Fallout Equestria: Mothership Eta

...wait. Where are we? How did we end up in a sewer? “Dew, what’s going on?” It was odd, I thought; my voice sounded like it was far away, echoing down the grimy pipe that stretched into darkness on either side. I had definitely wanted to say those words, but why were they coming from somewhere else?

“Rusty?!” Dew’s voice was hushed, but still carried an unexpected amount of excitement. “Thank the skies! Are you really back?”

“Back from what?” I whispered back to her. “And why are we being so quiet? Are we hiding from somepony?”

“There’s still a few guards out there,” was her reply. Guards… that would explain why she had her back pressed against the pipe wall and was peering between the narrow bars of a grate. “We can probably take them now, but there’s no way I was going to risk it with you all loopy like that!”

“Loopy?” I exclaimed, way too loudly. Dew shot me a glare but said nothing. No doubt for the best; if we were in hiding, she wouldn’t want to alert our pursuers further by shushing me. Which of course begged the question of why there were pursuers in the first place…

“All right, Dew,” I said, returning to a whisper, “what’s going on? Why are we hiding?” My voice was finally coming from the right place; I guess whatever spell I was under was wearing off.

“You tell me!” she shot back. “We were holding our own against those griffon gunners, when all of a sudden you stopped firing! I had to dust the rest of them myself, while you just stood there like a halfwit! Did that weird ring they shot at you wreck your memory too?”

Weird ring… “You mean they hit me with a Mesmetron?!”

“What the buck is a Mesmetron?”

Wait. What is a Mesmetron? “I don’t know!” I was doing my best to keep my voice down, but panic was rapidly rising within me. “Why the fuck would I remember the name of something but not what it does?”

“Don’t ask me! The Avatars would know, they’re supposed to be the brain experts! Except they’re the ones trying to kill us!”

Kill us? Why would they…

I knew why…

We were standing in a circular room, glass extending upwards from shoulder height, circling the entirety of the perimeter. The entirety, except for the door leading back to the Robronies and the one leading forward to the Avatars. A human sat next to the entrance we were hoping to pass through, looking down at a console and verifying the passes we had received from the Engineers.

"Going up to the Guros, right?" she asked through a speaker.

"That's right," Dew confirmed.

"Names?"

"Dewdrop."

"Rusty Rivet."

"Got it,” she said with a nod. “You're cleared to enter. You ever pass through Avatar territory before?"

"Never."

"Really? That's odd, your voice sounds real familiar." She finally lifted her gaze from the console and looked through the glass at us. "You sure you've never… been… YOU!"

Was she staring at me? What the fuck was she talking about? I took a glance behind me, but I was the only pony in her line of sight. I looked back to her, only now noticing her enraged glare.

“Me?” was all I could think to say. I was suddenly fearful; she sounded pissed as Tartarus! I was positive I had never seen her before, but she seemed convinced I had done something to her, and it looked like she was in a position to enact revenge!

“I knew I had heard that voice before.” She slammed her fist on the console. Dew and I both jumped as solid metal panels crashed down over the room’s only exits! "Don’t even think of trying to deny it. I'm not going to forget the face of the pony that fucking murdered me!"

I'll admit, I had never expected to hear someone refer to being murdered in the past tense. “I… murdered you?” This was a whole new level of human insanity.

She gave a sinister chuckle. “Maybe you didn’t murder me in the conventional sense, but it was murder all the same. Don’t tell me you forgot your dear old neighbor already! Whispering Meadow?”

Neighbor? Whispering Meadow? ...Oh, fuck.

“Hold on!” Dew exclaimed. “You’re talking about the unicorn in the Guros’ holding cells?” Okay, I was impressed. I barely remembered his name! “That was an accident, Rusty tripped the security system while he was trying to get Meadow out!”

“BULLSHIT!” the human’s voice roared through the speaker. “I designed that fucking hoof terminal you stole, I know what you have to do to access security from those terminals, and I know you intentionally turned it back on to kill me! The only ‘accident’ up there was trusting you!”

“How would you know any of this?” I yelled back. “We didn’t leave any humans alive in those cells, and you sure as shit don’t look like a pony! And how could you have been killed up there and still be talking to me?”

