“Sunrise, get up. You have to go!” An unfamiliar voice called to me from somewhere in my mind. The world around slowly came into being. I didn’t know where I was, but I felt the sensation of floating in liquid.

I was breathing through a mask, plastic and hard around my muzzle. The air was stale, but rich at the same time. It felt like breathing recycled pure oxygen through an airplane emergency mask. It flowed through the mask and into my lungs and kept me just warm enough inside to not feel like I was freezing.

A vat of gelatin-like fluid surrounded my body. I was numb from the cold, but not painfully so; more like when you sleep for too long and try to get up. My body stirred and twitched, swirling around the transparent blue-green liquid. Bubbles filled the fluid around me and protested the sudden impulsive movements. I let out a heavy exhale that pushed past the mask, adding to the chaos of watery orbs. My eyes finally fluttered open, trying to see through the viscous substance. The nearly non-existent light in the tank didn’t yield any details.

“Sunrise, come on, snap out of it. NOW!”

Huh? What? Where am I? A stasis tank? Who… who are you? Wait, how can I hear you? My thoughts were jumbled along with my senses. I shouldn’t be able to hear this voice, my ears were filled with fluid still.

“That isn’t important! I didn’t pick you to sit here as Stable-Tec’s experiment!” Whoever’s voice it was, they were older and a much higher-pitched mare than I was. She wasn’t talking in my ears, either, but directly going through my thoughts.

Am I hearing voices in my head? Have I lost my mind?

“NO!” Before I could hear the rest of the sentence or reply; the container’s outer walls whined and it started to open. A blinding light hit my eyes and I raised my hoof to shield myself from it. The fluid shifted and bubbles echoed against my face. The tank shook heavily when the outer doors stopped, almost throwing me against the inner walls. A rumble resounded through the fluid as it started to drain. A dull distant buzz sounded repeatedly through the liquid as gravity lowered me to the tank’s bottom.

I settled onto the pod’s floor and immediately forced the mask from my snout. With a deep inhale of real air, I collected myself enough to start moving. I looked around and saw dozens of white, egg-like containers in neat little rows. Each pod had a monitor in front of it, attached to the floor and a walkway.

The pods showed the life signs of the ponies inside, along with their names and designation numbers. Each number started with “043-”. As the last of the fluid left, I could hear the buzzing of an alarm going off. It went from a dull, distant, annoying noise to a blaring siren. How long have I been out?

“I don’t know.” The voice of a pink ambiguous blob in corner of my vision pulsed with each word, I was convinced it was the one speaking. I couldn’t make out the creature, but as I turned my head, whatever she was stayed in the corner of my vision. It was like looking at some sort of floating puddle that wasn’t interacting with the environment around it. I thought it might be an imaginary friend, or I might have gone insane.

The glass opened with a groan of crystallized sand grinding upon metal ball bearings. Cold air washed over my soaked coat, sending chills down my spine. My eyes adjusted to the light better without the glass acting as a filter. My vision cleared and my hooves came into view: white-tipped hooves with a green coat.

What? Green? This can’t be me? This has to be another memory orb... I had to be sure. I took a step forward, then waved my hoof back and forth in front of my vision. Nope, not a passenger. I can move freely, this isn’t pre-recorded. That means this is real!? Why am I green? I was white when I went to sleep. What happened to me while I was asleep?

“Sunrise, we don’t have a lot of time! You need to move, and quickly!” The pink cloud form within my vision pulsed slightly with each word. The large egg-like chamber was open and ready for me to leave it. I slowly moved my hooves forward with pained stretching.

I was shaky from my time in stasis. My muscles were so weak. I could barely stand. I was finding it hard to get my legs to remember how to work. The pain slowly passed as my hooves met the metal walkway outside the tank. A set of yellow arrows were painted on the floor and pointing off to my right, with bright runway lights indicating the direction to move.

I know this place. I’m in Stable 43! We’re..we’re safe here. At least, from everypony but those Stable-Tec staff. And Agent 9... I shivered from the thought of that mare. My legs wobbled slightly when my strength waned. I sat on my flanks and put a hoof up to my swimming head. I needed to steady myself and resist the urge to fall down or pass out.

“Sunrise, get moving, now!” The pink cloud screamed so loud it gave me a splitting headache.

Whoever you are, you can hear my thoughts, so have some patience! I hate waking up from the tank, always feel the need to... I didn’t get to finish my thought before sickness overtook me. My stomach churned violently. I produced dry heaves that made me tear up in agony. Whatever I had eaten before getting into the tank came flying out and plastered itself back into my stasis tank. Okay, nopony’s around, so there’s no need to be discreet. It was just puke.

Right as I wiped my mouth off with a hoof, a mechanical grinding broke through the alarm noise and I could see a PipBuck being extended from my stasis pod monitoring panel.

‘Wandering Sunrise’ flashed in the top corner of the device’s screen. I recognized it as my name. I placed my right hoof into it and snapped it shut with my left. The Eyes Forward Sparkle turned on automatically as the bottom of my vision lit up with red dots over a 360-degree compass. Little green markers indicated 5 degrees with digits every 20 degrees from North.

Hold up, RED! Red usually means it intends to hurt me.

“Yes, Sunrise, red bad!” The voice spoke to me like a child being mock scolded. I hated being spoken to like that and growled in response. “If they catch you, all of this will be for nothing! Now, run!” I was very confused but a sense of urgency took hold and told me to move. My fear escalated as another distant rumble shook the room. It wasn’t just shaking the room, it was shaking the entire bunker! My hooves had to steady themselves against the near earthquake that was rocking my world.

An earthquake? No. That was an explosion! At least a class-2 explosive, caused by a missile or maybe a one pound block of plastic explosive. I blinked and stopped. Wait, how do I know that?

