"So, you're what, a Stable Dweller or something like that?" The head of the caravan Aluminum Can, an Earth Pony mare asked as she looked at me curiously. We were on the front of the wagon and talking while I kept a careful lookout.

"Yeah, something like that," I said as the caravan moved along the old road towards Manehattan, it was a plausible enough explanation for me I guess. "I'm just trying to see more of Equestria, you know?"

"Yeah, I know what you mean, I grew up in Seaddle, but I always wanted to see more of the world," Aluminum said with a smile. "So when the Queen's Gambit Caravan Company started to expand, well, I couldn't resist."

"Seaddle huh?" I asked curiously, I hadn't been to Seaddle much outside of the construction of Stables like 9 and 14. "What was that like?"

"Not too bad after the Great Schism ended," Aluminum said, which got a look of confusion from me. "Its what they call the conflict between the Steel Rangers and Applejack's Rangers about 9 years ago, Seaddle was their battlefield and a lot of ponies got caught up in it."

"What happened?" I asked, I remembered the Steel Rangers from the war, but I had no idea what she meant by Applejack's Rangers.

"A former Steel Ranger named Nova, she helped stop the Steel Rangers and their Elder," Aluminum said. "Nice pony, we crossed paths a few times when I was running caravans with my Dad."

I listened to her talk a bit more, I had to wonder how many stories there were in the Wasteland. I knew about Littlepip (I had gotten the rest of her book while I was in Junction Town) sure, but there could be a lot more stories out there.

I thought back to what I had heard about successful Stables, one of them was Stable 26, that actually gave me a lot of relief. Looking back, I had gambled on Stable 26 by having the dwellers build their own society. I was lucky I guess that it had survived, I wondered if I'd get to meet the pony who left it someday.

If I ever could even figure out what to do with my life at this point. I was in Equestria, but it was all so, unfamiliar to me.

We went on in silence.

I looked up from the book I was reading when the wagon came to a stop all of a sudden. I glanced out, but we weren't anywhere near Manehattan from what I could see.

"What's going on?" I asked Aluminum, who was starting to move the wagon towards the side of the road.

"There's something going on up ahead," Aluminum said and gave me a pair of binoculars. "Looks like another caravan was attacked."

I raised the binoculars to my eyes and saw just what she was talking about. There was a wagon that was turned over on its side and dead bodies lying around it. I narrowed my eyes when I saw something familiar, ponies dressed in black insect-like Power Armor.

"Its the Enclave," I said, which made Aluminum's eyes go wide. "They must've attacked them on the road."

"What are they doing here? The Enclave hasn't been this close to Manehattan in years," Aluminum whispered back. "At least none of the Generals that have shown up."

I frowned a little Calamity had mentioned something about the 7 Wonderbolt Generals. One of them had been killed 8 years prior during an attempt to take over the Crystal Wasteland and another was seen around Minneapolis, but that left 5 unaccounted for.

Could these soldiers answer to one of the other Generals, or was there something else going on here?

My eyes suddenly went wide when I saw something I didn't expect. Moving into view, dressed in heavily modified Power Armor was a towering pony with armored wings and a horn. It was an Alicorn, there was an Alicorn with the Enclave! What in Tartarus was going on here?

The Alicorn's head suddenly snapped and it felt like despite the helmet, she was looking right at me. I lowered my binoculars and shuddered. After a few minutes the Enclave soldiers took off in some sort of airship.

"Lets check this out," Aluminum said and eased the wagon forward after she was sure that the soldiers were far enough away.

I didn't say anything as we approached the destroyed caravan. The ponies were lying dead around the destroyed wagon. We climbed off our own wagon and started checking the wagon, the Enclave had picked it clean.

"Check the cargo manifest, it should be in the strongbox and wouldn't have any value to them," Aluminum said as I opened up the strongbox.
Inside was a piece of paper with a list of names and words. The Caravan had been hauling food and medical supplies from Manehattan to a settlement called Gildacross. I frowned a little at something and I double checked the number of bodies.

"We're missing two ponies," I said, which made Aluminum look up. "There's two more names on the manifest than we have bodies."

"Weird, let me see that," the Earth Pony said and took the manifest, reading it over. "Yeah, you're right, I know this caravan, good bunch of ponies. It looks like we're missing a passenger named Caramel Corn and the Caravan owner's dog Schooner."

