Prologue- Wayward Soul

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Trust is a valuable commodity, not easily gained or found. You can’t trade for it; you can’t purchase it and you most certainly can’t steal it. It’s twice as valuable as food or water and twice as rare in the Equestrian Wasteland. Sometimes I like to think most of the nation’s supply of trust went up in flames when the Balefire bombs hit. Either way, if you don’t manage to get some of that valuable trust, you might as well leave and never return. Without trust, you’re nothing more than an outsider or worse, an outcast in our small little patch of home.

***

The toll of vessel bells and the smell of the humid air only a fishing wharf could hold assaulted my senses as I awoke from my hammock with a grunt. The last thing to recover from the heavy sleep was my eyesight as I struggled to remove myself from the comfort of my makeshift bedding. The rope made bedding threatened to drag me back to the depths of sleep as my struggle became futile. The black bliss of sleep had nearly recovered my soul before suddenly I was thrown to the ground, my hammock rolling and depositing me unceremoniously to the wooden floor. From behind I heard the faint laughter belonging to a mare I knew all too well. “Good morning……mother…...you devil.”

“Morning was an hour ago, Muddy Waters. You have work to do unless you’re taking the day off. Which you aren’t, so hop up!” The pale blue coat and paler green mane filled my vision as I rose to my hooves. Vivid Grove, my mom, was already trotting off with a half-formed smile. Somepony was pleased with themselves regardless of the evil they’d inflicted upon me. Yeah, I had work today and from what I recall, my older brother was pretty desperate to get my help looting some place up north along the river. I could see the faintest glimpse of her fillet knife and spatula cutie mark as she disappeared through the wooden doorframe. Checking myself over to ensure there weren't any splinters or bruised shoulders, I followed my mother’s trail to the small kitchen. Work wasn’t something I even needed to worry about considering I’m practically self-employed. That never stopped mama Vivid Grove from having a good laugh and tossing her three kids out of bed.

Our house wasn’t impressive by a longshot, but whose house was when you lived on a massive overpass that spanned the fake river below it. The smell of radigator steak overpowered the smell of fish that permanently filled the atmosphere around the town of Point Wayward. Oh yes, today was going to be a good day if the first meal was radigator. Relatively taint free and a little radiation never killed anypony. Immediately at least…. “I’m probably going to eat on the go, mom. Rough needed me for something today and I promised I’d help.” I wasn’t about to stick around after what mom said. If she was telling the truth, big brother was going to be livid with me. I was supposed to be there early in the morning, which meant he’d be a stage or two above just simple anger. The dictionary was going to have to come out for the next words to describe his coming wrath.

Without a word, the older mare gripped a spatula between her teeth and slid it under a particular large slab of gator meat before flipping over her shoulder. Not even a word of warning before having me do tricks to try and catch the meat between my own teeth like some dolphin! Granted, the meat hit home and I caught it effortlessly with my earth pony reflexes, but what if I hadn’t? I’m an earth pony, like my mother and father before me! Not some cat or circus animal! “Thanks for the meal and sudden workout. Say, where is everypony? Is dad still in town?” I asked as I carefully slipped on my scavenger’s attire. A nice brown coat with no less than 18 pockets, a duffle bag backpack and a pair of saddle bags to really drive home the fact it was going to take me longer to get home than it would to get to my destination due to the sheer weight of the shit I would be hauling home. And of course, to top off the ensemble, my sun-bleached red hat with a pair of goggles strapped around the top of the brim. It wasn’t weird that I also had a pair of goggles around my eyes and neck, bringing my total of these bad boys to three.

What? It’s a collection. I really like goggles, okay!

“Rough Waters is on the Market Pass, Clear Waters is down below in the fishery and your father is out on the water down river, near the falls. Now Muddy, please don’t forget your gun again. I didn’t buy this so you can leave it here.” Oh shoot, that might have been important. Of course, in a mother’s fashion, she had my dinky pipe revolver resting upon her trademark spatula. And like the rad-gator steak, she flung the gun at me sending it arcing into the air. It’s wooden mouth grip landing square in my teeth as I rapidly holstered the weapon in my leg holster before finally escaping my mother’s antics.

“Okay okay, you win this round, mom. I’m heading out.” She paused her cooking to glance in my directions and waved with a cheery smile. I thought I heard a ‘I love you’ through the spatula gripped between her lips, but mom’s special talent was butchering and cooking the more dangerous critters flowing through the Centennial River, not talking with cooking utensils in her mouth. “Love ya too! Assuming that’s……even what you said!” And there I was, out the door at last. The leather tarp that acted as a door did nothing to stop my rapid exit into the streets of Point Wayward Trading Post. Our home was a humble collection of scrap metal and driftwood buildings built over a x shaped double overpass with what used to be a highway beneath us. A long time ago it was used as a road for the rapid deployment of materials and military stuff around Equestria. Now, it was a flooded ruin that had sunk so far into the mud of northern Equestria that it had become a tributary for the Centennial River after a large enough storm rolled through. At least the overpasses were in decent enough condition to build our home here.

The stairwell that connected the top overpass to the bottom overpass kept the two parts of the settlement connected and helped with travel. The top, or Market Pass, was used for trading and other businesses. The bottom, or Residents Pass, was where the population made their homes. Below that, was the fishery and fishing wharfs that hung from the bottom overpass. A nice sized collection of buildings suspended by rope and steel cable from abandoned ships held the lower levels just above the water. When ships came through and needed to pass under, the buildings would be heaved up with massive wenches that pulled the buildings high enough to let large ships through. My big brother, Rough Waters, worked the market selling scrap and salvage. My younger brother, Clear Waters, was a fishing pony despite only being fourteen. I myself was only sixteen and Rough was eighteen. Dad, Deep Waters, was a proud fisher pony and was always on the water sailing for places to hunt the next river monster and put food in our bellies. The Waters family was dedicated at least. We fit the bill for the average Wayward resident.

Me? I was a scavenger. If you didn’t work on a boat or have anything to do with fish, you were a merchant. If you didn’t fall into either of these categories then you were a scavenger whose day-to-day life consisted of traveling up and down the river picking over dry docks, not so dry docks and waterside businesses from before the war. That’s my existence and subsequent outlook on said existence at least. My hooves carried me up the stairwell which led me to the middle of the market. Shacks full of goods and ponies looking to sell those goods were everywhere here which made it a little harder to navigate through the crowds of smelly sailors and eager merchants. The Northwest ramp leading down to the road below was where big brother Rough liked to set up shop and where I found work to keep the family going. Rough Waters was already waiting for me and judging by the frown resting on his face, he wasn’t happy at how tardy I was today. That more lively shade of blue coat just like mom’s topped with his light blue mane with traces of black going through it. No mistaking it because when my green eyes met his royal blue ones it was over. Upon seeing me approach, he waved off a couple of ponies he was talking with and rushed to meet me before I could get away. Maybe it was the fact I was trying, and failing, to sneak past his shop that spurred such a reaction, but with a steady stride he caught up to me with gusto.

“Let’s see. Pale green mane, unwashed and overgrown as usual. Smells like radigator meat. Jade green eyes and probably a light brown coat beneath that dirty jacket you’re so fond of. Unhealthy obsession with goggles. Nice try little sister, nice try.” I tried to run, truly I did. Facing the scorn and disappointed look only a family member could produce wasn’t on my agenda today. Tried being the keyword for today as my legs fell out from beneath me and I went sprawling along the asphalt. True to the words spoken by the merchant family member, my tail was a braided nightmare that was growing far too long. Something I was proud of to be fair, but it was also what he used to stop me in my tracks as a heavy hoof held my tail in place. A sharp pain rose up my hind quarters as he pulled my tail back. “You’re late again. When I asked you to not be late today because of how important today was, you said…...?”

No amount of puppy dog eyes or quiver lip was going to free me from this scolding. Didn’t stop me from trying. When that failed and his slowly increasing disappointment became more apparent, I relented and finished what he was saying. I knew that’s what he wanted me to do, it just embarrassed me to do it. “I said I’d be on time today…”

“You said you’d be on time. Should have known better. Look, time is extremely important today so let’s cut the crap and focus. Team effort today, and by team, I mean you. There’s really no one else on the payroll…” Rough gripped a sheet of paper in his mouth and dropped it in front of me. I wasn’t sure what it was until it unraveled at the touch of a hoof to reveal a map of the local area. Of course, what else did we use paper for besides wiping our asses here? Art? Ha, as if. “No room for the aloof personality Muddy. We got a big score coming from down south. Word on the river is something is happening up north near that Hoofington place. They got this ship full of Steel Rangers from Trottingham coming up the river in a day or two to back up some buddies in Hoofington and we’re going to be the first ones to get in on some trade with them.” Rough seemed unnaturally excited about the prospect of trading with the Steel Rangers. Of course, there was no love lost on them due to the fact they tended to seize technology for themselves and weren’t always keen on asking for it if they saw you in possession of said technology. You might get away with owning a working toaster or spark battery, but for the most part anything that used gems or magically charged tech was risking it when around those power armored ponies.

I rubbed my cheek as the fall had stung quite a bit, but it would take more than a tail stomp to keep an earth pony down. Especially a member of the Waters family! “Wait, hold on Rough. Aren’t Steel Rangers just glorified raiders? I’ve heard word on the ol’ rumor mill that some ponies tend to get robbed by those guys. What if they try to take our gem engines or our water talismans from our boats? We can’t exactly take on grenade machine guns and rocket launching power armor ponies with pipe rifles.” We barely survive the damn river leeches that are as big as a forehoof. A boat full of Rangers would level the town if they wanted.

Rough shook off the notion I was trying to pass and looked like he’d already made up his mind a while ago on this subject. “It’ll be fine! If we go out to Friendship and Freight up north and grab some working servos or something, we can trade for better weapons. Or at the very least a good bit of caps. Metal is always in high demand when you’re in that fancy power armor of theirs. They gotta have some kind of material to repair those tin cans, right?” He said the word ‘we’ a lot, as if he was ever going to make the thirty-minute trek from here to Friendship and Freight and fight off the feral ghouls that stalked the shipping company there. Maybe my tightening gaze was enough to convey my distaste for this whole scavenging run, because he stood at attention for all of two seconds before fishing something out of his own pair of saddlebags. From within the magic bags came forth the most delicious bit of prewar delicacy I could remember tasting. “If you bring me everything I need on this here list, I’ll give you a Sparkle Cola Cherry~.” Damn his special talent for being persuasive! The older stallion had his way of ensuring successful barters and this was no exception. His cutie mark was a bag with a bit sign printed on its side with three fishtails poking out of the top of said bag. Where had he even found such a rare drink?!

“I can’t argue with that reward. Fine, I’ll head out right away. Just remember your dear little sister when she fails to return and is ripped limb from limb by a pack of ferals. Woe, misfortune be upon me this cloudy day! My end is surely nigh!” I made the theatrics a little much, especially with the hoof over my forehead and fake dying. More than a few pairs of eyes were on the two of us as whispers began to break out. Score one for Muddy, zero for Rough.

Rough for his part wasn’t amused, but that was okay. He wasn’t meant to be, the pleasure was all mine. Heh. As quickly as a mole rat on an unsuspecting pony, Rough shoved a bag of ammo and caps my way and hurriedly began shoving me down the ramp out of town with his head. Maybe it was my endless chuckling and shit eating grin that got me this small bounty, but a win was a win. The more annoyed my brother got the better. “Let’s see here. A decent amount of .45 caliber rounds for my revolver. Very nice. An upfront payment? Why you’re too kind, dear brother. There’s a first for everything after all!!!”

“Just get the items on the list, Muddy and hurry home before dark. I know you can handle yourself out there overnight, but mother gets worried about you. And so does everypony else, so get in and get out. Got it?” As much as big brother liked to act his namesake and wear a rough business pony personality, he was always the worry wart. It was hard being a rough and tough pony here when everyone knew everyone else. Being an unnecessary asshole got you kicked into the river from the top of Point Wayward.

Plus, acting and pretending was my thing. Not a special talent or anything, but it was a fun little hobby. Not much else to do around town besides the shitty little hobbies you formed. I nodded to Rough and pulled him into a hug which he happily returned. Without another word, I made my way down the remainder of the ramp and left town. Time to get to work.

***

The day was cloudy as usual, not like it was even possible for sun to shine through that much with the permanent cloud layer cast over Equestria. It’d been that way for 200 years and no sign of changing anytime soon. Before I even fully left the ramp and made my way north along the river, my eyes wandered to a…. well, it was a thing. A black wagon of sorts with white stripes and strange markings around the base. Four wheels gave the wagon it’s way of travel, but no owner was in sight. Whoever parked their strange wagon here was probably in the market, or sleeping. The sight of such strange writing and color palette made my sides bristle like a startled opossum. Maybe it was best to hurry on towards my destination and not stare at somepony’s property. Just as I was turning to leave, I came face to face with the owner of the mysterious wagon. Of course, I nearly smashed right into him as I was more eager to leave than I had any right to. It didn’t help he was standing barely two feet from me like some sort of creep! As I quickly backpedaled to avoid an accident, I was mentally screaming and berating the stranger for having no respect for personal space. And when did he even get in my way to begin with? I hadn’t heard a single hoofstep other than my own!

“H-hey! Sorry, but could you not stand right on my…a-ass?” It wasn’t a pony I was getting angry at. The moment his striped hide came into view I knew it wasn’t a pony, but one of those zebras so many ponies disliked. He stood there, watching me silently as if he was looking through me rather than at me personally. For a moment, as silence held fast, I pondered the idea of just shaking my hoof in his face to see if he’d react. The moment I actually decided to try it, he opened his mouth to speak. His milky eyes bored into my own as if he’d finally acknowledged my existence.

“You are so alone my child. Even in a crowd you are plagued by loneliness. You drift between your jobs almost as if you were a robot following a program. Your days blend together, your interests forgotten and you struggle to bring yourself to care about any of it. I can see your destiny has alluded you, leaving you empty and…. without a special talent to call your own.” I could only stand there and gawk at the words thrown at me like rocks. The truth of them hit me hard like rain hitting an unprotected pony on the open seas. He wasn’t wrong, but that wasn’t what scared me. Anyone who knew me could come to that conclusion. No, what scared me was the fact he guessed correctly that my special talent had eluded me. I had no talents; thus, I had no cutie mark. Sixteen years I’ve been on this earth and yet my talent had never manifested. To say I was a late bloomer was an understatement. The thing was, I was always in my favorite cargo jacket which covered my flanks. A good number of the two hundred and eighty townsfolk knew I didn’t have it since keeping secrets in such a small town like the lack of a cutie mark was virtually impossible. So how did this zebra, the first one I had ever met, know I lacked one without seeing my blank ass?

“Don’t be afraid, my child. You are confused and scared, I’m sure. The sight has given me all I need to know, however vague. Though, in your case, the meaning of what visions I’ve managed to witnesses are quite clear.” Suddenly, his eyes lost their milky shade of white and black irises formed once again. I thought this crazy zebra might have been blind, but clearly that wasn’t the case. What was the case with this nut job anyway? Approaching the first pony he sees and starts going on a frighteningly accurate tangent about destiny and crappy personality traits wasn’t what I’d call a good first impression.

And boy was I about to let him know it. “Listen my striped friend, you and I have nothing to talk about. You really ought to work on your people skills before preaching about their destinies, or whatever it is you’re going on about.” I looked around quickly to see if anypony might be seeing this display of zebra craziness and wouldn’t you know, not a single pony was interested in dealing with the striped being before me. Some of the new arrivals to the market and guards were even turning away to avoid the awkward scene before them. I even saw one guard mare whistling to herself while facing away, but not enough where she couldn’t get enough information for dinner time gossip. Help a young scavenger out would ya! What does this town even pay you for!? Looking back towards the zebra, I notice just how old he was. He even had more wrinkles and gray hairs amid those black stripes than dad did.

“You didn’t rebuke my claims, I noticed. Maybe I’m on the right track and my sight has revealed things you wish to leave buried? Come then! Let us walk while we talk.” With a smile gracing his weathered features he took up a trot alongside me and, without asking for my opinion on the matter, made himself my traveling companion. The nerve of this zebra was annoying at best and I struggled to tolerate the idiocy from the aged outsider. I wasn’t a book to be read, nor a pony that wanted to be talked to. Heck, I barely talked to ponies outside my own family. Sometimes I barely talk to them! In the end, with a defeated sigh, I continued on my way north down the well walked path between the reeds and tall grass that grew like a wall within the fertile lands along the Centennial River. “My pony friend, if I may be so bold as to suggest another path. I’ve seen the area north of here and with certainty in mind, I can safely say the only thing waiting for anypony there is death.”

This day was becoming a slog and I haven’t even gotten to the hard part of scavenging, fighting for my life over pieces of garbage. “Excuse me for my skepticism, but did your ‘sight’ tell you that? I can’t risk going home with nothing and I’m not about to call it quits before even getting started. Excuse me for the disbelief…” I thought those words would be enough to get the zebra to leave, and for a minute I thought that might be the case as he began to outpace me and move ahead quite rapidly. After a few minutes of him walking ahead of me, I thought that was the end of that. It didn’t take long before all that thinking I was doing proved wrong. He stopped, moved to a bush and quickly pulled it aside to reveal what lay ahead of us. We’d traveled up a hill in the last few minutes of our thankfully quiet adventure. Now that we were elevated a decent bit, I could see what the old Zebra was talking about.

Fog. Not the normal kind that just obscures vision and proves to be a slight annoyance once it gets bad enough. The fog that comes off the waters of the Centennial is the kind that starts pouring magical radiation into a pony that stands too long within its cloud. Without proper doses of Rad-x and Radaway, a pony would lose their minds in the fog. Then they’d lose their lives as radiation worked wonders on pony anatomy. Well, that wasn’t always the case. Sometimes a pony didn’t have the good fortune of dying to the radiation and instead would shed their coats and skin to become a ghoul. Or, at least, that’s what I thought happened to them. All I know is not long after ghoulification, a pony could lose their minds and ability to reason with others. That’s how you get feral infestations.

Lucky me I just so happened to forget all about radiation supplies. There wasn’t supposed to be fog here, the weather just wasn’t right for it! I was sure of it, and yet there it was, saturating the land between me and my goal. Given my current streak of luck and hitting the ground with my head, my destination was probably also consumed by the unfortunate weather.

“My name is Shazan. Pardon me for forgetting to introduce myself. It’s not every day the Sight gives me a clear picture to work with. However, I did not need the Sight to know of the danger your land poses. I came to your town from here before the fog settled in. My eyes work just fine.” I’ve never seen another living creature give such a familiar, shit eating grin before. Score one for the zebra named Shazan. Zero for the stupid earth pony named Muddy Waters. A loss I’ll just have to accept as I reached his side.

Today was starting to look like a defeat for the Waters family altogether to be fair, but what else could I do? I wasn’t about to fail at the one task I’ve been given today. “Names Muddy. Muddy Waters to be specific. But today it looks like my new name is gonna be ‘fuckup’ once I get home and get chewed out for not waking up sooner and beating the fog here.” Yeah, this mistake was on me. No way Rough was going to let me live this down once I got home empty hoofed. I guess my growing gloom was apparent, because no sooner had I said the word ‘fuckup’ did the zebra start digging around inside some pouches he’d been concealing underneath his tail. At least I hope he’d been hiding it there and not up his ass. From within the pouch a flower was pulled. It wasn’t anything big or pretty given the fact it looked like it had been dried. It was when he decided to start sticking it up his nose did I suddenly get the impression this zebra I was rolling with might be some kind of drug fiend. Especially with the way his eyes crossed upon inhaling whatever was in that dried yellow flower. Hooves dug into the mud-covered ground as the zebra braced himself in some effort to remain upright while he rode out some sort of drug fueled trip. I was more than content just leaving him there to enjoy his altered state of mind when he clamped his teeth around my tail to prevent such an action. Eventually, someday, I was going to chop this thing down to size so people would stop using it as a floor mat.

“I can see it, my muddy friend. Your true destination and objective do not lay in this miserable place. To the northwest, but leaning closer to straight west, is your goal. By hoof and an hours’ time you’ll see the Sight has paved the way for faithful hooves. I can see it!” Shazan gave out one of the most ear grating wheezes I’ve ever heard before coughing violently. I thought I saw his eyes go from milky white to normal to milky white again before finally resting on his true eye color. Black pupils remained, although their tiny size suggested whatever he’d just done to himself probably wasn’t healthy. There was no way this sight crap was real. This had to be just a drugged-up zebra spreading his zebra witchcraft or something. Unicorns couldn’t even do what this zebra was claiming to do. Right? There wasn’t anyone back in Wayward who was reading ponies like books was there?

I was calling it quits. I wasn’t about to let a zebra overdose on magic mushrooms or some mutated fern in the middle of nowhere. “No. Not happening. I’m taking you back to the clinic to make sure you aren’t dying. You look terrible!”

“No no! I am fine Madame Muddy. Please, I beg of you. Travel to the west, northwest and see for yourself. Under the overhang of the largest rock, past the growing mosses and greens you’ll see a sight that is not meant to be. A door lost to time and to civilization. Or rather, a door to civilization. The Sight would not lie. I’ll return home on my own and rest within my wagon.” It was my turn to stop the crazed zebra from trying to run off. There was no way I could believe such crazy talk from a zebra snorting flowers and getting high right in front of me.

However, returning home with nothing to show for it was more than a little heart wrenching.

“Go my friend. I’ll be okay as long as you return and prove me right. Just give this old swamp born soul a day to recover. Honest.” He sounded so confident for a zebra shaking on all four legs. As much as my mind and semi good moral compass wanted to refuse and take him back to Point Wayward, my actual compass and gut said following his instructions was the best possible plan I could follow now that my original mission was a failure before it even truly began.

I pointed my hoof back towards the town. “Shazan, go home. I’ll follow your instructions, but you’re going to follow mine too. Get to the clinic, get some help and do. Not. Fucking. Die! I’ll never get to sleep if you died on the way back, or something. My conscience would never let me live this down!” He smiled softly and nodded; the energy visibly drained from his face now. Without a proper goodbye, I began to follow the compass and trudged through the brush in the direction between west and northwest. An hours’ time was all I needed right? Shouldn’t be too bad. If I couldn’t find this supposed destiny door then that was okay. I’d go someplace else to find salvage before night fell. So long as a little peace of mind came my way and the job was at least semi done, I’d be happy.

I’d be happier if I didn’t have to worry about a damn zebra stranger who’s name I’d already forgotten.

***

The longer I walked through the mud and pony tall grass, the more I began to suspect I was the dumbest mare in Point Wayward. There I was, giving some semblance of empathy to a zebra who was quite shameless in his display of chemical dependency. I actually cared if he was overdosing on his mutated fern or whatever it was he decided to stick up his nostril. I didn’t know if his zebra magic was some sort of future vision or not, and to be honest with myself I kind of didn’t care. Having some stranger trying to magic his way into my life, and more importantly into my head, wasn’t something I was eager to experience again. As if that was even real, assuming it wasn’t. There was no way Shazan would be able to tell who I was or what I was about just by huffing plant pollen! Absurdity is what that was.

The other absurd thing was me actually following his drug induced instructions. Travel an hour in the westward, northwestward direction and just hope I’d spot this over hanging rock? What if I got caught up on something and my journey took an extra thirty minutes? That was the primary thought running through my head as the hold ups finally presented themselves. The telltale buzzing of insects alerted me to the coming danger of possibly mutated hostiles. After about twelve minutes of walking, I donned my dirty green bandana and covered my nose and mouth with it. Combined with the goggles I always wore and my hat, I was fairly covered against the smaller insects like mosquitoes. What I wasn’t covered against was the mosquito’s larger cousins, the bloodbugs. Pony sized abominations that used to be the more annoying mosquito. Now? Now they were a deadly threat that could carry off smaller ponies provided they didn’t stab you with their needle-like noses first and drain your body’s worth of blood in a matter of seconds.

My eyes spotted the threat through the reeds and their bulbous tops. Three of the bloodbugs were swarming around a swamplurk, the new mutated variety of crab that had grown to be even larger than a pony. Usually, they walked on four chitinous legs and used their claws and tiny pincer things to tear the meat from bone on anyone unlucky enough to lose a fight with them. Didn’t help they were armored like a suit of combat barding. The swamplurk had buried itself in the mud to the point only its shell and small head poked above the watery dirt. A few bloodbugs were lying beside its resting spot, clipped apart by powerful pincers while the remaining three circled above trying to pierce its shell. Today was my lucky day. Well, maybe not, but this was a fight avoided. A bullet dodged. I was already well past the scene and on my way towards the unknown. I couldn’t have stepped in, murdered the insects and hunted the swamplurk for some delicious crab meat, but a couple of reasons prevented me from doing that.

Bloodbugs terrified me. Absolutely put the fear of Celestia and Luna in me. I’ll turn tail and flee any day over fighting those hell spawns.

The other reason was because I’d rather not fire off my revolver and attract more problems than I’d be able to solve. There were a few more instances of avoiding creatures and other unfriendly vegetation that delayed me. Swarms of bloatsprites, the occasional water worm and leech, spikey grass that poked my hide through my jacket like a doctor’s scalpel. I sighed heavily as I stomped a leech that was too eager to score a meal that it was just throwing its life away to nab. Judging by the position of the sun, it should be just about an hour’s worth of time having passed since I started this doomed journey. The progress I’d made wasn’t even that great given how awful these lands were with predators and mutated bug vermin. Another patch of tall grass was passed and left behind me and I stomped forward through the wet ground. I was more than ready to give up and admit I’d fucked up the entire days’ worth of scavenging to my older brother. The ground rose up slightly as my thoughts turned to a darker place. This was supposed to be an important job and I’d ruined it before it even began. Curse this broken sleep schedule of mine and Celestia take the fog to the pits of hell where it came from for fucking me. I could have been halfway done with the job had it not been for the radioactive fog stomping me down and making a bad day worse.

I was moping again. Complaining and whining were what got me through the crappy parts of the day. Not like anyone was out here to get annoyed at me. It was a good thing too, as the moment I was about to make the swamp know of how fed up I was, the ground disappeared out from under me. Before I knew it or even registered what happened, I fell almost sixteen feet down and landed in a shallow pony. Emphasis on shallow, given how I still hit solid ground and felt the terrible snap of bone breaking in my front right leg. My vision blurred and almost faded entirely into black as the air in my lungs was forced out and the pain sent my mind reeling. If I could just suck in a breath of fresh air and manage to not scream bloody murder, I could avoid suffocating and fish out a healing potion from my bag.

