Lord of the Foals[Closed]

Shutter didn't look back as he heard the crunch, a wince of disgust visible on his face...he knew what it was from where Ralph's body had been, and he didn't want to see it...

When Jack mentioned that their parents were all alive, Shutter felt a strange mix of joy, and panic...his father had been no combatant, and the idea of him having been stuck in the stable for a year? Oh no...why hadn't Shutter gone back to find him? He needed to go make sure he was alright ASAP!

Shutter barely listened to what Jack was saying, too busy with panic for his father...however, one word that Jack used stuck out from the rest despite Shutter's worries, and got his mind thinking on something else for a split-second.

...Foals...are the children running the security office? ...How is that possible? Is this little bastard supposed to be in charge?!

...No, wait, you can consider plans and infomation-swapping later, right now...you need to find Dad...

With that, he snapped his head to the side with rapid-speed, moving to face Starry.

"Starry...if Jack is telling the truth...then we have to make sure they're okay! I thought Dad was dead, but if he's still alive...then I have to find him...and I'm sure the others feel the same way about their own families..."

Lightning followed Shutter's example and he didn't look back at the Stable door as it swung close, Ralph's body being crushed by it. He just stood there, paralyzed. His head hung low and his eyes were closed as the sickening crunch could be heard. He gritted his teeth as he tried to force himself not to lash out against Jack.

However, something the pony said did catch his attention. Their parents could still be alive...Lifting his head higher and looking around at the others, that feeling to go find his family began to tug at him. The guilt of leaving his parents behind in the Stable was still very strong and Lightning had to find out if he had made the right choice of leaving when he could. Taking in a deep breath, the pegasus would look at the others before deciding that it was better to figure out a course of action with them before running off alone.

Arc stood in the Stable airlock and watched the remains of Ralph being slowly turned into red goo.
"They're just foals, Starry? Yes... like we haven't seen this a hundred times already... only foals..."
"Parents, family...of course you little prick, of course you know they are dead."

With the final bits of steam released from the pistons moving the door, Arc turned to others.
"Well, apparently the reactor is still running. I don't think, though, that there was anypony left here alive with knowledge how to keep it going. If they actually kept it online for a year... it could be doing any number of things, leaking radiation, leaking coolant into groundwater...", Arc fell on his haunches and held his head against one of the metal walls.
"...yeash, we're in a fucked up place, aren't we, Starry?", asked Arc in a weak, timid voice.

Starry fell back on her flank. She was incredibly relieved to see the foals leave, incredibly worried that they had been sealed within the Stable, and incredibly hopeful that her family might still be alive.

'Thank the goddesses that ended without anypony else getting hurt, but how long will we be trapped here? Up until a year ago, I had no problem with the idea of living out my entire life in this stable. Now, it feels so confined... but my family might still be alive! My mom, my dad, my sister! I have to find them! I wonder what my dad will think of Shutter? I wonder what his dad will think of me?'

Starry had been snapped out of her stupor by Shutter and Arc's words. "W-what? Oh, yes. Shutter, we should find our parents. Maybe we should all split up and look for our families? We could try to meet in the atrium afterward. We can try to find a way out of here later... let's figure out what's happened to our home first. And Arc... I have no idea what kind of trouble we're in. Let's all be on our guard. And... and let's not get our hopes up."

Bakewell couldn’t tear her eyes away from the stable door as it slowly crushed Ralph’s remains. Okay, NOW she wanted to shoot the punks. A lot. With bullets. The fact that they had just been locked into the nutcase stable didn’t even seem to properly register in Bakewell’s mind; there just wasn’t room for it what with all the disgusting horror and the taunting.

Bakewell wanted to lash forwards, wanted to tackle Jack and beat him to a bloody pulp, guns and bullets be damned. But Bakewell had once upon a time played this game often and knew it all too well. If she attacked or harbored the wrong reaction in front of him the gang leader would win. She refused to give him that satisfaction.

