Chapter 10
Chapter 10: The Ultimate Taboo
“I’m doing it. For science!”
“Stable 68?” I said quietly. Out of all the things I thought I would have found in this small town, a Stable was not one of them. I should have expected it though. With the town so far out of the way of the major cities, it was a perfect area to put one. I also shouldn’t have been so surprised when I saw the door either. The tunnel was much the same as the one leading to Stable 50. “How much are you willing to bet there’s supplies in there?” I said to Bolts, not taking my eyes off the door.
“How much are you willing to bet there’s another pack of radroos in there?” Bolts replied, still remembering his last trip into a Stable.
“Is that a Stable?” Starry called from behind as she moved up closer.
“Yeah, by the looks it’s 68. How many of these things did Stable-Tec make anyway?” My rhetorical question receives no answer as my small group continued to look at the door. It seemed to keep us still, not letting us turn away, taunting us with the secrets that lay beyond.
“So are we just going to stand here or are we going to go in?” Starry asked, sounding nervous for the first time. Even when she was being chased by the ghouls, she didn’t sound this nervous.
“Well, that’s the thing.” Bolts replied. “There is a chance there are supplies left over from when ponies lived there, but it could also be dangerous.”
“D-dangerous? Wh-what do you mean?” Minty asked from behind us, keeping her distance from the door.
“Last time Bolts and I went into a Stable, it was filled with radroos. Vicious creatures, but they’re just animals and they’re easy enough to kill.”
“Yeah, but in saying that, Stable 50 was open, this one is closed. So there’s probably not any wildlife in there.”
“Still, there could be some danger in there.” I said in return.
“Well, whatever we do, do you mind doing it fast? I’m a pegasus, I don’t do well in tight spaces. Hell, just being underground feels… weird…” Starry replied, the reason for her nervousness now known.
After a bit of thought, I turned to Bolts and gave him a nod to which I received one in return. It seemed that after almost two weeks of traveling together, we had already started to think on the same wavelength. Knowing what my decision was, Bolts turned to the control panel by the door and pushed the large lever that stuck out from it. A few seconds ticked by before an alarm sounded and the pneumatic sound of the door’s mechanism burst into life. The four of us watched in awe as the large cog door screeched as it was pulled from its position and came to rest inside the Stable, just to the side of the opening.
“Something isn’t right…” I said to the group, but more specifically to Bolts, as we stared into entrance. Unlike Stable 50, this Stable was actually rather clean. Only a minor layer of dust coated the machinery and everything else within the entrance, but there was something else. There was something else that stuck out to Bolts and myself that wouldn’t really stick out to ponies who hadn’t been in a Stable.
“…The lights are on.” Bolts said, finishing my thought. The only reason I was able to see the dust in the entrance was because the lights were on. Dim though they may be, it showed that there were potentially ponies still living here. “Should we go inside?” Bolts asked.
“Look, we knocked on the door. It’s only polite for them to let us in.” Starry said, taking the lead as she marched into the Stable. It was clear that being underground was getting to her. To have a pegasus who had lived above the clouds all her life stuck underground where she couldn’t spread her wings… I couldn’t imagine how nervous she felt. It was amazing that she hadn’t doubled back and returned to the surface. (Could she just be trying to prove herself to us?) Giving another nod to Bolts, we followed close to Starry as she walked inside. As we followed her, I could feel Minty quickly move up to me, feeling timid and wanting protection from anything that might jump out at her.
As we took a few steps inside the entrance, I began to turn my head, looking everywhere, expecting something to jump out at us. I could see that Bolts was doing the same, remembering both our time in Stable 50 and Gyp’s words of this being in a ghost town. The room was quiet, and it felt like the whole Stable was quiet (Was it possible that the residents had gone and left everything in the Stable running?) As we advanced all the way into the entrance we were met with a door which, if memory served correctly, opened up on a hall that led to the atrium.
“We’ve come this far. We should search the rest of the Stable and get out.” Starry said, taking charge, but as she spoke, it still felt like she was uneasy, almost scared. Quickly, she moved up to the closed door leading to the hallway, but as she opened the heavy door a voice came from just in front of her.
“Hi!” The small voice exclaimed, the surprise causing Starry to cry and jump into the air, giving the rest of my group full view of where the voice had come from. The voice came from a young filly that was behind the door who now stared up at the shaking pegasus, prompting a snicker from Bolts.
“Looks like the big, brave renegade pegasus is scared of a little filly~” He snickers causing Starry to shoot him a death glare before gently coming down to the ground.
“I thought I heard the door open!” The filly exclaimed. She couldn’t have been older than seven or eight and if a filly was here, then so was her family. “I can’t believe we have guests! Please, come with me!” The group just stared at her before I moved up.
“Sorry to intrude, but is your family here?”
“Yep! Please, follow me.” The young, cream coated filly bounced down the hall, excited to have guests. Slowly we followed down the dimly lit corridor.
“So… what’s your name?” I asked, right behind the filly.
“Well, my full name is Infinity, but you can call me Fin for short.”
“Infinity?” I asked, before looking down at her and seeing a cutie mark of a figure-eight, representing the symbol of infinity.
“Yep!”
“That’s a strange name.” Bolts piped up, thinking a little too loudly.
“So is ‘Bolts’.” Starry replied, taking another jab at the young stallion.
“Ignore those two. So how many are in your family, Fin?” I asked, trying to appear friendly to the young filly.
“We have forty-seven in total.” the young filly said with a smile.
“Forty-seven!? That’s a big family, I guess that would include aunties, uncles, cousins-“
“No, no, it’s just me and my sisters.”
“Just you and your sisters?”
“Well, sort of, you’ll see!” she said as we came to the door leading into the atrium. In a flash the door opened and even though I couldn’t see them, I knew that Starry, Bolts and Minty were all doing the exact same thing I was doing. My mouth had dropped when the door opened, for on the other side were about twenty other fillies walking around that looked just like Infinity. (Could they all be identical sisters? No, that’s impossible…) Before I could use my opened mouth to speak, the filly that had been leading us called out.
