Catalyst

“The current through a conductor between two points is directly proportional to the potential difference across the two points.”

Nineteen. Nineteen fucking hours I’d been recalibrating this piece of technology. It was older than anypony else here, but so much more advanced than any of us could comprehend. Completely state-of-the-art. Top of the line. One of a kind.

The Arcane Revolutionary Centrifuge Reactor, or ARC Reactor, was a sight to behold. The behemoth of a machine sat in the middle of an open, round column that was just shy of a hundred feet across, with the top of the structure disappearing into the ceiling of conduit and piping two decks above. Below, the device anchored itself to the bottom via a network of similarly pony-sized pipes and cables the size of dinner plates. They made up more of the floor than the steel grating at the base that were occasionally used to access the dangerous inner workings of the beast.

On the level above and below the large observation window before me, an eight-foot thick torus encircled each of the two magic plasma regulators, suspended in mid air by powerful rare-equus magnets and magic. Brilliant, energetic bolts of soft blue and violet magic raced through the enchanted glass at lightning fast speeds. There were very few lights in the reactor chamber, due to the luminescence of the machine alone, though it was still a little dark. Despite the size of the five story column of science and magic, it was unbelievably quiet; the soft, harmonic hum of the plasma containment fields were only interrupted by a computerized beep from the monitoring and adjusting equipment.

In front of me, in my little office space, were five terminals, four of them sputtering out lines of numbers and letters. To the average pony, they would have been complete jibberish, a foreign language. To myself, however, they were beautiful verses of a forgotten song. And to everypony else in Energy Production, they were just readouts of a temperamental machine; efficiency ratings, energy consumption, stocked mana, power drains... that sort of thing.

On the last terminal however...

>Program completed, compiled, and stored_

>Run program? Y/N_

My hoof hovered over the ‘Y’ key. All the shit I put up with... All the pain everypony in this hell hole caused... The bigotry... The... plain... inequine treatment...

My hoof shook like mad, as if I’d drank four pots of coffee, even though I only had one pot. Sweat beaded up on my hornless forehead and neck, eventually rolling down and causing streaks of coolness. It wasn’t hot in the stable, by far. It was always kept at a constant sixty eight degrees. But never mind that.

Was I really going to do this? I needed to get out of hear. Was there another way? I didn’t want everypony to pay for my actions. In the same breath, those responsible needed to atone for their sins. Certainly, there’d be unfortunate collateral. That was the worst of it...the fact that it didn’t have to be like this... but I couldn’t think of another way with the time I had left. Silver lining: they had plenty of time. I could only pray to Celestia that they took it seriously.

>Program executed.

>Goodbye.

I logged of of my terminals and work station for the last time. There was no turning back now. The first domino had been tipped and now it was time for me to leave.

Casually, I got up and headed back to my quarters. It wasn’t very far, thankfully. Around to the other side of the Observation and Control Deck, through the door, down the linking corridor, up the stairs, around the corner, and the first door on the left; that was all the further I needed to walk every day to get to my post.

It would be another three hours and fifteen minutes before First Light, when the graveyard shifts ended and the morning shifts started. When that happened, they’d know. I was supposed to go back at First Light to continue my daily job of keeping the ARC Reactor in check and optimising outputs, but that wasn’t going to happen. By 7:00 AM, I was going to be long gone, out of this fucking place once and for all.

When I reached the door to my miniature apartment, I felt incredibly tired. It wasn’t just the last nineteen hours I spent working on a self sustaining program for the ARC Reactor... no, it was the fact that I’d been up the last sixty eight hours without sleep, getting everything together. I was on the verge of passing out from exhaustion, but I needed just a couple more hours to get away.

A quick flash of my key card and the door whooshed open.

“It’s okay. You can do this. You didn’t do it for nothing. It’s already started and you have to keep going,” I told myself. My hooves were shaking like mad still as I fished out a bottle from my lab coat’s deep pocket. The orange bottle contained only about a dozen, bright green tablets. They were unmarked, but I knew they were an extremely carefully measured amount of methylphenidate, a large amount of caffeine, and other medicinal magics. I could stay awake for days with them and still think clearly enough to get shit done.

Two of the tablets found their way into my mouth and the effects were immediately noticeable. At that point, I’d taken over what would have been considered ‘safe’. One pill could keep you up for an extra eight hours, but I needed more than that. With so much to do and so little time, I would have taken the whole bottle if it didn’t kill me.

Feeling the sudden, jarring jolt of of clarity and alertness, I worked furiously to finish what I’d started. I ended up dropping the pill bottle, scattering the pills across the floor, but thought nothing of it; they weren’t going to help now. I only had a couple hours before it wore off and I crashed harder than an overloaded Maneframe server.

I dashed to my in-house workshop, something no other residential quarter had. Being the only pony capable of soloing the Reactor, I had some special privileges. The Manufacturing department was good at what they did, but sometimes it was just easier to make whatever I needed myself. It used to be a second bedroom before, but as I lived by myself, there was no reason in keeping it that way.

The workshop was a cluttered disaster. Half finished projects piled themselves up on top of blueprint sheets, schematics, theoretical notes and prototypes. I would have to leave them all behind, except one, and it sat atop a mostly cleared workbench.

The large tabletop held two laser rifles from the security stock on the neutral deck, the guts of a laser pistol from the same place, a High Intensity Magic Fission Cutter from the Manufacturing’s storeroom, and a slew of other components from around the stable. If I’d been caught with any one of them, I would no doubt get dragged off to Corrections. The mere thought of that was enough to cement my mind in my actions.

I grabbed the single device in the middle, and slapped a magic power cell into the port along the side. The tubes and lights flickered to life as the weapon hummed with an unnatural power. It was only the size of a laser pistol, but according to my calculations, so, so much more effective.

The lab coat came off and was thrown to the cot in the room. I wouldn’t need it, either. Beside where it landed was a simple journal I used to keep track of thoughts. Without a doubt, by time First Light came around, they’d come looking for me, and if I wanted to give them an iota of a chance for redemption, I would have to give them a small hint of guidance.

I scooped up the diary and tossed it on the workbench, scribbling out a quick note to whoever found it and throwing back on the cot. Also on the cot was a pair of average size saddlebags, which I tossed over my back. Inside were just some basic things I would need to get to my destination: extra power cells, some healing potions just in case, a few other medical chems, some basic repair tools, a canteen of water in case what the scans of the surface were true, and a few others things. My mental checklist noted that I was missing and important thing though. Food. There was no time to run down to the cafeteria, not that it would do me any good anyways, since it was closed. I cursed myself for not thinking of it. Whatever, onto other things.

I left my quarters not five minutes after returning from my post.

“Return to your quarters on the Earth Pony Deck,” a synthetic female’s voice said with a charming attitude.

“Oh, you again...” I groaned in frustration.

I turned around to face the voice. I pulled my new tool out a holster-like pocket on my saddlebag.

“This is your final warning. Please return to your quarters on the Earth Pony Deck or I will be authorized to use force,” the blue-grey sentry bot stated. For emphasis, the weapon on her left arm began to spark.

I wasn’t afraid this time. All through my life, I’d been terrified of this.. thing. Lancer was a sentry bot on the Security force used for patrolling the lower levels of the Unicorn Deck to prevent earth ponies like myself from entering into the upper decks. However, the issue with that was that I lived on the Unicorn Deck, since both my parents were unicorns. I wasn’t allowed to live on the earth pony decks because I was ‘too valuable’ to the stable. The EPDs were a little more violent than these UD’s, and since I was the head a department that was normally held by a unicorn, that made me a target in the lower levels.

Lancer began to wheel forward, “Response time expired,” was all she said before the weapon in my mouth burst to life.

PFVVVVMMPFT!

I jumped at the sudden release of energy. The dimly lit corridor flashed in a rainbow of colors as the polychromatic beam assaulted the sentry bot. The scream of metal rending apart echoed throughout the halls of the Unicorn Deck, followed by a cacophony of steel-on-steel clattering.

“Security Alert! Security Alert!” Lancer called out from her position on the ground. One of her legs had been completely severed and now sparked blue and yellow jolts from the stump. “Weapon detected at UD-2-01. Use of live ammunition granted.”

BOOM!

An ear-splitting explosion erupted from the downed robot’s other arm and instantly a panel from the ceiling crashed down in front of me, just barely clipping the end of my muzzle and causing a sudden stinging across my nose.

