NOTE: I'm writing this assuming you know what's going on in the corresponding chapters in Fallout: Equestria. I would recommend reading the original first to have a good sense of what is truly going on. Future chapters are planned to be standalone; I will tell you what chapters aline with what.

This chapter: Velvet Remedy.

---

Sam only realized his mistake a split second after he kicked in the door. The room was full of slavers; most likely more in the barn than there ever was in Paradise Falls. He knew he couldn't take them all at once, not with his arms and armor.

'I really wish I had my power armor,' He thought to himself. He quickly spun around and fired a few random rounds into the sky before slamming the door.

"We're under attack!" He shouted at the crowd, making some of the frilly dress mares scream. Most of the ponies, however, grabbed their weapons and readied them.

"Where and how many?" One of them asked, a unicorn an eyepatch over her left socket and leather armor on her barrel. Sam grunted.

"Two, unicorn and pegasus." He looked out again, only to be greeted by the sight of a slaver with a lantern pole on his back get capped by presumably Calamity, the blood splatter getting on his helmet. With his NVs, he could see Pip run into one of the wooden buildings form before the war after picking its lock with some unneeded dificulty. "I see the uni...I think that's the Stable Dweller."

"The who?" The slaver asked, "Some kind of new do-gooder?" Sam looked down at his PIP-Boy; the signal of DJ Pon3's broadcast didn't reach out here.

"Yeah." He raised his assault rifle. "I call her. She took down my crew near Ponyville." The slaver nodded.

"We hear shots and we're comin'," She answered. Sam nodded, checking the stage. It was empty. He pulled out a strange object from his satchel.

"Oh, and bitch?" The slaver did a double take.

"Excuse me?" He pulled the pin and threw it at her head, turning tail and sprinting up the catwalk. The impact gave the slaver a welt, and it rolled into the center of the barn. The salver rubbed her head as one of the stallions took a closer look at it, a tan cowboy hat on his head.

"Wot in tarnation?" He asked no one in particular. The next second it went off.

Sam had noticed that, in his travels, the husks of cars abandoned on the streets by their owners still had active power cell. However, they were all incredibly unstable from their advanced age. They went up REAL nice if provoked by a few stray bullets. It took him several weeks and a little bit of help but in the end he learned how to safely take out these batteries. After that, he, Donovan and Charon spent an entire month developing their own breed of DIY weapons, the most prominent being the 'Kiloton Grenade'. It essence, it was a frag or high explosive grenade duct taped to either a car's power cell or a fission battery. The combination didn't matter; what mattered was that it still went up in a big explosion.

And boy did it work this time.

The barn's occupants were all almost instantly vaporized in heat that topped at 500 million degrees Fahrenheit, the furniture and walls being blown apart. The stage melted before its molten globs flew through the air and into the building behind it. The begins sleeping inside the guest rooms on the balcony would be the lucky ones, as their remains would be able to be found in the smoldering wreckage in the form of burned and scarred skeletons. The roof flew apart in terrible fireballs, an ominous mushroom cloud forming above the wreckage. Sam smiled amid falling pieces of smoldering debris, knowing he had killed a lot of slavers with that thing. His smile vanished as a bullet almost hit him in the face from his position in the doorframe of the building Pip went into. He looked down, seeing a large band of slavers, maybe six or seven. He fired a loose burst, killing one, before retreating inside. He noticed before he fled that they were in a rough formation, but enough to deny Calamity of any safe vector for another strafing run. He and Pip were on their own.

Sam quickly dove into the room as the door closed. He executed a commando roll to get on sure footing, facing Littlepip as she began to aim a gun at his head. He held up his front hoof.

"Friendfriendfriend!" He shouted, holding up his front hooves, crouching as to not fall forward from overbalance. Pip relaxed, lowering her gun. Sam took a look around the room, noting the two dead ponies and-

"That's a lot of firepower," He noted, his eyes scanning shelves of ammo and weapons. Pip was mesmerized too, but snapped out of it as shouts came from outside.

