Part Three: Unthawing the Past.
Airborne looks around at the dank interior of the Stable, walking through stagnant puddles and piles of garbage that litter the hallways, as they walked deeper into the Stable the more they encountered the bones of long dead pony’s. Among the bones rusted Pipbucks and shreds of clothing lay in heaps on the floor, on the walls faded blood stains stood as markers to some long forgotten violence that destroyed the lives of the ponies in Stable 200. Mournfully looking at the remains of the ponies Airborne says, “This isn’t right, they came down here to avoiding dying up on the surface and instead they found death inside of this gilded tomb.” Sunrise carefully steps over the bones and says, “They shouldn’t be dead, the Stables were built to protect the population of Equestria not be a placed where they would come to die. What happened here?” Airborne shrugs and says, “I dunno, whatever happened here it was bad.” Airborne’s hooves kick spent bullet casings down the hall, breaking the silence of the place as the ancient casings bounce along the hall.
Baleout finds the armory on the upper levels near the Overmare’s office, the door itself was slightly ajar the hinges rusted beyond repair. Looking at the door Baleout tries to force it open but the door doesn’t move, eventually he bucks the door with his hind hooves and the door crashes to the floor. Walking inside of the armory, Baleout sees the shelves are lined with box after box of ammo, the weapons lockers still stand with various firearms still inside only two of the weapon lockers stand empty. Searching through the lockers Baleout says, “Well I guess it’s my lucky day look what we have here.” Leaning over Baleout pulls out a shotgun with a large forty round drum and fore grip, the weapon is covered in sky blue and grey camo paint to disguise the weapon, on the stock an etching reads Cloudhammer. As Baleout gets ready to leave the armory to join up with Airborne until something catches his eye, he smiles and says, “Airborne would love to see this.”
Starshine makes her way towards Overmare’s office, she tries to open the door to the Overmare’s office but it doesn’t budge. A number of overturned metal desks form crude barricades in front of the door to the computer core. Pushing the door open with her hoof, she enters the dark room and manages to flip on the light which sends sparks pouring down onto her singeing her mane, in front of her lies a single skeleton with a small terminal pad lying amongst the remains of the pony’s rib cage. Bending down to pick up the terminal pad, the screen flickers the goes dark sighing Starshine says, “This is something that Sunrise could easily fix. I have no idea how ponies back during the War used these things.” Starshine sees a small revolver lying next to the skeleton, picking it up she spins the chamber to see if it will still rotate, on the hoofgrip she sees the words, Duty Before Honor written into the metal frame. Taking the revolver and placing it into her utility barding she trots out of the room on her way to meet up with Airborne.
Airborne trots into a large central chamber deep inside of the Stable, instead of finding beds inside of the Stable’s living quarters there are row after row of cryo tubes. Most of them are empty with the exception of five of them that lie against the far wall. Trotting up to the cryo tubes Airborne raises a quivering hoof and wipes off the thick layer of ice that has accumulated on the glass surface of the tubes. The ice falls away revealing the face of a male pony whose coat is light blue his mane and tail are dark blue and his cutie mark is a lightning bolt with wings, Airborne looks at the pony and brushes off the metal nameplate at the base of the tube which reads, “Soarin.” Airborne looks at Sunrise saying, “Is there any way you can open them?” she nods and says, “Yes, as old as they are the wiring and thawing procedures seem intact” Airborne smiles and says, “After all this time they are still alive, well then I think they have slept long enough it’s time they walked in the sun again after all this time. Start up the thawing procedures, the sooner we leave here the better.”
Sunrise links her Pipbuck to a large terminal next to the row of cryo tubes and works on initiating the startup procedures to unthaw the legendary Wonderbolts. Walking along the row of tubes he brushes the ice away from the nameplates and reads them saying, “Spitfire, Fleetfoot, Misty Fly and look even Fire Streak is here! It looks like he managed to escape the destruction of Canterlot.” Trotting up behind Airborne, Starshine pokes him in the flank. Airborne jumps a foot in the air and yelps loudly saying “Don’t sneak up on me like that! You could give me a heart attack!” She sticks her tongue out saying, “Relax Airborne, you are too jumpy” Airborne snorts and sulks turning his head away from her. The cryo tubes open up dumping ice onto the floor, the warm breath of the ponies melts the ice covered glass on the inside of the tubes. Airborne trots to Soarin’s cryo tube and looks as the pony’s eyes flutter open and come into focus. Soarin groggily sits up in his cryo tube and leans over the side vomiting onto the cement floor.
