Fallout Equestria

Chapter 6.

I hoofwaved. "I heard him. Over the sprite-bot. When it wasn't being Watcher."

Calamity looked at me with deeper confusion. And then broke into a too-riotous laugh. "What? Red Eye?" He turned to the rest of the bar. "Hey, everypony. LilPip here thought Red Eye was our leader!"

The whole tavern joined in on the laughter.

"Good Goddess, girl!" cried one of the mares down the counter from us, "Red Eye ain't nothing but a puffed up prancer! Hell, Ah don't even listen to that broadcast! Not when DJ's on the dial!"

"huh?"

"Ayep," agreed a buck from a nearby table as he gathered a pile of bottle caps from his cross-looking companions, many of whom were looking at colorful squares in disgust. "Just let ol' Red Eye try an' come out here and make New Appleloosa part o' his so-called 'new world'! Ah'll personally take all his unity an' brotherhood an' shove it right up his..."

"Just deal!" the pony next to him interrupted grumpily.

"So..." I fought to shove new facts into the puzzle I was building in my head. The drinks were great for forgetting, but not so great for thinking. "...the not-Watcher voice on the sprite-bot is Red Eye, and he's not your leader..."

"What's this watcher stuff?" the mare closest to me asked. "Those sprite-bot's are just radios. Red Eye can't actually watch ponies through them. They ain't cameras!" She turned to Calamity. "I mean, could you imagine if he could...?"

Okay, now that I knew wasn't true. But apparently the fact those sprite-bots can be used to spy wasn't common knowledge. Watcher had tipped me off to something.

One of the bucks from down the counter called out, "Hey, Apple Whiskey! Put DJ on!" Apple Whiskey looked up to a brown box on the top of one of the shelves which had wires running to speakers throughout the Turnpike Tavern. With a slight glow of his horn, the radio turned on, and a beautiful mare's voice, possibly the sweetest I'd ever heard (or, at least, a close second to Velvet Remedy's) began to pour out of the speakers.

"How did this happen? What have I done?

I was only trying to help, but I caused so much pain.

I wish I could hide. Wish I could run.

I wish I could find a way to do it all over again..."

The voice, and the song she sang, was so solemn and sad and filled with determination that it made my mind go to unhappy places. I soon felt like crying, and had to force myself not to. I figured more drink would help, so I finished mine and clopped for another.

"...I lost sight of the war while fighting my battles.

and now I carry the weight of the world on my saddle..."

Oh, this was unbearable. My heart was breaking, and I wasn't even sure why. I grasped at a distraction, "DJ? Who is DJ?"

The answers came fast, almost too fast to keep up with. It seemed every pony in the tavern had something to say.

"DJ Pon3, of course!"

"There's always a DJ Pon3!"

"Best music in the Equestrain Wasteland!"

"...yeah, all, what, twelve songs? Twenty?"

"He's a ghoul pony. Been around forever."

"No he's not. They keep changing. Back when I was a filly, DJ was a mare!"

"Ah hear he's a pegasus. He's got station up in the clouds. That's how he always knows everything what's goin' on."

"That's stupid. Everypony knows DJ Pon3's station comes outta Tenpony Tower in the Manehatten Ruins!"