FoE: Do Robot Ponies Dream of Electronic Bunnies
Chapter III: Objective
"You have a shooty look." – P-21 to Blackjack, FoE: Project Horizons
System Report: 0000000003
Unit Status: Active
Location: Fillydelphia
(Satellite Signal Error, Attempting To Repair… Error: Signal Corrupted)
Begin data dump to external off-site memory back-up:
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- - - - - - Done.
Preparing visual report: Done.
Date: --/--/2212, 200PA (Post-Apocalypse)
Time: 0600 Local
Morning.
You'd never be able to tell it was morning by looking at the sky. All you could see when you looked up was grey. But it was a light grey, so the sun was up there somewhere. I stood outside the shelter, scanning the clouds. Why was it always so cloudy?
"Don't bother looking for sky," I heard behind me. Night Rose had emerged, looking disheveled and sleepy. "The wingboners won't open the clouds to let us dirt ponies see it."
"Why not?" Wingboners?
"They lost one city and turned into a race of pussies. Cranked up the cloud-makers and cut us off from Celestia's sun and Luna's moon. Goddess damned cowards."
"They just ran away," I asked, turning to look at her. I'm pretty sure I had a look of disbelief on my face. The thought that the Pegasi would just turn tail and run didn't sound logical at all.
"One and all," Night Rose nodded. "Some of them came back down, I heard, but they were ostracized by the rest of the featherbrains. Basically, if you came down from the clouds, you're a traitor or something like that."
I looked up at the clouds again. "What about Rainbow Dash or the Shadowbolts? Or even the Wonderbolts?"
"Dash was one of the ones to come down. First one, I think. Any that followed her were labeled Dashites. As for the Shad's and the Wonder's, who knows? Probably joined their beloved Enclave."
"How do you know all that?"
"Ran into a Pegasus in Friendship City named Radar. He didn't like talking about it much, but he did give some decent intel." She yawned and stretched out. "Shit, I need some coffee."
Night Rose left me staring into the sky in search of her brown death fluid. My logic processor went over everything I'd just been told. It didn't make sense. Or maybe it made perfect sense and I just hadn't been active long enough to see it. I had only been online for two days, fourteen hours, twenty minutes, and eighteen seconds. The only things I knew for certain were Reapers were bad, Steel Rangers were greedy, and the world had gone to hell in a hoof-basket two hundred years back.
Yeah. Great time to be awake.
An hour later, Night Rose re-emerged, dressed in her power armor. Her helmet was again hooked on her shoulder. She gave another yawn as she sealed the shelter door behind her. "So, what's your plan, then?"
"I don't have one yet," I replied with more than a hint of sadness.
"Well, until you do, I guess you can hang around with me. I still got a Reaper to take out. Wouldn't mind the assistance."
"Sure," I said half-heartedly. "Whatever you need." Depression now. What emotion didn't I have?
She looked at me sideways and punched me in the shoulder. Which hurt. "Don't be like that. You'll figure something out."
We started toward the Crater, my E.F.S. and radar on active search mode. I picked up quite a few red dots, but they all turned out to be either mutated bugs or some zombie-fied creature. If the Reaper was still here, he was laying real low. Half the day passed without finding a trace of him. I could tell Night Rose was frustrated. I could see it in her eyes. She didn't let it show in her voice though. She kept trying to give me a name to pass the time.
"Metal Flank."
"No," I replied. "That was a terrible rock band, from what my records say. I'd rather not be associated with them."
"Oh, who's gonna know that out here?"
"I'd rather not take the chance of running into someone who does."
"Ok. Cyber Hunter."
"For the time being, lets steer clear of names alluring to me being a bot, okay?"
"Good idea," she replied with a nod. "Let's look at you then. Glowing eyes, wires for hair, camouflage coat… How about Urban Stalker?"
"Stalker?" I eyed her incredulously. "That's kind of dark, don't you think?"
"Well you're shooting down all the good names," she replied. "I'm running out of ideas here."
