We stumbled into the dimly lit room, and I blindly waved my hoof around hitting the door release button on the interior wall, closing us into the darkness as we progressed further. We bumped blindly into random assortments of the sturdy Stable-Tec standard furniture that decorated my bedroom. Because my back was to the room, I couldn’t remember where anything was, but I couldn’t care less, we were too busy embracing each other laughing with mirth.

The absolutely beautiful mare in my forelegs was a mare by the name of Scarlet Rose, none other than the Overmare’s daughter herself, and hot damn was she attractive. A pure Transylvanian, she stood half a head’s height shorter than me with brilliant golden eyes that shined in the darkness, a dark grey coat, perfectly adorable fangs to fit her personality, little fluffy tufts of fur on her ear tips which I could barely resist to play with, and her most defining feature, her deep Scarlet mane and tail. Her unique hair color was never seen before in bat ponies.

Both her tail and mane were long and silky to the touch, her tail almost reaching her hind hooves and lightly curling up at the end. And Right then, she wore her mane loose to fall over her shoulders. It took all of my willpower not to turn to putty in her hooves. Her cutie mark, which is by far the most strange thing you’d expect from an adorable, fun loving mare, was a red tipped .50Cal BMG round surrounded by a bed of rose petals. Apparently she absolutely loved gunsmithing, and her special talent wound up being anything to do with guns. I guess it fits the cutie mark really? But I can guarantee you one thing, I have been taking in every detail of that cutie mark on her flank tonight.

Today was the graduation day of our class at the Multicultural School for Fillies and Colts, MFSC for short, we went through all the boring ceremonies, with the boring teachers doing the boring things with their mouths they call “Saying a Speech”. Honestly, I wanted to explode. Literally, I was ready to combust the very air with my boredom. After twelve years of learning everything there is to know ever at that damn school, they force us to stand there grinning like idiots in the gigantic 4 story tall atrium, in front of all the ponies in the stable as they talk for about six million hours. Scarlet says it’s only for about thirty minutes, but I think she forgot about the wormhole she must have went through because I remember falling asleep, waking up to see they were still talking and actually falling asleep again.

When all was said and done we left to go do whatever we were supposed to do, honestly I don’t even remember it all, but right now what matters is I’ve confessed my feelings to Scarlet, and she took it extremely well. So well in fact, she immediately kissed me and told me loved me too, we quickly scampered off to family’s living quarters, and somehow miraculously stumbled into my bedroom without serious injury since we were hugging each other giggling like little fillies. When we got into my room, kissing each other ferociously, we paused to take our much needed breaths looking into each others eyes lovingly. Scarlet turned us around so her back was to the bed and she let herself fall down.

“Take me Midnight.” she whispered looking up to me with lustrous eyes, a soft smile spreading across her features, as she spread her hind quarters inviting me.

“I- uhh you... gah?” I squeaked out, visibly shaking from the turn of sudden events and too excited to form a sentence.

“You heard me Middy, I want you, right now.” she cooed, scooting closer to me, using that pet name picked up on from my mother. Her smile slowly growing wider at my incompetence.

I stood over her like an idiot just staring before I mentally facehooved and smile cheekily, propping myself on top of her, with my forelegs to either side of her head.

Quick think of something smooth! I said to myself inside my head

“Just inspecting the goods Ms. Rose. And I have to say, you passed with flying colors.” Totally not mimicking those bucks in the movies when they’re talking dirty.

She visibly blushed from that, and I knew I probably did something right to set the mood. With that said I slowly inched closer to her, simultaneously leaning down and kissing her deeply as she let a small moan into my mouth. As the distance between out lower regions closed, I began to feel the heat from her-

Wait what time is it?

Boy, what the hay you doin’? You’re about to get laid! I mentally retorted to myself.

No seriously, my alarm usually wakes me up past a certai- SHIT!

I opened my eyes slowly as I came to my senses, stretching hugely and yawning. Then it dawned upon me why I woke up.

“Aww crap!” I moaned to myself as I raised my left hoof to my face to check the time, accidentally over doing the swing, and swatting my face with the time instead of looking at it. After clearing my vision from the moment of blackout, I quickly looked to the clock on the upper right of the blue UI of the screen.

10:46am

“Fuuuck… I’m gonna be late!” I yelled in realization.

You’re already late.

Bitch, nopony was talking to you! I internally retorted at my dumb consciousness.

I’m not dumb.

I ignored my mental rebuttal as I threw the sheets off of my body with my right wing, feeling my feather tips barely graze the concrete wall, and roll off the bed to my left, striking my head against my Stable-Tec issued nightstand. Did I mention the steel furniture was built just as likely to survive a megaspell just as well as the rest of the stable?

I quickly stood up onto three legs holding my throbbing head with my right hoof as I looked around the room to figure out what needed to happen. The room was dark, but my golden eyes were probably shimmering slightly with my inherited night vision, it was as well lit to me as in a dim hallway, albeit black and white in color. To my left was the stupid nightstand I hit, blasted thing. Behind me my overly armoured bed, Stable-Tec likes to armour up everything I guess, in front of me was my closet and dresser, with a full-pony sized mirror attached to the left side sliding door. To my right, a few hooves away, was the door embedded in the corner of the room, making it a pretty small room, but it gets the job done.

I approached the mirror to make sure I was presentable enough for graduation. I started at the top, and flicked my ears around to get the little tufts of fur in place, then I checked my medium length, black and red mane, black on top red on bottom, good, it shouldn’t change anyway. I shifted my eyes down to my mouth and opened up, inspecting my teeth to see if I could skip brushing.

Yup, clean enough, all the flat teeth are shiny and my two fangs are nice and polished. I thought to myself, closing my maw once again.

Working my way down further, I looked over my light blue-navy coat, all the fur in place, a bit scruffy from not being brushed, but hey the mares dig scruffy right? I then looked to my two toned tail, all neat and orderly, good, just barely reaches down the lower third of my legs. And finally, I cringed as I began to inspect my wings. All the dark blue feathers were facing every-which-way, the old, dead feathers barely clinging on by dead skin. I was going to need some pretty damn hardcore preening to get these things back into working condition.