Crawling out of the shitty little pond that failed to break my fall, I plopped down next to the sheer cliff I’d just waltz off of and drained a healing potion of its contents. After this, I’d only have four more before any injuries were permanent and possibly life ending. I could feel the bones in my leg melt back together and the meat give enough room to make sure the bones were set before the full healing could take place. Nausea filled my head and my day's nonexistent lunch threatened to spill out. Maybe it was a good thing I hadn’t eaten the meal prepared for me by my mom. Probably would have thrown up if I had. Watery eyes remained as I turned my head to look at what exactly I had walked off of. Solid stone rock, with vines and rotting vegetation growing over the side to obscure what lies in the rock’s shadow. My non broken hoof wiped the tears from my eyes as shallow breaths returned to my lungs. Such a strange giant rock jutting out of the ground like my once broken leg did from the meat surrounding it. There, lying hidden by the rock’s shadow and overgrown vines was a wooden shack door built into the rock. “No fucking way. No Luna damned way…”

The zebra had been right. An hour walk and a giant rock led to a door so out of place it was almost comical. I’d be jumping for joy and bliss filled euphoria had I not been so damn angry at the zebra for not telling me more about the rock itself. Maybe I wouldn’t have walked over it and ate shit on the ground, breaking my leg in the process, had he said more.

***

Gosh, had it not been for the trauma of falling and breaking a limb in the middle of a swamp I would have been very okay with actually finding this supposed destiny door. Instead, I was bitter and angry at the world as my tender hoof pushed open the rotting wood door. Soft curses towards every little inconvenience slipped past my lips as my legs carried me into the safe confines of this hidden treasure trove.

Maybe treasure trove wasn’t accurate. The door led down into a narrow cave that looked like it extended underneath the rock and slowly transformed into a more stable tunnel that was actually built out of concrete. Cracks formed along the walls and ceiling which let water drops fall and puddles of rancid water form along the ground. Whatever was here needed to be looted before somepony else came along and took what I needed. Using my formerly broken limb was going to have to happen, as much as I’d rather not. A dull ache that made its way from the bottom of my hoof to the top of my shoulder would be a constant reminder that I was not a smart pony and should keep watch of where I was walking more often. With a deep inhale and small mental breakdown, I headed down into the unknown tunnel. First time being underground actually and I could safely say it wasn’t as pleasant as I’d imagined.

There wasn’t much light at all and the rancid smell coming from the pools of water made my already tear-filled eyes water even more. It reminded me of the time I accidentally played in sewage backup once the drainage ditch overflowed because I thought it was mud. A fun, refreshing day in the mud turned into a moment in my life I would never be able to escape. Ponies still reminded me of it ten years later. Spoilers, it wasn’t entirely mud.

Steady hoofsteps echoed through the tunnel that began to widen the further in I got. Concrete walls eventually gave way to a brown rust covered metal surrounding a machine along the far wall across from me. It looked like it was some contraption that was meant to move a giant vault door. Sure enough, a cog shaped wheel lay in its divots out of the way from the entrance it was meant to be plugging up. On the cog shaped door rested the numbers 98 in their cracked yellow paint. I wasn’t exactly sure of what I was looking at, but it had to be important for someone to build a giant ass door to guard it! My own house didn’t even have a real door, just a tarp we tied to the door frame to ‘lock’ the house up. Whatever this was, it was the jackpot I needed. Rough could sell whatever I found here, I’d get the finder’s fee of a lifetime or two lifetimes and those Steel Ranger weirdos wouldn’t jack our stuff after passing through.

“Alright Muddy Waters. Let’s do this. I can do this…” The whole scene before me was more than a little daunting, but as my hooves stepped past the threshold and into the rusted interior, the task at hoof presented itself. All around me were rusted walls and a control board resting behind some safety railing. It didn’t look like anything that I could salvage so ignoring that, I continued onward through a door on the right side of the room. More machines whose purpose I simply couldn’t identify. It was a single small room with a window overlooking the entryway. Maybe this was the door knob panel for the massive hunk of rusted metal. With nothing left for me here, I returned to the entry point and trotted to the opened door on my right which faced the opposite of the cog shaped door. This way held a little bit more promise as it was a long hall that led deeper into the facility here. Down the hall was a small gathering of radroaches. These bugs were the size of a small dog now which was a massive difference compared to the coin size they were previously meant to be. I didn’t even have to waste ammo as I stomped over their small bodies with delightful crunches. Radroaches were a nuisance and each one I killed brought me a little joy.

I had to wonder if someone was already here before me. Granted there wasn’t anything dead that I’ve seen, but the lack of valuables combined with the wide-open security door wasn’t bringing me any hope. I knew a picked over spot when I saw one and this was starting to check out as a picked over spot. Time would tell. Down the hall was a set of stairs that led even further down. Rust particles and thick clouds of dust floated all over the place. Without my bandana I might have been a little screwed health wise. Still might be, but again only time would tell. At the bottom of the stairs was a small hallway that led into a room with a handy sign above the door that glowed faintly. ‘Processing’ was the word over the door. Well, it couldn't be that bad. No delays or mysterious doors would stop this scavenger. With the press of the button located on the side of the doorway, the door opened upwards into the ceiling. Okay that’s new. Further on was something that looked right out of a clinic. Medical tables for ponies to sit on were thrown about and chairs on the left side of the room looked to be hooked up to a machine hanging over each of the five chairs. All of them looked broken except for the closest one to me. It glowed like an emergency glow stick, or a signal buoy that floated along the sides of rivers to warn nighttime sailors of the shore line to avoid running aground. Could this place be powered? Could be valuable if it still worked, whatever it was. So, like any good looter, I began to see about taking the chair and its helmet looking machine apart.

“Huh. Well, look at you. Bet I can sell whatever this is. Ugh, I mean Rough could. He’s got the gift for gab…” Some part of me wanted to try the machine out for myself to see what it did. I guess it wouldn’t hurt to try it out and make sure it was worth the effort. Of course, like a rookie scavenger, I was too caught up in the mysterious chair to realize something was coming up behind me. Without warning, a cold metal claw gripped the scruff of my neck and shoved me forward into the chair. Metal clamps closed around my midsection as the helmet came down and covered my eyes.

It was no use! The clamp around my torso kept me pinned in the chair and something had pushed me in. Did I have hearing damage because this is the second time today something has snuck up on me! “Welcome residents to your entry level medical evaluation and screening. We hope this process does not cause you any discomfort as we check all vitals and brain functions to ensure maximum efficiency health diagnosis. Please stand by for routine scans.” A robotic voice sung out to me in the most unpleasantly cheerful way it could. Someone was trying a little too hard on their scripts and it did little to alleviate my growing panic. As I struggled harder to break away from the machine, I could hear it powering down rather than up. A good sign maybe? Then I heard the damn robot speak up again. “It would seem the new arrivals are too panic stricken by the events happening outside. We do not blame you for these reactions. Please hold still as we apply a small dose of sedatives to help with stress and ensure no harm falls upon our waiting guests. Please stand by…”

The prick in my right shoulder spelled the worst possible outcome for me. I could feel the pain in my foreleg vanish which was a welcome event for sure. Then I felt the feeling in the rest of my body vanish alongside the pain. I couldn’t even bring myself to panic, or fight off the effects of the drug flowing through my veins as conscience escaped me and flung me into a world of black. “N-no……wa…. wait….” and like that I was gone.

***

Oh, the dreams I could have while under the effects of drugs I didn’t consent to. There were flashes of a zebra huffing brahmin dung from a paper bag, moon sized bloodbugs coming to drain the planet of its blood as if the planet itself was a living thing, the strangeness went on and on. I even dreamt of my mom and dad and the pleasant family dinners we’d have. Swamplurk was so good when it was cooked with hub flower spices and glowing fungus. Might not be the healthiest thing to eat, but you just haven’t lived until you sunk your teeth into one of those mutated crabs. Some ponies even bred them away from the town and supplied the market with fresh ‘lurk meat on the weakly. I was going to learn his name when I got back. Assuming I wasn’t being eaten, raped, tortured, murdered or some combination of these when I awoke. The worst part of the dream I was having was when I was snatched up by a robot with enough arms to be mistaken as an octopus. It tore me apart over and over in the matter of a few minutes starting with my hooves, my eyes, then whatever it was that kept me alive long enough to experience these new and terrifying pains. Just go for the heart first you asshat. Have your sadistic fun AFTER I’m gone like a good pony.

***

I wasn’t sure how long I was out. Any amount of time being unconscious was a death sentence in the swamps and bayous surrounding Point Wayward Trading Post. As the involuntary sleep ended, my eyes opened to the blinding light I’d never experienced before. Some lamp hanging from the ceiling was what I imagined the sun to be. Blinding and bright enough to hurt the eyes even under the cover of their respective eyelids. Looking left to right, I noticed the rust covering the walls and air was gone. Every bit of degraded metal had been replaced by a smooth paint job and clear metal walls. The air had the smell of stale oxygen that permeated those tanks divers use to breathe underwater. At some point I’d been deposited onto a gurney within some kind of medical center and left here. After a few moments of contemplating my situation, I panicked as the thought of being robbed set in. In seconds I’d patted every square inch of my body to make sure my pockets were still full of their respective contents. Nothing was taken surprisingly! Even my faded red baseball cap and goggles remained where they were supposed to, which was on my head.

“Hello? Is somepony there? For a moment there I’d figured I’d be mugged and murdered…. but I guess you’re not into that.” I wasn’t even sure who I was talking to. I wasn’t even sure if there was a somepony TO talk to. It didn’t matter so long as someone heard me and realized the mistake they were making. Why would they drag me down here and not even bother to stick around to help me out? Where was here anyway?

The only answer I got was silence. I was more than a little scared given my surroundings were completely foreign to me. Things just got weirder and weirder here. However, I had one job and I wasn’t about to call it quits no matter how much my legs shook! It was probably a side effect of that stupid drug, yeah that was it!

It took me all of two minutes to clean out the various medically marked boxes and first aid kits along the walls. A shot of Med-x to fight the pain, a single healing potion which was a little bit of a letdown and finally a couple tablets of buck. At first, I figured this place was already drained of valuables, but those thoughts were gone from my head when I thought about it. Why leave the few things I found? Surely even an amateur scavenger wouldn’t have left these. As I stored the new found stash of medical supplies, something tapped on a window across the room from me. I didn’t give it much thought as I went to leave. Just before I pressed the button to slide the door up, the tapping returned. Only this time it wasn’t so much tapping as it was somepony punching the glass. I looked back just long enough to give myself a heart attack at the sight. It was a pony, a freaking pony just smothering the glass with his purple hide and blue mane. He wore some kind of blue jumpsuit and had a device on his left foreleg. It must have been a sturdy piece of equipment since it didn’t even appear fazed as it was used to bludgeon the window in some vain attempt to destroy the glass. I backed against the door as if that was going to change anything.

His features showed one of pure anger. Each thump against the glass made the stout stallion grunt in exertion as the attempts to break down the window kept coming. “H-h-hey! Quit it. Fucking stop you fuck up! What do you think you’re doing?!”

“Jelly!” For a moment, my brain stopped processing what was going on. Jelly? What the hay was that supposed to mean? “Jelly!! Jelly. Jeeeeelly!” Okay, it was time to panic starting now! Enough was enough. Somehow this stallion made the word jelly sound like a rage filled threat and there was no way I was going to find out if it meant something else. Judging by how hostile he sounded when saying the silly word, and by how angry he looked at not being able to get in, it was safe to assume he wasn’t a pleasant pony. Dad taught me how to deal with unpleasant ponies from the ripe age of four years old so I knew what I needed to do. I pulled down my bandana first, then my teeth clenched down on the mouth grip of my pipe revolver as I drew the weapon and brought it to bear on my soon to be attacker. The taste of the trigger was something reminiscent of buttered bread made from the razor grain those homesteaders always sold in the market.

Anger rose up in me just like it did in this strange and creepy stallion banging on the window before me. “Okay asshole. I don’t speak your language, but you’re about to stark speaking mine.” My language was about to be violence here in a second. Okay, maybe what came out of my mouth wasn’t exactly that given I had a gun clenched between my teeth, but that didn’t matter to me. I turned back towards the door and quickly smashed my hoof against the button. The door slid upwards and my pistol came up to face the open-door way. I could already hear the pounding on the glass stop and heavy hoofsteps approach the door from the hallways around the right corner. The moment he rounded the corner and put his round frame into the door, my pistol barked its response to his aggression. A .45 caliber round struck him right in the sternum causing him to flinch back and scream in pain.

“J-Jellyyyy! Ha, Jelly.” He didn’t go down with the first bullet. Blood poured from the wound, but he smiled and charged forward as the hostilities didn’t end there. In a panicked response to seeing a stallion tank a bullet like that, I backpedaled away as fast as I could and continued to fire. Three more shots from my gun rang out in the enclosed space with only one actually hitting him. Luckily that was enough to bring him dropping to the floor in a heap at my hooves. I put another bullet into his flabby frame just to be certain, leaving me with only one round left in my pipe revolver. Six rounds might be a bit of a limiter if there was anyone else looking to take me on. Like clockwork mixed with bad luck, another, familiar, voice rang out through the halls.

“Oh Jeeeelllyyy!”

Well shit…

***

First kill jitters. My dad, Deep Waters, told me about them in detail in some vain attempt to help me cope with them when they arrived for the first time. My heart pounded so badly I thought I was going to die from heart failure. Everything shook, from my ears to the tips of my hooves. The bloody corpse I’d left on the floor, the thought of murdering another pony like an animal, the fact another pony was coming as I struggled to load the bullets into my gun, all of this was driving my body crazy. The more I fucked up my speed loader for the revolver and dropped it, the more I shook and the harder it was to load the gun. Hoofsteps were getting closer and closer and so to was my death if I didn’t manage to get more than a single bullet into my fucking gun. Before long, I abandoned the effort entirely. One bullet was still in the gun and it would have to do.

“No no no no! This wasn’t supposed to happen! I…I killed someone….I actually…..” Heartbeat in the ears like war drums, violently sick stomach, the shock of it all was getting to me. Slowly I inched around the body staining the white floors red as another body was making its way to the doorframe. Again, I heard the words that brought confusion and fear into me like a toxic brew of emotions. My gun was ready and the hammer cocked back with the flick of the tongue as I held the mouth grip tight between my hooves.

Again, the words from my victim rang out. “Jelly? Jellybeaaaaan?” How could somepony make the name of a prewar treat sound like a question? How could the pony I just murdered still be alive and pushing his way through the doorframe?! The same exact pony who fell at the bark of my gun was now locking eyes with me with the same rage fueled glare that the previous had. And like the previous, he charged the moment he spotted me.

“Raaaah! Jelly Jelly Jel…”

BANG!

I was ready and waiting, ignoring my body’s protests against the action. The moment he showed his identical face I was already on the attack with the barrel of my revolver stuffed into his familiar face and firing. Brains and blood showered me as the next pony fell like a ragdoll. My blood-stained goggles were ripped from my head and the gun fell from my teeth as I staggered wildly to the side of the room and vomited. Dad, when I get home assuming I survive this, I’m joining the fisherponies and living a quiet life catching fish! I was gonna need a minute or two to recover mentally and physically.

Hope the ear ringing isn’t permanent.

***

Shazan. That was his name. The zebra mother fucker who sent me on this cursed journey to find this underground hell. When I get out of here, if he isn’t dead already from drugs, I’d kill him myself. Then, I’d never touch another firearm as long as I lived!

After the jitters finally went away and the rolling ocean that was my stomach settled down, I picked up my discarded gun and began the process of reloading it properly with the speed loader. Dad was a smart pony, so looking back on his advice I probably should have listened when he told me to practice. I could have been beaten to death twice today because of that.

Doesn’t matter now I guess. I survived and the twins who attacked me didn’t. Speaking of which, those two ponies were freakishly weird. I only gave my handiwork a glance as I hopped over their still fresh remains and exited the clinic. Well I could go left or right to escape this stable I was stuck in. Without much else to go on, I went left which was the same direction the second twin came from. The clinic and its new occupants were left behind as I made my way to destinations unknown.

Now, one could say I was like an animal trapped in a maze. One would be right in assuming as much. The more I walked past doors and extra halls leading to Luna knows where, the more I realized I might be stuck here. Claustrophobia be damned I was not about to have another panic attack after murdering two ponies. There were no stairs, most of the doors were locked and the one elevator I found remained shut after pushing multiple buttons. Large structures like this ALWAYS had stairs, so where the fuck were they?! I needed out! “I’m gonna die here. If somepony doesn’t kill me I’ll die of starvation…”

Wait, no I wasn’t. Despite the resilience of the Waters family which we took great pride in, I had lunch still packed in my pockets! I was a moron for forgetting. With eager hooves and a little patience, I fished out the gator steak mom made for me earlier. It was still wrapped in cloth to keep it from getting dirty. Technically I was on the job despite my unfortunate situation and therefore I was allowed a lunch break.

“Good thing I didn’t eat this earlier. Foods no good if you puke it up.” I released the meat from its wrapping and took a large bite. If I started thinking about the twins and their brutal ends I would throw up again. I just had to force my lunch down and move on with what energy I had. There was no telling how long I was out cold, which meant I could be missing out on valuable calories to keep me alive! That and water… “M’not gonna die here. The reaper won’t take me like a starved dog in some bunker. I’ll be fine.” Take a bite, chew, swallow, sip from the canteen, stay alive.

Just had to stay alert and stay alive.

“……jelly…..jellybean.”

Ears perked up quickly at hearing a very familiar voice, again. No, there was no damn way that stallion was alive, either of them! I rushed to pack my things and begin abandoning my current path. Going in one direction would only get me so far in these halls, so it was time to pick up the pace and start taking a new approach. “North is no good. Let’s try heading east. Can’t go wrong with right.” With that, I was off like a rocket. Hooves bounced across the metal floor as I turned on the first hall on my right and galloped as fast as I could. Doors and more halls passed me by and every so often I could hear him down one path or another. Sometimes behind doors I could hear him saying that stupid word over and over! When I heard it, I went another direction and avoided anything that looked like a pony.

I had a feeling these weren’t ponies. Sometimes I’d catch a glance at one before they saw me and I’d find they all looked the same. Each and every one of these ponies down here in their blue jumpsuits looked alike, said the same damn phrase and got angry whenever they thought they saw me. Every stallion was the same purple coated, blue mane, mother fucker.

And there were a lot of them. I wasn’t that great at sneaking around, but I made due until I found the stairs. Stairs! My ticket to freedom from this tomb full of seemingly undying ponies who appear like a bad dream despite me killing them twice. Them, or was it just him? Were they the same pony endlessly appearing, or a bunch of mentally unstable siblings? Who knows, but more importantly WHO CARES!?

Seeing a way to freedom at the end of the hall nearly broke the emotional dam. I wanted to cry to be honest. In fact, I actually started to when I approached the stairs and saw they didn’t lead up at all. They only went down straight into the belly of this metal tomb. “Oh Celestia…I’m…not gonna make it out of here…”

It didn’t matter to me anymore. Forward was a better option than going back and stumbling around until one of those Jellybean ponies spotted me and brought a horde of lookalikes to join in on the frenzy. Even if they didn’t appear to have weapons, the ponies were all male earth ponies. It would only take a few to overwhelm me and stomp me to death, and from the sound of things there were far more than a few.

“No going back. Maybe…maybe I can find a service elevator like the ones in those old shipyards. I can figure it out after that.”

This area of the Stable looked like the engine room of a boat, so maybe there was some way to get up to the surface quickly. It’s all I had, so down I went. The large number four was left behind me and a sign with the number five greeted me soon after. Another level of the stable for me to fumble around in until I escaped or died. With a little extra patience, dying wouldn’t be on the menu. My ears swiveled back and forth as I hid behind the metal stairs I just came down on and eagerly awaited any sounds. Nothing so far…no hooves, no ponies saying the word jelly bean, nothing. The coast was clear!

“…..so….thirsty….”

Not clear! Not clear at all! The faintest of voices could be heard, raspy and dry. Female by the sound of it too. Somepony that might need help, but more importantly somepony that might be able to help me! And I needed all the help I could get if I wanted to get the hell out of this metal suicide bunker. So, without much thought or patience, I took off towards the sound of the voice. I had a chance and patience be damned. I was gonna take it.

“H-hey! Hello! Is somepony there? I’m friendly, don’t shoot!” I opened a door that led to another hall that looks no different than the ones from before with the sole exception of the sight of a pony’s tail disappearing around the corner. Unlike the purple coat and dark blue mane of the stable ponies, this tail was green and surprisingly long. I gave chase once more and slammed my hooves against the metal walkway full speed. “Wait! Come back. I’m not a bad pony, honest! I’m not…”

It was my turn to round the corner. The sound of hooves racing off again to the right around another corner, which only led back in the general direction of the stairs. Could have sworn there weren’t any paths other than this one from the stairwell. Caution to the wind and all other advice I built up for myself, I followed. This could be a trap, but those sibling ponies didn’t seem the sort to do traps, just rush head first at targets. “I said stop!”

I rounded the corner again, and like before I saw only the tip of a tail hurdling around the corner and breakneck pace. This time it went left, but unlike last time there was something else in the hallway, a body! It was another one of the jelly bean siblings clearly dead with a pencil shoved through the throat. Yikes, that's gross, but I didn’t let the morbid thoughts settle before I passed by the corpse and continued on. I was so close…

Bong

The sound of a body colliding with metal along with the cries of a female pony graced my ears. I could hear her more clearly as she wailed against something. “Nooo! Somepony, help! Help! The door…somepony unlock the door…” grunts and small yells of pain as the pony tried to bust down what appeared to be a solid door. That wasn’t the concerning part to me. What concerned me was the fact the voice…

The voice banging against the door was mine.

I stepped around the final corner that led to the fear struck pony. When my eyes rested on her, I froze with a sense of shock I’d never felt before. Terror, awe, bewilderment, it could have been any of those for me. Because when she turned to look at me she adopted the same features. I was looking in a mirror, I had to be! Because the face that looked back was mine! I was looking at the one and only Muddy Waters…

“Stay….away…s-stay away!” I’ve seen stray animals less afraid than the creature before me. She had every feature I had, except her coat and mane were clean and unbraided. It seemed like she was in the process of trying to braid her tail when I came along given its shoddy shape. “You….can’t…”

I stepped forward and slowly closed the gap between us. I had a feeling that this was going to end badly, and another feeling that she might be responsible for the dead pony we ran past earlier. “What are you? You can’t be me. This…this is insane…” I said more to myself.

“Shut up! Stay where…where you are okay. And give me back my things.” Her things? That’s not true at all. Everything I had was mine because I earned it. This had to be some kind of sick joke from a unicorn, or maybe I was drugged and in some kind of trance. The closer I got the more I began to suspect this wasn’t a magic prank, or some kind of drug dream. She seemed real, she seemed like me. That couldn't be possible, right?

I responded to her statement by taking off my hat, my goggles and removing my bandana from around my neck and tossing them to the floor at my hooves. My face was revealed fully just to be clear who truly owned what, because I was Muddy Waters. I have no idea who she was. “These are my things. Now mind telling me just what the hay this is and why you have my face?!”

At first, she looked shocked by the revelation. Then she pulled a complete turn around in the mood department and pointed a hoof at me before yelling “Brahmin shit! That’s…this is insane. You can’t be me. I’m me! Those are my things and I can prove it. You’re just a damn thief who drugged me!” Oh, this was something else entirely. At least she wasn’t afraid anymore so talking was easy. Now, she was just angry and yelling much like I would if I thought someone took something from me.

“Wroooong! You probably drugged me after shoving me in that chair. I’m willing to bet you’re some kind of…..well I’m not sure, but you sure aren’t Muddy Waters.” She was right. I was right. This is insane!

The imposter stomped her hooves with half hearted fury only Muddy Waters could manage. “You got a radi-gator steak in your left shoulder pocket wrapped in my mom’s clean dish rag. Open up the pocket.”

“I…..” she was right, but how could she have known? I removed the contents of the disputed pocket and sure enough it was the steak I had snacked on earlier to gain some energy. When she spotted the teeth marks her expression darkened.

Stunned as I was, I didn’t move to stop her when she snatched my food away and began to eat it like a starved ghoul. Even cold, it tasted better than nothing. “This….is my….shit. You’re…a damn….phony pony!”

“But….” She knew about the drugging, and about the food, which could only mean she had to be Muddy Waters. There had to be a way to make sure, and luckily I thought of one. “Okay, okay hold on. Mom made that for me this morning. That’s MY lunch, well technically breakfast since I didn’t wake up on time.” A small fact that led me to my current predicament. Life could have been easier had I just taken on the day's task when I was supposed to.

Her eyes widened upon hearing what I had to say. No longer was she eating, so I took the liberty to snatch back the half eaten steak and start eating it myself. “But…..that’s what happened to me…are you…”

“Am I what? A clone?! A magic copy? Listen sister, I’m the one with matted ends and the smell of fish on me. You? You look like you haven’t been outside this stable!” I got her there and she knew it. Her eyes fell to the floor, then to her mane as it dragged along the metal floor without its braid. Sure enough it was clean with no damage to it to be found, while mine was more than just a little dirty. The tips of my green mane were turning a darker green, almost black thanks to my poor hygiene. Knowing this, the doppelgänger began to shake as the sudden realization hit her like a falling boat.

Muddy, or whoever she was, looked to her hooves and dragging mane with a clearer understanding now that things were coming to light. She hadn’t been washed by some pervert and robbed of all her possessions, but rather she’d never been dirty in the first place. None of the things she assumed were hers were ever hers to begin with. To top it all off, even the name Muddy Waters belonged to another mare. “No! No, that's the dumbest….it can’t….that’s…” no words existed that could truly translate what she was feeling and to be honest with myself, I didn’t want to know. That level of despair can jump off the top of Wayward for all I care and drown in the flood waters below.

There was nothing left for me here. The food she could have, but my things stayed with me as I adorned my favorite hat and bandana along with the goggles now gently used and bloodied from the murder prior. “I don’t know you. Or what you are for that matter. Maybe if you follow behind me and NOT murder me in the process of escaping this place……I’ll….we’ll help each other.” I had to hold out hope that this was a bad dream. If I started referring to the dazed mare as another me, well, I’m not entirely sure I’d maintain the fragile sense of self I’d established in the past 20 or so minutes. I was already feeling the onset of insanity just trying to figure out this fairy tale nightmare I was in.

