Welcome to Stableton. Population: You [Closed] [Finished]

Sky had followed the stallion to the bar as he passed the bartender some caps and he was on his way to a griffon, but being the mare Sky is. she didn't care, she went over the bartender to grab the drink he payed for. savoring the taste of whiskey, as Sky sipped the bottle. the taste just as flavorful, the burn of the liquid wasn't much as she had already gotten used to it. Sitting in the stool, She drank her bottle of apple cider whiskey, overhearing many things being said around her. The conversation that caught her eyes and ears has to be the one close to her, a zebra and a pony. talking about what is anyone's guess, but they did seem to be doing something with water. Sky looked on to the two, spying at they might do.

“You’ll have to tell me of your stable sometime. Speaking of water, I heard once that they had gems or crystals to create pure water.” She passed the mugs over to Bakewell. “We zebra were not lucky enough to have stables of our own. My ancestors survived through the fortune of being in a military bunker when the bombs fell.” She smiled, “Were your ancestors someone special to get privileged accommodation in a stable?”

Zestari turned back towards the bar briefly, the bartender was currently haggling over the price of a drink with a customer. “To be honest, I didn’t ask if he could heat it, he appears too busy to assist anyway.” She frowned, “and what he charged is unimportant.” She waved a hoof as though dismissing the question.

“A preferable way to heat the water?” She blinked then broke out laughing, “Chanting and dancing? Don’t tempt me!” she laughed again, “The reason for it is secret zebra business. I will explain more at another time, but I think that for water I can hold off on it.” She winked, eyes shining mirthfully before becoming serious for a moment, “I imagine the bias comes from the evidence all around us. The events of 200 years past.” She shrugged, “The pegasi? From what I have heard there is some sort of conflict amongst you pony folk. And they mostly hide above in the clouds.”

She spied a stove over against a wall; it was unattended and as far as Zestari could tell was there for communal use. She pointed it out to Bakewell, “Shall we go get this drink prepared?”

“I don’t know, really.” Bakewell answered the question to her linage. “I guess it’s probable, but most bloodline tracing was less… “ The mare searched for the right word, and eventually supplied a hesitant “pleasant, I guess.” Bakewell quickly moved to answer a question she was positive would follow, hoping that by pre-emptively answering it, she could get away with being less specific. “We basically only traced back far enough to tell a single certain point. There was exactly one family that mattered. Either you were related to them or you were not. I was not.”

The strange earth pony didn’t really fully understand the joke about secret zebra business, but she smiled back anyway before having her roller-coaster of constantly changing emotion breakneck from happy to equally as serious as her zebra friend. “Well, yeah. There was a war and you guys blew us up and ruined the world.” She said, as if paraphrasing a text book, which she probably was. “But that was like several hundred years ago! Are we still at war?” The mare leaned in and lowered her voice in an attempt to not cause alarm to their surroundings while still attempting getting her oddly well-thought point across. “Are you going to sneak into the center of town tonight and blow up a megaspell? Contact a well hidden army a few miles away from town, telling them about our defenses? You might, but I doubt it. The war’s over and the individual isn’t the species. Even if you stab me tonight, it would be personal, right? Because you hate me, or because you want some super secret treasure that I don’t actually have.” She took a moment to completely miss the strangeness of having used something she actually feared as a positive example before leaning back out and resuming her normal volume. “It wouldn’t be an act of war. The whole…” Bakewell waved her hoof in a wide gesture “…thing is over. We all need to learn a lesson from it, yeah. But hate is the wrong lesson, I think. Same goes with pegesi ”

The mare suddenly caught herself, and for the first time that day, actually blushed from embarrassment.

“Or that’s what this naive stable pony likes to think, anyway. Wow, listen to me blabber on and on and on. Yeah, that stove looks great. Let’s go make tea!”

"What made one family more unique than any other that you would only track it?" She frowned in confusion. Stable pony lineage seemed weird.

Wait, WE blew up the world?! Scandal! You ponies started it! She opened her mouth to make the usual zebra position clear but was interrupted from commenting when Bakewell leaned in to make her point.

"Well, no, obviously there's no zebra army," she mumbled as the earth pony continued, "and I harbour no ill-will towards you," she mumbled again in response. Bakewell leaned away and finished making her point. Zestari nodded finally, "What you say is very true, naive stable pony or not, but when the scar of desolation is always around us, it can be hard to separate the act and the individual." she clicked her tongue, "I'm sure there's many lessons that could be learnt from the past, but we all need to be willing to learn them."

