arty by Vashar23

Returning from a week off from blogging, I have a special treat for Fallout: Equestria fans this week. I offer you glimpse into my headcanon for two Equestrian companies: Good Pony and New Futures. You've seen these two companies mentioned briefly in my previous blogs.

Good Pony

"Your family is our family with Good Pony."

Good Pony was a retailer of cheap consumer goods, many of which they company produces themselves -- most notably foodstuffs. If you have ever eaten 200-year-old snack cakes or canned produce, you've eaten Good Pony! Fought raiders in the Equestrian Wasteland's equivalent of the Super-Duper-Mart? That's an AwesomazingMart, one of Good Pony's superstores, located absolutely everywhere for your convenience. Good Pony's greatest claim to remembrance in the Equestrian Wasteland, however, is arguably Wonderglue.

New Futures

"Making tomorrow brighter."

The ponies of New Futures split off from Hippocampus Energy and formed their own company; their goal was to explore new avenues of energy production in the hopes of providing a viable alternative to coal. Eventually, they did, as their final reactor model became standard in Stable-Tec's Stables. However, success was hard-earned, involving a lot of dangerous pursuits and (occasionally devastating) trial-and-error.

art by Purplemoody

The players in my "Fallout: Beyond Equestria" roleplaying campaign learned more about both of these companies while exploring a place called Tragedy's End. Here is what they discovered. As always, this is merely part of my extensive headcanon for the Equestrian Wasteland. It should not be considered canon, and nobody writing stories in that area needs to worry about conflict. Also before, the memory orb is written in second person and present tense as it was designed to be a roleplaying game hand-out.

From the "Fallout: Beyond Equestria" campaign:

Tragedy's End Ten miles south-by-southwest of Luna's Academy for Young Unicorns. The very edge of the continent of Equestria. Clusters of buildings, fences, turrets and walls. The largest wall stretches slightly over a mile, marking the border between this continent and the isthmus that connects it to the home continent of the zebras and dragons. Other walls an fencing separates out the border military encampment and the sprawling, tattered Ministry of Peace field hospital. The huge emblem of the pink and yellow butterflies adorns the top of the largest pavilion, the decaying canvas fluttering and snapping in the breeze. On the left, sticks rise from the ground, the few bits of wooden skeletons still standing from housing hastily constructed. No megaspells or war tore down these homes... they were simply not built to last. Beyond, the curving edifice of the New Futures Labs, still mostly intact. There are signs of old war damage, but nothing significant... looking more like a road sign shot at by raiders for fun than a target of serious military effort. On the right, a compound of buildings behind tall walls. The second-largest has two towering brick smokestacks. A sickly green glow illuminates parts of the compound, and there seems to be a large grove of trees towards the back. The sign at the warped and fallen main gate reads: GOOD PONY. The wind drifts across Tragedy's End, bringing warmth and radiation and the slight scent of seawater from beyond the border wall.

The Ministry of Peace field hospital holds a still-functioning terminal. The terminal requires no password, and a quick perusal turns up that it is full of messages left by patients -- patients expecting to turn around and head into battle, or who did not expect to make it home. Most are to loved ones. A few of the messages are apparently from zebras who had been treated there. Some of them clearly enemy combatants. But more of them civilians which had been evacuated there for the medical care the hospital provided. The final series of messages on the terminal are from the hospital overmare.

Overmare Entry #1 Something strange is happening. My friend in the Lunar Army says reports from the wall is that the zebras are pulling back from their wall and Final Stripe. They've even pulled back some of their patrol bots from the minefield. I don't know if this is a good sign or a very bad one. We've been at peace with Final Stripe (unofficially, of course) for over two years now. Considering the amount of medical assistance our "mobile" hospital has provided, I'd hope they'd let us know if we were in any sort of danger. Especially since we're still treating four zebras.