I didn’t have time to do anything about it before the door at the end of the hall opened up and out came two security ponies, both unicorns, of course. I didn’t stand and wait another second before running down a side-corridor just a couple units down. I was almost surprised that other ponies hadn’t come out, but then I remember that every residential unit was sound-proofed.

“Hey, you! Stop!” a green security stallion shouted. There was another loud bang and ‘ting’, along with a spark at my hooves just as I skidded around the corner. They were shooting at me! With bullets!

“You idiot! That was Tesla!” a mare yelled at her partner. “The fuck is wrong with you? Use-”

I couldn’t hear what else she had to say as I rounded another corner. Just a little farther and I would be at the elevator.

A sharp pain stabbed at my chest, in my lungs.

“Oh, not... now...” I huffed as I galloped through the empty halls. I just needed ten minutes, tops.

The door to the elevator was coming up, I could see it. My hoof slammed down on the button. With a heavy thunk and a low groan, the elevator started its slow climb up to UD-2, the lower Unicorn Deck.

“There she is!” the stallion from before called to his partner. I reacted almost on instinct and cast a rainbow beam down where I had came from just seconds before.

“Holy shit!” the stallion shouted in surprise, his hooves slid out from under him and he fell over before bolting around the corner. “She’s got a... laser... thingy!”

Something hovered from around the corner in a sparkly green aura. At first glance, I had no idea what it was, but as soon as it-

Bang!

The gun flashed and hit me square in the shoulder. I was sent to the ground with a pained cry as my entire shoulder flared up in a heated pain. It couldn’t have been a real bullet, as there was no blood. Probably just a rubber pellet, but it still hurt like hell.

“I think I got her!” the stallion said hopefully.

“Yeah, yeah, good job, Blue,” the mare said. “Don’t let it all go to your head. Now lets go get and and drag her back to Corrections.”

As soon as they rounded the corner, I picked up my laser weapon again and sent another beam down the hall. This time though, it collided with the stallion’s foreleg.

“Shit!” the mare yelled, jumping away from her comrade.

Blue fell to the ground as I did, except he wasn’t getting back up anytime soon.

“W-wh-what? WHAT?! Uh-AHHH!” he panicked at the sight of his severed leg. He began to scream as the ashy, charred stump began to spread up to the rest of his leg. His primal cries ended as the ash neared his torso, burning away his Security armor and even his Pipbuck.

The mare didn’t say anything as she watched her partner dissolve into a pile of glittering blue ash. She ran away before he was even done.

I... I couldn’t believe it. I actually killed somepony. I didn’t know his name or anything. One second he was there and the next he was just... gone. It was... easier than I thought.

“Well, looky what we got here,” an almost familiar voice drawled from behind. I quickly leapt to my hooves, gun in mouth.

“Oh, and look honey, she’s got herself a little toy,” the mare next to him said.

These two. I hated these two with a passion. They were an aging couple, both about in their mid-to-late 40’s, but acting like they were 12. The stallion was a tan-ish color with a dark, chocolate brown mane and tail. The mare was green-grey, with lighter green-blue locks. Unlike most of the security force in the stable, these two ponies were earth ponies. While most security ponies were unicorns, there were a few hooffuls of earth ponies. Most of them did work on the EPDs and the Neutral Level, but these two must have heard of a disturbance up here and came to investigate.

“Aw, she’s shaking. What’s the matter? Scared?” the stallion said. He was wearing a suit of security barding along with his wife beside him. Shock Stock was stitched into the name badge on the front, while the mare’s said Barrel Blast.

“Get out. Now,” I demanded in a low tone. I clenched my teeth around the metal trigger of my weapon. I wouldn’t feel sorry about these two, but I didn’t want another pony’s blood on my hooves.

“Or what? You’ll bore us to death with your techy-egg-head speak?” Barrel said with a roll of her eyes. “Goddesses, what did our pathetic daughter see in you? You’re just about as worthless as she was.”

“Leave Sparkle Shine out of this,” I growled, tightening my grip around the weapon’s bit. Sparky... oh how I missed her. It pained me to even think of what she’d say about this.

“Ooo, did I strike a nerve? Pathetic. You are as useless as she was. Sure, she did her job well enough, I suppose. And then she found you. Of all the other ponies she could have been with, she chose you... a dirt scrubber born from a proud family of horn heads. How’s it feel to be a disappointment to your entire family? I’ve always wondered that. Both of you were disappointments but at least nopony batted an eye when Sparkle Shine was... eliminated,” Barrel smiled smugly.

“W-what?” I asked. Sparky had been shot five times with a security side arm, but no one stepped forward to take the blame.

“You think she fell on those bullets herself? We did it! Turned her in oursel-” she stopped mid-sentence to take a look down at the center of her chest. “Th-the f-f-fuck?”

She gingerly brushed the white ashy hole before falling to the ground. Unlike the stallion before, she didn’t burst into a pile of ashes.

“Y-you monster!” Shock Stock shouted, clearly surprised. “I’m going to kill you for that, you fucking bitch!”

He reached around and pulled out a shock baton from his belt. The weapon crackled as he gave it a test swing.

Click.

“Oh shit,” I mouthed around the handle. I couldn’t be out of ammo already! I’d only fired it a few times!

The baton hit me in the shoulder opposite the one I got shot in. I couldn’t even scream as everything locked up and I felt like I weighed as much as three ponies and fell to the floor, hitting my head on the edge of the elevator door as I fell. My vision shuttered and blurred as the electricity discharged through my body, leaving me partially blinded for a moment.

“See what happens when you fuck with the wrong pony?” Stock said as he kicked me in the side. He didn’t let up for a second, kicking again and again

“Stop! Please!” I choked out after the fourth kick. All it earned me was a kick to the back of the head that sent the world spinning.

“The fuck you think I’m gonna do? Let you crawl back to Mommy? The Overmare won’t know what the fuck happened to her pathetic bitch daughter, she wont care either! I’ll just toss you into the recycler myself!” Stock laughed cruelly. “Come on! I thought you were smarter than this!”

He kicked me hard enough send me tumbling over his dead wife.

“S-stop!” I blubbered around a busted lip. I could barely see and everything hurt so fucking much. I tried to get up but a single-hoof buck prevented that. My entire chest exploded with pain as I felt something crack, earning another cry of pain. I tried to back away, but my hoof caught something on Barrels’ belt.

“Oh! Yes, that’s right. Beg for mercy!” he called out. “Beg for me to stop and le-”

Bang!

“Oh, hey... that’s... not nice...” Stock said in shock as he took a step back.

Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang!

I emptied Barrel Blast’s 10mm pistol into Shock’s chest. I felt nothing killing these two. They had cause enough pain, and now they wouldn’t cause any more. I pushed the two of them out the elevator and left them there

I only had to go up a couple floors and then I’d be out. The doors took forever to close, but they eventually locked shut and the elevator began to rise to the stable’s uppermost deck. I took what time I had to slap a new power cell in my weapon and look myself over. Every breath burned and stung like hell. There was no doubt in my mind I had a broken rib, more than one, probably. There wasn’t as much blood as I expected, except where my face had caught the sharp edge of the door, leaving a three inch gash along my jawline that followed up to my ear, and where Shock Stock managed a decent hit with his baton and horse shoes. Before I drank a healing potion though, I had to make sure my ribs were still all in place, or I’d be worse off than before. I could do that later, though. There were much more important things going on at the moment. Other than the bruises already forming and the welt on my shoulder, I was... alright. Physically, anyways; I hadn’t taken a real bullet yet.

The elevator dinged and the doors slid open. The Top Deck was mostly empty, as usual, thank the Goddesses. With only the security lights running, the halls almost looked abandoned. Barely anypony ever came up here anymore, not since the incident about 80 years ago. Now only security ponies were the only ones who regularly came up here. Occasionally a couple of love birds would sneak away to a supply room or empty office from a closed department (Sparky and I were only one couple), or maybe to set up a bootleg chem deal, but other than that, none of the three thousand, two hundred fifty ponies living in this underground city had any reason to be up here.

The quiet, off-gait, clip-clop of my hooves echoed slightly off the hard floor and walls. Most of the side halls only had half their security lights on, mostly just to prevent the eerie creepiness the guards would get sometimes. In reality, it was excessively creepy up here. Down about a dozen feet of ductworks, cables, and stone, there were a few hundred unicorns just going about their daily lives. But up here, one would never guess at the true size of the Stable.

I limped around the corner cautiously, preparing to jumped at any moment. However, there was nopony in sight.

“She’s just around the corner,” a stallion said calmly as I neared the second corner before the Entrance room. “Let’s try to talk to her first.”