"What do we do with their bodies?" I asked as we started packing up the wagon.

"There's not much we can do here, I'll send word to the company they worked for," Aluminum said as she climbed onto the front of the wagon.

I took one last look around and was surprised to see a dog had arrived on the scene and was whimpering at the corpse of one of the ponies, nudging it gently. This must be the dog that had accompanied the caravan Schooner.

I finished securing my gear and trotted over to the dog who growled at me and snapped at my hoof when I tried to reach for him.

"Okay, I'll leave you alone," I said with a sigh, I rummaged around in my bags and took out some food I had brought with me and set it out. "Here, its for you when you get hungry."

The dog just looked at me before I went back to the wagon and climbed on and we started up again towards Manehattan.

After traveling a couple more days and through parts of the ruins of Manehattan, I was surprised to find myself looking at the familiar sight of a Ministry of Arcane Science Hub.

"Welcome to Tenpony Tower, the shining jewel of the Manehattan ruins," Aluminum said as we pulled in for a stop in front of the main door and are greeted by ponies dressed in uniforms. "Thanks for the company Wanderer."

"You're welcome," I said with a smile. "I hope to see you around."

"You too," Aluminum said and waved as I entered the tower.

It wasn't like anything I had seen yet in the Wasteland, it had clearly been populated for a long time. There were ponies moving in and out of the rooms that made up the shops and other places around the tower.

It didn't take long to find the local office for the Followers of the Apocalypse, and I was greeted by a Unicorn mare who gave me a smile.

"Can I help you Miss?" She asked as she looked me over curiously.

"Uh, yes, Velvet Remedy told me that there's a pony here named Focus who might be able to help me out," I said as I looked around curiously. "Is he in?"

"Oh sorry miss, Focus had to travel to one of the Settlements in the city and he won't be back for a few days," the receptionist said regretfully. "I could send word to him if its important."

"No, its fine, I can wait if I have to," I said with a shake of my head, I didn't want to impose. "I'll find a place to stay in the Tower I guess."

"Of course, sorry for the inconvenience," the receptionist said with a smile as she made a note. "I'm sure that Focus will be happy to meet with you as soon as he gets back."

I nodded and trotted out of the office and started looking around the area. I was constantly amazed at how ponies had managed to rebuild after the Megaspells, I had to wonder how much of that really was from the Stables and how much of it was just good old pony ingenuity.

Did it really matter though? We had survived as a species, and from what I had seen so did many others. That was ultimately our goal with Stable-Tec, and I was happy to know that we had succeeded.

That didn't change the fact that I had left it to burn.

I sighed and stopped by a restaurant, I got some food that was little more than pre-war food that had been scavenged and re-purposed. I sat down at one of the tables and started to eat.

"Excuse me," a mare's voice said and I looked up surprised to see a blue-grey Unicorn mare with an orange mane and tail glaring at me... and she was wearing a Stable Jumpsuit, from Stable 66, uh-oh. "You're Scootaloo aren't you?"

"Uh, maybe, who's asking?" I said with a gulp, I didn't like where this was going, how did she know who I was?

The Unicorn didn't reply, instead she swung her hoof at me catching me off guard as it connected with my muzzle, sending my hat flying. I didn't even have time to think about what I was doing, I hit her back as hard as I could.

Before I even realized what was happening, we were being pulled away from each other by ponies dressed in security barding.

"Let me go! Its all her fault, everything that happened to Stable 66 is her fault!" The mare screamed at me and the security ponies. "Its all her fault!"

I just stood there in stunned silence, I knew that it was going to be inevitable that I encountered ponies that felt like this, but it hit me harder than I thought it was going to.

As security took us away, the Stable Mare kept glaring at me, the hatred in her eyes was clear.

Dear Celestia what had I done?

I stared up at the ceiling of the holding cell that they had put me in and sighed.

Stable 66 had been one of the Stables we had constructed here in Manehattan, it had been populated with the societal elite of this part of Equestria, the rich and the famous, ponies who had been accustomed to comfortable living. Maybe it wasn't one of our better ideas, but we had built it to be too small so families would have to double up.

Stable 66 had been similar in principle to what I did with Stable 1, to deal with the ponies that had fueled the war. I didn't sabotage it, but the Stable had been built to force them to come to grips with the new reality.

