“Stay with me Luna,” Sarah groaned as the blue alicorn leaned heavily into her uninjured side. “It’s not that much further.”

“You... said... that... an... hour... ago,” Luna gasped in between breaths of air. Her entire body screamed out in pain at her every word.

Quit talking, you are straining us, Nightmare commanded, not for the first time. Simply ignore her or nod if we must but there should be no more talking. That piece of metal is already far enough in us without us making it worse!

Were... were we in Equestria... I would simply heal myself... Luna mentally groaned, even her mental voice becoming strained.

Well we are not and there is not enough ambient magic for us to use to do such a thing, Nightmare replied strictly. Now quit thinking and march! We have not come this far to die because of a simple piece of metal!

Luna silently agreed with her better half and continued to walk, though it hurt her horribly however hard her hooves hit the ground.

The pair had been walking for the last hour, and the only thing keeping them going was Sarah’s supply of Med-X which she was fearful to dip too deeply into, for obvious reasons. The woman’s entire left side down to her hips ached horribly even with the Med-X and Sarah was rather surprised that she hadn’t gone into shock yet. Or maybe she’d already died and this was just her afterlife, walking forever towards a goal that never seemed to get closer with her only real friend in the Wasteland leaning against her-

“Stop it,” Sarah grunted, wishing she could slap herself. Luna looked over at her, the mare’s eyes clouded.

Sarah just shook her head and wished she could access her Pip-Boy, however, any attempt to do that would just mach her arm feel worse. Luckily she knew the way back to Megaton... even though she’d only left it two or three times... it seemed like the route was burned into her memory.

Finally, after what seemed like three hours of walking; though in reality it was really no more then an hour and ten minutes, they arrived at the gates of Megaton.

“Sarah?!” A man armed with a sniper rifle and a suit of combat armour called down to her. “Is that you and your... horse thing that Three Dog was talking about?”

We are not a horse! Nightmare mentally shouted at him. We are an alicorn of great magical power and-!

SHUT UP! Luna roared at her. You are giving me a mental migraine and I am already having enough trouble as it is!

Nightmare quietened, though Luna could still hear her ‘muttering’ in the back of her mind.

“It’s me Stockholm, now open the damn door before Luna and I bleed to death in front of it!” Sarah shouted up to the man, though it came out more as a hoarse call instead of the angry shout she’d been aiming for.

“On it,” the man stated, seeing the obvious limpness of her arm and the blood stains on both of their armour.

The gate rumbled open and Luna got her first glance at Sarah’s home. It was to her slight surprise, both far more and far less ramshackle then she’d been expecting. It was an odd combination of rusty black metal that had been welded into place and there were a variety of obvious structural hazards... however it was obviously well maintained and the mare doubted that any of it would give out beneath her weight. Of course, Luna wasn’t exactly paying much attention, she was too busy trying to stay conscious. Meanwhile, Sarah saw the already familiar form of Lucas Simms striding towards them.

“Sarah good to see you and your... horse,” Simms said with a slightly raised eyebrow.

Not a hor- Nightmare got halfway through her mental shout before quieting herself.

Sarah gave him a strained smile. “Thanks... my entire left side is numb, I have two .308 bullet holes in my shoulder, and I’ve been holding Luna here up for the last hour and a half... would you mind helping me here?” she asked him slowly between clenched teeth.

“Of course,” Simms replied, walking up to Luna’s other side. “Lean into me,” he gruffly instructed the alicorn who did so promptly.

Who is this man, why are we trusting him? Nightmare questioned incredulously.

Because Sarah trusts him, Luna answered flatly. Not to mention that Sarah is currently in an excruciating amount of pain and I do not wish to inflict more of it with my current state of uselessness.

“So, mind telling me the story on ‘Luna’ here?” Simms asked as the he helped lead Luna’s limp form down towards the clinic. “All Three Dog says is that she’s your friend.”

“Found her in the Super Duper Mart,” Sarah replied. “Talk more later after Doc Church fixes my arm.”

