Lord of the Foals[Closed]

Starry fell upon her flank to take a breath. She and the others had just walked Luna knows how far, and now, they've finally arrived at Stable 113.

It was a few days ago, when Starry began organizing the most capable ponies in Stableton for the largest scavenging mission the town had ever undertaken. They were going to return to Stable 113. It had been almost a year since they had left home, and now some of the ponies were returning to gather supplies and to learn what fate had befallen their home since they escaped.

"Well... there it is, home. The door's still open. It's probably been that way since we left. Shall we?"

STABLE INFO

There are many locations within the stable you might want to check out. Here is a list of some of them.

Security Office
Clinic
Atrium
School
Your house
Maintenance Level

The security office is accessed by ascending a staircase to a balcony overlooking the main hall. The school, clinic, and atrium are past the main hall, and are all very close to one another. The atrium is a wide, open space, large enough to provide pegasi limited use of their flight. There is a fountain in the center surrounded by benches, and there are tables on the outskirts. There is a small stage on one end of the atrium, and the cafeteria is built into the corner of the other side. There is a lot of green. There are pots for flowers, but ponies keep eating them. It might be a very relaxing place if it weren't always so crowded, but it's not been crowded for over a year.

Your House is on the second level of the stable, along with all the others. The second level is the residential level.

The third level is maintenance, but there's a separate stairway from the second floor that leads to the orchard, where all the food is grown. The only access between the orchard and the rest of the maintenance level is through maintenance tunnels and ventilation shafts.

"So here we are again...", thought Arc in front of the door of his former home.

Arc wasn't precisely sure why he joined this... expedition. There wasnt anything for him left here, no old friends unaccounted for, no relatives or such to bury... yet he was here nonetheless. Maybe it was just curiosity, maybe he just wished to know the truth, maybe he was just stupid.

"Let's go, no point in waiting if we are greeted by an open doors, no?"

Sky just thought about the life she left behind in Stable 113, the killings and such. The Door was still open, after all this time the door was still open. Sky just sighed at the sight, She remembered the ponies she left and killed. Her parents and Gear, she left these parts of her life behind and now she was ready to go and jump back in to.

Sky just nodded her head at Starry, "Yeah, were back home." Sky said she to the entrance of the Stable.

“…yeah. There it is.” Bakewell sighed sadly. “Home sweet home.”

Out of all the places in the wasteland, Stable 113 was probably the last place the mare had ever expected to return. So many memories, so many bad, bad memories. Already she wanted to just sit there and let the past consume her. She couldn’t, not this early on. If she faltered for too long now there was no way to tell what would happen once she actually got inside. Stableton needed tech to trade, and as much as she hated to admit it, Bakewell needed to come back. She needed to see Stable 113 again. There were goodbyes she felt like she had to make, even if it was far too late to make them. There were bodies that probably deserved to be buried, assuming against hope that they had not already been devoured by some wasteland critter lucky enough to find a massive pony buffet.

“Let’s go. I don’t have a gun, so if it’s okay I’ll either take or share the lead. There might be something in here. If it's hostile I want to be close enough to help. If it's not hostile then, well, I'm unarmed.” She said in a surprisingly and uncharacteristically flat tone.

As the group approached the doors of Stable 113, they were accompanied by a familiar, glowy-eyed filly and her pet gecko, fresh from their trip into the Moohove (and out in Liz’s case). And now here they were, helping the expedition into the abandoned Stable. When questioned why she wanted to come, she wasn’t from the stable after all, she gave a variety of answers. She wanted to help, especially since Bakewell and some of the others from the Moohove caravan were there, she wanted to see what was in stable, and, perhaps most bizarre of all, her ‘Violet Sense was Tingling’. As she was grinning wildly at the time, nopony was quite sure if she was serious...however, she almost always grins like that, so there’s that to consider...