I guess it lasted this long, but what had happened there?

I wound up being in the holding cell for a few days, it wasn't too bad but it got lonely, and really more than anything else it left me alone with my thoughts. Equestria was different from what I remembered, but I was trying to get used to it.

"You're free to go," a voice said and I was surprised to see the guard opening the cell door. "You can pick up your personal effects at the Security Office on your way out."

"Wait, why am I being freed?" I asked with a blink as I got up and headed to the door.

"You got bailed out by a friend, she's waiting for you outside," the guard said.

I blinked a little at that, I didn't have any friends in Tenpony Tower except maybe Aluminum. I walked out of the cell and past the Unicorn Stable Dweller who glared at me as I trotted past. I tried not to think about her as I headed for the front of the security office.

I stopped by the desk at the front and picked up my saddlebags and my hat. I trotted out of the security office and was greeted by a grey Unicorn mare with a spiky blue mane with a cloak covering most of her body.

"Hey there Wanderer," she said with a smile as she offered me a hoof. "I'm Homage, I heard about you coming here from Calamity, and, well... I had to see for myself."

"Its, nice to meet you Homage," I said with a weak smile as I shook her hoof, it was strange actually she kind of reminded me of Vinyl Scratch, only grey. "Thanks for helping me out back there."

"Eh, they would have let you out eventually anyway once things were worked out with the NCR," Homage said with a shrug as we started walking together. "The fighting charge was minor and they should've let you go the next day."

"So they were holding me because of who I am..." I said with a sigh.

"That's one thing you don't have to worry about legally, at least in any areas affiliated with the NCR," Homage said. "Legally, you and any other survivors can't be held accountable for any of your crimes during the war, including the Stables. Its considered time served if you're still alive I guess."

That, actually did make me feel a little bit better. At least I wasn't about to spend the rest of my life in prison because of the Stables, I'd just have to deal with my own conscience for the rest of my life.

There was something else that was bugging me though.

"What do you know about the mare who attacked me?" I asked.

"Oh, you mean Arc Light?" Homage asked and I nodded. "Not a whole lot, I asked around about her. She showed up about a day before you did and said she was from a Stable when anypony asked."

I sighed and tried to think about what to do next. "So where are we going now?"

"There's somepony who would like to meet you," Homage said with a smile, I blinked a little at that, but just followed her.

We left the public areas of Tenpony Tower and I found myself in a more private area. It was pretty much empty as we passed by a fountain and finally stopped at a room with a light that said "ON AIR" over the door.

"A radio station?" I asked Homage curiously.

"Yep, DJ Pon3, he's been on the air since after the megaspells fell," Homage said.

I blinked a little at that, DJ Pon3 was Vinyl Scratch's stage name, and I knew for a fact that she had been in Stable 29. Did somepony else take up the name and become a Ghoul or something?

Homage actually chuckled a little when she saw the look of confusion on my face before she turned serious. "Scootaloo, I'm going to trust you with one of the biggest secrets in Equestria, do you promise to not tell anypony?"

"I promise," I said and tilted my head a little, I had to wonder what kind of secret was so important that I had to be sworn to secrecy.

Homage smiled and nodded, a few minutes later the light went off and she told me to wait outside for her before she went through the door.
There had been a DJ Pon3 ever since after Vinyl made it into Stable 29? It was actually kind of a shame, we had been considering moving Vinyl and Octavia into Stable 27 in the south but it hadn't gone through yet, so they wound up in 29 when the bombs fell.

From what I had read in The Book of Littlepip, it may have been better if we had made it work after all.

"Scootaloo, you can come in," Homage said as she opened the door again. "Just remember that you have to keep everything you see in here secret."

I nodded and Homage let me in. I found myself inside the radio station's broadcast center, which had an elaborately designed computer in it. I blinked in surprise when I saw a Zebra mare with her mane tied into a braid who was dressed in a cloak similar to the one that Homage wore.

"Hello Scootaloo," the Zebra said with a smile, I wasn't really sure what to make of this as she offered a hoof. "My name is Xiraia, I'm DJ Pon3."

"DJ Pon3 is a Zebra?" I asked confused, that was certainly not what I had expected at all.

