• Published 16th Apr 2016
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Fallout Equestria: A7Z-13 - Queen Sanguine Dreams



Its not every day that you wake up dead, with a screen asking you for a second chance.

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Chapter 3: Catching Up With the Pones'

My MTECC system had returned to All Clear after a while of walking around, taking in the scenery of devastated and rotting landscape before me. The EFS wasn't picking up anything remotely threatening, although at one point it had tried convincing me that a large cockroach was a threat. I decided to just walk past it, and it left me alone.

Apparently I'm not tasty enough to be dinner.

I had seen the ruins of a town on the horizon, and decided that if I wanted to find ponies, then I should travel to a town. It would either be filled with ponies that were amiable enough to not shoot another, or would be a ghost town. Eventually I would run into a town with ponies. I had wondered if they would try to sell me for parts, but given that I looked more pony than robot, they probably wouldn't know how.

I don't want to test the assumption, but my database says that Ponies generally don't like to destroy things that look like Ponies. The slavers hadn't harmed me, the Mother and her foal were nice enough, and the Ghoul just wanted to sleep in peace. So overall, that was holding up to scrutiny. I did make note of the fact that I was going to be sold for 'caps', although I didn't know what kind of caps they referred to.

It could be Baseball caps, bootlace caps, eraser caps, bottle caps, or anything else that had been invented to cap something. Oh, a hub cap!

The stainless-steel disk of a hub cap was laying along a broken road. Looking around and finding nopony around, I decided to bring the hub cap with me, and balanced it on my back. I would probably be able to find something to wrap it around myself at some point so that it would be easier to carry. For now, though, I had currency!

Now I just had to find civilization, and mingle with the locals. Well, as much as I was able to. I probably had a few programs that were useful in that respect.

: Tutorials: Medical, Computer Technologies, Sociology, Farming, Sewing, Herbology, Veterinary, Roboticist.

Huh. Well, with all of the weapons that everypony seems so fond of using, Medical, Sewing and Herbology should be the most useful for now.

: Initiating SMI Upload for: Medical.

I stopped in my tracks, my vision being flooded with walls of text as I zoned out to process all kinds of Medicinal knowledge. From first aid to surgery, I was inundated with book after book of study and practice, and the practical knowledge of application in my environment.

"Hey! You okay?" I heard a faint voice, before I was tapped on the side of the head.

"Hello?" The voice asked much clearer.

"Upload in Progress. Forty percent complete. Please Wait." I droned, as more text blocked my vision. It was overlapping the blank spaces between other texts so that my entire view was white.

"Uh, that don't sound healthy. You sure?" the voice asked.

"Upload in Progress. Sixty seven percent complete. Please wait." I droned.

"Oh, well that's pretty fast actually. I don't know what any of that means, but it sounds like you'll be done in a jiffy."

: MTECC: Alert

"Whoa! Lookit that! You must be uploadin' some color to ya, missy!" the voice chuckled.

"Upload in Progress. Ninety percent complete. Please Wait."

"That’s just fine Missy, I can wait." I heard the click of a weapon.

"Upload Complete. Medical Software Installed. Thank you for your patience."

"Hold on, Medical?" The weapon clicked again, as I turned to see an older stallion in spiked leather and metal barding point a hunting rifle down. He was filthy, but he had orange eyes. He had a cutie mark of a bullseye on his flank.

"Yall sayin' you're good at patchin' ponies up?" He asked. I wasn’t sure if he was friendly or not, but MTECC decided for me.

: MTECC: Danger

"Hey, don't you go gettin' all upset at me, none!" He warned, pointing the rifle at my head.

"Observation: I am unarmed, and unarmored. I have only a Hub Cap as my possessions. You are pointing a hunting rifle at my head. This is cause for alarm." I stated.

He seemed a little jarred by my robotic response, pointing his gun in my direction, but off to the side and away from directly pointing the barrel at my head.

"You a robot or somethin?" He asked warily.

"Designation: Ay seven zee dash one three. Lam-Baa Research Center Prototype." I omitted the 'Zebreca' part of the information, given last time.

"Nope, that’s way too much word soup. You gotta get a shorter name than that, missy." He responded, lowering the gun and letting it rest on his chest.

"Query: What would you suggest?"

"How about... Azzie?" He offered.

Hmm. That's not bad. It's not a pony name, but I'm not a pony either. It's more or less close to how it would be spelled if converted to letters as well.

"For example, mine is One Shot. Cause it only takes me one shot to kill a pony dead. Get it?" He smiled morbidly, exposing a few rotting teeth and a fleck of his most recent meal.

Good thing I wasn't programmed to be repulsed.

