Chapter 9: Just Under the Skin
“There is no greater agony than bearing an untold story inside you.”

The stench of death and decayed meat brought me back from my joy at being alive, reminding me that I was still trapped inside the cave, and likely no closer to finding a way out. I sighed and stood up, looking around to try and see if there was a way further in, and hopefully out of the cave. A greasy yellow light filled the room around me, casting dirty light across the metal walls. I wasn’t really in a cave anymore, it looked more like I had somehow ended up in one of those towers I could see in New Oatleans.

Dirty metal walls surrounded me on all sides, some with shattered windows and flaking paint rolled on them in a strange design. Those symbols that had been put on the outside of the door were plastered on the wall directly across from the way I came in just above a small doorway. It looked like the door was supposed to slide down, but it was stuck half way up. Another door was on a wall to my left, but it was sealed shut and I couldn’t see a way to get it open right away, leaving me with one option.

Before I could reach the door, a glowing screen caught my eye and stopped me. It was one of those ‘terminals’ that Seer and Felix had messed with down in the Robotics building, but without the flip-out board beneath it. Instead the board was hanging from the table by a cord connecting to the terminal itself. The same circle symbol with three lines as on the wall was flickering on the cracked screen, and in a moment I decided to try to mess with it. I knew I wouldn’t be able to do much, but maybe it wasn’t so hard.

I lifted the board back up to the table and sat down behind it. A bunch of buttons just large enough for the tip of my hoof to press covered it, but I couldn’t understand any of the symbols. Except those arrows on four of them, those I could understand! I pushed the ‘up’ arrow and the screen instantly changed. A bunch of gibberish flowed down the screen for a second, and I immediately regretted trying to play with the terminal before the text disappeared and was replaced by only three lines of writing. The top one flashed every few seconds, and I just stared at it confused. Only one thing to do.

I pushed the ‘down’ arrow, and to my joy the middle row of text started flashing instead. So the flashing was the one that was selected apparently; see, I can figure things out. Unfortunately, I had no idea what to do next. If I could select something, I assumed that meant I would be able to use it somehow, so I started pressing every button except the arrows to find out what would happen. Most of them didn’t do anything, but a big rectangle button I finally pushed made the screen change to a squiggly line.

A crackling sound came from the screen, and for a second I thought I had broken the terminal, but the crackling was quickly replaced by a crackly feminine voice.

Stable 81 security log, Day 256.

Sun Seed is at it again, this time she tried to crawl out through the ventilation ducts. She got caught when her flanks couldn’t make it more than a few feet through before getting stuck, leaving her tail sticking in the hall. Maintenance found her crying for help after being stuck for nearly an hour near Waste Processing; apparently she decided that since that area is only checked once a day she would be able to make it out without being caught.

I wish she would calm down a little, it’s not like living in a Stable is so bad. We’ve got food, water, and we aren’t dead like everyone who couldn’t make it in time. *sigh*

For now she’s being held in security, Cell 03. Maybe a few days without a soft bed will teach her how nice it is here.

This is Corporal Bluehoof, end of log.

Well, at least I knew I was in the Stable now. The supposedly cursed Stable that was too dangerous for foals. My heart started to race as I quickly looked around for any signs of a curse, but quickly realized I wouldn’t even know what to look for. It was pretty creepy that there was nobody in there with me, at least as far as I knew, and that the place smelled like someone had died in every corner, and suddenly I wished I’d just gone out the other door. Wait, there were two Rottwoods in the way, never mind.

I keyed back up to the line I skipped and pushed the big button again, and was greeted by the squiggly line and cracking sound.

Stable 81 security log, Day 148.

The eggheads downstairs have finally gotten the machinery working and are asking for volunteers to start testing it out. They’re offering double dinner rations to the one who does it, which sounds like a sweet deal to me, but I really just want the second pudding cup. If I wasn’t so scared of needles I would jump on the list in a second, but I don’t feel like volunteering to get poked at by a bunch of pale mares in lab coats.

Oh well, I’ll just have to keep getting friendly with Apple Fritter and hope that she’ll start sharing her cup.

This is Corporal Bluehoof, end of log.

Testing machinery? Well that definitely explained why the Stable was on our list to check for supplies. If they had some kind of experimental stuff down here, they must have gotten some of the stuff on our list, at least I hoped so. Suddenly falling down there didn’t seem so bad, the others could drop off Tinker, Ruckus and Fracas, and when we met back up I would already have a bunch of supplies so we could go straight back to Caesar’s Stand. Lucky me.

My ears perked as a soft sound echoing nearby. I couldn’t tell exactly what it was, but I could have sworn it was someone’s voice for a moment. I turned my head each direction looking for someone who was watching me, but there was nobody else in the room. I don’t know why anyone would even be in the Stable, it smelled like everything had died a long time ago, and even if they hadn’t it was creepy. Why wouldn’t they leave?

I looked back to the screen and stared at the last line of text, wanting so badly to listen to it and find out what else I could about the place, but the mysterious sound itched at the back of my head. I didn’t believe that there could be anyone in the Stable, but if there was even a chance I didn’t want them to sneak up on me while I listened to an audio log.

I cautiously stood and made my way to the door. I would just look around real quick, then go back and listen to the last report on the terminal. The door led into a narrow hallway, barely big enough for two zebras to walk down as long as they didn’t mind getting close to each other. At the end was a single closed door, once again without an obvious way to open it. I sighed and trotted down the hall quietly, my ears perked for any sound that might be the voice I’d heard earlier. When I got to the other door, it hissed open all by itself, nearly sending me reeling back down the hallway. That wasn’t made any better by the suddenly even worse smell of rotten meat.

The next room was massive, easily big enough to hold half of my old village and everyone living there. It was separated into two levels. At the top was a walkway extending around the entirety of the room with a few doors splitting off on each side. I could see that there used to be a railing around it, but it had since fallen to the floor below leaving bent portions awkwardly spaced around the walkway. The bottom floor looked like an auditorium, with a giant number painted on the floor, I assumed it was ‘81’ since that was the Stable I was in.

