We were in trouble. Celestia tier trouble. Nothing like it had happened in the history of stable seventeen and, by the look of it, it could be the end of the stable itself.

I lay on my bed with Helix stroking my mane gently. I kept thinking to myself ‘was there anything I could have done to prevent this?’. A small part of me kept saying you could have thought of something but, for once, my inner pony was agreeing with me. There was nothing I could have done.

“What’d we lose?” Helix asked me as I rested my head on her chest, listening to her heartbeat; it was like I was trying to remind myself that this was all real. “No one will tell me. Which means it must be bad.”

“The Algae plant and the four adjacent tubes, the capacitors in all the sections adjacent to the plant and the replacement pump.”

“That doesn’t sound too bad.” Helix looked at me hopefully, but it vanished when she saw the tears in my eyes.

“We’ve lost twenty per cent of our food production; forty if you count orchard three, and have no spare power. If even one system draws even a few amps more than it should then the stables systems would fail.”

“But I thought that’s what the capacitors were for?” She asked.

“We don’t have any capacitors, weren’t you listening!” I jumped to my hooves shouting. “They’re all burnt out, kaput, gone, dead. We can’t even repair them as we have no graphene to resurface them. We can’t start the pumps to drain the Algae plant as we don’t have the spare power. We can’t get more power because we can’t store it. We’re screwed. All of us, and as much as you keep saying ‘it wasn’t my fault’ I was there, therefore responsible, so quit giving me all this ‘it’s going to be fine’ crap and keep quiet!”

Helix looked at me for a moment, then silent tears began streaming from her eyes. What had I done!

“Oh… no, no, no, Helix… I didn’t mean to shout. I’m sorry my love. I’m sorry. Please forgive me.” I dropped to my knees before her and hugged her around her middle, crying into her coat, as she cried silently into my mane. “I’m so, so sorry.”

She didn’t stop, but she did hold me tight. I knew that meant I was forgiven, but I still couldn’t believe that I’d made her cry. I hated myself.

There was a firm knock on the door and Tungsten cautiously poked his head into the room. He looked at me then to Helix. I could see tears brimming, but he held them back.

“If you don’t like what you see, go somewhere else,” I said into Helix’s chest. I couldn’t deal with his rubbish now and nor could Helix.

“No. As much as I may not like it.” He sniffed. “I’m glad you two make each other happy.” He paused looking at us crying on the bed together but seem to decide silence was best. “And I’m afraid…” He began, but couldn’t finish it. He just handed me a sheet of paper, trying to hide the tears welling up in his eyes.

I lifted myself up, wiping my eyes so I could read the sheet “What’s this.” I asked, scanning down the list. I saw my name, Helix’s, Tungsten, a large number of the security staff and every other pony who had been outside during the incident. The end number indicated that there were exactly one hundred ponies on this list.

No… they wouldn’t.

“That is the list of those who are going to have to leave the stable…” Tungsten managed to force out.

Yes… they would.

Helix sniffed and wiped her eyes before she took the list from my trembling hooves and looked it up and down. She seemed to just absorb it like things couldn’t get any worse. “How come we’re all on the list?”

“Apparently, it was random.” Tungsten managed to stop himself from crying and now just looked utterly dejected. “But given that everypony involved with the incident is on the list, I reckon it’s been tweaked. Honestly, I can’t blame them.”

“Why.” I blurted out. “It was an accident. This whole messed up thing was an accident.”

“Maybe so, but everyone’s looking for some pony to blame. You’re blamed for not securing it with your welds, Jib’s blamed for not being able to stop the tube as it rolled and the others are blamed for not fitting the flotation bags properly and-or not checking the alignment of the support columns. And I know that’s probably all bull shit…” He jumped over me as I started to retort. “But it doesn’t matter. I think the Over’s are right. If anyone involved was allowed to stay things could kick off massively.”

“What about me and you?” Helix asked Tungsten.

“I don’t know. I’m probably on their cos I’m one of the better marksmen and given where we’re going I might be needed. You…” He looked at Helix apologetically. “I have no idea.”

I felt hollow. I couldn’t think of anything to say. It’d been almost two hundred years since the war, but we knew nothing of the surface. For all we knew, we were the last tiny bubble of civilisation left in Equestria. And now that bubble had burst. I settled for asking, “When will the others be told? I noticed Boom isn’t on the list. He and Jib are inseparable. He’s not going to like this one bit.”

“He won’t be the only one,” Helix said dryly. “I can see several obvious problems.” Then she gawped. “Dandelion will lose it when she sees this. There’s Nettle, Bramble and oh god, Poppy’s on here. Poppy! She hasn’t even got her cutie mark!”

“What about Lillypad!” I asked quickly. “Please don’t tell me she’s on there.”

Helix scanned the list then gave a small gasp. “Yes.” I kicked out sending my bedside table flying. No. How could they do that!

“The announcement will probably be made tomorrow morning.” Tungsten turned to leave. “Security’s been instructed to enforce a curfew tonight. Helix if you want to get back to your own room you’ve got about half an hour.”

“I will stay here,” Helix said and then glared at Tungsten when he looked slightly pissed off.

“Fine then.” He said shortly. “Best plan what you are going to take. You’ll only be allowed one set of saddlebags each.” The door closed behind him with a clunk.

Helix looked at me her eyes brimming with tears. I wiped them away with a hoof.

“I best start pack-” Helix kissed me.

I kissed her back.

Helix pushed in close to me, but I broke off. She looked into my eyes and smiled in understanding. Not tonight, not under these circumstances. I settled down once more, my head on her chest listening to her heart. At least my Helix was still alive.

If I could attribute any moment to the end of stable seventeen it would have been when the announcement was made next the morning. Helix and I sat curled up together on my bed waiting for the broadcast our saddle bags resting at the hoof of the bed. From their shared office, the Overs were to read out the list of ponies that would have to leave the stable. The curfew still in effect so most would listen to it on their PipBuck’s radio.

Helix had requested an escort from her brother to and from her room in the early hours so that she could pack her own saddlebags. She’d packed various chemical apparatus, along with her personal collection of chemicals, home-brewed healing potions, home-brewed Rad-away and books on chemistry. Tungsten had given her his old security barding which he had outgrown. That too was folded up inside her saddlebags.

“What did you pack in yours?” She asked, cinching up the buckles on her saddlebags various pouches.

“Same as you mostly. Food, water, bandages, Rad-x, just one healing potion from my first aid box.” I pushed all the items aside checking. “A few books that might be useful, my EVA suit...”

“How’d you get that?”

“Tungsten dropped it off. Yeah, I know, I was surprised too.” Helix had raised her eyebrows. “He even brought some spare deconstruction talismans.”

“Anything else?”

“Yeah, this.” I held up a thin black box for Helix to look at. “One of the security guards brought it over. It's from Arc.”

“What is it?” Helix moved in for a closer look.

“I don’t know.” I showed her the note stuck to the front.

“Why would he want you to wait?” Helix asked.

“Don’t know, but I am not going to go against his wishes.” I slid the box in next to my EVA suit and got a slight satisfaction out of how neatly everything slotted in.

Both our PipBucks pinged. The broadcast was about to start. Helix hopped onto my bed and settled herself down. “Come here, my love.” She opened her forelegs and embraced me as I slipped into her grasp. I turned on my radio and prepared to cry my eyes out.

“That concludes the list.” The Overstallion finished. I could hear pain and anguish in his voice as he turned the mic to the Overmare; he had probably felt worse reading the list out than we had felt listening to it.

“I will now point out that this list is non-negotiable.” The Overmare said firmly, although she too was breaking slightly under the pressure and tension. “No swapping, bargaining or exchanging places. Anyone who tries will be restrained in the hold. Any pony who resists will be shot”

Wow, I thought, that was both raising the bar and lowering it at the same time. Clearly, Helix felt the same as she raised her eyebrows.

“Finally, we have a message from stable-tec. This message was selected automatically after the incident. We have delayed listening to it so that we could all hear it together.” There was a pause, a click and then the most beautiful voice I had ever heard drifted from my PipBuck.

“Hello residents of stable seventeen, my name is Sweetie Belle, one of the founding ponies of Stable-Tec. If you are hearing this message then I regret to inform you that a ‘Level Two’ emergency has occurred in your stable.”

