Project Horizons Pt. 1
The Sweetie Chronicles: Fragments
Project Horizons Pt. 1
By Wanderer D & Somber
Based on the story: Fallout: Equestria - Project Horizons
Special thanks to my pre-readers: SuperBigMac, RK_Striker_JK_5 and Kharakian
The Hoofington Rain pounded down with all its customary spite and fury. It wasn’t enough to simply wet the earth. No, the gray skies waged war with barrages of rainfall. The road was a thin, fragile line cutting its way through the edge of the valley, flanked by two growing lakes that chewed at the embankment. Equestrian wartime engineering was normally more than up to the task of handling any weather, be it rain, snow, sleet, or a nearby megapsell.
However, most of those engineers probably hadn’t thought of driving a twenty-ton zebra tank on it either.
Deus, the tank piloted by a brain in a jar, did the best he could as he ploughed forward, but every minute or so his massive treads launched a fusillade of asphalt and roadbed behind him. A slurry of mud and muck sprayed out from his treads. Progress occurred in inches over minutes at times, and more than once the vehicle threatened to get bogged down entirely.
“This is nuts,” P-21 said from the front of the vehicle. The blue earth pony scowled up at where Lacunae’s shield struggled to keep the hammering rain at bay. “He’s going to get stuck for good if the road washes out completely.”
“Well, then we’ll take out his brain and stick him in something a little more maneuverable. Like a wagon,” Rampage drawled as the metal armored mare scratched Tic Tac Toe games in his paint job. The tank’s engine let out an angry growl, and the red striped mare added, “A wagon with guns. And missiles. And maybe a great, big, metal--”
“That’s enough,” Glory interrupted. “He can’t help the rain. Hoofington’s always rainy. We should be glad the road is still here at all.”
Lacunae said nothing, the purple alicorn gazing off into the distance as her magic kept the storm directly off them.
“Except who knows who’s out there?” P-21 persisted. “I get that travelling by tank is fun and all, but ponies could be travelling on the ridges setting up an ambush. Deus would probably be fine unless they bring balefire eggs, but the rest of us would be toast.” His hooves tightened around the olive filly in his grasp.
Then the last member of the group spoke up. “EFS is clear. Nothing red. Nothing-” and then the was a flash of... something right in front of the tank as a pony appeared...
Right in front of the enormous tank.
With a rather loud meep of surprise, the pony jumped and rolled out of the way, rain water and mud splashing around as she scrambled back and away from the gigantic tank, green eyes wide and mouth agape as she took in the giant machine that had almost rolled her over.
It rolled past, spraying her with a fresh cloak of mud and debris. “Stop! Stop!” a mare shouted, as it rolled on. Then the mare jumped from the rear of the tank into the mucky ruin. “She’s not dead and she’s not red,” she called out as she walked through the obscuring rain. Step by step she came into view.
The rain sheeted along white hide and black metal. The unicorn’s hide was interrupted here and there by obvious mechanical limbs. Red and black mane and tail lay limp in the wet as she approached. “Hey! You okay?” she called out at the muddy lump besides the road and mire.
"Guh." The lump spit out some mud and shakily stood up, blinking. "I'll be okay, I think... just let me get rid of this." A strange purple and white glow emanated from the lump's head and slowly the mud dripped down as a white coat, purple and pink mane and tail and the obvious shape of a unicorn were revealed. "I have to say, I've tasted a lot of mud but this is the worst so far," the mare said grumpily as soon as she was clean. "You really need to watch where you're driving that mech of yours, though. I almost became one with the road."
“Hey, look before you teleport,” the mare said as she nodded back towards the idling tank. “Come on,” she said with a nod over her shoulder. “Let’s get out of the rain.” She struggled to reach the back of the tank, her heavy metal limbs bogging her down more than once before she reached the rear of the vehicle. Hands popped out of the ends of her forehooves, and she clambered up, then looked back at the unicorn and offered a hand up... something most ponies didn’t do.
“Blackjack, what are you doing?” the stallion asked as he peered down at the strange mare.
“Offering someone we almost ran over a ride, okay, P-21?” she replied without averting her eyes or her easy, slightly tired, very wet smile.
"It's the kind thing to do!" the pony added, calling up to whoever was up there as she gratefully took Blackjack's offered hand. "I'm kinda lost here, you know? Just let me hang out until I get my bearings and then I'll be out of your mane. Pinkie Promise!"
Blackjack considered her a moment at that, then shrugged. “No problem.”
Rampage grinned at their newest passenger, while P-21 regarded her cautiously and Lacunae curiously. Blackjack’s eyes turned to the purple alicorn, then back at their passenger, then back at the alicorn. Glory carefully flew over to land beside her as Deus began rolling again with a sullen growl. “Are you injured? That sure was a close call!” She asked, smiling pleasantly at her.
The mare blinked. "Rainbow Dash? Since when are you a medic?"
She blinked and scowled. “I am not Rainbow Dash!” she blurted, hovering above the tank. “I may look like her and sound like her and might have more of her mannerisms than I should, but I am erudite! I am educated. I am an egghead.” She paused, her eyes popping wide as her mouth twisted sourly. “I mean... smart! Not Rainbow Dash!”
"Hey, I'll have you know that Rainbow Dash is... well, smart is not the word, but she's not just a jock!" the mare grumbled. She cleared her throat. "But, to answer your question, I'm okay, thanks for asking... I just rolled on some mud, but it helped soften the panicked dive."
The olive filly snickered as she examined her brightly. “Don’t mind Glory. Even when Killing Joke turned her into Rainbow, she’s still the most boring pony in the wasteland.”
“Ha. Ha.” Rainbow Glory snorted, landing and rolling her eyes.
“So, who are you?” Blackjack asked lightly, her unblinking eyes staring as if scanning her. Maybe she was. “No offense, but you look like Horse’s Sweetiebot.”
"A Sweetiebot?" the mare asked, blinking. "Is that-like a robot version of me?" Her eyes widened. "Does it sing? Oooh! Does it play a musical instrument? Does it burn the toast?!"
“If by toast you mean your crotch then yeah. I’m pretty sure he used it just for sex,” Blackjack replied. “Vigorously. He seemed pretty fond of it when I saw him with it.”
"I—" the mare seemed at a loss for words. "That's just... I mean. I'm... was... was he at least handsome? Wait. What am I asking? No. I don't want to know. In fact, forget that I ever wanted to know." She shivered. "No. Nononono. Deep breaths. Deep. Breaths." She slowed her breathing, closing her eyes for a moment before she slowly opened them and glared at Blackjack. "That was way too much info."
Blackjack shrugged, smirking back at her, “Well then, I’m guessing you’re not one of his sexbots. So then who are you? Some sort of clone of Sweetie Belle? Time travel?” She asked, as if either of those things were not beyond the realm of possibility for her.
"Alternate dimension, actually." Sweetie glanced at the distant ruins. "And you said I was in the Wasteland? Is this the world where ponies and zebras blew each other up?" She nodded at Lacunae. "I guess that would explain the alicorn?"
“You mean there’s a world where war didn’t happen?” Blackjack asked, her smile fading, face more earnest.
“Well it’s been hypothesized,” Glory commented. “Certain actions could spawn two different worlds. Like one where the bombs didn’t fall. Or the war never happened.”
Blackjack stared at Sweetie as P-21 just watched her skeptically. “Right. From another world. Sure.”
Rampage snorted and rolled her eyes. “Oh, come on! That’s not half as weird as most of the shit Blackjack runs into!”
Sweetie Belle blinked. "You ponies are taking this in way too quickly. I'm almost afraid to ask what the hay you guys do on a daily basis." She leaned forward. "But I just have to know." She grinned. "Most ponies by now have either passed out, arrested me or accused me of being drunk. So, how come you're not chaining me up or shooting me already?"
“Blackjack’s generally the one who gets chained up,” Rampage snickered.
“Hey! Only with Glory’s permission!” she said, getting a warm smile from the pegasus in return. “But since you asked... well, I’ve been through a lot,” she replied, holding up one metallic leg. “I mean, look at me. I’m hardly in any position to rule on what’s normal or not. So long as you’re not trying to kill me, I’m fine. Maybe you’re Sweetie Belle from another world. Maybe you’re crazy. Maybe you’re some really cute assassin of Dawn’s who is planning on shooting me in the back. I hope not, but...” she shrugged.
"You think I'm cute?" Sweetie asked with a smile. Blackjack grinned, and Glory sighed and rolled her eyes.
“I think you’re crazy. That’s too much to be a lie,” P-21 said dryly, not taking his eyes off her.
Sweetie nodded. "I understand..." She took a deep breath, before turning to Lacunae. "If you really want to verify my story, you could always ask Trixie."
“THE GODDESS WONDERED IF IT COULD BE!” Lacunae suddenly boomed, Blackjack’s lips silently echoing her. “THE MEMORIES OF THE SEVERED WERE DIFFICULT TO INCORPORATE! YOU ARE THE ONE FROM THE OTHER WORLD!”
“Woah woah woah! Volume down!” Rampage snapped, rubbing her ears.