But the creepiest part of it was the skeletons littered around the room. They were everywhere, all draped in dirty, blue and yellow jackets. I couldn’t count how many there were around the room, it was just too many. I spun around and retched from the smell, finally reaching a point where I couldn’t stand it anymore. I wanted out, and I didn’t care about that stupid log or the supplies I was supposed to get anymore.

“Sandy…”

I froze at the voice that sounded like it had come from everywhere, not wanting to move because I knew that there was someone standing right next to me. There had to be, because it certainly sounded like it! They also had to be behind me, in front of me, over me, and below me. But most importantly, it sounded like it also came from the hallway I just left; so much for leaving as fast as I could.

I risked lifting my head to see that there was nobody standing around me, much to my relief. The smell of decay still bombarded my senses, but the thought that the voice could have come from anywhere, including the room with the terminal and the exit, left me too scared to care at the moment. I quickly pulled the pistol from my holster and looked around, but again found nothing to shoot. Stupid cursed Stable was messing with my head, and it was working way too well for my own comfort.

The door to the front room suddenly slammed shut, and I sprinted down the walkway in fear for reasons I didn’t exactly understand. It was just a door, but I had run away from it as if it was a feral ghoul. The door at the end of the room opened for me and sent me tumbling down a set of stairs. The last thing I remembered was the cold metal floor as I fell flat on my face.

When I opened my eyes, a bright light greeted me and sent a quick shot of pain through my head as I slammed them shut again. I grumbled and slowly opened them again, finding that the light was no longer over my head. Instead there was a dirty, tan unicorn staring down at me with her green eyes and ridiculously yellow mane.

“Sandy?” the mare chirped at me with a smile.

After a second to think, my eyes shot wide and I rolled to the side, quickly finding myself falling off of a table and onto the floor again. “Ouch.”

The dirty pony was at my side quickly to help me up, giggling softly at my fall. “Sandy?” she asked again, but I didn’t understand.

“My name isn’t Sandy,” I replied with a groan. My legs ached and shook slightly under me as I finally stood, but most importantly my holster wasn’t around my hoof anymore. On top of that, wasn’t my gun in my mouth when I fell? “Where’s my gun?” I asked frantically, suddenly scared for my life in the cursed Stable.

Except the room I was in didn’t look cursed at all. I wasn’t in the stairwell anymore, in fact I wasn’t even sure I was in the Stable at all. The walls were pristine, looking like they had been cleaned only moments before I woke up. The paint was bright and clear, completely free of flakes or cracking. Even the stench of death was barely recognizable, and only served as a reminder that I was actually still somewhere in Stable 81. The room was mostly empty except for the bed I had been laying on and a small table at the base of it. A First-Aid kit was open on top of the little table, and I could see an empty syringe of something sticking out from the metal case.

“Sandy,” the pony said yet again, pointing a hoof to the only door in the room. I looked at her questioningly, but she only nodded and started to nudge me at the door. I was pleasantly surprised to have the mare letting me lean on her while I walked, a grin on her face as the door opened to another hallway. Just like in the room, the hall was spotless. I think it was a little creepier than the bodies littering the floor somewhere else in the Stable.

The mare lead me down the hall cheerily, stopping us in front of another door that opened into a closet. My gun and bag were placed neatly on a shelf inside, and the pony nodded to me to get them. Definitely creeping me out more and more.

Once I had my holster and bag in place, I turned around to find the pony standing in the hall with…a pony that looked exactly the same, both looking at me with bright grins. I was suddenly reminded of Minx after she had burned down Shanty, and had a bad feeling that these ponies may have had something to do with the skeletons I saw.

I cautiously stepped back into the hall, and one of the two unicorns stepped back to my side for me to lean on her if I needed it. I shook my head and tried to smile, and the unicorn trotted merrily ahead of me with what must have been her twin sister. I followed the two down the hall, and they brought me to yet another door. When this one opened, I found myself in a bigger room with a dozen tables covered in what looked like food. At each of the tables sat a pair of unicorns, all looking exactly like the two who I was following. By the Stars, they were…septuplets? Bigger? Whatever, why were there so many of them!

One of the two I followed broke off to join her identical sister at a table, while the last one lead me to an empty table. She sat on the far side and waved for me to sit across from her with a smile. Despite how freaked out I was getting, the thought of possible food seemed good, and honestly I was a little glad that the ponies were treating me so nicely. Creeped out, but glad.

As soon as I sat down every one of the unicorns started eating silently. I looked down at the food with a confused stare, not exactly sure what it was. My plate was covered by a bunch of different colored chips, some green and some brown, and off to the side was a small cup filled with a white paste.

“Sandy!” the pony across from me chirped with a mouth full of chips.

Well, if they were all enjoying it…

I licked a chip into my mouth and chewed it, and was surprised to find the brown ones tasted like jerky. Oh yes, this I could eat. I quickly started taking more of the little chips in my mouth and chewing with a grin to match the unicorns’. The green ones weren’t as good, but they were still pretty tasty.

Once the unicorns all finished their chips each one started licking the paste from their cup. ‘Mmm’s filled the room as they all savored the paste, and I was anxious to try mine. It was so good! I had never tasted anything so sweet before, and quickly licked up the rest while getting a fair amount in the coat around my mouth.

After I finished eating, one of the sisters pulled a tall white cap from under her seat and put it on before starting to gather all of the plates in a yellow glow. My plate slid away effortlessly and out the door with the unicorn, leaving me with nothing to do but look around at the smiling ponies.

One by one, they all stood up and gathered around my table, staring at me with grins that had once again become incredibly creepy. I looked back to the one across from me and tried to smile, but I don’t think it’s possible to hide how worried I was.

“Sandy?” she asked, waving at me with her hoof. Why did she keep asking me that?

“No, I’m Shayle,” I told her plainly. “Um…what’s your name?”

“Sandy!” the unicorn proclaimed loudly. Wait, she was just saying her name over and over? Was that all she could say?

I turned around and looked at the others. I pointed to one at random. “What’s your name?”

“Sandy!”

Okay… I pointed to another. “And yours?”

“Sandy!”

I thought I could see what was going on. I pointed to another of the ponies. “Are you Sandy?”

“Sandy!”

