...I implemented a FAT system on an embedded pc board.... but that was 15 years ago, and definitely didn't involve symbolic links.

In haste, all I can see is that symbolic links appear to be implemented by a kludge known as [link|http://www.cs.vu.nl/~ast/books/mos2/sample-11.pdf|Reparse Points]. Something about using exceptions to trap into another file.

[Edit Note: Scratch that idea, I think that's an NTFS only mechanism].