Originally Posted by SuicideDo

HAHAHAHAHahahAHahAHaahahaHAhaaa nice run! good job.

Originally Posted by Pinnky

thing

Show

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Chapter 1: Inception (This book is based off the Fallout series and My Little Pony)
“Once upon a time, in the magical land of Equestria…”
War. War never changes. It had consumed our home, a war fought by foreign aggressors until great and terrible magics had been unleashed to burn all the world to ash and dust. Only our constant devotion to the Princesses had carried us through that terrible war, just as our unwavering faith in the Overmare maintained our continued survival within the earth. Trust in the Overmare; obey the Overmare.
The grating buzz of my alarm yanked me away from sleep. I stuck my left foreleg out from under the blankets, away from my head, felt around for the end table next to the bed, found it, and proceeded to whack my PipBuck against the tabletop until the right button was hit and the noise stopped. I groaned and smacked my lips, tasting the sour gunk in my mouth before rolling onto my back and huffing softly, “Good morning, Blackjack. Welcome to another thrilling day in Stable 99.” I half crawled, half rolled, half fell out of bed and gave myself a vigorous shake. Life in Stable 99 was routine, with any deviation punishable by the security mares. I had half an hour to wash, half an hour to eat, and an hour to report to my duty station. The same as it had been every day since I’d gotten my cutie mark.
Slowly, I shuffled through the copious junk I’d accumulated. It was mostly recycled food chips and old drink bulbs, though I liked to pretend that some of the open bottles on the dresser were some sort of fermentation experiment... Maybe a pet? Colonization by our future fungal overlords? Heh. A mare could dream… My horn glowed white as my magic lifted my uniform from one of the heaps. I gave it a test sniff… ew… unacceptable. I tossed it back on its pile and sifted around for another. Sniff… sniff… yeah, this’d work.
Trotting down to the showers, I passed the murals designed to inspire camaraderie and cooperation… at least, according to what I’d been constantly taught in classes. ‘We are all the Overmare’s foals’ declared the caption of one picture of an abstract white unicorn hugging dozens of tiny ponies in her hooves. Another showed one lone weeping mare under the caption ‘Selfishness Separates’.
I trotted into the sector’s communal bathroom, and immediately my ears perked to a familiar giggling. Walking past a stall, I glanced in at two mares employing unauthorized and probably ineffective washing techniques. According to the training manual, behavior like that in public spaces was punishable by whipping and restriction to C class rations, so it was pretty understandable that the pair looked up with some trepidation when they spotted me.
“Oh, it’s just Blackjack,” the dappled mare, Pastels, said in relief before flushing and snapping at her partner, “I swear, you are trying to get us flogged!”
“Fun,” giggled the white mare, Misty Hooves from the bakery, nuzzling her. Misty was a chronic offender. I didn’t know if she liked the kiss of the whip or if there was something else wrong with her. Or both.
I sighed. In theory, I was supposed to discourage this kind of thing. However, it fucking sucked being the mare who was supposed to discourage this kind of thing. “You won’t think so if it’s Daisy doing the flogging,” I commented, and instantly their smiles disappeared. I couldn’t blame them. With the constant duty and honor bullshit, a little flank spank was one of the few reliable means of recreation, and a lot of the security mares got really... enthusiastic about it. I stepped under the spray and immediately jerked. “Cold!”
“Yeah. Heating talismans are really slow today,” Misty said.
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“Well,” I said after a moment, “go back to your quarters and finish up your fun. Make sure you’re back in your beds by curfew.” That’s me, big badass security pony. The pair glanced nervously at each other and then quickly finished their showers.
“I wonder if we can do it in the atrium and not get caught,” I heard Misty mutter to Pastels as the two trotted out. I rolled my eyes and shook my head. Some mares have all the luck. Not that they were the only two, or even the worst two. Half the ponies in the stable seemed to have at least one flavor of crazy. I supposed it was only inevitable when half your day was devoted to keeping this place going.
And we had to keep it going. If we didn’t… don’t think about it.
