"Hey there everypony, this is DJ Pon3 coming at you with the latest news. As I reported earlier, it seems that the Wanderer has made it out of Stable 48 with a couple of ponies. There are some reports that the Stable has been taken over by the Enclave, though their motivations for doing so are currently unknown. But its not all bad news, I've heard from Refuge that the ponies at the settlement of Haven in Seaddle and their allies the Applejack's Rangers Seaddle contingent have managed to drive off an attempted Enclave attack on the settlement, good on them."

I breathed a sigh of relief as we kept flying towards Horseton. It at least seemed like the Enclave wasn't winning everywhere, that was a good thing, but it worried me that they were getting so widespread.

Then there was Stable 14, the Stable had been built to house Griffons and Gabby had been made the Overbird, but from what I understood it had been abandoned for decades, there was only one reason to go there, which just worried me more, it meant that Winter Breeze may now have two keys.

"What do you know about the Nimbus?" I asked Star.

"It was based on the same designs and technology as the Typhon but upgraded in many ways," Star said with a sigh. "It was under construction when the Enclave Civil War hit the shipyards in R&D. The General in charge of R&D Cloud Chaser loaded it up with as much personnel and resources as he could and flew it out of clouddock."

I noticed that there was a brief look of pain on her face when she mentioned Cloud Chaser, I had to wonder about that a bit. Star hadn't talked much about her time in the Enclave, I guessed that she likely served under Cloud Chaser during her time.

"So, then why send the Nimbus to Horseton?" Cherry asked. "It seems a bit strange to send it here."

"Horseton was used as the capital for the Crimson Empire," Star said. "They converted one of the old buildings into the Scarlet Tower. After the NCR captured it they've kept it pretty well fortified."

"So its a siege then," I said and Star nodded. "Or at least one as long as the Enclave looks for what they need around the city."

"Yeah, that's about right," Star said. "So what about Stable 117, what should we know about it?"

"117 was built to test some new hologram technology developed by Robronco," I said. "The entire Stable is basically one massive hologram system designed to look like a pre-war town."

"That's, an interesting choice," Cherry commented.

"Yeah, its pretty advanced technology, Wind Rider wanted to make sure that it was preserved. If the technology hasn't failed it'll probably be still the same, I don't quite know what to expect other than that, anything could've happened in the last 210 years."

"I see," Arc said. "Well lets just hope we don't have any more surprises waiting for us in there."

We nodded as the Vertibuck started to descend towards the ground on the outskirts of Horseton.

Getting through the city was a challenge in itself, but thankfully most of the ponies we encountered were NCR soldiers. We had to avoid a few Enclave patrols here and there, but for the most part they didn't seem that interested in us.

It didn't take long for me to realize why, they were still looking for the Stable, they didn't actually know where it was. The attack itself seemed more like a diversion to me while they were searching for their goal.

Maybe that was why they didn't take Haven in Seaddle. The Enclave seemed more interested in taking the six keys than it did in actually capturing territory from the NCR outside of convincing settlements to join them. It was a weird move on their part, and I didn't like where they were going with it.

"There's something weird about their strategy," Star whispered to me and I nodded in agreement. "The Nimbus should've overwhelmed the NCR forces by now, that ship isn't exactly built for precision strikes."

"I know, its weird," I whispered back as I looked up at the massive cloudship that was in the air above the city. "I think its a diversion while they look for something, probably Stable 117."

"How do we know the Crimson Empire didn't find it and clear it out?" Arc whispered to me.

"We don't, and neither do the Enclave, which means right now its a race against the clock to see who gets there first," I said with a nod. "Was there any reports of the Empire using holographic technology during the war?"

"Well, no," Star said with a shrug. "The Empire was on about the same technological level as the NCR, they didn't even have Power Armor, let alone holograms."

"Okay, then the Stable is probably intact, I wonder why they didn't find it," I said.

We continued on in silence towards the NCR camp, whatever the reason was for this particular mystery, I was sure we'd eventually find out. I just had to hope that whatever it was, we'd be able to beat the Enclave to it.

Because the alternative scared me more.

When we reached the camp we were stopped at the gate and searched before we were allowed inside. I was surprised to see four green Alicorns standing around the camp and protecting it with a large shield.

"That's really clever," I commented as we walked past the Alicorns who paid us no attention.

"They were here to help dispose of the empire's IMP stores, we're still finding more of it after 5 years," a stallion's voice said and a grey Unicorn stallion walked up to us with a smile and offered me a hoof. "Colonel Quill, welcome to the NCR's base here in Horseton."

"Thank you," I said and shook the stallion's hoof as we all introduced ourselves. "You were part of the Ranger contingent that helped defend the Neigh Orleans Ministry of Awesome hub weren't you?"

