There were few times in Luna’s life when she had ever truly been immersed in her surroundings like she was as she walked back into the main lobby of the Museum of Technology. Now that there were no super mutants shooting at her, she felt her gaze being drawn to the downed mechanical craft. She walked over and began to investigate it, puzzled by its overall design. It did not appear to be any form of train... nor a carriage of some kind. Her mystery was solved when she found a metal plaque and began to read over it.

The plaque gave interesting details into the craft’s purpose... as she read the scant paragraph of description she found herself enthralled by the idea. To be capable of providing flight to those besides pegasi and thestrals was... truly staggering, the sheer number of innovations and benefits alone would make it a worthwhile dream to pursue.

Not to mention that they would be a great asset in our future war against our sister, Nightmare added smugly.

Luna frowned. Must you always bring that up?

Why are you not thinking about it constantly? Nightmare replied with a mental scoff. We want it, and when we get back... war is what we shall reap until Celestia lies dead and bloody beneath our hooves and our subjects love us.

I... look forward to it... Luna replied slowly. It is just...these last few days have just been difficult...

Do not overly concern yourself. We are aware that this is difficult for us, but once this difficulty has been overcome we will return to Equestria and take up our proper place as Queen of the Night, Nightmare said.

Luna nodded slowly. Indeed... it shall be glorious.

Meanwhile Sarah was busy looting the dead muties for their rifles and ammo, which she was collecting between her arms and pockets until she could transfer it into her bag which Luna was carrying. The woman frowned to herself, she felt strangely light without the weight of her bag over her shoulder... it was an odd feeling. As she walked around the room, scanning for anything and everything that could possibly be useful she noticed that one of the wall mounted computer terminals was blinking faintly.

Sarah’s eyebrows furrowed, if it was blinking, then that meant it had an unread message. The woman walked up to the terminal and began to sift through the options until she came to the end where there was an odd entry, three zeros in a row. With a shrug the woman clicked on it, certain that this small of a distraction couldn’t take more than a minute to investigate. The message read as follows.

Hey there Jiggs,

I finally found a good place to ditch your share of the loot. It was hell getting here, but I made it. I left the usual bread crumbs all over some of info terminals in this place: their computer security was a joke. Complete the sequence and you’re home free, but make any mistakes and the system will lock you out. We’ll meet up in the usual spot later.

Good luck,

Prime

Sarah raised an eyebrow at that, she couldn’t tell when the message had been placed there, but it never hurt to investigate this type of thing. As Moira had once told her while she’d been puking up her internal organs ‘the past is always a good place to look for things’. With a shrug Sarah clicked the enter key and found that a new entry had been added at the bottom. Sarah maneuvered her selector down to it and pressed the enter button again.

A list of numbers sprouted up.

> #009

> #019

> #030

> #049

Sarah let out a soft groan. It would have to be math based wouldn’t it? She ran a hand down her face before looking at the numbers for a few moments. As she stared at them she noticed a pattern, the numbers could all be divided by something... all except 19 which was only divisible by 1 and itself. What had Mister Brotch called those numbers?

“Come on brain...” Sarah grumbled to herself. She stared at the numbers for a little longer before a little light went off in her head. Prime, they’re called prime numbers! And the guy who was supposed to do this is named Prime so...

With a quick keystroke she maneuvered the selector down one and pressed the enter key. The screen returned to the main display, and Sarah saw that where the previous entry had once been was now taken up by a confirmation. She grinned quietly at her victory, she may not have been very good at history, or math, or science.... or medicine much to her father’s eternal shame, but she was damn good at finding patterns!

Sarah turned to find herself face to muzzle with Luna who had been about to speak. The mare stepped back a step, a small blush on her face.

“Sorry, I was just going to ask you if you were ready to move on,” Luna stated.

“Yeah, I’m ready. Just give me a second to stow these,” Sarah agreed with a nod. She scooped up the armfuls of assault rifles and placed them in the bag on Luna’s back.

Then the two set off up the stairs, Sarah noticed two more information terminals, but neither of them were flashing so she ignored them. She tried to go left, but found her paths blocked by fallen debris, on the bright side, she also spotted two ‘stealth boys’ and pocketed them. Luna followed dutifully beside the woman, her magic gently wrapped around the hilt of Daybreaker.

