“I should have been there! I should have been with her! She was my closest friend! She shouldn’t have died alone! But instead, I was asleep!”
>> Activating Project Steelpony procedure number #303, Base file: Equus Habilis (Handymare), Mk VII (DPhI && DEx approved, DHS disapproved) Subject name: Lyra Heartstrings.
>> Commencing procedure.
>> Administering anaesthetic.
>> Waiting…
>> Subject unconscious, continuing procedure.
>> Augmentation 0%
>> Augmentation 1%
>> Augmentation 2%
>> Augmentation 3%
>> Augmentation 4%, cancelling individual percentile count because who has the time to read that?
>> Augmentation 20%, brainstem connected, converting form chemical anaesthesia to neurological anaesthesia.
>> Augmentation 40%
>> Augmentation 60%
>> Augmentation 80%
>> WARNING! Critical power failure! Augmentation 88%, subject stable. Searching for alternate power source.
>> Unable to locate power source, consulting protocol.
>> Directive confirmed, placing subject in stasis until alternate power source is established.
>> Goodnight.
* * *
>> New power source established, solar panel reserves. Rebooting.
>> Subject integrity maintained, continuing augmentation.
>> Augmentation 90%
>> Augmentation 95%
>> Augmentation 97%
>> Augmentation 98%
>> Augmentation 99%
>> Augmentation 100%, Time taken: 105,170,400 minutes, 13 seconds.
>> Good morning.
* * *
I awoke.
Images of a Stable Tech poster boy played across my vision as I considered myself.
I felt… not quite dead, but as if my body underneath the skin was numb, so numb that I couldn't even feel the numbness. And their were holes, holes in my skin, holes in my perception of the world. The felling there was made obvious by its absence. The little pony on my vision had stopped frowning over a loading bar and appeared bright and alert.
>> Greetings! thank you for choosing the Project Steelpony Handymare Mk VII augmentation!
The little pony spoke, his dialog mirrored by a prompt along the bottom of my vision.
>> If you feel that you have been deceived, forced, or blackmailed into accepting the augments inside your body, feel free to ask for a trained defence lawyer. They will be despatched immediately to revoke your claim.
What.
>> If you have not in fact been deceived, forced, or blackmailed into receiving these augments, please ignore the previous statement.
Okay…
>> Now, please prepare yourself for a full physical examination. Task one: open your eyes.
‘(Quest added; Open your eyes.)’ Appeared in the top left corner of my vision. The Stable Tech pony appeared in a speech bubble and told me that the update was my quest log, and that it was a sort of checklist managed automatically by my augments. Useful.
I opened my eyes.
I was lying on my back inside an open medical pod. The walls and floor where made of faded white panels, with lighting strips near the floor and ceiling. I couldn’t move.
(Quest complete; Eyes opened.)
>> Excellent! Now, as your pre-augmentation instructor will have informed you, your brain is now the third smartest thing in your body. The second smartest thing is your body itself, simply think about what you want to do, and your new body will do it. Start by moving your jaw, select ‘Y’ when you are ready to move on.
(Quest added; Show those pearly whites!)
I tried to move my jaw, which suddenly snapped open. It felt like it was trying to rip itself off my face. I quickly tried to close it, but it slammed shut and pressed the teeth into the bone. Wait, do I even have bone there anymore? After a few more moments of dental agony I tried to just let my jaw go slack, which seemed to work.
Okay… I thought, remembering my — very basic — training. Let’s try that again…
oooOOOooo
“I’m so exited to experiment with this new tech!”
Dr Ex Machina of Steelpony R&D lead me down a grey corridor, expounding on the many wondrous aspects of my soon-to-be augments.
“You know doctor, over the course of the past five minutes you have told me manny apparently wonderful things about my augments,” I said, “but I’m afraid to say that I haven’t understood a word of it.”
“Ah,” he intoned, slightly embarrassed, “sorry, I get a bit carried away sometimes and I forget who I’m talking to.”
“Don’t worry about it,” I smiled at him, “but perhaps you could continue in a slightly less technical manor.”
“Ok, so basically your augments are going to be some of the most advanced stuff we've developed so far. It’s going to be strong, light, and fast. It’s also been highly approved by DPhI, that’s the Department for Physiological Integrity.” He shook his head sadly, “Some of the pour bastards for our earlier projects went mad because they didn’t feel like themselves anymore. There was this one heavily augmented guy who started shagging everything, apparently sex makes you fell less like a lump of metal.”
