The seven of us trotted up the stairs in relative silence. As the battle below grew farther away, the sounds became quiet. We peeked into the other floors of the stable, and saw that indeed, the lights had been fixed. The stable also looked completely abandoned. Nopony had gone to work for hours, and an almost eerie stillness filled the air. It reminded me of my first trip to the stallions' stable. I shivered at the thought that this place might wind up like that.

I knew where everypony was though. If they weren't fighting on one side or another, they were hidden away, hoping that the fighting will stop and somepony will come out on top. I thought of Rose, where was she? Had she been taken away by the Overmare? I know that if I ever met somepony who I knew was my daughter... would I protect her? This place made me have Celestia knows how many children. I could be fighting alongside my sons right now or against my daughters.

I pushed those thoughts to the back of my mind. In their place, I saw the stallions that had returned to their cells, the flames engulfing the dancing bodies. I shivered at the thought. Those ponies had chosen to be loyal to the Overmare. They had been killed. It was my fault. I let them return to their cells. I should have told them that they couldn't go back, that they'd be traitors. Now all of them were dead. I shut my eyes, but couldn't escape the orange glow the flames. Was it some sort of Overmare fail-safe to kill us all? If every stallion in the stable died, then the stable would eventually shrivel up and die. This would be the last generation and Stable 28 would be a failure.

If that happened, then this whole endeavor would be moot. We were resisting the Overmare so that our sons wouldn't have to. What if we wound up being the cause of the stable's collapse. If other stables had failed, would I be responsible for destroying all that was left of the old world? What about a family? If everything worked out, I could settle down and have a family.

I shook my head. These thoughts were starting to give me a headache. As far as this stable is concerned I have no family. Right now, that is the least of my worries.

At last, we reached the security center of the stable. Well, the main one at least. If they were holding the stallions anywhere, it would be here. This portion told the same story as the rest of the stable. It was all but abandoned. Many of the doors were locked.

We followed the signs that read 'detention.' Soon, they pointed us true. There was a door that was situated between two frames of reinforced glass. Two guards stood on either side, each armed with a combat shotgun, a small sidearm, and a baton. The stallions hesitated as we approached, but I trotted on ahead of them without slowing my pace.

One of the guards was asleep, while the other looked quite drowsy. I trotted right past the barely conscious mare.

"Hey," she said as she watched me trot right to the door. I tried to open it. Locked. I turned and her eyes met mine. Without so much as a change in facial features, my horn glowed as I lifted the keys to the door right off the mare's belt. She just stared back, confused. Her partner snored obnoxiously. Nothing happened as I slid the key into the lock and twisted, opening the door and allowing us inside the detention block.

These mares knew what they were doing on paper, but had never had a reason to ever actually protect anything from anypony. Once again, experience would have helped that mare tremendously, had she known what to do when somepony messed with her while on duty. Yet even though she knew what to do, she didn't do anything. Good. I didn't want to have to kill two more ponies if I didn't have to. Still, this stable has the worst security anypony could get. This jailbreak might do them some good.

Inside, the detention block was divided up into three wings. A circular platform in the center where the three wings converged bore what looked like a command console. There was also an operating table that seemed only partially completed. They were going to decommission these ponies, after all. The block was two stories. There was nopony on duty.

Before I went to the console, a room off to one side was labelled 'Warden's Office.' The door was open. I stepped inside. It was a clean office with a window out into the cell block. There was a desk with a picture of a bluish-purple mare with a young, magenta filly on her shoulders. I peeked around. There was an ammo can on one side. I opened it and found ammo for my revolver and about two clips worth for my SMG's. The desk was full of papers. There was a console sitting on it. I tried to access it. The password was over twelve characters long. I'm not even going to attempt this one.

I checked underneath the desk. There was a drum fed combat shotgun with two dozen 12-gauge shells. Finally some food for my shotgun. I examined the combat shotgun. There wasn't much to say. It could shoot more ammunition faster, but my 'hunting shotgun,' as my pip-buck labelled it, packed more of a punch. Once I'd finished rummaging around, I went back out.

I trotted right up to the console. Surely there would be... Aha! Right there, a big red button labelled 'Emergency Release.' Honestly, its like whoever designed these places were asking for a breakout.

I pushed the button.

An alarm sounded. The sixty cell doors flew open, as did doors to adjacent hallways at the ends of each wing. It must have been a dozen mares armed with combat rifles and bullet-proof armor. I had gone straight into a trap. The stallions took cover where they could. I drew my SMG's and provided rapid-fire cover. The stallions in cells marked one through ten immediately poked their heads out, confused. My guns peppered away at the mare's armor, causing some to flinch from the 12.5 mm shots. I felt a heavier 45. round hit me in the shoulder. Followed closely by another to my chest. My armor was beginning to feel the use.

