FoE: Do Robot Ponies Dream of Electronic Bunnies
Chapter XIII: The Waiting Game
"Eagle River???" – Hot Shots
System Report: 0000000013
Unit Status: Active
Location: Starry and Winter's farm
Satellite Signal Status: Receiver offline.
Begin data dump to external off-site memory back-up:
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- - - - - - Done.
Preparing visual report: Done.
Date: --/--/2212, 200PA (+33 days activation)
Time: 1104 Local
Grey.
The sky was a darker shade of the color two mornings later. I wasn't sure if it was a good omen or not. Probably not. I stared at the clouds with apprehension. Sure, it would be good for Starry and Winter's crops, but I'd wanted to set off today. If it was going to rain, that would slow me down.
The worst thing was, I didn't know which direction to go. All I had was a name and that he hid in a cave. Past that, I had nothing. I hoped that Watcher would show up again and give me a clue. He'd left so quickly last time. There was always the option of calling him, but I didn't know his exact frequency.
"You look like you want to go somewhere."
I turned my head and saw Starry leaning against a fence post, watching me. I trotted over and sat down next to him. "I do, but I don't know where."
"Well, is there an objective to this traveling you're wanting to do," he asked, cocking his head sideways.
"There is," I nodded. "I got a tip-off about a problem I had back in Trottingham. Wanted to look into it."
"A tip-off," he asked surprised. "From who?"
I didn't know if Watcher wanted ponies to know about him, so I remained vague. "Someone who's helped me out before. I trust him, but he didn't give me a direction."
"Well, maybe I can help out," Starry said as he turned to face me. "What're you going after?"
"Not what," I replied. "Who. Some ghoul pony named Doctor Stiches."
Starry put on a thinking face for a minute. He had the weirdest look when he was concentrating. One eye scrunched to nearly closed, his tongue came out, and his lower jaw slid to the side. Almost creepy. I'd seen it when he was working on that engine. By now he knew the machine inside and out. He'd taken it apart, cleaned each piece, replaced broken ones when he could, then put it back together again. I didn't have schematics for a passenger ship's engine, but I was willing to bet it would run better than new now, even without a few replacement parts. Of course, if we had fuel for it, we could find out.
"It sounds familiar," he said after another thirty seconds. "I can't be sure though. I could ask Winter if she knows anything."
"I already asked Night Rose," I said, "but she doesn't know anything about it."
"Has she kept her promise?"
"Not yet," I sighed. "But I did promise to lay off for a while."
Starry chuckled and wandered back toward the house. I looked out over the field of vegetables he'd been checking. He had a neat auto-irrigation system set up that tapped an untainted well a few hundred feet below the farm. How he'd come across it had been a long story in itself. Regardless, his farm now grew a decent amount of fresh vegetables, the pick of which he and Winter kept for their own food and Night Rose. The rest was crated up twice a month and flown to New Appleoosa by Ditzy Doo, who sold the food to the ponies and griffons there, giving about 70% of the profit to the couple here. Her last visit a day ago had brought Silver Bell along with, and she and Tiller had spent all day learning about the food they were picking.
I was glad that they were doing something to help the rest of Equestria, but I wondered if that made them a big target for raiders. They were pretty isolated here. When I voiced the concern, they'd both laughed and pointed at several mounds of dirt a few yards out from the property.
"I repurposed some salvaged laser turrets," Starry had said. "Now, no one comes close with hostile intentions."
I had to admit, I was impressed.
Now, though, I was just bored. I needed to find out more about Stiches, but I didn't know where he was. I finally decided to take my mind off of it and turn on the radio. The sound of Sweetie Belle filled my head and I tried to relax.
"Hello again, children," DJ-Pon3 said when the song ended. "Just a little news for all of you out there in the wasteland!
"I know you've all been wonderin' about our Wasteland Heroine, but I'm sad to say I haven't had word about her in almost a week now. So she's either layin low from all that Slave-freeing she did, or she;s gotten herself into one tight spot. Either way, I trust she'll come out of it just fine.