Zestari lead Bakewell over to the stove and after a short rummage in her pack pulled a tall metal kettle out. The bottom was darkened from charcoal and was scratched and dented slightly from use and a tough life. She placed it atop the stove and started twisting dials to get it heating the kettle. She passed the bag of tea to Bakewell and began pouring the water into the top. "Can you measure out..." she paused trying to think of a suitable amount of tea that would be familiar to both. "A quarter of a mug for me?" She smiled and turned to the stove and contentedly began humming a tune.

"When the water is hot, add the tea."

Bakewell mentally noted that Zestari had apparently not heard of Stableton’s backstory in full. The zebra needed to know the events behind the town, just like any visitor, but Bakewell really hoped that somepony else would go about telling her striped friend the tragic tale. If nobody told the Zebra before the nights beginning, Bakewell resolved to tell as much of the tale as she could bear while the two were preparing for bed. Maybe it would feel better to personally tell somepony?

Probably not.

“Yeah, exactly!” The earth pony agreed as she followed Zestari to the stove “But It’s almost like we’d all just rather kill each other.”

She picked up the bag of tea and carefully tilted it, quickly eyeballing one fourths of the mug and filling it with a surprisingly accurate amount of tea, before waiting eagerly for the water to turn hot enough to pour the tea into.

Zestari watched as Bakewell poured out the tea, the pony was surprisingly precise, and the zebra raised an eyebrow, that would probably come in useful in the pony’s career.

“It’s easier to destroy than it is to create, I guess.” She responded to Bakewell.

The water slowly came to the boil and Zestari had Bakewell add the tea. As it mixed with the water it released a thick, heady, herb-scented aroma. Zestari inhaled deeply and mmm’d as she lifted the kettle from the stove, placed the mugs on a tray, and with a broad smile poured the liquid into the two mugs.

“Let’s take these to a table and talk of more joyful things.” She smiled at Bakewell as she picked up tray and balanced it on her head, “As a cook, it must be a challenge to prepare meals in the wasteland, hmm?” She led Bakewell towards an empty table.

“Mmm, mhmm.” Bakewell blissfully agreed with Zestari’s summery of the tea’s amazing aroma. She turned and followed the Zebra to an empty table, happily trotting with nose pointed up into the air, as if it would help her better smell the tea over the other various tavern scents.

“Mmm, yeah, it’s a bit hard. I’m still finding various things to try, but nothing ever really looks as good as the pastry on my flank.” The mare admitted. “I still haven’t managed to find a way to make pie crust out of the wasteland’s chief resources: dirt, dead animals, and roots. There’s definitely progress, but I’ve clearly still got a lot to learn. I have no idea where you got cinnamon, for example. Heck, I’m not even one hundred percent sure what cinnamon even comes from. You could say I wasn’t exactly an outdoorsmare when I was young.“ She grinned at her own joke. “I’ll figure it out eventually, though!”

“What about you? What’s it like to travel the wasteland, wandering from town to town whenever you feel like it, and without the restrictions of a pre-war society to tie you down?” Bakewell asked, attempting to make the idea seem slightly dramatic.

Zestari took a sip of the tea, sighing blissfully with eyes closed for a moment. “I certainly imagine that the range of ingredients available to you makes it a challenge.” She chuckled. “Like most of my ingredients, they were passed to me by my mother when I left home. The Cinnamon comes from a tree, or so I’m told, apparently native to where I’m from. There must be a few trees left out in the wastes, as fresh pieces would appear in the town from time to time. It has a unique flavour, but isn’t very useful for what I do.” Her eyes widened, shouldn’t have told her that, got to protect zebra secrets. “Uh, I mean, not very useful for what I do… yet.” she resisted the urge to groan at herself for the lame cover up.

She moved on quickly, “Travelling the wasteland on a whim is… wonderful.” She smiled wistfully, and took a sip of tea. “I’ve met such wonderful and fascinating creatures. Each of them with their own story and opinion. I could claim I left home through disgruntlement or no longer being able to fit in, but really it was simple wanderlust and a desire to learn why all the races of the world let the world burn those many years ago.” She paused, “If I can use my talent in alchemy to help a few folk along the way, well, that’s all the better.”

