A Stable, once we gather our supplies we’re going to explore an actual Stable. Not only that, I just stood my ground against a quarry eel. Nopony is going to believe me!

“I’m glad you're with us Ardent,” Gale said, interrupting me from my thoughts. “You incur more injuries than the others.”

“What do you mean?” I asked. A slight disturbance appeared around his horn as a sharp pain pinched my back.“Ow,” I said, gaping at the piece of eel tooth Gale had just removed from my back. It had broken to look like a long needle and widened at the end.

“Beautiful.” Gale swung the piece of tooth through the air like a sword and the blood covering it slid off.

“Um,” I pointed at the spot on my back that had started bleeding.

Gale nickered and floated the tooth into his saddle bag and took out a medical pad to tape up my injury. When he finished I remembered what happened to the brahmin.

“Clover, the eel... I think it killed Melody,” I said.

Clover raised an eyebrow. “You must be seeing things Ardent.”

“What, no, the-”

“He could be going mad,” Gale chimed in. “Some ponies just can't handle the wasteland.”

The others chuckled.

They're making jokes!? Was the brahmin’s life worth so little?

We reached the end of the eel’s tunnel and looked up, the eel had burrowed straight down when it had reentered the ground. Clover flew out to gather our supplies while we dug our own exit. As we came to the surface the caravan was upright and all our equipment was organized and put away. Melody was attached to the caravan in pristine condition. I approached the brahmin and replayed the memory, tracing a line on her side where the teeth had ripped into her. There was absolutely no sign of injury. It was impossible for Clover to have gathered our supplies so quickly and impossible for the brahmin to be alive. Is Gale right, was I seeing things, are my memories wrong? One of Melody’s heads mooed.

“Come eat or go hungry,” Clover called over. I eyed the brahmin one last time as it stared off into the distance. What are you?

I sat down with a bottle of Sparkle Cola and a can of peaches. The can had an embossed image of what might have been two ponies, but time wiped away any distinguishing marks. I reached for the drink and popped off the cap. I downed the carroty drink in one swig. I rarely came across Sparkle Colas in Dust but when I did I used what little savings I had to get them. My Pip-Buck clicked rapidly to indicate I drank a notable amount of radiation. I paled as memories of drinking the tasty beverage throughout my life came flooding in.

“Ignorance is bliss, till it isn’t,” Gale said, practically reading my mind. “You know during your first day with us you had minor radiation poisoning. I fixed you up so feel free to take some rads here and there.”

“Thank Celestia that eel crashed into the Stable,” Nibble said changing the subject.

“Celestia had nothing to do with it,” I said. Silence followed, glancing up everypony eyed me with mixed expression. Shit, I said that louder than I thought.

“Something wrong with the Goddess Celestia?” Clover asked. My reaction betrayed me as I scoffed. Shit!

“What’s wrong with the Goddesses,” Nibble challenged as she got up.

“Nothing,” I said waving my hooves in front of me. “At least there is nothing wrong with Luna,” I muttered.

Clover landed between us. “What do you know of Celestia and Luna?”

I tried to bite my tongue and keep my opinions to myself, but as always, I failed. “From what I understand, Celestia gave up her throne shortly after the Littlehorn Massacre and threw all her responsibilities on her younger sister Luna. I don’t know if they were actually gods, but they seemed to have godlike abilities, I mean they literally controlled the sun and moon. Even with that power, when things got tough Celestia gave up. She is as useless as goddess as she was a leader!”

Every time I learned about pre-war events the same thought came to my mind, what was Celestia doing?! I would voice those thoughts loudly, usually earning me a beating from most ponies and a scolding from Shot Chaser. At least Shot Chaser isn’t around to scold me.

To my surprise Clover let out a cold, empty laugh causing chills to run up my spine.

“Pack up,” he ordered, returning to his commanding self. "Time we see what's down there."

Nibble glared at me the whole way to the Stable and I tried my best not to notice. Honestly, I was just happy the others weren't angry with me, most ponies clung to their faith harder than their caps.