Leather Barding snug around the filly, she stepped up near the front of the group. Liz flanking her. This served two purposes. One, it’d be easier for her to see any threats before they became, well, threats. She was at home in this tight tunnels. She could see anything close by before it could see them! Not to mention all the ventilation these stables had...

Two, if anything did happen, Liz would be able to get to it quickly, and she could be a surprisingly vicious fighter. Or, perhaps unsurprisingly....Regardless, the Moohove taught Violet that you didn’t want her going after you in a fight, especially in these close quarters. They both stayed behind Bakewell, mostly because she was right about the unarmed thing. Technically, both of Violet’s weapons, her cleaver and Mr. Bonesaw, were safely out of sight in her bags, but Liz herself could pretty much count a living weapon. She wasn’t full-grown yet, but she could still rip a pony’s leg off with those teeth!

Violet would have said something at this point, but by the...somber mood of the group she knew it wouldn’t be appreciated at this point. So she just settled for her normal grin, not too excited, and none of that vicious stuff. It’s not like there were any slavers here or anything like that, so why would she have to go into that mode?

Shutter followed beside Starry in his police barding, his sharp eyes snapping back and forth as he watched for any threats. He had been strangely quiet ever since he had come back from that venture with Kestrel, and this trip hadn't changed that much.

However, when they arrived at the front of the stable, he finally did speak up, as he looked at the door.

"...I'll scout ahead...if there's anything dangerous in there still, then I'll probably be the least likely to be seen..."

He mumbled, letting off a light shiver as he thought back to the day they had escaped...

Lightning followed the group silently as they began to approach his home. The place where he lived for a large majority of his life. The place where his nightmares came true. The place where the source of all his bad memories was. Stable 113. Originally, he didn't want to return home. He wasn't sure if he could handle the emotional drama that might occur if he returned home. But for some reason, there was a feeling inside him that told him that he must return. In the end, he agreed to go back to Stable 113.

Now, standing in front of the large door, a feeling of worry and dread fell on him. This was it. Now or never. He would look at Shutter and say, "You want me to come with you? I'm...I can keep you covered if something goes wrong..."

The ponies approached the stable door cautiously. Before they reach it, however, they can see a foal fleeing from inside. He was easily identifiable to the stable ponies as ‘Ralph’, a nickname the other foals gave him after he threw up in class. Unfortunately for Ralph, when you live sealed away in an underground stable for your entire life, a foal puking in class tends to be the biggest news to go around, and pretty soon Ralph became more commonly used than the foal's actual name.

The foal collapsed at the threshold to the Stable, before anypony has the chance to reach him. He had several fresh bullet holes in his back.

Bakewell wasn’t sure what to expect as the group neared the Stable. Wasteland monsters? Raiders? The list went on and on, but for all of the possibilities it covered, the survival of the insane residents was not on the list, nor was a fleeing shot up foal. Bakewell felt like her chest was a few sizes too small as she stared at the collapsed foal. She knew this foal. There was an age difference, but age hadn’t mattered to Bakewell back in the stable. Everypony was a possible target.

“I’m sorry.” She whispered a useless apology to the foal. She began carefully moving closer, as though afraid the small body would explode once she got too close. His wounds were fresh. Even Bakewell could tell that. Was the stable still stuffed full of ponies suffering from self inflicted insanity? Was the group heading right back into the active genocide they had left a year ago?

The last thing Lightning expected was a small foal running out of the Stable. To make matters worse, he knew who this foal was. He remembered the story of Ralph. It made him sad thinking about it but looking down at the poor thing, he could see the fresh bullet wounds in his back. It was too easy to tell. It didn't take a doctor to see that.

Gritting his teeth hard, the pegasus would feel a low anger begin to rise up in him. What was going on inside the Stable? It's been a year and the evil that he thought he escaped was still going on inside?! Was that the case? Or did Ralph simply get caught in the wrong place at the wrong time and some raiders or something shot him in the back? Either way, Lightning wasn't going to take the chance. Slowly, he would unholster his SMG. He wasn't sure how many others he would recognize still inside but he wasn't afraid to use deadly force against them if he had too...maybe...

