, and her hooves even more of a mess.

Zaan gave his filly a hug, "oh Hydrangea, I'll get the bath ready for you when your done playing." Hydrangea had the biggest smile on her face.

"well who ever painted painted the stripes is probably going to get a painting cutie mark," and now I felt like I just said something stupid as Zaan raised an eyebrow at me.

"naw silly, we we painted Bean Sprout and Tall Grass in stripes!" Hydrangea pointed with her hoof at two earth pony colts that were covered in paint from head two hoof, they seemed to be enjoying themselves.

Zaan had face hoofed, "Sweat Grass is going to have a fit," he then looked back at me, "Hydrangea a zony, the stripes are natural." now I understood why I was feeling like an idiot.

"hay! hay! mister! mister! what's with the pipbuck, it's huge!" a Pegasus colt was poking at my pipbuck, he was also splattered with paint, "dose it give you super powers, I bet it gives you super powers!"

"ah no, it just..."

"are you a power pony!" this time is was a zebra filly, she was also splattered in paint.

"uhh Zaan, I can use some help," he just chuckled and put Hydrangea on his back, trotting through the growing crowd of foals, "don't leave me like this, I don't like crowds, and this is a crowd of foals, foals!" he was out of reach, the foals seemed to move around him like water, blocking my path out of here.

"I bet he turns into the iron pony!" oh no, one was on my back! "where's the rest of your armor Iron pony, is it in your cool saddlebags?"

"I umm, I" I didn't know what to do, I have never been surround by fouls before, if I had not mentioned it before, I was actually a bit scared.

"Iron pony do something cool! do it!"

"Soot lazers from your eyes!"

"No he sould fly with his jet hooves, you got jet hooves right!"

looking at them all, and their were a lot of them, if I didn't do anything I they would eat me alive, well probably not, but the idea of a ton of upset foals sounded like a realy bad time. "uhh, oh if you give me a book, I can have my pipbuck read it to you"

A colt blew a raspberry at me. "something cooler!"

I thought for a moment, and remembered the levitation spell. "how about this, Pipbuck, hoof me a soda!" nothing happened, "hoof me a soda pipbuck!" I taped on the pipbuck, and a message popped up about approving the voice activations, I face hoofed. tapping to the data screen, I found the options in the setting, though I was careful to not to mess with any other part in the settings.

"pleas state what you want the activation code word to be." the pipbuck spoke in its very non pony voice.

"oh it talks! can it do other thing?" one filly bounced as he spoke.

"it wants a code word, a code word," a colt piped.

A code word, all the foals were realy making it hard for me to think, and I was trying to think of a word I normally would not use.

"How about Iron pony, that's a good code word" another colt spoke louder then he needed to.

"no that's stupid, Mare-Do-Well, that's a cooler name" a filly squeaked

each time one of the foals spoke up, I lost my train of thought, two more suggested batmare as a name, three are still insisting Iron pony, a bunch more were taking turns at poking the pipbuck. The only thing that was going through my head was how I did not like crowds, and if I could get away from all these foal, it would not be too soon.

"HAY LETS VOTE ON IT!" an older colt spoke up, he was a unicorn with a dark blue coat, and silver main and tail, had some paint splatters over him. Most of the foals around me stopped and listen to him. "ALL IN FAVOR OF IRON PONY RAISE YOUR HOOF," a bunch did, but not a hole lot. "HOW ABOUT MARE-DO-WELL" a hole lot more put their hoof up, I'd hate to call the pipbuck that.

the foal on my back put their front hooves on my head and yelled " IRONBUCK... because it's a pipbuck." that last part was little more then a squeak. I could see all the other foal look at each other, and then a wave of hooves shot up in the air.

I had to admit that Ironbuck was not a bad choices, looking back at my pipbuck, and tapping on the voice activation option, I saw that the foals were looking on in anticipation, "Ironbuck."

"Activation codeword accepted" the foals let out a breath that they seemed to not know they were holding.