What was I doing to make them so messed up just by sleeping?

Getting laid. My consciousness reminded me, I really needed to quit talking to myself.

I felt my face heat up as I remembered the dream I had last night. I guess that explains why I was rolling around so much. Oh yeah… heh. If only huh? I thought as the events of what-I-wished-would-be replayed in my head.

I snapped my head back up from stoically staring at the ground, when I suddenly remembered I was still late. I quickly lifted my left wing and begin to rapid-preen the hell out of it with my teeth, yanking out dead feathers, and licking the good ones back in place, as I reached my left hoof forward to open my closet, revealing my enormously huge, wide expansion of fashion: two pieces of clothing. My Stable-Tec issued light barding, and my MSFC school uniform. I’m not too sure why the Stable thought everypony who inhabited it would need to wear light barding, the clothing was reinforced with leather and thick bloth, but I guess it was good at keeping us warm, especially during the cold months in the seasonal chambers were we grew all of our fruit.

As I continued to pluck and lick my feathers I leaned forward and grabbed my MSFC uniform. Thankfully today would be the last time I have to put on the stupid thing.

I’m going to throw this damn thing in the incinerators and watch it burn after all of this today.

I paused my preening to slip the light blue, collared, button down shirt, with practiced ease. Since I’ve been doing this for twelve bucking years, I had the motion down pretty effectively. I then used my teeth to quickly button the 8 pearl white buttons down to my midsection. Afterwards, I grabbed the silky, dark blue, clip-on tie from the hanger and flicked it over my neck, folding my ears down to bring it onto my popped collar, pulling it taut as the clip engaged, latching the tie into place and folding down the collar. Giving myself a final once over in the mirror, I spotted a wrinkle near the base of my shirt, right before the shirt touched my cutie mark, a crescent moon being overshadowed by a dark cloud. Yeah my special talent was the moon, I liked the way it looked in the text books okay? Hell, it just appeared on my flank one day out of nowhere.

With everything wrinkle free, I shifted the shirt around so the patch on the right short sleeve fitted snug against my shoulder, the patch’s shield shape contained the white silhouette of a happy filly and colt, Transylvanian and Earth Pony in shape, on a plain and simple black background with a golden laced “MSFC” embroidered beneath the top edge.

Feeling good enough to be presentable, I continued my preening and headed for the door, slapping the green button on the small control panel on the left-hoof side, causing the door to hiss as it slid open for it’s thousandth time on pneumatic sleds. I entered the living room of our house suite, with the couch against the wall and coffee table to my left, and the dining room table inside the small kitchen diagonally in front of me. The room was the basic rectangle with 3 doors. The main entrance, located on the far end wall, sitting between the kitchen and the living room, and two doors one on each side of the wall to my back. My room, the one I came out of, and my parents room, the one to my right, which was currently open and vacant. The missing ponies were before me, my father: currently sitting on the couch and reading the daily Stable 17 news paper, and my mother: who was happily eating her usual breakfast of apples and pears at the table in the dining room, and of course I completely forgot about both of them as I walked out of my room, too distracted from my intimate grooming.

Primaries flare out, parallel to the secondaries down the length to the alula and the tertiaries all fluffed up, good I think I’m rea- I thought to myself, finishing up the final preening on my wings, when my thoughts were suddenly cut short.

“WHY, THE ACTUAL BUCK, ARE YOU STILL HERE?!” I heard my father roar from the living room. He quickly looked down to his Pipbuck3000 personal computer device on his left hoof to make sure he wasn’t daydreaming and checked the time. He visibly began shaking with rage as he confirmed I was indeed 4 hours late to my last day of classes and graduation.

“Ehh heh, ah, I was distracted by… how awesome it is that I’ve gotten such an excellent education, building me into the strong independent individual am I today?” I cheekily grinned, knowing all too well how bucked I was.

“Midnight Wind, I’m going to tear you a new one if you don’t get that lazy ass flank up to the MSFC right now…” My father threatened as he stood to his full height, matching me at eye-level.

I guess now would be a good time to describe my family! My mother, Starlit Night, who was currently recovering in the dining room from being scared shitless by her husband’s outburst, was a Transylvanian mare. She had the usual golden “bat” eyes, a light grey coat, a long, well-kept black mane and tail, and a single white star as her cutiemar. She used her special talent as one of the astronomy teachers for the younger yearlings at MSFC. She was a kind and caring mare, extremely loyal to my father and fascinated by stars, which couldn't ever been seen in the stable.

She met her future husband one day after classes at the MSFC during their last year of courses, 12 years after joining the classes, they were mortal enemies towards each other as they both had very different opinions on the purpose of what the sky-that-used-to-be was intended for. My mother arguing that it was a template for the stars above to be witnessed, and my father stating that it was intended to be ridden with wings. But their hatred suddenly took a turn to love as they both quickly fell for one another realizing how their companionship brought such joy to their hearts, despite their combative differences.

The bristling ball of rage in front of my face, was my father, Renegade Wind, who had a bright skyblue coat, a messy short-cut red mane, dark stormy grey eyes and a cutie mark of a storm front to match. He worked as a ventilation specialist in one of the Stable’s many maintenance crews. He’s a loving husband to Starlit Night, and compared to his Earth Pony and Unicorn neighbors, he was slightly smaller in frame than most stallions due to being a pegasus. However, Renegade was always the tough buck in charge, he quickly gained his talent in the manipulation of air currents during his time at the MSFC and rose through the ranks of the maintenance crews he was assigned to, his hot-headed nature could only be cooled by the soothing words of his faithful wife, and could only burst into enormous flames from the shenanigans his son, me, would commonly fall under. Though it seemed as if he hated my guts, he and I really did care for each other, we just express it in rageful explosions.