"I don't care how many lives it costs!" An authorative feminine voice shouted outside, "I want his head on a pike!" Sam's head swiveled as he looked around the room for something to barricade the door as Pip locked it. He settled on a filing cabinet and a table covered in cards an gambling chits, most likely what the two dead ponies were doing before Pip showed up.

Sam grabbed both of them at the same time with his magic and pushed them in front of the door, while Pip did the same with a metal desk. As she took notice of the terminal that was sitting on it, Sam stepped in front of the armory and regarded it like it was his own armory underneath his house in Megaton. The gleam of the metal, the smell of the gun oil, the inert deadliness of the points of the stray rounds. It was beautiful.

Sam cracked his neck, taking a look at his side. Pip was looking at the sight with the same expression.

"Ready to turn yourself into a walking armory?" He asked. She looked up at him, a devious smile on her face.

"Let's do it."

---

Sam put the last 5.56 round in the magazine before tucking it into one of his chestplate's open slots. He slid a few more into the others before sliding the last one into his rifle, pulling the receiver and loading a round. He regarded the two battle saddles one last time before turning away. As much as he wanted to use them, he didn't have the space on his back, which was occupied by not only his original weapons, but the assault rifle and a minigun, which he had torn off one of the battle saddles.

He looked over to Littlepip, who was reading on the terminal. She was loaded with ammo, of which she had plenty...except for her emerging signature, Little Macintosh. Sam knew that he was having the same problem with his Deagle.

As he walked out of the armory cage, Pip looked like she was about to explode. As she left the terminal and began pacing angrily, Sam began reading the entries.

Entry 1:

Had a surprise inspection from the Ministry of Morale yesterday. We pretty well knew it was coming, and I'd been given instructions on what to do; but I couldn't believe how smoothly it went! We slip them a small percentage of the special product, and they give us clean marks? Even if they were dirty, I couldn't understand why they wouldn't bring the cage down on us and impound all of it for themselves. Seemed too good to be true. So I did a little digging, and a friend of a friend working over at Ironshod who claims to have an inside peek gave me this apple to chew on: according to him, the head mare of MoM herself actually loathes the new contraband laws. And since MoM enforces those laws, that means all sorts of tasty zebra treats are slipping into Equestria right under the Princesses' nose. I figure this means as long as she says golden delicious, we're golden delicious. And even if the Princess suspects her (and how dense would she have to be not to?), she really is the one pony the MoM can't bring up on sedition charges!

Entry 2:

Finally wiped the crap from this terminal. Three-hundred plus documents that I have absolutely no use for (and many of which it's probably best there not be a record of). All except that one damn file from forever ago with the weird-ass flag on it that prevents tampering. And trust me, I've tried.

Don't know why we even bother keeping record of where we send the goods, since they're all going to the same damn place anyway. I don't know what the hell Stern needs all these slaves for, but unless she's building an army, whatever it is has one hellish rate of attrition.

Boss is more worried about the attrition rate in transit. A third of these fuckers don't make the journey, and Stern ain't paying us none for corpses. I'm supposed to figure out a way to keep the damn goods alive at least until after caps exchange hooves. Maybe a cocktail of drugs will help. Found a false floor last week leading into a buried boxcar just full of the stuff!

Entry 3:

I've finally convinced the boss that we need to start a little side business in the foal market. The young ones are easier to corral, control and train. Sure, we have to play up the "investment" angle, since they can't do the work of a normal slave, but there are plenty of ponies out there who see the potential. Unfortunately, Stern ain't one of them. That bitch has no patience.

Turns out, a mixture of Buck and Dash, in small doses, does mighty well in keeping the more worthless slaves from keeling over before they make Filllydephia. What happens to them after Stern gets her hooves on them ain't none of my concern. Still got to talk to Whip Crack about going a bit easier on them though. No drug cocktail is going prevent a pony from being lashed to death. Might suggest swapping out which slaves are pulling the wagons a bit more often too.