I was about to reply when a round ricocheted off of the wall near Night Rose's head. She dove for cover immediately as I tracked the bullet's trajectory and fired off a burst from my zebra rifle. I didn't hit anything, but whoever it was ducked back under cover. I heard a strange, mad laughter float across the street to us. It didn't sound like the Reaper's voice. It was female, and it was joined by several others.
"Raiders," Night Rose cursed as she donned her helmet. "At least we'll see some decent action, now."
"Tell me you weren't hoping for a fight," I said as I watched several ponies break cover and charge us. They all wore similar, patched together armor. A few were carrying melee weapons in their mouths, while three with guns hung back and shot from cover.
"Not them, no," Night Rose replied as she rose from cover and opened fire with her energy rifle. One of the charging raiders was hit dead center in the chest and disappeared into a pile of pink glowing ash. "I was just getting anxious is all."
I switched to the mini chain gun as a few rounds found my body. I winced as the pain reception center registered the hits. I disliked the MoWT more and more. I sprayed the raiders in cover with a quick burst, then turned on the ones charging. Thanks to Night Rose's accuracy, they were down to just four from the seven they'd started with. My own shots reduced that to two. The other two seemed to either not notice or not care that they were the only ones left. They leapt over Night Rose's cover and swung their weapons at her.
I slipped into S.A.T.S. and locked onto the one I had a best shot at. He was still turning around to take a swing at Night Rose. In the time-stopped magic of the spell, I got a good look at him. Brown coat, red mane and tail, eyes wild and joyful. He was in a berserk insanity and with the red lines in his eyes, probably on some kind of enhancement drug. He was gleefully spinning to put his hunting knife into Night Rose's throat. My S.A.T.S. guided shots ended that fantasy. The burst ripped him in half, his spinning back half continuing to turn as his front half went flying from the inertia of the initial move. He died with that smile on his face.
Night Rose parried the other raider's swing with her energy rifle, and swung a buck back at her. The crazed mare dodged it and came back with her sledgehammer, scoring a glancing blow on her flank. Night Rose used the momentum from the strike to bounce her flank off the other mare's body, knocking her back a few feet.
I would have watched more, marveling at how fluidly she moved in that heavy armor, but there were still three raiders with guns shooting at us. They'd decided to forego cover and were shooting wildly now. I switched to the shotgun and unloaded three rounds of solid slug into the lead pony, taking her off her feet but not killing her. The armor had barely saved her hide.
The other two leapt over her prone body, one giggling wildly. I rapidly switched to buckshot, and let loose a few rounds, spraying the air with painful deadly metal. The female of the two screamed and fell, hooves clutching her face as blood poured out of wounds inflicted, while the other dove behind a wooden box. I similarly took cover, upturning a table and ducking behind it. It wouldn't hold for long but it would do. My E.F.S. showed only two dots of red. The first raider was back on her hooves and hiding behind another piece of cover. My enhanced hearing picked out the sound of ponies reloading rifles, as well as one screaming and thrashing on the ground. I'd shot out her eyes apparently. She wasn't a threat anymore, her marker showing gold on my E.F.S.
Behind me, Night Rose had pinned her opponent on the ground and had her hooves wrapped around her neck. I could hear the struggle, then the pop as the raider's neck broke under the power armor's pressure. With a satisfied huff, she dropped the body and dropped back into cover.
"You alright," I called back to her, looking her direction. She just waved back to me, and put a few shots into the wooden box cover. I poked my shotgun over my cover and let off a round, listening as the buckshot impacted wood, dirt, rubble and cement. I used that sound to pick out the raider's exact position. Without putting my shotgun away, I opened my left flank compartment and levered the balefire egg launcher. I loaded a round, and angled it to what I calculated was ten feet behind their positions. I glanced at my E.F.S. to see where the wounded one had ended up and saw she had dragged herself close to my position. Good. I didn't want her caught in the blast.
