Chapter 2: the ever shut stable
“Wake up you have to get out of here. My father’s men are looking for you .”
If there was one word that could describe stable 22 it was routine, you got up in the morning, if you were old enough to have a job you went and did it or if you were too young for one you went to school. Then afterward you went back to your room and found whatever kind of diversion you could then you went to bed then got up and did it all over again.  
That was what you did, every day, your whole life. Because you see you couldn’t do anything ells, you were born in the stable everyone was born in the stable and, like everyone ells, you were going to die there because you couldn’t leave because the door wouldn’t open. 
It wasn’t that the door was broken, far from it; it was however that there was nothing to leave to. The stable, its residents had been told, had been sealed up on the night the bombs fell and that now it was simply adrift in a great sea of nothingness.  
Opening the door would mean that all the stable residents would be sucked into that nothingness and die, that deterrent worked very well till one fateful day when everything changed. 
*** *** ***
Routine, I hated routine. I was going to be late for school again but any way I could break up the routine was ok by me so I hadn’t minded that sneaking in to the cafeteria before it was open for lunch and taking some sweets was going to make me late.
But something was wrong as I galloped up from the cafeteria and towards maintenance where an air duct would take me right to the front of the school. 
There were lots of ponies galloping back forth between maintenance and the stable entry-way where the technicians were busy trying to fix some kind of problem with the stable door. 
There were klaxons going off and the overmare was in heated conversation with the head tec and the chief of security, she motioned them up to her office then saw me standing there in the hall. She narrowed her eyes and said “you here! Snowy Flaks isn’t it, you had best run along to school now.” Then she turned back to the other two ponies. 
I winced and rushed off quickly, I hated when people used that name it always sounded kind of mocking to me. Personally I would preferred that my friends call me Snow which wasn’t hard seeing as I didn’t have any. 
Starting to head to school I suddenly stopped short. Something was going on, something that was obviously very important but that the overmare didn’t want other ponies to know too much about. My curiosity piqued I changed course and trotted off in the direction of the overmare’s office.
On the way I caught sight of myself in the mirror above the sink in an open filly’s bathroom, somepony had forgotten to close the door and I wished they hadn’t, every time I saw a mirror I had to go look at myself and every time I did I cringed. 
Coming to a stop I turned and went inside to look at the mirror. As if on cue I winced again looking over myself, it wasn’t that I hated how I looked I just thought I could be better. 
Personally I thought I had some nice curves if a bit of a small frame for fourteen and I loved my silver eyes, mane, and tail. Even if I did have some extra…parts that are kinda embarrassing. I was especially fond of my new cutie mark. 
A cutie mark, for those who dint know, is a mark on the flanks that Everypony gets when he or she finds out what makes them special. 
Mine had only show up a day ago; it had come with a piercing headache. A headache I might add that had yet to go away. Everypony ells said looked like a glowing star but I thought looked, unfortunately, like a snowflake with a gold light around it. 
On the other hoof it was very hard being the only daughter of the only two other pegesi in the stable, that and my coat was weird. It was grey all the way to my hind quarters where it changed into white specks and then pure white for my flanks which is how I got my name.
Looking down at my right forehoof I caught sight of my pipbuck, this wonderful device still amazes me. Everypony in the stable had one and there was a great deal of things it could do, it can track the date and time, show you where you are with its auto map feature, monitor your health and show the items in your possession, put up an E.F.S. (eyes forward sparkle) which shows your health, a compass with waypoints and markers for ponies and creatures around the wearer, and whether or not they are friendly, and can even help in combat with the S.A.T.S. or stable-tec arcane targeting spell along with many other functions.
Blinking I realized I’d been in the bathroom for over ten minutes staring at myself in the mirror. Knowing I had to hurry I quickly trotted out of the restroom and hurried to the overmare’s office, even with my detour I made it with enough to hide in the overmare’s large cabinet by her desk and terminal.  
As the overmare came in I hunkered down and stayed as quiet as I could and waited for the three ponies to get into the room but only the overmare and the security chief walked in. 
