Littlepip woke up from her slumber, sunlight getting into her eyes as soon as she opened them. She walked to the window and looked to the illuminated expanses of the Wasteland for the first time, regarding everything with varying degrees of terror. When she remembered her last hours last conscious and the events that got her into this building, she regarded it with more terror.

As she worked up the courage to step hoof outside, she picked the footlocker that was in the room she was in. She found a beautiful dress that was too large for her, though she still stored it in her saddlebags.

Mindful of the sniper from the previous day, Littlepip opened up the door with telekinesis while hiding behind an overturned table, a chime going off as she did so. More sunlight poured in, but nothing else. It was absolutely silent.

That was when the guitar started, its notes carrying trough the air. A voice started soon after, though she couldn't hear what the words were.

Pip slowly walked into the doorway, 'admiring' the graffiti. She slowly followed the 'art' on the boutique she was in from outside and to the rafters. She wished she hadn't; up there were dozens of cats, all desiccated, were hanging from the ceiling like disgusting decorations. She took a step back in disgust. That was when the beeping started. She turned and half a small orange disk half buried in dirt, a red light pulsing in sync with the beeps.

"CLOSE THE DOOR!"

Littlepip didn't question the mechanical voice, and it saved her life. The blast tore the door off of its hinges. The raiders had left that instead of having someone wait. Smart.

"You need to get to the library," The voice commanded her. No longer panicked, she questioned it.

"Why?" She asked, looking around to see if she could see the source of the voice. Her ear perked up as she heard the guitar and voice start up again. She shoved the door off and walked over to the doorway, seeing the large tree in the center of the ruins. On the balcony she could see a figure in a cowboy hat with its hind legs on the rail, strumming away at a guitar. It was the pony from last night, the one had had saved her and Jack. The one that had fought an entire town of raiders, and had seemingly come out on top.

Pip cautiously creeped towards the tree, now on her own accord.

On her way she ran into the grotesque bodies of the raiders that once inhabited the town. Holes the size of a hoof in bodies, cut or blown off heads, slash marks all across the chest, sword slashes lined with charred flesh, and crushed skulls were all apart of the mortal injuries the ponies faced. There was even one below the balcony with several chunks taken out of his backside. Littlepip gagged; Whoever that was up on the balcony hadn't fought the raiders, they had MASSACRED them.

She stopped at the door to the library, hesitating. Was the pony up there any better than the numerous ones they had killed? Before she could try to answer the question, she saw a few pieces of armor sitting next to the door. Despite apparently having belonged to raiders, they were surprisingly clean. Intact, too. Despite this, she left them behind and went inside.

She quietly opened the door, and was bombarded by more terrible raider décor, complete with mutilated ponies lashed onto the walls. Murals that had been painted on before the war were drawn over by the raiders, most being pornographic. The stench of death fell onto the library like a blanket.

As Littlepip backed up into the wall, in the middle of a panic attack, she began to notice the two cages in the room. Not counting the knife with the blade of a saw, they were completely barren. Whoever was on the balcony had freed them. She looked up and saw another cage, though that one's lock had been picked somehow. It was empty.

She slowly crept up the stairs after taking the knife, and was greeted by even more death. One pony had to halves of a pool cue stuck into his eyes, his mouth wide open. Another had its throat ripped out, his last look of surprise hinting how he died. One was split into two equal pieces, a bloody fire axe lying at his tail. Another was turned into a knife block, with over two dozen knives in his body. One more had had her skull literally been cracked like an egg. One was lying under a bookshelf, his skull turned into a bowl for his brains. The last body, laying outside of the door that led to the balcony, had the barrel of the sniper rifle they had wielded insdie her mouth, with the muzzle brake sticking out of a still smoking hole coated with blood.

Pip slowly creeped in, observing the beings at the rail of the balcony. One was a grey pony-his coat was much darker than hers-with locks of blonde poking out of the back of his cowboy hat, wearing a brown duster that had numerous weapons strapped to it. She could see dark blue two wings in-between the weapons. His forelegs-which were encased in white armor of some kind-were crossed over his chest, and she could see his Pip-Buck strapped to his left foreleg. That was when she noticed he was wearing a Stable barding, though his was much more worn. A fellow Stable Dweller! He sat in his chair in a strange way, his hindlegs-covered in the same kind of armor as his other set of legs-were on the rail right beside the swivel the sniper rifle that was skewering the raider was made for, and only the back legs of the chair touched the ground.

