Fallout Equestria: Silverside

Chapter Fourteen: Anything good on that tape?

“-n’t much time! Hey! Sterling!” Said that voice again, the one from her dreams before, the one that had told her to turn left instead of towards her friends. A flare of red filled her vision-but only for a moment.
“Who-Who are you?” She croaked. Her mouth was dry, as if she’d been stranded in a desert for a week. Or was it her mouth? Was that her voice? Someone was speaking beside her, and it sounded like her, or were they on the other side?
The blackness returned to the room. Could this even be called a room?
“You’re on the right track, Sterling.” Again, she-for some reason the pegasus knew it was a she knew her name.
“There it was again. Wait, Am I saying my thoughts, or am I thoughtsing my say?”
It was supremely difficult to figure out what to make of any of this.
“I cannot tell you much, I apologise, but you know my name already.”
She wracked her brains for the name. Every time she thought she’d found it, it would slip through her nonexistent hooves again. A sad smile echoed around the room for all but a moment, booming, deafening.
“You will know-it is my tape you hold.”
“That…Tape you told me to turn left for in that stable?:
There was a pause, then the faint sound of cracking. When the voice spoke again it had returned to its original, urgent tone; “Keep heading West! Enter the bowl. Stop the clocks! Things are not as they seem!”
Then the red returned.
____________________________________________________________________________

Pain. Flaring up in the base of her neck. Sterling jolted upright, panting, sweating heavily. Nightlight groaned in her sleep and nuzzled closer, but the pegasus barely registered this. It was still dark outside. The rain had stopped.
Numbers swam across her vision. Cyphers. Codes. She could only recognise them as such, not what they were for.
Gently she lifted the Unicorn’s hoof off of her, and slipped out of bed and over to her saddlebags. There was but one thing on her mind now.
After a quiet moment of searching, she found the holotape, and plugged it into her pip-buck.
“Anything good on that tape?”
Sterling gasped at the figure of the Griffon. She had no idea just how long he’d been in the room. The thought of him watching the two of them sleep made her shiver.
“What the hell is wrong with you?! And keep your voice down!” Hissed the pegasus, constantly glancing over at Nightlight to make sure she was still asleep.
“Hey, you two left me out in the rain, what was I supposed to do?” He chuckled for a moment. “Don’t worry, I only came in a few minutes ago, I didn’t see if the two of you were…getting to know each other better.” He tapped the side of his beak twice, and Sterling was glad the room was too dark to see her blush.
“I-it’s not like that!” Sterling stammered. “Nightlight and I are friends, nothing more, okay! We see each other every day, do you know how awkward that would be?”
“Yeah, and now you’ve seen almost all of her.” Gordo snickered.

After a bit more arguing and teasing, Sterling managed to shoo the griffon out the door.
Sighing, she peered back over to Nightlight. Her horn was gently sparking in a dream. Oh Celestia, she’s adorable! I-I mean…ugh, dammit Gordo!
She shook herself out of her thoughts and without any further interruptions, Sterling loaded up the tape.

‘C-tape backup drive. Folders:’

‘SP work stuff’

‘STAR THESE ARE PERSONAL REMINDERS READ THEM OR ELSE!!!’

‘Desktop Clutter’

Sterling’s eyes narrowed against the light of her pip-buck’s display. SP. There was that phrase again.
Wait…Star?
A flash of pain, teal, purple. That echoing smile. Sterling winced.
Unconsciously she skipped the first folder, and opened the second. It was full of little notes:

‘Turn off the Arcane Aura Projector five minutes before you start the shutdown sequence’

‘Get rid of all traces of that fucking poster Sidewinder found of you from when you did that one Sparkle-Cola thing’

‘Visit the craft store for some canvas and string and stuff DON’T FORGET THE RIBBONS’

‘Get ready for that chief scientist meeting dinner thing with Twilight’

Sterling paused for a moment, and remembered the messages Lightheart had left on the terminal back in 134.
That Chief Scientist… This is her drive, she’s Star?
Now she knew that this…Star pony, was also the Chief Scientist of the SP. But this left the question. What was the SP?
“Yes, Star, that is me” A whisper. A voice in the dark. It sounded like…like two voices-one which sounded far more sure of its words than the other.
“Hello?” Breathed the pegasus. But when she looked around she saw nothing. Great, I'm really going crazy now…

She exited the notes folder, and navigated her way to the first one again. She didn’t quite know why she'd skipped it, but by now she wasn’t quite sure she could trust her own thoughts about anything.
There were many documents in this folder, most of them receipts or taxation notices. She scrolled through it at random, and settled on a series of a few she thought looked interesting.