With my father hollering the deadliest threats of tartarus itself into the air, I took a peek to my mother who moved over to the front door and opened it up, giving me a knowing smile nodding. I returned the smile gratefully and spread my wings, pushing them hard to get airborne and accelerating past my dad, who was hollering random words at this point, running out of threats to say.

“Iloveyouguyskaybye!” I yelled, passing my mother, as I quickly banked right, outside the door heading down the large Stable main hallways.

“Goodbye Middy, say hi to Scarlet for me okay?” my mother called as I passed.

“TOASTERS, BLUE PLASTIC CHAIR!” I heard my father scream at nothing, echoing down the hall before being muffled by the door closing, as Star began her effort to calm him down.

I couldn't help but smile to myself as I raced down the huge stable interior, banking left and right to avoid the poor ponies not noticing me blasting down the hallways. My smile was coming from a mixture of embarrassment remembering my dream, but one also of nervous excitement as I think about getting to see Scarlet again at the MSFC.

Scarlet and I had been best friends ever since we were first yearlings at the MSFC, we met during one of the introductory courses where we were paired with a member of the opposite gender and race to learn about their “composition”, honestly, now that I think about it, they were probably trying to get all of us to "mingle" in some sick way.

Scarlet and I quickly started playing together when we were young, however throughout the years we got bored of the games other fillies and colts were playing and we got into loads of trouble doing other mischievous things. Since she had access to codes from her mother, we were able to get into restricted areas of the stable, and armed with my totally non existent stealth skills we got caught every single time. The fun was in the adventure itself really. But as the years progressed, we started to value some of the lessons they taught us at MSFC, and we started to focus more on school to find our special talents, and ultimately what job we would have in the stable. Despite increase in school work, Scarlet and I never grew distant, thankfully, and although we don’t play around anymore, though I certainly wish we did play, our friendship has been just as strong.

That is, until recently. In the last few months I started to notice Scarlet has grown up to be a seriously beautiful mare, no longer just the happy-go-lucky filly I know her by. Though she still retained her playfulness, every day I started looking at her differently, growing a bit nervous around her from her looks, and often not able to form intelligible sentences. I knew I couldn’t fight my feelings for her, so I just let them be. But as time went on these last couple of weeks, I’ve been beginning to wonder maybe she and I could be something. I haven’t mentioned anything about how I feel about her yet though, I was too afraid to put our friendship in jeopardy, but last night, before drifting off to sleep thinking about her, I made up my mind that today was the day I would confess my feelings to her. What better time than the day we graduate and go out into our lives in the Stable? I figure, maybe if she feels the same way, we could possibly really take the relationship somewhere…

Concrete. A substance that is a mixture of limestone, talc and water. When cured the reaction releases an exothermic effect which quickly dries the slurry into a hardened rock, so hard and dense in fact, that it was the very material used by Stable-Tec to act as structural support, and radiation shielding. And it was this concrete wall I found myself plastered against. My face painfully smashed into the Stable-Tec logo near the top edge of the wall. I began to slide down the wall leaving a thin crimson trail from my bloody nose as I crumpled into a heap on the floor, grabbing my face with both hooves, painfully holding back tears.

That freakin’ HURT!

I began to pick myself up, mentally berating myself for being so distracted while flying in the hallways like that. Thankfully I made it to the main entrance of the MSFC, having crashed right into the wall next to the door. Still clutching my muzzle, I shouldered the green button on the control panel, located on the usual left spot of the door, and it snapped up making its signature hiss.

I trotted into the relatively large room, with two stories of space on the inside, the centre was a circular receptionist desk surrounded by doors on every wall leading to classrooms. Above was an overhanging oval walkway that also had just as many doors leading further to classrooms and administrative offices. Tacky fake plants in metal pots dotted the reception desk and the odd bench with a magazine on it lined the walls, probably intended for parents waiting to pick up their young fillies and colts after their classes.

I approached the receptionist, a middle aged earth pony mare with the weirdest purple glasses I’ve ever seen, she had an orange mane in a bun and light cream coloured coat, her cutie mark was a quill and I guess that’s why she decided to become a receptionist. I’ve come to know Mrs. Pal pretty darn well over the years. Though I never knew her full name, I figure it’s probably Pen Pal or Ink Pal or whatever.

“Winds, you’re late… Again.” Mrs. Pal said around the quill in her mouth, not even looking up from the notes she was scribbling. Her voice was kind of gruff, like what I’d imagine a smoker would sound like. If we had cigarettes in the stable.

“Heh, yeah… but I’m here right? I never ditched a day of school in my life!” I replied, hoping to lighten the mood.

I propped my hooves up against her desk and waggled my eyebrows suggestively, "And may I say, you look lovely today under the florescent lights?"

"Hooves." She replied boredly with a grunt.

"Right, right!" I replied nervously as I hopped off her desk, wiping the spot where my hooves were.

“This is your last day, and marks the one hundred and fifty sixth time you’ve been tardy to class, normally I’d issue my usual detention, but I guess you got lucky since I won’t be seeing you in here again after today.” she says, gently setting her quill down and glaring at me. Oh how I’ve come to recognize that lovely glare of hers.

“Room 28, the usual, hurry up because in about 15 minutes they’re going to start the FACE.” Mrs. Pal said, motioning to the 4th door to my right with her head. Flicking her tail in irritation.

I felt my ears lower close to my head as I finally remembered the FACE. We were supposed to be given 4 hours of preparation with classmates to get ready to take the exam but, given the fact I was pleasantly having a wet dream with the mare of my life, I guess I wont be having that advantage.

The "Final Assessment or Career Exploration” exam, shortened to FACE, was a giant ass mixture of all the boring things plastered down in a 3 hour long pamphlet. It was issued two generations ago by the first Overmare, Night Shade, to test all of the graduating students on everything they’ve learned throughout their education at the MSFC, and is the last thing a student must take to graduate. Oh yeah, it also determined your future in the stable, with no room for adjustment to the final decision.

Being me, I of course forgot about it entirely, and there was no way I was gonna sit in my room and study 12 years of Math, Science, History, and Equestrian. So i just figured I was gonna wing it, which is exactly what I did.