So, they were all identical and had the same name. Wonderful, this had left creepyville and gone straight to ‘oh Caesar why’ land. “Um…why do you all have the same name?” I asked with a forced grin, hoping it wasn’t a sore subject with them or something.

The one at the table with me stood up and put a hoof on my shoulder. “Sandy.” I looked over to see her pointing at yet another door. What was up with Stables and doors?

I followed her over to find that it lead into a small office with a single terminal. The walls were all lined with shelves covered in old books and doo-dads, but nothing that looked very important. Sandy trotted to the screen and started rapping away at the keys until the familiar crackling sound from earlier filled the room. Another feminine voice replaced it, but this one was more wiry.

Welcome to Stable 81’s science labs.

This is Doctor Splice, and apparently I’ve been put in charge of whatever research we’re supposed to be doing down here while Equestria burns. I wish they had given me a little time to look over this stuff before locking me underground for the rest of my days, but it’s not like I have anything else to do with my life from now on.

According to what the Overmare, our supposed new ‘leader’, gave me this morning; after what I wouldn’t exactly call the best night’s sleep I’ve ever had; we’re going to be researching cloning technology. Thank Celestia for that, they actually gave me something to work on that I might understand. The only thing I wish they could have done more is let my partner stay in this Stable, but apparently only mares were allowed in 81. Sounds stupid to me, how are we supposed to you know… find someone, if there are no bucks! Whatever, I guess it’s too late to change it now.

I’ll start setting up the machinery tomorrow and see if I can figure out how it all works, but this is tech like I’ve never seen before.

I stared at Sandy with a confused look as the recording came to a close. Her smile faded at the sight of me, and she quickly turned back and pushed a few more keys to start another file.

Well, we’ve finally figured out how these machines work, and I must say they’re pretty impressive. I’d heard myths about the Mirror Pool as a filly, but I never thought they could actually be true! Unfortunately, that meant we had to find that stupid old nursery rhyme to make it work. Only a few of us had ever heard the story before, and even then none of us could remember the damn thing, so I thought this whole thing was going to be a bust. Luckily, someone at StableTec thought enough to give us a recording.

I’ve started asking for volunteers to help us test these things out, but I’m not sure how keen some of the mares will be to get shoved in a tube and drenched in shiny water, especially when they learn that there will suddenly be two of them. Not that I wouldn’t mind a little help from an identical me…

Sandy didn’t bother looking up to me and quickly started another file.

I don’t know if choosing Sandy Shells was such a good idea for this. Sure, she’s friendly enough and could always use an extra hoof with the cleaning, but this is starting to get out of hoof.

The first clone was a complete success, for the most part. It seems the pool somehow amplifies emotion in the one being ‘doubled’ and that emotion for Sandy was joy. The new clone wasn’t too far off the original, aside from smiling almost constantly, but after that we decided to test what would happen if we cloned the clone. The result was…I can’t even describe it. Almost no amount of yelling will keep her upset for more than 10 seconds, and even then it’s as if she forgets you were mad at her! The only thing that actually seems to keep the clones sad for extended periods is leaving them alone. Even the other clones can’t keep them company, it’s as if they crave companionship from actual ponies.

But the most interesting thing we found is a behavior I don’t even know what to call. It’s as if after using the Pool, the clones have an insatiable need to re-clone themselves. We left them in their rooms for the night last week, and the next morning they had actually managed to short circuit the locking mechanism and clone themselves again. Now we’ve got four Sandy clones running around down here. To make it more annoying, their cognitive abilities seemed to decay with each generation

I had Tesla Coil run a neurological exam on each of them, and sure enough the ‘youngest’ clones had lost nearly half of their mental capacity as compared to the original Sandy. That’s not to say they’re stupid, they’re incredibly smart creatures. If one of them can do a task, the others can actually just watch and instantly remember how to do it. I’m actually a little jealous. The only thing that doesn’t seem to share this trait is their speech. The 4th generation of clones (yes, they broke out again) seem to only barely be able to formulate sentences, and understanding them is becoming harder and harder for the staff. Luckily, they somehow retain the ability to understand us completely. I guess my brother’s studies on foal development and language proficiency were right after all.

Back on track, I recommend we shut down the project. No matter what StableTec says, this technology will never prove as a viable substitute for reproduction. It looks like Medical is going to have to break out those male ‘samples’ after all. Hopefully at least a few of us can have a colt so our daughters will actually know what a stallion is.

So they were all clones, not sisters. That actually made sense since they all looked exactly the same and acted exactly the same, and I understood why they could only say their name. And I actually felt kind of bad for them. From what I’d seen, everyone else in the Stable had died at some point, and for some unknown reason they couldn’t find any company with each other. That was why they seemed so happy that I had shown up, not because they were creepy or something like that; they were all lonely.

I looked at Sandy as she sat behind the computer with a plain look, waiting to see if she needed to play me another log so I could further understand, but I didn’t need to hear more. I finally grinned and of course received one in response before turning to leave the room. “Thank you, Sandy,” I told her warmly.

“Sandy!” she exclaimed before following me out.

The others had all gathered outside the door to watch us, and grinned giddily when I came back out to them. “So, do any of you know where I can find some parts?” I asked, deciding that they probably wouldn’t mind helping me find some parts if it meant I stuck around and spent time with them.

“Sandy!”

“Sandy!”

“Sandy!”

“Thanks anyways,” I said for the fifth time that night and stepped away from the rickety doorway.

Tinker looked up to me and frowned, her eyes still puffy and red after hearing about her parents. I didn’t think it would be such a problem for somebody else in Celestia’s Rose to take her, after all she was one of them. Did that somehow change just because her parents were gone? And yet every pony I asked said that they wouldn’t be able to take her in. Either they already had their own children to take care of, they couldn’t afford to take good care of her, or they didn’t have enough food to feed her.

“Felix…it’s okay. I can just go find somewhere else,” Tinker quietly tried to assure me yet again.

“No, I won’t let you just wander around, it isn’t safe,” I argued sternly, making my way to the next door with purpose.

Tinker’s hoof punched into my side and sent me stumbling to my haunches. “Look, I appreciate this, but I can take care a’ myself,” she told me with an angry face. “I managed ta survive those slavers; I can live through a walk ta the next town.”