“Damn it,” I cursed to myself. I pulled my gun out of my saddle’s holster-pocket again and rounded the corner.

Standing at the entrance to the cog room were three entities; two unicorns, and another sentry bot. This bot, however, wasn’t armed with a beanbag-gun and an arc taser. On one arm hung a multi barreled beast of a weapon, while the other held something that resembled the arc taser on Lancer, only much heavier.

“Tesla, why don’t you put the gun down and we can talk this through,” A light teal unicorn said as I limped halfway up the hall. I was going to get out. One way or another.

He resituated his security cap with his blood red magic. “We can work this out together. Come peacefully, and I can make your punishment a whole lot less severe.”

I didn’t acknowledge him or his partner. The other unicorn with him, a young, light blue-purple mare with golden yellow locks styled into curls quickly pulled out her side arm and aimed it at me.

“We don’t need more bloodshed, Lace,” Snapshot said, putting his hoof on her gun and bringing it down. I knew him pretty well. He was nicer than most of the ponies in Security, second only to Torus, the department Head. He turned back to me. “I know you don’t want to hurt anypony else, Tesla.”

“Move,” I demanded around my mouth piece. He was right. I didn’t want to hurt anypony else. I never wanted to hurt anypony else, let alone kill. “Move and you won’t get hurt.”

“Stay there,” Silk Lace growled. Her blue magic flared up around her horn and I suddenly felt glued to the floor. A quick glance found that my hooves were firmly stuck to the floor in a blue aura.

“Let me go!” I shouted around my weapon. I kept a death grip on the bit trigger. I didn’t want to drop it again. My hooves felt like they weighed a ton and a half. Try as I might, though, they just wouldn’t budge. It reminded me too much of the times I’d been Corrections... the ‘sessions’ I had with the Head of the department... my father. “LET ME GO!” I screamed at her. I couldn’t stand there any longer. “Please let me go!” I begged

“Sshh, it’ll be all right soon enough,” Lace calmly said as her horn started glowing. There was a small sparkly orb forming at the tip.

I knew what it was. It was a pacification spell. On hit, and the target would be as controllable and easy to deal with as a foal. I couldn’t let that happen. I worked too hard to just give up now. The weeks of preparing, gathering the necessary parts, finding out which security guards would be on duty and where they were stationed. The hall monitors never kept a steady pace and I expected to stumble across a few, but at least I knew I could take them on if needed. What I hadn’t expected was Silk Lace to be on duty here. Her specialty was subduing ponies.

“Let go!” I begged again. I didn’t want to go back to Corrections, I knew I would come out of it somewhat alright, but the last time it took me two weeks to pull myself back together and go back to work. I felt shattered, scattered across an empty, desolate plain of yellowed, dried grass.

The orb grew in size. I needed to act or face the consequences.

PFVVVVMMPFT!

“TESLA!” Snapshot cried out.

The beam hit Silk Lace in the throat, scorching her pretty periwinkle coat and flesh into a bloodied, blacken, charred mess. The orb flew high, just missing my head, as the aura and weight lifted from my hooves. I bit twice more on the bit, hitting the sentry bot in the leg and head, rendering him scrap.

I didn’t waste any time charging towards the giant cog. It was so close.

Bang!

Another rubber slug nicked my flank, causing it to spasm and me to trip.

“Ah!” I cried out. It couldn’t end like this!

“Enough, Tes,” Snapshot said sternly. “I don’t want to hurt you.”

“Why are you doing this,” I said between sobs. Everything hurt so fucking bad. “I just want to get out of here...”

“You know I can’t let you do that. As much as I would like to just let you on out, I just can’t,” he said sympathetically as he got near. I could hear a shock baton come out and charge up, cracking lightly.“I know you’ve had it rough here. Believe me, a lot of us have, but you know the rules. Nopony leaves unless exiled by the overmare. I’m sorry, but murder isn’t going to get you exiled. I’m going to have to take you to corrections. Series will have to take care of you there.”

There was an obvious hint of sadness in his pained voice. He didn’t want to take me to my father; he knew what would happen. He couldn’t just let me go, either. He was just doing his job.

“Come on, up you go,” he grunted as he pushed me up with his magic. I didn’t resist. Everything hurt too much to resist. He even put my weapon back in my saddlebag. “Follow me. We’ll get you cleaned up and then I’ll take you to Correction.”

He tugged on my stable barding’s collar, leading me back to the elevator. I got closer this time than I had with Sparky. We only got to the neutral deck by elevator, but we never actually hurt anypony, and she wanted to get out as badly as I did.

When Sparky and I got to Corrections, I was told it was the last time I would try to escape, that once was enough. Sparky was never the same, always scared of the consequences of every little thing she did. Two weeks later, she was gone. I hadn’t heard or seen her for three days and snuck down to the bottom levels to pay her a visit. When I found her place, I knew what had happened, just by the ‘DO NOT CROSS’ tape across the door.

“I’m sorry...” I whispered meekly. I didn’t want to to what I was about to do, but I had to go on. I had to do it for Sparky.

“It’s alright Tesla, we’ll get this sorted out. Maybe your... thing... malfunctioned as Silk Lace was messing with it.” Snapshot said with a shake of his mane as he neared the elevator. “I’ll try to get your punishment lessened, but I can’t ignore it altogether.”

“I’m... so... sorry...” I said again as I raised my foreleg.

And hit him as hard as I could in the back of the head with my Pipbuck.

He fell to the ground with a grunt, his baton rolling away as he flared his magic around his empty holster. I’d grabbed his gun as soon as he hit the ground.

Bang! Bang!

Snapshot fell limp, where the blood had started to pool almost instantly. I couldn’t believe what I had done. I didn’t want to believe what I had done.

The gun fell from my mouth and into the puddle that had slowly found its way to my hooves. I murdered him. Killed him in cold blood. The first stallion had been in self-defense, Shock Stock and Barrel Blast were in anger and they had it coming to them. But Snapshot? He didn’t deserve this. He was better than the others, better than most ponies, even. And now he was gone

I cried right then and there. Nothing was going to plan. Nopony was supposed to get hurt. Nopony was supposed to get killed. They all had lives, families, hopes and dreams... And I took all that away from them. Things were going from bad to worse and I could tell they weren’t done yet. The faster I got out of this forsaken hell hole, the better off everypony would be.

I’d made my way back to the main entrance, bloody hoofprints following from Snapshot’s final resting place, when my Pipbuck’s broadcaster kicked on with a staticy pop.

“Listen, young lady,” a middle-aged, feminine voice called out. She sounded as if she’d just been woken up, and she was pissed. “Get back to your quarters, and don’t come out until Torus and your father get there. You’ve got a lot to answer for, missy. We’ll deal with you then.”

“N-no,” I managed to squeak out. I hadn’t stopped sniffling from Snapshot’s untimely demise. There were only two voices that could paralyse me in fear, and this was one of them

“Excuse me?” she replied. “Are you defying your Overmare? You know that’s punishable by cor-”

“I don’t care, Mom!” I yelled at my Pipbuck. “I don’t fucking care! I’m leaving and there’s nothing you can do to stop me! Why... why do you treat me like you do? I know I’m not perfect, nopony is, but why can’t you love me just the way I am?”

“Because,” my mother started quietly, “... I could never bring myself to love a lowly dirt scrubber like yourself...”

That was it, my decision was cemented in place. She didn’t love me. She never had. And now there was absolutely nothing here for me.

There was a staticy crackle over head as the Stable’s hall PA system kicked on. “Attention all UD Security; we have an issue at the entrance.” It was my mother. “Please report to the stable’s entrance and secure the earth pony mare named Tesla Ampere. She is the head of Energy Production and is to be taken alive. Once you have her, take her to Corrections. That is all.”

I limped as fast as I could to the control panel in the entrance room, passing Silk Lace’s ash pile on the way. The other sentry bot laid in a heap beside her. I needed to get out. Murder was the worst crime in the stable, and I had just done it on multiple accounts.

“Alpha, Epsilon, Gamma, Iota, Sigma!” I shouted at the interface’s microphone.

After what seemed like an eternity, there was a confirmation buzz from the console. The klaxons in the room pulsed red and blared their song as the machine groaned to life.

Overhead, the massive, bolt-like lock mechanism shifted forward, squealing like a worn-out fan.

“She’s up ahead” a voice yelled from further down the hall. The sounds of multiple ponies’ hoofsteps followed, thundering down the corridor. They were running, trying to secure their target before she left. Forever.

