Fallout Equestria: Do Robot Ponies Dream of Electronic Bunnies

by ScottWolf

Ch 11: The Bomb

FoE: Do Robot Ponies Dream of Electronic Bunnies

Chapter XI: The Bomb

"We have nothing to fear but fear itself." – Franklin D. Roosevelt

System Report: 0000000011
Unit Status: Active
Location: Ironshod Firearms, Trottingham branch
Satellite Signal Status: Timer has ended. Program is running.
Begin data dump to external off-site memory back-up:
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- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
- - - - - - Done.
Preparing visual report: Done.

Date: --/--/2212, 200PA (+17 days activation)
Time: 0012 Local

Terror.

The emotion of terror is an extreme form of fear that results in paralysis of the will, or so says Trottster's Dictionary. It's the one emotion that can be considered truly irrational. I know of tales told about Fluttershy, who when facing extreme terror such as a dragon or something of that nature, she would lock up completely, total paralysis of both will and body.

This is what took hold of Night Rose. When I spoke those last two words, all thought of any kind left her body, save one.

"We're gonna die… It's gonna blow… We're gonna die…"

"Night Rose," I said, trying to get her attention.

"It's gonna blow…"

"NIGHT ROSE!" I spun her around to face me, my hooves gripping the sides of her helmet. I couldn't look into her eyes like this, so I unsealed her and took it off. The blue of her coat had lost its color, going almost chalky blue. Her pupils were pinpoints. I'm not being metaphorical. They were barely there. This is terror in its purest form. "Night Rose, snap out of it!"

"We're gonna-" My hoof slapping her across the cheek cut her off. I'd done it lightly, but it still sounded like a gunshot, and it left a red mark in her blue fur. She seemed to focus again, eyes darting around the room, then ending up back on me. "What…"

"No time," I told her. "Grab your helmet. We're getting out of here now." As I turned to leave I sent a burst message to Winter's PipBuck. Balefire bomb found! ACTIVE! Get Out NOW! I hoped to hell she got it.

"Wha… But… We need to distract…"

Shit. I'd forgotten about that. Funny how the sudden threat of being ripped into little bits of nothingness can alter your priorities.

"Alright then," I said, looking back at Night Rose. "Let's draw the Hellhounds in here then. We'll retreat to the roof, then I'll fly us out."

"How long do we have," she asked. Slowly the color was returning to her face as she came to grips with the reality.

"My scan marks it at seventeen minutes," I said, activating a timer on my E.F.S. "That's way more than we'll need."

"Alright," she replied. She took one look back at the massive egg below us, shuddered, then put her helmet back on. As I watched her, I got a return message from Winter: Moving out. You get clear too. Distraction not needed now. Area clear.

Not needed? What the hell?

We both ran back to the main entrance and skidded to a halt. It looked like every single Hellhound had shown up at the doorstep. A sea of large monster dog-shaped creatures, each one's attention on us. One large one stepped forward and addressed us.

"Metal pony," it said, my audio scanners unable to tell if it was male or female. "You come here fer test. You get test nao. You fight, kill all Hellhound. You win, you pass. Test is go."

I had no chance to question him, as seven dogs broke from the pack and charged us. Night Rose already had her energy rifle out and was firing on them. The Zebra rifle probably wouldn't do more than piss them off, so I opted for the chain gun and the plasma rifle, strafing them across both the ones charging us and the ones standing back. We needed to draw them inside. The one that had spoken caught several rounds in the chest, and was about to pounce when a plasma bolt caught him in the skull. He dropped mid-jump and was turned into a glowing green pile of ash.

Seeing their leader go down, the horde began to charge forward, barking and howling. Night Rose and I began to fall back, shooting wild as we ran. I led her to the offices, then upstairs to Corporate Country. I had a sudden "Aww fuck" moment when I remembered there were sniper-dogs up here. The round I took to the chest jogged my memory. I winced in pain as I dropped back around the corner. Behind me, Night Rose pulled the pins on several grenades, dropping them one by one down the stairs into the mass trying to follow us. We were fortunate that the stairwell was so narrow; only a few were able to get through at a time and those that did kept pushing each other back to get at us first.