“That’s nice, Jack. Why don’t you run along? I think your little friends are ready for you to braid their manes.” She responded off-hoofedly. To the mare’s credit, she managed, if just barely, to keep her face solid until the gang left. Once they had gone she felt hot silent tears trickle slowly down her visage as it morphed into an undecided image of grief and fury. Jack had better hope that she didn’t run across him alone in an empty hallway.

“Okay.” She responded in simple agreement once Starry’s plan had been proposed. Bakewell did feel like she owed her parents something. She knew she hadn’t been the filly they wanted. Who could possibly want such a terrible child, after all? But… maybe she could surprise them. She was glad to hear that they had apparently survived. They deserved to survive.

… though she would have rathered that the two adults had died and Cream Cheese had lived. The knowledge that she would willingly trade two close lives in return for one felt wrong and awful in her brain, but was undeniably there.

Shutter looked at Starry with concern. it was strange to see the happy-go-lucky Mare seem shaken, and he knew he had to do something to help.

Clearing his throat, he then spoke up to the rest of the group.

"Well, if we're going to split up, then I'll go with Starry..."

With that, Shutter then stepped over and sat down beside the mare, before moving in for the hug, trying to be a good, comforting coltfriend.

"...Hey...are you going to be okay? A lot's happened in a short time...I can't imagine it's easy to take this all in..."

Sky listened to the bone crunch of Ralph, the foal that was crushed by the stable door. That Disturbed Sky as she stood there to see the body being turned into paste, these foals are the equivalent of Raiders back in the wasteland. She stood there frozen like the others in the same place, to listen to Jack rant on about how we are home. She couldn't do or say anything to them, without being threatened or shot. She heard that bakewell had a marefriend, that was an interesting aspect of bakewell. Then he turned to Sky, about her parents. He knew my parents died, yeah who wouldn't I killed them.

Sky just stared hung her head, she already told some ponies what she had to do to survive. But what about the others, what will they say to her that she also killed her parents. Like it matters to them, this is her life not theirs. And in the second of her parents she remembered about a pony in the stable, a certain type of pony she knew to hold so dear, Gear. How could she forgot about him, he was her coltfriend while in the stable. Sky walked forward to the door were Jack left, "Are the rest of you going to find your parents or you going to stand around and talk? And if we are splitting up, ill go with Bakewell. If thats ok with her." Sky said to the entire group, a little rash about going to see Gear.

Violet cocked her head as she watched the other foals leave, a bemused grin on her face. “Well, they seemed like nice foals!...Well, besides the murder...And the locking us in here...And the taking of all your weapons...And the fact that they just crushed that colt’s body...But besides all that!”

She turned to the others, who all appeared to be in a state of apprehension, most likely for a variety of reasons ranging from seeing their parents again, assuming they’re alive, to the fact that foals were running the place and all had big guns. Understandable, even if Violet had no connections to this place and rarely felt overly worried about anypony pointing guns are her. She didn’t feel that apprehension, but she could certainly understand it.

“Well, if you ponies are going to try and find your parents, I’m going to see what this Jack wants to see me about.” she told them cheerfully, already turning away and following the path of the foals, into the stable proper. “And maybe do some...exploring. I’m sure a place like this has plenty of ventilation!”

"I'm going be alright, Shutter. There is a whole lot to think about. I had thought everypony in the stable had died during the incident." Starry let out a deep sigh, before a smile crept across her face. "But our families might be alive! Let's go, Shutter. I can't wait to show you to my parents! I mean, they already know you, but they don't really know anything about you!"

Starry had evidently settled on the idea that her family was alive. It at least brought a big smile to her face. "We have so many stories to tell! Wait until my dad hears about what happened on our first date!"

Starry grabbed Shutter's hoof, and cantered off with him toward her former home in the stable. She may have forgotten about Shutter's father, in her enthusiasm. "Meet the rest of you in the atrium later! And Violet, don't let Jack hurt you! Be safe, everypony!"