Entry 4:

The cells in the old sheriff's station have been perfect for foal holding. The settlers of Appleloosa might have constructed a lot of this place with an eye to speed over lastingness but they sure knew how to make a holding pen. I'd even say that the cells in there are a close second in the list of stuff I'm glad they left behind when they all kicked the bucket, next to that apple pie recipe!

Turns out, gathering foals has made hitting isolated homesteads a much better risk. The parent folk have a tendency to get annoyingly shooty when we come to claim them, but they also take such great pains to keep their little ones out of the fight that even if we have to kill off all the adults, we still make a good profit.

Entry 5:

What a fucking cock-up! A whole shipment, two wagons worth, slaughtered. Best we can figure, they ran into a stray hellhound. Damned taint fucks everything up. Now I hear that Stern is sending a "special representative" to take a look-see at our operation. Sounds more to me like she's planning on taking over. I think she's in for a face-buck surprise. And this "special representative" best watch her tail.

Got a new herd of foals ready for breaking. Raked in the caps with the last batch. Another benefit of dealing in foals: you only have to kill one of them in front of the others to take the fight out of them.

Entry 6:

The last week has been beyond words. Stern was playing it close to her chest with that "special representative" business. I never had any idea! Let's just say I was shaking in my shodding when our new boss heard about some of the stuff I'd been saying back when we didn't know her. But I guess it's easy to be understanding when you're connected to the divine! Besides, we still have what's left of the old boss as a reminder that the new boss's hooves ain't soft.

The new acquisition is going to do wonders for keeping the slaves up. Good thing too, since the new boss don't cotton to the Buck and Dash trick. Fortunately, I was able to convince her that was Apple Core's idea. Poor Apple Core. Never saw it coming.

All hail the living Goddess!

"They were average slavers," Sam told her as he finished, "Apart of a bigger operation. But then turned into religious zealots...but by what?" He reread the last entry. "By who?" Pip stopped, growling.

"All I know is that I'm about to kill some evil motherfuckers!" She shouted. Sam held in a snort, moving to the barricaded door. The bucking had stopped several minutes ago.

"How?" He asked. "We're stuck in here, those bastards have every gun pointed to this door. The moment we step outside, we're dead." He tapped the filing cabinet. "All we can do is wait for any opportunity-" The door exploded, sending shrapnel and furniture flying through the air. Sam heard a piece of hot metal scrape against the back of his helmet as he flew, and felt another go straight through his right hindleg. He landed and flipped onto his back in front of Littlepip, who slammed into the armory's cage and knocked unconscious. The last thing he saw before blacking out was the filing cabinet. His brow furrowed right before the cabinet came crashing onto his head.

'So that's what the missiles were for.'

---

The cabinet barely made a sound as Sam slowly pushed it off of his body with his magic. He slowly got up, almost falling back onto the ground as he put pressure on his injured leg. He stuck a stimpak into it-of which he was running out of-and took in the situation around him.

Calamity was holding up Pip's left foreleg as it began to heal with the power of several healing potions, the limb apparently having been almost taken off by shrapnel. It would be lame until they could find treatment. She was trembling, but whether it be form pain, shock, anger, or a combination of all three he couldn't tell.

"Ya two er lucky those miss'l launchers are hard ta work fer an amateur," He said as the potions did their magic, "Otherwise ya wouldn't be here." Sam scoffed.

"Lucky us," He grumbled. He moved to pick up his scavenged minigun from beside him before seeing that it was damaged beyond repair by the metal desk slamming onto it. Several of the barrels were bent, which would cause it to spark and explode if it was fired. "What's the plan?" Pip had calmed down long enough to fire something out.