"Trixie... you really need to work on your illeism," Sweetie said, rubbing her ears as well. "As well as toning down that Royal Canterlot Voice. I swear, every time I see you, you do the same thing." Sweetie smiled. "Still, it's nice to see you again."
“THE GODDESS IS...” Lacunae paused, seeming not sure what the proper response would be. “...SATISFIED!” she finished, and the Lacunae immediate slumped and gave Sweetie Belle a small smile. “I can think of only three ponies who have ever given her pause like that.”
Scotch Tape stared up at her. “So... like... why are you here? Do you just randomly jump from world to world? Oooh! Are you trying to get back home as you hop blindly from one world to the next? Or are you, like, exploring other worlds and stuff?” P-21 didn’t look happy, but at least he wasn’t calling her crazy anymore.
As Scotch Tape spoke, Sweetie's smile slowly disappeared until she dropped her shoulders. "I... I'm responsible for really hurting the Twilight Sparkle of my world," she said, licking her lips. "I have no control where I jump, but I am trying to get home." She looked up at the clouds above. "If I'm here again, then another fragment of Twilight might be here. I need to find it, so I can somehow fix my mistake."
All of them listened closely, but it was Blackjack that reached out and gave her shoulders a pat. “All of us have made mistakes. All of us are trying to do better. If you can tell us how we can help you find it, we will.”
“Right. Because Blackjack has never met a sob story that she didn’t immediately fall for,” Rampage snorted, rolling her eyes.
“Is the Society going somewhere?” Blackjack asked sharply. The armored mare shrugged. “No. So if we can help, we will,” she said as she looked back at Sweetie Belle.
Sweetie smiled. "It's okay, Blackjack. I appreciate the offer, but I'm not defenseless, and seems you guys already have a mission. I don't even know where the fragment is... it should be close, but it could be in any direction from here... until I'm close enough to it, I have no clue on how to find it."She paused. "Unless any of you have heard of any magical artifacts of mysterious origins in the area."
The companions all glanced at each other, and Rampage answered. “Well, Blackjack has a thingy in her pipbuck that a whole lot of people want to kill her over. Then there’s her sword that cuts through anything. I can’t die. She’s Rainbow Dash. Oh, there’s some kinda bioweapon in the sky we’re trying to deal with and--”
Glory closed Rampage’s mouth with her hooves, giving a sheepish smile. “I think what she means to say is, can you be more specific about what this fragment looks like?” Rampage popped her mouth free and snapped, her teeth clacking inches from Glory’s rapidly withdrawn hooves.
Sweetie giggled. "Well, it's none of those! I might have a way to find out which direction at least, I think… I have a theory that I can use the other fragments I have as a compass… but I can't risk it in the rain. As soon as it stops raining, I should be able to at least try. But, just in case you've heard about it, it's a purple crystal fragment, about a hoof or so in length, and it electrocutes wasteland alicorns if they try to touch it. I'm not entirely sure why."
“Sorry. I can’t recall running into anything like that,” Blackjack admitted. “If you need it to stop raining, well, it doesn’t. Not for days, sometimes. If we come across a building or something, can you do your spell stuff there?” Sweetie nodded. "I just need a dry place or some sort of cover to protect my book from the rain. That's all."
“Okay,” Blackjack nodded. “We’ll take a pit stop soon as we can. Or can you do it inside Deus here?” she asked, rapping on the armor.
"I need enough space for a couple of ponies, I suppose, but that's about it," Sweetie replied.
“So a building then. Fair enough,” she replied, standing on Deus and peering into the rain. “I think there’s something ahead at the end of these flats. Hopefully it’s dry.” She glanced at Sweetie Belle. “I know what it’s like to screw up, and I know what it’s like to want to go home.”
o.0.o
“I think it’s a garage,” Scotch Tape said as Deus rolled into the metal quonset building that looked like a rusty oil drum cut in half, laying on its side. “Or it was,” she said, looking at the lifts and oil pits that remained. Deus stopped, hissing and growling. The filly frowned, “That doesn’t sound right. I should look at his engine. Can you give me a hoof, Daddy?”
“Sure,” P-21 answered with a smile.
Blackjack hopped down, peering around. “Is this big enough to do your spell thing?” she asked Sweetie.
Sweetie nodded, stepping inside the garage. "It's perfect! Thank you!" Gathering energy on her horn, she stood in the center of the room, looking straight ahead until a small split in the air, shimmering with magical energy of the same color expanded slowly and a book surrounded by five crystals orbiting around it emerged from thin air.
“Woah,” Rampage said, clapping her hoofclaws together as if she’d done a magic trick.
“Are those... are those pieces of Twilight?” Blackjack asked as she reached for one of the crystals.
Sweetie nodded sadly, raising a hoof to point at her flank despondently. "Yeah, you can see my cutie mark is all about breaking her apart."
Blackjack pulled one to herself and carefully turned it over. “Blackjack, don’t eat it,” Glory warned.
“What?!” Blackjack flushed immediately. “How did you... I mean, how could you even think I’d even try? I was just... it’s just... yeah.” She released the floating crystal. “Not like a little nibble would hurt...”
"Wait, you eat crystals?" Sweetie asked, eyes wide. She stepped slightly away from Blackjack. "T-that's interesting! Um... let me put Twilight away, just..." she shook her head, concentrating on her spell. The orbiting crystals moved faster around the book before slowing, until all four were hovering in the same direction. "Um... that's where we need to go... I uh, I'm putting Twilight away before you k-munch her."
“I wasn’t going to do it!” Blackjack protested. “I might have thought about it, but come on!”
“She was a ministry mare, not rock candy,” P-21 pointed out.
“Would that count as cannibalism?” Glory mused.
“I didn’t do it!” Blackjack whined.
“But you thought about it,” Rampaged grinned.
“If you’re all quite through,” Lacunae said loudly, cutting them off. “The crystals all pointed to the north. Is there a way to judge the distance?” the alicorn asked.
Quickly shoving her book into the dimensional pocket and dismissing it, Sweetie shook her head, still giving Blackjack a dubious look. "Not really, but at least we've figured out that there is a way to send me back that involves the fragments. Otherwise… I might be stuck here for months, if not years."
“Right. We’ll give them some time to work on Deus and we can see what’s north of us,” Blackjack said with a smile, then frowned at her PipBuck. “What IS north of us? I don’t think I’ve been around this part of the Hoof.”
“Well, go far enough north and it’ll be the Core,” Rampage said, then looked at Sweetie Belle and smirked. “If it’s there then kiss your shard goodbye. Nopony goes to the Core. Hell, we went under it and nearly died.”
Sweetie gulped. "I hope not... if it is... I don't have much of a choice." She shook her head. "We can travel a bit north if you want, then I'll check again for a bit more clarification. The mare that taught me this spell wasn't necessarily the type to consider that many factors into her spells, but it's proven useful before. If it points to this Core... well, at least I'll know where to go."
Blackjack nodded and patted her back again. “And then you’ll find a way. As long as you’re not dead or give up, you’ll make it.” She sighed and looked out into the rain. “I’d better go take a walk and see if there’s any trouble out there.” She then gave Sweetie a half-smile. “One of my augmentations prevents me from getting sick. Comes in handy.”
“So do literal hands,” Rampage quipped, getting a snort from Blackjack as the augmented mare trotted into the rain, leaving Sweetie Belle alone with the others.
Sweetie watched Blackjack until she turned around the garage and she couldn't see her anymore, then turned to face Rampage. "So... why do you guys tease Blackjack so much about her helping ponies?"
Rampage snorted, “Cause she does it all the time. I mean, seriously. That mare hasn’t found a lost cause she won’t help. And she’s constantly giving everypony second chances. And third chances. And fourth. When will she figure out that once they’re dead, they’re not a problem?”
“Because she wants to make the wasteland better,” Glory retorted, and Rampage relented.
“Yeah, I know. It’s just annoying. I keep waiting for her to just get it and start squishing her enemies like grapes. It’d make this whole saving the hoof thing so much easier,” the red striped mare grumbled.
“Security saves ponies!” Scotch Tape called over from the tank.
Glory beamed at the filly, then explained, “Security is a nickname Blackjack picked up. She was a security pony in her Stable before she went into the Wasteland.”
Sweetie nodded. "I've been here before, but I only got exposed to a bunch of ghouls and Midnight Shimmer, an alicorn... so, I have no idea how bad does it gets. But... well, where I come from, and in many of the worlds not devastated by war, ponies going out of their way to help and forgive again and again wasn't that strange." Her ears drooped. "It's sad what war does to us."
“It’s sad what it’s done to Blackjack,” Glory replied, her smile fading. “She’s... well... you have to know her to really understand. She does amazing things, and terrible things too. She wants to do better, but sometimes I have to wonder if she’s ever aware of the cost.”
“She blew up a battleship with a pistol, Glory,” Scotch Tape shouted. “You can’t beat that.”
“She also killed everypony in her stable too,” Rampage added.
“Amazing, and terrible,” Glory murmured, looking out the door that Blackjack had exited.