With that, Starry was gone, rushing down the hallway toward home with Shutter in hoof.

The sound of Jasmine's wings resonated in the hall of the stabe as she flew as fast as she could. Most of the features of her surroundings seemed to be lost in one massive blur. Jasmine desperately needed to wear her glasses, but chose not to in an effort to avoid unwanted attention. She spent her life racing down the hallway to entertain herself, lately it has come in handy helping her avoid the thuggish children.

Jasmine turns the corner at her top speed and encounters two blurs in her path, one trotting along with a blue color, the other appeared grey. Any thought of taking evasive action was overran with joy. There's only one blur in the stable she knew about, but it couldn't be...

"THHHHHTARRY!?"

“Of course it’s okay, Sky.” Bakewell replied as she walked through said door. Maybe having another pony with her would make her seem less… monstrous? It would certainly boost her confidence some. Besides, even if Bakewell had been adverse to Sky coming along she wouldn’t have said no. Forcing the pegasus to sit around on her own while everyone else went to find long lost family members would be super mean.

...What was she going to say? What would her parents say? How would they react? Were they okay? Jack’s words had sounded like a threat. It was probably one full of hot air, but the thought that her parents might be suffering because of her seemed to finally hit. She could only hope that things wouldn’t go too poorly when she found them.

Speaking of that, where would she even find them? Maybe their old room? That was as good of a lead as any, she supposed.

"OOF!" Starry yelped, as the clumsy pegasus crashed into her. She realized, of course, exactly who it was that had crashed into her. Starry was faced with the conflicting feelings of just having had the wind blown out of her by a high-speed collision, and finding out that her favorite(and only) sister was still alive.

Starry took a quick breather. Now was not the time to be in pain, now was the time to feel overjoyed at finding her sister! After a short breather, Starry was back in shape to live up to the occasion. She hopped up onto her hooves, and embraced Jasmine in a tight hug.

"Jazz!! You don't know what a relief it is to see that you haven't been murdered yet!" Starry ended the hug, so that she could point a hoof at Shutter. "Jazzie, this is Shutter. You know, the nerd who had no friends who did the radio broadcasts? We're dating now! And Shutter, this is my sister Jasmine! You've probably run into her before. Actually, she's probably run into you far more often!"

Hearing Starry mention talking about the date to her father, Shutter's face went ghost white, as he stammered out a responce

"Er...Starry...aha...maybe it might not be a good idea to talk to your father about too much detail into the date...particulary what happened while drunk...and probably what happened after we were sober...it's not real-OOF!"

Shutter was quickly cut off as a bright yellow figure barreled into both him and Starry, sending him rolling a good bit back down the corridor due to his light frame...and somehow giving him a slight sense of deja vu from the Stable days...was this who he thought it was?

"Ugh...Jasmine?"

Shutter mumbled, as he slowly pulled himsef back to his hooves as h stumbled back over, letting Starry talk ('Nerd with no friends? Is that how everyone saw me? Aww...'). However, one detail stuck out for him...while he was familiar with a lot of ponies from the Stable days, he couldn't help but be surprised at the mention that Jasmine was Starry's sister!

"Uh...Hello! I didn't know you were part of Starry's family! Nice to...well...er...be introduced to you!"

He said sheepishly, as he extended a hoof to shake, not too sure how a greeting under these circumstances should probably go...

Lightning blinked as he watched Starry run off with Shutter. Taking in a long breath, he wondered what his parents would do when they found out that he was still alive. Would they accept him back with open hooves? Or is he going to get scolded for abandoning them during a time of need? Do they even want him back after leaving them so suddenly? Those questions and more continued to race through his mind but there was only one way to find out. He had to go find his parents. Walking past the others, the pegasus began to walk back to his old room that he once called home, hoping by some chance, that they would be there. He had to know that they were ok before dealing with Jack later.

