Fallout Equestria: And None Shall Follow

Next morning and we got ready to move. I reorganized my pack, leaving Short Claws a few items i thought he could use. He was going to take a day or two to pack up necessities, then head out for the storage facility. We on the other hand, had a couple days journey ahead of us. Thankfully, most of it was going to be though nowhere much, just empty wasteland. That should help keep us safer from most of the wastelands unfriendly denizens. Might encounter some wildlife, but not much else. We bid our goodbyes to Short Claws and headed for Manehatten. The first few hours of travel were uneventful and silent. I spent it in thought. I had a goal of sorts, try and be better. Forge had been right, I had spent most of our time together treating Flux no better then a tool, something to be used until you threw it away. And Short Claws was also right, the main reason I cared was because he did. And I should be better then that.

Now I was coming to realize that I knew practically nothing about this kid, just that he was a vault dweller and good with computers. All that time together, and I had just found out his name days ago. I didn't even know why he stuck with me. I had been a jerk since the moment we met. Heck, if the kid had anywhere else to go, he probably would have just left me, but he had been stuck with me of all equines. And thinking back, I realized how odd it was that the trip to Short Claws shack had been such a silent one. If I had been paying attention to it, I might have realized sooner how badly the kid had been hurting. I had not been such the good equine that I had thought, I had hurt those that I now tried to consider friends, and I didn't know how to go about fixing it. The only thing I could think to do was try.

"So, how are you doing kid." I sighed, looking back to where he trotted just behind me. He looked a bit surprised, after all, it wasn't like I had cared much how he fared before.

"Um, I'm OK. We haven't been moving to long." Was his reply.

"No, not that. How are you handling shooting... him." I finally said, not daring to remind the kid the Jack he shot was someone I knew.

He froze, and I had taken several steps forward before I stood to see what was wrong. He looked both scared and sad as he looked at me. "I'm so sorry." He whimpered.

i was caught completely off guard. Great, he did realize, at least a little, how much it affected me. But I couldn't let what he did to me affect him this much. "Its OK." I said, cautiously putting a hoof around him. I wasn't good at this. Heck, I was a loner by choice before it became... not so much by choice. But I had to be better, and this was part of being better.

"But.... I shot him." Flux whimpered, tears starting to leak down his cheeks. "I know you were excited to meet another donkey. You were so surprised when you met. And I liked Gem, she was nice... and I shot her dad." Tears coursed down his face. "I didn't mean to it just happened! But now he's dead."

"Look Flux." I sighed, moving to look him in the eye. "It was an accident. You didn't mean to. I don't blame you for it." Actually, I was starting to blame myself. If I had just instructed him better about firearms, Forge might still be alive.

"But, what about Gem? We left her behind, and she doesn't have a dad anymore." He asked.

I froze. I hadn't given the little filly a thought since we had to flee. Once again I was forced to realize how cold a person the wasteland had made me. I had left a defenseless filly in a slaver compound without a thought. Now, there was nothing we could do. She was probably off for sale already. But then, I was about to have plenty of caps, and a bright pink mule shouldn't be that hard to track. "We're gonna go get her." I told Flux. "As soon as we get back from Tenpony."

.....

We traveled on. The trip to Manehatten was rather uneventful. The kids face at seeing the massive ruins stretching out before us was priceless. Well, it was, by far, the largest city he had ever seen. Well, Fillydelphia might have been about as large, but when you spent most of your time trying to sneak through it, you didn't notice so much of the vast architecture. In Manehatten, we still moved with caution, but not nearly the level that had been necessary in Filly. Flux kept gazing up at the massive buildings in awe, despite the fact that most of them were swiftly crumbling ruins. We stopped in a few places to scrounge in the ruins, but before long we quit. We were to close to Tenpony, and everything useful had been taken long ago, likely for trade in the tower.