The mechanism slid into the door with a grinding-groan, before ripping the it from the doorway with a horrid scream. Sparks shot from the device and the floor, where metal ground against metal. I didn’t wait for the door to open all the way before slipping through the endless black void beyond.

I didn’t care if the shadows swallowed me up whole, as long as I was away from that goddess forsaken pit from the darkest reaches of Tartarus. The outside control panel was easy to find, and I smacked my hoof down on the lock-out button. The door immediately reversed direction and slammed back into place.

I was out. I was free! Free from the abuse and torture.... everything! Despite all that had just happened, I laughed. I was finally out. And there was noth-

SSCCRRREEEEEEEEEEEE!!!!!

The door shifted as it was being pulled back out of it’s socket. Hitting the lock-out button did nothing as it slowly pulled itself backward. I wasn’t going back, not even dead, I was not going back.

I turned tail and ran down the dank, musty corridor. The floor and walls changed from smooth concrete to rough.... dirt? I didn’t know what it was, but I ran as fast as I could on three hooves, as my hind leg began to cramp up, more than likely from Shock Stock’s excessive use of force.

A wooden plank door just barely came into view, but I didn’t bother stopping. The rotten wood snapped and splintered like nothing as I barreled through. The sharp, rusty nails scraped at my sides, but I still didn’t stop.

Even the wide, barren landscape didn’t hinder me. The flat, coarse, sandstone ground stretched everywhere as far as the eye could see, which wasn’t far in these early hours of the morning. The sky was so much more immense than I could have ever imagined, threatening to lift and swallow every last thing under it. I didn’t have time to dwell on it as something shifted in the darkness to my side. And then another on my otherside. And another. And another. There were at least a dozen of them; vaguely equine shapes, but they moved... wrong.

“Somepony there?” a gravely stallion’s voice shouted somewhere in the distance. “C’mon, I think I heard somethin’.”

Another pain exploded in my shoulder as one of the shadows leapt at me. I screamed and kicked at the monster, but putrefied hide squished out from my weak blows. I wasn’t a strong pony, everyone knew that, but even as hard as I was beating my assailant, it didn’t even flinch. In fact, its grip around my shoulder increased, breaking the skin and peeling part of it off the meat. I continued to cry and scream as I managed to beat it off.

“Th-there! There’s somefuck’s runnin’!” another gravely voice yelled. I didn’t like the sound of their voices. They didn’t sound friendly at all.

Before I knew it, the sound of suppressed gunfire filled the air, and bolts of yellow streaked towards me. One even ripped through my saddlebag and clipped my Pipbuck with a loud ping!

I scampered to my hooves and bolted away from the bullets and the... thing. I looked back to see that it was eating my flesh! What kind of thing would do that?! Who was shooting at me?! Was there anywhere in Equestria that didn’t want me dead?

I realized it then, what I’d been feeling the last few days as I prepared. I was scared. I’d always been scared, but this time was different. Before, it was just doing something wrong and getting a slap on the hoof or a stern scolding. It was mostly harmless, except when Lancer decided to get a little more forceful or when I had to go to corrections for ‘processing’. This time however, I was simply, truly, scared. I’d taken everything I had ever known and thrown them all to the wind. I was scared at what I’d find. I was scared at what I wouldn’t find. I didn’t know how I would be treated out in the ‘real’ world, this... wasteland. I didn’t know how to treat other ponies.

I was scared that I didn’t know what I was doing. I picked a direction and hobbled as quickly as I could. In the dim atmosphere, I could barely see the ground at my hooves, or the crevice that dropped nearly forty feet before it was too late. My hooves skidded across the loose rocks on the hard ground.

Time slowed as I slipped off the edge head first. As I fell, I couldn’t decide if I regretted everything, or nothing.

Below was the remains of a small, dead, pathetic looking tree barely bigger around than my hoof. I crashed through the blackened, curled-bark trunk, splintering it like nothing before coming to a stop some distance below.

There was a loud snap and my entire body was introduced to a whole new definition of pain. I’d luckily landed on my leg, but it had, quite literally, broken my fall. I let out scream like never before as my body finally registered the pain of a broken leg. The bone was threatening to break through the skin, just above my Pipbuck. Another sharp pain was stabbing at my chest and I coughed up what I thought was a loogie, but loogies weren’t bloody. My mind had decided to take a vacation as my vision started to get dark and hazy. Little tool notes flashed up as my Pipbuck’s screen lit up as well, telling me how fucked up I’d gotten.

“H-help...” I squeaked out through a choked cough. I could barely breath, and each breath felt like I was trying to breath through a wet washcloth. “Somepony... help.”

No one was coming. I was alone out here. Completely and utterly alone.

Everything felt cold as the darkness crept up around me, and swallowed me whole.

“I... I’m sorry!” I sobbed. “I- I- I was just curious! I promise I won’t do it again, I promise!”

“You know the rules, Tesla,” the stallion said. He looks a lot like me, and I hated it. Same coat color, very similar mane color, our eyes were different, though; his were a dark purple while mine were chromey grey. “You broke into the ARC Reactor control room, and meddled with the system. You know only a unicorn is authorized to operate such a delicate piece of equipment. And you also know that only an Energy Production certified technician is allowed in the control room.”

His horn glowed a citrusy orange with magic, just barely though. I could feel him inside me. He dug through my mind casually, as if he were just idly rummaging through a warehouse full of filing cabinets. He didn’t need to exert himself very much to get access recent events. He knew his way around my cluttered head like the back of his hoof. Worst yet, it pained me to see him do this; he’d just pick up a folder, open it, look at its content, and toss it over his shoulder. He wasn’t looking for anything in particular, just... digging around and making a mess.

“S-stop it! It hurts!” I cried, burying my head into my forelegs. I was laying on a cot in the Corrections office, against my will.

The stallion rolled his eyes with a sigh as he tipped over the mental filing cabinet, sending memories and thoughts across the floor. I scurried to pick them up, but some were kicked under larger, heavier cabinets and some just disappeared altogether, forever lost.

I cried out again. It felt like there was a vicegrip around my head that was slowly getting tighter and tighter. I didn’t know how much more I could take, I’d already lost so much. It would take me days to get everything back together the way it was, but the stallion didn’t care. He smirked at my dismay, enjoying the torment he caused to somepony who couldn’t fight back. Unicorns had stronger magic in their mind than earth ponies and could fight back against a mind probe, but earth ponies were stuck without it. We had to bend to their will, and the less we resisted, the less it would hurt.

Though it hurt every time, even if I didn’t resist.

“I’m sorry. Did you need that?” the stallion said as he reached up and tipped over another cabinet. More thoughts were scattered. They weren’t important ones, but they were mine nonetheless. “Alright. Enough. Lets get this over with,” he said boredly.

He walked through the aisles of drawers, desks, and boxes. He knew what he was looking for now, and exactly where to find it. More than once, I tried to hide it from him, but he always knew where it was, exactly where it was.

“No, no, nonono!” I begged. I ran in front of him, trying to hinder his progression, but he just cast me aside like I was a simple door.

He stopped in front of a simple looking cabinet with three drawers and opened up the middle one.

“Hm. This looks interesting,” he said as he opened up the folder, skimming it a few times before closing it back up. “Let this be another lesson for you, Tes. You got your cutie mark, good for you. But you still broke the rules trying to get it.”

He showed me the folder. All that was printed on it was ‘SCHEMATIC’. I didn’t know what schematic it was; he was the one in charge of that particular memory. I even leapt at it, but he held it just out of my reach. With it in his magic, he slowly pulled it apart, tearing it down the middle.

I screamed out in pain. It was like somepony had driven an ice cold pickaxe down the front of my head. He wasn’t done though. The two halves were stacked atop each other and he tore them in half as well, sending another shooting pain through my head. Each time he did, it got worse and worse, until he was almost straining to tear them apart. At that point, he just let them flutter to the ground. The thought had been torn into pieces smaller than a prewar bit and there was nothing i could do to put it back together. It was lost. Destroyed by the simple will of a mean old stallion.

I opened my eyes to find myself sobbing quietly on the cot in the Corrections office. The stallion in my head was standing before me, a bored look on his face as he turned to the smaller male next to him. The smaller one was the same age as myself, had the same coat and mane color as myself, even shared my eye color and similar spots.

“Son,” the older stallion started.

“Yessir?” a colt said after a quick shake of his head. He’d been watching the entire time. He was learning the ropes, but it was obvious in his eyes that he didn’t want to be here. There was fear in them.

