Sarah and Luna exited the room and the woman let out a tired sigh as she fell back against the wall, her armor making a dull *Clang* as she did so. Now that she was out of the room with Amata her facade washed away and small pinpricks of tears formed in her eyes.

Luna did the only thing she could do and stood in front of the woman, shielding her from view with her wings.

“Why...” Sarah muttered to herself as Luna dabbed gently at the tears with her soft feathers.

“Because she is foolish,” Luna replied simply.

Indeed, though why she called you here asking for help only to treat you thusly is beyond us, Nim agreed within their minds.

Sarah let out a long sigh and wiped at the last few small tears, dimly thinking that she’d done more crying in the last few days then she had in her entire life up to this point. Luna walked a bit closer and gave the woman a loving nuzzle.

“Fear not Sarah, we shall solve this and then we shall never return to this wretched place,” Luna assured her as Sarah leaned into the nuzzle.

“Thanks Luna,” the woman said softly, relieved to have her lover there with her. She wasn’t sure how she’d manage without Luna.

“You’re very welcome my love,” Luna replied, pulling her head back slightly to give Sarah a quick kiss before pulling all the way back and smiling in an attempt to cheer up Sarah. “Now then, I believe we have an appointment with the ‘overseer’?”

“Yeah... let’s go Luna,” Sarah said as she turned away from Luna, a long sigh working its way out of her throat.

As the two walked down the hallway she noticed that there were several doors partially cracked open and she saw people she knew staring at her fearfully from behind them. She tried to wave at them but whenever she acknowledged them their eyes widened in fear and the doors slammed shut.

Ignore them, Nim counseled her. They are meaningless peons.

But... they’re not, Sarah replied, her mental voice breaking. They... they were my family, my friends.

And now they have turned against you for a pointless reason proving that they were neither of those things, Nim replied flatly. Do not allow them to control the way you act because they do not deserve the right.

Sarah remained quiet for a long moment before she reached over and put a hand on Luna’s neck and simply held it there as they walked towards the Overseer’s office.

The pair approached the Overseer’s office side by side though Sarah remained slightly in the front. As of so far, they’d encountered little to no resistance but the woman and mare were still ready and prepared for things to go down hill. They did so with surprising speed.

The sound of a weapon being drawn came from their right and Sarah turned to see Officer Wilkins appear from out of the shadows, a .10mm pistol grasped in his hands.

“You never should have left kid,” he said darkly. “Now we’ll make sure that nobody ever leaves again!” The man shouted before emptying his clip into Sarah.

Sarah stood there for a second and looked down at her chest. A sheet of flawless steel armour met her gaze. She then looked up at Wilkins and raised an eyebrow.

“Huh, how about that,” she stated in a dry voice.

Before Wilkins could react, a blue aura wrapped around the gun and tore it from his grasp. Then Luna ejected the gun’s spent clip and tossed it to the side while Sarah looked at the man, her eyebrows still raised.

“So that happened,” she continued before stepping forwards towards the still stunned man and sending him sprawling with precision punch to the lower jaw. Wilkens landed with a thud, his head lolling to the side.

“You’ve certainly been punching a lot of people down here,” Luna commented as Sarah quickly stripped Wilkens of his police baton and back-up pistol.

“The Power Armour helps,” Sarah replied as she slotted the baton into a ‘pocket’ on the side of her ‘belt’.

Luna shrugged and silently asked Nim how Sarah’s mind was faring.

She’s focused on the situation at hand for the moment, though I’m sure that will change once we have it resolved, Nim answered with a small sigh. We’re worried for her Luna... if this should go poorly right after what happened with her father...

Then she could be in an extremely emotionally compromised state, Luna finished for her. If that should come to pass, then we shall be ready; agreed?

Agreed, Nim stated firmly. We enjoy her far too much to allow her to fall to depression.

Luna simply nodded and prepared herself for the coming confrontation with the Overseer. They arrived at the door to his office and Sarah paused for a moment before looking at Luna.

“Ready?” she asked.

“Indeed,” Luna replied, giving Sarah a comforting smile.

Sarah let out a deep breath and then pushed the door button. The door slid open to reveal a scowling man in a suit of security armor and a baseball cap. He sat at a semicircular desk and a Luna took an immediate dislike to him.

“Well, look who came crawling back home,” the man sneared. “And you brought a pet. You know that pets aren’t allowed in the Vault, Sarah.”

Sarah’s hand tightened into a fist. “I’ve been asked to remove you from position, Mack.”