When they reached the end of the landing, an automated voice spoke out of nothingness, causing Luna to jump in place in surprise and swing her eyes around, looking for a threat. Sarah placed a steadying hand on her shoulder and Luna let out a small breath, calming herself.

I will never get used to this place, she mentally grumbled to the Nightmare. If something is not trying to maim, eat, or kill you, it seems to delight in making you jump in surprise, added sourly.

At least this is not one of the first options, Nightmare pointed out. Now stop being such a filly about things, mare up. It is only a voice.

Sarah meanwhile, heard the words that the voice as actually saying. They were talking about Vaults... The woman stepped forwards into the mockup vault and her mouth went dry as she looked around it. The ‘Vault’ was in horrible condition, trash and detritus was strewn about haphazardly, and overhead the automated voice continued its speel about how wonderful life had been in the Vault.

Luna frowned as her hooves impacted off of the hard metal. “Sarah, didn’t you say that you were from a Vault?”

“Yes... Yes I did,” Sarah replied with a small nod.

Luna looked around. “It is not the most beautiful place I can imagine growing up,” she mused.

“That’s because it wasn’t,” Sarah said. “But it was... home. I hate to see a Vault look like this... it’s so... broken.”

Luna nodded faintly and the two stepped forwards once more. As they continued with the ‘tour’ Sarah’s frown deepened at the sight of the blood stains and broken bones that littered the ‘Vault’ floors. Vault’s aren’t meant to look like this, she thought to herself. They’re supposed to be... clean, friendly, and... safe.

Finally they finished the tour and emerged above the main lobby. Sarah let out a breath of relief and walked up to the next door, pushing it open.

She was immediately greeted by a nail covered piece of wood flying towards her head. Sarah barely ducked in time to avoid being impaled but she let her instincts take over and tackled the mutant swinging the board. The mutant, not expecting the sudden assault, was knocked onto its back and Sarah reached for her sidearm. Sarah emptied five of her ten shots into the mutant’s face which exploded in a cloud of gore which spattered against both her armor and face.

Luna stormed into the room and a mutant who had been trying to get a fix on Sarah turned his attention to the mare, letting loose a flurry of bullets at her. Luckily, most of these went wide, and the few that did hit their mark were deflected by her armor.

Diagonal slash, Nightmare instructed and Luna did just that, bringing Daybreaker down in a diagonal slash across the mutant’s chest, chopping through the beast. Sarah rolled off of the mutant, 10mm pistol at the ready, and emptied the last of her five shots at a third mutant who was making its way up the stairs towards them. Three of them hit the mutant in the chest while the other two went wide. The mutant laughed at that.

“HAHAHA PUNY HUMAN!” it shouted as it leveled its assault rifle with Sarah’s face. Luckily for the woman, that was all the opening Luna needed to send a lance of laser into its eyes, burning through them and dropping the mutant to the ground. Sarah sent her a thankful grin and got back to her feet.

This time, Luna helped her gather up the three weapons from the fallen mutants, two assault rifles were selected, leaving the nailboard behind. That was when Sarah noticed that another of the terminals embedded in the walls was flashing. She frowned and turned to Luna.

“Cover me for a minute Luna,” she instructed before walking over to the terminal.

“Sure,” Luna replied. I wonder whatever she could be doing, the mare said to Nightmare with a frown as she watched Sarah mess with the terminal.

We assure you that we have no idea, Nightmare replied with a small mental shrug. It did not take Sarah long to finish with the terminal and she came back, a slim smile on her face.

“What were you doing Sarah?” Luna asked her with a raised eyebrow.

“There’s some kind of encrypted message on some of the terminals, I’m looking for all the encryption keys,” Sarah answered, shrugging a little.

“Ah...” Luna responded, not really knowing what she was talking about. “So long as you do not accidentally cause some of those ‘turret’ things to come down from the ceiling and shoot at us I suppose that is alright.”

Sarah grinned. “Trust me Luna, I won’t do that.”