"Meantime, Security's been layin' down the law over in the Hoof. Seems a few ponies haven't figured out that that five-hundred-thousand cap reward on her really isn't worth the trouble. I have it from a reliable source she faced down seven ponies lookin to claim it, and beat them all. Sent them home, tails between their legs. I tell you, children, that is not a mare to be messed with. There isn't any amount of caps worth all the good she's been doin for y'all.
"And that's it for now, everyone! Here's Sapphire Shores, tellin us It Ain't Always Gotta Be Hard."
The music resumed. Looked like things were tough all over. Ponies hunting other ponies for caps, ponies selling others into slavery… what's next? Ponies eating each other for food? If it happened, I really hoped I didn't hear about it.
Three days later.
It'd been bugging me long enough. I had to go out and do something. I couldn't sit around waiting anymore. Sure, I had it good here with Starry, Winter, Tiller and Night Rose (especially with Night Rose) but I wasn't made to just sit tight.
"So where are you going," Winter asked as I packed my saddlebags. There wasn't much I'd be needing, but knowing Night Rose, she'd be coming with me.
"Not sure. Figured I'd call my friend and see if he can help."
"I wish I could go with you," she said, walking over and giving me a friendly hug. "But the farm needs me here, and so does Tiller."
"I know," I replied, hugging her back. "I wouldn't ask you to leave anyone behind."
"When are you going?"
"Tomorrow morning," I replied, returning to the saddlebags. "Night Rose doesn't know yet, so she'll need time to pack."
"Pack for what?"
We both turned to see the blue mare standing in the doorway. Tiller was right behind her. Both saw my bags, and I got two reactions.
Tiller: "You're leaving?" With despair.
Night Rose: "You're leaving??" With anger.
"Yes," I said to both questions.
"When were you going to tell me," Night Rose asked. Her glare is not something I'd wish on anypony, and right now she had me pinned under it.
"As soon as you came in," I replied, trying not to wither underneath the optical assault. "I was gonna ask you to come with." Her gaze softened, as if I'd told a filly she couldn't have one toy because I was getting her something better later.
"So you weren't just going to up and leave without me?" She sounded so small and pathetic when she asked that. If I'd had a heart, it would have just broke. The emotion chip, however, gave me a similar feeling.
"Why would I do something as stupid as that," I asked, smiling. "After all we've been through together, I'm just gonna leave my marefriend behind and not even say goodbye? I'm shocked."
I was more than shocked. I was pounced upon. Her forelegs wrapped around my neck as she kissed me, and while I enjoyed this, we weren't exactly alone, and I didn't want to show off in front of a colt or his married mother. I slowly pushed Night Rose off of me and turned to Tiller.
"So you're just gonna leave me behind," he asked, eyes as big as saucers. I facehoofed.
"Tiller, I was gonna tell everyone. I'm not leaving without a goodbye."
"But… we were gonna go on adventures!"
"We still are," I replied, leaning down so my head was at his level. "Just not yet. You're still a little young to go on a real adventure. And your mom would kill me if I tried." She'd already said so.
"But Mom!"
"No 'buts,'" Winter replied sternly. "You don't get adventures till you're at least thirteen."
"Aww…"
I had to chuckle. That colt was too damn cute.
The next morning, after a breakfast of celery and carrots, Night Rose and I set off in a general… eastly… direction. That only lasted about an hour before Night Rose where we were actually going.
"Honestly," I replied, "I got no clue where to go from here."
"You left home without knowing where we're going."
"I do have a plan, you know," I retorted. "Just relax."
"I'll try to withhold my enthusiasm," she replied dryly.
I ignored the sarcasm and activated my wireless, hoping for a signal. If I could contact Watcher, I could possibly get a location out of him. Till then, we'd wander around… ok in hindsight, that probably wasn't the best plan ever.
"Why don't we go back to New App," she asked. "Maybe someone there knows about this Stiches ghoul-thing. It's better than just wandering around."
I'm not a clever pony.
A few hours later (thanks to my suggestion that we take the quick way and fly), we were walking up to the main gate. The same two griffons were on guard duty. They'd seen us several times now, and I was beginning to wonder if they ever got off duty. As it was, they waved us through without any big questions. Comments, however, were abundant. ("I told you she gets a great ride")
Seeing as how we were low on caps, we opted to check the job board. It looked to be a recent addition to the town, as there were very few posts. There were four, to be exact: one asking for escorting a caravan to Zebrion, one looking for raider hunters, an ad looking for new members for a gang in the Hoof, and one from Ditzy Doo about extra help in the store.