Violet’s eyes narrowed upon seeing the kid drop dead. Reevaluating her previous statement about there being no bad ponies here, she dived towards the stable doors and pressed against the side, her eyes glowing as turned towards the stable and gazed through the steel walls between the outside and the stable, looking for and identifying any possible hostiles inside. Liz of course quickly followed the filly, taking her side behind her as the filly tried to find any enemies. Violet was not grinning.

The filly glanced over as Bakewell, who was slowly approaching the dead foal...and was completely out in the open. Not very eager to see one of her only friends get perforated like the colt, the filly tried to yell out to the mare. “Bakewell! You need to get down, whoever shot him could be right inside!” she hissed, dragging the mare away from the door with magic if necessary.

Starry watched in horror as the life evaporated from the little colt. This was a colt she knew. She had seen him around the stable, she had spoken to his parents once or twice! His parents thought she was a basket case, but then, everypony thought that of Starry.

Starry galloped over toward the colt. She had some basic medical supplies in her saddlebags, there must have been something she could do, she would have though to herself, but the colt was already dead by the time she reached it.

Shutter let out a gasp, as he rushed over beside Starry. He had known nearly everyone in the Stable, and Ralph had been no exception. He had felt for the kid, and had made sure to avoid any mention of his incident in the newsletter, but word of mouth was a very common way of spreading news in a small community of a few hundred, and there was little Shutter could do. He had been a victim of bullying himself after all, and he knew all too well how much it sucked...

By the time they reached the body, Shutter knew somewhere inside that they were too late, but he still had to check, as he felt for a pulse on the small body, his hoof coming away with several drops of blood from his attempt

"...He's gone..."

A year later and yet there was still life left to be taken. How nice of the Stable to prepare invitation like this, but at least for Ralph, if Arc remembered correctly his name, the madness was over. For others, another question left to answer.
"And as always, it's such a pleasure."

Arc pulled out his pistol and dived to the side of the cave. Then Starry and Shutter ran past him towards the maw of the Stable.

"Get back, it's too late and whoever did this to him could be waiting for us!"

From the depths of the stable emerged four foals, all equipped with automatic guns. They were, of course, easily identifiable as stable ponies. There was Einara the zebra filly, who must be about 11 by now, Trigger Happy, an 8 year old pegasus and a bully, and Sundae, the young unicorn filly who hadn't even gotten her cutie mark yet. She couldn't be more than 9 years old.

Leading the pack was an earth pony colt named Tire Jack. A 14-year old earth pony, who's cutie mark matched his name. Ponies typically just referred to him as 'Jack'. While there were meaner foals in the stable, none of them were quite as cunning as Jack. He had started his own little 'gang' in the stable before the violence broke out, and was a natural leader. His crimes in the stable were bad enough that the teacher decided to rig his test results, dooming him to a life-long career as a hairdresser.

There are two automated turrets that pop out of the floor, and point at the ponies in the doorway. This is in addition to the four foals pointing their weapons. One of the foals, Trigger Happy, actually fires once, but his shot ricochets off the doorway, missing everypony.

"Is it ready?!" Jack shouts at them, before he gets a good look. "Oh, it's just you ponies. Step inside the stable, and drop your weapons!" he commands.

Starry and Shutter had to run forward and expose themselves by checking the body of Ralph. Lightning couldn't blame them though. Ralph was bullied and back when he was a foal, so was himself. That almost made him run after Ralph when he saw him. But thankfully, he didn't because four ponies finally came out. And the pegasus wasn't surprised to see who it was.

Jack and his little gang of ponies, all armed with automatic weapons. Lightning bit down just a little harder on his gun when he saw them. He had always disliked the group. Jack, the most. The pegasus didn't change his position once he saw the young ponies. The cave didn't provide much cover so he still stayed staring at Jack and the rest of them, his SMG pointed toward the stable door. Lightning wasn't about to put down his gun until the others make him.