Stable 99 was all that was left. Every filly learned that as soon as they could read; the megaspells unleashed across Equestria had sterilized the surface. Radioactive death was all that awaited us outside. So we kept the stable working. We kept order. We kept loyalty… because at any moment… any moment…
“Fuck, Blackjack. Don’t think about another Incident,” I muttered softly. “The Overmare Protects”… but I felt a gloomy specter rising inside me at the thought of the entire stable being in the hooves of a filly a year younger than me.
There were exactly five hundred jobs to be filled in Stable 99. Four hundred and something were covered by mares like myself who inherited our jobs from our mothers. My mom was security. I was security. When I had my daughter, she would be security. And so on and so on. In the rare event of a mare dying before she could breed, a lottery would be held for some other mare to produce an extra filly for the spot. Because the population had to stay at five hundred. Everypony had to behave and follow the rules. Otherwise… there’d be an Incident.
Stable 99 couldn’t take another Incident. This bathroom alone showed the flickering lights from overtaxed generators and the water that couldn’t settle on whether it wanted to be freezing or boiling. You couldn’t think about it; all it would take was one thing to go wrong and we’d all die. One busted generator… one broken recycler… one accident, and we’d all be choking on our own unrecycled breath.
“Fuck! Don’t think about it…” I said, trying again to shove it from my mind. That was made ridiculously easy by Midnight trotting past me towards the atrium. Instantly, my ruby eyes popped wide at her cute flank and graceful tail. Black on black and oh she needed to be mine! “Hey! Midnight! Midnight! Hey! Hey! Wait up!” I shouted as I tripped and raced to catch up with her. Of course, she didn’t wait; she never did. Instead, she picked up her pace. “Damn it, Midnight! No running in the halls!” I shouted as I ran after her. What? I was security! I was allowed to break the rules when pursuing a fine flank!
Unfortunately, there was a flash, and a pair of hoofcuffs materialized around my forehooves. “Oh sh--” I barely got out before rolling head over hoof. I glared around at the source. It could only be… “Daisy. Marmalade. Excellent cunt block… top notch.” The pale earth pony mare and honey colored unicorn both smiled at my predicament.
“No running in the halls, Blackjack,” Daisy said, stepping out of the side hall she’d been lurking in. When Stable-Tec made the stable, clearly they hadn’t had mares of her size in mind. Her ears nearly brushed against the ceiling as she looked down at me with her snide little grin. “Not even after pussy.” Marmalade gave an echoing little snicker.
“Right. You got me,” I said as I held up the hoofcuffs. “So?”
“Aww… don’t know the spell yourself? I thought all the security unicorns did. Marmalade does,” Daisy taunted as she stepped over me, making her way towards the atrium stairs. The vapid unicorn gave a slack grin and nodded, and then both of them had a good laugh as they trotted away. I rose, glaring at their backs before hobbling after the pair.
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All security unicorns were supposed to know a selection of spells for policing the stable. Me… I had telekinesis… and telekinesis… and oh! Did I mention telekinesis? I couldn’t cuff or stun or do interrogation spells to save my life; all the practice I’d put in merely gave me a migraine. I’d have been better off being in maintenan-- wait, that would mean I’d be responsible for the stable. Strike that… better I were in food prep. Nice, low-responsibility food prep. That was the life for me…
But I was security. Because Mom was security. Because her mom had been security. All the way back to the legendary Card Trick, the one who’d carved ‘Security: We Save Ponies’ above the entrance to the security level. Hurray for completely irrational expectations! I knew I’d never save 99. I couldn’t even get out of these hoofcuffs.
Whoa, pity party; table for one! Or not. I didn’t have any time for the ‘poor me’ routine. Never played well. Nope! I just had to get out of these cuffs… and I had an idea how…
The huge atrium was the heart and soul of pony life in 99. Almost half the stable could fit in the room for large events, more if everypony was really friendly. Huge support pillars had been sculpted in a parody of tree trunks, and the support beams had been fashioned to resemble branches. That was about the extent of trying to make 99 look like something outside. Besides, the effect was ruined by the huge banners of the Overmare smiling down at us all and her stupid patriotic slogans of ‘Help the Overmare, help 99’ and ‘Stableity over all’. I mean, really. ‘Stableity’? The music piped in was half parade march and half hymn.