Part of me wondered what a Level One emergency was if this was level two.

“This has resulted in your stable no longer being able to support all or part of its intended population. To save your lives, the stable will now be opened. It has been ‘one hundred and ninety four years’ since the Stable was sealed.”

“Stable seventeen is unique in being the only stable built underwater and as a result it has its own unique exit preparations. Every pony must gather on the top floor of the core in the observation room. Once there, enable the stable exit by pressing the two-part exit key, which is stored in the Overmare and Overstallion’s office, into the lock marked by a back-lit green panel. Then again at the terminal next to the door itself.”

“I’m afraid you will have to figure out what to do from here on your own. But don’t panic. You are good ponies, and you can do more than you think if you just put your minds to it. I know you will do just fine.”

“Good luck, my little ponies.”

Silence.

Helix and I looked at each other. This was definitely the end of stable seventeen.

Helix walked by my side as we wound our way through the corridors heading for the top level of the core. Around us ponies mumbled and muttered to one another. I couldn’t tell what they were saying, but It felt like they were muttering about me. I caught a number of eyes following me only to turn away as I looked around.

“Helix?” A small voice cut through the crowd. “Has anypony seen Helix?”

“Lillypad...” Helix pushed forward and swept up the young unicorn in a tight embrace.

“I’m scared Helix. Really scared,” she whispered.

“It's alright darling. I will look after you.” Helix levitated the filly onto her back so that she rested on the top of her saddlebags. “What do you have in your saddlebags? Did somepony help you pack?”

“Yes, Lavender; one of Heather's’ friends, helped me. I have food, water, a towel, a first aid kit; Lavender said that was really important, and most importantly Smartie Pants.” She lifted a doll, a soft pink pony with a purple mane and tail that had a blue streak running through it, out of a side pouch on her miniature saddlebags. “Where she goes, I go!”

“Do you know who she looks like?” Helix asked. “A very important pony, a long time ago.”

“I dunno. We haven’t done much history in class yet.”

“Then I won’t spoil the surprise.”

We reached the observation deck at the top of the tower; a circular room with three hundred and sixty degree views to the lake outside, lounges and comfy chairs dotted here and there in clusters. In the centre was a column of steel that I had always assumed just supported the roof but now I was guessing that it had more than one purpose. As the room began to fill, the true scale of what was happening could be seen. All one hundred ponies, together in the same place, brought the brutal reality of what was happening home to me.

Home. A home that we were being evicted from. Technically speaking, none of us had a home any longer.

“Hey, you two.” Heather appeared at our side. “Is everything alright, do you need any extra items, I have a few extra Med-x and bandages if you need them.”

“If they are going spare I will take them.” Heather floated the items out and Helix tucked them into her saddlebags.

“So, are you ready?” Heather asked nervously.

“I don’t think any of us are ready, but we don’t really have a choice so...” I mumbled.

“It seems someponies think they do.” Helix cut through, pointing.

Jib and Boom had just come up the stairs with Dandelion and all her children just behind. Jib and Boom looked a little worried but defiant. Dandelion on the other had looked fearful as she kept her children close.

“They wouldn’t arrest Dandelion? Would they?” I asked anxiously. “They threatened to shoot if anypony resisted!”

“I really doubt it’ll come to that,” Heather said, but her voice wavered slightly.

Suddenly a hush began to spread through the assembled ponies. I looked around. It was Smoking Barrel, the head of Security. Tungsten was at his side as they moved forward through the crowd. Hung round Smokings neck were two small metallic rectangles, both on a fine metal chain. The black earth pony buck surveyed the scene through tired eyes.

“He looks like he hasn’t slept since the accident.” Helix whispered in my ear.

Smoking strode over to the steel-walled ring in the centre of the room. As he approached a green light suddenly illuminated an area of the wall in front of him. A small panel popped out from the wall and turned over revealing a pair of slots and a big red button. ‘Always red...’ my inner pony rolled its eyes. Smoking slotted each of the keys into their respective slots and then paused with his hoof over the button.

“Anyone else want the honour?” He asked, his deep voice wavering ever so slightly. No one said a word.

He glanced at Tungsten who just shrugged.

I held my breath as I watched Smoking raise his hoof once more, pause, and then push the button.

There was a very anticlimactic little click then, silence.

“Ok!” I head one of Dandelions children call out. “Who broke the-”

The foal was cut off as the floor began to vibrate rapidly, accompanied by heavy thunks that resonated through the whole tower. Helix and Lillypad squeaked as the main lights went out, replaced by red, low-level emergency lighting. There was a sound like a gigantic switch being thrown and the room was bathed in bright, white light through the glass roof of the core. I squinted upwards into the glare. Through the radiance, I could just barely see a huge black shape-shifting upwards out of the central column. The lights began to pan upwards, pointing into the blackness of the water above. A vast segmented cylindrical tube thrust out of the top of the core, heading straight for the surface.

“Woah...” I head Heather mumble at my side.

“You can say that again...” I muttered back. It was more like a lights show or a theatrical display than an emergency exit.

There was a sudden thump that made every pony stumble sideways. I looked up and noticed that the lights had stopped rising to be replaced with another tighter set that was beginning to rise once more. It must be built in sections that slotted one inside the other, that would be the only way to get over one hundred and fifty metres of tower inside a building that was only thirty or so metres high.

The tower was thrust upwards into the gloom, sending us all lurching each time a segment locked into place. After six more thumps we were suddenly plunged back into darkness as the light on the tower went out but the internal lighting didn’t come back on. I looked through the gloom trying to see what was going on.

“Where’s the exit?” I heard some pony call.

As if in answer a crack of light appeared in the central column. It opened slowly, inch by inch, accompanied by the hum of a hydraulic pump. The gap continued to widen until it was at least three metres in width. Only when it stopped and the humming faded away did the main lighting come back on.

“Why do the lights keep going out?” Helix asked. “Surely that’s not safe.”

“Maybe there isn’t enough power available to do everything at once,” I wondered. “Either that or Stable-Tec just wanted to give us a dramatic exit.” Worryingly, I doubted it was the latter.

“Stop, all of you!” I jumped as the Overmares’ voice barked out of all our PipBucks simultaneously. “Those of you who are NOT on the list; yes, you know who you are, I’m only going to warn you once. Do not leave this stable!”

“Or else what?” Boom called out. “Are you really going to kill us for not leaving?”

“You heard the broadcast same as everyone else.”

“She sidestepped...” Helix whispered in my ear.

“Huh?” I looked at her. “So what?”

“She avoided making a definitive yes or no answer.” I looked at her puzzled. “She doesn’t want to or else she would’ve said so”

“Smoking. Arrest any pony who’s not allowed to leave the stable. Do it now. I will send up a security team to escort them down.”

“No.” Smoking said firmly, staring defiantly up into one of the security cameras.

“Pardon?” The Overmare said surprised.

“No.” Smoking repeated. He deliberately moved to the other side of the doorway, still in view of the camera. “I’m technically outside the stable, so no longer under your jurisdiction. Find someone else.”

“Fine then. Trigger, you are hereby promoted to Head of Security. Get up there and Arrest them! Smoking included.” The Overmare shouted.

Oh crap...

“Everypony.” Smoking looked round at the now very worried crowd. “Time to go.” He eyed Dandelion and Boom. “Yes, that means you as well.”

I was suddenly being shoved by the mass of ponies towards the door. Helix had to use her magic to keep Lillypad on her back as everypony tried to press through the opening into the newly erected tower. It was just a mass of bodies as every pony tried to squeeze their way through the narrow doorway onto the stairway beyond.

Smoking dragged Tungsten out of the throng and passed him a trio of full magazines. “Blue to start with...” He smacked home the clip into his pistol and Tungsten did the same. “Only go silver if you have no other choice.” Tungsten just nodded.

I didn’t know what would happen when Trigger arrived with his branch of security, hopefully it wouldn’t come to metal bullets, but right now things were so tense anything could happen.

“Seafire.” Smoking called. A white mare with spectacular orange and red hair pushed towards the pair. “Take these and head up the front.” He passed her the two keys and she levitated them around her neck.

“Yes, sir.” She replied then she added. “Good luck.” Before pushing her way through the gap.