“Good,” Luna replied with a smile. “Shall we proceed?”

Sarah nodded, and led Luna down a set of stairs and into a large amphitheater. This time when a mysterious voice began to speak Luna actually listened to the words.

For as long as history has been recorded man has had an insatiable hunger for knowledge regarding the universe. To understand why man is so interested in this unknown expanse of space of space around our little world, we must take a journey, please sit back, relax, and free yourself from the bonds of our planet as we take off for the stars, stars planet of the stars statsts...

Luna turned to Sarah with a hopeful look. “Sarah... did your people once enjoy looking up at the stars?”

“Yes, apparently we even got to the moon once, according to Mister Brotch anyways... I actually stayed awake during that lecture because it was interesting,” she replied.

“Your people traveled to the moon itself?” Luna asked her, a shocked tone of reverence entering into her voice.

“Yeah, I mean, that’s one of the reasons we’re here in the first place,” Sarah replied. “We’re getting the disk we need off of the Lunar Lander,” she added.

“Oh,” Luna said, a look of wonderment on her face. “Your people are so... wonderful Sarah.”

Sarah scoffed. “If us humans were wonderful I doubt we’d have destroyed ourselves.”

Luna remained outwardly silent and they continued onto the next room, however inside her head was a different story.

They’ve been to the MOON! she exclaimed to Nightmare.

Yes, we believe that’s been established, Nightmare replied dryly. Please try and contain yourself, we don’t need you making a mess. We doubt Sarah would appreciate it very much.

Luna let out an indignant scoff at the thought, and continued up a set of stairs, following Sarah. They arrived in a room quite similar to that which they had encountered in the main lobby.

Sarah frowned and moved up to the far wall and began to hack one of two computers. She looked through the list of words, clicking them one after another, and then logging out to start the process all over again. She did it several times until she correctly guessed the password, IMPORTANT. A smile slid over the woman’s face and she turned to Luna who was in the process of slowly stabbing Daybreaker into the center of a wall safe.

“Hey Luna, I’m going to turn on some more turrets, hopefully give the muties in the next room a bit of a wake up call,” she called to the mare. Luna looked up from her task, which was proceeding nicely, and nodded.

“Good, hopefully we will not have to do much when we get there,” she said before jamming Daybreaker’s blade all the way through the front of the safe and slicing towards, parting the black metal and revealing dozens of bottlecaps, several 10mm pistols, and strangely a bottle of glowing blue soda. Luna pondered over it all before telekinetically lifting it into the duffel bag on her back.

There was the sudden sound of gunfire from the next room, and Luna looked out the window to see several mutants under fire from two ceiling mounted turrets. It took the mutants several minutes to destroy the two turrets, and not before three of their five had been lost. Sarah glanced over to Luna, a small smile on her face.

“That’s three less for us to worry about,” she stated.

“Indeed, now let us hit them before they can recover!” Luna agreed with a smile of her own.

The two rushed down the stairs and into the next room, which was taken up for the most part by a large metal construction and were met by a pair of bleeding super mutants. The mutants opened fire on Sarah, forcing her into cover with two bullets bouncing into her armored shoulder.

On the bright side this left Luna open to attack with impurity, the mare’s laser rifle went off three times in her magical grip. One shot missed, harmlessly burning into a support pillar, while the other two struck true causing the mutant to scream out in pain and anger.

While the mutants switched their fire to Luna, Sarah hopped out of cover, her combat shotgun at the ready. The woman ran forward and her shotgun blasted a hole through the bottom of one of the mutant’s jaws, sending pieces of greenish orange flesh flying everywhere.

The last mutant tried to smack Sarah in the jaw with the butt of his rifle but Sarah dodged under it and shot again. The buckshot trailed into his already injured chest, tearing it apart in a small fountain of gore.

Luna and Sarah panted as the last two mutants fell and then Sarah holstered her shotgun and walked up to the large metal construction which took up most of the room. Once there she beckoned Luna over to her side and reached into the bag, drawing out a wrench while she pulled a small screwdriver out of her back pocket.

“Luna, cover me while I get this thing down,” she said with a nod towards a circular disk sticking out of the metal construction. Luna nodded and began to eye the doors... though she couldn’t help but notice that Sarah was having a bit of trouble with some of the higher screws.

