[Tock.]

When growing up, I thought I would be safe in Stable Sixty Seven. I never thought I would have to deal with the likes mutants, sadists, and obsessive whackos. Or go on a journey across a former paradise- if Equestria ever was one. I was sorely mistaken. There were days where I wish I was back at the Stable, with everything as it was before I left, but time is irreversible. Everything moves forward to the final form of decay, and Stable Sixty Seven, my life, the lives of my friends, we all experienced it. You will, too, in time.

The Stable I came had us live by a strict code of conduct. Once you turned sixteen you were separated from your parents and put in specialized areas based on dates of birth and gender, and you could only move on to the more private areas if you got married. Those with kids were transferred to better equipped rooms, and the larger the families the larger the rooms, with the biggest families having rooms in the “Population Production Community”, which was located next to the Administrative Wing. That area held the Office of Stable Stability, Social Productivity Administration, Scheduling Administration, Sanitation Management, Department of the Arts and Education, and so on.

The DAE taught us that our Stable was the largest of the other Stables in population and facility, but never specified how many more there were, and while they did the teaching the SPA graded us on our productivity in society. The grading didn't officially start until we turned twenty one, but they always kept tabs on us as kids, analyzing our personalities, our habits, even using the Department of Arts and Education to give certain kids psychological evaluations. With the data they collected, they and the OSS would determine who would stay and who would be exiled. It was an annual thing where we emptied our detention centers and removed unproductive members of society; like slackers, trouble makers, cripples, mentally ill, and so on.

Anyway, let me back track a bit. After our sixteenth birthday when we got separated from our parents and put the mares and stallions in separate areas, we were allowed to flirt and mingle with the opposite sex for extended periods of time every Sunday, which was “Meet and Greet Day”. Unofficially it was called “Suck and Fuck Day” since that was the easiest time for the more hormonal Stable Dwellers to rut their pony of attraction. The Office of Stable Stability tried to make a propaganda campaign to dissuade the “abuse of a tradition”, but that only made the problem worse.

I never did anything like that for those Meet and Greet Days. I was the guy that stayed in the back, watching ponies do their thing in Master Atrium, which was large enough to house four of the sixteen thousand occupants. They would eat, drink, talk, laugh, and the speakers they had around the walls played music and messages, and the rows of lights on the ceiling, walls and floor gave plenty of light. To allow everypony a chance to meet and greet we had automatrons providing security and vendor duties. Though, during these events, there was always one mare that I watched.

Her name was Rose Petal Flower, and if you saw her you would stop working. Your heart would stop, your mouth would go dry, and the dark colors would brighten. She was also an earth pony, her coat was pink and always shined, and her mane and tail had this great blend of yellow and red. She also always had a flower in her mane. A real one, too, not those plastic ones that the foals choked on all the time. This was possible because she was a botanist and operated a dozen gardens, and she also had a permit to wear them.

But aside from how beautiful she was, she was also the first to notice my cutie mark and had her parents throw a cute-ceañera for me. It was ten days after I got it, but she realized that I got my mark when I was collecting trash in her area for my dad, who worked in Sanitation Management and was falling a bit behind that day. My mom didn't even notice because she was our area's Social Productivity Supervisor and was doing her grading. Honestly, I don't think they cared, anyway. They didn't show up to my cute-ceañera, and the only time my mom had extended communication with me was when she was taking disciplinary action that started with: “Ephemeris Lavernius Clock!”

Hiding never worked, either. She always found me.

And my dad, I'm sure he didn't know my name. I was always “Champ” or “Bud” or got that weird look when you see somepony familiar but can't peg where you've seen them.

Sorry for being all over the place. I didn't plan to tell a story, so bear with me.

So... anyway... my cutie mark being a pocket watch basically put me at the bottom of the pyramid since clocks were not exactly something high on the list of priorities. All I really did was fix clocks, build clocks, and when I wasn't fixing or building clocks, I was day dreaming about Rose Petal... and clocks.

I wanted to ask Rose to be mine ever since my cute-ceañera, and after I became old enough for the Meet and Greet Day I would watch her and plan on how to ask her to get a Dating Permit with me. I would make all these plans, tell myself this would be the day, and then chicken out and stay in the back, drinking or eating whatever was available.