“How about you? Do you desire to see the wasteland now that you are not in your stable? Or are you focused on your special talent?” She took another sip of tea.

Bakewell had never been much for proper table manners while in the stable, and though she had halfheartedly tried to improve herself after leaving she still found the polite usage of cups and mugs to be a slight challenge. It was so much easier to just sort of shove your face into the drink, especially when so many meals were eaten alone or in a rush. She worked slowly, focusing on bringing the herbal drink to her mouth with intense care to avoid spilling any. Her slow drinking pace resulted in the mare not even getting to take a sip before Zestari made her remark on the un-usefulness of cinnamon. Starting over on her careful tea drinking exercise would take too long, so Bakewell simply arched an eyebrow curiously at the zebra from over the top of the warm beverage. “Cinnamon has to age? That’s a bit strange; I don’t remember ever having to age it back in the stable…” Bakewell trailed off, Zestari seemed eager to change the subject. It was slightly suspicious, but ultimately Bakewell dismissed the occurrence for the moment and refocused her eyes onto her mug, going slightly cross-eyed at one point in the process from attempting to focus on something right in front of her face.

Finally the earth pony managed to take a small sip, a familiar happy grin instantly lighting up her face, partially from the amazing taste of the tea, partially from pride at having gone about sipping the tea properly, and partially from drinking around someone who might care about table manners in the first place.

“I do, actually. I would love to be just like you; traveling the land in search of small cities and towns, getting the chance to talk to them and help make their lives better. Maybe I will, some day. I have to get done with Stableton first, though.” Bakewell took a second sip. It was slightly easier this time. “Cooking is entertaining, and I certainly do enjoy using my special talent and all, but it’s more of a personal enjoyment that I imagine I could fulfill in most towns. “

"Cinnamon has to age? Uh, I mean, of course it does. It changes the flavour. When it ages. Yes." she bit her lip, "That's why it's not useful to me yet. Uh-huh." She nodded slightly over enthusiastically.

Zestari watched as Bakewell took her first sip of the tea and smiled at her reaction. It was good tea and she was glad she had someone to share it with who appeared to appreciate it. She knew she'd be disappointed when it ran out and she took another sip as she considered Bakewell's comments about cooking and travel.

"Speaking of searching for small cities and towns,” she pulled out the map she had been using when she arrived to Stableton. “This place is not on this map." She began spreading it out on the table between the two, and after a moment of tracing with her hoof tapped a point. "Here. No mention of Stableton. The joy of discovery is another big part of the enjoyment of travelling." She smiled as she let Bakewell take a look, then took another sip of tea and continued on.

"So what do you have to do in Stableton that prevents you from leaving, if that is what you would like to do? Family? Friends? Work?"

Sky hearing the hearing the words 'stableton' and 'not part of the map.' made her ears perk up. seeing the two mares speaking to each other of the subject of this town, she decided and with some influence of her whiskey, To go up to the zebra to tell her about stableton.

"you wont find Stableton on anymap of any kind, for we are just a year old town. Driven out of our stable and forced to build anew, here in the outskirts of that city over in the horizon. Fillydelphia. But i do believe you don't want to hear our history, since you being from the wasteland. This wont affect you much, since no one else cares." Sky finished taking a swing from her bottle.

Bakewell looked over the map, noting that Stableton was not on it. That was okay, though. Eventually traders and explorers like Zestari would tell others about the town. It was only part of the growing process, right?

“A little bit of each.” The mare admitted “These ponies practically are my family, and their town isn’t even on the map. I can’t just abandon them, I have to help.” She insisted.

She opened her mouth, as though to add an afterthought, but was interrupted by Sky, whose sudden appearance caused Bakewell to jump slightly, spilling a little of the tea.

“Yeah, what she said.” Bakewell agreed after Sky had finished giving the brief summary.

Zestari nodded as Bakewell explained her reasons for staying, the zebra nodded slowly as she digested Bakewell's words. They were sound, and Bakewell's reasons were a surprisingly nice thing to find out here in the wasteland, she supposed.

She spotted Sky as she came over which saved her from being surprised by the Pegasus again, unlike Bakewell, who spilled some tea to Zestari's annoyance. The zebra sighed and let the pegasus talk about Stableton and its mysterious omission from the map, which was followed with Bakewell's confirmation.