"Me and Wanderer will look for Velvet Remedy, Calamity you'll get to the sheriff's office and rally the foals. We'll meet up there when we have her." Sam sighed as he loaded his pulled on the slide of his Deagle, putting it back into its holster.

"Better than what I'd have come up with," He commented.

"What'd been yer's?" Calamity asked.

"Simple," Sam replied before they all went into the shadows of the night.

"Kill em all."

---

Pip quickly closed the door of the boxcar as Sam slipped inside. The light from the inside was blocked once again by the door, unnoticed by the bands of slavers hunting them outside.

Both of the former Vault/Stable dwellers turned to the only other occupant of the car, who was facing the opposite direction. Sam-who noticed that he was slowly starting to adapt to his new world-noticed the nice curves of her body. He suppressed a whistle that his merc persona would've allowed.

"It about time!" She exclaimed, still not looking at them, "I can't very well do any good sitting in h-" Her voice left her as she saw who had entered, not who she was expecting. Sam kept stoic, knowing that she would be travelling with them in a few hours' time. Not bad to have a good first impression.

"What are you doing here?" She asked breathlessly, moving her head to look over Sam. "And who's this?" Pip straightened herself out, trying to act heroic.

"I followed you out of the Stable," She told her, trying to make her voice a little deeper, "Came across the Equestrian Wastelands to find you. I'm here to rescue you!" She gave a champion's smile.

"She's not stalking you," Sam quickly added. Velvet didn't find the quip funny.

"Aren't you now?" She began pacing, almost skipping. "I tried so hard to keep anypony from following me. This isn't what I wanted at all!" She looked at Pip's weapons and wounds, and back to Sam's aura of death. "You're the ones out there shooting up everything?" Sam smirked under his helmet.

"And blowing it up, but I'm not picky," He commented, "Now let's get out of here, there're bands of slaver fucks out there looking for us." Pip's brow furrowed.

"We're here to rescue you," She reiterated, concerned that she was doing the wrong thing. Sam remembered when he first met Clover; He knew the feeling.

"Rescue? Littlepip-" Sam could hear Pip's breath hitch. "I'm not a prisoner. I'm here of my own volition." Sam's eye twitched.

"E-fucking-xscuse me?" He asked, not believing what he was hearing.

"You're working for slavers!?" Pip asked angrily.

"And you're cutting a bloody swath through them," Velvet reiterated. "How many ponies are dead tonight because of you, Littlepip?" Sam growled, gripping his Deagle in his holster with TK.

"Not enough," He grunted. Velvet turned her attention to him, a look of horror on her face as she realized he meant it.

"what about the people they support?" She asked, "This is a town, stranger. There are merchants and tavern owners and workponies here. Have you killed any of them? Are you sure?"

"If they're wearing metal as armor, shot at me, or were residing in the barn, then hell yes." Velvet backed up a step, as did Pip. She hadn't seen him this mad yet.

"These are living beings, you monster! People with feelings, lives-"

"That involve stripping other people of their feelings and lives, you dense bitch!" He shouted. Velvet's jaw dropped, s did Pip's. "I was a slave for two months of my life on wo separate occasions, and it was hell! I wasn't a living fucking being! I was property! DO YOU KNOW HOW THAT FEELS!?" He punched the wall of the boxcar, going straight through the steel and leaving a jagged hole. The bang echoed through the small space. He pulled his hoof back, the violent actions seemingly calming him. "We are here to free the slaves here, you included."

"I'm not a slave!" She retorted, "I came upon a band of ponies who had been set upon by a horrific beast. There was only one survivor, badly wounded, missing a leg. So of course I galloped to his leg. Did you know I always wanted to be a medical pony? I bound his wounds and carried him back to his camp. It was a slaver camp, and there were several ponies there who were in severe need of aid, particularly amongst the captives." She looked around the interior of the boxcar, eyes resting on the new window. Sam realized this was her room. "I've been with them since."

