Fallout Equestria: Dracony Chronicles

“I’m going to say a word, Lazuli. I want you to say the first word that comes to mind as soon as I say it. Don’t hesitate, whatever the word may be. Just speak it out loud.”

Lazuli couldn’t have been more bored. As a bare accustomed to action for the last ten years of her life, being stuck in a psychiatrist’s office and being asked basic questions to ensure her sanity was intact was truly mind-numbing. Still, she nodded. “Mmhm.”

The doctor sitting across from her leaned on the desk. His fur was dark brown, and his mane was a deep, nearly black colour that she was fairly sure was more of a chocolatey shade, but she just called it black. He pushed his glasses up on his nose, then nodded. “Right.”

“Left.” Lazuli replied, suppressing her desire to roll her eyes.

“Big.”

“Small.” She couldn’t hold back a bit of a snort.

“…Sun.”

“Moon.”

This went on for a minute or so. Just basic words where the first thing that came to her mind was ‘I’ followed by ‘want to get out of here’, but she couldn’t say that – so the obvious opposite word was what came out.

“Death.”

“Kill.” Lazuli noticed the doctor raise an eyebrow slightly, his horn glowing and scribbling something on a piece of paper. Oh, so that wasn’t right?

“…Foal.”

“Loud.”

The doctor’s lip twitched a bit and he wrote something down again. “Hm…Apple.”

“Farm.” Lazuli blinked at her own answer, but figured it was probably how much time she had spent in Sweet Apple Acres.

“Smile.”

“Sadness.”

She watched the doctor’s pen write again. “How many more of these?” She leaned back in her seat, crossing her forelegs over her chest.

“Mmh…perhaps that’s enough of that.” The doctor agreed with her, and put both hooves on his desk, leaning forward. “Now, I want you to answer the questions I ask you as honestly as possible. Remember, nothing we talk about here will leave this room. Alright?”

“I’ve done this before, doc. I know how it works.”

The unicorn frowned. “Lazuli, you’ve been through a traumatic incident, we need to make sure you haven’t been psychologically damaged. I know it’s boring, but it’s for your own good.”

Lazuli sighed and nodded her head. “Yeah, alright. Go ahead.”

The doctor – Lazuli realized she had already forgotten his name, but looked down at the nametag to see it was ‘Dr. Head Case’, which was certainly not very confidence-inspiring – sighed and picked up his list.

“Alright. First question – how old are you?”

Lazuli couldn’t hold back an extremely audible groan.

The first ten questions were basic, horribly mundane ones that barely even required any of her brainpower. It was when he got to the eleventh that she actually needed to think.

“Next…what exactly happened in the skies above the Badlands ten days ago? Be as thorough as you like.”

Lazuli tilted her head, but supposed it was a fairly normal question. “Well…we were on an airship, on the way back from Baltimare. We had to take a detour over the Badlands thanks to some heavy weather over Dodge.” Her tone shifted a bit. “And…our ship was attacked. It was a small one, nothing big in terms of firepower…but the other ship was a lot bigger. I wouldn’t say a galleon, but…pretty big.” She cleared her throat. “It uh…didn’t hesitate to fire on us. We barely had time to fire back before the engines broke down and we started to crash.”

The doctor was scribbling down notes as fast as she was talking, so she continued. “The ship didn’t follow us down, it just…kept going. Like we had been in its way so it was easier to blow us out of the sky instead of going around, or slowing down a bit and letting us pass. I didn’t see any flags…but there’s no way they missed ours. The Equestrian Army is a pretty clear emblem.”

“And what happened after you crashed?” He asked, his voice still the same. He dabbed his pen into the inkpot.

“Right…after the crash, we had a lot of injured, and quite a few dead. There were…I think thirty of us on the ship, thirteen of us died. Two more died before we were rescued. Injury complications.”

