I just stood there. I could tell that I was going to get lectured about this at some point in the future.
I would really like to be anyplace else but here right now, this is really akward and I know that whatever I say, he's still going to be annoyed with me.
My mind raced
My brother rolled his eyes and motioned the sentence to me again
'Where were you?'
He looked a lot like me, his mane being a bit more yellow-y then my light orange one and his coat being a bit lighter than mine.
Hush often took it upon himself to watch over me despite him being the younger of the two of us.
Maybe it's because of that one time I got myself detained... He and Taz had to figure out a way to get me out, and judging by how he still bothers me about it to this day, it must have taken a lot of effort to do so.
"I was repairing the water purifier because it was leaking."
I said, finally being able to respond to his question.
'Why?'
He gestured.
"Because the water was leaking thru the ceiling and woke me up"
I replied
'When?'
He gestured back
"Um... about an hour ago?"
I replied again, trying to remember if that was right or not.
He looked me over a couple of times like he would be able to tell if I was lying just on that
He nodded to himself, with a look of agreement
'Alright.'
He gestured nonchalantly.
'Get to sleep, it's late and we both have to be up around eight.'
Hush gestured and then rolled back into bed and tossed the blanket over himself.
He's also annoyingly strait forward sometimes.
He either uses hoof signals or this makeshift speech program on his pipbuck to speak, but he prefers to use hoof signals for whatever reason, which may have been more comfortable for him, but it took me a few months to learn and figure out whatever the hell he was saying.
Somewhat displeased and annoyed by his uncaring and sleep deprived words, I snapped back with a remark quietly.
"Try not to wet the bed again tonight Hush."
I didn't need to look at him to know what two words he replied with.
Satisfied with my gesture of brotherly love, I made my way to my bed, dropping my belt on the floor along the way.
I'm probably going to trip over that in the morning, but whatever.
Making my way into the bed and making myself comfortable, I prepared myself for a well-earned rest.
I enjoy sleep,
it allows myself to wander off to someplace different,
someplace more interesting and exciting,
anywhere but the cold and boring setting of a Stable.
It makes me wonder what the outside is like, all I know is from my brief knowledge I learnt from short classes as a colt.
Also what is the reason we are stuck in this place?
Is the outside world really that dangerous?
Of course there are also stories created by people with too much free time brought on by the many propaganda posters on the walls,
but I really do wonder what's out there, waiting to be discovered.
There I go again, slipping off to the land of questioning reality, I've learnt that it's better no to ask questions like that.
I should probably get to sleep
...
..
.
I really shouldn't have had that coffee
Where am I?
I thought to myself, looking at my sudden change in surroundings.
It looked like I was in the shower of somepony's bathroom,
naked.
Oh this is just great.
The water was running, I don't know how, there wasn't any dial in sight.
I tried to open the door of the shower but it was locked,
there was no way out.
I decided that it the space above the glass door was to small for me to climb through.
Giving up on my effort to escape, I sat down on the tile floor, closed my eyes and decided to enjoy the water running down my body.
My moment of bliss didn't last long.
"Welcome"
said a deep voice that seeped to come from the walls.
"Mm, and where are you welcoming me to exactly?"
I responded, slightly annoyed,
I was just getting used to the water too...
"You are in my playground now, a place where I control your dreams."
The deep voice said, then breaking out into a quite evil and somewhat scary laugh
"So... Is this like your fetish or something?"
I asked, generally curious if that is what this is all about.
The voice stopped laughing,
"What?"
"I mean is it your thing to lock stallions in your shower or whatever and force them to see or do things? I'm not going to judge but this thing is kinda like something you would read in '50 Shades of Hay'."
"What!?"
The voice repeated,
"No! I'm a dream demon and I'm here to prey on your sanity by showing you horrible images from your future!"
"Well the only thing you've been showing me is real quality entertainment."
I said, now I was the one laughing
"Your a real asshole, you know that?"
The voice said, it was quieter now but you could tell it was very annoyed and embarrassed.
"I'm don't want to deal with you right now anymore, away with you."
