//------------------------------//
// Chapter 6 
// Story: Fallout Equestria: War Never Changes 
// by jarmari 
//------------------------------//

Chapter 6:

“But Bruuutuuussss!” CB whined as we prepped the Sky Wagon to leave the next day. She was standing outside the ramp, again dressed in her armoured suit, having arrived with the expectation that she was coming with us, which Brutus was having none of, seeing as this was more a combat mission and not a simple scavenging mission.

“But nothing pipsqueak, you still have school to do, you don't get to be on the team until you finish school. Your cutie mark trip is an exception.”

“But other ponies get like a whole week!”

“But other ponies don't normally get their cutie mark on their first trip out either, and they still go to school in between trips.”

“But that's not fair!” She cried.

“But life isn't fair.” Brutus countered.

“But...but...” CB whimpered, knowing she'd lost the fight.

“Seriously you two have 'but' on the brain don't you?” I asked, coming back out of the wagon after securing some medical supplies. Since this wasn't technically a scavenging mission we were only taking a few crates, mostly we had ammo and meds. “I can understand Brutus's love of butt, however you are too young to worry about that yet, and seriously if you keep it up, you'll end up with butthurt.” I said to CB, earning a dirty look from Brutus and a very confused look from the green filly, and a laugh from Ruby and Crackshot inside the sky wagon.

“What's butthurt?” CB asked, looking worried.

“It is the worst possible thing!” I said seriously. “Now you go back home and get changed for school.” I said to her. She finally caved and nodded. 

“Fine I'll go to school, but I'm not changing!” She turned and stormed off. I watched the little green indicator on my EFS, it shifted back as though to head towards the doors, but then diverted to the right quickly, the doors not opening first to show she had left. I followed the green indicator as it moved around the outside of the hanger and slowly moved towards us again.  I walked around the sky wagon just in time to see a yellow tail vanish underneath it. I leaned down and cleared my throat loudly, grabbing CB in my magic and sliding her back out from under the wagon. 

She smiled sheepishly. “Can't blame a filly for trying?” She asked. 

I kept my face neutral as I carried her to the doors and deposited her in the hallway. “I can see you.” I said, pointing to my pipbuck.

“Oh yeah, that Eyes Forward thingy.” She grumbles. 

“Now...class, march.” I said, pointing down the hall and watching her go until she vanished around the corner.

I moved back into the hanger and looked to the guard sitting in the little booth.

“She comes back tell her you're calling her mom on her would ya?”

The guard laughed and nodded. “Poor thing, so excited and stuck going to school.”

“Well it's important, especially in this day and age.”

“True enough. Don't worry she won't get past me.” The guard said. He came out and pressed a button beside the door and a green light blinked on above the door.

“Now...” He opened the door and it chimeed loudly. “No sneaking.” He smiled.

“Perfect, thanks.” I said, heading back to the sky wagon.

“That's not funny.” Brutus said.

“What's not funny?” I asked nonchalantly, levitating my saddlebags over my back, my pipbuck chirping as it added the contents to the inventory screen. “You're the one who wanted her going to school first, and I completely agree, for one thing this isn't a mission for somepony so young to come on, and for another I of all ponies agree with you that school is more important. If it weren't for the years I spent in school I wouldn't have anywhere near the knowledge and skills I have, not to mention I'd have never met Rosa and I would probably have been working at a fast food joint when the bombs fell.”

“I meant the gay jokes.” He said flatly.

“What gay jokes? You have a thing for butts. I also have a thing for butts. Have you seen Ruby's butt? I could look at it all day!” I said just in time for the red mare to emerge from  inside the sky wagon.

“I feel that I've walked into the wrong part of this conversation.”

“Brutus thinks I was making gay jokes because I said he likes butts, however I was just saying that I also liked butts and I used yours as my primary example. As it happens to be my favorite.” I grinned.

“Oh well when you put it like that.” She rolled her eyes and I got a face full of wing and then she was heading back into the sky wagon.

“Seriously you three, it's like dealing with a bunch of foals.” Crackshot said, leaning out of the door to the sky wagon.

“You're older than all of us put together, we ARE a bunch of foals compared to you.”

“Speak for yourself. I'll have you know that I'm actually only 5 years younger than Crackshot.” I said with a laugh. 

“Yeah so there.” Crackshot added.

“Now who's acting like a foal?” Ruby asked, smirking a little and moving inside. “Now can we get going? We're burning daylight.”