***

The door the mare tried to escape through earlier proved beyond my ability to unlock. I asked her why she thought she’d escape that way, just out of curiosity to the thoughts behind running the way she did. Her response gave me pause and another clue to the nature of the stable. “The door wasn’t locked before….I swear I was inside earlier. It’s a storage closet for parts and electronics…”

I looked back at her to get a feel for her state of being. It wasn’t good. Eyes were puffy and red from repeated breakdowns along with the ragged gaze she kept firmly on the ground. Poor mare has been through some real shit down here, but so have I. It was a blessing I got a complete sentence out of her at all. “Keep it together. Maybe it locked automatically when you closed it. Security system maybe…I wouldn’t doubt it.”

“I know you wouldn’t…” this was going to be more of a chore than I thought. The hay did that even mean anyway? Maybe she was a bit more affected by killing the pony from earlier than I was.

She did murder him with a pencil after all…

We weren’t eager to return to the upper level. At least I wasn’t. The only option available was forward. Once we got back to the stairwell the path was obvious. Down the hall leading opposite the stairs was a tiled floor leading to a large double door. It looked like the doors you’d find on a merchant vessel to me. Metal, imposing and with those metal levers over its surface that controlled the locking mechanisms inside that kept the door firmly closed. Scavenger instincts told me this door led somewhere important.

“You don’t wanna check the other little hallways before we try this door?” The copycat spoke up. Strange as it was, I guess she had the scaver instinct as well.

“It’s not worth it. If the doors lock on their own then I’d rather not waste time trying every door. We still need to escape…and get home.” No, don’t think about it! You can come up with an answer to what might happen if I brought home a twin sister much much later. “Hey…wait just a minute. Where did you even come from?”

We paused in the middle of the looming hallway and turned to face one another. I looked into her eyes trying to read her, but she looked past me and into the door that looked impossible to open. Oh don’t tell me… “I walked out of that room at the end there. It wasn’t closed when I came out, just wide open. It closed once I got further down this way. That’s when I got chased by the freak who could only say jellybean over and over…then killed him…” Celestia damn it.

“Any idea on what’s in there? Ya know, since you were in there…” I asked.

“Y-yeah…” she paused with a look of unease worming its way into her expression. Those familiar green eyes never looked away from the door as she explained what happened. “I was in that rusty ass room, the one I thought I was gonna get sick in cuz’ of the shit floating in the air. Got trapped in the chair, drugged, freaked the hell out and suddenly I’m soaked to the bone on a floor that reminds me of a pre war house bathroom. These tubs were there and this big glass tube was hanging from the ceiling above the tub. It’s all hazy, but I woke up in there with none of my shit. Can’t tell ya how long ago that might have been.”

Talk about freaky. I couldn’t have come up with that kind of story if I tried. No way she’s lying about this. Assuming she’s me, which I’m totally not because if I started to dwell on this any longer I’d have another panic attack…I really really didn’t want to deal with the prospect I had another sibling who was a walking talking version of me. Okay Muddy, let’s start walking and pray to dead goddesses that this isn’t some comic book mad scientist type of crap. “I hate to say this, but we might as well give it a look before trying the elevators again. If this is floor five…we’ll have to fight or sneak our way through four more floors of those stallions before we’re home free.”

“No!!! No…I-I mean…I can’t.” My copy didn’t seem thrilled. Neither did I. It made sense she might be a little shook over what happened. Plus, we both know my sneaking skills were donkey ass. Only luck and a prayer got me through the fourth floor.

“I know, I know…just come on and let’s find a way inside.” I said as I walked past the shaken mare and approached the doors intimidating frame. No keyhole so no poor attempts at lockpicking. Explosions were out of the picture too. Door looked like it could stand its own against any attempts at a forced entry. The only thing I could think of to get in was to knock, or ask nicely.

KNOCK KNOCK

I turned so fast my head nearly collided with my flanks. Here I was thinking about knocking as a crude joke, but my supposed duplicate decides to actually KNOCK ON THE DOOR! “Hey! What do you think is going to happen if you actually banged on the door?! Somepony could hear us!”

“I'm just doing the only thing I could think of that isn't a guaranteed waste of time. So…probably the same thing you’re thinking of.” Oh. Well this wasn’t good for my sense of self. Of course she knew what I was thinking, or guessed correctly with unholy amounts of luck. Either way, things were pointing towards a closer relationship between the two of us that I really didn’t want to have.

……or did I?

I shook my head. No time for intrusive thoughts, only survival and escape! “Okay one…you can hush. Two…” I didn’t have time for another point to scold my copy with. Before I could continue with my cleverly thought of scolding remarks, the metal door towering over us decided to open. With the shriek of metal and the clacking of moving parts the door slid to either side and folded in on itself before continuing to slide into the walls. Similar to currents being parted, the door opened before us until it was out of sight.

“…..holy crab apples would you look at that!” Me and my new friend with the magic hooves yelled at the same time. Our thoughts on the matter were practically the same, utter shock and bewilderment at the fact that knocking yielded results beyond just looking dumb. Well I had to give props where it was due and take the loss.

I reached over and patted her on the shoulder. “I apologize profusely. You win. I concede defeat…”

“Why thank you, me. I look forward to our next bout…” we shared a look that very easily shared our thoughts on what had just happened. A look of barely contained laughter and a love for the foolish theatrics we only really did with our brothers…

Our brothers. I forgot they were only MY brothers for a second there.

“Alright, let’s go.” I told her as I stepped through the doorway and into the unknown. We were off again, once more into the breach. She followed close behind and entered alongside me into familiar territory. At least for one of us.

***

The lab itself was something beyond my wildest fantasies. Not even the comics did the whole crazy lab environment justice compared to the world I found myself in. Terminals long since powered down lined the walls on the left and right side of the room with a door on the far end leading to even more unknowns. Cables snaked up the walls and into the ceiling like vines eating their way up the side of a beached cargo ship and through rusted holes. Some led to the door across the room and slipped underneath the welp kept floor. I was so amazed at all the lab equipment in the center of the lab that I lost myself in the wonder. The other me wasn’t so lost in the scene as I.

“There's another door on the right behind the terminals. It’s a little hidden, but it’s there. And there’s a door going from that room to another. I’ll show you….it’s where I came from…” she walked ahead and past the stacks of papers and equipment over to the door behind a workstation terminal. The stacks of paper almost reached the ceiling while the vials and chemistry sets definitely gave me the vibes I was looking for. Kind of reminded me of a drug lab, but cleaner.

“H-hey! Don’t leave me here. I get anxious when I’m alone in a shit pit…” my eyes darted to the far side of the room where another door sat with an untold mystery behind it. I’d get back to that once the first mystery was solved. Then after that I’d leave this place and never return! No amount of scrap was worth the nightmare this place put me through. The cherry on top was having to deal with my hallucinations and other traumas too.

Still wasn’t entirely convinced the other mare I was following now was actually me. I bounced back and forth between her being a sign of insanity or a robot. So far, I’ve yet to settle on a possible explanation.

I saw her standing in the doorway holding it open just in case anything happened. Her familiar green eyes turned to face me in a sideways glance. “There’s not much here. Just a terminal and a console with a whole lot of buttons. Nothing turned on when I tried messing with it earlier. Doors locked that I came from earlier too.” She pointed with a hoof at the door sitting in the corner opposite of us. Above the console she spoke of was a thin window looking into the next room. Centuries of not being washed didn’t obscure the strange room filled with pony sized glass tubes hanging over bathtubs. The whole thing looked like a mad scientist’s locker room with the floors being composed of clean tiles and drains for Luna knows what to come out of those glass containers.

I paused for a moment to soak in the sight. What was I even looking at? “…you uh…you don’t think I’m some kind of lab experiment…do ya…?” My copy turned to me, and I to her. I didn’t know what to think to be fair with her. For all I knew she was my evil twin, just a lot more pathetic looking and devoid of grime.

I was about to put in my thoughts on the matter, but the moment I opened my mouth to say something, someone else spoke up instead. I’d be glad for the interruption to help me not think on the topic had they not scared the both of us like newborn foals. “Experiments imply that the product still needs testing, my little clone. We’re far past that stage…”

My…clone…turned towards the door we came in from in a panic. She must have thought the voice came from behind us, but I turned my head upward. I remember that voice. Sixteen years of not bothering to remember the voices or names of ponies around me, but I’d never forget the voice of a pony that whispered artificial, soothing words into my ears while drugging me! “Hold on a damn minute. You’re that robot voice from the medical examination room I had to pass through to get into the Stable!!! You fucking whore!” There must have been an intercom in here, because the voice responded with a cold robotic chuckle. It sounded feminine, but what was once believed to be artificial pre-recorded words turned much more emotion driven and…eager.

“I hope you hold no hard feelings. I did what I had to…what I’ve always done…when some lost soul found their way in here. Let us bury the hatchet….and talk. There’s much to discuss~.” I wasn’t so forgiving. Hell, I was down right angry. Being ambushed and attacked wasn’t something a pony from the Equestrian Wasteland just forgave.

I spotted my supposed clone, as she’d been called, keeping an eye on the previous room to make sure nopony got behind us. Good Muddy Waters don’t forget to pack their instincts when they dive into a scavenger run. “Discuss? You want to talk after dumping me deep underground full of crazy stallions who all look the same? Not to mention making a mare that looks like me?! Where do you get off?! I ought to teach you a damn lesson, punk! I….we had to murder ponies today…I’d never killed somepony before. Do you know how that feels?”

The voice was silent. At least for a moment. Then she returned with her voice resonating from the intercoms in multiple rooms. “My friend, death means nothing to me anymore. It’s life that means everything to me now. That’s why I’ve been producing copies of ponies. It’s been awfully lonely these past few years, and I’ve yet to produce a working clone thanks to the damage….until now. That’s why….that’s why I need you…” she paused unexpectedly. Before I could respond she blurted out “well technically I don’t need you anymore, but let’s say for the sake of sanity that you and I could reach some form of mutual agreement. Would you be interested in aiding me with a task?”

From the corner of my eye I could see my clone shaking her head no with breakneck speed. I didn’t blame her. She had to murder her attacker with a pencil while I had the luxury of not getting so personal with my own self defense. “….I kind of don’t want to. You’re kind of….well you’re an asshole for starters. Secondly, unless you want to redo the first impressions I’m not interested in whatever you’re selling.”

Her response wasn’t what I would expect from a robot. From the start of this conversation I was getting the impression I was talking with another pony. “Like I said, I don’t technically need you. But, as a show of good faith and proof of my desire to….redo first impressions, I’ll unlock the door to the freight elevator. The door to the loading dock will be opposite of this room. I do hope you’ll come to your senses and consider what I have to say…”

Wait, didn’t need me? From the sound of things it sounded like she did, but wasn’t eager to be so forward with that fact. “What do you mean by not needing me? That room over yonder have something to do with that?”

The intercom buzzed. “Heh….heh heh. I guess it couldn’t hurt to tell you. You already know by now your clone over there is a perfect imitation of you. You’ve come to that conclusion in the hall once you met. If I can make a perfect copy once, I can do so as many times as I like.”

A stomp of a hoof and the frustrated squeak from the corner and my supposed clone was ready to say her own piece of mind. She didn’t look too happy with the voice. “That's bullshit! She said she wasn’t interested, I’m definitely not interested, so what makes you think another one of me is going to say something different, huh?”

“Because if I fail to persuade one of you, I can make another. And another. And another! Until I find the correct combination of words that will convince you to help me! I’m only reaching out to you two for my own convenience. I’ve already extended my apologies and given you the freedom to take the elevator to the upper floors. If I wanted, I could have just let you rot down here until you decided to join me. I’m TRYING to be civil, young lady.” A little lost composure didn’t seem to deter this stranger. With an audible groan that translated to a staticy buzz, she was back to her gentle, slightly more reasonable self. “All I ask is that you return once you’ve reconsidered my offer. I have much to offer and you stand to gain much. However, do not tell others of this place. It’s all I ask…just….don’t.”

I already had an idea of what would happen to other ponies who were unfortunate enough to stumble into this cursed stable. Context clues painted a dark picture with a lot of jellybeans and no survivors. “Fine! Maybe I’ll come back…when I get this mess sorted out and cool off. BUT! If you don’t have anything I want I’m not taking this job of yours. You picking up what I’m putting down?”

Another pause, this time much longer than the one before. I could only guess she was thinking it over. “I am…picking up what you have put down. A strange expression, but I understand. Thank you…the elevator is ready when you wish to leave…” with that, a click within the speakers could be heard. Then there was silence, she was gone.

“Well that settles that. Come on, let’s go.” My clone didn’t say anything. She only offered a curt nod before stepping in line behind me as I made my way towards the freight elevator. Freedom was offered and by the goddesses I wasn’t going to turn down a get out of jail free card.

***

The freight elevator was a simple thing. Larger than the standard elevator by at least double the length and width. The loading dock wasn’t anything special either, just crates stacked to the high ceiling and garbage littering the floor. My hooves crunched paper wrappers and rotting garbage alike as the pair of us moved to leave this place. Whether or not it would be forever was up in the air.

“Hey…”

The clone spoke up behind me. Talking wasn’t something I was terribly interested in, but she sounded depressed almost. I’d never heard my own voice sound so sad or defeated before. I turned my head and checked to see what was wrong. “What’s up? Something on your mind?” She nodded.

“Can we talk? Just for a bit?” Ah yes, the existential dread I’m more than aware she was feeling. It was a matter of time before her own attempts would fail at keeping herself together. Mine weren’t far behind in the failing department.

This was going to be a lot longer than a bit, I could tell. So I sat down and rested my back against a plastic container before nodding. “…w-we didn’t ask who she was. Why? Don’t you wanna know who we’re dealing with?” I shook my head which left her with a more speechless expression. Seeing my own face do these things was an experience I wasn’t going to forget anytime soon.

“I don’t care. She means nothing to us, just like all the ponies back home. It’s why we have no friends, remember?” From speechless to annoyed, her face shifted quickly as she took the opportunity to stomp.

“That’s bullshit! We didn’t make friends because you….me….WE…can’t bring ourselves to care! But now? I care now. I want to know more about why she….” She stopped. I stepped in.

“Why she created you. That’s the reason.”

“Yes! I’m not real! I woke up today eager to eat mom’s cooking and make some money so I can buy Sparkle Cola. Now I’m ending the day with…the sense that I’m not….I’m not real. I’m not real and you are! I was a pony with a name and now I’m NOPONY…” she was speaking through clenched teeth with a few tears already making their way down her cheeks. I felt bad, which wasn’t something I usually did on my own. The ramifications of what was going on hit her a lot harder than it did me, because in the end I could go home and hug my family knowing they still loved me after all the fucking up I did today. I could see where she was coming from, because I’d be the same way if that happened to me.

Waking up one day and suddenly you have nothing left. No hard earned trinkets or caps, no clothes or items, no family to support you when things got rough in the wasteland.

This mare was well and truly alone. So I stood up, stepped up to the crying mare and wrapped my hooves around her tight as I could. She didn’t deserve this. She didn’t ask for this, but it’s what life handed her and that wasn’t fair. I’m more than positive those thoughts were shared between us. “Muddy Waters is a name I’m fine with sharing. This whole trip was bullshit from the moment I found this place. So I understand…” she didn’t respond, not at first. It took a few minutes of crying before she made a move. Her own hooves wrapped around me and returned the hug.

Hugs were nice. They always made me feel better when a day was just a little too hard, a little too much. “Th-thanks….I…wanna go home. I want mom…” another problem with an even uglier face than the problems we just got over. How in Celestia’s dead Equestria was I supposed to explain this to mom or dad or my brothers?!

There’s not a chance in hell they’d believe a drug using zebra high on flower stuff told me where to find a functioning Stable full of clone ponies. Oh, and I brought home a friend who’s an exact copy of me in every way. Guess I have a twin sister now….wait. That’s not the worst possible outcome. A twin sister.

“Listen Muddy. You’re me, and that’s cool, but we gotta get one thing straight and keep it straight.” I broke the hug and stared as hard as I could into her eyes. It felt like staring into a mirror and having a dissociative, out of body experience. Like I wasn’t looking at myself, but at the same time I was. “…….we have to find a way to break this to mom and dad. BEFORE we get home.”

A choked laugh was her initial reaction. Hey, that’s a good start! At the very least I didn’t have to suffer the cries of myself the entire way home…maybe. She wiped her eyes with a hoof and smiled. “Clear and Rough are going to freak out so hard when they find out….still…we didn’t give that voice back there anything to work with. We didn’t ask for anything WE could work with. What’s gonna happen now?”

I already had a solution in mind. Dumb as it was, a job was a job. Even if it was the sketchiest, most suspicious pile of crap job I’d ever seen, the opportunity was too good to pass up. If we wanted something, chances were it was down here in this Stable regardless of what that something might be. It was a treasure trove of scrap and valuables, a dragon's hoard. “We make money and survive, like we’ve always done. What she wants can’t be much different from what the usual job is. Find something somepony wants and get paid.”

“You….you don’t want answers? To ya know…questions? I mean like, there’s the whole cloning thing…whatever that means.” Not sure what a clone even was, but it couldn’t be too far off from what a copy was. They sounded the same after all.

I sighed, “no…not yet. I’m gonna have to sleep on this. I’ve had a long day. Plus we need to deal with you and our parents first. Foal steps…” I really just wanted to go home and take the rest of the week off. This whole day, this whole Stable, was absolute bullshit to the highest degree!

“I guess we’ll ask questions next time. Assuming there IS a next time.” Her mood increased so that’s a plus. My own mood was a little brighter despite the emotional trauma today. With that out of the way we turned and pressed the button on the wall to call down the elevator.

It was high time we got outside.

***

Ding

Another floor passed as the elevator carried us up slowly, but surely. Me, and by extension the other me, collapsed on the sides of the elevator too exhausted to keep standing. I looked at her with the very edges of my vision and saw her looking a little less miserable than before. I wondered to myself what she saw when her eyes glazed over me.

Ding

Another floor. The third floor was left behind, two more to go. The number on the top of the door slowly shifted to two before the elevator came to a halt. A long drawn out ding sounded, signaling the stoppage of the machine. “Finally! We can get out of here.” She said with a hope bursting forth I didn’t share. This was the wrong floor, so why were we stopping? I corrected her and pointed at the number.

“Wrong floor. Somethings not right!” This time we looked at each other with a little less hope than before. What positivity we had vanished when the door opened and a familiar voice greeted us with a heart stopping shout of alarm.

“Jelly? JELLY! Jellybean!”

Teeth bit down on the mouth grip of my revolver, but I wasn’t fast enough to bring it to bear as the jellybean clone surged forward and smashed into me like a wagon, shoving me back into the rear wall of the freight elevator and knocking the air from my lungs. My own clone didn’t fare any better in such close proximity. Either we were just weak for earth ponies, or this stallion clone was a monster up close. No sooner had I slumped to the floor, the other Muddy Waters delivered the most solid buck I'd ever heard to his ribs, in which he responded with a glee filled laugh and smashed her face with a right hook.

Seeing I was too dazed to fight, the cloned stallion began to wail on the defenseless Muddy trying her best to cover her face as the stallion punched her hooves again and again with meaty thwacks. I struggled to breath, but through the pain and fear of suffocating I managed to keep my grip on my revolver. I raised my head and prepared to fire.

“Ha ha! Jellybean.” A kick to my head was all I managed to gain. This stallion, which I’d assume his name was Jellybean by now, was fast with his reflexes and perception. The moment I moved to fire he noticed and responded with the nastiest single hoofed buck I’d ever received. Now it was my turn to get an ass beating as two front hooves found their place in my side. I’d be impressed at the capabilities this guy had despite his pudgy body….had he not used them to bludgeon me over and over. Just as reality began to go black from the pain shock, I heard salvation in the form of an ear piercing BANG that ripped through the elevator into the neck of Jellybean. The corner of the elevator was washed red, the stallion stumbled and like that the nightmare was over as another Jellybean dropped dead from a gunshot wound.

“Holy……oh Luna….I’m gonna be sick.” I’d never looked at myself with such amazement before, but the clone with my face stood there with a weapon clenched between her lips shaking like a leaf and looking pale.

I pressed the button to go up before any more animalistic clone ponies arrived. “Nice shot me. You saved my ass…” I sounded terrible and probably looked about the same. One of my eyes was starting to swell and my mouth produced the slurred words of a pony deep into a drinking session.

“T-thanks…those things are a lot tougher when….hey…why isn’t the door closing?!” The elevator doors buzzed with power but didn’t respond to the button mashing. Did the close door button even work? The longer we sat there the worse the situation became. Any moment a Jellybean fucker would round the corner and spot us. They’d have to be brain dead to not investigate the gunshot. “Muddy the door isn’t working!”

“I know! Push…push the body out. I’ll check the outside panel.” At first I thought the door must have suffered damage because of the gunshot, but everything seemed fine when I pressed the buttons. They lit up fine when I pressed the first floor button, at least. When I checked the panel on the outside I found the problem. A strange circular key was jutting out of the panel and twisted inside. A key ring was there too which hung from the strange key still inside the elevator. I twisted the key to see what would happen and sure enough, the elevator dinged. “I got it! It should work now.”

The jellybean body was rolled out through the door and into the hall where the stench of blood and Celetisa knew what else filled the area. It wasn’t a good feeling to see two more Jellybeans round the far corner and a third following behind them. At first I was happy to fix something and be on our way, but misery loves company and wasn’t about to leave despite its overstayed visit.

“Get in. Get inside right fucking now! Hurry!” I panicked. How could I not after seeing three of those ponies begin their run straight for us? I grabbed my own clone and yanked her through the door by the tail and slammed the button hard enough to send a shock of pain through my hoof. She screamed, I screamed in return. And all the while the door closed with an agonizing slowness. When the door finally closed the Jellybean clones were practically sticking their noses through the crack before it disappeared. Finally we were moving again. Finally!

My clone looked over to me and our eyes met. Yeah, we looked pretty bad. There was an obvious fact hanging in the air that made both of us want to tear up and weep, but we were proud members of the Waters family. There was no way we were going to cry after getting our assets beat by a fat pony who could only say the word Jellybean…

Didn’t mean I didn’t sniffle the rest of the ride up to the surface.

***

It was decided that we’d swallow our hatred of spending caps by washing it down with a couple healing potions. I gave one to my brand new best friend for eternity and one to myself, though we both wanted to initially only take half each. I gotta admit, at least I was consistent even when I was a clone. No, I wasn’t being stingy about giving others a healing potion! It was an idea we both shared equally.

Healing potion only did so much though. After that it was the healing bandages that held remarkably less effectiveness, but would have to do. The swollen left eye of mine was wrapped up good as well as my badly bruised midsection. If I had damage to the ribs the healing potion took care of it. The other Muddy Waters took a beating to her hooves and head, both of which were wrapped with the last of the bandages. Hopefully with some luck, and depending on how many times we got lost, our injuries would fade before we got home.

“There’s the entrance! We…we made it.” It hurts to walk. It hurt to breathe too, but we made it regardless. The moment we reached the top floor I was glad to see the rusted remains of the medical screening room a short hallway walk later. Apparently this area wasn’t the first floor, but the ground floor. Basically a floor zero which was weird to me, but I stopped caring the moment I stepped out of the elevator and into familiar territory.

“We’re gonna make it after all. Kind of got worried near the end there…hey! At least we got two each, right?” A barely maintained smile, that’s all I could muster with my face hurting. It was one she didn’t return.

Her face fell. “I’d rather not think about….killing another pony. Especially now that I know I’m…like them…doesn’t make it easy to process.” Oh no, this wasn’t gonna slide. Her depressive sighing told me everything I needed to know.

With a little more eagerness than I initially meant, I walked alongside her and brushed shoulders to let her know I wasn’t about to leave her like this. When we got the exit, she was the first to poke her head out of the wooden shack door. No light, which meant it was nighttime. Nighttime in the wetlands surrounding the river meant getting home wasn’t just going to be dangerous, it was going to be impossible. The creatures of the bayou and western swamps came out to play in swarms when the sun set and the moon came out.

Or as much as the moon could given the permanent cloud layer. Details details.

“You listen here and listen well. Those things we killed down there were NOT ponies. Doesn’t matter that they looked like earth pony stallions, they weren’t ponies. Real ponies don’t say one word over and over and try to murder others…well okay raiders do that, but that’s something for the elder ponies to think about.” I poked her in the chest before continuing. “I…WE…didn’t kill anypony. Just some more monsters the wasteland likes to throw at us. You with me?”

Heh, I could see the gears turning in my own head. Sure enough, her line of reasoning came back around to match my own as she nodded and lost her drooping frown. “I-I guess. It makes sense. I’m not like those things. I’m…im a good c-clone. Whatever that means.”

“We don’t know, but like I keep saying it doesn’t matter. You’re a pony, you’re a…well a sister I guess. My sister.” I shrugged and pushed her forward to get us outside. Nothing changed out here, but there was no telling how long I’d been underground. That was a question I regretted not asking, but emotions flared and reasoning jumped out the window and into the river.

“Well….” I began, but was interrupted almost immediately.

“Such a deep subject for such a shallow mind.” That was dad’s favorite saying whenever I started a sentence with the word well! I was at a loss for words…so I responded with a shoulder check to give her a love filled nudge. Tough love that is.

Funny as it was, I was glad this pony was me. “Oh, we are going to have SO much fun. I sense a lot of self reflection in the coming future.” I said as I started to walk back inside. Again, she followed and together we went to camp out inside the cave entrance to Stable 98.

“I guess we’re staying here till dawn then? Probably for the best. I’d rather not get chewed up or eaten after surviving the Stable…” the yawn that followed spread quickly, as I found myself doing the same almost immediately after. Exhaustion was setting in now that the adrenaline was well and truly used up.

“We’ll wait here, head east just as the sun comes up and follow the river south. Maybe we can catch a boat, but chances are we’re on our own. It’ll be a decent walk back to Point Wayward” that was all the planning I had come up with so far. It wasn’t much, but home was one agonizing trip back and neither of us was eager to start. Not in our current state anyway.

“That’s a good plan if I’ve ever made one before” the clone said with a tired look in her eyes. She moved to make herself comfortable against the rock wall in the lower half of the cave entrance, so I moved to join her and nestle against her. “Thanks for the body heat. Nothing weird about cuddling with yourself.” My clone, my sister, wore the worst smug I’d ever seen grace my features.

A blush found its home in my expression which I quickly hid. “We are not getting into the….whatever you call it. I’m not doing this for me! Just trying to…to help? I have the cargo coat here, you got squat. So be grateful! And for fucks sake don’t make this weird.”

“Just playing around. Get some rest, we’re gonna need it…” she spoke for the last time, falling silent as she faced the cave wall. I faced the opposite way, our backs pressed against one another.