He saw the expression on my face and quickly raised his hooves in front of him, “Don’t worry! Since then we’ve had a lot of opportunity to study the physiological effects of augmentation and come up with ways to deal with it. Your new body will have as much of its old skin as possible. It’ll also have a beating synthetic heart, not just a smooth pump in your chest.” Considering me suitably placated, he continued down the hall. “You’ve also got the best start, everyone else we’ve treated had been physiologically damaged in some way or shell-shocked after severe physical trauma. You’re the first pony to have a procedure this extensive after starting off totally healthy.” He turned to me, a question in his eyes. “So,” he asked, “why did you volunteer?”
“They said this job came with an opportunity to help kill stripes,” I said in a tone with the finality of a crowbar, “that’s all I needed to know.”
“Okay… was not expecting that.”
Seemingly eager to change the subject, the doctor continued expounding on the design of my augments.
“We actually got a few of the guys form Stable Tech’s pipbuck development team to come in on it, they put all sorts of stuff from their next line of pipbucks into the programming. They even gave us a few arcane micro fusion cells, which means you shouldn’t be in danger of dying because your heart runs out of power. But you’ll probably still need gems to keep you going for everyday activities.”
We reached a door to another room and he turned to me, face suddenly serious. “Now, three very important things to remember. One; eat gems and metal. Your new body will need the gems for fuel and the metal to make repairs. Two; your body reacts to your thoughts, not your actions. Just think what you want it to do and it’ll do it, if you try to perform the action yourself your body will overcompensate. Three; you have all sorts of guides and tutorials built-in, you can find them with the pipbuck interface built into your left leg. Good luck.”
I nodded at him, and walked through the door and onto the threshold of my new life.
oooOOOooo
I kept practising controlling my jaw until I could talk without biting my tongue off. Then I though hard at the ‘Continue’ prompt until it disappeared.
>> Excellent! the rest of your body is now under your control, we recommend you move with caution. Don’t forget to check out some tutorials when you’re ready!
My new E.F.S. danced across my vision as I slowly sat up and examined myself. It wasn’t to bad. Patches of skin had been removed on the front and back of my knees and hocks. Along with a section between my shoulder blades and around the bace of my neck reaching down the sides of my chest, mirrored by a section between my legs along the inside of my stifles. The frontal knee sections on my forelegs extended to just above my fetlock, the metal probably concealing my pipbuck interface.
But the bigest draw on the eyes — besides my eyes themselves, which were glowing a soft gold — where my hooves. The think keratin plate on the front of each had been split into six sections, four narrow middle strips and two wider side plates on each hoof. The frog and pastern below my hocks had been removed entirely, replaced with the mint-stained metal that showed through the holes in my skin.
My breathing picked up and my heart responded by tapping out the grim fandango in my chest. That was some comfort, at least my body still behaved fairly normally. Even if it didn’t look normal.
I rose to my feet cautiously, being carful to remember that while actions spoke louder than thoughts, thoughts were less likely to get me kicked in the jaw.
I looked around and… something was wrong. Dust had collected in the corners of the room and there was no one to be seen. Not even in the observation booth that overlooked the room I was in. I headed for the door and looked out into the corridor. Nothing. Then I turned the other way and…
A pile of bones lay against the wall, as if some pony had collapsed on the floor and then been pushed sideways out of the way. And something was written on the wall over the long-decayed corpse.
I approached, horrified. As I came level with the message it became clear what it said.
‘THe CaKe IS a LIe’
I just stared at the wall, like some sort of twisted cat meme. I must have been there a full minute before I noticed the door next to the message.
‘Dr Ex Machina, R&D’
I quickly entered the room, anything to get away form that wall.
The office was much as you might expect one to be, filling cabinets lined the walls, a large wooden desk a comfy looking chair dominated the room. On the desk was a terminal and a long dead pot plant.
I logged into the terminal, which flickered badly as it synced up with the pipbuck built into my leg. I scrolled through the entries. There where only five entries after the date of my augmentation. I downloaded them onto my pipbuck, then popped open my leg to view the files.
Today we use the Equus Habilis augmentation for the first time! So many possibilities with this design, it boggles the mind. Will tell you more post-augmentation.
———
Fuck fuck fuck!
They did it, the bloody did it, those striped bitches fired megaspells at Equestria.
Power’s out, so of course the augmentation machine shut down and locked the subject in stasis. Everypony’s gone nuts, but don’t worry, we have plenty of food so we should be good until help comes.
Everything’s going to be fine.
Everything is not fine.
People have started leaving, it’s a radio-active winter out there and people are still leaving. They say that if we don’t find help we’ll starve to death.
Personally, I prefer starvation to radiation poisoning.
My assistant — Mis Rosebud — is having trouble. She’s not dealing with things well, it doesn’t help that that asshole Redcoat is devoting all his efforts to tormenting her to pass the time.
