Fallout: Secrets of the Big Empty (Reboot)

The legends of the Big Empty attracted many treasure hunters to its vast scientific and arcane research centers. However, those who were not killed by the robots and creatures wandering the facility were captured and experimented on. The few ponies lying on hospital beds in an operating room within the Dome, all wearing patient gowns, got off lucky. Though, upon waking up, they will feel heavier and have faint surgical scars around their head, back, and chest. On the floor next to their beds are their bags, weapons, and clothes, neatly placed, nothing taken.

As for the rest of the room, it was rather neat and tidy with blue lights lining the walls and ceiling. There was a door on the north wall brightly decorated with a glowing circle in the middle. On the opposite wall was what looked like a large map. In the middle of the room was large metal cylindrical capsule with a console attached. Whatever it was, it was turned off. Also, a speaker from the ceiling was playing some quiet jazz music.


Elsewhere, there was a train tunnel. It wasn't anything special. Though there was a train crashed in it, with a very unstable ceiling that looked ready to collapse any minute. The train looked like it crashed recently, maybe about a week or two ago.

On one of the hospital beds, the dark blue pegasus stallion slowly stirs and eventually sits up, looking around him and then holding his head in his hands, "Ugh..." "It's not a hangover, I can say that much, but bloody hell it feels weird..." He said to himself, before focusing more on who else was in the room with him. "Oh... Well, she's alright... more than alri-" "That's enough ogling. Come on, let's grab our stuff." The stallion continued, shuffling to the edge of the bed and standing up.

Wild reached down to his clothes first, and started immediately putting them on, starting with his trousers as there were mares in the room and it was only common decency to cover up one's... parts, after all. It was when he took off the gown to put on his shirt that he noticed the scar on his chest and stopped suddenly. "What the..." "Ooh... that doesn't look good. Or maybe it is? I mean, we're alive aren't we?" "I certainly think so." "Then again, we're alone, there's smooth jazz playing and we're in a room with two pretty much naked mares... sure we're still alive?" He commented to himself, afterwards putting on the rest of his clothes and looking through his equipment to make sure it was all still there which, thankfully, it was.

Verde was having a nice dream. She was in a middle of a robot-building factory, with full control of the entire facility. All those lathes, all those CNC, all those machines existed to serve her and in desperate times, service her. Food and water were not an issue; the land was sweet and good, and her robots did what they could. All her time could be spent building, shaping, molding, designing, prototyping, and building, oh the glorious building. For a dedicated machinst, blacksmith, inventor, and general tinkerer-without-a-lick-of-good-sense, it was a paradise. So naturally, she was a little miffed when the nice smooth jazz music she'd had her minion put on for her just then blended into real smooth jazz from the real world, and she opened her eyes into a reality in which she was not the undisputed goddess of all robots with a factory full of tools to carry out her every whim and desire. She was further miffed when opening her eyes made her remember that she was having a grand old time breaking robots and using them for spare parts for her evil science plans (at least, she thought they might be evil science plans; she was sure they were scientific, at least) when something took her and decided to tinker with her own personal operational meatbag self.

This realization inspires her to blink and shift her head back and forth and then up and down. "OK, lateral and elevation are functional," she reported to herself quietly. "And I can hear myself talking to myself--hi self--so that's good. Now, manpulatory appendages..." She raises her arms and rotates them, moving them in and out and checking that her fingers are all in working order. "Great, they didn't affect that functionality." She lifts the collar of her gown. "Tits still there and delightfully youthfully firm, as they ought to be." She reaches a hand down to her groin. "Mmm... well, nothing's missing. Unfortunately, no upgrades--crying shame that--but I've got all the external fun bits still." She rolls on her side and slaps herself on each asscheek in turn. "Still got the moneymaker, in case money is needed at some point, and I can feel my toes being all wiggly, so that's a delight."

Basic functionality verified, Verde sits up and swings her legs to one side, sliding off the bed, and stands up. "Good, locomotion." She looks around the room. "And fellow meatbags, some prime cuts of fine pony." She then finally looks down and sees her gear, and she squees like a fangirl on helium. With absolutely no hesitation or shame, off comes the gown and a very much butt naked Verde Tin begins to assemble herself for mobility and adventure.

