Fallout: Equestria - Crystal Lane

Don’t want no nobles, Bron-Cos, Stables, magic, you hear! That no matter how much they coax him, I’ll stay right here! They have things like the megaspell! So I’ll just stay here and tell! Civilization! I’ll stay right here!

“I am very glad that you could come down, Ms. Luminous Gem, to my quarters,” the Goddess said to me. It had been a day since I had saved her life and here I was back in that same room, all around me, I could see ponies going to and fro cleaning up the debris.

“I’m glad to be of service, your highness,” I said bowing.

“Then you’ll be happy to know that I will require your service again, please follow me to somewhere we can speak more openly,” the Goddess said before walking out of the room with me behind her. Why she wanted me to meet her there in the first place escaped me.

We walked down some corridors away from the Goddess’s quarters and down a series of stairs, where we entered another bunch of corridors and soon we entered a room where a large terminal covered one wall and in front of it was a chair and various shelves and even a refrigerator, a Sparkle-Cola dispenser, and a chemistry set. The other three walls held various pictures of the Goddess, the Mares of Harmony, and even a set of six pictures of the Divine Diarchs. “What is this room?” I asked.

“This is a secret that I have held since I first arrived here over 200 years ago. This room has been my place of solace and peace whenever I felt overwhelmed, from first leaving my Aunts and running my own realm, to the War and my husband’s death. The big terminal you see is a special Ministry of Arcane Sciences gift to me from Twilight Sparkle. It is said that only three Crusader Maneframes were ever created, but actually a fourth had been built. A Crusader Maneframe that I had allowed Twilight to install the last time she visited me before the War,” she answered.

“A Crusader Maneframe? What is that, your highness?” I asked, not knowing what a Crusader Maneframe was.

“The ultimate arcano-technological maneframe built with the computing and processing power that allows it to think for itself. It’s even able to imprint the mind of a pony and act accordingly as if it was that pony,” she answered smiling with a longing look, “The Crusader Maneframe was the culmination of less-than-half-a-century of quick technological advancement and, given just a few more years of advancement, we could have kept the war from happening.”

The information that was given to me was… both amazing and saddening, to have been so close to keeping the horrors that engulfed the South and yet to not be able to stop it… it was definitely both of those emotions. “What does all of this mean with our current situation, your highness? I don’t see what a supercomputer has to do with the appearance of an Alicorn and the attempt on your life?” I asked.

“Nothing right now, but this room is the only room that I feel like I could speak freely, what with my quarters being repaired,” she answered, “Now, I am in the process of having you transferred to the Scouting division so that I could have you sent on your real mission.”

“But, your highness, what of my partner?” I asked distressed. I couldn’t bear leaving Clear behind in whatever mission that the Goddess was about to send me on. I couldn’t even think about my own doubts of my survival.

“I had a thought that you might think that, so I had her meet me earlier and she has already agreed on the condition that you agree as well and so here we are,” the Goddess replied.

It seemed like I was entirely predictable according to the Goddess. “Your highness, what, exactly, is this mission that you are sending me on?” I asked.

“As you know, we were attacked by three Alicorns of unknown origin. My only information on their possible origins is that they came from somewhere in the south. I am unsure of where they could have been sent from and so I needed a pony that I could trust to go out and find out where they could have originated from,” she answered.

“You’re saying you want to send me out there into the Wasteland? Your highness, if I may ask, why send me? I know nothing about the world outside of Crystal Lane,” I asked.

“Yes, I am sending you out into the wastes, and it has to be you because only a pony I could truly trust could go out on this mission. After Shiny died, I felt a void in my heart grow larger so that even my love for my loyal subjects couldn’t fill it. I abandoned my home, my friends, and my family for Crystal Lane and as such that void widened as I realized what exactly I had left behind. Every day since then, I have wondered about how much I could have changed had I answered the call to arms of my aunts, how I could have kept the Zebras out of Equestria, kept the Maripony Massacre from happening, and maybe even prevented the use of the megaspells. Instead, I kept out of the war, sent only token condolences as casualties added up, and even allowed the research that led to the invention of the megaspells. If we can’t find out the particulars behind these Alicorns, then Shining’s and my dream of restoring Equestria back to her former glory will die and even my realm could be in danger,” she answered.