“Take your sister back home. I’ll see the both of you when I get done,” the stallion said. He didn’t say anything else as he went back to his desk and back to his log book.

“C’mon, Tessy,” the colt said caringly. An orange aura formed around my mid-section as he picked me up and set me back to my trembling hooves. For a moment, I’d almost forgotten how to stand. “Let’s get you home...”

I sniffled again and nodded. It’d been a pretty shitty day for me already...

I didn’t know how long I’d been on that little outcropping. I hadn’t fallen to my death, like I had thought, but instead landed on a small rock that was jutting out of the side of the cliff face. I faded in and out of consciousness, not knowing if it’d been a few minutes, or an hour. Eventually, it had begun to brighten. The sun was nothing like I had anticipated. The bright orb of light was hidden behind a thick layer of grey clouds. I didn’t know how far up they were, but the sheer distance made me feel nauseous and sick to my stomach. I closed my eyes and waited. Eventually something would happen. Maybe I’d finally kick the bucket from dehydration, or I’d just fall asleep and never wake up.

~Some time later~

“Hello?” a voice called out.

My eyelids felt like they were a hundred pounds as I peeled them open. One was swollen half shut and it hurt to move as well, but at least it still could see. My head was more clouded than the bathroom showers when somepony left them all running on boiling hot. I had to be imagining it; I’d been on this rock for hours and not one pony had passed by. I knew the stable was built into a plateau from some logs I’d managed to take a peek at, and it was next to a fairly well traveled road, but not a single pony or otherwise had made their way down the road below.

“Hello...?” the strange voice asked again, this time more questionably.

His accent was rather bizarre. It was... hard to make sense of, especially with a minor concussion. It had to be a hallucination or something, but I couldn’t move to see; everything hurt to much to move.

“Hey!” he shouted. I had discerned that the voice was male. Not terribly deep, but it was definitely a stallion talking.

I closed my eyes again, hoping the hallucination would pass. There was nopony coming for me. I was going to die here, and I was alright with that. The pain would soon be lifted and all the things I’d been guilty of would come to judgement. I would pay for what I’d done to Silk Lace, Sparky’s parents, that Blue fellow, and of course, Snapshot. I’d get judged for however many ponies decided not to leave the Stable when it locked down. I’d lied to my parents’ faces to get out of trouble, blamed other ponies for my mistakes. I was probably going to burn, along with every other pony in 59.

Something hit my side, making me groan in pain as it ran through my ribcage as if I’d been stabbed by one of Manufacturing’s thermic cutting lances. I painfully moved my good leg to brush the rock off my barding.

Another small pebble found its way up to my little hideout. This one was a little smaller than a prewar bit-coin.

“Hello?” I asked. My dry voice cracked from the lack of water. I hadn’t had a single thing to eat or drink since the pot of coffee I’d drank the day and a half before, not including the medication I was taking to stay awake that borderlined ‘illegal substance’, which had me sweating like I’d ran a mile and a half. “Is- is somepony down there?”

I needed to check. There was no way I was going to just lay up here and let the vultures circling above pick me clean. I managed to work through the pain and crawl to the ledge of my rock. Once there, my body couldn’t handle the strain anymore and it simply collapsed.

Below, a dusky blue pony stood, clad in some kind of... cloak? A cloak would have been nice, i didn’t think a dry, dusty plateau was going to be so cold. Maybe it was just me, maybe I was finally slipping into shock.

“Hey there,” I laugh. I was so tired. “Thought I’d be stuck up here forever.”

The use of a punctured lung to talk sent me into a coughing fit. Another bloody mess found its way onto my hoof and barding.

“I’m uh... in a bit of a bad way... up here,” I rasped as I wiped the blood off on my barding. I was surprised my condition hadn’t acted up sooner. “Think you can, you know, get me down, uh... there?” I dropped my good leg over the edge of the rock.

“Uh, sure...” he said uneasily.

I was surprised to find a pretty, sparkly, aura envelop my hoof and works its way up and around the rest of my form. He was a unicorn! Instantly I felt a streak of fear that he might try something horrible on me.

“Owowowowowow!” I cried out as he began to lift me around my barrel. Everything exploded in pain, my broken leg more as it began to dangle.

Quickly, but softly, I was set back on the rock. I hadn’t even made it a couple inches up.

“What’s wrong?” he asked.

“I think I broke my leg,” I said. My leg had swollen to the point where the barding was starting to become tight around it.

“Which one?”

“Right foreleg. It... doesn’t look right.” The damned thing had an extra bend in it!

“Okay,” he said as he began to wrap his magic around me. I could feel parts of it lock in place and prevented some parts of my body from moving, like a telekinetic gurney. Whoever this guy was, he was pretty skilled.

As he began to lift me up again, I still felt parts inside shift around, earning a pained hiss. I didn’t say anything though, The sooner I was on the ground, the better.

It didn’t take more than a few agonizingly long seconds before I was set back down on the road below. It was just as cold as the rock, but at least I didn’t have to worry about falling off.

“Thanks,” I groaned. Everything felt so cold and hazy. I was having trouble seeing the stallion. He was a tall dusky blue stallion with a mane that almost matched and stood on itself, kind of like a mohawk, but more... messy? If it was a mohawk, it needed more gel to upright it.

“No problem,” he said caringly.

Something cold, metal and wet touch my dry, chapped lips. Water! I bit it with my teeth and greedily chugged it down. It was so... different. it had flavor, almost. Maybe a little dust or dirt, but it didn’t taste so chemically sterile like the Stable’s water.
“Hey, slow down a little. You’re going to choke on it,” he said.

And just like he said, I felt water go down the wrong tube, which sent me into a coughing fit. I dropped the canteen and sent whatever water I had in my mouth across the bone dry blacktop. A rib slipped and more bloody specks came out as well.

“Oh, that can’t be good,” he said as he sat down and fiddled with something on his foreleg. Oddly enough, he was using his hoof to do so.

“I guess this is it then...” I could feel myself slipping. Feeling was leaving my hooves and legs and the cold kept on creeping in. “Goodbye, cruel world...” Those were great last words.

“Hang in there,” he said with is face in the device on his leg.

“Nah, I’m not... worth... it...” I sighed as I closed my eyes. I was relieved that the pain had begun to subside. I was in so much pain all the time, and for the first time in a long time, I felt better. I was going to pay for what I’d done, but at least I didn’t have to endure this... whatever it was... any longer.

He said something else but I couldn’t hear the muffled words. Something pricked my arm and i felt even better, warm even.

Suddenly, my whole world came crashing back. I couldn’t explain the feeling. Something inside me was ripping the broken bones back into place like a crazed doctor. I thought falling off the ledge was painful? This was so much worse. The bones in my leg snapped back into place like a rubber band. My skull popped and my hearing returned to an unrecognizable scream that was my own. Misplaced ribs crack back to their respective places, and the cuts and other wounds stitched themselves back together. The excruciating, agonizing, torture was more than I could bear. I blacked out at about that time.

Something dragged me from my slumber. I didn’t know what, but something had stirred enough to wake me from my sleep. The first thing I noticed was that it was much, much cooler than the stable, and I shivered as a result. If somepony had meddled with the temperature again, heads were going to roll.

I didn’t want to wake up yet. It felt like I’d been sleeping for an entire day, but that was impossible; my alarm would have gone off...

Alarms. I had turned off my Pipbuck’s alarms when I was working and preparing... and then I had left the stable... and then I fell.

Before I even attempted to move around, I did a quick test. Luckily, I could still wiggle all my hooves, meaning I wasn’t paralyzed. They were stiff and sore, but I didn’t feel mortally wounded. It took some effort, but I managed to crack my eyes open to find myself facing a dilapidated plaster wall. Beneath me was a rather uncomfortable mattress that was rank with mildew and decades old stains.

Where was I? The last place I remembering was... on a rock? I thought it was a rock. I was running... then falling. Then... somepony...

I rolled over, falling off the mattress much sooner than I had anticipated. I wasn’t sure where I was at all. It looked to be the remains of a burned house, or from what I could gather from the pictures I’d seen in some of the stable’s books.

The landscape was incredibly bleak and dreary. Everything look dead or dying, even the dull, sickly shrubs. The overcast sky filtered minimal light down to the earth, making everything seem even worse. On the bright side though, it was probably hiding a more than anypony wanted to see.