"Yeah, that's right, I still have the scars to prove it," Quill said with a nod. "I never thought I'd meet a bonafide living legend though, Wanderer."

"Yeah, well, I happened to be in the area," I said with a light chuckle.

"By which she means we think we can help deal with the Enclave," Star said with a nod as she looked the stallion over. "Have they been attacking for long?"

"On and off since they arrived, I'm guessing they need to conserve ammo," Quill said with a shrug. "Unless you four have another explanation."

"We think they're searching the Horseton ruins for something," I said. "There's a Stable built here in the city that we think they want access to."

"Oh, is that all?" Quill asked.

"Wait, do you know what they're looking for?"

"Of course I do, you're looking for Stable 117 right?" He asked and I nodded. "Alright, we can work with that, thankfully we have some records from when the Empire ruled Horseton and they cataloged most of the city. I think I saw something relating to that in there."

Well that was something at least, I knew the general location of the Stable but I didn't know what could've affected the area around it.

"Alright then, lets start looking," I said and we got to work.

You know, Slaver Empires have a surprising amount of paperwork, you never really think about that do you? There was records on the numbers of ponies being moved in and out of Horseton and other parts of the Empire, keeping track of the money that was kept by the High Council and the nobles, and finally records of what had been found around Horseton and the rest of Imperial territory.

"Lets see here," Arc said as she flipped through some pages. "I have a Stable 84, no wait that was to the north of here."

"Nothing here either," Cherry said as she set the papers down that she had been looking through. "Just a bunch of reports on settlements the Imperial Army captured, nothing substansial."

"Yeah, I'm not having much luck either," I said with a shake of my head as I set aside another report on an IMP storage facility. "Why did the Empire need so much IMP anyway?"

"They were experimenting with it," Star said. "They wanted to perfect it for a supersoldier project or something. If they could create their own Alicorns loyal to them, they could overrun Equestria."

"Figures," I commented with a sigh as I returned the papers to where I found them and checked another stack.

"Here, I've got something," Cherry finally said after awhile, she was holding a single piece of paper in her hooves. "Its from a General Blood Stone reporting to the Empress of the Scarlet Throne."

"Blood Stone, he was one of the former members of the Inner Circle right?" I asked, I remembered the name from the books I had read.

"The Burning Stallion himself," Star said with a nod as Cherry passed me the paper and I read it.

Scouting teams in the northwest sector have reported back the presence of a Stable underneath the ruins of the Hoofball stadium. All reports say that the Stable door is blocked by rubble, however until we can gain access to the Stable itself there is little point in attempting to clear the rubble in the entrance tunnel.

I will have the Imperial Army continue their search for methods of entering Stables given the possible wealth of technology we could discover within once the growing tensions with the NCR are dealt with.

In the meantime, we have no choice but to leave the Stable alone and hope that whatever secrets it holds will remain locked up until we can investigate the Stable for ourselves. I recommend this to be passed on to the head of development for the time being.

Render unto the Scarlet Throne.

"Huh, the Hoofball Stadium," Quill said as he looked over my shoulder. "That could be a problem, the area under the stadium has mostly collapsed and that's not even going into the local wildlife."

"Of course its not that easy," I said with a groan. "Far be it from the Wasteland to actually give us an easy time for once."

"We'll have to go in the morning at first light," Star said as she looked up at the darkened sky, the Enclave's attack had ceased for the moment at least.

"Yeah, lets just hope we can find somewhere to sleep," I said as I stretched out a little.

"Don't worry, that's the easy part," Quill said and nodded to the large tower behind us. "It should be safe for the time being, we have some rooms you can stay in."

I nodded and we headed into the large tower.

We were given pretty lavish quarters to stay in, apparently they had once belonged to the upper class of the Crimson Empire during the war. While admittedly they were still in pretty bad shape, they certainly looked better than some places.

As I removed my coat I glanced at Star who was looking at the cutie mark on my flank. "What's going through your mind?"

"I'm just wondering about something, you were branded right?" She asked and I nodded. "How did it come back?"

"I don't know honestly, I think it might've been because of the stasis pod I was in," I said with a shrug as I put my coat away. "It surprised me too to be honest, but the pod lost all its power so I don't think that'll be an option again."

"Oh well, I almost wouldn't mind sleeping through Pure Heart's teenage years," Star said with a light chuckle.

I laughed a little at that, Star was certainly an interesting mare, given that she had to have left the Enclave after the Day of Sunshine and Rainbows I had to wonder what the Enclave thought about her.

I laid on the bed next to cherry who gave me a smile as she pulled in close to me. She looked at me with her purple eyes and smiled as I wrapped my wings gently around her.