“Goodnight, me. Gosh this is gonna be a weird trip…'' heh, weird. If today wasn’t the weirdest, tomorrow probably was going to steal that title. And let me tell you, as I fell asleep the nightmares I had felt more like bad omens than anything. Definitely weird…

***

Pain, misery, a drowning sensation coming shortly after taking the largest whiff of yellow and black smoke. I was high out of my mind floating through an ocean of pain. No sooner had I emerged on the other side I was back into another world of sights and sounds, all of which served to overload the senses. My heart raced, my body shook itself apart at the seams, an endless noise so high pitched it drowned all other sounds and drilled the elevated note into the core of my brain.

I was either going into shock and about to die, or having a stroke. Either way, life was suffering and only death could free me now.

Death did free me in the end. Amid the rainbow swirls and high pitched wine, a single word in a strangely familiar voice reached my ears. I wish it hadn’t because that word was going to trigger my fight or flight reflexes every time I heard it after today. “Jeeeellybeeeean~.” One bloody thwack later and I was gone. One stomp was all it took to splatter my head like an expired pumpkin. Next thing I knew, I was in a place of nothingness splayed out on the white sands of a sandbar. I couldn’t get up nor could I move my body well enough to crawl away from the rising tide that threatened to swallow me. First it took my side as the water flowed onward, then it went up to my eye and ear before reaching both sides of my head. Submerged, I laughed one last time as death literally washed over me.

***

Sleeping on the ground wasn’t something I was going to be doing again for a good while. My skeleton felt like hell and the injuries I sustained felt even worse. As I stood up tall and shuddered under the various cracks my bones gave out, my clone did the same in almost the exact same fashion. Now I know what an out of body experience felt like.

“…uuuuugh! My back!”

Her groans echoed through the cave entrance as did my laughter despite feeling the same way. “Lessons learned number one hundred in the past couple of days. Cave floors are not comfortable.”

The early day air was moist, like always, with the feeling of sucking down water just by taking a breath always on the mind. Humidity wasn’t bad just yet either. The journey east was under way shortly after snacking on what remained of the day old radigator steak and the various snacks I brought. After that, we were out of food. Water was close to running dry much the same. An hour walk should get us where we started assuming the best.

The journey itself wasn’t bad, but after about 40 minutes of aching bruises and battered bodies, we were slowing down hard. The predators of Centennial River wetlands would have an easy meal if we were spotted by anything larger than a radroach.

“The sun is almost fully up….” The other Muddy spoke up. At first, I was inclined to believe her. Then after a few seconds something clicked. That wasn’t the sun poking through the reeds, that was a fire! A camp! “Wait…you seeing what I’m seeing?”

“Uh, yeah! It’s a fire, which means ponies…or something smart enough to use a campfire. Come on, let’s see if we can get some help.” Caution was thrown to the wind, again, as we changed course. I was praying to whichever princess would listen that it was just some homesteader's hovel cooking on an outdoor campfire. When we got closer those hopes left faster than a fleeing foal. Seeming to be the theme of this entire adventure was getting my hopes up for nothing.

Trappers. Ponies that held a relationship with the ponies of Wayward that could only be described as ‘extremely tense’ whenever I asked about them as a youngster. None ever offered an explanation, or just refused to do so claiming I wouldn’t understand. The camp was filled with colorful buoys, lobster traps, spears and harpoons and the occasional bear trap. And of course, there were ponies clad in the hides and carapaces of their various kills with a few of those kills being strung up and gutted on vertical racks. They lived in dome shaped tents made of leather and bones from larger critters. Just then, I heard a whisper behind me. “Maybe we should go around. We’ll make it to the river eventually…”

“Alright. Let’s back up and find another route. Maybe we can….” I turned to look back at her, but the eyes I found meeting my gaze didn’t belong to me like my clones did. No, these eyes were red instead of green and belonged to the dirtiest green colored stallion I’d ever come across. He might have been blue-green, but the grime from the wasteland showed well over his coat. The next thing I noticed was the bear trap looking hoof weapon he had pressed against my clone's neck.

“You two might be the dumbest little critters who ever did stumble into our camp. Now why don’t you go ahead and start walkin’ and no funny stuff, got me?” That bear trap hoof looked like it could take the head right off the pony if he punched them with it. At this point all I could do was obey and start walking. I was right to assume he was marching us into the middle of their camp to expose our trespass into their place.

“Lookie here y’all! Got a couple of scabs that need pickin’.” His announcement brought out half a dozen other ponies all clad in shells and gear looted from boats and harbors. One pony was even wearing a lobster trap as a helmet that obscured their features. The rest just looked angry that we were there. “Now y’all’s gonna explain to me real slow like, why you was skulking around and be honest. Imma tell if you ain’t honest.”

“We gonna eat em? I betcha we can find a reason to string em up and dry em out!” One pony from the tiny crowd shouted. I wasn’t aware trappers fed on pony meat, otherwise I would never have run the risk of approaching a camp! This wasn’t just bad, this might be the damn end of us…

“We uh….we got into some trouble out west. Trying to get home, back to Wayward. We weren’t meaning to trespass, honest! Just…” I was a bundle of fried nerves. So many strangers who I’ve never seen before looking at me like I deserve to get eaten for the crime of just wandering too close. Some ponies back home, dad especially, always said Trappers weren’t much better than raiders. That was a sentiment I was coming to agree with.

“My sister and I got jumped by some ponies out west. Took our salvage and our food. We needed help badly and came to the first ponies we saw. That’s the truth!” She spoke suddenly so my lapse in conversation wouldn’t cause more problems. That’s what I assumed anyway. So far the various Trappers surrounding us seemed to take what she said into consideration. We definitely got our asses beat back in the Stable, and from her perspective she truly had lost ownership of everything she thought she owned. Wasn’t technically a lie…

The Trapper from before hummed before walking in front of us. “Now, I’m not inclined to believe what a filly has to say especially if they is from Wayward. However!!! I do declare that poaching on Trapper turf is thee most egregious offense one could inflict on us here. That goes for predators AND ponies. You’re all just meals, so we can’t be letting ponies take what’s ours.”

That was the weirdest way of saying murder wasn’t allowed I’d ever heard. Robbing and murdering ponies wasn’t allowed because it was considered poaching? Well I guess I’ll take what I could get. After a moment of pause, the dirty stallion continued. “My name is Crab! Defacto leader of this here hunting party. Now, so long as you ain’t poaching on our land, we’ll let ya be and we won’t even take what’s yours. Alls fair in love and huntin’. However!!! I’m a charitable pony indeed, I do say so myself. Let’s make a trade. Whatcha need little missies?” With the excitement over, the other Trappers went on with their business. At least two of them spared glaces our way hoping maybe they could bargain for something of their own, but after taking a proper look at our sorry states they huffed and turned away. I guess they expected something more than a pair of beaten twins with nothing to show for their adventure.

“Could you….lead us in the right direction? We’re trying to get home, me and my…” he interrupted me with no hesitation. Or remorse, rude.

“You and your twin sissie need a lift? That’s all? Hehe~! We can do that. A boats down by the river we got parked up on the party spot. But a trade is a trade. What’s your offer?” He was a very talkative pony I was starting to realize. That and his constant smile made him seem a little unhinged. Maybe a diet consisting of almost entirely irradiated meat wasn’t a good thing to do to your body.

“I…..I….well I got…I got drugs? Managed to hide them…I got…well I don’t have much.” Defeat tasted awful. All I had was the clothes on my back, some of the medical supplies I found in the Stable clinic, my compass and gun, the goggles collection I lovingly wore and that was about it. I wasn’t about to offer up caps when the price was dictated by somepony outside of Wayward. That was a good way to get overpriced services and lose everything!

His smile only grew as another trotted alongside him and faced us. It was the pony with the lobster trap helmet! And as it turned out, it was a she as the voice of a mare spoke up. “Oh Crab, let’s go easy. They’re youngins after all. We’ll just go ahead and take a pair of those goggles and those drugs. Poor things look like you could use some drugs.”

So it was, I lost one of my favorite pairs of goggles, the Med-X and the tablets of Buck I’d found. I guess it didn’t matter since we got off easy and we had safe passage back to Wayward. I could only guess that the lack of monsters in our adventure back home was thanks to these ponies considering the semi fresh corpses still being gutted and chopped apart around their camp.

“Is it safe to assume we’re getting off easy compared to most others?” That was a question I didn’t want to ask, but curiosity was killing me.

“Well that’s a yes and a no.” The mare spoke up through her helmet. I really wanted to see what was inside, but the lobster trap she had around her head obscured everything! “You’re lucky it was us who found ya. Some of the groups like to eat pony as much as they enjoy a good swamplurk or gator. We’d eat ya too if things get harder around here.”

The pony named Crab was next to speak his piece as the four of us walked east toward the river. “Things ain’t like they used ta be. Fog rollin’ in more frequent, animals gettin ornery even before we shoot em. Soona or later, we’d gonna be pushed out if we don’t step up. We was actually gonna go to Wayward today anyway at some point. Might as well do it now. Ammo is getting scarce round here cuz of the crap the bayou’s been spitting out.” I spotted the weapon he needed ammo for. A lovely lever action dangled across his back and from the look of it, it was more than well used. The wood showed signs of rot from the moist wetlands air and the metal wasn’t much better.

Minutes passed as the trek continued. I didn’t have much to say really. Neither did my clone. If I had trouble communicating to ponies I wasn’t comfortable with then she’d have the same problem. Which meant we were a couple of loners who’s only friends were an exact duplicate of themself. It wasn’t until we finally got to the river that the sound of flowing water returned to me and brought a sense of relief. We were one step closer to home. The boat the trappers talked about sat docked inside one of the more northward docks belonging to Friendship and Freight, which meant we were a lot further north than I thought. That’s what happens when you don’t check your compass.

“Alright kids, a deal is a deal. I expect we get a little something extra from whoever’s looking for their lost children.” Not a nice way to start a conversation with the strangers you decided not to kill, but I’ll take it anyway. Her boat in question was a little aluminum thing with strange harnesses on the sides. The front was tied to a hanging hook held up by rusted chains meant to keep titan sized cargo ships in place. I expected nothing less from a shipping lane freight company from before the war.

Suddenly my newly acquired sister decided to voice a concern she had once we got down to the boat and hopped in. “Hey! I don’t see anything you could use to get this thing going. Where’s your spark generator, or your water talisman that pushes you forward?” Crab just smiled his usual happy, and creepy, grin and pointed a hoof into the water besides the boats, right next to the harnesses.

I looked over and so did my sister. “CREEEE?!” We screamed at the sudden noise as a pair of eyes accompanied by a fang filled maw poked out of the water. I’d never seen a dolphin before, let alone the post war ones that were born in taint filled waters and magical radiation. I have to say though, I was as terrified as I was in awe.

“You use these mutant dolphins to drive your boat?! That’s…..that’s fucking awesome!” I felt a hoof grab my shoulder and pull me back slightly away from the boat's edge. It was the lobster helmet mare.

A faint chuckle sounded from the dark helmet. I stared into it to see if there was a pony inside, but the dark net covering hid her well. “Alright sweetheart, let’s not excite the dolphins too much. Don’t want them to get any ideas. Oh! Speaking of ideas, I forgot to introduce myself back there at the camp. I’m Lobster! And this is my hubby who I love more than anything.” Her hooves grappled around the stallion named Crab and pulled him into a surprise hug.

I didn’t even need to look at my clone to feel her deadpan expression, mainly because I had one of my own. Crab and Lobster? What a pair… “Lobby, don’t be so rough. Remember what them homesteaders we’d been talking with said. Gotta keep cool so we ain’t disturbing the baby.”

“Oh?! You’re expecting? Congratulations on the baby. What are you going to name it?” For the first time since our meeting in the Stable, me and my clone were stumbling over one another to ask questions as sporadic as possible. Something about the occasion of having a baby always caused a celebration back home, so hearing of one out here in the wild brought a child-like excitement for a celebration. Unfounded, yes, but I didn’t stop us.

“We’d gonna name it Shrimp if it’s a colt or filly. We like the sound of it.” Lobster just hugged him tighter and giggled like a school filly, while our own excitement faded immediately. Our deadpan expressions returned with a vengeance so strong it threatened to mold our faces like that forever.

I turned to my sister and whispered “I’m starting to sense a theme here.

Her response was similar to mine. “Kind of reminds me of a certain father who named all his kids after water.” Oh yeah that’s right, mom and dad purposely doing that to keep a theme. I’ll never understand how dad convinced mom to go along with that, but after Clear Waters was born I had a sneaky suspicion there was something strange going on.

“Alright lil doggies! Giddy up!” The boat rocked forward, then backwards, tossing us from one direction to the next. “Y’all might wanna take a seat little fillies. You end up in that there water you is good as gone.” When he spoke those words my flanks hit the bottom of the boat. As did my sister’s since great minds think alike. The dolphins looked like they could chew the concrete off a dry dock, so I REALLY didn’t want to know what would happen if a flailing pony happened to fall in next to one.

Speaking of the dolphins, I risked peeking over one side to see the creatures pulling the boat like some kind of wasteland fantasy ride. These Trappers managed to capture and tame two dolphins and use them like some kind of propulsion devices. How did they get to swim forward or turn the boat? Well that answer came to me along with the sickly sweet stench of bloody meat. Two slabs of raw fat were dangled over the creatures by fishing rods Crab and Lobster were holding onto. When they wanted a dolphin to slow down they dangled it closer and let the creature have a bite before holding back up again. And when they wanted the boat to shoot off down south towards Wayward they held them out in front of the boat and let the creatures work hard to catch up to the delicious fat that would never get any closer unless their masters reached their destination.

“…okay, I’m freaked out. I thought pony eater dolphins were a scary story told to misbehaving foals…” I tried hard to hang onto the side of the boat as the bumpy ride had me fearing for my life and the possibility of being eaten alive by things I wasn’t even aware was in the water until today.

“And I thought Trappers were raiders! Everypony back home never had anything nice to say about y’all…” I felt my sister's question was a little too soon, but the Trappers didn’t seem to mind. In fact, they seemed almost gleeful at the comparison.

“These here beautiful creatures was found waaaay up north out in the east coast. We like to capture em and breed em so we’s can domesticate thems baby dollies. They ain’t natives, but theys eat ya down to the bone. Makes em eager to serve, so long as they get the pleasure of killing sometimes. You thought I was joking about em didn’t ya~?” Crab was all smiles and smug posture with that last sentence as we shook our heads no. Now it was Lobster’s turn to answer a question.

“You fillies best not go around talking all that talk about us being raiders. As much as I enjoy a good kill, we aren’t going out of our way to just murder anypony. We only murder ponies we don’t like!” Now I wish I could see her face even more. I needed to know if she looked as happy as she sounded when talking about murdering another living breathing pony…

I swallowed my fear for the tenth time in the last twenty four hours and asked another question. “You like us though right?” Somehow, that got a laugh out of Lobster. Without answering the question, she removed her homemade armor of swamplurk shells and tanned hide to reveal her faded red coat and a sliver of cherry pink mane. There was truth to her being pregnant too. Easily seven or eight months in and close to popping! How did she manage to hide that thing under all the armor?

“Hun, I understand what a mamma feels now when she sees her little demons being the best they can be. I wasn’t gonna rob a pony of that. To be honest, it’s the only reason I ain’t killed ya two. Y’all just seem like the sweetest thangs!” I wished for whatever could hear my prayers to not let my face show the absolute horror I was experiencing. A brush with death disguised as a loving pair of ponies and we were none the wiser until she told us the truth.

Now I understood why the relationship between Wayward and the various Trapper camps was stuck at ‘extremely tense’.

If my clone really was another me with the exact details copied down to the smallest one then I had no doubts our experiences were the same right now. I wanted to go home and never leave the house again. It’s a feeling I was for certain with no room for doubt that my clone was feeling too. Today, and almost all of yesterday, absolutely fucking sucked!!

“I…I wanna go home…”

Chapter1: Oh Sister, Where Art Thou

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Pain. Everything hurts. With each bounce of the boat over a coming swell my body hit the aluminum boat's floor with a small but agonizing thud. As our journey moved forward down south, I risked a peak at the fellow scavenger I’d befriended on the ill equipped venture. Her, the mare who saved my life and helped when I needed it most.

The mare who shared my face, my name, my everything. Me!

My clone. Still didn’t understand what that even was, but it was a word used to label the poor creature who found herself pushed from her own life’s story and into some new, terrifying existence. She too was staring at me with a single eye, though not because hers was swollen shut after a nasty beat down. I winced hard as she viewed my many facial injuries and cringed. I’d do the same as I spied her wounded forelegs covered in bruises, though she favored one leg more when trying to make the pain go away.

Yeah, the leg I broke yesterday after the fall. I hurt too much to ask if that was the case, but as the boat bounced again I struggled to even breathe through bruised ribs.

Everything hurts…

Eventually my thoughts swam to other things to try and escape the constant throbbing from my face and chest. Home. Point Wayward. A little slice of heaven located in the armpit of Equestria. North of Canterlot, but south of the Hoofington valley. Neighagra falls is a little ways south of Wayward and where the Centennial gets its start. Fillydelphia was way out east, but rumors managed to reach us despite the fact that the only outlanders that show up here are ones that managed to get a boat functional.

Something about a slave empire taking root there. Didn’t need to tell us twice about not visiting.

I wanted to ask about any rumors that might be new or interesting, if only to pass the time and ease the pain, but the moment I looked at the two trappers focusing on steering the boat my ambitions died in my throat. Conversation was over and it wasn’t going to get started anytime soon. Maybe this was why I didn’t have any friends or remember who anypony was. My ability to socialize was non-existent and I had no motivation to change that.

“Luna I’m pathetic…” my voice rang through my ears barely audible over the crashing waves and constant screeching from those horrifying dolphins. I wasn’t the one to speak the words, however. I opened my eye and cracked a smile.

My clone was in the same boat as me in a metaphorical and literal sense. “I’m glad our brains are in sync. Makes it really easy to tell what’s going on with you.” I said with a whisper. She responded immediately with a soft hoof punch to my muzzle.

“If I guess what you’re thinking, can I have a pair of goggles back?” You little rodent…game on! I nodded gently and moved closer to listen in. “You suck at talking to ponies, so you sit there and wait until somepony talks to you because you suck ass at starting things with others besides your family…”

I didn’t even bother responding. All I did was slide off another pair of precious goggles and hoof them over. The only thing I was happy about was that my other self didn’t seem smug about being right like I normally would. Instead, defeat was written on her features probably like it was written on mine. I certainly felt defeated.

“…..y-you can always talk to me…us? Yourself?” I can’t believe this was even happening. I lost two pairs of goggles, multiple healing potions and got an ass beating for this adventure and all I managed to gain was a mid-life crisis at the age of sixteen and a sister. She spoke again, this time with some actual worry. “It’s not talking to yourself if you’re talking to me is it…?”

Finally, I opened my mouth and responded “I’m not doing this with you until we get back. I’m….”

“ALRIGHTY KIDS!!! WAKE UP YA’LL!” Panic shot through me and right behind it was pain as the jolt shook me to my core. That fucking mule. What was her name again? “We’re bout here. As promised and to honor our agreement, we have delivered you to Wayward. I do hope the jostle wasn’t too harsh.” The journey was coming to an end. Of course another one was coming up almost immediately after we arrived with the X shaped overpasses of Point Wayward coming into view. I wasn’t even aware we’d entered the tributary leading here, but that was in the past. Home was finally in reach.

I snorted and my clone laughed at me for doing so. A couple of peas in a pod. “Well my dear sister, the first thing I’m doing when we get home is paying a visit to a zebra. Crimes may be involved…” my turn to start a conversation. Weird, I didn’t have nearly as much trouble talking to myself as I did with other ponies.

“That should give us enough time to think of a way to explain…our situation…to mom and dad!” A look in her eye, oh yes that look. The one I had whenever I got into the mood for pointless theatrics to entertain myself! Together we turned to our saviors, and almost murderers, and spoke in unison.

“Thank you for bringing us home!” The stallion who went by Crab, or at least I thought that was his name, lost his perpetual smile. Something I took pride in was finally getting this photogenic stallion to get rid of that creepy grin. Of course, the mare he was with wasn’t the most pleased, but who cares?

“Kids, imma be honest with y’all…I said you two were sweet, but now you’re down right strange. Don’t ever do that again…” mission accomplished. The mare with the lobster trap helmet was definitely thinking less of us now.

With a curt nod we departed the boat. I wanted to ask why they decided to moore so far from the dock area we had, but the gentle woosh of the dolphins squirting water from their blowholes was a reminder of what these boats were. It didn’t take a sailor pony to figure the answer out. “Now you two best behave now. And uh, don’t be a couple of ‘tards and wander up in somepony’s camp like y’all did back there. I do say, I ain’t neva seen anything more dumb then that there!” I looked back to the Trapper with the thick accent as he waved us goodbye. Together we waved them farewell in return.

I may not remember them after today, but I’ll be damned if I ever forget that advice.

***

We were home, at long last the shit storm we endured was at an end. I’d never take the safety and lack of killer clones for granted ever again! However, before we returned to mom and dad, there was a certain zebra two Muddy Waters wanted to get even with. Sure enough his black and white striped wagon was where we last saw it.

“Alright…we’re going to get answers, starting with this fucker” I snarled as I unholstered my revolver and carefully gave it away to my newfound family member. As much as the adventure was a pain filled bust, I did gain a friend. A sister. A sister who gladly took the weapon since I was down a functioning eye after the dive into Stable 98.

“I like the way you think. Doesn’t even matter if he was right, there ain’t a thing called the Sight! This was a set up…I can feel it in my bruised legs and forehead.” With the revolver clamped between her teeth and tongue on the trigger, I motioned for her to step to the side and let me go first.

A few over eager knocks later…..a voice. This one belongs to a zebra with a dead giveaway accent only a zebra could have. “Who might be at my door? Is there something I can help you with?” The striped zebra in question opened the door with his eye peeking through the crack. When his eye landed on me, I grinned with a devilish anticipation. “Ah! You! You return at last, just as I predicted in the waning moments of the sight. Do tell, have you found your destiny yet? I am eager to hear the tale.” This time he opened the door in its entirety. Even through the goggles I wore and cargo coat it was obviously me so long as I kept my hat and bandana off my head.

What he didn’t expect was to turn his head and spot the other me resting against the side of the wagon with a revolver pointed at him. Quickly I checked to see if the guards were as useless today as they were yesterday. Sure enough, they didn’t give our being here a single glance. Bored as they were, excitement was brewing down the ramp from their guard posts without their notice. “Yeah…I found something like that. Why don’t we step inside and talk about destiny real quick.” His slack jaw and wide eyes didn’t stop me from shoving him into his own wagon with all the strength of an injured earth pony.

He stuttered wildly as his attempts to back away ended once he bumped into the wall of his wagon. “I-I-I can’t believe it. N-no! This-this can’t…b-but how…impossible…” by now my clone had entered and quickly shut the door behind us. Inside was as weird as the outside, with vials and strange talismans hanging from every wall. Surprisingly, there was a lot of swamp themed trinkets and souvenirs in here. Presumably, from wherever zebras come from.

“You are going to tell me everything and leave NOTHING out. Why did you send me to a fucking Stable? Why were there crazed duplicate ponies there? What was my ‘destiny’ even supposed to be?!” Now it was my clone's turn to start unleashing the verbal barrage.

“And what’s MY destiny huh? I deserve some answers since I didn’t ask to get made into a complete copy of the mare you sent on a suicide mission! Answer me ya fucking tribal!” She made her fury known which I was impressed by. I never talked like that to another person before, which to be honest I wish I could do more often.

But for the most part, the Zebra named Shazan simply shrunk down and tried his best to avoid setting off the fuse that was my newly found sister. “I swear! By the bearers of prophecy before me and those that come after, I had no knowledge of what might lie beyond the Sight. Nothing could have foreseen THIS!” His hooves motioned to the copy cat pony I’d come to appreciate in the small amount of time we’ve been together. I wanted to believe him, but how could I believe in something that sounded so…so stupid! So infuriating! My clone pushed on without me as I stood there, stunned and enraged.

“I got the shit kicked out of me! I had to murder things that looked like ponies, but weren’t! No, before you ask they weren’t ferals, but do you have any idea what we went through down there?!” The way he trembled under the hate filled gaze of my clone made me think that maybe, just maybe, he had some clue of the trauma we suffered down in the Stable.

I shook my head hard and placed a hoof over the shoulder of the mare. “Unclench the gun, Muddy. He’s got nothing. I don’t care anymore…”

Reluctantly, she complied and turned to slide the gun into the holster around my leg. Her outrage still poured from her glare like a raging river and there wasn’t anything I could do about that. She had a right to be pissed.

“I am terribly sorry about what happened. I’ve forced you down a journey you can’t turn away from now. I was acting without thinking of the consequences. Lost in the excitement of clearer visions with no regards to consequences. I have forced a confrontation with destiny early…” his words echoed through my mind. There was no telling what he meant by that last part without some more context, but that was a luxury I couldn’t afford just yet. I’ll have to head scratch on that later.

“Hate to break it to you, but saying sorry isn’t going to change the fact I have a twin sister now and bruised bones. Your date with destiny was something you bargained for and now you got it” I huffed as I sat down and released the tension building in my back. Everything still hurt and no amount of used up bandages was going to fix me.

“We’d be a lot more forgiving if you offered us something other than scarily accurate drug fantasies.” She stood tall and continued. “My sister is exhausted. So am I. Maybe a few dozen caps to buy us breakfast? You owe us that at least…” to be honest I was surprised. Maybe her different experiences down in the Stable did something to her, changed her differently than it did me. I know I wouldn’t still be here trying to squeeze a frightened elder zebra for caps normally.

Caps that he actually provided in the end with a shaken smile and a spooked body posture that screamed ‘frightened kitten’ to me. Without further delay, I scooped up the clanky money and turned to leave. “I hope you’ll stick around. This isn’t over yet. I got this feeling it’s only just starting…” I spoke while collecting myself and the caps into a pocket.

“Hey what was your name again?” In typical Muddy Waters fashion, my sister forgot the name of the zebra already. She really was me, bad habits included! Well ain’t that a hole in the boat.

“My name is Shazan. It’s been a pleasure speaking with you, new acquaintance. I must inquire though, who are you? Are you truly one mare in two bodies, or will you split and forge your own identity?” It didn’t take a crystal ball and hallucinogenic flowers to see his words were resonating with my clone. She didn’t respond at first, so I took my chance to step in like she did for me.

