

With a mixture of relief and bewilderment, I watched the sprite-bot fly up to my hiding place.

Littlepip awakens in the ruins of Carousel Boutique, the horrors of the previous night thankfully behind her... but fresh dangers lie ahead. Escaping from Carousel Boutique and inadvertently killing an explosives-happy raider, Pip flees Ponyville and heads once more into the wilderness. And it is here that she meets the mysterious Watcher.Speaking through a hacked Spritebot, the unknown voice comes to her with advice, seemingly trying to ensure her survival. But is his guidance genuine? Why is he helping her, and what does he hope to achieve by doing so? ... Just who is this 'Watcher'?--------------------------------------------

“Who are you?” (‘What are you?’ was the question that wanted to escape my muzzle, but I suspected it would be rude.)

“A friend.” I raised an eyebrow. “Okay, a passing acquaintance. But one that doesn’t mean you any harm.” After a pregnant pause, “Call me Watcher.”

I regarded the sprite-bot critically. “Watcher. Okay...” I slipped out from behind the tree and started looking for where my apply had rolled to when I dropped it. Not far away, near where the flying creature had been, I spotted a glowing pile of pink ash. “You do that?”

“Bloatsprites. That’s what you get when you mix parasprites with Taint. Can’t stand ‘em, myself. Glad to help.”

Finding my apple, I levitated it up. “Thank you. And thank you for the warning about that... thing in the ground.”

“Mine.”

I blinked. “Y-you want my apple?”

The sprite-bot laughed, which was very weird to hear since the artificial voice didn’t have any inflection. “No. That’s what it was called. The explosive in the ground. It’s called a mine. It triggers when you step close.”

“Oh.” I took a bite of the apple. “That’s a very stupid name for a weapon.”

The sprite-bot laughed again. It was a little unnerving. Then, strangely, I found myself chuckling as well. “I really thought you meant my apple was yours. I’d share it if you wanted, although I don’t know what you’d do with it since you can’t eat.”

“Huh?” For having no emotion in its voice, the sprite-bot did a good job at conveying confusion.

“You don’t eat. Food. Because you are a robot, and you don’t have a mouth.”

A third time with the laughter, although this was more of a slight chuckle. “Oh! You mean the sprite-bot.” Well, at least I wasn’t the only one this conversation had managed to confuse, although I was more confused now than ever. “The sprite-bot isn’t actually me. I’m somewhere else; I just learned how to hack into these things to communicate. And look around.”

I was beginning to get the picture. “Then that music...”

“Oh gosh no. I turn that crap off the moment I hack into one of these. You have no idea how old that music gets.” As an afterthought, the hacker-in-the-sprite-bot added, “Yet.”

I finished my apple. My stomach felt much better now. As did my spirits, thanks to finally having a civilized (if utterly bizarre) conversation.

“Oh, time’s almost up. Look, there are a few things you’re going to need if you want to survive out here. A weapon (or at least a lot more ammo for the one you have), armored barding, a bit of guidance... and most importantly, you need to make some friends.”

Armor, at lest, shouldn’t be too hard, although I shuddered hard at the thought of putting on a dead pony’s barding. Still, that grazing shot... I’d been outside less than a full day and already I’d come terrifyingly close to death. I could probably slip back around to the bridge and strip it off the corpses there.

A weapon? If the idea of stripping armor from the dead made me cringe, the idea of possibly killing again stopped my heart. And friends? I’d had no luck with that as a foal in the Stable. What chance did I have in a world where saving a pony from raiders and slavery didn’t get you a friendship welcome mat? If this was what I needed to do to survive, I wasn’t sure I was up to the task.

“What do you mean by guidance?”

The bobbing sprite-bot was silent a moment. “I’m going to take a shot in the dark here and guess you like books. Am I right?”

“Well, yes. I...”

“There’s a great book for people traveling through the Equestrian Wasteland. I’m pretty sure there’s a copy in the Ponyville Library. Give me just a second... Okay, I’ve sent the tag for it to your PipBuck.”

My eyes widened in alarm. “The Ponyville Library. You mean, that place I just barely escaped from? The town full of sick, psycho ponies? Are you trying to get me killed?”



“Look, you’ve got to trust somebody.”

The memory of Monterey Jack surfaced in my mind. “Why should I trust you? I’ve never even met you. You’re hiding behind a robot radio.”

“Oh, I dunno. How about the me-saving-your-life part? If I was trying to kill you, why would I have done that?”

The voice, Watcher, had a point. Before I could say anything to that effect however, the sprite-bot burped static and began playing music again. (The music featured multiple harmonicas and trombones.) It flew lazily away, as if it didn’t care I was there.

- (Extract from Chapter 3 of Fallout: Equestria by Kkat.)





Dedicated to Kkat for creating Fallout EquestriaThank you for such an amazing story!Most of the trees in this pic are credited to The dark cloud layer is credited to