I looked at my timer. Twelve minutes left. We didn't have time to waste. I racked my weapons and brought out the sniper rifle. Switching to thermal, I saw that the dogs in the offices on this side of the hall were almost perfectly lined up. I put the muzzle of the gun against the wall, lined up the shot, and fired a single round. My thermal showed a white line zip through the wall, then through the first dog, wall, second dog, wall, third dog, one more wall, then streak out into the factory to embed in the bricks beyond. It had never wavered or changed flight path. Have I mentioned that I love that gun?

The dogs on the opposite side, seeing their companions fall, stood away from the doors. It didn't save them; they were still bright orange/yellow in my sight. I lined each one up, and three shots later, the path was clear.

"Vers," Night Rose called behind me. "We need to be leaving now!"

"Path's clear," I replied, stowing the rifle. "Let's go!"

We took off again, running to the end of the hall. A sign on the wall told us that roof access was to our left, so left we went. I stopped in front of the executive office and after reloading my chain gun, fired an entire belt into the Hellhounds that had made it up the stairs. Satisfied I'd bought us some breathing room, I took off again after Night Rose. She was already through the door at the end and was heading up the stairs.

The cool air of the night hit us as we broke onto the roof. We weren't on the tallest building in the city but it was definitely up there. Off in the distance I saw several winged forms heading in the general direction of the Sky Bandit. I wanted to cheer, but I had other problems.

I sent the command to activate my wings, but to my surprise, I got an error message. I sent it again, and the message repeated. I did a quick diagnostic, and was shocked to discover a block command in effect. I couldn't fly.

"Ok," Night Rose said as we got to the edge of the building. "Make with the flying!"

"There's something wrong," I replied. "Something's locked my wings up!"

"What do you-" She never finished the sentence. Six Hellhounds burst through the roof and leapt at us. My chain gun spat a hail of bullets, halting progress of three of them as Night Rose vaporized a fourth. The other two landed on me and knocked me to the ground. Wildly, I kicked out with all four hooves and caught the legs of one with a force strong enough to not only dislodge him, but send him cartwheeling over the near edge of the building. The other took a buck to the chest, but held on tightly.

Night Rose quickly came to my aide, bucking it directly in the head as it bit down on my skin. I felt the synthetic flesh tear as its head was knocked lose, and I screamed out in pain. The bullet from the other dogs rifle hadn't hurt THAT much. I looked at my shoulder and saw blood-coated metal gleaming in the moonlight. Already the flesh was repairing, so I got back to my hooves and tried to activate my wings again as Night Rose finished the Hellhound off. The countdown timer on my HUD read eight minutes. Time flies when you're fighting for your life.

"Ey! Metal pony!"

I looked over the edge of the building to the mass of Hellhounds below us. Another large dog was yelling up at us, his paws cupped around his muzzle. He saw me look and turned his attention to me.

"Not bad, pony! You good fight! Good training for these pups! We give you few minutes rest, then we all come!"

"Gee thanks," I said, not loud enough for him to hear, as I returned to the difficulty of my wings.

"Why can't you fly," Night Rose demanded. "We get this far, we do what we needed to and all of a sudden you're wing locked?"

"I don't know, damnit," I yelled back. "There's some kind of command blocking my wings."

"Well, uncommand it! We need to leave yesterday!"

"I'm working on it," I replied. She was getting irate and scared. Probably not a good combination considering what we were really running from. My clock ticked down to seven minutes. Her head swiveled from me to the edge of the building, then me again. Her body betrayed her nervousness. One hoof kept acting like it wanted to run. I tried to ignore her and concentrate, but none of my reroutes were having effect.

Six minutes. I was starting to worry now. All my flight commands were locked off. I couldn't even access my statistics. Night Rose had backed herself against the low wall that made the edge of the building. I looked at her apologetically, not able to find the words to say how I felt right now.

Five minutes. She lifted her helmet off her head and dropped it to the rooftop. Her eyes met mine, her mouth moved as if trying to say something. No words were coming out. I moved closer to her and put my forelegs around her, pulling into a hug. Her own forelegs went around me as best they could.

Four minutes. Three things happened at once. Thing one: I heard a howl from below, signaling a charge. Thing two: I heard claws crunching into brick and wood splintering as the Hellhounds came at us.

Thing three: My flight suite came back online.