"Oh, I'm just the most recent," Xiraia said with a smile. "Its been passed down from pony to pony ever since Vinyl Scratch's nephew took the title."

"Well, that does explain a lot," I said and smiled a little. "Its an honor to meet you Xiraia."

"Likewise Scootaloo," Xiraia said as we shook hooves. "Do you mind if I ask you a few questions? I just want to get to know you a bit more, maybe if we have to I can help you with Wastelanders that don't quite understand what happened with you."

"Okay, I guess it couldn't hurt," I said, and paused a moment. "Just, one thing, that mare Arc Light, can you get her released?"

"That's a strange request, but I'll see what I can do," Xiraia said with a nod before gesturing for me to take a seat as she took out a recording device. "Are you ready?"

"As ready as I'll ever be," I said and Homage gave me a reassuring smile as Xiraia activated the device.

"Okay Scootaloo, this is to give you a chance to tell your side of the story," Xiraia said as she gave me a nod. "Now because of The Book of LittlePip and Ruby Starlight's account of the war with the Empire, a lot of ponies have heard parts of your story. I think we'd like to hear it from you though, what happened that lead up to the creation of the Stables?"

I took a deep breath and started to talk. "During the war, Apple Bloom, Sweetie Belle, and myself started Stable-Tec to help create new technology for Equestria. Not for the war effort, but to help ponies in their day to day lives. When it became obvious that the Megaspells were going to be a danger to Equestria, we started developing the Stables themselves. They were constructed for the purpose of preserving life, Ponies, Zebras, Griffons, Changelings, Deer, Buffalo... any species that we could give a chance to survive, but..."

I paused a little, what I had to say next was going to be hard to admit, especially if this was going to be broadcast all over Equestria. What I was going to have to say wouldn't be easy to hear, but it was the truth.

"Are you okay Scootaloo? We can stop if you want," Xiraia said.

"I'm fine," I said with a shake of my head. "The Stable experiments were included as an effort to help learn from the mistakes of the past. That being said, we made a lot of mistakes... the experiments hurt ponies either directly or indirectly, and for that I'm sorry. In our efforts to try and help Equestria, we wound up doing a lot of harm. I can't change my actions, but I promise everyone listening to this that I will spend the rest of my life trying to make up for my actions and that of my company."

"Thank you Scootaloo, I'm sure you'll do fine," Xiraia said reassuringly with a smile.

I had to admit that it actually did help a lot to say that out loud. I had no idea if anypony would ever actually hear this interview, but just getting it off my chest actually helped a little.

Xiraia asked me a few more questions about the war before she started asking about my foalhood. That surprised me a little but I answered them to the best of my ability. I was surprised to learn that she knew about me being raised in an orphanage, but I guess that had been learned from one of the books she had mentioned.

"Well, that was very good, thank you Scootaloo," Xiraia said as she shut off the recording finally.

"How do you feel?" Homage asked as she looked at me.

"Honestly? A little better, I just have to hope that ponies listen," I said with a sigh and the two mares nodded in agreement.

I still had a long way to go before I really made up for my actions, but at least I was trying.

Before I went to get my hotel room, I was surprised when Homage gave me another book, this one was called Ruby's Story, and she said that I'd find it interesting. She also gave me something I didn't expect, my old PipBuck, I hadn't exactly expected to see it again, but she said that the Dashites would understand.

I slipped the PipBuck onto my leg as my health showed up and my S.P.E.C.I.A.L. stats all appeared (we probably could've come up with a better name for that):

S: 5
P: 6
E: 7
C: 4
I: 5
A: 8
L: 6

Well that wasn't too bad I guess, pretty much what I had before the cloud cover was formed. I flipped through the screens, all my equipment was there, then there was of course the radio stations including DJ Pon3's radio station.

I then turned to the book that I had gotten and opened it to begin reading. I quickly understood why it had been suggested, Ruby Starlight was from Stable 26.

Thank goodness they had survived, I know I hadn't given them the easiest job in Equestria, but they had survived long enough for its ultimate goal to be realized. That filled me with hope that Equestria had a chance.

Of course it was a bit awkward because the pony who had left the Stable wound up in the middle of a war, but I had no way of knowing that was going to happen.