Just outside the two still-standing walls was a busted and burned wagon. It looked like somepony had tried to pack it up and leave, as there were still some suitcases on the ground beside it. Just beyond it was a road that stretched in either direction. I couldn’t see the plateau that concealed the upper level of the my Stable, but I did see a dusky blue, cloaked figure looking over his shoulder at me. He opened his mouth to say something but I must have cut him off.

It wasn’t the piercing amber eyes, or pearly white teeth, or the black and blue striped mane, the weird looking eye, or even the horn on his head. No, it was onyx black muzzle and asymmetrical stripes that covered his face and forelegs, and probably the rest of him, that made me let out a squeaky gasp.

He was a zebra. A ZEBRA! The reason why a lot of us Equestrians were in those stupid bunkers! The reason why everypony was at war and everything went to shit!

“Uh... hi?” he said with a raised brow.

I couldn’t be here, not with him. Who knew what he was capable of!

Before he could say anything else or put some kind of... curse or whatever on me, I turned tail and ran right out the missing window and into the world. And I kept running; around boulders, through the thick, desert brush, over fallen trees. I kept running until the house was no longer in sight and my lungs burned.

I fell to the ground and rolled to my back, heart thundering in my ears. My chest felt like a hundred pins and needles were stabbing at it.

“FUCK YOOUU!” I screamed at the clouded sky as I clutched my burning chest. “I fucking left and you’re still fucking with me!? What do you want!?”

I rolled to my side and let out a few deep, throaty coughs. It hurt like hell as I hacked up a few more bloody specks. It would never end. It’d only get worse and worse until it finally killed me. Maybe something out here could counter it, or even fix it completely. I could only hope.

I coughed a few more times, tearing at my lungs even more. A sip from a healing potion would somewhat patch it back together. It was then that I realized I had left my gear back at the house. Groaning in frustration, I got back to my hooves and began to make my way back to that husk of civilization. With any luck, that... zebra... was gone. I’d heard they were masters of infiltration and hoof-fighting. I wasn’t good at either, meaning he had all the advantages.

I peeked around a giant, brown rock. It took about twenty minutes to walk back to the house, but something told me the zebra was still there.

I quickly dashed across to a boulder opposite of me, then to a large, thorny bush ahead, and then behind a dead, blackened tree. Eventually I made it up the hill behind the house, and to the far side of the wagon. I just needed some time to think how I could get my packs without him noticing. That is, unless he already went through them and tossed everything about.

“About time you showed back up,” he said.

I jumped at the sudden voice and looked around quickly. He wasn’t anywhere that I could see, and it sounded like he was still in the ruined home.

“Since I know you can hear me, let me just say that I’m not going to hurt you,” he said.

I didn’t believe him for one second. At my hooves was a decent sized rock. If he got close, it was better than nothing. With a little bit of effort, I managed to pull the dirty stone from the ground.

He didn’t exactly sound like a zebra. Or at least what I expected a zebra to sound like. He didn’t speak in cryptic rhymes, or have some outlandish, exotic accent. He didn’t sound like anypony from the stable, and he did have a slight accent, but it wasn’t terribly different from an Equestrian’s. His vowels were a little longer and softer, making it sound rather silly.

“You can come out. I promise I won’t do anything.” Like hell.

My saddlebags appeared before me, just out of hoof’s reach, in a sparkly teal cloud of magic. They were so close, yet so far. It had to be a trap.

“See? I’m even giving your stuff back,” he continued. He did sound genuinely friendly. If zebras were as fearsome as I’d been lead to believe, then he would have no problem getting rid of me.

I couldn’t risk it. I was going to make something of myself out here, and I couldn’t do that if some stupid zebra thought I was going to fall for his stupid tricks. I was just going to have to wait until he left.

After a couple minutes, it got really quiet. I mean really quiet. Cautiously, I peeked under the wagon and to the house. I didn’t see him anywhere, and that was almost as frightening. I looked around the edge of the wagon, searching for the striped stallion.

He had disappeared completely. Not a trace anywhere to be seen. He had to be lurking elsewhere nearby.

“You’re not very good at this, are you?” a voice said from behind.

I froze solid. This was it, I was going to die. At the very least though, I wanted to know what my killer’s face looked like, so I slowly turned around.

“Look. I’m not... going... to hurt... you,” he said slowly. His amber eyes stared deep, as if peering into my very soul. One of them was really weird looking. It resembled an eight pointed star, except each point was curved towards the next. Inside each one was some kind of coppery arcane symbol. Maybe it was artificial? Cybernetic, perhaps?

He was decently tall, at least a head taller than myself. And rather lean. Not thin though, he was certainly athletic, but not noticeably muscular. Did he really carry me all the way from where I’d fallen?

“Do you want something to eat?” He asked out of the blue.

I hadn’t eaten in over thirty six hours, and I really wanted food, but not his food.. Before I could answer, he looked down at a device on his foreleg. It looked like a Pipbuck, but a bit bulkier, with more buttons, external ports, and instead of a dark grey casing, it had a lighter, smoother grey casing. A glint of silver on his other leg caught my eye as he used it to scroll through whatever menus he was going through. Strapped into a kind of foreleg holster was an incredibly ornate revolver. The thing was in immaculate condition, from the silver body to the gold and obsidian-black flourishes that wrapped around the entire gun.

I couldn’t waste another second. While he was distracted with his Pipbuck I quickly reached over to my saddlebags. Luck was with me as I instantly pulled out my laser pistol and took its grip in my mouth.

“S-stay b-back!” I yelled around the bit.

His eyes flicked up and looked at me. He didn’t seem particularly scared until I tightened my grip on the trigger a little and the weapon charged up partially. He took a step back, finally showing some form of fear.

“Alright, alright...” he said calmly. “Can’t we talk about this, Miss...”

“Names aren’t important!” I yelled. I wasn’t going let this zebra get the upper hoof. “Now get on the ground and tell me what I need to know!”

“Ask away, stable pony,” he said casually as he lowered himself to the ground. He was so... confident with himself, like he knew something I didn’t. His horn wasn’t glowing, so it wasn’t like he was levitating something behind me.

I had a feeling I had already lost the upper hoof.

“One: Where the hell am I?” I started. I was going to get what I wanted before that, though.. “And two: What the hell is a stable pony?”

“We’re just west of the Royal Mountains. The town of Starward is east of here about a day’s trot.” He pointed a hoof towards the rising sun. I needed to go the city-state Mareverick, which was much much farther east than the small town of Starward. I’d studied old maps in the stable; Mareverick was where Sparky and I were going to go if we ever got out of there. “You know, it would be easier to understand you without that thing in your mouth; it sounds like you’re trying to eat a bag of marbles. Oh, and you are a stable pony,” he said, putting emphasis on ‘you’.

He had a point. I was surprised he could understand anything at all.

“And just what is that suppose to mean?” I asked after dropping the pistol into my hoof. I could have it ready to fire before he could even get up.

“Just that, you’re a stable pony. Your stable barding, your Pipbuck, your.... cleanliness. You are obviously from a stable. Stable 59, if I’m not mistaken,” he said, pointing out the yellow numbers on my barding. I was far from clean. Dirt and blood soiled parts of my barding and there were already a couple frayed ends. But compared to his cloak and armor underneath, he was far dirtier. “You look like you haven’t been out here for more than a couple days. Your hooves aren’t even dirty! Honestly, I don’t think you’ll last more than a week out here.”

He was right. My hooves were dirty, but unlike his, they weren’t starting to cake with dust and dirt.

“Get back down!” I yelled through clenched teeth as he started to get back up. I was going to show him he was wrong. I wasn’t just going to bend to other ponies’ anymore, especially a zebra’s.

“Listen, there are worse things than death out here, and there’s already a lot of that,” he said as he took a step forward. “You have no idea how absolutely unprepared you are. Take a look at your gun.”

“What about-” I started to say as I looked it over. He was really starting to frustrate me. Then I noticed the missing power cell. Uh-oh. “Ohshitohshitohshitohshit!”

It was there just a moment ago! Did it fall out? Did I just imagine it? No, I was charging up the weapon before, so there was a power cell before that. That’s why he was so confident. He knew my gun was unloaded! I quickly searched around, rummaging through the dust for the small battery. I was mentally cursing myself. It wasn’t anywhere! I needed to grab another one, but it was in my saddle bag. I snatched it up and opened the top flap-

Click.

I instantly stopped what I was doing. I’d visited the Security Training Center enough times to know the sound of a gun being cocked.

“Bang. You’re dead,” he said without emotion.

I lost it again. I’d hit the bottom and was done.