At his side was the biggest dog she had ever seen (granted he was the third) with a red bandanna around his neck, a pair of goggles on his forehead, and a makeshift harness with bits of scrap metal and polymer around his body. His full attention was given to his apparent master, so he didn't know she was there yet. She did behind an overturned lawn chair as the stallion started his next song with a few strums.

I don't want to set the world on fire
I just want to start a flame in your heart
In my heart I have but one desire
And that one is you, no other will do

I've lost all ambition for worldly acclaim
I just want to be the one you love
And with your admission that you feel the same
I'll have reached the goal I'm dreaming of, believe me

I don't want to set the world on fire
I just want to start a flame in your heart

The stallion let his head fall back and sighed, having enjoyed playing the song. Pip enjoyed listening to it, thinking the song was fit for the new world around her.

"You like the number?" He asked. Littlepip froze as the dog suddenly got up and began walking towards her hiding spot, growling. She tried to run out of the room, but the doors were shut in a flare of green magic, slightly darker than her own. The pony stood up on four legs, and she could see that she was slightly larger than all of the guard ponies back in Stable 2, making Pip's eyes level with his neck, of which there was a bandanna around that had a peculiar pattern on it, with white stars on a blue background with red and white stripes beside them. His eyes-a light blue-were filled with not the flame of rage, but slight curiosity. That didn't stop him from levitating a pistol with a barrel as big as her entire foreleg and pressing it against her nose.

"So, what brings you out to the Wasteland?" Pip didn't answer right away, still transfixed at the weapon on her snout that could turn her into chunks of meat at any moment. He pressed it harder into her face. "I asked a question." She finally found her voice.

"T-t-t-t-to find s-s-omep-pony." The pony kept his facial expressions neutral as he heard her strange choice of grammar.

"Who might that be?"

"Her name is V-Velvet Remedy." He cocked his head in confusion at her name before pulled the gun out of her face and back into its holster. Littlepip let out a breath she didn't know she was holding in.

"Noble," He commented, walking back to the balcony, "Reminds me of when I left."

"When you left your Stable?" Pip asked, staying almost still from fear. She didn't try to pet the dog, who now looked to be completely friendly. The stallion sighed.

"That's the thing," He said, looking back to her, "I came out of a Vault." Pip cocked her head to the side.

"A Vault?" She asked.

"I'm from another dimension," He told her, "I came out of a Vault six years ago in search of somebody. My father..." He looked back to the view. "And now look at me..." Pip lowered her guard down, her inhibitions lowered by pure curiosity.

"How'd you get here?" She asked, stepping a little closer.

"Some nutcase scientist locked me into an inter-dimensional teleporter." Half truth. "I was thrown into the rocks a half hour from here." He looked back to her, the beginnings of a smile on his face. "And you just came out of your Va-Stable, right? So we're in the same boat." Pip's mouth slowly rose into a large smile.

"Do you want to travel together?" She asked. Sam held back a chuckled at how naïve this girl was. Wanting to travel with a being from a different dimension? He had shot the first alien he had seen on sight. Was he this bad when he left? No, Burke knocked it out of him almost as soon as he arrived in Megaton...

"Sure," He answered, "I've got nothing else better to do, and it looks like you need some protection." Pip cocked her eyebrow.

"What's that supposed to mean?" She asked, following his head as he walked out of the door.

"Well, judging from how you almost got enslaved within an hour of leaving," He began listing, Dogmeat and Pip on his tail, "You were almost beat to death by raiders, and it seems that you've never had any interest in fighting...I'd give you two days at most out here." Pip scoffed.

"Just two?" She asked.

"I rounded it up from six hours." She let out sarcastic laughter.

"Oh, wise guy, huh?" She asked sarcastically. They were at the door to leave when he stopped in the doorway, looking over his shoulder.

"Just a Wanderer," He told her cryptically, looking forward once more. Pip stopped, processing his last statement. She going to call him Wanderer, at least until he told her his real name.

She was snapped out of her stupor by a few barks outside from the dog. She would have to learn his name too.

She trotted outside to find Wanderer waiting outside, looking down the different roads. She noticed that they all had at least three dead raiders on them. She also saw that the sniper rifle-already inside a over shoulder holster-along with a revolver and a decent amount of ammo for both.