The head tec must have gone somewhere ells or still been busy. Holding my breath I waited.  “Oh what are we going to do about this?” asked the overmare, a caramel colored unicorn with a lavender mane. 
The chief, a large grey earth-pony with black smoke for a mane and tail grunted “I don’t know Miss Caramel you’re the one with the orders from stable-tec and the knowledge of what’s out there.”  
What the chief said next nearly stopped my brain. “I didn’t even know it was possible to hack into the stable from the outside.”  The overmare shook her head and nickered in frustration saying “As I already told you chief Stonewall it’s very possible it’s just hard, whoever tried to do that was a very skilled terminal hacker.” 
Chief Stonewall snorted, clearly worried that somepony wanted in bad enough to learn how to hack into stable-tec equipment “well what about the cameras outside the door and the shelter concealing it they must have seen something right?” 
The overmare shook her head again “No unfortunately something, some kind of magic no doubt, kept me from getting a good look at the perpetrator.”  
I was just sitting there in the cabinet; slack jawed, thinking that I must have misheard them. The chief pawed a hoof at the ground nervously “Um Miss Caramel you don’t think this has anything to do with th…” The overmare cut him off with a steely glare “No. You know good and well they said no one would know they were here and that their experiments were disposed of and the affects would wear off soon. I know the birth of the little one was a shock but that’s still no reason to doubt them.” 
She sighed heavily “What we need to worry about right now is how where going to keep all this quiet, you know as well as I do that if word of this gets out it would be disastrous. If anypony ever found out the truth about this or even worse saw what was on my terminal there would be panic and outrage, they would want to throw the stable door wide and we can’t let them do that, now what do you suggest we do?” 
The overmare and the head of security then began arguing about how to cover up the event but I wasn’t listening anymore. I was just sitting there my mind in freefall thinking ‘O-outside how could the hack have come from outside and what was this thing on her terminal the overmare wanted to keep hidden?’ I didn’t know what was going on but I had a plan to find out.
Waiting until the overmare and the chief left then slowly creeping out into the room I looked around and then locked the door and rushed to the terminal in the room, I’m by no means an expert hacker but the password was the same as the password in the security room, it was easy and had never changed. 
The pass code was 12345. I sighed in exasperation “You would think that the overmare of all ponies would think to put a better password on her terminal.”
Quickly I went to the camera records and deleted the one of me entering the room and set the camera to shut off till I got done finding what I wanted to find. 
After a bit of searching I found it, there was a folder that was also pass worded this one was much harder and I’d almost got locked out three separate times before getting it. ‘This had better be worth it.’ I thought in a haughtily then looked at folder, my eyes went from file to file as my jaw dropped. “This can’t be true it’s got to be some kind of sick joke!” 
What I was staring at changed everything and made me wonder just what ells the overmare was keeping from the ponies of stable 22. It also gave me a plan, one that made me want to jump for joy. But now was not the time and this was not the place. 
Never mind that there was no way I could pull it off alone. I was going to need the help of a friend…to bad I don’t have any “Wait there is somepony who might help me I just hope I can find and convince him.”
***  ***  ***
It was several hours later in the stable and I was hiding in the empty school anxiously awaiting the arrival of the one pony in the stable that might help me. “I know I saw him go this way” I said, my voice thick with worry. 
Thankfully I soon heard the clopping of hooves as a black coated unicorn who looked to be at most twenty three with a deep green mane and tail and wearing stable-tec maintenance barding walked by my hiding place. 
I hoped that the pony could see me as I waved my forelegs at him franticly, I had hoped I wouldn’t have to come out of the school since it was one of the only rooms in the stable without any cameras in it. 
Luck was with me though as the older pony walked into the school saying “Um hello your name’s Snowy Flanks right, what are you doing in here at this hour and why are you waving me over?” I blushed nervously and said “Oh um hey Emerald Fire I was just in the area and w…” the older pony stopped me with a wave “Don’t go calling me that, only my boss calls me that and he’s a jerk, call me Emerald.” 
