//------------------------------// // Chapter 1: Hearts Far Apart // Story: Ashes and Fairy Tales // by RoccoRoccs //------------------------------// Music played as I trotted into the office signifying yet another Monday morning for Stable 12. You know, you would think now that the world had ended as we know it that things would at least be slightly interesting. But no, other than the cheerful music playing and the odd data file to de-frag, this place was as dead as the world outside. We were all in need of some fresh air, but such things happened rarely for us and usually involved work of some sort. Other than the terrible singing of wrong lyrics in harmony coming from Click and Clack, there was little to do on Mondays "These ponies 'round here, wear beat down eyes sunk in rad soaked faces, their resigned to what our fate is! But not us! No, not us! No, never! We are far to young and clever! Too ra loo ra too ra loo rye aye! You'll hum this tune forever!" They both sang together in perfect terrible harmony. "Do you two ever do anything productive?" I said as I flopped down into my chair and put my hooves up. "Hey, we'll have you know that we are working on our singing career!" Click said with a hoof to the desk. "YEAH-YEAH! We are going to be so famous! Tens of thousands of ponies are going to love us!" Clack affirmed. "I think you mean tens of ponies... Their aren't but a few hundred ponies down here." The two of them took a moment to do the math, for two of the brightest hackers out there, they sure were bad at math. Before long the two of them began to twitch with confusion as to why they would not be famous singers to thousands of ponies in a Stable with at the most 300 ponies in it. Then, they started singing again. "Uptown mare! She's been living in her bombed out world! I bet she's never had a sunny sky! I bet the rads made her skin fry!" They both screamed. "I HATE THAT SONG!" I shouted in protest "Everypony quiet!" The Overmare shouted as she trotted through the door. "Honestly, just because the world ended doesn't mean that you all can just ignore office decorum! There is still a lot of work to be done!" "Overmare, we have done everything already. Click processed the last file yesterday and I just finished encrypting and uploading the last data drive from the office... there isn't anything left for us to do." Clack said as she shuffled the papers across her desk. "Good. Then since you all have so much free time I suspect that you all won't mind a new assignment then..." She said with a sharp tone that rarely ended in anything good for us. "YES-YES-YES! Please!" I shouted. Anything to get out of this bull pin of crazy singing and staring at monitors. If I had to listen to those two make up the lyrics to one more damn song I was going to crack my own skull on the desk. "Good... Well then, pull up a chair and listen close..." She started by sitting down. "With all the files uploaded to the mainframe we can finally get back to work." "Madam. What doe you mean, what work exactly? The world is GONE. There is nothing left to snoop into apart from the odd trash can." I said in confusion. "Exactly! The world as we knew it has ended... But what we don't know is why." "Fluttershy went Flutterbitch and sold us out to some striped bastards who blew our flanks into the stone age. The world outside is icky and gross now." Click said flatly. "Watch that tone young lady. To you all it may seem as cut and dry as that, but it isn't. We know that Golden Blood got to Fluttershy before we could. We should have suspected as much would happen considering their... involvement. There was a 48 second window when we were completely locked out of everything. Video surveillance, audio surveillance and even two of our team members were taken for debriefing by the OIA proper. Months passed before the bombs fell, leaving nothing but questions behind for us. I want the answers to those questions." "Overmare, if I may..." Clack began. "If there are answers out there for this, and that's a pretty big if, what good would they do us now? Even if we did find something, who would care?" "I would. Golden Blood didn't act alone in this. There is no way he could have without somepony else, or someponies. Even if they did not know what they were doing at the time, even if they didn't know why they were there, they still stayed silent and it was the death of us all. One day this world will spring from the ashes and have it's second chance, I want to see to it that the mistakes of yesterday will not only not be forgotten, but also not repeated. We all lost something, some of us more than others, but we all lost one thing together." "Our stuff?" Clack asked? "My pet hamster, Katchup?" Click asked. "My morning coffee?" I asked. Everypony else was saying something stupid, why not me too. "No... Our home. Equestria has fallen, make no mistake of that. There isn't some song and dance that will bring this back! There is no 'Nuclear Winter Wrap up'! Just dust and ash and a lot of lives lost. So even if it means digging into this for generations to come, I want answers. I don't want this loose end to remain unraveled. I want justice, even if it means breaking down a Stable door to bring who ever is responsible for this to their knees