Zestari swished the remaining tea around in her mug. "Only been here a year?" she twisted her head from pegasus to earth pony. "And 'driven' out of your stable?" The zebra supposed she shouldn't have been surprised, the ramshackle way the settlement was put together leant itself to hurried construction. But obviously there was a lot more going on here to Stableton than initially met the eye.

Sky sighed. "yeah, one year. Being there was different, probably not as bad as anything in the wastes." Sky took another sip from her bottle of whiskey. "For us its different, seeing friends, family, and coworkers. All being slaughtered or they themselves being the slaughters."

She looked at zestari in the eyes. "Do you know what it feels like to gun down your own parents? there eyes filled with madness and ready to kill at a moments notice?" Sky yet again took another sip from her bottle.

"yup that was me, shot them both in the face. Even when they died, they still had a grin on there faces. Like they didn't care if they died, they would kill there own daughter." Sky now has tear in her eye, but still showing little emotion as she continued on. "Thats how it feels to be drivin out of the stable, Feeling alone and fucked. Knowing that every other pony has it worse out in the wastes, we just seem to add to it. That was my version of being drivin out of the stable, i know every pony here has something different to tell, But ow well thats the past and this is now."

Sky Sighed as she ran out of gulped the last of her whiskey. "Anything else you want to know? or you bored from our history."

Bakewell had completely given up on trying drinking the tea, at this point. Shaking hooves made any attempt to lift or touch the mug a risky action. Instead the earth pony opted to simply stare at the cooling drink as Sky told the stable’s tale before eventually giving up on even that and opting for the easier sight of the floor.

”At least I didn’t have to tell it…” Bakewell thought to herself sadly. Still, the earth pony felt that Sky had left something important out.

“They all thought they were drugged.” She muttered dryly as she continued to examine the tavern floor. “They thought they were going insane from its effects.” She shook her head sadly. “There was never even a drug.”

Zestari's eyes were wide. "You… you... what?! Killed your own father and mother?" She gasped.

She picked idly at the table with a hoof for a moment, at a bit of a loss at what to say, How tragic, no wonder no one talks about it here. "Th... That's horrible." She went silent again trying to think of something suitable to say.

"I'm sorry that such misfortune befell you." Well this sucked out any good feelings the tea had provided.

Several questions went through her head, but why would ponies think they were drugged? How does that even drive ponies to commit such acts? I thought the stables were built to protect you ponies? Why did you leave the stable after the event? Was it appropriate to ask them? They both looked haunted and miserable. It was hard to suppress her morbid curiosity but she held her tongue.

She shook her head sadly; the whole thing would have seemed so preposterous if the ponies before her didn't appear to have experienced such tragedy. So Sky had lost her parents, however... She made a point to look at Bakewell, "Did you lose somepony from the stable?" she hoped she looked sympathetic, as it probably wasn't easy to talk about.

Sky sighed. "yes,but it still doesn't change the fact. They tried to kill me so i killed them, end of story."Sky finally stood up from sitting from the floor. "ill be right back going to get some more apple cider whiskey." She said as she walked to the bar, payed the bartender some caps and returned back to the two mares with a new bottle of whiskey.

“Yes.” The answer was neither happy nor sad, though the lack of emotion in the answer was probably due more to depression than uncaringness. The floor was still amazingly interesting. “I’m a murderer, too. She attacked, and I fought back. I was stronger. I was always stronger.” Bakewell paused for a moment, as if giving a small moment of silence for her memories, before finishing. “I’ve got a picture at home. I used to carry it with me in the later days of the vault. I’ll show it to you later, if that’s okay. She deserves to have somepony better than me remember her for who she really was.”

The mare gave a small smile “And now we live in the Wasteland. Talk about happily ever afters, huh?” She joked in a weak attempt to brighten the mood even slightly.

Zestari slumped in her chair. So Bakewell had not only lost someone but been forced to kill them, too. She watched as Sky drained her bottle and went off to the bar in search of another. What could the zebra even say at this point? She resumed picking at the table.

“I’d be honoured to see that picture, Bakewell.” She said quietly. "But you're misled if you think I am better than any other pony." She swished her tea again and watched the cooling steam waft off it. "Perhaps I'm just fortunate to have not been struck with such a catastrophe." She took a sip.