"Rose," I yelled, "head down now!" I then launched the egg out over my cover and curled up into the smallest ball I could. The egg whistled into the air, hit its apex, and turned earthward. The explosion on impact was deafening for anyone who wasn't wearing ear protection. I watched as the two red dots disappeared from my scope. The concussion wave hit my table cover half a second later and shattered it. I was lifted and thrown fifteen feet back, landing in a heap. The blinded raider landed on top of me with a heavy thump.
When the smoke cleared and the sound died, I opened my eyes and surveyed the damage. Personally, I was fine. I had a few cuts, but they were repairing already, and the bullet holes from earlier were already sealed. The mare that had landed on me was unconscious now, her ice blue head having smacked on my hide. It may have been covered with self-repairing skin, but it was still metal beneath, and unforgiving for hard impacts.
I looked over at Night Rose. She was already extracting herself from the wreckage of the box that had broken over her cover, looking none the worse for wear. We both looked at the impact site, and I heard her breath catch in her throat.
There was a new crater five feet deep, blackened and charred from the balefire explosion. Fires burned on debris nearby. There was nothing left of the raiders. Or the building they'd come out of.
I gently moved the unconscious raider off of me and trotted over to Night Rose, giving her a quick bio-scan. (Thank you, Ministry of Peace.) Inside the armor, she was unhurt, but she'd absorbed quite a few RADS from the blast. She'd need some RAD-Away soon. She barely registered my presence until I nudged her with my nose. She looked at me, startled, then back at the crater.
"Fuck," she said at last. "You don't do anything half way do you?" I said nothing in reply. I just stared at the crater I'd created. I suddenly felt regret for what I'd done. There had been other ways to handle the situation. But at the same time, I felt elation. I'd survived, Night Rose had survived, and even the wounded raider was alive. I was glad for all three, and the experience had been kind of fun, too. I chuckled to myself quietly, drawing a sidelong look from Night Rose. I couldn't tell her expression, but I could guess it was one of confusion. "Don't tell me you enjoyed that."
"A little," I replied, turning back toward the wounded raider. "Come on. Let's head back to the shelter."
She moved to follow, but stopped short when she saw me pick up the raider. "You're not thinking of bringing that with us, are you?"
"No I'm not think of it," I replied. "I'm doing it."
"I'm not letting some raider scumbag into my shelter," she said hotly. "Better to put a bullet through her brainpan."
"She's hurt," I said.
"She'd have killed us," Night Rose retorted.
"But she didn't," I shot back. "She's hurt, and I'm gonna help her."
"Not with my meds you aren't." She galloped in front of me and put her rifle under my chin. "You are not bringing her back with us."
"Pull the trigger then," I replied, looking calmly into her visor. "I'm not leaving her to die out here. I'm better than that. And so are you."
"You don't know jack-shit about me," she spat. "She's trash from the wasteland. She's not worth saving. Hell, she's barely worth the gunpowder it'd take to put the bullet in her."
"That's your opinion," I said.
"Goddamned right it is," she shouted.
"And mine's that no one is above redemption. Everyone deserves a second chance."
"Not her."
"Why? Give me one good reason beyond her being a raider, and I'll let you end her."
Night Rose didn't answer. The end of the rifle came slowly away from my chin. She stepped back and stared at me, then turned and walked away. "On your head, then, what happens."
I breathed a sigh of relief and trotted after her, being careful not to let the mare slip off my back. "I don't do anything half way."
The trot back to the shelter took hardly any time at all. Reluctantly, Night Rose opened the door and let us in. I quickly trotted back to the bed I'd used the night before and laid my package on it. I looked around for a med kit briefly before one landed next to me. I looked over to Night Rose, but she had her backside to me as she stripped off her armor.
I quickly dug into the med kit and injected the still unconscious raider mare with a dose of Med-X. The cuts on her face slowly began to heal, as did her eyes, I found with a lift of her eyelid. Next I gave her a dose of RAD-Away, bucking another dose over to Night Rose with my hind leg.
"You're at 75 RADS," I told her as I forced the orange fluid down the raider's throat. "At worst, you'll get a stomach ache, but I doubt you'd enjoy it."