‘SP Overview visitors guided tour [scrapped]’

‘Government grant and budget papers’

‘Cafeteria menus and allergy allocations’

‘East Wing expansion planning proposal’

‘Staff and volunteer roster’

‘Annual Arcane Readings report’

‘Wartime planning doc’

‘SP breakthroughs report’

Whew, there was a lot here. Clearly the SP had been some special project that was funded by the government before the war.
Maybe that’s what SP stands for?
The first one appeared to be a pamphlet that would be handed to visitors to the SP. She opened it up.

“Welcome visitors, to the Ministry of Arcane Science’s very own think tank! My name is Twilight Sparkle, and I’m proud to present to you the forefront of Equestrian magical technologies!”
She blanched. Twilight Sparkle? That name again…i’m listening to the voice of a 200-years-dead pony!
“As head of the Ministry Of Arcane Sciences, and one of the six Ministry Mares, I have been given an amount of power lesser only to the Princesses themselves. This has allowed Equestria as a whole to advance our magic far beyond anything we had previously thought capable. And it’s all thanks to the hard workers and magical geniuses I've brought together in places such as this one. We call this specific location: The Silverside Project!”
Sterling was silent. She didn’t know why this was affecting her so much. She now knew what ‘SP’ actually stood for, and that feeling of understanding…she wanted-no, she needed to learn more.

In the recording, somepony opened a door. Then, a stallion spoke. “Nopony actually calls it that around here, we actually switched it to ‘Project Silverside’.”
Twilight’s cheerful tone dropped dramatically. “Why in Celestia’s name would you switch the words around?” She sounded irritated. Like a pony who’d filled out a lot of forms and had had a nightmare with the marketing and branding team only to be told it would all have to be switched around again.
“Do you know how many orders of hats and bookbags i’ve filled out already? We’re going to have to recall them and-”
“Hey, don’t worry, it's fine-we just thought it sounded better. I’ll chat to the others, we’ll just call it the Silverside Project again, sorry for the trouble.”
Twilight sighed and audibly sipped something. “This whole thing has been such a nightmare. If I have to talk to one more logo designer i’ll…”
There was a pause, and she heard the booth’s door being pulled shut. Then she cleared her throat. “Should I just start from the top again or-”
A pause.
“Oh, uhh, okay then i’ll just keep going”. Sterling could vividly imagine a pony waving to her through the glass of the recording booth. It was odd to hear the voices of dead ponies-even odder still to hear them speak in such a casual, normal way.

“Now, you’re probably wondering why it’s called Project-shit, it’s in my head now.” She grumbled, and Sterling couldn’t help but chuckle a bit. “I’ll take that again.”
“Now, you’re probably wondering why it’s called the Silverside Project. Well, dear listener, we decided to name it after the two ponies who first thought up the idea of this wonderful place: Silver Thread, and her husband, Sidewinder!”
As she heard those names, it was as if a stallion had gotten his back leg and used it to kick her in the gut. She saw flashes of that amalgamation of ponies from the last stable she’d been in. The dripping of their flesh, the terrible events in Lightheart’s logs, the horrible screeches…
She sat back and collected herself. It’s just a recording, Sterling, it’s not gonna hurt you.
“A few years back, the two of them came to me and proposed the idea of a place where scientists from all over Equestria could work together, a place where wielders of the arcane could create fantastical technologies that could better shape our lives, and the lives of every creature! This place.” She said, fondly.
“As you walk around these halls, you might just see a few of our lab-technicians, all busy at work on new and innovative technologies. They’re not to be disturbed from their work, however! Remember, you’re here as observers, and maybe future applicants. Please direct all questions to your tour guides!”
There was a blipping noise that Sterling recognised as a pip-buck notification, and the Ministry Mare sighed. “Oh, sorry guys, I’ve gotta go-i’ve got a…meeting in Canterlot. Yes, yes I know but i’ll come back as soon as I can.”
Sterling could hear muffled protests as Twilight opened the booth’s door and left. Then, the recording ended.

Wow. The pegasus thought, marvelling at what she had uncovered, what she now understood…and the flood of questions she now had gushing through her mind.
Hold on a second, let’s take a step back and think. She said, trying to calm her thoughts and piece some things together.
SP stands for ‘Silverside Project’. Okay. Next.
Twilight Sparkle, the head of the Ministry of Arcane Sciences, was approached by Silver Thread and Sidewinder, and together they created the think tank. The place was named after them. Next.
The SP’s main purpose was to create technologies that served to better the lives of all Equestrians. Yes. Next.
She hadn’t thought in such an analytical way since she’d left her stable, and was pleasantly surprised to find that she hadn’t lost her ability to.

