Fallout: Equestria - Machina

My first mistake? Not wearing any bottoms. My second mistake? Not bringing a bigger fucking gun!

I galloped as fast as I could through the snow, the roaring monsters close on my tail. Thanks to S.A.T.s I could shoot at them while running for my life, but with a shotgun and trying to get away, my accuracy rating was very low.

“Uh, Gauge?” Pai said, poking at me and making my eye twitch.

“Not now, Pai!” I shouted as I fired another blast at the pursuing beasts.

“Gauge! Watch out!” Pai shouted at me, finally getting me to look forward.

It was too late, I had charged right off of a slope and began rolling end over end, leaving me-shaped prints in the snow and burying myself half-way into a mound of the freezing white powder.

Thinking I was done for and that I’d feel sharp teeth on my flank any second, I squeezed my eyes shut. When no pain came, I pulled myself out of the snowmound and looked back up the slope. The monsters were up there, but they were backing off.

Feeling smug, I smirked and picked up my shotgun. “Yeah, that’s right! You better leave! Pai, did you see that expert escape? I’m the best.” I said, doing a little victory dance which would probably embarrass me if anypony else were around.

Pai popped into my vision again and rolled her eyes. “Oh suuuure, being a living slinkie and landing face-first in a pile of snow was the plan all along, huh?”

Blushing brightly, I retorted. “H-hey! I could’ve been planning something like that...okay, you got me. Just...don’t mention this to Storm or the others, alright?”

Pai giggled. “Okie doki loki, though I’ll still remind you about it.” she said playfully.

I let out a big sigh before strapping my shotgun over my back. “Anyway, I wonder what made them back off? I mean- they could’ve easily just come down and eaten me...not that I’m complaining.”

Pai shrugged. “Dunno! But still be on your guard. Remember what that mare said? There’s apparently some large monster out here.”

I felt a shiver down my spine. What if they hadn’t come down here because whatever that thing is lives here? I pushed the thought from my mind and turned around until I found the marker on my compass again. “I’ll be fine...let’s just keep going.”

The area I was now in was just an open snow plain. Mountains off in the distance, but nothing more than small hills for at least a few miles. The sky was clear for the moment and the sun shined brightly down on me, only slightly warming me

The clock in my pipvision ticked over to seven P.M. as a blizzard seemed to pick up. Luckily I spotted a small cliff-face with a cave not too far from where I was. I picked up my pace, pushing through the snow and collapsing inside the entrance. Shivering violently, I pushed myself up and over to the wall.

“F-f-f-fuck… I can’t wait until we’re home. I h-h-h-hate the cold…” I said as I brushed some snow out of my mane and curled up into a ball. “H-h-h-honestly, how d-d-d-do ponies live up here?”

Pai looked like she was about to respond when a roar echoed from somewhere outside. My whole body went frigid, and not just from the weather. That roar came from something big. “M-m-maybe I should go further into the cave…” I said, standing up and moving farther and farther away from the cave entrance. I pulled out a small burner from my bag and turned it on, holding my hooves over the flame.

I sat there for what seemed like hours in silence, the roaring continuing every now and then and only building the terror I was feeling for what might be making all that noise. The blizzard only got worse and worse, further enforcing the fact that I may have to stay the night in this cave. At some point, I had fallen asleep without realising it. How would I know? I was awoken by a growling and sniffing from something large near the front of the cave. The flame had since gone out as my burner ran out of battery, so I was left cold and in the dark. Night had clearly fallen outside, as I couldn’t see anything...except a pair of milky white glowing eyes come around the corner.

I opened my muzzle in a silent scream, which only seemed to turn the thing’s attention in my direction. It gave a sniff and looked around. Was it blind? With the light coming from my pipleg, it should’ve easily seen me.

Pai popped up in my vision and held her hoof up to her muzzle, telling me to be quiet. Good thing she was here, otherwise I’d be left frozen in fear and would probably end up getting eaten. She pointed to my left, in the direction of the back of the cave. I gave a slight nod and tried my best to stand up without making any noise. I was doing good, until I backed over something that snapped under my back hoof. The creature turned its head in my direction and I stood there, frozen. Pai must’ve turned my piplight on, because the next thing I knew, I was looking at a toothy maw surrounded by a large black bestial face. The thing’s nose sniffed me once more and began growling. Big red letters popped up in my vision.

RUN!!!

I turned as quickly as I could and bolted, the monster roaring and giving chase. I felt my Snow Beast coat get caught by something and, turning my head, I saw that it was caught in the large drooling maw. My magic ripped at the coat, freeing me and causing me to stumble forward. I screamed loudly as the monster ripped the coat to shreds.

Pai popped up “Gauge, run while it’s busy with that thing!” she screamed at me. I did just that, standing up and galloping as fast as I could. The ripping stopped and I soon heard the thunderous footsteps of the beast giving chase again. I lit my horn up and ahead I saw a glint of something metallic. It was a door!