One hundred and fifty metres was a long way to climb and very soon everybody was panting as they ran up the staircase. Seafire pushed forwards at the front of the crowd up the tightening spiral staircase which slowly coiled inward as we ascended.

Everypony jumped at the sound of gunfire exploding from the base of the stairs, the low thumps echoing up the tower. I looked over the edge towards the bottom. Tungsten was taking cover at one side of the newly formed doorway, firing into the observation room. Smoking was crouched behind the railing of the stairway taking pot shots over the top. The bullets weren’t making a metallic sound as they hit the metal stairs behind them. They laid down fire in turns, preventing Trigger’s team from advancing into the tower.

I yelped as I ran into the back of the pony in front of me and Helix piled into my rump.

“What’s wrong. Keep moving.” I called forward to Seafire.

“Look.” She pointed at a red line painted on the wall off the tower. The words ‘Danger Radiation – End of Anomaly, Danger Radiation – End of Anomaly…’ ran around on the inside of the lines.

“We can’t stay here. We need to keep moving.” Helix encouraged.

Seafire took a breath and then started moving again. As I passed above the line my PipBuck suddenly started clicking gently, so did Helix’s. As each pony moved past the warning sign theirs began to sound. The clicking began to fill the tower. I looked down at the Rad metre which had always been firmly in the green. Now it was wiggling towards the yellow; so the surface was still not completely radiation free.

Below I could still hear Tungsten and Smoking exchanging fire with the advancing security team. I stole a glance down. Tungsten was pinned where Smoking had been before, the black buck had been forced back up the stairs to the level above but couldn’t fire over the edge of the stairs without the risk of taking a shot to the head. The security team was in the tower beginning to move up the stairs. Some fired upwards at those on the staircase above them but the rubber bullets were too slow and heavy to make it almost a hundred metres up.

A sharp crack cut through the air making everypony jump.

I spun round to see Trigger tumbling over the safety railing as his body convulsed, splattering the security team behind him with blood and bits of pony. Tungsten, his face was red with blood, watched shocked as Trigger disappeared from sight into the darkness below. It was a long time before we heard a horribly meaty thud.

‘So that was what a metal bullet does’ my little pony said, but I was in too much shock to pay any real attention. Smoking had turned his gun on the rest of the security team. Gone were their confident grins, to be replaced with shock and fear.

“Don’t make me do it again.” Tungsten’s voice wavered slightly, but his aim remained true.

Slowly the guards backed down the stairs. Tungsten kept his gun trained on them until they had backed out the door into the observation room. He looked up at everypony. It looked like he was pleading with us, to tell him that he had done right, that it had been necessary.

“Keep moving everyone.” Seafire called out. Slowly everyone tore their eyes away from Tungsten and began to ascend. I looked up. It was not far to go now. I could clearly make out the huge gear shaped door at the top, the number seventeen in the centre in faded red lettering. Around the edge ran the words ‘Stable-Tec R&D Project Nightmare: Anomaly Hydro-stable’. Project Nightmare?

“Fran?” Helix gave me a gentle nudge. “We need to keep moving,” she said softly.

“Yeah…” I said only half listening. Nightmare?

When we reached the top of the tower, Seafire ran straight over to a terminal located next to a series of massive hydraulic rams. She pushed the key parts into their slots. The terminal hummed into life filling the top of the tower with a soft, blue glow. Text Flashed up on the screen.

-OVERMARE & OVERSTALLION OVERRIDE KEYS ACCEPTED
-CHECKING AVAILABLE POWER RESERVES
-TOTAL POWER SUFFICIENT
-OPEN STABLE DOOR?
-CAUTION: ACTIVATING DOOR WILL DISABLE ALL STABLE SYSTEMS DUE TO EXTENT OF STABLE DAMAGE
-Y/N?

“What?” Seafire gawped. He looked around at the ponies on the platform. “What do we do?”

“What do you mean?” Dandelion asked.

“The damage to the stable means that if we open the door it will kill all the system’s in the stable. Everyone who has stayed behind will be killed.”

“Why would they design a system like that?” Jib’s normally steady voice cracked as he spoke.

“I don’t think it was intentional. Heck, I don’t even know how this system works.” Seafire looked at me. “Francium, do you know anything about this?”

“No, I don’t, but for an educated guess I would say…” Why did she ask me? “…that the door drains power from all of the stables systems simultaneously. When spread over every sector’s capacitors there is enough power coming in from the turbines to keep each system ticking over…”

I ran everything I knew about the stable through my head, looking for the answers.

“…but since we lost five banks of capacitors, that would usually be there in case of a power failure, there is no longer enough spare power available to open the door. The power has to come from somewhere, so it will come out of the reserves for the other systems causing them to fail.”

Everypony was looking at me in shock. “Have you any idea how much power is required to hold back the force of the water pressing down on this stable? Or maintain surface pressure one hundred and fifty metres down? A lot!”

“And ‘A lot’ is clearly more than we have.” Jip replied.

“Wait. It was all in that message.” Foxglove said. We all looked at her in surprise. “Sweetie Bell said ‘Everyone must gather in the observation room’ she also said that the system was unique. The systems may not have been tested under these conditions. We were all meant to leave.”

“She might be right. Why would Stable-Tec intend for any of us to remain in the stable if something went wrong? They would’ve expected us all to get out in case of another failure. If we open the door…” I swallowed. “Everyone who is still in the stable will probably die.”

“What will happen to them?” A pony asked tentatively.

“Honestly, I have no idea.” I really had no clue.

Everypony looked at everyone else.

“It’s not a hard decision.” A voice said from the back of the crowd. Tungsten and Smoking were pushing their way through to the top. Ponies pressed themselves to get out of their way, or more specifically Tungsten. He had bruises all over him from where the rubber bullets had struck but the worst thing was the blood splattered all over his face and the tip of his gun. “They’re the ones forcing us out.” He looked around at everyone. “They’re probably on their way back up here with live rounds to make sure we leave. They made the choice, not us.”

Helix looked incredulously at her brother “But you are talking about killing one hundred and fifty ponies. One. Hundred. Fifty.” She emphasised every word. “Our friends, even family. How many ponies here have got family down there.”

Tungsten just stood there then hung his head. “Sorry… I…” he began.

“It’s ok.” Helix pulled him into a hug. “You’re just in shock. That’s…”

Helix screamed as a bullet tore across the side of her body leaving a long red line of torn flesh in its wake. Everyone looked down to see the security team advancing up the stairs. Most of them were armed with pistols but one had a rifle, he had been the one to take the long-range shot straight up. Either skill or pure luck had got the bullet through the grating of the platform, I really hoped it was the latter.

Everypony scrambled trying to find cover, but there was none. Very soon the rest of the team would be in range and then we would all be dead. Smoking and Tungsten began taking shots down at the ascending team. They scrambled for cover, but again there was nothing. It was simply a case of who was brave enough or suicidal enough to stand still and take shots.

I pulled open one of Helix’s saddlebags and levitated out a bandage wrapping it around her midriff, trying to stem the flow of blood from the wound. It wasn’t very deep but it was long. If the bullet had been even an inch farther across it would have embedded itself in her stomach.

Other ponies cried out as they took hits. I was showered in blood as the mare next to me took a rifle round clean through the neck. She collapsed gasping for air. I cast a repulsion spell around the hole trying to keep the blood in and help her breath but it was no good. She collapsed, warm blood spewing out of her neck, dripping through the grating below.

“We can’t stay here.” Seafire had pulled out her own pistol and was firing down at the advancing team below. A metal round skimmed her head and she lurched back yelling.

“Argh.” Tungsten dodged too back as the railing in front of him fragmented into shrapnel. “Screw this.” He shouted running for the terminal.

“No don’t.” I cried out.

Too late.

Tungsten hit ‘Y’. There was a clunk, a groan and then the entire tower went dark. I suddenly realised that I could no longer hear any humming; more deafening in its absence than its presence.

Then a tone began, low and deep. It began to rise, building in volume and resonance. A single flashing light came on illuminating the door. There was a groaning sound and slowly the massive gear-like door began to rise up out of its slot. A chink of light appeared around the edge and then it began to lift up and away, tilting back. Another grinding sound was coming from below as a bulkhead dropped over the entrance of the tower from the observation room.

