Chapter 1
Homecoming
BEEP BEEP CLACK
There’ve got to be better ways to wake up in the morning.
I felt two warm forelegs wrap around my chest and heard two very sweet words, “Mornin’ babe.”
That’s better, “Mornin’.”
“Are you actually going to get up?”
“Maybeh,” As in no.
“You wanted me to remind you that you gotta.”
“Why’s that?”
“You said Pin was going to be here early for something and you wanted to get ready before she got here.”
Damn her logic, “Sounds like somethin’ I’d say.”
“Then get up.”
“But you’re warm.”
“Then I’ll make this easy.” My dearest wife removed her legs from round my torso then removed the sheets from the rest of me. Cold air is a distant third to a shower or coffee, but it’ll get you out of bed under the right circumstances.
These ones for examples.
“Oh sweet Celestias shimmering horn!” I sat bolt upright in our bed doing my best to keep my more sensitive anatomy warm. “That wasn’t very nice Summer.”
She just smiled back at me and said, “Then you should’a gotten up.”
“Are you sure I have to?”
“You told me that you do and if you didn’t then I should do something to get you up. You suggested that I hit you.”
If I told her that then it must have been important, “Past me is kind of a jerk.”
She took my messed up logic in perfect stride, “And present you is going to be late, go get ready and I’ll get coffee.”
“Works for me.” I couldn’t help but admire her as she walked out the door of our little room.
I met Summer Nights two years ago in the bar after a particularly long day. I was sitting there sipping hard apple cider from a mug when out of nowhere a very pretty, dark purple, orange maned unicorn sat down next to me. She told the barpony that she’d have what I was having, which was the only thing other than sparkle cola. I looked at her, she looked at me, and we got to drinking. She told me she was a Support Bloc technician who worked on the spark generators that powered the whole stable. I told her I filed papers and exercised all day for the Military Bloc. We hit it off and we got married two months later.
Sometimes I can’t believe how lucky I was to have such a strong, intelligent, and beautiful mare who would actually put up with me.
I half fell out of bed and made my way over to the bathroom. After a nice long shower I inspected myself in the mirror. My fine beige coat was nice and shiny, but my orangy-blond mane was still matted to my head. I rubbed my towel through my mane a little harder, trying my best to get it dry.
Knock Knock Knock
I guessed damp would have to do. I opened the door and was greeted by the sight of long bright green hair and a wide grin. “Good morning Boss, are you ready for the big day?”
“I’m not quite awake yet. Don’t suppose you’d care to remind me what’s going on, I guess I forgot to tell Summer what to remind me about.”
“Perhaps the cup of coffee I see said wife holding will help.” At the time I wasn’t sure how she managed to see Summer when she was looking straight at me, but when I glanced down the hall I saw that Summer was indeed coming towards us floating two cups of coffee. One of the cups was floated into my fetlock.
Like a bolt of lightning the caffeine struck my brain and a wave of memories rolled over me.
“Oh sweet Celestia! Red team’s supposed to be back today! Sorry babe, gotta go.” I passed my coffee back into Summers telekinetic field, gave her a quick peck on the cheek, and ran down the hall with Pin Point in tow.
***
I was charging down the halls, rushing as much as I could without running into anypony else (mostly). “How could I possibly forget?” I asked nopony in particular.
“Because your brain apparently runs on caffeine Boss,” snarked Pin Point.
“Thank you private, I’ll make a mental note of that.” My words dripped with sarcasm.
Sarcasm which was immediately ignored, “You might want to write it down for real Boss. Yuh know, just in case.”
“Har de har har.”
We made our way up through the many levels of the Stable until we finally joined everypony else in the stable door atrium. Everypony who mattered in Stable 33 was there. The Council, consisting of two representatives from each Bloc, stood to one side of the stable door ready to welcome Red Team back into the stable personally. General Silver Bullet, both my superior and one of the councilponies for the Military Bloc, was there as well in full dress uniform; standing immediately in front of the door. Pin and I took our positions next to the rest of the Rangers.