However, there was one day where something in me snapped. I don't know what it was, how it happened or why it happened, but shortly after my twenty third birthday I was at another Meet and Greet event and I just took the chance.

The music was playing through the speakers, the mares and stallions were walking around, chit chatting and having snacks and drinks together, and it was all being watched by our Overmare, Braid Mane.

I quickly found Rose Petal talking with her friends -Curly Mane, the daughter of Braid Mane, and Cosmo, just some girl- and I took a shot of sparkling cider for courage.

And then I took another four and had to give myself a pep talk in the bathroom after nearly puking. So, with five shots of alcohol free cider, I did what the other guys did. I puffed out my chest, weaved through the crowd with confident strides that were ruined by my shaking, and I put my mental cross-hairs on her. I didn't even care that I was still being ignored by her. Today would be my day.

I walked up to her, and all the music and chatter just faded away, and she became just the one pony on my mind. Her giggling was the only music I needed to hear and the way she flung her mane out of her eyes was a rarity I hardly enjoyed.

When I finally reached Rose, she was still talking with her friends, and it took Cosmo pointing at me for her to stop.

Rose looked at me with a curious smile, and said: “Meris, what a surprise! You actually came away from your wall.”

That is when panic came in.

My heart raced, beads of sweat rolled down my face, and my mouth became dry and despite my best efforts, I could not stop the nervous chuckle or my eye from twitching.

“Um, are you okay?” asked Rose, her smile now uneasy and her friends giggling behind her back.

“Hello,” I replied in an embarrassingly squeaky voice. Then in a much louder voice: “I WAS WONDERING IF YOU WANTED TO GET A DATING PERMIT WITH ME!”

Her smile disappeared and her eyes went wide from shock. Her friends’ jaws dropped and to make it worse, I felt other eyes on me. I chuckled nervously and tried to play it cool by keeping my smile and leaning against the table she was occupying.

“I mean, if that is cool with you, or whatever.”

Then the stupid table broke and I fell over with all the punch and cider and apple slices spilling all over me. Rose Petal shrieked and reeled back, and her friends laughed till their faces turned red. And on top of that, the music stopped and I heard more laughing. My face burned up and I wanted to crawl under my bunk and cry myself to death. But despite what I was feeling at the time, I still scrambled up and tried to act like I wasn’t affected by this.

“I meant to do that!” I said.

“You meant to break the table?” asked Rose Petal skeptically.

I nodded. “Yep. I've been working out and wanted to show you my brute strength.”

I could tell by the way she looked at me that she thought I was an idiot, and I felt like an idiot, and I was sure everypony in the area thought I was an idiot. Life was great at the moment.

It took the Overmare using the intercom to order everypony to have fun lest they want to return to work to get the party going again. The music restarted and the conversations resumed, and I decided that it was a great time to fix some clocks. Sure, Rose called after me, but I still disappeared into the crowd. That day was a bust and I didn't want anypony looking at me. Hell, I didn't even want to look at me, and so I went to the one place where nopony ever goes.

My stall in the maintenance underbelly of the Stable.

Technically it was a large closet with a lamp, tools, supplies and some shelves filled with more tools and supplies, but it was cramped and nopony ever bothered me.

Usually.

I spent the rest of the day in the maintenance stall, working on my own personal project since I wanted to forget the mess I made. It was a pocket watch that I had been working on from scratch. Getting the gold and silver plating was hard enough, but add in all the tiny gears and little hooves, etching the elegant designs and keeping the project hidden, and you got yourself a chore.

So there I was, working on my own special project, when the only one who ever visited me in my stall came in. He was a golden and yellow unicorn named Artisan Bread. I also meet him on my cute-ceañera and he baked me some cookies that looked like my cutie mark. We had been friends ever since.

Anyway, Artisan barged in, wearing his baker’s hat and apron, and carrying something in his mouth basket. He was panic stricken when he skidded to a halt in front of me, and I freaked out and created a mess as I tried to hide my pocket watch. Luckily for me, he was too busy worrying to notice me wrecking the place.