I blushed again and felt like a foal but I was determined “Fine I’ll call you Emerald but you have to stop saying Snowy Flanks just call me Snow or simply Snowy at the very least.” Emerald nodded “Ok I can do that… but why, what’s wrong with your name” now it was my turn to wave the question away “Look don’t worry about that right now.  You were at the er… incident this morning do you know what was going on?”  
The black unicorn shook his head, his mane flitting back and forth like green fire “No not really, there was a fault with the stable door’s console. We stopped the door form opening but before we could find where the fault came from our boss dismissed us.”
I nodded “I’m not that surprised; the head tec pulled you away because the overmare order him to.” Eyes widening the unicorn stammered “w-what… what are you talking about, why would she want to do that?” 
I wasn’t quite sure how to tell him the truth. So I went with the direct approach “Well you see she did it because she wanted as few ponies knowing the truth as possible. You see she didn’t want word to get out because the ‘fault’ was actually a hacking attempt and the attempt came from… outside.” 
Emerald looked completely perplexed “what do you mean hacking attempt and outside where, like outside this school?” 
I pawed at the ground nervously with a hoof, he didn’t understand and who could blame him, every pony was taught from a young age; there was no outside, you were born in the stable, you lived in the stable, and you would die in the stable…there was never an alternative. At least not until now “no that’s not what I mean.” I said slowly “I mean for outside the stable.” 
The unicorn standing before me looked stricken, like his whole world had just been blown to smithereens. He clopped back a step and stammered out “N-n-n-no that can’t be true you must be mistaken must have heard the overmare wrong! I mean there isn’t any outside you know that as well as I do.”
Shaking my mane sadly I regarded the pony before me, I hated seeing this unicorn so distressed when he had been nicer to me than any other pony in the stable… including my parents. For a moment that I was worried that I may have gone too far too fast and that Emerald wouldn’t want to talk to me anymore… or worse that he might go to the overmare. 
Trying to dissuade him from doing either option I explained “I swear it’s true I heard it from the overmare herself and even more than that I have proof. There was a file hidden on the overmare’s terminal, I found it and… oh Emerald it had TONES of data about the outside. Camera views from outside the door, views for the structure… or wants left of it that conceals the stable, and all kinds of biological data from sensors placed around the building.” 
I shuddered a bit and gathered what was left of my resolve before continuing “I downloaded all of it to my pipbuck, I know it was wrong to steal it. But as soon as I saw it I knew I had to use it to get out of here, out of this tomb… but I can’t do it by myself. That’s why I came to you I need help to get out of the stable and you’re the only pony who’s ever been nice to me.” I was shaking now and about to burst into tears “You don’t have to come with me but I can’t get out of here without you so please I’ll do anything you want, just please help me escape!” 
Emerald looked stunned then began pacing back and forth rapidly “So let me get this straight the overmare has been lying to us from day one and you found out about it and now you want to use that knowledge to go outside of the safety of the stable. You want to leave here and go out into the unknown?” 
“Yes.” I was hardly paying attention. I was starting to think that it was a bad idea that I brought this to his attention as he was now pacing worse than ever. 
Form this angle I could see his cutie mark, maintenance barding like all other stable-issue clothing has a clear plastic port on the wearer’s hips so other ponies could see their cutie mark. Emerald’s was a large gemstone awash in green flames...in my humble opinion if fit him well. I was snapped form hir reverie by a sharp question 
“Why?”  Emerald asked uncertainly “Why do you want to leave so bad?” I looked down for a second then stepped forward, determined “Because except for you no one in the stable likes me, not even my parents.” 
The unicorn opened his muzzle to speak but I cut him off “Don’t start, you don’t know them. They hate me, I can tell every time they talk to me and even more than that just look at this place, it’s solemn, grey, and cramped. Even the atrium is only two stories tall. I’m a pegasus I don’t belong here. Mom and dad may not care about it but I don’t want to live here all my life then die here alone and without friends, I want to spread my wings and fly for the first time, I want to see the sky… I want to be free.” 