Sky just stared at the stable ponies, armed with automatic weapons. These were just kids, but here they are with guns to them and probably a firefight will ensue. She recognized these ponies two at the front, the trouble makers that were a pain while she worked for security. Sure they had a automatic weapons but she also had one, within a second she had her 10mm Smg in her mouth. To have the Smg in her shoulder was a convenience and now she would either fight her way in or drop the gun, if the others decided not to fight.

"What the fuck?" was the only though Arc managed to think before he instinctively ducked from the gunshot. As he rised from the ground, he got a good look on the assailant. "...the hay? These fillies cant be older than...", Arc looked at his companions,"...are we gonna shoot them? Well...i'm certainly not going to let myself get captured. Not here, and not by them."

Arc floated out his pistol and nodded to the rest of the group. Hopefully they'll manage to scare them, but if not... well, they will not.

Starry glared menacingly at her companions. "They're just foals," she scolded, "What are you going to do, shoot them?"

Starry, for one, chose to follow Jack's orders. She wasn't happy taking commands from a foal, but she wasn't going to shoot them. She knew them since they had been born. She knew their parents as early as she could remember. These foals, though a scary and dangerous bunch, were still as much her family as anypony else who had escaped the stable with her.

Naturally, Starry stepped inside the stable, past the threshold of the door. She had to step over Ralph's body, who she was quite sure had been shot by these foals. She then bit onto her saddlebags, and dropped them at her feet. She did the same with her utility belt, which held all her grenades, and the sword hanging around her waist.

"I would have expected better from stable foals," Starry said to them, her voice laced with disappointment.

Shutter took a few seconds to take in the situation, as he looked at the foals. It was hard enough to comphehend the fact that he had children aiming guns at him and his companions, but the fact that they were stable ponies themselves and still doing so?

Shutter almost felt an urge of reflex to go for his pistol, but fortunatly, his emotional side wouldn't let him, and all he did was pull the weapon off his side and drop it at his feet as he stepped forward with Starry, not letting her go in alone. Despite his hatred for the bullies, he did still share Starry's sentiments in a way, and even if they hadn't been stable dwellers, they were still just foals...

His only responce was a sigh as he dumped his own saddlebags next to Starry's, wondering if they had come back to the Stable only to be trapped here again...

Sky cursed under her breath, She had to give her weapon to these crazy foals. But if two of the herd did it, then so be it. Sky didn't want to argue with Starry or these kids for that matter, might as well just do what they say. Sky lowered her weapon, put it back inside her saddlebag, and threw it on her feet. Sure these were kids, but they were kids with guns. A double edge sword of the moment, you cant kill them but they can kill you type of moment. As any reason to consider, where did they get the automatic weapons? Did they raid the Armory, went out into the wastes, Met ponies and gave them the guns? Like it even matters till we get inside, she will get her things back when this is all over.

Bakewell followed Starry into the Stable immediately, shurigging off her light saddlebags in a well-practiced (even if coated in a year’s worth of rust) sign of noncommitance. Handing over weapons meant nothing at all to her, since she didn’t actually have any weapons to begin with. If anything walking up and discarding her almost completely empty saddlebag was almost an advantage. It meant that she was fast enough to attack without having to charge through a hail of bullets to do so.

Not that the mare wanted to attack. If she initiated combat it would end in more death, and while the tan mare certainly wanted to smack these foals upside the head and maybe rough them up, she didn’t want her companions to shoot them. Bullets were far too fatal.

Unlike Starry, Bakewell didn’t berate the foals and quickly moved her attention elsewhere, eyes scanning the inside of the stable. She was pretty confident that the foals wouldn’t care about what some adults expected of them, much less a total geek like Starry. Bakewell sure knew she wouldn’t have when she lived in the stable.

But still, poor Ralph… Maybe if she got back out of the stable alive she could give him a burial afterwards. It wasn’t much, but…

Violet’s eyes narrowed as the foals revealed themselves. And they all had automatic weaponry.