“YOU KILLED MY PONYSONA!” she practically screamed, shaking with rage. “Whispering Meadow was my perfect match! I personally picked him, followed his life in the wasteland, brought him here and inhabited him when my turn in the queue came up! And you snuffed his life out like it was nothing! Worse, because of the mental scrambling that happens when the host dies, my brain is ruined! I can never inhabit a pony again! Do you know what it feels like for a ponykin to be trapped forever in this disgusting human body? Do you?”

“You inhabited him? You mean you took over his body? Did he just have to watch as some fucking alien piloted his body around?” Fuck… the idea of not even having a choice to obey orders… Slavery was one thing, but slaves at least kept their own minds! I was hard pressed to decide what was worse: the Guros’ sadistic tortures or the mental rape these fuckers were pulling. “Sounds to me like I did Meadow a favor!”

Dew was staring at me, shocked. I guess I did just admit murdering somepony. Dammit. I tried to explain to her. “Dew, I…”

“You think I wanted to keep him trapped in there?” the human screamed. “I would’ve let him live in a human body, but thanks to some stupid mud pony that escaped seventy years ago, they don’t allow that any more! I had no choice! You fucking dirt diggers ruin everything!” She turned around and punched a massive red button on the wall behind her. Sirens began to wail, the same as the alarms on the Guro floors. She fixed me with a gloating grin: “I’ll be happy to see you punished for the sins of your entire repugnant race!”

A squad of armored ponies galloped into view and took positions around the entrance we had just missed out on passing through peacefully. Their pistols were pointed at the door, waiting for it to open.

“Guess we get to see how well our shield suits work,” I muttered to Dew. She and I crouched beside each other and readied our weapons...

Wow. Whispering Meadow was actually a bigoted human.

I hadn’t thought too much about that asshole ever since I dusted him. Maybe I should have. No, I definitely should have. I was a reformed savage! Even though the murder occurred before Dew changed my convictions, I had no excuse for keeping it a secret. She had been under the impression the murder was an accident up until we ran into that Avatar. The very least I could do was apologize for misleading her. I’d have to show her that I really had changed, that murder was absolutely the furthest thing from my mind.

“Dew?”

“Yes, Rusty?”

“I’m sorry about Whispering Meadow. I should have told you that I murdered him. It was wrong of me to let you keep believing it was an accident. We wouldn’t have been as blindsided when that Avatar revealed herself. Even if you hated me for it, I never should have kept it a secret. I’m sorry.” I hung my head as I spoke.

Dew was still pressed up against the wall, but was now looking at me with a curious expression. “I appreciate the honesty, Rusty, but we already went through this. I guess you don't remember that either, huh?”

Remember? When did we…

We were crouched in a narrow slit recessed into the floor. Colorful rays of magic shot overhead and impacted the wall just behind us; we loosed our own beams back at the Avatar unicorns that had chased us into this chamber. Above us, a pair of pegasi circled and poured plasma fire down towards our position. My flank still ached from where a unicorn’s offensive spell had scorched my barding. As good as our shield suits fared against blasters, natural magic could still make it through. Which is why we were focusing on the unicorns.

I poked my head above the lip of our shelter and fired twice, noting with some satisfaction that I had taken out the one unicorn able to project a shield. Her companions reacted quickly, diving into cover behind the nearest support columns. Harder targets for us to hit now, but at least it meant less fire coming our way.

Dew raised her head as well, firing into the columns to keep our opponents pinned down. “Were you ever going to tell me about what you did to Meadow?” she yelled over the din.

“This is hardly the time to discuss that, Dew!” I yelled back. A side door opened and a squad of pistol-armed earth ponies, led by a pair of unicorns, opened fire on our position.

“This is the perfect time to discuss it!” she shouted as we ducked away from the new threat. “I’m not going to keep fighting with you if I can’t trust you! What if you decide I’m too annoying to live? Huh?!” She levitated her pistol higher and blindly fired a volley of shots towards the newest batch of enemies. A cut-off scream indicated she had at least hit one of her targets.

“Dew, that was back when I was still acting like a savage! I’m a reformed pony now!”

“Reformed my ass! Why the buck didn’t you tell me sooner? You would’ve kept that secret forever if that human hadn’t recognized you!”