"What about your little marefriend," she asked as she popped open the package.
"She got much worse, but she'll be alright." I stood and turned towards Night Rose. "And before you ask, I plan to restrain her before letting her wake up. She is still a raider, like you said before."
"Might think about a muzzle too," Night Rose said dryly. She flopped down onto her bed and pulled out a magazine from the shelf next to her and began to pretend I wasn't helping a pony that had shot at us not an hour ago.
Finding something to tie the raider up with wasn't difficult. I used a spool of twine I'd found and wrapped all four of her legs together, then gave her a quick bio-scan. The results were a little strange. Physically, she was fine. Her ice blue coat covered her entire body, and her mane and tail were a deeper blue. Her cutie mark was a shotgun crossed over what looked like a smiling sunflower. It was when I got to her brain that irregularities showed up.
"What the hell," I said aloud as I finished the scan. "She's got some kind of imbalance in her brain."
"No shit," Night Rose said without looking up.
"No, seriously," I said. "It's like something got in her body and gave her a serious mind-fuck. And it's recent. Like, last week recent."
"And I care, why?"
"Night Rose, don't you get it? It's not her fault she's crazy!"
"Again, why do I care?" She'd finally put down the magazine and was looking at me. I didn't answer. Truthfully, I didn't know why I was excited to discover this. All I knew was it was significant and said as much to her. "So, it's not her fault she's Manticore-shit crazy. So what?"
"Is there a chemistry station in here?"
"Somewhere in the back, maybe," she said as she went back to her magazine. I hopped up and started rummaging through the various items in the room. As I searched, I sent out an electronic signal broad-waved to find an active relay and was fortunate to find one. I used it to send a signal to a coded terminal back at the MoTW R&D station I'd woken up in, queried it and connected with a still functioning mainframe in the local MoP building, then downloaded everything it knew about chemistry and biological makeups. Thank you, whichever ministry invented wireless uplinks. I closed the link down as I found what I was physically searching for and uncovered it. I then went to work decoding what I'd scanned in the mare's brain.
Two hours later, I heard the raider mare waking up. I'd made a lot of progress in fixing the imbalance, and had a syringe of the remedy ready. I trotted over to her, and injected it before she had a chance to protest. Watching her, it was like watching a veil being removed from her eyes. They lost the glossy look they had, and realization replaced madness.
"Wha… Where am I," she asked. "What's going on? Where's my son?"
"Relax," I said, trying to soothe her. "You're safe."
"Wow," Night Rose said as she came over. "Didn't think you could fix crazy."
"Wasn't easy," I said, but was interrupted by a screaming mare.
"Where is my son???"
Night Rose and I looked at each other, then she responded. "We don't know," Night Rose told her. "You were with a group of raiders when we captured you. There were no foals in the group."
The shock hit the mare all at once, and she shuddered as she lay her head back down. "Oh goddess, where is he? I need to find him. He wasn't a year old when… I can't remember!" She was becoming frantic now.
"Calm down," I said. "You're gonna give yourself a heart attack."
"I don't care," she screamed at me. She started to try to get to her feet but the twine hindered her. "I need to find him! I need to keep him safe!"
"I'll find him," I said, trying to calm her down. "Where were you that you can remember?"
"I don't know," she replied. "I think we were on the other side of the crater. We'd found a few crates of food. They didn't smell right but they were the only food we'd found all week. I don't remember a lot after that. Something involving a group of other ponies, and gunshots. And screaming… the screaming… oh Goddess…"
"Relax," Night Rose said, sounding caring. "We'll find him. You've got two of the best trackers in the wasteland here."
"Thank you," the mare said, finally settling down. "Do you think you could untie me?"
Night Rose looked at me as I scanned the mare again. "She's safe," I said at last. "So long as she doesn't freak out again, you can untie her. It's up to you."
Night Rose nodded, then leaned down to untie the knots. "Promise me you won't steal anything and you can walk around free here." The mare nodded, and was freed shortly after. "My name is Night Rose."