The atmosphere was electric. Everypony was chattering about this and that, “What do you think it’s like out there?” “Do you think they’ll bring back souvenirs?” “What should we get for lunch?” I was so excited! Clip was finally coming back, it’d been so long since we’d seen each other. Out of nowhere a noise came from the loudspeaker.
*CRACKLE* Hello Stable 33, Ranger Team Red reporting.*CRACKLE*
A technician tapped some controls on the door control system and pulled down on a large handle. The door ground open, deafening metallic screeches and howls filled the chamber. I wonder if they sounded like that when they were new.
The door inched open. And behind it was Red Team, they stood there waiting for the door to finish opening. They walked in dragging their hooves and hanging their heads like they were going to collapse from exhaustion. It wasn’t until my best friend, Full Clip, was standing in front of the General did I realize what was wrong.
The General asked before I could, “Clip, where’s Butter?”
If the mood had been festive before then it was dead now. Clip didn’t say anything; he just looked the General in the eyes. No one dared say anything. Water Tank and Everheart walked around the General like he wasn’t there and through the door. Everyone froze and just watched them as they walked through the door to the rest of the Stable. I couldn’t not do something; I followed them.
As I got closer I realized that the outside hadn’t returned my friend in the same condition I’d left him. He had a long and rather painful looking scar that started right under his left eye and ended bellow his ear.
“Hey Clip, wait up! What’s going on?”
He kept walking and looked back at me, but he didn’t say anything.
“Clip?”
“Not now, please.”
“You’re sure?”
“Yes.”
“Clip please.”
He rounded on me and got right in my face, “I SAID NOT NOW... please.”
He turned back around and continued down the hall. He was hurting, that much was obvious to me. I stopped trying to follow and just watched him until he was out of sight.
I heard hoofbeats coming up from behind me. “Sarge, is he okay?” Pin had followed me.
“I don’t think so.”
I felt another rather large presence behind me. “What now, sir?” Trauma Bandage too, his toneless dark voice was unmistakable.
“Consider today a free day Private. Go get drunk, read a book, sleep; whatever it is you do when you have free time.”
“Yes sir.” He stalked away making surprisingly little noise for a pony of his size.
“You okay, sir.” A voice that sounded considerably closer to the ground said.
“I’m fine. You should be more worried about Clip.”
“I am. But I know you better. What do you want to do now?”
“Like I said, today’s a day off. But while I’m thinking about it could you tell me what’s going on with you and Amber?”
“It’s nothing, I swear,” She lifted her leg and glared at her pipbuck, “But she’s developed a bit of an attitude problem.”
A sweet little fillies voice emanated from her pipbucks speaker, “Hey! I resent that. I didn’t develop anything I wasn’t programmed to have.”
“That’s funny, I don’t seem to recall programming a sarcasm function.”
“Then maybe I’m just awesome like that.”
“You see what I mean Boss?”
I sighed, “Just try and get it worked out, okay?”
“I’ll try. No promises though. If you need me I’ll be in the workshop.” She trotted down the corridor in the direction of the elevators her exosuit hissing and whirring softly with each step.
In case you’re confused Amber is Impacts homemade, pipbuck based artificial intelligence. She was so named because Imps pipbuck glows a dark yellowish orange, as opposed to the standard bright green. She’s probably in violation of some code or regulation by modifying her pipbuck, but no one seems to give a buck. And honestly I think it suits her.
It was just me and Pin then. I could feel her looking at me, “You’re not okay.”
“You’re probably right.”
“I knew Butter Cream too. She was a friend.”
“Yeah?”
“She used to work security with me. She’s small, but she was a scrapper.”
“We lost a friend, but Clip lost a wife.”
***
It was so quiet in the atrium. Everypony else had gone back to their rooms pretty soon after it stopped being awkward. The only sounds left were my own breath and that kind of silence that can be described as the Earth breathing around you. Although the latter might have been air bubbles in the water pipes.
