Sam flew back and smashed into a desk, overturning it and shattering the clock that was on it. His chest was smoking, but thanks to his modifications of his suit he easily survived the lightning blast. He quickly shook off the dizziness that came with being electrocuted. He looked to Pip and Dogmeat, who were cowering behind a few filing cabinets in the back. Sam grimaced; He remembered how much Dogmeat hated the robobrains back home, and the factory floor was crawling with them.

"You okay?" Pip whispered. Sam hissed as he got into a more favorable position, with his back against the metal of the desk.

"All thing's considered," He shot back, opening his satchel and digging into it. He barely flinched when another lightning bolt flew over his head and slammed the wall.

"Are those...actual brains inside those robots?" She asked.

"They're the work of a corrupt government with too much power and not enough compassion." That was all Pip needed to know.

"Come on out. We only want to kill you for trespassing!" Sam chuckled, pulling out what he was looking for. It was a green, blocky rifle of some sort.

"Looks like they're still insane," He muttered, popping out of cover and putting two VATS-guided shots into the cylinder body of one at the bottom of the catwalk. The robot sputtered, and finally died when one more laser slammed into the glass casing holding its brain, blowing the glass apart and frying the brain. He quickly went back into cover as a volley of lightning slammed into his position, scorching the desk. Pip popped up and, using the .44 Sam let her borrow, took out another and getting back to relative safety before she was scorched.

As Sam wasn't looking, a spider-like robot hovering in the air with a thruster glided into the room. Its emotionless glowing photo receptors scanned the room, seeing two life signs behind the filing cabinets. Dogmeat growled as he caught sign of the eye and its green painted body. A Mr. Gutsy.

"Surrender in the name of the Ministry of Technology, zebra scum!" It activated its flamer, and almost the whole room was filled with fire. Sam ducked and took his hat off of his head, making sure it didn't catch alight.

"Wanderer!" Pip cried behind the cabinets, hugging Dogmeat, "Circle around! Try that lighting strike those bots are doing!" Sam nodded, a plan formulating in his quietly crept behind the Gutsy, his hat still behind the desk. He could've easily taken out the robot with a shot from his Deagle, but he was still working the kinks out of his body, and still needed to experiment. He thought of what he needed; something akin to the lightning bolts that the Robobrains were firing, just as Pip said. The charge began to build up in his horn, along with an intense burning sensation in his skull. Keeping from crying out, he lunged forward and stabbed the Gutsy in the back with as it shot its plasma-like gun.

The explosion filled the room, though Dogmeat and Pip were still in cover behind the steaming filing cabinets. That saved them from the shrapnel. Sam was thrown back into the wall, his face bleeding, charred and smoking from his incredibly close proximity.

But he was alive, and his opponent was dead.

He spat out blood mixed with soot on the floor, cracking his neck. He levitated his hat back on his head. He could see the catwalk sagging outside, and began weighing their options. He crouched beside Pip, who could only stare in horror at his battered face. The fire burnt all of his flesh away on the bridge of his snout, allowing her to see the bone. His right eye was incredibly bloodshot, probably from the electric smoke shot into his face. The nick in his ear from earlier that day had gotten bigger, and was bleeding again.

"You think you could carry Dogmeat across, Pip?" Sam asked, snapping her out of her trance. She looked to the large dog, who probably weighed around 45 pounds not counting the ramshackle armor. But she had to. She nodded quickly. He grinned. "Then I'll go thin the crowd." He pulled out the Deagle and his Colt and swooped down, dive-bombing the robots. Pip looked and gasped, the number of the bots having increased from about three to seven. Sam quickly knocked that down to six, kicking the casing of one's brain with an armored boot.

While Sam continued to strafe the robobrains, Pip began to levitate herself for the first time, not counting the dog on her back. She was sweating profusely and looked like a ponified glowstick, but is was working. The catwalk barely reacted to her and Dogmeat's combined weight. She was almost halfway across when a stray robobrains opened up, firing unusually fast. A stray bolt smacked into the catwalk, the energy arcing all across the metal surface. It would've fried either of tehm if they were standing on it. Her magic failed and both of them fell to the metal walkway the moment after it dissipated. Luckily for the two it held.

"Don't run! We want to be your-" A .50 caliber round cut through most of the body like a knife through butter, destroying of the innards through kinetic force alone. The last bolt it fired slammed into a large lamp on the ceiling, causing it's bulb to overload and explode and for the whole thing to fall and crash into the catwalk behind them. The section tore away with a shriek only metal being torn apart could make.