My face lit up as the info sped across my vision. Thinking quickly and without any word of warning, I tossed Night Rose into the air, activated my wings, and leapt upward on four jets of fire, catching Night Rose on my back. As I dove down the side of the factory, I activated miniature electro-magnets along my back, pinning Night Rose tightly to me. We pulled up as the ground approached and shot over a large and surprised mob of Hellhounds. Shots rang out and I felt impacts on my belly and flank. I poured power into the afterburners and rocketed away from the city. The timer counted down to zero just as we cleared the city limits.

The world behind us exploded into a bright white light. A green mushroom cloud rose from where the factories once stood, reaching a mile into the sky, almost touching the cloud cover. Night Rose screamed behind my head, her eyes clenched tightly. My own sight had switched to radar, relying on the rebounding sounds from the explosion. Then the shockwave hit us.

It was like being bucked by a hoof ten times my size. I was thrown from the air, tumbling out of control with the ground reaching up to us. I got control of myself with fifty feet to spare, but I was still headed downward. Desperately, I deployed flaps and pulled up, bleeding speed as I brought myself back into the air. I clipped a dead cactus with my left hooves as I streaked by. It was enough to send me tumbling again. I righted myself just in time to crash into the sandy ground face first, and slid about a hundred feet before coming to rest, my vision going blank.

It took thirty seconds for my systems to reboot, and I awoke to a strange feeling on my right ear, as if somepony was chewing on it gently. Slowly I opened my eyes and took in the sight in front of me. My nose was buried two inches into sand and dry lakebed. Far in front of me a green cloud was dispersing. I could still hear the roar of the balefire bomb as it consumed the rest of the city. The chewing sensation continued all through it. I twitched my ear and was rewarded with a relieved sigh.

"Help," Night Rose said quietly, almost playfully. "I'm trapped with magnets against a crashed air-pony."

"Next time we escape a balefire explosion, you can drive," I replied, releasing the magnets and letting her slide off. I pulled my head out of the ground as she looked up at what was left of the cloud.

"I'm being irradiated, aren't I?"

I checked my Geiger Mueller. "No," I said. "Looks like it wasn't dirty. Just powerful."

She sighed and lay down against me. "You threw me off a building."

"Yeah, I did. Sorry."

"Thank you," she said, nuzzling my side under my wing. I smiled to myself and reached back to return the nuzzle, then checked myself over.

"Scrapes, cuts and bruises, but no serious damage. Missing skin's even healed."

"Can we go home now, metal butt?"

I smiled as the Sky Bandit streaked overhead, flanked by several griffons. Two ponies leaned out of a window and waved at us. "Yeah, lets."

"Goooood morning, all my children out in the Equestrian Wasteland!!! This is DJ-Pon3, slamin' the music and playin the hits for all of you out there! And now, it's news time!!

"One hell of a bright light lit up the northern sky early this morning. You're probably wondering what it was, but I've got it straight from the griffon's beak! Now, you remember that squad of Talons I said was stuck in Trottingham? Well, it turns out the situation was a lot worse than I was told. It wasn't just a group of Hellhounds, it was a whole army!

"Now you must be sayin to yourself, "those griffons had to have been slaughtered." Well, children, the exact opposite is true. Not only did they make it out, but my assistant, Homage, got an exclusive interview with one while she was out that way lookin for info on the unknown pony I talked about last time!"

Homage: "So what can you tell me about how you escaped?"

Frieda: "Well we were trapped in a subway access, surrounded by the biggest horde of Hellhounds you ever saw. The city must've been a breeding ground for them! So we call out for help, and Gawd sends us a small group of ponies. I didn't say so, but I was skeptical on how they were gonna get us outta there."

Homage: "So how'd it happen?"

Frieda: "Well, the big one, someone they were callin Verse (strange name for a pony that size) he gets an idea to draw them all off to the munitions factory, so he and the Ranger pony (she's not one anymore) they head over there to set things off.

"Well not long after, Winter (one of the other ponies) gets a message on her little PipBuck sayin there was an active balefire bomb, and we had to take flight now. We took up the wounded and ran for the Sky Bandit they had waiting for us."

Homage: "Through the masses of Hellhounds?"