“I’m responsible for it. Now, Sunrise, head opposite of the arrows.” The pink figure was starting to take shape, but not to the point where any real details could be made out, other than it was a pony.

Why? Unless it’s more Stable-Tec ponies coming for experiments, we should be safe here. I mean, it’s not like I can escape at this point.

“Sunrise, they think you caused the explosion!”

What!? I’ve been in my stasis pod this entire time like a good filly! Just as I finished that thought, hoofsteps reached my ears from a cat-walk above the pods. A full-sized stallion galloped at top speed through the room along the suspended observation walkway.

He had a traditional white lab-coat with the obnoxious blue/yellow Stable-Tec logo on the pocket and his back. His soft gray coat didn’t quite seem to match the vibrant orange mane and tail that danced in the wind of his gallop. He was wearing a visor covering his eyes completely. It that had some sort of specialized output from a PipBuck hooked into it. A thick wire with metal tubing ran from his foreleg to the visor, taped to him to keep it from tripping him up. He slid to a halt as soon as he saw me.

“There she is! Guards, hurry!” he shouted at the top of his lungs and pointed a hoof at me. “The mark is on her!” The anger in his voice was only tempered by a sense of fear about it. The reason for his fear made itself known quickly.

Giant rats, almost as big as me, were running down the catwalk with teeth as long as my snout and sets of claws as big as my hoof. They were barreling towards the stallion who called for the guards. A snarl from their jaws rose above the commotion to draw everypony’s undivided attention to the vicious leathery creatures.

H-HOW!? When did rats get that huge? The Stable-Tec stallion produced a big revolver from inside his coat. He shoved the gun trigger into his mouth and started shooting at the onrushing rats.

“Do you see now!? Sunrise, run!” I was already bolting while the pink entity encouraged me to go faster. I dashed in the opposite direction of gunfire, directly contrary to the arrows and lights on the walkway. The steel and concrete walls of the stable that had always appeared impenetrable; now had a massive hole. The hole was large enough for three stallions to walk through side by side without touching.

Broken and shattered bits of armor littered the floor around the blast hole. Cooked pony meat had been scattered from inside the armor. Whoever this was had died from the explosion. There was one thing in particular about it, the explosion looked like it had come from inside the armor; not outside. Wait, how do I know that? I don’t know that much about explosives, right?

There was a scoff from whatever this voice in my head was and I thought I had lost my mind. I didn’t have time to dwell as I barreled towards the broken pieces of metal and pony.

The armor was painted blue with yellow stripes, where it wasn’t blown into pieces and charred black. I recognized the model, T-54B. Did that power-armored guard explode? What happened? Why are they after me? Where’s Mom? Dad?

“Sunrise, those are questions that will be answered later! For now, just run and don’t look back!”

The pink entity faded from view as I stepped over the pony leg-shaped armored plating. The Stable-Tec jumpsuit started to cling against my fur coat as the wind from running whipped against me. The barding was still damp and irritating my flesh. I strained against it to flee the stable. I didn’t look back, only rushed forward along the metal walkway towards the exit.

The sound of alarms and gunfire were getting distant. The intense rhythm of my pounding heart synced up with the echoes of my hooves galloping over steel. I dashed for the hole blown into our safety bunker. There was nothing but blackness beyond that exit. Even the laboratory lights couldn’t penetrate outside the destroyed stable wall.

What could have blown a hole in a stable? Are the zebras invading? What is going on!? My hooves carried me through the hole into blackness. Something wet touched my face and washed over my nose as the blackness was pushed back by a dim light.

I looked back to see a pair of very large eyes narrow at me and another explosion washed out of the hole towards me. I picked up into a sprint towards the darkness. Then nothing more.

Aww...what a nightmare. What happened? Why does it feel like a frantic gremlin just drove a railroad spike through my brain? Also, I’m... wet? Is that what I’m feeling?

The icy water refused to be ignored and I opened my eyes to discover that I was shoulder deep in it. The chill in my bones and pounding headache made it difficult to see or realize what was around me. I felt my barding clinging to me uncomfortably and my tail was matted down against my flank as it floated just on the surface of the water.

My eyes strained to stay open against the throbbing in my head. Slowly the tunnel vision went away and the aching twinges subsided to reveal the rest of the dimly lit room. Torches around me flickered against a griffin wearing a sun bleached desperado sombrero straight out of one of those old Appleloosa movies.

He was laying in the pool inches from my nose. He wore a brown, weathered leather duster draped over his back. I wasn’t surprised to see an old six shooter hanging off his belt. He was groggily getting up and rolling over to his belly in the pool of water. I had never seen a griffin this close before. He stood to his full height and I understood just how much larger he was than me.

Some prey instinct kicked me in the back of my mind and I started to retreat. As soon as I took one step back, I ran into two sets of hooves behind me. My head snapped to my hindquarters. My hooves were touching two very different zebras. The two were both unconscious and both stallions. They only started to move when I touched them. My hind legs were resting against a foreleg belonging to each.

Both zebras looked so radically strange from each other they may as well have been two entirely separate species. One’s mane was a short mohawk while the other’s was longer and braided. Even the way their stripes were set contrasted: one straight pink striped zebra without scars, the other with stripes that swirled in circles and wore an eye-patch.

The pink striped zebra was pristine, while the black-swirl striped one had a three pronged claw scar across his chest. The tonal difference between them was as clear as day is from the night. They each bore a cutie mark—They’re called Glyph Marks, Sunrise!— that I couldn’t understand or clearly make out.

After our awkward moment of physical contact, the pink zebra snapped awake and pulled back from me. Once he realized I meant no harm, he nodded at me, respectfully and gently. His darker counterpart, however, jostled to his hooves and threw my hoof back at me, shouting,
“Hey! Keep your hooves to yourself, kid.” A splash of water resounded from our struggle. I felt hurt and looked at him, expecting an apology or at least some reassurance. He just callously snorted and jerked his head away.