Zestari smiled at Bakewell's comment about the wasteland, she wasn't sure if it was a joke, but it was a change of subject. "At least there's plenty of room to spread out and lots of new faces to meet." She turned towards Sky, "I bet you've never flown as much since you left the stable!"

Sky seeing the eyes of zestari, a look of surprise.From the looks of What bakewell had told her too, but zestari changed the subject, before she could continue any further on the subject. "you are right on that, i haven't flown much since i left the stable. I do like to hover alot though, even back at the stable, loved to hover around in my wings. I only use my wings now when i need to get somewhere fast or when i get into a firefight, just a necessity now i guess."

Sky took a sip of her bottle, as she answered zestari's question.

“Maybe I am misled.” Bakewell shrugged. in more ways than one “But I’m pretty sure that if I searched, I could find many ponies worse than you.” She insisted, allowing herself a few moments of sorrow more before quickly reapplying a cheerful face.

“I bet actual air feels fantastic when you do fly, though!” She addressed Sky “And the knowledge you can fly higher if you want to, without being stopped by a metal roof.” Bakewell turned back to Zestari. “To be perfectly honest, I’m proud that I got to help found Stableton. If you manage to ignore all of the… stuff… that happened, I mean. The vault was probably a lot safer, and a heck of a lot more comfortable, but this town feels more personal. We built it ourselves; it’s like a big project you can hold pride in!”

Sky explained her flight habits and Zestari nodded politely.

She watched as Sky drank some more alcohol. "You're sure drinking a lot of that; I would suggest you slow down. If not for your health, then for your caps."

She turned to Bakewell, "If the stable was safer, and more comfortable, then why did you leave?" She quickly realised that it may not have been the best question to ask and moved on quickly, "Ah, I mean, it is good that you seem to have developed some community pride. Whilst Stableton lacks... refinement, it is impressive what you've achieved in a year. Even more so, when considering the threat of raiders, wildlife, slavers, radiation, and Steel Rangers." She listed off. "Who manages it all? Is there a tribal chief?..." She paused, that was what zebra had. What did ponies call it? Boss? No, was it Overmare? Wait, that was stables only... Mayor? "I mean, mayor." That was it.

Sky took the comment of alcohol, and thought about. "i guess you are right went over my limit i guess." she addressed zestari, she then turned to bakewell. "yes it does feel fantastic when i do fly, the air pushing through you, seeing nothing but the ground and open wasteland. Nothing holding me back when i fly, just the open....sky, I guess." Sky finally finished, she chuckled a bit at her last comment,putting the cap back onto the bottle.

"well that's enough drinking and cap spending for today." Sky said to herself.

“We didn’t stay because we couldn’t. We didn’t win the fight versus ourselves, we merely escaped the stable.” Bakewell clarified, her cheerful face freezing as she touched back on the topic. Zestari had moved quickly away from distasteful topic, but the earth pony decided that she would rather explain it now instead of constantly thinking about having to explain it later. “The stable is lost, as far as I know the other stable ponies still live there, assuming they haven’t killed each other off. Maybe one day we’ll go back and check, maybe try and take some technology. Probably not any time soon, though.”

“Thanks for the compliments on the town. I don’t really know who’s in charge. I probably should know something important like that, but to be honest I usually just helped with whatever somepony told me was needed.” Bakewell nudged her mug of tea with a hoof. It was definitely now room temperature at the hottest and probably lacked the amazing taste she had enjoyed when tea was hot.However, The mare’s mouth felt unbearably parched all of a sudden. Bakewell chose to set about drinking more of the the beverage, despite its now cooler temperature.

“Beggars can’t be choosers, after all.”

When Sky decided to stop drinking Zestari was a little surprised, she expected the pegasus to be more reluctant to stop than she was. The zebra smiled regardless.

"Sky, I have heard of other pegasi from above the clouds. Most ponies down here don't seem to have much positive to say about them, whilst flying around have you met any of them, and if so, worked out why the surface ponies seem to hold them with such disdain?"

The zebra didn't think it was a good idea to return to the stable discussion, and Bakewell's face as she explained the situation confirmed it for the zebra.

"So the town just sort of grew without guidance or direction? Fascinating." She drank the last of her tea and set the mug down. "So how did the first travellers react when they first stumbled across this settlement?"