In all honesty, it seemed like the Goddess was seeking her own penance in this mission that she was sending me on. Thinking besides that, I then asked, “Your highness, that still doesn’t explain why trust is a major factor here.”

“Between this room, the Crusader Maneframe, and the equipment that I’m going to equip you and your partner with, I am going to have to trust the pony I give this job to, and so you are the best choice. You saved my life, Luminous Gem, and there is nopony who I could trust more than you. You leapt through my door, you shot at the Alicorn, and you have served the Crystal Swords honorably for the past five years. Please follow me to the room to the left of this one if you agree to help me and Crystal Lane,” she answered before leaving the room, leaving me alone there with the Crusader Maneframe.

I heisted thinking over the implications that following her would entail, but I had an obligation to my home and to my Goddess. “Oh, horsefeathers,” I said before following the Goddess out of the room and into the next one. I was definitely worried about what I was being sent into. I had heard about the dangers of the wasteland that Equestria had become, the mutated animals, the insane ponies of the south, and the radiation that infested the former home to harmony.

When we reached the room I saw that it was an armory of sorts. Various weapons, bardings, and other devices covered the walls of the large room. I then noticed a table which held a few items that the Goddess was pulling off of the walls including: A Crystal Rifle, a sword of some sorts with a baby-blue blade much like the crystal that made up the Crystal Guard barding, a black piece of clothing that looked like a jumpsuit or something along those lines, some healing potions, and Radaway. “I assume you know what most of these are, correct?” the Goddess said to me.

I nodded my head and walked over to the table and pointed out the items that I knew and I listed some details about each, The Crystal Rifle, Healing potions (one of the miracles of arcane-technological advancement, and are the potions magically created to quickly heal battlefield injuries}, and finally, Rad-Away (the drug specially designed to reduce the potency of radiation within a pony’s body).

The Goddess smiled and said, “Very good, I didn’t expect you to know what the sword and the barding are, so don’t despair as I’ll explain what they are.” I smiled and nodded allowing her to continue, “First, the sword. It is made of a very similar Crystal-Arcano-Technological design as the barding that my Guard wears albeit changed enough to be worked into a workable sword. I have also enchanted this sword so that I hope that it can cut through the shielding that those Alicorns can create. I’ve had limited chances to test it but the only way to really know is a field test, so I wouldn’t go trying for it on the first Alicorn you meet, at the very least it will be able to slice through any sort of armor, even Applejack’s Steel Rangers would find it hard to protect themselves against it. Onto the jumpsuit, it is actually a loan from Queen Crystalline. This jumpsuit is specially crafted by her best spell crafters and smiths and is built for the rigors that a non-Crystal Lane changeling is expected to endure out in the wastes.”

I nodded as I listened along, thinking of the nice equipment that I was being outfitted with. “Your highness, may I ask what my partner will be given?” I asked.

“Your partner is going to be outfitted in some basic leather barding and she will be given a 10mm pistol, a special pistol that I promised to not tell you about so that she could show it to you, some health potions and Rad-away, and a special piece of equipment that I can show to you right now, as you are going to have one as well,” she said before lighting her horn up and a piece of wall opened up. Out from the special piece of wall came some sort of device. It floated out from its protective case towards me where I then took it in my own magic and I could see it as some sort of arm-mount or some such.

“What is this, your highness?” I asked.

“A Pipbuck 3000, Mark IV version so it comes with a clamp rather than having it bond to you and being a pain to remove. I am one of the few to own this version of it, since I’m one of the few to know about Stable 111, the only Stable that was going to have this version of the Pipbuck. Go on, put it on,” she answered.

I did as she asked and when I did I powered it on and suddenly a flurry of text showed up on the screen, one line at a time, scrolling up as more lines were added.

Spell matrix activating… activation complete.

E.F.S. activating… activation complete.

S.A.T.S. spinning up… cycle complete

Scanning biometrics… scan complete.

Scanning for radio frequencies… scan complete.

Loading map software… load complete.

Opening PipOS…

Welcome to your brand new Pipbuck 3000,Mk. IV edition.

After that it took me to a screen that asked me if all the information was correct in terms of my gender, age, and various other stats. Everything was in order so I moved to the next screen which asked for my name which I promptly typed. “Your highness, why did you give me this?” I asked. Technology like this needed to be guarded, especially if it’s as rare as she says it is.

