Hype! I'm so glad to see this getting posted.

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Me too :)

Well, that’s one hell of a way to start a book! I’m interested in just who this bot will be, and can’t wait to find out more! My only real question is, I’d this the same universe as Operation Star Drop? It’d be so funny to see Lyra meeting her “grandson” in that story, or this one.

Thanks for the great work as always Meep, keep up the good work!

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I’d this the same universe as Operation Star Drop?

If you want it to be, yes. If you don't want it to be, no. I'm trying to keep my stuff loose but bound with just a thread or two. That way, you can choose what your personal head canon for FoE is. That is quite important to kkat, who insists her own blogs are non-canon even when they reveal her intentions behind story choices and world building decisions. And so I shall follow her lead.

Great start! Can’t wait to see where this one takes us.

Yeah! Head canons!

I read the summary and I couldn't help but think:

"They sound like the perfect team for this, I mean their chances of success are so mathematicaly small that the universe will give them an actual shot at succeeding just for the laughs"

Either way, looking forward to reading this to see what happens

Lyra understood her wife’s fears. She didn’t want a machine uprising either… but as somepony who helped design and build those very robots, she knew of all the safeguards, design choices, and the very nature of computers which made such an event much, much less likely than the Breezies rising up to enslave Ponykind.

Now wouldn't that be interesting

Rivet jumped out of his chair and pointed to the processor network. “This thing, right here, put into an equoid frame, say the Assault Pony we’re working on, could mean the end of mass death for our side. We replace shock troopers and assault squads with these guys, and that’s that. We lose no pony power on the fronts. Or at least, much less.”

River buddy, that's great and all but what you're saying is that you want to create a "race" of thinking feeling machines and then tell them fight and die for you en masse... that's probably
not gonna end well

Number one-one-seven will be given to Lab J for experimental modification with advanced computation technology.”

117 in lab J huh

Oh that prophecy is trolling beyond the grave. I wonder if Celestia on her maneframe shall one day see the monolith and how she'll react to knowing she could've avoided it all if she had only paid more attention, investigated a little more...

A new type of computer, a new mechanical soldier. One more innovation that would've given Equestria victory had the bombs not fell. But such is the legacy of Kindness, the lesson on why the road to tartarus is paved by the fallen feathers of angels.

Who is this pony to be? The soldier, sure, but what more? Will they be as loyal as Brass believes? Would they be the shield to guard equestria? Will they?

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117 in lab J huh

That's right we're gonna refrence that one game that ripped of System Shock 2! :D

Something more to look forward to! Thank you, Meep!

gets to reading

Lyra understood her wife’s fears. She didn’t want a machine uprising either… but as somepony who helped design and build those very robots, she knew of all the safeguards, design choices, and the very nature of computers which made such an event much, much less likely than the Breezies rising up to enslave Ponykind.

Needless to say, that was almost certain to be impossible. Unless of course the Breezies teamed up with Changelings, but Lyra refused to entertain her brother’s crackpot theories. If he came up with them before enjoying a batch of “brownies”, Lyra might have paid them some attention. But that wasn’t the kind of pony he was.

I giggled.

Lyra often thought about setting up an appointment with a therapist or counselor to tackle her family issues once and for all. Unfortunately, the many, many cases of Wartime Stress Disorder meant such support was in short supply. It would often take three months to get an appointment, and even then, seeking help for family-based-disharmony could lead a pony to diagnose one or all of Lyra’s family with WSD.

That was a fate nopony wanted. Nopony knew just what was done to treat WSD, but as a defense contractor who supplied certain technologies to the Ministries, Lyra had her grim suspicions. They could attend to this once the war ended. It would be safe to seek counseling then.

Ah, that part of the tradgedy of fallout equestria, isn't it...

Rivet’s eyes narrowed as he assumed a deadpan expression. “You just wanted an excuse to make even better cosplay hands, didn’t you?”

Heehee!
Ah, I think I remember you showing me this bit long ago!

Lyra blushed, cleared her throat, and leaned back in her chair, making the leather creak. “Son, I don’t question your hobbies. Please return the favor. And for the record, I didn’t lie. I’m simply good at merging my work with my hobbies. Could you pass me the spark battery? It would be nice if this could work off its own power instead of draining my magical reserves.”

giggling intensifies

Rivet beamed his mother a proud smile. “Please! Have HR try and write her a letter, that would be amazing. Not only would every mare in the office, you included, insist that you can’t help flagging a little during a heat, but, well... she doesn't work here.”

https://thisponydoesnotexist.net/

Lyra raised her robotic hand with one finger pointing upwards as she opened her mouth to make a point.