“Hey everypony! We have some guests!” As she shouted to the ponies in the atrium, they all collectively turned their heads towards my group and smiled, in an oddly creepy fashion.
“Guests?!” They all called out in unison and ran towards us, others appearing from the halls all coming to meet us. Soon we were surrounded on all sides by the young fillies, each one just as identical as the last. They circled us, forcing Starry, Bolts and Minty to come in close to me. The young fillies looked up at us, chatting amongst themselves. I knew that I had to take charge and ask what was going on.
“Are… are you all sisters?” (Really… that was the first thing that came to mind?)
“Sort of.” One of the fillies called from the back. Slowly, she started to move forward and as she did, the others parted for her, making a pathway for her to follow. She stopped in front of us and as I looked down, I noticed something different. Unlike the other fillies, she lacked a cutie mark. “I we’re all sisters, I guess you could consider me the oldest.” she said calmly.
“Who… who are you? All of you?” I asked, now starting to become a little scared of the fillies around me. There was something unnatural about all of it.
“We are Infinity, but you can call us Fin.” she said with an incredibly creepy smile.
“We got that… I mean, you can’t all be sisters. What exactly did you mean by ‘sort of’ when I asked you before?”
“Well you see, we’re not actually real fillies. We’re clones.”
“Clones?”
“What are clones?” Starry asked, sounding more nervous than before.
“I guess you can say we’re all copies of another pony. I was the first, that’s why I don’t have a cutie mark.”
“Copies of another pony? Where are the other ponies that live here?” I asked a little more sternly.
“Sadly, they all died long ago.”
“What do you mean long ago? How… how old are you?”
“Me? I’m over two hundred years old.” The world seemed to stop spinning, freezing time as I looked down at the young filly. She said she was over two hundred years old, but she looked no more than eight. Where did they come from? Why were they created? Why aren’t there any other ponies here? The questions in my mind began to spin until it seemed like the room was spinning with them. The filly cocked her head to the side and looked at me. “May I ask what your name is?”
“Sure. I’m Clear Shot, and these are my friends: Bolts, Starry Skies, and Minty.” I said, a little dizzy.
“Well Mr. Shot, you don’t look well and I’m sure you and your friends are tired from your journey. I know it isn’t late but please, rest here for the night. We have plenty of food for everypony to eat.”
“Don’t do it, Clear” Starry said quietly. “I’m getting a bad feeling from all of this.”
“You just don’t like being underground.” Bolts replied. “Rest would be good and so would some food.”
“Are you crazy?” Starry replied, still quiet but more frustrated with Bolts.
“Please, be our guests. You can take a couple of hours to sleep and rest and we will come get you when dinner is ready. Twenty-three, please show our guests to one of the rooms”
“Yes ma’am!” one of the other cloned fillies called and stepped forward. “Please follow me.” the filly said, leading us to the stairs. As my brain was still trying to process what was happening around me, I blindly followed the filly with my group right behind me, to the dismay of Starry.
It wasn’t long until we reached our borrowed room and stepped inside. By this time I had been able to stop my head from spinning as much and began to think a little more clearly.
“Here is your room!” the filly exclaimed. “I know it’s not much, but please, rest and I will come to get you for dinner.” The filly said excitedly as she left. Saying the room wasn’t much was an understatement. The room the filly brought us into was a single boxed room with four beds in it. It was almost as if we were in a prison. Slowly, I took off my saddlebags and rifle and sat down on the bed, finishing my thought process of what had happened.
“You idiot!” Starry yelled at Bolts, full of rage. “Yes I feel unsafe down here! But you don’t think there was something, oh I don’t know, UNNATURAL about all of that!?”
“Of course I do!” Bolts yelled back, silencing Starry.
“Wait… what?”
“I trusted them just as little as you did, but they had us surrounded. They may have just been fillies but there were too many to take on in such a confined area. It would be better to wait until we’re in a more comfortable position to fight back.” Bolts stated. Even in my half dizzy state I noticed he had the same determined look on his face that he had in these situations. With that I shot him a smile because I knew I could trust him. As I smiled towards Bolts, Starry just blinked.
“Bolts, that’s… that’s genius… heh, I guess you’re smarter than you look”
“Oh, shut up.” He said with a smirk. “So right now it’s best just to play along. Get some sleep, but keep your wits about you. Also, be careful of the food they serve. In the end, who knows, we might have just thought the worst and it could be nothing at all.” The smile stayed on my face as I laid down, knowing that if something were to happen to me I could count on Bolts to take charge.
“Bolts is right.” I called from the bed. “We’re at our best when we’re both well rested and not surrounded. Everyone, pick a bed and get a little rest. We’ll eat, ask for supplies, and leave.”
“I still don’t like this…” Starry said as she took one of the beds, placing her battle saddle and Minty’ saddlebags on the floor, while Minty fell silently into the bed closest to Starry.
“What about you, Minty?” I asked looking over. “You’ve barely said a word at all. What do you think about all of this?”
“I… I want to trust them… They are just fillies after all…”
“They’re not fillies.” Bolts said sternly, taking the final bed. “They’re not fillies; not any more at least.” The final words from Bolts lingered in the air for a moment, setting in, but soon I could hear the gentle sighs and snores coming from Starry and Minty. As I looked to Bolts, though, I noticed he still wasn’t asleep.
“I remember we were like that when we first had a bed after traveling so long.” I said, commenting on Starry and Minty’ fast slumber.
“Do you think you could do it?” Bolts asked, not looking at me.
“What do you mean? Do what?”
“If it turns out that these fillies are dangerous and want to kill us, do you think you could stop them?” The question stopped me and it took a while to answer.
“I’m just hoping that it doesn’t come to that.” I muttered, tiptoeing around the question, not wanting to give my real answer.