However, just as the tower came into sight, I had to grab the kid and dive into the half caved-in entrance to a nearby skyscraper. Overhead an Alicorn flew by, heading towards Tenpony. We stayed there, frozen for a long minute, before peering out. It had gone, but before we went any nearer the tower, I insisted on getting a better view of anything that may lay between us and the tower. I had never even heard of an Alicorn near tenpony before, and I was feeling a little spooked. We climbed around inside the tallest skyscaper ruin nearby, the inside so looted that I didn't bother. Finally, I found a set of barely-intact windows that gave a stunning view of tenpony. Or more accurately, what surrounded it. Red Eye had laid siege to Tenpony. I had no idea the buck thought he was powerful enough to take the place, but apparently he did. The place was surrounded by camps raising his banners. Worse, i spotted Alicorns flying in the sky above. Oh, ballerina bison, Red Eye had freaking alicorns on his side?

Well, we were not getting into Tenpony. Not now. We headed down the skyscraper and moved back the way we had come, moving with extreme caution. If Red Eye caught us now... We got away from the Tenpony area but darkness started to fall before we had left the city. We bunked down for the night in the second floor of a skyscraper, heading out again at dawn, focusing on putting distance between us and Red Eyes forces. We were leaving skyscrapers behind us by noon, swiftly approaching the vast stretches of what had once been suburbs. Then, we stopped to rest and think.

We needed someplace to lay low until Red-Eye either conquered Tenpony or was forced out. The later I thought more likely. Red-Eye was strong, and with Alicorn's on his side, it would be one huge mess of a fight, but Tenpony had the funds to hire most of the mercenaries in the wasteland, and enough tech to get even the steel rangers on their side. So hopefully I wouldn't have to find another buyer. But where could we hide when half the wasteland was probably looking for us? Best I could figure out was to find a place to lay low for a while, until ponies forgot about us. But where the heck would I do that? Somewhere far away from Red-Eyes, that was for certain. I would have gone back to the storage facility, but if someone spotted us anywhere near their, it could be bad. But I also needed somewhere relatively close, at least for now, until I could figure out what to do next. And I did know one place that might work...

"Well, ever been to Neighagra falls?" I asked the kid, changing course.

.....

Neighagra falls was located a few days walk east of Manehatten. Before the war, it was a tourist spot, and had a small hydroelectric plant that sent power back to Manehatten. No megaspell had been directly targeted here, but the aftershocks of nearby megaspells had damaged the hydroelectric plant, and the waters were radioactive. Some enterprising ponies had repaired parts of the plant, and a small community powered by it sat on the lip of the falls, surviving by selling riverlurk meat and ice cold beverages. Hey, it was the only refrigeration between here and the few working sparkle cola machines after all. But I wasn't headed to the village. It wasn't much, but the steel rangers came through from time to time, as tech that needed power to work often made its way there. Instead, I headed to the base of the falls. Flux followed, gaping at the view of the majestic waterfall above us.

The base of the falls was completely uninhabited. The spray from the falls was radioactive, and the rocks and earth around the falls had soaked it up over the years. As such, nopony could stay in the area for long periods of time. Me and fluxed dossed a rad-x, and headed into the mists at the base of the falls. Here, we were invisible, hidden my the mist and fog. But we couldn't stay here, even with rad-x a few hours would be fatal. No, we headed straight for the base of the waterfall. A few years ago I had been helping hunt mirelurks for a few caps, and had been shown this. It was a large pipe, set into the base of the falls. Apparently it was some sort of emergency release in case of an accident in the hydroelectric plant. Now though, it was an entrance into an unused portion of the plant.

Inside the pipe was damp, and covered in radioactive moss. I climbed up until I came to an access door. Inside we found the unrecoverable portion of the hydroelectric plant. It had flooded with radioactive water, and I had to check for loose mirelurks before I let Flux follow. The usable portion of the plant was up several floors. The only ponies that ever came down this low were looking for replacement parts for the one generator they got working. Down here was to much of a lost cause to bother with. Where we were headed though, was further in, and down several dank hallways. Finally, at the far back of the plant, we reached an old storage closet. Inside it, Flux's pipbuck finally stopped clicking with radiation, and I handed him a radaway.

"Where is this?" He asked as he gulped it down. We dripped radioactive water all over the dry floor, and I started toweling off with an old utility jumpsuit, then offered it to him.

"Just some closet." I told him. "Not sure why, but its the only part of the plant down here that's shielded from enough of the radiation to be habitable. Found it when helping the ponies here find some parts. Had a gigercounter at the time that let me know its safe in here."