The quarry eel’s corpse had continued to bleed out during our absence. A horrible stench filled the recently dug passage and a pool of blood blocked the entrance to Stable Nine.

“Ewwww,” Nibble gagged. She turned to Gale. “I’ll levitate you over if you return the favor.” Gale wrapped Nibble in his aura and floated her to the entrance.

“Why don’t you just levitate yourself?” I asked.

“It takes a great deal of magic to levitate yourself, something Nibble and I aren’t capable of doing for any prolonged period of time,” Gale explained as Nibble’s purple aura lifted him over the moat of blood. Mangle jumped the distance and Clover flew over, leaving me the only one on the other side.

“Don’t worry, I got you,” Nibble said, rolling her eyes. A purple aura started to wrap around me. My heart raced as the memory of the necromantic unicorn grabbing me with his magic forced its way into my mind. I flailed catching the ground and breaking the levitation spell.

“What the,” Nibble said as her spell imploded. I landed on the ground and wrapped my hooves around a rock. I broke into cold sweat as all the pain, shock, and fear came rushing back as real as the day it happened.

“P- Please don’t do-o that.” I struggled to say as I started to hyperventilate. I focused and willed the memory to stop, the images slowed and the sensations dulled as the memory faded. Replaying my memories had always been like this but I’d never had one force itself out.

Nibbles eye's widened. “I'm so sorry- I didn’t realize.”

Clover landed in front of me with an unconcerned look.

“Stand,” he commanded. I struggled to stand on my trembling legs. Clover grabbed me, flew me over to the other side, and set me down next to the others.

Nibble came over, placing a hoof on my back, and apologized profusely. I nodded, letting her know it was okay.

Clover waited for me to regain some composure before speaking, “Mangle, I want you to go find the Overmare’s office with Ardent. The rest of us are going to scavenge the lower levels.” Gale raised his hoof to protest, but Clover glared at him till he lowered it. “Stables can be dangerous so be ready for anything,” Clover finished.

Our first steps into Stable Nine revealed a graveyard of blackened skeletons with scorch marks marring the ground and walls.

Gale kicked at a pile of bones and it fell apart into ash. “Burned alive,” he said. “Painful way to go.”

Clover grunted and pressed on. The Stable appeared to be in good condition, not that I had any point of reference. The lights let out an annoying hum that was drowned out by the noise of our hoofsteps against the cement ground.

We remained together until the first four way split, the others went downstairs on our left and I followed Mangle straight.

I’ve never been alone with Mangle before. She was a head shorter than me without her power hooves active. I took a closer look at her weapons, they appeared like thick shackles around her legs. What I thought were just chunks of metal was actually an intricate design of interweaving parts, some of it dug directly into her leg.

“Are those…” I wasn’t sure how to ask, “Can you take those off?”

Mangle glared back at me.

Maybe it was a sensitive topic, I tried a different subject, “How old are you?”

Mangle groaned, “Another talker.” She shook her head and picked up her pace

Mangle moved like she owned the place as we traveled deeper into the Stable. She didn’t have a Pip-Buck to navigate and the local map on mine started to look like a maze.

“How do you know where we’re going?” I asked as we took a right.

“Ugh.” Mangle stopped to face me. “I grew up in a Stable, they said I stopped growing a about a year ago, and no, they’re attached to my legs but why would I ever want to take them off?” Mangle answered in reverse order. “Any other stupid fucking questions?”

A stable dweller, and probably really young, I think, who the hell measure age by when you stop growing? She caught me off guard with her directness but I didn't want to waste the opportunity, “The cannon?”

Mangle smirked. “A little trick these things can do, my second best move.”

“They can do more?”

“Ha,” Mangle spat. “Ain’t got nothing to do with them, my best move is all my own. Let’s just say I was first in line to get these for a reason.”

“What do you mean-”

“Ughggg, shut the fuck up.” Mangle turned away, apparently bored of the conversation.

“But-” I silenced myself as Mangle let one of her power hooves wrap around her back leg and raised it. Okay, no more talking.