"Take it," He told her, somehow knowing she was studying it despite his back turned to her, "You need it more than I do." Pip looked to the Wanderer.

"You sure?" She asked. Sam simply nodded. Pip shrugged, turning her attention to the armor. It was relatively clean on the inside and slipped over her Stable barding, but the wet blood left streaks on the jumpsuit that neither of them noticed. Within a few minutes, her new armor was on, the revolver was in its new holster, as was the sniper rifle. She smiled bitterly; all set to go for a trot into the Wasteland...

"Now, where to..." He asked, trailing off.

"Littlepip," She told him, "But why are you asking me?" He looked down to his PIP-Boy-which miraculously stayed the same through the jump-and saw that his map had been updated. He was at 'Ponyville'.

"Well, you know more about this wasteland than I do," He told her, checking his inventory. It was the same as he left it, minus some ammo. "And I've done enough traveling with others while leading them. It would be nice for a change of pace." If it were up to him, he'd leave. This place reminded him too much of Springvale.

Hmmmm..." She hummed, hoof scratching underneath her chin, "Let's get out of here." Good girl.

"Alright," He agreed. He whistled to Dogmeat, who was picking something off of the corpse below the balcony. "Dogmeat, Verlassen." Pip almost laughed at his name, but she hid it with a cough. The Blue Heeler shot up from the body, something in his mouth. He trotted up to Sam, dropping the item at his hooves. It was a burlap sack full of bottlecaps. "Good boy," He told the dog, patting him on the sack to Pip, who grabbed it with her TK.

"What's this?" She asked, untying it and looking inside.

"Caps," He told her, "Currency around here." She looked back to him as he continued down the road.

"I thought you said that you weren't from here." He turned around, sadness in his eyes.

"From what I can see, my world and this one are incredibly similar. I used caps back home, and I have enough to buy a small army." He turned back around. "Besides, it's better to have and not need than to need and not have." Pip looked back to the sack for a moment before shrugging and putting it on.

"Fair point," She conceded, putting the sack into her saddlebags. The three started down the road, Sam and Dogmeat both continuously scanning for potential threats. As they neared the exit of the town, they happened upon a large gazebo around a white marble statue of a soldier of some kind, rearing back with combat barding and a short sword in his mouth. Sam stopped Pip with a hoof.

"What's wrong?" She asked. Sam didn't answer, pulling out his hunting rifle and looking through the scope. To confirm his suspicions, a pack of...radigators, were inside the weeds surrounding the whole place.

"There's radigators in those weeds," He told her, letting out a shot. A plume of red mist confirmed his hit. He worked the bolt and fired again. "They'll ambush us if we try to go on the road-" Bang. Dead. "-We need some meat for potential food-" Bang. Dead. "-And you need target practice." Pip rolled her eyes at the last remark, pulling out her rifle and scoring a few kills.

After about ten radigators lay dead in the vegetation, Sam reloaded and put his hunting rifle away, trading it for a serrated combat knife. Unlike the one she had found in the library, this one had spikes on its handle, and could seemingly he held in someone's hooves. A trench knife. Pip took hers out in her TK along with him, and they both creeped up to one of the corpses. As they neared it, they both got an alert to what the place was. While Pip had to look down on hers, Sam's PIP-Boy was integrated with his nervous system, giving him a pseudo HUD with a compass and occasional words, as well as VATS. The place was called 'The Macintosh War Memorial'.

Pip read the inscription of the statue while Sam took the choice cuts of meat, using his intimate knowledge of yao guai anatomy as reference. He fed extras to Dogmeat.

"In honor of Big Macintosh," She read aloud, "Hero of the Battle of Shattered Hoof Ridge, and his noble sacrifice for all of Equestria." Sam scoffed.

"That worked out well," He commented. He now knew the name of the old country he was in; Equestria.

Ironic considering her inhabitants her ponies.

Sam quickly finished up his harvest, wiping the bloodied knife on the creature's scales before putting it back into its sheath inside his duster. He looked around the area some more, and saw what appeared to be the entrance to a manhole. He furrowed his brow and looked to his PIP-Boy, looking for any mention of it on the map. He did find a radio broadcast, to which he quickly tuned in.

