The Vault Dweller: A Fallout in Equestria Story

Chapter 7: The Party!

Brass Cup, or Brassie to her friends, looked at the old engine leftover from before the war. That pony Cream Pie had explained to several of them how having a working train engine would benefit the entire town. They could set up shipping lanes, cover large distances, even get new trade that they wouldn’t have before. Of course she knew all of that. The Minotaur walked around it a few times before she crawled up into the engineer’s spot and looked at the train itself.

Her father had taught her how to work with engines like this. He’d been one of the original designers of the Iron Vulture, a giant airship that, as far as she knew, was still somewhere in the sky acting as a trading post for anypony that could reach it. Of course that airship worked off of mana batteries, and that meant finding Unicorns that could charge those batteries. That hadn’t been too hard. Of course the reason she wasn’t on there was because the gryphon that helped him had turned on him.

She had barely escaped, but she remembered how her father had stayed and fought to give her the time and chance to get away. She wasn’t sure where the Iron Vulture was, but she did want to see Geist pay for what he did. She desperately wanted to see that smug bastard taken down a notch or two. Of course it would take someone crazy, lucky, and strong to do it. In truth she had hoped that the first Stable Dweller would have done it for her. But it seemed that she just missed the Vulture’s location. But this Stable Dweller that was here, well, there was certainly the chance that he could do it.

She climbed out of the train engine and looked at the Stable Dweller’s herd standing near Bronze Star. The Mayor of Railway Town looked at her.

“So Brassie, how does it look?”

She wiped her soot covered hands on her leather apron, looked at him, and gave a half smile, “Well it’s not a total loss. I could get it going. Wouldn’t take more than a day or so really, but here’s the situation. The boiler has a crack in it the size of a whorse’s gash. That’s going to take getting some good brass or copper to fix. We ain’t got much of either here.”

The herd looked at each other, “Is there someplace where there is some that can be… acquired?”

She nodded, “Sure is.”

Bronze Star looked at her and shook his head, “Brassie, no.”

She groaned, “Bronze Star, we need that train running as badly as they do. On top of that, I’d sleep a lot better if that damned thing was shut down.”

After a moment the Vault Dweller groaned and stepped forward, “What thing, and where?”

Bronze Star looked at him, “Look, I’m not going to tell you to go, but there’s a building about half a day’s travel to the east. It’s not on any map, but that doesn’t matter. No pony goes near it because they just disappear. No pony knows what it is, or what it does, but we try to stay clear of it. There’s usually some music that plays, but I don’t know what kind because I’m not dumb enough to go out there to it,” he sighed, “But Brassie is right. We could use the train going, and most likely it’s going to have all the copper we need to fix it. If you can get the copper, and shut whatever that place is down, we’ll fix the train and we’ll take you as close to the Crystal Empire as we can. Deal?”

Standing there the mish mashed herd seemed to consider things, but the Vault Dweller, he knew he was going to do it. Twilight had been far too excited, and this was too good of an opertunity to get there faster than trying to do it on foot. He breathed out, looked at Bronze Star and nodded, “I’ll do it.”

Cream looked at him, her eyes wide, “Didn’t you hear what he said?! No pony comes back from there!”

He smiled at her, “I’m not a pony.”

The face hoof that happened was truly epic. Cream balefully glared at him, “I know that, idiot, but it stands to reason that you’re more like us than not! We don’t know what’s there, or what happens in that place!”

He nodded, “I know, but honestly, I don’t think that I could refuse going anyway. We need to get the Crystal Empire, it would help these folks, and maybe that would help things all over. At least we can hope that, right?”

“By Luna’s sweet teats you’re going to do it anyway aren’t you?”

He smiled. She rolled her eyes, “Of course. I didn’t think that anypony could get out of Las Pegasus and you proved me wrong there. I’m going with you, but if I die I’m going to haunt you for all of eternity!”

He touched her head, right behind her ear, causing her to bristle for a moment, only a moment, before she leaned into it, “Idiot…”

“I know,” he looked at everyone else, “No one else has to go with me.”

Lyra grinned, “Oh, I’ve got to go. This is something I haven’t seen yet.”

Salty walked toward him, “I’m gonna go. Yer my friend, and ya dun’t leave friends.”

Twilight neared him, leaning against him, “This is as much for me as anypony else, and besides, maybe I’ll remember something about it when we get closer.”

Brass Cup looked at them, and then at Bronze Star. She couldn’t go, Railway Town needed her, and her ability to fix pretty much anything, right here, but it didn’t mean that she couldn’t help them. Besides, if he was able to get the copper for them it would help the town, and if she helped him then it would indebt him to her. That would certainly come in handy when the time to pay Geist back for what he did to her father and herself.

“Before you leave, come over to my shop, it’s the lemon yellow, and rust, colored one right by the station. I think there’s something there that I might have that will help you, most likely anyway.”