Bark. Bark. Hiss. Growl. Bark.

Razz grunted as another one of those things bared its teeth, a viscous red liquid dripping down its chin. She didn't want to think what it was. It squirmed against the door pinning its side, attempting once again to overpower Razz, before jolting forward and taking yet another swipe at her torn-up leg. The blow landed, of course, tearing through leather armour like butter and cleaving a bit of fur.

She couldn't take much more of this. The strength to keep the door closed waned, and her legs wobbled beneath her, one of them burning with pain. She wanted so badly to let go and reach for her gun, but she knew she wouldn't be able to take them all on. There were at least four or five. It was hard to tell, the gap was so small.

It felt hopeless. All she could do was pull and tug at the door handle with all of her strength, wings flapping in some attempt to get more leverage. The ribs of the wedged nightstalker cracked as she did. It didn't even yelp. It just kept clawing and barking, driven by starvation and rage.

"A-ah, fuck!" She screamed in pain, eyes clamped shut and ears pinned back. "S-someone, help! If you're out there! P-please!" The handle was dripping with sweat, and her knuckles were blue. "I-I need help!" She begged, struggling to hear herself over the throbbing in her head and the noises these things were making.

Growl. Bark. Hiss. Growl. Bark!

Maybe help would come soon, she hoped.

The sound of cracking glass and rubble can be heard a bit further down the tunnel.  The faint flash of a light shines through a broken down rail car.  After a few moments, a figure exits it, dropping to the tracks below.  The figure would readjust his rather large pack and crack his neck, his breathing incredibly quiet.  He'd continue walking forward, a rifle in his hands before the sounds of hissing and barking catch his attention.  He'd raise his weapon, crouching a bit before advancing further into the tunnel.  His headlamp would illuminate the passage before him, guiding him towards the growing sounds of a fight.

After a few more steps he'd stop, his light shinning directly on a small pack of nightstalkers.  He'd remain quiet, taking a knee and clicking the safety off of his weapon.  

The pack would instantly notice him, though the bright light from his headlamp blinds them partially, making it hard for them to see its source.  After a few short seconds, loud gunfire would echo throughout the tunnel as the figure opens fire on the nightstalkers.  

Three shots would go directly into one farthest away from the others, it dropping to the ground with a thud.  Two more shots would quickly go into another one, it tripping and falling to the ground, wounded, but still alive.  The other two would begin to charge at the source of the shots, the one stuck in the door remaining against its will.  Five more shots would go off, though two miss and ricochet off a train car further into the tunnel.  Two go into the midsection of a charging nightstalker, causing it to trip and fall headfirst onto the tracks.  The final shot would hit the other in the head, killing it instantly, though it's body lands directly in front of the figure, causing him to recoil back and fire another shot into the corpse out of fear.  He'd stand back up, letting out a quiet sigh before advancing again, weapon still drawn.

As he walks past the nightstalkers, two would still be alive, though badly wounded.  He'd put one shot into each, finishing them off.  He'd then approach the final, trapped nightstalker before shooting it three times, killing it.  He'd sigh a bit before stacking up near the door the nightstalker was trying to get in.  He'd knock loudly on it with the butt of his gun, shouting.  "Friendly!  You better be too!"

Purse Cutter, compared to the other two in the room, gave a loud snore before she woke up and sat straight up in her bed while brushing her loose mane out of her eyes and grumbling about how it was hanging loosely.

"Uuggggh, I told Bronze to leave my mane alone..." Purse grumbled before she took better stock of her surrounding and recoiled in horror when she noticed signs of surgical scarring on her chest once she had removed the patient's gown; she seemed highly distracted, almost completely unaware of her fellow occupants. "Okay, so... probably not just a strange wakeup from a friday night bender." She decided as she got up and checked her bag. The busty, short thestral quickly began to force her leather armor back on before she finally acknowledged her fellow patients.

