Fallout: Equestria, Project Horizons

Chapter 6: Play

Fallout Equestria: Project Horizons
By Somber
Chapter 6: Play

"I know lots of other ways to take care of you. Don't worry. You're gonna get better."
The rain had returned while we were in Ironshod Firearms R&D; this time it was a seemingly endless drizzle that cut the world down to a thirty-foot bubble around us and rendered the ground a layer of slippery muck. It made what should have been a simple trek southwest to the Fluttershy Medical Center a real toil. I wasn't going to discard a single bullet or bit of loot that might contribute to our ten-thousand-cap goal, though, and with P-21's injured leg and Glory's lack of pockets, I was left slogging through knee-deep mud while they trotted ahead.
I didn't worry quite so much with my EFS and compass. In fact, with the navigation tag up I couldn't get lost. The rain gave me time to think, which is always a bad thing. Ten thousand caps just to find out what EC-1101 was, and once we found out, what then? Deus was still out there, somewhere. So was Sanguine, who directed him. Then there was Hoofington, a city of technology and a city built on its hatred of the zebras. A country within a country, as Glory had described it. A place of secrets.
"Ugh. I am not a smart pony. Why do I have to deal with all this complicated shit?"
"Stop whining, Blackjack," P-21 said from ahead.
"I am not whining. I am complaining."
"No. I'm fairly sure that's whining," Glory commented overhead.
No respect. I tell ya, I get no respect.
Never had I been so happy to reach a parking lot. The rusting carts and sky carriages slowly decayed in little heaps across the cracked, weathered, and uneven asphalt. Still, it wasn't mud, and that was all I cared about at the moment. Okay, that was a lie, but if I actually thought about all the things in the back of my head I'd get a migraine. So I was in denial. Who could blame me?
And that's a really big building.
Even through the veil of rain, the Fluttershy Medical Center rose before us like an immense tree stump. Multiple wings branched from the central structure. I'd never seen a structure like it before, which admittedly wasn't saying much. I simply couldn't help but think of twenty Megamarts stacked one atop another. If Bottlecap had been right, this was my best shot at finding something to fix P-21's leg.
The yellow bars on my PipBuck gave me pause. One day, I'd find somepony who could explain how the magical cuff could tell if something was going to shoot me offhand or not. Maybe P-21 could figure it out. Still, might as well be friendly, so I holstered the shotgun across my back and shouted into the hazy rain, "Friendlies coming! Don't shoot!"
The yellow bars immediately started to mill about as we approached. P-21 gave me a look, but personally I would be less inclined to shoot a pony who asked me not to. True, I was an idiot, but still. As we got closer, we came across a low barricade of rusted sky wagons and, behind the barricade, four ponies pointing rifles at us. Pointing, but not shooting. I could live with that. "Somepony needed some squatters removed?"
"Yes," a buck called out into the rain. His tone sounded dignified and just a bit like the Overmare. "I'm so grateful somepony decided to come. Please, come and get out of the rain." I immediately looked at P-21 in surprise. Manners? In the Wasteland? I walked past the barricade and towards the center of the encampment, where, I now saw, a long sky trailer had been draped with canvas to create an island of dryness in the middle of the drizzle. The first thing I took in about the ponies sheltering there was they were clean, and not clean in an 'I was just rained on' way. Their clothes were trimmed and patch-free. They wore some sort of light armor similar to my security barding and their weapons were of distinctly higher quality.
Then I saw a unicorn inside the trailer who had to be the pony in charge. Charisma and charm seemed to drip from his ivory hide and cobalt mane, and he gave the impression of illuminating the dim interior of the rusty trailer. His smile made my knees feel like I'd just glanced up at the sky. "Greetings. I am Prince Splendid." You bet you are! "I'm glad somepony responded to my requests in a prompt manner. Would you care for some refreshment?"
"Sure. Refreshment sounds great." Hot body, manners, and feeding us? This day just got a whole lot better! In fact, I was pretty sure that this was the high point of my entire experience in the Wasteland. Heck, of my life!
Refreshment involved chilled Sparkle-Cola RAD, which had a delicious sharp radish flavor - and more clicks on the radiation sensor - and some fresh carrots and apples. I could only imagine where he'd gotten fresh produce from. "So, excuse me for wanting to talk business while we eat, but who exactly are we evicting from that building?" P-21 asked as he batted a half-eaten carrot around his plate. I gave him a sharp glare that hopefully said 'do not piss off the nice unicorn with the hot flank'.
"Members of the Collegiate that have some academic interest in the site," Splendid said calmly, without showing the slightest bit of umbrage. "We've tried to negotiate with them, but they've adamantly refused. You know the Collegiate." Actually, I didn't. "There's nothing in Hoofington that they don't want to study. So we need somepony to convince them to leave until my business is concluded."