“I see… stay alert, Clear. You don’t want to wake up to find yourself at gunpoint.” And with that, Bolts rolled over and away from me leaving me there to stare into space before succumbing to sleep myself.
*** *** ***
“AHHHHHH!” The scream called out of the darkness. A cry for help? A cry of fear? I couldn’t tell. Was this another dream, no, another nightmare? “HELP!” The voice cried again and it was oddly familiar. “GET OFF OF ME!” It was then I finally recognised it. The cries were coming from Minty. (Open your eyes you idiot!) As the final thought kicked my mind into gear, I awoke. I opened my eyes, my eyelids flying open to see the blinding florescent light above me. Quickly I jumped to my hooves in time to Starry pounce at one of the clones who had a knife held against Minty’ throat.
“Get off her you crazy bitch!” Starry called, hitting the filly in the ribs with a flying kick and sending it flying into the wall, the crack of bones breaking clearly emanating from the small body.
“I told you to stay alert.” Bolts barked at me, already throwing his saddlebags on.
“I was alert. Clearly, just not alert enough.” With haste, I levitated my saddlebags on and noticed Starry moving up to Minty, putting a comforting wing around the shaking mare.
“Come on, you’re not hurt, it was just a scare. Let’s get out of here” she said softly as Bolts and I levitated their belongings over to them.” Once we were all fitted, I moved to the door, trying to ignore the small, unmoving body on the ground.
“Let’s go!” With the order called, I led the way as we ran through the hall.
“What’s the plan, Clear?” Bolts questioned, coming up beside me.
“We head straight for the door and close it behind us. They open it and we… open fire on them.” As the final part of my statement left my mouth, I began to question if I really would be able to do it. Within moments I found myself running down stairs towards the atrium but as we set hoof into the large room, my heart sank. The clones were waiting for us and had blocked off the only exit. It seemed like every single one of them were there some were holding knives from the kitchen in their mouths while others were holding scalpels and other bladed objects.
“Ah Mr Shot, so glad you could join us.” The original clone said, stepping forward. “Can you please explain to me why you’re not dead?” Slowly, my group stepped a little forward, hoping to make a dash for the exit soon.
“You made the mistake of only sending one clone in to kill us.” I replied keeping my cool, or at least trying to anyway.
“Pity, now we’ll have to get our nice clean floor dirty.”
“Wait! Before you kill us, I have a request.” I asked, still a few questions on my mind.
“Oh, very well, let’s hear it. Then, you die.”
“Where are the ponies who lived here before?”
“I told you, dead. Two hundred years does that to ponies.”
“No, I mean… how did they die? And what about the ponies who tried settling here? And why do you say you’ve lived for so long?”
“That’s more than one request… But, I’m in a good mood, I’ll humour you. We clones were created from the cells of a young filly named Infinity, Her father was the one who made me. However, there was something interesting about our cloned bodies. We never aged. The cells never died and the organs never gave out. Even after a week, my cells were as new as the day I was created. It was then that I had a realisation.”
“And what was that?”
“That I am the perfect being!” The room fell quickly into silence as the clone grinned wildly. “When I realised I was better than the fools around me, I decided it was time to be done with them, but I knew it would take some time and effort to do so. I convinced my ‘father’ that by making more clones, he could take the work load off ponies around the Stable, allowing more time for research. Amazed at the thought, he made another five clones and my plan was really put into motion. Over the next couple of months we learned how to live in this Stable. We grew food, worked machines, cooked and cleaned, it was clear to the residents that we learned faster than normal fillies would. When I was sure that we knew enough to teach others, we struck. In the dead of night we slit the throats of the residents. One. By. One.” For the first time in the wasteland, I was scared. The little filly, no… the clone in front of me was so sick, so twisted, that it chilled me to my core. “We did however, leave one pony alive, the little filly we were born from. We left her alive and cloned her for all she was worth. Sadly, all she was worth was only forty-one clones. The pain and fear was too much for her and she died soon after. We tried to clone ourselves but it turns out it’s impossible to clone from cloned cells. All that comes out is a pile of mush.” The clone finished with a chortle. I had heard enough, quickly I pulled the revolver from my holster and aimed it at the clone.
“You’re a monster, one that should have died long ago!” I quickly took aim at the lead clone but as I did, she lowered her ear and pouted, giving me ‘puppy dog eyes.’
“Pl-please mister, y-you wouldn’t hurt a little filly like me?” As she spoke, my revolver started to shake as my magic wavered, I couldn’t do it, I couldn’t shoot her. “HAHAHA! You should see the look on your face! You’re pathetic! You’re just like every other pony that comes knocking! They see a filly and think it’s harmless, even if they did say they’re a two century old clone! Face it, WE are the superior beings! We are smart! We are strong for our size! Most importantly, we do not age! So long as we eat, drink and sleep. WE. WILL. NOT. DI-“ BANG! The gunshot echoed throughout the room as a bullet passed through the head of the lead clone, silencing her and dropping her to the ground, while embedding itself in the head of the clone behind it.
“Looks like they can die to me!” Starry yelled out, her voice and face full of rage. There was a split second of silence as the clones were stunned at the events that just unfolded, but as the second ticked by they all gave a loud cry and began to charge at us. Quickly, Bolts and Starry put their backs to me as they dealt with the clones on their side, making sure Minty was safe in the middle. As they began to gun down the clones, I stood there, still shocked, trying to keep my revolver in the air, Bolts’ words cycling in my mind. (They’re not fillies any more. They’re not fillies anymore. They’re not fillies-) Before the words could finish, I noticed one of the clones pouncing for me with a large cleaver in its mouth.
