Fallout Equestria: Do Robot Ponies Dream of Electronic Bunnies

by ScottWolf

CH 22: Loss

FoE: Do Robot Ponies Dream of Electronic Bunnies

Chapter XXII: Loss

"Braved the forest, braved the stone/Braved the icy winds and fire/Braved and beat them on my own/Yet I'm helpless by the river." - Puscifer, The Humbling River

System Report: 0000000022
Unit Status: Active
Location: Zebrion
Satellite Signal Status: GPS active.
Begin data dump to external off-site memory back-up:
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
- - - - - - Done.
Preparing visual report: Done.

Date: --/--/2212, 200PA (+65 days activation)
Time: 0243 Local

I tried not to think about it. It was just too painful. I hadn't even known him that long, but I mourned the loss as if he's been my friend for years. It wasn't his fault, either. Dragon had told him to hang on, but a pony can only grip with his hooves and teeth for so long at that angle. He fell. And the dragon spirit got him. His body continued to the ground, but his soul was taken by the ghost. No one took the loss harder than Apple Cider. None of us could.

None of us knew his best friend like he did.

We'd been flying all night, and were all tired and stressed from the close encounter with the ancient spirit dragon. Swiftpaws more than any of us. After it had past, he refused to leave Deep Scratch's side, even for food.

Unfortunately, sleep wouldn't come. Everyone seemed unable to return to unconsciousness. Maybe it was the adrenaline rush from the scare, or the fear of a repeat incident. Whatever it was, it lasted until well into the morning, when dragon descended.

"I need to rest," she explained as she landed. "Before picking you all up, I was a thousand miles to the east. Teleporting even halfway takes quite a bit of energy."

"Wait," I said. "You can teleport?"

"Of course," she replied, lowering her body down so we could use her tail as a boarding ramp. "All dragons have magic, and it works the same as your unicorns. It's different for each of us. Spike's major talent was in his flame breath. Dragon-fire will teleport any object anywhere, no matter what the distance, but Spike's dragon-fire could send living things as well."

"That's amazing," Scratch said as she hopped off Dragon's tail, Swiftpaws close behind. Dragon simply shrugged and closed her eyes as her head found dirt. Her steady breathing kicked up dust twenty feet ahead of her as she slipped into sleep. None of us could blame her.

We set up camp and Chef immediately started cooking a meal. For once, I had nothing to do. The area was secure, and, as we weren't going to sleep here except for maybe a nap, I didn't need to help with tents. So I let my eyes roam across the landscape.

It was a stark comparison against the yellowish dirt we'd grown accustomed to since leaving Equestria. Just a muddy grey and scattered trees, long dead and bereft of leaves. In the distance, I could see a small collection of buildings. Square and stout, they looked like some sort of office complex. Did zebras even need offices during, or even before, the war? I marked their location and continued my slow scan.

"Hey, metal butt," Night Rose called. I turned and saw her staring intently at me. "I know you aren't intending to go exploring without me."

I smiled. She knew me well. "We're safe here. According to Dragon, the microbes aren't active during the day. Besides, it's not like I can't handle myself."

"That ain't the issue," she replied. "The issue is whether or not you're going to leave me here, bored and alone."

Alone? I cocked an eyebrow and looked towards our friends, who were all doing their best not to giggle and failing miserably. I mentally facehoofed. "Like I would dare," I replied. Night Rose smiled and trotted to my side.

"We'll be back in a few hours," she said over her shoulder, and received a few cat-calls. Why are they called cat-calls? I hear no meowing in any of it. "Don't wait up for us."

"I'll keep some warm for you," Chef called as the jeering died down, indicating the meal he was preparing.

Night Rose winked, then turned her attention back ahead of us. I almost stepped in front of her and asked what that was all about, but then I decided to think logically about it. "We haven't had any alone time in a few weeks, have we?"

"No," she replied sweetly. "We haven't. Think we'll find some in that ruin?"

"Who knows?"

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

"Angry, zealous zebras, that's who!"

Night Rose fired over her cover with her beam rifle, not getting any hits but keeping their heads down as I fought with the terminal we'd found. By some stroke of dumb luck, we'd walked right into the summer home of a very large tribe of zebra who seemed to think along the same vein as their forefathers: Ponies bad, God says so, must kill.

The terminal I was hacking while simultaneously laying suppressive fire from my plasma rifle was connected to the place's security systems. If I'd read the diagnostics right in the split second I'd seen it, then the entire building's security turrets were online but inactive. All I had to do was give them targets. The problem was that, while my intrusion software was designed with zebra interfaces in mind, it couldn't make heads or tails of the system. It was as if some maniacal genius had taken their normal routines, slipped them a roofie, date-raped them, then left them in a locked room to go completely insane before birthing this maddening system.