A roaring sound met our ears, spots of water were cascading into the hole as it widened. It was like being under a shower. I looked up as the spots, now turning into lines, began to run down my face like tears. Above me was a grey and black undulating mass of something. It was everywhere, spanning to fill the small window we had to look through. There was a final ominous thunk and the door stopped, the light faded but the humming did not return. All we could do was look up through the gear-shaped hole into the falling water and undulating mass above.

Gunfire started again from below.

“Move everypony, move!” Smoking yelled sprinting up the final few metres of stairs. Everypony scrambled after him. Everypony except Tungsten. He just stood there looking at the terminal which now read,

-STABLE DOOR OPENING SEQUENCE COMPLETE
-WARNING: STABLE CONTROL MANEFRAME RUNNING ON EMERGENCY POWER
-WARNING: MULTIPLE CRITICAL SYSTEMS FAILURE
-AIR FILTRATION SYSTEMS 0% POWER
-WATER PUMP SYSTEMS 0% POWER
-ORCHARD WEATHER CONTROL 1-4 0% POWER
-TURBINE 1 :AMBER
-TURBINE 2 :AMBER
-TURBINE 3 :AMBER
-GAS SYPHONING :AMBER
-SYSTEM RESETTING
-CAUTION: POWER INSUFFICIENT TO RESTORE ALL SYSTEMS
-ENTER OVER-RIDE CODE TO SELECT SELECTIVE STARTUP
-PASSWORD-

“I killed them… all of them.” I just stood there and stared at the screen. “I killed them all!” he slammed his hoof into the screen, shattering the glass. The screen flickered and died.

“We’ve got to move or you will join them.” I hit him on the flank. “Move you stupid buck.”

The pair of us piled up the stairs straight into the heart of a thunderstorm. The water around us writhed and churned. The sky above rolled and squirmed. Lines of rain lashed us from every side carried by vicious spirals and gusts of wind. I put a hoof over my eyes, trying to see where everyone else had gone.

“This way.” Smoking called over the roar of the storm. We sprinted over to him. I spotted Lillypad cowering from the storm between his forelegs. Down a small number of steps was some kind of walkway leading out over the churning water. It was surprisingly stable, though it did rock from side to side a lot. It looked to be made of more grill metal supported on the water with giant floating barrels. Cables ran along each side so ponies didn’t fall in, ‘but given the ferocity of the storm it might not be enough’ I thought.

“Everyone else is making their way across.” Smoking pulled out his pistol and loaded a magazine filled with live rounds. “I will stay here and keep them back. You go on ahead, take the little one.”

“Where is Helix?

“She is being helped across by Seafire.”

I gave a sigh of relief. “Lillypad, come with me, it’s not safe here.” I held a hoof out to the unicorn.

“I figured that out.” The filly said shakily. She took my hoof and we began to make our way across the bridge. Tungsten followed close behind. We heard gunfire as we walked away but it was quickly drowned out by the noise of the storm and the churning of the water.

‘Welcome to the wastelands Francium’ I thought to myself.

I backed out of the terminal for what felt like the hundredth time. I would have got in by now if the terminal wasn’t built into the wall of the warehouse; it stopped me from simply rewiring part of the system bypassing the security hardware and interface altogether. I kicked the wall in frustration, denting the thin layer of plasterboard that concealed the heavily reinforced concrete shell underneath.

“Take a break,” Helix called over as she finished sorting through the pile of supplies in front of her.

I sighed, backing out of the terminal yet again, and slowly trotted over to Helix, accepting temporary defeat.

“So how much have we got?” I flopped down next to her and began flicking a roll of bandages back and forth in my hooves.

“In short, not much.” Helix scanned down the clipboard in front of her checking her numbers. “Most were sensible enough to pack food and water so we have enough for about five days. Perhaps a week if we ration.”

“What happened to using the lake water? You said you might be able to sterilise it with some of the equipment you brought with you.”

“No chance I’m afraid. The radiation levels are way too high.” Then she whispered. “There is also that same substance that infected orchard three but in much, much higher quantities.” I gulped.

“Anything else?”

“I was just given the medical supplies to count. You will have to ask the others if you want to know more.” I flopped down on the floor again. “Oh go on. Walk, talk. Try and relax. Come back to the terminal once you have mellowed out a bit.”

“I am mellow,” I said, now lying flat in the concrete floor of the warehouse but Helix just gave me the eye. “Fine.” I pulled myself to my hooves and began wandering across the warehouse floor.

The warehouse was big, at least thirty metres in width and fifty in length. When we had first piled in off the walkway it’d been pitch black but, incredibly slowly I have to add, gemstones set into the ceiling had begun to glow. After an hour it was like being back in the core only there were no windows. In fact, the only indication that there was an outside was the large set of double doors that lead back out onto the walkway, and the huge five metre tall and eight metre wide steel bulkhead at the other end; the terminal of which I had been attempting to hack.

I spotted Heather with Lavender, repack their first aid kits. There was a blanket draped over a form on the ground before them. Heather looked like she had been crying.

“What happened?” I asked cautiously. “Anything I can do to help?”

“Only if you can go back in time,” Lavender said coldly.

“Wait, what did I do?” Though I knew what was coming.

“That pipe!” She snapped, slamming the lid of her kit shut. “All of you should have...”

“Lav. Stop,” Heather said sadly. “Just don’t.”

“What happened to him?” I asked quickly, changing the subject.

“Poor buck took a bullet straight up through the bottom of his hoof.” Heather hung her head. “It fragmented, ripped his entire foreleg to shreds. He lost too much blood crossing the walkway and just passed out.”

“Would you have been able to save him if he hadn’t lost all that blood?” I asked.

“I... I don’t know. I mean I’ve read and trained for bullet wounds, but seeing it for real.” She actually shuddered. ”Perhaps, I don’t know...”

“Doesn’t matter now. He’s gone.” Lavender said. Why’d she say it like it was my fault?

‘Because, in a way, it is’ my little pony pointed out. Oh, I did not need that now!

I walked away before Lavender decided to have another go at me. I spotted Tungsten on the other side of the room, sitting alone, staring into space. I knew that someone would have to speak to him sooner or later.

“Do you think someone should go and talk to him?” Foxglove appeared beside me. She was the eldest of Dandelions children. Next were the two young bucks, Nettle and Thistle with Bramble and Poppy bringing up the rear. Bramble was a few years older than Lillypad while Poppy was still a little filly.

“What could anyone say?” I asked sadly. “I know it’s been a horrible day for everyone, but how can you cheer someone up after… after that.” I gestured towards the walkway back to stable seventeen. “Heck, I feel rotten inside and I didn’t kill one hundred fifty ponies.” I put my head in my hooves and sighed. “I don’t understand why I’m not falling apart.” I shook my head. Foxglove just shrugged.

“I got you this by the way.” She showed me a file on her PipBuck. “It’s a complete inventory of everything we have.”

“Why are you giving it to me?” I asked. “I am not going to be leading at all.”

“Maybe not, but you’ve always been level-headed and organised so if anyone can keep track of the equipment of over a hundred ponies, you can.” She smiled gently. “And you get on with almost everyone so if there are any issues you’ll be able to sort it out, no problem.”

“Wow, um thanks.” I accepted the file transfer. “No one’s ever said that before.”

“Hmmm, I’m surprised at that.” Foxglove raised an eyebrow then whispered. “Maybe it’s your taste in sexual fantasies putting everypony off.”

“What!” I gasped blushing furiously. “What do you know about…” But she was smiling.

“Joking,” she levelled her expression. “But seriously, you were closer to Tungsten than anyone else, if anyone can comfort him, it’s you.”

“‘Were’ is the key word in that sentence. It’s not the same anymore.” I said dryly, shaking my head. “Things were different, we were different. And when he became part of Security he changed. A lot.”

“Changed?” Foxglove asked quizzically.

“He became more… I don’t know. He used to be kinder. More diplomatic. Try every other avenue before turning to his dark side. But after he joined Security, he seemed to get bored of the waiting for diplomacy to work out. He found that he could get results quicker by jumping straight to threats and aggression. And not just when he was at work.”

Foxgloves eyes widened, “He didn’t. He wouldn’t.”