He quickly, yet gently, set his basket on my worktable, nearly in tears, and said: “Meris, you gotta help me! Eggy is broken!”

I peered inside his basket and saw his prized possession, an egg timer with a loaf of bread as the counting hoof, lying on its side, silent as death. I looked at Artisan; he was now whimpering and anxiously tapping the floor, and with a sigh I grabbed my tool box and pushed my project aside.

“I’ll see what I can do.” I said.

He might as well have kissed my hoof and called me King Clock from how happy he was.

Later that night, I was lying on my bed in my section's community rest area (also called a barrack). I had my pillow to my chest and was staring at the dim light bulb, worrying about tomorrow. I didn’t know why I was worrying since the chances of me talking to Rose Petal were slim to none. I think I was more worried about the snickers and passive aggressive bullying that would stem from my blunder.

Then Artisan walked in, smiling and hopping on the bed next to me, which when you consider that the beds were made for one pony it made for a tight fit that I did not enjoy.

“Hey, Meris, Eggy worked perfectly! Thank you for fixing him,” said Artisan.

“He just needed his battery charged.” I muttered.

“Really?”

I nodded.

“Huh,” said Artisan. “I thought I plugged him in. Oh well. Because you saved me from making Curly angry, you earned yourself a free batch of my famous cookies.”

“What did Curly want?” I asked, giving him a curious look. She always wanted something weird.

“Well,” began Artisan, rubbing his chin with his hoof. “She wanted a triple decker cake with one layer being chocolate, the other vanilla and the other strawberry with apple flavored frosting and rainbow sprinkles, with all the layers being held together by peanut butter.”

“You actually made that?”

“I did. And she didn't throw anything at me this time.”

“Oh, that's good.”

I looked back at the light bulb and Artisan nodded slowly.

“Yeah... So~” he said, drawing out his words.

“So?” I asked.

“Yeah. So?”

“So, what?”

“So, did you finally ask Rose? I mean, you've only been watching her like a total creep for thirteen years.”

I scowled, and flipped on my stomach and buried my face in my pillow, hoping that the fluffy comfort will make sleep come faster. I just wanted to sleep so I can go to la-la land and dream of something that hopefully won't be clocks.

“Oh... Was that you that everypony was laughing at?” said Artisan.

“No~ It was my doppelganger, Lavernius.” I said sharply.

Artisan cooed rubbed my back while his tail drooped over mine. It creeped me out every time he did that, and every time I told him not to do that because I felt violated by it, but he never listened.

“I'm sorry you had a bad day,” said Artisan. “But look on the bright side. Every day is a new day, and you just might have left a positive image.”

“Me breaking a table and throwing punch and apples everywhere is positive?” I asked, not taking my face off my pillow.

“Well, when you put it that way it is kind of bad. But, I'm just glad I didn't have to use my Honey Sap strategy again.”

Hearing that name, I clenched up and burrowed my face deeper into my pillow.

“Can you please get off my bed? I want to get some sleep.” I said.

“Sure thing.”Artisan slid off of my bed and used his magic to pull my blanket over me, and then pat my back and said softly into my ear. “Sleep tight, Meris. It'll all be okay in the end. You'll see.”

He then trotted off to do whatever it was he did I curled up as tight as I could, wanting to believe him, but couldn't. Every day would be the same. Like clockwork.

The following weeks had gone by rather quickly and my pessimism was proven wrong for once. Since I was only qualified to fix clocks, and the Stable really didn't have much clocks that needed fixing, that left me time to finish my pocket watch. I still kept it hidden since I didn't have a permit to make such a device for my own amusement, and if anypony found out they would break it and probably put me in solitary for a week. But it was finished and that was all that mattered.

Luckily after I finished my pocket watch the Overmare had decided to give me more responsibilities by putting me in the Scheduling Administration. She said a little birdie told her that I specialized in time and that the Stable needed more people to help schedule events and whatnot. So I spent the days looking over and tweaking schedules and learning the ropes of Stable politics with my new boss, an old coot named Flow Chart. I had met with him and the Overmare Mane and her husband, Buzzcut, several times for lunch and had nice talks each time.

