Lord of the Foals[Closed]

Jasmine hovered in the air next to her sister as Shutter began to inform the group of his plan. Suddenly Jazz heard her name mentioned, causing her ears to perk up in surprise. She wasn't used to being chosen to be part of plans...or games...anything that required team work for that matter. She didn't bother to hold back her smile as she was perked up out of her slightly less than ecstatic mood. She had been so helpful lately, and it seemed that she would get another chance to be a part of something. Much to her pleasure, there was another coincidence involving her being more qualified than other ponies. And much to some ponies' displeasure she was being thrust forward by an ironic turn of events to lend her expertise. It was time for this derped pony to help the world doing what she did best: science.

"What luck Thtarry! Actually I don't mean that literally, we both know there'th no thuch thing ath luck. BUT I'm tho exthited! I alwayth wanted to hack into the thtable computer thythtemth for other reathonth than "hack value". Jazz flipped in the air before landing beside the two. "While we're at it, can I look for any recordth of highly unthtable chemicalth?! I feel like doing thome chemithtry..." She spent a second trying to catch her breath, she was literally trembling with excitement.

Violet watched the other two try to to comfort/confront two of the foals, to nearly fatal results in Lightning’s case, although luckily from the sounds of it the foal’s gun was empty. The filly herself slowly moved over to the third foal, eyes glowing as she did a quick diagnosis of his own eye. It didn’t look good, he’d probably lose the eye, but if she could get some more supplies, even some makeshift ones, she could probably save his life. The supplies being the tricky part of that equation.

“Hey, if you can hear me over the excruciating pain I’m sure you’re feeling, I’ve got some good news and bad news. The bad news is that even if I get that stinger out of your eye you’re probably going to lose it. The good news is that you’ll be able to wear an eyepatch like a pirate! Arr!” she said with a grin. Whether or not it was appropriate nopony had much time to consider, as that warm air started to pump into the hallway. Violet’s ears perked as she started to hear the hissing that came with the vents, at first being just as confused as the others. Until she started to feel a very, very faint tingling in the back of her head. Which could only mean one thing.

‘...Well, that’s not good.’

"Shut up! This isn't funny!" Moon Beam shouted at Violet, swinging a hoof at her from afar, before lifting himself up onto his hooves. "It.. it hurts!" he exclaimed between sobs, "I want, I want the doctor!"

Moon Shine didn't know what to make of Flash's offer of forgiveness, at first. He remained huddled close to the floor, staring up at him with his fearful expression replaced by a quizzical look.

Moon Shine had gathered that he was off the hook, and his demeanor changed entirely, from frightful to assertive. He immediately sprinted from the floor toward his twin brother, wrapping a hoof across his shoulders. "Don't worry about us," Moon Shine asserted, "we're not helpless little foals, we'll gallop over to the doctor right away!"

Moon Shine gestured for Lemon Drop to follow, but Lemon drop shook her head in response. Moon Shine only frowned, before galloping away with his brother. Lemon Drop stopped crying so much, and stopped clenching onto Bakewell. She just wrapped a hoof around hers, like a filly with her mother. She had multiple spines sticking out of her coat, but the blood was already drying. One of her back legs was more heavily shot than the others, and she would be walking with a limp.

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Starry, Shutter, Jasmine, Arc and Sky left for Shutter's room. They began to race back down the corridors of the maintenance level before they reached Shutter's home. When they knocked on the door, they were greeted by an unexpected sight. It was Shutter's father, Fabric Stocks. He was at the door, with red, sore eyes, from what was quite obviously the result of extensive crying.

"Sh-Shutter!" he exclaimed in surprise, as his son appeared before him. "You- I've been thinking about you ever since you left, come in, come in!" Fabric Stocks pulled Shutter inside, not paying any attention to the ponies that might follow in after him. "Shutter, it was horrible living without you, I didn't know if you were dead or alive, and when you left, I couldn't help but think I had lost you again. But now you're back! Now... Now we can be a happy family again."

Fabric Stocks gave a warm smile toward his son, wrapping a hoof around his shoulders before leading him toward Shutter's room. "I kept your room the way it was, remember? Now we can go back to the way things were, like none of this," Fabric gave a glance at all of Shutter's wasteland-hardened companions, "never happened."

Shutter couldn't take his eyes away from his father's, shocked at how red they were...he knew immediately why they were sore and red, and he felt a pang of guilt as he listened to his father talk to him, his own eyes misting up as he talked about how much he missed him, how his room was exactly the way he had left it...until finally, he couldn't take it anymore, the second his father made his glance, Shutter slammed his hoof down onto the ground, as he yelled, tears of his own close to falling from his eyes.