As I trotted up to the door marked 28, I steeled myself for what was to come and opened up the door. The door slid open silently, being a classroom door, and I was greeted with all the wide eyes of my fellow classmates in my year, staring at the pony who came 4 hours late to the FACE exam. To my left was the back of the classroom, being a slate grey boring ass wall. To my right and front was an array of desks with students studying together in groups. The front of the classroom to my right was dominated by a large projector screen with the simple words FACE displayed, and in the left corner in the front was the desk were the professor currently sat. Transylvanians, pegasi, unicorns, earth ponies, and all mixtures in between, all sporting the MSFC uniform, stopped their studying and looked up at me, as I slowly inched myself along the wall grinning like an idiot.

The professor in charge of overseeing our FACE was an elderly Unicorn stallion named Mr. Chip, he was a pipbuck technician and I guess he volunteered for the position he’s currently holding. Sitting at his desk slowly shaking his head in disapproval, the old stallion with a short grey mane and dull brown coat proceeded to point at the wall where a clock was hanging.

Ten minutes. I had ten bucking minutes to study with my class, and from the looks of things, I really doubted any of the other students were going to let me join their groups. Besides I really didn’t have any friends within my class year besides Scarlet. Speaking of which, I noticed a flailing dark grey hoof out of the corner of my eye.

“Miiidnight! *psst* over hereee!” Scarlet “whispered” oh so quietly.

Mr. Chip cleared his throat and Scarlet audibly Eeped. And then continued to only wave ferociously in silence with the craze of a mad mare.

I made eye contact with the heart-meltingly beautiful eyes of my long term friend, who was grinning with excitement. She wore the female version of the MSFC uniform which was a similar shirt but without the collar, and the tie was replaced by a dark blue bow in her hair, standing in contrast to her scarlet mane. I felt heat rise to my cheeks as I broke eye contact and quickly trotted over to the happy bundle of joy in the back left corner of the room. Thankfully everypony else in the room quickly went back to their last touch ups of knowledge gathering, and didn’t see my embarrassing reaction to Scarlet.

“Middy! Bloody hell, you actually woke up and made it in time! You had me worried I’d have nopony to study with." She exclaimed in a hushed tone. "Oh wait, I still don’t have a partner, you never study.” She ended sarcastically in her Braytish accent, as I took a seat in the desk that was facing in front of her.

Scarlet, like all Transylvanians, had a Braytish accent, similar to the ponies in Trottingham and Manechester. Many ponies suspect their ancestors came from the little island, and spread into the mainland of Equestria. Because my mother was Transylvanian, I kind of picked up on the vocabulary and spelling differences, but not really the accent, as my father was mainland Equestrian. Regardless, I found Scarlet’s accent to be yet another absolutely beautiful thing about her, I could listen to her talk to for hours. Which she commonly did when we were together.

“Well, given I’m four bucking hours late, I doubt we’d have much studying together anyway.” I replied, as I leaned over to focus on her textbook.

Avoiding eye contact with her allowed me to actually speak cognitive sentences, but Scarlet, unbeknownst of my newfound feelings of her, had not problem at all establishing eye contact. She looked up from her textbook into my eyes, a few strands of her scarlet mane fell down from the pushed back position from her ear, staying behind in front of her face.

“Yeah, and because of that I’ve been studying alone for all those hours mate” She whispered in mock annoyance.

I let out a small whine, when I saw her mane do that, and her eyes, and wow. I sat there just staring at her as she probably was waiting for some kind of remark, or sarcastic comment that’d I’d normally throw back at her. Not seeing any other reaction from me, she raised an eyebrow,

“Oi, Middy are you okay? You’ve been really out of it these last few weeks, I didn’t think you cared about the test that much.” She trailed off waiting for my answer.

Shoot, think of something! Get the attention away from my feelings! I internally panicked.

“Ah, well you know, it’s kind of the most important test of our lives, and if we mess up, our futures will be ruined and we’ll live the rest of our lives in the maintenance levels in super hot, stale air with no family or friends.” I said as I oh-so-casually stretched, looking everywhere but at Scarlet. Damn her siren-like powers.

After not hearing any response from Scarlet for a few seconds, I quickly flicked my head down to see what was wrong, only to find my dear friend had sunken into her seat, her eyes were wide with worry and her ears were flat against her head.

Aww shit, you’ve done it again…

Though light-hearted and bubbly, Scarlet was deathly afraid of the unknown. For example she was deathly afraid of the dark, even though she could see as clearly as any other bat-pony.

Though I thought it was the cutest thing in the world, I also knew she genuinely didn't like pessimism either, or really any bad thoughts in general. So I was usually pretty careful to filter what I said not to spook her. But given the fact I was trying so hard to avoid talking about my feelings for her, I guess I kind of forgot, and now I’ve made the poor mare scared shitless of the FACE exam.

Forgetting my queasiness around her, my instinct as her friend quickly overpowered my thoughts as I reached a hoof forward, holding her shoulder and looking into her worried eyes.

“You’re going to do fine Scar, I was more or less talking about myself, I never took any of these classes as seriously as you. You’ll score high enough to choose the job you want, and you’ll become a gunsmith, I know it.” I said with a smile, trying to comfort her as best I could.

I didn’t want her to do poorly because of me, and it scared the daylights out of me to think she would be stuck doing some maintenance job in the dark lower levels, where she would probably go insane.

Scarlet began to brighten up a little at that, but her cheerfulness was short lived as she realized what I said. Her smile quickly faded into a concerned frown.

“Wait, you’re going to do just as well as me! I know you didn’t care for the classes too much, but you’re brighter than you give yourself credit for.” she said, this time taking my hoof from her shoulder and holding it.

Oh look, my face is all red again, wow this room needs better ventilation, I should contact my dad about this.