“Please don’t kill me!” I cried into my forehooves. I felt pathetic. I was pathetic. I couldn’t even hold a zebra up to save my own ass. I hated this world and everything in it now, including myself. “I- I- I have no idea what the fuck I’m even doing out here!”

“Hey, it’s alright,” he said with a comforting tone. Something touched my shoulder and I instantly tensed up. “Listen, I have stuff I have to do. I suppose if you want, you can tag along.”

Oh, great. Now he was feeling sorry for me. There was no doubt that he was the one who helped me back at the ravine. Rather than just leave me there for whatever wild animal to pick my bones clean, he brought me along and watched over me. He hadn’t asked for anything in return yet, offered me food and even protection. But above all that, even after having a gun in his face, he was willing to be friendly to a pony he knew nothing about.

And my reaction was to try to shoot him. I felt terrible about it. This wasn’t me, I wasn’t some ‘hard-core’ thug that threatened to kill ponies if they didn’t give me what I wanted. All I wanted was to get to Mareverick.

“Why are you being so nice to me?” I asked through my sniffles. Goddesses, I was a wreck. Tired, hungry, and dealing with a drug and coffee hangover was not a great combination, on top of my insides physically hurting.

“What do you mean?” he asked honestly.

“Like, you don’t even know me.” I didn’t know him either. “How do you know I’m not some kind of...” I didn’t know what to call them, but there was one word that did come to mine. “...thief or something?” I sniffled again. There were no tissues out here, but an already dirty sleeve worked just as well.

“A thief?” he laughed. His laugh was the funniest thing I’d heard in recent weeks. It was a little deeper than his speaking voice, but way more... chipper. “Ah.... Multiple things. First...”

His horn sparkled and a rock moved from under my hoof, revealing my missing power cell. He simply clipped it into place on my gun. So THAT'S how he knew my gun was empty! “I’m kinda good as sneaking things off ponies myself, and you don’t strike me as a pickpocket. I saw you coming from a mile away.”

That also explained how he knew where I was, even though I never saw him

“Second, you’re friendly, according to my EFS,” he said, showing off his oversized Pipbuck. I really wanted to take a closer look at it. It wasn’t any model I was familiar with. Not the standard 3000, or the outdated 2000, nor was it an experimental Delta, Alpha, or Beta, or Zulu. Whatever a Manticore model was, I wanted to know. “And finally, you’re pretty clueless about how the world works out here. Now... I haven’t seen you eat anything since I found you yesterday morning.”

A can of carrots and a Fancy Buck brand snack cake floated out in front of him in his teal aura. “Hungry?”

I nodded weakly. This was so... strange. I wasn’t used to ponies actually helping me. The food was just levitating in between us in his magic, waiting to be taken. I took the opportunity and grabbed them. With almost no effort, I managed to open the pack of snack cakes first and shoved one of the dark, chocolatey cakes into my mouth. It was stale, but at least it didn’t taste like it was going to kill me. It tasted absolutely delicious, given the circumstance.

“So, you got a name, or am I just going to have to keep calling you ‘that blue mare’?” he asked as I nom’d away at the cake.

I answered, but with a whole cake in my mouth, it didn’t sound like a name.

“Say what now?” he asked with a raised brow.

“Sorry,” I replied, swallowing the mouthful of cake. Just the flavor of the cake alone was starting to put me in a better mood. Barely, but it was slowly lifting. “Tesla Ampere. You can just just call me Tes.”

“Hello, Tes. My name is Xerophyte. You can call me Xero,” he said with a bow. Not even most ponies in 59 had manners like this gentlecolt. Xerophyte...

“What kind of name is that?” I asked. It certainly wasn’t very pony-like.

“It’s a zebra name,” he said nonchalantly. “Its a kind of plant that liv-”

“You are a zebra?” I half- blurted out in disbelief, half- asked. Some part of me wanted to believe that he wasn't, for some reason.

“Yes. Sort of? I’m not even sure anymore,” Xerophyte looked up at his horn, as if asking himself ‘how did you get up there?’ “Taint does strange stuff to those who fall into it.”

“Sorry,” I said quietly. It was stupid of me to even ask that. “I guess I should have figured that out from the stripes and the funny accent.” I stuffed the last cake into my mouth. Not only were they chocolate, but they were filled with this sweet, white, fluffy... cream? I wasn’t a baker, I didn’t know what it was. Or ‘taint’. “What’s taint?”

“Its... this stuff,” he thought for a moment, tapping his chin. “Dangerous, causes mutations, usually deadly.” He thought some more. “You’ll know it when you see it; it’s usually a rainbow colored liquid.”

It wasn’t like anything I’d ever heard of, except maybe when motor oil smears across a puddle. He said I’d know it if I saw it, so it seemed to be easily avoidable. I wondered what else there was out here. Clearly, the world hadn’t fixed itself in the 180 or so years after stables closed. Xerophyte was practically armed to the teeth, with his revolver, body armor, and a couple long-barreled guns just barely peeking out of his thick leather saddlebags. There was even a sword strung across his back.

“Once you’re finished up, we should probably get going,” he stated, looking over his shoulder at the desolate wastes. His ears twitched and swiveled about, as if searching for a sound. “You don’t want to be out in the open at night.”

“Why not?” I asked as soon as I had finished swallowing the last bit of cake. If we were to be going soon, then I had to sort out what was left of my saddlebags.

“It’s dangerous. There’s raiders, ghouls, wild mutant animals, killer robots...” He tapped his chin in thought again. “Actually, I think that’s it. Doesn’t sound like a whole lot, but there are.”

I dumped out both saddlebags. The cheap, mass produced material didn’t last long out here at all. One was almost falling apart at the seams, while the other was literally shredded. It must have gotten caught on a rock or something when I fell. I feared the worse for the contents in it, as the bag was stained purple.

Shattered glass bottles, vials, and syringes greeted me, along with the rolls of fdirty, soiled magic-healing gauze and a few burnt out magic spark batteries. Everything was stained purple from the destroyed healing potions. There were no more Med-X vials or syringes for them. The magic gauze had absorbed a lot of the healing potions, but they were wet and muddied from laying on the dirt.

I’d crushed all the medical supplies I’d taken with me when I fell. It almost made me want to weep for their loss.

‘Xero’ picked up my steel canteen and gave it a shake and making it rattle. It too was flatten and crushed, but the water didn’t escape because of that. No, it had drained out through the small, perfectly round hole in the side.

Popping the top off, he shook out a small, mushroom shaped, grey lump.

“Is that was I think it is?” I asked. Somepony shot at me with actual bullets out here? When!?

“Maybe,” he said casually as he lofted it into the air a few times before catching it in his hoof again. “Judging from the weight, I’d say it’s a 5.56mm, or probably .223 since it didn’t go all the way through the canteen.”

He tossed it over his shoulder like it was refuse. “Here, you’ll need a new one.”

“Are- are you sure?” I didn’t need a new one. I would be alright for another day or so without water. Plus, he needed water as much as I did.

“Yeah, I got a few other ones,” he replied with a shake of his own saddlebags. There was a faint sloshing of water in one of them, as if he had more than just one or two. Which he did when he opened the top flap and pulled one of the four out.

There was something fishy going on here. No pony was EVER this polite and kind in the stable. I’d have to keep my guard up until I could trust him, if I ever could.

I grabbed the canteen from his magic. It... felt weird. Usually ponies just dropped whatever they wanted me to do on my desk without saying a word before leaving. But Xero? He was actually being... friendly.

“All ready?” he inquired as I put it, along with everything else of use, into the good saddlebag. I still needed something for my pistol. there was no holster or holder on the good bag, but there was a lot of extra scrap cloth from the other bag.

“Almost. Gotta do one last thing,” I answered as I tore of a long strip of fabric and tied each end to my weapon’s shell. I then looped the strap around my shoulder, neck and head. When I stood up, it was within easy mouth grabbing distance. “Alright, now I’m ready.”

With that, we left the depressing remains of the house and into the equally depressing wasteland.

“Any ideas what we might, erm...” What was the word? “...encounter?”

“Probably just raiders, maybe a scorpion or two,” he answered. I didn’t know what a raider was, but scorpions? They couldn’t be that much different after 200 years. They’re little arachnids that could be squished with a solid hoof stomp.

“Probably? What else could we come across?”

“Well, there’s alway the random alicorn encounter,” he said as he scanned the horizon. His ears were constantly twitching slightly and turning about. I doubt he even did it consciously, or even knew he did it at all. Maybe he was just extremely alert.

“An ali-wat?”