"Scootaloo, have you ever thought about being in a relationship again?" She asked as she looked up at me. "I mean, I know you were married before and you dated Sweetie Belle, but..."

"Honestly Cherry I don't know," I admitted to her as I held her close to me. "Its not that I don't want to its... I've been close to ponies before, and I lost them. My friends, my family, I lost them all to a pointless war and then because of my own mistakes. Maybe I'm cursed or something, I don't know."

"I don't think you're cursed," Cherry said as she nuzzled me gently. "You have some bad luck maybe, but I wouldn't say cursed."

"You think so?"

"Yeah, besides its silly, you still have really good friends who are willing to help you out no matter what," Cherry said as she closed her eyes. "You're a good pony Scootaloo, you're not a monster or cursed or anything, you're you, and that's all that matters."

I smiled a little and held her close before closing my eyes too. "Thank you Cherry, I needed that."

"You're welcome Scootaloo, and if you ever find somepony special, they'll be the luckiest pony in the world because they have a strong, kind, and brave mare."

"Clearly you never saw me on a camping trip..." I muttered quietly.

"What was that?"

"Nothing."

With that the room fell silent as we drifted off to sleep. I wasn't sure what I was going to do with my life at this point, but I was just glad that I had such good friends helping me figure it out.

Friendship really was magic.

The next day we were making our way through Horseton towards the hoofball stadium, it wasn't too far away from the camp at least, but it was still a bit of a trek.

"So, we're looking for a specific tunnel that's filled with rubble, in an underground area with a lot of tunnels filled with rubble," Arc said.

"Yeah, that sums it up."

"And all we have to go on is a letter from an Imperial General who was discharged a few months later."

"Yep."

"Plus your 211 year old knowledge of the area where the Stable was built in."

"Right, which will probably be a bit out of date because of the rubble," I said with a sigh, she had a point, this wasn't going to be easy. "I think we can manage though, at least I hope we can."

Thankfully the Enclave was searching a different part of the city right now so getting into the tunnels under the stadium wasn't a problem. We started to make our way through the maintenance tunnels, climbing over the rubble here and there as we did.

The tunnels were a small maze of maintenance tunnels and other various things that made up the underground area of the stadium. The pipes had rusted and burst here and there from years of a lack of maintenance.

"Alright, I think it should be a left turn up..." I started to say when the ground ahead of us started to rumble. "Uh Star, what kind of wildlife is in here?"

"If we're lucky, mole rats, but I doubt we're that lucky," Star said as we readied our weapons.

"And if we're unlucky?" Cherry asked nervously through the pistol she gripped in her mouth.

Star didn't get a chance to answer as two huge scorpions burst out of the ground with their pincers open and their tails poised to strike. I gulped a little and gripped the trigger to my battle saddle in my teeth and fired two shots at the scorpions...

Only to have it hit them in their armored hides, which just made them angrier.

"Oh crap..." I said as they rushed forward towards us and made to strike at me and Arc when a pair of shots rang out, hitting the scorpions in the face.

"Radscorpions, I never liked these things," Star said as she released the trigger on her own battle saddle. "Come on, lets get moving before more of them come."

"That was cool," I said as we started walking again.

"Yeah, well you learn how to take things down fast or you die," Star said with a shrug as we kept walking and took the left turn up ahead. "How far do you think we are from the Stable Door?"

"Not far," I said.

"How did you build a Stable under a stadium anyway?" Cherry asked. "Wouldn't you have to, you know, tear up the stadium above?"

"Oh, right the sign fell off didn't it," I said with a chuckle. "We're right under Stable-Tec Hoofball Stadium, we worked it out with the Hoofball league to sponsor the team in return for building the Stable under it. The Horseton Knights they were called."

"Huh, that's a new one," Star said. "Though at least its a better name than Reapers."

"Reapers?" Arc asked.

"Oh, that was the Hoofington team's name, strange name I know," I said with a shrug as we turned another corner. "Okay, we should have another turn up ahead and..."

I stopped in my tracks, blocking the way was one of the biggest piles of rubble I had seen, it looked like most of the ceiling had collapsed right in the hallway to the Stable door, which I could see through the rubble.

"Okay, yeah, that figures..." I said with a groan. "Anypony have any ideas?"

We just stood there for the longest time examining the pile of rubble, well that probably explained why the Empire never made it to Stable 117. My first thought was explosives, but that just risked bringing more of the ceiling down.

"Great, now what?" Arc said. "We can't exactly blow this thing up can we?"

"No, not in this state," Star said with a sigh. "We're going to have to start taking this apart piece by piece."

Great, just great, this was going to take forever.

