[FO:E] The Northern Wasteland of Equestria 1

[Benson]

Manehatten Scouting Misadventures

And then she holds his rifle out to him. Lucky looks back up, and smirks. "Oh, I doubt they were worried. Miss Gwendolyn probably enjoyed havin' a break from my idiocy." He accepts the rifle, and slings it back over his shoulder. "Alrighty, be back in a moment folks." And with that, he flies over to rejoin his caravan.

Manehatten Merchant Madness

Gwendolyn squashes the roach! It dies! Unfortunately, its death results in the unleashing of several dozen little baby radroaches, which promptly begin to scurry everywhere - including up Gwendolyn's rifle. Creepy. Naturally, Flim and Flam squeeze onto Gwendolyn even tighter, and shriek even louder.

Gwendolyn grimaced in annoyance. When she had the time, like when they got to Tenpony Tower or somewhere safer, she'd give her a guns a well deserved cleaning.

"Stop acting like little kids here, come on, get off me." Scowl.

Manehatten - Scav Post

Luckily, that other mare gets away from the perpetual scowl-fest that was about to happen... by being grabbed by a crazy cyborg ninja that was also likely a pirate. And so she begins dancing. Pretty Pink seems to be happy that the mutual flirting train is right on track. "I hope you can dance as good as you can shoot then." She goes in for a nuzzle.

Manehatten Ruins- Theater Row -Scav Post 3:35 PM

Fox Trot

"I believe my dancing ability will be more than satisfactory," I whispered letting the mare nuzzle me. "I'll be a short moment, go on, wait for me on the makeshift dance floor." Haha..score.....it felt good being back in my natural element, flirting it up with the mares who'll reciprocate back. I went off to the corner to take off my battle saddle.

[Lycan 01]

Manehatten Merchant Meetups!

Lucky hovers back over and rejoins his caravan, just as Flim and Flam let go of Gwendolyn and quickly scurry around behind her, putting her between them and the still-scurrying roaches.

"Howdy folks," Lucky tips his hat to them. "So, uh, how was y'all's trip? I kinda blew up a building and made some new friends. Team Ruben Sandwich GO!, apparently, and their little robot friend," he explains with a smile, before deadpanning: "Oh, and an Enclave trooper. Meetin' her was fun."

He jerks his head back towards TRSG!, Down, and Vinyl. "They said we can travel with 'em back to Tenpony. Safety in numbers and all that."

"Wait, you blew up a building?" Flim asks warily.

"How did you manage that?" Flam raises an eyebrow, obviously not convinced.

Lucky points at the massive plume of smoke rising from the wrecked office building, and smirks. "Dumb luck."

[Chaotic Bob]

[Manehattan - Foot of Fourstar Tower]

Hoozah, Down has temporary functionality restored to her right Novasurge rifle!
Now she isn't essentially disarmed anymore.


Meanwhile, Swiss is doing part of that thing that the pegasus was really hoping she wouldn't: noting and questioning.

She moves back a little, as the changeling moves closer, doing her best to keep their distance roughly the same.
"...yes. I was-"


Somewhere nearby, Lucky says something.

Somewhere less nearby, a slowly collapsing building reaches a tipping point, rapidly accelerating into complete collapse!
The protesting squeals of the building's framework rise in volume, accompanied by an ominous rumbling as the upper portion begins to tilt away from the lower portion.

After a brief still moment, and a terrible noise, what little stability remaining collapses and the whole structure falls.

A wall of debris and dust flows down and out...

[Rebonack]

[The Foot of Fourstar Tower]

Swiss realizes that Down is backing up and scoots herself away slightly. Friend doesn't like too much closeness. No forgetting. She's about to say something further when-!

Wuh oh. That looks really bad.

"We're going to need some cover fast!" Rye yells.

The only building that seems intact enough to keep out the wall of debris? Fourstar tower of course. How very lovely. How very VERY lovely. Swiss dips down and points her phantom horn at the door, deftly coating the hinges and lock with a layer of livid green gunk.

"EVERYPONY CLEAR!" the mock-pegasus yells shortly before a loud kBOOM! that sends the door flying through the threshold and into the office beyond.

Inside?

A pair of ceiling mounted turrets begin to open fire. Thankfully TRSG! had the good sense not to stand anywhere they could be shot.

[MCerberus]

Manehatten - Scav Post of Morale

Surprise better know how to lead, scowling mare isn't a very experienced dancer. She's also going through a few emotions like 'weirded out' 'confused' and 'vaguely angry', so that doesn't help. Also not helping, wubs to the face. "What did you say... I'm not a tree."