"Stop! Dad...please...you have to listen to me..."

He asked, as he looked at his father.

"...I can't stay here...WE can't stay here. The Stable is doomed, dad. We've had psycho's and foals murdering away, we've found infestations of irradiated creatures in the lower sections, and the core is close to a meltdown, and is now slowly venting through the stable itself!

...And even if none of this was happening...what then? I just go back to making reports? I spend the rest of my life just sitting back and talking about what type of recycled apple flake is now available in the cafeteria? Repeat those pathetic reports until I die? What kind of life is that?!"

Shutter walked away for a moment, as he tried to find the words to make his father understand...this was a hard thing to discuss to someone who had spent their whole life in the stable, but after a few seconds of deep breathing, he turned back.

"...Dad...The entire stable needs to be evacuated if we're to survive. The other Stable ponies that left with us before have created a settlement, Stableton. We need to get everyone out of here before tomorrow ends and the radiation poisoning starts to set in. Then, we can move them over there. I know it's a scary prospect, and yes, the wastes can be dangerous, Id be lying to you if I said there wasn't a lot of evil out there...and over the past few months, I've seen a lot of that evil far, far too close for comfort. But that's exactly why we can't stay here and ignore it. I've seen that even a small team of ponies can make a huge difference out there, and I can't abandon other ponies to that evil when I could be out there, helping to stop it."

With those words, he then tried to embrace his father in a hug.

"We can still be a family...but we can't stay here in the stable. I'm sorry Dad, but we all have to leave..."

Fabric Stock looked shell-shocked at Shutter's defiance. It was incomprehensible to him that anypony would prefer anything other than the stable. The tears quickly began to re-surface. Of course he accepted Shutter's hug, and clenched onto him tightly, not wanting to let him go.

"Sh-Shutter! Don't say that! We can fix the Stable, we're stable ponies, remember? We can fix anything! We'll fix the reactor, and we'll be safe. Safe. We won't have to worry about radiated creatures, or murderous foals, or wandering bands of slavers... this is the best home anypony could ask for, and it's worth so much more than some foolish plan to be the hero of some wasteland out there. You're not a hero, Shutter, you're my son, and you belong here, with me."

Shutter couldn't help but let out a slight groan of annoyance at his Father's insistance that the Stable could still be fixed, as he pushed away slightly to look him in the eye.

"Dad! Please! Listen to me! The Stable CANNOT be fixed! How many ponies are even alive that know how to keep this place going? I've seen reports, and from what I can te-"

It was at this point that something Fabric has said clicked in Shutter's mind, as he let go of his father. His eyes eyes almost obtaining a glassy look for a second as he mouthed something. Before they regained focus to look his dad in the eyes again, repeating the sentence that his father has said, and he had just mouthed...

"...'Wandering bands of Slavers'...Dad, how in Tartarus' name do you know about those?"

The buck asked, his voice curious, calm, but surprisingly stern at the exact same time...

Fabric had been on the verge of total breakdown as his son began refuting him a second time, only to be saved by the seemingly inconsequential question.

"You... you haven't heard the foals talking about it? That's all Jack ever talks about, is some band of slavers and being 'ready' for them."

"But... but that's beside the point!" the tears started flowing again. "You belong here, Shutter, with me, like we used to be. I'm... I'm going to go back to my room, and get some sleep. Please, please don't break my heart by not being here tomorrow."

With that said, Fabric Stock painfully tore his gaze from Shutter, and with solemn steps trotted back to his room, closing the door behind him.

Shutter watched his Father walk back to his room, and let out a heavy sigh once he had shut the door.

"...Damn it Dad...why won't you ever see all the details?"

He mumbled, as he trotted over to his bedroom door, before turning around and sitting down against it. He could have used a chair, but his mind wasn't focusing enough to even consider that, instead, it was telling him how mentally and physically exhausted he was, and how much his side hurt from the few spines that were still embedded in his skin.

Maybe he should have discussed the slavers with his companions, maybe he should have tried to plan...but right now, Shutter finally felt a heavy weigth crash down on his shoulders, as he realized what had happened.

"...He's not going to leave...He's too focused on the past, and the only way I'm going to be able to save his life is by forcing him out of the Stable..."

He mumbled, as he covered his face with his hooves, resisting the sudden urge to scream out of pure frustration.

"...Luna damn it, this is so fucked up. What do we do now?"

Bakewell was still trying to establish what was with the strange noise when she Moon Beam’s shouting broke her mind back into her immediate surroundings and concerns. She had raised a hoof and was about to tell the two foals to stop because Violet was a doctor, or at least not something completely dissimilar to a doctor, but was unable to say something before the two galloped away.