"I don't suppose that I'm lucky enough for one of you to be to blame so I can just shoot you now and make things easy for once?" She asked half-heartedly, loading her magnum and slipping it into a holster by her waist, doing the same with a silenced pistol to the opposite side.

"Hmmmm...." Purse hummed as she strode past Wild Card and Verde to the console in the center. "Big shiny round thing with buttons on it.... big shiny round things with buttons on it are never not important." Purse pondered, pressing a few random buttons on the terminal despite the power being off. "Welp, was worth a try." She shrugged, turning back to Wild Card and Verde once she was satisfied it wasn't going to react.

"Oh, I'm Purse." She remembered. "You I've never seen before." She noted quickly at Verde before turning to Wild. "Aren't you that stallion half the casino owners keep trying to hire mercs to kill for cleaning out their chips?" She asked, a grin forming at the sight of a fellow mischief maker.

Wild Card pauses as the unicorn begins her running commentary of waking up in a strange place, finding it both amusing, worrying, and at certain points a little arousing. The way she spoke didn't exactly lend itself to more pony like behaviours and neither did her mannerisms, but he got to see parts of a mare he normally had to pay to see quite openly displayed in front of him so it wasn't too much of a priority to ask her if she was indeed a robot disguised as a pony.

He then turned to the thestral who had woken up, and raised his hands quickly when she posed her question, "Look, I'm about as confused as either of you two as to where we are or why we've got scars on us." Wild explained quickly, watching as the short thestral wandered past him and started pressing buttons randomly. While he kept an eye on the mare, he did get the rest of his clothes, his gun holsters and guns, his backpack and finally his pip-buck on to himself.

When Purse mentioned knowing him, however, that was when he grinned back and took a bow. "Why yes, I am, Miss Purse. And you are the mare who caused one hell of a stir for some certain, well dressed casino owners that halted a vile change of cuisine and brought forth a hefty change of management. Cannibals. Who would have thought it." The stallion smiles, taking Purse's hand and lifting it to his lips, "Wild Card," "and that's my actual name, not the sort I give the casinos to throw them off." "As for you, miss..." Wild turned to face Verde, "Robot mare. Are you a robot? You don't sound like one but you say things like one. I mean I can see... everything- I mean, the scars so I guess you're a pony like us." "... I think it would be better to get a name before wondering if she is mechanical..." "And while you do that, I'ma check to see if there's a map on this here arm computer to tell us where the hell we are... or if there's a camera function given our company... Heh... Boobs."

"If you'd like, you could totally blame me," Verde tells her cheerfully, in the midst of bending over to pull on a pair of panties that seems more suited for a hot night of fun rather than ordinary everyday wear. "I'm sure that there's some vague, indirect, theoretical connection between my penchant for tinkering with random objects and us being here, being tinkered with." She considers this as she pulls on a pair of worn but otherwise good-condition pants that seem to be part of a security uniform, and match the vest she had inexplicably put on before her lower coverings. "On the other side of things, if I was even partly involved in this, I'd have ensured that various improvements would have been part of the experimental package. You know... biomechanical limbs, cybernetics, good-faith attempts at fully functional and fertile hermaphrodism, that sort of thing. There's nothing in such perfect condition that it cannot be improved and its functionality enhanced for greater productivity and/or efficiency." There was another pause as she unsheathes a machete, checks its condition, and then resheathes it and straps it onto a hip. "Verde Tin. Glad to meet you Purse, and glad to meet both of you, Wild Card."

It seems for a moment, as Verde continues to put on her gear and check that everything's where she last remembered it being, that she's ignored Wild's question about being a robot. When the voice that wondered if there was a camera function on the PipBuck says 'boobs', the illusion of not hearing goes immediately away and Verde looks up and him with a grin. "Well, if you really want to perform a thorough full-contact confirmation of my wholly biological nature, I'm sure that could be arranged. Probably many times, especially if this is a very frustrating place where all the shiny buttons on shiny panels don't do anything functional, interesting, and/or cool. I'd be chuffed if we could find a Röntgen machine, though, just to see if I got really lucky and the implants are hiding under my skin or within the scars."