As Star and Arc were working at getting the rubble cleared, me, Schooner, and Cherry stayed on guard duty keeping an eye on our EFS in order to make sure that nothing snuck up on us.

"How's the filly?" I asked after awhile as I looked at Cherry.

"She's doing fine, still a little active here and there," Cherry said as she placed a hoof on her belly. "Its weird, when I was growing up I never really thought about being a mother, we were all taught that children were to be raised by their divisions and not by parents, but when it actually happened..."

"Everything changed," I finished the thought. "Everything does, doesn't it? When I was left above the clouds I never thought I'd have a family either, then I met Sky Walker and everything changed. When I found out I was pregnant with Cloudy, I was terrified that I wouldn't be the mother I needed to be for her. I guess my fears weren't exactly unfounded given what happened..."

"That wasn't your fault Scootaloo, the Enclave put you in a position you couldn't handle," Cherry said. "Nopony is perfect, you just have to hope that you don't mess your children up too badly."

"Yeah, you're right," I said with a sigh. "Now I'm here and, I don't really know what to do with my life. I'm trying to do my best to help Equestria, but what about after the Enclave is defeated? Do I spend the rest of my life wandering around or do I settle down in some settlement or tribal village and live the rest of my life alone?"

"You don't have to be alone Scootaloo," Cherry said as she took my hooves in her's. "I'll always be there for you, just like you'll always be there for us. We'll figure this out the two of us, I promise."

That's when she did something I didn't expect, she leaned forward and kissed me on the lips. I couldn't believe it, she was actually kissing me, I had no idea how to react right now so I just kissed her back and enjoyed the moment.

She was warm and soft, it was not a passionate kiss, but one that seemed gentle and loving at the same time. I closed my eyes, lost in the moment and for just that short time the world around us, the Enclave, the Stables, none of it mattered anymore.

"Hey you two lovebirds," Arc said all of a sudden ruining the moment. "We've managed to make a path to the Stable door, or do you two want to just keep making out?"

"Umm..." I said blushing deeply, she just had to ruin the moment like that didn't she? "Yeah, we're coming."

We started climbing up the rubble pile and through the path that Arc and Star had managed to make. My mind was still reeling though, what had she meant by that? Why did she kiss me? What was going on? How did I feel about her now?

"Umm, Scootaloo..." Cherry said softly from behind me.

"Yes Cherry?"

"I'm sorry if I made you uncomfortable, I just, wanted to show you how much you mean to me and..." She said nervously. "It was the only thing I could think of, sorry if I made it awkward..."

"Its okay Cherry," I said with a smile. "You don't have anything to apologize for, you did what you felt was right."

We went on in silence before we made it out of the small tunnel. Standing before us was the massive Stable Door of Stable 117, we had found it!

I went up to the control panel next to the door and input the Stable-Tec Master Code, and with a loud screeching sound the door to Stable 117 started to open. I had no idea what to expect on the other side other than what had been made for it as we looked into the door and into the Stable beyond.

I covered my eyes with my hoof as a bright light hit my face, at first I thought it was an overhead light then I realized it was the sun. We all blinked a little in surprise as we saw what looked like a fairly ordinary town around us, we turned and looked back at the door which was a gate built into a wall.

"Okay, I guess it could just look like an ordinary town," Arc said as she blinked in surprise.

"Yeah, I guess something worked after all," Cherry said as we started towards the town. "How is this working anyway?"

"I'm not sure, the holograms themselves are built to make the whole Stable feel bigger than it is, each room is outfitted with them and made so it doesn't feel like you're moving through a Stable," I said, I had to admit I was a bit in awe, this crazy plan had actually worked. "Alright, lets find some..."

"Welcome to Stabletown," a cheerful mare's voice said from ahead of us, we looked to see a light blue Unicorn mare dressed in Stable barding with the number 117 on it smiling at us. "I'm Mayor Bluebelle, welcome to our town."

"Nice to meet you," I said with a smile as we shook hooves with the mare. "I'm Scootaloo, this is Arc Light, Cherry Blossom, and Shooting Star, we're here visiting from... umm..."

"Nomad City, its very nice to meet you," Star said as the mayor shook hooves with all of us.

"Nomad City? What an odd name for a town, but we don't really get many visitors here," Bluebelle said, she was still smiling
as she did. "By any chance are any of you good with technology?"

"Yeah, I know a few things," Arc said. "Why, what's going on?"

"Well, you see maybe you can help us then, we've been having ponies vanish on the outskirts of town lately and some equipment in my home has been malfunctioning," Bluebelle said, her smile fading for a moment. "If it keeps up, I'm afraid that we might all die."