Bakewell glanced nervously to her leg when she felt Lemon Drop wrap her smaller yellow hoof around Bakewell’s larger beige limb. For the first time Bakewell noticed that Lemon was actually wounded from the battle, though it didn’t look fatal. She certainly didn't have a spine piercing her eye.

“Violet. Will Lemon Drop be okay?” She asked quietly. The two Moons had refused Violet’s doctoring help, but Bakewell wasn’t dumb enough to ignore the purple filly. “They’re just normal Bloatsprite spines, right? None of them need attention?”

If Bakewell was being honest with herself, even a slight limp on Lemon Drop’s part was worrying. Now that the foal had latched onto the older mare and seemed to trust her Bakewell felt directly responsible for the yellow pony’s well-being. The most worrying threat was now Jack. Would he consider Lemon Drop to be a traitor? Was the smaller earth pony now a target along with Bakewell and her friends?


“…If she’s okay, we maybe need to move? I-I don’t know where to go, but right here seems like a bad idea. More Bloatsprites might get through.” Bakewell felt a small frown form on her lips as she thought more into the subject. Lemon Drop’s grip was actually making the grown mare more emotionally stable and better able to think. “…come to think of it. How did Bloatsprites get into the stable in the first place?”

Lightning was a bit happy but also worried to see that the foal took...well, kinda, to his attempts to comfort him. But before he had a chance to react, the pegasus had let Moon Shine get away with his brother. That wasn't good. The unicorn was most likely running back to Jack and now, things just couldn't get any worse. He was relived however to see Lemon Drop stay with them instead of running off with Moon Shine.

Lightning had to make a choice to go after the two foals and stop them before they send more foals after them or should he and the others go link up and make a plan. The ominous hissing didn't help at all to settle his mind and he knew that they needed to find answers of what was going on now. Looking to the others, the blue pegasus let out a light sigh and say, "Violet, help Lemon Drop with any pain if she has any. Bakewell, get any weapons we can and let's go find the others. We have to link up and get some answers."

Jasmine sat back respectfully as Shutter and his Fabric had a heart to heart talk. Jazz hated to see Shutter in so much pain, the only thing she could think of doing was offering them a comforting hug, but thought it best to let them be for the moment. She looked to her sister about to ask her for her opinion right as Fabric walked off to his room. Eager to offer help, Jasmine formulated a plan immediately when Shutter asked what to do next.

"OOOH! OOH! I know!" Jasmine flew to shutter and placed her hooves on his shoulders, barely able to keep her voice down. "I'll pretend to kidnap you and Thtarry can try to get him to rethcue you! Aaand...Then, when he goeth outthide...we'll jutht make him come with uth! Or maybe we can give him thome knock-out gathh!" Jasmine stared at Shutter, her smile was ear-to-ear. Surely Shutter would be all for this flawless plan.

Starry trotted up toward Shutter, and wrapped a hoof around his shoulder, before gazing sadly into her sister's eyes. "That's okay, Jasmine. That's not important right now, we just need to be with Shutter, and provide support for him.

Starry grinned weakly at her coltfriend as she locked eyes with him, kissing him softly on the cheek to try and cheer him up. "Would a party help?" she asked.

Shutter's eyes shot up at both Jasmine and Starry at the mention of 'Party', a surprisingly cold stare for a split-second, before Shutter let out a sigh, and dropped his head back down again.

"...How many more ponies are going to be like my dad? We can't force them all to leave...but they'll die now, thanks to that stupid ventilation idea! Augh!"

Shutter shoved his head into his hooves as he let out a hard groan.

"...Damn it...I can't leave tomorrow, not immediatly...Did you hear the way he was talking? Honestly, I don't even want to imagine what he could try and do if I wasn't here tomorrow...but I have to do SOMETHING! I have to make him understand! ...I have to try and find a way to make sure they all understand tomorrow...

...Luna damn it, what am I doing? Drowning myself in pity, when there's dozens of lives at stake tomorrow..."

With that, he glanced up at the two mares once more, but instead of his sad face...Shutter's expression now looked...surprisingly serious.

"Jasmine? Starry? You two positive that you can crack the communications? I was originally just planning on using tht thing to scare the foals with some tales of the wastes, and paint us as unstoppable badasses...but now, i get the feeling I'm going to have to change that plan for something a whole lot more involving those things...might need to write out a plan of 'verbal' attack...

Also, Jack's clearly a little egomaniac, so do you think he might have started making reports on the overmare's computer already, now that he's the 'new leader' and all that crap? ...If so, do you think there might be a way to find those too without needing to get to the computer itself? I really want to know what he knows about Slavers, and I doubt he would be willing to tell us if I just up and asked him...so any recordings might be our best bet..."