Razz's ears clamped against her skull as the sound of gunfire bounced off of the narrow train tunnel walls, startling the wounded pegasus and causing her to take a step back. A few more shots sounded off, she wasn't counting, before the beasts began to drop. There was a lot of howling, splashes of red, and flashes of light. It all happened so quickly.

Before she knew it, she was on her ass, backed up against the far wall, fumbling for her pistol. The latch on her leather holster was a little stuck, caked in dried blood and grime. It didn't help that her hands were shaking.

Suddenly, beyond the ringing in her ears, she could hear knocking and the word "Friendly!" in a male voice, with an almost commanding tone. A raider? One of those lobotomites? It was hard to tell. The rest of the words were lost to her, as she looked down to finally pry the laser pistol free, pulling it up towards the open door.

"W-what?!" She stammered out, then cleared her throat loudly. "Yeah, I'm friendly! I'm armed, though, so don't fuckin' try nothin'!" She yelled, voice cracking part way through. Curse it all.

Grunting and shifting her position as to not put weight on her leg, she stared at the door for what seemed like minutes, expecting some crazy to come running in with a chainsaw or something, as spooked as she was.

Although, whoever this was had just saved her life. Perhaps she could give the benefit of the doubt. Biting her lip, she let her weapon fall to her side.

"If you're still there, whoever you are, come in and close that door. There might be more of them. And keep your gun lowered."

The man would remain at the side of the door, listening to the voice inside.  It'd sound familiar, but he's heard so many voices throughout the years that he can't begin to pinpoint it.  He'd still take no chances.  After a few moments he'd kick the door inwards, aiming his rifle and headlamp directly at Razz, most likely blinding her for a short duration.  He'd scan her over before something clicks in his head.

He'd lower his weapon and reach a hand up to flip his headlamp off.  He'd reach a hand back to fully close the door behind him, kicking the nightstalker body aside.  "Razz?  Is that you?"  He'd sling his weapon around to his side, moving over towards her and crouching at her side.  He'd begin looking over her injuries before something clicks in his head.  "Oh, right.  Sorry for blinding you.  It's 'Zed.'  He'd place his hand on her shoulder to try and help her relax.  

"You know, you don't have to get yourself into these situations just to come see me again."  He'd let out a short laugh, mostly muffled through his mask.

He'd then sling a small bag around, taking it off and opening it.  Inside would be a small assortment of medical tools and chems, seeming to be mostly intended for first aid rather than for fixing major problems.

Purse grinned when Wild kissed her hand. "Charmed, as I'm sure you can tell." She purred for him, turning back and hitting a few more random keys on the terminal before becoming satisfied that nothing was going to come of it. "Ah a bit of new management won't hurt them, well not anymore than what I did while I was there anyway... still, gotta hand it to them, they had really comfy bedrooms." Purse shrugged and turned to Verde, tilted her head and twitching her ears slightly as she listened to her rambles.

"Okie dokie, glad to see we're meeting our crazy quota." She decided, turning around on her feel to the door, quickly checking it to see if it would open. "I was worried for a moment; I mean, we only have a pegasus who would make a therapist rich and New Pegasus' most wanted thief, how would we have coped without a creepy robot fetishist?" She drolled as she tried to open the door; the door didn't resemble any kind she knew of, even the heavy metal doors in the subways didn't look this pristine (and annoyingly this one seemed to have no convenient, inexplicable tumbler lock on a bulkhead door for her to pick).

The train tunnel, injured by the jackass who drove a train into it rather than through it, finally had enough as half a mountain of rubble and debris collapsed it. The two ponies inside were now firmly cut off from that avenue of escape. Thankfully the side room that Razz and Zed were in (because it seemed from how you worded your posts you were in that side room) had another door they could leave out instead. Of course that way led into the big scary scientific facility full of beasties and other things, but it beats dying in a train tunnel, right?

Wild’s Pip-Buck would show that he was in a place called “The Sink.” The map would just be the same as the one on the wall, and labelled as “Big MT.” If he checked his physical status, he’d see that it would say that there are unknown implants detected and that it can’t read his heart rate or brain activity accurately. If he checked the radio, he'd only find the same jazz tune playing through the speakers and nothing else.