The lunches were great and I knew I was finally going somewhere in the world. Especially when we talked about my record. It was gold, and she said that the Stable needed gold, and after six months she and Flow Chart asked me how I would like to get the position as Vice-Head of the Scheduling Administration.

How could I refuse?

After getting the position I felt like it would only be sunshine and rainbows from now on. I would get out of the basement and be high on the social ladder.

When I got promoted, it was actually on a Meet and Greet Day, so after filling out the paper work and getting a clearance badge, I headed towards the Master Atrium. I really didn't know what I was thinking since I knew Rose would be there, but while my mind told me to look at paperwork, my hooves walked me into the manticore's den.

The Atrium was, as usual, thriving with activity as ponies moving around, flirting, being happy, et cetera. I saw Artisan trying to pick up a unicorn stallion named Glitter Glue, brother of Silyl Glue, also a unicorn. Glitter might as well have been a mare with the way he acted and talked, while Silyl was such a homophobe that he would wash himself raw if a gay bumped into him. And speaking of Silyl, I saw him flirting with Rose.

He was flexing his hoof, making his large muscles bulge underneath his gray coat, and his black mane was combed neatly. It actually looked like Rose was impressed, so it was game over. Too late. I lost. Time to go home.

I turned to leave, kinda disappointed, but soon heard somepony galloping, and when I looked to see who it was I saw Rose running right towards me. I paled and turned my walk to a trot, but she got in front of me and poked me in the chest before I could escape.

Rose said: “There you are! I was wondering what happened to you.”

“Me? I uh-” I looked over my shoulder and saw Silyl glaring at us. “I was working.” I patted my card and added with a nervous smile: “I got promoted. I'm no longer working in the basement.”

“Really? The Overmare must like you,” said Rose, winking. “But I'm glad I found you. I need to show you something.”

“But what if I cover you in apple juice again?”

"Fine by me!"

She slipped behind me and started pushing me by my rump towards the door. My face burned and I dug my hooves in the tile, wincing when the awful screeching noise from my pitiful resistance caused some heads to turn. One of which was Artisan; he flashed a smile and a wink before going back to Glitter. I saw Rose's friends staring too, and Curly looked like she wanted to kill me, just like Silyl. It was at that point that I decided to stop resisting and just walk, lest I wanted to get stabbed in the Atrium.

Once I started walking, everything went smoother, and Rose kept giving me a giddy smile while I could only return a nervous one. I didn’t know where she was taking me, but when we got to our destination, I realized that Rose Petal had taken me to a place called the “Department of Dating and Marriage”.

My jaw dropped and I looked at her, and she looked at me out of the corner of her eye with that adorable sweet smile. My heart was racing and I felt butterflies in my stomach. This was actually happening. I was going to get a permit to date Rose Petal!

“Careful, we wouldn’t want your jaw to fall off,” she said with a teasing smile as she closed my mouth her hoof.

I could only nod stupidly and follow her inside. Once inside, we were greeted by a unicorn mare named Elegant Harmony; she was old, fat, and had a mole on her cheek. I didn’t even realize ponies could get moles, but apparently it was a rare birth defect, and it was ugly!

When Elegant Harmony did the whole spiel with the questions, Rose answered each of them a firm, and yet still silky smooth, voice and she kept giving me those looks out of the corner of her eye that said that she wanted this thing to hurry up. I fully agreed with her. But when it was my turn, I was the complete opposite of her; I didn’t stutter, but I did sound like an idiot and got momentarily confused by all the paperwork, whereas Rose blew through it all like a professional.

After signing the endless supply of paperwork, we were brought into the back of the office and we each had to do a small test in separate rooms that were cold and bare, save for a cushion, a table, and an obnoxiously loud clock. I didn’t even have to make a mental note about getting that clock fixed since Elegant Harmony gave it to me and told me to fix it and bring it back the next day before I even started the test. She obviously didn't comprehend my position or badge, but fixing clocks was kind of therapeutic, so I wasn't too upset about it.

So I’m taking the test with the loud clock next to me, and I’m trying to be careful with answering the questions so the Social Productivity guys don't mark me.