Both Pip and Dogmeat sprinted down the catwalk as it collapsed behind them. Dogmeat made it to the other side and was waiting for Pip when it fell underneath her hooves. She threw herself forward and caught onto the last section, barely hanging on with her forelegs. As an attempt of reassurance, Dogmeat licked her right hoof. Unfortunately for her, the saliva quickly became the lubricant that made her leg slip out of its hold. Unable to hold herself up with one leg, she let go. She screamed and fell for half a second before she was caught by a pair of strong forelegs.

"Woah there," He muttered, slowly flying upwards, "Dead Pip wouldn't be good for neither of us." She didn't know why, but she blushed a deep scarlet at the comment. He dropped her onto the floor, allowing her to check to see if he got anymore wounds. She was surprised to see that the injuries he had received from headbutting-then detonating-the combat robot were gone. She sputtered, putting a hoof to where she could see his bone.

"W-wha?" She asked. Sam looked to where she was touching and smiled.

"There was a barrel of radioactive waste down there," He told her. Another question was silenced by a sound coming from the factory floor.

"D-d-d-o-onnt ru-u-n littl-" Pip kicked the last of the catwalk loose. The metal pulverized the brain of the fallen bot, turning it into mush. Pip looked back to Sam, a small grin on her face. Her question was lost.

"That was oddly satisfying."

---

Sam kicked open the door and scanned the room with his .44, putting it away when he saw that there was not a living thing in the whole office. It seemed that that had been the case for centuries...

Pip walked in with Dogmeat in tow(he walked over to a corner and sat in it), smiling as she gazed upon the chipped-but still very warm-orange paint. They both stared at the sign behind the desk.

Ironshod Firearms

How do you like them apples?

Sam humphed, having not getting the slogan. Instead, he looked to the poster in the room, biting his tongue in order to save himself from saying what was going through his head aloud. 'Better Wiped Than Striped'. Pip followed his gaze.

"What's wrong?" she asked. Sam shook his head, his brow furrowed.

"Back before the war at home the Pre-at propaganda had a similar saying," He told her, beginning to work on the wallsafe. Pip took the hint and began hacking the terminal, pulling out her access tool form her utility suit. "'Better Dead Than Red'. Shit like that was what destroyed the world." Pip pondered the last remark as Sam picked the lock. He found pre-war coins, a copy of an 'Equestrian Army Today', finance papers, bubblegum, a fission battery (or a spark battery as he was told by Pip afterwards) and a 'StealthBuck'. He whistled, wrapping in his aura as he collected everything else. He moved to the glass display case containing the most beautiful revolver in his life. Meanwhile, Pip had successfully hacked into the terminal, finding a recording.

"Cousin Braeburn, Ah know we ain't talked in some time, but the war effort's takin' a twist for the scary, and Ah might not have a chance t' see ya again. Ah want t' mend fences. Now, Ah ain't gonna muck this up with words. We all know how well that went last time. Instead, Ah'm sendin' ya Lil' Macintosh as a gift and as an apology. T'show you I'm sincere. Keep 'im safe for me, will ya?"

After three broken bobby pins, Sam was pacing in front of the glass box, brainstorming a way to get in. An idea popped into his head.

"Hey, Wanderer, I can unlock that-" Glass shattering filled the room, and Pip looked over the terminal. Sam's hoof was hovering an inch above the revolver, broken glass littered all around him. Pip pressed a key, and the lock unlatched itself with an audible click. Sam looked over to Pip, who put an innocent smile on her face. His eye twitched. Dogmeat sneezed.

"Here," He said suddenly, grabbing the revolver-which he took with great care-and the StealthBuck to Pip. She looked to the items that were in her telekinetic grip and back to Sam. He simply pulled out his Deagle and cast that invisibility spell. Pip's mouth formed an 'o' and she nodded, putting the revolver in the holster that once housed her now destroyed revolver and the StealthBuck first around her PIP-Buck (in order to find out what it actually was) and then into her saddlebags. Sam looked to the pistol.

"Take good care of it," Sam told her, moving to the elevator. He pressed the button, but it did nothing.

"Why do you say that?" Pip asked, realizing the answer after the words left her lips.

"Because that gun was given to reconnect with family." He opened the side panel to check the problem. "And if anything's important out here, it's family." He replaced one of the batteries, and the elevator activated. He climbed in, Dogmeat crawling underneath his belly and laying down. He saw Pip staring at him. Again. After rolling his eyes, he nodded to the open spot next to him, and she quickly scrambled in. As the doors closed, Pip realized something.

