Lord of the Foals[Closed]

Starry raised an eyebrow, and took a glance behind her. A large portion of the wall was lined with screens, displaying live feeds from throughout the Stable, save for a few, where the cameras were destroyed.

"Shutter, dear, I think we're focusing too hard on the terminal. There's a bunch of screens here, we can see everything from this wall."

Indeed, the screens on the wall showed everything. The images on the wall showed a fierce battle between the turrets and an army of scattered Redeye slavers. These weren't like the slavers which raided Stableton, though, these slavers were well armed, and heavily armored. This was more likely than not a veteran group of soldiers, or a well armed and well trained mercenary division. One thing about these slavers stood out; they all had pipbucks, and each of them had a stealthbuck attached.

In one screen, the trio could see something particularly disturbing. It was Lightning's father, with at least half a dozen other stallions and mares, the ones who had been shot by the foals and given healing potions by Flash. They were armed, now. Some wearing bits and pieces of armor, all of them had weapons. Assault rifles, pistols, and even a grenade launcher. Their armor bore Redeye's emblem. Odds were they scavenged the equipment off of some of the slain slavers, and they were trotting toward the upper levels of the Stable with fierce determination.

Several screens displayed different angles of the atrium. Screens which would have made the group wish they had visited the room during their time in the Stable. The walls were lined with cages, thick iron bars which were not of the Stable. Anypony from the wastes would recognize, these are the cages used by Redeye's Slavers. Into each of the cages rested a buffalo. This would explain why they had not yet run into or even heard of a buffalo since returning to they stable; they had all been corralled into the Atrium, and forced into some sick sort of prison.

The worst news of all, though, is that Jack was here. Heavily armored and wearing a custom foal-sized battle saddle. Near him stood a foreboding figure, a unicorn concealed behind a red cloak, holding a bird-sized cage with a cloth concealing it. Jack was placing charges on the locks of the cages. In the center of the room were several large canisters of gas.

The trio could not see inside the clinic, where the camera had been destroyed, but outside in the hallway they could see three bodies in a pile, across from the door to the clinic.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Arc took the initiative, as both the slaver and Sky were dazed by their collision. The blast from his magic bolt hit the slaver square in the head, which sent his helmet flying off, and revealing his face. The slaver was young, probably only a few years older than Sky, with a jaw and lip that were hideously scarred by burns.

The slaver's features were barely noticed by Sky, however, who had taken the few critical moments following the magic bolt to steal the shotgun from the slaver's hooves, and tear his head off with a single blast from the shotgun. The segments of the slaver's head splattered across the stable floor, and the body fell onto it's flank, before falling on it's side.

Sky looked down at te head she just blew away with the shotgun, not her first time she had to blow away a head with an enemy's shotgun. Still, she survived and thank to arc ahe was able to kill him. With the shotgun still on her, she quickly looked for anything useful onthe body, ammo, another stealth buck, the armor. Anything she could use to help her out, only to look to arc, "we need to move now Arc, they may be other around."

(Look for shotgun ammo, armor or anything useful)

With his bag stuffed with assault rifle clips, Lightning began picking up some rifles as well, trying not tangle himself in guns. With the SMG and one assault rifle for himself, he put some rifles on his back for the others...if they were still alive. The pegasus turned to the others and curiously glanced toward the terminal that Bakewell was messing with until she suddenly yelled out for them to exit the room. And to not breathe.

Lightning quickly complied, not sure what Bakewell found on that terminal that caused her outburst but it was better that he followed what she said instead of questioning it now and possibly dying or inhaling something he probably shouldn't. With his speed, he dove out of the room and once safely outside, he checked his surroundings quickly to make sure no turrets were around them before turning back to the group and making sure the rest of them were out. "What? What was wrong, Bakewell?"

Violet’s face turned dark as the sounds of gunfire, explosions, and pain rang through the Stable, and ponies were dying and fighting. It wasn’t a pleasant sound.

‘Jacks’ going to pay for this...’

Her ears twitched as Bakewell started playing the message, the filly listening the the message without turning away from the door. It certainly explained things, she had always wondered about what happened at Stable 113 when she heard about it when she first visited Stableton, and this being involved made a bit more sense then everypony just going crazy.