An outline of a pony surrounded by scorch marks decorated a wall, below it a pile of ash. The burn marks originated from a nearby vent as if somepony was crawling around with a flamethrower, but after a careful peek I noticed the ducts were too small for a pony.

“What kind of vent shoots fire?” I asked.

“Maybe it blew up,” Mangle offered.

I poked at a piece of melted metal. Wouldn't the vent have been blown off from an explosion? My gaze drifted to an open door where a shiny gem caught my eye, with a shrug I trotted over.

A counter lined one side of the room where large gems lay atop a mess of broken test tubes. Pneumatic tubes labeled “Magical” and “Non-Magical” were in the corner. A mounted laser rifle faced a wall with multiple burn marks, and a computer hummed on one of the tables.

I wandered over and hit some keys, muttering a quick thanks to Luna as it logged in without a password. There were many entries but a majority were corrupted.

“The fuck you doing?” Mangle asked from the hallway.

She sure does swear a lot. Not that I minded, since I grew up in a bar vulgarity was almost a second language to me, along with slurred speech. Shot Chaser cleverly deterred me from repeating most curses by saying, “Vulgar words are for idiots that lack vocabulary, not that you should ever inform anypony of that.”

“I am going to look at these files. Do you want to see?” I asked.

“Umm, no.” Mangle approached the door. “I’m going to look around, so be quick.” She turned and left without stepping a hoof inside.

“Just stay close okay?” I started going through the uncorrupted text files.

"Opening day. Stable-Tec has chosen our vault to continue research on gems and their effects in energy weapons. Since there’s no rock farm we have been equipped with a way to grow gems! Groundbreaking technology, or should I say rockbreaking. They take months to grow but this place is built to last and the Overmare is excited about the project, oh and get this, the Overmare to Stable Nine was chosen by Luna herself! We grow the gems, test them in the provided weapon, and document the effect. Afterwards the gems are sent off to a secure location. The whole team can’t wait to get started.

"Experiment 6. Great news, instead of another batch of duds we got one that worked! It left a lingering fire after the weapon discharged. I am sure the Overmare will be pleased with this outcome, although she’s been plenty happy about the duds as well. I guess she is just in awe of the technology, and to be fair this latest breakthrough has me burning for more.

"Experiment 23. The probability of getting a gem with elemental effects is extremely low, a little sad, but this is brand new technology. We have had multiple fire gems, one electric, and one explosive. Poor Stardust lost his eyebrows when we found that last one, should teach him to wear goggles from now on. He sent in a request to transfer positions, something about a hazardous workplace and a coworker addicted to puns, but the Overmare denied it. Stardust said he got a nasty letter from her making rather direct threats about staying where he's told.

"Experiment 87. Growing these gems has become a bore, get it because boring and gems haha, I’m out of clever ones. We must have a stockpile for a small army by now and I doubt that's what’s left out there. We haven't found any new types of gems, and haven't heard anything from Stable-Tec since the Stable closed. The Overmare is so insistent we continue, almost like her life depended on it, and we will for now, not like there's anything else to do down here... Stardust asked if any of us have ever seen the Overmare before, it seemed like a silly question at the time but now I can't stop thinking about it. I hear her voice almost everyday over announcements and I know I have seen her shadow in the Overmare’s office, but I don’t think I have ever met her face to face.

"Experiment 235. No matter what the Overmare says, it's over! This has become a waste of time. We're the only ones left. There's no point. She demanded we continue. We told her to say that to our face. That shut her up. We saw movement in her office so it is good to know somepony is there but why hasn’t she shown herself all this time. I say we bust in there and demand some answers.

"Revolution Day! That crazy bitch has turned off the sprinklers and lit a fire that she’s fanning into the vents. If any of the vents lead to where the gems are kept it could blow us all to Tartarus. A group of us are going to try to get out of here while the rest of us try to take her office. Stardust kept one of the explosive gems, we are going to use it to blow open the door to her office."