It didn’t take them long to get to Doctor Church’s clinic. The old black man looked up from his terminal, a shocked expression flashed across his face at the sight of the barely conscious Luna, but he quickly narrowed his eyes as he scanned both the alicorn and Sarah.

“Huh, so that’s what a real live horse looks like,” he said with a slight shrug. “Well, what do you want me to do? They both look perfectly fine to me,” he added.

Lucas Simms gave him a flat look and Sarah made what could almost be called an indignant noise, well except for the obvious undercurrent of pain. The doctor rolled his eyes and threw up his hands in defeat.

“Alright, alright, I’ll fix em,” Church grumbled as he walked over to Luna and bent down on one knee to examine the wound. Then with business-like familiarity he grabbed her by the neck and rear end and before flipping her onto the medical stretcher in a single motion.

What just happened? Were we just... marehandled? Nightmare asked, her voice filled with surprise and a touch of anger.

I neither know, nor care, Luna replied tiredly as she lay her head down on the soft material and closed her eyes.

“When was the last Med-X injection?” Church asked, glancing at Sarah.

“About half an hour ago, for both of us,” Sarah answered, her eyes slightly widened at the doctor’s feet of strength.

“And how many doses did you give yourselves getting back here from wherever you came from?” the doctor asked.

“Three each,” Sarah said. “I didn’t want to use more than that...”

The Doctor just nodded. “Good, that’s still enough to keep it from feeling this.”

He turned away from Sarah who watched silently as Doc Church began to cut open Luna’s chest around where she’d been shot, cutting away some of the tissue so that he could get to the rather large bullet that had been embedded in her chest. As he did so the doctor would occasionally mutter something to the nature of ‘that’s strange’ or ‘huh,’ but other then that he worked in silence while Sarah leaned heavily into Simms’s side.

The Sheriff for his part just helped the woman stay stable, after all, the entire town owed the girl, who was he to push her away?

When at last Doc Church pushed himself away from Luna, his hands bloody and stained, he jabbed a stimpack into her chest and then covered the wound with a clean white bandage.

“There, that should do it,” he said as he walked over to the sink and washed off the blood before turning to Sarah. “Come over here girl, I still say you’re not that bad off, but I may as well take a look at you,” he instructed.

Sarah did so and the Doctor quickly examined her left shoulder, his hands surprisingly gentle despite their firmness. Sarah barely winced as they ran over the wounds. Then the doctor led her over to an extra chair in the clinic and sat her down.

“Alright, this won’t hurt a bit,” he said with a slight shrug before he injected Sarah with about a dozen stimpacks and then bandaged up the wound.

It did actually hurt, Church was not the most delicate doctor in the Wasteland and when he wrapped the bandages around the wound he was far from gentle as he pulled them taught. When he’d finished the doctor washed his hands again and then dried them on his shirtfront.

“There, it should be better in a day or so,” he told Sarah. “Now, that’ll be two hundred caps,” he said, holding out his hand. Sarah was too exhausted by the day’s events to argue and fished out the required caps, handing them to Church who simply accepted the pouch and then nodded to Luna. “The horse thing’ll be fine... though it might have a little trouble breathing for a bit.”

“She, her name is Luna,” Sarah corrected him.

“Yeah, well ‘Luna’ will be fine,” Church said as he walked over to Luna and once again somehow flipped her over perfectly so that she landed on her hooves, even though she was still completely asleep.

Sarah stared blankly at him for a moment before the word ‘how’ escaped her mouth.

“Girl, I’ve been operating on brahmin for years, I’ve learned some tricks,” Church replied nonchalantly. “Now is there anything else, or are you two done wasting my time?”

Sarah frowned and walked over to Luna who was still snoozing and patted her on the neck. The alicorn’s eyes popped open and for a moment they were appeared to be slitted before returning to their normal blue color.

“Oh... hello Sarah,” Luna said slowly.

“It talks!” both Simms and Church exclaimed, though Church sounded more... intrigued then surprised.