I took that test, quickly, yet carefully, and when I was done, I slid the paper away and tried to think about something other than the horrible taste that the pencil left in my mouth. I thought about Rose and all the fun we would have on our dates. It was expensive, but I wanted to buy a yearlong Dating Permit and take her to a play or two. They were expensive and you had to have a great record for the semester. Luckily I had a great record, so getting approved for a ticket was easy.

After waiting for nearly an hour in the room, freezing my tail off, Elegant Harmony walked back in with a folder, and she took my test and left again. I waited again… And I waited… And waited… And waited… And waited for nearly an hour before she returned.

“Here’s your permit. Enjoy.”

The emotion in her voice was nonexistent, but I grinned from ear to ear, knowing that tonight would be the start of something great! And I celebrated by fixing a clock. Yay.

But all good things have to come to an end.

It had been almost a year after I had gotten permission to date Rose Petal, and we had all kinds of fun. From watching plays, to dancing and eating out, and, of course, those intimate moments. It never got passed the kissing or nose rubs, though.

I was also promoted to head of the Scheduling Administration since Flow Chart croaked in his sleep. The funeral was like every other. Long and ponies pretended to care, and some threw in a few fake tears to make themselves all the more “authentic”. He was cremated and had his ashes put in his old office, which was given to me. And it was creepy. I'm pretty sure he haunted the place.

Funeral aside, my new position put me in charge of overseeing the schedulers who work on planning events, listening to and fixing grievances, firing-hiring-promoting ponies, transferring workers to different sections of the Stable, working eighty hours a week, stuff like that. The good part was that I got a huge pay raise and found myself enjoying parties with the Overmare and her entourage with Rose Petal by my side once a month. It was actually during my promotion celebration that my mom congratulated me, but my dad worked so he wasn't there. And my mom also tried to get money from me, but I turned her down. She wasn't happy about that and I didn't see her after that.

Aside from that tidbit of information, while things were going great between me and Rose, it seemed that Curly got worse with me. Like the closer I got with Rose, the more evil that demon spawn became.

Silyl was also a problem. He beat Glitter to death with the rumor saying that Silyl accused Glitter of violating him, and that was after he tried more than once to take Rose way from me and lost his job because he got hooked on pain meds due to an accident at the power plant he worked at.

Then the Scorecards came in.

You see, every year our Stable had this thing called a Scorecard which was administered by the Social Productivity Administration, and it took effect on your twenty second birthday. It supposedly started collecting data on your twenty first birthday, but, like I said earlier, we all knew that was a lie. The gist of it was that you got a card mailed to you in the third week of December, and if you got a red X next to your name that meant you failed, and if you failed then you got exiled on New Year's Day.

As soon as you are condemned to exile, they take your Pipbuck and give you some food, a couple of canteens, and a farewell. Strangely enough, the Manes never had anyone in their family exiled, no matter how badly they fucked up. But anyway...

When I got my Scorecard I was in my suite with Rose Petal. The suite was spacious with a brightly lit living room that had four couches, a coffee table, and a radio. We also had a large bedroom with a bed big enough for both of us to sleep in comfortably, and a shower that also served as a bath. Definitely a luxury since the majority of the populace used a community bathroom. Now, normally they wouldn't let unmarried ponies share a suite, but Curly managed to get it to work under the agreement that she would be the Best-Mare at our wedding. Just a perk of being the Overmare's daughter and high up on the SPA leadership.

But there I go wandering off...

When I got my Scorecard I was in my suite with Rose. I had just gotten off work and was laying on the couch, listening to the music. It was an energetic, upbeat jazz that was being played for Jazz Week (my idea). I had my eyes closed at the time, but when I felt a poke on my shoulder I looked up and saw Rose standing next to me, smiling and wearing her blue and yellow trimmed Stable jumpsuit with the front unzipped just enough for the fluff of her pink barrel to be exposed.

“Guess what?” said Rose.

My eyes flicked from her chest to her face. I was heating up and going dry in the mouth.

“Uh... You planted more flowers?” I asked.

She shook her head, biting her lip.

“They approved of a flower garden in our suite?”

She shook her head again, and gently rolled me to my back, saying: “Warmer.”

I grinned. “You got a promotion?”

Rose climbed on top of me and pressed her hips and chest down on mine. Her locks rolled down and tickled my cheeks as her warm breath brushed against my nose. “Warmer.”