Despite my best efforts I was crying now and shaking quietly with small sobs. Emerald stared at me, looking close to tears himself “Fine.” 
I blinked for several seconds, sure I had misheard that “W-what did you say just now?” 
“I said I would help you escape. But I’m coming with you, there’s no way I would let a filly as young as you are go out there alone.” I couldn’t be certain but I think my heart exploded with joy, I then proceeded to pounce the unicorn and hug him as tightly as I could “Oh thank you thank you thank you!” 
Emerald just blushed “Um… don’t mention it, now do you have a plan on how to do this.” I smiled mischievously “of course I do.” I then proceeded to fill him in on the plan.
*** *** ***
That evening I was running around my room at top speed trying to find everything we would need on the trip out. After filling Emerald in on the plan and then arguing with him over the finer details I snuck all over the stable gathering all the items I could that might be helpful. 
I had just finished packing my saddlepack and putting it under my bed when there was a knock at my room’s door, this gave me pause as it didn’t sound like the dull disinterested knock of my parents. 
No this knock was urgent and incessant, one meant to not be ignored, realizing this I opened the door and was shocked and more than a little worried to see the overmare herself trotting into my room. 
“Good evening Snowy I was just making the rounds, talking to all the stable residents. The incident with the door this morning has every one on edge.” the overmare said, her tone was calm but I could sense something behind it. 
Whinnying nervously I replied “Oh well that’s very nice of you Miss Overmare but I’m really no problem here.” 
“Are you sure there dear?” the overmare asked eyes narrowing as she spied the strap of my saddlepack sticking out from under the bed “The fault with the door was very frightening and you were right in the middle of it. We wouldn’t want anypony to do something… rash out of fear would we?” 
I gulped loudly “Um n-no of course not that would be… bad but don’t you worry about me Miss Overmare I’m perfectly fine, really.” The much older unicorn mare tore her eyes form the strap of the backpack and gave a slight nod “Of course dear whatever you say. But you know if you ever need to talk to somepony I’ll be in my office.” 
Then she turned and walked out leaving my mind awash in new fears. Sitting on my bed I was more nervous than ever, the overmare had come to see me. Did that mean that she had found out what I was planning, and she had called me Snowy… just Snowy. 
The overmare had never done that before, did that mean that Emerald had given me up? “No if was the case I would already have been dragged down to the holding cells.” I reminded myself. Even so the overmare definitely knew something was going on so we would have to put their plan into action tonight.
***  ***  ***
It was late at night at the stable and nearly everypony was closed up in their rooms asleep. crouched in the darkness of the stable atrium looking out into the entryway where the large door was locked shut I was struck with two conclusions, the first was that if I never heard the buzzing of the dim stable night lights again it would still be too soon, and the second was that we were completely screwed. 
Two armed stable guards were stationed right in front of the Celestia-dammed door, this brought…complications. 
A slight sound brought me back to reality, looking to my right I saw the black form of Emerald Fire crouched down behind one of the atrium’s many support pillars, he waved to me and I nodded back. Knowing that I would have to get over to him I  hoped up into the air and flew over to the unicorn, hovering for a second before landing so I would make as little noise as possible. 
Emerald’s eyes widened in shock as he turned and suddenly found himself muzzle to muzzle me, to his credit he didn’t do anything dumb like scream at the top of his lungs. Instead he just shuddered and said “Gah don’t do that! I hate it when ponies sneak up on me and besides wasn’t that a dangerous move there are guards in there you know.” 
I just grinned, it was possible I was a bit smugger than was really warranted but I’d never impressed another pony before and I wanted to savor it “No it wasn’t. I flew over the lip of the door and the ponies on the second floor are all asleep so no one saw me. As for the guards I have an idea but I’ll need you to distract them for a minute.” 
The black unicorn looked frightened “Um I don’t know about that what if they start shooting the moment I walk up?” 