I continued to laugh until my body suddenly went limp and everything went black.
I woke up still sitting in my bed.
What a weird dream...
Buzzer
Both Hush and I were woken up quickly by the blaring sound of Hush's alarm clock
Well to be fair, I essentially rolled out of bed...
onto the floor.
hard.
Hush helped me to my hooves and we quickly got ready for the day
I was almost ready but I couldn't find my tool belt
As I rushed back and forth in the room I decided to ask Hush if he could help
"Hey Hush, did you see where I put my to-"
bang
"Ow, forget it. I found it."
and the floor
Hush and I both had a couple of minutes before we had to do anything so we sat around and talked.
"Alright little brother, what are you planning on doing today."
I asked, actually curios.
He looked up at me from his pipbuck and answered
'I'm heading to the medical room to fix the air condition unit that was broken, or at least replace it.'
He really is to easy to tease sometimes, it's like he forgets I'm his older brother.
"Oh, are you sure you're not also going down there to see Doll?
I responded, with a smile knowing that I got him
The stallion's face turned red in a second.
He acts like such a foal sometimes
Doll is Hush's marefriend, she's a very kind hearted and pretty pony.
it's funny because Hush had a crush on her for the longest time, but didn't have the guts to talk to her.
I stepped in and introduced him to her two years ago, without his consent of course,
but now they're a pretty cute couple and Hush seems happy, even though he gets flustered every time I bring her up.
Hush recovered pretty quickly by walking out the door
To embarrass him a bit more I shouted into the hallway,
"Hey, at least you have a marefriend, you stud"
judging by how I could hear him stomping off and the sounds of mares giggling, it worked.
Hey, I had to do it!
A minute or two after Hush left I decided that I should head out as well.
After locking the door to our room, I made my way through the hallway of the living quarters once again.
Ponies with early shifts like myself and Hush were scattered around the hallway, most herding toward the stairs or elevator.
Another boring day, filled with boring jobs
I thought to myself, already wishing for the end of the day to come.
As I made my way into the elevator, I decided to put my earblooms in and listen to the radio.
Upon selecting the station, the crisp voice of Amp Jack, the Stable radio host, sounded in my ears.
"Good morning early birds, it's me Amp Jack with another day in Stable 45!"
The radio host exclaimed.
Amp Jack is interesting. He has always had a "Cool guy" sort of vibe about him, which can be annoying to some ponies but I always thought he was entertaining
"In recent news, four ponies have completed their lives in Stable 45 and are scheduled to the Chamber in a few hours. More on that in a bit."
"But first, let's start off your day with a Stable favorite!"
A catchy song began to play, despite hearing it nearly every day, it never got old and a brief moment of peace drifted over me.
Music always had that sort of effect on me, especially this song.
song: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0T5W-xJWuPE
I found myself humming the tune in my head and tapping my hoof until the elevator reached the third floor
One or two of the ponies and myself made our way out of the elevator and the doors shut behind us.
My pipbuck chirped indicating that I got a message, likely from the Stable's job organizer, Clips
Guess I don't have to go to her office to get my first assignment today...
I turned off the radio and looked down at the display to see that my expectations were correct,
A message from my boss was on the screen
Hey Spaz,
Two of the toilets and one of the sinks are having problems
in the stallion's bathroom on floor one, everypony else is
currently occupied so I need you to at least check them out
and repair them if they don't have to be replaced,
That would be great.
Lots of love, P. Clips
Bitch! I was just down there! and aren't the Hex siblings usually free right now!?
I thought
Whatever, there's no point in arguing about it, after all, it is my job and I have nothing better to do.
I turned around and waited for the slowest elevator in existence to return,
but after five minutes I decided that the stairs would be less of a hassle.
I made my way down two flights of stairs and into the bathroom before I realized I haven't put the radio back on.
Nothing interesting played while I worked, Amp just talked about the ponies that were being sent to the Chamber today, and then a song I didn't really like played. So I decided to turn the radio off again and finish my work.
By the end of the job, I had the bathroom equipment looking nearly perfect, or at least the plumbing did.