Still, she wondered how anyone could think that this ‘Pace’ would be a good idea, trying to do these sort of things never worked. Ever. She sighed as she shook her head.

And then something hit her. Something the computer said when she was mashing buttons, it was dispensing relaxants into the room...And if the ponies in here killed each other because of Pace...

She reached the same conclusion as Bakewell a second before she did, although the mare spoke first. The filly suddenly put a hoof over her mouth and dived out of the room, knowing already that there weren’t any turrets immediately outside after she did a quick sweep with her eyes.

When Lightning landed outside of the room next to her and asked what was going on, she decided to answer for Bakewell.

“The message on the terminal said something about a drug the ponies were developing here called Pace, which was supposed to make ponies all nice but was actually making them mean and crazy. While I was in there...Hacking the terminal...It said it was dispensing relaxants into the air, which could have been that Pace stuff...Maybe. Better safe than sorry.”

She glanced over at Bakewell. “Assuming that’s what you were going to say. I’m not sure why else you’d tell us to hold our breath and dramatically leap out of the room.”

Bakewell had fled the room with the others, taking Lemon Drop along with her. It was very fortunate that turrets hadn’t been outside the room, because then the four would have been trapped, forced to choose between tearing each other to shreds or committing suicide. As if the Stable couldn’t get any more fucked up.

Bakewell opened her mouth to answer Flash’s question, but never got to speak as Violet graciously answered for her. The earth pony gave a simple weary nod to display that Violet had gotten it right. She opted to not tell the pegasus about Scootaloo, vice-president of Stable-tec’s lies to the overmare and entire stable. He would probably be able to piece together a reasonably accurate guess at what the news meant about the slaughter years ago from Violet’s explanation, but even if he couldn’t, Bakewell wasn’t going to tell him. Not now. Not until they were safe.

The mare hadn’t realized it until she felt the cold hard metal of the stable-floor against her soft underbelly, but she had slowly been sinking into a resting position the entire time. Now that she was down, getting back up seemed like such a chore. What was the point? She should just lay here. This was comfortable. Her eyelids felt heavy and she just couldn’t bring herself to care any longer. The pastry chef has foolishly taken a nice long intake of relaxative drugged air before commanding the others to leave the room, and was suffering for it.

Oh, Celestia. What if this really was Pace? As she dove from the room moments before, Bakewell had realized that Pace couldn’t possibly be distributed by air, but for the life of her couldn’t remember how she knew this. Everything felt strange, like existence had a nice set of fuzz coating the world. If this was Pace, she was a goner. Best tell Flash to shoot her in the head now. But that would take so much effort. Her head felt like a lead weight. Best just stay silent. Let the others come up with a plan. her plan had been to hide in the drug room. That had turned up a bust. Maybe… maybe while the others were planning, little Bakey would have time to take a nap.

Lightning simply nodded a little to both the mares before turning away wondering how much of that...stuff did he just inhale. It was obvious. This was the drug that had scared all the ponies before. And the room they were in, that was their testing lab.

The sounds of gunfire was beginning to get to the pegasus and the urge for action was beginning to rise in his mind. But Lightning knew that he had a responsibility to keep Bakewell, Violet, and Lemon Drop alive. He couldn't risk their lives needlessly. But the group couldn't stay there either. His mind was made up. They had to go get the drill and get the others out. Only then could he continue roaming the stable without the risk of others depending on him.

Lightning turned back to Bakewell and Violet, announcing his new plan immediately, "I can't take this anymore. I have to go do something to help the ponies here. But...there is no use risking you three. We're going to go get that drill and we are going to break out of the Stable. It's the best thing we can do right now. If everything goes right, we will have an escape plan and our friends should be able to regroup with us if everything goes right on their end." He intentionally left out the part where he was going to stay behind and continue fighting as he knew that Bakewell nor Violet will allow him to do such a thing. He would have to sneak off when he knew that the ponies were safe. Watching Bakewell slowly slink to the ground, the pegasus walked up beside her and with his hoof, tried to urge her to get up, "Come on, Bakewell. Don't fall asleep on me now. We have to leave here now." If the group complied, Lightning would draw his new assault rifle, keep it ready, and begin to lead the group down the hallway, keeping a close eye around every corner, every hallway, everything, for a turret or possible enemy foal.