Any wonder I tried to stay out of this place? There was also the fact that most ponies refused to look at me. They’d drop their conversations, look aside, or leave. It didn’t matter that I tried to be nice; the fact was that all I had to do was drop a name and they’d be hauled in for interrogations. I’d witnessed enough to know I didn’t want to drop a name… besides, I’d already tried it once. Never worked for the ponies who deserved it.
I passed the cafeteria where ponies loaded bowls with green recycled algae slime, scooped recycled fungus cubes onto trays, collected synthetic recycled carrot sticks and apple flakes into bowls, or heaped up stacks of green recycled grass chips, brown recycled hay chips, and white recycled cake chips upon their plates. All the food in 99 was recycled into more food. All the waste in 99 was recycled. We were recycled. And yes, even having lived here my entire life, I still found it easier to pretend that the machines just magically made the food poof into being. Still, despite being made out of recycled poo water, the chips were pretty tasty!
You just had to not think about it.
Midnight was talking with Rivets and Textbook, and the black unicorn’s eyes widened at the sight of me hobbling to her table. “Mind if I join you? No? Great!” I said as I set my hooves on the table before she could shoot me down. “Hey, Riv. Hey, teach…” the earth pony school mistress sniffed disdainfully at my intrusion.
“We were having a private conversation,” Textbook said sullenly as she glared at me. Rivets, an older gray earth pony, showed far more amusement at my predicament.
“Great. Do I have a story to tell! Here I was, just minding my own business, hurrying to catch up with a particularly lovely mare, when these hoofcuffs appeared on me like magic! Can you believe it?” I asked with a grin as I tapped them on the table. “So, there I was, pondering and bemoaning my fate, when I remembered a certain vision of angelic equinity whose magic far outshines my own and whose kindness and generosity would surely compel her to free me from my predicament!” I said, grinning ear to ear as I fluttered my eyes at Midnight.
“Blackjack, I’m a PipBuck technician…” she began.
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“Which means you’re intelligent. Skilled! That you possess far more competence than a lowly security pony like myself!” I said as she hesitated. I almost had her convinced! “I’ll pay you in oral sex!” I blurted. Textbook turned the shade of a spoiled apple, and Rivets covered half her face as she chuckled.
“I’ll talk to you tomorrow,” Midnight said to Rivets as she trotted to another table.
“I’ll be telling your mother about this,” Textbook added to me before going to join Midnight.
I groaned and pressed my face into my bound hooves. Rivets patted my shoulder. “Oral sex, huh? What’s the going rate on that?”
“I’m an idiot,” I muttered. Rivets chuckled, certainly not arguing.
“I had no idea. I didn’t think you were into mares,” Rivets said with a smile, munching on her grass chips.
“Eh…” I shrugged. “It’s more the fact she always tells me no.” I glared down at the cuffs on my hooves, growled, and then bit the conjured metal. “She always plays hard to get…” I said around the mouthful of metal.
“Well, it’s your time to waste. Her spot on the queue’s up, though, so I really doubt she’ll have time for you,” she said matter-of-factly.
“Really?” My red eyes widened and then drooped along with the rest of my body. I slumped till my chin rested on the tabletop. “Bummer.”
“We all have our little trials,” Rivets said with a sigh. “I’ve got to get Duct Tape’s filly on the duty roster. She’s taking over for her mom.” She sighed. “Hopefully she knows which end of the wrench goes on the nut.”
“Duct Tape died? How?” I gasped. She was one of the nicer ponies in maintenance. I frequently bumped flanks with her on C shift, though never actually talked with her, of course. After all, I was security, and she was scared to death of me.
Rivets snorted in irritation. “Don’t you ever pay attention? She died a week ago. Tried servicing the Overmare’s terminal, and it blew up in her face. Power junction wasn’t closed.”
“But Scotch Tape doesn’t even have her cutie mark yet, right? She’s still in school,” I pointed out, twisting my hooves errantly in the cuffs to try and free them.
