As I woke up with the sound of my Pipbuck again, book ruby woke up too. I got out of bed and put my security barding on. Then, something came up on the Pipbuck: It was a message from the Overstallion in the Stable-com. Book ruby saw that and gave me a worried look while saying, “Aces...sorry if I got you into trouble with the Overstallion.”
“Don’t Worry, Ruby, it wasn't your fault, and plus it should be nothing. Probably just another meeting between him and the rest of the security personnel.”
“Well...if you say so.” She put her Stable suit and then said to me, “You should get going then. Maybe it's something more serious than we think.”
“Okay I will.”
As I left her quarters, I went to check the Overstallion message on Stable-con. the Stable-con was basically a program that lets you send text messages and files to other Pipbucks. Everypony in Stable 13 uses this application to communicate between each other.
I clicked the message and it had the following text was written, "Please come quickly as soon as you get this message; we have a problem, a big one". The message was brief and clear: My orders were to go the Overstallion's office and find out what he wanted to tell me, simple enough....
After a few minutes, I reached the Overstallion's office, just one level above the main atrium next to the Stable exit. I knocked on the metallic door and the intercom on the door replied, “Come in, the door is unlocked.”
The metallic door with the number “13” on it opened, and the large Overstallion office was upon my sight. Inside the large room there was a team of six ponies, each one operating a different machine. Three of them were doing a maintenance check on the water distribution system with worried faces, faces that indicated something really bad. This couldn't be a good sign.
As I got closer to the center of the room, the Overstallion was sitting in his podium-chair that came down to my height and the two large gatling guns on the chair were pointing at my direction. I felt nervous and said, “Hey! No need for that!”
The Overstallion in an old, calm voice replied:
“Sorry.”
“So what did you call me for?”
“As I said in the message, we got a problem. Our water purification chip has given up the ghost! Broken! we can't make another one and the process is too complicated make a work around system.
“So…”
“This is crucial to our survival, and I think you are the only hope we have.”
“I’m listening.”
“We’ve estimated that we have 4-5 months of drinkable water available. We need you to find us another water chip.”
“Wait...find another chip up there? In the wasteland? You are kidding, right? No one comes back alive from there!”
“This is no joke, Aces. You must go up there and retrieve the chip before our water reserves run dry.”
“Okay then... I’ll do it.”
“Great, I’ve marked a location of a nearby Stable for you to start looking. It isn't a bad place to start looking, right?”
“Well, another Stable may be the only place with this kind of tech.”
‘And one more detail: don't tell this to anypony else. We don't want a catastrophe here.We already have those strikes to deal with, so leave the Stable by midnight to start your search. We’ve already told your parents, so In the meantime, go equip yourself.
“Okay, I will leave quietly.”
“Good luck. We are counting on you!”
I turned my back on the Overstallion and left the room. The task he had given me was...just unbelievable. He ordered me to leave the Stable to search for some goddamn water chip on some nuclear screwed up wasteland. Just incredible. Overstallion, you and Celestia must either hate me or have seen some unbelievable sense of trust.
(After a few hours later)
I went to my quarters to have a "final" talk with my parents about this whole situation. While I was on my way, I received another message on the Stable-con. This time, the message was from Book Ruby.
She wrote, "So what happened at the meeting with the Overstallion? Was it anything serious or related to last night?"
Immediately I replied, "Yes it was serious, but not about us. It was about something else…listen, I can’t tell you what is, but I can explain, I just need you to be at the Stable door by midnight tonight. Can you be there?"
After sending the message, a few seconds later she replied.
"I will be there, but I'm worried about what you are going to tell me...and do."
I sigh and close Stable-con then go to my quarters. When I opened the door and entered the living room, I saw my mother crying on the sofa and my father trying to console her. When she saw me she ran and hugged me while crying.
“Please, son, promise us that you will come back...please.”
“Mom...I have to. If I don't, the Stable will have a drought.”
“I know, but be careful up there. You don't know what things you may find there.”
“I will be.”
As my mother let me go, my father had put something in my saddlebags and said, “i've put some special ammo for your 10mm pistol, and some other things you might use.”
“Thanks.”
“Good luck son.”
“Thanks dad, I’ll be going now.”
After I left my family quarters, I went to the Stable entrance level, hoping to see Book Ruby one last time...
(At Midnight....)
Upon reaching the Stable entrance, there she was, waiting for me just beside the control panel of the large Stable door. I walked towards her and she gave me a worried look on her face and said, “Wild, please tell me, what are you going to do?”
“Before I tell you...you need to keep this a secret and don't tell it to anypony.”
“Okay, but please…
“I’m gonna leave the Stable for some time. The water chip is broken and I need to find another one in the wasteland.”
“Thats...terrible...and terrifying.”
“I know, dear, but someone’s gotta do the job.”
“But you will come back, right?”
“Yes, I will. look, I need to get going. Time is against me.”
“Okay, but one last thing.”
“What?”
She nuzzled me and kissed me deeply like last night! I couldn't resist and kissed her back. She stopped kissing and I pulled the lever of the control panel to open the Stable door.
The large door started to make it's usual noise. The noise pierced through our ears as it finished opening. When the door opened fully, it revealed a dark and cold cave with some skeletons of ponies who tried to enter the Stable.
I turned to Book Ruby and said, “Goodbye, Sweetheart.”
“Goodbye, Security.”
I walked towards the cave exit and the large door behind me started closing, making the screeching noise again. As it finished closing, the darkness took over and I had to activate the lantern function of my Pipbuck. The blue light of my Pipbuck illuminated the small area of the cave I was in. There were lots of skeletons and rats; the smell....it was terrible. Seeing the skeletons made me feel bad for them. They tried to escape nuclear death, and they couldn't. The thought was just...tragic.
Trotting to the outside of the cave, I was greeted by rain and a dark sky and large swathes of desert and gray trees. For the first time in my life, I was seeing how much the world was destroyed by the war between the Zebras and the Ponies. Instead of green grass everywhere and the blue sky like they said in my history textbooks, there was just the remains of what was Equestria in the past. The world now was just suffering from the scars of war.
After getting out of the Stable cave entrance, my Pipbuck notified me of the location the Overstallion had marked for me. It was Stable 15 just a few miles to the north. Another thing on my Pipbuck map caught my attention: there was another location in the same direction of Stable 15. The name of the location was labeled "Shady Sands". Hmm...I should visit this town, I thought. Maybe I could find some help there for my journey.
Footnotes
-KARMA:
Stable 13: Liked.
Shady Sands: Neutral.
Wasteland: Nopony
-TRAITS:
-Skilled.
-Heavy Hoof.
Status:
Level 1
HP: 110
S:6
P:5
E:6
C:7
I:4
A:8
L:3
You can now level up and gain new abilities through your adventures on the wasteland!