Air raid sirens whaled their tone as Lightning Bliss–a white alicorn with a rainbow and black mane and a strange paint brush like tail–galloped along the path with her husband–a frost demon–towards the crowd gathered by the gate near Stable 45.  They slowed to a light trot as they neared the group of ponies that had been her colleges before this day.

“What do you mean I’m not on the list?” a light aqua coated stallion with a brown mane, “I am Thespio.  Check again, maybe it is under DaWillstanator.”

“Sir, I’m sorry, but neither Thespio, nor DaWillstanator appear on the list.” a gruff looking unicorn dressed in an equestrian military uniform–who had a red coat and blond mane–calmly responded to the flabbergasted stallion.

Blissy–being of shorter stature–was able to push her way through her fellow Bronalyists to the soldier at the front. Though the chain link fence she noticed the sight of 2 power armor clad ponies with miniguns. The presence of the steel rangers felt off to her, but must have been the reason the group hadn’t just charged the fence. She gulped passing the pissed of Thespio to address the soldier.

“Hello, uh, Commander” Lightning Bliss began, “I’m here to seek shelter in Stable 45. My name is Lightning Bliss. This is my husband Sub Zero.”

The soldier silently scanned the list for names she had given.

“Yes, Miss Bliss, you may enter.” The soldier replied.

“Oh, come on!  She’s on the list, but I’m not!” Thespio shouted indignantly in the background.

“But, not the frost demon.” The soldier finished.

Lightning Bliss froze mid trot.  Panic and fear filling her mind.

What? Why wouldn’t my hubby be on the list?

Blissy took a deep breath and turned back to the soldier.

“Are you sure?” She asked giving her best puppy dog pout.

“Yes,” he replied coldly, “Lightning Bliss, Alicorn, no family listed.  Now if you’d step through the gate and follow the doctors to the stable.”

“What?” Blissy shouted almost matching the intensity of Thespio from when she had arrived, “How does that make sense? Voice knows I have a husband.  Stables are meant to save ponies!”

“Miss Bliss, we understand your anger, but only those on the list may enter.” The solder continued in his cold tone as the ponies in power armor shifted their attention to the rainbow alicorn.

“I will not leave my hubby behind.” She shouted her horn beginning to glow, “LET! HIM! IN!”

The glow on her horn became erratic as a wind picked up.  The ponies in the crowd behind her backed up slowly at the sight.  Lightning Bliss closed her eyes straining from the exertion of her magic.  The power armor clad ponies had their full attention on Lightning Bliss now.

“I!” she said opening her eyes to revealing a pulpless white, “WON’T! LEAVE! HIM!”

At the final word a burst of magic erupted from the short alicorn engulfing the area in first rainbows, then white.  

“TASTE THE RANBOW MOTHER FUCKER!”  an echoing voice boomed from seemingly nowhere.

When the light finally cleared Lightning Bliss, her husband, and some other ponies from the crowd were gone.  That exact moment a megaspell exploded on the horizon.  The apocalypse had arrived.

*** *** ***

In the still greyness of the mid afternoon in front of Stable 45 a ball of rainbow magic burst forth and a small rainbow alicorn appeared from nowhere and flopped onto the ground.

Lightning Bliss groaned and pushed herself to her hooves.

“Uhg, sorry honey.  You know how my magic can be.” Lightning Bliss said shaking off the dirt from her coat and opening her eyes, “Honey?”

Panicked she she scanned the area.  It was the same gate area they had been in that morning, but it was different somehow.  Cast completely in a grey overcast from a blanket of clouds overhead was scorched trees and dead grass.  The chain link fence that had been new and shiny was now a crumpled, rusted heap.

What happened? Lightning Bliss thought as she slumped to her haunches and began to sob.

Suddenly a twig snapped and Blissy looked up fearfully at the area again.  Not knowing what had happened between that morning and the current moment, her survival instinct kicked in and she fled in the direction of the stable.

She sprinted into the old mine shaft that had been chosen to house the stable and down to the door of the stable–a still open door.  It looked like it never meant to close.  The sight of the skeletons of long dead ponies caused her to come to stop the doorway.  Blissy tried to hold her breakfast, but the sight was too much and she puked right there on the ground and passed out.

***  ***  ***

When Blissy awoke in a puddle of her own puke–which now matted her mane and coat–it was considerably darker than it had been when she passed out.  Shakily she rose her hooves and staring forward she ventured into the seemingly abandoned stable.