"But you're helping slavers!" Pip exclaimed. She turned away from the two, looking at the medical boxes on the wall, yellow and with three butterflies where the red cross usually was.

"I read in a book once, back when I was about your age, Littlepip, that when Fluttershy-the Mare of the Ministry of Peace herself-stepped onto a battlefield, she insisted that her healer ponies tend to everyone wounded on the battlefield. Everyone! Pony, zebra, to her it didn't matter." She turned back to them and looked Pip in the eyes. "How could I do any less?"

"First off, that's retarded," Sam said, stepping forward, "Helping the enemy like that has the potential to kill you, your friends or both, and threaten the security of your homeland if they break free of a POW camp healthy. And unless these zebras enslaved captured ponies, this is entirely different."

"Oh?" She asked, "How so?" A challenge. A challenge accepted.

"These slavers kill or capture innocent people wanting to live out a pathetic existence, selling anyone still breathing into slavery, a life as property. Even the foals, for fuck's sake!" He slowly stepped forward, making Velvet shrink a little. "The zebras and the war fought hundreds of years ago was started from desperation by both sides, which ended in both sides using whatever resources left to KILL. EVERYTHING. I have seen people out here..." He paused, remembering the ramshackle cities that climbed out of the ruins of the old world and the people who lived in them. "...That have survived and thrived by doing good, honest work. Slavery is a shortcut that leads to suffering and damnation! And we're both victims!" Velvet shook her head, starting to get desperate in proving her point.

"You don't think I know that? But else can I do? I'm just one pony. And I will not do nothing! Would you have me just trot away from suffering ponies because they have the misfortune of being captives of slavers?"

"You can help us rescue them," Pip offered.

"Rescue them?" She asked, "The three of us? Against all those slavers?" He grinned nervously at Sam. "Not that I don't doubt your resolve...or your firepower. But we would be horribly outnumbered..." Sam chuckled.

"You think that's gonna stop us? We've come this far, blown a hole in the wall already; All we got to do is walk out..." He realized her next point in the argument, and Velvet knew it, "...with all those slaves..." Pip perked up.

"We have a train!" Velvet perked up as well, looking hopeful for the first time since Sam and Pip had walked in.

"Oh! That might work!"

---

The sheriff's office had been turned into a fort, both was structural design form centuries ago and the slavers that used it as a holding pen for the foals. Windows were boarded up and reinforced with metal, with enough space for the barrel of a heavy machine gun to be poked through. The cages were at the back and protected by a wall, so a stray bullet wouldn't hurt the merchandise sitting inside.

There were a half dozen of them, all smelling of death, fear in their large eyes. Lashes, burns, and scars of all kinds were all over their small bodies, as fraction of the abuse that was put onto them by their masters. That fear partially left as they all Velvet, who smiled in return. Pip noted that she was most likely the bright light in their dark, miserable lives. She waited for a quip of some kind, most likely a morbid one directed at Velvet, but sighed when none came. Sam had left for reconnaissance of the town, as 'something didn't feel right'. She doubted him, but knew he was probably right. He had more experience doing this kind of stuff than her, Calamity, and Velvet combined.

As she was undoing the locks of the cages, Calamity's voice rang through the pounding rain outside.

"We got incoming!" There was a pause as he realized what he was looking at, followed by a loud crash. "Whoa...Lil'pip, we got trouble! Big trouble!"

The crash was Sam's body going straight through one of the old buildings, and slamming into one of the support beams of the balcony of the other. The building he went through collapsed, the lack of several components necessary for its structural integrity-as well as the kinetic force-finally doing what the end of the world couldn't. He groaned as he got up, cracking his neck while doing so. He looked to his right, and jumped back, firing a few rounds from his Colt while backing up. The rounds sparked on the armor of the pony on the right, who fired a burst from his dual magical energy weapons at him. A hastily prepared shield protected him from most of the rounds, but several slammed into his body. He fell in a heap, making Pip cry out from her position at the window. She looked at the ponies that had arrived, two heavily armed and armored ponies on the left and right of another winged unicorn, or as Sam told her what Watcher had told him, an 'Alicorn'.