Sky followed Bakewell as she replied to her, she accepted her offer to go and together they were. Sky only had one pony to go to here but being with Bakewell on the mean time would be just a small boost to get through the memories she had about her parents, She needed a pony right now. And hopefully Gear is still alive after an entire year of her not being here, Sky hung her head as she continued on with bake. The Stable really didn't much, still cool though. Maybe the Stable survived the threat and everything went back to....well not normal but semi sane, probably worth it to be here like this.

Jasmine brought her face uncomfortably close to Shutter's hoof and squinted, attempting to take in as much detail as possible. She suddenly realized that he was attempting to offer his hoof for a friendly hoofshake, to which she responded with a hearty hoof-bump.

"Nithe to meet you Thutter...Thutter...Thut...ter...".

Jasmine tried repeating the name to herself, eventually accepting the fact that she would never be able to replicate his name as well as she would like to. She smiled while looking back and fourth between the two.

"Oh Thtarry, your colt friend ith tho cute. I'm tho happy for you both; I never thought a nerd like you could land a colt. Thtallionth don't normally go for the thmart oneth like uth"!

Jasmine said this to her sister completely oblivious to any offense that she may cause.

Starry's grin couldn't get any wider, as she nodded in agreement. "I know! But don't worry, Shutter here is different. He's not put off by our outstanding intellect." Starry hadn't meant to brag, she was simply trying to state the truth as she saw it.

"Hey, Jazz," Starry asked her, looking more serious. "Are our parents okay? We've been gone for over a year, what's happened?" Starry wanted answers, and there was no pony she trusted more for answers than her sister.

Shutter was a bit surprised by the hoof-bump, but accepted it, as he remained quiet for a bit to let the sisters talk amongst themselves. He didn't want to interrupt Starry's moment of being reunited with her own family any more then he had to...though he did feel a bit uncomfortable about the topic of how Shutter apparantly wasn't put off by their staggering intellect (Which while true, did make Shutter feel a little...well...dim...).

However, once the discussion on intellect was over, Shutter did speak up once Starry had asked about her parents.

"Also, whats happened here? The second we entered, we saw poor Ralph getting gunned down by Tire Jack and several other foals. It sounded like they had taken over the security room."

And so, once again alone, Arc looked as others slowly dispersed to find their own lost ones, suddenly oblivious to the fact that the Stable was apparently taken over by children that shot a foal just to prove a point.

"And here we have the reason behind it all, don't we? Attention span of a fucking goldfish. Well... now what?"

Arc looked at the exits leading out of the airlock, then took the one leading down to Atrium. If anything, he would like to see how the library fared for the year he has been gone, mabye he could smuggle some copies of books out of here. Goddesses knew the Wasteland needed more books.

The light in Jasmine's eyes wouldn't yeild, she was actually nearing the verge of tears.

"Thorry Thtar...I jutht can't believe that you both dethided to come back for good"! Jasmine regained her composure before answering her sister's question, getting a little bit choked up.

"Well mom uthually thtayth at home, thhe doethn't come out much either. And thhe loveth to complain about everything- itth ok though, I know that thhe jutht wantth whatth betht for me. Maybe you could talk to her and make her feel better! I have to beg her to leave the houthe, and when we do thhe maketh thure to thtand at a dithtanthe and pretend thhe doethn't know me. I think thhe'th jutht trying to make thure that I don't have to compete with her for attention, thhe'th tho nithe"!

She continued talking to Starry, when Shutter interjected she turned to him and responed at first with a gasp.

"Ralpphhieth dead? Oh godetheth no"! She took in a moment to accept the loss before answering Shutter.

"Well after you both left, our dad ended up leaving too. There wath a bunch of violenthe before the foalth took over. Then there wath a thort of long chunk of time where abtholutely nothing happened and then there'th you thhowing up now. Tho that's pretty much the whole thtory, you're up to thpeed. To be honetht I jutht try to avoid the foalth tho I don't know too much more."

Sky and Bakewell had reached Bakewell's home. It took several seconds after knocking for Bakewell's mother, Cherry Tart, to answer.