Brutus and I finished loading the last few supplies and soon enough we were on our way. Ruby had installed a radio in the cockpit so we now had music playing while we flew, really helped break up the silence. I was sitting in the space between the pilot and co-pilot harnesses, listening to two beautiful mare voices singing about the mysteries of life. I discovered that my pipbuck, while great with the data storage and project building and computer coding, the radio card was fairly simplistic and had to be tuned manually, which was why I'd never found any radio stations. I poked through the airwaves and found a couple stations, though most of the dial was static, though it also had a transmitter, which was apparently a rare thing for a pipbuck according to Brutus, though it made sense, my pipbuck was supposed to be for research so it stood to reason that the transmitter could be used to communicate with somepony else quickly about a discovery, or a need to call for supplies or help.

“And that was Sweetie Belle and Sapphire Shores singing 'There Must be More to Life Than This.' Again huge thanks to my special benefactors the Stable Dweller and her Toaster Repairpony for bringing me these. How about a little more Sapphire Shores? I thought you'd say that.” The announcer said happily before another song started.

“See? DJ Pon3 is a Buck.” Ruby said, turning to look at me.

“Really? That's DJ Pon3?” I asked, looking at the radio. “I must be an inherited title or something because he doesn't sound like a ghoul, and I met Vinyl Scratch. We were thinking about having her DJ our wedding reme...” I trailed off as I looked up at Ruby and blushed. “S...sorry. Rosa and I were thinking about it.” I said softly.

“S'okay, don't beat yourself up over it.” Ruby said simply, turning back to look outside, though I had the feeling she was probably more hurt by the statement than she let on.

“So who's this 'Stable Dweller' he was talking about?” I asked, figuring maybe it was somepony else like Mare-Do-Well and wanting desperately to change the subject.

“Not really sure. She's a pony from a Stable, hence the name, she's been going all over the Wasteland, fighting slavers and righting wrongs and triumphing over evil. She's some kind of one pony wrecking ball for justice.” Brutus said excitedly. 

“Yeah she's something else. Supposedly she dropped a whole train car on one of those Celestia damned alicorn monsters.” I was still unclear on these 'monster alicorns' but I figured I'd tackle one subject at a time, and since I had never really thought to ask about the alicorns before and nopony had volunteered the information I figured it couldn't be THAT important.

“That's amazing.” I said after a moment. “I can only lift about 300 pounds in my magic, forget a whole train car.”

“I can manage 400.” Brutus smirked. 

“Hey now boys it's not a who's bigger contest.” Ruby said. “Besides I can pull this whole Sky Wagon, while it's fully loaded, with magic.” She laughed.

“She's got us there.” Brutus sighed.

“Yeah she does, but that's fine.” I shrugged. I moved to the window and looked out at the horizon. “What's that?” I asked, smoke was rising from beyond some hills a short distance away.

“Not sure...big fire maybe?” Crackshot asked, looking through one of the other turret slats beside me.

“This just in my little ponies.” Pon3 said, coming back as the song faded out. “It seems the town of Clopton has gone silent. If anypony out there is close by could you go and check it out and let old DJ Pon3 know what's what? Thanks, now back to the music.” Another song started but we were otherwise occupied now.

“Alright so I'm guessing that's Clopton?” I asked, point towards the smoke. Crackshot pulled out a map of the area and laid it out quickly on the floor. 

“Eeyup.” She sighed a minute later, looking up at us sadly. “We gotta go don't we?” she asked hopefully.

“Of course we do!” I said, then paused and looked back at Brutus. “Don't we?”

“Of course we do!” He said. “Like it's even a question. Feral ghouls be damned, they'll keep for another day, we gotta go see what happened and help anypony we might be able to.”

So with that we were off.

//////////

“Oh sweet Celestia...” Brutus said softly as we came down and landed. The whole town was scorched. Most of the buildings were burnt to the ground, burned bodies littered the streets, some still burning. The one building still basically in tact was the town hall. It was made of stone so it stood up to the attempts to burn it, though there were chunks that had clearly been blown out by grenades. The smell was terrible. Burned, cooked flesh, burnt hair, and who knew what else.

“Oh wow...I was not prepared for this...” I groaned, trying not to throw up. I managed to keep my stomach under control this time, and though I was glad for it, I also realized it was probably a sign I was growing accustomed to these horrors, which I didn't like at all.

We moved slowly up the main road towards the town hall at the end. I used my EFS to check all around us, but there were no indicators on it besides my friends.

“All the better we didn't bring CB along.” Ruby said softly, pressing her face into my neck when we passed a group of all too small bodies outside of what we assumed had been a school. I nuzzled her gently once we were far enough past the building and she drew back slowly to walk beside me again, looking very shaken.

“Hold on.” I stopped short as we got closer to the town hall. “There's somepony in there.” I said, my voice getting quiet as I drew Ebony and Ivory.

“Just one?” Crackshot asked, coming up on the other side of me. 

I looked the building over slowly and nodded. “It's a green indicator though. Not hostile.”

“Well better safe than sorry.” Brutus said, bumping his power hooves together which started to spark.

