• Published 18th Feb 2017
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Watching Equestria Burn: A Fallout Equestria Story - ThePrizeKeeper



What happened before Littlepip crawled herself out of Stable 2? Nopony knows, but I have a theory.

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Chapter 2

"I'll give ya two-thousand caps f'er it," The blue merchant pony said, pointing a hoof at the Pip-Buck that Red Mist had entrapped in her levitation spell.

"For the second time, Bluetail." Red Mist stated with a frustrated tone, "It's not for sale. Now, what can I get for these?" She motioned to a small pile of assorted items.

Bluetail looked disappointed, then down at the pile that sat between him and Red Mist.

There was a broken - but salvageable - sub-machine gun, a few torn articles of clothing, some bits assorted ammo the Red Mist didn't have guns for, and a few cartons of cigarettes.

"Hmm..." Bluetail said as he examined the items, "Considerin' the condition of most of these, I'd have to say, about ninety bottle caps."

"Okay," Red Mist began searching her bags for anything else she could sell, then she found a small tin, sitting at the bottom, "Aha! -" She pulled out the tin of Party Time Mintals, and gave a sly smile, "- How much would this add?"

"Uh, um -" Bluetail stuttered, "- Wh-where did you get those?" He leaned in to get a closer look.

"I found it on a scavenging run," Red Mist answered, "Now, how much?"

"Th-that's easily a good two-hundred caps alone!" Bluetail exclaimed.

"It's yours -" Red Mist grinned, "- If you have the caps."

Bluetail started searching his saddlebags, trying his best to scrounge together the necessary caps to buy the Party Time Mintals, then he gasped.

"What?" Red Mist asked, moving a bit closer to the stallion, "What is it?"

Bluetail gingerly pulled out a set of Stabletech access keys with his teeth, and set them on the ground, "If ya ain't gonna sell me the Pip-Buck, I'll trade ya these f'er the Mintals, and one-hundred caps."

Red Mist's eyes widened, and she quickly began searching her bags for the required funds.

"T'was a pleasure, Ms. Red Mist." Bluetail said, tipping his hat. The kid was always a gentle-stallion.

Red Mist smiled warmly, and began trotting home.

Once she was a comfortable distance away from the merchant pony, Red Mist floated the Pip-Buck out of her saddlebags, and played the recording from where she left off.

~V~V~

"So, what am I doing here," I asked as I walked into Scootaloo's office.

"Well," Applebloom answered, "As you may know, Stabletech invented the Terminals. Hell, I even came to your door to hoof-deliver a prototype to you."

"Yeah," I agreed, "But what do you need me here for?"

"Um," Sweetybell said, "We're working on a new project, and require your assistance."

"And Pinkie Pie herself informed us of the amazing work you've done to your personal terminal."

"I'm listening," I said, as Scootaloo unrolled some blueprints onto her desk.

"The terminals were an early design," Applebloom said as we all walked up to look at the blueprints, "Just to see what kind of good they would do. I call this the Pip-Buck. It's like a terminal, but is worn on the fore-hoof of a pony, and can do so much more."

"Like what?" I asked, observing the prints.

"Well," Applebloom began, "There's a magical radiation detector, a saddlebag sorting spell, a targeting spell..."

"Who would use a targeting spell?" I interrupted.

"I dunno, but Scootaloo said to throw it in there," Applebloom answered.

"I was thinking of the soldiers," Scootaloo stated, "But we don't have the funds to make an exclusive model for them, so we're putting it in all of them."

"Okay, Makes sense. Please continue Ms. Applebloom." I said, wanting to know more about this "Pip-Buck."

"As I was sayin'," Applebloom continued, "It has a targeting spell, An auto-map spell accompanied with - what I like to call - the "Eyes-Forward Sparkle,"or EFS. It's a holographic compass display that only the wearer of the Pip-Buck can see. It can even tell the difference between hostile, and docile people.

"It can send, and receive audio messages, download data from other Pip-Bucks and Terminals, and store it on its six-hundred Terabytes of storage space.

"Oh, and it also has a lamp."

I was in awe. How did these ponies think they could cram this much tech into a hoof-worn device like this?

"Do you really think you can cram all this tech into something this small?" I asked, echoing my thoughts.

"That's where you come in." Sweetybell said, "You have the technical skills to make one of our own creations run much better than it did off the shelf, so we want you to take that knowledge, and use it to create a smaller version of what you saw inside the terminal."

"Er. Fair enough," I said, "Just give me the tools, and a place to work, and I'll get right on it."

The mares were silent for a few long seconds, then Scootaloo said, "Well, that makes it easier for us."

"Easier, how?" I asked, tilting my head in confusion.

"We were expecting you to request a design team," Scootaloo answered.

"Yeah, I tend to work better on my own." I stated with an awkward grin.

"Perfect!" Applebloom exclaimed, "We can get you started tomorrow at eight."

~V~V~

"And here is your office," Sweetybell said, opening a door to a slightly rundown room with only a wooden desk, a padded chair, a few empty book shelves, and a single large window with a lovely view of - though it was still a few miles away - Factory A's scrap yard.