"Oh! B-Bakewell!" Cherry exclaimed, in genuine surprise. She leaped out of the room and embraced her daughter in a tight hug. She quickly pulled away, though, and looked over her shoulders, down the hallway and back into the house, as though checking to see that they were not being watched or overheard. Tears had begun to well up in her eyes, and she spoke in a quiet, but sincere voice.

"Bakewell, we thought you might have died out there! Wh-what are you doing back here in the stable? You shouldn't be here!"

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Lightning stood at the door to his home. He knocked on the door, and it took nearly a whole minute for the door to open, even though he could hear hooves shuffling behind it the entire time.

Lightning's father, Soarmeister stood in front of him. He was wearing a very stern, serious expression, which immediately softened when he saw his son standing before him.

"Lightning!" He whispered, trying to keep his volume down. "Come inside, quick. Your mother isn't here right now, but there's something I need to speak with you about."

Soar pulled Lightning inside the house, and locked the door behind him(using the control panel, of course). "First, I want to know what's happened to you. What is it like outside the stable? Have you been alright?"

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As Violet reached the security office, she was greeted by a very unfriendly Diamond Dog pup. His name was Snarles, but Violet wouldn't know that. What she would be able to pick up is that the pup was about 12 years old, and from the way he acted, he seemed like a very aggressive, temperamental bully.

Snarles just growled at her as she approached, and knocked at the door. It opened quickly, with Jack standing behind it.

Jack looked quite a bit messier than he did when he greeted the group at the entrance, and the room behind him was an even bigger mess. The tables were cluttered with miscellaneous trinkets and items which were probably looted from the homes of those ponies who died in the violence. All those items were piled on top of old security documents and voice recordings, which hadn't been moved since the violence broke out.

"Uh, sorry for the mess. I was actually cleaning it all day, but... well, you know, the other foals sleep here too and they make a big mess," Jack explained to Violet, as he welcomed her in. He galloped off to one of the tables, and picked something up out of the pile.

"Here, I got this for you," he said, handing her a small locket. "It's uh... something I found a while ago, I think you should have it."

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Arc Weld made his way toward the library. Unsurprisingly, it had been untouched by the foals. Most of the books, however, were not in the library. They were mostly checked out, and a large number of them had been destroyed either due to decay or accidents. There was still a librarian standing at the counter. She was an old earth pony mare, with a pink coat and gray hair. She was napping on the job.

Most of the information was located in the computer terminals, which had all of the library's books stored electronically, as well as many other audio or written logs which were made public. There was nothing in the logs of interest, with the exception of one thing, a voice recording from several months ago advertising a 'senior game night'. Should Arc Weld play the recording, he would be treated to the following message;

"Hello, this is Soarmeister. I'm starting a 'senior game night' for all of the mares and stallions who might be interested in joining. We'll be meeting every night in one of the spare rooms in the maintenance section. You don't have to be a senior to attend, but leave your foals behind. There will be... mature language at these meetings."

Lightning finally arrived in his old room, pausing outside the door. He still had so many questions running through his head and for a second, wondered if he should just walk away and come back later when he had a better explanation for his actions. But the pegasus knew in his heart that no matter how he explained it, it will add mean the same thing. He left his family alone to fend for themselves.

Finally, he summoned up as much courage as he could and knocked on the door. The long pause made him feel nervous, hearing the sound of hooves shuffling on the other side. Maybe Jack lied to him. Maybe his parents weren't alive...maybe...All those thoughts flew out the window, as they say, when the door finally open, his father's stern expression staring down at him. Lightning caught his breath for a second before seeing his father soften his facial expression, quickly dragging him inside and asking him questions almost immediately.

One of the things Lightning began to look for once he walked inside was his mother, only to realize that she wasn't there. He felt both a feeling of relief and a feeling of worry. One part of him felt a little glad that she wasn't here as he didn't know how she would react seeing him home like this. The other part though, felt worried of why she wasn't in the room. Did Jack want something with her? He would deal with that later. First he had to answer his father. Where would he start though? What can he say? That he went out and shot ponies? That he was forced to kill in order to survive?