Looking up at Airborne with his green eyes he asks, “Who are you?” Airborne replies, “My name is Airborne, I am glad to meet you Soarin.” Soarin gets out of the cryo tube standing on his hooves which wobble slightly. The other Wonderbolts climb out of their cryo tubes, Spitfire stretches her wings while Fire Streak vomits all over the inside of his cryo tube while Fleetfoot and Misty Fly grab their goggles from their footlockers next to their respective cryo tubes. Soarin looks at Airborne and asks, “What is your rank? Are you even with the Equestrian Military?” Airborne shakes his head and replies, “I am not Soarin, and there hasn’t been a military force in Equestria for a long time.” Soarin takes a few steps back and says, “Just how long exactly?” Airborne says, “I hate to tell you this but it has been two hundred years since the end of the War. But there are somepony’s that you know who are still alive like Fluttershy and Rainbow Dash.”
Soarin looks at Airborne and says, “How do I know she is alive and that you aren’t telling me a lie?” Airborne pulls out the photograph that Rainbow Dash gave him and hands it over to Soarin saying, “Rainbow Dash told me to give you this when we found you and said that you would know what it means.” Soarin takes the photograph from Airborne and stares at it fondly saying, “So she is alive. This is great!” Spitfire ears perk up and she says, “So if it has been two hundred years who is still left up there to help?” Starshine replies, “Most of the ponies of Equestria died when the balefire bombs went off, ponies like Princess Luna, Rarity and Pinkie Pie died when the bombs hit the major cities of Equestria those who were lucky enough to avoid being killed by the bombs found shelter in the Stables across the land those who were unlucky became ghouls which are nothing more than slobbering mindless monsters. Living up there has been rough, those who wander the Wastes have had to make a lot of tough choices just to live another day but things are starting to get better.”
Spitfire looks at Airborne saying, “So, why does Rainbow Dash need our help after all this time?” Airborne replies, “There is a threat to Equestria that could undo everything we have fought so hard to achieve here. The reality is there aren’t that many Pegasi left out there in the Wastes, after the bombs fell on Equestria the remaining Pegasi closed up the sky and isolated themselves inside of their cloudy cities not bothering to help those ponies down here. They called themselves the Grand Pegasus Enclave and we have had trouble dealing with them up until a few months ago when we repelled their assault on New Cloudsdale where those who chose to leave the Enclave live, they like me call themselves Dashites in honor of Rainbow Dash who decided to aid the ponies of Equestria rather than isolate herself from the world. This is why we need your help Spitfire; we need pony power and who better to aid us in our time of need than the original Wonderbolts.” Fire Streak smiles and says, “You can count me in, I have been asleep for two hundred years its time I got back out there again besides I imagine my flying skills are rusty after sleeping in these stupid things instead of training” behind him Fleetfoot and Misty Fly nod in agreement.
Spitfire smiles and says, “Well then it looks like we are all in, so Airborne take us to Rainbow Dash.” Just as Spitfire finishes speaking Baleout trots into the room spotting the Wonderbolts his jaw drops and his eyes widen. He quickly trots over and shakes their hooves saying, “It’s an honor to meet you all and I am glad for the opportunity to serve alongside the legendary Wonderbolts!” Spitfire looks at Airborne saying, “Somepony is eager, let me guess he is new to this sort of thing?” Airborne smiles and nodding his head saying, “Yeah Baleout graduated from the Academy a week ago but he has proven himself to be quite capable in the field and he has gotten us this far without risking himself most of the time.” Baleout hands Airborne a cloth covered bundle saying, “Check this out you will never guess what I found.”