I wrenched it open with my magic and galloped through, slamming it shut behind me. The monster began trying to smash the door, but it seemed to have zero luck in breaking it down. Feeling as if my heart was going to leap out of my chest, I slumped down against some railing, panting heavily.

“For fuck’s sake, they weren’t kidding!” I shouted. Using the light from my horn, I looked around. I was sitting on a landing at the top of some stairs. “Huh..where are we, Pai?” I asked. Pai simply popped up in my vision with a bright smile. “...And why are you smiling? I nearly just died!”

Pai shook her head. “Gauge! We’re at the source of the signal!”

I blinked, looking around. Sure enough, there was a radio terminal at the bottom of the stairs with the little marker over it. “Here’s hoping this isn’t just another bunker, huh?”

I stood up after catching my breath and carefully walked down the stairs. Apparently I was in some sort of room similar to the Stable entrances, though tjere was now large gear-shaped door. Old broken terminals sat on desks and against walls, chairs and tables sat flipped over…whatever happened here sure turned this place into a mess. The radio terminal that gave off the signal sparked and caught fire as soon as I tried to examine it, burning my hoof in the process. “Ow, shit!” I yelled as I stuck the burnt end of my hoof in my mouth.

Pai popped up “Signal’s been lost.” she said smugly, receiving a unamused look from me.

“Gee, I wonder why.” I said sarcastically. I turned my head and looked around the rest of the room. For some reason, this room was warmer than it had any reason being...was there still power running to heaters, maybe? “Pai, can you find any source of power? Maybe a generator or even a fuse box? I want to see if some of these terminals still work. Maybe we can find something out about this place and if it relates to that city.” I said as I stepped over a skeleton while exploring the room. There didn’t seem to be any other entrances or exits, so the way we came in was the only way in or out...which meant that if I wanted to leave, I’d have to deal with that monster again. Fuck.

“Hmm...oh! There’s a faint energy signature across the room! I’ll mark it on your hud!” Pai said happily before a marker popped up on my EFS.

The energy signature she marked was a large generator built into the wall, though it was in standby mode. I scanned the thing, searching for an on switch and quickly finding an ajar panel. Wrapping my magic around the handle and pulling it open gently, I saw a lever which was between on and off. My green aura wrapped around the handle and I pushed it toward On with all of my might, but it wouldn’t move. “Damn, it’s stuck…”

I quickly looked around for something I might be able to use to whack it, settling on an old skull. I apologized to the dead pony (as if they could hear me or care), and gave the lever a good whack. To nopony’s surprise, the skull shattered like fine china, but at least it got the lever in the On position! Light quickly returned for the first time in possibly one hundred and fifty years to the room and some of the terminals flickered to life while others simply sparked and died.

“Hah! They liiiiive!” is cheered in triumph, trotting over to one of the terminals. Sadly, nopony was logged in. “Hmm...hey Pai, put on some hacking music, would you?” I said.

Pai responded with a happy “yes ma’am!” as some jazzy music possibly from an old spy movie played into my earpiece. My magic enveloped the keys as I brought up a command screen to reset the password. I combed through each word, selecting one to find how many letters match before moving on to a similar word and doing the same thing. Getting rid of false code every now and then reset my tries so I wouldn’t get locked out. FInally, I managed to select the correct password after what felt like a half an hour. “Huh, who puts their password as ‘Jelly’?” I asked, scratching my head at the odd choice of password.

As the select screen popped up, there were three different options: Project Notes, Personal Journal, and Open Tunnel. Making note of the Open Tunnel feature, I clicked into Project Notes, finding about fifty entries, but only about three were uncorrupted. “Hey Pai, could you download these files into my leg and see if you can piece the corrupted ones back together?”

Pai popped up in my vision and scratched her digital chin. “Hmm, I don’t know but I can try! You think these might have to do with that city we’re looking for?”

I shrugged in response. “Maybe. If not, they we can just dump the data.” I clicked out of Project Notes as soon as Pai had finished downloading the database and clicked into Personal Journal...which was empty. Frowning at the idea of somepony having a section named this and not posting anything in it, I brought up the command screen again and began searching through the terminal’s history. “Huh, that’s weird...there were journal entries, but they were wiped completely from this thing. Not even a spec of data left, just the logs of their post dates.”

I shook my head and sighed. Somepony didn’t want their thoughts read it seems… I backed out of the command screen and back to the main menu. I finally selected Open Tunnel which, to my surprise, opened what I thought in the darkness was a section of wall, but was a bulkhead. I cautiously shined my light down the tunnel, seeing a short hallway with a few doors on either side. At the end was what looked to be a unisex bathroom. “Well, at least we found the bathroom.” I chuckled.

“I don’t think the plumbing in this place still works, Gauge…” Pai said with a grimace.