"Wait, ponies are vanishing?" I asked, I had to admit I was a little confused by that. "Where are they vanishing from?"

"Oh, just outside of town," Bluebelle said. "Its the weirdest thing really, one minute they're here, the next minute they're gone."

That really was odd, this simulation shouldn't result in anypony dying except of natural causes or accidents in the Stable itself. Something about this felt weird, but I didn't have time to dwell on it.

"Well, Arc here can help with the technology issue," I said as I nodded to my friend. "The rest of us can help figure out where ponies are getting off to. Star here is a police officer where we come from, maybe she can help."

"Oh that would be wonderful!" Bluebelle said with a smile. "Arc you can work with Gearframe, he's our local expert in this kind of thing. You all must be tired from your long journey, would you like to rest a little before you're ready to help the search?"

"Well, okay, we don't want to impose," Cherry said.

"Oh, no imposition at all, we've got a lot of empty beds right now because of the disappearences," Bluebelle said.
"Uh, just how many ponies are missing?"

"Well, lets see, we have a population of about 650... I'd say about, 318 have vanished, its terrible," Bluebelle said as she started to cry a little. "Fillies and colts have lost their parents, good ponies that have lived their whole lives here are going missing."

"Oh, I'm sorry..." I said, but I had to wonder one thing.

318 ponies was almost half the population of Stable 117, there was no way that they could go missing without being found.
So then where were they going? It felt like there was some sort of external force or factor that we weren't aware of at play here, and I didn't like it.

"Gearframe, we have visitors here to help you," Bluebelle said as we entered her house where an Earth Pony stallion with dark coat and a grey mane is working at a strange looking device.

"Let me guess, that's the central control for the holograms," Arc whispered to me.

"Yeah, that's the one," I answered with a nod. "Its a tricky piece of equipment, I'm guessing its been glitching out and causing problems."

"Yeah, well I don't know how to repair a hologram central control system..." Arc whispered.

"Don't worry about it, they designed it to be easy to learn how to repair," I said with a nod. "You'll do fine, while we get this repaired I'll see about the key."

"You really should tell us why these keys are so important," Cherry whispered. "If they're putting Stables in danger, shouldn't the NCR and their allies know what they are?"

I paused for a long moment at that question, it wasn't that I hadn't considered telling them, but I wasn't sure that they should know. I didn't trust the NCR or the Enclave with this kind of power, and I wouldn't reveal its true nature unless it was necessary.

"Don't worry about it, we'll be fine."

Cherry just looked at me worriedly as Arc went to work on the device. I turned to look at Bluebelle who just gave me a smile.

"Mayor, I'd like to take a look at the terminal in your office."

"Oh, of course," Bluebelle said though she looked at me strangely, she was probably wondering how I knew there was a terminal in her office. "Right this way."

I checked the terminal and breathed a sigh of relief, the key was still intact so the Enclave had never been here, at least not yet. Out of curiosity I checked the Stable systems while I was there, most of it seemed to be in order, though it looked like the computer was holding a lot of data for some reason along with redundancies and backups.

Somepony had worked hard to make sure this Stable was working right.

"Alright, thank you," I said with a smile. "Everything seems to be in order right now, I'll just need to know where we'll be staying tonight."

Bluebelle nodded and lead me, Cherry, and Star out of the house while Arc continued working. More ponies were out right now as the sun above started to go down, the town felt so, normal.

And yet I knew what was hiding under its illusion, I just had to hope I never had to expose the truth to these ponies.

We were escorted to an empty building where we were told that we could stay. As we started to get settled in there was the sound of running hooves against the wooden floor as somepony rushed out from under the bed.

Star was up in a flash and moved in front of the door to block the pony's escape as they came to a stop. It was a little earth pony filly with a pink body and orange mane, she looked up at Star fearfully.

"Who are you? Why are you in my house?" She said shakily.

"I'm sorry Ms. Scootaloo, her parents were the last to vanish and she keeps coming back home in hopes that they'll be here," Bluebelle said with a shake of her head. "Come on Sunshine, they just need a place to stay, lets get you back to your grandpa's house."

"But I want to stay here, what if mommy and daddy come back while they're here!" the filly protested. "You can't make me go!"

"Then you can see them when they come to you, it'll be okay," Bluebelle said with a sigh as she ruffled the filly's mane gently.

"She can stay with us if she wants," Cherry offered and I nodded in agreement. "We'll all wait for your parents together."

"Really?" The filly asked as a smile crossed her muzzle.

"Really, we love kids, right Star?" I said as I looked over at the Pegasus.

"We'd love to have you," Star said with a nod. "Plus, we're here to help find your mommy, daddy, and all the other missing ponies."