And here I was, trying to rob the cradle by wanting in.

"Any day now," Night Rose yelled over weapons fire, a very annoyed tinge to her voice.

"If you think you can do better," I replied. "One of these days, we'll go on a date that doesn't involve bullets. That sound fun?"

"I'll buy the vino." More gunfire.

"And I'll bring a bouquet of roses as lovely a red as your- GOT IT! Duck and cover!"

From recessed panels all around us sprouted a dozen autocannon turrets, all set to eliminate anything that wasn't us. They were effective, and zebras fell or dove for better cover than they had, and unless that cover was solid concrete, there wasn't much left of them. Night Rose cheered as the cannons thundered, spitting 22mm rounds at the zebras. I had to wonder what this place was holding to warrant anti-armor rounds, or if the former occupants had just been THAT serious about security.

The guns went silent a moment later, and Night Rose left cover to check for survivors. The guns spun, tracking her briefly, but left her alone when they scanned she wasn't a target. She muttered to herself as she usually did as she went over the bodies. I, meanwhile, decided to look further into this bastardized operating system and see what was so important. In the span of a heartbeat, I had everything it had. Security codes (didn't need those anymore), accounting logs, personal notes and memos, and a detailed diagram of the building. It went HOW FAR DOWN?

"Verse." My marefriend calling my name pulled me out of my stupor. I turned my attention to her and was rewarded with the most serious face I've ever seen her make. It scared me even more than her angry face. Ignoring the cold chill that went down my spinal support, I trotted over to stand next to her and the body she stood over. "We have a survivor."

Not much of a survivor, I lamented. He'd been blown clean in half. How he was still breathing or even alive at all had to be some sort of medical miracle. He looked up at me with fiery eyes of hatred as his breaths came in ragged gasps. I could tell from a scan he wasn't going to last long.

"I'm sorry," I told him. "You left us no choice."

"Detestable filthy," he said in his own language. "You do not deserve... the mercy of life... The Moon goddess... will deliver... my... ven...gen...ce..."

"Moon Goddess," Night Rose repeated, confused. "Do they mean Luna? She's got to be dead by now."

"I wouldn't know," I replied as I closed the dead buck's eyes. "I only met her once, and she wanted me offline. If she is still alive, I don't think she'd be very happy her command wasn't followed."

"I didn't know the zebra even thought of Luna as a goddess. From what I heard, they still think she's Nightmare Moon."

"Guess some have changed their minds." I trotted past her in search of a set of stairs leading down. Rubble covered the door, but a good hard buck (by my own standards) cleared the path for us as Night Rose caught up. Together, we descended to the basement level one. More offices, so we bypassed it for the most part. Floor two and three were completely empty, but floor four had some automated defense robots. Zebras used robots too?

We fought four of them before I voiced my concerns.

"Yeah," Night Rose replied. "I'm getting the idea that this wasn't a zebra facility."

"Well, my EFS shows all clear. Wanna take a break?"

She looked at me, a sly grin on her face. Yay, emotion chip!

An hour later we were back on the move after our "rest break," both of us feeling INFINITELY better. I checked the time, and we agreed to only go down a few more floors. Didn't want the others to worry.

Floor seven was where we stopped running into security bots gone mad. It wasn't like I was conflicted about killing them, but it was getting kind of old. I mean, seriously. WHY did there have to be ten robots per level?

Bitching about it wasn't going to help, so I kept quiet as we continued. I was sort of surprised to be unable to find a single working terminal down here. A facility of this size should have more than one. It was strangely devoid of... well, really, anything technological besides the guards. It was as if they dug a deep hole, filled it with empty levels and robots and then walked away.

Yet another mystery.

We returned to the surface disappointed but satisfied. For the moment.

"You guys took long enough," AC said with a knowing grin.

I smiled back as Chef Sandy slid a bowl over to Night Rose where she plopped down. She removed most of her armor and dug in hardcore. I passed on food myself. It wasn't that I never ate. I was being mindful of our supplies. If we ran low because I ate the extra, then I'd feel like crap.

Dragon stirred, her eyes slowly coming open as Night Rose finished her meal. She seemed about to greet us when her head rocketed skyward and looked south. Within seconds, her lips curled into a growl.

"Everyone aboard," she said briskly, angrily. "Now. Leave your things, we've no time."