Well that explains a lot. I stepped back from the terminal and envisioned the team of scientists working in the lab, taking notes on clipboards, placing gems into the weapon, and Stardust losing his eyebrows in a comedic explosion. I chuckled but then was hit by a sudden wave of melancholy as I imagined them typing the results into the terminal I had just used, fighting until a fire reached their life's work and killed everypony. I glanced to the doorway and could see the edge of the ash pile in the hall.

It was stupid to feel sad, they died ages ago and there was nothing I could have done to stop it, but still… Reading the logs, getting a glimpse into some other ponies life, knowing the ending. Is this why Shot Chaser stopped? I shook myself free of the emotions.

I swiped every gem in the room into my saddle bag and headed back into the hallway. Mangle was down the hall with her power hooves activated. I galloped over as she launched herself up using her power hooves to boost higher. I entered a two leveled living area with an overhanging railing wrapped around the second level. Chairs and tables were in the corners on the first floor. Overlooking the entire area was a large dimmed window.

“Whats going on?” I asked as Mangle landed with a curse.

She gestured at a rubble blocked stairwell. “That was the only way up. I can almost reach the railing but…” Her stare shifted from the railing to me, “ Oh, I know.”

Before I could ask, Mangle got underneath me and balanced me on her fore hooves. Her power hooves dug into my stomach as she teetered on her back legs. My eyes widened.

“Can't we just wai-”

She kicked off and let her power hooves propel us upward. We nearly reached the railing on the second level before coming to the apex of her jump. Mangle pushed me forward and I heard her power hooves activate. Shit, this is going to hurt. The metal plates shot out, one crushing into my chest, forcing all the air out of my lungs. I launched upwards and crashed onto the second level.

“You alive up there?!” Mangle yelled.

“Yes,” I gasped trying to refill my lungs. “Couldn’t we have- just waited- for Clover- or Nibble?” I choked out.

There was a pause. “Whatever, it worked. Well uh, go check out the thing. I’ll keep looking around down here till they show up.” Mangle said as she trotted away.

“Wait.” I placed a hoof to stand but my strength gave out and I fell to the floor. I had bruises and scrapes all over from the last hour and my sides were still raw from where the new skin covered the skewer wound. How the hell do the others handle this?

I could only lay and listen to Mangle’s hoofsteps echoing from the halls. With each step they grew a little more quiet until they disappeared completely. They're going to abandon me here. I'm not useful enough. Please don’t leave me alone.

“They'll be back,” I whispered to myself. “Go be useful and check the Overmare’s office.”

Obeying my own order I forced myself up and tried to open the locked door next to the overlooking window. I searched around in my saddlebag and pulled out Nibble’s lock picking device. Placing it in the lock I let my senses dull focusing everything on the feeling in my hooves. It was the same as before, after enough fiddling around…

The door slid open revealing an office covered in junk. Nik naks littered the tables and floor. A computer was mounted on the main desk. I went over and tried to login, but sighed when it asked for a password. This will have to wait for Nibble. I started looting everything in the room, a violin, some small trophies, and a rubber chicken. The Overmare had some odd tastes, is that a kitchen sink?

While looting I backed into a painting of a tree and nudged it off center. I turned to adjust it but noticed a crease on the wall. What the heck? I ran my hoof along the cold grey wall tracing the crease. I pulled down the painting to reveal a safe built into the wall.

Once again I pulled out the lock picking device and slipped into my trance, but no matter how much I tinkered with the tumblers the tension remained the same. I gave up and left my trance. Nibble said it only works on basic locks, guess this is out of my league.

Voices echoed outside and the tension I didn’t realize was building vanished. I ran out to see Clover and the others talking with Mangle.

“You punched him up there?!” Nibble asked.

“Are you deaf,” Mangle replied. “Look he’s fine.” She pointed up to me.

I waved. Clover flew up and glanced through the door to the Overmare’s office. He turned to me.

“Uhh, a locked computer, hidden safe, and lots of junk,” I said. He nodded and flew down to Nibble, picking her up and lifting her to the second level.