Taking the bundle Airborne unwraps it to find an assault rifle, the weapon is covered in grey and green digital camo with a large scope held in place on the tactical rail below the barrel a foregrip is attached to the lower tactical rail, on the magazine well there is an inscription that reads, All Equestrian followed by a symbol that Airborne had only seen on old banners inside of Equestrian government buildings. The symbol is a bright sun on a red field, the flag of Old Equestria. Soarin looks at the weapon and says, “That was mine during the War, she served me well and saved my life more than once. I had her custom made from Firewing Arms, I miss shooting her on the range in Canterlot when I was on leave from the military.” Airborne hands the weapon to Soarin saying, “Well then you have more claim over it than I do since it belongs to you” Soarin pushes the weapon back to Airborne saying, “My claim on that weapon died the day the bombs fell on Equestria, I hope she serves you well Airborne and take care of her.” Fire Streak notices his pistols holstered to Airborne’s chest saying, “You can have those as well, I never really had much use for them anyway I always prefer to carry a shotgun into battle than duel pistols.” Airborne says, “Thanks you for letting me keep them, I will make sure to clean them every day.”
Starshine looks at Spitfire and asks, “How did you end up in here anyway?” Spitfire pins her ears back and looks at the ground saying, “We ran that’s how we ended up inside of this Stable.” Spitfire looks around at the dim interior of the cryo room saying, “We were able to leave Canterlot just in time before the bombs fell, we watched as the Princesses erected a magical shield around the city but we knew we couldn’t do anything to help them. Soarin had his orders from Rainbow Dash to go to Mareston and wait for her to arrive but she never did. We were only in the city for a few hours before the missiles struck, I can still feel the ground shaking under my hooves from the explosions. Everypony panicked as they tried to push and shove their way into the Stable but there wasn’t enough time to get everypony in so we sealed the Stable off and listened to the screams of agony as those who were unfortunate souls died outside. Originally this place was built to house at least four hundred VIPs but only one hundred and fifty ponies made it inside. Most of them were military personnel and a few civilians; the Stable’s Overmare was one of our younger recruits named Whisperwing. We waited for the all clear signal to be sent to the Stable but it never arrived. Most of the ponies in here figured out the situation pretty quickly after we had been in here for a week. That’s when things began to fall apart, some of the ponies mainly the civvies and a few of the military pony’s advocated opening the Stable door so they could go look for their families but Whisperwing’s orders were clear, nopony was to leave until we received an all clear signal from either the Government or Stable-Tec. But her decision didn’t sit well with those who wanted to leave so they mutinied. The Stable devolved into chaos, ponies killing each other hoof over hoof, some killed themselves than rather live in this place eventually Whisperwing sealed us inside of the cryopods since we were the only VIPs inside of the Stable I don’t know what happened to her after that.”
Starshine hands Sunrise the ancient terminal pad saying, “I found this up in the computer core maybe you can decode it to find out what happened here and once we get back to New Cloudsdale any of the names you find on there we can add to the Wall of Remembrance.” Spitfire notices the revolver tucked into Starshine’s utility barding saying, “I guess since you found that, it means Whisperwing died after all I personally gave that to her when she joined the Wonderbolts hopefully it was a quick death.” Airborne watches as the Wonderbolts suit up in their old armor and place their battle-saddles on. Baleout gleefully helps Spitfire tighten the straps on Spitfire’s battle-saddle while Airborne helps out Soarin. As they make their way back through the Stable, the Wonderbolts see the damage caused by the rioting and the bones of the former residents to Stable 200. Spitfire remarks, “They deserved better than this. To die like some wild animal cooped up in a cage that they had no idea would be their tomb is too cruel to imagine a fate such as this” Starshine leads the group of ponies to the Overmare’s office where Spitfire and Soarin buck open the door pushing aside the barricade inside. Looking around Soarin says, “Must have been one hell of a fight it looks like whoever was in here made their last stand but it looks like the mutineers weren’t able to get the door open so these poor sods must have starved to death.”