Maybe it would be best if I just pulled away from them and got out of here. They don’t seem to have any particular interest in me. I skulked away slowly in the water, trying to sneak out of their sight. My bones ached and my body felt like it might collapse back into the cold water as I struggled to stay quiet enough to stay beneath their notice. This completely failed. I am not a sneaky pony. I had three sets of eyes just watching me and I looked at them, smiling nervously. What I wouldn’t give for a horn with an invisibility spell right now.

The room was so much larger than I thought, a fact that was somewhat concealed by these three around me until I finally got clear of them. My jitters only got worse when the griffin and black-striped zebra squared up in the water and began to stare each other down.

Oh no, do they actually dislike each other? Have I been dropped into a friendship camp by the Ministry of Morale!? Oh, please, don’t start fighting. The tension in the room was starting to build. It was clear somepony or another was going to strike, and soon.

Wanting to avoid being caught in the middle of it, I backed into a large brown rock and came to a sudden stop. The sudden bump caused a ballistic glass visor to slap down over my eyes and nearly popped me in the nose.

It was then I realized that my barding had changed drastically. Something felt off in the space between my flanks and the rock. I looked over my sides and noticed a leather duster was hooked into the barding over my stable-suit. It felt rough against my coat and flanks. I will admit the extra coverage would be wonderful once it dries off. Especially if it turned out to be cold outside.

The second thing on my self was a riot control helmet, the kind used to put down protests about the war. If its visor hadn’t flopped down, I probably wouldn’t have noticed the helmet. It was fit so perfectly for me that I didn’t even notice the extra weight.

“Ow...okay, note to self...” I started to grumble out loud, unable to finish my thought due to a fresh wave of sharp pain piercing my skull. Once that subsided, thank the Goddesses, the rest of the room came into view and my eyes adjusted to the torches. They were all burning, except one.

Why was that one out? I pondered, staring at it. Was someone just lazy? We have bigger priorities to deal with than potentially fighting. How do I get them to help each other escape? We need to find out who dropped us all in here, too.

I lifted my right hoof and looked to my PipBuck, pausing for a few moments as the emerald green of my coat reflected against the display in the dim light. Aside from the killer headache it failed to display, it was showing I was perfectly okay. Explain the headache then! Or the fact I’m the wrong color still. Seriously, somepony needs to start giving me answers that make sense.

My attention was eventually drawn back to the rest of the chamber as the pounding in my skull started to die down some more. My heart skipped a beat as the rock I was leaning against started to move. It wasn’t a rock at all! It was some huge beast!

I tried to back away only to be washed over by a wave that crested over my shoulders and submerged me for a brief moment. A diamond dog four times my size rose up right next to me. He was wearing biker leathers and his own duster covered in segmented steel plates. He was getting up slower than I had as his eyes blinked rapidly to adjust to the light around us. I eyed up the massive body of the diamond dog, awestruck by his sheer mass. My awe quickly passed when I found myself staring into his hard yellow eyes.

I was momentarily paralyzed by the eye contact. A shiver of pure fear passing down my spine. I need to look anywhere else right now, absolutely anywhere else, because he is the scariest thing in here. Hoping he wouldn’t think much of me, I kept my gaze moving upwards. I saw how we got down here and it gave my mind something else to focus on; besides the monster in front of me.

Above us, a good 30 or 40 feet, was a hole large enough for the griffin to fit through if he folded his wings in. It allowed a dulled beam of overcast daylight to shine down into the room, though it wasn’t bright enough to illuminate the area outside of the center of the pool. Just how deep is this hole?

“Dammit, my box got wet!” cursed the cardboard shipping container next to one of the zebras. It was roughly large enough for one pony or two foals to fit into comfortably, though now it was submerged knee-deep and shifting about.
Oh, a talking box. How nice... Wait! A talking box? And it’s moving? Why is a box—addressed to be shipped to Canterlot no less—moving and talking?

To my surprise, it moved again before being lifted up by something inside it. A set of four hooves, all solid white sprung out from the bottom flaps of the box. There’s... a pony in a box?

“Times like this that make me wish I was a unicorn, then I could dry it in an instant.” Huh, I practically had that same thought earlier, so I’m guessing she’s an earth pony, too? The box rolled like the pony inside had shrugged their shoulders. The box moved to get out of the shallow pool we were all standing in towards the edge around the side of the room.

Okay, still not quite the weirdest thing I’ve ever seen.

The griffin grumbled as he walked toward the edge of the pool, “Someone is going to have hell to pay.” The griffin spoke with a voice that sounded like gravel being crushed in a heavy industrial machine. It was grating on the ears no matter how much you wanted him to sound pleasant. I don’t think that is his normal voice. I think he’s forcing it or he has an injury. As he flexed his wings, his matted, white-tipped feathers clung close to his body. Not immediately flying out and abandoning us, eh? Well, at least not till those dry.

Just be friendly Sunrise, I thought, hoping I didn’t seem nervous to the others, what’s the worst that can happen? Surely the world hasn’t gotten any worse since the megaspells went off, right? How long could it have been since I’ve last stepped into the stable?

I checked the date on my Pip-Buck. C.E. 1211. Strange, that’d make it about 182 years after we went into the stable. No way that’s right. Must be a bug in the system. It would explain why it can’t detect my head injury if it can’t even tell what the date is. The room got a whole lot more tense when the zebra finally spoke.

“Okay, which one of you put us down here! It was you, wasn’t it?” The black-striped zebra jumped across the water, his nose snorting menacingly as he took on an aggressive stance in front of the griffin. The zebra was upright, on his hind legs with his forehooves coiled near his chest. It was so strange to see a pony stand up and balance like that, much less fighting that way.

