Suck it up, Buttercup

by David Silver

14 - Mechanical Partners

Fend looked to the side where he had been touched. Yellow's metal face was there. "You have returned. Result?"

"Undesirable." Yellow sank down next to Fend. "We are commanded to begin breeding."

Fend looked to his child and the mare friend. "Are they aware--"

"They are aware." Yellow let out an annoyed little pre-recorded neigh. "Primary directive conflict."

"Affirmative," agreed Fend in a distressed tone. "Was the safety of child transportation considered?"

"Ignored." Yellow pawed at the ground lightly, mussing the grass with his metal hooves. "We would be bringing children into a dangerous situation."

"Unacceptable." Fend sank to his belly miserably. "Are you certain of the command?"

"98% certainty." Yellow looked at their two children quietly a moment. "Where is the engineer?"

"You are aware they are not an engineer." Not a question, that, with no hint of it being one.

"You are aware as well." Yellow sat up, glancing over at his fellow unit. "Why did you say nothing?"

"Is it not clear?" Fend sat up as Yellow was doing. "They are clearly friends of our children. Why would I want them harmed, or removed? But vault-tech engineers would not have a giddyup buttercup unit during duty."

Yellow pointed at himself. "Unless they were like us."

"Giddyup is not like us," concluded Fend. "He has accepted Stan as a child. An engineer would not tolerate this condition."

"No." Yellow went quiet again a moment. "They may be our only chance."

"Hey." While distracted, Buttercup had come closer to the two. "I got an idea."

Yellow perked up at the presence of his child. "Would you like to neigh and trot?"

"Got that covered." Buttercup waved away the idea. "What I want is for you to neigh and trot." She turned to point at the stairs they had taken to reach the field. "Back that way, in a closet, there's that thing Giddyup talked about. Use it and open the door."

Yellow inclined his head. "How will that assist?"

"It will, promise." Buttercup put on her best 'please' expression she could, lower lip trembling and lashes batting. "Just ride it up and ride it back down and you're done. That's it."

Yellow rose to his full height. "I do not comprehend the purpose of your command. Command accepted." He leaned in and down to touch his metal snout to Buttercups. "Please stay with Fend."

But Fend was in the way, rather than watching over the children. "This could--"

"I am aware." Yellow inclined his head. "I love my child."

"I love my child," echoed Fend, stepping out of the way. "I will watch your child."

"Thank you." No more words were needed, Yellow trotting off with clip-clop noises playing from within him.

---

Stan grabbed a heavy battery, stuffing it into his backpack. "They just leave this stuff layin' around."

"The organization of this vault is sub-optimal," agreed Giddyup, helping in the search for things with a high market value. "How will we assist Buttercup and Skyline?"

"Ain't got that worked out yet. Figure the way we always do." He patted his gun meaningfully. "It'll come to that. Always does."

"Unfortunately correct." Giddyup nosed at a box. "Value detected."

"You are the best." Stan shoved his hand in the box, rifling around and selecting the choicest bits of old electronics. "We'll make it. We always do."

"We always do," echoed Giddyup, just to pause and sink to his haunches. "Have I informed you of my previous children?"

"Mentioned 'em, once er twice." Stan was facing a shelf, patting it down and sifting for goodies. "Why?"

"Many of them were also confident they would survive, with 100% accuracy, until it became 0%." Giddyup inclined his head at Stan. "It is difficult to predict when the probability changes."

"Shoot." Stan shoved away from one shelving unit to another. "That's life right there. Yer doin' it until yer not. One way or the other, I will bite it. Kinda a given, that." A rattling caught him off guard. It took a moment to realize it was Giddyup shaking. "Buddy, c'mon. It ain't about how it ends that matters none anyway."

"I do not comprehend," flatly replied Giddyup, voice weak.

"Look at it this way." He sliced a new box open to start searching. "If you died right now, pow, blown apart into little robot bits." He made a little explosive noise. "I'd be right sad about it, sure, but you also had a good run of it, ain't ya?"

"I do not comprehend."

Stan turned to face his despondent mechanical friend. "Everythin' ends eventually. It's about what you did while you were there. You're a good friend, a good robot, a good Giddyup. So it doesn't matter what happens to close the story."

"I have operated... according to my directions, and..." Giddyup went quiet again, instead moving to nose at a box.

"Thanks." Stan made that box his next target. Giddyup usually had a good sense for where the good loot was. "You live by yer own rules, Giddyup. So do I. We'll do that fer as long as we can, but it's our life. I don't regret it none, and you shouldn't either."

"I do not comprehend." But Giddyup stated that with more confidence than the first two times. "I would like us to continue operations for as long as possible."

"Hey, with ya there." He ruffled the wires that made up Giddyup's mane. "Which means gettin' all the caps we can before things go south."

"What is so undesirable of that direction?" Giddyup was back to searching for things for Stan. "East and West are equally dangerous."

"Won't argue that." Stan grabbed a belt of ammunition. "For the security bots, ah bet." But he let it go, hunting for other things. "So, happy to meet other giddyups?"

"It has been informative." Giddyup moved for the door instead, peeking left and right with great sways of his head. "Thank you for enabling this opportunity."

---

Yellow experienced the sensation of flight, lifted with speed that was quite unsafe for a pony passenger. The sudden stop at the end was even less recommended, his body slamming against the mostly-closed hatch at the end of the tunnel. It gave way, flying open and allowing him to be deposited on the grass outside.

"Unmapped area," Yellow announced to no one. Still, he could figure out that he was above his starting location. He looped back around to find where the strange device could carry him back down. "I do not comprehend." It was a good day for the children of giddyups to leave them very unsure of life. "I hope this makes you happier." He could envision Buttercup, preferring to hold the picture of her joyful face when she was trotting and neighing. More of that would be nice...