One of the pegasi flew too low on his strafing run, right into my sights. A single shot from my pistol turned his body to ash. “Honestly, Dew? I completely forgot Meadow existed after we left that level. And I would’ve been justified keeping it from you, seeing how pissed off you’re getting now! In the middle of a firefight!” The unicorns’ magic blazing over us was becoming more accurate; they must be using the opportunity to advance! “Keep your head in the game!” I yelled, and launched a barrage of beams back at them. Another unicorn crumbled to dust, but I was right: they were halfway to us!

“You forgot about murdering somepony?!” I had to duck back down again, the flanking unicorns’ beams were getting way too close! Dew shoved me, hard. “You think I’m willing to trust you if murder’s that ordinary to you?”

“It’s the fucking wasteland, Dew! Killing is ordinary down there!”

“And that makes me trust you how?” We took advantage of a break in the fire to rise up and shoot back at our attackers. There was another batch of earth ponies that had joined the fight as we were hunkered down, and the unicorn assault teams had continued their progress, now in cover just a stone’s throw away!

“Dew, I haven’t shot a single fucking pony that wasn’t shooting at us first! We went right past two batches of unarmed ponies on our way here, and I didn’t kill any of them!” I glanced past her and saw a unicorn’s horn poke out of cover and point right at us. “Dew, get down!” I yelled, and tackled her into our trench just before a brilliant blue beam shot straight through where her head had been! Half a second later and she’d be dead!

“Listen,” I said, staring down at her and the food that had spilled from her saddlebags as she hit the ground. “Besides my words and actions, I can’t give you anything else. You have to decide pretty damn quick whether you can trust me, or we’ll be the next ponies with humans in our brains.” I could make out the approaching voices now; we were running out of time!

“...Okay, Rusty. You’re right. I believe you.” Her expression shifted to concerned. “Now, got any ideas to get us out of this mess?”

I glanced around at our surroundings. Not much we could use here, except… “Actually, yeah. Get ready to run for the exit. On my signal...” I took one of her spilled noodle cups in my hoof. No way to actually aim this thing, but with luck it shouldn’t matter. I tossed the cup out of the trench and yelled: “GRENADE OUT!”

I heard multiple shouts of alarm from our pursuers, and the incoming fire abruptly ceased. “Dew, now!” I yelled. We both sprang from our shelter and passed through the open gate we had aimed for before being forced into our cover. I closed and sealed the hatch just as the incoming shots began pouring through again. Safe again! For now...

“Holy shit. How did I think of using a noodle cup as a fake grenade?”

Dew smiled back at me in the dim light. “I don’t know, but it worked like a charm. I’m just glad the Avatars know what a grenade is!” She looked at me more seriously. “Does this mean your memory is back?”

“Some of it. There are still plenty of gaps after we got to the Avatar levels. Like this,” I said, indicating our surroundings with a sweep of my hoof. “Where are we?”

She grimaced before answering. “Remember learning about Project Kinder?” I nodded in response and she continued, “I think we found it…”

I cautiously angled my neck to peer past Dew through the grating she was guarding. Earlier, I had noticed a pale blue glow lighting the walls of the tunnel we were in, but now I knew its source. Stasis pods. Dozens of them. But instead of humans floating before me, each tube held a pony! And not just any kind of pony. They ranged from the size of newborns to that of late adolescence, but I couldn’t see a single adult from my vantage point! Dew was right, we were surrounded by foals!

“Shit,” I whispered under my breath.

“It gets worse,” Dew muttered as I drew my head back from the opening. “I think they’re still conscious.”

My eyes sprung open wide at that revelation. “Are you sure?” I pressed her.

“I had plenty of time to check on them while you were still spaced out. They’re definitely moving, and I thought I saw a couple react to the light every time the entrance door opened.” She sounded troubled. Understandably; I was having a hard enough time wrapping my head around the idea of spending my entire youth underwater, trapped in a glass tube. Then Dew dropped the bombshell: “And Rusty? The older ones out there? They all have the same cutie mark.”

The same cutie mark? How is that possible?

“It’s a stasis tube.”

“Those fuckers…” I hissed. “They’re stealing their foalhood, they’re taking over their minds, and now I find out they’re perverting their very identity?! That does it. I’m slaughtering this entire faction.” I heard Dew softly clear her throat. “...With your assistance of course.”