“What are ya accusing me for? I woke up here same as you! Besides, I’m a regulator, it’s my job to investigate ponynappin’, not cause it,” the griffin shot back, practically beak to nose as he returned the zebra’s glare.

I’ve gotta do something or they’re gonna tear each other apart, and I’ll get never any answers!

Against my better judgment, I stepped between them and held up my PipBuck clad leg, pointing it in the direction of the zebra then at the griffin. They were poised to strike, but no pony dared make the first move. Okay what now? Maybe say hello? Just get to know them and it’s less likely we’ll end up in a fight.

“Uh, h-hi everypony!” I started. All eyes turned towards me and suddenly whatever confidence I had started to dwindle. I felt this creeping sensation they might strike me instead.

“Wait a minute,” the zebra said, both he and the griffin turning to me in unison. “It was you!” The harsh squawk and enraged whinny echoed in the room around us. I cringed and wanted to be anywhere but here!

“Yeah, come to think of it, you were already awake when the rest of us started moving,” stated the griffin. Suddenly, they all stepped towards me, a very murderous look on each of their faces. My ears folded back in fear, and I splashed my way backwards to the edge of the pool. That’s when the diamond dog broke any chance of them wanting to pick a fight.

He picked his cowpuncher hat off his head and dumped the water out of it and onto my head.

Geez, guy —I’m already soaked! No need to make it excessive. They all stopped as soon as I was soaked. They were much too busy looking at the big beast now instead of little ol’ me. Slowly, I turned around and came face to face with the dog, who was leaning down eye to eye with me. He had a big toothy grin on his face that made my skin crawl. Oh, please, don’t tell me diamond dogs eat ponies.

“I’d be su’prised if’n that little filly ponynapped ‘s. She ain’t a wasterlander, she’s stable pon’.” The diamond dog used his clawed hand to turn me around to look at the others in the room. They all looked between each other and there was a nod of confusion. The pink-striped zebra stepped up between myself and the other three.

“I believe that the big sand dog is right, she is not responsible for our plight.” The pink striped zebra genuinely tried to calm all of them down. “To find a way from this cave of dirt, we must move together in concert.”

With water dripping off me, I mentally counted to five and took a breath. Calm down, Sunrise, you’ll be fine. They aren’t gonna fight right now. We just need to get them to work together.

The diamond dog was quick to forget all of us, and jumped onto the landing instead. His focus and mine were drawn to a nearby doorway, one that was barred and barricaded with a lit torch on each side. I took another look around. That doorway appeared to be the only way out of this room we could access.
It was thanks to those torches that I was able to spot something glinting off the surface of the pool, a reflection where the diamond dog had been lying.

The glint belonged to a set of pony skeletons at the bottom of the pool. I stood there, transfixed upon them. My knees started to shake and my stomach began churning. There were dead ponies in the water with me. Or at least their skeletons? Where and when am I? I thought my PipBuck dates were out of whack? Could it really have been that long?

The darker zebra looked around as he took to his hooves and sighed. “Great. I’m soaked to the bone in a cave with a bunch of strangers. One of which I’m convinced is responsible for me being here.” He shot me a look of suspicion that still could kill any pony with his good eye. How do I convince him I’m not responsible?

“Don’t dwell on that right now silly, focus on getting out of here. Who knows, stay on their good side and they might just become your friends,” the voice from the tank echoed in my head.

Great… Now I’m talking to voices in my head. The griffin and black-striped zebra took a minute to review their surroundings. As they did so, my focus returned to the pony skeletons in the water that my hoof was now resting against. Yeah, those are skeletons of ponies, and they’re definitely REAL!

I’d never seen a dead pony —nor their skeletons —much less a pile of them laid completely bare. By the way my hoof felt against its skull, they seemed real too. I wasn’t sure if I should inspect them closer for curiosity’s sake or scream. The diamond dog growled at something behind me and made the decision for me.
“C-c-corpses!” I screamed out at the top of my lungs, backpedaling as fast as my waterlogged legs could take me. The sounds of movement and awkward silence between the creatures was shattered with the ear piercing shriek of a terrified filly. Also known as: me.

I turned and bolted for the edge of the pool, yelling my head off hysterically. I had been in that soup, with the remains of ponies! Even if the little logic pony in my mind was shouting, They’re skeletons, it’s fine. Not like you can get sick from them or anything.

Right as I was about to escape from the pool, the griffin grabbed me by the hind leg and pulled. My yelp silenced by a gurgle of water as my face went under. When I came up I started protesting, “N-no! Let me go! I didn’t do —” He shoved a talon into my mouth, forcing me to be quiet. He then held me upside down like a child’s toy or a piece of meat roasted over a fire.

Everypony else gathered around to watch a frightened filly gagged and frozen in his grip. He’s gonna kill me right now isn’t he? This is it, I’m gonna die to some griffin mercenary right now and not know why!

He forced my leg up to tilt his sombrero back and I got a good and up close look at his face. He had a hole where his right eye should be, just a vacant blackness to stare into. I stared into that abyss which led to somewhere darker than any pony should ever go. Another knot formed in my stomach. The taste of bile hit my throat, and with it having nowhere to go, I was forced to take a long disgusting swallow of my own vomit. Both zebras and the pony in a box just stared at me as though I’d broken some unwritten rule.

“Geez, calm yourself girl! Have you never seen a dead body?” Unable to answer the griffin properly, I shook my head. “This is the wasteland, how have you managed to survive all this time without seeing a dead body?” he stated incredulously with a glare that could cut flesh. He still had that talon over my mouth while keeping me suspended upside down with the other one. All I could do was point a hoof at the ‘43’ on my stable barding.