Pretty Pink waits patiently over on the 'dance floor' although one more shot with the party cannon and it would likely be flashing colored lights to dance on. Pop Rock wouldn't be too happy with that though. Good thing that Nails helped out earlier, the wubs might have brought down the building. She gives Fox a wink and beckons him over.

Meanwhile

Again, friction with the Star Paladin. Part of Scoops always wishes she'd just stayed in her recon squad... but then she wouldn't have had access to enough soda to drench the parched sea of her caffeine thirst. "Sir, recon standard practice is to call in once primary objectives are complete. The choice to actually begin the debrief over encrypted broadcast isn't a knight's call."

Sick procedural burn! Wait, that gives her an idea. Kind of 'burn some bridge'y but it might work. The Star Paladin ordered the death of somepony with great knowledge of lost tech AND legitimate authority in the old world. That doesn't sync well with the Oath.

[Benson]

Manehatten Merchant Meetups!

"At least you're safe, a blown up building isn't going to stand out here in the landscape." The griffon replied being stoic and seemingly meh about it in order to cover her worrisome from earlier she kept inside during this ordeal.
===

Manehatten Ruins- Theater Row -Scav Post 3:38 PM

Fox Trot

After a short struggle of taking off the battle saddle, I lay my saddle bag next to it and strut over to the pink mare. I flash her a lazy smile and walk up to her and pick up her hoof and give it a light peck. "Let us dance sweet thang'." Flirt, flirt, let the playful charm ooze off.

(deadtiming)

[Lycan 01]

Manehattne Merchant..... demolitions? Oops.

Lucky smirks at Gwendolyn. "Yeah, it's not like I totally destroy-"

Boom-shaka-laka.

Lucky looks back over his shoulder at the collapsing building. He then turns back to his caravan, and frowns. "Oops."

He promptly grabs Flim or Flam, and flaps his wings as hard as he can, propelling himself and the merchant towards the sky and away from the approaching cloud of radioactive wreckage. "Quick Gwen, grab the other one!" he barks as he ascends as fast as his feathers will carry him.

She's probably gonna tear his head off for calling her Gwen, but he doesn't care about that right now. Frantic escape from the potentially flesh-shredding and/or mutating debris cloud is a much more pressing issue than social etiquette...

The other twin screams and hurls himself at Gwendolyn, obviously expecting her to carry him to safety...



---
Scav Post

Sprinkles continues to do The Robot.

And as he dances, he extends his sensor range to the max and modifies his audio reception to dampen everything to low volume levels... except for Wadda Scoop's voice, and the voice of anyone on a radio. If she's within range, he'll hopefully be able to pick up on her voice and/or the voice of anyone she's talking to on the radio.


(Up to McCerberus if Sprinkles can listen in or not)

[Chaotic Bob]

[The Foot of Fourstar Tower -> Within]

You know, if there wasn't a massive wall of debris-based death bearing down on them, Down might be suspicious that this was a ploy to get inside.
Also that Swiss was against it, like her.

...okay, so there's no way this was a ploy.

But Down isn't worrying about that right now!

Instead, she's just zipping down towards the door, flicking up SATS as soon as the turrets are in sight, and giving them each a little tick.
She'll fire a bit slower with only one gun, but it should do the trick, assuming they're not heavily fortified.

"Everypony in! Weapons free!"


[Manehatten - Anywhere Near Four Stars]

There are a few seconds to react before the cloud from the collapsing building rampages over everything remotely nearby...
Being caught inside it is most likely a very bad thing.

There's enough solid debris and contaminants within to be highly injuring, if not outright lethal.

[Benson]

Manehatten Merchant..... demolitions? Oops.

Lucky smirks at Gwendolyn. "Yeah, it's not like I totally destroy-"

Boom-shaka-laka.

Lucky looks back over his shoulder at the collapsing building. He then turns back to his caravan, and frowns. "Oops."

He promptly grabs Flim or Flam, and flaps his wings as hard as he can, propelling himself and the merchant towards the sky and away from the approaching cloud of radioactive wreckage. "Quick Gwen, grab the other one!" he barks as he ascends as fast as his feathers will carry him. She's probably gonna tear his head off for calling her Gwen, but he doesn't care about that right now. Frantic escape from the potentially flesh-shredding and/or mutating debris cloud is a much more pressing issue than social etiquette...

The other twin screams and hurls himself at Gwendolyn, obviously expecting her to carry him to safety...