“This mission will require that we keep some sort of communication between the two of us and the Pipbuck’s various built-in spells will make your journey easier,” the Goddess answered.

“What are these spells, your highness?” I then asked.

“Well, there’s the inventory sorter spell, the EFS -or Eyes-forward Sparkle-, SATS -or Stable-Tec Arcane Targeting Spell-, the spell that allows it to track a tagged object, the radio frequency decryption spell, and some others,” she answered before explaining the functions of the less obvious spells. I had to admit that the EFS and SATS would definitely be helpful out in the Wasteland. After all, who wouldn’t want to be able to have a system to effectively track and take down objects? After showing me the spells, she then showed me the various functions of the Pipbuck, its map (which was pretty nice if not a bit spread out with Crystal Lane at the top-central area), the radio (which showed two frequencies, one being Crystal Lane radio and the other listed as “Cadenza Communication” which she said was what I had to tune into whenever she needed to give me some information), the stats section (which showed my biometrics and various other stats that Stable-Tec felt that it needed to track including one called “Plots exploded” that made me a bit uncomfortable), and finally the notes and inventory sections.

“What if I need to speak to you, your highness?” I asked, concerned about how the Pipbuck didn’t allow me to communicate with her.

“No need to worry, I had your partner’s Pipbuck modified so that she can send me messages regarding your mission, it keeps her from being able to receive radio frequencies however, so the two of you will need to work together, but that shouldn’t be a problem I am sure,” she answered.

The next hour, or so, was filled by her showing me more about the Pipbuck as well as her showing me how to best wield the sword (which I dubbed the “Crystal Sword”) with my, limited, magic abilities. I was glad that I was one of the few changelings who could more easily access the weaker spells that a Unicorn could do, so while I couldn’t turn a bird into an orange or make myself disappear from view, I could levitate small items with the hope of improving it over time, and without the extra effort that a normal changeling needed. “And that’s all that’s needed, your highness?” I asked curious about what else might be needed.

“Yes, that’s all that I can teach you that you don’t already know or can learn out there much better,” she answered, “If you wish, you can use the gun range for the rest of the day, I’ve given you and your partner the rest of the day off.”

“Yes, your highness, thank you,” I said before turning to leave the door.

“One more thing, actually,” the Goddess said making me turn back towards her. She was levitating Cadenza Lite in front of me, “Take this. This .44 magnum has saved me plenty of times in the past, and perhaps one day it will save yours.”

I looked at the old revolver with a picture of the Goddess’s cutie mark on the handle, and I could see the impressiveness of the design as I saw that the body of the weapon had heart engravings all along it and even the safety was designed to be a heart. It was too beautiful to be used by anypony as mortal as me. “I-I couldn’t take this from you, your highness,” I said finally.

“Please, take it. If I need a pistol then I can get one from in here. You saved my life, so the least I can do is at least give you this,” she answered.

“Alright your highness, I’ll protect this as if it was the Holy Object itself,” I said with a surprising amount of piety.

“Don’t worry too much, it is a gun after all, and most definitely not the Crystal Heart,” the Goddess said with a smile before I left.

Quest completed: Your new mission is…

Level up!

Perk gained: Telekinesis I: You have gained magical prowess and can hold items easier with the use of your telekinesis.

New inventory items added:
• Crystal Rifle: A laser rifle built only in Crystal Lane’s old Ironshod Arms Factory by Crystal Guns and Ammo. Powered by a special crystal matrix and uses special Crystal Charge Packs and Microfusion Cells.
• Crystal Sword: A magically forged sword made out of crystal seen only in Crystal Lane. Magically enhanced to be able to cut through all armor and most types of magical shielding. Ability to cut through Alicorn shields unknown.
• Cadenza Lite: Magically enhanced .44 magnum pistol crafted for Princess Mi Amor Cadenza, now known as The Goddess of Love by her followers in Crystal Lane.
• Changeling Light Barding: Special barding made for changelings by changelings. Form-fitting and made to withstand any changeling shape-shifting.
• Pipbuck 3000 Mk. IV: Special version of the Pipbuck 3000 made for the ponies of Stable 111. Never used due to the Stable never going into service.
• Health potions and Rad-Away: Medical aids given to heal and neutralize radiation exposure.