We moved up the stairs slowly and into the main lobby. The desks and doors and everything else made of wood was either burnt to ash or still smoking on the ground. The green indicator was moving back and fourth in front of my vision but I couldn't tell if it was on this floor or the one above, I heard no noise to tell me either way. We moved down a hall slowly and emerged in what had to have been the meeting room, rows of burnt benches lined the first part of the room, a still burning platform sat in front of us, a stone podium now on it's side and in two pieces. Where once the Equestrian flag would have hung a banner was placed instead. It was a reddish brown, like drying blood. Right in the middle was a logo of a flame, the center of which was a skull, to the right of the flame was a hoof, to the left a horn, and above it a pair of wings.

“What the fuck...” Crackshot said softly, looking around the room in amazement.

“It's the banner of the Pyro Pony Collective.” A voice answered behind us.

Almost as one our whole group jumped and turned in midair, weapons drawn.

“I don't even understand how you have made it this long if you're that unaware of your surroundings.” Mare-Do-Well said, coming out of the hallway and walking towards us.

Ruby spit her revolver back into it's holster.“Don't sneak up on us like that!” She cried. “We might have shot you!”

“Uhh hello? Power armour.” Mare-Do-Well said, knocking a hoof against the plated chest. “Eventually you'd punch through it, but not without a lot of time and I'm sure you'd have realized your mistake before that.”

“What are you doing here?” Brutus asked, watching the new arrival intently.

“Investigating same as you.” Mare-Do-Well shrugged.

“Are you a female or a male?” Crackshot asked flatly.

“What? What's it to you?”

“You're not the same Mare-Do-Well we met last time.” Crackshot replied.

“Excuse me?”

“The last Mare-Do-Well we met was quiet and grumpy and walked like a Stallion. You're chatty and sarcastic and you walk like a mare.”

“Well you can say I'm a mare then.” Mare-Do-Well said sarcastically and I got the feeling she was rolling her eyes behind the helmet. “It is IN my name you know.”

“You don't live as long as I have without learning to read ponies a lot of different ways.” Crackshot said coldly.

“Girls, girls!” Brutus said, putting himself between the two. “We have more pressing matters here than your egos.” He turned to Mare-Do-Well. “Now what can you tell us about what happened here?”

“The Pyro Collective are a cult, they believe in purifying the world to start anew and they let very little get in their way. From what I've heard they only avoid the really big organizations, they attack smaller places like this, leave no survivors so there's nopony left to tell anypony else about them.”

“So why do you know so much about them?” I asked, finally sliding my pistols back into their holsters.

“I have connections.” She replied simply.

“Oh that's helpful.” I grumbled.

“I didn't say it was. However I believe I have something you'll find interesting Doctor Sugarcane.” She said. She slid open a panel on the fore hoof of her armour, revealing a pipbuck underneath. She flipped through her inventory and floated out what looked like a crystal tube. The base of it was a cube, about the size of a foal's wooden toy block, then it stretched up into a cylinder and rounded off at the top. My name was etched into the base.

“What is it?” Ruby asked curiously.

“It's a second generation Memory Storage Unit.” I said, wrapping it in my magic and floating it over to us. “They work just like memory orbs, only instead of simply allowing you to view the memories stored within, these are actually somewhat interactive. You download kind of a basic AI version of yourself into the orb and set up a series of predetermined events that will occur within it. So you can talk to ponies within it and even do things, but the program will always play out the way it's designed to. They were called Memory Cubes. You know instead of memory Orbs?”

“I've never heard of them.” Crackshot said. “And yeah, I think that's kind of obvious, though they don't really look like cubes, the name is pretty self explanatory.”

“They weren't put into major production. Pinkie Pie was having them developed as a means of interrogating prisoners without actually hurting their physical bodies.  Force them into one of these, they can be tortured and abused and even murdered, and then it ends and they're back in their cells unharmed and ready to go into another one.” Mare-Do-Well answered before I could. “Problem is they can only store about 45 minutes total of data, can only be imprinted once, and it puts a huge strain on the pony creating the world within. So they were discontinued, the remaining blanks were divided between the ministries and sent off. They crop up from time to time across the wasteland, but most of them have been imprinted with interactive pornography.”

“What a waste of such a great technology.” I said sadly, looking over the device curiously.

“Well why don't you look and see what's on it?” Brutus asked. “If it's got your name I doubt it's porn.”

“Now's not the time.” I said, putting it into my saddlebag for the time being, my pipbuck chirped and filed it away, Quest updated 'Ghosts of the Past.' appeared in the corner of my vision but I ignored it too. “We have to get out of here and see if we can get a hold of Pon3 to let him know what happened. What else can you tell us Mare-Do-Well?” I asked, looking back to the purple armoured pony.

“Not much unfortunately. This was a peaceful town, nothing special about it. The Pyro Ponies simply don't like anything that isn't them.”