I just hope that someone will find us before any more of us leave.
Everypony’s gone.
They all left, it’s just me, Rosebud, and Redcoat now.
I’ve started trying to cobble together some sort of radio so we can get out a distress call, hopefully that will work.
At least it’ll keep me busy.
That asshole Redcoat! While I’ve been busy building the radio he’s been getting even worse with Rosebud, the pour dear’s falling apart. She just keeps mumbling about our food reserves, Redcoat is teasing her by telling her that there’s some cake somewhere and laughing when she races to try and find it.
I’m going to keep working on the radio, but I’ll do checkups to stop him form tormenting her.
Here’s hoping we get help soon.
I finished the radio.
It just played over and over again with distress calls, on every channel.
The whole world’s fucked.
No one’s coming, everyone has there own problems to deal with, we’re not worth it.
I must have sat there for a few hours, just listening. I forgot to check on Rosebud and Redcoat.
I found him, just outside my office. Looks like he finally pushed Rosebud to far, that or somepony else came in and ripped his throat out.
What am I talking about? Of course it was Rosebud, she even wrote ‘the cake is a lie’ on the bucking wall, in his blood.
I’m going to find her now, I don’t think it will end well.
I’m going to die here.
She’s going to die here.
Redcoat’s already died here.
I’m going to die.
Fuck.
I just stared at the text, total shock registered on my features.
“No…”
If the bombs fell… if everypony died…
“NO!”
I raced down the hall, terror granting me control of my cybernetic limbs.
“NO!”
Doorway after doorway flashed past me, If the bombs fell and everypony died, then you are alone…
“NO!”
Everything you know is gone…
“NO!”
You are alone.
“NO! NO! NO!”
I rushed for the main doors, ignoring the skeletons of two ponies apparently locked in a tight embrace. I threw open the doors and stepped out into the light.
“No…”
The world was ripped asunder, dead nothingness surrounded me, nothing. Nothing but wasteland. I collapsed.
“No…”
Footnote:
Achievement get!; I hope you like leather.
Welcome to the apocalypse.
Stats updated:
Ironmare; Augmentations are fun! +6 to damage resistance and strength, +4 to speed and agility, -60% damage form poison effects, -60% health regeneration form health effects, -60% alcohol and drug effects, E.M.P.s now cause stun effects.
Author's Note
Hey guys! my first attempt (and first draught) at a Fallout: Equestria side fic.
Please, for the love of Celestia, Critique me!
Also, I have a lot of ideas for latter in to the fic which I think people might enjoy. I find a story is always better once it's picked up momentum, which is why I sometimes skip the first few establishing episodes of a TV show. So please stick around, it'll get better I promise.
Seeya!
(Edit: added mention of E.F.S. to awakening seen, modified footnote)
“Stable ponies don’t no nothin’.”
I just sat and stared. Maybe I hyperventilated, I can’t remember. All I could see was emptiness and waste and death. I don’t know how long I sat there, but eventually I pulled myself off my plot and wondered off into the wasteland.
In retrospect, I should probably have scoured the Steelpony facility for recourses then and there, but alas, hindsight is 20-20. As it was, I just wandered off into the middle of nowhere with not so much as a responsible adult to aid me.
I must have walked for over an hour, because when I was finally interrupted, the sun had moved almost directly overhead. What had interrupted me was a shallow gully and a fairly sparse bush. I had encountered manny bushes over the course of my journey, but what made this one unique was the poorly concealed pony trying to hide behind it.
Excellent, so not everypony’s dead.
“Uhh… hello?”
The little pony squeaked adorably and tried to hide further behind the bush.
“Hey, you can come out,” I razed my hooves, “I promise I won’t hurt you.”
The mare extricated herself form the bush, brushing sticks form her pink mane and blue coat. This bright combination combined with my own mint hues made the two of us the most eye-catching things in the vicinity by a long shot. She seemed slightly embraced now that she was out of the shrubbery.
“Uh, hi.”
“Hello…” wow, this was awkward, “Uhh… why were you hiding in a bush?”
“I… ahem,” she coughed, “I herd you coming and there are supposed to be monsters outside, so I hid,” she looked back at the bush, “not very well obviously.”
“What do you mean ‘outside’? Also, what’s your name?” I queried.
“Oh, my name is Spark Smile, but everyone calls me Sparks,” she straitened up a bit, seemingly more comfortable with the conversation, “and I mean outside as in outside the stable, I’m form stable 17.”