"Macintosh?" Sam's eyes narrowed as the two slowly looked to each other. He realized it too.

"Wasn't that..."

---

The two-with dog in tow-trotted past the collapsed buildings near the factory. Pip had no real objective, having abandoned her original goal of finding Velvet Remedy for the time being. Sam didn't seem to care about the goal in the first place, only wanting to travel and explore this new land.

"What are the things that helped you survive when you first got out of your Stable?" Pip asked, kicking a rock down the cracked road they were walking down. This stallion was a treasure-trove of information, especially since it seemed that they had similar adventures up to this point.

"Weapons," He began to list. He grabbed her sniper rifle, Little Macintosh, and her shotgun in his magic and shook them in their holsters. "Check. Armor." He reached over and tapped the spiked metal shoulder pad on her right arm. "Check. And friends..." He smiled. "Well, they didn't call me the Lone Wanderer for nothing."

"Am I your friend?" Sam let out a bitter chuckle.

"I'd call you an acquaintance, but you can think whatever you want." Pip gasped, stopping.

"How could you say that?" She asked, "After all we've been through?" Sam scoffed and turned around.

"That was a Tuesday afternoon." He looked to his PIP-Boy's chronometer. "Literally." Pip pouted.

Well it's kinda hard to make friends where there doesn't seem to be anypony friendly around!" Sam turned back around, his brows furrowed.

"Any 'friends' I've made don't stick around long, a week if they were lucky. " Pip's angry expression fell off of her face. "Trust me, I'm doing you a favor." He faced forward and kept walking. Pip snapped out of her state to find him kneeling in front of a playground. She trotted up to him and followed his gaze. He was staring at a foal's skeleton curled up on a warped merry-go-round, and another with three skates on its legs. He was mouthing words, but she couldn't hear them.

"Iustitiae est innocentes," He murmured at the end, getting up.

"What's that mean?" Pip realized that more than half of what she said to his pony were questions.

"Justice to the innocent." He wandered back onto the road. Pip caught his eye for a moment as she got onto his hooves, but quickly turned away. Pip looked to the skeletons once more and realized what he had meant. The war that destroyed everything...these young ones would have had next to no idea what was happening. How many times was this repeated all over Equestria? Pip shook the thought from her head and continued to follow the Wanderer. Trying to think of more questions. This was a very experienced wastelander, there had to be something!

"Is there anything left out here?" Pip asked suddenly. A spritebot passed them. They both ignored it.

"What, like settlements?" She nodded. "A few, but they'll be far and in-between. Some will be prosperous, some will be hanging on their last legs. Some would be able to hold off bombs, others...it'd be too late." Pip took the words in, wondering if he knew that from experience. She wondered if the friends he had mentioned had met that same fate.

Pip spotted an old vending machine shielded by a few buildings, advertising 'Sparkle Cola' behind the centuries of dust accumulated on its surface. She walked up to it, pulling out a few of the prewar coins, but was gently pushed aside by Sam. He punched the machine, and a bottle fell out. He smirked and levitated the drink to Pip, who took it with an impressed expression.

The cola was lukewarm and slightly irradiated, but the carroty aftertaste made it all worth it. Sam pulled a bottle in the shape of a rocket out of his satchel. Pip read the label; Nuka-Cola. Sam knocked it back, downing half of the bottle before catching his breath. Pip, now realizing how sore her legs were, looked to find a bench. She saw one on the other side of the building they were standing in front of. Pip-Sam waterfalling a little bit of Nuka to Dogmeat behind her-turned a corner and noticed an old poster plastered to the wall. The poster depicted the face of an elderly pony with an incredibly pink body. Her mane was streaked with grey, making her look like a candy cane. Her eyes were huge, staring into her soul. After jerking her head back and forth, she could see that the eyes seemed to be following her. The poster was ripped in the middle, making it impossible to see her expression. Bold words above and below the image, now deeply faded, announced: PINKIE PIE IS WATCHING YOU FOREVER.

"A happy reminder from the Ministry of Morale," She read aloud as Sam and Dogmeat walked up behind her, "What's the Ministry of Morale?"

"Another well-meaning idea that was so much better on scroll." Pip jumped and turned around, while Sam simply pulled his Deagle and put the barrel underneath the source of the voice. He smiled when he saw what it was.

"Watcher," He greeted, putting the hand cannon away. Pip relaxed, the spritebot seemingly harmless and friendly now that Sam wasn't about to kill it. She was still hyperventilating, and her heart want to want to fly out of her chest.

"Watcher?" She asked.