Bakewell raised an eyelid to look at Flash. She didn’t want to get up. She wanted to lay here and fall asleep and let the radiation and drugs kill her before she could wake up.

“You three.” She deadpanned, snorting and pulling herself onto her hooves, noticing that Flash had excluded himself. “It sounds a lot like you’re telling us to run away, Flash. I’m not running away. If I’m going to die, I think I would rather die in my home than out there. And what about Lemon Drop? Do you remember seeing the sky for the first time? Some of us fainted. Half of us threw up. Almost none of us could bear to look up at all. In addition, we just saved her from bloatsprites. That’s, like, one of the least deadly things out in the wasteland. She’s not ready to go out there. Not until everypony is together.

Though, speaking of Lemon Drop, the little pony had a lot to answer for as Bakewell managed to push her way through the cloud in her mind.

“We’re safe, guys. That wasn’t pace. I just panicked. I’ve seen Pace before, and it’s a pill.” She reassured Violet and Flash, before turning to the newcomer.

“Lemon Drop. I want you to be honest with me. I found Pace in the mare’s restroom. It had obviously been opened and probably used. Why? What have you ponies been doing with it?”

Bakewell followed Flash when he started moving, but kept her eyes on Lemon Drop. Expecting an answer.

Arc managed to drop down behind the slaver just in time, seeing how Sky wrestled the shotgun from his mouth and pointed it to his head. He dove on the floor, clutching his ears and closing his eyes. He could feel the shockwave caused by the shotgun firing sweep over him, the excess energy unable to escape the confines of the tunnel, forcing it to bounce of the wall and shake everything around. Even with his hooves pressing on his ears, he still felt dazed.

After few seconds, he dared to open his eyes, looking into the rump of a lifeless body of the slaver lying in front of him, headless, and Sky sorting through its pockets. He stood up and looked at the body, not noticing the spray of blood on his coat and his face.

"Well... that killed him," he stated dryly.

Then the twos and twos and twos started to add up in his head. "Sky... how did a Red Eye slaver got here? I mean, not how he got here, he clearly sneaked in, that was a stealth buck if I ever saw one..." said Arc, moving around the body as he spoke. He stopped at the slavers left hoof and lifted it with his magic, looking over the pip-buck, until he found the small device attached to it. He removed it and floated it in front of his eyes, taking a good look. "Well... this could be useful. Anyway Sky... I think, if there was one, there could be others," he mused as he tried to attach the stealth buck to his own hoof computer, hoping to get some more life out of it.


(Science 92/ Repair 62 (Whatever is more appropriate), Luck 6, trying to get the stealth buck working again.)

Lemon Drop giggled a little, as Bakewell calmed herself. The trio might not have noticed, but Lemon Drop had been trying not to laugh the entire time. "Oh, don't worry. It wasn't actually Pace, but I just wanted to see how you ponies reacted. And we were only getting hurt by the bloat-sports because we never saw them before. We got surprised!"

She blinked obliviously, with a grin across her face, before suddenly realizing she had left a question unanswered. "OH! Uh, I don't know where the Pace came from! It was just always there in the medicine cabinets after the violence happened. We never tried it, though, not after what the terminal said!"

Bakewell continued to walk, but she looked at the stable filly with an expression not quite shock, and not quite horror.

“So the violence was because of a drug, after all.” The mare said quietly, pausing to think of how to continue. The prank was bad and cruel hearted, but it was also quite thought out. It was planned, but at least the violence made more sense. It wasn’t Cream’s fault. It was the pegasus’s parents. Or the Stable doctor’s. Were Cream’s parents still alive? Bakewell probably should have checked, to apologize and tell them what had happened to their daughter if for no other reason. Stupid. There was no chance of doing that now, what with everything going wrong.

And then there was this little stable filly, who had somehow apparently planned a large prank involving scaring her current guardians with pace. How had the filly even done it? The planning alone must have been insane. What else did the foal have up her stable uniform?