I turned the radio on and listened to the music as it filled the room while I continued to read. Maybe I should meet Ruby sometime, she sounded like an interesting mare. Though, she did remind me a little of Fluttershy and Velvet Remedy.

As I read, a stallion's voice that I suppose was DJ Pon3 came over the radio. "Here's DJ Pon3 coming at you with the latest news for the day. Rumors are abound from ponies in the north that are in contact with the Crystal Wasteland and Crystal City that a new threat has arisen from the Changelings, who have been quiet for the last 200 years. The NCR has stated that until these reports can be confirmed, any expansion into the Crystal Wasteland will be put on hold."

The Changelings? That made me wonder a bit, during the war the Changelings had sided with Equestria against the Zebras under Thorax, but I had no idea what was going on since then.

I really did still have a lot to learn about the new Equestria.

I laid back and closed my eyes, letting the music playing from my PipBuck fill the room.

"Strangers
Broken hands align
Drift on the frozen face of time."

The next day I found myself walking around Tenpony Tower once again. I sighed and stretched my wings a little, they were probably more likely to attract attention than anything else, but I did see a few other Pegasi around.

I noticed that they didn't have the familiar brand, that might mean that even if the Enclave hadn't been defeated completely, there were still Pegasi that had broken off from them, that at least filled me with home for the future of Pegasi.

"Excuse me," a mare's voice said from behind me and I turned to see Arc Light look at me, she brushed her mane back and sighed. "I, wanted to apologize for before, Stable 66 has always blamed you and the others in Stable-Tec for our situation. When I realized you were still alive, I kinda lost it."

"Its okay, how did you know it was me anyway?" I asked, it had been bugging me on and off for the last few days.

"Your disguise isn't that good," Arc Light said with a roll of her eyes as we started walking together.

"What happened in Stable 66?" I asked, getting a surprised look from Arc Light.

"Our Overmare recently died, and her daughter took over she, wasn't exactly the most stable of ponies," Arc Light said with a sigh. "66 is in a state of chaos right now, I couldn't take it anymore, and my best friend, well she left too, I've been looking for her ever since."

"I'm sorry..." I said, and I meant it, the Stables, even 66 were built to save ponies and I had hoped that enough of them had survived. "What's her name?"

"Caramel Corn, we grew up together in the same quarters, she's a good pony," Arc Light said with a sigh. "She just, couldn't handle what was going on in Stable 66 anymore I guess. The last I heard she was on a caravan heading to Gildacross, I was planning on leaving the other day to head that way."

I paused a little, it took me a moment to remember how I knew the name Caramel Corn. And then it hit me, she had been the missing pony from the Caravan we had found... this wasn't going to go well.

"Arc, me and a pony I was traveling with found her caravan on the road to Manehattan," I said with a pause. "Almost everypony was killed, but Caramel Corn, she's missing."

An anger flashed in Arc Light's eyes again and she stormed off, I sighed, she needed time to cool down. She had only one clue to where her friend had went, and then I had taken it away from her.

I had no idea what I was going to do now. This certainly wasn't helping how I felt about the whole thing, in fact it probably made it worse.

Maybe there was some way I could help her.

A few more days passed with no more word from Arc Light, I mostly just tried to learn more about Equestria so I wound up reading more than anything else. I talked with Xiraia on occasion, she was always willing to talk at least, Homage had left a couple of days after we met.

Finally, almost two weeks after I had arrived at Tenpony Tower, Focus returned from his business in a nearby Settlement. Honestly I was kind of nervous, I hadn't actually talked to a pony like this since I was a filly, the war didn't really give me a lot of chances.

So, that's how I found myself sitting in a chair talking to a yellow Unicorn pony with a purple mane and looking at me behind a pair of glasses.

"Don't worry Scootaloo, there's no judgment to be had here," Focus said as he gave me a reassuring smile. "So, what seems to be the problem?"

"Ever since I woke up, I've been having these, dreams on and off," I said with a sigh. "Nightmares really, of my life before the Megaspells, and then it always ends in a Balefire detonation. I'm, left alive, but, it's like my mind is torturing me for it. When I wake up I'm in a sweat."

Focus listened carefully to what I had to say as he took notes. He took a deep breath and sighed after I had finished and set down his paper and pen.