"Run!" I called to the other sixteen stallions. They bolted for the door that I had opened. The two stupid guards had finally realized something was wrong, and tried to block the escape. One stallion used the butt of their .22 to bash the guard in the head. She fell to the ground, unconscious. The one that had been asleep went running down the halls screaming, "Attack!"

The stallions filed out into the hall. I was getting pushed back by the overwhelming number of mares. Among them, I saw a flash of red with a tuft of blue mane sticking out the side. Tide. I finished off the clips of the SMG's, then switched to my shotgun. Tide pressed close and looked like she wanted hoof-to-hoof combat. I answered her with one blast from the shotgun as both barrels exploded in a shower of lead that sent her flying back across the room. It didn't punch through her armor, but the shotgun kicked like a mule. She would be feeling that for a while.

When I made it to the door, I found that one of the stallions had switched the key to the inside, locked it, and broke it off. If I found whoever had thought of that... it was genius. I rushed through, before closing it, and joined the stallions on the other side.

When they tried to unlock the door, but couldn't, one of the younger stallions started making faces at them. The mares simply scowled for a moment before returning to the areas that had come from to find another way around.

"Quick, this way!" I called. The stallions followed me. We went through the maze of halls. Eventually I found it, the Armory. The two guards did better than the guards at the detention block, but ultimately lead in the head makes no difference.

The Overstallion override code on my pip-buck didn't work on the mares' console, so I had to hack it the old fashioned way. The password was eleven characters long. Eventually I found it though: bulletproof. Huh.

Inside, the rows of weapons had been depleted, as had the ammo storage. Oh well, we'd make due with what we got. The stallions upgraded calibers and found a few new toys. I, myself, refilled my pockets and replaced the parts on a few of my weapons that were beginning to show signs of wear. Some ponies upgraded armor, there were more of the mecha power suit armor things lined up on a wall.

"Do you think we can get some of those working?" asked a slim light blue stallion. He was one of the few that we had freed from the cells. EP-23.

"Doubt it," I told him. "There are more where we're headed, but those give me a bad feeling. Besides, even if you could get it working, do you know how to use them?"

"Put them on and wear them just like any other old suits of armor?" he guessed. I shook my head.

"No, those are old. I don't think there's anypony in the entire stable that knows how to use them," I said. He shrugged and went back to loading clips for a 9mm semi-auto pistol.

I looked around and found a barrel with an RPG in it. I grabbed the heavy weapon. I wouldn't be able to carry it. A massive brown pony, EP-20, grabbed the rocket-launcher with his hooves.

"We're going to need that," I said with a smile.

"Of course we are," he replied. His voice was deep. I saw a fading bruise on the side of his head. Rose had told me of a group of stallions at her party. She said that a very kind, yet intimidating pony had been beaten by Tide and her cronies. If all went well, this pony would never have to take that kind of abuse again.

The armory was big. I rounded a corner and saw another row of power armor, only it didn't have any armor. A metal case, which was distinctly mini-gun shaped sat empty. I felt the fear.

I had seen what that thing could do to a pony. If it came down to it, how would we face something that spat lead faster than a mare could... Okay, I need to retrain my mind a little bit more.

Soon we were all suited up. The alarms were still ringing, but we had locked all but one entrance to the armory. We left and went straight for the stairs. As soon as we reached them, a voice rang of behind us.

"They're heading for the stairs! This way!" A stampede of hooves made the ground shake. I turned. Three of the suits of power armor were mobilized. They carried auto assault rifles. The air exploded as lead and steel filled the air.

"Go, now!" I called and I stood with four other bucks to cover their escape. We returned fire, but even a .45 round didn't do anything to the power armor. I swapped to my combat rifle and loaded armor piercing .308 rounds. This seemed to slow them down, but was still too small to penetrate their armor.

"All clear!" cried a pony behind me. I ducked as a grenade flew from behind the armored ponies and landed at my feet. I threw up and magical barrier in front of me to try to shield me from the blast. The shrapnel was deflected, but the blast threw me way back into the stairwell. I thought I was about to go over the railing, when the massive brown stallion caught me and smashed his hoof into the door control, sealing the stairs off from the mares. They had armor piercing rounds too, though that turned the door into swiss cheese.

We went down, a wide smile on my face. We had gotten the stallions out of their cells, gotten them armed, and now had a means to get to safety. This day was just going back and forth. I checked my pip-buck. Twenty-five hours since I'd slept. No matter now, I was running on pure adrenaline with the sound of the door getting cut through behind me. We were almost there.

Sorry about the updates, I've been out of town for a bit and will be again, so please, bear with me. Chapter 21 is complete. This is the longest piece of fiction that I have ever written. Thank you for reading.

Again, I would like to say that this was inspired by the first chapter of Somber's Project Horizons. Thanks again.

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