“They’re not fillies anymore…” I said quietly as I pulled the trigger, and the heavy revolver round went flying through the clone’s head as it was in mid-pounce. The small body seemed to hang in the air for a moment before it came crashing down to the ground. At that moment, the gunfire, crying and cursing around me faded away and I focused on keeping my sanity. Muttering the same four words over and over again, I emptied my other four rounds into other clones that were foolish enough to charge me. Once my revolver was empty I quickly reloaded and fired again, but as I did I could feel tears begin to roll down my cheeks. The whole reason I was out here was because a filly close to me was murdered, now I was doing the same thing and the only things that kept me going were those four small words.
*** *** ***
It didn’t take us long to finish gunning down the clones, but when we were finished the once-clean atrium looked like a war zone. Bullet holes and burn marks from our weapons littered the walls, glass from broken windows laid shattered on the ground, complimenting the dozens of dead bodies and ash piles that lay at our hooves. Not a single clone survived the onslaught. It seemed that in one on one combat, where they didn’t have the upper hoof of a sleeping target, they were actually quite weak. Slowly I raised a shaking hoof and wiped my face, trying to hide the tears that had escaped my eyes, and behind me I could feel Minty shaking.
“I-is it over?” she asked quietly.
“Yeah… they’re all dead.” Starry said quietly. The group fell into silence for a moment, no one muttering a single word until Bolts decided to break the silence.
“You okay, Clear?”
“Hmmm? Yeah… I’m… I’ll be fine, thanks for asking.”
“I know it must have been-“
“It was,” I said, cutting him off, not wanting to appear weak to Starry or Minty. “but it’s over, I’ll be fine.” We continued to be silent for a moment and take in the scene before Starry spoke up.
“We should do what we came to do. We came here for supplies and there’s clearly some here. Let’s get it and go.”
“Right, I also want to check the Overmare's office.” I said, finally holstering my revolver.
“Why? Can’t we just get what we need and leave?” Starry asked, turning around, a bit of nervousness still in her voice.
“It’s because I want to know what was going on here, and why clones were being made in the first place. I just want some answers, okay?” The group was silent for a moment before Starry gave a sigh.
“Fine, we get stuff, find out what you want, and then can we please just go?”
“Yes, we can.”
*** *** ***
After a quick check by Minty to make sure we were all okay, we decided to head downstairs first to make sure there were no more clones, but we weren’t prepared for what we actually did find. As we moved through the silent hallways, we kept checking every room for anything to keep or sell.
“How is your arcane pistol doing, Bolts?” I asked as we slowly moved through the Stable.
“I think it’s fucked now… I only got off about three shots that hit, the rest were either misfires or it just didn’t work at all… I’m either going to need to find replacement parts or I’m going to have to retire it…”
“Don’t sound so down. Who knows, you might even get that arcane rifle we saw at Gyp’s.”
“Maybe. Hey, where are we anyway?”
“I’m guessing it’s the lab area of…” I trailed off as I looked into one of the rooms. It was a rather large, white room that looked almost like a medical bay, but there were machines against the wall making it look more like the lab that it was. However, it was what was in the centre of the room that caught my attention. In the very middle of the room sat an operating table and on the table, were bones. A skeleton of a small foal, straps wrapped in place of where the foal’s legs had been. At one point, the straps would have held tightly against the young pony, but now they arched over the small bones. Slowly I moved up to the table and kept my eyes completely on the dried remains, my friends followed shortly and soon we were all standing around the table.
“You think it’s her?” Starry asked quietly.
“There’s no doubt in my mind. This was the original Infinity.” For a moment we were all silent, letting the sight set in but soon I spoke up again. “I want to give her a proper burial. She deserves better than to just have her bones lying here.”
“I agree Clear, but how exactly are we going to dig without a shovel?” Bolts asked.
“The ground up top should be soft enough from the rain, and we can move it with our magic.”
“My question is, why did they leave her remains here and if they killed everypony?” Starry spoke up.
“They were most likely not using the labs after the final cloning and just left her body here, maybe out of respect? I wouldn’t know, but if they killed the other residents in their sleep they would have removed the bodies so they themselves had somewhere to sleep.”
“I guess that makes sense…”
“Hey… umm… Clear Shot, you wanted to know why clones were being made here right?”
“Yeah Minty, but the Overmare’s office is upstairs.”
“Well maybe there’s something on that terminal over there…” she said pointing to a terminal hooked up to a number of machines on the other side of the room.
“That’s… not a bad idea actually.” I said with a smile to her before we moved over. The terminal was old and a little dusty but was still functioning and to the surprise of both Bolts and myself, no password was needed to access it. It only took a moment to boot up the terminal and when it did, a number of options appeared on the screen.
“Action, calibration and notes.” Bolts said reading the options on the screen and taking the seat in front of the monitor.
“Well, I doubt we need to calibrate anything, what’s in ‘action’?” I asked, looking over his shoulder while the two mares stood back not as interested as the two of us were.
“Hmm, it looks like action refers to the starting of these machines and cloning from the cells of a pony.” Bolts replied after opening up the action option.
“Okay, what about notes?” After a quick backtrack, Bolts opened up the notes which lead to more options, files, each one dating back over two hundred years ago and each one was only separated by a few days. Clicking on the first one, Bolts began to read.
“Experiment one on Subject #1, name Bunsen Burner. Experiment conducted by head researcher, Bright Light.” Bolts read aloud to us. “Experiment conducted in hopes to successfully make a living copy, or clone, of test subjects in hopes of repopulating civilisation once the war is over and Stable door has opened. Experiment is to be performed using Subject #1’s cells as material and the machines, generously donated by the Ministry of Arcane Sciences, as the cloning device. Experiment results: Failure. The clone of Subject #1 refused to take a solid form and was reduced to a puddle of unknown material. Samples were taken from the puddle and will be examined by other researchers. Subject #1 appears to be unharmed and healthy. Further experiments will continue using samples from other subjects until an answer is found.” Bolts stopped and turned to me. “It looks like they’re just logs from the experiments.”