“Wouldn’t what.”

“Hurt you.”

“Oh no. No. He was never like that with me. But he just wasn’t the same anymore. Not the buck I had fallen for so…” My ears drooped sadly.

“But it seems that attitude has just landed him in deep trouble.” Foxglove sighed deeply. “He is very lucky. It could’ve been worse.”

“Worse!” I exclaimed, turning a few dozen heads. I dropped my voice before continuing. “How could it’ve been worse? He just killed more than one hundred ponies.”

“No one up here has family back in the stable. We lost friends, yes. We all had friends, but he hasn’t broken any families.”

“How? The draw was supposed to be random.”

“Well, it’s not impossible, but certainly very unlikely.”

“Unlikely! We are talking millions to one! Possibly Billions!” I knew it was even more than that but I couldn’t be asked to go past twelve zero’s.

“Well, you’re the mathematician out of the two of us.” She sighed. “I just do plants. Fat lot of good that is up here where nothing grows”

“Nothing? Nothing at all?” I asked. “Surely something...” but she waved a yellow hoof.

“Another time Francium. I would bore you stiff with everything I could tell you about plants. Do you know what asexual reproduction is?”

“Nope,” I admitted.

“There you go.” She smiled. “But you need to go and talk to him before he tears himself up from the inside out. Even if he isn’t the same buck you fell in love with.”

“I suppose you are right.” I sighed.

Foxglove patted me on the shoulder. “It’ll be ok, you’ll see.” She smiled one last time and then trotted off to join her family. I couldn’t figure out how she was holding it together after what had happened today, but I was glad that she was staying strong.

I looked back at Tungsten and was surprised to see Helix sitting with him. Well, that saved me a job. ‘For the time being’ my little pony pointed it, ‘You really ought to talk to him at some point’. Yeah, well, that could wait. I was getting tired.

I lifted off my saddlebags and pulled out my blanket. The whole floor was concrete but the blanket should make it a little softer. I settled myself down. My mind wanted to turn towards what had happened, the ponies I’d lost, the ponies I might lose, but I shoved it into the back of my mind. Perhaps Foxglove was right, maybe I was more level-headed than I realised, sturdier, stronger. ‘I just hope you can keep a hold of your marbles long enough to find a way out of this mess’ my little pony poked. “So do I,” I said to myself. I closed my eyes and slept.

I awoke to the sound of raised voices. I rolled over and bumped straight into Helix. She must have settled herself down next to me after I had fallen asleep. Lillypad was curled up on her other side. She groaned. “Fran, what’s going on?” She yawned sleepily.

“Don’t know. Don’t get up. I’ll sort it out. You need to rest if that wound is going to heal.” I gave her a quick kiss and laid my blanket over her and Lillypad. “Rest.”

I stood up and looked around. The argument was emanating from a group over on the other side of the warehouse. Dandelion was there, so was Smoking. I made my way over. The two of them were facing off against Lavender and some of her friends that had been lucky enough to be kicked out of the stable. My inner pony started going ‘Lucky? Lucky! If the alternative is dead...’ but I ignored it.

“We have to get out there.” Smoking was saying heatedly. “The longer we delay the quicker we will run out of supplies. We have to go searching for more food and water. It’s better to put the energy to good use than just sitting here feeling sorry for ourselves.”

“But we may never find anything. It could be days walk until we find another building let alone a settlement; assuming there is another settlement to find. We can last longer if we conserve what we have.” Lavender argued back, getting nickers of approval from her friends. “The longer we can stay alive the better.”

“That’s just the equivalent of prolonging our suffering. We need to…” Dandelion started to say but she stopped as I approached. “Ah, Francium. Can you talk some sense into these loony-ponies.”

“Loony-ponies.” Lavender scoffed. “You’re the ones…”

“Girls, can we take it down a notch?” I rubbed my eyes. "What’s even going on? All I got was something about us all having long drawn out deaths.”

“We need to get out there and start looking for supplies.” Dandelion said flatly. “You've seen our total inventory Francium. We have enough to last four or five days. Maybe a week if we ration it, but this lot…” She pointed angrily at the others. “…want to just stay here and do nothing.”

“It’s not ‘nothing’, we'd be conserving what supplies we have.”

I face hoofed. “You’re both right,” I said simply. “Can’t you see that?” They all looked at me like I was mad.

“Lavender, you are right about us needing to save our resources and keeping what we have. This building probably contained the walkway until we opened the stable. That would explain why it's so sturdily built; so that after two hundred years we could still actually get out of the stable. Its a perfect base of operations but food and water are just as important. If we stay here we will die. We have to get out there and start looking. The worst case scenario is that we find nothing and we die both here and out there, but at least we can say we tried.”

The others looked between each other. Then Smoking said “But there is one problem with this whole ‘get out there and start looking’ option. The door's still locked.” Oh yeah, bugger. “And I think you're the only one who can get us out without ripping the door off its hinges. Jib and Boom are itching to try out their combined skills on that thing, but for safety's sake I would prefer if we kept the door functional. It may become very useful.”

“I had a look at it yesterday, there isn’t enough power,” I explained glumly. “It draws power from the stable and the stable is dead.”

“Give it a try Fran.” Dandelion said brightly. “If anyone here can reprogram it, it's you.”

But that doesn’t make up for a lack of power, I thought, but I just replied. “Ok, I'll give it another try.” I could see the next few hours being very frustrating.

It took me a further three hours to hack into the system. There was a load of information about construction dates and when the building was finished. It also turned out that the building had been used for parts storage during the construction of stable seventeen, with logs of when parts were due to arrive and when they were sent underwater for fitting. For whatever reason, Stable-Tec had been very careful about keeping the construction of the stable secret for as long as possible, hiding all the parts inside and passing the building off as some kind of unmanned research station looking into the lakes food chain and its chemical content.

I also managed to get inside the security system which was even tougher. I almost got locked out maybe, one hundred times, before I got the password ‘Pinkamena-Diane-Pie’; seriously, who puts hyphens in a password? There were a series of six exterior camera’s, covering each side of the building and the roof, as well as two interior cameras. When I went looking for them I couldn't see them at all. Either they were hidden with some kind of invisibility spell or I was a very stupid pony. ‘Bet it’s the latter’ my inner pony laughed at me. Facehoof.

But when it came to actually opening the door I was stumped.

“Right do you want the good news or the bad news,” I said to the small group assembled in front of me. No pony replied. “Ok, good news. I got into both the terminal and the security systems so we have access to everything now. We even have exterior cameras if anyone wants a look”

Still nothing.

“The bad news is that there is not enough power to open the door. Plain and simple. The bolts that hold the door shut are hydraulic and they are concealed within the wall.”

“So we are stuck,” Tungsten said. It was the first words he'd spoken since we'd gotten into the warehouse the previous morning.

“Yes.”

“Can we get to the hydraulic pumps?” A voice called. An orange mare walked across to join our group. I recognised her as an engineer, but I couldn’t remember her name. “If we can, we can turn them manually.”

“I don’t know... let me check.” I went over to the terminal and pulled up the building's schematic, slowly scrolling through until I found the right set of plans. “The pipes run... through the wall, down, through a regulator which I can control from here. The pumps themselves...” I turned and pointed. “Are right under that metal sheet.”

I had spotted it when we had come in but not really been able to give it much thought. The plate was three metres square and recessed into the centre of the warehouse floor. We all clustered around it.

“So, what do we do?” Smoking asked again.

“Well, I don't know exactly where the pump is under here and I don’t want to just rip this thing up in case we damage something so we need to be careful.” I thought for a moment.

“Why not cut a small hole and send someone down. Someone small. The smaller the better.” The orange pony suggested.

“Good one, Ripsaw.” Heather piped up. “So who is going to be our small volunteer?’

“Me, me, me.” Lillypad jumped up and down like she was back at school; waving her hoof in the air. “Pleeeeese.”

“You're too young,” Helix said, and the little unicorn immediately went into pout mode.

“Will I do?” Bramble stepped forward.

“Yeah, if it’s ok with your mother.” I looked at Dandelion for approval. She looked a little uncomfortable.

“Please mum. I've done nothing but sit around and get in the way. Let me be of some use.”