The shiny metal door that Purse attempted to open would do just that as soon as she touched its surface. On the other side of that door was a small hallway. To the left were two doors, which led to elevators. One was marked “Big MT” while the other was marked “Think Tank.” Adjacent to the doors were two vending machines, holding Sparkle Cola and Shimmer Sarsaparilla. To the right was a large suite with various machinery and tech, all of which was deactivated. There were a few bottles of wine next to a toaster on a table, and some energy cells in the bedroom on a shelf, along with a book on arcane science by the bed.

Wild Card raised an eyebrow at Verde before looking off in the distance, almost as if he was lost in deep thought - which he was, as his minds had a little conversation over what she meant and eventually translated it as, 'She would be up for the touchy touchy happy times'. This led to Wild blushing slightly as he focused more on the map his Pip-Buck was displaying. "Uh... noted. Right. But... I think we should..." The pegasus coughed into his hand and looked around, "I think we should focus more on the fact we're in a place called... The Sink. And looking at the outside... it says Big MT." "We're slap bang centre of this Big MT place."

The blue stallion flicked through the tabs on his Pip-Buck, making sure everything was in order, when he came across the physical status tab and noticed the alerts. "Oh... Well, Verde, you mentioned implants, it seems we've got implants. Also whatever those implants are, they're interfering with my Pip-Buck's monitoring." "On the plus side though, we've got smooth jazz available for us at all times. Hopefully. I'll try it out if we go outside." Wild explained, walking up to Purse and peering through the open door. "Oh wow they've got Shimmer Sarsaparilla!?" He exclaimed, seemingly finding this to be the most important thing of note in the new room from where he stood.

"Creepy engineering fetishist," Verde corrected her. "Robotics is just one slice of a fairly large pie where engineering is concerned. Just calling me a robot fetishist completely leaves out my interest in genetic engineering for the purpose of consolidating the gender binary into a gender singularity." She pauses, thinking. "Or singularly. Or... monogamy? No, that's related to marriage ethics. Well, whatever word is the singular counterpart to binary, it'd be cool to consolidate two genders into that one. Efficient, and highly convenient."

Verde tromps over to where Purse and Wild are at the door and looks around. "Huh... so either a sinkhole, or a big mountain. I'm not the keenest on stark either/or choices of that nature, and hey they've got Sparkle Cola." She wanders over to that machine, completely ignoring the doors, the depowered equipment, the energy cells, the... "Dibs on the science book." Well, maybe not the science book after all. "So two-for-the-price-of-one gambler fellow... does that neato wrist computer of yours give you any insight into what the implants are for, and what they replace?"

Purse took a quick scan around the room with two doors as she entered, scooping up one of the wine bottles almost as if she was unaware of her constant theft; she popped the cork out with a thumb and took a swig as she read the signs above the doors, furrowing her brow as she did.

"Okay, Ms, before you give me anymore nightmares about what you might do if I turn my back for too long, do you mind coming with me? And you, Mr Card. I'm not about to put a gun to anyone's head... well anyone in here anyway, point is that you see the sign." Purse waved her 44. magnum at the sign marked Think Tank while she loaded the revolver. "If there's anyone still kicking around here, and the scars on my chest say there is, then I reckon we have a better chance of finding answers with them; plus a better chance of finding out wherever the hell here is."

Purse snapped the cylinder back into her revolver, now fully loaded and opened the door that said Think Tank, walking confidently into the room beyond, wine bottle in one hand and gun clutched in the other.

There's a relieved sigh. It's hard to hear over the thumping in her ears and chest, but it's there. The pegasus slowly nods to her savior, the joke earning a breathless chuckle. "Hehe, long time no see..." She trails off, blinking the spots out of her eyes. Debilitated and slightly wounded, this was not a good spot to be in. It might be remedied, though, with the right medicine and a few minutes to breath.

