Chapter 1: Invasion
"How can things possibly be worse?"
Chance heard a knocking on his door, but instead of answering, he simply turned over in his bed and placed his pillow over his head in an attempt to drown out the noise. For a moment, he thought that it had worked, until his mysterious visitor went from knocking to pounding on the door, and finally he gave up.
"Alright already, I heard you the first time, asshole," he said as he rolled out of his bed. He groggily shuffled to the door, and opened it to reveal a unicorn mare with an orange coat and a light red mane, which happened to be his best friend, and partner Amber, smiling as always. He stared at her for a few moments before he said anything.
"Your peppy attitude disgusts me." Amber simply rolled her eyes and shook her head.
"Oh, so it's my fault that you drank yourself to sleep last night?" She inquired, this time without her winning smile. Chance chuckled as he rubbed his head.
"Who said I actually slept last night?" Amber didn't even bother offering a rebuttal as she began trying to force him out of his room. Chance was taken by surprise as he realized that she was trying to evict him from his own room.
"Whoa, slow down sweetheart, where's the fire?" Amber stopped for a moment and began to explain.
"Our shift started twenty minutes ago idiot, and your ass is still in bed, can you see the problem here?" Chance didn't quite grasp the severity of the situation since he was both groggy and hungover from the previous night.
"So, I'll just call in sick or something, it's not like it's the end of the world if I miss one day of patrol is it?" Amber didn't bother to answer, instead she continued her attempts to force him out of his room, and eventually he had no choice but to submit.
"Alright Amber, I'll be there in a few minutes, just give me some time to get ready." Finally she ended her attempts to remove him from his room and walked off into the hallways of the Stable. Chance shuffled to his bathroom and using his magic, he turned on the water faucet and began splashing cold water in his face. After drying off, he proceeded through the Stable hallways and found his way to his security locker and removed his gear.
After he was fully dressed he looked in a mirror to look himself over. He was an average looking stallion with a light grey coat and a dark blue mane with small streaks of black running throughout. After observing himself, he walked off and eventually found Amber, tapping her hoof impatiently on the floor beneath her.
"It's about damn time you showed up, the chief was five minutes away from busting your door down and dragging you off to work by force." Chance merely chuckled at her statement.
"Ooh, because the chief is so terrifying, right? Now if she were to send Vile to drag me down here, then I'd have a reason to be afraid." As they walked Amber raised an eyebrow.
"Really, Vile scares you? I always found him to be a bit of a sweetheart myself." As they rounded another corner in the stable, Chance allowed himself to laugh.
"Yeah, well you weren't partnered up with him for eight years were you? I speak from experience when I say that he's one of the creepiest guys in this stable, and that includes your ex as well, and he was one creepy fucker." Amber was about to say something, but thought it over for a moment before responding.
"Well, I can't argue with you there, but I still think that your being too hard on Vile, since you never made an attempt to get to know him on a personal level." The thought of getting to know him on a "personal level" made him shudder for a moment as they continued their patrol.
"Dare I ask how you've gotten to know him on a personal level?" Amber gave a soft laugh before responding.
"We dated for a few months, but he called it off because he was going through some personal problems, it was a mutual thing so I don't harbor a grudge towards him." This new information got him curious, and decided to see how many boundaries he could cross.
"Wait, if you two dated for several months, did you two ever, you know, do it?" Amber glared at him with a look that could rival the most terrifying of predators, and Chance decided to just keep walking before she decided to get physical with him. As they continued their patrol, they soon came across the elevator to the lower levels of the stable, and Chance paused for a few moments. Amber quickly noticed that he had fallen behind and realized what he was staring at.
"Come on Chance, even you know that area is off limits to everyone other than the Overmare." Chance nodded and turned back to face her.
"Hasn't it ever bothered you that we've never been down there in our lives? Don't you want to know what they've been hiding from us?" Amber shook her head.
"When we were kids, our parents told us that it was forbidden, and that was all I needed to hear, besides don't you remember what happened to the last pony that went down there?" Chance took a moment to remember.
"Oh yeah, he was exiled from the stable, but only because he was caught." Amber's voice suddenly became very edgy and tense.
"Don't even think about it, if you even try to access that elevator, I'll shoot you myself." Chance rolled his eyes and began walking once again.
"Yeah, well I was just saying, what if he hadn't been caught? What if he had seen what it was that they were keeping from us, and we finally had a reason for why it was off limits?" Amber shook her head as she continued walking.
"I don't need to know, whatever's down there is obviously bad news, and most likely dangerous, I actually feel safer knowing next to nothing about it." Chance continued walking with his partner, while his thoughts drifted back to the mysterious lower levels, and the secrets that they might contain. However, his train of thought was derailed as the loudspeakers came on and the Overmare's voice began to broadcast throughout the stable.
"Everypony, if I may have your attention, it would seem that we have visitors from the outside world, and they seem to wish access to the stable, you know the drill everypony, a welcoming committee accompanied by four security officers are to report to the stable door at once to greet our new visitors, and don't forget to make it as warm and welcoming as possible, and have a great day everypony!" Her voice quickly faded from the air and Chance shook his head.
"If we keep letting ponies in like we are, we're not going to have enough food to keep everyone fed and happy." Amber just kept walking as she responded to his complaint.
"Leave that to the food managers to worry about, you have your own job to do you know, besides, it never hurts to have a little genetic diversity here and there." Chance actually liked the sound of that, but he still felt his worry was well placed.
"Yeah, I guess. As long as they don't drag me out into the wasteland to meet their folks, I guess it can't be too bad." Amber smiled.
"There, now was a little optimism really that difficult?"
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Grimm looked back at the troops he had brought with him, and couldn't help but admit that he was excited.
"Alright pussies, get your weapons ready and be prepared for anything, we don't know how well armed these Stable Dwellers are." He looked over to the commander of one of the squads of troops he had brought with him.
"Alright, you know the drill, we go in guns blazing, while you round up anything that doesn't shoot at you, and keep guards posted in the halls, understood?" The commander nodded his head and Grimm looked to the giant stable door as it began to open. Grimm used his horn to levitate both of his revolvers in front of him, prepared for anything. As the door opened they were met with a friendly looking group of stable dwellers, all in identical stable 47 barding, beneath a giant sign that read "Welcome Friends". In the group were foals, supposedly their parents, and four security guards, seemingly unaware of their intentions. One of the fillies walked forward and presented him a small flower.
"Welcome to our stable mister," she said in an adorably sweet voice. Grimm accepted the flower and began to laugh to himself, after he was done laughing, he spoke.
"Fuck, I almost feel bad, this is just too easy. Eh whatever, open fire." After he gave the order, his troops began firing off their assault rifles into the crowd of greeters, their screams being the last thing they ever heard.