"Keep dreaming you little shit,” the Overseer replied with a roll of his eyes. “So why’d you come back anyways? Were you homesick? Everything outside not up to par? Or was it that your daddy didn’t really wan-”

He was cut off as his lips sealed themselves shut, a light blue glow surrounding them and keeping them closed.

“You will not speak to Sarah in such a manner,” Luna stated flatly, barely keeping herself from decapitating the irritating little man. He was already reminding her of another group of arrogant ponies she hatted.

The man grasped at his lips in an attempt to open them but they were immobile.

“Thank you,” Sarah told Luna, giving the mare a kiss on the cheek before she walked up to the man and delivered a hard punch to his face.

The Overseer was thrown from his chair and landed in a heap on the floor. He tried to scramble for the assault rifle on his back but Sarah’s armored foot slammed into him and pinned the man to the ground. She bent down and whispered in his ear.

“I’m so much worse than anyone in this Vault ‘Overseer’. I could kill you before you even realized it and my ‘pet’ could do it faster,” she said menacingly, completely sick of the Vault and everyone in it. “Now, you’re going to step down from your ‘position’ as Overseer. You’re going to turn yourself into Amata, and then you’re going to do whatever the Hell she says. Do you understand me?”

Good technique, Nim complemented her. Were we not within your head we would believe you were about to kill him.

The man grunted out a curse through the pain and attempted to dislodge the woman from on top of him, however, Sarah was far too strong and heavy for him to manage it. Sarah pressed down harder with her boot, throwing even more of her weight into it and the man let out a howl of pain.

“I said; do you understand me,” Sarah repeated, her voice sharp as a razor.

“I... understand,” the Overseer said as he gasped for breath. Sarah removed her foot from on top of him and took a step back. Mack got slowly to his feet and then sneered at her. “You think you’re so much better than me don’t you? You scum. It’s your fault that things are the way they are down here, you and your father-”

His lips were sealed again and Luna cast him a deadly glare. “Be silent you fool,” she said pointedly as her horn’s glow intensified. “Else we shall disconnect your spinal column from your brain.”

Not like it isn’t already, Nim commented from the back of Sarah’s mind.

Mack glared at them both before shrugging his shoulders and starting out of the office. Sarah and Luna followed behind him, Daybreaker hovering an inch out of its scabbard. As the three rounded the bend, they found themselves facing down five Vault Security officers, all of whom were pointing their assault rifles at Sarah and Luna.

“Release the Overseer and we’ll shoot!” the one in the lead commanded authoritatively. Strangely, Sarah didn’t recognize her from the pool of officers she’d known. She supposed that Mack had been recruiting while she was away.

“That’s or we’ll shoot,” Sarah replied with a frown at them.

“I know what I said,” the lead officer replied pointedly. “Your only choice is to release the Overseer and die.”

Nim, can Luna block all of their fingers? Sarah asked Nim.

She cannot, sealing his lips has been tiring her out much more then it would appear, Nim replied with an internal sigh. She’s not up to 100% yet... probably won’t ever be unless or until she returns to Equestria.

Sarah grimaced and sent a silent surge of sympathy to Luna as she stared at the guns pointing at them.

If magic cannot avail us, then perhaps words will, Nim stated within her head. Say what I tell you Sarah.

Right...

“If you do this then I will do horrible things to you,” Sarah said slowly, her voice quiet and tinged with menace. “I’ve walked the Wasteland unlike the rest of you, I’ve done battle with fifty foot tall mutants, blood thirsty rapists and power armoured jingoists. I am still alive despite all of that with a kill count nearing three hundred. Do you really want to be the ones who push me over that point?”

The guards stared at her, their eyes wide with fear behind their face concealing helmets.

Sarah stared back, her eyes glowing with malevolent anger while Luna joined her, their combined furious gazes causing the security officers’ legs to shake with fear.

“Le-let him go!” the lead officer shouted, his voice sounding desperate.

“No, stand down,” Sarah replied, her eyes seeming to glare into the man’s soul. “If you do then I won’t kill you and mount your head on the wall with a pike.”

Really? Sarah asked Nim, incredulously. Who even does that?

We have, it sends a rather good message, Nim replied.

The lead officer stared at her for a long moment. “You-you’re bluffing!”

Sarah raised an eyebrow. “Do I sound like I’m bluffing? You have ten seconds to put the guns down before I put you down.”

“You-you would-”

“Ten,” Sarah said with finality.

“You can-”

“Nine.”

“You would-”

“Eight.”