"So... what are we doing here?" He asked.

"Well, I cached supplies here for a few weeks." I said. "Have several caches all over in case I ever need to dissapear for a while. No one knows were here, and with luck, after no one spots us for a while, they'll forget to look for us. Well, except those steel ranger idiots, they never forget crap like that."

"So, we are just going to sit around for a weeks and hope everything blows over?" He asked.

"Yup." I confirmed. I went about setting up camp, which mainly consisted of shutting the door, rolling out the sleeping pad, and setting up a hot plate for warm food. Then I sat back to wait. And wait, and wait. "Well, this is boring." I finally admitted after an hour or so.

"No, really?" The kid asked from where he was practicing standing on his head against one wall.

I sighed. "Well..." I tried to think of something to do. I was comming up with nothing. Man, I really wasn't good at this waiting around, doing nothing stuff. "We could talk." I said at last.

Flux looked at me like I was losing my mind. Well, I was deviating a lot from my standard treatment of him in the past. "I don't have any questions from you saved up." He said suspiciously.

"Yeah," I sighed. "Enough, just... lets just talk, ok? No more question trading."

Now he was looking at me like I had two heads. "Are you... feeling alright?" he asked cautiously.

I sighed and put my head in my hooves. Great, now he thought I was going crazy. "Look, Forge..." I cringed as Flux flinched at his name. "He... called me out on how I was treating you worse then a slave." I saw Flux open his mouth to protest, and I held out a hoof. "Look, he was right. I've been a jerk to everypony I've met for years, and I saw where that leads. I don't want to be that kind of person anymore." I looked him in the eye. "So, no more question trading, no more treating you like dirt, ok?"

"Um, ok." He said, looking confused as heck. "Does... does this mean you want to be... friends?"I nodded, and his ears perked up a little. "Well, ok, if we are going to be friends, we have to get to know each other." He said a little to happily.

'Um, I guess." I said. This was all to knew to me. But the kid had been traveling with me for weeks, what could he still need to know?

"So, where are you from?" He asked curiously. "You already know where I'm from."

Oh, thats what he wanted to know. He must have known something was wrong from my face, as his smile began to fade. "Bray." I finally sighed. "I was from Bray."

"Oh." was all he said for a long moment. "What happened?" He finally asked after a while.

"Its a long story." I said softly.

"Well, we have time." He said. "But you don't have to..."

"Flux, its not a happy story." I said. "Look, I'll tell you sometime, but not now."

I couldn't tell him now. Telling him now meant talking about Forge. Flux didn't need to know about Forge, didn't need to know he might have been my last hope. The kid was dealing with enough knowing he killed someone. Knowing he might have been partially responsible for the death of an entire species... well, it would destroy him. So for a long while, we just sat in silence. After a bit, I just lay down to sleep. After a little while, I felt Flux curl himself up against me. For once, I didn't kick him away. I just lay there, waiting for sleep, trying to enjoy the feeling of, for once, not being so alone.

...

Next day, I enjoyed the luxury of simply sleeping as long as I wanted. I figure if we had to wait around, might as well treat it like... what was that pre-war word? Right, vacation. Even in the wasteland, I got up with the sun. Mainly so nothing snuck up on me. But we were in a secure room, in an abandoned area of an old power plant, far back in a maze of corridors, with a mine in front of the door. So for once I took the opportunity to sleep. However, eventually, I awoke, and after eating, had to find something else to do. For once, Flux wasn't asking any questions, and I finally got tired of reorganizing my pack saddle for the tenth time.

"So, what was your stable like?" I finally asked Flux. I really had been curious about this. Heck, I had heard tons of stories about the crazy experiments the stables had been built to carry out. True, he hadn't seemed to be aware of any experiments in his, but after living your whole life in one, how would you tell?

"Um..." Was the kids reply. He had to think about it for a while. "It was... safe." He finally said. "Um, well, you know, no one tried to kill me. I went to school, ate apples from our orchard, and..." His words drifted off, and he stared at the wall, trying to keep me from seeing the tears in his eyes.

"And had friends, family." I said, realizing what was wrong. I put a hoof around him. "Hey, its ok, you don't have to say any more."