Things just got a bit more complicated.

Violet, from her position, should still be hidden from the foals. If she wanted to, she could just stay here and follow them all in, they’d never see her, especially once she found the ventilation system. But, she decided against it. It might work, but it’d be just as likely one of the group would accidentally give away her position. No, she had a different idea. She quietly slid her cleaver out of her bag....And dropped it on the ground. Next, while everypony was still distracted, she quickly and quietly stripped out of her leather barding, leaving it on the ground next to the cleaver. With that taken care of, she turned to Liz.

“Alright Liz,” the filly whispered “I need you to stay out here and wait for us. You can wander off and kill a mole rat or something, but I need you to come back, and stay out of sight until nopony can see you, kay?”

With that, the filly turned away and walked into sight of everypony else, wearing nothing but her weaponless saddlebags (Well, Mr.Bonesaw was in there, but he’s hardly an effective weapon). Her trademark bright, smiley grin was flashing as she walked up to the armed and dangerous foals, looking as innocent and carefree as a 14 year old filly.”Oh hi! I’m Violet Star! What are your name?” she cocked her head as she took in large weapons they all were equipped with. “Cool toys! What’ch ya playing?”

Despite her carefree appearance, the little filly was quite prepared to shove their weapons out of the way at the first sign of them about to fire. They were well within the range of her telekinesis, and she doubted that the foals would have enough strength to resist. And that also meant they were well within TK-throttling range. Basically, she looked like a harmless little filly, but as only a few members of the expedition knew, she was far from that.

For some strange reason, the words that Starry said burned in his mind. As much as he wanted to convince himself otherwise, foals are foals and the pegasus couldn't shoot them. Despite his own wants to defend himself. Swearing in his head, Lightning just muttered under his breath, "Damn it...Damn, damn, damn it..."

Relaxing his stance, he would reholster his weapon, walking slowly up to the foals before tossing his saddlebags on the ground in front of them. Next, he would undo all his holsters and toss them in front of the foals as well. His armor shouldn't be a problem without his weapons so quietly, he would just walk into the Stable. The only question that lingered in his mind was, 'What did I just get myself into?'

Jack couldn't hold back a grin as each of the ponies slowly followed his order, trotting into the stable, over Ralph's body, which was on the threshold. He stepped around to a terminal, and pressed several buttons.

Suddenly, the massive stable door began to swing closed. Ralph body, which laid lifelessly in the threshold, was crushed under the weight of the massive door. There was a sickening crunch as his flesh and bones were crushed under it's weight. As the door slid shut, it dragged Ralph's body the short distance with it, leaving a short, grotesque streak of foal's blood. Jack let out a sinister chuckle as he and the others observed the gory display.

With a final hiss of steam, the door had been sealed shut behind the ponies. None of the seven explorers had the codes for the door, which meant they were trapped within the depths of Stable 113.

"Welcome home," Jack said, with a smug grin, as two of the foals, Sundae and Einara, began collecting their weapons and saddlebags.

"Hey, Bakebad, wasn't it?" Jack taunted, casting his glance over Bakewell. "You know, you and your marefriend caused a lot of trouble for us in the past. You might have forgotten, but don't worry, I've made sure that your parents remembered."

"Say, why don't all of you go and visit your parents? They're still alive," Jack cast his glance over toward Sky, and shook his head mockingly. "Well, most of them."

Jack had begun to turn around to leave the room, when his eye caught Violet. "Oh, hey. I haven't seen you in the stable before. "Name's Tire Jack, but you can just call me Jack. You ought to come visit me in the security office some time. I'll let the foals know to let you pass."

As Jack turned to leave the room, he yet again had to turn back, to say something he had forgotten. "Oh, right. I'm calling a meeting tomorrow morning. All of you had better be there, got it? Good." With that, Jack turned around and left the room, followed shortly afterwards by the foals carrying the group's saddlebags and weapons.