Luna turned to them, her eyes changing again. “Yes, we talk. We are also perfectly capable of hearing each and every word you say now you will stop gawking at us as if we are a ‘thing’ or else we are going to-” the mare cut herself off and shook her head, her eyes losing their slit. “-sorry.”

Simms and the doctor exchanged rather mystified glances before Simms looked at Sarah, he had his ‘you’re going to explain what’s going on or I’m kicking you out of town’ face on. Even though Sarah had only been in town for a day or so... she’d already gotten very familiar with it.

“I’ll explain later,” the woman promised while she grabbed Luna’s neck with her right hand. “But right now I should probably get Luna here up to my house... alright?”

“You going to be okay by yourself with... ‘Luna’ here?” Simms asked her, raising an eyebrow slightly.

“Of course she will be!” Luna replied indignantly. “Who do you think has been keeping Sarah alive on her adventures so far?”

“Right,” Simms said, giving the sword and laser rifle bearing alicorn a speculative glance before shrugging. “See that you do.” The sheriff then walked out of the building.

Luna shot the man a dirty look. “The nerve,” she said at a low growl. Doc Church looked at Sarah with a raised eyebrow but shrugged and got back to work on the terminal.

“Right... we should get going,” Sarah muttered, turning Luna’s head towards the door. The alicorn allowed herself to be led out of the building. As they exited the alicorn noticed that there were at least a dozen people openly staring at her.

This is... uneasily familiar, Luna muttered quietly to Nightmare.

Indeed... it is as if we have just wandered into Old Unicornia again… At least we doubt that any of these humans wish to vivisect us, Nightmare agreed, her voice darkening at the bad memory.

Sarah noticed Luna’s darkening expression, and patted her neck reassuringly. “Come on Luna, we’ll be at my house in no time,” she said. “Then we can get some more rest, I don’t know about you, but I’m exhausted.”

“Yes... we are as well,” Luna agreed, a small smile gracing her face.

The black haired woman was true to her word and they arrived at Sarah’s house. Luna regarded the apparently ramshackle structure of the house and turned to Sarah.

“Are you sure it is safe to live within it?” the alicorn inquired.

Sarah chuckled softly. “That was my first question too actually,” the woman said, patting the side of the house and getting a solid ‘clang’ in response. “I’ve only spent two nights in it but... it seems to be fine so far. It doesn’t sway in the wind and the roof keeps the rain out.”

“Well alright, if you say so,” Luna said as she followed Sarah up to the door and stepped inside. She quickly scanned the room, two lockers, an odd stand of some kind, a refrigerator, and a set of stairs. However, what caught her immediate attention was the robot hovering towards her.

“Lady Sarah, need I remind you about the rules involving bringing livestock into Megaton houses?” the robot said in an almost offended sounding trotish accent.

“WE ARE NOT LIVESTOCK!” Luna shouted at it angrily, her eyes blazing as Daybreaker flew from her scabbard and slashed through the air at the robot.

To her surprise, the robot disengaged his thrusters and the blade passed harmlessly over its ‘head’ and slammed into the wall. It then rose back up and rotated its flamethrower head over to point at the alicorn.

“Cease your hostile actions plow horse or you will see precisely why I am a master chef!” the robot exclaimed.

“WE ARE NOT A HORSE!” Luna thundered.

“You most certainly are!” the robot replied pompously.

Sarah facepalmed and quickly walked between the pair of bickerers before Luna could kill her butler.

"Luna, this is Wadsworth, my robot butler,” she said, gesturing behind her at the floating robot. She then turned to face Wadsworth. “Wadsworth, this is my friend Luna. She’s actually an alicorn not a horse, oh, and she talks.”

“Obviously,” Wadsworth said, and was it Sarah’s imagination or was the robot snarking at her?

Sarah looked back at Luna who was glaring at the robot. “So... would you both please stop trying to kill each other?”

“So long as she does not leave her droppings around the house I suppose I am capable of allowing that,” Wadsworth stated cooly.

“We would never do such a thing!” Luna exclaimed, clearly outraged by the insinuation.

“Well you seem to be having trouble with your personal pronouns, so how am I to know what you will or will not do? the robot inquired.