"TOMATOES DAMMIT. FUCKING BLANKET” echoed in my head Yeah, nevermind maybe contacting him isn't a good idea…

I sat there not wanting to move, taking in every moment of her looking into my eyes and holding my hoof. I wished this moment was because she actually loved me, not because I said something dumb and she was trying to comfort me.

We stayed like that for a while and a I think I saw a blush slowly start to form on her cheeks as we sat unmoving.

“Class, we will now begin the FACE exam, please place all studying material away, and set your pipbucks to FACE protocol 1-56.” Mr. Chip interrupted us, thankfully sparing any awkwardness.

I gave Scarlet one last reassuring smile, which she gratefully returned, and turned my desk to face the front of the classroom. With the beautiful image of Scarlet smiling in my head, I lifted up my Pipbuck3000 and quickly scrolled the wheel on the left, to get to the “DATA” tab, where I panned the selection box down to “FACE 1-56.” And hit “select”.

The Pipbuck made a beep, and a timer appeared “3:00:00”, dominating the screen and rendering all other funtions useless. I guessed that meant our Pipbucks will restart in 3 hours.

When Mr. Chip was done handing out the FACE pamphlets on our desks, he returned to the front and lifted his own Pipbuck.

“When I hit the remote controller and your Pipbucks begin the countdown, you may open the test pamphlets and begin. Best of luck my little ponies.” Mr. Chip announced boredly, activating the timer.

All of our Pipbucks simultaneously began to count down from three hours. Stealing one last glance back to Scarlet Rose, who was incredibly focused and biting her lower lip with her tiny fangs, I cracked open the damn pamphlet that will determine my entire future in the Stable.

“Hey look! It’s one of the Overmare’s daughters. Watch out she’s gonna eject you from the stable!” a little Transylvanian colt yelled to his friends as they spotted Scarlet walking down the hallway.

The colts and fillies all scampered away from the sulking scarlet maned bat-filly, yet again she was being shunned by all of the other foals. All because of her mother, Moonlight Shade. Moonlight was the current Overmare of the stable, and had two fillies with some random Transylvanian stallion, arguing that she was trying to keep the Overmare tradition by being pure bred.

Scarlet Rose and her elder sister Super Nova were the result. Super Nova was nine years older and already in training to become the next overmare, Scarlet, not being the heir to the Overmare position, was treated like any other filly by the adults, which was honestly a good thing now that scarlet thought about it. But the other colts and fillies made up rumors and started shunning her from their games and activities.

Scarlet’s only friend, who she held dear to her heart was Midnight Wind, a colt who looked past all of her labels and saw her as nothing more than another normal filly. Midnight Wind’s other friends were all a year younger, which was odd for the Stable, but Midnight never really connected with his current year, all except for Scarlet.

Scarlet continued her long lonely trek from school back to her family’s living quarters, Midnight had to go home early to help his mom gather fruit from the lower level orchard, so today was one of the days Scarlet just walked on her own. As she walked, she started to reminisce about her family.

Moonlight Shade wasn’t a bad mother by any means, but she was awfully sick. Starting from Scarlet's birth she was diagnosed with a terminal form of pneumonia. Nopony in the stable, besides her family and the doctors, knew of her condition and whenever she needed a public appearance, Moonlight would only show for a brief moment, smiling and waving, while her associates would do the speaking.

All of the decrees instated by Moonlight were done electronically, sent to all of the families and single ponies via electronic message to their home terminals. This system so far has been extremely effective, as the entirety of the stable had faith in their government, not once doubting their decisions. Moonlight had been a genuinely good leader, bringing prosperity to her ponies, regardless of her waning health.

Moonlight’s first born daughter, however, was not as morally bound as her mother. The moment Super Nova was sixteen years of age, she began her training for becoming the next Overmare. It soon dawned upon her that her mother was due to pass away soon, and instead of feeling remorse, Super began to count the days until she would become the Overmare, relishing in the fact that she would be able to gaining all of the administrative power.

Super Nova was always pampered as a little filly, everyone in the stable treating her like royalty, and giving her gifts. By doing so, the rest of the Stable threw Scarlet under the rug. In no way was Scarlet mad or upset about her early childhood however, but Scarlet simply wished for a bit more companionship in her life.

As Scarlet grew older she learned to simply put on a good attitude, and until the day she met Midnight, all she had to do was fake being a happy little filly, with a loving family without any problems. Thankfully the turmoil boiling up within her was alleviated by her quick alliance with Midnight WInd, and it was that friendship that Scarlet would cherish more than any other possession she owned.

With Scarlet always being around Midnight, the other colts and fillies soon grew to accept Scarlet as just another one of them, and the teasing stopped, but they still continued to not affiliate themselves with the Overmare’s daughter, in fear they would get into trouble.

Midnight, however was blissfully unaware of any of these problems, and continued to be a friend to Scarlet for seemingly no reason at all.

“Scar you okay? You’re staring at that group of ponies like they stole something from you.” the young colt-like voice of Midnight called out.

Scarlet whipped around hearing that oh too familiar voice, bounce off the huge window to her right, that overlooked massive expanse of the climate controlled orchard

“What? Middy what are you doing here? I thought your mum needed help.” Scarlet questioned, forgetting her dark thoughts of loneliness. As she scanned the window, looking for the rest of Midnight’s family.

“Eh, after I decided to buck the trees my Dad kinda threw me out of the orchard. Literally.” Midnight replied with a cocky grin, proud by the fact he found a way to skip his chores.

“Ugh, Middy you really should help out your family, harvest season is hard work.” Scarlet moaned turning around and continuing down the hallway to her family’s quarters. Unable to spot anypony in the vastness of the dense autumn leaves.

Midnight flared his wings and jumped over Scarlet with practiced ease. He may not have been able to fly fully yet, but his wings still provided excellent thrust.

Scarlet let out a small shriek suddenly sitting down on her flanks, as Midnight cut her off, inching closer.

“You’re avoiding my question Scar, what's gotten into you? Did those ponies do something to you? Am I going to have to teach them a lesson?” Midnight asked as he slowly started turning around glaring and making small growling sounds as he bared his fangs at random objects. The ponies he mentioned have long since walked passed.