Across the room from where I was sitting I could see the stable door. It had protected my great great grandfather and my pregnant great great grandmother from the balefire bombs the day they dropped and they continued to protect their son and his son and so on from the radiation that followed. For nearly two hundred years it’d stood resolute against the nuclear horror of the outside world. I always get existential when I’m around them.
It might help you understand what I’m trying to say if I told you the story of how I got my cutie mark. When I was little I never had to worry about bullies because Clip and I were always together, but Butter Cream wasn’t so lucky. She was a year or two younger than us and some of the other colts my age liked to pick on her. It was mostly harmless at first, they would call her some mean names and stuff like that, but it eventually escalated. They started pushing her down and pulling on her mane. Me and Clip did our best to try and stay out of it, but one day we were walking down some corridors and we saw that some of the other colts from our class were gathered around Butter. She was on the ground, crying, and they were kicking her and laughing.
It was wrong. I knew it, then I guess I lost it.
I don’t really remember much about what happened next. Afterwards Clip told me what he saw. He saw me take off down the hall and tackle as many of the bullies as I could to the ground and started smashing their faces with my hooves. The whole time I was screaming, “Leave her alone!” over and over. Apparently even after I beat some of them into unconsciousness I kept hitting them until a security pony pulled me off of them.
While I was out of it Clip had helped Butter run away and got the security pony. While he was doing that I was pounding their leaders head in while the other colts were either too stunned or unconscious to do anything but watch me or drool on themselves. Sometimes I feel guilty, but not much nor for very long.
The same security pony that had pulled me off of that bully escorted me to the clinic. The leader I’d beaten had a concussion and fractured skull, and I’d apparently broken some of my bones on his skull. It wasn’t until after the casts around my forelegs had hardened did I realize that I’d earned my cutie mark. And when Clip brought Butter to see me I saw that he had as well. He was absolutely ecstatic to have gotten his cutie mark, but I was happier to see that Butter was fine than to find out I had a picture on my butt. She was pretty shy at the time, but she thanked me for saving her from the bullies and gave me a sweet roll her mom had made.
She started hanging out with us. And then she started getting closer to Clip. Then they started dating.
I was his best stallion.
I’m not exactly sure if I’m proud of what I did that day, but I’m glad I did it. I hate that I lost control, but what else could a stallion with a stable door cutie mark have done?
I don’t usually tell others about how I got my cutie mark, but you needed context and I would feel dishonest for not telling you.
Back in the present a voice I loved dearly came from behind me, “Are you brooding at the door again?”
I didn’t want to tell her what I was really thinking about so I tried to roll with her setup and make a joke, “Summer, is it wrong for a pony to be jealous of twenty tons of stainless steel and lead?”
I could hear her hoofbeats as she walked up behind me and put her forelegs on my shoulders. She put her head next to mine and whispered into my ear, “Only if you start trying to stab it so you can take its place.” I couldn’t help but smile; she always knew just what to say.
“You’re right. A blow torch would probably work a lot better.” We both laughed. It felt good to just sit there, laughing with my wife, and not having a care in the world. I wish I could’ve stayed there forever.
When we finished laughing at our own joke neither of us said anything. I don’t know what Summer was thinking about but my gaze returned to the massive door. I needed to break the silence. “I guess you heard.”
She paused for a moment before answering, “Yeah.”
“How’d you find me?”
“Lucky guess.” She grabbed my shoulders and rolled me onto my back so that my head rested between her front legs and look me straight in the eyes, “I know what happened is really sad, but it’s not your fault. You don’t have to sit here and think about what you could have done, because there’s nothing you could have done. Even if you’d know that they were in danger you wouldn’t know where to find them. And besides that, the door was supposed to stay shut either until they came back or their time ran out. So we’re going home right now and getting you out of this little funk.” She smiled down at me as she bent to give me an upside down kiss.
I was stunned to say the least, “Is this really appropriate, given the circumstances?”
“It wasn’t a request.”
***
Fallout Equestria by Kkat
(Authors note: The final story is still kind of in flux. I’m pretty sure I know what I want to do, and you may see it too (don’t ruin it for everyone else) so tell me what you think of how it’s building up so far. )