Chapter 28 All The Small Things

Nexus Spark

Pre-War: 0 Years Before The Megaspells

"Are you excited to see the Stable?" I asked as I dealt a hoof of cards to Blitz, Sugar Pop, Coffee Bean and Margarita. We were at Sugar's house and he insisted we play cards with him before Mimi took us to see Stable 14 later that day. The time for occupying the Stable was crawling up on us and Mimi thought us department heads deserved a first glimpse at our soon to be home. Sugar was the Chief of Agriculture.

Sugar was in the kitchen gathering a few things to eat, a snack tray I presumed. He came out with a tray, as I'd thought, of chips, crackers, and an assortment of veggies. We all ogled it when he set it down in the center of the table. "Go ahead, help yourselves." we already had paper plates.

I couldn't help thinking this was the calm before the storm, though. We were approaching the precipice and there was no turning back. Why did I get the feeling we were being watched? Not just by Pinkie Pie either, if you followed her propaganda. It was like this strange sense of commiseration had been washed over me and I felt like I was the only one at the table who felt it. I glanced at Coffee Bean, our head of Security. If anypony was keeping an eye on things, it was him. If that was the case however, he had an excellent poker face.

All the small things, I suppose. I bit my lip as I stared down at my terrible hoof. I was not winning anything this round. What would be the point? I suppose…there really wouldn't be. We would have no use for these bits in the Stable. We were all supposed to work together in the Stable, no need for a monetary system. I could only imagine that would bring chaos and confusion at first.

"Work sucks, I know!" laughed Margarita, our Head of Science and Medicine.

"I wonder when we'll get to meet all the ponies working under us," said Blitz, of course, the Overseer.

"I'm excited too," Sugar beamed, his cheeks blushing. He was such a cute pony.

I blinked my eyes and stared back down at my hoof. I drew a card on my turn, but no such luck. Nothing was getting any better.

"I hear the Stables are all secret experiments," said Coffee Bean, his poker face not faltering a bit. I couldn't tell if he was being serious or not.

"Say it ain't so!" I cocked a grin, trying to hold back a nervous laugh. I wouldn't put it past the Ministries.

"Damn, if that's the case, I will not go!" Margarita beside me folded.

"You kind of have to," Blitz shook his head. I wondered if he knew something in that instance. He looked so calculating, so ready to be Overstallion that it was a little alarming. I suppose if you put a pony into a position of power that's what would happen. He was our boss, we had to do what he said. I was proud of my friend, but at the same time I was worried he wasn't exactly fit for the responsibilities. I'd never voice that out loud though.

"I'm all in!" Coffee Bean winked and laid down his hoof. He had a royal flush. Of course he did. He was beating us all tonight.

"Faust damn!" Blitz laughed, "me too!" he laid down his own royal flush. They were both beating us tonight, though Coffee was in the lead.

"I fold," said Margarita. Coffee and Blitz were all smiles as they split the pot. I shook my head. It was all the small things that wouldn't matter anymore, but at least we would have this. Each other.

Oh colt, how wrong I was…

Ravager Blitzfire

Present Time: 207 Years After the Incident of Stable 14

"I fold," I said, setting my hoof down.

"Wrong move!" Cherry laughed.

"You just aren't getting any luck are you?" OJ asked.

We were all playing cards. Well, OJ and Pumpkin were watching. It was Cherry, Combat, Wonder and I playing. Buck and Ashe Erza were formulating a plan with Press and Surge in the greenhouse. I remember being good at this game, but I suppose Cherry was better. He laid down his hoof and revealed a straight flush. "Top that!" he laughed.

We were doing some actual betting, with caps involved, so it was best not to lose. Good thing I had plenty of caps. As a treasure hunter, it'd be against my creed not to collect caps as often as possible. Combat groaned and folded, "Can't believe how good you are at this game. You aren't cheating are ya? Kuz if you are I'll shoot ya."

"No I'm not." Cherry grinned. "How could I? I'm not magic."

"But we are," said Wonder, and he shot a wink toward OJ.

"Gross pone, come on!" Combat laughed, only joking. We all knew how much he wished he could get in on that action.

"There's nothing wrong with being playful!" giggled OJ and stuck his tongue out at Wonder. "Right, Wonderbolt?"

"You're most definitely right!" Wonder wiggled in his seat and gave OJ loving eyes. He was always smooth like that.

"Sorry to interrupt your game," Ashe Erza appeared behind Cherry and all his cards went everywhere, including some that we hadn't seen in his hoof previously.

"You were cheating!" Combat bellowed.

"Was not!" Cherry actively worked to pick up the cards he'd dropped and collect the caps he claimed to have won.