Gwendolyn sighs and clutches the other twin, probably Flam, with her fore arms and talons, holding him against her chest plate. She then with a flap of her wings fwooshed out of there.

And what of their caravan and brahmin? And the manticore cub?

[Rebonack]

[Manehatten - Into Fourstar Lobby!]

Yes. What of the Brahmin and the cub? What of anypony else who happens to get caught in the cloud that our heroes are unaware of?

The Pale Horse is looking to claim a few more today.

Sour is close behind sending ribbons of lightning dancing along the turrets. Between the electrical surge and the rifle shots they go down fast. TRSG! comes charging into the lobby, scooping up the fallen door and shoving it back against its frame.

Swiss allows her disguise to drop completely, not wanting to waste the extra power on it as she begins sealing the door into place with thick emerald-colored resin that swiftly becomes rock-hard.

She takes a step back and gives a nod. "Alright. That should hold," the changeling chitters.

"How many hostiles are you picking up nearby, Rye?" Sour asks as she uses her own EFS to get a reading. Though she trusts Rye's intuition far more than she does the computer.

"A whole bunch of them on the floors above and below. A few more deeper into the lobby. Maybe three?" the mare replies, her eyes closed as she extends her senses.

"Well," Corn pipes up. "Ah think we hit the jackpot in here folks."

In the lobby?

Are six dead Steel Rangers in full armor. And at least two dozen demolished robots of varying models.

[Scav Outpost]

"Of course you aren't a tree, silly!" Surprise laughs. "Anypony can see that! But if you could be a tree what KIND of tree would you be? I would definitely go with a sugar maple 'cuz they're all sweet inside!"

Meanwhile!

There comes a sigh from the Star Paladin. This is somewhat absurd. So close to such an amazing bit of pre-war tech and yet so far! "I would like you to use all avenues available to you to secure the VIP. If she is unwilling to come peacefully then return to Bucklyn Cross immediately. The Steel Pony Project was one of the final breakthroughs of the Ministry of Wartime Technology and failing to secure this tech would be a gross dereliction of our Oath."

[MCerberus]

Manehatten - Scav Post of Morale

As the dancing begins, Pretty Pink gives Fox Trot an alluring wink. "Such a gentlecolt." She's not much of a dancer, but it is a rather rare skill nowadays anyway. Fox Trot might notice that the attention of this mare was gotten a little too easily.

The other ponies have seemed to stop minding the dancing murder machine. Odd that the description is literal for once. Sprinkles is a machine build for murder. The Rangers use old military encryption, so he's able to pick up the signal. "-return to Bucklyn Cross immediately. The Steel Pony Project was one of the final breakthroughs of the Ministry of Wartime Technology and failing to secure this tech would be a gross dereliction of our Oath."

The shocked angry mare is still having a somewhat difficult time hearing but actually makes out the statement. She may also be getting dizzy from the sudden high-velocity dancing. "The kind with leaves I guess?" Arboretums are rare in the wastes, denying the public the tree knowledge they crave.

Meanwhile

Right. Well oath arguments, and this is likely going to turn into one, get really complicated, so Surprise might be safe for a few hours after Scoops gets to the outpost. Needless to say, she'll try and explain the situation to her on the way out. Nopony has to know about that piece of gross insubordination.

"Yes sir. I might need night-equipped escort at perimeter bravo due to sunset... and please have the scribes warm up the med scanner." Scoops paws at her nose. It's still sore. "Might have broken my nose free-firing a modified bolt." The good sergeant would pick that up clearly.

[Lycan 01]

Girdershade

Soda Fizz lets out a massive gasp, her eyes going wide. "BUCKY LOVES ME?!" she squeals excitedly.

And then she bolts for the door.

[Rebonack]

[Scaver Outpost]

It takes a few moments of processing on Surprise's part to realize that there might be something wrong with that question. Since she has seen no tress since coming to the surface.

The shock is enough to cause her to stop dancing completely and the music wubbing from her wings to fall silent.

"...oh... I... guess there aren't any trees left, are there?"

That's a very sad thought.

No trees. Nothing but those ugly little scraggly shrubs and sickly looking grass. All of which are probably irradiated. This isn't a very happy place to live...

[Meanwhile!]

"Preparations will be made. Do your duty to the Oath, knight."

And with that the transmission is cut. Scoops may notice that the music from downstairs has stopped.

[BladeofObliviom]

Girdershade

Swift more or less just stares as Fizz gallops right out the door. Well, that was abrupt, and...