I wasn’t so sure about that. Last time I checked, she was still captured when we got to her, and if I remembered right she was horrified of us even though we just saved her. “Then at least let us walk with you, just to be safe?” I tried to compromise with her, even if I wasn’t happy with her being forced to leave her home again.

“No, you’ve gotta get back ta Shayle, ya don’t need to waste time makin’ sure I can get to a town that probably won’t even take me,” she admitted through tear filled eyes. “Just leave me be, it’s not like I want to replace my parents.”

I stared at her for a second after that. I had no idea what to say anymore, because honestly anything I did say to argue that would just make me sound like a jerk. I wanted her to be safe and have somewhere to call home again, but if she didn’t then what could I do? I didn’t want to leave her there with nobody to feed her or keep her safe from the Wasteland, but I couldn’t just force her to leave either.

Then I got an idea. “Well…what if you came with us for a little while? Charmer lost her home too, so maybe you two could look for one together?”

“What?” she asked with a confused stare. “Where would we stay, back in that shack ya found us in?” she asked with a sarcastic snort. She must have noticed my expression. “Wait…that’s what you were doin’ there? Findin’ a place for Bandage Face to live until ya found another town?”

I nodded. “It wouldn’t be that bad, would it?”

“Why doesn’t she just stay here then? It’s a pony town, so she can actually live somewhere safe instead a’ in a shack in the middle a’ nowhere.”

“I don’t think she’s ready to do that yet,” I told her with a shake of my head. “She…she lost everyone in her old town. We found another place for her already, but she refused to stay there. She didn’t want to leave us since we’re the only ones she knows anymore.” Part of that sounded pretty familiar.

“And the only ones I know’re Fracas and Ruckus,” Tinker reminded me with a frown. “We’ve been like family since the slavers took us, but now that they’re back with their parents… I don’t know if they feel like that anymore.”

I frowned and stared at her again. We had tried to see if the colts’ parents would take Tinker in, but they were honest when they said no. They already had two colts to take care of, and as bad as they felt for what happened to her parents, the couple knew they wouldn’t be able to support the filly with what they had.

“Well, you know us right?” I tried to push. “It was only a couple days, but it’s more time than we knew Charmer before she came with us.”

“I don’t know,” the filly finally seemed to start relenting, dropping her head. “I mean, y’all have been good ta me so far, but I don’t really know ya.”

I sighed and nodded in agreement. I wished that she could just trust that we wouldn’t hurt her, but there was really no way I could guarantee that for her, even if it was true. I didn’t see Shayle doing anything bad to her, and I knew I wouldn’t. Charmer seemed almost harmless, and I didn’t think Seer could hurt a foal if she wanted to, not after what happened to her and how she’d treated Tinker, Ruckus and Fracas. And that gave me another idea. I looked to the edge of town where I could barely see Seer still sitting in the fading light of dusk, and hoped that she wouldn’t get mad if I told the filly.

“Look, you’ll be fine with us. Seer would never let something happen to you,” I assured Tinker with a small smile. “She lost her own daughter to slavers, and I don’t think that she’d ever stand for someone trying to hurt you.”

Tinker looked up to me with a questioning look. “She did?” I nodded, hoping that telling Seer’s secret might be enough to convince the filly to come with us just for a few days. She sighed and nodded. “Are ya sure they’ll be okay with that?”

“Couldn’t hurt to ask,” I answered simply. She nodded in agreement.

Seer and Charmer were silent when we reached them, both looking out to the Wasteland in wait. I could guess that Charmer had explained what was taking me so long, and I didn’t think she would mind it. I doubted that the mare would expect us to just leave Tinker without a home.

“Hey, Charmer, Seer?” I started quietly, hoping above hope that they would agree. “Would it be okay if Tinker came with us for a while?”

Charmer quickly turned with a smile on her face and opened her mouth to answer, but stopped short. She looked over to Seer, waiting to see what our guide said before telling us her more obvious answer.

Seer turned more slowly, not fully looking at any of us as she seemed to get lost in thought. For a second, I was afraid that she was going to say no, and that I was going to have to argue with her to change her mind. “As long as she doesn’t do anything to get us hurt, sure.”

I didn’t think I would be, but I was actually surprised when she said ‘yes’. I had expected it to be like when Charmer wanted to come along, with her disagreeing and only relenting if she agreed to not talk ever or something like that. It was a relief that she agreed to take the filly with us, but I was a little worried about how flatly she had responded. It was if she didn’t actually agree, but she somehow felt forced to.

“Let’s get going then, there’s a good spot to get some sleep a mile down the road.” The zebra stood and started walking without even making sure we would follow.

Charmer started off right behind the other mare, leaving me and Tinker standing just outside town. I looked over to the filly hopefully, and found her staring sadly back to Celestia’s Rose. I don’t know why it seemed like the thing to do at the time, but I gently put a hoof on her shoulder. I didn’t say anything, I didn’t have anything to say. After a few seconds I removed my hoof and started trotting after Charmer and Seer, waiting to see what Tinker would decide. She hadn’t yet told me ‘yes’ or ‘no’, I could only hope that she would come with us instead of trying to make it on her own.

After a few seconds, I heard her hooves dragging through the sand beside my own and I gave her a quick grin.

Welcome to the team.

My eyes shot open as a striped hoof jabbed my side. Seer crouched down beside me, looking into my eyes with a hoof pressed to her lips, urging me to remain silent. I nodded groggily and thought of asking what was happening, but I doubted I would get a response. The mare slunk around me to Charmer, who was up and moving as well, silently pointing over the sand berm a few feet from me. The two mares slid behind it, their guns ready and stern looks on their faces.

I looked over to Tinker in hopes that she would know what was happening, but she looked just as confused as I did. The filly was flat on her belly, looking at Seer and Charmer with a worried expression. A foreboding feeling grew in my belly, and I suddenly had the idea that whatever was about to happen might end poorly.

“Are you sure you saw one?” a feminine voice asked from the other side of where Seer and Charmer were hiding. It sounded like it was pretty far out, and I could just barely understand what was being said.

“Yeah I did, I saw its striped face!” a second, male voice called out.