I was really hot now, and I squeezed her flanks with my hoofs and licked my lips. “I give up.”

“They approved of me having a baby. We can be promoted to parents!” said Rose. She pressed her lips against mine and pulled away some seconds later, flicking her tongue on my nose. “I want to start now.”

“Oh? You want to start now?” I asked, excitement now dying from anxiety.

Rose nodded and bit my ear, licking it as she dragged her teeth across it. I shuddered and felt blood going low, and my hoofs snapped around her flanks and ribs, trapping her, even though I was getting mental calls to abort.

“I want little Roses and Merises running around,” said Rose, her voice husky and her hips grinding against mine.

“Little Merises, huh?” I said, groaning with the growing pressure below. “That's nice, but shouldn't we wait for this?”

Rose pulled up, her smile fading. “Why?”

“Uh... I mean we can start, but-”

“You don't want kids?”

“I didn't say that, but I'm just saying we should probably make plans for this. Especially if you want a lot of kids. I mean, they are an investment. They take time, money, space, and need a lot of attention, and our jobs are gonna make it hard for us to actually be there for them.”

And that did it. Her smile was replaced with a frown and she crawled off of me, sulking to our kitchen, leaving me in a very uncomfortable situation.

“You're not mad are you?” I asked.

“Nope,” said Rose, digging into our fridge.

I adjusted myself so I was laying on my stomach. “Are you sure?”

“Yep.”

Rose left the kitchen with a bottle of synthetic milk in her mouth, went into our room, and came out a couple of minutes later, fully zipped with a blanket on her back and a pillow in her mouth. She put them both on the couch next to me, went back to our room and closed the door without a word.

I stared at the blanket and pillow, loathing how the upbeat jazz music was basically mocking me. Then somepony knocked on the suite door. I had to open it in a way that my hips were not showing to hide the dwindling excitement sort of hidden by my jumpsuit. It was a good thing, too, since the pony in front of me was a mare named Ebony Ornament. She was a young, skinny earth pony with black fur, a gray mane with streaks of orange and green tied into a pony tail with a parchment roll as her cutie mark. She was carrying a satchel filled with envelops and she had a pair in her mouth.

“Mail time!” she chirped.

I took the envelopes, thanked her and put them on my table, eyeing the pyramid seal of the SPA... and the name Yellow Whiskers. Rose Petal's name was there, but who the fuck was Yellow Whiskers?

I trotted out and shouted at Ebony.

“Hey, Ebony! You gave me the wrong mail!”

Ebony was about to knock on the next door, but stopped and looked at me, her dark cheeks getting a tint of red and her orange eyes little dots.

“Oh man, not again!” said Ebony. She dug into her satchel, having to sit on the floor to do so, and finally found the right envelope. “Here you go! Please don't tell anypony.”

We exchanged the letters and I assured her I wouldn't tell anypony, and after she left to continue her route, I brought the right letter to the table and opened it up.

There was a red X next to my name.

Perhaps yelling “You bitch!” was not the best idea when dealing with Curly Mane, but I didn't care. That green mare was sitting at her desk, hoofs folded, face sporting a wicked smile, and her dark green curly mane was hanging over her lime colored eyes, giving them a dark shadow. I knew she knew what she did. Every act by the SPA was deliberate, and with her running the grading for the all those living in the residential area of the Administrative Wing it gave her the perfect position to remove anypony she didn't like.

“What the fuck is this?” I said, slamming my hoof on my Scorecard.

“It is called a Scorecard. Its a thingy we use to get rid of unproductive ponies,” said Curly.

“Unproductive? I put in eighty hours a week for this Stable!”

“Oh, yes, schedules and all that, oooh, hard~” Curly waved her hoof around. “Anypony can make a schedule, Ephermeris. But did you actually look at your report, or did you just freak out violently like you always do?”

“I am not violent!”

“Not what we gathered.” Curly took my Scorecard, cleared her throat and began reading. “Summary for Ephemeris Lavernius Clock. Ephemeris has a history of anti-social behavior and has shown signs of a possible pattern of violence. While he has not been physically violent, we have observed questionable rhetoric and his habit of breaking furniture. He has also shown to be greedy, has broken the rules numerous times (example: making unauthorized pocket watches and backroom deals for permits) and he has no connection with his family, therefore making him a liability for Stable Sixty Seven society.”