Overmare Entry #2

I can't believe it. The sky is full of streaks of cloud, shooting up from the Basin, arching across the sky towards Equestria. Please don't let those be wh$@#!...

Overmare Entry #3 Four days ago, flashes of colored energy slammed down on the Basin. It was like watching the jungle get spanked by the northern lights. Nurse Cottonseed thinks it must have been a megaspell! One of ours! It hit the Basin for a good two minutes before stopping. There was some sort of energy backwash that knocked out our power. The terminal cut out in the middle of my last entry. All the medical bots died. The turrets on the wall lost power. I could hear explosions from the minefield... I'm guessing from the patrol bots. I'm not hearing anything on the radio but static. Not even Sandy's PipBuck is getting anything. I'm told the military has rigged up communications with Echo Station, but if they've heard anything, they're not saying. I don't know what to think. A lot of the ponies here are in a state of near panic. I took this assignment because I don't have family back home, but most of them do. Or... did.

Overmare Entry #4 It's been a week, and still no word from Canterlot, the Lunar Royal Military or the Ministry of Peace. Nothing from Equestria at all. To say that I'm worried is an understatement. I cannot help but entertain the darkest fantasies. There is a sense of dull dread here. Already, a quarter of the staff has left, forming a caravan with a bunch of folks from Good Pony and a small number of soldiers. They intend to cross Shattered Hoof Ridge and into Equestria proper. No matter what they find, it will take weeks at least to hear back from them. And that's only if they can get a pegasus messanger. My friend in the military says they are assuming something has happened to Echo Station. They're sending, but aren't getting anything back in return. We're good on medical supplies for a while, but if we can't get resupplied, we will run out sooner or later. Food is better -- we have the orchard over at Good Pony, and it doesn't look like they'll be exporting what they pickle anytime soon.

Overmare Entry #5 This will likely be my last entry. We've begun rationing everything, including power. The generators won't last much longer if we don't, so we can't spare energy on non-essentials like the terminals. Explosions out in the minefield woke everyone up this morning. Refugees from the zebra lands, attempting to cross over. We sent out the Griffinchaser, but several had already lost their lives. Those who hadn't pointed guns but thankfully didn't fire. We're treating their injuries as best we can, but I've never seen wounds like this. Communication is becoming a problem as both of our translators were on the first caravan out, but fortunately one of the zebras we were treating when... well, I think, when the war ended... has picked up enough Equestrian to help.

Overmare Entry #6 We have power! (We've taken to celebrating the small victories, so there is a party at the commons in Good Pony tonight.) The surviving ponies at New Futures have hooked us up. They say we've got enough power to run everything here and along the entire wall indefinitely. Which... I have to admit... makes me wonder. If they could do that, what the hell was everyone fighting for these last twenty years? Oh, as a side note: it's been just over a month since my previous entry. For the first three weeks, it was just us, the military and the folks over at Good Pony. New Futures was locked up tight... whatever knocked out our systems sealed that building with everybody inside. Took them this long to get out, and not many of them did. I don't know what went on in there, but from the haunted looks in some of their eyes, I'm glad.

Overmare Entry #7 I can't believe I'm saying this. I'm not one to breach the confidence of a mare's dying confession. But... This is too big, and too awful. Wonderglue is made of ponies. The Good Pony complex has workers housing, the orchard, the pickling factory, the Wonderglue factory, and the incinerators. The last isn't supposed to be in any way affiliated with the others. The Lunar Royal Military gave Good Pony huge grants in return for the company taking on the task of cremating the bodies of fallen soldiers and transporting their ashes back to Equestria proper... to their families, their loved ones. To military burials. The incinerator was out here because it was close to the battle lines. Carting thousands of dead bodies back to Equestria was considered... horrid. Unbecoming. A mistreatment of the dead. So Luna instituted cremation. But... But... one her deathbed, Mrs. Wonder confessed that, before cremating the bodies of Equestria's fallen... I'm going to be sick. She said she was told in a dream. A giant, black, skeletal alicorn told her just what to remove, and how to use it. How could any pony become so twisted?