Surprisingly, the griffin then set me down gently and removed his claw from my mouth. My little pony lungs started to hyperventilate “I’ve never seen a dead body before! This is my first time out of Stable 43!” My shouting left me feeling a bit silly as I blushed and looked away from everypony else.

The others worked their way onto dry land. My legs were shaking from the knees down as I tried to process the dead bodies behind me. With an effort that felt like moving a mountain, I placed both hooves onto the dry cave floor and hauled myself out of the water. If anything, I wasn’t the strongest pony and the edge of the pool was at my shoulder height. Fine, I admit it... I’m short and not that strong for an earth pony.

I was kind of hoping for a distraction from the dead bodies behind me, and a deep accented voice provided just that. “Any y’all know ‘way to put thes’ back ta’gether?” The diamond dog pointed his paw at a large pile of metal pieces on the floor next to a green metal box marked ‘10mm Ammo’ in bright yellow text. There were three equestrian standard issue 10mm pistols and what appeared to be the parts for another one.

The parts must be disassembled 10mm pistols! Without a word I ran over to the box, sat down, and started to parcel out metal bits. The two zebras and the griffin took the intact pistols to check them. The sound of clips being loaded made my skin crawl. I focused on something that was easy to understand: machines.

These were cruder, larger, and ramshackle compared to the smooth, sleek ones I’d tinkered with back at my father’s mechanic shop. I frowned in frustration trying to match an over-sized receiver to a worn barrel that didn’t quite fit.

Just how long had I been in the Stable? How long have we been unconscious in here?

Despite having the know-how, I hadn’t ever put an actual gun together before. By the time I was done, the end result looked like some lopsided monstrosity that would fall apart the first time someone squeezed it a bit too tight. Seeing no other way to proceed, I took it apart and started over.

About halfway through my second attempt, the griffin nearly caused me to nearly jump out of my skin. He placed a talon on my shoulder and leaned in to look at what I was doing. Feeling uncomfortable, I turned my head and glared at him, “Can I... help you?” He was in my light, stopping my work from proceeding. All I got was a snort in return and him leaning out just enough for me to have my light again. Great, how did I offend you now?

Just like me, the diamond dog seemed to be making himself busy. Only difference was that he was trying to figure out how to open the door. The diamond dog pounded away with his claws at the wooden barricade and the steel door behind it. “Stupid pony doors, always gettin’ locked at da worst o’ times!”

As the diamond dog resumed working on the door, the pony in the box, however, kept poking one of us after the other as they wandered around. He… she… the pony inside got no direct response from any of us, myself included. I mean, how do you talk to a box that moves and prods you? They just kept at it, prodding us and moving on to the next when each creature continued to ignore them.

Perhaps to clear the air, the two zebras got into a conversation, only it was in what I assumed to be Zebrecian. All I could gather from the inflections of their voices was that the black-striped one was much more serious than the pink one. They were at least being friendly to each other, which was a good sign for us all.
Don’t have to like each other, just tolerate one another until we can find a way out. Then we can just go our separate ways and—

“No! Sunrise, you are going to do what is right and give them the benefit of the doubt! Or else your parents would disown you.” The voice from back at the stable interrupted my thoughts and shouted my thoughts down.“And besides, they’re all you’ve got to go on right now!” As fast as that irritatingly cheerful voice was there, the presence it brought with it was gone again before I could say a thing.

The griffin kept standing over me, like a guard dog that was too attached to its owner. Would it kill you to at least talk, instead of keeping a talon on my shoulder?

Funny enough, what little activity that was happening in here produced a cacophony of strange noises blending together: a shuffling box, sand dog claws on steel, two distinctly different zebras speaking an alien tongue, my hooves working to piece together a pistol, and the rasp of the griffon breathing down my neck.

Great, I’ve been out of the stable for all of what feels like twenty minutes and already I have a babysitter. Can I please be treated like I’m older than a blank flank foal? I mean, I get that I was the last in my class to get their cutie mark, and still don’t have it yet, but at least give me some respect.

My hooves moved quickly as I finished effortlessly assembling the weapon. I hummed an old Canterlot musical to myself to the rhythm of the noises the others were making. An abrupt sudden snap from the pistol stopped any hopeful mood, though. Immediately I was drawn back to the pistol in my hooves, head cocked to the side. Huh. Everything looks about right, so that noise shouldn’t have happened…

The very next moment —and I can not stress enough how I don’t know how this happened —the whole thing somehow detonated like a firecracker. The loud bang was ear piercing, shrapnel tearing out into myself and the armored duster of the griffin. All I could do was flinch, as hundreds of small pieces of twisted metal pinged off plates in my barding I had only noticed moments ago.

After dropping the crumbled and broken bits of what used to be a gun, I slowly lowered my hooves again and rose to survey the damage. The pistol was completely destroyed and my hooves had minor black burn marks on them. They stung but were in no way incapacitated.

Okay, so that just happened... is that how the laws of physics gets its kicks, or did reality just blink there for a second? I thought as I looked at the last remaining scraps spread across the floor.

Wait. Ew… something is in my mouth.

I bit down and immediately regretted it. My teeth protested in torment and I spat it out. A piece of metal hit my hoof. I was now holding a bent firing pin with a few drops of my blood on it. Alright, apparently reality wants to play it that way today.
Everypony came over to investigate, save for the pink zebra. He was alone and talking to... thin air? Weirdly enough, I could hear another voice, but there was no obvious source for it. I squinted my eyes to make out the voice’s owner but found nothing in the shadows. I couldn’t make out any of the words, and I couldn’t help but wonder what was going on over there. Great, a pink-striped zebra that talks to invisible beings lurking in shadows in a language I can’t understand. Could he possibly be any more strange?