“Bullshit, it’s too dark to see them,” another, deeper voice answered sternly. “Besides, it would have shot you.”

“No, it didn’t see me,” the first buck replied frantically. “I’m invisible at night!”

“No, you’re high at night,” the female voice quipped with a chuckle. “Probably just hallucinating.”

“Shut up Noose, you wish you could try this shit.”

“I prefer booze and you know it, so shut up and show me this imaginary Zebra of yours.”

“It was right over here.” The voices were getting closer, and I knew it was only a matter of time before they fell on top of us over the sand.

Seer didn’t let it happen. She swung her head over the cover and quickly took aim before firing a burst toward the voices.

“Holy shit!” a new voice screamed.

The air exploded in gunfire as Seer ducked back down just in time to avoid the shots that tore at the sand, sending a cloud into the air all around us. A soft squeak escaped Tinker’s mouth as she squeezed herself into my side. I looked over to see her cowering against me, her eyes clenched shut and her body shaking like a dead leaf. I dug my own head into the ground, trying to stay as low as I could and praying that I wouldn’t get shot.

Charmer and Seer jumped up in unison and returned fire somehow finding the courage to fight through the bullets flying at them from Caesar knows how many ponies. I didn’t dare look up to find out who was on the other side of the wall, and I honestly didn’t care. I just hoped that the two mares on our side could win out against whoever it was. Even if I had a gun I don’t know if I could have helped, I couldn’t even find the strength to lift my head up, and I was hidden. How the two older mares managed it was amazing to me.

A scream echoed through the night as one of the ponies attacking us got hit by something, but the gunfire didn’t die. It raged on, thundering in my ears and keeping my body planted in the ground where I was laying. Tinker tried to move closer to me as if it would make her safer. I certainly didn’t feel any safer, and I doubted I would until the fighting stopped.

I rolled my eyes up to see Seer drop behind the wall and start to switch out the magazine in her rifle. Her hooves moved with precision, somehow able to grip the clips with ease and move the full one into the bottom of the gun. She looked so calm, as if this was nothing new to her. Charmer hardly looked relaxed as she frantically changed between targets, firing with what seemed like no effect. I didn’t hear any screams of pain from the ones attacking us after her shots, and I started to get more and more worried that soon we would be overrun.

Charmer’s shotgun spun to face something just on the other side of the berm, and the gun blazed with light. A yelp of pain hit my ears after the shot, the scream of a dying pony. The mare dropped back into cover and started pushing new shells into the gun, but not nearly as smoothly as Seer had been able to reload. She was scared, and that made perfect sense. This was a gunfight, it was supposed to be scary; that is to everyone except Seer.

A blood soaked unicorn jumped over the wall and landed on Seer as she tried to stand back up. The strap keeping her rifle slung around her neck snapped and the rifle tumbled away, leaving Seer trapped under the frantic pony. Charmer hardly noticed, her eyes locked onto the shotgun as she continued to push new shells into the weapon. Seer struggled to get out from under the attacking pony, but the big mare managed to stay on top. Her horn lit up with a blue light, and a knife levitated from a sheath on her back leg.

I couldn’t move, I didn’t know what to do. Charmer seemed fixated on reloading, her mind overloaded by the fight as she tried to get herself back to shooting. Seer kicked out at the unicorn on top of her, unable to make an effective strike against the unicorn as the knife hovered over her head. The blade dove into the dirt beside the zebra’s head, pulled out and dove again. The unicorn grinned giddily as the helpless zebra under her continued to narrowly dodge death, as if it were a game to her.

Charmer jumped back up and aimed over the wall just in time to stop a second pony from jumping over, blasting the stallion back and into what I assumed would be a bloody heap just behind the wall. She couldn’t look away to help Seer, not if she wanted to stop the others from jumping over the wall. Tinker still hadn’t moved, her body frozen against mine as her eyes remained sealed to the fight around us.

I looked back to Seer, and knew that I had to do something. She was running out of room to fight, and soon the knife would dig into her rather than the dirt of the Wasteland. I had to move. The knife stopped jabbing at her head and levitated around the back of the two, leveling out behind their rumps. I don’t know what happened in my head at that sight, but a part of my brain kicked in that I had only experienced a few times before. It happened once or twice in Zeza when one of my friends was being bullied, and it happened when Strike was about to kill Shayle the day we ran away; the part that made me fight.

I jumped to my hooves and charged the wrestling mares a few feet away, screaming madly as I leaped on top of the unicorn. The magic around her knife flickered out and the blade fell to the ground while I started pounding my hooves into her back, shouting at her to get off of Seer. She started bucking her hips wildly, trying to throw me off without giving Seer any room to attack. I somehow managed to hold on as I quickly wrapped my legs around her neck, leaving me only one way to attack further. I dug my teeth into her ear, doing whatever I could to stop the mare from killing Seer or throwing me away from them.

The unicorn screamed in pain and threw her backside up further, finally finding the momentum to launch me off her. I landed roughly a few feet away. Gunfire continued to hammer through my head as Charmer kept up the fight on the other end of the wall, but I couldn’t tell who was winning. Without warning, a blade wrapped with a blue glow jammed through my hoof and into the dirt, pulling a scream from me that I didn’t think I could make. I spun my head to see the unicorn grinning madly at my pain as she turned her attention back to Seer. I tried to get up and help again, but the knife had pinned my hoof. Every time I pulled to try moving it just made me scream in agony, and after a few tries I gave up. I had failed.

Seer’s rifle lit up in a blue aura as it hovered to point at her eyes, and time seemed to freeze as I waited for the unicorn to inevitably pull the trigger. But that shot never happened. The zebra’s head lunged forward and her teeth dug into the unicorn’s muzzle, pulling the surprised pony down to the ground as Seer finally managed to get her hind legs under the mare’s belly. The magic faded from the rifle and it clattered to the ground again before the unicorn was kicked back into the wall.

Seer rolled to her hooves and ran to me. She didn’t say a word as her tail somehow wrapped around the hilt of the knife and yanked it from my leg. I screamed again as blood started to fall to the dirt in a stream. I rose shakily to get to my bag and the bandages we had gotten from Celestia’s Rose, desperate to stop the bleeding. From the corner of my eye, I saw Seer trotting casually to the mare she’d just bucked into the wall, the blood-soaked blade still wrapped in her tail. The zebra stopped to pick up the dropped rifle and finish reloading. Unlike when Shayle had shot the slaver back when we saved Tinker and the colts, I didn’t mind that she was about to execute the pony that had almost killed us both.