“Lemon Drop.” Bakewell said, “You realize that we don’t want to hurt you, right? We just want everypony to be safe. We want to be safe.” She stressed. “That was a very, very clever prank. And you obviously had a lot of fun. But I think maybe you need to tell us things, now. Answer questions we didn’t want to trouble you with before when you seemed upset.” She began, as though treading out onto thin ice. How manipulative was this little filly? Had she even been upset, or had she simply been taking advantage of Bakewell’s heartstrings? Was she going to lead them into traps?

“You need to tell us everything. Truthfully. Why are the turrets going off? Why are you guys treating the adults so poorly? What did you do to Mrs. Smiles? What did Ralph do to deserve being killed and crushed in the Stable door? How did Jack get to be in charge? Why all of the guns? What exactly happened after those doors sealed us out? What have you let Jack do to my parents!? Is my father even alive!? What about Crea- What about my best friend's parents!? Come to think of it, I haven’t seen your mother. Where is she?!” Bakewell asked, questions involuntarily growing more and more accusatory before the mare finally stopped her barrage and glanced towards the others to see if they had similar questions or things to add.

Lightning was too concentrated on moving the group and keeping an eye out for threats to pay too much attention to the conversation going on behind him. However, as the conversation went on and the questions slowly became more...heated...the pegasus knew he had to put a stop to it before Lemon Drop turned on them as well. He stopped in mid-walk and gave Bakewell a stare, not exactly an angry one or an authoritative one, but more like an understanding and sad one. He knew Bakewell was hurting. But yelling wasn't going to help. "Bakewell..." he started but his voice simply trailed off and left him. All he did was shake his head and then turn away, simply motioning with his head for the group to keep following. If he was heading in the right way, he would be heading to the room where his injured parents were..

Jasmine watched the screens displaying the scenes of the stable. She felt slightly disturbed that the overmare was able to watch so much from this very office. She always knew that the stable had cameras surveying the citizens, however actually seeing it with her eyes helped her put a new word to this reality. At a closer glance she noticed a strange set of ponies she had never noticed before. Jas turned to Shutter and Starry, a sense of urgency in her voice.

"THtar, Thutter! Who in the hoof are thothe ponieth!? They have the buffalo in cageth!"

Witht he screens pointed out, Shutter would quickly turn to look at them, without even an embarrased blush at his shortsightedness. he was on a mission in his mind, and he wasn't going to lose track even to be embarrased!

However, from what he saw...he almost felt his body go weak...he knew Slaver armour when he saw it, and to see so many of them within the stable, as well as Jack clearly arming up with them...

...How could they possibly win? Shutter's entire plan had been hinged on the fact that the foals were their only threat. But they were unarmed, outnumbered, extremely outgunned, and facing down some of the strongest slavers in Equestria...

"...This...this can't be happening..."

He would mumble, not answering Jasmines question as he slowly collapsed back onto his rear, his eyes glued to the screens as an emotion made itself very known on his face.

Despair. Not fear, not anger...just despair.

"...We can't do this...we can't fight that many slavers...how can we possibly win this?"

He continued to mumble, an air of defeat almost clear in his voice.

Starry shared a look of horror, as she saw what was happening throughout the Stable.

"It's like the violence all over again," she declared, mouth agape. There weren't really words to express what was going through Starry's mind. Rather, there were, but Starry was at a loss as to what those words were.

Hearing Shutter's words, Starry couldn't help but feel the least bit defiant. She had fought armies before, and she wasn't about to let this one murder her friends and family! "Shutter! We're not out of this yet! There must be a code somewhere in this terminal to open the Stable door! You and Jasmine head to the armory, and get as many weapons as you can. I'm going to find a way to get this door open, and then we're going to get our friends and family out of here!"

Starry took another glance at Jack through the terminal, surrounded by caged buffalo. "We've got to get in there and put a stop to whatever Jack is planning in there."

Jasmine watched as Shutter collapsed onto his flank. Shutter and Starry exchanged a few words which only made her confused more. Who ever they were, they were bad ponies. Jasmine turned to them both as Starry asked them to head to the armory. "Thtarry, I don't want to leave you! If the foalth catch you and they'll murder you. And maybe thothe ponieth are the reathon that the automatic turret'th turned on!"

Jasmine squinted as she tried to make out the details on the screen. "OH MY GOODNETHH! They have the buffalo in cageth!" Jasmine's green eyes watched as the armored slavers went about their business, packing up the Stable dwellers like knick knacks. Her eyebrow raised as she tilted her head. The yellow pegasis had no idea why they would be caging the buffalo in the first place. But as they seemed to have weapons they probably were up to no good.