Starry could only frown nervously as Shutter scolded himself for venting radiation into the stable, in light of his father's response. Starry had considered this a possibility, but Starry was at least sensitive enough not to blurt it out or gloat. At best, she could only think to be there for support.

Starry followed Shutter's plan for a while, but his suggestion had Starry shaking her head reluctantly. "Sorry, Shutter, but none of the personal terminals in the stable are connected to the stable network. Even if the code existed to remotely hack into a terminal, it would be impossible to do it between two terminals which are not connected to the network."

Starry took a step into Shutter's room, and sat herself in front of the terminal. Just because she couldn't browse Jack's logs didn't mean Starry wasn't going to try everything she could. "Come on over, Jasmine. Let's see what sort of mayhem we can cause from this terminal."

Shutter mumbled something to himself on hearing that his plan wasn't possible...but he needed to know what Jack knew about Slavers! he didn't trust that foal to have anyones best interests at heart, and for him to know of Slavers out in the wastes...what was he planning?! And if it was something bad, how many foals were in on i-

Suddenly, Shutter's head shot upright, his serious expression still on his face, as he tried to put his personal pain aside to focus entirely on a way to save the Stable dwellers

"...Wait...the meeting! Jack has been bugging us about this meeting all day...perhaps that could have something to do with these Slavers? We MUST know what Jack knows about them! If the Stable is at risk, or that little prick is trying to strike some sort of deal, or if this is just a bullshit facade to keep the adults scared...we MUST know!

...But wait...that's still sort of a risk, the meeting may have nothing to do with the Slavers...Starry, you said it wasn't possible to break into a personal terminal...but would it be possible to manually connect a personal terminal to the stable network? If it is...maybe I could sneak into Jack's room and do something to his computer to give you access? I'm pretty sure thats a longshot idea, but if theres any possibility it could work..."

Shutter said, his mind desperate for any idea of his to get a 'Good idea!' or 'That might work'...he'd settle for a it's unlikely, but possible'! He needed to find something, and his desperation was becoming clear in his tone of voice, as it began to crack as he finished speaking.

Jazz approached the terminal and started to get acquainted with the system. Her ears perked up at Shutter's suggestion as she tried a hoof at hacking the system.

"Actually obtaining remote accethh to the computer ith quite eathy Thutter. Almotht the thame conthept ath hacking a network terminal. All we really need ith the public IP addrethh and the terminal domain name... I'm thure we coulld get thome thoftware around our houth to make thith a bit eathier.." Jasmine trailed off when she realized that most of the tools they would need to remotely access Jack's computer were at home. She could be clueless at times, but after what they did today she knew that asking them to go on another trip was the last thing that they'd want to do. Plus another foal encounter wasn't exactly on the top of her wish list. In hopes they'd want to stay put, Jasmine tried to change the subject.

"OOH, one time I wanted to acceth a terminal of Thunflower Thmileth tho I imperthonated a pony she knew to get the required info. I bet we could do the thame with Jack although frankly I doubt he hath the fineth to keep recordth of what he'th doing... he'th jutht a..." Jazz furrowed her eyebrows while she dug down deep in a part of her mind for slander that expressed perfectly how she felt about him. This was a spot of her mind not often visited but with some effort she finally found just the right term for what she thought of him. Her head shot up as she turned to Shutter while she expressed her outrage, "He'th a CREEPY McCREEPINGTON!"

She nodded as she focused her attention back to hacking the terminal.

(Science 45. Intel 4)

Violet frowned as the two colts ran off, presumably to ‘Mr. Mean Doctor’. Violet had no idea what the doctor’s actual medical skills were like, but considering he actually had supplies they’d probably be better off with him. Assuming they actually meant to go to him and not Jack or something.

The violet filly glanced over at Bakewell and the other filly that remained with them, clinging to Bakewell’s hoof like a foal to their parent. And considering the state of this place the filly’s actually parent was probably dead...

“Alright Bakey, let me just have a quick look...” she trotted over, eyes glowing as she looked over the filly’s hide. They didn’t look too deep, but she’d need to take a closer look to see if there was any venom or toxin.

“Um, by the way...” said the filly as she pulled one of the, less embedded, spikes out of Lemon Drop’s back, taking a closer look at the stinger to see if there was any sign of poisons inside it, or some sort of injection system. “I think I may, possibly know what’s going on. Maybe. It could be my brain just acting a bit funny but...” she trailed off a bit as she continued to examine the stinger.