“Does that matter? I’ve got a hundred and fifty maintenance mares to manage, and I’ve got a hole on the C shift and she’s got to fill it,” Rivets said firmly, narrowing her eyes as she pressed her lips together. “I feel for the kid. Really. But the stable takes first, last, and middle priority. She’ll just have to get over it.”
“Really? I thought it was Overmare first, last, and middle,” I replied, enjoying a little smack talk. Normally it would get a grin. The look on Rivets’s face now, though… I’d never seen her look so angry in my life. My black-and-red-striped mane itched terribly, and I just wished my hooves were free so I could scratch it.
Rivets groaned. “Don’t talk about the Overmare to me. She’s been throwing all kinds of special work orders and studies my way. The little foal is demanding peak efficiency, and she’s countermanding my work assignments to make damn sure it doesn’t happen.” She reached into one of the many pockets on her utility barding and drew out a notepad. “Last month she ordered the stable recreation broadcaster in Maintenance One overhauled, but then she collected every piece of scrap electronics and conductor for inventory and kept the entire terminal crew occupied with ‘searching and cleaning’ the stable databases!”
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Maintenance One was the little closet of a utility space next to the stable maneframes and the massive Stable-Tec hatchway right outside the atrium; I sometimes used it for naps when I knew the Overmare was out. “Did she say why?”
“Do overmares ever?” Rivets countered with a snort. “Her mother was bad enough; I sure didn’t shed any tears when she died last year. But that little tyrant is going to…” and she drew herself up short, realizing that even though I was the most irresponsible mare in security, I was in security. She coughed, then gave a little shrug. “I’m just concerned about the stable. That’s all.”
And that was the story of my life. No matter how friendly I was, I was security. She wasn’t. I enforced the Overmare’s rules and punished those who didn’t. I sighed, my ears drooping a little. “Well, see you at the card game tonight?”
There was some considerable doubt in her eyes as she stared at me. She rose with a cool, “Of course. You’re always welcome at the game.” Not because I was actually welcome welcome, but more because having me there would assuage fears that the game would be raided. After all, I was the only pony in security who liked associating with the maintenance mares after hours. “It’s in Atmospheric Maintenance Three this time. Bring your bits.” Because I would be leaving with exactly as much as I came with, because I was tolerated. Not wanted. Goddesses, why was my mane crawling thinking about the look that she’d just given me?
I looked at the cuffs on my hooves, feeling as if there were something I was missing, then growled as I narrowed my eyes and bit them again!

***

There were five hundred ponies in Stable 99, and one tenth of them were resigned to the duty of protecting and safeguarding the stable and executing the will of the Overmare. Unfortunately, we also had to frequently tackle the question of which one took priority. The briefing room was festooned with graphic reminders that ‘Service to the Overmare is Service to the Stable’. I hobbled in just as the security head started with the evening briefing.
The security head was Gin Rummy, a middle-aged unicorn who still looked better than several of the younger mares. Her purple and red striped mane contrasted well with her lavender coat and bright pink eyes, and those pink eyes looked right at me with immediate disapproval the second I hobbled in.
Gin Rummy trotted up to the podium and flipped through the notes organized on her PipBuck. The microcomputer on the leg of everypony in the stable had a ridiculous amount of data storage space on it, but I wagered hers was nearly full. She’d been head of security for longer than I’d been alive, and I’d never known her to not be organized, confident, and secure in her knowledge of what was going on in Stable 99. Daisy and Marmalade snickered as I limped in, and I gave the rest of the security mares a sheepish grin and a shrug before taking my seat. Gin Rummy just sighed and looked at me with a slow, disappointed shake of her head. Still, wasn’t much she could do.
“So, everypony. I want to thank you for your hard work. Stable incident reports are down to under five percent this month. There hasn’t been anything more severe than a few class C incidents of violating curfew. Springs was caught this morning hoarding Med-X, but she surrendered her stash willingly. Punishment will be twenty lashes in the atrium tomorrow morning.”
“Ohhh! Ohhh! Pick me! Can I do it?” Daisy asked with a grin, waving her hoof in the air. Gin Rummy did not share her humor.