“Fuck.” Was Brutus's only response and he started out of the meeting room and into the hall beyond.

“I'm sorry.” Crackshot said. “He doesn't like the destruction of the world to begin with, let alone senseless murder of innocents.” She hurried after him.

“As we should all feel.” Mare-Do-Well said, looking back to me and Ruby now. “You two make a nice couple.”

“Umm thank you?” Ruby said awkwardly. It was a bizarre segway.

“It's important to have love and trusting companionship in this train wreck of a world so make sure you watch out for each other.” She turned and leaped through a hole in the wall and after a moment flew off into the air.

“Well that all fell apart kind of quickly.” I said, turning and looking at Ruby. “I've never thought of Brutus as the sentimental type.”

“He's...complicated.” She sighed, shaking her head.

“Well I thought he killed a bunch of Zebras and that's how he got his name, doesn't really strike me as a 'worrying about others' attitude.”

“It's complicated.” She said simply.

“The whole thing seems to be complicated.” I said with some annoyance.

“Look, it's not my place to tell you about Brutus. You want to analyze him you ask him.” She snapped, turning and leaping out the same hole Mare-Do-Well had gone out and she was gone.

“For fucksake...” I sighed, turning and leaving quickly. I headed back to the sky wagon, I didn't know where Ruby had ended up, but I could see Brutus and Crackshot moving through the streets double checking anything they could seemingly think of.

I moved to the cockpit and took the radio, turning DJ Pon3 back on while I settled down in front of the quad turret and popped out the computer, glad now that I had left most of the computer functions still intact.

Hooking my pipbuck up to the computer I started the transmitter and sent a trace along the signal coming from the radio. The signal buzzed away for a few minutes, a digital map scrolling along the screen, stopping on a building a few hundred miles away. 'Tenpony Tower' popped up on the screen, my pipbuck chirping as it added the location to it's own internal map system. A few more radio signals appeared on the building, so I locked on to the one signal that showed as both broadcaster and receiver and after a moment of using the computer and the massive metal framework of the sky wagon to amplify the signal I connected. Amazingly the screen of information vanished and was replaced with a video feed of the other end. I saw a very advanced looking transmission array, bank after bank of computers, I had to admit I was jealous of the setup. I missed working with computers like these. My jealous admiration was interrupted when a grey unicorn walked across my field of vision, floating a stack of records along in front of her.

“Umm, excuse me.” I said softly, making her jump back in surprise, the records falling to the ground.

“Don't do that!” She sighed, scooping up the records and setting them down. “How does every pony that wanders into one of those towers always end up with me?” She turns back and looks at the monitor and I realized she could see me.

“You're not in one of the towers.” She said after a moment.

“Nope I'm in my Sky Wagon.” I replied simply, turning the computer monitor so she could see the rest of the wagon.

“How're you transmitting to me?”

“I'm a clever pony?” I asked, laughing sheepishly. “I kinda hacked the transmission network and traced DJ Pon3's broadcast back to it's point of origin.”

“This is a Ministry...” She started

“Of Arcane Sciences Emergency Broadcast Station.” I finished. “I know.”

“So you should also know it's extremely secure and it's not simply 'hacked' into as you say.”

“I'm VERY good with computers.” I smiled.

She stared at me another moment as if deciding what to do next. “Who are you?” She asked finally.

“I'm Doctor Sugarcane, and you are?”

“I'm Homage.”

“I was hoping to speak to DJ Pon3?”

“He's busy, I'm his assistant.” She was still staring at me intently and then it finally seemed to click. “You're the pre-war computer and robotics expert!” She said loudly. “I heard rumors about you but I couldn't get any confirmation. Are you really from before the war? What happened? Why aren't you a ghoul? Where have you been hiding the last two months? Where did you get a sky wagon? Where are you? What's going on?”

“Whoa whoa whoa, one question at a time.” I laughed, sitting back.

“Okay right right sorry. I've heard about you but it's all just been rumors, got a bit of information from the Storm family, but they seemed kinda reluctant about giving up information.”

“Well I'm glad to know they can keep a LITTLE of my privacy.” I chuckled.

“Alright.” She sighed, and shook her head. “Are you really from before the war? And if so, what happened to you?”

“Yes I'm from before the war.” I paused, thinking about my response. “That's not right, I'm from before the apocalypse, the war was well under way by the time I came into my work, as for what happened. I don't really know. Something happened to me and I ended up in a cryo pod. One minute I'm working at my terminal taking readings, the next I'm waking up and it's been 200 years.”

“Wow.” She had floated up a pencil and was writing down the information I gave her. “So where have been? What happened after you woke up?”

I gave her a brief run down of my meeting my friends and ending up working for the Collective.