[Sneak]...Wait, where did Swift go? Is she, perhaps, spying on Fizz and Bucky? (Yes, she is. )

[TheAmishPirate]

[Girdershade - Shotgun Wedding]

She hesitated for a bit, trying to figure things out. "I don't really know why this should be overcomplicated, actually. Basically, he loves you..."

Fleetwing visibly winced and made a few not-so-subtle slashing motions across his throat to Violetta. She's usin' the L-word?! Clouds in the sky, is she crazy? You don't just go an' tell somepony that-

Girdershade

Soda Fizz lets out a massive gasp, her eyes going wide. "BUCKY LOVES ME?!" she squeals excitedly.

And then she bolts for the door.

...or else that might happen.

Recovering quickly from his momentary shock (and another assault on his eardrums), the pegasus scrambled to turn himself around. "Ack! N-no! Wait!" [Talent: Running] He took off after the mare. Even with a head start, there was still a chance he could save this from certain doom. Maybe if he could just beat her to the door, or maybe block her path once she was outside. The thought to trip or otherwise lay a hoof on her never once crossed his mind. He was a guest, invited in on good faith. To physically assault her in her own house?

Simply unthinkable.

[Benson]

Manehatten - Scav Post of Morale

As the dancing begins, Pretty Pink gives Fox Trot an alluring wink. "Such a gentlecolt." She's not much of a dancer, but it is a rather rare skill nowadays anyway. Fox Trot might notice that the attention of this mare was gotten a little too easily.

Manehatten Ruins- Theater Row -Scav Post 3:43 PM

Fox Trot

Of course I knew narrator person, but I didn't care, not like I was too serious about this little thing myself, so as long as I got what I wanted in the end. I executed perfectly timed bumps, and grazes of my flank and muzzle. "Mmm...so what's your name sweet cheeks?" I flirted with this pink mare as we danced to Surprise's funky beats.

[Lycan 01]

(Will post for Girdershade once everyone has reacted)



---
Manehatten Merchant Madness And Demolitions of DOoooooooOOOooOM!

The brahmin glare at the caravaners as they all flee towards the sky. The mutant cows quickly trundle towards cover, and as the cloud of mutating debris approaches, one casts and other dirty look at the sky and yells "Aw well all of ya'll can just go fu-"

And then the cloud hits.



---
Manehatten Scav Post

Sergeant Sprinkles stops his dancing, and turns to look at Surprise. "Er, actually, there are still some trees. It's just... most of 'em make up the Everfree Forest."

The robot pauses for a moment.

"The Everfree Forest is not a nice place anymore, though. Not that it ever really was..."

[MCerberus]

Manehatten - Scav Post

The angry unnamed mare Surprise grabbed starts slipping in the absence of dancing. In a few moments she slowly continues only a plop and she's on the floor. Considering there were only a hoof-full of ponies on the floor, most of those present are just standing there. The same look of confusion they've had for the past several minutes is present on their faces. Somepony only ate half their cupcake. A sneaky stallion takes the rest while nopony is looking.

If the looks previously meant anything, the unicorn seems like she likes what she sees. Oh Fox Trot, you lady killer. She stays close and gives him a little pat with her tail. "You can just call me Pretty Pink. Why don't we go continue the party elsewhere?"

Up on the roof, Scoops is quite glad there wasn't a robot listening that would charge in and threaten her with a flamer over that conversation. She'll have to leave soon, but for now she takes a moment to think on the roof. The conversation really focused her attention, so the lack of wubs only has the effect of making things too quiet. She's trying to think of everything she can do to both complete her missions and keep her new friends safe.

[Rebonack]

[Manehattan Scav Post]

Surprise is certainly not dancing now. She's just sitting there, looking kind of awkward and confused. Why aren't these ponies having fun? Is she doing something wrong? Oh no! What if they don't like her parties and don't want to be her friend anymore!?

Thankfully Sprinkles speaks up before the cyberpony's poofy mane can deflate. That would be terrible for everyone.

"Oh... that sounds pretty awful..." Surprise responds from her seat in the middle of the floor. "Things really have gotten terrible, haven't they Mister Sprinkles? A lot worse than I ever would have thought..."

The cyberpony's lip begins to quiver. "Why did all of this have to happen... why couldn't things have just stayed happy...?"