"You feel guilty for having survived, even if you don't show it, that's what's going on subconsciously," Focus said. "I've heard that this has been common in ponies that survived the Apocalypse, both Fluttershy and Ditzy Doo suffered from this, and still do to an extent."

"Is there any way to help?" I asked.

"There's not a lot we can do, no," Focus admitted, which made my ears droop a little. "You're having anxiety attacks in your sleep, that's what's causing you to wake up like that. There's no easy way to get around it and it's likely to stick with you for the rest of your life. The best I can suggest is to find your virtue and your place in the world, perhaps atonement for your past actions will help as well."

My virtue? I knew what he meant by that sure, something that defined who I was as a pony, like Rainbow Dash's and loyalty. I had never given it a lot of thought growing up, I didn't truly fit any of the ones from the Elements of Harmony, but there were other examples of virtues.
So then which one was I?

"You come from a different time than all of us, Scootaloo," Focus said, making me look up at him again. "Is it possible you feel guilty about what you did with the Stables?"

"Most of the Stables weren't supposed to fail at all," I said with a sigh. "We made mistakes sure, but the only one I purposely designed to fail was Stable 1, and that was only supposed to be temporary. Do I feel guilty for making the Stables like I did? No, I don't, but I do feel guilty that so many of them failed."

Focus nodded in understanding. "My parents came from Stable 19 out in Fillydelphia, thankfully it was opened before Red Eye started moving in on the Fillydelphia Stables."

"Stable 19, that was about experimenting with population growth, foalless couples only at the start," I remembered, I had memorized every Stable Experiment over the years. "Well, I'm glad they made it."

"Yeah, me too," Focus said with a smile, then he paused a little. "I, doubt you'll be hearing this from a lot of Stable Dwellers, but I want to say thank you. You saved lives, a lot of ponies wouldn't be here if it wasn't for you."

"You're welcome Focus... that actually helps a little," I said with a weak smile. "Do you have any other suggestions about what I can do?"

Focus looked thoughtful for a long moment before nodding. "You should head south to Neigh Orleans, there's another doctor in the Followers down there who I've heard can help with nightmares. In the meantime, I can give you some drugs that can help keep your sleep dreamless."

"That might help I guess," I said with a shrug, I just had to hope that I could figure this out. "It was nice meeting you Focus."

"You too Scootaloo, stay safe," Focus said and I headed out.

"You're going where?" Xiraia asked as I was gathering up my gear and supplies that I had bought while I was in Tenpony Tower.

"The local headquarters for Stable-Tec," I said as I finished securing my rifles into my Battle Saddle. "There's something there I need to check out before I leave the city."

"Relating to the Stables then, what is it?" Xiraia asked me curiously.

"Its, something personal I need to look into," I said with a sigh, I didn't want to tell Xiraia the whole truth yet. "Can I ask you something?"

"Of course, anything," the Zebra said with a nod.

"Have there been any reports of Stables being broken into or failing unexpectedly lately?" I asked, it was a strange question.

"Well, other than 66? One or two sure, but they all seem pretty isolated, 23 and 91 I believe was the last ones that I know of," Xiraia said. "They were found by scavengers, totally empty, ponies, equipment, everything they could take, it wasn't Raiders."

"23 and 91? That's interesting..." I commented, she wasn't kidding, 23 was a control Stable on the outskirts of Vanhoover and 91 was an experiment that had leadership of the Stable change every week in Mareizona. "Well, I'll stop by on my way out of the city."

"You should talk to Arc Light first," Xiraia said, which made me pause a little. "You're both searching for something, its worth at least trying."

"I'll talk to her," I said with a nod and started out.

"You want me to what?" Arc Light asked as she looked at me perplexed.

"Come with me, at least to the local Stable-Tec building," I said as I looked at her for a long moment. "I know its a strange request and you don't have any reason to do so..."

"I need to find Caramel Corn and I lost the best clue I had already," Arc Light said with a shake of her head. "What reason would I have to go to a Stable-Tec building?"

I paused for a moment and thought about it before reaching an answer. "I can't promise she'll be there, but I know one thing. You want to know about Stable 66 right?"

"Yeah, I would," Arc Light admitted. "Stable 66 is the only home I've ever known, and I want to learn more about why its there and why my ancestors were picked."

"Well, we'll have the files there, lets go check it out," I said with a nod. "Are you up for it?"