I became self-conscious of all eyes were trained on me, everypony expecting something of an explanation that I couldn’t give. Maybe I should take advantage of this opportunity and get some names, as well as an idea of who I’m helping exactly.

“Hi, everypony! Sorry about the pistol, no idea how that exploded. Anyway, I’ve already tried to introduced myself earlier —I’m Wandering Sunrise, in case you forgot —so... who are the rest of you?” I nervously waved and hesitantly let out a chuckle, in hopes of removing some of the awkwardness. Great job, Sunrise...you just blew up a pistol in front of them. I sure hope they’re super friendly, and especially understanding.

Funnily enough, the first one to react was the pink-striped zebra. He stepped towards us and stopped talking to his invisible friend. He wore a leather cloak that carried the shadows with him, giving him a dark, menacing look despite the sweet pink stripes. “You may call me Chifundo by name, zebra shaman of the lands which remain.” Chifundo gave a bow of respect as he crossed a hoof over his chest while he spoke.

Progress! Someone broke the ice, and it was a zebra who isn’t trying to murder me. Guess the war is over?

“I’m Buddy. I’ma merc from de Apple’oosa ‘and dog clan,” the sand dog added, pushing his shoulder against the door in an attempt to open it.

Should probably make a mental note not to mention I thought he was a sand dog till now? Buddy was clearly mustering all his strength, yet the door still refused to budge. His massive toned legs scraped against the cave floor as they slid back from the effort of his muscles against the immovable object. The same door the moving talking box was sitting in front of, poking and prodding with hooves from under the box’s edge.

The griffin turned to me and tipped his sombrero. “I’m Alguacil. I’m gonna assume the exploding pistol wasn’t some party trick.” The large griffin towering over me pulled back his duster and extended an open talon towards me. Inside were three knives, all with screws currently not attached to their hilts. “Can you at least refit these blades to their handles?”

He’s staying friendly at least, even if the pistol blew up like an apple grenade. Knives are much simpler machines than these guns. Wait, the griffin is trusting me now?

“Mm, yeah. I can do that. It’d be easier if given better tools, though,” I replied automatically, trying to get keep my thoughts clear of the skeletons in the water. The fact that Chifundo was likely talking to a spirit that might be a dead pony wasn’t helping.

“My name is Nyota, and has anyone tried just unbarring the door?” the gray and black striped zebra mentioned in a monotone tenor. Between the limited answer and considering the dimly lit room, I didn’t know what to make of him. I pointed a hoof at the sand dog in reply to Nyota and nodded at the zebra.

At least they had been nice enough to introduce themselves to me. I resumed putting together weapons, first the knives which were rather easy to do and only took a few minutes. They were a simple slide into the hilt. Seeing as I didn’t have a screwdriver on me, I had to improvise by using the blades to turn and screw them into place.

Once that was done, I picked up what intact parts remained from the exploded pistol, tossing aside the shattered, bent, and broken pieces that wouldn’t function any longer. I determined I could slap together one really nice gun out of the remaining parts.

My newly acquired duster served to polish and clean the individual pieces as I put them in place. You know, where did I even get this duster? And who ARMORED my stable-suit barding? I mean the plates are nice, but are they really necessary?

Once the pistol was together, it looked like it was fresh off the factory floor. I felt a deep satisfaction as I loaded rounds into a clip. The pistol took the rounds so smoothly it did not even click when it locked in place. I looked at Alguacil and smiled, “See, not gonna do anything funny. I mean, we can hopefully find somepony to show us the way out, right?”

“I think we’re all on the same page, and we’ll get the bastards who did this,” Alguacil shot back. Nyota gave a snort and an affirmative nod while I looked horrified at the two of them.

I flinched, then spoke meekly. “I mean...I don’t really wanna hurt any pony if we don’t have to. I’m not hurt yet, so... can’t we all just be friends?” Those words shot out of my mouth before they could be process through my brain filter.
Sunrise! Where was your filter? Also where was their filter? They were cursing in front of a filly? I was still me, right? The one who’s not quite an adult? They do realize this don’t they?

Everypony belted out a laugh like I had just taken a hoof to the face. Buddy turned around from across the room and tipped his hat at me through the dim light, “Sunrise darlin’, ‘ey took ar’ shit, they ain’t friends.”

With great effort and a loud shout of anger, the diamond dog finally removed the barring against the door. With that obstacle gone, he then took a large paw and slammed hard. I jumped a little as the door swung out with enough force to clatter on the hallway walls outside our chamber.

Unlike the cave-like structure we were in, the hallway outside had tiled flooring and metal walls. There were slots for piping and several torches for light. Who was taking the time to light all these torches? I could see where light fixtures would go as well; it slowly started to feel familiar to me, through I still couldn’t place it.

Buddy didn’t wait for the rest of us. He walked through the doorway, his heavy claws scraping across the tiles before he used one to grab the first torch he came across off the wall.

Alright, this has been bugging me to no end. As the others filed into the hallway ahead of me, I spoke what was on my mind.“Does... everypony use language like that now? Can I get away with saying stuff as colorful as the rest of you?”

No one bothered to answer.

Thinking I could use some light of my own, I moved to grab a torch. Chifundo, for some reason, went to investigate the one torch that wasn’t burning. I shrugged and worked to get a torch off the wall. I jumped up as high as I could, though my hooves could barely reach the torch. I did managed to snag it. While I was trying to to tie it into my barding knot where a backpack or a set of saddlebags should have gone, there was a grinding rock sound. I stopped and snapped my attention in the direction of the racket.

The exact spot where Chifundo had been moments ago, only now there was a wide open entrance that wasn’t there before. Inside I could make out two things lying on the floor between the door frame: a shotgun and backpack. A shotgun that looked like it was my size hung next to a large brown backpack with a sunrise painted on it. As I looked at it, a memory flooded back to my mind.