“Alright, but be careful.” Dandelion looked worried but seemed happy that her daughter wasn’t afraid to lend a hoof.

“Right. Everyone, get back this is going to be bright.” I lowered my horn to the plate. I brought up a filter spell in front of my eyes and then fired the spark spell. The arc of energy melted the plate on contact. It took a while before I got the tell-tale signs of having cut right through the sheet; it must have been a good five centimetres thick. I then slowly cut out a Bramble sized hole. Just as I finished the cut, Boom caught the piece in his telekinetic grasp and moved it out the way. I quickly ran my horn around the edge of the hole with an abrasion spell to smooth off all the rough edges.

“Ready?” I asked the young unicorn. She nodded, shook off her saddlebags, and Jib carefully picked her off the floor. She gave a little ‘Eeep’ as her hooves left the ground. Jib then carefully guided her through the hole in the floor.

“Left. Down. Right a little. Forward and now straight down.” I heard a little clop as her hooves touched down. “I'm down.” She called back. “Activating my PipBuck’s light now.” There was a pause, we could hear her walking around underneath us. It was rather surreal. Then there was another little “Eeep”.

“Bramble. What’s wrong.” Dandelion called out anxiously. “Talk to me love.”

“You are going to love this.” The disembodied voice called out through the hole. “Coming up.” A bottle bobbed up out of the darkness and I caught it. I turned it around. Part of the label had faded so the words were illegible.

“Sparkle?” I looked at the bottle curiously. It had a yellow pony on the front with wings. A Pegasus? “What’s this? Some kind of weird hydraulic fluid?” I asked.

“Sparkle Cola! No way!” Heather suddenly snatched the bottle from my grasp looking at the little bottle in awe. “This stuff is like legendary. Oh wow!” Her gaze fell upon the yellow Pegasus. “I can’t believe it. It's Fluttershy. The Fluttershy!” She was practically drooling.

“Flutterguy?” I asked. “Who is he?”

“Shy! Flutter-Shy.” Heather said irritably. “How can you not know who Fluttershy is? She is only the most caring pony in the history of equestrian, probably more so than Princess Celestia herself.”

“Wasn’t she the bearer of an element of harmony.” Lavender mused. “Loyalty wasn’t it?”

“No that was Rainbow Dash, the other Pegasus.” Heather was now pretty much stroking the bottle. “Fluttershy bore the element of Kindness.”

“Hang on how come you know all this?” I frowned. “Since when did we cover the ‘Elements of Harmony’ in our lessons?”

“I think it was that month you were sick with the pony-pox and in isolation,” Helix muttered in my ear. Ah, that’s why.

“Hate to break up this little history lesson.” A voice called. “But can someone get me out of here.”

“Woops, sorry Bramble.”

“Hey, no rush.” She called back half sarcastically. “It’s not like I am going to die or anything with maybe, a thousand bottles of this stuff to drink.”

Everyone almost fell over.

“Did you just say a one thousand?” Dandelion called down the hole. “One, zero, zero, zero?”

“Yep.” We all looked at each other.

“We need to get this plate up.” I was smiling from ear to ear.

After Bramble had given us a little report on what exactly was down there and we were sure that simply ripping up the plate would do no harm, Jib and Boom tore the huge steel plate clean out of its fixtures. Underneath we found the huge hydraulic pump along with two pallets of Sparkle Cola. It turned out that it wasn’t hydraulic fluid and was actually a kind of soft drink, endorsed by the kind yellow Pegasus with a pink and blue butterfly for a cutie mark.

Everyone was in a good mood. Even Tungsten had picked himself up and was joining in our miniature celebration as we sat in a series of circles, each with a bottle of the oddly flavoured but very satisfying drink. Everyone was filling me in on everything I didn’t know about Fluttershy and her friends, and it turned out I had missed a lot.

“There were five ministries under the rule of Princess Luna.”

“No, six.”

“No, five. The MAS, MoT, MoI, MoP and the MoM.”

“You missed the MoA. Rainbow Dash’s ministry. All six of the bearers had a ministry.”

“The Ministry of Awesome? But they never did anything.”

“I heard they were into all sorts of secret stuff.”

“Something called the SPP as well.”

“And that stands for?”

“No idea, but it sounds awesome doesn’t it!”

“Wait? Since when was Luna in charge?

“Since the massacre at Littlehorn. Celestia stepped down and handed power over to her sister.”

My head was spinning with the quantity of information being thrown at it. I was getting a month’s worth of education in a few hours. “Sorry. Probably a stupid question but what do all those letters stand for?” I scratched my head in frustration.

Smoking sighed. “Twilight Sparkle, bearer of the element of Magic, ran the MAS or Ministry of Arcane Science’s. It was also called the Ministry of Magic but that clashed with the Ministry of Morale which was run by Pinky Pie, who bore the element of Laughter.”

“Element of ‘Laughter’?” I muttered. “Who came up with that?”

“Don’t look at me. The elements are as old as Equestria.” Smoking took a swig of Sparkle Cola and continued. “Then there was the MoT, or Ministry of Technology. It ended up being called the Ministry of Wartime Technology but Applejack, who ran it and bore the element of Honesty, hated that name.”

“Then you had the Ministry of Peace run by Fluttershy, the Ministry of Image run by Rarity, bearer of Generosity and finally the ministry of Awesome run by Rainbow Dash.” Helix finished. “There you go, you didn’t miss anything.” She smiled at my bewildered expression.

My inner pony was having a mental breakdown; ‘Ministry of Image, Ministry of Pieces, Ministry of Wartime Science, Ministry of Arcane Technology… too many ministries. Make it stop!’ My inner confusion must have been on my face as Helix said, stroking my mane, “Don’t worry about it, Fran. It’s only vital information about the history of Equestria, you don’t have to remember any of it. It happened two hundred years ago, so don’t relax.”

I scowled at her but she just laughed. I guessed I was going to have to put some time into remembering all this information.

“But there is something else that's bugging me.” I took a swig of my cola, enjoying its odd taste; which from the orange vegetable on the bottle, was carrot. “Why would there be two pallets of soft drink sealed under a fifty millimetre steel plate along with a hydraulic pump? It’s just like, weird.”

“It wasn’t the only thing down there. There was also this.” Bramble held up a white, translucent ball. It looked like it was filled with smoke or perhaps white crystal. “Any idea what it is?” She hoofed it over to me and I caught it in my magic.

Oh crap. Not good.

I couldn’t move but I could see. No, wait. I was moving, but I didn’t want to. My head turned; why was it turning? I was trotting briskly along a corridor. It was well lit, clean, with posters, all bearing the same gear-like logo, on the walls between the doors. I saw glimpses of ponies pouring over desks in the offices through the windows as I passed but my hooves wouldn’t obey me.

I tried to use my horn to back out of whatever this was, but I couldn’t. Wait. What happened to my horn? I couldn’t feel any magic inside me at all; at least none that I was familiar with. I wanted desperately to reach up and check my forehead but to no avail. Then my wing rubbed an itch on my forehead. Wait, wing?

Ok Fran, just think. Calm down and think your way out of this. It’s what you’re good at.

I could feel feathers, they kept brushing against the flanks of the pony I was in. Feathers meant wings and wings meant only one thing; since I was missing a horn... I was in a Pegasus. She seemed to have magic inside her, but not my normal kind of magic. Hang on was I still as she? I focused and was pleased to notice nothing out of the ordinary. Good, a female Pegasus. Well, at least I had half of me.

My host, for lack of a better word, brushed a few strands of magenta mane out of her eyes with an orange hoof. She was wearing a black business suit of some kind that was very tight fitting and stiff; Somehow I thought it didn’t get much use. She must have had holes cut in it for her wings to poke through. She walked up the door at the end of the corridor and knocked slowly three times.

“One moment.” A voice called from inside. A pause. “Come in.”

My host pushed open the door and walked into a well-lit office. Light streamed in from windows at the other side of the room picking out dust in the air. Proper light. Sunlight. From the goddess herself sunlight! It felt warm on my host's skin, It was amazing, but my host dropped into a seat out of the sunbeams.