“We-I-argh!” Luna glared daggers at the robot and Daybreaker shot from its place on the wall and landed back in its sheath. The alicorn glared at the robot angrily and Sarah let out a long sigh.

Why did I have to get the one robot with a sense of humor? the woman thought to herself tiredly.

“Let it go Luna,” Sarah said with a sigh. “Let’s just go and get some sleep.”

Luna sent a last glare at the robot and then followed Sarah who had begun to ascend the stairs.

If that piece of metal insinuates that we are a farm animal one more time then we will destroy it! Nightmare raged within her head.

Would you please stop shouting about everything? Luna asked, her previous tiredness catching up to her as she reached Sarah’s bedroom. It was then that Sarah noticed her logistical error when considering bringing Luna home with her... there was only one bed, and it was a small one at that.

“Um... looks like we’ll have to sleep together,” Sarah said.

“Have we not been practically every night?” Luna asked with a raised eyebrow.

“Well yeah, good point,” Sarah replied as she looked at the narrow bed. “It’s going to be pretty tight though.”

“I won’t mind,” Luna said without thinking. Sarah raised an eyebrow in her direction and Luna scrambled to correct herself.. “I mean- it will be worth the tight fit if we are to sleep on a soft mattress.” she said hurriedly.

And with such a soft woman draped around you, Nightmare added with a mental snicker.

“Oh, alright then,” Sarah said as she began to pull off her armoured suit, letting out a small sigh at finally being able to strip off the restrictive armour.

Luna did likewise, using her magic to unbuckle the modified talon plates from her body and letting them fall to the ground. She turned back to see that Sarah was now in her underwear. The alicorn’s mouth suddenly went slightly dry, though she wasn’t sure why... when she had last seen Sarah wearing so little it had not affected her in such a way... nor should it have. Nudity was the norm in Equestria after all and it was stranger to see somepony outside of the noble class wearing clothes...

It is because of those curves, just look at them, Nightmare whispered lustfully in her mind and Luna did indeed find her gaze lingering on the woman’s ‘curves’ before quickly glancing away. Sarah was apparently oblivious to the extra attention and was instead looking at the bed trying to figure out the best way to fit both of them onto it.

“Hmm...” the woman frowned. “I think you need to get in first... and then I’ll straddle your side... sound good?”

“Yes,” Luna answered immediately before a small blush washed over her cheeks. Sarah was still facing the bed, so she missed it.

“Great,” Sarah nodded and then gestured towards the bed.

Luna nodded and clambered onto it and set her head down, it was indeed a tight fit already. The pillow and sheets that she was lying on were surprisingly clean, unlike most that she had grown accustomed too out in the wasteland. Sarah got in next, scooting her chest up against the mare and wrapping her arms around her while burying her head into Luna’s neck fur as well as the pillow. Luna unconsciously moved a wing down to drape over Sarah and the woman giggled slightly as the feathers stroked across her naked skin.

“I must say... this bed is most comfy despite the tightness of the situation,” Luna commented. “It is very... clean.”

Sarah pulled her head slightly out of the fur to reply. “Yep, it was the first thing I asked Moira for when I got the house... she charged me fifty caps for them... and said it was at discount.”

“This place is truly strange,” Luna mused as she looked down at Sarah’s face, her muzzle not far from the woman’s. “It reminds me of what Equestria looked like when Discord ruled over it.”

“Discord... I can’t remember if you’ve mentioned that before,” Sarah mused, looking back at Luna.

“Nor can I-” Luna was cut off by a yawn. “Perhaps we can discuss this at some other time?”

“Yeah, I think we can manage that,” Sarah agreed before settling her head back down against the pillow and Luna’s neck. “Night Luna, sweet dreams.”

“And you as well,” Luna said softly as she settled her head back down beside Sarah and closed her eyes. “Trust me Sarah... yours will always be,” she added drowsily before trailing off to sleep.

Sarah and Luna were both awakened with a start the next morning by a high-pitched squealing. Sarah awakened with a start, and fell out of the bed, her arms flailing around in confusion.