“We are Muddy Waters. Unless things change, or by some miracle we get our cutie marks, I’ll happily share the name. We’re sisters, after all…especially after what happened in the Stable…” that got a semi bashful look from my new family member and a look of approval from Shazan. I was happy with both, proud even!

And he seemed proud of me too. “I am thankful that not all was misfortune and hurt. Perhaps this experience was something…I’m not sure…positive?”

I looked to my fellow Muddy Waters and she in turn looked at me. It was time to express how we truly felt. Together, we looked to Shazan and wore the deepest scowls we could muster. “Yeah no. It was pretty freaking awful. Don’t ever pull that shit again.” We spoke in unison for the second time today and much like the first time, it put a deep discomfort in our audience.

“…..p-please accept my apologies, Miss Waters.” With head held low, Shazan offered another hoof-ful of caps. Who would have guessed two heads are better than one~?

***

We ended up telling Shazan what happened, at least the semi-important bits. We left out where exactly we found the Stable or that there was someone living inside that didn’t scream the words ‘Jellybean’ at us before attacking. The more we talked about our near death experiences, the darker Shazan’s expression became. There was a feeling deep inside me that felt uneasy looking at the Zebra with such a dark tone written all over his face. Maybe it was the stripes…

“My friends, from what you have told me this sounds like a very familiar story I’ve heard once before. I have yet to hear of a tale from a pony Stable that has ended pleasantly. Had the Sight told me it was a Stable that held your destiny, I would have told you to abandon hope.” I didn’t know enough about the pre-war stuff to argue with him, so I had no choice but to take what he said at face value and hope it wasn’t bullshit. Could have sworn I’d heard a story or two about Stables, but they didn’t seem like the scary campfire story that Shazan made them out to be.

I raised my hoof to stop him there. It was going to take some time to process this. “Okay, so what you’re saying is Stables are bad news, I can understand that part after yesterday. What I don’t understand is why? What the hell is a bunch of fake ponies doing in a Stable and where are the actual Stable ponies?” Shazan for his part just shook his head and frowned.

“Looks can be very deceptive, young ones. Take that advice into your hearts as you step into the future. Speaking of which, I believe you two have someplace to be.” I wanted to hear more about the Stables! He just told us about stories, so why was he so quick to get us to leave before sharing em’?

My clone butted in now that she was done counting caps and stuffing a bag full of our prize. “Did the Sight tell you about another journey we gotta pursue? Heh heh…”. Shazan looked at her and smiled warmly as he walked past her towards the door and opened it. As I watched him, I noticed a sheet of paper pinned to the door frame. He must have noticed, because he took the sheet in his mouth and ripped it down before depositing it at our hooves.

I felt a shiver go up my spine when I read the words, ‘Missing Pony Update: Muddy Waters’. I looked at Shazan, nervous. “No. I did not need the power of the Sight to guide me. This bulletin in town was more than sufficient” he said slowly. Why did I feel like he was one upping me for something my sister said?

Speaking of, she responded in kind. “Woah! Okay, so why didn’t you let us know we were missing earlier? That would have been REALLY nice to know!” Her anger was reflected by my own, as the two of us demanded answers. Only I let her talk for the both of us. So far, she was good about saying what I was thinking and vice versa.

“...I do believe…I had a very pressing concern with my life being threatened. By you. Do you remember?” Fuck! Yeah we remember, and this was mostly our fault. A bad attitude cost us that information when we collectively decided to point a revolver at an innocent zebra and force our way into his wagon.

Ears drooped low as our time came to leave. We’d overstayed our unwelcome. “...I’m…I’m sorry Mister Shazan…I think we ought to go home and try to explain this to our parents.” For all the harm we did by threatening him, he was collected about the ordeal and let us walk out the door unopposed. As we made our way up the overpass leading to Wayward, I turned back to look at the wagon and waved at the zebra goodbye. He returned the gesture with a smile and shut the door, disappearing behind it.

“I…hope he forgives us. I feel kind of bad now…” Muddy Waters whispered into my ear as I raised my green bandana over my muzzle and equipped my goggles. Together, with my faded red hat I was concealed from view. I had to tuck my long hair into my coat too, just so nopony got the idea that it was me underneath this scavver’s attire.

I looked at her and spoke with as cool a voice as I could manage, despite my nervousness getting worse. “Let's focus on getting home without telling the entire town there’s two of us now. I’m not looking forward to telling the family, let alone letting all of Wayward know…” I bit my lip underneath my mask and prayed this wouldn’t end in disaster. By the lack of response I got from my sister, I had enough evidence to suggest she was feeling the same way. “Right now…you gotta be Muddy Waters. If two of us show up in town, it won’t end well. Ain't no way we're going to get away with something like this, and I highly doubt we’re going to be able to convince the entire town we were a pair of twins all along.”

Nopony was that dumb. Still no response from her, which worried me. She looked ready enough, so I pressed on and began the march back home through the streets of Wayward. I spared a glance behind me and sure enough, she wordlessly followed. Good.

This was going to suck even with her cooperation. I didn’t want to imagine having to do this by myself.

***

Worry. I couldn’t escape it. I walked down the cramped streets of Wayward between shops and taverns as I followed the mare who was me, and yet not me. Hell, I wasn’t even me today and not just in the metaphorical sense. I was disguised for a reason and that reason filled my shaky soul with so much worry. Guards would occasionally stop my clone to let her know she’d been declared missing and should go home immediately. In our small town I probably should have known who these ponies were, but for the life of me I never bothered to learn their faces, or names. Now that I was pretending to be somepony else, I stopped to look at them all. I was at a loss for just how many ponies I didn’t recognize that were obviously locals judging by how they dressed and smelt.

Dad always says to walk a mile in somepony’s horseshoes, but I didn’t understand what he was trying to say until now.

Muddy turned to me and waved me closer as the central market was upon us. The stairs leading to the residents pass was right there and beyond it, home. It took no time at all to work our way through the even more crowded buildings to find which one belonged to the Waters family. I stood besides the tarp that acted as our door with Muddy preparing to go in, but I hoof on her back stopped her. “Shhh, hold up…”

She waited and together we listened. Crying, hiccupping, the whole nine yards of grief could be heard coming from our home. It sounded like mom was besides herself after hearing we’d been lost for who knows how long. That left a feeling of hurt inside my chest knowing I caused this, though I wasn’t alone.

Through hushed whispers, clone Muddy spoke, “I’ll go in first. Get her settled down, then you come in and explain what's what…alright?” Even through the concern she had for our family, determination shined through her. I felt it too and nodded grimly at what we were about to do. I expected someone to faint from shock after the reveal in all honesty…

“Alright…for the family…” I responded. After that, she pushed her way through the tarp covering and went inside while I peeked through the crack between the tarp and the rest of the doorframe. Hopefully, this would end better than the rest of our day. “Go get ‘em sis” I whispered to nopony in particular.

Seconds past as the crying stopped. I expected shock, but what I didn’t expect was the entire family to be there. Dad, both of my brothers and of course, the terrified mom who was wrapped in the hooves of everypony as she wept for her lost child. When her eyes rested on my sister, she flung herself from the comforting embrace of her family and rushed to tackle hug the clone she thought was her daughter. Then the tears flowed once more as the shock vanished, replaced by sweet relief instead. “My baby!!! You silly silly filly, what in the world happened to you?! You look like you fell off a building you blasted child…” It didn’t take an invitation for everypony else to join in on the group hug. I could have sworn even dad was crying, though he hid it well behind his gruff exterior. That brown stallion with the darker blue mane and similarly colored scruffy beard was obviously holding back emotions, but the events of a missing child hit him just as hard as it did mom.

“Muddy Waters! You scared us all to death, in my case almost literally. I damn near had a heart attack out there when I heard you’d disappeared!” Partially scolding, somewhat joking, that was the Deep Water’s way of dealing with the emotional turmoil, I guessed. For some reason, while inspecting the bandages around my clone's head, mom was suddenly busy giving my clone a sniff. I wasn’t the only one to notice what was going on, since Rough Waters and my little brother Clear Waters gave mom strange looks.

Little bro was first to speak up, to my surprise. “I-uh….mom…whatcha doing? You’re being spontaneous again…” his meek voice gave rise to my older brother’s suspicions. He took the chance to chime in where the youngest Waters left off.

“Yeah mom, you….you doing okay there? I know Muddy smells worse than a wet dog most days, and you get on to her about it, but maybe now isn’t the time?” What a back-hoofed way of showing concern for your little sister, Rough! Even though I felt betrayed by that, he was right in both my lack of hygiene, and my mother being strange.

For her part, she ignored her son's words and buried her head in her daughter’s mane for a brief moment before recoiling in what I assumed was shock. That wasn’t right though, what could she have noticed that I didn’t? Something wasn’t right, but the first one to put that coming fact to light wasn’t me, it was Vivid Grove. “You…you aren’t Muddy…”

No fucking way… she couldn’t.

But she did. Everyone stopped the family reunion when mom jumped back in a defensive stance and glared daggers at my other self. “You are not my daughter! Who are you?!”

“Sweetheart, what’s wrong? What are you saying?” Dad tried to understand what was happening, but this came too fast for him to process and stumbled trying to figure out what was going on before him. His attempts at defusing his wife were fruitless.

“My baby smells like sweat and cable grease on a good day. Muddy washes once a week when she doesn’t lie! She thinks I don’t know, but I do…and you!” She pointed a hoof at my clone with venomous intent. “You smell like the day you were born…your mane feels washed, not greasy at all. So before I throw your hide into the river, you best tell me where my daughter is. Now!”

No! My mom could tell the difference, and despite the shame filling my shaky body, I was more concerned with my clone. Her body was shaking too, and probably for similar reasons. As fear flowed through me I was damn sure it was going through her in spades. It was scary seeing mom so angry, but for me it was scary how quickly she noticed the deception. Of course I found out the same way when I confronted my clone down in the Stables. That pony with my face just didn’t have my musk, or my apparently bad body odor according to mom…

After a tense moment, the other Muddy responded. “Look, I can explain! I’m Muddy Waters, I promise. There was an accident….and a S-Stable! A-and….and….and for f-fucks sake. Can you lend a hoof already, Muddy! Luna above, get off your ass and get in here.” Her words fueled by anger pushed me forward in a way I didn’t know possible. Before I could blink, I was standing in the door and removing my bandana and hat.

“……..”

“…….”

Nopony was saying anything. The only message I got from my family was pure and utter bafflement judging by all the slack jaws and wide eyes. You’d think they saw a ghost or something.

“S-so uh….I can totally explain, but I think mom has her own ex….explanation to…to do! Like when…when were you gonna tell us, or me, that I had a twin sister! Huh? Bet ya didn’t e-expect…that?” My poorly spoken attempt at humor to break the ice that had grown in our home yielded mixed results. Expected, of course. It was when dad looked at Vivid with a shocked expression that I felt something I said didn’t land the way I wanted it to. She looked at him with an equally shocked expression, then proceeded to pass out with a thud as she crumpled to the floor.

“WHAT THE HELL MUDDY?!?!”

My entire family shrieked as they rushed to help mom from her collapsed state. Even my own clone, my literal flesh and blood, screamed at me as she joined in on the bandwagon. I had a small fantasy that she'd betray me and make me look like the fake Muddy to my own family, but I didn’t expect her to betray me like this!

Oh no….what have I done?

***

Dad and Rough ended up carrying mom to my parents bed in the leftmost room. We only had three rooms in this house and one doubled as a kitchen/ living room combo. The other belonged to the kids which now included two Muddy Waters. Thankfully, dad and my brothers were oddly calm at the surprise twin reveal. So no one ended up in the river yet. Which was good!

What wasn’t good was the absolute scolding me and my twin got from dad once mom regained consciousness. “Muddy Waters! How….good Celestia above, how in tarnation did you manage this? What…..I-I can’t even begin to wrap my head around this young lady!” I learned a new word today from Rough and Clear, flabbergasted. That was a very accurate description of my dad, who paced back and forth as my mother and brothers watched. “You disappear for TWO DAYS….two days, Muddy! A crew had to come out to the falls to pass this information along to me. And when I return home to form a party to search for you, you’re nowhere to be found.” He began another round of pacing before starting up again once he’d caught his breath. “Then out of the blue, you return home…with a twin sister. Where in Luna’s dead Equestria did you go that could result in a…I don’t even know what this is! And where did you get those injuries, more importantly…?”

Me and my twin sat in the far corner, heads held low in shame as our father interrogated us. I was glad we went to Shazan first, because the practice we got by telling him would prove invaluable for getting things straight in our heads.

So we told the family as they sat quietly and listened. We spoke of finding the Stable after the fog forced our course change, conveniently leaving out Shazan as his whole ordeal would never be believed anyway, and continued until we got to the part where we told our separate stories. Clear sat next to my clone as she spoke of waking up alone and confused, eventually having to murder something that looked like a pony with a pencil. It wasn’t difficult to figure the experience wasn’t pleasant and Clear was quick to offer emotional support to her with soft back rubs. Clear Waters was always a kind soul, if a bit shy around most ponies. Somehow, he did better than me at being social which I envied a tad.

When I told the story of waking up in a clinic of sorts before being attacked by the same attacker, all eyes were on me. I took over from there, telling of the deaths I caused, the eventual descent into the Stable and the events after meeting my new sister. Mom let out a shaky laugh when I told her how I determined who was the real Muddy Waters. Rough moved to sit beside me when I got the part about the elevator and our ass beating we received before putting down the last berserk clone pony and escaping. I even told them about the voice asking for my assistance which I denied, but left the possibility of a change of heart in the air.

That part got a look from dad, who was put off by the whole thing. “Muddy, I’m glad you’re safe, but this story….this is insane. Had you not brought home a…clone? Had you not brought her back I might never have believed you. I have a whole roster of questions I want answered, but let’s discuss the mud dragon in the room.”

The worst part that was yet to come had finally arrived. Talking about the experiences was one thing, but what to do about them was another. Namely, what to do with my clone. All eyes were on her now and she wilted under the weight of our gazes. Now I know how Shazan must have felt when we did what we did to him. “Look, guys, can’t we just….” A loud clop sound silenced me. Mom had tapped her hooves together to shut me down before I even got started.

“Muddy, you don’t need to say anything. I want to see her up close, so come here please. Let me see you.” Mom waved over my clone who obeyed silently. I felt terrible that she was being subjected to this. Had I woken up one day to realize I’m not who I thought I was, I doubt I would have lasted as strongly as she did. We had each other though, and I wasn’t about to change that. “What’s your name, child?” Mom asked.

The clone responded in kind. “I…I don’t know. I was Muddy Waters when I woke up for the first time…” sorrow filled every word from her lips and it rang in my heart to hear myself sound so…depressed.

Seeing this unfold before her, Vivid placed a hoof on the clone's chest and sighed deeply. “You look like my daughter, and act like my daughter, but how can I know you are what you say you are? I can’t tell what you say is true…so, with that in mind, why don’t you tell me something only Muddy would know. If she knows it, then I probably know it too. Hehe~.” Pleading eyes turned to me. Those jade green puppy dog eyes bore a hole through me I didn’t want to acknowledge.

I coughed… “What? Do you want my permission or something?” Clone Muddy upped her game with the pleading look. Rough found it oddly amusing, probably because he wasn’t on the receiving end for once. “What do you want from me? Validation? A point in the right direction?”

“I want to tell mom about her secret we know about, but never told anypony. Ya know, the one about her and dad’s…” As my clone spoke, I moved to shut her up by clamping my hooves around her muzzle. Dad seemed eager to hear while mom was just confused. Good, they didn’t need to hear what we know.

My one good eye started into her clamped face. “We aren’t going to speak of that, I promised myself never to tell. Understand…?”

She pushed me aside and stood tall. She wanted to say it, but I wouldn’t allow it! It was too embarrassing an experience and it would embarrass mom and dad too. Despite this, she pressed on. “Yes, but it’s the only way…mom, dad…” I cringed as she turned to face them and spoke again. “I know….I know that you two go down the river, sometimes, and pay a visit to a Homesteader who lives in a beached boat. You ask to use his shed some nights because…” I’d never gotten the chance to see dad in action before now, but the way he moved like a flash flood to stuff a hoof into my clone's mouth was awe inspiring. The act alone me and mom were grateful for.

“Okay okay! You’re definitely Muddy Waters without a shadow of a doubt, so please do NOT say another word. I believe you.” Mom looked ready to pass out again. Her face was flushed red as she stood up and walked over to me and my clone. There, she wrapped us both in a warm embrace and hummed softly.

“Let’s agree that you aren’t lying and call it good. I may not have given birth to ya, but that doesn’t make you any less my daughter. You got her heart and her passion, and that’s enough for me.” Eyes widened after hearing those words. I pulled away to see my clone with tears filling her eyes again upon hearing our mother’s words.

Trying to not cry again, clone Muddy whimpered as she went in for another hug. “M-mom…I’m sorry. I was so scared you…that you…might..." As mothers do, Vivid pulled the clone into a tight embrace and gently rubbed her back as she broke down in our mothers hooves. The scene was so heartwarming I felt tears coming on as well. Frankly, I was just happy that she was accepted at all, but this was a good outcome I could get behind.

“Shhhh, you’re gonna be okay. It’s okay, mommas got you. I would never abandon my children. If you’re Muddy Waters then you belong to me, ya hear?” The clone didn’t respond, only sputtered and wept after hearing the tender words offered by our mom.

A hoof was placed on my shoulder. Looking back I saw Rough staring down at me. “So does this mean we have a new sister? Like for real? I’m okay with it if everypony else is. She’s practically a twin, so not much is gonna be different.”

Dad and Clear nodded in agreement, they were on board with it. I’m sure Clear could get behind having another sister to spend time with and Rough was eager to gain another employee. Mom and dad we’re probably just glad everypony was safe and sound. All in all I found myself smiling, unable to complain. “We are the same. We risked our lives helping each other and we aren’t going to separate now! Plus, I’ve always wanted a sister. I think this is a good thing.”

A bright and cheery smile found its home on my face as the mood was at an all time high. Nothing could sour this for us and I was glad things turned out for the best. When dad asked a question, I almost didn’t hear it over how fast my thoughts were racing. “So Muddy…how exactly did you two get home with all those injuries?”

Cheerfully I replied, “Oh, yeah. We fucked up and wandered too close to a Trapper camp. They were nice though and let us ride with them back to Wayward. Why do you ask?” When I looked back the cheery mood had vanished. Mom was practically strangling my newfound sister as worries struck her hard. Dad and Rough alike looked ready to scream at me again. “Uh, what’s the problem?”

Dad responded quickly, and with barely disguised hate filling his words. “Muddy, don’t you ever…EVER…speak with Trappers. Those ponies are no good mongrels. You could have been killed! I’m surprised they didn’t take a leg off you two for bringing you back. Good goddesses above!” Dad was pacing again, not a good sign. Maybe I shouldn’t tell him they freely admitted to wanting to butcher and eat us. Rough just sucked air through his teeth and looked away, not wanting to get involved. Enough had been said already that he didn’t have anything to offer other than stern words, I’m sure.

“We’re sorry dad. It was an accident…I didn’t know…and that means she didn’t know either…” my new sister explained quickly. Yikes, should have kept that part of the story to myself, maybe told a little fib to soften the impact a bit. Either way, lesson learned as if it hadn’t been learned already.

“That’s okay, but please don’t deal with those ponies again. They’re bad news, sweetheart.” Dad was over his speech already. If he wanted to say something more profound, he didn’t bother with it. What was done was done. “Do we have an understanding? They aren’t to be trusted, believe me..." he spoke up once more.

A pair of nodding heads was his only response. He was happy with it at least and left to enter the living room without us. Probably to remove the worry from his mind and calm down. Clear just smiled and nuzzled against his new sister before following dad out. Rough seemed to have other ideas before leaving just yet.

He trotted to my sister and smiled, holding a hoof for her. Within his grasp was a bottle of Sparkle-Cola Cherry, as promised. “Welcome to the company, little sis. If you maintain this level of hygiene and promise to wash at least once every couple of days, I’ll give you a bonus in pay. Work begins whenever you two heal up! And uh, don’t be late you two. Just because you’re a copy of my sister doesn’t mean you have to act like her. You could be even better, who knows? Heh...”

The clone just smiled, laughed at his joke and eagerly swiped the soda pop to take a swig of the 200 year old, peculiarly preserved soda-pop. A part of me wanted to scream at losing out, but another bigger part was just happy a crisis and emotional shipwreck was avoided. I was happy for my sister and her well earned reward.

I chimed in finally, “Okay okay let’s not make fun of me while I’m still here. I have pride to maintain.”

For some reason, that got a larger laugh out of Rough and mom than I would have liked, but the bruise on my ego was nothing compared to the bruises I sustained from the Stable. When my sister noticed what was going on, she paused her consumption of my favorite drink and gave the last half of the cola to me. Something I was eternally grateful for.

Another item added to the list of things I’m eternally grateful for.

“Here. I know we wanted this before the Stable crap went down…I’m willing to bet I still want it after the fact, huh?” My sweet lovable sister who I could relate to unironically. Where have you and the Stable full of wacky science been all my life? I won’t lie, I chugged the shit out of the cherry flavored drink, to which my mom tossed her disapproving stare my way shortly after.

Even so, my grin couldn’t contain itself. “It’s great to be me~. Oh mom, you should have seen the stuff down there. Straight out of a comic or somethin’. It’s gotta be some kind of megaspell magic or PipBuck technology that made all those clone things.”

With the four of us still in my parents bedroom and emotions weren’t at an all time high, I wanted to shift focus to the Stable. Mom was interested in it, but Rough was deeply invested in the possibilities. His merchant mind was probably thinking about all the things we could sell to afford some place else to live. What was that tower called with all the rich ponies in it?

Mom was her usual calm self again, but smiled at my mention of the cause of our collective traumas. “Muddy, maybe we should give this Stable some room for now. Let it sit while you two troublemakers collect yourselves.” She seemed exhausted mentally from the events of today.

I felt her pain, but felt this needed to be discussed. “Mom, whatever was down there created a twin sister, it made an army of a pony who can only say the word Jellybean. If we got enough muscle we could take it for ourselves, become top dogs! Pay off some of our debts and even get dad a new boat…or at least repair the current one.” I thought that was fairly reasonable. It was a shithole full of unknown dangers not including a particular stallion who loved saying jelly beans, but what if the voice could provide a substantial enough reward? “Rough. You’re with me on this, right?”

Big brother Rough Waters had his thinking face on. We all looked at him awaiting his response. Finally, he shook his head and huffed. “I don’t know. On one hoof, scary science that makes little sisters. On the other hoof, painful, uncalled for death and destruction.” Not the answer I was looking for…

“I thought you were super eager to get stuff to sell to those Steel Rangers. Whatever happened to that?” Sister Muddy chimed in too, equally eager to gain something from all this even if we had to try again.

Defeated, Rough looked down and away from us. “….they never turned up. My contacts must have been high or something. There weren't any sightings of powered armor ponies or their boats coming up or down the Centennial. Even if you did what I asked, which I’m glad you didn’t, we wouldn’t have anypony buying our shit. Must have had another way to get to Hoofington. Probably a coastal port, or somethin'..."

There was sympathy from mom at her son's lost business ventures, but that was only a small setback. I pressed on, “There’s gotta be something in the Stable. That voice offered me a job essentially, why not go back and take the chance?”

“If you two had such an amazing chance to gain something from this nightmare, why didn’t ya take it when you had the opportunity hoofed to ya?” Mom raised the question to which we only responded with confused looks at first. We didn’t have answers ourselves, so that was a loss for Muddy. One I would struggle to correct just to see all my pain be worth something.

“We uh….” I rubbed the back of my injured head, lost and confused about how to explain our fuck up. Luckily, the other Muddy had my back.

“We weren't in the right mood at the time. She was pissed, I was depressed, and together we just wanted to go home. It was a long day…err, two days apparently. Not sure how long we were out for…” yeah I was still confused about that. I remembered the drug and waking up in the Stable, but now long was I knocked out for? An entire day? Seemed nuts to me.

“How about this then.” Rough offered. “Come meet me back at the stand tomorrow and I’ll see if I can think of something in the meantime. This is bigger than any of us, so don’t get any ideas without my say so, okay?”

Mom didn’t approve. Judging by her look at all three of us, we didn’t have her backing at all. “Now listen here, I think I’ve heard enough. I speak for your father when I say we thought we lost our daughter today. I’m not going to stand by and lose my baby girl like that again. Especially now that I have two to look after. I love you both, but please listen to your brother. No funny ideas…plus, we’re going to have a long talk about privacy and how you shouldn’t follow ponies to their special get-togethers.” Her warm hug brought us together, me and my sister, but her cold glare stole the idea of venturing back to the Stable from us. Maybe it was for the best.

But the thought still lingered in my mind. What kind of Stable technology made ponies? And who was that voice in the speakers?

I had to know. We had to know…

Chapter2: Everything To Gain

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Nothing to lose, everything to gain.

After the gamble of a lifetime and positive conclusion to the introduction of my new sister to the family, things were looking up. Of course I too was looking up, but not in the spirit sense. Me and my clone were bedridden and banned from leaving the house together for the time being. Money didn’t grow on trees around here so wasting healing potions on us was a no go, so mom and dad decided we’d do our healing the old fashioned way. A second hammock was set up in our shared room so the two of us could rest until our bruises and battered bodies could do their thing.

“Oh Muddy, I have lunch for you two. It’s something I got a good deal on in the market and I think you two are going to love these.” Mom sang happily as she entered our room with two strange looking fruits hanging from her saddle bags. They looked like some kind of bloated pear mixed with an octopus. Carefully she sat them down in our hammocks for us to grab a hold of. Weirdest thing was, despite how weird they looked, the fruit smelled nice and was as big as three apples combined. “Now before you girls start eating we’re going to go over some ground rules.”

Uh oh, that didn’t sound pleasant. “What kind of rules are we talking about?” Together me and the other Muddy spoke up with equal amounts of worry from the both of us. We didn’t even mean to speak in unison this time. It was an unspoken agreement we wouldn’t do that to mom or dad since it tended to creep ponies out. Sure enough, mom sprouted a deadpan look almost immediately.

Vivid Grove’s eyes bounced back from me to the clone. “I had a different rule for rule one, but now the new rule one is you're grounded if you ever do that to anypony else. Rule two, if you go out together you need to wear something that covers you up. I would have gotten the doctor to heal you two, but the same doctor helped with your birth…ponies are going to know something is going on if two of you suddenly pop up. So keep this a secret no matter what, understand?” We shook our heads in agreement.