Combat pounced on him and they rolled around in the dirt before Erza picked the two of them up and bonked their heads together, "You two are acting childish! Get it together. We have a briefing in oh, right about now."

"Fine, fine," grumbled Combat.

"Whatever," muttered Cherry.

We followed Ashe to the greenhouse, where we met up with Buck and Surge. Press came in a little later. Surge typed a few commands into his terminal then turned to us. "The Railroad would like to meet us north of Sanctuary in a small neighborhood called Clydesdale Valley." he said.

"What's in Clydesdale Valley that's so important?" asked Combat Zone.

"We need to build an Institute Teleporter." said Ashe Erza. "We have most of the pieces we need but there is a secret location there with a hidden cash of items including a teleportation crystal. We need it to power the fast travel gate."

"And why are we meeting the Railroad?" asked Cherry.

"That's a good question, one easily answered by what they can provide us. Luckily, Blitzfire already helped them out once so they are more than willing to help us now." said Buck.

"Oh, well that's good then," I blinked.

"What is it that we get in return for our services?" Capper asked, flicking at his cuffs.

"A very much better question indeedy." said the Cheshire cat, brushing up against me as he spoke. He smiled and winked at me then disappeared again.

Press blinked in shock. Buck continued, "They going to provide a much needed Institute control panel they came across recently. It'll help us connect to the Institute's hidden servers so the teleportation crystal can detect where we need to go."

"Lastly, I'll be providing the arcane power generator to power this device," said Press. "It's the least we can do after you help our people secure Clydesdale Valley."

"What's in the neighborhood that we're securing it from?" I asked.

"There are a few feral ghouls lurking about that our ponies just haven't had the time to clean up." Press responded.

I smirked, "That should be easy enough."

"Don't get cocky, now." said Ashe Erza, staring me down. "It wouldn't look good on you if you bucked up later."

"I won't buck it up!" I said, shaking my head. "I don't make promises I can't keep." I told her.

"Very good," she nodded. "So are we all set then, or are there anymore questions for you slackers?"

"Hey, playing cards isn't slacking!" Cherry said.

"Easy for you to say, Cher, you cheated us out of good caps." Combat snarled and stuck his tongue out. I couldn't help but cock a grin, I think he got the tongue thing from OJ and it was so interesting to see how everypony had changed in the last year alone. I was glad they'd changed for the better. They were all chatty and things seemed way better than they ever had. I wondered if things would ever get better for me…

I cracked a small smile at Capper and he smiled back.

Nexus Spark

Pre-War: 0 Years Before The Megaspells

Mimi was leading us to the Stable over the hill set near a small neighborhood in just southeast of the Capital. It was really close to both Ponyville, Broncston and Bittsberg. The big gear was set flat on the ground. "This here Stable was constructed to house about 2000 souls, not including your staff. There are special quarters for all staff in a separate area of the Stable." Mimi stopped us in front of the gear door. I didn't realize they could set a Stable door into the ground like this but I suppose it wouldn't be too difficult.

Coffee Bean stepped forward. "Mimi, ma'am, may I request we wait until my security detail arrives before we open the door?"

"Why's that?" she asked.

"I have planned a full assessment today, I have my orders and you have yours. Security overrides any other power in times of need."

"This doesn't appear to be a time of need," said Blitz.

"Trust me, if I say it's a time of need, I know best." said Coffee Bean. Faust, he was so full of himself! I don't think I'd be able to get along with him, but I was going to have to try. I'd be living with all these ponies for the foreseeable future.

"May I ask what spurred them to lay the entrance flat?" I asked.

"Sure!" Mimi nodded and smiled in glee. "I'm happy to answer any questions. To address yours, I was told the elevator design is the most advanced design yet. It's made to last 200 years!"

"Wait, how long were they expecting us to stay down there?" I creased my brows.

"That's another good question…" Mimi tilted her head and tried her best to come up with an answer. "Unfortunately no set time was specified. All's I was told is that the area between the Capital, Broncston and Bittsberg will most likely be a high target area."

"Why do you think I've designated this a time of need?" Coffee put forth. I suppose he was right, tensions were at their highest. I wouldn't be surprised if megaspells started going off.

"I've got another job down in Conquine and Sanctuary Hills, I'll be back once I've finished up." Mimi beamed and skipped off. She was so cheerful, I liked that about her.

"I wonder what makes this area so high priority?" Sugar asked aloud.

"There are a few military bases in this area," Coffee stated confidently, like he already knew that.

"Yes, according to some of my Stable Tech maps, there are three in the general vicinity alone." said Blitz. I hadn't received any of those maps!

"How come we don't have those maps?" asked Margarita.

"I don't know, they're all stamped 'For Overseer's eyes only'. I guess they're classified?"