Starry's eyes suddenly lit up, and a hopeful look of awe stretched across her face. "Oh my dear sweet Celestia! Do you ponies remember where we are? We're in the Overmare's office!"

Starry galloped over toward the terminal, and tapped her hooves at the keys, before pulling the microphone toward her. Her voice resonated through the Stable, through the intercom system. "Attention everypony! Jack is in the Atrium! He's locked up all the buffalo into cages, and I think he's planning to kill all of them! Also, we've flooded the Stable with radiation, so we're all going to die. Don't worry though, we're looking for a way to escape."

Starry turned back toward Shutter and Jasmine, with a smile.

Sky looted what she could from the buck. She found at least two dozen shotgun shells, a 10mm pistol, and four clips of 10mm ammo. Arc Weld had significantly less luck with the stealth buck, which had been significantly cracked. It was going to take some complex tools and quite a bit of time to fix, tools which weren't available in the Stable, and time which Arc couldn't spare right now. Still, he might be able to fix it if he ever made it back to Stableton.

Shutter looked up at Starry for a moment, a flash of hope appearing across his face! maybe they could do something! maybe reprogram the turrets to fire on the slavers or somet-

"Attention everypony! Jack is in the Atrium! He's locked up all the buffalo into cages, and I think he's planning to kill all of them! Also, we've flooded the Stable with radiation, so we're all going to die. Don't worry though, we're looking for a way to escape."

in that moment, Shutters eyes once again did their new trick of shrinking to dots, as he panickily jumped back to his hooves and scampered over next to Starry at the mic. That message was going to screw them over hard if he left it at that!

"Er, don't worry everyone! Not as bad as it sounds! Well, I guess it is pretty bad but...the stable core was close to meltdown, and venting it through the stable was simply the only solution. otherwise, it would overload and kill everyone! This does mean we need to begin evacuations though!"

With that, Shutter quickly lifted a hoof to his mouth, shhing Starry in case they decided to want to correct him a bit on the fact that there was another option, before reaching over and turning off the microphone. An idea had started to form in his head with this new hope, and perhaps they could implement it...

"Hey, Starry, do we have door controls there? If so, maybe we can even the playing field a bit more...
If we keep a close eye on the cameras...maybe we can seal off some of those patrolling slavers! That could help the stable dwellersget to safety without being attacked, and it would keep those slavers locked up tight!"

Starry inspected the console for all the commands.

"Personal log, PA system, Video Feed, Turret Controls, no doors! Sorry Shutter. But hey! At least we can tell ponies where the slavers are!" she said, comfortingly. "Help me find everypony! We can let them know if they're walking into traps, or something."

Starry turned around to look at the video screens. Somewhere on there, they'd find Bakewell, Lightning, Arc, Sky and Violet.

Shutter muttered a slight curse to himself at the fact that there apparantly weren't any door controls, but he quickly bucked up at the fact they would at least be able to help out from there.

"Okay then, let's get to work! I doubt we can fight the slavers on equal grounds, but if we can at least save as many stable citizens as possible...then maybe we can seal the stable doors on the way out, and make our escape back to Stableton!"

With that, Shutter would reach back over and turn on the microphone again, getting ready to announce warnings to any citizens that needed them.

Jas watched the two take turns on the microphone before turning her attention back to the screen. She tried looking for any sign of the others from earlier. Suddenly Jasmine bounced and twirled around to face her sister and Shutter.

"I wonder if we can uthe thothe camerath to our advantage! I bet we could lead Jack and thothe thtrange ponieth into a trap. Perhapth we coult try to lead them into the reactor room and lock them in!"

Lightning has paused in mid-step when he heard a familar pony come over the intercom with another familar pony coming over right after that. Starry and Shutter. That means they had breached the Overmare's office! That was a good thing. The bad thing was, their words confirmed his suspicions. They had started venting radiation INTO the stable, which was rather obvious to the clicking from their Pipbucks. But Jack was also holding ponies...err...buffalo...in cages and now from what they said, was planning to kill them.