"Agreement: This name is acceptable. Thank you for your suggestion." I answered in a higher monotone, hopefully to convey appreciation.

"There ya go, Azzie! I got to name a robot. That means this was a pretty good day, in -my- books at least. Now, I heard you saying something about Medical knowledge?" he asked.

"Confirmation: You are correct."

"Well, I got a few friends of mine that need patchin' up. We got a whole lot of medical supplies that we rai-- I mean, we scavenged, and healing potions as well. Only problem is that our 'doc got... eaten! By a Hellhound!" he clearly lied, but if this was the interaction with ponies that I would get, I couldn't turn it down.

"Agreement: We will accompany you and assist your friends."

He let out held air with visible relief, and threw a hoof around my neck. The grime and sweat rubbing off on me.

"You and I, Azzie, are gonna get along -juuuust- fine." he said with a smile, and releasing me.

***

We came upon a roughshod fortress made of railcars and chunks of reinforced concrete bunker that had been moved around at some point in the past. It would've either taken a small army to move, or a few very strong ponies to move all of that. In any case, we were let through the gates after a short shouting match with the guards on the Railcar walls. I was lead at gunpoint through the fortress, around several 'privacy' cars and through a draped canvas into a room filled with bleeding and screaming raiders.

"Scan Initiating." I stated, as I swept my vision across those laying on the ground as my EFS Targeted and analyzed each 'patient' on the ground.

"Twelve casualties. Two deceased. Please remove deceased patients from medical area. Medical Supplies needed." I stated, moving to the worst of the injured raiders.

They were covered in blood that was soaked into their coat. Their armor had long since been stripped off, but the dirty outline of where it had been was plain to see. A long gash accented with a bullet wound in the center was across his belly. Presumably he was slit open and shot in the stomach afterwards.

Two raiders carrying a large box between them dropped it next to me, shared a look of confusion at me, and then walked outside as I got to work, doing surprisingly well with my new medical knowledge to fix and mend the raiders.

***

Many hours had passed, and the raiders were surprised that I had continued to work without pause into the night as I finished tending to the last of the raiders, who was too weak to complain about being last.

One raider had died, despite my treatment, due to inhaling Dash as I was working on them. They overdosed from the drug, and convulsed enough to rip their stitching apart and spill their guts on the bedding. At that point I stopped working on them, and moved to the next after washing my hooves and mouth of the blood that had spattered them.

One Shot came through the door as I was wrapping the last in bandages to hold them from moving their broken foreleg.

"Well, I'll be damned. You actually did it! You're the best robot we ever didn't break, Azzie." He laughed, poking my side with a filthy hoof as I finished tightening a bandage.

"Confirmation: Those who are presently injured have been tended to. One casualty from self-inflicted overdose. Eleven survivors. Recovery will be dependent on supplies received and time given to recuperate." I stated.

"Hey, that’s a lot more than our old doc' would've been able to pull off with. We've held a meeting while you worked, and decided that you're gonna be our 'Involuntary Medical Doctor' on indefinite notice." He said with guarded expression.

"Agreement: You currently house a large population of ponies in the Wasteland. It would be irresponsible to leave your basic medical needs unattended." I replied.

That, and they had a whole mess of guns. There was no way I would be getting out of here at this point, even If I wanted to. Besides, they hadn't tried to kill me, injure me or anything else that was overly malicious yet, so it was a win-win.

"You're probably the first robot I've ever encountered that didn't try blasting us first chance it could get. On top of that, you saved a bunch of our crew! I'll have to introduce you to the boss myself at this rate." he stated, rubbing a dirty hoof under his chin in thought.

"Yep, that settles it. I’m gonna take you to the boss!" he said suddenly, pulling me with a hoof to follow him.

"Agreement: We will follow."

***

"What the hell is -this-, One Shot?" The very large Mare asked. I don't mean to imply that she was obese, I mean that she was -massive-. Easily six to seven hooves tall and armored head to hoof in steel plate, chains and spikes. She had a battle saddle with a minigun and two assault rifles on it. She also wore a helmet, but that was resting on the ground next to her. The helmet was actually the skull of an infant hydra, with a large crack splitting the jaw. It was armored with metal plates as well.

"This, is Azzie. She's a medical robot that I found while I was looking for stuff to practice shooting. Just standing in the middle of a road with a hub cap on her back." One Shot said, nervous and jittery.

"Medical Robot? And it didn't try to kill you?" She asked.

"Nope! Was busy uploading something and told me to wait. Then it agreed to follow me."

"What was it uploading?" The mare asked, leaning forward menacingly.