"Winter Frost," the mare said as she stood, stretching her legs. She then turned to me with a questioning look, as if expecting me to say something. Fortunately, Night Rose rescued me.
"He doesn't have a name. He was born without one." I was glad she remembered to keep my true origin under wraps. Sure, Winter was normal now, but that didn't mean she wouldn't freak out over an android. "You want some food? I promise it's still good."
Winter nodded, and followed her to a fridge. I watched then go, marveling at Night Rose's sudden turn-around in attitude, then headed for the door. I paused as I opened it, and looked back at the two mares. "You two be alright while I go look?"
"We'll be fine," Night Rose replied after setting a plate of radroach meat in front of Winter. "I'll stay here and keep your marefriend company."
I gave her a look that asked if she'd be ok watching her, and received one that said not to worry. How I knew what it meant, I don't know. I just nodded and closed the door behind me as I left. Giving the area a quick scan, I lifted off and flew straight over the Crater. My E.F.S. showed quite a few red dots as I landed. I wasn't taking any chances, either. I had my zebra rifle out and ready before I started searching.
My chronometer said I'd been searching for three hours when I found the crate of food. It was strewn about the store holding it, almost as if something or someone had decided tossing it about would be fun. I wasn't certain what had happened, but one thing was for sure. It was not fit for consumption. I took a piece for later analysis, then searched the building.
Upstairs, I ran into a nest of raiders. All of them had the same crazy giggle as Winter had. Unlike Winter, though, these had all been crazy long before. The brainwaves I scanned showed even worse degradation. I recorded the results as I fought my way through them.
As the last one fell, I heard a small sob come from a box in the corner. Cautiously, I lifted the box with the end of my rifle, and was greeted with the bluest eyes ever. The little colt looked at me with a terrified look. His jet black coat stood out against his pure white mane. He was emaciated badly.
"Hey there, little guy," I said, putting my rifle away. "You're alright now." The colt said nothing, his eyes welling with tears. I lowered myself to my knees, trying to be as non-threatening as possible. "Your mom misses you. You wanna go see her?" Again, no reply. Just more shuddering and tears. "I'll take you to her, I promise. You wanna see your mom, don't you?"
The colt didn't move for a bit. I'd made the offer. Now it was his move. He could bolt, come to me, or do nothing. All I could do is wait.
He finally stood on shaky legs and slowly walked toward me. He made it nearly all the way before collapsing. I caught him on my head, and gently rested him on my back. He was completely unconscious. I then slowly raised myself up and headed outside.
"Don't tell your momma I did this," I told him as I looked around. "I don't think she'd freak out, but I'd rather she not have to worry." I then popped my wings and took off, being careful not to make any hard turns or do anything to disturb the foal on my back.
The trip was uneventful. He was out the whole ride. I didn't think that was all that good a thing, considering how bad off he was, but I couldn't do anything until we got inside the shelter. Winter nearly tackled me when I entered.
"Oh goddess, is he alright? What's wrong with him? Is he alive?"
"He's alive," I told her as I walked in. Night Rose directed me to her bed and helped me lay him down. "He's just malnourished. I'll get fluids into him, and he'll be fine."
I trotted over to the chem set and used what little we had to mix a syringe full of vitamins and proteins. It immediately went into the colt. All we could do now was wait for him to wake up. Winter never left his side. None of us spoke. The clock read midnight before the colt stirred. His eyes slowly opened, and came to rest on his mother.
"Mommy," he said, questioningly. "Are you better now?"
"Yes, Tiller," Winter replied, tears in her eyes. "We're both better."
Little Tiller smiled at his mother, and fell back to sleep. Winter looked up at me and Night Rose and could only sob happily, thanking us with her eyes. I just nodded and smiled, as did Night Rose. No pony needed to say anything else.
Footnote: Level Up!
New Perk: Chemist – Through study and training, trial and error, your concoctions have surpassed even Fluttershy's standards. Your chems last twice as long as normal.