In the months leading up to the day she had been called to this stable she had viewed many pictures of its insides.  The state it was in now did not match any of those pictures.  The once grey metal walls were brown with rust.  Dust and refuse–and bones, but Blissy didn’t want to think about the bones–littered the floor.  Everywhere the lights did work they flicked every few seconds and caused a high pitched hum–though only Lightning Bliss’s large ears would have been able to pick up the tone.

Blissy walked in the eerie silence following signs to the Overmare’s office.

Overmare? Blissy thought to herself as she walked pondering the signage, I thought Voice was going to be in charge.

She cautiously entered the office and took a look around.  Along one wall was a cracked window that overlooked the stable’s artium.  Opposite the window was a flaking and faded mural of the logo that had once represented the Rift Café.  Tears formed in her eyes as Blissy ran a hoof along the mural, but stopped when it began to flake off the wall.

Bliss then turned her attention to the center of the office.  Slumpted in a chair behind a metal grey desk and burnt out terminal was a pony.  It had a patchy red coat and a straggly brown mane.  At first it looked like a corpse and it caused Blissy to feel like puking again, but then it moved.  The undead pony looked up and right at Lightning Bliss.  It's cold dead eyes caused a spark of recognition in Blissy’s mind.

“I–Ink? Ink Rose?” Blissy asked fearfully taking a step back, “Wh-What happened here? What happened to you?”

Unfortunately for Lightning Bliss no remnants of the pegasus known as Ink Rose was left in the unnaturally reanimated corpse.  This fact became known to Lightning Bliss when it rose and made an inequine sound.  It lunged at her attempting to bite her cute, white, vomit covered coat.

“Eep!” Blissy shrieked agilely fluttering back out the door, “Not Ink, at least not anymore!”

Not expecting the low ceiling of the hallway, Blissy abruptly bumped her head and yelped in pain.  The body of what once was Ink Rose slammed into the wall where Bliss had just been.  Down the hall the rustle of furniture in other room signalled the emergence of 4 more living dead Bronalysis ponies.  As they emerged Blissy recognized them as James the Pony Theorist, ToonkriticY2K, Eliyora, and Redcord.  Joining Ink they began closing in on Blissy’s position.  She tried to return back down the hallway she had come from to get to the office, but 2 more walking corpses blocked her path–CannedCream and Nicky V.  Blissy was trapped.

Blissy sobbed as she curled into a ball and braced for the attack from the corpses of her old friends.  She thought it was all over.  BANG!  Suddenly the sound of a gun sounded in the corridor and Nicky V’s reanimated corpse dropped as his head exploded.  BANG! BANG!  Canned and Toon dropped as well–their heads reduced to bloody pulp.  Then an apple shaped object with a white band flew over Bliss’s head.  It exploded releasing a thick white smoke that soon filled the hall.  A light green magic enveloped Lightning Bliss’s form and pulled her quickly down the hall as the smoke filled the space masking the monsters who were still slowly creeping down the hall towards them

“Good thing I was here.” A raspy voice that sounded somewhat familiar to Lightning Bliss said, “Too bad I ruined any hope of owning Toon’s top hat with that last shot.  It's been what?  156 years?  Nice to see you again, you mary sue.”

Flapping her wings to be free of the magic she turned to see her savior.  A colt with a muttled patchy yellow–arguably green– coat and a thinning black mane.  A pair of glasses forever melted to his face with a film reel and slate on his flank.

“Wait? Robin?”  Blissy said in shock.

“In the ghoulified flesh.” Robin said grinning and firing another shot from his pistol down the hall just missing the approaching ghouls

Goul-if-ied? What the heck does that mean. Lightning thought in confusion at the sight of her her unlikely hero.

Her mind then reached the only possible reason for the events before her: This is a dream!  A Wartime Stress Disorder induced dream. That must be it!

“Ha! This isn’t happening.  I’m just having a nightmare.  My friends aren’t pony eating zombie monsters. I’m not 156 years in the future.  I’m asleep in bed.  Luna will wake me up soon and I’ll have my hubby to tell me everything's alright.  None of this is real.” Blissy began to mutter–tears forming once again in her eyes, “It’s all a horribly realistic, nightmare!”

“Blissy, you need to snap out of it if you don’t want to die.  Ghouls won’t attack me since I’m a ghoul, but they will attack you.” Robin said to the spiraling Blissy.