She finished with a smug smile and pushed my report back to me. She didn't notice or didn't care that my eye was twitching. On top of that, my throat became tight, my breathing heavy, and everything just turned red.

"Kinda sucks. All that time in the basement, all that time in isolation, and just when you get a good life, it just goes away with one. Little. Report," said Curly. "Poof~"

Next thing I knew, I was lunging over the desk at Curly with every intent on hurting her. Possibly killing her. Papers flew, her coffee mug shattered on the floor and pens and pencils went everywhere. Curly shrieked and fell backwards over her chair, and the door slid open faster than any other to allow a pair of kevlar armored guards to rush, levitating batons and screaming at me to stop.

I didn't listen.

I was on top of Curly, beating her. I wanted to hurt her. I wanted to hurt her badly. I wanted to pound her face to a bloody pulp and stomp on her until her heart popped. And keep on stomping until her body stopped twitching. Everything that I had worked for was now gone because that little bitch had abused her power to get rid of me!

I got a few good stomps in before one of the guards hit me over the side of the head with his baton. It knocked me right off of her and the other guard clipped a metal collar with a chain attached to it and tugged me away from Curly. She scrambled up and hid behind the first guard, her face bloody and mane a mess, and I made another jump at her, but her guard took another swing at my head and I was out like a light.

When I came to, I had a bandage on my head, which did nothing to stop the throbbing, and I was locked in a cell. I was stripped of my jumpsuit and my PipBuck was gone, leaving just a bare spot on my hoof, which had considerably less fur. Hell, it might as well have been bald for how thin it was, and it was gross seeing my skin, too. And to make matters worse, Silyl was in the cell across from me.

He no longer had the groomed appearance, and scars took up half of his body like a broken vase glued back together with patched of gray fur growing back in the sea of dark red spots.

“What are you in for?” asked Silyl.

I didn't answer him. Instead I peeked down the rows of cells and saw Ebony huddled in her corner, sniffling and rocking back and forth.

“This isn't happening. This isn't happening. This isn't happening,” she said over and over again.

In another cell was a skin and bones earth pony with injection marks along his limbs. He had a yellow coat, wiry white hair and unfocused eyes. He was pacing in circles and gnawing at his limbs every so often.

There were twelve others, all terrified, all whispering to each other, trying to figure out what they did wrong. The only one who seemed accepting of his fate was Silyl.

“What are you in for?” asked Silyl again.

I swallowed, despite having no spit. “A vendetta put me here.”

Silyl smirked. “That's usually how it works.”

“How can they exile me!?” cried Ebony. “I didn't mix up the mail that bad! What kind of punishment is exile for mixing up mail, anyway? This is not fair!”

“No, what's not fair is being exiled because you got sick and couldn't work for a week,” said Red Wine, a stallion with an orange coat, red mane and a wine glass for a cutie mark.

“How about messing up a hair cut?” said Sapphire Moonlight sourly. She was a unicorn with a white coat and a long, flowing blue mane with strips of purple and light blue.

That followed with the others shouting about what they did or did not do and trying to one-up each other on how badly they got screwed over. As this happened, Silyl simply shook his head and went to the corner of his cell, and I found myself mirroring him.

The next few days were visiting days, where friends and family would spend their last moments with the exiled. Rose and Artisan showed up, and my dad, too, surprisingly. He didn't say much, but on the only day he did show, he put his hoof through the bars and pulled me close so that our foreheads could touch. He only said one thing to me: “I'm sorry.”

He rubbed the back of my head, hoof shaking, and we looked at each other with tears in his eyes and lips trembling, and then he left in a hurry.

I never saw him again.

Rose and Artisan came back every day, though. Every day Rose promised to fix what happened and every day she came back saying they were working on it. Every day was a failure.

Artisan brought me cookies, and gave some to the other exiles. He and Rose both had to be escorted out by the guards every day since they stayed after visiting hours.