“Now hold the stock tight against your shoulder, breathe deep and slow, and don’t forget to use the iron sights.”

Standing where I was, I couldn’t see the pony behind me that the voice belonged to. I had a shotgun in my hooves and there were tin cans set up across a dusty field at around 20 feet away. The memories ran through me as vivid as any lucid dream.

I found myself looking down at the small-sized shotgun, certain that it was the exact same weapon. When I pressed the butt of the gun to my shoulder, it lined up perfectly with my eye to aim down the length of the barrel. It was like this weapon was made exactly for one pony: me.

“Go on, Sunrise, if you’re going to survive out here, you’re going to need to learn how to shoot.” The voice was very prim, proper, and definitely that of a male, though I still couldn’t say if I met him before. My mind mouthed the words “Mr. Claus.” But who was Mr. Claus? I pulled the trigger with my tongue and the shotgun fired a roar of buckshot out. A tin can clattered to the ground from the impact of the pellets as the memory fled from me.

“That shotgun...” I murmured and then turned to the others that had started into the hallway. They had moved nearly out of sight in the darkness of the metal halls. “Hey everypony! Come back, Chifundo found a secret room!”

I trotted towards the secret room happily. I wish I hadn’t. The smell hit first; the smell of decay, long since sealed up and made stale, washed over me. My hooves wanted to get me out of there ASAP, but my eyes however couldn’t be torn away from the three bloated bodies. Bodies of ponies. One earth and two unicorns who, were it not for the post mortem bloating, looked perfectly healthy.

I could see hoof scratches at the door-frame just inside, most of the marks around the floor edge to the doorway told the story of a futile attempt to escape. One of the corpses was desperately holding onto their throat. Had they died from asphyxiation?

My stomach twisted one more time, and that was all I could take. I vomited up everything my insides had in them into the pool we woke up in. I must have eaten recently because it took a while before I was dry heaving. I was there long enough for the others to return and everything within 5 hooves of me inside the pool had gone from crystal clear water to puke green rancid bile floating on the surface.

The others decided to talk amongst themselves and I only succeeded in making one part out. “Only lawbreakers have secret doors,” Alguacil declared as I looked into the room where the living and dead now mingled. I spat a few times into the water, then wiped my mouth clean with a hoof.
“Get that shotgun, it’s mine...I just... skeletons aside, I’ve never seen a dead body till now,” I managed. I left the pool and worked my way over to the door before attempting to close it. At least I could be the rear guard right?

“Aww... man... I had eyes once,” the disembodied voice said. I glanced around at that, wondering if somehow I’d catch a glimpse of that young mare if I looked just the right way. Try as I might, my eyes revealed nothing. All the others but Nyota went into the room, beginning to take items in a process I guess can only be described as looting.

I trotted over to the doorway back into the tiled hallway, away from the dead bodies. Nyota was standing guard there. I started to say something but his hoof was shoved into my mouth before I could utter a word. RUDE! The torch lit by Chifundo was flickering out. The rumble of stone echoed through our ears again. Nyota’s eyes bounced from the doorway to the torch, as I realized that the two were connected.

I rushed forward and pulled the torch I’d dropped. I just met these ponies and if I lose any of them now or get separated then there’s no promise I’ll get out of here! Gotta keep this torch lit! I got up onto the wall with both hooves and held my burning torch to relight the door opening one. The door’s decent slowed somewhat, but it still wasn’t stopping! I couldn’t talk with the touch in my mouth or try to encourage them to hurry.

Alguacil apparently recognized what was going on, he walked past me and grabbed the piece of wood that was barring our way out before. He dragged it along the stone floor with a strength I could never hope to match. Soon the wood was wedged upright in the way of the secret room’s rock sliding door.

“Hurry up in there! My feathers don’t know how long that plank will hold or if the little one will be able to keep the torch lit,” he said to Chifundo, Buddy, and the box pony. I still cannot believe that some pony was under a box and that was all I knew them by.

“Hey, how long have I been dead?” the disembodied voice asked.

Chifundo started to think about it and got a date. “I would guess about 3 years, if I can trust my eyes and ears.” The thought hit me like a sack of bricks.

Is he really that Insane? No, he can’t be, I heard the voice too. Think on this later, get them out of this door slamming situation.

“How long has it been since the megaspells went off?” I slowly spoke between the torch in my lips to make sure I could be understood. The pony under the box, who was the first to get out of the room, seemed to tilt its head. Don’t ask how I know that, just the way the box over it moved.
“Like, 180 years ago,” the box pony had a certainty to them; like they were either playing an elaborate joke or dead serious. At that moment the realization slammed into me like a brick wall.

My jaw was dropped to the floor and my eyes felt like they were bulging from my skull. The sound of the torch that had been in my mouth hitting the floor echoed through the room.

“How... what... I....” I couldn’t find words, my mind was completely blown. 180 years? What the BUCK!? How in Celestia’s Glorious Sunbutt Flanks did that happen? How could that happen? Was the date in my PipBuck actually accurate? I was brought back to reality by the dropped torch slowly starting to burn against my coat. I yelped and jumped away, the torch above sputtered and died with a sizzle.

There was a creak as the door began to squeeze on the heavy timber. Alguacil threw his shoulder into it as the timber started to groan and crack under the weight of the door. “HURRY UP!” the Griffin growled out as he strained against the rock. Buddy scrambled around, kicking aside piles of bones and the refuse of knows how many ponies that had been buried alive there.

The wooden bar cracked louder, splinters forming along its length. “No more time!” Alguacil screamed out, as Buddy finally turned around, diving through the door. With a huff the griffon rolled out of the way, letting the stone crush the board, closing the tomb off once more.