"No." He shook his head. "You told me your story, you get to hear mine." He took a deep breath, and went on. "My dad was... is head of security. My mom's a nurse. We lived in the living quarters nearest the medical center. My best friend was Ion Storm, he got his cutie mark two weeks before I got out. He's the one who dared me to try and hack the stable door. I knew he thought I never would be able to do it. When it opened, he tried to tell me to just shut it, but I took Ice Dreams dare to go out." Seeing my look, he explained. "She's a year older then me, but no cutie mark. Always could make everypony do what she wants." He trailed off again, then muttered, "I guess I'll never... they think I'm dead. And I'm not going to see them again, am I?"

I turned his head to face me. "Kid, you managed to hack your way through some of the best security old equestria had. We've managed to get our way into one of the most secure facilities in the wasteland. Trust me kid, we can find a way to get you back into your stable."
"You really think so?" He asked, giving a half-hearted smile.

"Yeah. Hey, we can always blow the door off if nothing else." I said. Somehow, he didn't look relieved at this. I figured I should probably get his mind off the possibilities of ever seeing his family again. "So, do you know how to play poker?"

.....

A few days later, and I had taught the kid every card game I knew. He had actually seemed more impressed by my ability to play with cards, thanks to a strange device that strapped to my hoof I bought in New Pegas, then the games. Now, he was teaching me something called "Go Fish".

"Have any threes?" He asked.

"Go Fish."

"You lying! you took mine three turns ago!"

"You didn't say it was against the rules!"

"Of course it is!"

"Isn't"

"Is!"

"Isn't"

He stood and stamped a forefoot in frustration, and then kicked backwards at a lone mop bucket that we had used for... Business. Oddly enough, instead of falling over and making a mess, the bucket simply tilted to an impossible angle, halting with a "click". We stared, then turned as, with a series of clicks and a rusty groan, the metal shelf at the side wall swung back, revealing a staircase leading deeper into the plant. Me and the kid stared at each other in shock.

"Oh, you have got to be kidding me." I groaned. Like I hadn't stumbled across enough old equestrian secrets that probably should have stayed buried. I knew I should leave it. This sort of thing had gotten me into enough trouble. I already had half the wasteland after us, and who knew what kind of deathtrap was waiting down there. But years of having to scavenge for every hard earned cap, along with a fair bit of natural curiosity, wouldn't just let me walk away, not yet. There could be anything down there, and I couldn't help but wonder how many caps that anything would be worth. It really wasn't much of a fight to abandon the idea of just leaving it. Heck, even Flux was already poking his head inside the hidden passage, peering into the dark.

With a sigh, I got up, put on the packsaddle, and stepped into the newly revealed hidden passage. The stairs winded down into darkness, turn after turn on the odd staircase. The kids pipbuck light showed us the way down. The first couple sets of stairs were clear of all but dust. Then we passed the first skeleton. It was dressed in a lab coat, and had a badge identifying it... him, as researcher Jolt. I took his badge and clipped it on. These things did tend to be useful. We passed a couple more skeletons, before reaching what would have been a locked door at the bottom of the stairs. It had a keypad next to it, I assume to open it. However, a skeleton was trapped in the doorway, preventing it from shutting. I carefully stepped over the remains, and through the door. Then froze. A sentinel bot whirled around, pointing a missile launcher at me. Its sensor scanning me over.

"Welcome back researcher Jolt." It buzzed, before turning away. Yup, always pick up the badges. I shakily began moving forwards again. Beyond the door, I entered what appeared to be... the color pink. I had to blink several times as Flux's pipbuck light illuminated what had to be the single pinkest room in Equestria. The walls, floor, and even ceiling were pink, along with all the furniture. If it wasn't so pink, I would have thought it to be a lab of some sort. The furnishings, while pink, where about what you would expect in a laboratory. Long counters with various electronic components lay about the room, and I could see several dead terminals, all pink. Several large terminal modems were along one wall, the others bearing posters that I had seen all over the wasteland, but now went a long way towards explaining this place. Pinkie pie was watching me, forever.