I didn’t expect Seer to take aim over the wall again and start firing. I thought she had either forgotten the unicorn, or she just didn’t see the pony as a threat anymore. Those thoughts died as the zebra started swinging her tail, and the knife, into the pony’s chest over and over, all while continuing to fire over the wall at the other attackers. My heart stopped at the sight, and for a brief moment I completely forgot I was bleeding. The unicorn squealed in misery as the blade jabbed through her again and again, drops of blood flicking across the dirt with each swing. I wouldn’t have minded her getting shot, but what Seer was doing… I couldn’t even describe what I thought of the zebra at that moment.

When the knife finally got stuck in the unicorn’s chest, Seer stopped swinging and the mare stopped screaming. The zebra’s tail released the blade as she placed all of her attention back on the firefight; her rifle expertly picked off the remaining ponies as if shooting was secondary to breathing for her. A warm feeling spread over my hoof and reminded me that I had other things to worry about, and I quickly dug into my bag for a bandage. Tinker’s eyes cracked open and looked to me, but another shot from Charmer’s gun clamped them shut again. I wished I could have been in her place, hiding from the fight and never being forced to see the death that was so wantonly thrown around. But instead I was left to wrap up my leg before I lost too much blood, the image of the knife and the screaming unicorn burned into my mind as I worked.

By the time I was done, the shooting had finally stopped. Charmer slumped behind the wall with a sigh and allowed her shotgun to clatter to the ground. Her legs shook as she sat there, and the mare’s breathing was all that broke the heavy silence that suddenly filled the night air. The bandages covering her face and much of her body hung loosely, threatening to fall off at any second. I wondered if it was okay for them to come off yet.

Seer reloaded her rifle a final time and sat beside Charmer, exhaling deeply and looking up to the black sky. “Good work Charmer,” she groaned softly, apparently more exhausted than she let on.

“Let’s not do that again,” the bandaged pony replied between breaths.

Seer nodded before looking down to me, a small smile on her face. “Thanks Felix, I owe you for that,” she told me with a nod.

I wasn’t too sure what to think of that, so I just nodded silently and looked over to Tinker. The filly had finally peeled her eyes open, and I could see a few tears that she was fighting to keep inside. “Are you okay?” I asked softly.

The filly nodded and stared at the body of the pony Seer had stabbed, her eyes locked on the sight. I didn’t know what she was thinking about it, but I was glad she hadn’t seen what had happened to the unicorn. I wished I hadn’t too, because even though I knew Seer wouldn’t do such a thing to me, at least I didn’t think so, I still couldn’t get over how casually the mare had butchered another equine. If it had been a slaver, I could have at least understood why she did it, but I don’t think I could ever agree with what she’d done. Killing was one thing, and apparently I’d have to get used to that in the Wasteland, but she hadn’t just killed that pony.

I had never really been too fond of Seer, she never seemed to care what happened to others as long as she was okay, and that was something I found to be disturbing. Even if she didn’t know the ponies of Shanty, I would have hoped that she could show some sympathy for what happened to them, but instead she didn’t care. She only agreed to go because me and Shayle didn’t give her a choice, and even then she only sat up on that hill rather than help us with the survivors. I had gained some respect for her after she gave the last rights to the dead of Shanty, and thought that maybe I had just misunderstood her, that she did care after all.

Then she told me what happened to her daughter, and I thought I understood why she seemed so cold, I even felt bad for what she’d gone through. But after the fight, and what she’d done, I couldn’t understand her anymore, or sympathize with her.

I was scared of her.

The Sandy’s were more than happy to help me out in finding some things that I thought might be on the list Seer had. I was slightly distressed when I realized I would have to guess, especially because I didn’t feel like carrying a bunch of pointless junk with me all the way back to Caesar’s Stand, but that feeling faded as I realized exactly how much Stables could hold.

I didn’t know exactly what to request from the Sandy’s, but I thought back to the parts we already gathered and asked if they had anything similar. They gladly showed me around the Stable, opening up doors and pulling out anything they weren’t using. I think they tried to ask me some questions a few times, but since they could only say ‘Sandy’, it was difficult to answer any of them. Instead, I just told them some things about me and a little bit about Caesar’s Stand while we searched, which seemed to make them happy.

At a point, I caught an assortment of glowing little cylinders through a window to my left, and stopped to stare at them. I couldn’t quite tell what they were, but they did look like something that might be on my list. “Hey Sandy, can I have a couple of those?” I asked and pointed to the window.

A couple of them trotted over and looked in the window, then quickly turned around with stern glares on their faces. “Sandy,” they growled in unison before shaking their heads and trotting back off to continue getting other things for me. That was weird, but apparently I had found the one thing in the world that could make them actually mad. I just hoped those glowing things weren’t on my list when I got back with Seer, Felix, and Charmer.

As we continued, one of the Sandy’s was always by my side with a pair of saddlebags that the others put parts and wires and such into, and somehow playing music from a big metal band around her foreleg. It had a screen on it like a terminal, but instead of a board to control it there were a bunch of knobs that she fiddled with to get the music. It was pretty neat looking, but I didn’t bother to ask what it was; she would just call it a Sandy. The bag over her back started to look pretty heavy after an hour or so, and I told them we had found enough supplies. They all cheered and stopped searching, quickly making their way back to the big room where we had eaten. The Sandy with the bag trotted back with me, grinning and humming along with the song that played from her hoof.

What had started out as a creepy happiness from them had started to rub off on me, and I wasn’t actually looking forward to leaving it. I knew I had to go back up to the Wasteland and continue on with my life, but a part of me wanted nothing more than to stay in Stable 81 with the Sandy’s and always be surrounded by their joy and smiles; both things I hadn’t seen very much of in my life. Sadly, I knew I couldn’t stay.