“How awkward is it to say I remember a time before the megaspells fell,” were the first words to form a conscious thought and exhale from my mouth. What had become of my parents? How long had I really been asleep? How was I alive? I knew the stable put us in and out of stasis between the few dozen doctors exams and shots but....180 years? 182, a number at the top of my Pip-Buck reminded me.

“I’d say you’ve bin soakin’ a few too many rads, darlin’,” Buddy replied as he dropped a pile of weapons, saddlebags, and the backpack with the sunrise painted on it.

“No, I think they may have put us in and out of stasis over and over again. I guess... longer than I thought.” I was starting to calm down on the outside, but my entire world had been flipped. Now I knew I had NO concept of what the world I had gotten into was now that I was out of the stable; much less the creatures around me.

“Well, I’d say I’ve heard crazier stories at bars. But certainly not this,” Nyota, for once, did not have a borderline hostile tone. He still spoke in a direct monotone that was all serious all the time.
Alguacil took a moment to observe my PipBuck as well as the stable-barding. He seemed to be lost in thought for that moment before speaking. “I have heard of stables doing experiments on the ponies inside, but nothing like that. I mean there was that one tale where they supposedly took all the foals and raised them to believe the person in charge was a god or something like that.”

I dropped my rear flanks to the ground and hung my head. “Those of us who didn’t have cutie marks yet were sent somewhere else in the stable, away from our parents. They did things,” I hesitated as a chill flushed down my spine. I wasn’t sure what information these creatures could be trusted with. Nor did I know what memories I wanted to drag up right now. “I...I really do not wanna go back there. I don’t know why, but I don’t. The idea is terrifying!” I don’t know why but that is making me shiver right now. Hopefully they don’t press for answers, please don’t ask because I’m not 100% sure!

“D’en don’t,” Buddy blurted out simply, working to get what was his gear and distribute what was ours to us.

“Are your parents dead?” The pony in the box asked me with a poke of her white hoof.

“I… I don’t know,” were the only words I could form. I couldn’t help myself as two tears rolled off my cheeks and struck the floor. “This world I woke up to is a horrible, awful place. Why are my choices ‘talk about killing others’ or ‘stay and be experimented on’?” My coat had been white when I last saw my parents, now it was an emerald green. That isn’t natural, even if I am missing as much time as my PipBuck says. “The world really sucks doesn’t it?”

“Welcome to the wasteland kiddo,” Nyota said to me, nudging the shotgun into my hooves. I pulled it up to my shoulder and it fit like the one from the memory, like it was meant to be there.

“That’s why I’m in this box! The box protects.” The box pony sounded extra cheeky with her statement, like we should all know that already.

“This will make a very nice pack, let me help it onto your back.” Chifundo adjusted the collar of my barding to fit the backpack. My back stretched and adjusted like a familiar weight was lifted to it. That sent a chill down my spine. These things were mine.

“I guess that explains why the mole-rat with the top hat was saying I’d need to know how to use this.” Immediately after saying that, my face contorted in confusion and I blinked.

WAIT! What did I just say? Something about a mole-rat? With a Top Hat? That could talk? How far off the deep end was this? This can’t be a dream, I got slightly burned by that torch earlier —I should have woken up from pain, right?

Once again, I found the griffin talons of Alguacil grabbing me. This time he lifted me up until I was eye level with him, finally staring eye to eye with the scary griffin. He kept his heavy, one-eyed stare square on me, not letting me look away for even a moment.

“Look, Kiddo, this world is literally kill or be killed. Get used to that right now or you won’t make it far.” His gravelly voice sounded like murder in my ears now that they weren’t water-logged.
I sucked up the tears and let out a sniffle. He was right, I had to be stronger or this was going to get ugly fast.

“My parents were killed right beside me. This is going to be the most unpleasant dump you could find yourself in,” the box nudged... no... pressed into me. Almost like the pony inside was trying to put a hoof around my flank to hug me but was box-blocked.

A dangerous thought occurred to me. “Is… is this one of the reasons none of you have shot at each other yet, or because you all want to get whoever put us in that pool?”

“Ya havn’t done nothin’ bad yet,” Buddy replied, trying to calm us all with some sincerity in his voice. “Till ya do, ya ‘elp us git out of here, ta’gether.”

“Well, you’ve done nothing too loony... and you have been a friendly pony,” Chifundo gave with a sagely nod.

“I still hold some suspicions, but you’re friend of mine so long as we have a common goal or foe,” Alguacil’s gravelly voice made me shudder. He let go of my shoulders and nudged past me. I started to grasp at the danger I might be in now.

What had I run into? What kind of world was this going to be for me when I got out of this cave?

I hung my head and fell into line near Alguacil. At the very least he had tried to wake me up to the reality of the situation. I was at least willing to trust somepony that was being nice enough to be truly honest with me. The dark hallway loomed ahead as we walked out without another word to face our destiny.

Notes:

Trait Discovered: Wild Wasteland - You thought the Wasteland was weird before? You were not truly ready for this nor how unusual your adventurers are going to be, were you? While the world will still make sense, just be prepared for the occasional oddity or exploding pistol.

Author's Notes:

Something you should know, this is based upon our tabletop live stream on Wednesday Night at 9pm EST located on Twitch: https://www.twitch.tv/fiaurathetankgirl
Every single character is played by a REAL PERSON. All of these actions are not arbitrarily decided, I am simply the author who interprets them. They did help me make this and I thank them.

That said, please, leave comments if you feel I should make edits or why you feel like it's terrible.
If you like it, let me know with an upvote, if you hate me downvote it.

Thanks to Dead Tree Studios for the FoE Tabletop game and Kkat for creating this world and giving us permission to work with it.

Also thanks to Hasbro and Bethesda for the permission to publish this one, so yes we're hard at work editing all of it again! Hence why I asked for the help.
If you are interested in getting your own copy, link is this sentence.