She turns her gaze up to the hovering robot, a pleading look in her eyes. Or rather, in her visual sensors. The poor cyberpony doesn't even have eyes anymore. "All I ever wanted to do was make ponies smile, Mister Sprinkles. I never wanted to hurt anypony... Why couldn't Pinkie have picked somepony instead of me?"

Her voice falls to a near whisper. "They would have taken the shot..."

The music has fallen silent.

[Chaotic Bob]

[Manehatten - Fourstar Lobby]

For once, Down isn't the one particularly concerned with her EFS here.
Instead, she's doing a quick head count to see who all made it in.
Hopefully all of TRSG!...okay good. Vinyl? The freakish little robot was in here somewhere, right?


And at some point the mass of dead Steel Rangers and robots is noticed.
She is familiar with the Rangers.
Familiar enough to know that a pile of dead ones is incredibly bad news.

"We should secure the lobby if possible and try to not disturb anything else in here. This isn't a place we want to force our way through."
Rangers are good at forcing.
The Rangers are dead.

[Manehatten - Environs Around Fourstar]

The rumbling cloud of death descends...
Those without appropriate protection or height be warned.

Being hit by a wave of radioactive dust and debris is more than enough to hurt anything of insufficient hardiness.

[Rebonack]

[Manehatten - Fourstar Lobby]

TRSG! has made it in safely! And Vinyl is most certainly in here.

She's poking at one of the destroyed robots. Poke poke.

Swiss? Swiss looks like a filly on Hearth's Warming Eve. "OhmygoshOhmygoshOhmygoshOhmygoshOhmygosh! Do you know what this IS!?"

She begins fiddling with the weapon mounted to one of the Steel Ranger's, working at detaching the bulky looking contrivance. "A belt-fed automatic mk5-Stampede grenade launcher! Do you have any idea how HARD these are to find?"

"Usually gotta kill ah Steel Ranger fer 'em," Corn drawls as he pokes around the lobby.

"Well somepony was nice enough to do that for us!" the changeling squees as she hugs the weapon. "It'll take some modifications but I'll bet I could use this! I could blow stuff up without putting so much strain on my magic!"

Rye gives a laugh as she begins working at removing magical components from the robots. Getting sparkle batteries out is easy enough. But more technical stuff like talismans are going to require Swiss' expertise. And she's too busy fan-fillying over the gun right now.

Sour coughs slightly. "I believe that's a wise course of action Down Feather."

[Lycan 01]

Manehatten Merchants and Doom Clouds

Once Lucky and Flim (or is it Flam?) reach a safe height up above the doom cloud, the pegasus lets out a sigh of relief. "Alright... I think we're safe up here... Guess we should wait 'til the cloud settles?"

"Fliiiiiim!" the pony in Lucky's grasp yells. "Are you okaaaaay?"

"I'm fiiiiine!" the pony in Gwendolyn's grasp yells back.

"Wait, I thought you were Flim?" Lucky observes, raising an eyebrow in confusion.

"No, I'm Flam!" Flam huffs indignantly. "You really need to pay more attention, Mister Lucky."

Lucky just rolls his eyes.



---
Manehatten Scav Post

Sergeant Sprinkles hovers over and hugs Surprise, gently embracing her and comfortingly running a set of claws through her mane. "Shhh. It's alright, Miss PV..." he quietly tells her. "You did what was right," he tells her consolingly. "You did what any pony would have done. You did what any good pony would have done." Granted, Sprinkles would have taken the shot, or worse. But he's not a pony, and he's definitely not what you'd consider good.

"Besides... I've run some simulations. Educated guesswork, really. You takin' that shot wouldn't have made much difference in the long run, I recon. Sure, it mighta made things better. But there's also plenty of chance that things woulda eventually gone south some other way. Who knows, things possibly could have even turned out worse if ya'd done it. Political backlash and turmoil, messy stuff like that. Not good for morale, heh heh..." he observes with a soft, sad chuckle.

And he's not even counting the several possible outcomes where the Zebras invaded Equestria and occupied several major cities and the war ground to a grueling stalemate that lasted for decades or even centuries. Of course, he also doesn't acknowledge those possibilities, because surely that's just an error in the simulation's programming...

The robot gives the little cyber-pony a gentle squeeze. "Stop bein' so hard on yourself, Miss PV. What's done is done. History. A record to be either forgotten, or learned from. We're here in the present. You can still make ponies happy. You can still make things better. Even if it's just givin' a pony a cupcake, you're still brightenin' up Equestria. And that's an opportunity to be happy with and proud of... Don'tcha think?"