That left Lightning with two choices. Either he take his group and charge into battle with them, bloodshed possible on both sides. Or he take his group, get to the door, and help with evacuations like Shutter was saying. The pegasus turned around toward Bakewell, Violet, and Lemon Drop, glancing at Lemon Drop a bit. He hasn't forgotten which side Lemon Drop was originally on and he didn't want to have a pony double-cross them and kill them while they weren't looking. "Bakewell, Violet, Lemon, the situation here is extremely critical, which I'm sure I don't have to stress. But...we...I want to know what you want to do. We can try and go free those buffalo from Jack. But...it could come at a cost." Lightning intenally chose not to spell out what that 'cost' was. "Or we could go from room to room, helping with evacuations and getting the ponies out of here. We will put a stop to any ponies trying to stop us from getting our friends and family out of here. The choice is your's. I can't...I can't keep risking your lives unless I know that you all feel that we are doing the right thing."

“I want...” Bakewell stated slowly, a slight twitch growing under her right eye as her heart crumpled like an empty paper bag. The news the intercom gave wasn’t pretty. She didn’t like it. She didn’t want it. It shook her to the core, not in the tragic weepy way, but differently. There was no way out. She was trapped. She was pissed. Life had taught her that when things got rough that being nice was the best way for everybody, but being mean was the only way for fulfilling her own selfish needs. The news hit, confirming that the stable was once again doomed. Showed the mare that she was once again going to go through hell on Equestria and that all of her foolish attempts to constantly redeem herself were as hopeless as the prospect of a cloudless day. She could be mean. She could be nice. It didn’t matter. Nothing mattered. Because somepony, somewhere, was going to always, always, mess things up for her. The cook had been given the hope and chance to make amends that she had never even dreamed of, just for it to be self-righteously snapped away from her the moment she got close. Life had twistedly dangled the key to freedom in front of her nose before eating it whole and kicking Bakewell back into the fiery depths of Tartatus. And she still wasn’t even going to get the chance to say goodbye.

“I want.” She repeated, angry hate rising up and bubbling like a hungry, bitter acid in her somehow empty soul. The two ponies who delivered the news were unsparingly responsible. Nobody else could take the blame. “To shove Shutter and Starry back into that locker I found them in and slam the door on their faces until nothing’s left.”

“I want.” Her gaze turned to Lemon Drop and hardened. A lava flow of hot water drizzled silently down her cheeks as she stared down at the filly. Muscles shuddering as she physically forced herself to give one last chance to this pony she now was positive had simply taken advantage of Bakewell’s caring nature to spy and plot against the group. Caring. Pff. That was nothing but a weakness. All it had ever done was make the earth pony hurt. She had cared for Cream. She had cared for Stableton. She had cared for her Stable. She had even, in a way, cared for Scrap Parts. The wasteland found new ways to twist a blade into her heart using any of the three every single day. She was better off being selfish. Why bother even getting close to anything at all? Why give so much if the taking was always reserved for somepony else? It was all going to be taken away once you got comfortable with it. Grew to like it. Became affectionate. “Answers”

“One of two things is going to happen, Lemon Drop. And I’m letting you-“

I’m sorry.

“choose. Either you are going to answer my-“

please don’t hate me.

“earlier questions. All of them. You are going to tell me why-“

I can’t be anything but worthless garbage.

“Jack is killing the buffalo. You are going to tell me how-“

I tried, Cream. I swear I tried. I tried so hard.

“To get them out of here. And then we will make a round and try to get our parents and friends and leave together."

It didn’t matter. I never mattered.

“Or we'll do all of that without you. Because in the second option you won’t be leaving here at all.”


Sorry, Scrap Parts. Violet Star. Lightning Flash. Zestari. Sky. You loved and trusted a lie. And perhaps not even the lie could love you back.

Lemon Drop began to sweat visibly. Bakewell was clearly making her very nervous. "I-uh,"

"I don't know anything! I'm just a foal! Jack said that we'd all have to go to Ready's school, a 'good' school, but I don't like school and Jack can't make me go! And the only reason I laughed at you for the gas is because Jack did the same thing when he found that room! And-and, uh... I can't remember the other questions! I wanna go home!"

After that, Lemon Drop devolved into a pile of tears, sobbing endlessly.