The scene was pretty comical, and Midnight hardly looked intimidating. Scarlet let out a small giggle, and playfully hit Midnight in the head.

“No no silly, they didn’t do anything to me, I was just thinking...” Scarlet said, trailing off, her smile disappearing.

Midnight stopped his growling, and sat down facing Scarlet, shaking off the small hit like it didn’t hurt, when in reality he was mentally cringing,

“Alrighty then, what were you thinking about?” Midnight cocked his head, as he asked with concern.

Knowing she couldn’t lie to Midnight without feeling guilty, Scarlet began to explain her mother's condition, and how she just simply can’t connect with anypony. She began sniffing halfway through her explanation about her cruel sister and then the tears started to fall when she finished saying how Midnight was her only friend. Finishing by burying her face into her forelegs as she lay down weeping.

Scarlet felt something warm envelop her as she bawled her eyes into her front hooves. Slowly opening her right eye, she saw she was in a dark blue colored room with light seeping through the translucent walls. Opening the her eyes further she realized it was Midnight’s wing, laying atop her back. And Midnight had moved next to her, sitting looking forward with a sad expression, most likely thinking to himself about what she said.

Scarlet slowly got up, with Midnight’s wing still around her, and sniffled looking up to Midnight’s face.

“Th- Thanks, Middy. You’re always there for me when I really need it.” Scarlet snuggled close to Midnight’s body, gladly accepting the friendly gesture.

Midnight knew there was nothing he could say that would help his most dear friend in her situation, but he tried his best to comfort her as he sat sitting next to her embracing her with his wing.

Both ponies sat in silence looking out onto the now golden and red leaves of the orchard through the window, neither needed to utter a word, as they sat in their embrace, with their comfort in knowing their friendship was all that truely mattered to them. Unbeknownst to them, a soft light emitted from Midnight's blank flank and an image of a lonesome grey cloud overtaking a crescent moon appeared.

Question 117: You find a file cabinet that contains the codes to rig the Spark Generator in the Stable’s core to explode, what do you do? (These codes do not exist, as Stable-Tec wishes all ponies will be safe within their facilities.)

A: Rig the bomb to explode endangering yourself and everypony inside the stable, blatantly ignoring Stable-Tec protocol.

B: Ignore the files and leave the room and report yourself to the nearest security officer for breaking into the room.

C: Take the files to the Overmare, as she most likely would like to have those codes for leverage over the population.

D: Cry.

“Wow, after a hundred freaking questions of math, science, equestrian and history. This is how we’re going to end the test, with a dumb “what if” questionnaire” I thought to myself as I obviously chose “A”. Explosions sound fun.

The FACE test uses the last fifty questions to determine what job a pony will be placed into, if the pony doesn’t score high enough to be granted a self-selection. The passing grade for self-selection is a strict one hundred out of one hundred, excluding the last fifty for obvious reasons.

After we turn in our tests, a computerized testing mainframe will judge our scores, and select the best-fit job based upon our personalities and intelligence. I felt pretty confident on my score, but I knew I didn’t get one hundred correct. So i figured I may as well answer these dumb personality questions as truthfully as possible.

After one hundred and forty nine questions, I finally came to the last one. And I checked my PipBuck to see how much time I had left.

“0:00:15.56”

Oh shit! I have freaking 15 seconds!

I quickly read the question and gawked at it’s stupidity.

Question 150: Whos is the greatest, most important pony in the Stable. And sompony whom we should all give our gratitude for saving our lives from the end of the world above us?

A: The Overmare.

B: The Overmare.

C: The Overmare.

D: The Overmare.

I griped my pencil harder in my mouth in annoyance to the loaded question, this was totally unfair, what if ponies disagree? I didn’t like the dumb idea of the FACE exam putting words in my mouth, so in an act of petty defiance, I quickly scribbled down.

E: Midnight Wind.

With the final period placed at the end, my Pipbuck and every single one of those around me, beeped twice and rebooted back to normal usage. Mr. Chip, who was standing at the front of the classroom again at this point, cleared his throat and announced

“And that’s the end of the FACE exam, pencils down everypony. Please leave all testing materials at your desk and I will collect them myself. You are excused for the rest of the day until the graduation ceremony, I wish you all a happy life, and look forward to hopefully seeing some of you in the PipBuck department. You are dismissed.”

I stretched enormously as I began to lift myself out of my desk, slowly feeling the blood return to my aching limbs.

Gah pins and needles! Make it stop, ow ow ow.

I sat there flicking my legs around trying to get the blood in the deprived muscles sooner, all the while hearing the faint giggles of a very amused Scarlet behind me. I felt my ears fold back in embarrassment as I turned around to see Scarlet, barely stifling her laughter with her hoof. Catching my eye, she grinned and started walking towards the door.

“C’mon middy, I’m bloody hungry, let’s head on down to the cafeteria.” Scarlet called over her shoulder as she exited the door with me not far behind.

I suddenly remembered I skipped breakfast in my blind rush to get to class, and I quickly nodded in agreement. We headed on out the door and to the left, passing Mrs. Pal one final time as we headed to the main entrance of the MSFC.

“It’s been nice knowing you Mrs. Pal, I’ll be hoping to see you around the stable later on!” Scarlet called out as we passed the receptionist.

“I’ll be sure to track you down and say hello every once in a while sweetheart, take care now.” Mrs. Pal smiled and waved a hoof.

I awkwardly grinned at Mrs. Pal, hoping Scarlet put her in a good mood, and then quickly looked away as all I got in return was another glare and a small shaking of her head.

I guess some things will never change.

As we headed out the door, down the hallway to our left, I looked at the wall behind me to see if my DNA was still imbedded into it. Thankfully it looked like some janitor cleaned it up. We continued down the hallway headed towards the atrium and by extension the food courts.

“Say, Scar what time is the Graduation Ceremony?” I asked, hoping there would be enough time for what I have planned. Er… what I will soon plan in the future, and execute as I go. Yeah, I know, I don’t plan ahead enough.