"Yeah, but don't think this makes us friends, as soon as we're done here, we're parting ways, got it?" Arc said.

"Got it," I said with a roll of my eyes, this was going to be a long day.

I was really starting to miss the good old days.

The trip to the Stable-Tec building didn't take long at all, it wasn't too far from the Ministry of Arcane Science building that had been turned into Tenpony Tower at least. I looked up at the 4 story building that still stood in the shadow of the Ministry of Awesome hub for Manehattan.

If they weren't dead for at least 200 years, I'd have to have a word with the ponies in charge of city planning because that was terribly ironic in retrospect.

"We should be careful," Arc Light said as she made sure the rifle strapped to her back was secure. "I came by here on my way to Tenpony, there's, something in there."

"Great, well, nopony ever said this was going to be easy," I said with a sigh as we started making our way into the building, and a scent hit my nose that nearly made me recoil.

Something in this building was decaying or rotting and it had been for a long time. Arc Light didn't seem to like it either, but we moved forward, keeping our weapons at the ready as we walked past several corpses of dead ponies.

Or, at least what we thought were dead ponies, as Arc Light walked too close to one of them it began to stir and tried to take a chunk out of her leg, only to bite into her PipBuck. Arc Light yelped in surprise, but stumbled as she tried to shoot the zombie pony.

I didn't hesitate, I leveled my rifle at the head of the creature and tugged on the trigger, sending a bullet into the skull of the undead pony, sending blood and brains flying.

"Are you okay Arc?" I asked as I trotted over to the Unicorn to help her up.

"Yeah, I'm fine," Arc Light said as she tried to brush the blood out of her Stable Barding, there was another growl from deeper inside the building. "Great, looks like he has friends."

As more of the Ghouls started to pour in, I couldn't help but think of Ditzy Doo. These weren't like her, they were long gone, was this what would happen to all Ghouls, even Ditzy?

This was going to be a really long day.

"What in Celestia's name were those things?" Arc Light asked as we made our way upstairs, this time keeping an eye out for more Ghouls.

"Ghoul Ponies, I think," I said. "I met one before heading to Manehattan, but these Ghouls, they were... different than she was."

Arc Light listened as I told her what I did know about Ghouls, which admittedly wasn't a whole lot. I had to admit that I didn't quite understand it either, the Ghouls were like something out of those old the Trotting Dead comics that I used to read before the war, only, you know, radioactive.

"Wow, the outside world is crazy isn't it?" Arc Light asked, and I couldn't exactly disagree with her on that.

"Okay, the office should be just up here," I said as we entered the main office area where another zombie ghoul tried to jump us before we took it out.

Of course just our luck when we actually got to the door to the manager's office, it was locked.

"Well, that figures, looks like it was locked from the inside," Arc Light commented. "Do you have any experience with picking locks?"

"I, didn't really have much luck with getting a Lock Picking Cutie Mark," I admitted, rubbing the back of my head. "We could go down the hall to the security office, there should be an override on the terminal there."

Arc nodded as we headed that way, it didn't take long to find it and I started working at the terminal. Thankfully one advantage to being the former Vice President of Stable-Tec was that I could override any security easily enough with my password.

"Scootaloo... I can get a lot of answers from the computers, but I want you to tell me something," Arc Light said as I kept working. "Why did you put my ancestors in Stable 66?"

"You have to understand Arc Light, it was a different time," I said with a sigh. "I wanted to save Ponies, Stable 66 was supposed to level the playing field you might say. It, seemed like a good idea at the time, the idea being that when it opened, Ponies from it would have a better understanding of things and be able to contribute to Equestria."

"That's, not really what I expected, we all thought it was more out of revenge," Arc Light said.

"I won't lie, it may have been a little," I said with a sigh. "I made a lot of mistakes during the war Arc Light, Stable 66 was one of them. I'm not going to ask you to forgive me, but at least give me a chance to prove myself."

Arc Light thought for a long moment before nodding in understanding. "Okay Scootaloo... I'll give you a chance."

I smiled and finally finished, unlocking the remaining locked doors in the building. We headed back to the main office.

As we pushed the door open, there was a shot over our heads, thankfully it missed, but we moved behind the walls anyway.

"Blasted Ferals, you won't get at me!" A raspy voice shouted from inside the office. "This is my office, mine!"