We had an idea to just tell everypony there were always two of us from the beginning, but that would be a little difficult if the clinic spotted us. It’s not like anypony else could refute the evidence of a twin sister except for the actual town doctor.

“Rule three. For the love of Luna DON’T follow us when me and your father go out on a date! I shouldn’t even have to explain this.”

I did it once as a filly just out of curiosity and swore never to speak of it again when I learned too much. Together, the Muddy Waters weren’t going to live this down anytime soon. “Yes ma’am…” this hurts. Hurts my soul.

“And finally rule four, if you’re going to go against my wishes and try for that blasted Stable, then at least prepare for it and take some help with you.”

I mean we were going to do that, but mom seemed to understand our desire for the unknown and possibly valuable. “What makes you think we were going after the Stable? It’s full of crazy clone ponies. We’d need an army to take it.” That thought alone was pushing me to try anyway. If I could get back down there, I could make my own help.

“Sweetie, don’t play dumb with your mother. I was an overeager explorer and prospector when I was your age, ya know? If my momma told me to not go after a fortune, you could damn well bet I already had a pair of saddle bags with essentials packed.” The smirk she wore felt familiar. When I looked at my sister I remembered she had a similar look at one point during our adventure. Maybe the apple fell pretty close to the tree.

“Rough said he had something he wanted us to meet with him about. We’ll check in with him.” We’d need his help after all.

“As long as we’re on the same page. So help me Celestia and Luna, do not do anything stupid out there. You’re a big girl, but I’m not gonna lose you. So play it smart, and play it safe.” Mom pointed her hoof to her eyes before quickly pointing to us. Yeah, she was watching out for us, but more likely she wasn’t about to let us get go before she knew we were ready.

“Thanks mom for siding with us. We’ll play it safe.”

“We know where to go and how to avoid trouble.”

With a nod, mom left and went back to her own devices. Dad wouldn’t be happy about us going, but the wealth we could have by going back would make up for any risk. We just had to win.

A plan was needed too, but I’d leave that to Rough. For now, it was sweet, easy living and fresh food.

***

Easy living didn’t come easy after all. That night, the distant roars of irradiated beasts plagued us. Like a ship's horn the monsters within the swamps bellowed their mighty calls and shook the native ponies to their cores. I was usually asleep by now happily skipping the nuisance of listening to wild animals all night.

“Mating seasons here for the bog-crawlers.”

Took me a second to realize Clear Waters was still awake in the padded mattress beneath me. He took after dad when it came to being a fisher-pony, so it made sense he’d know what was going on when I didn’t.

“When the fog rolls out from the river, or the western swamps, the bog-crawlers go into heat around this time of year. They’re signaling to potential mates across the river.”

I’d never seen one of those before. I always made sure to avoid trouble or anything that looked like a monster nest. Pretty sure if they were as big as their mating calls, I wouldn’t have survived an encounter. With a whisper I asked the question floating around in my mind.

“What do they look like? Are they big fuckers like mud dragons or Swamplurk queens?” I’d never seen those either, but the stories from outlanders and local sailors alike described demons that could sink ships and turn ponies to mince meat.

He shook his head. “They’re not that big, but they’re big enough to clear the deck of all life if they get aboard your boat…”

What a lovely picture to have painted in my mind. Before I could press for more, he continued with the faintest of whispers. “They used to be tiny. Back before the war I think they used to be shrimp. Now they’re full of taint and Luna knows what else to make 'em that size. Evil monsters those things…”

It left me wondering how ponies survived out there in the wilderness. Homesteaders typically left Wayward to make their own lives elsewhere, usually in some hovel or self-built house hidden from wanderers and predators alike. Trappers did the same, but instead of hiding they were the things animals and ponies tended to hide from. At least according to dad.

***

“Alrighty then! Glad you two trouble makers could…make it…”

We were up, no longer content with laying down when there was the possibility of a grand and luxurious future just waiting to be taken. Rough was kind of surprised to see us so early and more than a little shocked to find both of us arriving at his stand of junk and junk accessories. Just as he was servicing a customer, the Muddy twins arrived on the scene clad in the usual dirty cargo outfit I enjoyed. My sister, well…we had to steal from dad’s clothes to fashion her something to cover herself with.

“...Muddy…Is that dad’s old barge hoof outfit and one of mom’s towels? Scavenged rags dress code was a joke ya know.”

The red jumpsuit, now blacked from years of cable grease stains, was a good fit for the scavenger sisters and mom wouldn’t mind one of her old towels being used as a head covering. It was genius to be honest, but I could do better. Eventually.

“Doesn’t matter! What matters is we have an opportunity to push the Water’s family out of this cramped lifestyle. You did want to talk to us about that, right?”

His eyes darted from one side to the next before grabbing a hold of my jacket collar and pulling me behind the stand. The other Muddy followed close behind. “Hush. We can’t let just anypony hear…alright, yes I did wanna talk about it. I don’t know what momma thinks, but I know dad isn’t gonna be happy about it. However, what he doesn’t know won’t hurt him. So let’s be quick.”

There was a moment I wanted to talk about that, but the moment disappeared as soon as it presented itself. Rough was already fishing out a large trunk from under some tarp behind his stand. When he pulled it free and opened it, my sister immediately went to town poking her nose into it.

“Well I’ll be shark bait, when did you own so many pipe guns? You looking to protect yourself, or deal some damage?” Her snark was contagious. I'll give her that. It got me smiling with an urge to laugh, but I kept it to myself.

Rough Waters rolled his eyes and snorted, “Oh I’m not the one looking to go head first back into danger. These are for you and the ponies down the ramp.”

Other ponies? Me and my twin looked at one another before staring a hole through Rough. I put as much threat and venom into my stare as my sister spoke out. “You can’t be serious. You want us to hire other ponies to do this? We don’t need help! We don’t want it.”

“Yeah! Me and her can do this all day, as long as it takes. We even promised mom to be careful when she flipped on her side about this.”

He shook his head and sighed, clearly annoyed. “You two came home with an extra version of yourself and bruises up and down your sorry hides. It seems like a job for a whole crew of mercs to handle, not two teenagers with no experience. This is all a part of the plan I came up with in my free time.”

Rough was swift to grab a sheet of paper from the trunk and lay it out before us. It was an entire bullet point list of steps to secure the Stable. “That’s a long freaking list dude. You got a lot of free time, I bet.”

“Shut it Muddy. Business has been ass since the last of the easy spots ran dry. Scrap just ain’t as valuable when the only scrap left is barely usable garbage. Now focus, sis’. We got a job to do.”

Step one, grab the local mercenaries or just anypony willing to do odd jobs and arm them if necessary. Step two, get to the Stable’s lower levels and secure the creepy lab. Step three, reach the maintenance level and shut down the power long enough to disable life support. Step four, escape the Stable and seal the door long enough for everything down there to suffocate and die. Step five was to return a day later and equip a diver’s suit with an oxygen tank and switch the power back on before the tank ran dry. Everything else was just to clean up, take inventory, and bribe the hired help with a spot in the Stable to not spread the word about the fresh bounty. Frankly, I thought the plan was abysmal, but I couldn’t think of something like that even if I tried.

My plan would have been just to shoot everything until we won, or die trying. Probably would have ended up dying, but it’d still be a wild ride up until that point.

“As you can clearly see, this plan will definitely work so long as you figure out where the doo-dads are that make the air breathable down there. I figure that’ll put down those Jelly ponies you mentioned.”

“Jellybeans actually, and yeah…not eager to get the crap beaten out of me a second time.”

“Then that settles it! Now hurry on and nab yourself some extra hooves. Plenty of scavs looking for work since the scraps runnin’ out.”

Before he could rush us out from behind his junk stand, my sister dug her hooves into the asphalt and stood her ground. “Now wait just a moment! Where did you get all these guns and ammo from? This looks like some serious caps right here.”

“…well…” I could see the gears turning inside Rough’s head as he debated on the next words to come from his mouth. After a moment, his ears drooped low. “I’ll be honest, little sisters. Business is rough, no pun intended. The last of my caps went into the guns. Mom came to me earlier and bought the ammo.”

He knew about mom before we did. Go figure she’d lend an invisible hoof to help.

“That last venture was my biggest score and you know it fell through. If this don’t work, McGreedy is gonna shut me down. I’m putting all my eggs into this basket and praying it works.” With the beans spilled and the truth out, it was no wonder he was doing this for us. And probably why he was so eager to see us succeed.

“Uuuuuh, who’s McGreedy?” Yet again my sister joined me in unity as our words combined. Thankfully, Rough rolled his eyes and went with the flow.

“You’ve lived here, on this planet, in this town, for sixteen years and you don’t know who the council is? He’s the top dog, the main council pony. More like a merchant’s guild to me, but he’s got the most successful business here so he’s throwing the most weight around.” Rough sprouted a nasty glare as his thoughts must have turned to this McGreedy stallion. Just under his voice I could have sworn he whispered ‘fat ass too’.

“I don’t talk with anyone. I’m not much of a conversationalist, if it wasn’t obvious.”

“Believe me I know. You always did manage to get on the wrong side of the gossip cuz of it.” Ouch. That surprisingly stung, even though I didn’t care to chat with other ponies most of the time. I blame myself.

“Alright alright that’s enough now. Let’s go before dad figures out or mom changes her mind.” Have I mentioned how much I love the way my clone thinks? Together we bundled the weapons into our duffle backpack and bid our farewell. Rough told us to stay safe, and we said we would, but as we walked down the ramp towards the ground the group of ponies Rough mentioned were walked passed and ignored by us.

Sure they were waiting for a client that was told would come, but there was a problem of us not actually wanting their help. Not that I could talk with them if I wanted to, I was genuinely unable to start a dialogue with strangers and it was becoming more apparent as I looked outward instead of clinging to my own personal bubble. That still wasn’t enough of a motivator to get me to change that, which led to Rough’s hard thought plan to be ignored just like the mercs.

“I’m guessing we have the same idea on what we’re doing?” Muddy eyed me looking for a response. Of course I could freely talk to myself, that wasn’t an issue.

“Yeah. Where one sister could be made, why not more? Think about it. This is our shot at a future, why risk sharing it with those nobodies when we could share it with ourselves.”

“Regardless of how many ‘ourselves’ there are? How far are we going to take this?”

I smiled with a grin I could only assume looked devious. I tried at least. “Why…as far as we can take it dear sister. As far as we can reasonably take it.”

***

The journey back to the Stable wasn’t what I’d call a challenge. We knew the way, but retracing our steps wasn’t the hard part. It was making sure nothing killed us on the way there. When we got to the bottom of the ramp and laid our hooves on solid dirt, our eyes trailed to where Shazan’s wagon once was. We could only assume after our aggravated assault and forced entry he wasn’t willing to stick around and risk other attacks.

Thinking back on the whole ordeal made me feel like shit for all of five minutes before the thought was crushed under my apathetic nature. Still needed to work on that, someday.

“We got like, what, a third of the way to Friendship and freight before we went west?” Sister was in charge of the compass while I was in charge of the map.

“It was between west and north west, an hour's journey I'm pretty sure.” I said that with as much confidence as someone who refused to believe they were lost. Because we might have been a little lost given the fact neither of us kept track of how long we’d been walking.

You see, if we had a third Muddy Waters there would be enough brain power between the three of us to remember that key detail.

We did see a familiar face after a while, which came in the form of a swamplurk with two bloodbug stingers jutting out from its shell. They were broken and bloody like arrows sticking out of a wild beast and their rightful owners lay dead and in pieces around the swamplurk’s burrow. I gripped my revolver between my teeth and my fellow Muddy Waters grabbed her own single shot shotgun. A clean Romare-o with a slug round inside, courtesy of big brother Rough.

With no distractions the swamplurk turned its beady eyes to us and clicked his mandibles before charging us, its head lowered now to put its hard shell between it and our bullets. I fired once, the hammer coming down and unleashing a 45 caliber round against its shell, but the mutated crab was undeterred.

“I’ll kill it. Come on! Come get me ya overgrown shellfish!” She waited with frightened patience as it got closer and closer. Sure enough, the moment it realized it was now in range to snip my sister in two it raised its head and screeched. It’s battle cry was met by the roar of a shotgun slug tearing its body a new hole just below the head and into its torso. As it reeled in pain the other Muddy took her chance to back away as she loaded another slug into the Romare-o. I took my chance to start rotating around it. And popping another shot into its leg. It turned with my movements, tracking me with those unthinking eyes and rushed to put me in its claws.

Either over eager to murder me or too frenzied from pain, but it didn’t take the cautious approach this time. It’s head was up and it’s eyes bore into mine as I lined up another shot. Again my revolver roared, its shot echoing through the air as the bullet mulched one side of its face, but again it continued to charge. A second later and I was forced into the defensive, quickly turning to run as it got close enough to take a snap at me and only getting some tail hairs for its trouble.

“Muddy! Crabby is giving me a haircut, I need some shotgun over here!”

“Bring him to me, I’ll finish him off.” Gun loaded and a fire in her eyes, I trusted her which meant I trusted myself. I moved and moved fast past her as she raised her gun through clenched teeth and waited for the beast to reveal its wounded maw. It raised a pincer to strike down my sister, but she was already firing by the time its claw came down to bat her aside. The slug ripped into its shoulder connected to the claw that slapped her aside, severing it and finally ending the Swamplurk with a satisfying crash into the mud.

“Well hell. You alright sis’?”

“I’m golden. Just a bruise, but holy cow aiming with a long weapon is harder than I thought.”

I shrugged. “Guess that’s why they use battle saddles with the longer shotguns. Mouth grips only get you so far. Or we could be unicorns and cheat by floatin’ em’ around.”

Her huff told me enough about what she thought. I already knew our shared opinion on battle saddles, cuz I hated them. Chafed my back all up and prevented me from using my backpack.

“Hate unicorns. So damn lucky” she muttered as we left the swamplurk corpse behind us. Yeah, we didn’t have high opinions on unicorns. We were jealous they could float their guns around and not have to worry about dental problems.

***

Killing a swamplurk was easy pickings. There was some concern about leaving it without harvesting the meat, but we were on a schedule. Plus the gunshots were loud and would almost certainly attract the curious and the hungry. Sure enough, the curious and hungry came, but not the kind we were expecting.

“G-get down. Get down now!”

I whispered to my sister as loud as a whisper could get for her to duck. She hadn't spotted them, but I had when I saw the rustle of the tall grass and bushes along with the splash of hooves trudging through the many streams and tributaries lining the wetlands. From the muck they emerged, trappers. They made no effort to conceal their movements as they hurried off into the distance towards the area we were just at, the very place where we fought the tainted crab.

“Oh shit…you think the shots got 'em’ riled up?”

I didn’t take my eyes off the group of three trappers as I whispered into my sister's ear. “They’re going straight for the swamplurk. Didn’t the last trappers say something about poaching?”

She nodded. “Yeah. We can’t risk running into more creatures. We’ll have to fight ‘em with our hooves, otherwise those ponies are gonna come running.”

“But we were just defending ourselves. Not like we were hunting it, it was hunting us!”

She shook her head and pulled out her compass to get us back on track. “Those ponies don’t seem like the type to care about that…meat is meat in the end.”

As we snuck away from the area to avoid getting hunted again by a different kind of predator, I could only think about how horribly things might have gone had we stayed and tried to get a snack from the ‘lurk. Wouldn’t end well that’s for sure.

Luckily time passed by with relative silence and peace. Plenty of things we had to get past quietly to avoid bringing another hunting party our way from the local trappers. Bugs, leeches, the occasional feral ghoul that we had no idea why it was out here, but still let it be as it slept silently in the puddle of mud. I think I’ll call these ghouls swamp ghouls.

Eventually the large rock poking into the horizon like a claw pointing west was spotted yet again. Its moss covered structure made it look like a downed tree on one side, which was probably how I managed to not notice how high it got before falling off due to my own stupidity. Instinctively I rubbed my hoof as a phantom pain came from upon recollection of the memory. My sister was copying my idle fidgeting exactly as I was, her own hood hurting despite never having broken it herself. Technically speaking.

Watching her copy me without realizing it gave me the worst out of body experience I’ve ever had so far. It was like looking at a mirror that was reflecting the wrong perspective, but the subject of its reflection was still me.

“You uh…..ahem. Are you ready for this? The plan is simple, simpler than Rough’s simple plan.”

“O-of course! Of course…reach the freight elevator, get to the bottom, find the owner of that voice…make new clones of ourselves. Take the Stable…”

I was, in all honesty to myself, scared of going back. We’d gotten beat up so badly last time that it was a miracle we made it home. For how overweight and out of shape the Jellybean loving clones were, they hit hard and took punishment like a swamplurk. Except when we hit them in the head or neck. That seemed to put down the crazed clones no problem. I puffed up my chest and shoved the fear aside just long enough to make my approach to the wooden door and push past it. My sister followed close behind as always, though she made an effort to walk alongside me this time. Together we descended into the dungeon of doom that was Stable 98.

The cave, the rusted medical room, the hallway leading down deeper that continued forward but stopped at a metal door, then a small backtrack to find the hallway that led to the freight elevator. All of it was left behind as we marched forth into the unknown. Finally, the elevator itself where we had the piss beaten out of us. A fond memory better left forgotten. Preferably forever.

“Anyway we can take the elevator and not meet our ends at the hoof of a pony who can only say the word jellybean?”

I had an idea. That little key thing that was shoved into the panel just outside the elevator where all the buttons were was still in my pocket. It had the handle of a key, but the part that was supposed to be the rest of the key was some cup shaped object. There was a matching circle slot that fit the cup looking key just under the elevator panel, so I placed the key inside with my teeth and tried turning it.

“Maintenance mode activated. Elevator lock out engaged. Calling elevator.” A mechanical voice poured from ancient speakers as the familiar sound of moving machinery could be heard beneath us.

“I think this will work. It’s how that one clone stopped our elevator and made it not wanna work last time. Maybe it’s an elevator key for maintenance ponies.”

“I trust you, but I’m keeping my shotgun pointed forward. Not looking to get jumped again. Never again.”

The pair of us waited for the door to open. As it dinged, I too readied my revolver. We both let a breath of relief go when the doors opened revealing nothing. I took the key from its slot and checked to see if there was anything else inside that could help keep the darn thing moving without interruption. There! A similar circle slot for the lockout thing. Slipping it in, I heard a buzz from the speakers that repeated the previous line to us. My clone pressed the button to the fifth level downward, while I sat down for a little relaxation before we had to deal with interacting with strangers again.

“I’m glad I kept that thing. If I leave it here, I'm pretty sure the elevator ain’t gonna move.”

“It’ll be our only way out. Better hope you’re right, for both our sakes.”

The tone of worry my sister had wasn’t misplaced, but I could have sworn I had my confidence in me. Since she was Muddy Waters in every way, I expected a bit more blind bravado and a general lack of caring. Guess this Stable had a humbling effect on her, but not so much me. I had faith in me, which meant I had faith in her. Even if we didn’t inspire much in the way of hope for ourselves.

The doors opened as we hit the final floor to reveal a familiar loading dock. Huh, the body of the clone we killed wasn’t in the elevator I noticed, but the blood was. Nothing down here either. Everything was as we left it. So without a word we moved forward towards the labs. Multiple doors opened effortlessly as we crossed their thresholds, but with each one we came up to I could hear the disengaging of locks just before we pushed them open.

It was a scary feeling hearing somepony open doors for you and never being able to see them.

“Hello. Helllllooooooo! Hey lady, we came back. Didn’t tell nopony about the Stable….okay I lied, we told our family, but cross my heart we didn’t say where it was.”

“Hey! Voice lady! We survived that bullshit with the elevator too. Thanks for the heads up before the ass beating, dick head!”

A sudden crackle of ceiling mounted speakers startled us as we turned towards the source of the noise. In the corner of the room a black box echoed the words of our mysterious host.

“I saw what happened on the cameras. I’m so sorry you experienced that, but with the lock out tag out key it overrode my commands. Luckily you defeated Jellybean, or at least one of his many variants. I’m happy you’re alright and have decided to return…”

If she took offense to my sister's words, she didn’t show it. Not that she was showing anything, but it was something to remember for later. “So what do you want from us? You tried buttering me up last time I was here to help out, so here I am. Let’s make a deal.”

“Ah yes, I do have need of you. However, first let’s get to know each other. Face to face. Please holster your weapons. I’m putting much trust in you. All I ask is that you do the same for me. Enter the observation chamber across the room from the loading dock door.”

That room with the window into a room full of glass vats? I remember that room. Neither of us could forget it, especially my sister for her own clone related reasons. Together we followed the instructions and made our way inside. From there I noticed no changes or new faces. Before I could comment, the other Muddy voiced her concerns.

“So where’d ya go? What happened to the face to face, hmm?” Annoyance dripped from her words like rain drops, but I could only fault her so much. This place had bad juju for me, but very bad memories for her. Of course she’d have a short fuse here.

“Let’s clear the air and start fresh. A second first impression from me to you, my new friends. And hopefully by the end of this meeting I can call you my next best chance for the restoration.”

Restoration? What was she talking about? The stable? I guess it didn’t matter right now. I didn’t even bother trying to make my lack of understanding known as we waited for our host to arrive. Sis was looking through the door we came in in hopes of catching a glimpse of the voice's owner, hoping maybe she’d pop up behind us with a face that didn’t belong to the other clones here. What we ended up getting was….well I can’t really explain what I saw next without sounding like a liar.

From the ceiling a panel opened, leaving a square hole in which a jar lowered itself before us. Well not a jar, but a glass dome with a robotic eye tracking us as it moved along tiny rails circling the glass dome. What was in the dome you ask? Well I’ll tell ya…

IT'S A FREAKING BRAIN!

Nerves clung from the brain to what I could only guess was a severed unicorn horn that poked out from the glass dome with seals around it to prevent leakage. Well severed might not be the right word, but it wasn’t connected to any head I’ve ever seen before. This was the cherry on top for the mad scientist aesthetic I envisioned for this whole laboratory full of nick nacks and a preserved brain.

“….”

“………”

“……………”

“Your silence is not inspiring confidence, Ms. Waters.”

The dam broke for the both of us as we panicked. “Sweet Celestia’s beard! It’s a fucking brain in a jar!”

“Holy shit! What in the hell?!” Sister was taking things about as well as I am.

This revelation was going smoothly, even though my heart was racing a mile a second and my thoughts scrambled like eggs. The mare speaking to us this whole time was a bloody unicorn brain in a jar. Okay, breathing first! In, then out, then repeat until the shock goes away. In and out and shake it all about.

“Are we going to gloss over the fact you met a living breathing copy of yourself and made friends with it, but THIS is what’s beyond imaginative comprehension? A mare’s brain on full display?”

Yikes. When she puts it that way… “okay okay, I’m freaked out a little. Cut us some slack. I have so many questions…like what hap…”

“WHY DID YOU CREATE ME?!”

I was shoved aside as my sister took the center stage of the conversation and rushed to ask the question I’m sure has been on her heart for a while. For the brain’s part, her mono eye rolled in its socket to look down at my sister with a blue glow bathing the other Muddy. That eye was more than it seemed.

“I created you because I have captured and cloned every last would-be looter and scavenger to make their way down here. I need aid in my endeavor to restore not just the Stable, but the machine it’s meant to house. My life’s work, my mentor's vision for an Equestrian victory during the war. I’ve been trapped here, alone, stuck with these corrupted clones of the late maintenance manager, Mr. Jellybean. You ask why I created you? Because eventually I’d find a candidate, a template, that would make it through the machines corrupted code and breed a new generation of clones that could do more than fuCKING SAY THEIR OWN LUNA DAMNED NAME!”

The eye became red as the brain within twitched and spasmed with clear anger. So the other clones were just saying their name over and over? Weird, but insightful.

She continued on without stopping. “I’ve been waiting here for somepony like you to show up. The others all gave life to inadequate clones who couldn’t do more than spout their own names and foolishly try and kill everything that wasn’t them. Jellybean was a combat engineer during the war, so with him dominating the Stable and producing endless reinforcements, cleaning up the scavengers and their respective failures was quick and painful. Though not by my hoof. That’s why I NEED you. You’re my only hope.”

This was a lot to take in, but I’m glad we finally got some answers. I guess that would explain any missing scavengers amongst the ponies of Point Wayward or the Trappers. Anypony who came down here likely didn’t make it past Jellybean. Heck, we almost didn’t. Without my clone helping me, I’d be a goner.

“So you’re telling me I’m just a test to see if Muddy could produce clones that DON'T go crazy?”

“Yes. That is correct. Since you passed, I’ll dub thee…Muddy Water’s Proto Production Type. Now we can move on to the Mass Production Type, pending your original’s answer to my next question.”

Her metallic voice bounced around in my noggin for a moment before I was able to process all the new information. I kind of didn’t like the way she talked down to my sister and not just because her brain was on the ceiling in a glass dome.

“I still have questions. You answer them and I’ll see about helping. Depending on what you need me to do…”

I was surprised, and a little disturbed, to see the brain move its front up and down as if it were nodding. “Alright then. I’ll humor your inquiries. Ask away.”

“First, who are you? Second, what is all this? I thought Stables were meant to keep ponies safe, not create clones.” I remembered a zebra who spoke or Stables as if they were evil spirits looking to cast black magic on the innocent.

“Too bad we scared away the one living creature who might have told us something about Stables.” I wasn’t the only one to remember it seemed.

“My name is Helix Twist, second in command of Project Mirror Mirror. If you look through the viewing class to the next room you’ll see just the tip of the iceberg for Project Mirror Mirror and what became of it after being shelved by the Ministry of Arcane Science. Fucking Twilight Sparkle. I hope she got what she deserved when the bale fire reduced my country to cinders and fallout.”

Sounds like somepony has unresolved hatred for another pony. Helix Twist sounded like my kind of pony if I ever cared to remember anyone besides myself. Besides that, one question has been answered. Now for the next dozen or so and we might get somewhere. “I got a good hoof-ful of questions, but what I really want to know is what you need me for?”

“Yeah! We aren’t exactly the smartest pony around. Doubt we’d be able to help fix your project.”

For Helix’s part, her robot voice just let the sweet giggles go as her mono eye swapped between me and my sister repeatedly. “Baby steps. Let’s take things one step at a time. Although fixing the project is the ultimate goal, we need to address one key issue. Getting my Stable back from the living failures that are the Jellybean clones.” The red tint of her mono eye returned with a vengeance.