“Keep reading, maybe there’s something else that could be useful.” I asked in hopes of proper answers but as Bolts continued to read, my heart sank as it was just the same messages over and over again, the only thing that changed was the name of subject who was used in the experiment. That was true until we reached the second last entry.
“Experiment one on Subject #56, Name Infinity… Experiment conducted by head researcher, Bright Light. Experiment conducted in hopes to successfully make a living copy, or clone, of test subjects in hopes of repopulating civilisation once the war is over and Stable door has opened. Experiment is to be performed using Subject #56’s cells as material and the machines, generously donated by the Ministry of Arcane Sciences, as the cloning device. Experiment results: success. The clone of Subject #56 was able to take a solid form and functions just like the subject herself. The clone is able to breathe, move and think within the same parameters as the subject. Further studies will be conducted but this appears to be a success and a step in the right direction. Head researcher Bright Light is to keep much of his notes on his personal terminal for safe keeping. We hope this is the first in long line of many successes.” Bolts stopped reading again. “It looks like the next one is just about them cloning the filly again.”
“I wouldn’t mind taking a look at that researcher’s terminal.”
“Oh come on! How much longer do we have to stay in this fucking Stable?!” Starry yelled behind me.
“Please, Starry, this is important to me.” Starry looked like she was about to burst but before she could, Minty put a hoof on her shoulder to try and calm her down.
“Please?” The small word from Minty seemed to calm Starry a little.
“Okay, fine. But that’s it. No more detours. We get the supplies, we check this douchebag’s terminal, check the fucking Overmare’s terminal and leave.” It seemed Starry’s language became a little more colourful as she became more nervous, but with a nod we set off again through the Stable, always keeping our eyes peeled in case more clones appeared.
*** *** ***
The trip through the Stable was both creepy and short, as we didn’t run into any more clones but the thought that one could be just around the corner was placed firmly in our minds. What we found within the Stable was something I never thought I’d find in my wildest dreams. We found a fully functioning farm. With a bright light as an imitation sun and an irrigation system using purified water, the Stable was able to house a few fruit trees and some vegetable patches. With delight, we gathered what we could and made our way to the kitchen and medical bay to scavenge even further. The two rooms yielded less amazing finds than the small farm did. However, we were lucky enough to find some aged, but still edible rations from Stable-Tec as well as some much needed medical supplies of which Minty became the bearer. With luck, by searching the medical bay, we were able to find a small body bag, perfect to bury Infinity in.
The journey didn’t seem to end as we moved from one room to the next, taking what we could and filling our saddlebags to near full capacity before moving back to the lab and gently placing the bones of the young filly into the body bag. With everything in the lower levels taken, we moved back up to the atrium, the smell of the dead clones already starting to permeate in the air.
“Feeling any better, Starry?” I said, tiptoeing through the carnage. “At least we’re one level higher.”
“A little I guess, but any more supplies and I won’t be able to fly.”
“You’ll be fine, I doubt we will need to carry anything else out of here.” I said as we moved upstairs to the living quarters. Luckily most of the doors were still labelled with names of the previous residents which made it easier to find the one marked ‘B. Light. “Well, this is the place.” I said as I pushed the door open. The room was actually quite larger than the one we were placed in upon our arrival. It was almost like a small home and consisted of two branching rooms, one on each side of the front living area. Moving inside I was surprised at how well preserved everything was. The living area consisted of a couple of chairs and a table with photos hung along the walls. There was something off about the photos though, as I looked closer I could see it was almost like a timeline, in the first photo was a young unicorn stallion with glasses and a young earth pony mare standing next to him, my guess is it was taken before the war as they were outside. In the next photo, it was of the two ponies again but this time they were in a hospital room and the mare was holding a young foal to her chest, the smiles on their faces were the biggest I had ever seen, but the next photo was different. The third and final photo showed a birthday party, it was taken in the Stable and the young filly was surrounded by a number of ponies, I could see the father, but the mother was nowhere to be seen and the father’s smile had changed, no longer was he beaming brightly, now it was a very small smile, almost solemn. It was then I began to wonder what happened to the mare. As I looked away from the photos, I saw Starry close one of the rooms and just before it did close, I could see the shapes of a few toys. Putting the foal’s room from my mind, I turned to the other door to the branching room and opened it. The door opened on a combined study and bedroom where a large bookcase lined the wall opposite the door.
“Is that the terminal?” Bolts asked, coming up beside me and pointing to the lone terminal in the room.
“That would be my guess.” The terminal sat on a beautifully crafted wooden desk that seemed almost out of place with the rest of the Stable. Underneath the desk sat a rather small safe that would only be able to hold a few items in it. Swiftly, Bolts moved up to the desk and sat himself down, connecting his Pipbuck to the terminal.
“Hmm, the owner, or rather former owner, of this terminal knew what he was doing as far as protection goes.”
“Can you still hack in?” I asked, placing my bags and rifle down, my back needing a little rest.
“I’m sure I can. I’ve dealt with harder encryptions before, but it’s definitely harder than the one from your Stable. Let me just…” After a couple of seconds of Bolts tapping away, there came a small electronic noise from the terminal. “Shit…”
“Shit? What do you mean shit?”
“It’s nothing, I just chose the wrong password is all, I still have a couple of tries before the system locks me out.”
“Make sure that doesn’t happen… please…” Bolts went back to tapping again but this time there came a pleasant beep and the terminal blinked into existence.
“See, told you I could do it. Okay, let’s see what we got here…” Bolts smiled at the screen. “Okay, looks like Mr. Light here kept a research journal and there’s also an option to open the safe.”
“Go through the journal first.” I asked, moving up to read over his shoulder. But as Bolts pressed the option to go through the journal I was surprised to see so few entries. It seemed that for a couple of months, he updated regularly but then it stopped and he didn’t update again for some time. “Well, may as well start at the beginning.”