"I know, it's not the best," Sweetybell said in a sorrowful tone, "And the view outside isn't the prettiest, but it's the only bit of office space we have available at the moment. If it were up to me, I would have waited at least a week before your first day so we could fix it up for you, but Scootaloo, and Applebloom wanted you to start as soon as possible."

"Your giving my a six-figure pay check," I said, walking into the room, and giving it a good look-over, "I can work with this."

And work with it I did. I took each individual bookshelf - and the desk - down to the company workshop, and cleaned, stained, and polished each them by hoof. I buffed the wood floorboards, painted the walls a nice, and inviting amber-gold-ish color, and replaced the old desk chair with an identical one. The only thing I couldn't fix was the view outside, so I just replaced the clear glass window with a frosted one. The natural light from outside gives the room a nice glow.

"Wow. You really fixed this place up," Scootaloo said with a grin as she walked into my office; then she saw my desk - and the floor behind it - and her grin fell a bit.

My desk, and the floor were littered with torn apart terminals, and failed attempts at shrinking the logic board.

"Glad to see you're working hard," The Pegasus said, trying not to step on anything as she made her way towards me, "Are you sure you don't want a design team?"

"I tend to focus a lot better on my own -" I groan in frustration as my screw driver slips, and cuts my hoof, "- How the fuck does Applebloom expect me to be able to fit six-hundred Terabytes of storage space in this tiny thing? I can hardly shrink down five-hundred Gigabytes!"

"She has no idea," - Scootaloo scratched the back of her neck. - "She just knows it's possible, and you're the type of pony who can do it."

"That's helpful," I grumble, more in pain than frustration, "I was able to shrink most of everything else down to size except these damned Storage Drives," - I sighed in frustration, put my tools down on the desk, and walked towards the door. - "I'm going out to lunch. Care to join me?" I smiled at the Pegasus.

Scootaloo turned to me, "Are you asking me out, on a date?"

"Er -" I stumbled for the right words. "- N-no, I'm meeting a couple friends, and their marefriends, and I don't want to be the odd one out -" I smiled weakly, "- You know?"

"Yeah, sure," - The Pegasus smiles, suppressing a laugh - "I can tag along," She then leans in close to me ear, and says, "It would have been better if you just said 'Yes'."

My friends were dumbfounded when I walked into the cafe with Scootaloo by my side. No, not because I was a Unicorn, and she was a Pegasus - which is rare on its own - but because none of my friends expected me to be able to gain the attraction of such an exotic pony. At least, that's what I assume they were thinking, judging my the looks on their faces.

"Mother of Celestia, man," My friend - Speedy - whispered "How did you snag her?"

"She's..." I whispered back, "My boss."

"It doesn't matter if she's your boss," Speedy said, "She's gorgeous!"

"Yeah -" I looked at Scootaloo, who was laughing along with my other friends, "- She is."

After lunch, Scootaloo, and I headed back to work.

"I had fun," She said with a smile, "And your friends are really nice. Especially that 'Speedy' guy. If I didn't know any better, I'd think he was trying to flirt with me."

"That's because he was," I replied, "That's how he treats every mare he meets for the first time."

"Shadow and Scootaloo, sitting in a tree!" - Applebloom and Sweetybell had ambushed me and Scootaloo, and were now dancing around us - "K-I-S-S-I-N-G!"

Scootaloo face-hoofed, and I lowered my head in embarrassment.

"Can you girls be any more immature?" Scootaloo asked.

"What?" - Applebloom laughed - "It's weird!"

"First comes Love!" - Sweetybell continued - "Then comes marriage!"

"I'll be in my office," I said softly, pushing passed the two mares in front of me.

The next morning, I didn't go into work. I was out with a group of Stabletech Scientists, trying to figure out how to fit six-hundred Terabytes of storage space inside the Pip-Buck. The scientists themselves were out for something else that I fell is irrelevant for this story.

We were exploring a cave full of crystals and, and the light outside was pouring in through a hole in the top of the cave, lighting it up. The crystals were reflected this light in such a way that you could see the thin, individual pentagonal plates that made them, so I found a few that were about hoof-sized, and brought them back to my office for experimentation.

~V~V~

"Shadow?" Sweetybell asked, opening the door to my office, "Everypony's gone home. Maybe you should too."

"Yeah, yeah," I said, focused on my work, "You go ahead. I'll only be a few more minutes."

"Okay," Sweetybell was a bit unsure about what she was told, but she left my office anyway.

I gingerly levitated a paper-thin crystal disk - only about half an inch in diameter - into a small metal enclosure.

I never left.

~V~V~

"I've done it!" I exclaim as I burst into Scootaloo's office, where she was talking with the other two mares, "It took all night, but I've finally figured it out!"

"Figured what out?" Applebloom asked, turning her attention from Scootaloo, and giving me a confused look.

"I figured out how to fit six-hundred Terabytes of data on the Pip-Buck!"

Comments ( 1 )

Very interesting Story so far! keep up the good work!

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