Then I got another message
Oh joy, what now?
The message didn't say much other then Come to my office with your brother
Guess I better go get my brother
Then I realized that I still had muck on my hooves when I nearly tripped for the third time today.
Oh yeah, nearly forgot that I'm filthy, I should probably wash off first
So I did just that and headed out to the medical wing on the second floor.
When I reached the medical wing, I could already see Hush chatting with Doll through the glass doors.
Hush was using a speaking program he installed into his pipbuck to talk because Doll couldn't understand much sign language.
Doll was smiling, but for some reason, Hush had a very disturbed face, as if they were talking about something he didn't like.
As I mentioned before, Doll is a very attractive mare, her real name is Joy Pill, she's albino so she's is almost completely white other than her pinkish red eyes, she has a short mane with long bangs that cover one side of her face, the only imperfection she has are the burns covering most of the front-left portion of her body brought on by an explosion one year ago that also cost her most of her front-left leg, her left eye, and one of her ears. Despite her deformities, she is still very kind and doesn't mind when people bring the accident up.
I'm happy for Hush that he managed to keep such an amazing pony.
However I am yet to have a marefriend for a week...
I walked into the cool, air conditioned room
Hush did a pretty good job
Ponies were rushing back and forth with different medical equipment, others were sitting around tables working hard, and a few were working with patients.
The medical wing always had this busy yet organized feeling to it, important work was being done here all the time, like nearly 24/7
Someone should really consider getting a coffee machine in here!
Oh, there's one.
or three
Doll was the first one to realize my presence and waved her prosthetic arm at me.
Then Hush,
and too be honest, I couldn't tell if he was really upset or really happy to see that I was here.
"Sorry to interrupt your conversation, but I'm going to need to borrow your boyfriend for a second Doll."
I intruded
Doll's face turned from a happy one to a disappointed one and responded
"What for?"
In the background hush was using sign language to say the letters
'S O S'
"We were requested for by Paper Clips"
I said, somewhat annoyed that we had to talk to Clips in the first place
Doll took a second to respond,
"Oh ok, well you guys have fun with that."
For a doctor, she can be really simple minded sometimes...
I see why Hush and Doll attract to each other now!
She then looked over at Hush and kissed him on the cheek, causing him to blush, saying
"Let us continue our conversation later."
I grabbed a half flustered, half traumatized Hush and we hurried out,
and Doll waved us goodbye as we left.
"So... What were you guys talking about? You look like you really wanted to get out of there."
I asked, hoping I could tease him about something.
Hush looked at me with an empty stare, it was like his eyes had been through a war,
but he responded relatively quickly
'She was describing a surgery she did on a filly, in VERY close detail.'
Doll can also be very scary sometimes
Hush and I both made our way up to the third floor and toward Paper Clip's office
Judging by how long it took us to get up here and by Clip's personality, she's probably going to say that we-
"You two are late"
Paper Clip exclaimed the second I opened the door
Bingo!
The two of us walked into the room and sat in the two chairs in front of her desk.
With a quick analyses of her desk, I could see multiple papers addressed to the Overseer that had Denied stamped on them.
Paper laid her glasses on her eyes as she took a long look at Hush.
She must of realized how Hush is as stiff as a statue.
She looked confused for a second but then asked me
"Why does Hush look like he just witnessed a murder?"
Yep
I didn't really know how to respond to that, so I shrugged and said
"Relationship problems?"
That made her smile but she continued to talk
"Anyway, getting back on topic, I need you guys to do another job."
"Okay, but why did you have to call us to your office?"
I asked, curious but annoyed at the situation.
"Well it has to do with the Chamber"
-a minute or two later-
"To be frank, I thought she was about to tell us that we were literally going to be in the Chamber, if you can catch my drift."
I said to Hush once we were out of hearing distance of Clips' office.
He smiled at the joke, which is good, he has completed another step of recovering from looking like a soulless husk of a pony...
Instead, Clips just wanted us to make sure that the Chamber was functioning.
After all, the Overseer is one of the ponies scheduled for the Chamber.
