Prologue: Of PicoBucks and Cutie Marks
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-“Whew”... koff*... I--I'm sorry bout that. Where was I? Oh right PicoBucks! So if I'm going to tell you my life's story I should probably start with the device I got my cutie mark from. Can you guess what my cutie mark looks like? Eh-wrong! It looks like an apple!... No--no it doesn't I was just messing with you. Got to smile smile smile as they.. koff*.. say.. koff*.. koff*!!! “gah” “sigh”. Excuse me... So a PicoBuck what is that you might ask? Well I'll tell you. A PicoBuck is a small cylindrical like device worn on the fore leg of a pony. In a stable everyone gets one when they get there cutie mark. As a product of the blending of unicorn magic and earth pony science. The PicoBuck will organize and display inventory, show local and globalized maps of an area, assist in repairs of equipment, monitor your health and even provide an E.F.S. (Eyes-Forward Sparkle) tracking spell that could highlight and help gauge the hostility of targets. Along with S.A.T.S. (Stable-Tec Arcane Targeting Spell) that could aid in targeting, should the need arise. It also comes with a R.F.D (Radio-Force Dash) receiver. Allowing one to decipher almost any R.F. signal and most importantly tune into the Stable broadcaster to hear sweet music. All of this is available at a hoof tap. Finally and most impressively every PicoBuck has the ability to generate an A.T.T.S.(Achronal Temporal Transduction Spell). That's right Time Travel! Though the more precise term is Temporal Transduction. Sigh this is where I usually lose ponies because though common to the likes of us from Stable^2 it is apparently almost unheard of in the Equestrian waste land.
In the confines of Stable^2 the entire facility was monitored by an Apple JI. Whose job was to keep all implementations of A.T.T.S. "safe". Not like it needed to be though for most ponies. Experiencing a party once was one thing, experiencing the same party again from a different perspective was unique--being able to do this and having done this a million times before was another. It wasn't that the general population of Stable^2 had lost interest in "Chronogänging" or "CGing" for short as it was called. Indeed pedestrian uses where quite abundant. It was simply that as many times one could go back or jump forward to participate in the party (which wasn't many, regulated remember). It was still the same party and going back and forth through time didn't change that. Sure having your future or past CG to make even teams in a game of polo was useful. But when it came time for the present you to be your the past or future CG it was irritating. You had almost no choice in the matter. Even if the present you was tired of the party by the time a future CG of yourself showed up. Your hooves were tied. You knew that sometime in the future you had to go back and experience the same blasted party again. If you didn't well.. it wouldn't end well for you. Punishments for temporal offenders were strict and often sever. A "Decohesive Paradox" (DP for short) crime was punishable by time line reassertion. Which left you in a cold dark isolation chamber until the "Flutershy Effect" subsided. For these reasons and others most of the ponies of Stable^2 barely scratched the surface of the capabilities of there PicoBuck. Not me.
Being born to two of the Stables leading unicorn scientists one of them unknown to me (don't ask me how that work's in a stable). I was expected to learn every single theoretical and practical application of temporal mechanics before I even had a PicoBuck. This went over about as well as you might expect for a young foal whose mind was more interested at the time in rainbow droops and kittens. Eventually however I did come around to the idea and found a love for science that I had not known. Much to the chagrin of my well intentioned parent's or parent--specifically my mother.
Being the egg head in class by proxy is never easy. But being the egg head and being the last in class to get there cutie mark is bad. For the most part you get the lecture that you are not living up to your "full" potential from your teachers and parent. This of course drove me to try my hoof at as many things as possible. And being well versed in temporal mechanics was useful for the application of many "hooves". So that by the time I finally got my cutie mark (even without a PicoBuck). I had caused at least three DP's. And it was only because a CG of me showed up saying excitedly that they got there cutie mark in PicoBuck repair. That I even got my cutie mark.
Woo who! PicoBuck repair! Needless to say I was not impressed. Though for everything a PicoBuck is and can do. Brake down it does not. This revelation of destiny was not one of my choosing, for its end was in a small repair stall stationed in the lower levels of the stable. This also wasn't the will of my mother, who with all her planing had wanted me to have a place in the Chrono Lab. And even though she was one of the stables top scientists. Rules were rules. Especially when enforced by an AI. Apparently that fact didn't sit with her so well. And her drinking problem of years past flared up again. Which left me without a mother and chained to a nice prison called a job.
Oh my name is Pico Sec by the way. It's short for 10^-12 of a second. (Isn't science great!?) Greetings.
And this is my story...
Introduction
Once upon a time in the magical land of Equestria...
...there came a era when the ideals of harmony and friendship were forgotten. Giving way to greed, desperation and mistrust amongst the nations of the world. Fearful of the earths dwindling resources and driven by nationalistic pride, country's took up arms against one another. And then it happened. The end of the world came much as we had thought. It was plunged into an abyss of balefire and dark magic. The details where trivial. The fault as always our own. As powerful spells rained down from the sky engulfing entire lands. Millions where sent screaming to there deaths, there voices echoing out across the desolate nothingness that was left...
...But it was not as some had predicted the end of the world, merely a new darker chapter in its history. Thousands were spared the initial effects of the holocaust by taking refuge in underground shelters called stables. But when they emerged they had nothing but the horrors of the wastes to great them. All except for those in Stable two. For on that day when balefire rained from the sky the door to stable two closed shut and was never reopened.
Fallout: New Equestria