"And just what is your business here?" I asked, giving him my winningest, flirtiest smile. True, I'd only employed it on Midnight with little success. "It must be important for somepony like you to be here."
He looked at me with momentary consideration, his smile softening before he sighed. "My father is old and very ill with a wasting disease. Fluttershy's Ministry of Peace pioneered revolutionary medical technologies and procedures, from simple healing potions to megaspells that could resuscitate entire battlefields. I believe there must be something here that will restore my father to health. Without my father, I fear the Society will tear itself apart."
Society ponies will give ya a meal and then tell ya how grateful ya should be ta get it. "The Society?"
"Ah, yes. You're from a stable. I should have remembered that you'd be unfamiliar with the various political factions of the Hoof. My apologies." He stood and said with great pride, "The Society members are the descendants of the aristocracy of Equestria. Our king and leaders are related to Princess Celestia, and thus we are the rightful inheritors of Equestria." He gave a great sigh. "Sadly, few in the Wasteland will acknowledge our bloodline claims."
I tried to keep a pleasant smile as Stable 99 returned with a vengeance and the Overmare popped into my mind. "So... you think you should get to rule because your ancestors did?" He smiled and nodded, pleased that I'd gotten it. Great. That splashed ice water on my hot, steamy fantasy.
He seemed to detect my skepticism and smiled graciously. "I understand that the burden is on the Society to prove its worthiness to lead. We don't expect everypony in the Wasteland to bend knee to us simply because we say so. But for a thousand years and more, Equestria knew peace and harmony under an autocrat. Why should it not be so again?"
Somehow, the fact we were in a rusty sky trailer drinking two-hundred-year-old soda and finding fresh food a luxury made such a simple nostalgic desire both tantalizing and disappointing. Worse, Prince Splendid seemed to believe every word.
"So you want access to the clinic. If I can convince these Collegiate ponies to let you in, would that be okay?" I asked, tapping hooves before me. Things were so much easier when I could just shoot ponies. If I lived, I won.
"If you can, it would be a miracle, but an acceptable one. We have no argument with the Collegiate and their naive ideals. I merely want access to find something to cure my father." Still, a solution with nopony getting killed was preferable.
Prince Splendid was a gracious host, but there was way too much awkwardness. I had to admit, I was impressed by what I saw; his ponies were better armed and equipped than most. He had fresh food; that was a miracle in and of itself. It was simply the fact that the Society seemed to believe it had some inherent right to rule. Even if he got this super cure for his father, who would it help besides ponies who already had so much?
We stepped back out into the rain with our stomachs fed, but my head, already struggling with earlier doubts and questions, now throbbed. Plus, it didn't help that my loins were very interested in Splendid, and I had no clue how to address that; in 99 I'd put myself on his breeding queue. No doubt Splendid would have had a backlog of years. Now, I doubted it was just as simple as getting him alone and lifting my tail.
"So, what do you think?" I asked P-21, and then frowned as I saw him staring out into space as he limped along beside me. "Yoo-hoo... Equestria to P-21..." I swished my tail through his field of vision.
He blinked out of his reverie, looking... embarrassed? "Yeah? What? Oh, think? I think... ah..." I stared in fascination as he actually stammered! "I... I'll leave it up to you." Rarely have such ominous words been uttered by so level-headed a pony. I didn't think he could stammer!
"What's gotten into you?" I asked, and grinned as he went even redder.
"Nothing. I mean... I'm just thinking about what he said to you..." He scowled and then clenched his eyes closed. "Never mind!" he said as he limped ahead of us.
"What was that all about?" I asked Morning Glory. Prince Splendid had been rather gracious to me. "Is he jealous?" I looked back at Splendid's encampment and then at P-21's backside. He was! It explained everything. I couldn't help but nicker.
The gray pegasus looked up at me in confusion and a touch of worry. "You're asking me?"
Good point. We crossed the parking lot, heading towards an entrance surrounded by sandbags. And two turrets... hello! Still, the bars remained yellow rather than red. "Hey! Don't shoot!"
"One day you're going to give somepony ideas," P-21 muttered.
Ponies scrambled at my call, and soon three pointed weapons from behind the sandbags. "Go away!" a buck yelled, his thick glasses looking almost like goggles as he gaped at us standing in the rain.
"Calm down!" I said as I sat. "We don't want trouble. We just want to talk." Preferably out of the rain.
"Are you with the Society?" he asked at once and then blurted nervously, "Tell them we're not leaving!" Their beam rifles looked like they'd fall apart with a sharp kick. Those turrets on the other hand...
"I'm here to talk. If I can work out a deal where nopony gets killed, even better," I said truthfully. "My name's Blackjack." Incomprehension. I sighed and added, "Security?" Comprehension dawned and they started to relax a little. Urgh... as much as I hated to admit it, that little title of DJ Pon3's was making my life easier.