Sweetie closed her mouth, not even realizing she had gasped at Rampage's words. "But... how does she—" She gestured with a hoof. She shook her head. "I don't even know what to say... how do you even deal with that? How can you stay good after that? And smile and honestly be able to help somepony?"
The others grew very still and they shared a look. Worry. Concern. Every single eye had that lingering doubt. Even in Lacunae’s eye was the doubt of an entire Goddess. “We just hope she keeps trying to do good,” Glory said quietly.
“If she ever stops,” P-21 added, his voice soft and grim, “I promised to kill her.”
“Or else she’d really put the waste in Wasteland,” Rampage said, almost sounding eager.
Sweetie paced in front of the others, muttering a little. "I don't understand, where does that... that strength come from?" Her voice quieted. "I remember every pony and sentient I've—how do you deal with something on that scale? Not mindless monsters... ponies. People you knew and lived with?"
“I don’t know how she does it,” Glory admitted. “I don’t think Blackjack does. She just... does. She pushes on and pushes through and does whatever she has to do, no matter the cost.”
“Yeah. Personally, I generally stop caring about my body count,” Rampage admitted. “But Blackjack beats herself up over every single pony she accidentally killed. Even her enemies. It’s... somewhere between super annoying and really...” She trailed off with a sigh.
Sweetie sat down. "One time, I met a Twilight that had in one moment of anger killed about... five hundred or so monsters that were threatening her friends and had even killed some of them. I thought I could help her a little... I had some advice, her friends were there and she eventually understood that it was a life or death choice. But those were monsters." She sniffed. "This is... another scale of trauma."
“Yeah, Blackjack broke four hundred ponies just gassing her stable,” Rampage said with a snort. “Not sure if it counts though, since all she did was push a button.”
“It counts,” P-21 said quietly.
“The... her stable was infected with a virus. It was turning ponies psychotic. Some of them... they were cannibals,” Glory murmured, keeping her eyes low. “I should have caught it.”
“Buck that,” Scotch Tape said, no longer working on the tank, but sitting on her haunches, watching them. “Rivets should have listened to Blackjack instead to tossing them in the recycler.”
“Regardless, there were hundreds more infected. Blackjack used a chlorine talisman to flood the stable with poison gas, with herself inside as well.”
“To make certain none of them could halt the process,” Lacunae said, her eyes glittering. “The Goddess teleported her out before she died, obviously. Still, it was traumatic.”
“Think of Blackjack as the grim reaper. If you cross her, she’ll kill you. She doesn’t want to, but she will if she’s not given a chance to think of it. But if she cares about you, she’ll move heaven and earth trying to save one life,” Rampage said with a nod. “Like I said, really annoying.”
Sweetie shook her head, but still managed a smile. "Well, at least she has you guys. I'm sure her's would be a far different story if she didn't have her friends at her side. All you need is the Elements of Harmony and you're a set."
“The elements of what now?” P-21 asked in bafflement.
“Oooh! Which one am I?” Rampage asked, narrowing her eyes at Sweetie Belle as she grinned manically. “Laughter?”
Sweetie raised an eyebrow. "You strike me more as Generosity. You look like you could punch a hole in that tank, and what are punches but the gift that keeps on giving?"
“It’s very true,” Rampage said with a prim nod.
Glory snorted and shook her head. Lacunae only seemed to study Sweetie curiously. P-21 looked to the door. “Where is Blackjack? You don’t think she’s trotting north on her own right now, looking for that crystal?” he mused.
“Ugh, it’d be just like her,” Glory said with a glower. “I am going to positively spank her if she has!”
"Maybe I should go look for her," Sweetie said, standing up. She headed out into the rain, roughly in the same direction she had seen Blackjack go.
o.0.o
There were few places in the Wasteland, few worlds, that sucked as much as the Hoof. The cold rain poured down on Sweetie Belle, with an almost vindictive malice, transforming the ground into a muck that sucked at every step. That muddy slurry’s silent radiation would have been wreaking havoc on another pony, but as it is was simply a challenge to make any progress north whatsoever, let alone finding Blackjack.
Then she came across the fresh corpse of a hulking monster-sized pig slowly sinking into the ooze as a sign that she was on the right track. Or at least she was on a track. Hopefully it was Blackjack and not something worse that pulverized the skulls of giant, irradiated boars.
Just in case, however, Sweetie allowed her little diamond, Akela, into the Wasteland. Better be prepared to drill a hole into something than be caught unarmed. Grimacing at how the muck impeded her movements, she nevertheless moved around the corpse, eyes scanning around for any sign of Blackjack. Her ears strained, trying to ignore the sound of the rain.
It wasn’t just the rain though. This place... it hurt. The stone under her hooves groaned, whimpered, and wailed. It was as if the planet itself had suffered a wound that still festered. This was a bad place. She might be looking at muddy slopes and dead grass as she worked her way north, but there was a scream with every step.
Had it been the same back with Puppysmiles? She hadn't been able to sense the earth when she had been there before. If the whole world was like this, in constant pain to the extent that the rocks themselves—sturdy and unmoving against most disasters—would suffer, she had to wonder if Equestria would ever recuperate.
She gritted her teeth to keep herself from whimpering. Her eyes scanned around, not dark enough to use a darkvision spell, but the rain made it hard to really see anypony.
Ahead of her rose a spur of stone... no, not a stone. A building. Two stories tall, and wide. Her hooves left the mud to find a firm driveway heading to the east. It was shelter from the pouring rain, and as good as any place to look for Blackjack. As she approached, a sign by the parking lot crept into view: ‘Eternity Spas. You’ll want to stay forever.’
"Well, that's ominous," Sweetie muttered. She slowed down, sticking to the wall and unconsciously making her body a bit smaller as she sneaked from shadow to shadow, trying to see if there were any creatures in there.
This building should have been a raider den. Or a beast’s lair. Or rubble. Or any number of things. It seemed inexplicable that this place would be so... intact, and being intact, so empty. The doors were actually unlocked! Lights struggled to flicker to life, illuminating a reception hall that would have been perfect right out of Ponyville.
Minus the remains, of course.
Dozens of them, laying strewn all over. Piles of clothes, leather, rusty weapons and guns. And odder still... nopony had looted them. This had to be a small fortune just lying here for any wastelander... heck, even in other worlds. Yet, none of it was touched. All of it soaked in cold, thick blood.
Sweetie grimaced and stepped in carefully, doing her best to ignore the remains. Still, she could feel bile threatening to climb up her throat just with the knowledge that there had been so many ponies here and had to stop to swallow and breathe. If Rarity had been here she would be freaking out, but that would only get her killed. Whatever had killed these ponies might attack her.
Already a battle plan was forming in her mind. Cast darkness. Darkvision. Control the environment of the battlefield. Hopefully this possible enemy was not invulnerable to elemental magic. "If not," she whispered to herself. "Shred them with Akela."
The creepiness didn’t stop, though. The equipment in the foyer was all fitting wastelanders... but there was a mare’s dress behind the receptionist desk heaped in a pool of blood just as the rest, name tag resting on top! As she went into the side rooms, there were massage tables dripping gore... but no spatters. No bloody hoofprints. No bodies. Not even bones. Just blood... so much blood. When the lights came to life, musak started to play and... wait! That was Sweetie’s voice. Her own singing from two centuries ago. Another life... another time...
The world seemed to roll to a stop, and for a moment, Sweetie could only think one thing: "I need to get that LP." Shaking her head to return to reality, Sweetie finally stopped and concentrated. There didn't seem to be any sign of Blackjack in this room, nor of anything living or un-living for that matter.
“Voice print identified,” a voice said from nearby, from the pool room, which started up its jets as the light came alive, the water the color of strawberry lemonade. A talisman set in the wall blinked, oddly out of place for a spa.
All chances of secrecy gone, Sweetie sighed and approached it more openly, trying to figure the spell matrix of the talisman. "And what do you do, huh?"
“Voice print identified. Awaiting password, darling,” it said in a parody of Rarity’s own voice.
Sweetie blinked. "Password? Uh... Opalescence! Boutique! Chic! Sweetie Belle! Worst. Possible. Thing." She tried to think of other things Rarity might have used. "Tom. Spikey Wikey. Twilight."
“Awaiting password, darling,” the talisman quipped.
"Um... could you... give me a hint?" Sweetie asked, smiling despite the fact that the talisman would not see her face.
“Is this applesauce?” the talisman asked.
"Toast!" Sweetie squealed.
The talisman flashed and a door opened in the wall. It led down a short hallway to a second door with a note that read, ‘Do not disturb for any reason. Knock before entering.’
Carefully considering the note, Sweetie shrugged and knocked. Who knew if there was some ghoul inside or something that might be annoyed by lack of manners. Still, no feral hiss inside. No reply at all, really. This hall and doorway still looked like it was part of the spa. The same wood paneling. Still, something was off. It just felt wrong.
Unable to shake her uneasiness, Sweetie pressed to the wall, before allowing her magic to slowly push the door open. She crouched, ready to dodge or cast a shield spell if needed.