When we finally got back to the dining room, all of the Sandy’s grinned and their horns glowed. From behind them a blue and yellow jacket hovered into my view, one that was identical to the one each of them was wearing. I didn’t exactly know what was going on, but after a few seconds I figured it out. I didn’t really like it as much as I liked Seer’s long jacket, but it was still very nice, and for some reason they were going to give it to me? I grinned as one of them started putting it on me, and found that it was a surprisingly good fit. It was a little loose around the chest, but I didn’t really care, I was still confused as to why the Sandy’s were giving me one of their jackets at all.

Once it was on, they all looked at me expectantly, their faces straining with anticipation for me to do something. I looked over myself briefly before looking back up to them with a smile. “Thank you,” I told them warmly, and was suddenly swarmed. My body tightened up as I suddenly found myself at the center of a Sandy hug, and for a second I thought I might die. Some part of me said that the hug was bad and I should kick them off, but their smiling faces beat that part of me down for the time being.

“Sandy,” they all said in unison before breaking the hug.

I looked around to them all, and that urge to stay in the Stable rose yet again. I doubted I would ever see that much happiness again, or ever meet that many ponies who were so happy for the rest of my life, but I had to leave them. I didn’t like it, and I knew they wouldn’t, but it was time for me to go back to my brother and my life in the Wasteland. My smile faded, and each of them cocked their heads to the side in confusion.

“Thank you all so much,” I started quietly, each of them quickly getting their grins back. “I really appreciate the food and the help, and the jacket.”

“Sandy!” the one beside me with the bag chirped.

I grinned weakly to her before continuing. “But…I have to leave now.” All of them frowned and stuck their bottom lips out. Hello again urge to stay. “I have a family outside, and they’re probably very worried about me,” I tried to explain in a way that wouldn’t upset them too bad. “So I need to go make sure they know I’m okay.” The frowns and lips didn’t recede, and for a second I thought I was about to witness a sob-fest, but then I felt the bag come to a rest on my back.

I looked to my side to see the music-listening Sandy frowning like the others, but she still nodded to me. “Sandy,” she told me sadly, nodding to the hall behind us before turning to leave.

I sighed and waved to the others, all of whom returned the wave as a few started to cry. That pony in the recording wasn’t wrong, they really didn’t like being left alone.

The last Sandy lead me all the way back out to the main door of the Stable, the big cog one that saved my life earlier in the day. She walked with her head hung low in front of me, and I heard a sniffle every so often as she tried not to cry. I wouldn’t have minded if she did, after all I might be the last visitor they got for a very long time.

At the main door, Sandy stopped beside a panel with another striped lever and looked over at me sadly. “Sandy?” she asked sadly, probably trying to ask me to stay one last time.

I wanted to make her happy again, like she had been when I first saw her and all the other clones, but I knew she wouldn’t be like that until another outsider came to their Stable. So I tried my best. “I’ll…I’ll come back sometime,” I told her with a weak smile. “To visit.” Her lips quickly curled into a grin and she pulled the lever, filling the room with the flashing red light and siren as the door rolled open with a scream of old metal. “Bye Sandy, thanks again,” I told her one last time with a wave before I stepped out.

She waved back happily at first, but as soon as she pushed up the lever to close the door again her face fell back into sadness. She kept her hoof up in the wave, but I didn’t think she wanted to keep waving goodbye anymore.

When the door finally sealed behind me, I looked around the cave quickly. I couldn’t see the Rottwood who had survived earlier, and I hoped that meant it was gone for good. My ears perked up as I waited for a howl or some other sign that it was about to charge from the mushroom-covered tunnel to jump at me, but I didn’t hear a thing.

Confident that I was in the clear, I turned to the old wooden door and sprinted up to it, kicking it open to find myself face to face with the Wasteland night. Thank Caesar, no more cave! Too bad that meant I was back to the real world, and would likely never see the joyful land of Sandy Shells again. Instead, I had to find my way back to the crashed cart to wait for Felix, Charmer and Seer.

I looked around slowly, hoping to see something that would help me find out which way to go, and thankfully there were the always looming towers of New Oatleans in the distance. When we had camped out before they were East of us, so if I put them on the other side of me and started walking I would eventually hit that big gash in the desert. Once I was there, I could probably see the crashed cart in one direction or the other. Easy as Apple Bombs!

“Little one, what are you doing out here?” the familiar and horrifying voice hovered from behind me, sending a chill down my spine that stood my hairs on end.

There was no way my luck could be that bad. No. Way. Slowly, I turned my head and sure enough she was right behind me, sitting on top of the hill where the wooden door was hidden from the world. As usual, her lips were twisted into a smile from killing a puppy somewhere, and the one eye that wasn’t hidden by her mane looked down on me as though I were a filly.

“I-I…” I stammered, not even knowing how to react.

“You fell in a cave and got lost?” Minx finished for me, asking as if I didn’t know myself.

“Y-you knew?” I asked, growing more angry than horrified that she somehow knew what happened to me, yet did nothing to help. Not that I had needed it, but still. And why did she ask why I was there if she knew already!

“Yes. You were down there for a long time. I was starting to think you may never come out.”

“How?” I asked aggressively, my fear boiling fully into rage as she somehow stayed happy at the thought of me dying in that Stable. Did she know there was a Stable down there?

“I was watching. Xion has decided to put an extra eye on you.” The mare pointed up to her green orb and chuckled lightly at her stupid joke.

“Why?” I hissed.

“Because he doesn’t trust you.” Still smiling, still cheery. Did I actually leave Sandy Land, or did I fall asleep down there?

“Do you trust me?” I risked asking, not sure why I actually cared.

“More than he does.”

Well that was good, I guess. “So, since you’ve been watching,” I started, growing more calm as the anger from seeing Minx again began to fade from my system. “You wouldn’t happen to know how to get back to that cart, would you?”

“Of course.” She stood up and jumped down from the little hill. “Oh, and I like the new coat,” she commented with a quick nod to my Stable jacket. Not sure if serious.

“So, why doesn’t Xion trust me?” I finally said after a few hours of silent, awkward walking. I must have been down in the Stable for a lot longer than I thought, because the light of day overcame us after only an hour of trotting back to camp. I was slightly impressed that the mare had waited on top of the door for so long, but then again she didn’t exactly seem like the impatient type.