Fleetfoot looks at the command console and says, “I don’t think we will be able to leave this place through the main entrance the door diagnostic says the opening mechanism is damaged but the secondary entrance seems clear so I am guessing that’s how you lot managed to get in here in the first place.” Airborne says, “Are you sure there are no other ponies in the cryo tubes?” Fleetfoot shakes her head and replies, “According to this we were the only ponies who made it into the cryo tubes everypony else died when the fighting broke out.” Fleetfoot presses a button and says, “This will open the secondary entrance when we get there so let’s hurry I have had enough of this place to last for two lifetimes.” The ponies make their way out of the Overmare’s office with the Wonderbolts stopping inside of the armory to arm themselves. Airborne and his friends collect all of the extra guns and bullets into several large bags placing them on their backs for the return journey. Soarin looking at them says, “You guys are going to fly all the way back to New Cloudsdale with that stuff hanging off of you, things must be pretty desperate up there” Airborne replies, “Rainbow Dash can fill you in when we get back to New Cloudsdale on the situation but yes things are desperate.”
A few minutes later the ponies arrive at the secondary entrance to Stable 200, and watch as the massive metal door rolls back revealing the smelly sewers of Mareston. Misty Fly covers her nose with her hoof saying, “Please don’t tell me we have to walk through that nasty sludge I would rather be back in my cryo tube than trot in that stuff.” Airborne replies, “It’s the only way to get out of here besides compared to this place I would take a sewer filled with ghouls any day.” Soarin snaps his head around and stares at Airborne saying, “You mean those things are in here?” Baleout replies, “Yes sir, unfortunately we had a run in with them earlier but we blocked the passage so I doubt they are going to be a threat to us as we leave this place.” Soarin sighs and carefully steps over the threshold to Stable 200 into a world that he hasn’t seen in two centuries, the other Wonderbolts follow his example and leave the tomb they had called home for so long. Trotting through the tunnels, Soarin looks around saying, “If this place is as grim as you say it is I don’t think I want to know what is on the surface when we get there” Airborne replies, “The first time I saw Equestria as it is now I cried, it’s hard to think of this place as it used to be after seeing what it became after the War. At least you were lucky enough to have seen Equestria in its glory days and meet the Princesses.”
Making their way to the collapsed portion of the tunnel, Soarin and the rest of the Wonderbolts step out into daylight for the first time. Soarin lifts his head and looks at the sky taking a deep breath saying, “I am glad to finally feel the warmth of the Sun on my back again.” Looking at the destruction caused by the War he says, “It’s hard to think this was Mareston, this place use to be a bustling city and Equestria’s largest port before the War. I would come here all the time with Rainbow Dash and we would eat at our favorite restaurant although I doubt there is much left to it now.” Spitfire viewing the twisted and mangled corpse that was once the bright city of Mareston says, “Is all of Equestria like this?” Starshine replies, “Unfortunately yes it is. Most of the cities look just as bad as this; no city was spared when the zebra’s bombed Equestria not even Canterlot. Hardly anypony lives in the cities anymore since they are death traps crawling with all sorts of ponies who would slit your throat just so they could have an extra blanket or can of food if it meant they could survive another day out here.”
Airborne looks at everypony and says, “I think we should leave now its best not to linger in these places and we are in a hurry so let’s go.” As Airborne and the Wonderbolts rise higher into the sky a lone figure stands in the window of a broken skyscraper, a ghoulish smile breaking across his lips, from behind him a shadowy figure approaches saying, “So the Dashites have revealed themselves it’s time to play your part Marrowmuncher, take your ghouls and attack Fluttershy’s compound before the Dashites get a chance to strike after you have killed them all you will have what you want.” Marrowmuncher turns around and stares at the pony saying, “If it wasn’t for your guns or our mutual interest in see these warmskins off our land we would have dealt with you all long ago. This land belongs to the dead, you warmskins killed it and lost every right you had to it when the bombs fell but I will honor our bargain for we ghouls even have a notion of honor.” The figure slips back into the shadows saying, “Just remember to leave Fluttershy alive, I want to personally carve out her heart as she watches all that she has done burn in front of her.”