Before her was... probably not what she expected. The room was dominated by a large four poster bed. Racks of tastefully arranged sex toys sat along one wall next to the bed, while another wall had a rather stunning display of harnesses, bridles, and fetish gear. A corner was occupied by a jacuzzi, while the last had a desk and terminal tucked aside, as if ashamed to be in the lecherous chamber.
Sweetie could feel the heat on her cheeks as she stiffly made her way into the room and just as much as she really didn't want to think this place belonged to her sister despite the password, she also really regretted not having the ability to take some sort of picture of the place to tease her sister about it sometime.
She cleared her throat and slowly approached the computer. "I hope it’s not password protected too," she muttered, making sure there was no blood on the chair before sitting in front of the desk.
Fortunately, it was clean. More fortunately, somepony’d been logged in. The terminal flickered as much as the lights, but it was still steady. There were recordings. Dozens and dozens of recordings. Each of them had a date, a number, and a tag: ‘Valuable’, ‘harmless’, and ‘dangerous.’
Blinking, she chose one of the early recordings, tagged 'Valuable'.
The screen flickered several times, and then four film footages from different angles flickered to life. The cameras were hidden neatly in the walls. Two unicorns walked in, a mare in a manager’s dress and a filly. “Now remember. Show him a good time. He likes to play ‘naughty daddy.’ You should be able to play it just fine for the cameras. Be nice and vulnerable.”
“Yeah, yeah,” the filly snorted. “This isn’t my first rodeo.”
“Just make it convincing. He’s vocally opposed to the SPP ‘waste’. Rarity needs dirt she can apply against him,” the mare said as she examined the filly. “Also, his file says he’s more partial to pegasi.”
“Finally! Somepony not interested in horns,” the filly blurted, and flashed into a pony-sized bug creature with buzzing wings. A second flash and the filly returned, this time with wings. “How do I look? Decent jail bait?” she asked as she gave the camera a lewd eyeful.
“I wouldn’t know,” the mare said lightly, stepping out of the door and calling softly, “Councilor? She’s ready.”
A strong pegasus stallion trotted in and eyed her closely, his lips curling, eyes searching. “Daddy,” the little filly said coyly, fluttering her eyes.
“I’ll leave you two alone,” the mare said as she stepped out.
Sweetie didn't notice her mouth was open or that her hoof had come up to cover it in her surprise. A part of her was offended that Rarity would use a changeling like that, even if the changeling seemed to be perfectly fine with it... but the rest of her was much more unnerved by the fact that her sister was creating blackmail material like some sort of criminal.
"Just what the hay did you do for a job, Rarity?!" she gasped, scrolling at the documents and trying her best to ignore what was happening on the screen. She almost didn't want to check the dangerous one, given the nature of the previous one, so she settled for clicking on one of the 'harmless' ones, hoping this would give her a better idea of just what was going on.
The harmless one was more consensual, two ponies, who seemed like average, ordinary ponies here for kinky sex. These two seemed to be aware that they were being recorded, talking about their honeymoon and ‘worst kept secret at Image.’ At least these ponies seemed to be loving in their sexual encounter, and none of them were doing anything illegal.
Had her sister been some kind of pornographer? Sweetie had heard that modeling could take you to dangerous places depending on your choices, but she had no idea having a boutique would end up in this. Unless Rarity had been hiding things all along.
This gave her pause.
Shaking her head, and dreading what would come up, Sweetie finally convinced herself to click on the "Dangerous" tagged recording.
The image was fairly simple. A mare laying on her back, readying herself with her hoof. A pony arriving, all covered up. A hat being removed, exposing a striped head. Clothes falling to the ground as fast as she could remove them, which was fairly fast with the help of the mare’s magic. The zebra mare joining her on the bed. Kissing. Rubbing. Touching. Toys being levitated as the two tried to consume each other in passion. Not that different from the ‘harmless’ video...
...except the mare was Sweetie Belle.
Sweetie opened and closed her mouth, unable to vocalize what she was feeling. Her sister had been using her as sex bait? Rarity? What... how? Or maybe it was a Sweetie Bot? But she looked... just like her! If she had already felt her cheeks warm, now she was really embarrassed and ashamed. She immediately clicked the next recording, hoping it wouldn't be her.
It was. This time with a zebra stallion. And the third with a pony mare. Another zebra mare. It wasn’t just the sex though. It was how much Sweetie seemed to pour herself into those carnal moments. It couldn’t be a sex bot, no robot would talk about how much they needed it or stress.
Then, on the video, as it played past the sweaty parts, the door opened and in walked her sister. She looked... worn. Still, she smiled at the zebra mare, who rapidly cloaked herself. “No, no. Don’t rush on my account, Xa... Xen...” She paused and looked over at Sweetie Belle, lying exhausted on the bed.
“Xensha,” Sweetie supplied. “One of my sound engineers.”
“Xensha,” Rarity said with a smile. The zebra nodded and returned to Sweetie, whispering something and kissing her deeply before trotting out. Rarity watched her go, her smile fading. “Another new one? Sweetie, you know the risk.”
Sweetie Belle watched, mouth agape once more, as she just took partner after partner, not even blinking when Rarity had walked in. The fact that her sister was just taking it in stride... just what type of slut had she been?
She thought back on her own experiences, from experimenting with kissing Scootaloo and Applebloom so long ago... and tried to somehow fit that into this... this version of her.
Just what had happened to turn her into such a sexual creature? At times she had seen her other self show signs of being angry... tired... sad, but the sheer passion she threw herself with was just staggering.
“How could I forget, with you reminding me all the time?” The Sweetie in the video retorted, rolling on her front, hugging a pillow tight and grumping.
“You can’t just do it like other ponies, Sweetie Belle. You’re a celebrity,” Rarity reminded her. “That’s why I invited you here. So you’d be able to do it without getting caught, but even this spa has limits!”
“Right, because I might imperil the illusion you and my manager have built up. That’s all you are now, Rarity. Illusions and lies!” She rolled over, throwing the pillow at a rack of sex toys and sending them rolling every which way. “Oh, Sweetie Belle! She’s so wonderful and innocent! She doesn’t even date other ponies! She’s saving herself for marriage!” Sweetie Belle gushed sarcastically, fluttering her eyes. “That sells better than ‘Oh, Sweetie Belle, she fucks Stripes!’”
“Yes, it does!” Rarity snapped back. “And in case you missed it, we’re at war with zebras, Sweetie Belle! How could you even think to take one into your bed? Let alone two or three?”
“Because I like them and this war is stupid!” Sweetie said, getting off the bed to face her sister. “Xenshia deals with ponies muttering about how she’s a traitor, when all she does is mix sound better than most ponies in the business. Xeran saw right through all the fake smiles and fake goody goody pop star crap, and made me actually feel good. Goddesses, I felt wonderful! And he’s disappeared! Nopony knows where! Do they?” she snapped, her voice hissing with suspicion.
The more Sweetie watched, the less horrified she was, and she started to feel pity for her counterpart.
Her hoof slowly caressed the screen. The local Sweetie Belle had been destroying herself out of sheer loneliness and despair and a need to do something to prove that she was not part of the war, in addition to Rarity being some sort of pornographer that probably sold incriminating videos to the highest bidder probably had broken her counterpart here.
Fortunately there was a fast forward, so she was able to zip through looking for other scenes with her sister, or anypony that wasn’t just an anonymous partner. Then there was one with a pony she knew: Scootaloo. That sex was a lot more awkward than the others, with the pegasus clearly unsure of things. So much so that she put a stop relatively soon. They sat together on the bed. “So, Applebloom and I are about to launch Stable Tec. She’s got the designs. I’ve got the money and contacts. If we can just make it work, maybe we can do some good.”
“Nothing’s good in Equestria any more. Not after Big Mac died,” her other self said as she hugged Scootaloo around the waist. “How’s Applebloom taking it?”
“About as well as you can imagine. That’s part of the reason we’ve got to get Stable Tec going. If we don’t... I don’t want to think about what will happen to her,” Scootaloo said, holding Sweetie back, not like a lover, but like a friend. Scootaloo gave a hollow laugh, “Or me, for that matter. If we can’t get this company to work, I think I might lose it.”
Sweetie sat up a little. “What if I helped?”
“Sweetie, you’ve helped enough. Sorry that I couldn’t get into it,” Scootaloo said awkwardly.
“I don’t mean that,” Sweetie said with an embarrassed flush. “You just weren’t in the mood. But I was actually talking about helping you with Stable Tec.”
“Sweetie, I’d love your help. It’d be great to be the CMC’s again... but how could you help? You don’t know business or engineering,” Scootaloo said, trying not to sound patronizing and failing.
“No, but I do have a lot of fans, and after everything that’s happened with Rarity, I know all about selling an image. You’ll need somepony for the commercials and marketing. I could help with that!” Sweetie smiled, an honest happy smile. “And... maybe we can do something to turn all this horribleness around...”
Scootaloo smiled as well and kissed her ear. “Thanks for the ‘make me feel better’ sex.”
“No problem,” Sweetie said, her smile failing a little. “I’m an expert.”