"That's great!" Sunshine said as she danced around happily, I smiled a little, the filly certainly had a lot of energy.
I just hoped we wouldn't let her down.

"Alright Sunshine, just promise you'll be on your best behavior, we don't want you getting into trouble," Bluebelle said as Star moved from the doorway.

"I promise Mayor Bluebelle," Sunshine said with a nod.

I smiled a little and offered the filly a hoof. "Hey there, I'm Scootaloo, its nice to meet you Sunshine."

"You too," Sunshine said with a smile. "Are you the newcomers that my Grandpa mentioned?"

"Is Gearframe your grandpa?" Cherry asked curiously and the filly nodded. "Yeah, that would be us, we're here to help find your parents."

"Thank you, thank you, thank you!" Sunshine said as she hugged me tight. "You're the best!"

I smiled a little and ruffled the filly's mane gently. "Thanks, we try," I said. "Now why don't you go get ready for bed?"

She nodded and ran off to the other room. "Cute kid," Cherry said as she checked her PipBuck. "That's weird..."

"What's weird?" I asked.

"Well it looks like its around 2100 hours outside, right?" She said and I nodded. "Check the time on your PipBuck."

I looked at my PipBuck and was surprised to see that the timer read only 1800 hours, there was a difference of 3 hours between what time it looked like in the Stable and what time it actually was, that was weird.

"That's odd," I commented. "Why is the hologram systems making it look later?"

"I don't know, but something about this feels weird..." Star said as she looked outside. "I'm seeing holes where there's supposed to be sky, is it possible the holograms are shorting out?"

"That's very weird, I wonder what's going on," I said as I examined the sky, indeed there were patches that looked like the rusting ceiling of a Stable, was this connected to why ponies were vanishing?

"Just another mystery to solve tomorrow, anyway I'll leave you two alone, try not to get into any trouble," Star said as she left the room to go find Sunshine.

As much as we tried to we couldn't get to sleep yet, it still felt like it was too early. We spent most of the time talking, I was curious to learn more about what had been going on in Stable 48.

The topic eventually turned back to Stable-Tec and our current situation. In truth I only had a passing knowledge of how the holograms worked that had been set up in the Stable, but in theory they were capable of recreating any environment.

"What about ponies?"

"You know, I'm not sure," I admitted. "I don't think Robronco ever tested that, but its certainly possible, in theory at least. I don't know if they ever really intended the holograms to be used like that."

"Well, you never know," Cherry said with a shrug and a yawn, it was finally getting to be too late as we laid down in the bed. "Scootaloo about earlier..."

"Don't worry about it Cherry," I said quickly, probably a little too quickly. "Lets just get some rest, we have bigger problems to worry about."

"Okay," she said and snuggled up to me. "Good night Scootaloo."

"Good night Cherry," I said and nuzzled her gently as she drifted off to sleep.

I stayed up awhile longer, in truth I couldn't stop thinking about what had happened today. Was it possible that she thought about me as more than just a friend? If so, what would I tell her? It felt like my life was about to get a lot more complicated, and it was already complicated enough.

I sighed and closed my eyes as I drifted off to sleep, it was something that I'd have to figure out later.

We were making our way around Stabletown and talking to different ponies that had family members vanish starting with Sunshine. I was a little worried that we would be putting the filly through this again, but Star insisted that she was the best candidate since her parents had vanished the most recently.

"So, what was happening on the day your parents vanished Sunshine?" Star asked the little filly the next day. "Was there anything unusual about what was going on?"

"No, it was pretty much like any other day," the filly said with a shrug. "They went to the outskirts of the town in order to pick some berries for dinner and they never came back."

"Is it possible they left the town?" Cherry asked.

"No, nopony ever goes past the outskirts," Sunshine said as she shook her head. "Its against the rules."

"Interesting," I said quietly, there actually should be a lot more that they could explore, the holograms were programmed to show a fairly large area outside of the town if a pony wanted to leave it.

Why would they not leave the town? Something about this was weird.

"What would happen if they left the outskirts?" I asked curiously.

"Nopony knows really," Sunshine said with a shrug. "Mayor Bluebelle said that there were dangerous creatures out there and my Grandpa has made me promise never to leave. But you came from beyond the outskirts right? What's it like?"

"Its not too different from here, we come from another town a good distance away," I said, it wasn't a lie, it just wasn't the whole truth.

"So, if you're not here because of the vanishing ponies, why are you here?"

"Its a long story," I said, I tried to figure out how to describe what was going on without scaring the filly. "There are some bad ponies out there who want to get to Stabletown and hurt you and the others. We're here to help you and keep them from doing that."

"Okay!" Sunshine said with a smile as we saw Arc Light and Gearfram approaching us. "Grandpa!"