Star worked there, and was in charge of the place-presumably appointed by Twilight herself. Next.
The place was open for the public to visit… She thought about Lightheart’s log messages once more. …At least, it was until the war broke out, when it was turned into a research facility for inventing weapons. Next.
The scientists had their own designated stable to go to in case of catastrophe. Someplace they could be safe whilst continuing their work…This is true, but then that begs the question, how close is the SP to Stable-134? Not only that, but Star is somehow in my head. She failed to reach Stable-134 and probably never even left the SP. Somehow, she still lives. She now wants me to go back to the place she used to run, so that I can…
She was stumped on that part.

Opening up the ‘Government grant and budget papers’ document, she blanked.
Woah, that’s a lot of numbers…and tables…and graphs.
She tried not to lose interest too quickly, but what she was reading didn’t make much sense to her.
Digging through a sea of bills and expenses, she spotted a few keywords that had been shortened to fit the document’s format-project names, she guessed:

‘‘Elmnt’: $172,000,000’

‘‘EPS’: $20,000,000’

‘‘CFuel: $12,000,000’

‘‘ShySp’: $10,000,000’

‘‘Purfr’: $7,500,000’

The document went on, and on. Listing more projects in descending order of their budget. She wondered exactly what each of these shortenings meant, what projects they pertained to, and if any of them were actually completed. She supposed the only way to truly find out would be to visit the Silverside Project herself.
“What’s next?’ she whispered, totally engrossed in nothing but her Pip-Buck’s screen.

‘Cafeteria menus and allergy allocations’

“Oh, great…” She rolled her eyes, expecting to be met with a boring table of cafeteria budgetary expenses and a list of dietary requirements that must be met by the kitchen staff. What she was met with once the page had loaded, was quite the opposite.

‘Hey Star, bet you didn’t think i’d hide a copy of this poster on your own computer, did you!

Personally, I think you look great in that outfit, everypony else agrees too!

-Sidewinder’.

Sterling frowned, confused, and scrolled further down the page.
Her eyes widened.
On her Pip-Buck’s screen was a poster of…well…Star. But not the kind of poster she’d expected the Chief Scientist of Project Silverside to have been a part of.

A cursive font at the top of the page spelt out: ‘She wants a taste…’
Below the text was Star. The Unicorn mare was giving a sexy, can-do action pose. In one hoof was a bottle of Sparkle Cola, which fit in perfectly with her outfit-a spacemare’s suit. A bubble helmet attached to an oxygen supply accompanied the revealing top with its bare midriff. She was sat-well, sat on nothing. Her tail had been styled and pulled out so it did not interfere with the view of her flank-and what a view it was. Her back legs were pulled up and in towards herself-one black booted hoof trailing a third of the way up the other. This combination allowed for the bottom half of the suit to fully accentuate her curves-leaving very little to the imagination

Despite the grainy image being nothing more than a collection of black and green pixels, she could feel herself growing hot under the collar. Star had been quite a looker, it seemed. Guess this explains why she’d be embarrassed about Sidewinder finding this…
Just then, she felt a bite on her ear. She winced and was about to lash out with a hoof when she realised that she’d woken up Nightlight.
“You need sleep, Sterling. I can’t have you up all night, staring at pinup mares!”
“Night, I wasn’t! Well, I-I was but, it’s a tape I found in that stable, it’s got some really cool stuff on it!”
Despite her protests, the Unicorn’s jaws did not loosen, and so Sterling relented, half-walking, half being dragged back to bed.
Finally, the Unicorn let go of her ear. “I can’t get that thing off your leg without making more of a fuss than it’s worth, so i’m just gonna have to keep you from using it.” She muttered, wrapping Sterling in a hug as they laid together. Sterling’s heart felt as though it might explode. She tried to pry herself away, attempting to bring her hoof up, but they’d been pinned at her sides. She sighed, relenting, and relaxed.
“Good girl.” Nightlight whispered into her ear. A shiver rushed down her spine, and it took every ounce of strength she had left in her to keep herself from whimpering.
I know she means well, but how the hell does she expect me to fall asleep like this?!

Footnote: Level Up.
New Perk: Bookworm – You pay much closer attention to the smaller details when reading. You gain 50% more skill points when reading books.