“Do you require my assistance?” Luna asked her. Sarah looked back from her task and shook her head.

“No, I’ve had to stand on my tiptoes before,” the woman answered casually as another screw came out and fell to the ground. Luna nodded and returned to her watch, thankfully nothing new entered the room. Suddenly there was a screech, followed by what sounded like a squeak and a thump.

Luna looked back to see Sarah lying prostrate on her back, the metal disk covering her. The mare rushed to the woman’s side.

“Are you alright Sarah?” she asked as she began to slowly (for it was fairly heavy) lift the metal disk from atop Sahar with her magic.

“I’m fine,” Sarah said with a hint of a blush on her face. “The damn thing was just heavier than I expected so I wasn’t braced right,” she added, shooting the disk a glare.

Luna couldn’t help but chuckle lightly at the glare she was giving the disk as she finished lifting it off of Sarah and stuffed the thing in her pack.

Truly, we have become her pack mule, Nightmare grunted sourly.

Tis better that we who are strong carry it then make her do it and injure herself, Luna replied with a mental shrug. Truly, we have worn armor heavier than all that we carry now without difficulty.

Nightmare scoffed. It is the principle of it. We are a Queen, not a pack mule! she exclaimed angrily.

Luna shook her head. Friends carry eachothers burdens, she stated simply. And Sarah is my... friend... she trailed off as she thought about that. The thought had come to her naturally and it felt... good. Sarah was her friend.

As the two made their way out of the room through the upper door Sarah’s thoughts were moving rapidly forward. All she had to do was attach the disk to the monument, and then Three Dog would be able to direct her to her father... and then she would face him.

Their trip out of the museum of Technology had gone smoothly from that point onwards, a few super mutants had risen up to stop them and between the two of them, Sarah and Luna had been able to deal with them easily enough. The woman had also managed to find the last terminal she needed to and had gotten a new map marker added to her Pip-Boy map.

Now, the two stood side by side in the cramped elevator car.

“And you are sure we will not fall?” Luna asked her worriedly.

“Relax Luna, if the cable was going to fall, it would have already,” Sarah answered pragmatically. “Besides, if we fall, then we won’t have long to worry about it, will we?”

Luna shot her an un-amused glance and snorted. “Thank you for your comforting words Sarah.”

Sarah just chuckled slightly and laid a hand on Luna’s neck. “I’m sure this will work, the Brotherhood guys promised.”

“I know... but I do not trust this cage of metal,” Luna replied, gesturing around the cramped interior of the car with a hoof. She was currently smushed against Sarah’s side, though if the woman found it uncomfortable she didn’t mention it.

“Relax, the ride will be over before you know it,” Sarah assured her as she pressed a button.

The elevator began its rattling ascent. What passed were three of the most stressful moments of her life, and when the elevator door finally opened she found that she’d somehow managed to unconsciously wrap herself around Sarah’s body. The mare blushed as she pulled away from the woman.

“Sorry,” Luna said with another blush.

Sarah shrugged and let out a small chuckle. “Don’t worry about it, it’s nice to see that there are some things that scare you.”

Luna chuckled as well. “I suppose you’re right... though I am far from fearless.”

Sarah shrugged again and pulled the bag with the disk in it off of Luna’s back and began to attach it to the tower. Luna meanwhile looked out over the Mall as the sun slowly set on the horizon.

You know... there is an odd beauty to be found here, she observed quietly as the sun's dying light illuminated the large domed building.

Indeed...it is... actually it is rather beautiful...in a tragic way, Nightmare agreed. They reached so high... and yet here they are now... scavenging for food and killing each other like common animals.

All because of a war, Luna mused quietly.

Nightmare remained quiet for a few moments before finally saying. Yes, because of a war.

Luna nodded slowly, and watched the sunrise, her thoughts turning to home.

Author's Notes:

Hey guys, for any Light and Dark Wanderings fans here you should check out this link http://www.fimfiction.net/story/146609/other-wanderings It's going ot be a group of stories that continue the stroies of Ethan and Twilight.