//------------------------------// // Ch 12: Curious // Story: Fallout Equestria: Do Robot Ponies Dream of Electronic Bunnies // by ScottWolf //------------------------------// FoE: Do Robot Ponies Dream of Electronic Bunnies Chapter XII: Curious "Who the fuck are you?" – The Who, Who Are You System Report: 0000000012 Unit Status: Active Location: Fillydelphia outskirts, Starry and Winter's farm Satellite Signal Status: Test reports uploaded. Awaiting next command. Begin data dump to external off-site memory back-up: - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Done. Preparing visual report: Done. Date: --/--/2212, 200PA (+31 days activation) Time: 0323 Local Home. The dream started with myself feeling very confused. I was in someone's home. From the pictures on the walls, it looked like Moonshine's house. She was smiling in every picture. A blood red Pegasus with a lighter red mane was with her in several. His golden eyes sparkled out of each frame. Those same golden eyes stared at me from across the room. "What the fuck is that thing doing in our home, Moon," he asked warily. Moonshine stood between us, facing the stallion. Her voice was defensive but calm. "He's here for part of his programing, Wind. A part that we can't replicate in the lab." "You know what the law is regarding bots." His full name flowed back to me now. Crimson Wind. Ex-Wonderbolt, now served under Raimbow Dash as a scout. He was regarded as the second fastest flier in Equestria. "Yes, I do," Moonshine replied. "And I also feel it's biased and wrong. Princess Luna jumped to a unfair conclusion." "While I don't disagree," Wind replied, "I'd rather we didn't own one." "He's just here to learn how couples interact, that's all. Just a few days, I promise you." Wind eyed me, then made a circuit around me, inspecting my body. I'd been delivered here in an unmarked Cloud Lifter freight vehicle during the darkest part of the night. I could understand why Wind would be irritated. We'd woken him up while he was on leave. As he came to stand directly in front of me, I leaned down (my ears were brushing the ceiling of the house's front room) and brought my head to his level. "Is this the reason I was pulled back from the lines for 'emergency leave time?'" Moon looked sheepishly at her husband. "Kind of. I thought you'd be happy." "I'm happy because I'm home with you," he replied. "I'm not so sure I'm happy about babysitting a bot." "You won't be babysitting anyone," she said, walking up to and nuzzling her husband. His wings flared a bit as he felt his wife's head rub along his neck. "He's just going to observe." "What's he for anyway? Most bots don't need relationship advice." "He's going to help end the war," Moonshine replied, nipping at his ear, causing his wings to flare fully and his cheeks to go even redder than they naturally were. "He doesn't have to watch… everything… does he?" "Of course, he'll stay out of the bedroom," she said seductively, pulling lightly on the ear she now had between her teeth, gently urging her husband back towards what I assumed was the bedroom. He readily followed, his attention only partially on me anymore. Curious, I stepped forward, intending to follow, but Moonshine held up a hoof. "You stay out here. Observation begins tomorrow." I watched as the door closed, then took in my surroundings. Along with pictures, the wall also sported a large television built into it, with speakers embedded in the ceiling. A couch was directly adjacent to the TV, and the end table had a few magazines. I peeked into the kitchen, stepping as quietly as I could, not wanting to disturb my hosts. It seemed to be an average kitchen, with all the normal appliances. Stepping back into the living room, I heard soft moans coming from the bedroom. I was told to stay out here, but she didn't say I couldn't get closer. Close enough to slip a visual probe beneath the door. I didn't understand what I saw, but I felt something inside me start to grow. I got angry, but also sad. I ran through my list of known emotions, and matched the symptoms with Jealousy. I was jealous of Wind. Jealous of him for having her. I recorded the feeling for later analysis, then withdrew my probe and went to lie in the middle of the living room. I replayed what I'd saw, trying to understand what it meant. Clearly it was a show of affection between the two, but its further purposes were unknown. This was going to require research… oOoOoOo My eyes opened to the sight of a red mane. I blinked, confused for a moment, then reality caught up with me. I was curled around Night Rose as she slept. We were at Starry Grove and Winter Frost's home, on the other side of the Crater that was all that remained of Fillydelphia, having arrived the day before. The road back had been fairly easy, with only the occasional rad creature to scare away or kill. The Wolven had greeted us