I waved the notion off “There’s no way they would shoot a maintenance pony that might be there under the overmare’s orders. Look I just need you to talk to them for two minuets tops, it’ll be a cinch.” patting him on the shoulder and smiling I tried to be reassuring. 
One look at his face told me I had convinced him. So with a reluctant sigh he nodded and walked up to the stable entrance while the I zoomed back to the other side of the room and started working on the grating of the air duct that connected to two rooms. 
Crawling inside I could hear the guards shout something and Emerald reply to them. A quick crawl led me to the other grate. Popping it open I heard the guard start to say something, I wasn’t going to let them finish as I hopped out of the duct and flew up behind the two unsuspecting ponies. 
There was a thud and a crack as both ponies slid to the floor in lifeless lumps. Behind them I stood wide-eyed and panting, the splintered remains of a baseball bat handle, the only birthday present I ever got, clenched in my teeth. 
Emerald was stunned “Snow what did you do!”  It took me a moment to understand the black pony, and to spit out the bat splinters “What…oh I hit them over the head with a baseball bat what does it look like I did? It’s not like they were just going to let us open the door , now put in the override code I got from the overmare’s files while see if they have anything on them we might need.”  
Emerald blinked, it seemed he wasn’t used to seeing such a young pony take charge and bark out orders. As he went to the stable door control panel he asked “are you sure they’re going to be ok you hit them kinda hard?” 
I didn’t answer as I was busy relieving the guards of all there useful possessions, they didn’t have much other than their guns. 
They were pre war tec high quality 12mm pistols with laser guides on the under-barrel mount, I grabbed one and all the ammo from both, it was doubtful Emerald would be ok with shooting somepony yet but I had snuck into the security room firing range enough times that I could… if I had to. 
While busy scavenging I looked behind myself at the unicorn. He was shaking with fear and his pack was nowhere big enough for all the supplies he would need. 
Trying to calm Emerald down I replied to his earlier question “They will be fine their just knocked out. Now how is the door override coming?” Emerald sighed weekly “I’ve got it done now I just have to pull the access lever and we can go” 
“Ok then. Pull the lever and lets…” Before I could finish my sentence a voice rang out behind us in the entryway “Please don’t do that.” 
We turned and saw the overmare standing behind us flanked by another six guard ponies, raising my gun and the guards did the same but the overmare waved them off making them lower their weapons.  “Snowy it makes me very sad to see you do this, I know you’ve had a hard time here in the stable and you want to be free. But this isn’t the answer.” 
The overmare said wearily “I can’t just let the door be opened, it’s too dangerous, so please I’m begging you not to do this.”  I shook my head not about to come this far for nothing. Putting the gun into my saddle bags I replied “No I won’t be dissuaded now. I know what’s out there now and I refuse to die in this metal coffin without over getting to spread my wings. Emerald can stay if he wants to but I’m going through that door.”  
Looking into my silver eyes the caramel colored mare must have seen something because her shoulders drooped in resignation “Very well.” She said “I know better than to think I can change your mind, I’ve seen that look before. I understand why you want your freedom, I really do, and for what it’s worth I’m sorry.” 
With that she used her magic to pull out a strange wand with a small pink gem on the front and point it at me.  Before either Emerald or I could react there was a loud *ZORCH* as pink lightning shot from the gem. 
My body seized up as the lightning hit me, the room spun and I fell to the floor with a heavy thud. Vaguely I heard somepony shouting something; it must have been Emerald, followed by another shot from the wand. 
There was another dull thud as the guard ponies swarmed our two lifeless bodies, one of them grabbed the gun I had taken but the overmare shook her head saying “No let her keep it she will need it more than we will.”
Footnote: level up
New perk: stealth flyer- - you can minimize the noise your wings make. Making harder for your foes to hear the death from above (flying now gives smaller penalties to stealth)
Fallout Equestria © to Kkat
My Little Pony: Fim © to Hasbro
Snowy flanks and other oc’s © Me