I, or the pony I was inside, glanced out the windows taking in the towering buildings of white and grey, a monorail shooting along supported high above the ground. There was a multi-tiered building in the near distance with a massive transmitter in the top. Behind that another one rose even higher, just sticking into the wispy white clouds that floated above. The buildings seemed to go on forever in all directions.

The room was obviously an office. Filing cabinets lined the walls. With a large map of what must have been Equestria on one wall. City names had been highlighted; Fillydelphia, Hoofington, Canterlot, Manehatten. A large circle had also been drawn around a distant lake and a forest next to Ponyville.

There were a few personal touches too. A picture just below the map showed a pale yellow filly and an orange mare wearing a wide-brimmed hat spinning a lasso in her mouth. Another showed three young fillies dressed as what looked like journalists, all with pencils and notepads. The largest one, mounted above a safe in the wall behind the desk, was of the same three mares but as they currently were. Older. Wiser. Tireder. Beneath each was a date of birth, a dash, then the word present. I wondered what would happen when one of them died. Would it change automatically? That thought creeped me out.

Sitting behind the desk in the office was a young but haggard looking light yellow mare with red hair; probably the same one from the pictures. She was scanning over documents in a big bound folder with her pale orange eyes. The words ‘Top Secret’ were stamped in black on the front of the folder. Before I could read the project, the mare closed the folder with a snap, it gave a slight click as it locked. She then slipped it inside a tin of Sugar Apple Bombs, then spun her seat around and slotted it into the safe built into the wall behind her. She shut the door, then pushed a button next to it. The vault suddenly shimmered and disappeared, turning the same colour as the wall accompanied by the sound of heavy, sliding bolts. ‘Neat’, I thought, ‘let’s see a thief find that’! My host clearly agreed as she raised an eyebrow.

The yellow mare spun back around and then dropped her head onto the desk with a thud. “This is getting out of hoof Scoots” She ground her head into the desk. “All this secrecy is driving me nuts.” She banged her head on the desk. “It’s going to kill me one day.” Her voice had a slight country twang to it but it was incredibly subtle.

“It’ll be alright Apple Bloom.” My host went round and gave the yellow mare a hug. “It’s getting to me too.”

“You’re not supposed to say that.” Apple Bloom moaned into the desk. “You’re supposed to say that you’re fine. Be strong and bold, like you’ve always been.”

“Then I’d be lying.” My host went and sat back down. “Remember, between crusaders…”

“…there are no secrets.” Apple Bloom finished looking into my host’s eyes. “Scootaloo, you’re the best friend I’ve ever had. Well, you and Sweetie Belle.”

Ok, Sweetie Belle. That might also explain, somewhat, why this memory ball, orb, thing, was here. But I couldn’t seem to escape. I kept thinking that I wanted to leave but nothing happened. I hoped I was not going to be stuck in here forever. I seemed to have no choice but to sit here and ride it out. Well if I was going to be stuck here I might as well pay attention.

My host smiled. “You two are my best friends too, Apple Bloom.” Then in a more business-like tone. “So, how can I help you?”

“Sweetie Bell found another location. She’s still under the pretence of going on an explorative holiday with Ditzy Doo. Ditzy’s still researching for her Best Of Equestria book so that’s all fine. But this new site’s going to be exceptionally difficult. It seems to be at the bottom of Eternity Lake.”

Scootaloo raised her eyebrows. “How in Equestria did she detect it? The bottom of that lake’s geologically active. That and it’s over one hundred metres deep.”

“One hundred and ninety-four at its deepest point,” Apple Bloom frowned. “But she was able to detect it easily on the surface. This one’s big. Much bigger than any of the others.” Apple Bloom rifled through a pile of papers on her desk and pulled two out. “Do you remember these?”

She passed the papers to Scootaloo. One was a top-down schematic of a stable, similar to stable seventeen but it had a few more domes, only one gas extractor and no turbines. It was labelled ‘Rapture Hydrostable’. She then looked at the other. It was a picture of a lake from very high up but it had been overlaid with some kind of scan showing the geology and depth of the lake. I could make out what appeared to be a town at one end nestled between two rivers that ran into the lake. I felt my hosts jaw drop. She stared from sheet to sheet for a good minute before replying.

“You want to put a Hydrostable down there? Apple, we looked into those. It’s just too difficult. The resources required would be astronomical. How would we ever keep it secret? It’s bad enough trying to put a research lab down there let alone a whole stable. Not to mention that the ground down there’ll be unstable. I know these pockets could be lifesavers but if we bite off more than we can chew then we may not be able to keep this project a secret”

“You haven’t seen the scan results yet.” Apple Bloom passed over another sheet of paper.

This one was covered in lots of graphs with squiggly lines and a few bar charts. I had no idea what they meant but Scootaloo clearly did, her eyes going wide. She shifted in her seat and looked straight into Apple Bloom’s eyes once more.

“If these are accurate.” She shook the sheet of paper. “We have to do this.”

“I know, Scoots, I know.” Apple Bloom said sadly. She took the papers back and returned them to their folder. “As much as I’d love for you to stay Scoot’s, Applejack should be arriving soon to discuss something, apparently she needs a family favour. If she catches us together she might get suspicious that something is going on, especially since you’re supposed to be in Hoofington at the moment.”

My host sighed and stood up. “We never get a chance to just chat anymore do we.” She said sullenly but Apple Bloom was already engaged in reading another massive folder. Scootaloo turned and began to leave.

“Fran! Fran!”

Somepony was slapping me repeatedly about the face. I opened my eyes. Helix was leaning over me looking terrified, but she relaxed slightly as I smiled at her. “Great Celestia, what happened.” She pulled me into a hug. “I thought I'd lost you. You didn’t move or anything. You just lay there breathing with that ball thing locked to the tip of your horn.”

I sat up. My brain felt like it had been turned around inside a tumble dryer. Everyone was looking at me in concern.

“Well I have no idea what it was, but it wasn’t bad.” I stood up gingerly. “What is that thing?”

“It’s a memory orb.” We all turned to look at Jib. “It is a device used for the storing and viewing memories. What you just witnessed was some pony’s actual memories of an event.”

“Wha?” I scratched my head. “But why would anyone want to record that?”

“Record what?” Lavender asked.

“What seemed to be two old friends having a nervous breakdown. The only thing that might be important was that I think the two ponies were part of the trio that founded Stable-Tec.”

“What colours were they?” Boom asked.

“One was pale yellow with sort of a red mane. The other one, the one I was in, was orange with a purpley-pink mane.”

“Apple Bloom and Scootaloo.” Boom nodded. “Along with Sweetie Belle, they made up the founding members of Stable-Tec.”

“How on earth do you know that?” Smoking asked curiously.

“Because of this.” Boom levitated out an identical white ball from Jib’s saddle bag.

“Hey hang on. How come you are not collapsing and getting sucked into its memory.” I asked.

“You focused on the orb, thus activating it.” Jib replied simply. “If you just grasp them lightly then you don’t set them off. Takes a bit of practice though. Best learnt with a short memory for obvious reasons.”

“So what is in that memory orb then.”

“A lot. This was given to us by our mother. She received it from her mother and so on.” Jib gave a sigh. “We’re the first males in our bloodline. In a way it is quite lucky we are out of the stable as we wouldn’t have been able to pass it on without revealing to our offspring who their father was.”

“It’s an unusual memory. Well, actually it’s not a true memory at all.”

“It is a compilation of memories from various ponies, joined together to form one story.”

“Who’s story does it tell?” Lillypad asked tilting her head curiously.

“Equestria’s story.” Replied Jib and Boom in unison. My mind did a kind of tumble turn in my skull. It seemed I was not the only one.

“Why did you not tell anyone of this in the stable.” Lavender seemed put out. “That information could be one of a kind. Why should you get to keep it.”

“You’ll understand if you see it.” Boom replied gravely.

“It’s not exactly pleasant.” Jib finished darkly. “Also it can only be viewed by Unicorns. Earth ponies and Pegasi require a device called a recollector to view memory orbs.”

“I am guessing that’s in the memory orb to?” Jib just nodded a response.

“So does anyone have any objection if I give it a try?” Lavender asked. There as a general mutter somewhere between ‘we don’t mind’ and ‘well, if you’re mad enough’. Boom passed her the orb. Lavender placed it on the floor, knelt before it and touched her horn to it.

Nothing.