as we passed, and Starry got to meet the Alpha that evening as we accepted their hospitality. She had her own good news. Her pack had made contact with some ponies from New Appleoosa, and was planning on moving to the town to join Gawd's Talons as merceneries. Gawd had been a hard sell, but she'd agreed. Seems she doesn't want to see anyone suffer either. Other than that, it was a pretty uneventful trip. During the day, at least. I learned that last evening in New Appleoosa before we left that Night Rose took relationships seriously. Very seriously. Now the beautiful blue mare lay against my side, my hooves around her protectively. I smiled down at her, fully feeling the emotion I now know was love. It was a different feeling. A good feeling, but different. My priorities were all on her now. And he knew hers were on me. I'd have to make sure we were both safe from now on. I gently unraveled myself from Night Rose and stood. My clock read almost half past three in the morning. That dream hadn't help me understand anything; all the information from it was hardwired into me. But I still didn't get why I'd been jealous of Crimson Wind. Moonshine had been a good friend of mine, but nothing more. Right? I stepped to the door of our room and, with a last look at the sleeping mare, walked outside. The night was warm, the residual heat from Crater keeping it comfortable. It wasn't dangerously radioactive, but my RAD counter clicked slowly. In truth the radiation would never get to a dangerous level in anypony. Night Rose's level that first night was probably the highest she'd ever received while here, but I attributed that to the closeness of the Crater. Being a few thousand feet away from it and with fallen buildings and rubble between us, the little dose they received would pass through their system without anypony even noticing. I looked upward to the cloud-covered sky, my mind still processing the events of Trottingham. Why the hell had my wings suddenly received a lockdown code? It wasn't anything in my own system. Somepony had tapped into me without my even knowing and placed it there. But why? And just as importantly, how? I heard pony steps behind me. Inhaling the breeze, I caught the scent of peppermint. "Morning, Winter." "Hello, Vers," Winter replied as she came to a halt beside me. "Bit early to be wandering around, wouldn't you say?" "I could say the same about you," I countered. "I don't need sleep, remember?" "I can never sleep the night after I get home," she told me. "Too many memories and ideas to write down. I'll sleep plenty during the day." I nodded and went back to cloud watching. "I still don't get it," I said after a while. "What, Night Rose's affection? I think you get that plenty," Winter said with a chuckle. "No not that," I replied. "I mean the weird lock code. It appeared out of nowhere and then disappeared just as quickly, no trace of it left. And what that Hellhound had said. 'Testing…' I just can't figure it out." "Mind if I take a look?" I nodded and she plugged in. No permissions were needed this time. She had full access. I trusted her. "Hmm… The code looks normal, like you said, but there is a subtle difference." "Like what," I asked, bringing up what she saw on my HUD. "Right here." A marker appeared over the code, highlighting a strip of numbers and letters. "This was different last time I saw it. That '1' was an 'I', and this 'E' was a '3'. Subtle changes." "Great," I replied with a sigh. "Now someone can hack into me and make me dance the Macarena." "But…" Winter went silent for a minute, studying her small screen, then laughed out loud. "I see! They used your satellite uplink! They inserted the code four days before it went active." I read the log for my SATLINK module, and was surprised to find the entry she mentioned. "I wasn't even aware it was functioning. Last time I looked at it, it was still searching for a carrier." "How long back was that?" "The raider nest, I think." "And it never told you it went live?" "Not once," I replied. I was getting worried. If someone could pop in, drop a code into my main functions, then disappear without me even feeling it, I was in serious trouble. "My advice, kill your SATLINKs. Make them go dark." I nodded and proceeded to do just that, locking them in the transmit-only mode. I couldn't cut them off completely, but I could keep signals from coming in. "Done," I said. "I already did a full system sweep for anything else malicious." "Well, that's one problem dealt with," Winter said thoughtfully. "But it opens up several questions." "I'm finding that to be a trend out here," I replied flatly. "Night Rose thinks I've been thinking about it too much." "She's right," Winter agreed. "Get your mind off it for a while. The answer will probably come to you. I'm going to go try to sleep, and not wake my husband at the same time. He gets quite amorous in