“Ah, of course! The stables. I’ve been, well, asleep I guess since the bombs fell. So I was wondering could you tell me how long I’ve been out?” I thought back to the messages I had found on dr Ex Machina’s terminal, ignoring the rather odd look the unicorn was now giving me, “It must have been at leas a few months, maybe a year?”
“two hundred.”
“What?”
“two hundred years,” she said, still giving me that look, “It’s been two hundred years since the bombs fell.”
I sat back, stunned. Two hundred years! even if anypony you knew survived the bombs, they’re certainly all dead now, they’re all dead. All of them.
“Hey, are you okay?” Sparks was looking at me with concern.
“I…” I pulled myself together, “I’m fine, I’m fine.”
“Okayyy…” now she was looking at me confusedly, “why’d you ask about the bombs? I thought everypony knew when that was?”
“I… didn’t.”
“Why?”
I told her.
“Uh, wow. That’s amazing.”
“Yeah, I suppose it is pretty far fetched now that I think about it.” I sat down next to her, “so what’s your story?”
“I got in a fight.”
“Really?”
“Yeah, I’ve been saying for ages that the world outside the stable can’t be as bad as everypony says it is, and I’ve been campaigning for us to send someone out here to take a look. The ponies in my stable are scared of the outside, two centuries locked underground with no outside information does that to ponies. So this morning I had a big fight with some ponies and left. Our overmare’s a real pushover, so I just shouted at her until she gave me the exit code,” she shrugged, “it was her counsel that shot down my petitions.”
We sat there for a moment.
“So, what do we do now?”
“I think we should follow the gully,” Sparks said, “unless you have a better idea?”
I got off my plot, “Nope, let’s go!”
* * *
It was early afternoon when we finally found signs of civilisation, if you could call it that. The town consisted of a main street, with maybe four buildings flanking it. And then we saw the ponies.
The mediocre population of ‘Guttersnipe’ as my mini-map called it, were packing more weaponry than I had ever seen on any non-military pony. Combine this with a selection of faces that would be at home on a wanted poster, and this place immediately took priority on the ‘dangerous shit-hole’ list. Understandably, Sparks was a bit concerned.
“Uh, maybe we should wait till the next town.”
I sighed, “probably, but I’ve been walking for at least four and a half hours and this is the firs sign of civilisation I’ve seen so far. I don’t think we’ll be in to much danger as long as we don’t stop to talk,” I spied something in the town, “also, I think there’s someone down there willing to talk to us.”
“Really? Why do you say that?”
I grinned, “there’s a pub.”
* * *
It is a well known fact that any bartender worth his ale can talk the hind leg off a donkey, and any publican distinctly NOT worth his over-priced beer believes his is the final word on any and all subjects under Celestia’s sun. With these facts in mind, Guttersnipe’s one and only tapster should be primed and ready to become a veritable fountain of information on our new surroundings. His customers on the other hand…
We had gotten a few odd and suspicious looks on the way in, and it seemed the only thing that stopped that form happening in here was the thick smoke that encircled the lights in the ceiling. Dimming the room enough that we could go relatively un-noticed.
We carefully mad our way to the bar, taking two empty stools right down the end. The barkeeper — as if sensing new customers — appeared almost immediately before us.
“So, lades, what can I get you?” he had a smile that would take home gold, and probably everypony’s wallets, “wine? ale? sandwich? coltfrend?” he eyed us momentarily,
“unless of course you’re…”
“What? No! We’re not… I’m not…” Sparks gesticulated between us wildly.
“Shame,” I sad, earning a sharp look form Sparks and a laugh form the barkeeper. Mark one for diplomacy.
“Right, so what can I get you for real this time?” he didn’t get the chance to her our reply, because a shout of ‘More Beer!’ from half way up the bar distracted him.
Once he had returned, he said; “Right, so NOW what can I get you? Name’s Watered Down by the way.”
“Sparks,” said Sparks “and this is Lyra, and what you can get us is information.”
“Oh?” he said, eyes lighting up, “what kind of information?”
“Any kind, really. You see, I just got out of my stable and-”
“Ah-ha! I knew it!” he interrupted, “I had you pegged as stable ponies form the first time I saw you.”
He leaned in a little, “so you would’t know anything about the wasteland would you?”
“Nope,” I interjected, “Nothing.”
His eyes gleamed, “I think that I’ll be able to help you with that.”
No doubt he would have continued, but his duties at the bar called him away again.
* * *
“…and that is why we use bottle caps for currency.”
It was a good hour later, Watered Down had told us — between calls for more beer, more booze, and still more beer — about the events of the previous month and about how ponies now used bottle caps for currency. I wasn’t sure how much I believed though, how on earth could a pony survive a direct hit from a bailfire bomb?