She inhaled deeply. “It was uh…messy. Lots of broken bones, burnt fur, feathers were kind of everywhere. I um…” She rubbed at her right foreleg. “I got off with barely any injuries except a dislocated leg. Managed to pop it back in, though.”

“Mmhm…I see.” The doctor nodded knowingly, but of course she knew he had heard the story already, and probably from a dozen other soldiers anyway.

He took off his glasses, wiping them with a cloth and placing them back on his nose. “Next question…and do forgive me for bringing this up, but you have…quite a history. I’m not a stallion to judge, of course, but I couldn’t help but look into it.”

“Uh-huh…I don’t hear a question there.” Lazuli’s ears folded very slightly.

“Yes yes, of course.” He cleared his throat and looked down at the desk. “Tell me, Lazuli…how does it make you feel, to kill a pony? Or any living creature, really.”

Lazuli winced a bit. “Well…I dunno, it…it depends on the pony. Or the creature. If they deserve it, well…it doesn’t feel good, but I feel less bad about it.”

“Mmm…” The doctor sighed and wrote down more notes. “So far you seem fairly consistent with your previous psychological evaluation. However, there is…one more issue I must go over.” He reached under his desk, pulling out a picture in a frame. It was a picture of Tempest, her trademark mohawk on display and her armoured helmet held at her side.

“Yeah, that’s Tempest. So?” She tilted her head, unsure of what this had to do with her mental health.

“Would you say you are friends with Tempest, Lazuli?”

“Yeah, she’s like…my best friend.” Lazuli agreed.

“And you are aware that conflict with the zebras is reaching the point that war may be imminent.”

“Yeah.” She replied curtly.

The doctor leaned forward again. “So, can you tell me with any degree of certainty…that you would still be able to continue fighting, or even continue living normally, if Tempest were to die in battle?”

Lazuli opened her mouth to respond, but her breath caught in her throat. Her ears flattened back against her head, and her mouth closed again. “Wh-…I… w-well…” She swallowed. “If-… I mean, she… uh…”

The doctor was already scribbling notes. “Please answer the question. Yes or no?”

“W-well- I don- I…”

“See, Lazuli…” Head Case sighed. “You have done wonderful things. You’ve shown compassion that many guards throw away after a few weeks in the field. You’ve served Equestria quite well, but…this is why we don’t allow relationships between active members.”

“N-no, we’re not- she- I can-…”

Head Case gave her a sympathetic smile that was more insulting than anything else. “I’m sorry. We’ve been concerned about this for a while…they just didn’t ask you in your original assessment.”

“She-…she’s not…we’re not…”

The doctor was already writing notes down. “I’m sorry I made this drag out as long as it did, Lazuli. Clearly this question was the only one we needed…”

“No! I can- you can’t just-…” She jumped up suddenly, bringing her front hooves down on the desk. Tears were starting to shimmer in her eyes. “Please, I promise it isn’t a problem. Just- just let me stay…”

“Lazuli, I’m sorry, but you’re just making it worse.” Head Case shook his head and waved his hoof towards the door. “Perhaps this can be overlooked by my superiors, but I have to report it. Now please, I have more patients to see.”

Lazuli tried to argue, she tried to keep talking, but Head Case was a brick wall now. She pushed herself off the desk, tears burning in her eyes as she trotted towards the door. The unicorn sighed when the door slammed shut behind her.

“Even a psychiatrist has his orders…” He sighed again, folding up his report and sealing it in a small envelope addressed to ‘Captain Tempest Shadow of the 14th Equestrian Armed Division’.

The pirate attack had been a ‘happy accident’ as the Captain had put it. She had been in need of a reason to give Lazuli another mandatory psychological evaluation – she would have made one up if it weren’t for the attack. It wasn’t that she didn’t want Lazuli to fight alongside her, of course…she just couldn’t bear to see her hurt again. She was sure that they would be able to look back on it fondly, eventually.

Lazuli felt uncomfortable.