[MCerberus]

Manehatten - Scav Post

Cupcake Stallion as he as now known notices the distress Surprise is in and sort of slinks over still afraid of what might happen. Angry mare takes the chance to slink away. "Well for what it's worth... I really like the cupcakes?"

[Rebonack]

[Manehattan - Scav Post]

Mister Sprinkles used encouraging pep talk!

It makes Surprise feel a little better...

The cyberpony gives a sniff before wrapping her hooves around the robot. "Thanks Mister Sprinkles... I don't know what I would do without you..."

D'aaww...

The cyberpony assassin is giving the murder-machine a hug!

That's so adorable.

Then another pony speaks up and a very real smile, the first very real smile Surprise has smiled in a very very long time creeps onto her face. "I... Thank you. I'm glad you like them. And I'm glad you told me, too."

She gives a bit of a nervous laugh. "I was starting to worry that everypony hated them..."

[MCerberus]

Manehatten - Scav Post

If there were a live studio audience, they'd likely not stop with the d'awww. Cupcake pony suddenly has an upsurge in bravery, and desire to have more pastries. He goes in for a hug himself. Elsewhere, a pony seems to be trying to get the mirror ball down to see what it's made out of.

[Chaotic Bob]

[Manehatten - Fourstar Lobby]

Down gives Swiss a leery look as she gets to work on cannibalizing weaponry from the Steel Ranger.
Now, she's quite familiar with the idea of scavenging for resources, particularly from fallen foes...

But isn't she being just a teensy bit too excited about it?

"Erm...alright then.
I'll just...scout out the enemies down here then."
She kind of lamely points a hoof off towards the markers on the EFS, before she begins slinking off in that direction.

[Rebonack]

[Manehattan - Fourstar Lobby]

Swiss continues to fiddle with the grenade launcher, working on converting it into a weapon that she can effectively wield with her levitation. Straight up mechanics aren't her thing, so some help from Rye is certainly great! In return they're planning on seeing if they can adapt one of the micro sparkle generators to interface with Rye's MEWs...

Sour falls in step behind Down. "It's how she prevents herself from harming us by feeding on our emotions," the ghoul pony says once they're beyond earshot. "Changelings don't produce the magic of friendship on their own, so they must take it from others. Allomyrina radiates off a portion of the magic she takes. It creates a sort of emotional feedback loop that restores whatever she consumes."

A slight smile from Sour. "She's very strange, yes. And she can be somewhat... overly zealous when she's trying to make a new friend. But she means well. You'll meet few ponies more loyal to those they care about."

[PurityIcekiller]

Soda Fizz lets out a massive gasp, her eyes going wide. "BUCKY LOVES ME?!" she squeals excitedly.

And then she bolts for the door.

Well, that was easier than expected.

Recovering quickly from his momentary shock (and another assault on his eardrums), the pegasus scrambled to turn himself around. "Ack! N-no! Wait!" [Talent: Running] He took off after the mare. Even with a head start, there was still a chance he could save this from certain doom. Maybe if he could just beat her to the door, or maybe block her path once she was outside. The thought to trip or otherwise lay a hoof on her never once crossed his mind. He was a guest, invited in on good faith. To physically assault her in her own house?

Simply unthinkable.

"Wait, what?" Violetta shook her head. She'd helped get that romance sorted out cleanly, didn't she? Why was Fleetwing running off to stop it? This was getting confusing.

[Lycan 01]

Girdershade

Fleetwing, true to his name, zips across the room and places himself between Fizz and the doorway. "Hm?" Fizz tilts her head to the side in confusion. "What's up?"



---
Scav Post

Sprinkles chuckles. "See? Happy ponies. Now cheer up, Miss PV. You've got new friends to make," he observes, gesturing at the various ponies scattered around the room.

Yes, Sprinkles just unleashed Surprise on all these poor souls.

There's a small, sadistic part of him that's totally enjoying this.

[Rebonack]

[Manehattan Scav Outpost]

"You two are right!" Surprise proclaims, reaching out with her front hooves impossibly wide to wrap them around both Sprinkles and the cupcake pony. "I can't change what's happened already! But at least I can still brighten up Equestria one smile at a time!"

See that?

See that right there?

She's going to be a one-mare Ministry of Morale! And who knows? Maybe she'll even be able to convert other ponies to the cause. The Wasteland sure could use some more smiles.

"Okay friend! I'll start with you! I'm Surprise Party, Senior Party Technician of the Ministry of Morale!" the cyberpony begins with a wide and honestly genuine smile. "So what's your name?"