On the last day of visiting, after visiting hours were long over, Curly Mane dropped by with a couple of guards and came to my cell. She looked at me, smiling proudly, despite the scars on her face, and I glared back at her.

“Don't worry, Ephemeris, I will take good care of Rose,” said Curly. She leaned in close to my cell and said: “I will take really good care of her. Have fun in the Wasteland. Plenty of tails for you out there.”

She giggled and left without another word, and me and everybody else in the holding area watched her go. When the door slammed shut, Red Wine snorted.

“Somepony needs to poison her,” he said.

I couldn't agree more.

New Year's Day.

The Day of the Exile.

First Day of Hell.

Whatever one called it, it didn't matter. It was always a show with the same outcome every year. The guards gave everypony a saddle stuffed with canteens, food, and medical supplies, and a little memorabilia. Mine was the pocket watch I made.

Its silver plate and gold trim was polished, the tree etched in it was clear, and when I popped open the case the ticking worked just as smoothly as when I first finished it. It brought me to tears and a smile, and I slung it around my neck after putting my saddle on. When all the exiles had their saddles on, the guards let us out and escorted us down the hall towards the Stable door.

The hall was dim and barely big enough to allow us to walk it in pairs of two. I had the misfortune of being next to the geeker, whom I found out was Yellow Whiskers, and he was so fried from drugs that he thought he was being led to Candy Mountain by marshmallow ducklings.

When we got to the entrance lobby there was a crowd gathered and a line of guards keeping an eye on the door while volunteers kept the citizens in check. Braid Mane and Buzzcut were observing everything from a perch, and I saw Curly standing in front of the crowd, next to Rose and Artisan. Rose was crying in Artisan's shoulder, and he was trying to comfort her. Curly also looked like she was trying to comfort Rose, but when she saw me, she smiled and hugged Rose like how a brat would hug their prized teddy bear.

My group kept walking, but when I got to Rose we hugged, and I didn't want to let go of her. I had to close my eyes just so I didn't have to see Curly's scowl or Artisan's tears.

“It's going to be okay.” I told her, running my hoof through her mane.

Rose nodded, and tried to say something, but all she could do was sniffle. I knew she wanted to believe it, just like I wanted to, but we both knew that nothing was going to be okay. Our world had just turned upside down and I won't ever be able to return.

The guards had to pull me away from her, and as I was being dragged away I looked at Artisan. “Keep an eye on her.”

Artisan nodded and wiped his eyes. “She'll be safe with me.”

Artisan couldn't hurt a fly, but it made me feel better that Rose will have him by her side. He tried to hug me, too, but he was pushed back and I was forced to keep walking.

When I got to the bottle cap shaped entrance of the Stable with the other exiles, I could feel all eyes on us. Familiar eyes. Eyes I loved and hated, and eyes I barely knew. But they were all watching, and when the Overmare typed in her code there was a heavy silence. I did everything I could to hold back my tears, but I could feel a few of them trickle down my cheek.

Moments of silence and there was a loud crack, followed by squeaking and grinding, and Silyl took a deep breath and glanced at all of us.

“Next stop... Hell,” he said.

Ebony whimpered and was hugged by Sapphire, Yellow laughed and stomped the floor, and Red Wine started shaking while I quietly watched the mechanical arm descend from the ceiling and grab a hold of the door's knob. When the door opened, the whole room shook from the rumbling, and everypony -me included- instinctively folded our ears to muffle the horrible screeching sound of metal grinding against metal. Once it was out, it rolled to the side and I saw my future.

A desolate, hopeless wasteland with no life as far as the eye could see. Not even the sun was able to shine through the murky cloud barrier covering the sky.

I took a deep breath, looked over my shoulder and tried to give a reassuring smile to Rose and Artisan. Rose's face was soaked in tears, and Artisan had wrapped his hoof around her shoulder. Rose waved farewell and I think Artisan was out of tears, because all he could do was gulp. To enforce his pledge, he hugged Rose tighter, and I nodded and looked back towards the Tartarus I would be living in.

Then I walked out.

Footnote: Level Up!

New Perk: Horse Sense -- You are a swift learner. You gain an additional +10% whenever experience points are earned.

Author's Notes:

Minor rewrites.