“The ghouls have blocked safe passage to the entrance.  Based on the ammo you have and the fact that you’ll be protecting Lightning Bliss, might I suggest moving down to 45B for your exit.” A voice that sounded like Robin putting on a fake british accent said from robin’s pipbuck.

“Blissy, I’m sorry in advance for this.” Robin said before he abruptly slapped Lightning Bliss with his hoof, “This is reality.  You need to accept it and survive!”

“But all my friends are dead.” Bissy replied sniffling.

“And if you don’t want to join them, I suggest you get your flank moving.” Robin replied sternly.

“Right,” Blissy said shaking her head and wiping her tears with her hooves, “What should we do?”

“Follow me. The entrance is blocked so we need to go to Stable 45B through the vents.” Robin said before switching his gun for what looked like a sharpened chunk of a whiteboard and darting down the hall opposite the feral ghouls.

***  ***  ***

“What did you mean by Stable 45B?” Lightning asked once the 2 were safely in the vents, “There is only one stable 45, right?”

“Yes and no.” Robin replied hisitently, “Well, unknown to Looney and Voice at the time, Stable-Tech built 3 smaller stables all situated above each other and all sharing a ventilation system.”

Robin shifted his body from the vertical ventilation shaft to the horizontal one as he continued, “Analysts were divided seemingly at random between the 3 stables.  The experiment was never started because they were all incomplete.  45A’s door wouldn’t close and many–including myself–ghoulified, 45B’s door closed before anyone could enter killing hundreds locked outside with no way to open the door from the outside–a design oversight probably–and 45C flooded when Riften’s reservoir broke following the megaspells–since the door seal wasn’t installed correctly.”

“Oh.” Lightning said with a twinge of sorrow when he had finished, “So my time traveling actually saved my life and that of my husband’s.  That is if this is all really happening.”

Robin stopped and glared over his shoulder at Blissy saying without words that this was the real world.

Blissy swallowed a lump in her throat brought on by the intensity of the glare, “Yes, right, Speaking of my husband, you didn’t encounter any frost demons when coming into the stable to save me, did you?”

Before Robin could answer the 156 year old, unmaintained vet gave way and the pair tumbled out into the eerily pristine halls of Stable 45B.

“Ouch!” Robin groaned getting to his hooves, “No I didn’t see any frost demons, when we get out of here we should go to New Riften.  If he didn’t go in the stable like you did that is the first settlement he would have come accross.”

“Thanks.” Blissy said more relaxed than she had been since that morning, “So you said the door to this part was closed, how do we reopen it?”

“If my records are correct, the overmare’s office terminal.” The voice of Whiteboard answered.

“Good set a quest marker.” Robin ordered and began to trot down the hall.

As they walked Robin entered every room and made sure it was clear of hostiles before having Blissy help loot anything of value.  Despite their best efforts they only found 2 sparkle colas and one fancy buck cake. Though they did find a fair number of bottle caps that Robin insisted were the currency of the wasteland much to Lightning’s disbelief.

Finally they reached the overmare’s office.  It was a fair bit smaller than the one in Stable 45A, but still had a window overlooking the atrium.  Like in the overmare’s office from 45A the logo for the Rift Café was painted on the wall opposite the window, but it was a pristine as if it had just been painted.  As far as differences go there was a bookshelf and a couple of chairs arranged around an area rug giving it a oddly welcoming feel.  The desk sat in the corner with the familiar green glow of a terminal.  As the 2 approached the desk the skeleton of a pegasus came into to view.

Blissy’s face turned visibly greener and she scampered out of the room, “I think I’m gonna be sick!”

The sounds of Blissy throwing up once again were heard as Robin examined the desk area.  It was littered with empty fancy buck cake rappers and sparkle cola bottles.   The stable barding worn by the skeleton bore a name tag that said “Hello, I’m the Overmare Sweetie Bloom."  Looking at it sent a shiver down Robin’s spine despite him being more accustomed to the cruelty of the wasteland.  He knew this pegasus–though that was over a century ago–the loss still hurt him deeply.  The terminal was still open to the last entry added.

“Turns out this place wasn’t nearly as well stocked as we were lead to believe.  Even stretching it I’ll only have enough food for the next week and a half.  It doesn’t help that radiation is still getting in somehow and I’ve run out of RadAways.  I thought the stables were meant to save ponies.  I should have joined the others fleeing above the clouds.  Be damned my sense of duty and loyalty.”

Clicking out of the entry Robin selected the first entry and began to read throught them.