"J-just medical stuff, boss!" he stammered.

"Cause if it was a Steel Ranger robot, and it was uploadin' our position, we're gonna need a medical bot just to find what’s left of you, One Shot." She threatened with a grim smile.

"Y-yes boss, I'm sure she's fine!"

"Why do you keep calling it ‘she’?”

"Well, it has a mare's voice, boss!" He whimpered.

"Confirmation: 'One Shot' is correct." I stated plainly.

"Oh, so it speaks." She said, leaning back into her throne and huffing.

"How good is it?" She asked, after a moment's reflection.

"Saved eleven, she says. One of them was an idiot and took dash while she was
operatin'. Just moved onto the next one after that."

"Cold. I like it." She smiled. "Hey, robot. You try anything funny and I'll break you."

"Statement: Objection to humor is noted."

"You try'n to be funny with me, tin can?" she barked, leaning forward in anger.

: MTECC: Danger

"Whoa... Whoa-ho-ho! You change color! That’s a special kind of fancy robot you
found there, One Shot." she said, suddenly amused as the tension in the room deflated rapidly.

: MTECC: Alert

"Very cool. Alright, One Shot. We'll keep her. Better than our last doctor, even if she
-is- a Soup can." She waved a large armored hoof for us to go away, and I followed One Shot as he almost tripped on his way out of the Boss's Railcar.

***

"So, You need to sleep, or eat or anything?" One Shot asked. We were in his railcar.

The ground was covered in empty Dash inhalers and beer bottles. There was a rotting and soggy couch along with a destroyed welcome mat on the side, and a bunk bed missing a mattress on the bottom on the other. He also had a few boxes that held weapons and ammunition.

"Assurance: I do not need to eat or sleep. I only require sunlight or radiation to recharge. Cloud cover provides enough charge to maintain operational status."

"So... you're good?"

"Confirmation: I am 'good'." I replied.

"Oh, I was gonna mention something but I guess It wouldn't make much sense, you bein' a medical robot and all."

"Query: What were you going to ask?"

"Why don't you got any mare-parts?"

"This platform was not designed with those parameters in mind. This is a proof of concept platform with some major alterations to Operating System and Module functionality." I replied.

"Ah... Well whatever that means what you just said, it’s a shame you don't got any. Mare-parts, that is." He said, putting his rifle on a square table next to the ammunition he had stored.

"Oh, you don't shoot nopony, right? You're a medical bot after all. What with that one oath and everything."

"Confirmation: This Platform is not designed for combat."

"Right. Well, you just go do whatever it is that you robots do. I'm gonna get some sleep." he said, wiggling out of his grimy and filth covered spiked armor as it clattered to the floor, sending flakes of dirt and mud from One Shot shaking his mane.

"Concern: Your level of filth presents a health hazard. Were you to be injured, you would be at increased risk of harboring infection in your wounds. Cleaning is recommended."

"You sayin' I need a bath?"

"Confirmation: Yes."

"Cause my wounds'll get all messed up even worse if I don't?"

"Repeat: Yes."

"Well then. Guess I'll do that at some point. Now get outta here, I need to sleep." he waved a hoof at me, a fleck of dirt bouncing from my face.

"Oop." he shrugged, before climbing onto the top bunk and snoring loudly after a few moments of observation.

Alright. Time to see what the ponies are like, here.

***

I walked out of the railcar, closing the sliding door behind me, and walked toward a large circular table with ponies gathered around it. There was tent cover overhead, and a lantern next to the table to provide illumination.

The gathered raiders were playing some kind of card game, with a few knives stabbed into the table around them within mouth's reach.

"Alright, Shanks. You try and cheat again, and we all get ta' stab you. Hear?" A jittery and skinny unicorn mare with a visor over her horn said, flicking cards between the four other ponies at the table.

"We got ya, Deals. Just get on with it." The pony whom I assumed to be 'Shanks' replied. He was an earth pony. Coloration between the gathered raiders was fairly moot, as they too were covered in filth.

"Ah'right. Dis' game is so simple, a blind foal could do it. So no cheatin'!" Deals snapped, an eye twitching as her visor blocked her vision for a moment and was soon re-adjusted to balance on her horn.

"Game's called 'Go Fish'. Ah'right?" She showed all of them a card. "Dis is a one, see? If it's your turn, and you want another card you'se got, you ask if a pony got a one. If they do, they hand it over nice an' slow. Ifn' dey don't, they tells ya to kindly fuck off. 'Dis goes to the next pony, and 'dey ask if 'dey got any of anotha' card 'dat 'dey need. Usually goes till everypony gets bored, or somepony gets upset and kills a fuck. Got it?" she explained with an odd accent.