“Rusty, I think this is one faction we can’t take on by ourselves. Even if our shield suits gave us perfect protection against unicorns, there’s still that mesmer-thingy you got hit with! I don’t want to think of what a second blast like that could do to your mind, and if both of us get hit? We’re done for!”

Fuck. As much as I hated to admit it, she was probably right. Possibly regarding multiple exposures, though the long-term effects were far at the back of my mind at the moment. But given the rumored effects of the Mesmetron, we’d be helpless if neither of us were able to protect the other during the recovery time. Speaking of which…

“Hey Dew? Changing the subject slightly, but how exactly did you get me away from the Avatars? I thought Mesmetrons were supposed to make me obey every command I was given!”

“Yeah,” she confirmed, “It did. That griffon crew yelled at you to step out of cover, and that’s exactly what you did. Of course, I had no idea what you were doing. All I knew was that you were standing out in the open and they were pouring so much fire into you that your suit was glowing!”

“Glowing?” She nodded in confirmation. “Wow. I wonder how much abuse it could actually take?” If I could keep it intact until I got to Tenpony, that’d be another mountain of caps for my saddlebags!

Dew fixed me with a skeptical look. “Let’s keep those kinds of experiments to a minimum, hmm?” Right. Survive first, then profit. “Anyway,” she continued, “I yelled something like ‘What are you doing? Get back here!’ And as soon as I told you to get back, that’s exactly what you did!”

“So, what, all of you were giving orders and I was galloping in circles trying to keep up?” As dangerous a situation as it must have been for me, I couldn’t help but chuckle at the mental image.

“Actually, there was a lot less circling than you would think. It turns out you prioritized my commands over theirs! You would just ignore them if their order contradicted one of mine! I eventually just told you to stay where you were and not move unless I told you otherwise. And once that battle finished, I had you follow me and stay quiet. I was lucky to find this place; your hoof terminal would have really been useful!”

“Interesting… it sounds like a mesmerized pony prioritizes orders from friends over strangers!” Seemed like a pretty serious drawback, but considering how rare friendships were in the wasteland, it probably never came up. Would explain why the rumors I'd heard had never mentioned that feature. “Although… I know I probably wouldn’t have been that good a combatant, but wouldn’t it have made more sense to order me to fight the griffons?”

Dew blinked at me, stunned, then simultaneously groaned and facehooved. “Yeah, that would’ve made things easier, wouldn’t it?”

I gave her a reassuring pat on the shoulder. “No harm done. Now, what’s our next step? Make a break for the next faction?”

“I wish,” Dew sighed. “They’ve got some way of tracing us even if they can’t see us. This is the only place they haven’t been able to track us. Our best bet is using the freight system again. Don’t bother,” she added as I began looking up and down our tunnel. “It’s blocked both ways.” Of course. That would have been too easy.

“I think we’ll need to check a map. There’s a terminal just outside this grate,” she told me, angling her head towards a barely visible green glow. “If you sneak out there and plug in your hoof device, I think the cord will reach back in here. Then you can hack without being seen.”

“And once I have the map we can find the best way up! Smart thinking!”

Our little alcove was well hidden from the patrolling guards, but I made sure to time my dash over to the terminal when there was absolutely no chance of being spotted. A quick pull of the cord in my teeth, a simple insertion into the correct interface, a leap back into cover, and I was staring at the password protocol screen, ready to hack into the Avatars’ systems.

Just like before…

We had dispatched the guards at the entrance to the Avatar levels with a surprising amount of ease. Whatever armor they had been using, it was no match for our overpowered pistols. Combined with our shield suits, we were practically unstoppable!

I was standing over the scattered ashes of one of our attackers, hoof terminal raised, waiting for the password screen to appear. This terminal was hopefully the one that would open the locked gate to the rest of Avatar territory. Dew held her own pistol in her magic, pointed at the human who had activated the alarm in the first place, who was now backed into a corner. The one who’d been controlling Whispering Meadow, and the one who was still ranting at us despite the change in fortunes she’d suffered. She was either impossibly brave or insanely angry, and given her earlier talk of “ponykin” and “mud ponies,” I was leaning towards the latter.

“I knew I shouldn’t have trusted you! I should have told the Guros to incinerate you the second I found out you were a fucking dirt dweller! Or better yet, nail you to a table and crack your hooves open! They would have treated you like the worthless creature you are, and all I had to do was ask!”