I simply rolled my eyes. “Where in equestria is there any plumbing that actually works?” Moving down the hallway, I looked to either side of me. Almost all the doors except for one were broken from either collapsed rubble or broken mechanisms. The last door I checked opened up to a rather fancy looking, albeit messy and dirty bedroom. There was a desk with a few books on it in the corning, an old dusty bed across the way, and full carpeting on the floor. Upon seeing the bed, I realised just how tired I actually was. I had a nap earlier, but sleeping up against a wall in the freezing cold wasn’t exactly what I’d call a good resting place.

Giving a yawn, I walked over to the bed. “Pai, wake me up in a few hours or if you finish restoring those files. It’s been one hell of a day…”

“Okie doki loki! Sleep tight and don’t let the bedbugs bite!” Pai said happily, poofing from my vision.

I gave a slight chuckle as I flopped onto the old dusty bed. “In this world, I’m sure I’d get torn to bits if they did…” Oddly enough, the mattress was very soft considering how old it was. I had no trouble drifting off to sleep.

“Pst. Gauge, wake up. Somepony’s coming.” I was awoken to the sound of Pai whispering. I honestly didn’t know why she did that, as I was the only one able to hear her…

With a yawn, I looked around. The room was still dark, save for the light from down the hallway. “Wha...what do you mean?” Then I heard it. The sound of hoofsteps and a few ponies arguing.

“Damnit, Starburst. Somepony’s already been here!” a gruff sounding stallion said.

“Hey, you think it’s that unicorn bitch from down south?” a mare asked back.

“You really think a kid like her made it this far? My caps are on scavvers that got chased in here by that damned monster outside. Damn thing took out River and Goldenbraid before we killed it.” a third stallion replied. They managed to kill that thing? Damn...

I quickly slid out of bed and snuck over to the door control. From the sound of it, they were still in the office area. I pressed the close button with my magic, closing the door and locking it. Pai popped up into my vision. “Scanning for ways out… the only way out is past them, Gauge.”

Yep, my luck was shit. Not daring to say a word in response, I just backed away from the door and drew my shotgun. Outside, I could hear them talking more.

“You sure that signal lead here, Filibuster? This just seems like a damned outpost to me!” said the gruff stallion.

“I’m sure! The marker on my pipbuck pointed right to this spot before I lost it.” the other stallion said in defense. “Look! This terminal is logged in. Let’s see here...ahah! See? A project entry on an advanced city named Fortuna!”

“Hoho! You’ve outdone yourself this time, boy! Does it say where it is?” The gruff stallion asked, a happy tone to his voice.

“Hmm… the site is in the mountains north of here. It seems this was just a checkpoint for material deliveries.” said the other stallion. Welp. That solved that mystery at least…

“Good, let’s get out of this shithole. Bring this place down just in case.” the mare said finally after a long bout of silence from her. “If that mare does make it up here, we don’t want her following us do we?”

...Shit. I quickly unlocked the door and, before I could bolt out, I felt the entire complex shake violently. Bits of old metal and rock began to break from the ceiling. The floor beneath me began to crack and split. “What the FUCK?!” I shouted at the top of my lungs. Did the have someone able to cause minor earthquakes?! I half-galloped half-stumbled back into the main room. As I tried to ascend the stairs, they collapsed from underneath me, though I was able to jump and grab onto the landing. I pulled myself up and broke my way out of the door, surprising the fuck out of a unicorn stallion that looked only slightly younger than me.

“Wha-?!” was all he said before I clubbed him over the head with my metal leg. The shaking stopped as he collapsed and I slumped against the wall, panting heavily. I got a good look at the guy’s cutiemark, which was of a cracked boulder. Next to him was a bulky control board for, as written on the thing, a machine named EARTHQUAKE-O-MATIC 3000. Next to the letters was a logo for Flim Flam Bros. Inc.

“Damnit...Pai...those are the asshole treasure hunters we ran into in New Appleloosa…” I said after finally catching my breath. “...and where the hell did they find that thing?!” Honestly, this trip has proven to be more trouble than it’s worth so far…

Pai popped up in my vision. “Oooh! The Flim Flam Brothers! They made a few of the mining machines used when constructing my Orchard!”

“That doesn’t explain where they got this…or if they have more.” I stood up and stepped past the K.O.ed stallion. “Now that we know those assholes are up here, we’ll need to be more careful…”

Pai nodded “Okie doki loki!” and disappeared from my vision. “Setting a NAV marker in the direction they said it was!”

As she said that, a marker appeared on my compass. Giving a smirk, I set out, making sure to pick up my burner I’d left behind the night prior on my way out. “Thanks Pai. For everything.”

--Chapter End--

“Always forward, never back.”

Quests Finished: Frozen Signals

Quests Started: Haven

Levels Earned: none

Perks Earned: none