Just as the notion of taking a break popped into her mind, her ears finally popped, as the tunnel outside collapsed with a deafening shudder, leaving them with a single way out. As long as they weren't trapped, everything was fine. She just needed to calm down. Her wings eventually stopped twitching and flapping as she regathered her nerves.

"Welp, I guess going back the way we came is no longer an option." She paused, reaching for her pistol and checking the loaded energy cell. Still charged. "Guess that means we're going through there." She motioned over to the door a few feet away from them.

As she turned back to regard the doctor, she had a thousand questions going through her head at once. How did he get here? How lucky was it that he happened to be around to help? How was he? Did it look bad? All of these and more, but instead she decided to keep her yap shut. Maybe she could ask when they were somewhere safer, or at least on the move.

"Thanks." She decided on, cheekily snatching a splintered bit from his bag and biting down hard on it. From her satchel, she handed over a small piece of brahmin wellington, wrapped in slightly burnt newspaper, along with a few bottlecaps. Payment.

The doctor focuses on the task at hand, pulling out some disinfectant, bandages, and a small pair of surgical scissors.  He looks over the exhausted mare's wound, inspecting it for a few moments before he gives a short nod to himself.  "You'll be fine, your legs torn up a bit, but it's nothing serious."  He says, his voice still muffled.  

He reflexively covers himself and Razz as he hears the roar of the collapsing tunnel beyond the door.  Upon realizing it's clear, he raises his head, sighing.  "Great, I love having only one option."  His sentence has more than a hint of sarcasm in it as he returns to his work.  He raises an eyebrow as Razz thanks him and hands him his payment.  He takes it, putting them in his bags before grabbing the bottle of disinfectant, moving closer to her wound.  

"This will sting so bite down o-.  Oh, you already got something."  He shrugs before pouring some disinfectant over the wound, it causing a burning sensation due to the open wounds.  Once he does that he dries the wounds before taking the bandage and tightly wrapping it around her leg.  He cuts off the excess bandages with the scissors before placing the supplies back in his bag, slinging it back onto his back.

He stands up, his rifle slinged forward once more.  He looks towards the door, then down to Razz, holding out a free hand to her.  "Think you can walk?"

The hallway beyond the door that Purse opened led to a huge circular chamber with a domed roof. Many lights and scientific consoles surrounded the walls of the Think Tank. There were also a few tables scattered around, disassembled robot parts and energy cells lay on most of them, although one of the tables had what looked like a small energy weapon of some kind on it. A few crates lay underneath the tables. There was also a balcony along the back wall, with stairs to get up there on the sides and middle. On that balcony were six doors.

Upon entering the Think Tank, they would find that it was occupied by five floating robotic figures. They each had a glass dome on their tops which held their brains, all that remains of what were once organic bodies. Their metallic bodies were a sort of cylindrical shape, floating in the air with a magitech levitator, more advanced than the common Mister Handy levitation tech. On top of their domes were metal horns, which supposedly channeled magical energy and pretty much removed their need for hands, hence why they didn’t have any. Also, they had a screen which showed their faces in grainy detail. Their chassis’ were all painted different colors too, though the paint has faded a bit over time. Anyone with knowledge of history would see that they closely resemble five out of Equestria’s six heroines.

---

The room the pair of Razz and Zed were in was a pretty basic supply closet, though it was mostly cleaned out. The door that led outside was unlocked, and led out to the inside of a giant crater. Overturned train cars laid beside the tracks, which ran off into the distance. All over the place were various buildings, all in various states of disrepair, but all looked far more… scientific, for lack of a better term, than anything they would see elsewhere in the wastes. Nearby, ponies in patient gowns shambled around, a few of them attacking some Nightstalkers.