*** *** ***
Journal of Head Researcher Bright Light. Day #1
Well, moving went better than originally planned. Though we weren’t able to bring everything, at least I have my books, my bed and Infinity. We will be beginning testing tomorrow around lunch, using the machines donated by the Ministry of Arcane Sciences. I am honoured that the ministry has so much faith in both me and the team here, but I’m not 100% sure we can do what is asked. To create life, to copy another pony down to the very last strand of DNA… it’s unheard of, many would see it as a taboo… No, I can’t think like that. The ministry, Stable-Tec, all of pony kind, all of them are counting on us to try and rebuild civilisation. Oh Celestia, we’re so far away and I can still feel the rumbling of megaspells. I really wish Autumn was here… Autumn Breeze, my love, we’ll meet again one day. I miss you… I think that’s enough rambling for the first entry, I’ll update more as time goes by.
Head Researcher, Bright Light.
Journal of Head Researcher Bright Light. Day #2
Well, the first experiment was a failure. The pony we tried to create using Bunsen Burner’s cells refused to take a physical form and just collapsed into a pile of mush. I don’t know what went wrong. My calculations are sound but it just didn’t work. Maybe it’s a problem with the machines? I’m not sure, but I’ll have one of the engineers take a look at it. In the meantime some of the other researchers are testing the goo to try and figure out if there’s another problem, so testing has stopped for the time being. On a more positive note, Infinity seems to be taking the move rather well, despite there being no other fillies in the Stable. She gets along with the team, the engineers, the farmers, everypony. She gives us a morale boost, almost like she’s the mascot of the Stable. Maybe if Burner and Beaker could move things along faster, Infinity might have someone to play with. I can see they have chemistry together, no pun intended. (No pun intended, my arse.) On that note, the stallion to mare ratio in the Stable is in a much less than desirable area, but I digress, I’m in no hurry to find a new mate… it’s too soon… That’s it for this update. I’ll update again when we have some new information.
Head Researcher, Bright Light.
Journal of Head Researcher Bright Light. Day # 5
It seems we found the problem with the experiment. The problem was not the machines. They work perfectly fine. The problem was that the cells we used were not good enough. The goo that the cloned turned into was everything from within its body just liquefied. The bones, the organs, everything just turned to liquid state. On top of that, the sample that was taken only lasted a few days. For some reason, the DNA and cells deteriorated at an alarming rate until it turned back into a solid state and grumbled to dust. I have no idea what to do right now but it seems that the cells we took were too old. That would be my educated guess anyway. I’ll spend the next few days working out a solution before attempting the process again. As to end on a lighter note, Infinity is excited that her birthday is in a month, she went round to the entire team to tell them. I think when the day comes we’ll all take the day off to celebrate, since we’re not going anywhere. That’s it for now. I’ll update again when I hopefully have an answer.
Head Researcher, Bright Light.
Journal of Head Researcher Bright Light. Day # 11
Nothing… I can’t come up with a single answer to get around the problem we had with the first experiment. The only way I can see us making any headway with this is to just use the old fashioned trial and error to see what works and what doesn’t. There’s no real danger to the test subjects so I can’t deny that this is a viable solution but… I don’t know, I guess I would rather come up with a sound solution rather than a viable one. We’ll try again in a number of days to see if we can get a clone to stay solid. No real good news to report, just going about our daily lives, or at least trying to.
Head Researcher, Bright Light.
Journal of Head Researcher Bright Light. Day # 28
Nothing, nothing is working! One by one we’re taking cells from each member of the Stable and trying but we can only try one a day. The rest of the day is used to clean up the goo that gets left behind. I’m starting to think it’ll permanently stain the floor if this keeps up. On top of that, the smell is just awful. Heaven forbid the ventilation cuts out. The only good news I have is that Infinity is happier than ever. Her birthday is in a few days and she’s friends with everypony. Even the Overmare likes her… My only wish is that her mother would be around to see her grow up… Autumn… one day my love…
Journal of Head Researcher Bright Light. Day # 32
No experiments today. Today is a special day for my little girl. Everypony took the day off to wish her a happy birthday. I had never seen her so happy, and it’s sad to say, but I think she’s forgotten about her mother… she was still really young when it happened but still… no, no tears, it’s a happy day, a good day. Tomorrow we start again with the experiments, hopefully we can finally get something stable.
Head Researcher and proud father, Bright Light.
Journal of Head Researcher Bright Light. Day # 43
Yes, finally some progress. With our latest attempt, the clone stayed solid for a good fifteen seconds… before turning to mush. I feel like I’m going to tear my mane out soon and if I don’t, the Overmare will most likely do it herself. It hasn’t been two months and I’ve already forgotten about the sky, the fresh air… curse this war…
Journal of Head Researcher Bright Light. Day # 72
I DID IT! Finally! I finally solved the damn problem and I never would have guessed who would be the one lending their cells for my research. Infinity. My little girl had the cells needed to create a stable clone. The clone can think for itself and it seems like its intelligence is somewhat greater than Infinity herself. Maybe it was because of all the grown ponies that we tried first, I don’t know but the important thing is we have a stable clone to work with and now Infinity has someone to play with. Also in the good news department is that Infinity got her cutie mark as well. It’s just been a good day all around. Problem is until some more foals are born, Infinity is the only one we can take cells from. I’m not going to clone my little girl into oblivion. Just one is fine for now. I left the memory of my discovery in a memory orb which will be kept safe in the safe under my desk. If… if any of my future colleagues finds the orb, please ignore the beginning of it as I wasn’t at my best at the time.
Head Researcher, Bright Light.
*** *** ***
It was there I decided to stop reading, I had read enough and knew what else was going to happen, but I was still curious about the memory orb. Placing a hoof on Bolts’ shoulder I got him to look back at me.
“You want the memory orb, don’t you?”