She turned and left, not paying to attention if they were following her or not. In truth she figured they were trying to milk Bronze Star for more information about that building. Which unfortunately wouldn’t be that much more than he had given already. She stepped into the container that was her shop, and she looked at the very thing she was going to give this new Stable Dweller. She had worked with her father to make it, and she remembered how proud he had been when she finished.

Looking at it a Pony, Gryphon, or even another Minotaur would mistake it for a simple bracelet. But that wasn’t what it was at all. She touched the seemingly solid gold bracelet, inside of it was thousands of circuits all connected to mini mana capacitors that lined up and down it. Those circuits and capacitors worked with nearly microscopic arcane-machines that would enter into the bloodstream of the wearer. She had never tested it, but she was certain that it would give the wearer the strength of an Earth Pony for a short period of time.

It fed off of the magic of the wearer, or in the very rare cases the user had no magic it would work with the magic around them. She looked at it, and then she looked at her own Pipbuck. Something she wore most of the time. The Enhancer, as she called it, was picked up by her Pipbuck, so it stood to reason that his should also pick it up. She heard the door open and she turned around to see the herd stepping into the shop. She sat the bracelet on the counter.

“This is what I wanted to give you.”

Cream walked toward the counter and stood on her hind legs, “What is it?”

Brass Cup grinned, “Well, it should give the wearer the same strength as an Earth Pony. It will only work for a short period of time before it has to recharge, but I believe it could be of use to you,” she said as she looked at the new Stable Dweller, “However, I’m certain that you’ve learned nothing in the Wasteland is ever truly free.”

He nodded, “What do you want for it?”

She smiled, “Data. It’s untested, so naturally I would like to know how well it works. Also, I may call upon you for a favor one day. If you agree to those two things, I will happily let you have the Enhancer.”

He took a moment to look at it, and then he nodded. She handed it to him, and he looked at it as he held it in his hand, “How do I use it?”

She pointed to his arm with the Pipboy on it, “Put it on your wrist next to your Pipbuck. It should be able to pick up the device. I’m fairly certain that it will integrate it into its own functions as well. It should autosize to fit your wrist.”

He slipped it on, and like she said the moment it slid onto his wrist it began to light up. Several small pin holes glowed a soft green for a moment as it shrunk down and became snug on his wrist. He felt tiny needles, like from the Pipboy, and soon the his Pipboy beeped at him. He looked at the screen as it showed the device.

‘Cup and Cup enterprizes Enhancer. Device able to enhance strength of individual through use of nanotechnology. Uses environmental energy to support functions. Warning, this is not a Vault-Tech sanctioned device. Use of this device does not fall under Vault-Tech’s warranty.’

“Thanks,” he said as he looked up at her.

She nodded, and she watched them leave. She knew there was every chance in the world she would never see them, or the Enhancer again, but if they made it back then she’d have the data needed to prove that her device worked, something she was certain would go over well for places where Earth Ponies were scarce. Of course if he did make it back she already knew the favor she was going to ask. She hoped that he would make it back, because that meant that Geist’s days were numbered.

As she walked with their growing herd Cream looked back at Railway Town. The place wasn’t bad in the slightest. In fact as far as towns in the waste land went it was fairly peaceful. Sure, it seemed like there might have been a little cramped for some of the ponies there, but that was something that happened with any town that was actually somewhat safe. She turned toward the dusty landscape of the wasteland. She wouldn’t have done something like this before she met this strange human. But there was something about him. How his actions seemed to be something of a blend of how they were now, and how they had been so long ago.

It made her feel more connected to be around him. And of course that wasn’t the only part of it. He made her feel different. Almost like she wanted to protect him. Luna’s sweet teats she didn’t want to think too much about it. She spent so much time trying not to get too close to anypony that wasn’t family. Salty and Cinnamon were the exceptions, but now there was more here, and he had been the cause of it. He led her, almost kicking and screaming, into friendship with other ponies. And she found that it made her stronger.

She sighed and looked up at him, It is like he gives hope out like it’s candy in his pockets.

As they traveled she began to hear something in the distance. At first she played it off as the normal madness of the Wastelands but as they got closer the sound was clearer. It was an accordion playing a jaunty tune. It sounded happy, creepy, and a more than a little unnerving. As they got closer the building itself wasn’t what she was expecting. She had been expecting some horrific site, a terrible pony eating entity residing as a building, but instead it looked cheerful, or at least as cheerful as an abandoned building could look.

“Ministry of Morale, Cheesetastic Entertainment Plaza?” Salty read, “What in the Hay is that?”

Lyra’s eyebrows furrowed, “It’s a Ministry of Morale hub… Be careful.”