in a pool of radioactive slime!" She shouted. Ok, she's not playing around. Limestone was pissed! Rightfully so, she lost everything in the blasts. Her whole family was effect. Even Pinkie Pie, the ministry mare for the MOM had gone stark raving made on something called Partytime Mentals, claiming to see the future. Limestone was no such mare as her sister, she was sharp and motivated at her lowest points and that mare can hold a grudge like noponies business! So it stands to reasons with her in a position of power and leadership that she would do something like this, even if it was fool-harted. "Madam, What do you want us to do exactly? We have poured of the data and found nothing! Every scrap of evidence we had was either torched or been looked at for so long we started seeing things that were not there at all!" I asked. "Exactly. We have everything we have, what we need is what we don't have." "Madam, you are not making any sense." "What we need is out there. So, I have decided to open the Stable doors again, this time for exploratory missions for as long as needed. Chances are that somewhere there is a data trail leading right to the source of all this mess and I want you to find it. Canterlot would be my first guess, but early reports held nothing good about the state of the place. With that pink fog there it is off limits until it clears. Therefore, we have to seek out the OIA hubs from the surrounding cities and outposts. With any luck, maybe those two morons of your's can find a way to hack the terminals and find us something." "Madam! That's insane! You can't really expect us to go out there and just kick rocks until we find something! Chances are all the OIA hubs have been destroyed and it will just be a waste of time and resources! Even still, it could take weeks just to get to a single station on hoof." I protested. "This topic is not up for debate. We have arranged a way for you all to fly to the locations... Well, ride, for two of you. The seven-ten rule dictates that by now the surface should be inhabitable for weeks if not months at a time even nearing the blast craters. This could finally be our chance to not only sniff out the details of what happened to set the record straight, but also a chance for us to gain valuable data about the damage. It will be needed one day, hopefully soon. Chance, you have given so much for your country, do you really want to see it all bleed away in vain?" "No Madam." "Good. You three will be briefed about your first mission to the outside at 8 A.M. sharp in my office. I suggest you all get plenty of sleep because it is going to be a long day for you all tomorrow. We have made arrangements for your equipment and rations for your first excursion." Limestone said as she trotted out of the office and on to the observation deck. "Oh this is so COOL! We get to go out exploring, don't you think that's awesome Chance!?" Click said. "Yeah... woohoo... I only have a foal on the way... Rose is due in a few months! What are the chances that I wont be here when the time comes!? that sort of thing is important after all." "Gee... We didn't think of that." Clack said. "Yeah-yeah! We kind of... forgot. Sorry Chance." "It's ok. Your enthusiasm is not a cause for guilt. If anything, I want out of this office too. I thought working in the real world was bad enough, but being trapped down here? Honestly, this Stable is four floors and some two million square feet but it feels like a shoe box. I'm sane and it's getting to me, so I could imagine how you two feel." "It is pretty boring..." The two of them said together. "Well. No since in sitting here putting off the bad news... If I sit here and stew over it I will only go through it twice." I said as I gathered my things to leave. "Chance! Work? You know, that thing we do everyday?" Click said pointing at the monitor. "What work? You two have been finished working since this morning. You said so yourself." "Oh... Then, what do we do now?" Clack asked. "I don't know. Go get drunk or something. We have the day off, might as well use it." I said trotting out the door. I trotted down the narrow hallways in search for my room. I have been down here for months now and I still didn't know my way around to save my own life. Then again, I had a lot on my mind to keep me distracted. I can't believe we are going back out there, exploring no less! As cramped as it was down here, I rather liked not dying for the sake of vengeance and validation. I was much less than interested in figuring out 'who shot first' and as much as I wanted to be mad about everything, I had moved past it all. All I wanted was to work, come back to my unit and spend time with Rose. There was no way this was going to be met with anything less than a hurricane when I tell her what was about to transpire over the next few months. I would not be surprised if you went straight to Limestone's office and tried to start a fight with her over it. She already hated me having to leave everyday, now she was going to be separated from me completely! If something happened to her or the baby, I was going to be miles away and would have no way of knowing at all! After much searching, I finally found our block. Room 19B, located on the second floor of the 'Family wing' was