“He doesn’t think you believe in the way of the Remnant,” Minx answered calmly. “I tend to agree with him, but I think he may be holding on to old ways too tightly.”

“Old ways?” I asked, not quite sure what she meant.

“Much of the Remnant is starting to move away from the belief that all ponies are our eternal enemy, and that since we all survive in the Wasteland, we all should at least try to get along.” The mare fell silent for a second, as if she was waiting for me to agree or disagree. After I didn’t say anything for a few seconds she continued. “Xion does not share that belief, and holds to the final order of Caesar; that we must destroy our enemy, Equestria.”

“And you agree with him?” I asked neutrally, not entirely sure what to think of that.

“To an extent.”

I waited for her to elaborate, but she didn’t say anything further. “What do you think of us helping those foals then?” I tried to drag more out of her. I don’t know why I wanted to know more about her, but it wasn’t like I had much else to do for the next however long it was until we reached the crashed cart.

“If you want to know if I would do the same, no.” She turned to me and for once was flat faced rather than smiling. “If I recall correctly, you are supposed to be finding supplies for a rather prominent zebra. Helping the foals may have seemed right to you, but in doing so you betrayed commitment. So no, I do not agree with it.”

So she would have left them to die, great. I was travelling with a cold hearted psychopath. “What if they had been zebras?” I asked again, expecting a different answer.

“It would not change my opinion.”

I stopped in my tracks and glared at her. “Why not? You can’t spare a day out of your life to help innocent foals?”

“There is no innocence in this world Shayle.” If she hadn’t been watching me, I would have been scared that she knew my name somehow. “Even the young are plagued by the disease that is the Wasteland. If they survived to that age, they had to do something unclean.”

“Like burn down a town or shoot a scared filly?” I snapped a reminder of what the mare and her partners had done in Shanty.

“I do not regret killing the young pony, it had to be done so that you may live,” Minx barked back to me. If she had scared me when she smiled, seeing her actually getting mad was worse than a pouncing Rottwood.

“You shot her! Not Xion?” I screamed, and the holster on my hoof started to burn in anticipation. “And what do you mean ‘so I could live’?”

“The choice was given to me by my leader. I was told to shoot any of your group, regardless of what you actually said.” So that was it, I never did have a choice. “I chose the one who had nothing left. No family, no home, no hope to continue.”

“She had Charmer!” I snapped, trotting up to her and jamming my muzzle against hers. “Do you have any idea what that did to her? Doc was the last family she had, and you tore her away.”

“Would you have preferred I chose you?” the mare asked grimly, never taking her eye away from mine.

I bared my teeth and continued to glare up into her face as my body quaked in anger. They had lied to me, pretended to give me a choice only to have it be a farce. I could have told them to kill me and that…that bitch still would have shot Doc!

I jumped back and tore the pistol from my holster to aim at Minx. I was going to kill her, and I didn’t care what happened if I did. Xion could kill me himself for all I cared, but I was going to get revenge for what she did to Doc and Charmer.

She didn’t even flinch at the gun. The mare just stared at me with that scowl, her eye glued on the gun as she waited for me to pull the trigger. “Well, go ahead.” She taunted after almost a minute of staring down the barrel of my gun.

My tongue tightened over the trigger as I started to slowly pull back on it, my eyes taking in the look on Minx’s face; the last of her I would ever see before she was erased from the Wasteland forever. No more burning towns or killing foals for her, and no more of that smile greeting me when I least wanted to see it.

So why was she still alive? Why couldn’t I just finish what I started and turn her into another corpse in the dirt? I had killed bandits without hesitation, executed a slaver, and even tried to beat the life out of Charmer when we first met. But for some reason I didn’t understand, I couldn’t get my tongue to pull the metal any further.

I don’t know how long that lasted, how long I just sat there trying to put an end to the zebra that destroyed all that was Shanty and killed the ponies that had been so good to me without even knowing who I was. She didn’t even try to stop me. She didn’t reach for her gun, she didn’t push mine away, she just stared at me. She didn’t even pull out that smile I hated so much as we glared at each other in the middle of nowhere. When I had killed the slaver mare she begged for mercy, and I could see fear burning in the back of her eyes as she prayed for me to spare her. Minx didn’t have that. There was no fear in her eye, there was nothing inside her asking me to stop.

She didn’t care.

“Walk straight for three hours and you’ll hit the riverbed. Turn right and walk two more hours, you’ll see the cart.” That was the last thing she said before disappearing before my eyes.

I didn’t look around for her, I knew I wouldn’t see her again. She was somewhere nearby, I knew that, she still had to keep an eye on me despite knowing that I wanted to kill her. And now I wanted to even more. I had failed to pull the trigger with her in front of me, it would have been so easy. It’s not like she would be missed, there was no way anyone could love that psycho or even care about her like a friend. I doubted even Xion and the other Scorpions actually liked her, they probably saw her as a teammate if nothing else. And above all I knew that she would be back.

I would see her again, and then I would pull the trigger.

The echo from my gun didn’t carry far as I finally finished pulling the trigger, sending the bullet into the distance as I pictured Minx still standing in front of the barrel.

Footnote:
Shayle LEVELED UP! (Science 20, Speech 25)
New Perk Earned: Strong Back - +50% Carry Weight

Felix LEVELED UP! (Melee 25)
New Perk Earned: Educated - You gain 2 extra skill points each time you level up

Author’s Note: Got a quick turnaround on a new chapter this time since I’m in a motivation streak. Probably because I didn’t have access to my computer over the holidays and had built up inspiration that is now leaking out of every orifice. Don’t worry, I’ll be back to 1 month gaps between chapters in no time since school starts soon.
Even more thanks to Kkat and Somber for writing Fallout Equestria and Project Horizons, the world I’m building off of and hopefully not messing up too much in the process. I can still never thank you both enough for your stories that motivated me to write this, and I only hope that I give the universe justice with my add on.
Another thank you to my pre-readers and editors who help me to keep this from being too horrible to read and assuring me that it isn’t as bad as I seem to think.
And thank you to my readers, who still keep me going. You’re all amazing, and I hope that I continue to put out a story that is entertaining.