“Actually, now that that’s out of the way, there’s something I’d like you to do for me.”
He straitened up and took on a businesslike air, “Now I’d imagine that you’d like to sleep somewhere tonight, and I can help you there. You see, I own some rooms that I’d love to rent to you, but judging by the fact that I just had to explain caps to you you don’t have any.” He tapped his chin thoughtfully, “so instead, I have a job for you. If you deliver a message to some ponies not far form here, I’ll give you someplace to sleep and maybe even some food too. The area around here’s not to dangerous so you’ll be fine without weapons.”
My eyebrow rose, “then why do they have those?” I gestured to the large amount of ordinance that occupied the pub.
He shrugged, “they’re just paranoid.”
“So why do you have that?” Sparks pointed at the pistol strapped to the stallion’s own chest.
He laughed, “incase they get a bit too paranoid.”
I nodded, “So what’s the message?”
* * *
Five minutes later, me and Sparks where trotting along towards the meeting place. Watered Down had even been kind enough to give us a saddlebag so we didn’t have to levitate the letter with us all the way.
“So, what do you think of the world outside?” I asked as we walked.
“It’s… defiantly worse than I thought,” she looked up at the sky, “but it’s not as bad as it could have been.” She turned to me, “But what about you? You just lost everything, even more totally than I have, I can’t imagine what that must be like.”
“It was bad at first…” I consulted the sky as well, “I just sort of snapped, I probably would have kept walking if I hadn’t run into you. But this place? It’s so different, after the initial shock it’s a bit hard to believe it’s the same place.” I looked down at my hooves, “besides, it’s not as if it’s the first time I’ve had to deal with loss recently.”
Sparks was probably about to ask what I meant by that, but we were interrupted by three ponies who had been sitting behind some rocks that were our destination.
Two wore scrappy barding and carried guns, but the third wore higher quality armor and carried a large piece of concrete stuck on the end of a rebar.
“Uh, hello!” Sparks said, “We have the message!”
Rebar shifted slightly, “You’re coming with us.”
“Um, no, were just here to deliver a message,” she started reaching for the saddlebag.
Two shotguns were levelled at us, “No,” rebar repeated, “You’re coming, with, us.” A smile twisted his features, “welcome to slavery.”
He jerked his head at the other two, “Collar ‘em.”
One of the goons sheathed his weapon, leaving the other to cover him. He approached us, sliding two collars out of his saddlebags.
“What? NO!” Sparks backed up quickly, but the remaining shotgun rounded on her.
“Stand still or I’ll blow your brains out your ears!”
Sparks froze, eyes fixed with terror on the shotgun barrel prodding her in the muzzle.
Collars chuckled as he approached me, “now hold still deary,” he whispered.
What am I gonna do? Whatamigonnado? Whatamigonnadowhatamigonnadowhatamigonnad-
The world froze.
My flailing brain must have hit something right, because the world now floated by as if stuck in frozen treacle. Areas of collars’s body glowed, and a tag reading ‘S.A.T.S, Stable-Tec Arcane Targeting Spell’ was displayed in the corner of my vision.
SATS? what is… oh. I thought as I remembered one of the little tidbits I had picked up about Stable-Tec’s pipbucks. So that should mean…
I focused on collars’s head, it glowed, and a tag reading ‘98%’ showed up next to it. That’ll work! I queued up the attack and fired.
My hoof — guided by the spell — curled swiftly through the air and hit him in the jaw.
Now, I have no doubt that some of you will have seen what it looks like to be hit by a ball or maybe even to be punched in slow motion. But believe me when I say that that is NOTHING in comparison to the effect of a pony's entire jaw shattering as it folds around the hoof impacting it.
Collars fell back, apparently choking on his own muzzle which had folded in on itself under my onslaught. His companions yelled in surprise and shotgun levelled his at me, firing at my side.
His shot went wild, but he was still only a few feet away and some of the pellets hit my back. It didn’t do any real damage, but it hurt like hell and I screamed as I leapt at him. Sparks shrieked and jumped to the side as me and the slaver both went down with me on top. I swung wildly at his head, connecting with his temple. I had no idea wether killed him or just knocked him out, but I had no time to think about that as I turned and rebar swung his weapon at me. It connected with a sickening crunch, shattering the only bone in my body not mechanically re-enforced.
My horn.
Footnote:
Achievement get!: Party for two
Start a party with one other person.
Achievement get!: Landmark
Mark a new location on your map.
Achievement get!: Small goals
Accept a side quest form a quest giver.
Achievement get!: New neighbours
Encounter a raider and/or slaver.
No updates to stats.