“Which covers most of my questions.” She smiled, writing furiously. The record that had been playing on the radio was coming to an end and she looked up at the computers behind her.

“Crap...” She turned and looked back at me intently for a minute. “Alright well you've told me the truth so I suppose it's only fair I repay you, but it's a secret alright?” She asked seriously before sliding over to the broadcasting equipment, taking up a microphone in her magic. I hadn't even realized she was sitting in a chair.

“Welcome back wasteland!” She cried into the microphone, her voice taking on the deep masculine tone of Pon3. Of course she was the DJ, I hadn't seen anypony else in the studio while I was talking to her. “This is real exciting stuff my little ponies, remember when I mentioned the computer pony from the war? Turns out HE came to ME in the end! How's that for amazing? Of course who wouldn't want to talk to me?” She laughed and hit a button and the screen jumped so I was facing her again, she'd moved the signal to the console she was working on.

“So Robo-Doc, tell us about how you're finding life now that the world has gone all to hell.” She said seriously.

“Uhh, well it's been a big adjustment for me. The time I left behind was still, well I guess it's hard to say normal, almost all the ponies listening have only known this their whole lives so this is normal. I had a home, I had a family, friends, safety. It's been a big adjustment to get used to this world. I was lucky enough to find friends and safety when I woke up here and I think I might just find family too.”

“Oh? You got a very special somepony out there? Some lucky mare or buck you come home to every night?” Pon3 asked.

“Yeah I do.” I nodded. “She's great, I'm really lucky to have her.” I smiled.

“What's she like? Tell us about her!” 

“Uhh, she's a pegsus, her coat is the most beautiful shade of pink, she has these happy green eyes that I could just lose myself in for days.”

“You love her like nopony else? You just want to hold her and kiss her and tell her you love her? Maybe settle down and have some foals, raise a family?” Homage asked, the deep voice barely even registering as strange anymore.

“I could see myself doing that yeah.” I nodded. “I can't think of a better way to spend my life in the wasteland than with her, I love her more than anypony I've ever known.” Which was really saying something considering Rosalea.

I looked up at the screen and Homage had the weirdest look on her face, like a mix of shock and utter adoration. “We'll be back with some news in just a few minutes but first one more by Sweetie Bell.” She said quickly, another record starting.

“What's wrong?” I asked.

“Umm...turn around...” Homage whispered, looking a little more horrified.

I started to turn around when...WHAM!

I tumbled backwards, eyes clenched shut in terror, as something plowed into me. The turret, pipbuck still attached both to me and it, pulled sideways and I found myself in a weird heap, my foreleg pulled out towards the turret as the cord reached the end of it's length. Whatever had hit me had come to a stop on top of me and I braced myself for the worst when I felt, really one of the last things I'd have thought...lips, pressing against mine happily. I opened my eyes slowly and realized Ruby was on top of me, kissing me passionately, and Homage was howling with laughter.

“I...buh...wha...?” Was all I could stammer as Ruby sat back beside me and grinned.

“W...why do you think...think I asked you about your mare...friend...” Homage asked, laughing hysterically, almost falling out of her chair. “She floated up behind you and I switched gears right away. Might not have been funny if she WASN'T your marefriend, but so worth it!”

I sat up and moved back over to the turret so the cords didn't tear from the computer, straightening it back into it's original position. “Very funny.” I sighed.

Ruby moved over and looked at the computer screen curiously, sitting down beside me. “So you're DJ Pon3? I guess you really are a mare.”

“I am, but it's a secret!” She said quickly. “Please don't tell anypony else, it'd make my life miserable if word got out.” She groaned and shook her head. “How do I keep ending up being found out? Seriously, two hundred years of DJ Pon3s, none of em had this problem, I've done it three times now.” She sighed.

“Don't worry, your secret is safe with us.” I said and Ruby nodded in agreement.

“Oh okay, so I'm guessing you didn't call to chat?” Homage asked, flipping a record behind her without even looking, another song coming on as the last one faded away.

“Uhh no.” I said, taking on a serious tone. “We're in Clopton.”

“Oh.” Her face immediately got serious. “So, how bad is it?”

“Bad.” Brutus said, coming up to the back of the Wagon. “Who're you?” He asked, looking at the screen.

“This is Homage, she's DJ Pon3's assistant.” Ruby said.

“Tell him it was this group called the Pyro Pony Collective.” Brutus said seriously. He looked like he was bursting with barely restrained rage.

“Really? They're actually a thing?” Homage asked in amazement, her pencil flying furiously along the paper without really looking at it.

“Yeah they're actually a thing.” Crackshot said, joining Brutus in the entrance of the Sky Wagon. “Horrible monsters, worse than any slaver or alicorn I've seen. They torture and murder anypony and everypony they come across. Mares, Colts, Fillies, foals, stallions, bucks. It just doesn't matter to them. You aren't one of them, you're dead. The whole town as been destroyed.”