“We had an idea about shutting down life support and sealing the door so the clones would all die. I think you’re going to tell us why that plan wouldn’t work, right?” I’ll admit, I was a little sure of myself with that one. Maybe even smug about it, but the validation I felt when I watched the brain nod its gray matter again felt nice.

“Naturally. That is a terrible plan. First, there is a legion of Jellybean clones, most of which are located within the engineering level just above us. You’d need an army to clear them out of their favorite floor, considering Jellybean was the maintenance manager before the nightmare began. He’s done well keeping the Stable running the last century, which means oxygen.”

This was an ear full, but useful all the same. She continued, “Secondly, the Stable door has been reported as damaged. Likely it has rusted open due to the intense moisture in the air. The screening room and main entrance have suffered similarly, but the door beyond has kept the moisture out. The only solution is to simply kill them all I’m afraid…manually.”

Crap. That was bad news, but not unexpected news. After all, my own plan was to overpower the other clones with my own. Speaking of which, no more beating around the bush. With my sister remaining silent in contemplation, I took my opportunity to ask the obvious.

“We can do that, though we can’t do it alone. You made my sister, why not make more Muddy Waters?”

“My dear, what makes you think I haven’t already~?” Her mono eye turned to the viewing glass window above the consoles.

I guess she wanted us to see into the room with the hanging vats. When we pressed our heads to the glass and held our hooves close to our eyes to try and make out what was on the other side, my out of body experience returned with more than just a vengeance. It came to throw a mid-life crisis at me at the ripe old age of sixteen!

There, in the tile floor room that looked like a large shower room was the six glass vats from before with one still being broken. The rest were full of a clear liquid that kept five new clones floating within. Their manes floated in all directions as they slept soundly with closed eyes and peaceful smiles plastered on their features.

“Luna and Celestia, full of grace…this is…this is nuts…”

Helix turned her mono eye towards us again and flickered in some kind of simulated blink. “Impressed?”

Sister remained silent, which was unlike me. I responded to the question since she wasn’t willing to put any words in. “I guess. I expected this, but good goddesses. Kind of just hits me more than I thought. Still…”

“You still need them regardless. When you’re ready, place your head in the helmet so the personality copy can commence. It’ll be just like the first time you had your head in one of these. Only less drugs.” Her instructions were clear. The center console opened and a helmet with wires and bulbs sticking out was raised up for a user to wear.

Slowly I raised my hoof to take the helmet, but it was met by another hoof stopping me. Sister was ready to talk now, and the look in her eyes spelled she wasn’t ready for this. There was a desperation in them that gave me pause as I looked upon my own face.

“What about me……..w-will I be forgotten about? When you got so many clones…what will you do…wi-with m-me.” Her body shook as the weight of uncertainty set in. I wasn’t alone in my identity troubles it seemed.

I huffed in response, placed my hoofs on her face and squished those familiar cheeks. “You stop that. You’re my sister. I love you like I love myself, which is a hell of a lot! Not in an egotistical way, but you get what I’m saying. We….we are bond sisters forever and ever! Are you picking up what I’m putting down, sis?”

Oh, maybe I shouldn’t give motivational speeches to my clone. Tears filled her eyes as she let a sob escape before wrapping me in a hug and holding on for dear life. Something inside me felt strangely warm and fuzzy about this as I wrapped my hooves around my sister and returned the hug.

“T-t-t-thank you!!!” She cried as her emotions ran down my shoulder and over my cargo outfit. Not that I cleaned this thing anyway, but still. Gross.

I’m also happy to report she only cried for two whole minutes! Existential dread really hits hard, huh?

“Touching as this is, I believe it’s time to move our quest along. Ah! Before I forget again you will need this too. Go ahead and slip these on. The machine to your left will assist in the process.”

Two manipulator arms came down from the hole Helix Twist arrived through. Their three clawed hands carried one PipBuck each. The spindly mechanical limbs placed the advanced pieces of technology in front of us before curling back into themselves and receding into the ceiling. We took them as instructed, but I was busy with the helmet. While I went ahead and placed the device over my eyes and mane, my sister went to the machine and placed the PipBuck over her right hoof and held it above the left most console.

Another set of manipulator arms with some kind of tools worked the PipBuck over until it was secured on her hoof.

“Spell matrix coming online. Memory transfer in progress. Copy data initializing. All systems are functional. Vital signs are normal. Mirror Pool binary engram activated. Please stand by…”

I couldn’t see what was going on, but I could catch a brief flash of light bouncing off the clean floor as the helmet plugged every memory I owned into a computer and spat it right back out into five separate bodies. It was like watching my entire life flash before my mind’s eye. Boy let me tell you it was an experience and a half!

I just wish my life wasn’t so shallow.

Wishing for something and actually striving to get it were two separate things and I wasn’t the striving type usually. “Did it work? Can I take off the helmet now?”

No answer was given, but the helmet was lifted off my head and carefully tucked itself back inside the console it came from. Panels clamped shut around it, concealing the fact there was a helmet here at all. Now it was just another machine with data flowing through a small screen so rapidly I couldn’t even make out individual numbers or letters.

“Copy and paste sequence has been successfully completed. All vitals are strong…awaken my children. The time to take back what is ours is here.” Helix was certainly eager about the whole ordeal. Her mono eye and brain were gone, but I could hear her voice coming from the other room where the hanging glass vats with my clones were.

My sister was too transfixed on what she was witnessing there to talk to me. Her wide eyes and slack jaw wasn’t the expression I felt myself wearing in a scenario like this.

“Okay, I’ll bite. Did it work? Where are the other Muddy Waters?”

“Sis’ you gotta see this!”

She ushered me over with the hurried wave of her hoof. I pressed my face to the glass like before to see the other side and bear witness to my new births. From each vat a clone of Muddy Waters was flushed from her glass womb in a torrent of liquid that filled the tub the body had been dropped into. As the strange viscous liquid drained into the tub and disappeared, she stood within and peered from the edge of the tub while rubbing her eyes clear of the liquid she’d been preserved in.

All five of them did, with movements so synchronized it looked like a perfectly rehearsed scene in some kind of play. There wasn’t the slightest hint of deviation as they rubbed their eyes in an attempt to see for the first time.

“Where the fuck did I just end up?! I took a bath a week ago! Celestia damn it.”

Oh. So this is why my sister was so shocked. Watching them move together like one mind in five bodies and speak in unison like a hive mind was more than a little surprising, albeit greatly disturbing to listen to. Now I know how other ponies felt when they heard us speak in unison.

And it only got worse when the clones finally rubbed their eyes clear and looked on in a silent horror at the viewing glass they, in their own minds, were just on the other side of a minute ago. Then they looked at each other and finally themselves in a terrified, yet curious manner.

I tapped on the glass to get their attention. “Heeeeeey! Let’s keep it together bitches! No time for mind boggling nonsense! Out of those tubs and let’s get to work.”

At first I thought my clones were about to lose their minds in there, but the reality they found themselves in wasn’t one they couldn’t handle. With a shake of their heads and a slap of the cheeks, they were hopping out and forming a line on the other side of the door separating the control room with the cloning chamber. Occasionally the shaky legs would result in a few bumps and awkward apologies. At least I’m polite when I’m not isolating myself.

The door slid open and I was met with five pairs of eyes looking for guidance. Pretty sure they already knew what I was going to say, they were me after all. “You heard the brain in the jar. This Stable rightfully belongs to us! We have the guns, we have the gumption, let’s kick some ass!!!”

Sister stood beside me as a sense of determination filled the rooms we occupied. I could see it on their faces as the words of agreement left their tongues. “Yeah! Muddy Waters forever.”

“Let’s get em’ sisters!”

“Jellybean is going to hate us after today, that’s for sure.”

“Payback for the ass beating he gave us.”

“How many did ‘what’s her name’ say we had to get rid of?”

That’s a great question. I turned to my bonded sister who was still blown away by the cloning process and the sudden addition to a PibBuck on her hoof. Seemed like she was still trying to get used to all the things it was doing to her. I also needed to get mine attached at some point.

“Does the PibBuck say how many Jellybean clones there are sis?”

“O-oh! Well yeah, let me check the agenda…”

A moment passed as the group of Muddy clones bundled together around me, our eyes focused on the device wrapped around our sister’s hood. Another moment passed before something changed. Of course the change was her face falling into what I could only assume was despair. Maybe a little horror sprinkled in?

“Well? What’s it say?”

“Wow you look like you got bad news and worse news.”

“This can’t be a good sign.”

Now I was getting worried. Just a tad though. Nothing could be that bad right? “Sister, you gonna show us the number or what?”

Oh she showed it to me alright. By shoving the PipBuck in my face for me to see for myself. There on display under a tag labeled ‘What’s yours is mine’ was the mission objective ‘claim Stable 98. 207/207 remaining.

“TWO HUNDRED AND SEVEN JELLYBEAN CLONES?!?!”

***

PibBuck added to inventory. You’ve gained access to stats and level tracking!

Level up: level 3

Story Perk added: Perfect Template.

-you made it through the machine and can speak more than two words. Wow, science! You can be replicated once every twenty four hours. Try not to abuse this.

Perks already listed: Strong Back.

-All those years of scavenging have paid off, ya pack mule. You gain +25 to carry capacity.

Perks already listed: Fundamentally Unlikable

-Your low charisma S.P.E.C.I.A.L stat has hampered your abilities of communication. You cannot initiate dialogue with most forms of intelligent life unless you are spoken to first with few exceptions. Speech checks cannot be passed. Vendor prices have increased by 33 percent. You should probably find a way to fix this…

Chapter 3: Attack Of The Clones

View Online

I only need three people in my life. Me, Myself and I.

***

There was shouting, hoof stomps, the occasional plea to calm down, but none of that was going to change as the weight of what we were meant to do here bore down on us. My sister and her fellow clones were all upset at the prospect of murdering over two hundred ponies. Granted the murdering part wasn’t what got them angry. It was the fact there were only seven of us and over two hundred Jellybean clones to clear out. Clearly we’d underestimated how many hostile, animalistic clones could be down here and to be fair to my many selves...this was not what we signed up for.

I mean yeah we signed up with the express intent to murder things we didn’t really consider ponies, but this was a whole different ball park. It was overwhelming, monumental even! I guess the real issue was the fear of not having enough bullets and health potions to kill them all. Kinda morbid to think about, but I couldn’t care less. And if that was my outlook on things I could only assume my sisters felt the same way. So as they shouted up at the brain in the glass dome named Helix Twist, I was busy checking out my own Pipbuck. I think Helix said something about a 3000 model with some letter attached to the number, but I already forgot what it was.

“Hey wait a minute…why does the perk list say I’m unlikable?! Everypony quiet! This is serious!” I pushed past my sisters as they grew quiet, my words entering their ears and bringing about a new sense of anger and confusion among them. We all looked to the brain for answers.

Her blue mono eye stared down at me with an expressionless glow. After a moment, she spoke. “Curious. Have you identified the S.P.E.C.I.A.L statistics as of yet? You may find a source to your troubles there.”

My sister, the one who I held a personal bond with amongst the rest, looked to the rest of the new clones who eyed her back with visible anticipation. That alone made her flinch as she raised her PipBuck and began to scroll through it. “Can you tell me what that special statistic is supposed to mean?”

“Couldn’t be special talents. We’re all still blank flanks.”

“Yeah, it kinda sucks. I don’t feel special.”

“But sis, we never feel special. We’re just background ponies. Always have been.”

“Don’t let the PipBuck weigh you down. We like being out of the spotlight, remember?”

A loud ‘AHEM’ roused the Muddy Waters from their collective conversation and brought the attention back to the brain in the dome. “The Special Statistic is what makes you special. The Stable was equipped with visual presentations that could explain it all, but the short version is it represents your strength, perception, endurance, charisma, intelligence, agility and luck. Not sure how luck is measured, but I'll chalk it up to Stable-tec having something up their sleeve with that.”

“Oooooooh! Clever!” Seven Muddy Waters were all equally impressed with the clever use of the word special. Just wish we weren’t so in tune with each other that we kept speaking in unison.

“Now go ahead and read what makes you special, class. Since you’re all the same you should all have the same scores. Strange that you all came out without cutie marks. Usually those carry over in the cloning process.” Her eye turned to me now. Probably expecting an answer, so I checked the screen and looked at the slide that had a happy stable mare with five bars all filled. I wasn’t going to comment on the fact I didn’t have a cutie mark. Bleh!

One over each limb so I guess that meant I was healthy. Still trying to get used to all the different things in here on the screen and in my vision, like the new compass and strange detection thing that showed a dot where each sister stood. I made it to the screen that showed me my special numbers or whatever and looked at each one to figure out what made me special.

Ugh, saying it like that left a bad taste in my mouth. Like the words cutie mark, or moist.

“It says here we all have a six in strength. Good hustle girls, we’re not wimps!” That got a good laugh out of everypony except Helix. Feeling good about things, I continued. “Seven in Perception. Good eyes, I guess. Five in endurance. I think that's good…..oh…..one in charisma. Explains a lot. Five in intelligence. Two in agility and one in luck.”

Wow. As much as I wanted to debate the results of the scores, they made too much sense. I wasn’t very agile and couldn’t sneak well. Every step I took was obvious, but I could trek across the wetlands with packs full of useful crap and not break a sweat. The charisma score was the most damning though. It was clear as day, but it still left me speechless as I thought hard about why I had such a low score there and what it meant going forward. Luck was also low, but what has luck done for anypony? Couldn't care less about luck.

“.................well then! Now that everypony is educated on who they are, why don’t we return to the plan in motion.”

It was a round of ‘yes ma’am’ from the clones and myself. Respecting the elders was just what we did, even if they were a two hundred year old unicorn brain. When she had our attention, her eye began to glow before shutting off suddenly. “No, how about I use my magic. I’ve waited and plotted for over a century. I can show off a tad…”

I was silently wondering if that unicorn horn sticking through the glass dome was usable or not. Sure enough the little bastard began to glow as a magical projection formed over the floor. Some of my new clones saw they were in the way and swiftly moved to make room without saying a word. From the looks of it, the projection showed a floor plan for the entire science level of the Stable. “What’s the plan looking like, boss? You got our hooves, so what do we need to be doing here?”

“The plan won’t be easy, but you've taken care of the hard part…well the hard part for me. Weapons. Eventually the Jellybean clones will return down here to create more of themselves, so the first step will be to annihilate any clones who respond to my first alarm system.” The area leading towards the stairwell was highlighted in red. “Jellybean has been essential in maintaining the Stable. The fact his clones overran the Stable initially has been a small boon for the complex. He will respond if warning sirens go off and seek out the problem that needs fixing. Do you understand what needs to be done when he arrives?”

Yeah, we knew. Each one of us shook our heads as my bond sister began to pass out the various pipe weapons and ammo. There was a spare bolt action pipe pistol that was left in the bag, as even amongst the desperate those kinds of weapons went unused. Like how even the most thirsty of ponies here refused to drink tea that wasn’t sweetened, at least in Wayward. “We got all the understanding right here. Kinda confused on the part where we kill two hundred savage clones in a small hallway though.”

Another clone spoke up after the first. “That’s going to be a big pile up. They’re not going to keep climbing over each other like ferals are they?”

“I’m not sure what you’re referring to as feral, but I can assure you I’ve already thought of this and planned around it. Observe.” The projection on the floor changed to the next level of the Stable, which was far wider and more spread out than the science level here. This Stable wasn’t built as deep as I thought a Stable would go, but instead built with width in mind rather than depth. “The engineering level is where most of the fighting will take place. As soon as enough clones perish in the chokepoint down here, you seven will advance to the next one I’ve set up. I can control the doors and their locks, which will be essential in creating chokepoints and kill zones for you. After each one is deemed unusable, I’ll guide you to the next location where more clones will funnel in your direction with mechanical failure alarms.”

I can only imagine how much effort it took to detail each and every path the hostile clones could come from and where we should go to perform the best. I didn’t help that I was there on that level when I first awoke down here. Helix did say she controls the doors and their locks which would explain a lot. Might also explain how I managed to sneak past various rooms full of clones.

Without her locking the doors I might have been found and beaten to death. I also might not have met my bond sister and friend had she not locked her out of the closet. I’d need to address that at some point. Also need to address the fact I’m calling my first clone my bond sister. I liked the sound of it, but also I had nothing else to call her beyond saying my own name. Another thing for another time.

“The plans solid, we got the guns and ammo and we got the guts. Only thing now is…when do we start?” One clone spoke up, not sure if she was one of the more talkative ones but she was eager to finish this. If she was, then I was too.

Helix just responded by opening the doors leading out of the clone control room and giggling softly with her electronic, feminine voice. “Why, right away of course. Assume your positions and the alarm will sound. I advise you all to only fire at intervals of two ponies while the rest prepare and reload. Conserve your fighting strength as best you can and pick targets accordingly.”

Just as we were about to leave I looked back at all of my clones, my sisters, and eyed each of them. They returned the stare with confusion, but said nothing. “Girls, I love you all to death. So don’t actually die out there. You’re special to me, but not because you are me! Don’t uh…don’t take that the wrong way. Look, just play it safe, like mom said. And don’t worry about any of that life stuff. We’re gonna figure this all out later. Probably.” The speech was obviously not the best, but it was enough for my selves to understand what I was trying to say. There wasn’t much of a possibility of misunderstanding yourself was there? Eh, I assume not. “Look, I…we got a one in charisma! Don’t expect too much from me. I’m doing my best up here.”

“Do we always sound like this?”

“I just realized I sound different when I hear my own voice.”

“We really did linguistically stunt ourselves. I blame you, Muddy Waters.”

“Who’s side are you Muddy’s on? We can’t kick ourself like this…even though it’s true. Sorry original, it’s gotta be said.”

I spied my bond sister looking at me with apologetic eyes, but she didn’t need to say anything. Anything my clones said to me was just self reflection at this point. The feeling was coming on that I was going to learn a lot about myself in the coming storm, and some of those things might not be all that tolerable. Hell, I might even annoy myself with some of my own habits at this rate.

***

It was time. Together we gathered as many chairs and piles of crap we could find to form a makeshift barricade near the base of the stairs. It was kind of strange how the stairwell was open to the rest of what was supposedly meant to be a secure area. Anypony could just waltz in like I did initially. Come to think of it, maybe I was led here since Helix had plans in motion before I was ever brought into them.

Eh, another time.

With chairs, desks and trash cans we did as best we could. The trap was set and our guns were loaded. “Alright Helix! Let’s see what these one trick ponies can do in a firefight.” Four of us were on the barricade, with two behind ready to take action. The last sister was in the back reloading mags as we passed them back to her. If we needed her, she’d be ready to assist.

“I did mention Jellybean was a combat engineer and saw active service in the war, did I not?”

For the briefest of moments I could have heard a feather hit the floor because of how deathly silent it had become. We didn’t even get a chance to react to the sudden realization before the quietest ‘oops’ could be heard over the speaker system before the alarm sounded. “Stable structural integrity failing. All non essential personnel evacuate immediately. Maintenance crews report to science sectors immediately. Alarm. Alarm. Stable structural integrity failing…”

The lights went red and the automated message repeated again and again as we braced ourselves for the coming fight.

“Girls…..I don’t think I like Helix Twist very much.”

***

BANG

The gunshot echoed through the corridor as the first of what would be many Jellybean clones tumbled down the stairs with a bullet lodged in his forehead. The tools he’d been carrying smashed down each step with clangs that were almost as loud as the gunshot, at least to me. When his friends noticed they’d lost a member of their party, they too dropped their tool boxes and charged with their telltale language.

“Jelly! J-Jellybean!”

“Ho! Did ya see that? What a shot!” One sister was happy to see this wouldn’t be as dangerous as she thought as she readied her gun again and fired another .38 round at the approaching hostile force. My vision was lit up with red dots snaking their way over my display. It didn’t take a high intelligence to realize red was bad.

“I got the one on the left. Somepony get the fucks down center. Keep ‘em away!” I shouted over the screech of Jellybeans roaring in anger and charging us headfirst, which we responded with shouts of our own as we fired our guns into the group. I counted the dots, six in total. After the one on the stairs died, five.

BANG BANG. BANG

I fired my revolver, striking a Jellybean twice and dropping him. Four. The third shot went wide and bounced off the bulkhead of the Stable walls. My first sister fired her shotgun at one she’d let get close. He was about to jump the barricade before a slug round found its new home in his sternum. Like a light, his red dot flickered out and vanished on my compass hovering atop my vision. I guess that meant he was a goner.

Three left. We got this.

For being a combat engineer, Jellybean didn’t seem to mind he was being peppered by .38 rounds from my newest sisters. Nor did he bother attempting to take cover, opting to simply beeline straight for us as four sisters blasted the runners again and again. Another clone made it to the barricade, but with a few more shots and a round from my revolver he dropped dead against a trash can. The last two never made it down the hall. They died after the dozen or so rounds brought them down early.

“Je…..lly.”

Another red dot faded to nothing. Six clones were put out of their misery with only two hundred more to go. It was grim work and our hearts were pounding against our chests like mad, but we survived!

“Good……good work Waters! Proud of you all. Nothing we…it’s nothing…we can’t handle.” Out of breath so early into a job was a bad sign. I wanted to take a break already, but there was still the daunting task ahead and we’d only just started. Maybe it was the killing that made me like this. I’d never killed so many things before besides the odd group of feral ghouls and roaches.

“I wanna know something. Do these guys have guns too? Ms. Helix? I want answers, please…” My bond sister was the one finally stepping back into the spotlight. She looked to the ceiling for any signs of the brain, but all we got was the voice over the speakers.

“No, there are currently no guns or weapons within the Stable other than the occasional kitchen knife in the obvious locations and a baton left behind here and there. The residents took what they could before they rushed to leave during the evacuation. You are free to keep your distance from these clones without worry of them returning fire.”

That was oddly insightful and answered another question itching the back of my mind. So the residents aren’t dead, they left. Interesting. “Thanks Twist, appreciate ya.”

“Such manners. I’m surprised they still exist after the world ended. Anywho, prepare for the next wave. The alarms are still sounding and the next door will be unlocked. More will come.” With that, the speakers crackled and popped before shutting down and leaving us to the shrill sirens of more alarms.

True to her word, more red dots appeared in my vision. “Sis, you got the mags loaded back there? I’m counting eight this time with my PipBuck vision.”

I turned to look back and check on her and all I got was a speed loader for my revolver shoved in my face with six bullets ready to go. “This would be easier if I wasn’t shaking so damn much and had, I don’t know, magic to shove bullets in faster. I’m gonna get calluses on my tongue from this.”

Right, because us earth ponies had to load things by hoof or mouth. Wasn’t fun. But neither was the thought of one of the Jellybeans closing the distance and getting their hooves on us. We were all familiar with how that would end if they got close. Despite their obvious lackluster intelligence and below average stamina, Jellybean clones were brutally direct when it came to hoof combat. No amount of overweight flab was going to slow down those hooves when it came to an ass beating.

As I looked over the carnage and awaited the second wave, I couldn’t help but notice the bodies of our adversaries. Some were older, much older. Fattened by years of no physically significant activities and worn down by age, some of the clones looked like they’ve been down here a long long time. A couple were the exact opposite, looking young and still fit. Granted, the signs of age and laziness were beginning to show.

Dots appeared in my compass, indicating the next battle was underway as I thought about the future we were trying to steal. Could we become something like this? Mares old and young wearing each other's faces, living in a quasi harmony down in a Stable…

“Jelly! Noooo Jellybean.”

A small laugh emerged from my throat as the thoughts formed a new excitement in my soul. I raised my revolver and fired, the gunshot’s echo bouncing around the thick metal corridor like the bullet bounced around in the skull of the first Jellybean clone I attacked. He spasmed before falling to the floor as another group ran past his lifeless body and charged. Second verse, same as the first.

“Fire in sequence. Keep a steady stream of fire upon them until they are defeated.” Helix’s voice sounded above us, but I paid it no mind. I followed the directive as my other selves opened up with their weapons.

This time eight clones charged our firing line. Seven still stood until my sisters shot the rest down again and again with sporadic bursts of bullets and shotgun shells. Seven, six, five, two. They dropped like stones in the river one after another. One sister flicked a selector switch on her weapon before unleashing a volley of .38 bullets into the last two clones who managed to nearly reach the barricade together. The fully automatic weapon tore them to shreds and put them out of their misery rather quickly.

“I need a hat and some clothes, cuz when I get the chance I’m giving Rough the biggest hug ever!!!” The sister with the auto pipe rifle shouted with a happiness I wish I was feeling. Oh, that’s jealousy I’m feeling right now. Well hot damn ain’t that something.

Damn. I really wished I knew that it was an auto gun. I wanted to use it too!

“Focus sis, focus. We’re still neck deep in this crap.”

“Heh heh, any other clones get the odd desire to just….I don’t know…say your own name repeatedly and go nuts?”

The entirety of our group turned to face the sister who’d just made that joke. The Muddy Waters reloading the magazines suddenly turned very red as the well deserved embarrassment set in. Good, you deserve to be embarrassed. I was embarrassed purely by association as I'm sure every Muddy Waters was.

“O-oh calm down y’all! For Celestia's sake it was a joke.” The more she tried to avoid eye contact the more red her face became. Before she turned into a tato or something I grabbed her with two hooves and swapped positions with her. You don’t get to make terrible jokes and avoid consequences.

“Congratulations, you just earned front line duties for that. I thought I’d learn my lesson with making poorly timed jokes.” It wasn’t like I was forcing her to fight, she happily volunteered the moment she tried her hoof at a little light hearted comedy. I’m just glad I was able to learn from my mistakes and by that I mean from my clones. Truth be told I just needed to keep my damn mouth shut and everything would be fine.

Again the red dots came. I could see them dance across the compass in my vision before suddenly vanishing again. Turning my head I could somewhat track the dots, but only in the direction I was facing currently. There they were! The dots returned, but no sooner had I spotted them they blinked out of existence. Turning back towards the stairs I spotted them again, only this time they weren’t disappearing. My best guess was that the next batch of attackers was directly above me and heading straight for the stairs.

“Heads up Muddies, I’m counting five on the compass. Put 'em down again. Check those guns first though.” They were doing their part with nods of acknowledgement. Now it was time for me to do mine. I’d reload the mags, they shot the Jellybean clones dead, any clone of mine who needed their rest would get it as we swapped who had to put bullets into the magazines. At this rate we’d have the Stable taken within the day.

I just wish Rough had bought extra magazines with the bullets. This was annoying to deal with.

***

Three hours. It’d been three hours of nonstop fighting. Well it wasn’t much of a fight, but a slaughter. Again and again the alarms sounded, Helix would unlock a door someplace above us and a steady stream of angry clones would rush our position. I learned some valuable lessons in those three hours.