Verde makes sure that she has successfully acquired a Sparkle Cola (a crowbar and property damage may or may not have been involved in her success) and is engaged in deciding whether her machete is the best way to open it or not when she wanders through the door after Purse into the Think Tank. Given her current state of distraction trying to devise an overly complex engineering solution to her current lack of an open bottle from which she can guzzle the slightly radioactive beverage, she has wandered a fair way into the room before she remembers that she's moving forward, and also remembers that looking up might be best advised, and she finds herself in the center of the room with five disembodied brains floating around. She blinks at this, looks at the cola (which isn't open, and cannot be blamed), looks at the brains, looks again at the cola (still innocent), looks back at Wild Card and Purse, looks at the brains a second time, and finally looks over her shoulder at Purse. "On the bright side of things, you no longer need to imagine what might happen if I got bored, started hankering to upgrade something to its maximum possible extent, and you weren't watching me too closely," she remarks brightly to Purse. "Now you can see it for yourself, in living color." She turns her attention back to the brains. "Although if I was doing the design, I'd go for something far more practical. Brain enclosed in an armored cranial space, a fully-functional--and I mean, fully functional in all possible respects--body attached to that armored space, and exploration of my idea of consolidating the gender binary. Good times could be had, and no one would have to feel upset about me violating their bodily integrity." She smiles broadly as she looks at the brains, as if it doesn't occur to her at all that they can hear her and might not be overly pleased by her commentary.

Wild Card shrugged in response to Verde's question about the implants. "Well this thing says that the implants are unknown, so I don't think it knows for sure either. I'll look over it again, just to make sure." he said, flicking through each and every one of the menus of the Pip-Buck, double checking for any information on the implants. The pegasus looked up to see Purse waving her gun around before reloading it, and that coupled with the bottle of wine held in her other hand just gave off the sense that whatever was in the "Think Tank" wasn't going to get a very enjoyable time if they didn't cooperate.

Wild followed the two mares through the door and looked around at the room he was in. "Ooh, science-y. Buttons over there, buttons over here, no buttons near us which I guess is a good thing." "And... Hm. Robo-brains, mixed with a Mister Handy?" Wild said, mostly to himself but loud enough for the two mares near him to hear. "That's weird." The pegasus then turns to look at Verde after her... worrying commentary. "You're weird. That was really weird. All of this is weird. You're not violating my body for sure. Five floating brains with unicorn horns." "I mean... surely given they have brains, at least that's what is shown, we can get some kind of information from them..." "Who even came up with putting brains in robots!?"

Wild Card paused after that small outburst, took a deep breath, then walked further forward to address the robots. "Um, hello? The maps say we're in Big MT but would you mind telling us where, specifically, we are... also what we're doing here, and why we have implants in us... what they are..." "Honestly we just want to know everything regarding what in Tartarus happened to us and what in Tartarus we're here for."

Purse Cutter blinked, then blinked one odd eye after another at Verde. "Right.... you're hovering somewhere between radscorpions and deathclaws in terms of things that I don't want within ten feet of me unless it's in eyesight. Just thought you oughta know." Purse said to Verde while walking up to the nearest, orange tinted robot, tilting her head a bit for a skin level examination of the machinery.

"Look mate, take a look around at this." Purse advised Wild, waving a hand around the room. "I mean, robots with the heroes of harmony on their screens? Big nice rooms, vending machines? Some kind of test site for a project from before the war I bet, glorified tourist attraction to win funding for the real thing." Purse theorised, rapping her knuckles on the casing of the Applejack machine. "Bet you the clothes on my back these things aren't even actual robo-brains, just a proof of concept." The small thestral assured him, holding her left arm straight and letting a multi-tool fall into her hand from up her sleeve, flicking out the screwdriver attachment.

"Still, I ain't about say no to some good quality parts; I got places to see and ponies to bribe, and I bet these things are in good condition." Purse said, making to take the screwdriver to the Applejack robot she had been examining, looking for a good place to get at the power source so she could scavenge a fission battery or two.

The doctor took the lead, being the more together one of the two pony-party.  He stacked up by the door exactly like he had done for the last, rifle gripped tightly in his hands once again.  He turned the knob to open the door before quickly pushing it open, as he crouched and aimed his weapon in all directions.  He briefly aimed at the figures in the distance, but determined them to not be an immediate threat, thus he held his fire.  