“OH MY GOSH YOU’RE SO ADORABLE!” A high-pitched woman’s voice exclaimed. Luna, who was also awake at this point looked up to see a spunky light brown-almost reddish haired woman wearing a blue robco jumpsuit. She was hopping up and down in place, a wide smile on her face and stars in her eyes.

“Wha-who are yo-” Luna was stopped in mid sentence as the woman ran at her and pulled her into an almost bonecrushing hug.

“Oh my gosh oh my gosh oh my gosh!” the woman gushed as she hugged Luna. “You’re the most adorable thing I’ve ever seen and you can talk and-”

The woman was interrupted by Sarah using her leg as a ladder as she climbed to her feet.

"Moira it is-” she looked down at her Pip-Boy, “Six in the morning on the one day that I’m in a place that I don’t have to worry about being attacked or raped in my sleep-”

Though we’d never let that second one happen, Nightmare mentally stated.

Nor the first, Luna chimed in.

“-so would you please explain to me in very clear words what you’re doing in my house, in my bedroom?” Sarah finished, unaware of the twos’ comments.

Moira had the decency to blush lightly. “Well... I heard that you had an alicorn here and I’ve loved them ever since my daddy showed me them in the comics when I was little and... then I couldn’t hold off any longer so I came in and the robot said that you were up... so I came up here and you two were so cute looking and I...” she trailed off, her blush of embarrassment deepening “I should have waited shouldn’t I?”

“Yes. Yes you should have,” Sarah stated dully while she internally shouted WADSWORTH!

“I need air!” Luna gasped around Moira’s crushing grip.

The woman let go of Luna immediately, and took a few steps back.

“I um... sorry,” the woman said cautiously. “It’s just that you’re so... cute and beautiful.”

Luna looked at her in slight confusion. “You find me beautiful?”

Moira smiled widely. “Very! Even with your bed head your mane is simply amazing... though how did you get those stars in it?”

“What? Are they back?” Luna asked, her eyes a bit wide. She looked up to discover that her mane had indeed returned to its normal blue coloration... now though it had begun to become more translucent and small lights shone within it. A smile spread across the mare’s face as she looked at the stars.

Sarah also gazed into her mane and her eyes got lost in the stars for a moment before Moira jolted her out of it.

“So... did you ever get around to checking out the Super Duper Mart for me?” the woman asked her.

“What?” Sarah asked as her mind tried to remember what it was that Moira was talking about. Then comprehension dawned on her. “Oh, yeah I did,” she said as she remembered.

Moira whipped a pencil and a pen out from her back pocket. “Oh! Can you tell me about what you found out?!”

Sarah looked at the woman for a moment before deciding that she was too tired for Moira’s normal routine. “Moira... I promise you I will come and tell you everything once I’ve had time to wake up... go away.”

Moira’s expression died on her face, but she nodded. “Alright... I’ll see you later Sarah?”

“Yes, I need to pick up a few things from your shop anyways,” Sarah nodded.

“Great! See you both there then!” Moira said, her face brightening. “Bye Sarah, bye Alicorn!”

She then rushed out of the room, down the stairs, paused long enough to say goodbye to Wadsworth, and then rushed out of the house, a proverbial ball of energy. Luna looked over to Sarah with a raised eyebrow.

“Friend of yours?” Luna inquired.

“You could say that...” Sarah admitted.

“Ah. She seems... odd,” Luna stated.

“You could say that,” Sarah repeated herself as she began to pull on her armour, much to Luna’s internal disappointment.

We’re sure she’d be more than willing to take it off again if we asked her to, Nightmare whispered softly in her mind.

Shush... you’ll make me blush, Luna shot back, redness already beginning to color her cheeks.

“So... breakfast?” Sarah asked, looking up from her task to find the alicorn’s eyes fixated on nothing in particular.

“That sounds exceptional,” Luna replied with a nod. Sarah smiled and led the way.

Author's Notes:

Ed2481: Sorry for the delay, I’ve been busy lately. Thoughts and comments are appreciated!