“I made it to the stable.  I’m the first one here as is fitting for the overmare.  Though, what I hadn’t noticed was when I entered was the door automatically closed and locked behind me.  I can hear the ponies on the other side trying to get in.  I’ve told them I’m working on getting it open and that they should remain calm.  What I haven’t told them is I CAN’T open the door because the sensors say it is unsafe to do so and I CAN’T override it without Voice’s override code, but he isn’t among the ponies outside the door. I’ve checked.”

“I heard it, the megaspells.  They went off a few minutes ago and I still haven’t been able to open the door.  If I can’t open it then I’ve doomed them all to a slow, painful death.  They are calling me a coward and think I’m intentionally keeping the door closed to only save myself.  My special somepony is out there, believe me I want the door opened as much as they do.  Celestia forgive my inability to help.”

“The screaming is the most painful thing I’ve ever had to listen to in my life.  My friends, colleges, Puzzle, are all dying right outside the door and I can’t do anything to help.  I SHOULD BE HELPING!  Why won’t the door open? WHY?  I’m so sorry…all of you deserved to make it too.”

Robin then clicked to the entry before the one that was open when he got there.

“The screaming stopped a few days ago.  I don’t feel the least bit relieved at that fact.  It means they are all dead and I had a hoof in killing them.  Sure I could put the blame on Stable-Tech, but surely they couldn’t have known this would happen, could they?  Even with the screaming stopped I haven’t been able to get much sleep...the screaming haunts my nightmares.  Celestia save my soul.”

Had Robin’s tear ducts not dried up when he turned into a ghoul he would likely be bawling his eyes out, but he did feel profoundly sad.  His experiences in the waste have taught him that in most cases Stable-Tech was to blame for the failure of a stables.  They set up sick, unethical experiments in almost every stable.  As far as he was concerned Sweetie Bloom was not responsible for the ponies that had died outside the stable; that was solely the fault of Stable-Tech.

“I forgive you Sweetie.” Robin whispered under his breath as he clicked out of the digital journal and selected the option to open the stable door.

The terminal did a diagnostic of the sensors and deemed the outside habitable enough for the door to be opened.  A low rumble began in the distance signifying the door opening.  With that Robin left to go find where Blissy had gone off to, but found her standing in the door with sad puppydog eyes–still puffy from crying.

“What?” Robin asked confused.

“We can’t just leave her here.” Blissy said firmly, “She deserves a proper burial!”

Robin simply nodded and telekinetically moved the skeleton to the area rug and wrapped the rug around the skeleton.  He then pulled some rope from his bag and tied the rug closed before setting it on Lightning’s back.  They then proceeded to the exit.  Once outside they buried the rug in some soft dirt.  Part of Robin’s mind was secretly glad overzealous scavengers trying to get into Stable 45B had all but pulverized the skeletons of ponies who died outside the stable so they didn’t have to burry them as well–though he hated that part of his mind for being glad about that.  If he could, he would have gladly buried them all.

“Well, we should be at New Riften by nightfall if we leave now.” Robin said once the rug was buried and some rubble had been moved to make a grave marker, “Let's head out.”

***  ***  ***

Footnotes:

Lightning Bliss – Level 1

Strength - 3

Perception - 4

Endurance - 3

Charisma - 7

Intelligence - 8

Agility - 8

Luck - 7

Tagged Skills:

Sneak

Science

Speech

Traits:

Alicorn Status – You posses the ability of flight and magic and some may even regale you as a goddess like Celestia and Luna. However others hate you due to the modern wasteland’s prejudice against alicorns. Unique dialogue options are available for curtain pony. You are also able to learn special spells regular Unicorns can’t learn.

Small Frame – You are not quite as big as other ponies, but that never slowed you down. You can't carry as much, but you are more agile.

Robin0928 – Level 14

Strength - 6

Perception - 6

Endurance - 5

Charisma - 7

Intelligence - 8

Agility - 6

Luck - 2

Tagged Skills:

Repair

Small guns

Sneak

Traits:

Ghoulified – Radiation doesn't affect you, in fact it heals you by 3% every minute.

Small Frame – You are not quite as big as other ponies, but that never slowed you down. You can't carry as much, but you are more agile.

Quest Completed:

Mare Out of Time – Search for clues about what happened to Sub Zero in Stable 45.

New Quest Added:

Tree Topper – Head to the settlement of New Riften.

      Ask around New Riften if anypony has seen or heard about Sub Zero.