"ok, let's try this again, Ironbuck" an icon appeared in my vision next to the compass, it looked like a radio mic, "hoof me a soda" a B Lab soda floated in front of me from my saddlebag, landing in my hooves. Twisting off the cap, I gulped down the glowing soda, having forgot how trusty I was until I put the bottle to my lips.

"that's it, I can do that" a Unicorn filly squeaked as she lifted a peace of garbage off the ground with her magic, it fell after two seconds of her struggling with the spell.

"but he's an earth pony, earth pony's cant do that!" a zebra filly retorted.

A bunch of foals were back to poking my pipbuck again, and I felt another foal jump onto my back. Not wanting litter, and be a bad example, I walking over to a trash can, twisting the cap back on the empty bottle, and place it in the trash. Despite them just being all over the place, they moved out of my way quickly, I just had to move a little slower, though they were intent on poking the pipbuck, any arguing with each other on getting to ride my back, not that I agreed to let any of them on in the first place.

That's when I saw Prancer Dancer, she was splattered in paint, and had a small colt sleeping on her back. "PRANCER PRANCER, OVER HERE!" waving my right hoof the best I could, without having the foals fall of, to get her attention

Prancer Dancer elegantly moved through the crowed of foals, trotting right up to me. "I see your having fun," she gave me a smile, "their such balls of joy aren't they."

one plopped their head onto of mine, "their cuter when not outnumbering me a hundred to one."

"Oh don't be that way, their harmless, it's just that their exited to see someone new." Prancer turned around "come now my little ponies, give the nice stallion some room, he he has somewhere he needs to go," a bunch of then groaned and moved out of the way, "Follow me."

we walked to the other end of the atrium, the two fouls on my back had jumped off half way, and Prancer gently hoofed off the sleeping colt to what I guessed was his teacher. We had a small group of fillies and colts follow use to the door, but then ran off to play with their friends elsewhere. The hole place was a bit too chaotic for me, but I would like to return when there were far less fouls around.

In the hallway, I was greeted by Zaan once more, Hydrangea was not with him, so I guessed she was still in the atrium. Prancer Dancer was brushing some of the dried paint off of herself, whatever that paint was, it looked easy to clean off.

"well that was a lot of foals," I blurted out, they both just gave me a look, that 'ya, we know' look, "my sister was the one good with foals, me, well just get nervous that I'd do something wrong."

Prancer sighed, "you're fine Slowtrot, like I said, they were just a bit exited to see a new face here. they don't get to see too many new adults anymore." She quickly put a hoof to her mouth.

"wait what, why would they be exited to see an adult, were boring?" I was knew I sould jut drop it, but I also just waled through more foals then I ever wanted to in my life. Prancer looked to Zaan, and he nodded back to at her.

"Well the R&D stable is made to hold the both the researchers and their family," Prancer rotated her hoof as she spoke "But the president of Stable-Tec; miss Applebloom, thought it be an excellent idea to turn the R&D stable into a much bigger stable three." she said with a matter-o-fact tone to her voice at the end.

"and stable three is what?"

Zaan cleared his throat "it's the let get along stable. From what I've heard, it was sealed up not long after its construction was finished, and houses both pony and zebra inside. Basically a stable made to get the both sides to work and live together, with they do that with our leaders, and the zebra leaders."

"The problem is that by the time Applebloom applied that idea, a lot of the zebras didn't even trust Stable-Tec anymore. But there so happened to be plenty of orphans all over Zebra town, so she decide to turn this places into an orphanage. She hired a bunch of early M.o.M. and M.o.P. ponies to help look after the foals, and a year later the R&D stable is about half full with fillies and colt." Prancer shrugged, "all the smartypants my not enjoy it, but it's my dream job."

"working at an orphanage?" I stupidly retorted.

Prancers face scrunched up for a second before relaxing, "looking after the young, and making them smile, you know the fun stuff," she stuck out her tong at me before smiling.