Neither of us was interested in going down to the Hoof right now, and I didn't even know where Zebrion was. That left the two other jobs. I opted to go take care of the raider problem while Night Rose would help Ditzy temporarily.
"Hang on," she said indignantly. "How come I have to stay behind? You aren't the only one who's a bad ass with a weapon."
"I'm also over twice your size," I replied. "I'd never fit in that store for so long, let alone help anyone find anything." She didn't answer, but I could tell she didn't buy it. Luckily, though, she wasn't in an argumentative mood.
"You'd better come back in one piece," she ordered. "Or I'll come out there and kick the hell out of the pieces you left behind."
"Come on," I said with a laugh. "What do raiders have that could even hope to hurt me?"
"Yeah, that could do it," I grumbled to myself as another shell rocketed over my head.
The job was for Gawd again, only this time there was no guide. She'd just given me a location and said, "Go clean house." So I did. And discovered a working 88mm cannon waiting for me. Not only that, but they apparently had enough rounds to shoot all day. The only good side to this fiasco was that they couldn't hit a moving target.
I was running from tree to building to tree, keeping myself just out of their sights. The weapon had a full 360 degree turn radius, and used it to its own advantage. In between shots, I could hear the raiders yelling at each other. Who knew they'd be organized enough to run that thing? They were starting to get frustrated, though, and the leader wasn't happy.
"Come on, ya fuckin idjits," he was shouting. "It's only one damn pony and he's as big as a fucking house! How are you missing?"
"Because he's wicked fast, Thrasher," the gunner replied and fired off another round.
After a full half an hour of them shooting constantly, they had to stop and let the gun cool down. I took the opportunity to end the fight, using my thrusters to give me a super jump and landing in the middle of the entire group. The melee lasted 45 seconds, and not one raider was standing when it was over.
I bent the tube of the cannon so no one else could use it, then proceeded to hunt the rest of the raiders. Fortunately, it wasn't hard. They made themselves known as soon as I walked down a street they were on or entered a building they occupied. I took several rounds to the flank, but nothing really noteworthy.
It was inside one of the buildings that I finally got into contact with Watcher. My ear buzzed, and I heard him talking to somepony named Littlepip. Talk about terrible naming. But them, I supposed my own name wasn't much better.
I politely waited until their conversation ended, then made myself known to him.
"Watcher," I yelled on his side, while not saying anything on mine. I still needed to keep quiet. On the other end, I heard a bang and Watcher yell in pain and surprise.
"Vers??" he finally said when he caught his breath. "How the hell did you get through here?"
"Uhm, duh. Android pony with insanely advanced intrusion software here."
"Oh, right," he replied, seeming to get hold of himself. "Well, don't call often. There are ponies out there I'd rather not have finding me."
"We're secure," I replied. "No worries."
"So, to what do I owe the pleasure?"
"You kind of left me hanging last time we spoke," I said. "Never told me how to find Stiches."
"Did I forget to tell you that? My bad," he said, sounding slightly abashed, yet not at all.
"Hardly," I replied. "You don't seem to do things without planning them out. I'm willing to bet you not telling me was part of some plan to get me to take odd jobs and find the info myself. Problem is, You underestimated my resourcefulness, and I'm not of a mind to look all over the wasteland at random for one pony-ghoul. So how about we stop playing games?"
"Boy, you don't pull punches do you?"
"I had a nuke nearly go off right next to my head. Tends to rearrange priorities."
"As does having a marefriend," he countered. "Which I didn't see coming either. You're two for two on surprises."
I didn't reply. He was watching me, was he? That was the only way to know that Night Rose and I were together like that.
"Never thought," he continued, "that a bot and a pony would hook up. But I will say you got yourself a fine looking lady there."
"I'd advise not calling her a lady to her face," I replied. "Don't think she likes the 'refined' look."