I smiled a little as the filly ran over and hugged the old maintenance pony.

"Hey you two, have any luck?" I asked as Arc came over to us.

"A little, we still have a ways to go before we get this thing all set up," Arc said as she looked at Gearframe. "I have to say he's one of the more brilliant ponies I've ever met, he knows this equipment inside and out."

"Which still makes me wonder why it seems to be failing," Cherry commented, we had seen a few more strange sights like the Stable floors showing in some places that wouldn't be easily noticed.

"Its certainly possible that its just because its so old, but I think we can get it repaired," Arc said. "Have you had any luck?"

"Not really," I said and Star nodded a little. "There doesn't seem to be any common thread to ponies vanishing, all ages, all types, both genders... it seems to almost be at random at times."

Star looked thoughtful for a long moment as she tried to think about what the answer might be. Honestly I was a bit worried about this, it certainly felt like something was happening that we weren't seeing, and that worried me.

"Did you get any other data on the system?" Star asked.

"Just that its using a lot of processing power," Arc said with a shake of her head. "More than I thought this place would require."

"Yeah, I noticed the same thing," I said with a nod. "This might be worth investigating at least."

"Yeah, but there's one place we need to go first," Star said. "We need to investigate the outskirts of the town, something about all of this is weird."

"I agree, that's as good a place as any to start," I said with a nod. "If we can find any answers, it'll be there."

"Lets just hope we're not too late," Cherry said with a sigh. "This town has enough problems already."

I nodded and after telling Sunshine what we were doing we headed down the main road through town. A few ponies waved to us as we went past and I smiled at them, this place was nice, almost idyllic, a piece of a world long gone.

It felt like I was back in my dream world again to be honest, and it was kind of unsettling in a weird way the same way the dreams are.

We headed out of town as we followed the instructions we had been given by Mayor Bluebelle to the spot where nopony was allowed to pass. I wasn't quite sure what I had been expecting, but it certainly wasn't this.

It was so, ordinary, there were rolling hills here and there, and the sky in the distance, nothing at all seemed to be off.

"Okay, that was a bit anti-climactic," Cherry said as she looked around. "What exactly were we expecting here?"

"Some sort of clue I guess," Star said as she examined the ground. "at least something more than this."

"Yeah, this looks, normal," Arc said, she was just as surprised as the rest of us. "Is this where the ponies vanished?"

"As far as we can tell, yeah, I'm going to try something" I said as I picked up a rock and threw it as far as I could towards the hills in the distance, and then it seemed to just pass through something and vanish. "Okay, I'm not the only one who saw that right?"

"That is most definitely not normal," Star said as she walked forward towards where the rock had vanished.

"Are you sure you want to do that? What if this is what happened to everypony else?" Cherry said worriedly.

"Yeah, I don't want to have to explain to your wife and daughter that you disappeared mysteriously," I said as I walked forward.

"Don't worry, I'm not going all the way through," Star said and leaned forward, her head poking through the, whatever it was, she pulled back out. "Its safe, this is just where the hologram ends, there's nothing but Stable back there."

"That's odd, the holograms should be covering everything," I said as I poked my head in, sure enough there was nothing but rusting walls and old storage crates, this was the real Stable 117. "Arc, you've been working on the hologram system right? Was there any sort of indications that this might be happening?"

"Well, its been glitching out for awhile and there's been a bit of a power drain on the systems around the Stable, in particular in some of the uninhabited sectors," Arc said with a frown. "Are you saying that something is wrong with the holograms?"

"That would explain why the days are shorter," Cherry commented. "Shorter days means less active ponies, which means less power would be used."

"Right, but that doesn't answer the question of what happened to all the ponies that vanished," I said thoughtfully. "We have to investigate further, come on, lets go see the rest of the Stable."

We moved through the barrier and back into the Stable proper. As we started to look around I was half expecting something like dead bodies piled around the Stable where the missing ponies had died, but there was nothing.

This area looked like it had been part of the lower levels of the Stable and was used for storage. When we opened the boxes they contained food and medicine that looked like they had been stockpiled.

"That's weird, why have all of this here..." Star commented as she examined each of the boxes. "How does food work here?"

"Food is supposed to be grown in special parts of the Stable like the Orchards in other Stables, so like normal really," I said, I had briefly seen the orchard when we entered town. "This whole thing feels weird, this stuff should be enough to maintain an entire population, but its all being left here."

"Is it possible that the missing ponies are here? Or that they've been leaving the Stable?" Cherry asked.

"I doubt it, the Stable door is right at the entrance to town, somepony would've noticed," Arc said with a shake of her head. "No, I think something else is going on here, and there may only be one way to figure out what that is."