“Good guess…”
“I’m starting to know you too well.” In a flash, Bolts went back to the starting screen and hit the option to open the safe. Once he did so, there came a small clicking noise of the safe unlocking and opening slightly. Focusing my magic on the door, I opened the safe up and looked inside. The only thing the safe contained the small orb, resting on a soft pillow. Slowly I levitated it up and examined it. The crystal orb was only slightly bigger than an egg and perfectly rounded, looking more closely I could see there was a whispery, silvery white colouring to it.
“So this is a memory orb…” I said quietly to myself.
“You’ve never seen one?” my young companion asked.
“Not really, but I’ve heard about them. They’re used to store memories right?”
“Yeah, a pony stores a memory in it and any other unicorn can relive their experiences. The sights, the smells, the tastes of the time will feel like you’re right there in the other pony’s body. It could only be for a minute or it could last for a day. They can actually be pretty useful sometimes.”
“So how do I do this? I just bring it up to my horn and focus my ma-“ Before I could finish my sentence the whole room seemed to obliterate in a flash and rebuild itself within a second.
<-=======ooO Ooo=======->
It took me a moment before I wasn’t standing anymore, instead I was sitting at the desk where Bolts should have been. My eyes, or rather Bright Light’s eyes were staring down at a mess of paper, each with rough notes scrawled on the pages. I couldn’t make head or tails of what was written down, but then again, my specialty was shooting, not science.
“FUCKING HELL!” Bright Light shouted as he brought his hooves slamming down, slamming them into the desk. It was weird as I felt them hit the hard wooden surface, yet they weren’t my own. Out of the corner of my eye (his eye… whatever) I could see a glass bounce up from the force, some of its contents splashing onto the paper, the smell of a strong alcohol filling my nostrils.
“WHY DOESN’T THIS MAKE ANY FUCKING SENSE!?” Bright Light slammed his hooves down again. “I’m a scientist! I excel in my field! Some call me brilliant! But I just can’t get this right!” Quickly, I felt my magic flare and the glass of alcohol floated over and the liquid disappeared down my throat. The burning sensation of whiskey was familiar, but what wasn’t was Bright Light using magic. It felt odd and unnatural, but there wasn’t anything I could do about it. Once Bright Light drained the glass, he slammed it down, causing it to crack and he immediately stopped the magic. Something felt off, I felt wet around my eyes but none of the whiskey got there. I then realised he was beginning to sob.
“Autumn… why did you have to go so soon? You were always there for me, giving me advice, helping me along. But now you’re gone… I wish you were here… not just for me, but for Infinity. How she’s grown in the two years you’ve been gone… Autumn… Celestia… Please, tell me how to fix this… give me a sign… how can I be the sower of life if all I grow is weeds?”
“Daddy?” The small voice of the filly called from the door and Bright Light stopped sobbing for a moment to turn and look at her.
“Hey, did Daddy wake you up?”
“Mm hmm…”
“I’m sorry, angel… Why don’t you head on back to bed? I’ll be quieter, I promise.” I could feel put Bright Light put on a smile, but it felt a little forced.
“Daddy, why are you crying?” she slowly trotted up to his side.
“I’m… just having trouble with work… nothing to be concerned about…”
“But you’re sad, Daddy… I don’t want you to be sad… Can I do something?”
“No dear, you…” Bright Light stopped and his eyes went wide, as did his smile as I felt his lips curl up. “Infinity dear, did you want to help Daddy in the lab tomorrow?”
“Yeah! If it’ll make Daddy happy.” She smiled back.
“I’m sure it will.” He levitated her up and gently cradled her and kissed the young filly’s head, all the while she giggled before yawning and nuzzling into the fur on his chest, causing Bright Light to give his most genuine smile since the memory began.
<-=======ooO Ooo=======->
My head shot up and began gasping for breath as if I had been held underwater as the world was destroyed and built around me again, my world flooding over me and giving me motion sickness. As I looked up and my vision came into focus, I noticed I was lying on the ground with my companions around me.
“I… I think he’s coming to…” Minty said softly
“Coming to? Minty, he just gasped awake, he’s already here.”
“Could you two back up a moment and give him some air?”
“Us back up? What about you Screw Loose?”
“I was just about to, Feather Brain.”
“Will you two shut up and stop bickering for ten seconds?” I asked as I shakily placed a hoof on the ground and slowly stood up with a wobble. “Why am I on the ground?”
“I was going to tell you to sit down before you viewed the memory. You lose control of your body when you activate a memory orb so you dropped the orb and fell once you were out.” Sighing, I looked down at the crystal orb and gently tapped it out of the way, having enough of the memories for one day.
“So what was it like?” Starry asked, sounding genuinely interested.
“Blegh… You get a sick feeling going in and coming out. As for the memory itself… he was a troubled pony with a lost love. I feel for him.” (As opposed to wanting to kick his teeth in for using his daughter as a test subject.)
“So one more stop and we can go?”
“Yes Starry, I just want to check the Overmare’s office before we leave.” I said before turning to Bolts. “You’re viewing the next one.”
*** *** ***
It didn’t take long for us to move around the Stable until we made it to the Overmare’s office. With no sign of any of the clones it felt safe to drop our guard as we ventured inside. It was unsurprisingly identical to the Overmare's office back in Stable 50, not a paper out of place.
“So, just another hack job?” Bolts asked
“Yeah, should be easy for you.” Bolts sat down and hooked his Pipbuck up, within seconds he had accessed the terminal.
“You’d think that of all ponies, the Overmares would have some decent security on their terminals. Okay, let’s see, files on the residents, a way to unlock the safe, a personal journal and a recorded note from Stable-Tec.
“I’ve had enough journals for one day and I don’t need to know about the residents. All I want is to hear that note from Stable-Tec.” Bolts silently nodded and clicked on the option, bringing the note to life and once again, the voice of the young mare came from the terminal, once again sounding tired and bored.