Lyra would do OK in one of my rimworld colonies, she'd be happy to be getting all the synthetic parts I could make for her :P
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BOOOM!

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Sorry, the following part gets a bit ranty and I'm worried I'm being rude when I really respect you and your work. So, uh, if I offend you, you can stop reading this part (Not that you have to read anything I or anyone else says...)?

This is just one of my hot-button topics ever since Paolini floated the idea of doing an Eragon prequel about Brom. Excuse me, what? Why would I want to read it (also, the ending to his main series sucked on its own, it doesn't need further help) when it talks about Eragon's dead father who was prophesied to literally fail at everything he ever attempted?! It won't change the original ending and we already know how Brom's story ended! Reading a story about a man who continually fails at everything he tries to do only to see him amount to nothing in the end and then die is far too close to real life for me!

...So, how does optional canonicity work? Eventually some set of events has to overlap, which would make it part of the same setting, or it's (effectively) not part of the same setting.

I bring that up because this is Lyra we're talking about here and she shows up in the other story. There's already a link if there's any possible relation at all. It would have to appear at some point, even if it got mentioned, say, in that five year timeskip. Otherwise her son died and she never even found out what happened to him or that (probably) his creation survived, which is a bit of a kick in the teeth to that happy ending.

I'd also be fine if it were completely another AU and Gears never happened in this timeline, admittedly.

If you've thought of that, you're probably doing this already as a bit of an easter egg for previous readers, but I'd suggest referring to rumors of an indestructible mailmare or running into the leader of Las Pegasus with a certain book, for instance (but not have them actually interact). That way there's no real effect on the actual storyline and this set of characters can have all their own adventures somewhere else (apparently like the actual Fallout games; they're all set in different areas so they don't have to invent a new crisis and kill off favorite characters from the previous game) with a bit of long-term reader bonus.

What Lyra would never tell anypony is she had copied her office’s color scheme from a particular brand of hotel mints for the sole reason that with her mint colored fur and mane her office would look like an almost empty box with one mint left in it.

Okay, that one's inspired.

“I’m sorry, madam, but no pony named My Son works at your company,” Harper said emotionlessly. “The pony waiting for you is Brass Rivet.”

This is unfortunately familiar to anyone who's been around Siri or Google Assistant too much. :D

The output of each neuron is computed one iteration in advance of the actual calculation being performed by a nonlinear function of the oracular—

Huh, a chronoprocessor. Neat!

Yeah, "deep fake" tech is both really interesting and weird. Also more than a bit creepy at times. Mostly, though, I just wish the dang crap would be actually open-sourced. It's getting (mis)used already either way, so the least that can be done is let people use the actual model instead of a black box.

I'm still somewhat confused why no one has built a neural net that self-modifies or "sleeps" yet, though. Probably because we don't usually want to make a real AI, but at the same time I feel like we've run down a dead end by basically using externally-trained tools which end up being "expert systems, but harder to debug."

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If you've thought of that, you're probably doing this already as a bit of an easter egg for previous readers, but I'd suggest referring to rumors of an indestructible mailmare or running into the leader of Las Pegasus with a certain book, for instance (but not have them actually interact). That way there's no real effect on the actual storyline and this set of characters can have all their own adventures somewhere else (apparently like the actual Fallout games; they're all set in different areas so they don't have to invent a new crisis and kill off favorite characters from the previous game) with a bit of long-term reader bonus.

I've gotten my writing spark back after that bout of depression and the move... I might come back to pony stuf. I just... don't feel welcome here anymore :/ It's because Starlight Glimmer fans infest the fandom. She's such a terrible huge glaring WRONG to me that the fact that people like her pushes me away from the fandom. But... I do think I want to finish this.

Anywho... Soldier, Seeker, Eagle takes place WAAAAAAAAAY before my other FoE fic. Before Little Pip is born even. Before her mom's born even. 60 years, rather than 200. So yes, Lyra is ment to have never seen her son again after the Last Day if you want to take the two stories as existing together. But you don't have to do that at all. Which is my intent. Stardrop is comody, the bright and fun side of Fallout that's a wackey comic book world. This tragety. The serious, grim, black humor side.

Mostly, though, I just wish the dang crap would be actually open-sourced.

It is! Uh, i'm not sure if I am allowed to mention specificly where here, since Deep Fakes are kind of a hot button legal issue... but they are open source and I may or may not be able to replicate the voices of any Fallout 4 character.