“Nibble get the computer unlocked. I’ll get others up here to look around. Ardent you cover her,” Clover ordered. He hesitated before he left looking at me almost sympathetically. “Don’t talk.”

He flew off to get the others as Nibble cantered past me, smacking me in the face with her tail. Dammit she’s really pissed about this whole Celestia thing. I can’t have the only nice pony in Elpis hating me, I’ll have to talk to her about it soon.

There was no chance for words once Nibble hooked her Pip-Buck into the computer. Her eyes raced across the code and she muttered random words and letters. Her brow furrowed whenever she had to back out and restart. She let out a triumphant squeal when she entered the correct password. She methodically scoured the information on the computer and smirked as she hit a key causing the safe I found to pop open.

“Go check it out,” she said not even looking up from the screen.

There were only two things in the safe, a glowing orb and an audio recorder. The orb felt like glass so I placed it in an inner pocket on my barding, making a mental note to ask about it later. I hit play on the audio recorder.

“Hello, Lazuline. The following is for your ears only. I am speaking to you because you have been selected as the Overmare for Stable Nine, due to your agreement with Princess Luna and your unique upbringing.

“My name is Scootaloo. I am the vice-president of the Stable-Tec. Your stable has been selected to participate in a vital social project. The first goal of Stable Nine, like any other, is to save the lives of the ponies inside, but there is a higher purpose to your Stable. Stable-Tec and Luna understand that it doesn’t do ponykind any good to save ourselves now only to annihilate each other later. We must figure out where we went wrong, and we must be ready to implement it as soon as possible once the Stable doors open.

“Your Stable has a very exceptional design. Despite the official documents, you have been outfitted with labs that can grow gems. This is rather new technology and we don’t expect the gems to be as potent as the ones from rock farming but they are still usable for all your needs.

“The goal of this social experiment is to see how long ponies can last under the command of a faceless leader. We need to know if ponies can trust a leader designated by Luna herself. Feel free to take any action you must in order to keep the ponies listening to you and working under the pretenses of authority.

“Thank you. From all of us. From all of Equestria. Best of luck, and may Stable Nine and all its inhabitants live long and well.”

Scootaloo sighed and ruffled some papers.

“We really need a new template for these things. I am getting tired of basically saying the same thing over and over… Is this thing still recording?”

“Looks like there was some sort of revolt,” Nibble said reading through the files.

“Yeah, the logs in the science lab said that too,” I confirmed.

“Ooh looky here,” She entered a command and backed away from the console. After a slight rumble the floor opened up in front of us revealing stairs leading down.

“Secret passage. That’s cool,” I said.

“Let's see what's down there,” Clover said walking into the Overmare’s office with Gale.

“Where’s Mangle?” I asked.

“We found an armory up here,” Gale said. “She is getting past all the locks, violently. She’ll catch up.”

We headed into the passage. It followed the layout of the Stable but the longer we traveled the more it turned into a mine, the end of the tunnel opened into a large cave. There must have been motion sensors because when we walked in lights on the ceiling flickered to life. Everypony's eyes were drawn to the spectrum of colors cast along the walls and ceiling, reflecting and refracting off of the pile of gems in the corner. The pneumatic tubes from the science lab ended here.

“Jackpot,” Clover said.

I grabbed one of the gems. “I don’t understand. I thought the gems were the cause of the fire?”

“How do gems cause a fire?” Gale asked picking up a yellow tinted gem.

“I wonder what caused it.”

The pile of gems started to rattle as a few fell from the top scattering across the floor. We backed up as something emerged.

A dragon, an actual, live, dragon. As the dragon stretched its sapphire blue scales sparkled in the light. With a yawn it cracked its neck with rose colored talons. It rubbed at its ice blue eyes and eventually focused on us.

“Well it seems I finally have some replacement ponies,” the dragon spoke in a low feminine voice. “About time Stable-Tec sent you.”

Only a moment of silence followed before Clover spoke up, “Well the Stable is underground.” Clover followed along as he motioned to the exit with his wing. Nibble, Gale, and I scooted away as Clover continued, “And the orders weren’t very clear.”