Back in the present, Sweetie's initially dreadful eyes had warmed up as she listened to the conversation, and by the end of it, despite what her other self had done, she couldn't help but grin. "You go, Sweetie. Nothing can be bad enough to destroy the Crusader spirit." She considered the two friends sitting together and gulped. They did look cute together.
She sorted through the next few files, but only two others were with Sweetie Belle. The next were of Rarity! First with a stallion Sweetie couldn’t recognize. Then, a flash, and...
Spike?
Definitely a teenaged dragon. Bigger than a pony, but not ginormous yet. Yet there was kissing, and holding and... stuff. Stuff done extremely carefully, but stuff done. Really, how did her sister manage... and yet she did. And not only did she enjoy it, but from the look of love, it was more than simple carnality. It was careful. Caressing. Sensual and loving. Clearly, Rarity had learned a bit about taboo relationships from her sister.
Sweetie placed her hoof on top of the computer and looked down. "Talk about robbing the cradle. But did you really have to record it?" she muttered. She couldn't fight the blush at all and brought her hooves to her face and meeped. "And why do they look so darn cute together? I should stop watching!" She quickly scanned to see how many files were left.
There were only a few. The next two were more Spike and Rarity together. For the next one, Rarity had entered in with the changeling she’d seen earlier, the unicorn in a fashionable but concealing cloak. “I’m going to need you more at the office, Image. If Luna found out... or Twilight...”
“Yeah. I’m pretty sure she’d freak,” the dragon rumbled from the floor.
“Yeah, I got it. It’s not my first rodeo.” The changeling replied and transformed into a copy of Rarity.
“Be honest, darling,” Rarity admonished. The changeling form shimmered to a more aged mare. “Thank you. Smile and wave at the gala.”
“You bet. I’ll find someone there to nibble on. Blueblood is always good for a bite,” she said with a grin before walking out and leaving the pair alone.
“I always wonder with her,” she said as she dropped the cloak, letting it fall as she climbed into Spike’s embrace…
...her belly swollen with foal.
"No way." Sweetie almost jumped to her hooves as she stared in horrified fascination. "You can get pregnant from a dragon?!"
“This is all your fault, you know,” Rarity went on with a pout. “I’m all swollen up and fat. Fat fat fat...”
“Technically, I think it’s yours. You’re the one with magic, after all. If anything will break the rules, that will,” Spike rumbled, kissing her neck and earning a coo from her. “I wish you’d tell me what kind of magic you’re doing. Twilight seems to think you might be doing something... wrong.” He stared into Rarity’s eyes, his own huge with concern.
She averted her eyes. “No, darling. It’s just a fluke. A wonderful fluke... my own precious baby with my own precious Spikey Wikey.”
“But what are you doing, Rarity? I mean, I’m not Twi but I have picked up a bit here and there,” Spike asked, his voice a deep rumble, like a giant feline.
“I’m going to keep everypony safe, Spike. You. Me. My friends. Everypony I can. Just as soon as I find a way...” She said as she proceeded to snuggling, Spike still looking worried.
Sweetie grimaced, knowing that things had definitely not turned out well. Had Spike and Rarity's baby survived? She shook her head. The last time she had been in the Wasteland, she had briefly seen a robot talking with Spike's voice... maybe Spike was still around somehow? Sweetie felt a bit dirty, having spied the intimate moments her sister had shared with Spike.
Somehow they seemed sacred, perhaps because of the honest love between the pair. She couldn't understand why Rarity had recorded them, but... she shook her head, spying the few remaining recordings. Maybe one of them would tell her the fate of Rarity's offspring.
The first was of her sister and Spike, together, the mare holding a tiny lavender ball of scales with a freakishly huge pony head. So much smiling. So much love.
The second to last... her sister alone. No sex. No Spike. No foal. Only tears. So many tears.
The last dangerous, Rarity waited alone. She looked exhausted. Old. Worn and torn and spent. Then Sweetie stepped in... mature, and a bit worn too. “Sister,” she said, oddly formal. “Here I am.”
“I... I wasn’t sure you would come,” Rarity said, her voice weak. “You... look wonderful, darling.”
“I almost didn’t, Rarity. Your ministry... the stuff it says... the stuff you let it say! Sometimes I can’t believe you’re my sister,” Sweetie snapped, making the older unicorn flinch.
“I tried to do the best I could, Sweetie. For Equestria. For the ponies I’ve loved. My friends. I’ve tried to keep up appearances. Support the war,” Rarity said as her eyes averted. “I’m not proud of everything I’ve done, Sweetie, but I’ve tried to do good.”
“You enabled Luna. You rationalized everything she did. You convinced ponies she was right!” Sweetie saw herself snap. “Whatever good you’ve tried to do doesn’t make up for the harm you’ve done. Zebras afraid to live anywhere but zebra town? That was you. Rumors of blackmail and ‘leaning’ on ponies? There’s way too many for some of them not to be true.” Sweetie took a deep breath and let it out in a sigh. “What do you want, Rarity?”
“I want to protect you, Sweetie. I’ve found a way. A way to make sure I’ll never, ever lose what I love again,” she said as she stared aside, looking like a mare desperate to see a way out of the nightmare she was in.
“I don’t need your protection, Rarity,” Sweetie replied, coolly. “I trust Applebloom to keep me safe over anything you’d offer.” She started to turn to leave, when Rarity grabbed her.
“I still have all the recordings! Every single one!” Rarity hissed, jabbing a hoof at the screen.
Sweetie Belle turned and regarded her sibling with utter contempt. “So you’ll, what, expose me if I don’t let you ‘protect’ me? Go right ahead. I’ll drag it all into the light. Everything I can. And you know what, I doubt I’ll be the only one who will talk.” She shoved her sister away. “Get help, Rarity. Resign, and get some therapy. Find some pony or zebra to give yourself a good rut. Goddesses know you need it.” And then she turned, leaving her sister sitting there, stricken in the middle of the floor.
Sweetie couldn't help the tears. After watching Rarity's foal-hatchling, her and Spike's love and the desperation in her eyes she couldn't feel anything but pity. She checked the computer once more. Were there any other files that explained how she wanted to protect Sweetie? Maybe she could give them to Blackjack or something, if they were useful. Use whatever Rarity wanted to do for the others to help the Wasteland like her sister wasn't able to help Equestria. Maybe then Rarity's legacy wouldn't be so dark.
The first time she’d been to the wasteland had been a grim lesson in the physical cruelties the Wasteland could play on ponies. Now she was discovering just how personal, how deeply, this horrible place could hurt her. The computer files didn’t have anything else except a note that they were to be kept ‘just in case’. But what happened between the two? What in Equestria had Rarity done?!
And why was she so... sore?
It was a strange sensation. Not a pain, precisely. More like an ache. Since her alterations she’d been spared a lot of the bad sensations of the flesh, but now... something was wrong. Maybe it was the revelations of what she’d seen on that horrible screen, but she felt... sick, for lack of the better word.
“Sweetie Belle?” A familiar voice said behind her. Blackjack carefully stepped in, levitating her pistol ahead of her, her face set in an expression of annihilating anything that threatened her. For a moment, Sweetie got that look too, but then her face softened, her features tiring. “There you are? Are you okay?” She asked as she lowered her gun, staring around her suspiciously.
Sweetie sniffed. Despite the battles and the many situations she had found herself involved in, there had always been the chance to actually do something to help others, be it her sister, Spike, Octavia... anypony she had met. Even Nightmare Moon, but now, she had just witnessed the horrible past of not only herself, but her sister too. She had seen hope slowly die in their eyes and a rift being created that she would never have the chance to help mend. Sniffling, she stood up, allowing the tears to run down her cheeks.
"I'm..." she lunged forward and hugged Blackjack and started sobbing. "I-I just saw my sister—she..." she tried to speak, but couldn't really put it in words. How do you explain the complete loss she saw in her sister's eyes?
Perhaps the most heartbreaking thing was the confusion in the white unicorn’s face. She trotted over next to her. “She... what?” As if the list of bad things in Blackjack’s experience was so broad that she couldn’t even guess.
"She lost everything..." Sweetie said, glancing at the computer. "Her sister, her friends... her foal." She brushed her tears away. "It was horrible. This Equestria was horrible. It's no wonder it ended up in—" she waved her hoof around the room. "This."
Blackjack glanced around. "To be fair, this place is actually pretty nice for the Wasteland. If it wasn’t for the Enervation, somepony would have torn this place up long ago.” She paused and peered at her. “But since you’re not bleeding out the eyes or anything, I guess you’re... immune? Something?” She sighed and closed her eyes. “But yeah. The Hoof sucks. Equestria sucks. The Wasteland sucks. The good places are few and far between, and even if you look close, there’s usually something nasty close by.”
Sweetie blinked. "Um... immune to what? Enervation? Is that some sort of virus? Am I supposed to get the flu?" Her eyes widened. "Is that why I'm feeling a bit sore?"