She tried again, making a spark jump between her and the orb. Lavender was violently launched backwards. She rolled over and skidded to a stop on the concrete floor, twenty feet from the orb which hadn’t moved an inch.

“Lavender, are you alright?” Heather rushed to her side.

“I’m fine, I’m fine.” Lavender picked herself up, scowling at Jib and Boom. “Very funny. A trick memory orb. Yeah, great laugh.” She continued to glare, but Jib and Boom looked just as shocked as everyone else.

“Well, that’s never happened before…” Jib looked at his brother. “Safety feature?”

“Possibly.”

“What kind of a safety feature is that?” Lavender said crossly. “Toss a pony across a room, great idea.”

“Well do you want to try again?” Jib asked.

“No, of course not.”

“Like I said, safety feature.”

“A safety feature against what though? And why?” Smoking scratched his head thinking.

“Who cares.” Lavender scoffed. “At this point in time, I think we should be more concerned about those two opening this door.” She jabbed a hoof at Jib and Boom. “Cos I, for one, am more interested in living than in ancient, attacking memory orb’s.”

Now that we had access to the pump, it was a simple matter of disconnecting the spark motor and manually turning the pump's shaft to shift the fluid from one side of the cylinder to the other. Turning the pump was hard work, even Jib and Boom got tired, but soon the bolts were retracted. Now to open the door itself. Two feet thick and reinforced with steel struts, the door probably weighed more than two of the pipe section’s combined. But with around three dozen unicorns casting kinetic and levitation spells the door, slowly but surely, swung open.

Tungsten and Smoking covered the widening gap with their pistols in case there happened to be ‘an angry army of zombie ponies waiting to gobble us all up’ standing just outside; we had Nettle to thank for the rather disturbing image.

“All clear. Proceeding outside.” Smoking called. He and Tungsten slowly moved forward through the gap and out of the warehouse. There was a fairly lengthy pause then “Perimeter clear.” We all gave a sigh of relief.

“Awwww, no angry zombie ponies.” Dandelion glared at her son. “What?”

“You can all come out.” Smoking stuck his head around the door. “There is not much to see I’m afraid.”

“You first,” I said to Helix and she cautiously made her way outside. I followed her and felt my jaw drop; so much for not much to see.

I faced a wall of rock so vast that it completely filled my vision. The ground before us started flat and then began to roll upwards like a wave forming on water. I looked up expecting to see the ridgeline at the top but it was lost in the low cloud cover; still a grey-scale mass of undulating vapour. The cliff face continued out of sight to both sides with what remained of a four-lane road winding along the base.

I shivered and noticed how cold I was. Mist floated in the air and a gentle breeze disturbed the hair on my coat. I could feel my mane beginning to dampen and stick to the back of my neck. Glancing down I could see feeble, yellowed blades of grass trying desperately to push through the cracks in the tarmac and grow on the patches of scrubland to either side of the warehouse. I lifted up a hoof and looked at the mud now sticking to it; somehow, above all else, that bothered me the most.

“This is incredible…” Thistle had picked up a piece of rock and was examining it minutely. “Metamorphic rocks. Actual metamorphic rocks!” He looked like a stallion in a sweet shop.

“As opposed to not actual metamorphic rocks.” Nettle tossed a piece of tarmac at his brother’s head. “Get over it egghead, their just rocks.”

Thistle dodged the incoming lump “But, all we had back in seventeen was sedimentary taken from the lake floor. I have only ever seen these in books until now.”

“What books were you reading! Sheesh, next thing you know you will be telling me you started a rock club.” Nettle shook his head over emphatically kicking over more rocks. “Dear, oh dear.”

“Rocks are cool.” Thistle tossed his igneous rock sample back at Nettle scoring a hit on his rump. “Deal with it.” Then he looked at the lump his brother had thrown. “Oh and that’s not a rock, its tarmac.”

“Egghead.” Nettle stuck his tongue out.

“Someone…. Anyone…” I heard Helix say quietly behind me. I dragged my eyes away from the impossibly big wave of rock and walked to her at the corner of the warehouse.

“What’s wrong…” But the words died in my throat.

Bodies. Maybe a dozen or so, bobbing and floating against the bank of the vast lake.

I recognised two of them, a mare and a stallion. They had been with us as we escaped the stable but hadn’t made it to the warehouse. Now I knew why. They all wore the same stable seventeen clothes, so I couldn’t identify any of them without their heads. Torn hides and jagged cuts into the flesh just beneath the cut seemed to indicate that the ponies had been struggling to get free as they had been decapitated. Despite myself, I took a step closer and saw bullet wounds in all of them.

What had happened down there!

“Get the young ones back in the warehouse now.” I heard Smoking say. “No, make that everyone. Back inside now.” I didn’t move, my eyes were locked on the sight before me. I felt a hoof on my shoulder.

“Francium. Come on, back inside.” It was Tungsten. He steered me around and walked me back to the warehouse. I glanced over my shoulder and saw Helix still standing there.

“Get her. I’m ok.” I wasn’t, at all, but I wasn’t going to let Tungsten know that after what he had done.

A thought flashed across my mind. I’d seen a safety video about the EVA suits and what happens if they fail. To my horror, I realised that the bodies bore all the same signs of a suit failure. But with no suits, it could only mean that the bodies had been ejected out of stable seventeen.

What happened after we left the stable? What would make ponies do this to one another? And why was I so determined to get as far away from here as I possibly could?

We sat inside in silence, waiting, listening. The members of security were outside doing a more thorough investigation of the local area and trying to identify the bodies. A few other ponies had grouped together and were digging graves for the thirteen bodies just outside the warehouse. Dandelion had asked if I would help but I had just sat there. Helix was leaning on Dandelion, eyes unfocused, as the mare stroked her mane gently. No one else had seen the bodies but after Smoking had given a quick explanation of why we had all been ordered back inside, no pony was complaining.

I couldn’t believe what had happened to my life. It seemed so long ago when I had been at Lillypads cutecinera and being caught by Tungsten, bound to my bed with Helix on top of me. What I would give to be able to go back and stop all this from happening. But no. Now I was sitting scared and worried if I would even live through the next twenty-four hours. The only upside I could think of was that the stable was clearly not dead; yet. Had they managed to restart the turbines or get the air filters working again? I knew from my emergency training that if the air filters died we would have about eighteen hours of oxygen left in the stable; after that, there would be too much carbon dioxide to be able to concentrate properly and after twenty-four you would slip into unconsciousness and die. The only explanation I could think of was that they had tried to conserve their remaining oxygen by killing more of the population, but why in Celestia’s name would they decapitate them? I was snapped from my stupor by the return of Smoking and the security guards.

“Everyone. We have explored for about half a mile in either direction along the shore of the lake.” Smoking addressed us as calmly as he could. “No more bodies have been found.”

There was a collective relaxation, be it a small one.

“We have, however,” Smoking continued. “spotted signs of recent travel off to the right of this building.” Muttering began to spread through the assembled ponies. “I believe that going in that direction is our best bet for finding civilisation. I, therefore, ask for a group of volunteers to come with me to investigate. I believe that it would also be wise to send a group in the other direction as well.” He peered around at the now attentive crowd. “Would any pony wishing to volunteer please raise a hoof now.”

I looked around, no pony moved. Smoking sighed sadly. Then a hoof moved. Lavender tentatively raised her hoof, followed slowly by Jib and Boom. A few other hoofs went up. I noticed Clef and Stave, two of the ponies that played in the stable’s octet, standing too. Then Helix raised her hoof. I gaped at her.

“What are you doing!” I hissed at her as quietly as I could.

“Helping.” She said simply. Oh for the love of Celestia. I just stared at her incredulously. She returned my gaze with a firm look. “I may not like it but it’s better than sitting here and doing nothing but wallowing in my own fears.”

In the name of both our benevolent princesses, please let this be the right choice. I slowly raised my own.

Helix looked surprised. “What are you doing?” she replied.

“Following you for doing the right thing and not letting you out of my sight you crazy, but utterly amazing, pony.” She just grinned back at me.

Footnote: Level Up
Wanna-be History Buff: Your lack of historical knowledge leads you to pay more attention to historical books when you read them. Gain two skill points when you read any pre-war book.