The dragon scoffed, “They never are with Stable-Tec, but it’s simple enough, you all will be making… Does that pony have one of MY GEMS!”

I froze and glanced at my saddle bag which was near bursting. The top revealed some of the contents, one of which being a gem I took from the lab. I swallowed, Oh shit.

The dragon lopped along the wall and slammed itself down in front of our only exit. “You dare steal from your leader, your Overmare!”

I closed my eyes as a wave of burning air bellowed out of the dragon’s mouth. When I could open them again a dragon three times my size stared down at me with slitted pupils. Overmare? Was this Lazuline? Did they really put a dragon in charge of a Stable?!

“I’m their leader,” Clover said.

“What?!” Lazuline growled. The dragon faltered as Clover flew up to eye level.

“If you want a chance of getting out of here alive, you will follow me as well!” Clover demanded.

Lazuline took a step back. “You- you dont scare me.” Clover flew forward and the dragon stepped back and flailed out a claw slicing off a layer of Clover’s barding like paper. Clover fired his battle saddle in defense.

“No!” Lazuline whimpered and cowered in the doorway. The laser struck against one of her spikes and reflected, hitting the ground.

Lazuline stood still for a moment, then a smile spread across her face. “You had me going there.” She opened and closed her claws a few time. “I was so little during the uprising, you ponies actually stood a chance, but not anymore. Why don’t we come to an arrangement?”

Clover landed, his coat drenched in sweat. He wasn’t the only pony sweating, the temperature in the room had spiked and each word Lazuline spoke only made it worse.

“What kind of arrangement?” Clover asked.

“Well, you can work in the labs making gems forever or I can barbecue you all now and have a nice breakfast.” The dragon smiled, revealing all of her razor sharp teeth.

“The labs are in poor repair. We can go get a pony to fix them for you,” Clover said.

“Poor repair you say?” Lazuline lifted her head bringing a claw up to scratch at her chin, taking only a moment to ponder. “I guess it’s time for breakfast.”

Clover cursed under his breath as he took a battle stance. The rest of us followed his lead.

Lazuline simply laughed as she reached out a claw.

“Holy shit a dragon!” A high pitched voice squealed from behind Lazuline.

With a puzzled look Lazuline turned around, only to catch a power hoof to her jaw. The force tossed her back into her pile of gems with a clatter.

Mangle landed where the dragon had stood and blew on her hoof. I doubted Lazuline was an adult, but to see a dragon launched away by a pony a fraction of her size...

“You little bitch!” Lazuline howled in deeper masculine voice compared to the one she had before. She got up growling at Mangle. “I’m going to turn you to charcoal.”

Mangle glanced to Gale who gave a nod and then she turned back to the dragon and said, “Try it.”

The dragon took a deep breath but Mangle only sat there with a bored expression. Is she going mad?! The others were all relaxed as well. Is everypony going mad?!

The dragon released a blue flame completely engulfing Mangle. The flame lasted for what seemed like forever and multiplied the heat in the room. When the flames finally died off they revealed Mangle standing there, yawning. Today is jammed packed with the impossible.

The area around her was free of scorch marks.

Lazuline gaped and Clover gathered Nibble and me. “You two get out of here. Nibble get the rocket launcher ready just in case.” He glanced to the dragon and smirked, “But I think they can handle this.”

“If I can’t burn you I’ll turn you to mincemeat!” Lazuline yelled launching herself at Mangle. Mangle pivoted aiming her back hooves towards the dragon and bucked. A deafening clang rang out as the attacks collided. The force caused both combatants to recoil. How much power can such a young mare have?

“Go!” Clover ordered.

Nibble and I raced to the exit, only to be blocked by the dragon as we got close.

“Those are my gems!” She howled.

“Pay attention!” Mangle yelled and propeled herself at Lazuline colliding both fore hooves into her side. The impact caused the dragon to fold over and dry heave.

Nibble and I ran through the exit. I glanced back to see Lazuline stagger to her feet. Mangle dived at her for another attack but Lazuline jumped and with a flap of her wings grabbed ahold of the ceiling. The dragon dug her talons in and looked down at Mangle.