"...from those damned apple trees up near the Stable, and now he's terribly sick. Too sick to move. We've holed up in the cistern near the old memorial. We're running out of food and medical supplies. Please, if anypony hears this, help us... Message repeats..." Pip sighed, apparently having heard it before. He caught her eye and motioned to the hole. She noticed it and nodded. Sam softly stomped his foot, and Dogmeat was at his heels as he and Pip creeped towards it, keeping an eye out for any radigators.

They almost got halfway there before one of them pounced, lunging towards Sam. He Pulled his Deagle out and fired into its open maw twice. It barely survived the first-something only a few things in the Wasteland could do-but the second blew its brains out. The noise attracted he ones that were left, and soon two replaced the one that fell. Pip fired three shots from her revolver into the open maw of one, but it took it easily.

"GET INSIDE!" Sam shouted, throwing off the other that lunged at him. He quickly pulled out his knife and jumped on top of it, plunging the blade into its throat and sliding it across its width. The monster drowned in its blood. It didn't stop him from stabbing it a few more times just be sure.

"Dogmeat! Come on!" Pip exclaimed, emptying the rest of her cylinder into the backside of the other radigator. He creature barely flinched, and turned to the mare, showing off its many rows of sharp teeth. Dogmeat, who was now guarding her, growled, flashing his own. It was about to lunge when a .50 caliber round slammed into the back of its head, only wounding. Pip squeaked in fright, dropping the revolver. She quickly opened the manhole covering and dived in, Dogmeat following her.

Pip and Dogmeat waited about minute before Sam fell ungraciously into the concrete chamber, the severed head of a radigator in his hooves. He groaned, his eyes shut, before he threw the head away and stood back up, albeit slowly. Pip gasped, looking over his injures. A gash was torn into his neck, his left foreleg had a large bite mark on it, his ear was bleeding from a nick at the top, his horn was chipped, and his hat had a small tear in the brim.

But he was alive.

"Are you okay?" She asked, finally starting her fire on the ground as she got up and looked him over. She reached over to touch the gash on his neck, but pulled back as he hissed. More blood oozed out of it, staining his coat. He slowly took his satchel, careful not to rub the rough leather strap on his wound, and quickly pulled out some bandages and a stimpak with his TK. He injected the syringe into his neck and wrapped the wound, doing the same with his leg.

"I'll be fine," He told her, smiling through the pain, "Just some rest." Pip, though hesitant, nodded. She went back to the fire and, after he gave her some of the meat he procured, began to spit roast it.

Sm took his duster off, revealing his Vault 101 jumpsuit turned barding. Pip studied the barding, noting the extra armor stitched into it. He had polymer combat armor on his legs, and a leather bandolier and matching shoulder pads. A pistol was strapped to his lower chest. He put the duster on the railing of one of the bunkbeds when he noticed the skeletons, one a foal's and the other an adult's.

"The radio..." He murmured, looking in-between the two skeletons. Pip could see tears well in his eyes, but quickly blinked them away. He wrapped the two skeletons in his magic, and looked to the small footlocker on the wall. He opened it up-finding it to be empty-and gently placed the bones inside.

"Pacem lapsis," He murmured, closing the footlocker. He sniffed, staring at the box, before shaking his head. He wrapped his bandanna around his duster, and his hat on top of both of them. He kept the satchel on the floor beside Pip, and curled up on the bottom bunk beside Pip. He quickly pulled a large white blanket out of his satchel and put it around him. He threw a matching blanket on the other bed.

"Genuine bighorner wool," He told her, growing drowsy, "It'll keep you from freezing." Pip smiled widely, hopping onto the bed and wrapping herself in it. Her entire body was covered in the fluff except her face and strands of her rust-colored mane and tail. In a way, Sam thought she looked cute.

He looked away, pulling out two books from his satchel and floated over to her. One was titled 'Guns and Bullets', and the other was the 'Wasteland Survival Guide'. Considering he owned the entire series of Guns and Bullets back home and he literally helped write the Survival Guide, he barely touched them.

"Dogmeat," He muttered. The dog shot his bed up from his position on the floor, "Three hours." The dog sneezed. Sam smirked and drifted off, hearing Pip read the title before losing consciousness.

"The Wasteland Survival Guide. By Ditzy Doo..."

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Wasteland Safari Guide: You know how to find and defeat any of the Wasteland's dangerous critters. +5% damage to all creatures.