Frieda: "Oh no. Somethin made them all leave. I dunno what it was, but the road was clear all the way. We got our wounded in and took off. A few minutes later, we hear a big ass explosion! I mean, a real "Fuck you Celestia Eat Nukes" kind of boom. We knew well enough not to look back till after the initial blast, but when we did we saw something go streakin away from the city. Damn thing nearly broke the sound barrier, it was goin so fast. Turned out it was that big pony and his Ranger friend. And even better, he had wings and could fly, but not like a Pegasus. Like, metal wings. Did not see that coming at all."

Homage: "So he's the one that set off the bomb?"

Frieda: "Don't think so. To hear them tell it, it was already set to blow. By who is anyone's guess."

Homage: "So where's this 'flying non-pegasus' now?"

Frieda: "Not sure. Last I saw they were talking to Gawd, and that was two days back. Think they left since then."

"And that's the story, children. Straight from the griffon's beak! On further investigation, It looks like this bot's the same pony who cleared the raider nest a week back. Looks like the wasteland has a new hero. A strange, robo-hero who goes by Verse. Well, I say well done, sir. We'll be singin' about you for quite a while now!

"This is DJ-Pon3, bringin' you the truth, no matter how weird it is or how much it hurts!"

I turned off the radio and sighed.

"And now, the whole wasteland knows I'm a robot. Is it a rule that only really dark secrets get kept for long?"

We were about sixty miles out of New Appleoosa, heading back to Fillydelphia. In a cart behind me sat one of the largest pieces of machinery anypony'd ever seen. Starry's engine, I assumed.

"Oh, cheer up, metal butt," Night Rose said, playfully smacking my shoulder. "You're famous now. We probably won't be bothered all that much anymore."

"Somehow, I doubt it," I replied, smiling. My smile faded, however. "I still need to figure out why I was locked up back there."

"You've been obsessing over that for two days now," Night Rose told me angrily. "Makes it hard for a girl to get close to you when you seem to be constantly brooding."

"You really don't care that I'm not a real pony?"

She stepped in front of me, forcing me to halt. Her eyes bored into mine, then her hoof reached out and touched my chest. That sizzle of excitement and happiness I'd been feeling every time she touched me anywhere returned again. Yay, emotion chip!

"Yup. Seems pretty real to me."

"Can you two love birds save it for bed," Starry called from ahead of us. He and Winter Frost had taken Tiller ahead with them to "scout the road." In reality, they were just giving us some quiet time.

I smiled and started walking again as Night Rose fell in beside me. She'd opened up a lot to me since Trottingham, telling me about her childhood and growing up in the wasteland. The subject of her will to die and her separation from the Steel Rangers remained taboo, so I stayed away from them until she was ready to tell me. Which, so far, she wasn't.

"You know something," she said as we walked. "For the first time in a long time, I'm feeling really good about life."

"Glad to hear it," I replied, reaching down to nip her ear lightly. She giggled and shied away, but stayed right by my side. "Now, let's see what tomorrow brings, how about?"

Footnote: Level up!

New Perk: Tough as a Tank! – Your hide repels everything from bullets to bombs. You receive a 50 point armor bonus when not wearing any.

Quest Perk: Wild Blue Yonder – Through lots of experience, you've learned that any crash you can walk away from is a good one. Your survivability in any sort of wreck is now doubled.

Comments

[Damhoof]

Great to see you here!

[Natr1x]

I am a bit dissapointed that you skipped two whole days :( the relationship between rose and verse is one of the things i like the most in this and it feels like a lot of dialouge between the two was skipped :/ on another note i speak good enough german to understand what was said by freida and i got the movie reference

[Freeflyingwolf]

52614 THEN GET MORE HOOVES AND WORK

[ScottWolf]

52918 I've never seen the point of playing out a long period where nothing exciting happened. I've gone thru several in-game days where NOTHING showed up to poke at me. Granted this was endgame, but that's neither here nor there.

And really, if you want an explanation for what happened those two days? Nothing. You don't understand Night Rose yet. She doesn't make with pointless conversation. If there's nothing to talk about, or in this case if she doesn't want to talk, then she won't talk. Verse doesn't want to provoke her any more than he already has. He's realizing his feelings for her, and she's too proud to admit she likes him (until the end of this episode that is.)