"so what your telling me, is that all the foals I just trotted passed, are all orphans?"

Zaan sighed, "not all, I am Hydrangea father." right, they did say that there were family's here as well. "I think it's time for me to show you to your room," Zaan said with calm tone, "I have to get a bath ready for my Hydrangea." he shot Prancer a glance before walking off down the hallway.

Prancer scratched her head with her hoof, "ya, it was a bad idea to leave all that candy and water color lying around, and I know I'll be made to clean it all up later, but at least their having fun."

I don't know why, but I suddenly remembered that pink note I saw early, "If you want, I could help you out, it might be fun." like cleaning was ever fun, but she did get me the barding and saddlebags, so why not.

She gave me another smile, "thanks, I'd like that." with that, she turned back to the door to the atrium and opened it, the sound of fillies and colts at play filled my ears once more. "WHO WANTS ME TO PAINT YOU A CUTIE MARK!" and she was off, back into the hoard of young ponies.

I trotted off to catch up to Zaan, the short interaction with the foals left me feeling drained, yet far from annoyed, it was more of a feeling of content. A message appeared in the upper right of my vision, stating that I had started the quest 'cleanup's fun' and looking at my pipbuk, had a map rout back to the atrium

The room was the normal gray that was in the labs, though at least the bed sheets were blue, and the room was bigger then were I was living just a few days ago, It even had a Stable-Tec computer I could use. Overall, this was a major step up for me, though I was in an underground bomb shelter, it has actually been a real good time. I put up a tally in my head for all the good that was going on: getting paid, free stuff, free room for my stay, overall friendly ponies, oh and I got a bunch of free food.

Putting my new saddlebag down, and removing my new stable barding, I was a bit annoyed to find out that the back of the barding was covered in small colored hoof marks, which also meant that my back that the barding didn't cover had some as well. I wasn't that bothered by it, I was going to get more on me when I go help Prancer out, so I could hold of on the bath for today.

Quickly sniffing myself, just to you know check, and I came to the conclusion that it may be a good idea to wash up sooner then later.

Their was on thing I wanted to check out before I did wash up, the Stable-Tec computer just hooked my curiosity. Tapping on the power button, the screen lit up with a green glow, which begged the question to why Stable-Tech have most of their stuff glow green. Text appeared on the screen, 'connect pipbuck to unlock terminal' oh there called a terminal, not a computer, I'll have to remember that. Lucky for me, next to the terminal, were some cables that looked like the ones from the Pipbuck lab. So I hoofed them up, and with help from the levitation spell, I plugged them into the terminal and my pipbuck, unlocking the terminal.

The terminal itself had very little on it for me to mess with, there was three messages from the Overmare in the inbox, a send message function that I needed the contacts for others to even use, unless I wanted to send a message to the overmare, and a log book for personal use. if there were other functions, they were locked, which disappointing to me, I was at least hoping there was a game on this. So I had the messages transferred onto my pipbuck, and shut down the terminal, seeing that their was little else to do with the thing.

The upper right of my vision told me that I now had three Overmare messages in my pipbuck.

My left fore leg suddenly felt numb, and looking down at the pipbuck the screen was flickering. Quickly I pulled out the cables, feeling completely stupid for what I had just done. I was too worried to even mess with the setting, but I plugged it right into a terminal, and now I was probably going to die, or live long enough to get yelled at for stupidity. The numbness moved across my body, it was an odd sensation, but I did my best to move to the door, it was jut that my limbs were not working as well as they should. The E.F.S. flickered in my vision as a mess of text filled my vision, scrolling too fast for me to read anything, then vanishing. Larger text then scrolled into my view, much slower then before.

Error... data damage... data corrupted... data found... Welcome to the O.I.A. agent. Project Entombed has been activated. Target of limitation; Applebloom. Sleeper mode activated, extracting all project memory's.

Footnote:

quest active: cleanup's fun

quest active: ********