At least, that's what she said was the reason for having us check out the thing.
I didn't have too much knowledge on how the reactor or how the Chamber worked, but I do know a lot about pipes. The pipes were to get rid of the radiation in the Chamber, I don't really know how but I just had to make sure the pipes didn't have any leaks or were not attached properly. While I was trying to grasp the idea of radiation being fed out by pipes, Hush checked out the electronic bits of the Chamber.
In about an hour we had the job done, but we decided to stick around to make sure that the whole event went smoothly.
Thankfully, it did.
There was quite a crowd, probably because of the Overseer.
He said his goodbyes and shed some tears while the other three had little to no time to say goodbye to the maybe five ponies that came to see them.
I didn't really like the Overseer anyway, all talk, no action.
Doesn't matter, The Chamber is the same thing every week or so...
What concerned me however was how the lights flickered once or twice after the deed was done.
I guess the use of the Chamber caused the reactor to go a bit haywire.
After the whole Chamber event and the bodies where disposed of, Hush and I decided to gather our friends and go get some drinks at the bar.
It's been a while since we've done anything special after all.
Also drunk Hush is hilarious.
-about 30 minutes later-
Hush, Doll, and myself met up with Taze at 'The Hole In a Hole' bar and ordered a few rounds of shots...
I don't drink strong drinks often so I just had a few beers
It was really fun watching Hush and Doll get drunker and drunker with each round of shots.
They're both total lightweights
By round two, You could see that they were already feeling the effects.
By round three, The were drunk.
By round four, their personalities seemed to change greatly.
By round five, Doll started cursing in between constantly making out with Hush, who was spacing out.
Then finally at round six, both had passed out cold...
That was around the time we decided we should head back to our rooms.
On the way out I asked Taze to carry Doll to her room since Taze lived in a room close to Doll,
while I carried Hush to our room.
He's going to have a real shitty morning tomorrow!
The lights flickered again as we left the bar, I'm probably gonna hear more about that reactor in the morning from Clips.
Hush must have really been out of it because he didn't even twitch on the trip back to our room
Even when I threw this nearly lifeless body on his bed.
That remind's me, I really hope that Taze is sober enough to remember where Doll's room is,
and then be able to make it to her own room
(she's passed out on the way to her room before in a similar situation)
I was pretty buzzed myself but I made my way to my bed, I also almost forgot to take off my tool belt,
and yes, this time I put it where it should be.
I felt the tiredness sweep over my body like a deep fog.
I was too tired to really think about anything so I just passed out
...
and forgot to turn on the alarm
"Hello Mr. Hay"
I joked finding myself in the same shower setting as yesterday
I heard an annoyed grumble coming from the walls
I wanted to follow up on my last comment only to soon realize that he had muted me.
Whatever, I'm happy with the reaction I got.
The water was warmer than last time, but it was still cold.
'Cool' would be the best way of describing it.
There was a sudden loud explosion somewhere I couldn't see, making my ears ring
Two words were then burned into one of the tile walls.
Pay Attention? What the hell is that supposed to mean?
The water suddenly rose rapidly in temperature, to the point where it burnt my skin.
Th whole area suddenly felt like I was in an oven, it hurt like hell.
I could hear Paper Clips' voice in the background but it was too faint to hear what she was saying.
Once the voice stopped, everything returned to normal.
But it wasn't over.
The temperature raised once again, this time green fog flooded the small area that made up the shower.
The fog made my throat, eyes, and skin burn in pain.
I fell to my knees, but the pain wouldn't stop.
For some reason I didn't know, all I could think about in that moment was Taze's face.
The deep voice whispered into my ear:
"She's next."
I felt my body go limp and as I fell into the green fog, everything went black.
I opened my eyes, for some reason I felt more tired than usual.
Wow that demon guy can't take a joke.
Maybe it's a girl...
That has to be the reason they didn't like my jokes!
I rolled to my side and looked at the clock, we were late...
It was around 12 when I woke up and realized that Hush and I had overslept.
I wonder if I'm going to get yelled at by Clips or not.
That's when the alarms went off.