Overmare Entry #8 It's been three months. Still no word back from any of the caravans we have sent. Most have given up hope of hearing anything from home. A lot of those here just want to stay, call this place home. It's been home for years. We've been losing a lot of long-term patients recently. Several of the New Futures ponies have died from terrible burns that just seemed to get worse and worse. Some of the zebra refugees have succumb to a sickness I can't even begin to explain. Worse, the guards at the wall reported seeing... things moving in the minefield. Whatever they are, the don't seem to be setting off any of the mines buried out there. I'm worried about medical supplies. We're down to our last.

Overmare Entry #9 They did it. Equestria and the Zebras wiped each other out. The war is over. Everyone lost. Everyone. I dreaded this day. We have confirmation of what happened. About three in the morning, we were awoken to a massive explosion beyond the wall. An Equestrian warship had hit the sea mines along the isthmus. Fortunately, most of their crew was able to evacuate, and they brought as many of their provisions and medical supplies as they could carry with them. The warship, Sir Magnet, had been looking for safe harbor after Baltimare was hit by a zebra megaspell. According to the crew, there's not much left of Equestria. The megaspells left the air too poisonous to dare get within dozens of miles of shore. I fear all those whom we have waved to as they headed homeward are lost.

Overmare Entry #10 With any luck, this really will be my final entry. We're leaving. We can't stay. The orchard is polluted. I finally got my answer. New Futures new energy source creates a massive amount of highly radioactive waste. Enough that they filled the underground reservoir they had built for it to capacity within the first few months of testing. They've been sending the waste by train all across Equestria, finding new dumpsites to store it. Or, I guess, building them. Apparently, Twilight Sparkle herself prevented them from just dumping it into the ocean or down a mountain canyon. Why she would want the waste stored within Equestria's borders I cannot begin to imagine. Unfortunately for us, New Futures' underground containment didn't do so hot at containing. Their crap has been seeping into the water table, following the bedrock. The orchard's fruit is already becoming unhealthy. It's still edible, but contains traces of radiation, has taken a sickly pallor, and is starting to grow tiny tumors. I have recommended against eating the mutated fruid (which Nurse Cottonseed has un-affectionately named "mutfruit"). There is considerable debate on where we should go. We know that we cannot return to Equestria. However, the military insists the zebra lands will be no safer. Tonight, I think I'll toss my vote for the Crystal Empire.

art by Sushimytaco

The following memory orb was retrieved by alicorns from inside the exceptionally radiative New Futures research facility in Tragedy's End.

<-=======ooO The New Futures Orb Ooo=======-> You come to your senses staring at a pristine switchboard – knobs, levers and blinking lights set into polished stainless steel. Your host seems to be performing a check. The upper row of switchboard lights are all lit comforting greens and blues. Behind you, a soft hiss betrays the opening of heavy doors, the clopping of hooves on ceramic tiles announces the arrival of several ponies. Your host looks up, allowing you to see room – spotless white and brightly lit, with a set of hashed orange stripes painted along the back wall that seems to be a decorative motif for the company, and a front wall that boasts a line of windows overlooking a huge white chamber. You get the impression of odd things in that chamber, but your host isn’t looking in that direction. Instead, she is looking at the three ponies who had just entered. One is a rust-red stallion with an orange lab coat. The ponies already in the room, including your host you realize, all wear similar coats, either orange or white with an orange trim. They move about other switchboards, terminals and banks of monitors, or they stand at the windows, looking down into that chamber you can’t quite see. The two other ponies are a thin, almost gangly cream-colored pony whose mane and mustache have prematurely silvered, and a yellow-coated mare with vibrant scarlet mane, wearing a smart mahogany business dress. “You see,” the gangly stallion was saying with the voice of a practiced orator, “Government orders, but business perfects. I believe it will always fall to private industry to see the bigger picture, and to allow new science and technology to reach its fullest potential.” “Yeah,” drawled the mare with a bored air. “Honestly, skip t’ where ya tell me how this new power generator is supposed t’ work.” There is a polite laugh as the stallion shakes his head. “Trade secrets… well, the particulars, at least.” He visibly swelled with pride. “But, picture this: megaspells, the government’s big superpower… for years, they have only seen military application. But imagine that sort of power turned to the betterment of ponykind?”