“Can’t hit me up here can you?” Lazuline mocked.

I stopped running completely as Mangle reared up.

“Come on,” Nibble pleaded not slowing down.

I waved a hoof at her as I watched Mangle slam her forelegs together to form the cannon. The dragon's eyes narrowed and Mangle fired.

I failed to see what projected out of Mangle’s cannon. I could only hear the hiss of something tearing through the sound barrier and feel the wave of pressure rip through the air. The cement was cracked under Mangle’s feet. I watched as the blue dragon fell from the ceiling, a hoof size hole in her gut. Lazuline grasped at the wound and blood hemorrhaged through her talons.

“I think it's time to renegotiate,” Clover said stepping forward.

The dragon’s brow furrowed as it took in a deep breath.

“Oh shit,” I said turning to run again. Lazuline let out a torrent of magical blue fire. It engulfed the room and worked its way through the tunnel. I pushed myself to gallop faster as the wave of fire caught up. I burst out of the secret tunnel into the Overmare’s office and stomped out the lingering blue flame on my tail then tried to wave away the smell of burning hair.

“I told you to run,” Nibble said shaking her head. “Now let's hurry.”

We came to the balcony and I had one of two options, let Nibble levitate me down or jump. I barely paused as I leaped over the ledge and fumbled when I landed, but other than a humiliating tumble I was uninjured. That's a first.

Nibble stared over the balcony. I got up and stood where she would land if she lept down.

“I’ll catch you.” I said.

She flipped over the ledge and let go, falling straight down. Right before I caught her she wrapped herself in a purple aura causing her to be as light as a feather as I set her down.

She gave me a sultry look but then snapped her head away. “Would have been hot if you weren’t a godless heathen.”

“Right.” I scratched at the back of my neck. “Better get going.” She nodded and we made our way out of Stable Nine.

Back at the Stable entrance we came to a sudden halt as the smell of death overtook us. The pool of blood had grown and there were no pegasi to get me across this time.

“I could…” Nibble’s horn lit up. I backpedaled to the wall.

“No,” I said, her horn fizzled out. “One of us is getting drenched and it might as well be me.”

“What do you mean?”

I took a page from Mangle’s book and walked over to to Nibble. She squealed as I slid under her, picked her up, and balanced her on my back. My legs threatened to buckle.

Nibble giggled. “I can help.” She wrapped herself in her aura again, making herself nearly weightless.

I took a deep breath and walked into the pool of blood. Nibble tucked in her legs and pulled up on my saddle bags as the blood came up to my chest. It was difficult to move through, almost like mud. I slowly pushed through and thanked Luna when I started to rise. As soon as I escaped the gory mess, I set Nibble down, ran over to the other side of the tunnel, and emptied the contents of my stomach. Nibble started to approach, but I waved her on. After she got far enough away I shook off as much crimson as I could, coating the tunnel in red. After a couple of dry heaves I headed back to our caravan.

Nibble had set up the rocket launcher and had it aimed at the tunnel. I joined her and we waited for what felt like hours.

Eventually three ponies emerged. Clover with a few singed feathers, Gale appearing uninjured, and Mangle limp on Gale’s back.

“You actually did it?” I said in amazement.

“Of course,” Clover replied pulling out some of his damaged feathers.

A unicorn, a pegasus, and an earth pony killed a dragon. Elite and Legendary Ponies Initiating Survival, Elpis. I hope this is what it means to be one of them.

I glanced at Mangle, she was motionless on Gale’s back. “Is she ok?”

“Oh yes, she's fine,” he replied. “She’ll be weak for a day or two.”

I needed to know this story. “How did you kill it? What exactly happened? Could you start from the moment we left?”

Gale took a step back as I assaulted him with questions. “No offense Ardent, but could you go downwind?” Gale asked. I cocked my head, then looked down. Oh yeah, covered in blood.

Footnote: Level up New perk; Fortune Finder. You find Considerably more bottle caps in containers.