“Punishment will be administered by a random pony from A shift, Daisy. You know that,” she replied firmly. Daisy snorted, glaring at me. I responded with my best ‘what?!’ expression.
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“In other news, medical reports that we’re missing a male. There’s a new P-21 to round up for retirement, but he hasn’t reported back after his last breeding assignment. C shift, your job is to sweep the stable. If a mare’s sheltering him, write up the incident and escort him to detention. If not, find him,” Gin Rummy said firmly. Daisy rubbed her hooves together gleefully. Most mares simply looked bored. I tried my best not to squirm. Damn it, why were hoofcuffs so hard to get out of?
Everypony in Stable 99 had a job assigned to them from birth. Maintenance ponies maintained, security ponies secured, and baker ponies baked. The forty or so males in Stable 99 were no different: they were breeding equipment. From birth, they had their segregated quarters in medical and were signed out by mares for reproductive purposes and, more frequently, recreational. There were twenty unicorns and twenty earth ponies on the breeding rotation. Once a male reached… how old was it? Twelve? Fifteen? -- they were put into breeding. Of course, to keep the number in rotation the same, that meant that a male had to be taken out of breeding and retired.
“So, if there’s nothing else?” Gin Rummy’s pink eyes scanned the assembled security ponies before landing on me. “Very well. Oh, and tomorrow, I’d like any ponies confused about how to dispel a hoofcuff spell to please report to security at twelve hundred hours for remediation.” Maybe I could do more than telekinesis after all. I was in the front row, and yet, magically, I still knew that every eye was on me. Amazing. “All right. A shift and B shift are off-duty. C shift, stable is yours.” Daisy nodded in response. And with that, the mares dispersed to get their last shot at dinner before curfew went active.
“Thanks. I really appreciate that,” I said as I looked at the head security mare sourly.
She returned the look coolly. “You’re not a blank flank anymore, Blackjack. You have duties and obligations to this stable. If you can’t fulfill them, then it’s my obligation to train you to meet them.”
Yeah, except nopony ever asked me if I wanted them. She started for the exit. “Hey…” I called after her, and when she looked back, I sat down and raised my cuffed hooves. “You mind, Mom?”
She sighed as she looked at me for a long moment and finally went from being head security mare to being my mother. Trotting back, she lowered her horn to the cuffs, and with a flash she dispelled the summoned restraints. Technically, every security unicorn was supposed to be able to do that. Technically, every unicorn, much less every security unicorn, was supposed to be able to do a whole slew of spells that I couldn’t. Maybe Mom would get lucky and outlive me. One thing was sure: the second I became head security mare, Stable 99 was doomed.
“Marmalade’s work?” she asked in that tone that always seemed to prelude her fighting my battles for me. It was really tempting, I admit. Of course, this was why even most of the security ponies gave me a lot of space; nopony wanted to offend the boss’s daughter.
“Don’t worry about it, Mom. I can handle it,” I said, trying to put on my big girl look. Okay, I was definitely old enough to have it by default, but she always looked at me like I was her little blank flank… when there was nopony else around to see, of course. Thank the Goddesses.
I trotted out after everypony else, pretending not to hear her sigh. Yeah, that just about summed up my feelings on the subject as well.
Outside, I glanced down the hallway. The uppermost levels held security, the armory, the Overmare’s office, and all the maneframes that ran the stable. Down at the end of the hall were the Overmare’s office and the maintenance room with the maneframes. The Overmare was talking very agitatedly with Midnight and a few of the other mares responsible for the information systems. The dirty white unicorn filly who was our supreme leader looked mad; there was nothing new about that, but tonight she seemed like she was in a grade A pissed mood and was determined to share it. I’d never seen Midnight looking so upset.
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“Get out! Get out get out get out! Leave before I have you all shot! You’re useless!” the Overmare concluded in nigh-hysterical shrieks. It was at moments like this that I was glad the laws didn’t allow summary execution. Really glad.
“Midnight!” I shouted as the Overmare returned to her office.
She looked back at me, ears drooping as she rubbed her eyes furiously. “I don’t have time for your flank spank right now, Blackjack. The Overmare’s pissed.”