"I'm...I'm fine. I've been living in a town known as Stableton. I got a steady job there working as a guard." Lightning couldn't help but pause as he tried to think of how to tell his father how harsh the wasteland was. "Dad...I have to be honest with you...the wasteland is a tough place to live. And before I even get started telling you the things I've experienced out there, I have to warn you, I was forced to do many things, some things which you may not like...But I always tried to follow what you and Mom taught me...It's not easy...but just know that I tried. Are you sure that you still want to know?"

"Soarmeister... that sorry excuse for... well, whatever ponies like him can be a sorry excuse to, apparently managed to survive and was alive at least till few moths ago. Well, why not look at what he has been up to. I'm genuinely wondering what he considers "mature language"."

How amusing, that cryfoal has been having fun while Arc was dodging bullets and other various attack forms outside. How typical of life. Arc sighed and glanced around the library once more. His favourite place of the stable, calm, polished, neat... and witty and funny and sad if one allowed it to be. The foals did not knew what they lost here.

"Goodbye, and i'm really, really sorry for what happened.", said Arc to the sleeping librarian as he headed to maintenance in search of the meeting place.

Even though it took only seconds, Bakewell felt a sense of dread as she knocked. What had happened after she left? Would her parents be mad at her? Would they be bruised and battered, maybe even crippled from either the stable fight or whatever had happened concerning the foals?

When her mother finally opened the door and embraced Bakewell, the brown daughter tightly returned the hug with genuine affection. She wondered what to tell her mother. There was so much to apologize for, so much to explain and try to make right. She had no idea where to even begin. She had to, somehow.

“I’m fine.” She assured her mother. “I-I got out. Me and some other ponies from the stable made a town. Sky’s from there as well.” The brown and white pony explained, moving a hoof from her hug to gesture to her pegasus friend. “Sky, this is my mom. Mom, this is Sky. She’s from the stable, too. Maybe you’ve seen each other before?”

What should she list as her reason for coming back to the stable? The truth, that she had come to scavenge the remains from their old home, seemed unacceptable now that she knew her mother was alive. Saying that she came back for Cherry was a much nobler goal, but was also a flat out lie. She had just assumed that her parents were dead. She had literally left them without even properly checking first. There was no good answer, so she tried to just sidestep the topic by playing a nice healthy game of twenty questions.

“What happened? How were the insane ponies driven back? Did you know there wasn’t a drug? There wasn’t ever a drug! Why does Jack’s gang have access to guns? We ran into Ralph on the way in; Jack and his gang shot him and… and crushed his body in the stable door. Are you okay? Is dad okay? Jack made it sound like he was giving you two a hard time because of me and…” Bakewell paused, gulped, and omitted the last part of her sentence, lamely replacing it with a quiet repeat of “…because of me.”

Sky followed bakewell to her home in the stable, It was a nice home to be at. The home to be at, He home was actually a at the end of the hallway. How two friend loved so close yet never knew the other at the same place, It took an entire stable to go crazy to for them both to be friends. She still wanted to know why foals seemed to be in charge of the Stable, this was supposed to be a simple scavenge mission. But here is everypony just fine and dandy living in the Stable, so this may have been a time of great deal if she didn't kill her parents. Sky only thought of the irony of killing ones parents only to find out there was no drug or crazy ponies, best messed up story of the wasteland.

Sky stopped and blinked at Bakewell's home, staring at the floow until she was called upon. "um, hello Mrs. tart, its nice to meet you. And i do think i met you once or twice on my patrols in the stable, it seemed so long ago." Sky said to bakes mother, she couldn't think of anything else to say. Since she didn't know them and she needed to find Gear. "Um Mrs Bakewell have you seen a pony named Gear around, he was my colt friend before all this stuff happened." Sky asked with a thirst the thirst to know.