They walked toward the building and the music stopped, the only music still going was the music that was coming out of the Pipboy being worn by the only human in the group. Instead a voice, familiar to Twilight, came over the intercom.

“Voice print identification, pretty, pretty please?!”

As luck would have it the previous song on the Pipboy ended and instead a different song began to play in its place.

“Voice Print Accepted! Welcome back Cheese Sandwich!”

A clicking sound echoed as the doors unlocked, and then they opened completely. The group stepped into the building, only to find that the door closed behind them. Dozens of multicolored lights lit up around them illuminating the entire place in psychedelic party style frenzy. There was dozens of tables, rolls upon rolls of various arcade games, and then there was a stage with what looked like six figures standing on it. One of the figures stepped forward, a light shining on it presenting a perfectly preserved Automaton created to look like the mare of the Ministry of Morale herself.

“Fillies and Gentlecolts! Put your hooves together for the Friendship Review! We’re here to dance, to sing, and to entertain you while you enjoy the party put together by one of the greatest Party Ponies on the planet, Cheese Sandwich!”

Lyra moved forward, “This place frightened those ponies?”

The automaton’s eyes glowed red, it moved its face toward Lyra, “Unauthorized Party goer!”

The eyes of the other Automatons opened revealing the same red glow, and they stepped forward toward the edge of the stage. There, before them was the six mares of the various ministries, or rather it was automatons designed to look like them. They jumped off of the stage something that ended up being a mistake. While the building looked to be in good shape it was still a building that was well over two hundred years old with very little upkeep other than a small cleaning bot.

The floor gave way under the automatons and under the group that had entered. All of them fell through to a basement that was something a little more sinister than what was above. There, before them, was hundreds of tubes containing ponies in them. Twilight stepped forward, her eyes widened.

“I...I made this.”

Eyes fell on her as she walked toward the automatons that were now switched off, thanks to the fall, and she sat down, “I remember when Pinkie came to me. Her and her second in command, Cheese Sandwich. It was before she was taking so many of those PTMs… Oh Celestia she didn’t fool me for a second. She said it was to help make ponies feel better, but she was doing it for Cheese. She liked him, really liked him, and she wanted a way to make sure…”

She breathed out, “It’s not exactly a Stable, but ponies that were here when the megaspell bombs hit would have been escorted downstairs by the automatons and put into these pods. They were specially designed, able to withstand the blast and radiation, and they were designed to open once it was safe. The problem was she wanted it fixed so that Cheese Sandwich was completely over it. She wanted him safe. She wanted him and…”

She took off galloping down the rolls, the rest of them behind her until they came to a place where there was an orange Earth Pony stallion inside of a pod with a small dark pink filly. The stallion’s mane was in boloney curls, so was his tail, and he had a hawaiian shirt on. The little dark pink filly had a lighter pink mane and tail both with a brown stripe going right down the center.

“Are they… Dead?” Lyra asked.

Twilight shook her head, “They’re sleeping. All of them are sleeping. These pods are designed to keep them in suspended animation until it’s safe to release them, I don’t know why it… your Pipbuck, can you get it to play that song from earlier?”

Their human friend nodded, went into the directory where the music was, selected the song, and played it. As it played the terminal beside the pod began to come to life. A few moments later a hissing sound erupted and the pod itself opened. The two ponies looked stiff for a moment before a soft pink glow surrounded them and the fell out. Before they could hit Cream caught them with her magic and let them down carefully.

“Oooowwww, my head is hurting, Strawberry, are you okay?”

“Uh huh… I’m okay Daddy.”

The Stallion opened his eyes, shook his head, and groaned, “Okay, everything’s a little blurry, but that’s okay.”

Twilight looked around behind his pod and her eyes widened. There was more pods here than there should have been. The memory was a little fuzzy, but she remembered only making about two hundred pods for this place, but it was more like twenty times that many. The realization hit her.

“Oh, Celestia’s sweet mercy, the automatons, they must have kept building pods, putting them onto the circuit, and put the ponies that got too close into them!”

Cheese’s eyes finally cleared up some, or at least good enough to see everyone that was standing close to him, “Minister Twilight? You’re an Alicorn?! Wha… Is Pinkie here?”

The sound of whirring gears caught their attention. The group looked behind them to see the Automatons once again standing.

“Unregistered Party goers! Unregistered Party goers must be placed in the pony s…” it began before Cheese moved forward.

“Identification SPPTF01.”

The Automaton stopped, “Password?”

“Parties are Serious.”

“Password and identification accepted, Hi CHEESE!”

He smiled, “Hello Pinkie #9, now, would you kindly mind to help wake up the party guests?”

The automaton nodded, and walked toward its group before they began to spread out through the basement.

“So, really, Where’s Pinkie?”

Author's Note

(AN: Another update, and it didn't multiple months to get it! Seriously though I wanted to strike while the iron was hot.)