“Yeah, about that...” I shot back. The password interface had finally shown up, and I divided my attention between it and her. “I remember them telling you to shut up when they brought Dew in. You really think they would have taken orders from you? It was the other way around, dumbass!”

“They knew who I fucking was! Are you so brain-damaged that you think I’d go up there without alerting them?! And they weren’t giving me orders! They just told me your friend was a special project and I shouldn’t interfere with her! They would have taken you out of there in a heartbeat!”

“Hold on,” Dew interjected, sounding puzzled. “What were you doing up there?”

“I was interacting with real ponies! There are so few true otherkin on these levels, it was torture not knowing which ponies were true ponykin and which had human souls! Up there, humans are humans and ponies are ponies! Everypony I talked to through those cell walls had a pony soul, just like mine!”

What? “You were literally a human in a pony body!” I yelled at her.

“I wouldn’t expect a mudbrain like you to understand,” she shot back. “I’m just glad your unicorn companion is tolerant enough to accept us!”

“I can accept you up to the point of taking over a pony’s body,” Dew declared. Once you interfere with somepony’s bodily autonomy, you’ve lost my support!”

“I HAD NO CHOICE!” she screamed at Dew. “How are you not understanding this?! You’re acting like an earth pony!”

“The casual racism isn’t helping your case, Meadow,” Dew shot back.

“Don’t you start questioning my unikin soul! Unless you’re a bigot, too!”

There! Finally, I was into the terminal. The gate controls were right at the top. I was pleased to see the gate I had been targeting began to slide open at the terminal’s command. “All right, Dew, time to move on,” I called to her. She nodded to me and backed towards the open gate, keeping her pistol trained on its target. “The only bigot here is you,” she growled to the human, who was smart enough to stay in place.

We passed into the adjoining room, fortunately clear of any other guards, and I called back to our “ponykin” opponent. “I hope your soul finds peace! ...Fucking weirdo.” I said that last bit mostly to myself. The gate slid closed again and we galloped towards the nearest exit, hoping to make as much progress as we could before we ran into any more resistance…

I shook my head in frustration. Humans that think they’re actually ponies? It seemed like they were in constant competition with each other to see who could make the least amount of sense. What was next? Humans who thought they knew what we were thinking better than we did?

I turned my attention back to my hoof terminal, ready to begin my hack. But the screen was showing something unexpected. Instead of the normal mix of potential passwords and random symbols, there were just three lines of text.

External device recognized.

Additional function unlocked.

Press any key to continue.

External device recognized? I guess that made a little bit of sense; the hoof device was originally from these levels, after all. But why would that message show up now and not during my earlier hack? Oh well, nothing to do but press a key and see what happens.

The screen filled with words, but not the sort of words I was expecting. Instead of a menu, it looked like a wall of text. I read the first couple of lines, then stopped with a weary sigh. “Dew?” I called, making sure to keep my voice low. “We got another note from Pinkie.”

“What?” she responded. “What’s it say?”

Softly, I began to read:

Dear Rusty Rivet and Dewdrop,

It’s good to speak to you again, even if our first meeting will be decades into the future, at least from my perspective. My name is Pinkie Pie thirty-six. I’m sure you’re thinking, “Thirty-six? We haven’t met that one yet!” Of course, that’s assuming you’ve been keeping track of all the versions of me up here. It’s got to be a headache; I can barely keep track myself!

The truth is, you have met me; you just didn’t realize it at the time. You would have known me as Ruby, former Superintendent of the Engineering faction.

“What the fuck?” both of us blurted out simultaneously. Dew and I exchanged bewildered glances. We had no words. How could an ancient human actually be a Pinkie Pie?

I was the first, and -- as far as I can tell -- only, pony to escape a stasis tube after having my mind swapped with a human’s. I do regret taking a six-year-old’s body, but it was the only one I was ever able to control after the exchange of minds occurred. All the adults’ were effectively paralyzed. Little Ruby’s still had a bit of movement. The Avatars are currently searching for me, but their IFF is effectively useless. It’s calibrated to detect pony hostility, not human!

“IFF?” I asked. “What’s that?”

“It’s a feature on Enclave power armor,” Dew answered. “It stands for Identify Friend or Foe. Determines whether somepony is hostile or not.”