Blackjack frowned in worry. “It’s an energy field... thingy. It sickens ponies. Makes them bleed out and kills them. I’m resistant because... well... the most popular theory is this.” She rapped on her metal leg. Then she popped out a finger, scratching behind her ear and asked, “Did you say Rarity had a foal?”
Sweetie nodded. "Um, yeah. And don't freak out but..." she leaned forward to whisper on Blackjack's ear, as if she was afraid of somepony listening in. "She had it with a dragon friend of hers called Spike," she said softly.
Blackjack squeezed her eyes closed, nodding slowly. “Okay. So... That’s... a thing. One second.” She flipped open her leg and fiddled with it a moment. “Ahem. Blackjack to Watcher. Blackjack to Watcher. Come in please.”
Sweetie blinked and looked over Blackjack's shoulder. "Wow, your arm has everything. It's better than XCOM's implants!"
Blackjack just held up a finger, still looking pained as she waited a minute. Then her pipbuck crackled and the tinny voice of Watcher came through. It sounded smoother than the spritebots he normally used, but modulated to hide the identity. “Well, Blackjack. This is unexpected. Usually I’m the one who contacts ponies,” he said with a chuckle.
“Yeah,” Blackjack said as she looked at Sweetie Belle, her brows knitted. “Look, I can’t think of the right way to ask this, so... you had a kid with Rarity?”
Sweetie covered her mouth. "Omycelestia! I forgot he's still around!" she whispered in a panic. She could feel her heart hammering. Nothing good could come out of this.
There was no answer for nearly a minute. Just silence with the occasional bit of scratchiness. “I don’t want to talk about it, Blackjack.”
“I bet,” Blackjack replied. “But I have a person here who says she’s Sweetie Belle from another world who just happens to have discovered she’s an aunt in this universe. I know. Crazy, but given how this strange shit just falls on my back from out of nowhere, I’m giving her the benefit of the doubt. She’d really, really like to know.”
Again, silence, then Spike’s voice issued from the broadcaster. Low, deep, draconic, and dangerous. “Sweetie Belle, where in Ponyville did the Crusaders have their clubhouse?”
Sweetie blinked. "U-um, Sweet Apple Acres... but Spike... you don't need to do this. I'm so sorry!"
“Sing the song that won you your first prize,” he demanded instead, his voice low and even, as if struggling for control.
Sweetie Belle cringed. "If... you insist..." she cleared her throat and looked apologetically at Blackjack. "We're the Cutie Mark Crusaders, on a quest to find out who we are, and we will never stop the journey... not until we have our cutie marks..."
Blackjack struggled to keep from laughing, smiling ear to ear. Spike let out a long, low, tired sigh. “You sing better than Scootaloo did, Sweetie Belle.”
Sweetie Belle rolled her eyes and muttered something about that song being horrible no matter who sang it.
“So you believe it’s her?” Blackjack asked.
“I believe... there are many strange things that happen in the Wasteland, and if anypony would stumble across one, it would be you, Blackjack.” the dragon said wearily.
“So, it’s true then? About you and...” the unicorn trailed off, glancing at Sweetie Belle.
“Yes. It’s true,” he said, his voice old and tired and still soft with sadness.
"Oh, Spike." Sweetie shook her head. "I'm sorry, you both deserved better. She should have..." she trailed off, unsure of what to say. "You were both very happy, from what I saw," she finished lamely.
“Yes. We were. It wasn’t easy keeping our affair secret. Rarity’s ministry gossiped like mad, and something like that could have been ugly,” the dragon said in a quiet rumble.
“I’m more like... how,” Blackjack said, tilting her head. “I mean, your thing is almost as big as-”
“I was a teenager, Blackjack,” Spike said with an exasperated growl. “About the same size as a pony. Maybe a little bigger. It worked out fine.”
Sweetie was blushing and tapping her front hooves together. She bit her lip. "Um... it was more than a ‘little’ bigger."
Blackjack gave a little chuckle, but Spike sighed. “We made it work. Rarity was a unicorn. She had magic. Okay?” The dragon grumbled and then sighed. “As for the baby... again... magic.”
“Seriously? Rarity knew spells for that?” Blackjack asked, arching a brow at Sweetie Belle. “I didn’t even know spells like that existed.”
Sweetie shrugged. "Maybe? I never learned them, but I wouldn't be surprised. Nightmare Moon certainly seemed the type to know exactly that kind of thing, along with... other... magic."
Blackjack lost her smile at that. Spike gave another long sigh. “It might as well have been from Nightmare Moon. It was one of those damned spells from the Black Book.”
“What?” Blackjack blurted. “I thought that thing was just evil soul magicy stuff.”
“Apparently it’s got all kinds of tricks,” Spike said softly, his growl barely audible. “Rarity... she wanted a baby so badly. I think the book told her how she could have one with me.”
"But, what happened to the baby, Spike? I know it was born?" Sweetie finally asked. "Did you get to spend time with her or him?"
Spike was silent for a moment, and then let out a little sob. “She was so small. So perfect. So precious... but also... so sick. The book had made it possible but... it wasn’t meant to be. We had to go to one of Goldenblood’s secret doctors. He used all the magic and science he could, but in the end, she didn’t make it.”
Blackjack glared at the Pipbuck. “Was it Trueblood?”
“How... How did you know?” the dragon said, his voice stunned.
“Just that he had a nasty habit of collecting bits of ministry mares,” she replied. “She might be alive, Spike. Sanguine had a dragonpony with him. Called her Precious. She’s a filly now.”
"Oh, Celestia!" Sweetie gasped. "What color is her coat and scales?"
“Lavender and green,” Blackjack and Spike answered in unison.
“Is it possible...” Spike murmured. “Is she... okay? Happy?”
“I have no idea. I think Sanguine had her in one of those stasis pods or something. She’s... difficult to deal with. But she’s in Chapel right now, if you want to send a sprite bot to go check on her now,” Blackjack said with a little smile.
“Yes. Yes, I should do that. I should definitely do that!” Spike gushed.
"Spike," Sweetie growled in an almost unpony fashion. "I might not be that filly's real aunt, but I will be a very upset quasi-aunt if you only send a sprite bot, whatever that is, to see her."
“It’s... not as simple as that,” Spike said, his voice fading. “But, I will... I.... sorry. I need to see her for myself.” And with that, the connection was severed.
“Well,” Blackjack gave a little smile. “Sorry. Spike’s currently guarding the one thing that might actually save the Wasteland and restore Equestria.”
Sweetie Belle sighed. "Okay, I get it, but... this place is not kind to anyone. Let's hope he doesn't miss his chance."
“Yeah. He’s just been hurt a lot. Twilight and Rarity both turning distant, then dying while he took a nap. He’s probably terrified. What if she doesn’t believe him? What if she hates him? What if he thinks she’s just a half-feral dracofilly? I mean, she made friends with Scotch, so probably not, but you have to be careful. If the Wasteland gives you something nice, sometimes it’s just setting you up for a fall.”
"Yeah, well... it's not the only place in the multiverse like that and yet here we are," Sweetie muttered. "There's always some force or magic or entity ready to eat your soul, or force you into servitude while it mutilates your essence into a monster. Well, it can go to tartarus for all I care. We deserve happiness too!"
Blackjack stared at her with the sad smile, “Sounds like you have some experience in that department too.”
Sweetie took a sharp breath. "I'm not... a pony anymore. I look like one to you, but..." she chuckled and lifted her hoof. "If I get cut, I bleed... and you'll see blood, but I'll see the truth. Little pieces of red glass." She sighed and lowered her foreleg. "It's not horrible. I've met friends in other worlds who have seen my true form and they assure me I'm no monster. And maybe I'm not. But, just because I don't destroy lives or or go out of my way to kill or maim... doesn't mean I'm really a pony either."
“Yes, you are,” Blackjack said and lifted her own metal leg. “Look at me. I’m half machine. Do I count as a pony? You bet your ass I do, because I say so. I look in the mirror and no matter how much steel I see, I’m still a pony. And no one can take that away from me. They took my legs and eyes, but I’m the only one who says who and what I am. And if you say you’re a pony, you are. And if you say you’re not... well... then you’ll have to decide what you are instead.” She said, pointing a hoof at her. Then she smiled. “I’m glad that whatever you are, it seems like you’re immune to enervation.”
Sweetie hugged Blackjack again. "You're adorable, Blackjack... and I guess you're right too. I just need to remind myself that I'm still Sweetie Belle. Even if I can talk to rocks." She withdrew and kissed Blackjack's cheek. "Thanks for being kind. Well, I was supposed to find you, but you found me. What now?"
“Try your spell again? Or we can go back and you can come with us to the Society,” she suggested, glancing around. “I’m kind of curious what this place was for. Or was it for exactly what I think it was for?” She asked with a grin.
Sweetie Belle said something that didn't really sound like a language, but the moment she said it, the computer next to her crackled and died. Sweetie smiled. "It's exactly what you think it was for." She glanced at the assorted items. "I can't take any of those for my travels, but you're more than welcome to keep them. I... would wash them first though. Maybe cast a few hundred cleaning spells on them."