It was a common reaction, really, when you had multiple ponies staring at you like you were some kind of circus attraction. The Dracony was standing beside Commander Tempest’s robotic body, much closer than the average soldier or even a friend would be. She was just glad Tempest had reminded her that she still went by that name now, and not Fizzlepop – hell, she wasn’t even sure if the soldiers knew her real name, so she wasn’t going to embarrass her. She’d get herself used to it again.

In the room there were plenty of ponies. The main ones in focus was the group of four standing in front of them, but many others were milling around the main hall of the building that housed the organization. While they didn’t stop and stare for long, many of them slowed down to get a look at Lazuli.

“This is weird.” Lazuli murmured to herself, while Tempest talked to her scouts.

The robotic unicorn nodded, sighing in a way that clearly was more of a pre-recorded action than an actual exhalation of breath. “Right…so nothing turned up of note?”

“Not at all, ma’am.” A unicorn standing slightly in front of the rest nodded his head. “We encountered a few G.O.M members, but they were non-combative, so we simply made sure they didn’t make any sudden moves.”

Lazuli’s ear twitched. “Hold on, did he s-“

“I’ll explain in a minute.” Tempest bumped her mechanical hip against Lazuli, and the scouts glanced between each other briefly. She ‘inhaled’ sharply, closing her eyes for a moment, then opening them again. “Right. Well, you’ve all earned a good rest. You’re dismissed.”

The scouts all stood at attention and saluted in sync, then began to trot off in different directions. One of them, who was still staring at Lazuli, bonked straight into a desk before correcting his course and walking away. Lazuli raised an eyebrow and looked up – Tempest was slightly taller than her – with a frown. “So, are you going to explain to me why your soldiers are all looking at me like I’m an alicorn?”

Tempest giggled softly, holding a metallic hoof up to her mouth. “Well what do you want first, the G.O.M or the R.O.D?”

“I-…er…don’t call it that.”

“What? I was asking if you want the R- oh.”

Lazuli suppressed a snicker, biting her lip. “But, uh…could you start with this group? I’ve got some uh…familiarity with the G.O.M.”

“Right, well.” Tempest tapped her chin with a hoof. “Let’s walk while we talk about this, okay?” She started to trod down the corridor they had come from earlier, her hooves gently tinking against the tile floor with each step.

She stayed quiet for a minute, then started to talk. “When the bombs began to drop on Equestria, I knew I didn’t have a chance of surviving. So…I did what a few other ponies tried to do, by uploading myself into a computer…as you saw.” She waved a hoof. “But…I didn’t expect it to work. I expected to just turn it into a sort of memory orb of my memories, not actually…be part of the computer. I was lucky that the computer wasn’t destroyed…but also kind of not lucky, since I sat there in the Baltimare ruins for years.”

Tempest kept walking along, ponies saluting her as they passed. “I don’t know how long it was, but eventually somepony found me. I was conscious, but I didn’t really know how to project myself – so my hard drive was removed, and taken to a fully functional base. The one you’re standing in right now. It was inhabited by a very small group of survivors, and when they plugged me in, I was actually able co communicate.”

She sighed gently. “I won’t bore you with the huge details, but basically, they decided I should be their leader. I was a pony who had survived through the war, so I was…I guess just their superior by default, plus I can’t really die of age or anything.” Her pace stopped, and she started to step through a door off to the side of the hallway. She was back in the computer room now…only, it was attached to the side of it, and contained a whole load of extra parts like spare hard drives, and massive metal boxes that blinked and hummed gently. Lazuli supposed this was just the server room, or something to that effect.

“I modelled the group after you, Lazuli.” She said finally, stopping her stride. Her eyes were closed when Lazuli stopped and looked up at her.

“…Me?” Lazuli shook her head in confusion. “But…why?”