"Another Ghoul?" Arc Light asked looking at me.

"Sounds like it," I commented with a sigh, the pony must have thought we were Ghouls too, so I called out to them. "We're not Ferals, we're just here to try and find information."

"Ms. Scootaloo?" The voice asked perplexed. "You're still alive? Are you sure you're not a Ghoul?"

"Its a long story, I'm coming in," I said as I carefully moved inside, inside there was an Earth Pony ghoul with rotting flesh, but I could still recognize her green coat and yellow mane. "Lemon Lime, its good to see you again."

"You too ma'am," Lemon Lime said with a smile as Arc Light entered behind me. "And I see you've got a Stable Dweller with you."

"Arc Light, meet Lemon Lime, she ran the Manehattan HQ back during the war," I said.

"Uh, nice to meet you," Arc Light said.

I trotted over to the terminal at Lemon Lime's desk and started working on it to try and get the information I wanted while Lemon Lime and Arc Light talked. I pulled up the status for the Stables, and frowned a little, a lot of them had gone dark, but it was hard to tell why.

I glanced up at the two talking ponies and entered a new command which brought me into the more secure Stable Network. I had to make sure that the, systems in the special Stables were still online after this long.

14: ACTIVE.
26: ACTIVE.
48: ACTIVE.
78: ACTIVE.
97: ACTIVE.
117: ACTIVE.

I took a deep breath, that meant that their secret hadn't been uncovered. That made me feel a bit better at least. I downloaded the information to my PipBuck and exited out of it and called to Arc Light. "Okay Arc Light, I'm done, go ahead and take a look at what you want to."

Arc Light nodded and took my place as I looked at Lemon Lime. "How long have you been in here?"

"Since, about, 100 years ago," Lemon said with a sigh. "I was trying to find Licorice mostly... I knew she made it into a Stable, but I didn't know which one. I hoped I could find an answer here, but... yeah."

Licorice, that was Lemon Lime's daughter, she was a good pony, but I remembered that she and Lemon had a falling out. Last I heard she had been placed in Stable 27 to the far south.

"Stable 27," I said, which made her look at me curiously. "She was made the Overmare of Stable 27, it was one that was inhabited entirely by mares. I don't know if she made it into the Stable or not, but odds are she did."

"Thank you Scootaloo, that takes a lot off my withers," Lemon Lime said with a smile and hugged me gently. "I shouldn't have treated her like I did... maybe this is my punishment."

"It'll be okay, the best I can suggest at this point is to go south, you'll find Stable 27 in the jungles to the south," I said with a smile. "Go, find your family."

Lemon Lime nodded and smiled before heading out of the office. I watched her go with a sigh, but it certainly at least helped me feel a little better.

"Where is she going?" Arc Light asked as she came up to me.

"The same place we both are," I said, getting a strange look from the Stable Dweller. "To find our families."

Arc Light had downloaded all the files she could find on Stable 66. There wasn't a lot to go on for her, but it at least was going to help her out. I wished that I could give her a better answer, but for now she would have to settle for what she could find.

The next day I was packing up my equipment as I was preparing to leave for Neigh Orleans when there was a knock at the door. I opened it and was surprised to see Arc Light waiting for me, also all packed up.

"I thought you said you didn't want to travel with me anymore," I said with a surprised look on my face.

"I'm looking for the Enclave," she said simply. "There's rumors that one of their warlords has set up shop in Neigh Orleans, so I want to look into that. You're heading that way, I figured we could travel together, strength in numbers you know?"

I actually smiled at that and offered her a hoof. "I'd be glad to have you join me," I said with a nod. "I promise, I'll help you find Caramel Corn."
Arc Light nodded and we headed out of Tenpony Tower. I looked back up at the large tower as we started walking out of the city.

Soon we were joined by another companion, Schooner, the dog from the caravan. I had never really been one for dogs, but I had to admit, there was something about this one that made me not want to leave him behind.

And from there, we stepped out of Manehattan, and into an uncertain future for all of us.

LEVEL UP!
Perk Received: Cloud Watcher.
Details: As a flightless Pegasus, you've always looked up to the sky and dreamed of flight. You gain a boost to your movement speed on the ground and using self-propelled gear, but you cannot achieve flight.