The first is death stinks. The corridor was awash with the smell and sight of blood, its pungent odor mixing with the stench of gunpowder and vomit to create something I didn’t think possible. A smell worse than mildly irradiated fish. Things had deteriorated so horribly and so rapidly that Helix shut off the alarm to give us a break from the adrenaline rush. We were all shaking pretty badly, with me and my bond sister having emptied our stomachs already while the rest dry heaved.

The second thing I learned was that we didn’t know when enough was enough and kept using the same corridor as a kill zone much to Helix’s annoyance. I see what she meant now when she said this area would become unusable. The bodies caked the floor to the point there wasn’t any space devoid of the new crimson river we’d made here. We’d got far too lost in the moment to understand Helix’s reasoning for moving on, but now it was too late. Each of us was going to have to wade through the viscera and up the stairs.

The third thing I learned was that I did not have the stomach for this. I didn’t have it when I killed my very first clones in the clinic, so why did I think I could stomach the sight of our deeds now? It made me wonder how trappers could do the things they do and not lose sleep at night. Or regular raiders for that matter.

My ears rang constantly after all the abuse from firing guns in an enclosed space for so long. We’d made cloth ear plugs after the first hour from rags, but the help they offered was miniscule. Kind of wished we’d made some kind of hoof wrappings instead as we left the kill zone and advanced upwards. It was worse than anything my worst nightmares could have cooked up, but I don’t think it's very hard to imagine just what we were going through. “Helix. Helix we’re at the top of the stairs and moving inwards to the next spot.”

“Understood. I’ve activated emergency lighting to guide you. Please remain vigilant.” That brain’s voice was starting to scrape away the tolerance I had left in me. My head hurt, I was nauseous from the smell of death, our hooves were caked in gore from wading through the grizzly scene. I dared not look back down the stairs at the trail we’d left behind. Forward, there was only forward towards the next area and the next group of clones that needed dying.

“Pssst, sister. Look at this.”

I turned to look at whichever Muddy clone was asking for me. To my elation it was my favorite clone, my true sister. She was eyeing her PipBuck again while walking alongside me. “Yeah? You find something new on that thing?”

“It’s not the PipBuck I’m looking at. It’s the mission thing. I don’t know how it can count all the Jelly clones down here, but the numbers don’t add up. Trust me, I counted.”

That was strange. Sure enough the number had gone down significantly since we started, but it was still at one hundred and thirty nine clones remaining. That was massive, but a far cry from the number from before. “So what's the problem?”

“We only shot fifty five clones down there. Come on Muddy, do the math. There’s more clones gone than the ones we killed. Who else is killing down here?”

This was no longer strange. Now it was just plain creepy. My head was on a swivel now as I checked behind us, down every hallway we passed, any place I thought an attack could come from. For all I knew there was an army of Jellybean clones behind every wall and locked door waiting to get out. Or maybe something else was down here. Something worse.

“Uuuuuh…H-Helix? We might have a problem.” I didn’t have to wait at all before Helix was poking through the ceiling. Being as skittish as I was at the moment, I may have jumped upon hearing the noise her open hatch made. Luckily we were in the back of the formation so none of my new sisters saw that.

The blue glow of the mono eye illuminated the dark not already illuminated by the red flood lights and exit signs. “Yes? Something you need? We have no time for hold ups so let's be quick about it.”

I coughed with more than a little trepidation. “So we were looking at the numbers and saw there's more dead Jellybeans than confirmed kills. Know anything about that?”

For all her worth she looked like she wanted to respond, but simply didn’t. Or ya know, as much as a brain in a jar could look like anything other than a brain in a jar. Her eye tiled to one side to simulate confusion before finally she responded. “Well…I didn’t want to bring this up before, but I guess I should tell you. Jellybean has been down here a long long time with no food sources available to him. He was a pony who solved practical problems and didn’t care much for farming. So when the denizens all evacuated, Jellybean was left with an immediate problem. Who would grow the food in the hydroponics bays?”

…Oh no.

“So the only real solution the Jellybean horde had at its disposal was…cannibalism. His clones have been relentlessly cloning and eating new generations of himself for over a century. The process has been unending since the day the door opened.”

By now the group had come back for us since Helix Twist’s jar couldn’t leave the spot she emerged from. Of course they turned around and returned only to hear the enemy we’d been brought to face were a bunch of pony-eaters. What’s one more detail to leave out after the first couple?

“You’re shitting me” one sister exclaimed.

“That’s such bull shit” said another.

The sentiment was, yet again, one of anger. Now it was my turn. “You could have told us that before we took the job. So happy to know if we get killed here we’re gonna get eaten by a bunch of out of shape pre war clones!”

“Hush! I’ll hear none of it from the filthy mouths of you, Muddy. I’m surprised you are this upset over a smaller detail. Do ponies or whatever else that inhabits the hellscape above ground not eat each other like the Jellybeans do? I would have thought cannibalism would be commonplace after the apocalypse.”

Well I couldn’t argue against that. “Well…I mean…sort of? Yeah we got cannies’ above ground. Just…Uuuuugh! Don’t leave any more details out! Wayward grown ponies respect straightforwardness, not this beating around the bush crap.”

“Yeah! What she said.”

“Give it to us straight, doc.”

“Don’t lead us on no more, Helix!”

Heh, that’ll show her. Muddy Waters doesn’t take that crap from anypony. “Alright sisters, let’s skedaddle. We got work to do!” And there she was, my bond sister, leading her various selves back into the abyss of the Stable to fight our rivals down here, our fated foes. Of course I followed behind. I left Helix without saying another word more.

***

We had time as we prepared ourselves. We’d been led to a nice little hallway that ended at the restrooms of this floor. Somewhere there was a clinic around here that I’d woken up in, but I doubt I’d see it again while we still had work to do. So, while my sisters and I prepared and checked our weapons for faults and our magazines for fresh bullets, I counted. The numbers from before did not add up. We killed fifty five clones in the level below. Sixty eight were dead in total. That left…thirteen. Even if the other Jellybean clones were cannibalistic like Helix said, could they really murder and eat that many ponies in the span of a few hours? There’s no way they’d need that many corpses to feed themselves…right?

I must have been pretty lost in thought, because when a clone of mine put her hoof on my shoulder I jumped like a scared filly. “Woah! You alright, Muddy?”

Her, one of the new sisters created for this very mission. I looked into her eyes like I’d done so many times over. Sometimes I gazed into them looking for pieces of myself to see if I was really in these bodies. The answer always came back as a yes. “Y-yeah. Yeah I’m good. I’m golden, sis’. Just freaked out is all.”

“We got your back, so long as you’ll have ours. The Waters family sticks together.” She smiled with a happy grin. I couldn't help but return it in kind. It felt good seeing myself so happy and inspired.

“I love y’all, have I said that already?” I looked to each of my clones who returned the gaze with looks of understanding. I don’t know if any other ponies wildly cloned themselves in the past, but for what it was worth I enjoyed my time with my selves. This, the experiences we were having down here, would remain our closely guarded secret. Nopony else could ever learn of what we’d found, of what we were doing. “Alright…Let’s do this. Helix, ready when you are!”

As if on queue, the alarms rang once again and somewhere nearby, a door was unlocked to the relief of the pony clones inside. The relief would be cut short as a quick investigation into the repeated alarm would bring a curtain call of death upon them. Another group of Jellybeans charged and again they met with the business end of Muddy Waters guns. This was just the process that had to be followed and maintained if success was to remain a reachable goal. We’d move on to various dark hallways and set up in places Helix instructed us to go. From there it was rinse and repeat with breaks in between to fix our weapons and reload our magazines.

It wasn’t until the third section of the engineering level did problems begin to present themselves.

“Where’s the .38 caliber rounds? I’m out…”

“Here! It’s my last spare mag, don’t waste it!”

“There’s a fuck ton coming our way, watch out!”

“My…My gun jammed. I gotta get the casing out, fuck! Watch my back.’

We had hundreds of rounds for the pipe weapons, but the .38 bullet was proving to us why it was such an inexpensive round. It took six to ten bullets to kill Jellybean, which is way more than I expected to kill anything pony sized. We were down to nothing now and were hanging by the skin of our teeth against an unusually large group of Jellybean clones. So many poured out of a door down the hall that it was all hooves on deck for this fight. Even as we fired with almost wild fury, the attackers still advanced.

It was here I realized Jellybean really was a soldier despite his age and the complacency of Stable life. I realized this when I saw him lift the hole filled corpse of his fellow clone up and use it as a meat shield while slowly advancing on us. More followed suit and even as some of them met with failure, the ones behind them picked up the trick and did the same thing until it worked. The only guns capable of shooting through a pony were my revolver and my bond sister’s single-shot shotgun.

As if the problems weren’t bad enough, down another hallway behind us I could hear a door click with the sound of a lock disengaging.

“Muddy, the clones are aware they are under attack. Some of them are beginning to pick the locks on the doors with improvised tools. You must fall back to the previous section, now!” Helix’s voice echoed through the area over the sounds of gunfire, but it was too little too late. One sister shouted as another group of clones emerged behind us, effectively cutting us off from escape. It was…oh shit. This was it wasn’t it?

“Four of you turn around and fight them off! One of you help out in the front, just keep it up. We can still win this!” My bond sister issued her orders and the rest followed them as I blasted through the body of a Jellybean and hit a still living one on the other side. With him dropping dead another leapt over the fresh body and charged, but he too met his end as my sister fired a shotgun shell into his chest. For the price he was paying, Jellybean was getting closer and closer. I swear I could see the wrinkles in a particularly old Jellybean’s face as he got dangerously close before a single .45 caliber round tore into his upper chest and another into his neck, dropping him.

Unlike us, Jellybean was climbing over the bodies of the fallen with ease. As I replaced my gun’s spent bullets another got close enough to earn a shotgun shell to the head, obliterating him like an abused watermelon. Now two of us were reloading, but another Muddy Waters had us covered as she sprayed down the remaining two hostile clones. Her bullets meant nothing to the last two clones who used the bodies of their comrades as cover, but their attack had stalled. That was good enough for me. About time they wisened up.

“We got this side, how’s things over there?” I could have smiled. We were winning again. That’s what mattered the most.

At least I thought we were. “G-get off! Get him off me!” Panic filled me as I turned to see Jellybean grabbing a hold of a sister’s gun, by the barrel no less, and yank it from her teeth before turning it back and slamming the stock into her head like a club. As she went down he moved to crush her like a bug, raising both forehooves to beat her to a pulp like he had me.

I didn’t know what to do, my body wasn’t listening as the panic ate away at me. I raised my weapon, but time seemed to crawl painfully slow as I watched his hooves come down.

“NO!!!”

Something clicked. My ears filled with the sound of a machine whirring to life before the world went from a slow crawl to an absolute stand still. The panic went into overdrive as I watched the still form of my foe just stand there frozen like a statue. Or a cockatrice victim, same thing. It was nothing I could have imagined I could do even in the wildest circumstances, but it was true. I’d frozen time! I could do some potentially dangerous things with this, like kill the fucker hurting my clone!

His name appeared in my vision, along with a number beside it. Jellybean 812 was what the magic identified him as. Percentages lined his various body parts giving me an estimate on…I wasn’t sure to be honest, but there were five of them around his body highlighting the same body parts the PipBuck used. Wait, that must be it! It’s the freakin’ PipBuck. I moved my eyes to the rest of the room and saw a sorry sight before me.

The clones were failing to keep Jellybean away with their guns dry of ammunition. One sister was highlighted by the spell now with her name appearing at the top of my vision. Muddy Waters 03. Well that was helpful, but not who I wanted in my crosshairs. The other hostile clones, now numbering at eight, were fast approaching our wavering formation. I picked the closest one who was trying to murder my new sister naturally.

And naturally I picked the chest with an 80% chance to hit twice and the head once. Only a 49% chance to hit him in the face, but that didn’t stop me from trying. That expression of hatred locked into his face was the last thing I saw before I tried everything to release the spell. I focused on the PipBuck and sure enough the spell was released. When it went down my body reflexively moved to fire twice into Jellybeans chest with a swiftness to make any gunslinger proud. His chest erupted like a blossoming flower made of blood pouring from him in slow motion while his head was removed from his body from the third bullet.

“You can kiss. My. ASS!” Oh Celestia I was feeling it! I could do this, WE could do this. I fired my revolver’s final three bullets into the approaching crowd with two hitting, but not killing their marks and the third burying itself into the hide of a dead body shield. Damn it all they were coping the other side and using the dead as shields.

I reloaded using my speed loader and fired again and again until I could feel the heat radiating from the cylinder of my revolver. Six more shots mixed with the plethora of gunfire and only three more Jellybeans died from our combined efforts.

We were running out of fighting strength and there wasn’t much else we could muster after the final bullets were exhausted. Now our guns became improvised clubs once Jellybean realized we weren’t firing anymore. He charged one final time with numbers on his side and raw strength to tear us apart with.

Maybe I spoke too soon. Maybe we weren’t gonna win this. In fact, we were about to die down here. Surrounded and alone…it couldn’t end like this…

“Ha! Ha ha, Jelly!”

“Jelly…..BEEEEAN!”

“Jel-jellybea…ACK!”

Another blip on the compass just appeared behind the attacking clones. Only this one wasn’t red, but blue. And whoever it was just made extremely short work of a Jellybean clone as only four red blips remained on this side. I saw them with the severed head of a clone between their hooves, its face permanently marred with the expression of terror.

Whatever or whoever they were, their clothes were that of patchwork leather covering them from mane to hooves like some sort of butcher's outfit. Even their face was covered, minus the eyes which were blue. No, I was wrong. Not a butcher, a hunter. A trapper!

Before Jellybean could even react the trapper was upon the group of clones, grabbing one from behind and bending his head back so far I saw his mane reach his flanks before a terrible snap filled the air. The trapper kept going with a fluid like motion, just drifting between targets with zero hesitation. The next Jellybean turned to deliver a powerful hoofstrike, but by the time he’d turned and swung the trapper was already beneath his swing and delivering a couple of their own.

It was beautiful in a horrid kind of way watching Jellybeans ribs cave in and puncture his lungs, making his gasp of pain the last air to leave his ruptured organs. The fourth Jellybean could only watch as a speeding hoof slammed into his neck, crushing his windpipe so quickly he hadn’t realized he was done for. One step, two steps and like that he was on the floor scraping at his neck in a vain attempt to get the air flowing.

I was surprised the last Jellybean even tried to fight, but he did a better job than the rest. He at least got a better chance to land a hit while the trapper was distracted on the fourth one. Still didn’t matter though as his swing was not only deflected by rapid hooves, but used against him as the trapper gripped tight and swung him over their shoulder and into the floor. After that it was a quick turn of the head and the trapper snapped Jellybean’s neck like a worn out rope.

“H-H-Holy shit…” a sister raised her rifle to fire at the stranger, but all that came from the gun was the click of death. An empty mag’s final gift to the wielder before the end came. Luck must have been with us despite the odds, because the blue blip never turned red. Instead the trapper moved past us so fast I barely made it out of the way before they were dancing over the corpses like stepping stones in the river and upon the Jellybean clones like a radigator on easy prey.

These clones were better prepared to fight, however. The moment the trapper got close a body was chucked at the new fighter who deftly evaded it only to get a buck for their efforts. Even as they were sent sprawling, the Jellybeans never made it to their target before the trapped was back up and smashing a clone in the face so hard I saw teeth fly. The second Jellybean clone got a headbutt for his troubles, then a punch in the mouth that shattered everything from his nose to his upper jaw.

“Luna be damned, look at ‘em go! Who is that?!”

“Who cares?! Get your sister off the floor and carry her, we gotta move. Now…”

We were just backing away at this point to give the trapper all the space they needed to brutally beat Jellybean to death. And that’s exactly what they did. The trapper moved from smashing one clone’s head against the metal wall until his skull cracked, to biting into the neck of the clone who’s nose they shattered and tearing it out with their teeth. Beneath the crimson liquid I could have sworn I saw a blue coat, a light blue coat.

The blips were gone now, their owners dead. With them gone the trapper turned to us who were still conscious and glared before charging us this time. Without warning we were about to be the next victims! This was not how I wanted to die!

“Hey hey hey, hold on we can talk about this!”

Me scrambled like disorganized chickens and tried to avoid the newest addition to our attackers, but before I could glance to see if the blip had suddenly changed the trapper was already past us. If I had been paying attention I might have noticed the Jellybean with the smashed windpipe standing up behind us and preparing to crush me beneath rage filled hooves.

Only he never got that chance. His hooves came down with equally strong hooves pushing back up against his own. I’d been knocked out of the way just for the trapper to take my place. From my new position on the floor I got the best seat to view the trappers hood and mask fall from their face. No, it was a mare with blood stained lips and a green mane. And let me tell you, those lips got a hell of a lot bloodier as she bit into the neck of the final Jellybean clone and ripped into him like a fucking feral ghoul.

Green mane, light blue coat. No. No way, it couldn’t be. I activated the PipBuck spell again to highlight the trapper, targeting her head and looking at what her name was. Maybe the device on my arm could alleviate my horror…

It didn’t. In fact it only confirmed it.

Vivid Grove, my mom, was tearing a stallion's throat out with her bare teeth. Let me tell you, as I released the spell without targeting anything I could have sworn I saw her not spit out the pony gore she’d bitten into, but swallow it raw.

Our eyes met. She looked at me with shock, I looked at her with uncontrollable fear. Then she spoke. “…S-Sugar. I can explain…please…don’t be scared…”

BANG

I don’t know who shot, but I saw who’d been hit. Mom’s eyes widened as blood poured from her shoulder, causing her to collapse where she stood.

“Muddy, please forgive my lack of appearance. I’ve shut down any further attempts at Jellybeans, or anyponies, lockpicking the doors. Fortunately I arrived when I did.”

Helix’s casing was hanging from the ceiling again with her horn glowing pink. At some point she’d arrived without us noticing and picked up the bolt action pistol we’d neglected to use. With telekinetic power she chambered another round.

“I’m unaware of who this is, but I’ve taken care of the intruder for you.”

“Helix you fucking moron! That’s…..that's our mom!”

***

The next hour or so was tense. I’d even go as far to say it was more tense than the near death situation we were in prior to finding out my mom was a trapper.

She’d survived, albeit barely. Fucking pistol was chambered in .308 caliber ammo. Who makes a bolt action pistol like this?! Gah, it didn't matter! What mattered was us getting mom and my sisters to the clinic on this level. Helix showed us the way through the maze of hallways and rooms to find it. From there it was a process of getting the bullet out of mom and getting a healing potion into everypony.

Not sure what kind of armor mom was wearing, but it was tough leather for sure. Didn’t stop the bullet from tearing her shoulder open, but it kept her from dying at least. Helix helped too, using her magic and knowledge of…whatever it was called, to get the bullet out. I think she said biology?

“Alright girls, how are we looking? Who’s still good?” I asked the room. Two sisters looked down at purple bruises and swollen injuries. Another sister nursed her bruised face from when she got her own gun used against her.

“Four of us are good to go. Some ponies got hit hard though.”

“Yeah. I think I lost a tooth…”

“I think my leg is cracked. It hurts to stand on it.”

“Mom got fucking shot.”

That was a revelation we were all still coming to terms with. Mom, the mare I thought was a plain housewife who’s special talent was cooking meals, was actually a trapper. Now I wondered if the meat she’d practiced with in the past was a creature’s or a pony’s. There wasn’t any room for doubt in my mind when I watched her bite into those clone's necks. She’d swallowed the chunks she bit out of Jelly’s cloned flesh without any hesitation or reservations.

At least mom didn’t bite off more than she could chew. Okay that was bad to think about. Way too soon to be joking about this.

“Alright then. Let’s focus, get ourselves together. Myselves? No, we’re focusing. Right now!”

Phew, it got hot in here. Frazzled nerves and crashing adrenaline was kicking my flanks up and down. At least I wasn’t the only Muddy Water’s to feel the strain return after the fighting was done. Exhaustion and fear were in great supply unlike our ammo and food. With depleted fighting strength I highly doubt our mission can continue like it has been. Just then, my sister, or at least one of the new ones, clopped her hooves together and coughed loud enough to get our attention.

Once she had our collective eyes on her, she spoke. “I think I got a plan, but we need to figure some things out. Since Jellybean was the pony responsible for keeping the Stable together, who’s gonna do that once he’s gone? I’ve been asking myself that since we started.”

Another sister raised her hoof and meekly said ‘us’ but we quickly returned to a smaller stance when we all shook our heads. We were all in agreement that keeping anything beyond a knot together was well beyond us.

“Why kill them all anyway? Feels like we could get away with locking some of them up to do fixing jobs and stuff.”

I’ll admit, I was impressed with myself. As the room filled with the slow agreements of my sisters, I looked to the one I was closest to and scanned for any sort of reaction or hint of what she was thinking. When her eyes turned to meet mine, she smiled and huffed at me. “Don’t get a big head because we can come up with good ideas from time to time. There’s only about fifty or so left. What’s stopping us from locking them in the important areas and making them fix things when we need it?”

“Would you like me to identify all the probable outcomes to this and why it won’t work?” Oh yeah, Helix was still hanging from the ceiling as per usual. I swear she must have some kind of little train tracks in the vents given how she follows us. Not that it was a bad thing, I appreciate her helping mom.

“You’re going to tell us anyway so go ahead. Don’t let us stop you…”

“I thought it sounded like a great plan. Why should we have to take care of the Stable when he’s been doing it over and over again for centuries?”

There was this hint of frustration from the static that bubbled from her speakers. Maybe it was the twitching of her brain inside the glass dome, but I swear I could see the gears turning in her head as she tried to formulate her various responses. Now I wondered if she did this when she was still a pony.

“Do NOT be fooled by his clear disabilities and cognitive decay. Jellybean is a clever creature. When he first emerged from the tubes in his current state I did all I could to prevent him from escaping. When he managed to hack his way through and threaten the populace I did my best to prevent his return to the labs and keep him contained in maintenance. I’m sure you noticed the stairs lead straight into the labs despite this being a secure area, yes?”

We nodded, completely engrossed in her story. “He took the arc welders and cut away the bulkhead of the Stable! There’s supposed to be walls blocking the stairwell from the rest of the Stable, but that clearly isn’t the case! I’ve tried everything and every time that clever clone finds a way around me. So unless you can achieve what I could not, I suggest another strategy.”

She was telling the truth about that, for sure. Those clones were unlocking doors and swarming us by the end. Had mom not followed us down here and intervened, we wouldn’t have survived that. However, there were plenty of them still remaining and hadn’t yet escaped Helix’s lockdown. This plan could work, but we’d need time to think of every possible way to contain the rampant Jellybean clones.

“What about food? I’m getting kinda hungry…”

“We can’t even feed ourselves. How are we gonna feed the beans?”

A laugh from behind drew our attention. At first I thought it was Helix laughing at us, but when I turned I saw mom trying to contain herself while laying on the bed we’d placed her in. “I think I may be of help here.”

“MOM!”

The seven of us rushed to her side and surrounded her in hugs. I didn’t know if she’d make it, but thank Celestia she had. “Mom, what are you doing here? How did you find this place?”

She just scoffed and patted my head. “Did you really think me and your father would allow you to wander into danger? I may have helped out indirectly, but I would never allow my baby to go into such a dangerous place alone. So I put some old tricks to use and tracked you here.”

Now it was her turn to ask questions. As she looked at my new sisters I could tell what she was going to ask about. “So, Muddy…when were you going to tell me you were playing with dangerous technology and…making new siblings? I hope you realize just how badly grounded you all are.”

“When were you going to tell your family you’re a trapper! Does dad know?!” I practically shouted, barely able to contain myself. I wasn’t sure what I was feeling, but it bordered on anger and sadness.

For Vivid Grove’s usually sunny demeanor, her eyes fell as she spoke. “He does. We first met when I tried to kill him and his friends. Wasn’t the best day of my life. I wanted to hide that from you all, Rough, Clear, yourself. Selves…that’s why I planned to never speak of it.”

“W-what…”

“That’s not the story you told us as fillies!”

“Yeah! You said you met dad after he saved you from falling over the guard rails in the market.”

“Everypony calm yourselves. This is no time for division in the ranks.” Helix was quick to step in before the Muddy clones got antsy. Her eye turned to the mare at the center of all the attention and huffed in her electronic voice.

“I for one am very very impressed with how you handled yourself madame…”

Mom answered the hanging question. “Vivid. Vivid Grove.”

“Yes, Vivid. Are you perhaps a surgeon of some form? The way you smashed the third and fourth ribs was nothing short of surgical precision. Your destruction of the jugular tissue and crushing of wind pipes was also very inspiring. I was awestruck at how well you know pony anatomy to the point you could use such precise strikes to cause the most damage. Even the headbutt was masterful. You took almost no injury and dealt a hefty blow to the Jellybean clone.”

For all that said, mom took it surprisingly well. A faint blush formed around her cheeks as she shied away slightly. “M-my my, I’ve never been complimented on how well I fight before. No…no I’m no doctor. We were taught at a young age to take down beasts and ponies. It’s hard living when you’re the smallest predator on the food chain, but we hold our own…I’ve also seen the insides of both enough to know where to hit the hardest. Special trapper technique I learned as a filly to pop another pony's lungs.”

Well fuck me, mom really was a trapper to her core. That meant I was the daughter of a trapper, a pony who could smash ribs and eat ponies throats like a radigator. It would have been cool to know if it wasn’t so shockingly terrible.

So I had to ask the obvious. After all, Wayward ponies enjoy straightforwardness. “Um, mom? Did you ever eat another pony?” Nervous anticipation filled my voice as I asked.

She smiled, rubbed my cheek and sighed. A mother who wanted the best for her children is all I saw as I searched her eyes for some kind of answer. “No. I haven’t eaten any ponies….”

Luna be praised! Sweet relief.

“The things I ate threw away what made them ponies a long time ago. Slavers, raiders, mutants. Those aren’t ponies. Those are monsters no different from the beasts we trap and hunt. And we don’t let any meat go to waste~.”

…oh. Well shit. I’m the daughter of a pony eater after all.

***

Level up: Level 4

Perk added: Adrenaline- feel the rush! You gain +6% damage increase for each kill up to a maximum of 36% for 30 seconds. Timer refreshes with each kill.

Fallout Equestria: Sisterhood

by Crowseph Crowstar

Prologue- Wayward Soul

Chapter1: Oh Sister, Where Art Thou

Chapter2: Everything To Gain

Chapter 3: Attack Of The Clones