“Yeah, I got that around ‘have you shot’,” I said as I fell in beside her as we trotted back downstairs towards the atrium. “Why?”
Midnight looked at me, then sighed and shook her head, “She wants a data file. An old one.”
“And you couldn’t find it?” I said with a frown. Unlike me, Midnight was actually competent.
“No, that’s just it. It was already found by Duct Tape weeks ago. The thing was buried deep in the stable’s archives, but she found it. Goddesses know how,” Midnight said as we stepped into the large chamber. The stable chimed out that curfew was about to begin and all mares not on C shift were to report to their quarters.
“So what’s the problem?”
“It’s encrypted,” she said with a sigh. “We can’t get it to open up for transfer. She wants us to break the encryption, but we haven’t been able to all week.” She chewed on her lip. “I thought that if we got it ready to transfer into a PipBuck she’d be… well… less pissed, but she was hysterical! I’ve never had the Overmare say I should be shot!” Clearly, Midnight was shaken. I could relate. There was bitchy Overmare, and then there was whatever I’d just witnessed.
“Mom wouldn’t let her,” I said, and for the first time in about forever received a small smile in return. “Look, don’t worry about it. You’ll get it eventually.”
“Thanks, Blackjack,” she said with obvious relief.
Okay, this was my chance! I grinned. “So… I’ve got ten minutes before I have to start my rounds. Can I swing by your quarters on my way for that flank spank?” I gave her my best ‘I promise you’ll enjoy it’ look.
She snorted, looked at me, and gave a flat ‘in your dreams’ “No.” Then she trotted away from me as I sat down hard, watching her go.
“Oh come on! I was being sympathetic! Nice! Midnight?” But she didn’t look back as she disappeared down towards the residential quarters with the rest of the mares. “Ugh, what does a mare have to do to get a little service in this place?!” I sighed, head hanging. “So unfair…”

***

Stable 99 was arranged with one level atop another. At the apex were the Overmare’s office, security, the armory, and the maneframes. Underneath that were the atrium, cafeteria, stable entry, and the two dozen or so recreation, education, and medical facilities. Underneath that were the residential quarters for the stable’s population. And underneath it all lay the utility and maintenance levels, a section larger than all the rest of the stable combined. The recycling systems were all found down here, as were the magical generators that kept everything going. Manufacturing equipment, storeroom after locked storeroom, and, of course, all the little hidden fun spots: the makeshift stills, the love nests, and the nooks for gambling.
Most security ponies stayed at the top of the stable. The tunnels below were dark, undecorated,
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and filled with the stench of all kinds of foul leaking fluids and chemicals used to keep the stable habitable. The Overmare might have had complete authority over the top half of the stable, but this was Rivets’s domain. She and her maintenance mares were always the most rebellious and independent element of the stable. One day… no, don’t think about it. If there was an Incident between the Overmare and maintenance… well, I knew which side had all the guns and which side knew how to keep the stable alive...
“Hit me,” I shouted over the hum of machinery as I looked at the worn playing cards. They were so old that I’d bet Rivets could tell them by the wear patterns. Good thing this wasn’t poker. Rivets dealt me a four of spades; I really had no idea how earth ponies managed cards. They just did. Me, I levitated them around as I looked at the other players.
Tonight I was even less welcome than usual. The other four ponies kept muttering to each other, telling jokes and stories that left me out, and my winnings were virtually frozen. Nopony mentioned the Overmare; clearly, they were watching themselves around the security mare.
Because one word of sedition or talk about getting at the armory and we’d have an Incident. Please, don’t say something that would cause an Incident…
“So, Blackjack, I notice you keep getting shit from Daisy and the others,” Rivets said amiably as she smoked on her cigar. She’d offered me the cigar at the start of the game, a blatant class B violation that I’d never ever report her on. I had no idea how she manufactured them, but it was just another indication that things were painfully tense in the stable. After one puff, I’d coughed so badly that she’d taken it back. “They’ve been doing that for… what… three years now?”
“Oh, longer than that,” I said with a small smile. Ever since my first big fuck up. “But what can you do?”