Without another word everyone climbed up her tail as quickly as we could. Only Chef looked back, lamenting the loss of his cookware. Dragon was in the air as soon as we were on her back. Her wings beat furiously to gain altitude, giving us a rough ride.

"Hold on," she shouted, as she suddenly made a hard turn. Everyone gripped her spines tightly, not relishing the alternative. She then dove hard, pulling out and climbing almost vertically. I couldn't see what she was dodging, but at the rate she maneuvered, it had to be a lot of them. Soon she started to level off, and we thought the worst was over.

Dragon very quickly went into another sudden turn, putting herself almost completely on her side. I heard someone grunting next to me, looked over and saw Chef next to me. His eyes met mine, full of fear, and then panic as his grip began to slip. He was just out of reach, and I could do nothing but watch as he slowly slid off of dragon's spine. His eyes were wild with fear as his teeth came to the last centimeter. They met mine just as he slid off, begging for help. So I did the only thing I could do. I let go.

We both started to fall behind and away from dragon, almost in slow motion. I oriented myself to catch the buck, but was blindsided by a massive tail as Dragon went into another rapid turn. I was sent spinning away. It took a few seconds to right myself, and another few to locate Chef. He was a hundred yards away, twenty below me. That put him almost a hundred and two yards away. Not that far.

I lit my burners and dove after him, the wind whipping my main and tail back behind me as if they were on fire. He saw me coming and turned to end up in my arms. Then, for some reason, he went ridged, then slack just as quickly. Seconds later, I caught him in my arms and pulled out of our mad dive. Dragon was far ahead of us, but had slowed to let us catch up. I landed gently and set Chef down on her scales.

"Chef," AC called, smiling widely, not noticing the problem yet. "Come on, man. Time for thanks. Get up and hug your savior." He didn't thank me. He didn't stand up and hug everyone. He didn't move in the slightest.

Not even to breathe.

"AC," I said.

"That's gratitude for ya," AC continued, ribbing his friend. "Save his life only to have him fall asleep on the ride back. Get up, already. Joke's over."

"AC," Freida said, catching on as fast as I had. "He's not..."

"Chef, get up. This... this isn't funny." AC nudged him with his nose. He didn't move.

"AC..." Scratch couldn't say anymore. None of us could.

"Chef... Chef, get up... You...you've got to get up... Chef. Chef! CHEF!" AC fell next to his friend in tears, hugging him tightly and crying his name over and over.

I could only walk away in sadness. I'd seen death before. I'd seen a young foal centuries gone and decayed. I'd seen the bones of ponies who'd turned on each other for some odd reason or another. I'd killed raiders, killed creatures, killed Hellhounds and slavers and even zombies. Death wasn't a stranger to me.

Dealing with the death of a friend was.

I slumped down to my stomach when I reached Dragon's neck. I couldn't move any further. My chest hurt as my emotion chip simulated the pain of loss. All I could do in response was lay there and silently cry. I felt someone lie down next to me and put her neck alongside mine, her head nuzzling me gently. I turned and put my forehead against Night Rose's and let everything out of me in the form of tears. I'd failed Chef Sandy. With that last look we'd given each other, I'd promised to save him. Now, he was gone. I didn't feel like I deserved to be here either.

"Death," Dragon said quietly, "is no discriminator. It doesn't care who you are, what you are, where you are, or how you got there. It only monitors your clock. When it's your time, it just does its job. No one can put off their own time or anyone else's."

I listened to her speak, still hearing AC bawling behind us. I knew for a fact what she said was right. "It doesn't make it hurt any less," I replied when I could.

"That's not Death's problem, or its fault. Nor is it yours. All you can do is remember him. That way, he lives on."

Again, the truth. I would remember him. I would remember his fine meals made from practically nothing. I'd remember his wildly charging into battle when he didn't want to. His laughter. His comradeship.

I would never forget him.

Footnote: Level Up!

New Perk: Head Math - You just keep using your fancy mathematics to muddy the issue. As punishment, you gain an extra point in Intelligence.

Comments

[ScottWolf]

LOL I accidentally hit publish instead of edit when I wanted to preview it. Oh well. It's up.

[Damhoof]

yay~

Squee!

[Nyerguds]

"Spike's dragon-fire could send living things as well."
That's a really odd thing for her to know, seeing as Spike doesn't know it himself until after Littlepip makes him burn her.

"It was a stark comparison"
I think you mean stark contrast ;)

[The Crimson Reaper]

124106 curse you for killing off a loved one!