"I'm Archie. Come on in," goggle buck said as he turned and trotted back into the hospital. It looked like this was some sort of emergency ward or the like. It'd seen much better days. The butterfly wallpaper was peeling off in brown strips, a layer of muck coated the floor, and it looked like the emergency beds had been converted into sleeping quarters. A strange drum hummed softly in the corner, providing power to a number of flickering terminals. There were a dozen or so ponies working in the dingy space.
"So are you the pony in charge?" I asked.
The brown buck with the scraggly black mane nodded. "For now. My boss went upstairs a week ago and hasn't come back," he said nervously as he looked at the three of us. "Prince Splendid's tried to take over more than once. First he tried to sweet talk us, then bribes, then he attacked."
"Must be something really worthwhile here, then," I commented lightly, and got a worried look from the twitchy brown buck. "Something that a lot of ponies need," I amended quickly, and he noticeably relaxed.
"There is. When we got here, we found that the upper levels are completely untouched. They must have sealed hermetically when the bombs fell and only disengaged when the radiation dropped to survivable levels." He looked at several racks with medical goods stacked on them. "Unfortunately, the team who went up there didn't come back. Neither did the team that went in to look for them. Now we're stuck here till the Collegiate can send reinforcements."
"Prince Splendid thinks there's something here that will help him with his sick father," I said as neutrally as possible as I saw Archie frown.
"There is! Well... probably," he said as he turned to the terminal. "We've found notes on several new healing potions. Targeted antibiotics. Even regeneration spell infusions." He pointed at the terminal. "If we could find samples and study them, we might be able to discover how to make more. That could take years though. The prince just wants to take the samples and use them. Even offered to buy them, as if you could put a price tag on this knowledge!"
Great. It looked like what everypony was after was above us. My mane started to twitch. "Well, how about this, then: my friends and I take a peek upstairs, see if we can find your teams, maybe find something to make both you and the Society happy, and everypony lives?" What were the odds that I'd only find one dose of magical experimental super heally stuff?
Damn, my mane was itching like crazy.
We left the emergency room and walked into the central atrium, stepping into a virtual forest. The interior of the massive structure was hollow, and far above us the domed skylight had shattered, allowing rain and runoff to cascade down into the fountain set in the center of the chamber. Chipped and faded concrete vines coiled up the interior, giving the impression of being within some mythical wood. Butterflies and birds perched, frozen and forgotten for two centuries. Glass tubes had once held elegant brass elevators, but now they were smashed or leaned out over the interior.
In the center of the fountain rose the bronze statue of a pegasus pony, one hoof around the shoulders of a young unicorn filly, the other stroking the mane of an earth pony colt. On her shoulder perched an elegant bird. At her hooves, a small rabbit seemed to glare rather insolently out with his forelegs crossed. A plaque at the base of the statue read, 'We Must Do Better'. Looking at the pegasus's gentle smile, I couldn't shake the feeling that the statue wept for all the decay around her.
"Who was she?" I asked Glory softly, feeling a strange sense of reverence and sadness.
"Fluttershy. She was a ministry mare, and a friend of Rainbow Dash. She founded the Ministry of Peace and dedicated herself to helping the ponies of Equestria throughout the war." Morning Glory looked wistful as well as she looked up at her. "As the war progressed it took its toll on her. Some claim she aided the enemy, despite orders to the contrary, and gave zebras medical supplies and other care. At the end... well... I was taught she went mad with grief and wandered out into the Wasteland to die. She simply couldn't live with having failed Equestria."
I stared at the bronze statue a moment longer. "If she failed, I can't believe it was for lack of trying," I said softly as we headed towards the stairs. Morning Glory, however, examined the remaining elevator curiously. "Something wrong?"
"I think it's still functional. It just needs a spark battery and some scrap metal," she said as she pried up a panel in the center of the platform. I looked at P-21. No need to make him climb ten flights of stairs if we could avoid it. I checked my inventory and nodded, floating the components to her for the repairs. A few minutes later the brass platform hummed softly inside its tube and an eerie noise filled the air.
"What is that?" I asked as the three of us stood upon the metal disk. It wasn't music but... similar.
"Birds," Glory replied simply as we lifted into the air. Higher and higher the platform rose, and I suddenly had to clench my eyes tight. There was way too much open space around me, and the glass walls didn't help. I levitated out my shotgun and reloaded the drum, checking the wear and tear that had built up over the last day. I was definitely doing a number on it.
When the doors to the fifteenth floor opened I jumped through, breathing hard as I fought the urge to be sick. When my heartbeat slowed I looked back at the elevator where P-21 and Morning Glory were frozen in place. "What?" I asked as they stared at me... no. Not at me. Slowly I turned and looked at the wall opposite the elevator. In flaking black-maroon letters, a single word was written as if with a paintbrush. 'PLAY'.
Oh horseapples...