“Of course. Some of these Glory will love,” she said as she walked to the shelves and started examining. Down near the bottom, she grinned. “Oooo, porn. This will be worth good caps to somepony.” She said as she started to go through the cassettes . “Huh. All from the same producer too. ‘Visage pictures’.” Blackjack stared at the backs of two or three, as if pondering something. “Huh.”
"What?" Sweetie asked, trying to not let her curiosity win and draw her to the porn. "Found something interesting?"
“Well, it’s your sister’s ministry. She was basically the censor for Equestria during the war. What was supposed to be printed and what was supposed to be kept silent. This place was an MoI love nest or something, right? And there’s a whole lot of porn here from the same producer. I just wonder if there’s a connection.” Blackjack turned one over. “Oh, I am so giving this one to Homage and Littlepip!” she gushed.
Sweetie pouted. "So my sister wasn't the uptight bitch you all thought she was and had her own porn studio for blackmail. That doesn't make her a bad mare!" She bit her lip trying to not snort at her own statement. "She was just... different."
Blackjack regarded her soberly. “I never said she was.” Blackjack started to fill her saddlebags. “The Ministry Mares weren’t supposed to have sexual relationships. They were supposed to be chaste, giving something up for the war effort.It really tore at a lot of them.” Blackjack examined some others. “I bet Rarity didn’t precisely know what ‘Visage Pictures’ actually made. The Ministries were huge.” She frowned. “And... huh. That’s interesting.”
Sweetie opened her mouth to correct her, but chose to just avoid that topic. "Well, it's ridiculous to ask mares to give up happiness just for show. Anyway, how much porn are you intending to carry?"
Blackjack chuckled. “You’d be amazed at how much a cyberpony can haul.” She then showed several boxes showing zebras and ponies having sex. “Notice something interesting in the pictures?” she asked as she showed Sweetie Belle a panoply of BDSM sex.
"Blackjack," Sweetie placed her hoof on her new friend's shoulder. "Are you trying to tell me something? Because you keep waving porn in front of me."
“The ones doing the domming are all ponies. See?” She said as she pointed at the pictures. “The zebras are always bound. Always on the submissive end.” She considered one and grinned, “Okay, this one I’m saving for me and Glory.”
Sweetie groaned but smiled nevertheless. "Politics in porn. Classy. Okay, let's get you packed up before all the waving of toys and porn gets interrupted by somepony that might get the wrong idea of what we're doing down here. We can try my spell later with your friends."
“Pretty sneaky too. Porn’s the one thing nopony would admit to having, but would be eager to watch,” then Blackjack paused and looked around. “Does all this seem a little... much?” she asked as she gestured to the room.
"I don't know," Sweetie answered, shrugging. "I know they used this place to record those things, but I have no experience with how it compares to other secret sex hideouts."
“Yeah, but... your sister knew how to keep secrets and tell lies, right?” Blackjack asked.
"Apparently so, if this place is anything to go by, my experience with other Rarities hasn't really included this kind of situation."
“But she knew how to work ponies. How they thought. She knew how to manipulate.” She said as she looked around the room. “So ponies would come to this spa. They’d come into this room... why?”
"To have sex without getting caught. Possibly with illegal repercussions?" Sweetie suggested. "Like... an important pony that likes his mares a bit too young. Or some general that likes to have sex with zebras, but can't do it outside because he'd get court marshalled as a stripe-lover?"
“Right. Exactly. And so if somepony outside image investigated this place and found this room, what would they do?” She asked as she started to trot around the perimeter of the room.
Sweetie's shoulders' slumped. "This place is boobytrapped, isn't it?"
“Does that sound like your sister’s style?” Blackjack asked, looking back at her with an arched brow and half smile.
"I don't know! She's not my sister!" Sweetie snapped. "My sister makes dresses in Ponyville!"
Blackjack’s smile disappeared. “Rarity would cry if she heard you say that.” She stepped closer. “Think. Even if in this world things went different, she was still Rarity. So I doubt she’d trap the place. If someone came investigating, like Pinkie in the MoM, and found this place, what would they do?”
"Nothing," Sweetie said, sitting down and taking a deep breath. "The ones I grew up with, Pinkie, Fluttershy, Twilight, Applejack, Rainbow Dash... if they found this place they'd be concerned about her. They wouldn't tell anypony." She glanced up at Blackjack. "I saw how much Rarity was suffering here. And I wanted to see my sister, somehow, still alive in her. And maybe she was, but I can't imagine my own Rarity doing this. I can't imagine any of them. Not even Princess Luna being such an extremist."
Blackjack sighed and shook her head. “I’d like to see those other worlds and what might have been. None of the ministry mares should have been in charge. They were all used. I wish I knew why.” She said as she looked at the room. “I think... I think there’s more here than just sex and porn. I think that this room was an excuse. They’d find this room. Bad, sure. Incriminating, maybe. But a slap on a hoof and a don’t get caught again kind of secret. In other words, they’d stop looking.”
"Maybe they should have looked harder at themselves and put a stop to this, instead of enabling each other," Sweetie muttered. "We should probably go, unless you think there's something else hidden here."
“I know there is.” She said as she lifted a hoof. “This lets me see hostile things. Right now, we’re surrounded. So why haven’t we been attacked yet?” She looked around the room. “I think there’s way more to this place than meets the eye. Just like there was way more to your sister than people assumed.”
Sweetie grumbled, but closed her eyes. She let her senses seep down past the concrete floor, and as always she started hearing the whispers. Nonsense words, half-formed words, promises that were more intent than form.
The earth under the concrete was shuddering in pain, a miasma of energy, familiar and alien ran through the cracks like rivers of slime, but the earth answered her call. "There's... something," she spoke up, frowning a little. "An emptiness... maybe a cavern? It's big, right under us. And there's something else... a feeling of unease... a warning that some... thing is there."
There was something else. Sweetie's eyes snapped open. It was faint. It was pained. But it was very familiar. "Blackjack... the fragment is in there."
Blackjack drew a bright, shimmering silver sword and held it up, regarding it soberly for a moment. “Of course it is.” She strode towards the bed, the blade flashing through the air in the grip of her magic and cut the canopy off the bed, then sliced it into quarters, her cyberlimbs shoving the remains off to the side as she stood like a zebra. The mattress of iniquity was quartered as well, and shoved off to the side. Then she started to feel along the floor under the bed. “Gotta be a secret entrance somewhere around here.”
Sweetie frowned as she kept away from the cybermare with a vendetta against furniture. She could see what her friends had been talking about. “You think it’s under the bed?”
“It has to be somewhere. Check the walls. Ask the stones. Whatever you think might help,” she asked as she knocked on the floor several times. “Solid concrete,” she huffed and then scowled at the rest of the room.
Five minutes later, the room was thoroughly tossed and yet there was so sign of an entrance to chamber she’d sensed. “I really,” Blackjack said with a huff, “don’t want to have to start searching other rooms too. Maybe we can just get Deus up here and he can try mining with his cannons or something. It’s worth a shot.”
“Mmmmaybe save that for plan B?” Sweetie said in a touch of alarm. Blackjack was actually serious about using a tank... of course she was. Sweetie stared at the pool set in the corner. It looked inviting with the steam rolling off it... then she paused. “Blackjack? What about the pool?”
Blackjack walked over and stepped inside. “What I wouldn’t give for an hour with Glory in this.” She said as she stood in the middle.
“It’s still hot?” Sweetie asked, a touch incredulous.
“Equestrian engineering at its finest,” she said with a smile. “Enervation has a way of preserving everything, and this building has power.” Then she lifted the sword and rammed it down into the bottom on the pool. “I think...” she said with a frown, the silvery metal sword cutting through the concrete like butter.
Then there was a sound like an immense toilet flushing as the bottom of the pool gave out and she disappeared into a hole with a deluge of water. A metal hoof popped out, extended its fingers, and gave a thumbs up. “Found it!”
o.o.0.o.o End Pt. 1 o.o.0.o.o
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Ooh! Reading nao!
It's baaack!
Neat. I hope Blackjack teaches her big pony words.
This story was a welcome surprise to find out got updated. ^-^
I... have some catching up to do. I'd meant to finish TPC before continuing, and it's just taken forever to get through that... Well, hopefully I can shuffle things around to get there in a couple weeks.
i.ytimg.com/vi/2D9sR--uqvg/maxresdefault.jpg
Hoooboy that was certainly a thing. Definitely true to PH-verse, yep.
I wonder if the thing with Precious should be considered PH-canon here...as far as I can recall Precious's origins have never been confirmed. But then again it's been many years and a lot of text...
Ah, this old thing. Memories.
Ah, now that was an int'resting variant. I can't say I've read FoE:PH, but this might just get me into it. Top marks!
Yay! A new chapter is here finally!
Hmph, what an utterly Somber chapter
8849508
i0.kym-cdn.com/photos/images/original/000/192/643/284909_137943546289642_137936506290346_248611_3776810_n.jpg
8849347 Well, TPC never finished. Or do you just mean these crossover chapters?
8849650
I was always a little unclear on what it covered, since there's a TSC note saying it's through the end (to date? of all planned TPC crossover chapters? the end end?). So I figured I'd get caught up on TPC, then TSC. From what I've seen so far, it seems likely but not a sure thing that there will be no more crossovers with TSC (I'm through 55 in TPC), but might as well go the distance.