“Seriously Middy? This is just sad, you don’t even know when our own bloody Ceremony will be. You know what? I think I’m not going to tell you and have you figure it out.” She said mischievously as she looked over her left shoulder to me.

I quickly looked down at the floor tiles beneath me, breaking any unwanted eye contact. I really need to get over this problem, and I only had one solution. I needed to find a time to confess my feelings to Scarlet, otherwise our friendship will never be the same again. But if I didn’t know when the graduation ceremony was going to be held, how the buck was I supposed to coordinate my non-existent plan?

“Ughh Scar can you just tell me please? I really wana know.” I half lied, as I checked my PipBuck for the current time. All the while doing an awkward hop skip to walk on three legs.

2:00pm

Scarlet suddenly stopped and I found myself having a lovely close encounter with her flanks, one of which I was totally not prepared for and plowed into with unintentional gusto.

“Gahhhh ohmygoshI’msosorryit’snotwhatyouthinkpleasedonthateme” I blurted out in rapid succession, feeling my face burn up like the very bottoms of the Stable’s reactor core, as I back peddled quickly, and landing on my ass.

Scarlet for her part, was enjoying every moment of making me flustered, though probably not entirely aware as to why I was acting like this, she was still Scarlet, meaning she held in her laughter for as long as possible and looked at me with seductive eyes, and wiggling her flank around to get a further reaction out of me.

“Oh wow Midnight, I wasn’t aware you fancied my rear end so much.” She managed to say in a level tone before losing her momentum and quickly rolling over in a fit of giggles, kicking her legs into the air.

I, for my own part, very much enjoyed that display, and sat up looking away, burning up like an idiot. The fact that she couldn’t do that without bursting into laughter further driving my already worried emotions, what if she really doesn’t see me for more than a friend?

Naw, you need to believe it Midnight, because it’s confidence that will take you on further!

I slowly came to my senses as I let Scarlet calm down from her fit of laughter.

“Are you done? I’m starving here.” I deadpanned hoping to keep my cool as she righted herself back to all fours.

“Yeah I... that’s just too... too funny mate, I’m sorry, okay... let’s get moving!” She recovered from her laughter. She exclaimed the last bit and started to gallop off towards the food court.

I quickly ascended to all four of my hooves and galloped off next to her this time, not to repeat that embarrassing event. As we galloped along, we passed by a group of lower-year class mates, which happened to contain two of my really close friends, Evergreen and Muffin Top. I skidded to a halt, evidently freaking Scarlet out from my sudden stop, and causing her to do the same.

“Oi Middy, watch what you’re doing! I just about slammed myself into the floor!” she exclaimed as she finally settled down to a halt, about facing to me, and getting up in my face.

I motioned with my hoof for her to calm down. “Hang on hang on, I saw Ever and Muffin, let’s get them to come to lunch with us, they probably just got out of their classes for the season too.”

Stable 17 had seasons, yeah it’s pretty unexpected, but our stable was designed by pegasi and bat-ponies. Both races were completely capable of magical manipulation of clouds, although it’s passive magic and we really can’t do much more besides touch clouds. The engineers who built the stable fitted a miniature cloud factory into the main core of the stable, which provided water for the orchards. These cloud factory was capable of the production of any cloud from any season, so since fruit are such delicate food, it was vital we maintain all four seasons to keep them growing naturally. The MSFC releases students during the autumn season so that they can help with the planting, harvesting and cleaning up for the winter season. It’s a brief break, but it also marks the end of a school year, in this case, we graduate and the next class behind us takes our old positions in the school.

Scarlet frowned a little at what I said, probably thinking of having to be around ponies she didn’t really know. It was common for me to spend time with my other friends of course, and Scarlet was always there too, but I guess she always felt a bit left out of the loop.

Picking up on her change in demeanor, I flashed her a quick smile and a wink. “Don’t worry Scar, they’re nice ponies, you know that. Besides,” I leaned in closer to her “You’re my best friend anyway, and my favorite, you’re not getting replaced.” Scarlet visibly brightened up a little bit from my words of encouragement, and nodded

“Alright, fine, let’s go grab your mates and get moving, I’m famished.” She smiled up at me.

Starting to feel butterflies in my gut again from her smile, I quickly nodded and trotted over to Evergreen and Muffin, who separated from the group and were heading towards us.

Evergreen, a unicorn buck with a green coat and sage mane with blue eyes, has always been a close friend of mine, we really only met at school, but I enjoyed his company greatly whenever we both happened to be in the orchards. His special talent, planting unsurprisingly, was a bit odd for a unicorn, but he was also half bat-pony, similar to me. He inherited his mother’s coat, eyes and horn, but retained his fathers fangs, ear tufts, and natural transylvanian abilities. Pretty much an inverse of my family. Oh yeah, he was also smart as BUCK.

“Greetings Midnight!” Evergreen exclaimed in his usual way, albeit a bit nerdy, not gonna lie.

“Hey Ever, what’s up?” I responded offering a hoof out for a bump.

Suddenly a flash of brown and, well darker brown, came into view as Muffin intercepted the hoofbump with his own, exclaiming “Victory!”, Muffin Top jumped in the air and did an air hoof.

Muffin Top, a freakin’ ball of celestia knows what. He’s a pegasus pure breed, and is by far the strangest pony I’ve seen. His name, Muffin Top is deceptive, as his talent lies in military tactics, and yet he acts like some kind of ninja pony with martial arts, honestly I don’t even know what he does. With a light brown coat and a chocolate colored afro of a mane, he’s a pretty boring pony to look at, no offense muffin, but his eyes were a piercing green-teal and he had a super low voice that just seemed downright out of character. Like I said, strange pony that one.

“Annnnnd okay… Hi Muffin. Say you two wanna grab something to eat? Scar and I were headed towards the food court, why not join us?” I asked.