*** *** ***
“Hello,
“My name is Scootaloo and you probably know me as… oh screw it, you know me as the vice-president of Stable-Tec. If you are listening to this than that means Omega-Level Threat Protocols have been enacted and you have been appointed Overmare of a Stable-Tec life-preserving Stable. Your Stable has been designated Stable Sixty-Eight. You have been chosen for your sense of loyalty and duty to the ponies around you and to this company and while Stable-Tec is most likely blasted into a thousand tiny pieces, our ideals still live on.
“Your Stable has been selected be part of an important job. The first and foremost job of your Stable, like all others, is to save the lives of the ponies inside. As well as protecting the ponies inside, your Stable has been selected for a very important reason. We do not know how many ponies will survive the war, even with the many Stables we at Stable-Tec created and placed around Equestria. It is your duty to make sure the population doesn’t fall into the red. How do you do that, you ask? Simple… well… sort of… Unlike other Stables, yours have been put far out of the way as a safe haven for some of the greatest minds in Equestria. Using the special equipment generously donated by the Ministry of Arcane Sciences, your job is to create artificial life. By creating these artificial ponies, it will make the workload easier both within the Stable and when the doors open and it’s time to rebuild Equestria. This will also make… well… re-reproduction easier with the inclusion of more life.
“I… We here at Stable-Tec are unsure as to when the world will be habitable again. If possible, please open your doors in one hundred years, but you must try everything possible to make your experiments succeed. In the event you have to stay for a longer time, we have prepared a small agricultural area and supplied ponies with the knowhow to grow food. Once your doors open, it’s our hope that the current currency of bits are still used, if this is the case, we have left the Stable a fair sum of bits to help start funding the rebuilding of Equestria.
“From all of us here at Stable-Tec, we thank you for your dedication to our cause.
“Thank you and may Celestia always watch over us all.”
*** *** ***
As the recording ended I smiled a little, only for the fact that unlike Stable 50, Scootaloo finished the recording on a higher note, believing that the ponies could live and succeed in their endeavours.
“Was that all you wanted to hear?” Starry asked from behind me.
“Yes, and before you ask, we can finally leave.” Starry grinned and sighed at my announcement.
“Finally.”
“But first, Bolts, check the safe.”
“Why?”
“You heard the mare, she left the Stable a fair some of money. Though caps are mostly used now, you can still find some places that will take the old currency as payment. It’s not worth as much, and the places that take it are usually the larger cities and settlements. It would be good to have some back up money.” Not needing any further encouragement, Bolts opened the safe and to my delight, there five small sacks that jingled when moved. “Not bad, I’d say all of this combined if worth maybe two hundred caps… depending who we barter with…” placing the sacks in our saddlebags, I finally started to feel weighed down, having no more room to fit anything else. “Well, that’s it, time to head up.” Starry smiled and without a word began heading for the exit at a brisk jog, Minty trying to keep up behind her.
“I kind of wished I could have taken the books from Bright Light’s room.” Bolts said standing up and walking with me to the exit. “But between ammo, food, and the caps, I can’t carry anything else.”
“I know the feeling.” I said as I noticed Bolts fiddling with his Pipbuck. “What are you doing?”
“I’m leaving a marker just in case I get the chance to come back here.”
“And how likely is that to happen?”
“You never know what life brings.” Truer words were never spoken.
*** *** ***
The storm had died down a fair bit by the time we got to the surface but it was still rather dark out, so instead of walking in both the dark and the wet we decided to sleep in the middle of the meeting hall we were stuck in. It was cold and damp, but it was all we had. Though during the night, when I had rolled over to try and get more comfortable, I did notice that Starry and Bolts had moved together, most likely their bodies moved out of instinct to get more warmth. Even still, I had to smirk before returning to my own slumber.
Night came and went as it always does but the morning brought forth a new day of travel which began with a shriek. (…what?)
“Get off of me!” I awoke just in time to see Starry slap a sleeping Bolts across face.
“OW! What was that for!?”
“Pervert! You were hugging me in your sleep!”
“No, I wasn’t!”
“Technically, you two were hugging each other.” I said butting in, where I got a collective ‘Shut up’ from the two of them. Chuckling, I stood up. “Come on, it was cold so your bodies would have done it instinctively. Now, if you two will stop bickering like an old married couple, I’d like to bury a filly and get going for the day.” I said levitating up the small bag with Infinity’s bones inside. As I moved outside I noticed the two give each other a final glare before Starry helped Minty up and they all got their stuff.
Just as I had expected, the storm had passed and left the ground soft and muddy. Looking around I lead the group just around the back of the hall to a spot under a dead and blackened tree. “This will do, help me Bolts?” I said as I placed the bag down and slowly, the two of us began moving the earth with our magic, clump by clump we carved out makeshift grave until it was deep enough. “Okay, that’s good.” I signalled to Bolts before I gently lowered the bag in. “Anypony want to say a few words?”
“It’s not like we knew her…” Starry replied quietly.
“You three only saw her clones, the filly I saw in that memory was sweet and kind… she deserved a better life…”
“Umm… Clear Shot…”
“Yes Minty?” She was silent for a moment before opening her saddlebags to reveal a small doll.
“I found this in her room… I… I think it’s only right she gets buried with it…” With a warm smile I levitated the doll out and opened the body bag slightly, levitating the doll down into it.
“Thank you, Minty.” I smiled at her and she smiled back, her eyes and smile filled a small happiness I hadn’t felt since Joy last smiled at me. For a moment we were silent and paid our respects to the bones of the small filly, but once the moment passed, I began moving the dirt back into the hole.
Once the grave was filled and we said our goodbyes, we moved back to the road and started on our journey again. Hoping to finally make it to the East coast and find out what happened at Brismane.
Footnote: Experience gained, halfway to next level!
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Well at least they killed those clones before they could kill anymore ponies, also sad that Infinity died, good chapter again
So glad to see that Mach left in my little addition to Bright Light's journal!
That really was one of the worst puns I've ever heard, dear. 