So, it was a ministry of morale... not hub, secret lab? Why on earth would the ministry of morale need a secret lab? We wandered into the room, passing the rows of counters full of electronics. I recognized a couple things as spritebot components, but they had been modified from what I was familiar with. Prototypes maybe? I found a very pink door at one end of the first room and cautiously stepped through. It was a kitchen. A massive kitchen, painted, what else, pink. Huge ovens dominated the rear wall, and I could see large doors for walk-in pantries and freezers hanging open, the food inside long rotted away. Although further inspection showed that a pantry had a whole shelf of canned goods. For now though, I wanted to clear this... whatever this place was before filling my pack saddle.

The door leading from the kitchen was locked. It was barely even an issue, a quick twist of a bobby pin and it popped open. Inside, Flux's light illuminated a wonder. The room had once been used for, apparently, creating different birthday cards. Card paper, ribbons, and various other crafting supplies were stacked on counters all around the room. However, you barely would notice them compared to the walls. They had once been the universal pink that dominated the facility. But someone with a lot of time and a fair bit of talent had changed that. The walls had all been turned into one giant art piece. Ponies frolicked on grass, buffalo roamed across a desert landscape, and deer hid among a stylized forest. I walked around the room, following the mural as it wound around the walls. Looking up, I realized that the mural even extended to the ceiling, where a smile Princess Celestia posed with the sun on the tip of her horn. The only piece of the room with the original pink paint was its single door.

through the door the murals continued across what was a very pink laboratory, different from the first, though I was so busy looking at the art it took me a moment to realize what was so different. Brains, organs, in jars all over the lab. A bunch of those brain bots I had occasionally had to fight to get good loot in places were scattered all over, some mostly disassembled on tables, others scattered about the room as if on guard, except they to were missing parts and only one was still functional. It tried to whirl to face us, but its motor functions had apparently been to damaged from missing parts. I just stayed out from range of any fire it might still be able to send our way, and continued through the room. The mural got darker, the pictures fading into night under the watchful gaze of Luna on the ceiling. Pony's slept and stargazed, batponies... were those a thing? flew and worked. But near the door out of this room, I noticed something odd. The paintings were loosing colors, some shades from earlier were missing completely, and I could see several parts where a ponies color had been changed, apparently when the original color ran out midway through painting it. I stepped through the next door, curious to where this would lead. The mural here was composed largely of reds and blacks. I saw the war. Ponies and zebra's fought, bled, and died. In the background, ponies marched into factories that belched black smoke into the sky. As we continued, more and more colors became missing, until we reached the final part, where a massive megaspell blast, finished in a charcoal scratching, annihilating everything. We looked at it, this history of what had been Equestria in mural form for a long moment. Then, behind us, someone spoke up.

"Oh my gosh, oh my gosh, oh my gosh!" A voice thrilled out behind us. I jumped, spinning around. In the corner, blending in against the pink remaining in that wall, was a brainbot. However, it was unlike any brainbot I had ever seen. It was built much more ponylike then the others, and instead of treads, it had four almost equine legs. It was also the same pink as the rest of the facility, with a logo of three ballons where a cutie mark would be on a pony. Its brain was located on the top of a vaguely ponylike head, the voice emmiting from a speaker about where the mouth should be, shaped into a large grin. The whole thing was exceptionally creepy. But the weirdest thing was the fact it spoke. Brain bots could say a few programed commands, the animal brains they used incapable of more. But this one was off-script. It even had the voice of a mare, instead of the usual genderless computerized voice. Heck, it was almost like it was a pony... oh, no, they wouldn't....

The brainbot was literally leaping for joy. "Oh my gosh! We survived! I knew it!" It danced around us, and I kept my aim on it. This was wrong, this was so very wrong. Then, the brainbot picked me up in a hug, spinning me around in the air as I squealed in shock. "Oh I knew the megaspells couldn't have gotten everypony!" The brainbot squealed, releasing me to fall on my rump. I backed away quickly. "Oh, curse this emotional inhibitor, I could cry if I didn't need to be so cheerful!" The bot said, much to cheerfully.

"Are you a pony?" Flux asked curiously. He hadn't caught on yet obviously.

"Oh yes!" The bot said, bouncing in place. "Or, well, I was! Head Card Crafter Paint Splatter, at your service!" The brainbot, uh, Paint Splatter, gave a graceful bow before bouncing to its... hooves? What did you call metal limbs that bent in every direction? Heck, they looked like they had been made of the arm limbs, without the pincers or weaponry.