Evergreen adopted a genuine smile and nodded enthusiastically, “Sure! My stomach has been releasing too much hydrochloric acid and is beginning to loose it’s PH balance, I should ingest something before it starts eating my excess lipids from the interior walls.” Evergreen explained nonchalantly

Dafuck did you just say? I wonder to myself smiling and nodding.

“Sure, I’ll tag along with you and your marefriend, it’s been a while since I’ve hung out with both of you.” Muffin droned in his double bass voice, all enthusiasm from his earlier.

I quickly caught onto what he just said and suddenly felt the familiar heat rise to my face, “Ohhh no, no, no, no, no. We’re just really good friends Muffin, seriously, I’m serious. Do you see how serious I am? Serious.” I said, flailing my hooves around, then stood dead stoic and expressionless. Still blushing like a buffoon. Muffin just nodded slowly and accepted it. Or pretended to. Or maybe he was just bobbing his head.

Scarlet for her part, was just doing what she normally did around anypony that spoke to her, or near her. She sat there with wide eyes and ears slightly turned back. Looking at me expectantly, begging me with her eyes for us to get going before she melted from awkwardness. I quickly caught on and stood up to all fours again.

“A-l-l-l-righty then, lets get moving!” I exclaimed, nudging Scarlet to get moving as well, and heading towards the food courts.

When we finally arrived, I took a look around me. The massive two story room, housing food units and tables alike, was bustling with all the students who got out of the MSFC for the season. We quickly grabbed a table and began searching for food.

The food drives in the food court were some pretty interesting pieces of arcane engineering, basically they 3D printed nutrients into food. To prepare them you just dumped random food into the top lid, and the machine compressed the food and stored into its “data”, later to be printed again. Need I explain more? Unicorns, smart ponies they are.

When we grabbed our food, we all reconvened at the table. Scarlet slowly started inching closer and closer to me, ruffling her wings in nervousness. Her reaction to ponies she didn't know was what I expected, I gratefully let her lean against me, forgetting any awkward feelings I had had before for the time being. Our conversation with Evergreen and Muffin was pretty bland, but then I remembered the Graduation and quickly asked them what time it started.

“1:00pm in the atrium. Why?” Evergreen asked.

I celebrated in my head silently as I finally got my answer, and I felt Scarlet twitch to my right as she probably just figured out she lost that leverage against me. But of course she didn’t say a thing. Glancing down to my Pipbuck, I checked the time.

12:00 pm

Okay, now or never midnight, lets get this show on the road and find out if Scarlet’s got feelings the same way you do.

I looked up at my friends and quickly blurted out “Oh crap! I forgot I needed to help my family with collecting apples! And oh, Scarlet they wanted your help, come on lets get moving!” I sprung up out of my seat, pulling along a very shocked and very confused Scarlet behind me, heading to the door marked “Orchard”.

“Gah Middy put me down! I can trot on my own mate!” Scarlet squealed behind me, as I continued to pull her through the door and deep into the orange and red forest, with only the chilly autumn air to act as my barrier. Once we got into the near center of the forest, I set her down and sat down to catch my breath.

“Midnight, what the bloody hell has gotten into that head of yours? And why are we here? You don’t need any help with gathering food to cook, your mum had plenty at your house last time I was there.” Scarlet asked, probably all that mad, just really confused, she probably felt a lot better now that there weren't any weird ponies around.

I stood up and steeled my nerves, I figured this was too sudden, but dammit I couldn’t wait any longer. I reached forward and grabbed one of her hooves with my own, lifting it up.

“You’re right, I don’t need to do any of that, but i really need to tell you something, to get it off my chest.” I trailed off, looking down a little as I tried to keep my voice level by not looking into her beautiful eyes.

“Oh, well why’d you bring me all the way out here to tell me silly? I mean I guess the environment is refreshing, and the colours are just brilliant. But what’s gotten into you?” Scarlet asked looking around, then forcing eye contact with me.

Aww shit here we go…

“Because… Be- I- geh?” I lost my train of thought as I looked at her, curiously tilting her head slightly to the right, her huge golden eyes locked with mine, and her little fangs barely poking out from under her top lip. It was both adorable and stunningly beautiful at the same time.

I squeezed my eyes tight to focus

Aw fuck it!

“Because I love you Scarlet!” I exclaimed, “I started getting these feelings for you and I couldn’t control them, and I just fell further and further for you. I love the way you smile, and your beautiful eyes, and everything about you and I just really hope you love me too…”

I trailed off as I heard the familiar rustle of leathery wings, and felt a hoof leave my grasp. I slowly opened my eyes to see the fluttering figure of Scarlet’s tail disappear behind the hill of trees, and towards the door. I sat there for a few minutes, feeling the gears in my head begin to turn again, until it dawned upon me what just happened.

I just lost my best friend in the whole stable, no, the whole world. Because I made the stupid mistake of putting my feelings before our relationship. Scarlet… fuck what did I just do?!

I took off as quickly as possible, absolutely furious with myself at my stupidity. I bolted for the opposite door of the orchard and blindly flew through the hallways, blinking away tears. As I barreled down the empty maintenance halls, I quickly hung a left and found myself in the main living sector. I flew down through the hallways and burst through my family door, entering the living room before the door even fully opened. I rushed past the empty rooms, and shoved myself into my room, allowing the door to close behind me. Landing face first onto my bed, I started punching the damn pillow. Leeching the bloody thing till its just, well a pillow. So it doesn’t die. But Celestia dammit I wanted it to die!

FUCK, FUCK, FUCK, how could I be so damned naive? I thought to myself as I struck the pillow, emphasizing each hit with a new swear. I continued on like this, until I left myself a pathetic heap on my bed, feeling only a few tears drip down my face.

She probably doesn’t ever want to see me again… But with the graduation ceremony, she’s bound to be there. Aw shit she doesn’t have anyone else but me to be there for her. I’m usually the one she comes to after something like this happens… Fuck what have I done?

I continued to berate myself for what seemed an eternity, before my emotionally distraught body shut down, and I fell into a dreamless, painful sleep.