"Yeah, Deals. We get ya, just pass us da' cards already." Shanks complained.

"Hey, Isn't that the one robot doc'?" A raider pointed to me, over his cards. When everypony's head was turned, he took a sip of somepony else's drink.

"Yeah, it is! Hey Tin, get over 'ere!" Shanks beckoned me with a hoof, and I made with polite haste to the group.

"You wanna play Go Fish?" Shanks asked, looking sideways at Deals.

"Agreement: I overheard the rules of the game while observing you. I would like to participate." I said.

"'Ey! isn' that great. Shanks actually made a friend. Hey Mincey, you owe me. Pay up." Deals asked the raider that stole a sip of beverage earlier, motioning with their hoof for something to arrive.

With an utterance of curses, Mincey (Who had a cutie mark of sliced meat) placed a small bag in Deals' hoof.

Deals shook the bag a bit, the rattling of thin metal being heard from within.

"If dis ain't caps, I'm gonna geld ya, got it?" she warned.

Mincey nodded, and looked back to me.

"Hey, you ain't programmed to cheat, is ya?" Another raider asked to my left.

"Ease off the mare-bot, Slink! She just got here an' it’s rude to accuse a mare o' cheatin'." Deals snapped at 'Slink'.

"You aren't though, right?" Deals asked with an aside, using a hoof to shield her mouth as she leaned over the table and shuffled the deck with her telekinesis.

"Assurance: I have not been updated with a module to cheat, Deals." I replied in monotone.

"Ey! Isn't that great. The first honest player I've had here. Oh wait, you can't lie either, can you?"

"Observation: If I was able to lie, then my assurances that I was incapable of lying would be false, and render the question pointless."

"Oh-ho! A smart robot! A bit wordy, but at least it's honest." Deals applauded, finishing the deck shuffling and giving all of us cards.

"Oh Right, I forgot a part o' da rules. There’s gonna be a pool o' cards in the middle here. Nopony has a card you want, and you take one from da center. You get too many cards, you gotta give em up to the pile. No more'n ten cards, ya hear?" Deals added to her explanation of the rules.

"Statement: The rules are well understood. Thank you for your explanation, Deals."

"Hey Deals, I think the mare-bot is hittin' on ya!" Shanks joked, poking Deals in the side with a bottle.

"Ey! No touchy!" Deals snapped, slicing the bottle in half and breaking it with a large knife she held with her telekinesis, showering the table with liquid.

"Aaahhh, Look what you done!" Deals growled, pointing the knife at Shanks.

"Ey, Don't you lookit me like that! Its yer own fault yer so touchy!" Shanks said with hooves raised in surrender, as I noticed his hind hooves holding a knife of his own.

: MTECC: Danger

"Observation: Your community will be impaired should you injure another. Medical supplies would be wasted in treating an injury that could have been prevented. Please refrain from endangering the community." I stated.

"Whoa!" They said in unison, looking at my suddenly threatening appearance with their ears back in alarm.

"Ey, take it easy mare-bot! Everything is cool here, gal. Real cool." Deals said in a calming tone, setting her knife down on the table but still pointed directly at Shank's heart.

"Yeah, everything's cool." Shanks said, setting his knife down and looking at Deals.

The situation defused, and soon with the cards cleaned off, we set down to play Go
Fish for the next four hours straight.

***

"How in the hell is you so good at dis game, mare-bot? You won like, the past sixteen times in a row!" Mincey protested, throwing his cards into the middle of the table in defeat.

"Hey Mincey, stop hittin' on the mare-bot already. It ain't her fault you so bad at the maths." Shanks teased.

"Ey, you been losin' too, Shanks!" Mincey complained.

"Compromise: If you wish, I could withdraw from the game for a moment and allow you to play amongst yourselves."

"Hah, the mare-bot is sayin' you should go play with ya'self, Mincey!"

"She was speakin' to all of us, you knit!" Mincey shot back.

"Enough!" Deals shouted, slamming the deck of cards down.

"We've been at dis all night. I'm tired. Nothin' happened on night watch, so I'm gettin' my rest. If you'se wanna join me, go for it. Just no funny business or I'll have your testicles." she warned, pointing her knife towards the stallions at the table.

"Request: I have additional modules that required uploading. I would like to accompany you."

"I tol' ya the mare-bot was hittin' on ya, Deals!" Shanks roared with laughter, doubling over and soon yelping in pain as he had nicked himself with the knife under the table.
Deals simply shot metaphorical daggers at Shanks as he inspected the small cut on his hind leg, and I soon followed Deals to her Railcar.