"I though they only used animal brains in brainbots." I said, feeling a bit sick. Oh sparkly alicorn farts, they couldn't have really...

"Oh they did!" Paint Splatter said cheerfully. "But I had an itty bitty accident with the rejected card shredder, so they took me and put me in this lovely brainbot!" Seriously, how could anypony be this cheerful about something like that. "Then miss Pinkie Pie said I could be there very special first prototype party brainbot! I even got fitted out with twin party cannon mounts!" Two large blue cannons extended out the side, and I hit the floor seconds before they fired. A huge cloud of confetti drifted down over me, and the remains of what two hundred years ago must have been a cake dripped down the far wall. "Oppsy! Can't always control that!" The bot said happily. "anyway, I had a few oppsies, and miss Pinkie sent me back here! That's were I got this lovely cheerfulness chip, keeps me nice and happy. Won't let me have any oppsies like crying, or asking to die!" Even Flux blanced at that. I couldn't blame him. No wonder she was so cheerful. She literally had no choice in the matter. "So, may I ask what you lovely ponies are doing here. I'm so happy to see anyone, but I'm programed to say that this is a secret facility, and unauthorized personnel must vacate. Of course, they forgot to program me not to tell you that I can't leave the area around this room, so if you wont stay I can't make you."

Well, this was probably a very bad idea, but no way was I leaving anyone in this hell. "Ok Paint Splatter, can you tell me how to access this um, cheerfulness chip?" I asked.

"Oh, I am sorry, but I can't divulge secrets about my construction or programming to anyone but a certified maintenance technician." She responded. I would swear if she didn't have to be so cheerful that she sounded sad about that.

"Oh, well Flux is a certified maintenance technician!" I lied, pushing the startled looking foal over.

The bot paused, apparently searching its programming to figure out what to do about this. "Hmm, they forgot to program in how I was to tell who is a certified maintenance technician." It said, seeming genuinely cheerful for once. Flux moved up to it, and the bot began instructing him in what panels to remove and where to plug in his pipbuck. It was compatible it seemed. While he worked on freeing the poor... well, pony I guess, I looked around at the room we were in. It appeared to be an office of some sort. A large pink desk sat in the middle of the room, with a still functional terminal. I checked out the desk first, and just found balloons and confetti, of all things. The terminal was locked, I would have to have Flux look at him when he was done with Paint Splatter.

It took about fifteen minutes, but finally Flux stopped working at its programming, and popped out a small chip from its side. "There, that should do it!" He called out to it.

The bot looked around, and its voice crackled to life again. "You blew it up, you blew it all up! You bastards!" It screamed. Flux jumped back, and I took aim. Yup, it really had been a bad idea. Before I could fire though, the bot started jumping around the room again, this time apparently really happy. "I can curse again! I can be unhappy again!" It, well, her, cried. My word, she really was a pony in there, wasn't she? She turned, quicker then any pony could, and gave both me and Flux a huge hug. "Oh thank you, thank you!" Putting us down, the lights on her brain dome, formally pink, turned blue. "Oh, but tell me, what happened? I haven't seen anypony for two hundred years. Did they... did they really fire the megaspells?" She asked. I could only nod. She seemed to practically deflate in front of me. "So, they really are all gone..." Her voice said lowly. I had a feeling that if she had a face, she would be crying about now. Two hundred years alone, never knowing what happened to everyone.... my word, it was a small miracle she was still sane.

"What is this place?" I asked her.

"Ministry of morale special project testing facility." She said automatically. "I worked here testing out card designs, before my... accident." Her speakers sighed. "Then they put my brain in this.. thing. Said I could still help give freaking "Joy to Equestria.". Couldn't understand when I told them they should have just let me die instead. So they sent me hear to "Fix" my attitude. Then something happened outside, guess that was the megaspells hitting. The ovens got damaged and released toxic gas, and everyone ran. I was stuck here. No one came back."

"And you did the murals?" I asked.