“You were my best friend. Call me selfish.” Tempest opened her eyes again and turned her entire body to face Lazuli. “But I also know how selfless you were. When you finally re-joined the guard, you were one of the kindest ones around civilians, even though you hated other guards seeing it. When that airship crashed, you helped everyone else before you even considered that you might have been injured. And…as for the name…well… ‘Riders of the Dusk’ is just a cool name, don’t you think? You kept your codename in the guard, anyway…”

Lazuli took a minute to properly absorb all of the information. “I…geez, really?” She rubbed the back of her head. “So…all of these ponies know me, because…you told them all about me?”

“Laz…” Tempest smiled and put a hoof on the Dracony’s shoulder. “You were- and, well, I guess you still are the greatest mare I’ve ever known. You just…” She struggled to find the right word. “You’re just…an inspiration for me. I don’t think I could have ever got past my own uh…villainous past if it wasn’t for you.” She paused, then looked around. “Also…don’t mention that part of my history to anyone, okay? They uh…don’t need to know that.”

The two of them stood there in silence for a bit. Tempest nervously glanced back and forth, unsure of what Lazuli’s reaction would be…

Until the Dracony suddenly leaped forward and wrapped her forelegs around Tempest’s neck, hugging her tightly. “Gods, you’re such a sap.” She murmured.

“Please, like you’re any better.” Tempest teased, nuzzling her nose up against Lazuli’s neck. “I just wish I had a proper synthetic body, so I could actually enjoy this.”

Lazuli frowned as she pulled back a bit. “That reminds me…you said you’ve been in this building for a while, so…how have I never run into you, or at least some member of your group?”

“I was going to ask you that.” Tempest shook her head. “It seems really weird that we haven’t seen or heard of each other in 200 years…”

“Well, I mean…I’ve been avoiding groups, to be fair. I had a few run-ins with the G.O.M and uh…” She slowly shifted, her wings flexing in and out. “I wasn’t too keen on interacting with any more groups after that.”

Tempest snickered. “And I’ve been avoiding contract killers and mercenaries, only recruiting ponies who want to improve the Wasteland…so…I guess we were distancing ourselves from each other without even realizing.”

Lazuli held back a giggle, shaking her head. “We’re both pretty stupid.”

“And blind, don’t forget blind.” Tempest added.

“And deaf.”

“And even stupider.”

The two of them started laughing, their shared giggles going on for a few minutes until Lazuli paused, and pulled back a bit more. “Oh, I- right, I completely forgot about Pearl…”

“Pearl? Who’s that?”

“The filly I came here with.”

Tempest raised a mechanical eyebrow in an overly slow, almost comical motion.

“The-“ Lazuli sighed. “The synthetic. She’s a filly. They said she was captured with me?”

Tempest’s eyes opened a bit wider. “Oh! Right, her. You should feel lucky…if I hadn’t been around, they would have dismantled her just to research her circuitry.”

“Wh- are you serious? Isn’t that…you know…cruel?”

“Well…we haven’t seen a synthetic like her before. Especially one that’s completely aware and sentient…”

“…Can I go see her? She’s probably scared out of her wits.”

Tempest nodded. “I actually had them keep her company, and made it very clear to be nice to her. I was only able to watch through the security cameras, but her sentience seems legitimate…but yes, I’ll take you to her now. Just…right after I change the command roster.”

“…Command roster? Why?”

“Well, you’re here.” Tempest smiled knowingly at Lazuli, and watched her friend’s expression change from confused to mildly interested. “It’d be a little silly if the Riders of the Dusk didn’t include Dusk Rider herself, wouldn’t it?”

It was Lazuli’s turn to raise her eyebrow, a bit of a smirk crossing her lips. “Well…I’ll consider it. But I have to see Pearl.”

Tempest clapped her hooves happily, letting out a heavily synthesized but still completely adorable giggle, like a school-filly who had just been given an award. “Amazing! I swear, once all of this is settled in, we’re spending the whole night catching up, okay?”

“Wouldn’t do anything else, would we?” Lazuli snickered, flicking Tempest’s side with her tail.