"That they are, so shut your mouth," snapped Coffee. "Only two ponies in the whole Stable have all the paperwork." he stopped talking in that instance when a flash of light presented itself over the blue skies. An alarm began to sound. It was an early warning system that had gone off a bit late. There was a loud BOOM and a mushroom cloud appeared in the distance.

"Oh Faust, it's started!"

There came the marching sound of armored troops coming up the hill and a full security detail appeared. "Reporting for duty sir." saluted the first security officer, wearing the most armor. His uniform was a darker shade of blue from the rest. He must be higher in the chain of command. I noticed there were about 3 different shades of blue.

Another crew came up the side of the hill, a bunch of unicorn ponies carrying crates and boxes in their magical grasps and an operator in a yellow uniform heading toward the control booth. "Open it up!" shouted Coffee Bean.

"We've got incoming residents!" yelled somepony from down the way. I wasn't sure who it was. Things were happening so fast.

The gear began to slide open and an elevator was called. Another megaspell went off in the distance, the cloud visible from here. "Isn't that going to cause a bunch of radiation?"

"It won't reach us for another 20 minutes," Blitz stated. He knew his stuff, that was for sure. "It looks like the Capital was the first target."

"That's right, now everypony onto the elevator." Coffee and his detail began shoving us. Rather rude, I thought.

"Hey! I can walk ya know!" I snapped.

"Not today you can't," Coffee spat. I was really beginning to hate this guy.

"Blitz, tell them to calm down or something!"

"I can't, this is a time of great need and I have no jurisdiction…" he was being shoved onto the elevator too. I looked down the hill as the elevator activated and I saw residents being corralled single file toward us.

"First the Department Heads, then civilians," Coffee was shouting orders. The operator switched a few levers and pressed a few buttons and the elevator jostled into life. There was an attachment of officers waiting with us. The sky disappeared as the elevator got lower and lower and the sky turned into a tiny circle of white light.

"Turn the lights off," said one of the officers in a darker blue shirt. The lights brightened instead. It must be some sort of code.

"Carry me home." said another guard, his uniform was the darkest.

The elevator came to a halt and we came to another gear door. This place was legit. "Everypony off!" snapped the last guard, and we were yet again shoved forward. The darkest shirt went to the control panel and input a few commands. The gear made a loud metalic screeching sound and rolled to the side on its hydraulics.

"You guys don't have to shove!" I yelled, but they refused to listen. They had security batons and anytime we slowed they would slap us in the flank. What was their deal? I heard the elevator activate again and it went back up, leaving us trapped below.

I looked around and spotted Blitz. He was at the front of the line and he was frowning as the guards forced him to change into a Stable Tech issued Stable 14 uniform. It was brown, orange and yellow. Ours were blue, as I came to find out when one was slapped into my grasp. "Put this on, now." snapped the guard.

"Hey! Watch it!" Sugar Pop yelped.

"We can do things for ourselves, ya know, you don't gotta be so rude about it," said Margarita.

"Blitz, what's going on?" but I couldn't see him. I could still hear him though, but I couldn't make out what he was saying.

After I put my uniform on, I was brought into the main Stable…where I learned the dark truth of our fate. Our specialized crew cabins were in fact our cold storage coffins. The guards had to fight with me to get me into one of those cryostasis pods. "This is a good thing!" snapped one of the guards.

"Keep your head still!" snapped another one. A couple others had entered and one was speaking on his radio. The last thing I saw before the pod enclosed on me was Coffee Bean coming into the room, and he said into his radio something strange. Another code phrase I imagined.

"I'll be your thrill." he was smirking as he said it and starting straight at me. He looked pleased with himself. I hoped he'd rot in tartarus, along with anypony else responsible for this. Those were my last thoughts before I woke up 200 years later to find everypony in the Stable dead. Everypony except for Blitz in his own special Overseer pod, one connected to its own generator, ensuring he wouldn't lose power no matter what happened to the rest of the Stable. That pissed me off, and it was the moment I decided Ravager Blitzfire was the one responsible for all of this.

200 Years After the Incident of Stable 14

"Miss me?" I asked as the pod slowly opened. I had a silver revolver to his head, the revolver Sugar Pop had used to kill himself. My horn glew with my neon green magic to levitate the weapon and my cutie mark was engraved on the side of the gun in my rage.

Blitzfire blinked, looking confused. I gritted my teeth, his dumb face fueling my rage all the more. "S-Sparky, let's be rational here. Why do you have that gun?" he chuckled, actually laughed! It made me the most pissed I'd ever been. I was tempted to pull the trigger right then and there. But I saw fear in my best friend's eyes. I thought back on my stepstallion, how he'd fallen down the stairs, how I had wished that no matter how much the pone deserved it, he hadn't died that day. I wasn't a killer, and that was the only thing that stopped me.