the early morning." I bid her goodnight, and watched her trot back to the main house. My radar registered a small green dot heading toward me from behind the barn. Looking in that direction, I saw a metal ball floating my way. "Good morning, Watcher." "Morning, Vers. Looks like you've gotten popular." "You could say that," I replied with a nod. "I take it you heard about Trottingham." "And I don't lament the loss of the city," Watcher replied with what I took to be disgust. "Always hated that factory." "I got hacked while I was there." "Hacked, you say?" Did I imagine it, or did he sound not as surprised as he seemed. "Nothing damaged, I hope." "Someone installed a lock code on my flight suite," I said, audio analyzers focused on the little bot. "Used my SATLINK without me even knowing. It happened about seventeen minutes before the balefire bomb went off." This was another mystery I needed to puzzle out. "Interesting," he replied. Not an ounce of disbelief. He knew. Again. "You have something to do with it," I said, coming right to my suspicion. "Or you knew. Somehow, you knew about it. Did you know about the bomb as well?" "No," he replied again. He hadn't even tried to deny it. What was this thing's angle? "The bomb was a surprise. I was the one who unlocked you, but I don't know who sent the code." "How did you know we were in trouble?" "Eyes and ears," he said simply. "There were active Spritebots all over the Trottingham area. How do you think DJ-Pon3 knew about the caravan so quickly? He can hack a Spritebot as easily as I can." "Could he have been the one to-" "No," Watcher said quickly. "He's not the type. And besides, the only way he knew about you is from rumors and a cleared raider den." "Who else has that kind of power or tech?" "Several ponies," Watcher replied. "Red Eye, the Enclave, Big Daddy Reaper, hell even Doctor Stiches has a big satellite link." "Would any of them know about me?" "Hard to say. You splattered a reaper, but not one of the big ten. That wouldn't catch Big Daddy's eye. Red Eye's too busy in the Everfree to care, and the Enclave… well, you haven't threatened them yet, so they won't bother you. And I have no idea what Stiches knows. That unicorn ghoul is a recluse. Never leaves his cave." "So the only one who's a possible is this Stiches ghoul," I repeated. "I have another reason for being here," Watcher said, bringing my attention back. "Besides confessing to saving your tail." "Why do I get the feeling I won't like this much?" "It's nothing bad. I was just thinking… about what you said when I left you last time. Well, I didn't exactly leave my cave, but I did have some ponies over to visit." "How'd that go?" "Better than I expected, until the Enclave decided to stick their noses into it. Ended up flash-frying one to prove a point." "You're a chimera then," I said, hypothesizing out loud. "Nope," came the reply. "Long story short, I think I really do need to get out more. Problem is, I can't now. Not with them growing more interested in me." "So why come to me," I asked. "How can I fix it?" "I was hoping I could use your subterfuge skills. There's a certain satellite feed that I'd like you to tap into." "I cut off my SATLINK," I told him. "You set it to "send only," he replied. "Don't forget who you're talking to." "Ok, so I hack the satellite. Then what?" "Just hand it over to me. Nothing big." "And you're gonna do what with it?" "Just a little harmless poking around," he said with feigned innocence, then returned to serious. "I plan to put a bug in their system that should keep them too busy to come back for a while." "Alright," I said, sitting down. He gave me the satellite signal frequency, and I went to work. It was on the periphery of my range, but it was coming in closer. I locked into it and, following Watcher's instructions, put it into geosynchronous orbit above a certain spot. I then gave him the passcodes I'd used and shut down the uplink. Easy-peasy. "Thank you, Vers," watcher said. "I promise what I do won't be harmful to anypony." "Sure," I replied. The Spritebot suddenly let out a pop, and floated away, streaming the most obnoxious brass band music I'd ever heard. I winced, and returned to the out building that had become my and Night Rose's home. She was still asleep, still curled up in the same position I'd left her in. I resumed my previous spot, wrapping her tail in mine before laying my head down next to hers and giving her a slight nuzzle. She murmured quietly, her eyes fluttering open partially. "You okay," she asked quietly. I nodded and kissed her cheek. She smiled and pushed herself closer to me. It had an effect. "You're more than okay, aren't you?" Thank you, emotion chip. Footnote: New Quest Discovered: Who's there? – A mysterious ghoul named Doctor Stiches has a satellite uplink. Maybe he has more than that. Head over to his hidden cave and find out.