Xero spent some time explaining what an alicorn was. Essentially, they were mock versions of the Goddesses, Celestia and Luna. They were big ponies with big horns and big wings to match.

According to him, the green ones could read minds and create near-impenetrable shields, as well as work together to to amplify their powers. I had to wonder if they were capable of exerting that force on others, bending them to their will. The thought sent a shiver up my spine.

The blue ones could cloak themselves and become invisible. It wasn’t unbelievable, as there was a unicorn back in the stable who could almost turn invisible and change her coat color as she pleased. Crystal Glass had adopted the nickname Chameleon because of that little party trick.

There was one other alicorn, and they were purple. Their ability was to teleport instantly. I asked if that was the only thing they could do, but Xero said that they were the ones to be afraid of the most as they seemed to be more powerful with their magic as individuals.

Moreover, he mentioned that they were part of a hive mind. What one saw, heard, and knew, they all did. They learned extremely quick, rarely falling for the same trap twice.

I asked how he knew all this, and apparently Xero had been confronted with one before that wasn’t in the mood to fight, but proposed to him that he join their “Unity”. He almost made it sound like a game as he laughed when trying to tell his story. I couldn’t find the humor in it, though. He’d told them to shove the proposal up her tailhole and to tell her ‘Goddess’ that she was a ‘pompous mule’. They took great offense to that.

If we came across one, however, we wouldn’t try to fight or reason with it, just back away slowly before running like hell.

Which is what we were doing.

Because I didn’t back away slowly.

“THE GODDESS WILL NOT BE MOCKED BY A MORTAL...” the green alicorn paused her thunderous speech for only a second, searching for the right word. “VERMIN... SUCH AS YOURSELF, XEROPHYTE!!”

The air exploded with the sound of crackling lightning just as a white-hot bolt of magic flew over our heads and collided with a building ahead, blowing out a section of the decaying brick.

If it wasn’t for the anger management issues and the ‘holier-than-thou’ attitude, she could have possibly been a good pony to be around. And except for the red, glowing, dragon-slit eyes, she was actually kind of pretty, until Xero’s gun blew a quarter of her head and face away and perforated her wings, and my laser pistol didn’t scorch, blister, and char her flesh and feathers.

Unlike Xero, she was completely unarmed and unarmored; she was even more naked than I was. I at least was still wearing my stable barding, though I didn’t know how much longer that would last based on everything that had happened so far.

I looked back at the alicorn. She was gaining on us as we galloped through the city streets. Starward was a cozy little community before the war, but now only remained as ‘scavenging grounds’ for a pony looking to make some caps, which I had found out was the currency out here.

When I looked back ahead, Xero was nowhere to be seen. There was a sharp pain in my rump that made me yelp and I was yanked into a dark doorway. Xero was inside, quickly looking around. All through the ruined city and even in the more deserted lands, he keep his keen senses at work. His ears barely ever stopped turning and he never kept his eyes on one thing for very long. It almost made him look... paranoid, but he didn’t share any of the other signs. Maybe he was just an extremely alert pony, erm... zebra.

There wasn’t much inside the destroyed building; a desk, some seats, peeling wallpaper, and yellowed tiles that had come unglued, just to name a few. It was musty smelling, like old rotting wood and mildew behind the walls.

“This way,” he said quickly, but quietly.

I followed him through a pair of double doors and into a hallway with three doors on either side. He made a beeline for the middle-door on the right side. I followed closely. He knew what he was doing a lot more than I did, and for that I was thankful.

“In here,” he muttered. There was a supply closet in the bare office which would hopefully work great as a hiding spot. It was larger than it appeared, as we both were able to stand side-by-side and still have a little bit of wiggle room.

“Shh...” he quietly shushed. A dark mahogany box levitated in front of him from his saddlebag. Inside were many bullets and parts of what looked to be a weapons stock and barrels. The gun was missing, but from the markings on the barrel and stock, I guessed that it was from his revolver. He took out three specific shells and loaded them into the gun before putting the box away.

Just as he closed the cylinder, there was a mess of noises coming from within the building. Doors were being ripped from their very frames and thrown about. It had to be the alicorn, nopony else was after us.

We waited in silence. Xero stood perfectly still. For once, his ears and eyes didn’t wander everywhere. He was as stiff as stone, eyes and ears glued to the closet door ahead of us.

My chest burned from all the running, and the pins-and-needles feeling came back with a vengeance.

I needed to take a quick sip of something before I gave our position away. I was just about to pop the top off the canteen he’d given me, but it was pulled away before I had the chance.

‘No noise.’ His lips moved, but he didn’t say anything aloud. He was right though; any noise would mean the end for us.

I could hold out for a couple more minutes. I had to, there was nothing else that could be done. I took my pistol in my mouth and aimed it at the door, ready to fire if need.

The seconds passed, though they felt like hours. Every breath burned like hell and only worsened the pain in my chest. I did the only thing I could and held my breath. It helped at first, but as soon as the alicorn ripped out the door to our office, it began to feel like something was choking me. I just needed to hold on a few moments longer.

A strange sensation hit me. It was hot, and started at the base of my chest before launching upward. I reflexively inhaled and choked on whatever had been filling my lungs. With a wet, soppy, cough, my gun and an incredulous amount of red, mucusy, fluid splattered across the ground in front of me and my barding.

Fuck.

It wasn’t done yet. I tried to breath, but all I did was cough and gag on the thick, bloody, mucus.

The door to our closet was ripped off the hinges almost instantly. At some point, Xero had picked up my gun and was now using it against the alicorn, filling the small closet space with a bright series of polychromatic flashes. The beam wasn’t quite strong enough to break the creature’s powerful shield spell, but it was enough to weaken it so something else could slip through.

I snatched my companion’s revolver from his foreleg holster and pointed it at the alicorn’s head and bit down on the trigger as fast as I could. There was barely any kick to it as the bullets flew out and turned her head into a green and red pulpy mess.

I killed her, another life taken without so much as a thought. Another sinful deed and more blood on my hooves. I hated it. Every part of me felt dirtied and impure. In just the last few short days, more ponies had fallen by my hooves than I’d ever thought possible. And eventually, I’d pay for my sins. Maybe not today, maybe not tomorrow, but eventually... I’d be judged. I prayed the goddesses could forgive me, but I didn’t know how they could.

Until then, I had to stay strong. I had to do better. I had to try to make up for them. Whatever it took, however long, I would try to make up for even a tenth of a single life I took.

I coughed again, hacking up more lung-crap. I couldn’t do anything if I died from internal injuries, though.

“Healing... potion...” I rasped out, my eyes watering from the pain.

With surprising swiftness, Xerophyte had a small purple bottle floating in front of my eyes.. I wasted no time swigging it down, savoring the warm fuzzy feeling of it patching up my dessicated lungs.

“You should get that checked out when we get to Starward,” he said in his silly little accent. “I think there’s something wrong that healing potions aren’t fixing.”

“I know...” I panted. I knew exactly what was wrong, but I doubted he’d believe me. No pony would believe it.

“I’m serious,” he said as he set my weapon beside me. “not even Hydra fixed it, and that stuff can regrow a lost leg.”

‘Yeah, I KNOW,’ I mentally yelled at him. I just felt like shit.

“Just... gimme... a moment... to rest,” I huffed, trying to catch my breath. I stepped to the side of the closet and found a spot that wasn’t covered in bloody slime, where I curled up and rested my aching body. Everything hurt and I was exhausted. “I’ll... be fine.”

“Alright...,” he said uneasily. “I’m... going spelunking for a minute or two. I’ll check back when I’m done.”

“Mhm,” I murmurred. I closed my eyes and let my mind wander off on its own, paying it no real attention as I dozed off into a light sleep.

Footnote: Level Up!

New Perk: Companionship - Congrats! You’ve become one of the most powerful assets of another wastelander. Perhaps it will evolve into a friendship, or maybe you’ll come back two seasons later as the final boss. Who knows!

Programmer’s Note: WELCOME TO THE WASTELAND, BABY! There will be cookies and punch for those that stay still the end, as well as a small raffle for some fabulous prizes!

Author's Notes:

Alright. I was really debating how far to take this one, and it definitely wasn't this far, but I think it'll be alright. It's mostly just a little view of a companion's life before she/he/they meet Xero. Might do some other companions, but that'll have to wait for the future. if there are any fixes or things that don't make sense, lemme know and I'll try to either fix it or explain what's happening, as Tes' mind doesn't quite work the same as other ponies (especially in later chapters)