"You did this to them!" I growled through clenched teeth, "You did this to all of them!" I had tears forming in my eyes, trying so hard not to cry right now. I didn't know if I could help it, I had a gun to my best friend's head for crying out loud!

Yet he still protested with me, "I didn't Sparky! You know that!" his jaw was quivering and I couldn't tell if he was telling the truth or not.

I kept the gun pointed at him but I wandered over to the desk. I looked down at the documents I had pulled out from the safe, the ones declaring this Stable's mission to be freeze all the incoming residents and wake them up 200 years later. Well that had failed, hadn't it? Everypony was dead, the Stable had lost power long ago. For the ones who had made it they couldn't face the devastation and killed themselves, including our department heads. The only thing that had stopped me from pulling that trigger on myself was the thought of Blitzfire still trapped in his own pod. I couldn't bear to leave him there. Then I'd got the dumb idea to break into his safe. Curiosity killed the cat. I supposed it would kill the dog too.

I picked up his documents and stuffed them in his face. He grabbed onto them and stared down at what he could read. The top page listed specifications for the cryostasis pods. He knew, he had to of! His eyes widened.

"I read the documents in your safe. You knew long before anypony else did," but something about his expression told me it was somehow a shock. But he could just be in shock from waking up with a gun to his temples. "You let them put me in that thing. How could you Blitzy?" my tears streamed freely now. I walked back up to his pod, keeping myself in front of him and him in my sights at all times.

He said, "I didn't have a choice! Please understand." but I didn't understand. Everypony was dead! How could I even begin to comprehend that?

"You were my friend. Just look at what you've done. Come on, come look." Using my magic, I gestured with the gun for him to get out of his pod. I was going to show him the pain he'd caused. I was going to show him Sugar Pop. He got out, a bit shaky and I waved the gun again. "Come on."

I wandered through the Stable, first the resident pods, they were between here and the greenhouses. As we wandered through I saw how horrified my friend was. At least he revelled in the terrible tragedy he may have caused. Maybe I didn't have all my information, but I was still sad and angry. Nothing would change that.

As we walked, I thought about one of the documents I had read. I had stolen it, kept it in my pocket. It was a detailed letter about the Institute of Friendship, a secret organization Twilight had created after shutting down her school. I had found it intriguing to read about, and maybe once this was all over I'd follow the maps I'd taken that related to the Institute. It was all on crumpled and folded pieces of paper in the pocket of my navy blue Maintenance uniform. It was a big maybe. I didn't know what the world outside was like in the slightest. All I knew was that if that was my plan, I was heading to Broncston.

We came to the room I'd brought most of the dead bodies. It was a long greenhouse chamber. I'd shoved all the planting tables aside and brought the bodies here. I had found some white sheets in the infirmary, where I had found yet more pods. All our staff had been frozen along with us, and all our staff had died too. The ones who'd woken up and found the death had killed themselves, mostly in random places. So here they were, under bloodied white sheets in their final resting place. At the very end was Sugar, he'd chosen a good final resting place, one of the very few ponies who had had sense. I hadn't covered him up. I had wanted Blitz to see.

Blitz took a few steps back, his expression sickened, "Did you bring them here?" he had noticed the trails of blood.

"Of course I did! I couldn't leave them rotting. I had to have the common decency to bring them somewhere that wasn't out in the open where they'd all left themselves." I spat. I was feeling disgusted, but mostly with the nasty scent lingering in this room. Rotting bodies.

"What happened to them?" Blitz asked.

I shook my head, "They killed themselves." I thought it would be obvious, Sugar had a bullet hole in the center of his head. "They couldn't bear the pain of what they saw in those pods. But I had to stay alive, if only to avenge the ones that died."

Blitz sounded scared, "What are you gonna do?"

I raised my gun again, pointing it directly at Blitz's forehead. My aim was steady but something kept me from finishing it. I really hated…this. Did I really hate Blitz? That was something I couldn't answer. More tears formed in my eyes as I stared angrily at my ex-best friend. He deserved to die. So why couldn't I pull the trigger? That's when he tried to argue with me. When I had to chase him down through the Stable, when he got ahold of my gun, the silver .44 magnum revolver that had my cutie mark engraved on the side. He escaped and we went on our separate ways.

I didn't have much of a plan, but I suppose I'd start with the documents in my pocket. I sat on my haunches on the elevator as I waited for it to lift me to my fate. It was all the small things, I kept telling myself. Maybe Blitz really had been oblivious. I started crying, not knowing what I was going to do. I didn't want to kill Blitzfire…I just wanted my friend back…I still had anger towards him, but all I could do now was sob.