The coast mostly cleared, he removed his left hand from the underside of his rifle and raised it up behind him, open palm.  He then lowered all but his pointer and middle finger before motioning them forward, silently ordering the wounded mare to follow him.  He then patted the same hand against his flank, as if to tell her to stay very close.  As he moved forward, he remained in a low, prepared stance. He took a short pause as he leaned his head back a bit, placing his pointer finger in front of his mask.  He then indicated to the figures off in the distance.  The strange patient gown wearing ponies may not be a threat, but the nightstalkers certainly were.  Either way, best not to bother them.

Surprisingly, despite the massive amount of gear the doctor carried on his person, he managed to make very little noise as he quickly began to move, maintaining his prepared stance.  He kept his gun pointed forward, but never stopped keeping his eyes towards the figures.

To call Razz's movement a 'walk' would be an exaggeration. It was more of a hobble. Clutching the doctor's pack tight, knuckles whitening, she followed close behind. In her off-hand, her laser pistol swayed in rhythm to her movements. It was hard to hear over the gentle thumping in her ears, still quite shaken.

Her wings quietly flapped behind her, generating some lift while clearing most of the dust beneath their hooves. It helped to keep weight off her now-mended leg. The two survivors slowly made their way around the group of possible hostiles, following the railway tracks. The goal was to get somewhere high-up. And the giant observatory in the center of the crater looked promising.

The doctor kept making these hand signals at her, which she was much too frazzled to follow properly. She was pretty sure those ponies could hear her heavy breathing if nothing else. All she was focused on was biting back groans and putting one hoof in front of the other. That and stealing a few glances at her savior's form.

The robots sprung to life, or at least woke up, when Purse approached them. The Applejack robot’s screen face looked at Purse angrily. “And just what in tarnation do you think you’re doing?” It… she spoke.

The Rarity robot snagged the screwdriver out of Purse’s hand with her magic, examining it for a second. “I believe this one was trying to get at your battery, believing us to be nothing but harmless props.” She said, floating the screwdriver back to Purse. “Here you are, Darling. I do recommend you don’t try that again though.”

“Hmph. Fleshlings” The Rainbow Dash one grumbled. “Always fidgeting. With those hand penises of theirs.”

“You can’t prove they’re really penises, Rainbow.” Rarity argued.

“You can’t prove they’re not!” Rainbow countered.

“Just ask them then. Got three of them right here.” Applejack suggested.

“Fiiiiine.” Rainbow turned to the group. “Hellooooo ponieeees. Can. You. Understand. Me? Are. Those Penises. On. Your. Hands?”

Applejack suddenly wished she had a hand so she could facepal

---

Meanwhile with Zed and Razz, the Nightstalkers attacking the patient gown ponies suddenly had nothing to attack, as the ponies suddenly had their heads blown off. Distant gunshots from the north suggest a sniper was the culprit. The Nightstalkers, satisfied that they no longer had to work for their meal, started to tear at the ponies pale flesh, before a couple more distant gunshots took them out too.

To the north, up a hill, was a small building. To the south was a much larger building, with “X-8” painted on the side. To the west was a mostly destroyed-looking building, and past that, a giant dome-like building.

Wild Card let out a hearty chuckle as the Applejack robot exclaimed when Purse got near to it, "So, about those clothes off your back then" he said, clearly finding the situation to be hilarious. "Now now, they could just be simple pre-coded designs. She's not entirely wrong yet." "True... Don't know any kind of robot that'd say 'What in tarnation' with such little irony without having it programmed into them." Wild reasoned with himself, looking the robots up and down and watching as one of them showed the capability to use magic.

Then, again, he burst into laughter. "Hand penises!? Okay, clothes off your back. No way pre-war tourist attractions coded the term, 'hand penises' into their little mission for funding." "I... have to admit. It's not something that I think would be done if you wanted money." Wild managed to say through the laughing fit. Fortunately, he did manage to calm himself down, but the event had left the stallion with a rather large grin on his face. "Oh wow. You know, that's made the idea of having foreign implants put into us while we were unconscious that little less traumatising." "Except when the idea comes across that these might have been the things doing said operations." Suddenly the smile shrunk slightly, as the thought of something referring to fingers as hand penises having any surgical interaction with them crossed his minds.