“Well, that is the question, isn’t it?” Rivets asked with a spread of her forehooves before dealing out the cards. “We can’t do anything. Daisy is security. You get your job and it’s yours, no matter how you abuse your position.” She chuckled, friendly like, but I knew enough laughs to tell it was an act. “Don’t get me wrong, your momma is a fine mare. She’s always tried to do right by the stable. She just won’t do more.”
Oh, Rivets, please don’t go there. “Well, it’s the way of things, isn’t it?”
“Is it?” Rivets asked in return with a look that made my mane crawl. “You think it’s right that ponies like Daisy and Marmalade get to give you that ration of shit day in and day out?”
“Well… no. But what does it matter what I think? It’s the way things are,” I swallowed, noticing that nopony else seemed to be interrupting.
“But does it have to be?” Rivets asked. There was one answer she wanted to hear and a whole slew of wrong answers. I shrank back; why did she have to be asking me stuff like this? Couldn’t we just play the game?
I needed to change the subject, fast. “So… what is the Overmare up to?” I asked as I glanced at the others. They looked at one another, then at Rivets. She was still smoking her cigar with slow, steady puffs. I snorted. “Look, I know everypony’s a little more on edge than usual, but this is Blackjack asking. Come on, Rivets. I got my cutie mark here.” In fact, I got my queen and ace of spades playing this very game. “You can talk to me.”
Rivets chewed slowly on the end as her eyes measured me up. Finally, she gave a minimal shrug. “You tell me. Overmare has us running like crazy for a month updating her on the stable, seizes inventory, and Duct Tape dies doing work for her. Now she’s screaming at Midnight that she’s going to shoot her and has her own little guard of security ponies following her around tonight.”
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“She what?” I blinked, having left with Midnight so quickly that I hadn’t heard anything about that.
Rivets nodded slowly. “She’s got all of us really concerned. Really concerned. Some of us wonder if we’re all safe with her in charge.”
“She’s the Overmare. It’s her job to keep us all safe,” I replied, almost by rote as my red eyes looked from one to the next. Only Rivets met my gaze.
“Some ponies don’t think she has a clue what her job is. Heck, some ponies don’t think she even knows herself. And some ponies have to wonder why Blackjack’s so insistent on coming to this game. Maybe to keep tabs on all of us?” Rivets asked as she nodded to the equipment around us. “After all, with all the interference, I doubt you can track us by our PipBucks.”
The foreleg-mounted minicomputers were marvels of arcane technology; even if I didn’t understand the first thing about how they worked, I had to admit that they were useful. One of the functions most used by security was the ability to, if you had the correct address tag, track any other PipBuck. All I had to do was put in their name and I could find their location almost anywhere in the stable. Down here, though, it was another story. Probably why the missing male had gone to ground down here.
“Look, I just wanted to have some fun!” I protested. Was it really that hard to believe? I looked from one to the next; these were all mares I’d known my entire life. Heck, Rivets was virtually my godmother from all the time I spent down here! But from the looks I got… yes, yes it was.
I slowly slipped back from the table, leaving my bits behind. “I’m going to go… you know… do security stuff. Got a stallion to round up and… um… stuff,” I finished lamely. All of them watched me back slowly out of Atmospheric Maintenance Three. Not one took their eyes off me.

***

Several minutes later, I took a breather. Rivets was just pissed. She always bumped heads with anypony in authority, always sure nopony knew as well as she did how to run the stable. As soon as the Overmare calmed down, everything would settle down and we’d be able to get back to normal. Don’t think about it. It was how everypony in the stable survived. I’d just forget about it and, in a week, Rivets and I would be laughing as usual!
Please, let everything be alright.
Well, with the game a complete fiasco, Midnight continuing her cold shoulder, and me with six hours left in my shift, I might as well actually do some security work. Mostly the ten or so of us on C shift patrolled and wrote up any mare violating curfew. Down here, I might find more interesting violations, but it was rare that I’d ever run into anything major. I snapped on another function of the PipBuck: the Eyes Forward Sparkle.