"Be that as it may, let' get on with your purpose. I'm sending you coordinates now." The numbers appeared on my HUD, then shot to my map, producing a waypoint. A look at my larger world map showed the marker way off the east side, past the maps borders.
"Where is that," I asked.
"Zebrion," Watcher replied easily. "The doctor was off on a foreign tour of the surrounding countries of Equestria when the war ended. A wayward megaspell somehow went off course and took out the city the doctor had just been visiting. After he was risen, he headed for Zebra country, making it only as far as Zebrion. Only reason he couldn't go further was because the zebra government had banned ponies of any kind from the inner territories."
"I'm not gonna ask how you know all that," I said. "Guess I can take that job now."
"Job," Watcher asked, confused.
"There's a job posting in New Appleoosa for escort to Zebrion," I explained. "I wasn't gonna respond because I didn't know where it was. Now, I have a reason."
"Where are you now?"
"Ten point eight seven miles west of New App taking care of a raider problem."
"I see," he replied. "Well I'll let you get back to it. Oh, one more thing."
"What's up," I asked, curious.
"I got out of my cave today," he replied, nervously. "It was only for a few minutes and I was bringing a pony back with me, but you were right. It did feel good to fly again."
"Never said you had to go far," I told him, smiling to myself. "Talk to you later, Watcher."
I cut the link and saved the frequency. It may come in handy later on. The building I was in was now empty; I'd been taking care of the raiders as I talked to the recluse.
"Now then," I said to myself. "What say we finish this job?"
"Good work out there," Gawd said, setting a bag of caps on the desk. "Payment in full, plus a bonus for having to deal with that cannon."
"Thanks, Gawd," I replied, putting the cap bag into my saddlebag. "Sorry I couldn't salvage it for you."
"Don't be," she replied, waving her claw dismissively. "A gun like that would make this place too high priority, and we get enough troubles from raiders and slavers. So. You sticking around town for a bit?"
"Not sure," I said. "I have a few things I need to get done, but I don't know if I'll be leaving to do them so soon."
Well, if you do stay for a bit, I've got a few more matters that could use your, shall we say 'specialized' hoofwork. Let me know when you're leaving."
I nodded and thanked her again before leaving her office. I galloped back to the job board and practically tore the ad off of it, stuffing it in my bags, then turned towards Absolutely Everything. I found Night Rose helping a customer when I entered and waited until he left.
"Glad to see they didn't shoot your fancy techno-tail off," she said as she hugged me.
"They tried," I replied with a smile. "But I slapped them around for their efforts."
"I don't envy them." She sat herself down behind the counter again. "Ditzy's off on a delivery somewhere, and I'm on duty here until tonight. We got plans?"
"We've got plans, but I don't know how soon we take off yet. I'll let you know tonight. Meanwhile, here's the payment for the raider job." I produced the bag of caps and slid it across the counter to her. She opened it and her eyes widened.
"What the hell happened to get you this kind of bonus? Did you run into a tank out there?"
"Near enough. It's dealt with, though, and no skin off my flank."
"I'll have to double check that tonight," she said with a sly smile. "Right now, you'd better take off. There's another customer coming."
A yellow pony with a brown mane stepped into the store as she spoke, accompanied by another pony, this one red with a yellow mane. They seemed to be bickering with each other, and I couldn't help overhearing them as I kissed Night Rose goodbye.
"Next time," the yellow one was saying, "I'll be the one to make the ad. That crummy one you posted hasn't gotten us one response. I told you to add where we could be contacted, but did you listen? Of course not. Why would the great Apple Cider listen to lowly old Chef Sandy?"
"Ah, come on, Chef," Apple Cider replied. "Don't get so upset. I only posted that a day ago. Give it time. Someone's bound to answer eventually."
"How do we even know somepony's going to even know where Zebrion is anyway?"
Ear-perk, big smile. This was everyponies lucky day, it seemed.
Footnote: Level Up!
New Perk: Dodgy – Your agility gains a +5 bonus, making you voted most likely to dodge a rail gun from two hundred miles.
Bonus Perk: Oh, So Loved! – Your big heart has earned you loyal allies, providing you stay on their good side. When down to ¼ health, your allies gain +25% fire rate, +15% AP, and +15% damage.