"We will give you just one chance to come out," The alicorn shouted, "Do so. Or We will bring the whole building down on your ears!" The response was given by Calamity, who divebombed the pony that had shot Sam with an enthusiastic yee haw. The bullets went through his metal armor like it was butter, his blood splashing on the alicorn's hooves and onto Sam's helmet, quickly washing away. The alicorn laughed, the heartless sounds echoing across the area.

"Such impudence!" She shouted, her horn glowing a sickly green, not unlike Sam's. A bolt of lightning shot out of her horn, slamming into Calamity's side-

Sam breathed, his lungs feeling clogged with blood and mucus. He dared not cough, which would alert the alicorn standing over him of his continued survival. He saw her fire her lightning strike, and Calamity falling through the sky. Sam closed his eyes; His friends were about to die and he couldn't do a damn thing. He remembered the sticky situations he and his former companions had been in DC at one point or another, with one saving the lives of everyone. He wished he had them with him...someone, anyone...

His horn glowed a pale blue, and he felt something that he shouldn't. He felt his boots standing on the roof of the building he was laying next to, his eyes looking through the scope of his hunting rifle as the other earth pony hosed the sheriff's office with his dual miniguns, the power in his limbs as his power armor enclosed him...

Everything happened so quick. The head of the pony close to killing the foals exploded as a .308 went through it, a spray of 5.56 slammed into the sides of the alicorn, and minigun fire from behind was stopped-barely in time-by a murk green shield. The shield quickly encased her entire body as another .308 was went down range, saving her head from being turned into an exploding watermelon. Sam launched himself upwards as he saw a swarm of mines fly past him. He fired the explosive bolt spell that was used in Stable 22 as the mines detonated, almost destroying the shield that was around her. A simple mental command told them to cease fire, each individual shot draining his stamina.

The alicorn smiled a laughed manically as Sam was encased by a form-fitting magical blue shield, as if it was a second skin. He stood in front of the sheriff's office, like a knight in shining armor. Literally.

"That was...impressive," She said, "Very impressive. I would expect nothing less...brother!" She used the shock from the revelation to fire another bolt of lightning. The bolt deflected off of his chest, sending him back a little, his hooves sliding across the mud. They resumed fire automatically

"Pip!" He shouted as he took another bolt, this one collapsing the shield on his chest, "Whatever you're plannin' to do, do it quick!" One more bolt slammed into him, sending him flying backwards. He landed in the doorframe, and bounced on the hard rotting wood floors until slamming into the bars. The constructs vanished as his concentration was broken, Pip seeing the outline of the minigunner's helmet one vast time before they all vanished into blue.

Sam groaned, pulling off his helmet. He placed a hoof on his torso and pulled it back, seeing blood. Lots of blood. He looked beside him, and saw Velvet Remedy bleeding out. He pulled out a stimpak-the last one, he noted- and jabbed it into her neck. She jolted as the painkillers and healing fluids entered her bloodstream, sealing the wound. Some of the healing agents of the stimpak's serum quickly found the 5mm bullets still in her belly and began dissolving it as the wounds vanished.

"...ya from castin' a shadow," He heard Calamity say on the roof above him, followed by a resounding crash. It woke Velvet up, who looked around. She noticed her lack of pain in her stomach, and placed a hoof to it. She felt nothing, only dried blood. She looked around, trying to find the cause. Her eyes stopped at Sam, with his sad smile and empty syringe in his hoof. He could see the tears building up in her large eyes as his vision darkened.

He and Pip collapsed at the same time.

---

Footnote: Level up

New perk added: Tongue Lasher-You know what hurts more than a nuclear bomb? Words. +15 Speech, and unique dialogue options to people of Very Bad-Neutral Karma levels.