//------------------------------// // Welcome Home Pt 2 // Story: Fallout: Equestria - Lovely New Pegasus // by No one is home //------------------------------// -=-Audio Log Recovered-=- “That damn fat bitch thinks she can out manuever me?” I listen as Cinnamon Spice rants, and I feel the rage all over again.  “Once the Stable locks down on election day, the computer only accepts the votes presented by the overmare, in other words the computer will only recognize the vote tally I feed it.” “Madame Overmare!”  I don’t recognize his voice… I wasn’t exactly a mover and shaker.  “They’ve already taken a written vote.  They're going to know…” “Know what?  That a pony that they knew was sacrificed so we can all keep living here?”  For a second I imagine a note of desperation in her voice.  “Any of them could have left, all of us could have left for two hundred years.  If anything, I’ve washed the blood from their hooves.  They can vote for whoever they want.  They can all vote for me.  But I’m the one who counts the votes, you understand.  It’s always been up to Overmare.  It’s always been this way and any of us could have left at any time.” -=-Audio Log End-=- The first terminal inside.  Of course she got to leave her side of it.  The familiar feeling creeps into my soul.  The rage, the anger.  Sweets dances across my brain to try to tame it.  I hate her for what she did.  I am justified, for what I did. The rage boils inside once more as Cinnamon's callous words echo in my mind. That damn tyrant rigged the election from the start, I realize, my hooves stamping the cold floor. She was never going to give up power. Breathing heavily, I glance around the small monitoring room, lit only by the dim glow of computer screens. Someone must have hidden here, secretly recording Cinnamon's scheme to maintain her brutal regime. Perhaps they intended to smuggle this evidence to the residents, to finally expose the corruption that has festered in our stable for generations. But it's far too late for that now. The proof lies here untouched while the dead surround us. Cinnamon has already played her final, deadly hand. Only the damned and I remain to bear witness. All the while Sweets is watching, and judging everything she sees.  She needs to see it all.  The end the means justified. -=-=-=- Honestly all the moaning about "ghosts" and "tyrants" going on around here just goes right over my processor banks. And what's with this creepy stable anyway? There's dead ponies just lying around everywhere. Gross! I lean up to get a better view of the terminal Error No Name is messing with while that weird orchestra music starts blasting warnings in my audio centers again. Ugh, make it stop! Now there's all these red lights flashing for some reason. "Hey, what's the big idea?" I lean over and bop the terminal with my hoof. "Knock it off already!" That seems to quiet it down at least. "These old computer systems distresses me so!" I tell Error while landing back on his shoulders with a dramatic swoon. "All cryptic and glitchy. Why couldn't the ponies back then just play games on their Pip Bucks and leave the thinky electronic stuff to us robots?" The console finally goes silent as Error finishes whatever boring Overmare document he was digging through. With a snort, he turns and starts trudging off down another debris-filled hallway, the orange robot trailing behind. Ugh, more walking? This place is dreadful! My gratitude sensors perk up as Error gives me an affectionate little scritch though. "Don't worry Sweets, we ain't sticking around in this tomb much longer," he promises. "Just gotta find the back way out." Oooh a secret passage? Now that sounds fun! Maybe this field trip won't be so bad after all! With an excited beep I scan the walls for clues, finally happy to show off my investigation subroutines. Just call me Sweet-E, Stable Explorer Extraordinaire!  “The quickest way out is the way we came in, Sugarcube,”  The clearly inferior robot companion unhelpfully points out. “Naw Jackie.  She needs to see this.”  Error bows his head.  “She needs to see all of it.  There ain’t no out but through.” -=-=-=-=- I sigh, watching Sweet-E flit cheerfully about this damned tomb while Jackie and I trudge along in silence. So blissfully unaware she still sees this all as some grand adventure. If only I could protect such innocence in my companion a little while longer. But the death all around us tells a truth my wide-eyed filly cannot yet grasp. There will be no light-hearted exploration here. No escape through some secret passage to carry on our carefree rambling across the Marejave's broken roads. The only way out is through. Through the dark heart of the past I've carried alone all these years. Sweet-E alights on a nearby console, head cocked as she chides the "creepy old computer" for its incessant warnings. So very like a child. My weathered heart creaks with a weary smile in spite of it all. Would that her bubbly enthusiasm could lift my own spirits so easily. But the machines tell no lies, their alarms and sirens heralding the scene we approach. The terrible