not much, but I gather few rooms were much more than others down here. But being a family suite did afford us extra space and a second room. Also there were other fillies and Colts that Rainier could play with and stay occupied through out the day. It was nice, peaceful even, but seeing so few other families in this wing was rather depressing. It always lead my thoughts to wonder if so many of the families that were meant to come here had not made it. I trotted through our door to a eagerly waiting Rose. She was always just so happy to see me, it felt great to come home to somepony's waiting embrace and love. But today was not going to be one of those 'sit and make jokes while we cuddle' kind of days. No, today was going to go south, I just knew it. "HUNNY! Oh I missed you!" She shouted as she ran to me. "I missed you too, Rose." I said, faking a smile and trying my best to hide my own nerves. "What's wrong? Rough day?" She asked, eyeing me. "Hunny, sit down. We have to have a talk." "Oh no! You are not leaving me!" She shouted as she grabbed the lamp off the table. "ROSE! NO!" I shouted as I darted into the bathroom. Rose had been... tense throughout the pregnancy. lot of anxiety, mood swings and what not. So, If you were wondering how I knew today was going to go south, now you know. "BABE! I'm not breaking up with you! I swear! Stop jumping to conclusions like that!" "Y-you're not?" She said, peeking around the corner at me. Ah, back from whence we came! "No, just... sit down. This is going to be a bit of an explanation." I said, taking the lamp from her and tossing it in the hallway. It was her preferred weapon of choice when I had done something that I hadn't actually done. The two of us took a place on the couch and I, laboring under the delusion that I could somehow spin this into something less than terrible, began to hyperventilate. "Rose, I have to leave for a while." "YOU SAID!-" She started by grabbing the other lamp from the other table. "I KNOW WHAT I SAID!" I shouted back, trying to save our last lamp from being bashed across my head. We only had two and I'm pretty sure I just broke the last one when I tossed it in the hallway."I know what I said and believe me, this is not my choice. I being ordered topside to evaluate the damage from the bombs. I also have to go on scouting missions to some of the surrounding cities to gather some lost intel. That's it." "That's it? You just have to do a few missions? To a few close by cities?" "Yeah! That's it!" "Which close by cities... exactly?" She said narrowing her eyes at me. I was now trying to sink as far as I could into the couch to get away from her. I love Rose, make no mistake, but she scares the hell out of me sometimes. "Oh you know... Ponyville, Hope, near Cottonwood..." I started as if it were nothing at all... then coughed out the others under my breath. "Mariepony, Baltimare and Canterlot." "CANTERLOT! BALTIMARE!?" She shouted as she began hitting me with a pillow. "Rose! It Ain't like that! I was ordered to go!" I begged. "I DON'T CARE!" "I CAN'T IGNORE ORDERS! WE COULD BE KICKED OUT!" "I DON'T CARE I'M MAD!" She cried. Angry with the situation and the stew or hormones brought on by pregnancy, Rose was sobbing and beating me half to death with a pillow. Somehow, I managed to bare the assault long enough to get in close and deploy a tactical hug on her. It was very effective, but nothing would stop the tears. We both knew what this meant, it was as near a death sentence as I was going to get outside of official punishment. It wasn't as if I was being killed off with this mission, but it sure felt that way to me. To Rose however, it was an act of pure evil. She knew what all I had been through, she knew I had been spared from topside investigation for the most part over what happened in Ponyville. But none of that matters when the overmare wants answers from places beyond reach and you are the only pony with wings. She cried for what felt like hours. At one point so did I, just falling apart together as though I had lost my family all over again, because in many ways, I just did. "When?" She asked, refusing to let me go. "Tomorrow morning I report for briefing. After that, we say our goodbyes and head out." "I don't want you to go. I almost lost you once. I can't..." "Yes you can. Even if the worst happens, even if I can't see, I'll find my way back to you. I promise. I limped in here nearly dead, I can do it again." I said with a smile. "I wish I had your confidence..." Wow, it had been a very long time since I heard those words. I couldn't help but wonder if this was another sign that I was fully recovered from my ordeal or not. I may have been over things as it were, but my life was forever being quantified by the actions of my past now that things were going well. I hated being left to wonder about stuff like that, no clear answers, just best guesses. All I knew was that at this very moment, I wanted nothing more to hold on to this crazy mare and not let go, even if it was going to be for a brief amount of time. "Chance? Promise me something?" "Anything." "Promise me that you will be here when it's time?" Rose said with all the hope in the world resting in her eyes. "I promise, I have no idea how, but I will be here."