“I-I-”

“Seven,” Sarah said, reaching for her repeater.

“Sir? What do we do?!” one of the other officers demanded.

“Six.”

“I-I don’t know!” the leader exclaimed.

“Five.” The woman’s gun was now resting in her hands.

“What do you mean you don’t know?!”

“Four,” the gun was now pointing at the leader’s head.

“I-I’ve never had a gun pointed at me!” the leader shouted, his resolve weakening.

“Three...” Sarah’s eyes narrowed as she stared malevolently at the officer .

“I-I- OPEN FIRE!” the leader shouted.

Dammit Nim!! Sarah exclaimed, pulling the trigger and braining the leader with the .44 bullet as the other officers opened fire as one in a... shockingly bad attempt to shoot the woman.

She was almost certain that they were green as grass. That fact alone was almost enough to make Sarah wince as Daybreaker slashed through two throats in one swing. The last of the officers stared at the pair in terror which Sarah could easily tell through his opaque face mask.

“I think I’ve proved my point,” Sarah said firmly, the words tasting bitter in her mouth. “Put the gun down and-”

“You... you killed them all,” the officer said, sounding horrified.

“Yes, because they sho-”

“How... how could you!” the officer shouted at her, bringing the assault rifle up to aim at Sarah’s head. “They-they were just doing their jobs you-you irradiated bitch!”

We gave them plenty of warning, Nim said dismissively. Furthermore, that is never an excuse. We made certain that all of our troops knew exactly what they were doing when they turned against Celestia...

Sarah ignored that, attempting to figure out a way to close the distance between herself and the distraught man without being shot in the face. Thankfully, she didn’t have too.

“I’ll kill-”

The man’s gun was torn from his grasp by Luna’s aura before it swung powerfully into his nose, breaking it with a crack and a spurt of blood. The officer screamed out in pain and fell face first in the spreading pool blood of his fellow officers. Sarah stepped forwards, leaving the Overseer kneeling there as she walked over to check on the officer. He was still breathing and she flipped him over on his back so that he wouldn’t drown in the blood.

“Next time, talk less,” she informed him before she kicked him hard in the chest for good measure, gaining another grunt of pain. Then the woman glanced at Luna who had walked over to her and leaned a little into the side of the mare’s face.

“Thanks,” Sarah said softly.

“It was my pleasure,” Luna replied as she returned the nuzzle.

Their ‘moment’ was interrupted by the sound of a clip being jammed into a pistol. Sarah spun to see the Overseer holding a pistol to his temple.

“Fuck you and fuck the Wasteland,” the man told her with a sneer.

“No don-”

It was too late, before Sarah could tackle him or Luna could snatch the gun, it went off three times.

The Overseer’s head split open as the trio of bullets perforated his skull in a blast of red. Sarah stared blankly in shock.He... he’d just... he’d just committed suicide... because of her.

“I...” The woman’s mind went blank as she gazed at the newly dead body along with the other four scattered around. Something in her mind broke. It was all too much... her home... her father... her friends... everyone...

Sarah?! Sarah can you hear me?! Nim demanded within Sarah’s mind just as the woman tumbled forwards and landed on her knees in front of the Overseer’s corpse. The woman’s eyes filled with tears as she grabbed it and began to shout.

“What the fuck were you thinking?!” she shouted at it. “What the fuck were you doing!?” She shook the body and the destroyed head came up to stare at her with dead eyes from either side of the newly scoured head. “Why would you do that?! No-one else had to die! WHAT WAS THE POINT!?”

“Sarah, please, put that down,” Luna said, her voice full of concern. “There is nothing to be gained from-”

“He’s dead! I-I killed him!” Sarah shouted, interrupting Luna. “I... every time I try... I try to help people... they-they die!”

“Please Sarah, stop this, he is dead and that-”

“That’s what?!” the woman all but shrieked. “This! This is two Overseer’s I’ve-I’ve killed two! Amata’s right! I’m just... I’m just a killer!” She turned back to the corpse and found that the face seemed to be grinning at her. The woman’s grip tightened and she slammed it into the floor of the Vault and began to slam it repeatedly. “Why-” *slam* “-did-” *slam* “-you-” *slam* “-do-” *slam* “THAT?!”

The woman let the body fall to the side and she stared down at her blood soaked hands, tears filling her eyes. She didn’t even feel herself being torn away from the corpse by Luna, didn’t notice them leaving the Vault, didn’t notice hitting her bed... all she saw were those eyes staring into hers.