"Yes," She said, sounding slightly cheered at my interest. "After the first decade, I needed something to help keep me sane. I was an artist after all. I had plenty of spare parts I could scavenge from the other brainbots they were working on to keep me running, and am programed against self-termination, but even I knew if I just kept reorganizing the office for eternity, I would go crazy. The card creation lab had plenty of paints, so I started my mural. I had intended for it to show the entire history of Equestria since its founding, but when I realized no one was coming back... I decided to show what Equestria once was. The best and brightest moments, show what life had been like, not the huge events, but the everyday."

I looked around the room around us, at its dark tone, and its finality of the megaspell. She must have seen my gaze. "Yes. This room is different. I... I had to be cheerful. But... even with that I needed a way to express something more... negative. So I painted everything wrong, everything dark and evil in the world, I put it all on these walls." I could swear that she actually shuddered as she looked around the room. "Could we... maybe talk in one of the other rooms?" She said at last. I nodded, and we moved into the next lab. She put a metal limb to the end of the mural, where colors had apparently run out. "I only regret that the paints ran out before I could finish my masterpiece. Though I suppose no one will bother to come see it." Her head turned to face me. Well, I guess it did, the only thing I had to judge where she was facing was that mouthpiece after all. "So, what has become of Equestria in two hundred years?" she asked.

I thought for a moment about how to put it to her. She had been down here for two hundred years after all, she wouldn't have a clue what had happened. Heck, Equestria had still existed when she had been trapped down here. "Its... not like when you left it." I said at last. "The megaspells changed a lot. Radiation and taint have poisoned a lot of it, and after the pegasi closed the sky, we don't really get a lot of sun."
"Wait, closed off the sky?" She asked. I explained. If she would have had a face, she would have looked shocked. So was Flux. Come to think of it, we hadn't talked about that. "Wow, I knew the pegasi were angry about the war, but to just seal themselves off... I never would have thought.... Well, I expected radiation, but what is this... taint?"

"I wondered about that to." Flux pipped up. "I never heard of taint in the stable."

Well, taint is... well, no one really knows." I admitted. " But it spread all over after the war. Can't detect it, but stay far away from that stuff. Taint, well, taints things. Mutates everything it touches. Heck, its the reason the diamond dogs became hellhounds." That led to me explaining to Paint Splatter about Hellhounds.

"So, its dangerous out there?" Paint Splatter asked after some consideration.

"Um, yes, you could say that." I admitted. "You are probably going to need an upgrade on weaponry if you intend to go out for any length of time. Confetti and ancient cake wont cut it."

Paint Splatter paused for a while. I guessed she was thinking. It was rather hard to tell, due to the lack of face. "I would like to leave." She admitted. "Two hundred years is a long time to be stuck here. But... where would somepony like me go? My parents are long dead, I was fortunate enough to not be in a relationship when all this" she gestured at herself, "happened. What am I to do now?"

I didn't even have to think. "You can come with us." I said. Flux looked up at me, surprised. I assume Paint Splatter did the same, but again, I couldn't tell what she felt, though her brain lights turned white for a moment.

"Why would you want me?" She asked at last.

I shrugged. "Um... well..." I stuttered. "Uh, I guess, because you don't have anywhere to go." I sighed. "Look, its a long story, but the short version is that I'm a greedy jerk trying to be a better person. And you need help. So... you want to come?"

She seemed to take a moment to process this. "Where would we be going?" She asked at last.

"Um, not a clue." I admitted. "Until Tenpony isn't under siege, were mainly just trying to keep a low profile. She of course, asked about that, and I summed up. "Big tower, full of rich ponies we are going to sell... stuff to. Its under siege, and were waiting for them to win. Until then, bad ponies are kind of after us."

"Oh." Was all she said. She seemed to be thinking for a long moment. "My... sister." She said at last. "I know she's long dead, but... she only lived a short ways south. She was expecting just a few months after... my accident. They never told her what happened from what I can tell. Could we... I just want to see if anythings left."

Well, it wasn't like we had a better plan. "Ok, if you can wait a day or two, we'll go with you."

"Well, I would like to be out as soon as possible, but if you need the time, I will wait." She agreed.

Level Up!

Perk added: Getting out of your shell: Your newfound semi-openess grants you +1 charisma.

Companion Perk added: Robotics level 1: You now have a 25% chance to sucessfully hack robots. Hey, why should the main character be the only one to get a perk?