The mare looked apprehensive. “How exactly?” As they talk, the rust-red stallion trots over to your host, blocking your view of the other two. In a low voice, he asks, “Any more problems with resonance on rods nine through eighteen?” “No, sir,” your host responds, looking a back at the switchboard. “Everything’s pretty. We should be good for a test.” Beyond, you can hear the voice of the cream-colored older stallion. “The megaspell framework created by the Ministries vastly magnifies the power of the spell it is created for largely by making it bigger. But we at New Futures have taken that science; and for the last several years, we have been researching a megaspell framework that will instead make spells last longer.” He chuckles. “And before you ask how that’s different from just casting the spell over and over, what I mean is: we’ve managed to take an instantaneous spell, catching and holding it in a state of perpetual manifestation. Indefinitely.” “Indefinitely?” the mare repeats, her voice suggesting she isn’t sure she likes the images forming in her head. Your host has one ear cocked towards the conversation, but her focus is on the stallion looking over her switchboard and nodding. “Well, as long as we tell it to,” the elderly stallion chuckles. “Imagine an instantaneous explosion caught in the moment, constantly pouring out light and heat, fueling a steam reactor. That’s what we’re about to demonstrate for you.” “Well, Ah hope it’s as impressive as you keep saying,” the mare, Apple Bloom, admits. “Stable-Tec has a project in the works that’s going to call for long-term, stable power generation. Ah’d really like to use New Future’s reactors… if they’re safe, and they work as you advertise.” Red Shift, would you care to explain the process to Miss Bloom?” The rust-red stallion standing next to you looks up, nods, and trots away. You can feel your host let out a breath neither of you realized she was holding. Red Shift looks at the stallion who is clearly his boss. “It is a bit… technical.” “Walk me through it,” the mare insists. The rust-red stallion nods, then turns and motions towards the windows. “You’ll be able to see the New Futures megaspell framework in the room below. This one is designed to work with a simple explosion spell. About the power of a grenade.” There is a slight but unmistakable patronizing tone in his voice as he proceeds to explain, “Our unicorns have imbued each of the rods you see around the framework with the spell. This means that the spell can be cast from the rods themselves; no pony has to be in the room when we activate. You see, the maneframe…” The cream-colored pony raises a hoof and clears his throat. Apple Bloom is staring at the Red Shift with a deadpan expression. “Seriously?” The elderly stallion gently says, “You don’t need to dumb it down for Miss Bloom. She created the maneframe we’re using.” “Oh!” Red Shift looks abashed. “My apologies. We’re… frankly, we’re used to dealing with C.E.O.s that can’t use their own technology without assistance from their staff.” Apple Bloom brushes the apology aside. “Ah guess what Ah really want to know is: have you solved the radiation problem yet?” Red Shift and the elderly pony exchange glances. “Well… yes, and no,” is the final response. Apple Bloom looks unhappy with that answer, so Red Shift quickly elaborates. “We have found a way to channel the radiation into a jelly solution that is designed to absorb it. Once the jelly has absorbed a maximal amount of radiation, we ship it to a containment facility.” “And these barrels…” Apple Bloom asks, “Ah’m guessing they’d be the barrels of radioactive green goo Ah spotted bein’ loaded onto the train at Tragedy’s End?” The room goes tensely silent. Somebody (the cream-colored elderly stallion, you think) mutters “You weren’t supposed to see that.” “Yeah, that’s what I thought.” <-=======ooO Ooo=======->