Wow. Wouldn’t that be useful. “Hold on,” I realized, “doesn’t that mean the Avatars would be able to track us?”

“...Yeah…” Dew looked contemplative. “I wonder why we’re not showing up? Are all the ponies around us here hostile too?”

I sighed. “Knowing Pinkie, it’s probably got something to do with her.”

I’m writing this message using the small amount of Pinkie Sense I have left to me. Something about transferring to a human body prevents me from using it to its full potential. I am able to identify the hoof terminal you’re using, and I know how to corrupt the Avatars’ IFF so it won’t recognize you two. You’ll be safely hidden here, among the mindless bodies of Project Kinder.

I know you’ll be using this terminal, but what you look, sound, act like? It’s all blank. It’s a frightening situation for me: a new body hiding from a hostile group of aliens, knowing that if I’m recaptured I will never again be able to call my mind my own. But despite all this, I know I need to do all I can to help you on your journey, for the sake of everypony destined to be on this ship.

“Again with this vague brahminshit!” I exclaimed, softer than I would have liked. “Is it too much to ask for somepony to tell us what the fuck we’re expected to do?! What’s the point of seeing the future if you can’t be clear about it?!”

“Give it some time,” Dew told me, laying her hoof comfortingly on my shoulder. “There’s more written there, isn’t there?”

“Yeah… let’s see if this Pinkie can actually give us a straight answer.”

And I need to start off with a warning. Not everyone you think is an ally will remain so. You two can trust each other, but beyond that? I see shifting alliances, fair-weather friends, and unexpected betrayals. Where those come from, I can’t say. All I can tell you is, be cautious. Danger can come from any direction, even my other selves. We may be working at cross-purposes, or we may not. Their actions are as mysterious to me as they are to you.

“So much for a straight answer,” Dew deadpanned.

I hope that my future self will be able to give you further clarification. My own future is much clearer than yours, but I know that’s of small comfort to you.

I leave you one gift before I make my final escape from the Avatars. A secret elevator, left over from the construction of the Eta, forgotten for a thousand years. The sole elevator still functioning on this ship. It extends from this level to the next faction above you, the Shippers.

“They’re supposed to be one of the friendly factions, right?” I asked Dew. She nodded patiently. “Thank Celestia for small favors…”

I wish you the best of luck. The future of the Eta rests in your capable hooves.

Pinkie Pie 36 (Ruby)

Message Ends.

Press Return to Access Your terminal functions.

I didn’t read that last part out loud, there was no point in sharing terminal prompts that obviously weren’t part of the original message. I hit return.

Immediately, the wall behind us began emitting a loud metallic shriek! I heard shouts of alarm coming from outside the pipe! Quick as I could, I jumped out of the pipe and disconnected the hoof device. As I hurled myself back in and closed the gate, I could see one of our pursuers rushing into our row of stasis pods! “Shit! We’re spotted!” I yelled to Dew.

“The elevator’s open, get in!” she shouted back.

I dived between the opened doors and copied Dew’s position: back pressed against the wall facing our enemies, pistol out and ready to fire. The doors began closing, far too slowly for my liking! White hot plasma bolts started flooding through; good, that meant no unicorns that actually had a chance of harming us!

“I think we’re safe, Rusty!” Dew shouted above the crackle of incoming fire. “That grate only opens from the inside; they can’t get in if they’re not a unicorn!”

It wasn’t until the doors completely closed, though, that I felt safe moving out of cover. Dew did the same. “Okay, now what?” she asked.

“Button’s on your side, hon.” I told her.

She looked confused for a second. “You mean this?” she asked, indicating what was obviously the button I was referring to.

“...Yes?”

“Oh.” She pushed the solitary button. It was one of those elevators, so common in the wasteland, that only stopped on two floors. Such a stupid design, I had always thought, and the humans had seen fit to duplicate it up here!

The elevator lurched to life and Dew jumped in surprise. “Sorry,” she responded to my questioning look. “First time in an elevator. Pegasi don’t have much use for the things.”

I nodded in response and we both stood quietly, as the weapons fire and angry shouts slowly faded into the distance below us. Such an odd concept, I thought. A few days ago any mention of pegasi would have drawn my ire like nothing else. I glanced over at Dew. There she was, the source of my newfound outlook. A young mare teaching kindness to the grizzled scavenger. What a world.