“Dammit. Just what we need. Another mightier than thou Celestia damned group of murderers.” Homage set her pad down. “Well I'll get this information to Pon3 and he'll let the rest of the wasteland know. Cane, it's nice to meet you, glad to know you're more than just rumors and speculation.”

“I'm sure we'll talk again.” I said, disconnecting the pipbuck, the screen switched off and went back to the default turret control system.

“So did you get to talk to DJ Pon3?” Brutus asked, moving into the wagon.

“No he was running the show while we talked to Homage.” I said, shrugging. He hadn't heard the radio, which was good because the interview would have been awkward to explain without blowing Homage's cover. 

“Too bad. He sounds handsome.” Crackshot sighed.

“Oh he is.” Ruby said, moving into the cockpit to prep for our departure. “Makes me all warm and tingly in a funny way.” She giggled.

“Aww our little Ruby is finally starting to experience the joy of puberty!” Brutus said, watching the wagon door close. “Soon she'll start getting weird urges and thinking about bucks, next thing you know she'll be in heat and all hell will break loose!” He laughed and sat down on one of the benches.

“Kiss my ass Brutus, oh I forgot, you only do that for stallions.” Ruby countered, making Crackshot finally laugh.

“I find none of this pseudo-sexual commentary humorous.” I said with as serious a face as I could manage, sitting down opposite Brutus and beside Crackshot.

“Oh come on, lighten up.” Brutus said, leaning in and licking my face before I could react.

“Aww Brutus gross!” I whined, doing my best imitation of CB, and promptly turned and wiped my face against Crackshot's neck.

“Hey! I don't want his slobber all over me!” She cried, pulling away quickly, only to slide off the other side of the bench and land on her butt, finally I cracked up too and sat back as Crackshot scrambled back onto the bench, well and embarrassed by the whole situation.

“You three are like a bunch of foals.” Ruby called as we took off back to the base. The ghouls would have to wait for another day.

////////////

Well there wasn't much to tell for the next month. We got back to the base, reported our findings from Clopton...and that was it for me. I'd promised I would work on the decryption program for EB and that's what I did. I fell into a routine just like I had back before the war. I found myself spending more and more time in the labs with the computers, even working on prototype robotics I had never had the chance to build before. I'd spend days on end in the labs. My friends would go out on scavenging missions, coming to check up on me whenever they got back or had a lot of down time, Ruby brought me food and every few days she'd haul my ass out of the lab to get a proper night's sleep. We decided she should just move in with me since I didn't own a lot and my quarters were bigger, it freed up hers for somepony else. It drove me to distraction that I had all this data at my hooves, most of which I had created myself, and it was buried under Star Venture's encryptions, of course there was a reason we'd never been hacked by rivals or Zebras, and the main reason Stable-Tec had made buddy buddy with us. I'm sure they'd tried to steal information from us just like everypony else. I barely noticed the passage of time while I worked, I'd be talking to Brutus one minute and the next I'd realize I was talking to Crackshot and two days had gone by since Brutus had been there. I hadn't even worn my armoured barding or carried my guns in the last 3 weeks, now I just wore my lab coat and pipbuck.

Explosive Blast had come by to check up on my work, and she'd been smart enough to bring CB with her, and that filly would not be ignored for anything, probably the first time I had been truly removed from my work as the green pony bounced excitedly, telling me about how she'd gotten an A+ on her cutie mark journal even though she only had one entry and that her Cute-ceanera was so much fun, I realized I had totally missed it.

“I'm so sorry CB, I didn't mean to miss your big party.” I said, feeling bad.

“What? You didn't miss it.” She laughed. “You didn't talk much, you sat at the table and typed on your pipbuck and a tablet all night but you were there, you and Ruby gave me this.” She turns her head and points to a golden pin in her mane with her cutie mark on it.

“Oh, well I'm glad you like it.” I smiled, looking up at EB curiously.

“Yeah you were there.” She laughed. “So buried in your work Ruby practically had to feed you herself. I can't believe how sunk into your work you can get.”

“Yeah I'm pretty bad for it...never realized I got THAT bad though. I guess before my friends and family were all scientists like me, none of us had children to worry about parties for.” I sighed.

“Well you're not gonna miss the party now right? CB asked expectantly.

“What party?” I asked curiously, looking at the green filly.

“What party?!” She gasped and looked up at her mother in disbelief, then back to me. “It's Ruby's birthday dummy!” She said, waving her forehooves in the air. “We came to get you for it! Brutus said he's been reminding you all week! He even put it into your pipbuck.”