Lightning watched as Violet began to work on Lemon Drop so he turned back to go gather the discarded weaponry. Even if they were out of ammo, they could always find more ammo later. Better to have the weapons than let the foals come back to get it anyways. He felt a bit...weird. The hissing wasn't normal and...

He would turn back to Violet as she began to say something but then suddenly trail away. "What, what is it, Violet?" The next thing he knew, a gentle clicking sound began to emit from his Pipbuck. Looking down at it, Lightning finally realized what was happening, "...There's...radiation coming into this hall, isn't it?"

Jasmine went to work on the terminal. What she lacked in mental capacity, she made up for in pure, unadulterated talent with computers. Her eyes would quickly glean small, essential details from the many screens of filled numbers and letters which appeared before her.

Jasmine would quickly realize one thing; that communication over the loudspeakers could be safely accessed, and easily protected from their current terminal. If they wanted to cut off Jack, though, they would need to interface with the overmare's terminal personally; that meant sneaking somepony into the overmare's office, somepony who knew how to sneak, and how to hack a computer.

Essentially, Shutter and Jack would be able to speak at the exact same time unless they were able to access Jack's terminal, where they would also potentially find his logs.

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Lightning Flash didn't actually find any weapons or ammunition to recover. He hadn't spotted it at the time, but the Moon twins took their weapons with them, and Lemon Drop still had hers slung across her back.

Violet, upon observing the stingers, would find no noticeable quantity of poison or toxin. Most bloatsprites weren't poisonous, and these ones weren't particularly special. She would notice, though, that the spines were barbed, meaning that the spines would cause far more harm coming out than they had going in.

"Ah! It hurts, stop it!" Lemon Drop yelped, as Violet tried pulling out one of the less embedded spines. She swung a hoof in front of her horn, trying to convince Violet to stop. "What are you ponies even planning, anyway?" she asked, taking cover from the purple filly behind Bakewell.

Arc for a while listened to the conversation, but the room felt full already and he had nothing to say to Shutter's father. He never knew the guy very well and this was more of a personal thing for Shutter and Starry, even though he was the one to blame for the decision. Worst case scenario they could always set off a fire alarm and funnel everyone to the entrance chamber. In the end, the fact that they would have to leave was set, the method was ultimately irrelevant because the choice was between death and life, and Arc always seen that as a rhetorical question more than actual choice.

No matter, I'm not needed here. Might as well get out of everpony's mane. Wonder if the broadcast is still working.

Arc left the room and sat outside in the hallway. He brought the his hoof with pipbuck in front of his face, set it to radio mode and slowly turned the dial trying to catch some signal.

After working on the computer for some time, Jasmine filled the team in on what she discovered.

"Ok, tho it lookth like we can acceth the loudthpeakerth from here. Bad newth ith that nothing would prevent Creepy McCreepington from uthing them at the thame time, unleth we phythically hacked hith computer. Too bad there aren't any hackerth here that want to theak in... Let'th jutht try talking over the thpeaker and hope Jack'th not there..."

Jazz lowered her gaze to the floor, her knees were trembling slightly. She tried to convince herself that everypony would be content with trying to keep foal interactions down to a minimum.

Sky sighed as she went outside with Arc and sat next to him, as he turned on his pipbuck music. Sky had forgotten about the radio int he Stable, so long ago. Besides she didn't want to be inside and was better off guarding the hallway of any foals that came to attack, but some music from Arc's pipbuck would lighten the mood for a bit. With the rifle in her hoofs she slowly looked around for something to pop out, something to get her out of that room.

"Crazy day aint it?" Sky said as she sat against the wall and stared blankly into space, daydreaming was something she loved to do.

After a while of clicking the wheel Arc managed to get the radio tuned to the broadcasting system. It was playing the same music it always did in the idle hours when no important messages were needed to be broadcasted.

After a while of somberly listening to the music, everything that happened today started to press and fall on him.

For fucks sake Arc... you really wanted to kill that kid... you actually still want to...
Arc clutched his head between his front hooves and curled on the floor.

"Crazy day Sky. Definitely crazy." Arc responded to Sky in a silent voice.

Sky looked over to Arc who was on the floor with his hooves over his head, he really looked like he was in bad shape. Slowly she scooted closer to him and ran her hoof through his mane, gently stroking him while they listened to the music of the pip buck.

"You going to be alright?" Sky told the unicorn in a sincere tone, she tried to get him a bit more comfortable or at least tried to make him feel better.

Arc jumped up when Sky touched him, getting back on his hooves and putting few paces between them, panting quickly and looking at Sky with fright in his eyes. After a split second the look disappeared, the terror turning to visible tiredness, his whole body slouching a little.

"I-I'll be fine Sky, you don't have to worry really."
I always am.