I see an update. I...I don't know what to say. I'm tearing up... This just made my year and I can barely wait for 2019 to get the next chapter.
Oh please let Precious be Spike's daughter...
I haven't read FoE:PH...yet, I guess. Gonna have to now.
It's nearly twice as long as the longest story I've read to date and longer than twice of what I actually read of said story... Noooooo.
Better get onto it, then!
Oh, well!
A dark turn for the story, but I like how the differences between mutiverses show off sides of the characters one wouldn't normally see. Gives people a lot to think about, 'could I have turned out like that had the situation been different?'
I only hope Sweetie takes this in stride
Have a good year, Wanderer D & Somber. Keep up the work.
You have no idea how frantic my heartrate is right now....
It is a miracle i'm not blacking out... though i do see some kind of a faint light at the edges of my vision....
I am incredibly excited by this chapter, so no surprise really.
At least i now know where my dream visions shall take me next....
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Pack a parachute, the feels drops in that can be quite brutal.
It wouldn't be a chapter of Project Horizons without the word "slurry" in there somewhere.
Although she needs to shoot Blackjack in the face to prove their friendship.
I like the Spike be Precious's dad angle.
So...who was Swiftwing again? Was he from the aborted End of Ponies arc or the end of Bitaly or something?
I remember Sweetie flirting with time loop Blueblood a bit, but nothing serious with anyone.
12k on a ph story? Rookie numbers i tell ya
Man, Rarity.
You really had a few on the go, didn't you? Spike would be devastated to know about a certain noble pony turned soldier, wouldn't he?
Or did he already know? That poor Drake, the second he goes to sleep she gets swept off her feet.
Blackjack has always sounded like Rebby from Black Lagoon. Rampage like Ryoko from Tenchi Muyo. P21 ive not had a vocal in mind. I might try for Android 17... glory before being made into dash was a Hilary Haag voice...
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You know its going to happen
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You know it is as it is coauthored also the timeline seems off although i am not sure
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Thats what id like to know
Ah, this takes me back. :)
Guessing this isn't canon to PH, at the least from Spike finding out about his daughter, but that has positives (less risk of conflict and complication) as well as negatives. And I enjoyed it either way!
And from the comments, it looks like some more people are considering reading PH! :D
I think something is messed up with who's alive and who isn't. Rampage made a comment about having already been under the core, which happens after lacunae's death. I also think that tank deus happens after lacunae's death, but I'm a bit unsure about that.
...Well then. Okay I'm sorry but casual sex is not therapy in that scenario; it's a cry for help. Telling someone 'you're a bitch, you need to get laid' is a line reserved for bad sitcoms, and hedonists so lost they actually believe it's a thing. The room was a bit much, she says? Yes... quite the meta comment.
Who's Swiftwing? Think I missed that character somehow.
Back to this... Heh, you think I've been a pain in Ranger's comments? It took me 18000 words worth to slog through PH. Granted that's only 1% of the fic length... Still, Somber might even remember me ranting about some of the issues I took with it.
Not rehashing here, but... dragging canon characters through the mud while OCs shake their heads? Big flaw for me. That cavalcade of videos... yeah dunno where you're going with that, but it felt extremely gratitious, especially for that T you're attempting to preserve.
Welp, we were warned.
Edit: forgot: the zebra mare's name changed. Was it Xensha or Xenshia?
Fourth sentence, change "the" to "there".
Is there a reason why "IS" in all caps?
Remove "does".
FINALLY! A new chapter. Been waiting too long.
well let wait and see how fucked up the wasteland has made whatever poor changelings that are under that spa into.
I will never understand the sympathy for the Zebras in FoE.
Both sides did messed up stuff...it is what happens during war time.
Zebra towns a bad idea? Not when you consider that the other side in this conflict can and did use spies of their own just as Equestria did...
I wonder how the Sweetie of this timeline would feel to know that the Zebras she championed decided to take Fluttershy's mega heal spell and turn it into a mega death spell and destroy everything...
No one comes out of this war guilt free, but only one side decided that if they could not win then no one would be allowed to win.
On a side note:
Are we going to see the original Rarity again?
When you first started this story you would occasionally give us brief glimpses into Sweetie's original world to see how Rarity was doing.
You even made it possible for Rarity to see what Sweetie Belle was going through...yet we have not seen or heard from Rarity for quite a while.
8850555 See: Sweetie Chronicles: Fracture
Needs to be updated, of course, but we'll see what Rarity has to deal with there.
Knew my life had been missing something lately. Turns out it was more Blackjack!
8850555
iirc, it was an enchanted mirror that let Rarity scry on Sweetie, and it broke under circumstances I can't recall, but I'm betting had something to do with Discord.
8850185
His name doesn't appear anywhere else in this story, so your guess is as good as mine.
UPDAAAAAAATE!!! What’s funny is that the preview of this chapter got me to read and finish Project Horizons
which just so happens to be 1.8 million words!
I need a life...
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Except, if you follow Project Horizon's lore, massive spoilers btw, the Zebra and the ponies were both manipulated into escalating the war over and over again. There was the initial problem with the ship captured in Zebrica, Celestia and Luna deciding to go against the Zebra's leader and solve the problem on their own, the Zebra leader withholding coal for the slight and the nobles getting the sisters to seize the coal starting the war in the first place. There's nothing I can remember that points to this not being the natural escalation of events.
After that though you have, several atrocities committed in the zebra lands (that I don't remember the name of) all of which are offhandedly mentioned as atrocities the Zebra's think the Ponies did and the Ponies have no clue about. Then directly afterwards you have the attrocity at Luna's school that caused Celestia to abdicate the throne. The attack eventually gets blamed on zebras that were actually refugees from the zebra lands. But in the story we witness what actually happened, that a mysterious cloaked zebra who we later find out is the Legate (if I remember correctly) was the sole reason for the attack. That very heavily hints that it was him that did all the early atrocities on both sides, thus escalating the war.
Also you have another mysterious cloaked zebra use a spell to change Macintosh's group the Marauder's fate, eventually causing Psalm's spiral, Mac's death, thus Twilight's spiral.
Then there's the traitors in the Ministries and the contingency plan for psalm to assassinate Princess Celestia if the peace talks didn't go well. All of which orchestrated by Goldenblood under the influence of the starmetal.
Basically if you read in between the lines and connect all the dots, the Legate and the starmetal were behind nearly all the escalation that happened after the direct start of the war. The Legate working in the shadows to make both sides hate each other and the starmetal corrupting and influencing Goldenblood, Mr. Horse while the black book corrupted Rarity and possibly Goldenblood cause it was rumored he had a black book too.
This is the most Fallout: Equestria I have ever read. And overall I really liked this chapter. The setting... damn, it's pretty bleak. :( Glad to have helped. :)
when i hit the end of this chapter:
NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!
he cried himself to sleep that night because he has to wait for the next chapter....
i really love this story and add project horizons? #BestStoryEver
It's alive!
Been waiting for this ever since the Puppysmiles chapters! I'm so excited for the pain, misery, and angst that are sure to follow!
....
That came out poorly
8850818
A really good summery.
It goes a little earlier than that though. The election of the last Caesar was a political nightmare. Of four candidates, the thirteen tribes voted 3/3/3/3. That left the tiebreaking vote cast by the cursed Starkatteri tribe. After getting a ton of concessions, the Starkatteri voted for the last caesar.
Unfortunately, these concessions and the fact that he was elected by the cursed tribe horribly threatened the Last Caesar's legitimacy. He struggled for months with the other 9 tribes grumbling and rumbling. Then the Atoli took the tourist ship hostage. It was little more than a kick in the Caesar's gut. They hoped that the failures of the Caesar would force a revote to replace him.
Instead of begging the Atoli tribe to intercede, he tried to use the army. It took far longer to mobilize the army, and so Celestia feared that something would happen to the hostages. She sent in the Wonderbolts to extract the hostages before the army arrived. In the exchange, one of them was killed.
So really, the blame lies with the starkatteri that cast the deciding vote.
8852920
For some reason I thought it was pirates.
Ah I'd completely forgotten who captured the ship and the reason the Caesar's leadership was in doubt.
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The beauty of not reading any of the background stories is that you're just as lost as Sweetie is whenever she pops into a new world. Gives a kind of suspense to it, you know?
When's the next chapter publishing? I mean, I assume from the A/N that it's written and ready to go?
Well, good thing Sweetie's innocence was already lost by this time. All that porn.. wow. Just.. wow.
Just imagine if she came over this earlier in her adventure? Poor filly....
The word "porn" appears 12 times in the chapter. That's... I don't know. How fragile is that teen-rating now? :D
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If perfect anything BUT fallout ones
It has been too long. Both since the last chapter, and since I read PH. I can never stop the huge smile every time I see an update for this story though. Great chapter, I look forward to part two!