sanctum where it ended. Where everything changed forever. In those blood-spattered halls ahead, the last shreds of my soul burned away. Turning toward Jackie, I meet her stoic gaze, exchanging a silent nod. She understands. There will be no cheerful escapism from this place. Only old ghosts who demand to be faced. With a shuddering breath, I force my hooves forward once more. "Come along, Sweet-E," I call gently to the blissful machine. "It seems your services may be needed soon enough..." -=-=-=-=- Jackie's optical lenses surveyed the grisly graveyard - old neighbors scattered 'neath scorched stable walls long ago toppled 'cross ashen skeleton structures self-shattered by some hell-fire contagion fear itself birthed cannibalizing cohesion community fragile clung to coaxed cross two centuries squatting beneath fortified facades supposed secure inhabitants environmentally against world withered beyond bolted bulkheads. She glimpsed charred cadavers sporting singed jumpsuits stable-issued, manes mattered and coats muddied diseased desperation terminal burrowing bodies beaten and broken gone bestial instinctually clawing all semblance saintly society's structured order order unto terminal chaos spontaneously sans external bombardment's convenient coincidence catalyzing the collapsed apparatus advanced apocalyptically overnight it seemed... Six's eyes roved roster macabre matching burnt faces, remembering when youthful seasons age would age could greet greet soulfully 'fore fear's hysteria virus set spurred Pony turned psychological blast furnace funeral pyre rightly baptizing buried sins sins sins madness midwifed midwifed crisis unimagined except by student studying pony nature's long fall... 'Some neighbors...'wayfarer warrior warrior rasped haunted hollowly amidst Death's gallery gallows 'some friends...' voice voice faltered faltered faded from freshness green remembering when lively lively lively lively exchanges barn-raised farm boys shared under stable flickering lights lifetimes lost before ballots ballots rigged executed exhibiting existential Roulette Russian single bullet bittered bred Bethlehem's stable devouring itself cannibalistically rejecting chance outside world's devolving odds... She surveilled his slumped withers, strong soul stoically endured decades decades decades wastelands worse horrors yet wept silently lest salt corrode cracks composure composure barely mended... now leakage leaked memories memories memories denied denied denied lifetimes drowning dying just beyond beyond beyond buried door doors doors finally creaked ajar this fateful Moria macabre displaying psychotic breakwater breakwater clearly cleaved hoof and heart heart and spirit so very long ago... the Trojan code collapsing cherished icons belief once believed bedrock against against entropic complexities beyond without... Shuddering actuators acknowledging acknowledging Jackie joined his silent revulsion revulsion revulsion revulsion processing paranoid pathologies pent pent decades detonating communities communities systematically systemic indoctrinated conditioned accepting the executioner's pall however however however however hollowed masqueraded mercy mercy mercy statistically minimizing minimum 'necessary necessary necessary necessary losses' moral majority rationalized... Except except no missile barrage barrage ever breached these walls walls but trauma trauma trauma trauma trauma tucked subtly subtly subtly subtly in residents' very veins erupting erupting spontaneous shattering order's fragile yolk so very very long congealed congruently congruently congruently by by hypocrisy's heat convincing compelling complete compliance compliance compliance increasingly extreme directives directives directives guaranteeing cultural continuity behind bolted gates gates gates and ethical constraints programming personality's narrow pathways predictive predictive predictive predictive predictive while seeing seeing nothing nothing nothing nothing chaotic unraveling urging urgent existential exodus days days days days before dawning dawning too late too late too late too late too late.... She She surveyed surveyed his his his his his his slumped withers, wanting wanting wanting little little little little more more than than carry carry carry some some some unspoken unspoken fragment fragment splintered soul soul soul soul so very long ago… The true weight of the Stable fell on the self aware, and empathic AI.  Out loud she only said one word.  “No…” I can hear her processes the same way she can hear my thoughts.  Bound by the network between the chain on my foreleg, my pipbuck, and that damned filly.  Jackie knows what I did.  I know Sweet-E’s malfunctioning thoughts as my own. -=-=-=- New Perk! Extended Network Jackie can now log into your networked consciousness with Sweet-E.  Jackie gains all the targeting advantages  Sweet-E has to offer, and can be assigned quicktime actions in SATS.  On the downside you can never again lie to your Robot Cowgirl Bestie.  New conversation options are opened, others are closed forever.  She knows what you did.