I looked down at the Pipbuck and the reminder was blinking in the corner still. I felt my stomach bottom out, but EB smiled a little. “Don't panic, she knows you're deep in your work, and some of us are on top of it all the same. Hail storm and her family just arrived this morning, I'm sure she has SOMETHING you could buy to give to Ruby.” She gestured out the window and I looked up and saw Hail standing in the hallway.

She saw me and waved. I waved back dumbly and turned to the other two.

“Thanks, I'd forget my head if it wasn't attached.” I sighed. I hurried out of the lab and stopped in front of Hail Storm.

“Well hi there stranger.” She grinned. “I understand it's somepony's birthday and you've forgotten?”

“Yes to both do you have any...” I trailed off as EB came out of the lab with CB on her back. I looked at them a moment then leaned in close, whispering my request into Hail Storm's ear. 

She giggled a moment and her eyes lit up as she realized what I was asking. “Of course I do, but how much...”

“5000 caps?” I offered before she could finish her sentence.

“Uhh, how about 2500?” She asked.

“Sure, done.” I nodded, getting confused looks from the other two beside me. “Just don't worry about it.” I said to them and started off with Hail Storm. “We'll be at the party as soon as possible!” I called as we rounded a corner.

//////////

After I had picked up my gift for Ruby I left Hail Storm at the door to the bar where the party was already in full swing.

“But what are you going to do?” She asked me curiously as I moved towards the vent in the roof where Ruby and I had snuck out of the bar on that first night.

“Make a big entrance.” I grinned, leaping onto a stack of boxes. “Wow this is a lot easier when you're not drunk.” I said as I pulled myself up into the vent. I'm sure I got an even more confused look from Hail Storm, but I was on my way and last I heard was the bar door slam as she went inside. I moved through the vent and came down quietly into the closet, though it was so noisy in the bar it hardly mattered. I slipped out into the shadows of the wall and looked around. The music was being played through the sound system of the base, a system I had spent the last month working with and had all the access I could need for it. I moved towards the stage where the main speakers were set up and tucked Ruby's gift into the pocket of my lab coat. Ruby was sitting at a table in the middle of the bar with EB, Brutus and Crackshot, ponies all around talking to her, wishing her a happy birthday, giving her small gifts. CB and a few other younger ponies were a table over playing games and having the time of their lives. Ruby was all smiles and thanks, but she looked up at the door constantly, and the clock above it, and I could see how sad she was that I wasn't there yet, so as the song came to an end I made my move. I hit the button and took over the light controls and the music, keeping another song from starting and plunging the whole bar into darkness. I moved onto the stage quickly before anypony could panic and my horn lit up the stage as I cast a voice amplification spell.


 


I sang loudly, my voice echoing around the bar, everypony turning towards the stage as the lights came up with a tap of my pipbuck, the song itself starting over the music system. Ruby had turned to the stage and looked beyond shocked, my other friends looked fairly amazed too considering how much of a fight I usually put up when it came to singing. Hail Storm had just been in the middle of saying hello to Ruby and her jaw looked like it might fall off.

Ponies around the bar started to clap and cheer and point to Ruby, who had actually managed to blush so hard she was almost blood red.

I started making my way off the stage towards Ruby's table slowly. Ponies were cheering and pushing her, trying to get her to move, but she seemed glued to her seat as I closed the distance slowly, coming up short and looking at the table of young ponies.

I sang on, looking at CB curiously, like I was speaking right to her. She giggled like crazy and pointed to Ruby. I looked up at her and grinned, like the thought hadn't even occurred to me before. Finally I pulled her up off her seat to stand in front of me. She had tears in her eyes and was using every bit of effort she could not to cry.

“Can anypony find me...” I knelt in front of her slowly as I brought the song to an end and everypony in the bar knew exactly what was coming as Ruby finally started crying.

“Somepony to...love...?” I finished, the music fading out to silence, I kept my voice amplified as I smiled up at Ruby.

“Ruby Star, you've been there for me since the day I woke up and found myself lost in this wasteland. You've been my best friend and my closest companion and I couldn't be happier than I tell somepony else that you're my marefriend.” I smiled a little when I caught a look of realization from Hail Storm that I was referring to her. “You're my very special somepony and I want nothing more than to spend the rest of my life with you...” I floated the box out of my pocket and opened it to reveal the gold and platinum wing band I had bought from Hail Storm. “Ruby...will you marry me?” I asked, floating the band up out of the little box.

“Oh Sugar...” She gasped, fighting to speak. “...Of course I will.” Everypony in the bar broke out into huge cheers as I snapped open the band and wrapped it around the base of Ruby's left wing, locking it into place, careful not to pinch any feathers. I was barely able to finish before she was pulling me to my hooves and kissing me passionately, her muzzle wet with tears.