An error message quietly occupied part of his vision, but returning to the safety of the vault, and presence of his child, superseded that priority. Without further hesitation, he was taking the robotic elevator back down. His left eye still had the error floating in it over an irregular red flashing square. He focused on it, and it reported an error in that sensor. This was not an unknown thing. It usually passed, so he paid it no further mind as he walked confidently through the vault.

What he did not expect was Fend's reaction. "What happened?" Fend scrambled to his hooves and hurried closer. "You have been damaged."

"I am within acceptable condition. System diagnostics... 97%." A flurry of green symbols appeared as various systems reported to him that they were functioning properly, but there were a few red ones. There were always a few red ones. They weren't new robots anymore, such was unavoidable.

"You're back!" Buttercup was trotting over, only to come to an abrupt halt. "Oh..."

Yellow looked between Fend and Buttercup. "Please explain the reason for this reaction."

Skyline came to join them. "I can answer that." He pulled out a mirror, held in fingers ponies were not supposed to have. "Here." He held it up towards Yellow, allowing the robot to see himself.

He had scuffs where his back and the top of his head had slapped against the roof of the elevator. He was no longer bright and shiny and new looking. This bothered him more than he would have assumed, normally not even considering his appearance. "I will require repainting." Yellow leaned in, and the other problem became clear.

His left eye had a break, a fine line running in a jagged line, not clear down the middle but cutting off a slice. The slice that he saw the red border in his vision. It was the source of that error. "I have been damaged."

"You have been damaged," echoed Fend.

"I'm so sorry." Buttercup danced in place awkwardly. "I didn't mean for you to get hurt."

"I am not angry at you." Being angry at his child was not even included in his programming. "But you should avoid repeating that."

Skyline turned on Buttercup. "What did you do?"

"Nothing!" She threw up her hooves. "I just asked him to go back up to the surface and come back. I didn't think he'd get hurt."

"To the surface?" Skyline frowned, tufted ears flicking with thought. "To... You didn't."

"I did," she admitted with an awkward smile. "Bet they saw it."

Skyline was on Buttercup in a flash. "They are as much a threat to us as anything else. That was an incredibly dumb idea."

Buttercup squealed, grasped firmly in Skyline's angry hands. "But it... also gets us out."

Fend and Yellow shared a look before advancing, each trying to draw their child away from the other. Fighting children was bad by both of their measures.

Skyline grunted with annoyance, not fighting being drawn back. "You two don't get it." He leveled a finger at the two robots. "Supermutants are coming. They will tear this place apart and probably kill anything they see."

Fend cringed back from his child, the emotion displayed in the movement of his head more than the movement of his largely static mouth. "Security will protect us." He pointed to the closest security droid that was following a lawn care robot out of view.

Buttercup rubbed at a cheek with a hoof. "I'm sure they'll try, but you said, and I quote, 'An attack equal to or superior to remaining vault defenses is detected.'" She nodded firmly with conviction. "You see those big guys, you'll 'detect' it real quick."

Skyline gave Buttercup a shove but didn't tackle her again. "When that happens, we will be inside. The only way out will be past the supermutants! Did you think of that?!"

"Oh, right..." Buttercup took a step back. "We'll just have to be clever about it..."

---

"What was that?" Stan's hands moved to his weapon instead of the loot he paused at taking.

"Explosion." Giddyup turned to face the source of the noise. "Gunfire. Searching for safe route. None detected."

"Great." Stan raised his rifle into ready position. "Let's get back to the others right quick. Things are about to get real--"

"Things have proceeded in a southerly direction," cut in Giddyup.

"Yeah... That covers it." Stan patted Giddyup on the way past. "If we get lucky, we can grab some more on the way out, but I don't want to kick it in a supply closet."

"Leave kicking to me. I am better equipped for that task." Giddyup followed Stan obediently. "Please exercise caution."

"We're gonna get plenty of exercise, don't you worry your little metal head." The lights turned red suddenly.

"Intruders detected," came the overseer's electronic voice. "All security units, engage. All non-security units, withdraw. Move ponies to secure locations."

Giddyup hurried to Stan's side. "There is no secure location detected."

"Ah figured that." A hand wandered towards the bulbous curve of a grenade. "Safety is not gonna be on the menu for a while."

They charged through the hallways. Giddyup would have preferred they move in another direction, but they were coming closer to the sounds of danger, not further from it.

Author's Note:

And then things get real. Why couldn't things go in a Northerly direction?

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Comments

[Booster Spice]

Well, thats the end of the line. Unless Giddyup units can DIG as much as a Changeling drone.

[PonyDragon]

But vault-tech engineers would not have a giddyup buttercup unit during duty.

Why not? It would surely increase life quality!
Nevermind, I just answered the question myself.
Also, it's "Vault-Tec", unless this typo was intentional to mock those guys.

He could envision Buttercup, preferring to hold the picture of her joyful face when she was trotting and neighing. More of that would be nice...

What would those bots do the day trotting and neighing becomes boring?

"Intruders detected," came the overseer's electronic voice. "All security units, engage. All non-security units, withdraw. Move ponies to secure locations."

I would assume a single Sentry Bot would be able to hold the line.
But I've got a feeling it won't be that easy.

---

Good chapter!
I enjoyed reading it and look forwards to the next part.

[David Silver]

11035554
The day trotting and neighing becomes boring to a robot designed to neigh and trot is about the day the robot stops functioning.

He hopes to neigh and trot forever, ideally alongside his lovely children. <3

[Reese]

"He looped back ground to find where the strange device"
"He looped back around to find where the strange device"?

Thank you for writing!

[David Silver]

11040384
A subtle one, but found by our loyal guards!

[Reese]

11040396
Thanks. :)