As Airborne and company leave the twisted remnants of the city of Mareston Soarin stops and hovers in place staring back at the ruins saying, “I will find some way to right the wrongs I have done even if it means I have to struggle to define myself in this new world in which I don’t belong.” Soarin turns his back on the dead city and races to catch up with Airborne as they fly into the setting sun. As night approaches Sunrise pulls up the map on her Pipbuck saying, “There is an old farm we can stay in for the night; this area doesn’t nearly have as much radiation as the rest of this place.” Landing in front of the barn Starshine trots into the building and says, “I will get a fire started, Airborne why don’t you find some lanterns so we can see what we are doing in here without tripping over something.” Airborne rolls his eyes and says, “You could have asked Sunrise she has a built in flashlight in her Pipbuck” Starshine sniggers saying, “Well she has actually made herself useful by guiding us here, you on the other hoof haven’t so get moving.” Soarin leans over and whispers to Baleout saying, “Are they always like this?” Baleout shrugs and says, “You will get used to it, I learned to ignore them after the first day I spent with them besides as far as romance goes this is pretty much as good as it gets out here in the Wastelands.” Baleout trots into the barn as Misty Fly trots to Soarin’s side saying, “I guess things have changed a lot in our absence so what do you want us to do?” Spitfire looks at her saying, “Secure the perimeter, I want three hour shifts to keep watch if this place has changed so much we have to be ready for anything. Fire Streak you will take the first shift then Fleetfoot will relieve you so let’s get to it.” Both Fire Streak and Fleetfoot salute Spitfire and say in unison, “Yes Ma’am!”
Airborne searches through the piles of junk and debris inside of the barn overturning a wheelbarrow he finds a couple of lanterns and shakes them to see if there is oil inside of them. Hearing the telltale slushing of liquid inside of the lanterns, pulling out a box of matches from his utility barding he lights the lanterns which cast a soft warm glow all over the interior of the barn. Starshine finds a hole in the barn floor and quickly builds a fire, setting the lanterns on the rusty aged pegs Airborne trots to her side saying, “So, what do you think of our little adventure so far?” She turns to him saying, “Well, compared to last time when we were dodging both yetis and ghouls this one isn’t too bad.” She nuzzles him saying, “Let’s keep it that way shall we, I can’t afford to lose like last time” Airborne nickers happily and replies, “Well, I came back didn’t I?” Starshine nods but says, “Yes but I don’t know what I would have done if you hadn’t.” Soarin trots over to the fire and says, “So Airborne want to do a bit of practice shooting?” Airborne looks at him saying, “I don’t think that would be wise given we are still in a dangerous place.” Soarin snorts and says, “Come on, do you really think anypony is going to get the drop on us? We are the Wonderbolts after all, besides my comrades have this place locked down pretty tight so we are safe to do what we want in here and to be honest I need to hone my skills to what they were during the War which is one of the things I hate having been kept on ice for all this time, your skills tend to fall apart after a century.”
Airborne finds some empty paint cans and stacks them on a row of barrels against the barns far wall, he trots back over to Soarin saying, “Okay let’s get shootin.” Soarin trains the barrels of his battle-saddle on the cans and fires at them while Airborne pulls out the All Equestrian and loads a large magazine into it then leans into the gun to make sure he compensates for the kick of the gun when he fires. Gently squeezing down on the trigger he uses the scope to sight in on the farthest paint can. He pulls the trigger feeling the butt of the gun slam into his shoulder almost knocking him on his flank, his shot missing the paint can and instead passes through the roof of the barn leaving a small hole in the ceiling. Soarin chuckles saying, “Maybe I should have told you she tends to buck real hard when you pull the trigger, a word of advice use the foregrip to steady your aim then fire.” Airborne nods and sights down the scope again grapping onto the foregrip with his hoof and fires, this time the shot pierces the paint can dead center blowing the can in half. After a couple of hours of shooting, Soarin says, “Alright I think my skills are starting to come back to me, I don’t think we should pop off any more rounds and risk running out of bullets when we really need them the most” Airborne nods in agreement. Bedding down next to Starshine, Airborne pulls All Equestrian close to him and tips the brim of his hat down over his face as he drifts off to sleep with the greatest team of Pegasi at his side.