"That's me," The spritebot said in its monotone voice, "The ghost in the machine." Sam nodded at the joke. Pip growled.

"Are you trying to give me a heart attack!?" She exclaimed.

"Oh. Sorry," Watcher apologized. Pip glared at the spritebot before walking off, completely forgetting about the bench. Watcher turned to Sam, who shrugged. THE TWO AND Dogmeat followed her.

"I see you've got some armor..." Watcher observed. Though Pip didn't know why he seemed so hesitant, Sam knew perfectly; She looked like a raider. Sam knew that issue the moment he began scavenging. Sam looked over to the spritebot and mouthed 'sorry'. Meanwhile, Pip was deep in thought. She thought about how similar thus far her and the Wanderer's journey had been. He seemed to turn out okay, but when she looked into his eyes...all she saw was pain. She was terrified of her future if she continued down whatever road she was going, but for now she was nobody.

"Maybe the reason you're having trouble finding your place is that you haven't discovered your virtue yet," Watcher told her. Sam's slight smile vanished, and his brow furrowed.

"There's no virtue out here, bud," He told the bot, "Only vice. And that vice is survival." The bot stopped and looked to the Wanderer.

"That's a lot of bull coming from you," Watcher shot back. He was rewarded with a 1911 in his camera's lense.

"You don't know me," He threatened. Pip and Dogmeat looked at the scene in terror, Pip for possibly losing one or a possible second mentor, and Dogmeat for losing his master.

"I've seen enough," Watcher told him, "And I'm assuming that your actions here aren't very different form the ones form your world. And if you two-" The bot nodded to Pip- "Are as alike as I think, I know what her's is."

"What do even mean by our virtue?" Pip asked, tired of being quiet while two beings were close to having a shootout in front of her. Sam grudgingly lowered his gun, giving Watcher enough comfort to speak.

"The greatest heroes of Equestria, ponies with lifelong bonds of unbreakable friendship and strength, were each known for exemplifying one of the great virtues of ponykind. Kindness, honesty, laughter-"

"Laughter?" Sam and Pip asked at the same time.

"Roll with me on this," He reassured them, "Generosity, loyalty and magic. They really didn't know themselves, or each other, until one pony came to realize that her friends represented these virtues, and together they grew to live by them. Now, I'm not saying those are the only virtues, they are just a…" He paused, searching for the right words. "…particularly important set. I'm just saying that perhaps if you learn to recognize the dominant virtue in your own heart, you will find yourself. And you won't need anyone or anything else to tell you your place in the-" His voice fizzled out, and old music began pouring out of the speakers. The bot began floating away. Sam sighed.

"Great," Pip said for him. She finished her soda and tossed the bottle onto the ground, making sure to pocket the cap as she saw Sam do earlier.

"I don't trust him," Sam said randomly, "He tried to trick as soon as I met him." He began walking back down the road, Pip and Dogmeat following him.

"So you didn't stumble upon me on purpose," Pip commented. Sam waved her off.

"I would've gotten there eventually," He told her, "And I have every bit of confidence you would've gotten out of your situation if I hadn't come." Pip blushed.

"Aww, stop," She said sarcastically. Sam smirked.

"Anyway, he pointed me into the direction of the town, so I went there first. He even told it was a raider base, but I waved it off. I had assumed there was at mostfive. There was about fifteen, maybe twenty if you count the ones were vaporized in explosions." Pip whistled, her brain now in overdrive.

"And I'm assuming those raiders had captives in those cages..."

"Yep."

"And that's how you found that Survival Guide..."

"Yep."

"So it was a setup!" All three of their ears perked up as they heard the music behind them cut off, replaced by a voice. A deep, masculine voice full of charisma.

"Friends, ponies, rejoice! Although the world about you is bleak, scarred and poisoned by the war of honorless, thoughtless, inferior ponies of the past, we do not have to live in the shadow of their greed and wickedness. Together, we can raise Equestria back to its former beauty! Together, we can build a new kingdom where all live together in perfect unity! It's already happening, my good ponies. Already, the foundation for a new and wonderful age is being built. Yes, it's hard work, but don't we owe it to ourselves, and to future generations of ponies, to be better? No, to be the best we can possibly be? I'm telling you now, as your friend, as your leader, that we can. We must. And we wi-" Sam sent a .44 through the bot, sending fired electronics out a large hole in its steel hide on its opposite side. Pip blinked as Sam put the magnum back into its holster.

"Why?" She asked. Sam looked into her eyes, and Pip shrinked. They were full of flaming hot anger and rage.

"Because the last man who promised those things murdered my father."