Instantly, a number of yellow bars filled my vision as the arcane device detected the number of ponies within a few hundred feet. It also had a few red bars, likely a few hungry radroaches looking to take a bite out of me. The E.F.S. was a function few ponies used regularly. After all, it only gave direction and hostility, and the indicator didn’t even tell you how far above or below you the bar was. For all I knew, that yellow bar was around the corner or a floor up. I entered in the P-21’s PipBuck address, but the little icon twitched around spasmodically. Likely he was down here… somewhere.
It wasn’t often that we had a buck who tried to hide from retirement. Most just reported to security or medical to get their shot and that was that. Occasionally there’d be a crying or screaming fit in the atrium. Rarely, they’d suicide… ugh, please don’t let me find him hanging or poisoned down here. The plain fact was that this was a stable; the only exit had been sealed four generations ago during the last Incident, and eventually he’d starve to death. It wasn’t like bucks knew how to get into food stores and the like. They
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just bred. That was all they knew, all they needed to know.
Right?
I trotted past a row of gurgling pieces of equipment barely lit by wan yellow spark lamps. Knowing my luck, the yellow bar ahead of me was actually one or two floors above me. If I was lucky, I could get through this shift without any more disasters and, if I was really lucky, talk to Mom and not the head security mare about the rising tension. The former might be able to do something. The latter would have to crack down on Rivets, or, worse, tell the Overmare.
Then I heard a faint sniff and soft sobs over the hum of the equipment. Looked like I’d found my pony. “Okay, come on out and let’s get you up to security. A quick shot and it’ll be all over.”
The sniffling stopped, and then a tiny olive filly with teal eyes peeked out at me. My jaw dropped as I saw the pain and fear in her eyes. “Oh! Ah… you’re not… ahem…” I sat hard and rubbed my head. Could this night get any worse? “You’re not supposed to be down here. It’s dangerous and after curfew. Where’s your momma?”
She just stared at me, and her eyes dropped to her hooves. “Recycled…” was all she blubbered. She touched her PipBuck and her ID flashed. ‘Scotch Tape, Maintenance Shift C’.
Oh… I tried to think up some creative profanity but… eh… I got nothing. “Oh… well… ah…” What was I supposed to do? If this was Duct Tape’s kid, then she was supposed to be here. Should I say something about her mom? Give her a hug? Tell her she’s doing a good job? Tell her not to be a cryfilly? “Um… sorry about your mom. Don’t worry, I’m sure you’ll get the hang of it.” I grinned at her as she clenched her eyes closed, pulled a wrench from her barding, and nodded before trotting back between the massive round machines.
I trotted away as quickly as I could. “Wonderful, Blackjack… ‘You’ll get the hang of it?’ What is wrong with me?” I berated myself as I glanced back over my shoulder.
I really wasn’t good at this whole life and death thing. Really. You just didn’t think about death in 99. It wasn’t really like ‘death’ so much as one day you’re there and the next day you’re replaced by your kid. And someday they’ll be replaced by theirs. I was glad that Mom would probably last forever. I didn’t know how I’d handle the stable with her gone.
I couldn’t help but reach out and touch the steel walls of the stable. Somepony had daubed ‘Fuck the Overmare’ on the gray metal in flaking white paint. A shout of rebellion from the Incident almost a century ago, the last time the stable had torn itself apart. Back then, it’d been bucks challenging the Overmare and the rules imposed by Stable-Tec when the stable had been established. Today, it was Rivets against the Overmare.
Why’d I have to get stuck in the middle of this shit?
And, just as I was getting a nice batch of self-pity whipped up, I stepped right in a puddle of leaking sewage. My hooves slipped in the slippery mung and I went over, getting a faceful of the cold sludge. Coughing and retching I kicked away, wiping my face furiously. My red and black striped mane and tail were smeared with grunge as I leaned against the wall, coughing and spitting. How nice that the Goddesses were making my metaphoric life literal.
I tried to think about what I knew of the newest P-21. He was green… no… brown? Ugh… I paid more attention to the unicorn breeding population than the earth ponies. I’d heard that this P-21 was already notorious for ‘disappearing’, though, so it wasn’t much of a surprise that he’d pulled another vanishing act. Nopony was sure how he managed to get out of medical. Males weren’t supposed to be smart enough for that.

More coming soon.