The Equestrian Mission Program

by PeripetiPony

Chapter Two: Routine

The halls were filled with music being broadcast to the entire station. Classical. Good choice.

As I walked down the hall to the Engineering Room I glance at each screen above the door. Each screen will tell if the pony is on duty or is sleeping in, which is against the rules unless you have a special pass in order to do so. It was a sense of habit to look at each one for I don't want a tired pony to be punished for accidental extra sleep. Also it's the only thing besides other ponies that I can be interested in looking at while walking down the halls. There was no arts on the sidewalls in the halls, lowering the general optimistic mood despite the beautiful music being played above. The Majors was supposed to discuss about it, adding some kind of art on the walls. Maybe tomorrow.

As I was walking over to my destined route one of the screens had in bold red letters: Inactive.
Now why is this a problem? Because the colt or mare slept past the due time everyone is suppose to sleep. The consequences for such action could be a beating with batons. Yeah things were that desperate here. The station was having this sort of problem for the past months, ponies not going to work and choosing their own day offs without asking a high authority if you can. Selfish but undeserving the outcome if they are caught.

I approached the door and tried to open it up. Locked. Why would it be locked? I input the same passcode into the door in case I've put in the wrong numbers. Locked still. That's weird. The lock system should only activate if either a chemical hazard was exposed in this sector or if there was a major situation involving a weapon or an disease.

I brought up my forehoof that has an attached device on it. This device is a Multiple Assisting Purpose Tool or MAPT for short. Every resident has to wear this. It gives the route toward your first destination of the day, gives a map for there were some problems awhile ago for misdirection and confusion. The tool also has a 'Light' mode that can be toggled anytime, able to bright up a room with a push of a button. It can do a few other things too but I can't exactly remember at the moment. I used a certain app that is only given to security and technician ponies. Engineer HolfHoof installed it onto my MAPT for certain reasons. One of them being "You'll never know when you might need it". Yeah I guess what I have is illegal in my state.

I brought up the program and connected it to the door. The program was simple.....enough. I mean you have to import the required passcode everypony was given when they are old enough to start helping around. Then I have to put in the security passcode that only the security and technicians should know. HolfHoof taught me this as well. When that's done I have to perform the final step. Transferring the anti-security override program over to the door panel for it to unlock. Doing this can take about a few minutes. So I hit Send and just stood back from the door.

The door's Locked notification disappeared, giving me the indication the door is now unlocked. I went back over to the panel and pressed the 'Open' door button. The door scrolled up, revealing darkness in the room. Uneasiness started to come over me. Something was off. I turned to my MAPT and toggled the light tool. I started to glow a bit, hard to tell in a light hallway. I walked over to the door cautiously.The closer I walked the more illuminated the dark room becomes. I entered the room.

There room was a mess. The same cabinet was toppled over with broken glass everywhere from the mirror and lamp. The desk had a leg broken, leaning against the wall to prevent it from becoming like the cabinet. The bed had a weird lump in it. My thoughts were telling me that I shouldn't get any closer but I needed to warn the pony to wake up and get ready for his or her routined work of today. Maybe even clean up the room a bit. As I approached the sense of danger the sheet was emitting made me feel even more uneasy. I put my hoof on the sheet.

"Excuse me sir-I mean miss or whoever you are. You are way past your regular ti-"

I stopped talking when I unraveled the sheet to what I expect a pony's head but there was nothing there. Nothing. I sighed in relief, thinking to myself that there was nothing to worry about. The owner of this room was probably at work by right now. Work.....Oh horseshit. I checked the time on my MAPT. On it said 10:10. I'm late. Very late. I sprinted out the door and ran as fast as I could toward my destination, in high hopes that HolfHoof would be able to forgive me for being unexceptionally late. As I ran toward the Engineering room my thoughts went back to that room. Why was everything in there destroyed? Why was it locked without any good reason? Also why did it say inactive on the screen if there was nopony in there? I shake my head, switching my thoughts to getting to my job.

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I burst through the door panting.

"I-I made it."

I felt like laying down for hours after that run. No I wasn't out of shape, just running through five miles of twists and turns get to you.

"Yeah you did. Bout twenty minutes late,boy" grunted a broad, big looking red pony with an appaloosa accent.

HolfHoof. He is one of the high ranking engineers and technicians here in the station. Not much to him though except rumors. One in particular says he's a descendant from the famous apple-bucking pony named AppleJack and the Apple family. I can see how that rumor would be true. Just HolfHoof's Bio records are mostly wiped or corrupted. I don't understand really why the Majors didn't think this was suspicious. I guess it just depends on how much to bring to the table.

"Mind explaining why you late this time?" questioned HolfHoof. Yeah totally forgot this was my....er....third to fourth time late. Not on purpose though. It just happens when you are trying to lend a helping hoof with everypony here.

"The usual sir." I replied.

HolfHoof grunted again, turning his head back to the repairs.

"I'm warning yah boy. If the uniforms catch yah you will have trouble. And so will I for not putting you to work." HolfHoof said with a stern look on his face.

My ears drooped a bit. "I understand sir." I replied.

All of a sudden a loud bang came from where HolfHoof was working. A burst of some kind of cloud came from the pipes, hitting HolfHoof in the eyes. "Dammit!" HolfHoof said in frustration, rubbing his irritated blind eyes as he staggered backwards. I rushed over to the gaping hole of the pipe. It was a pretty big gaping hole in the pipe, shooting out more of that gas everywhere. And I'm awfully sure this isn't breathable.

"HolfHoof we have to get out of this room!" I yelled over the screeching sound the broken pipe was emitting.

No response. "HolfHoof!" I yelled once more. Where is he? The room started to cloud my vision. I couldn't see anything. My lungs burned when I took a breath. I dropped to my knees and shimmied to the door.

Then there was another loud bang behind me. Another pipe burst, letting lose some more of that toxic gas in the air. Shit! This is not good at all.

There was an emergency button next to the door. Pressing this will cause an alarm in this sector, probably sending forth several security personal and technicians over here. For the safety of the station I needed to press that button before I leave. But before I reached the door however there was a spark from a broken wire to the left of the door. Now remembering my teachings from school, gas plus fire equals boom. I frantically got up and ran threw the door whilst hitting the button while passing it. I thought that with the time I had I might make it in 10 seconds.

The gas ignited at 5 seconds.