---

Sam took point, his Deagle in his telekinetic grip. Dogmeat was bringing up the rear, his ears and nose on overload to detect anything that could harm his master-and his friend. After Sam had calmed down, Pip had remarked that the ponies had at least a town, since they had a leader. Dismissing the leader thing as 'bullshit to the highest degree', the two did see plumes of smoke nearby, and had spent almost an hour trotting down this path. Despite having a run-in with pig-like mutanted animals, where Pip had tested Little Macintosh, this small journey had been a rather uneventful one.

Sam holstered his pistol, slowing down to a walk. Pip couldn't see the settlement yet, she assumed he knew what he was doing.

"By this point the town guards should be covering us," He told her. Pip sighed.

"Good, I don't like being on edge all the time," She joked. Sam smiled.

"Get used to it, sweetheart." Pip blushed and laughed, truly not knowing why. Sam laughed with her.

"Reminds me of my first time at Megaton," He began telling her, "I had cleared out a raider nest inside a school, and he must've mistaken me for a raider. I had some of their armor on and I was...covered in blood..." He stopped and turned to Pip, who looking at her own body with an equally terrified expression.

Sam didn't hear the first shots, only the twang as one bullet weakened his reinforced skull and the other plowing through his brain. The bullets-in complete sync with each other-entered in-between his eyes, and he was flung into a ditch on the side of the path. Before Pip could cry out to him, a bullet went cleanly through her right hindleg while another clashed against her rifle, making her scream in pain. She could see her bone inside the hole, a sight (and feeling) that made her scream again. As she dragged herself behind a large pile of rocks for cover, Dogmeat threw himself into the ditch alongside the corpse of his master, whose blood was pooling around his head through the hole above his snout. His hat, somehow, stayed on his head.

After two attempts of field dressing on her leg, Pip tired to look around for the shooter. She saw a rust-furred pegasus with an orange mane and black hat, with two gun barrels strapped to his sides. He circled around and aimed at her once more. The rock she had grabbed as a makeshift shield barely did its job, only stopping one bullet from entering her skull, instead ricocheting off of the rock and destroying her second canteen. The last swigs of water dribbled out as another bullet entered her left shoulder. She felt the pain peak and slowly ebb away. She was dying.

She closed her heavy eyes, but when she opened them she could see two ponies leading two -headed cattle-like beasts pulling a wagon. She could see a young colt in the back. They wouldn't look up, and if they did it would be too late. Feeling a sudden wave of strength, she got up and into the open. She would be able to warn the family by dying in the middle, hopefully giving them enough warning to fight back. She grabbed Little Macintosh and pointed it at the pegasus as she flew towards her again, though she couldn't tell if she was aiming at him through her teared-up eyes.

"Shoot at me all you want, but if you attack that family, I will! End! You!" She'd like to think the Wanderer would be proud of her for doing this. The pegasus' eyes grew wide and he stopped almost right in front of her. Levitating Macintosh was becoming increasingly difficult for her, but she had to. For her wellbeing (however long that was going to last) and for the family.

"Ah ain't the one attackin' that caravan! You are!" Pip was never more confused in her life than she was in this moment. SA small part of her mind was thankful that he was now talking to her instead of trying to kill her. Like Wanderer...

"Not attacking. You shot me!"

"Well of course ah shot you! Ah see a raider headin' at a caravan, ah'm gonna perforate her till she ain't movin' no more! It's muh policy." The pegasus seemed rather pleased at the last part. Pip would go into the thought more, but her forelegs were giving to give out. However, when the pegasus had called her a raider, she almost snapped. Instead, she wrapped Macintosh in a stronger grip and put it right in-between his eyes.

I'm not a raider!" The pony pointed at her, almost like a lawyer in an intense court case.

"Y'sure look like a raider!" The colt from the wagon galloped into view, seemingly appearing out of thin air. Pip tired to call out to him in warning, but her voice failed her. The darkness won, but before she could collapse she stumbled over to where the Wanderer fell. She finally blacked out, her gun skidding across the gravel, her head slamming into the ground. Her horn pointed directly at the body, with Dogmeat whimpering next to him. The colt looked down and gasped loudly as his parents and the pegasus surrounded him. They all could now see the stable suits under their armor, and the PIP devices on their forelegs.

"Calamity, what have you done?!"

---

Footnote: Level Up

New Perk: John Connor-You have become adept at killing robots. All damage to robots increase +10%.

---

As a reminder, I have updated the other chapters so they have footnote level up things (like the original). I also polished them a little, fixing errors. Hope you're enjoying this.