Found in the back of the reactor room by one of mares on the maintenance team, Tea’s appearance in the vault was a strange one. Besides the fact that the purple-hued foal was mysteriously left in an off-limits area of the stable with no clue as to who her parents were or how she got there, the phenomenon was made even more mysterious by her horn, and the fact that Stable 104 was, and had always been, inhabited entirely by Earth Ponies. Still, the stable dwellers weren’t the type to abandon a pony in need, so they did their best to raise her as one of their own.
 
It didn’t take long, however, for the stable to realize Tea’s other unique trait. As she got older, it became clear that the unicorn was growing faster than her peers. By the time she was 10, she was a head taller than her classmates. At 12, she was the tallest mare in the stable. She surpassed the height of most of the stable doors and passages by the time she was 14, and by 16, the only room she was able to stand up straight in was the large, cavernous atrium in the center of the stable.
 
After much deliberation, it was decided by the overmare and the councilponies in charge that the stable couldn’t continue to support the unusually large unicorn. Besides the amount of resources it took to feed and clothe the burgeoning mare, it was clear that Tea’s growth was accelerating. The mare had just celebrated her 18th birthday, and at this point was so massive that almost none of the corridors in the stable were able to accomodate her size. The council was concerned that if she were allowed to remain a resident for any longer, she would become too immense to fit through the stable door leading to the surface, at which point there would be no solution.
 
A plan was hatched, and Tea was presented with a mission: The water talisman that purified the water supply was decaying, and without a replacement, the stable was running on borrowed time. Tea, of course, accepted the mission, and promised to venture to the surface and find the magical talisman.
 
Among the vault’s other inhabitants was a small Earth Pony by the name of Cee Biscuit. Unlike Tea, it seemed that Cee’s only remarkable quality (apart from his short stature) is just how unremarkable he was. Cee received a ruler as his cutie mark at a young age, and while many of his peers joked that his talent was simply ‘being short’, the ponies on the council simply assumed it had something to do with engineering and assigned him as an apprentice to the maintenance team.
 
Cee was one year older than the amazonic purple unicorn who occupied the seat next to his in the cramped schoolroom, and despite their differences, the two became good friends. Even after Tea grew too large to properly attend class, Cee made a point to visit her at every available opportunity.
 
Tea hadn’t expected any company on her journey, but Cee was waiting for her in front of the vault’s exit, duct-taped rifle in hoof. Neither knew kind of world they would find on the surface… But as long as they had each other’s companionship, as long as they had each other, there wasn’t anything they couldn’t do.