Everypony buzzed around, congratulating us and wishing us well and just generally being happy for us.
The night was winding down and we were sitting at the table still, eating the last of the birthday cake, most of the guests had left but Ruby was content to just sit and cuddle me, and I was happy to let her, we'd been drinking for the last few hours so I was probably just as much a prop at this point as I was somepony to cuddle.

“You know that totally shouldn't count as a birthday present.” Brutus said with a smirk.

“Oh shut it.” Crackshot said smacking him upside the head.

“Oh no no, he's right.” I said. “ I have a birthday present for Ruby too.”

“What? Why have I been sitting here assuming I already had your gift?” She demands, sitting up and looking at me intently, only wavering a little as she did.

“Well it was a present I wanted to give you...when we were alone...” I smiled.

“Aww but I want my friends to see it too! Come on Sugar, that's not fair I want to share it with them too!” She whined, but trailed off when she caught the look in my face, not to mention in Brutus and Crackshot's faces.

“Oh...OH...I'm such an idiot.” She laughs as she clues in, burying her face in my mane.

“It's okay honey, I know you're probably pretty drunk right now. I forgive you.” I said, wrapping a hoof around her and hugging her close.

“Why don't we let you two get to bed?” Crackshot asked, smiling and getting up off the bench. “I could use a good night's sleep and after all of the excitement of tonight my old bones are aching. Walk me home dummy.” She said to Brutus, grabbing his tail in her teeth and pulling him away from the bench and the rest of his drink. He floated the glass after him and downed it quickly before getting up reluctantly and following Crackshot out of the bar.

“Wanna do it in the bar?” Ruby asked quietly.

“Not really no, for one thing there's still a dozen odd ponies in here, for another I don't think it's fair to leave THAT kind of mess for somepony else to clean up.” I chuckled.

“Alright fine, lets go home.” She sighed, pushing herself up slowly, using her wings to balance herself as I got up and we started off. I wasn't really drunk, just happily buzzed.

“It's nice to not have to try and sneak out through the vents when I'm drunk.” I said as we made our way through the halls.

“Yeah it is. Everything is nice isn't it?” She asked. “Open up.” She snapped at the door. One of the projects I had started was installing voice locks on the doors of the personal quarters, only a handful of them had been installed so far, mine was of course the prototype because it had let me be close to Ruby for a while when I was working on the installation.

The door opened and let us into our quarters. It was funny to see, the place had become a fusion of styles. My desk was stacked with papers and plans and a now upgraded computer terminal, some of the shelves holding the non-working prototypes I had brought back from my old office.The floor and couches were a mess of Ruby's clothes, which I still didn't understand considering how little clothing she wore besides her armour 

“Now...about this birthday present...” Ruby grinned, pushing the door closed with one of her hooves as she came over and pressed her face to my neck, kissing it gently. “I think I should start and you can save my present for a little later.” She muttered, looking up at me to make sure I was okay with that. My only answer was to sit back on the bed happily.

“It's nice to have your whole life organized again isn't it?” She asked softly.

“I never thought I'd be lucky enough to have everything stable and right where I wanted it.” I nodded.

If only I'd know what was to come that night...


Footnote: Level up

Perk added: Certified Tech: Your knowledge of robotic components allows you to break them more easily and salvage their mechanical corpses.

Companion Perk Added: Whiskey Ruby: No negative effects from Alcohol, whiskey and wasteland tequila. Temporarily increases Damage Threshold.

(So I kinda need to apologize for my story thus far. Everything I've written up to this point has been the intro of the story. Setting up the characters, the relationships, the group dynamics, all that. Some things have been created along the way that I wasn't expecting but I feel that the story has been made better for it. The next chapter of my story is actually the beginning, where things start to happen and the storyline really gets into motion. I'm probably going to go back and overhaul the chapter listings on the websites and condense it into one or two posts with the chapter breaks still within, but I thank you for bearing with me through this rather long dragged out set up. You can blame the book 'The Passage' which did something similar for it's introduction and which is to blame for my story having it's introduction the way it was. To those of you who said I shouldn't rush things, I hope you realize the irony of your statements now haha. Also the reason I haven't had any cover art is because the cover my sister drew for me would have been a major spoiler. It'll go up along with the next chapter. Thank you for your continued interest in my story and I hope to keep making it better. :D)


This fanfiction is based on Fallout Equestria by Kkat; a familiarity with the source material may aid your understanding.

You can read Fallout Equestria by Kkat on Equestria Daily

The Fallout: Equestria logo used above was designed by DotRook, who, according to the original deviantArt page, allows usage in supplementary materials created for and associated with the series. Images really do make a difference, so he has our eternal gratitude and respect.

If you enjoy Fallout Equestria Side Stories, you will want to check the Fallout Equestria Side Stories post on Equestria Daily and the Fallout Equestria Side Stories thread on Ponychan

The Ponychan group is also a hatching ground that you can join if you want to share your experience, writing or comments with us.