"Oh, please don't tell me we're going to have to shut down the holograms," I said with a groan.

"We need to anyway, its the only way I can get the system repaired," Arc said with a shake of her head. "What's weird is that its obvious, I don't know why Gearframe hasn't done it already."

"Another mystery for the huge pile of mysteries we already have," I said with a sigh. "Alright, but we'll talk to the Mayor about it first."

Arc nodded and we started heading back towards the hologram. As much as I hated to admit it, Arc was right, we needed to shut the holograms down for a short time at least if we wanted to try and figure out what was really going on here.

"How are the ponies going to react to the fact that they've been living a lie this whole time?" Cherry asked as she looked at me worriedly.

"Honestly Cherry, I have no idea," I said with a sigh. "We just have to hope that they will be okay, and we can always get the holograms working again anyway. Lets just hope everything will be okay."

"Yeah, I'm sure it will be," Cherry said with a sigh as we passed through the hologram and headed back towards Stabletown.

When we finished telling Bluebelle the truth, she just stared at us in shock as if she was trying to process what we had just told her. I didn't blame her, we had just told her that her town, her life was a lie.

"This has to be some sort of joke, right?" She asked finally. "This isn't funny, why would you tell me something like this?"

"Its the truth," I said with a sigh. "I'm the one who set this place up over 200 years ago, Stabletown, Stable 117 as its formally called, was built to test this technology, but its failing. We can repair it and make it work again, but we'll have to shut it down for a few hours to do so."

"And what, you expect us to all just keep going about our normal day until you do that?" The head of the police force asked. "How do we know you're not really behind all the disappearances?"

"We just arrived in town yesterday," Cherry pointed out. "We come from outside the main gate, out where things are a lot different than they are in here. I promise you, this isn't a trick."

"Repairing the system will be easy, we can even do it at night when everypony will be asleep if it'll help," Arc suggested. "That might at least keep everypony from panicking."

There was a long pause as they considered what we were suggesting. The Mayor sighed a moment and nodded in agreement.

"Okay, do it tonight," she said. "But myself and Gearframe have to be with you at all times while you work on it."

"Alright, we can agree to that," Arc said and I nodded. "I promise, we'll get Stabletown back to normal before the night is over, maybe we'll get lucky and it'll even stop the disappearances."

"Alright, thank you, just be careful," Bluebelle said with a nod. "Thank you for your help, all of you."

"You're welcome," I said with a smile. "I promise, we'll make sure that Stabletown survives this."

"So, you really think this might stop the disappearances?" Sunlight asked as she watched Arc and Gearframe work at the device in the Mayor's home.

"You never know," Arc said as she removed a panel on it. "Its possible its connected to all this data and the energy being used, so it might change it."

"In theory at least," I added.

"I hope so," Sunlight said as she sighed a little and looked down at her hooves. "I just wish it could've come in time to keep my parents from disappearing."

I frowned and draped my wing over the Earth Pony filly reassuringly. I had no idea what happened to her parents, but I knew that nopony that age deserved to lose their parents in any way.

Maybe once we were done here I could see if Sunlight could leave with us, maybe she could stay with Star and Jade in Nomad City, it was worth a try at least.

"Okay, Gearframe, can you go look outside and let me know when the holograms start to flicker?" Arc asked.

"On it," the old stallion said as he headed out of the house.

"Lets hope this works," Bluebelle said as Arc started to work at the wiring in the panel.

"Its starting to flicker," Gearframe said from outside. "Whatever you're doing seems to be working!"

I looked down at Sunshine who was smiling, my eyes went wide when I realized that she was actually starting to flicker along with the room.

"Wait, Arc..." I started to say.

"Almost... got it!" Arc said at the same moment as suddenly the machine stopped humming.

The world around us flickered and suddenly vanished, leaving just the rusted interior of Stable 117's Overmare's office. But there was no Overmare, Bluebelle was gone, so was Sunshine.

"They were holograms?" Cherry said in shock as she waved her hoof in the spot where Sunlight had been standing just moments before. "How is that possible?"

"I don't know," Arc said as she moved away from the device, we all looked out into the atrium, hoping to see more ponies but it was all quiet.

Stable 117 was empty.

"That's not possible..." I said as we walked out into the Stable. "What happened to the ponies here?"

"They're all dead," a familiar voice said from nearby, we turned to see Gearframe standing there looking tired as tears started to well up in his eyes. "Everypony in Stable 117 is dead except for me."

LEVEL UP!
Perk Received: Tech Expert.
Details: You have gained a better knowledge of the pre-war technology from around Equestria. You gain an extra 10 points in both science and repair.