Luna and Sarah entered the living quarters slowly, Luna in the lead with her sword at the ready with Sarah directly behind her, shotgun aimed to the side of her neck so that there wasn’t a chance of hitting Luna. The room that they entered was taken up by a large power generator that sparked with energy. A pair of fleshless skeletons lay curled up on the floor, a large blood stain surrounding them.

Sarah grimaced at the sight but continued onwards. She didn’t have time to spare on the dead unless she wanted to become one of them.

Which something that none of us do, Nim commented darkly.

Yeah, Sarah agreed as she put a hand on Luna’s shoulder. The mare stopped and frowned at her, a questioning look on her muzzle.

Sarah held up a finger and tiptoed forwards towards the doorway ahead of them. Halfway there the woman stopped and bent down, her finger gently coming to rest on a pressure plate. Said pressure plate was connected via wire to the generator.

How much you want to bet that causes some kind of explosion? Sarah asked Nim as her fingers began to nimbly dance over the pressure plate, beginning the process of disarming it.

I concur, Nim replied calmly as she assisted Sarah’s dexterous fingers in their task.

A moment later Sarah was done and the pressure plate was harmless.

“Well spotted,” Luna whispered to the woman as she rejoined her and the pair started towards the door once again.

“I’m very perceptive when I need to be,” Sarah replied. “Though I’ve never seen that well in this low of light before.”

Ah, that is an advantage that I am providing you, Nim explained within her mind as the woman pressed the door and opened. It is not your vision that is being bolstered, I’m simply adding what I see to it.

Okay... Sarah replied, not entirely sure how she felt about that. Of course, after the previous night, she supposed it was fair to let Nim do just about anything she wanted to her body. Up to a point anyways.

They opened the door and were greeted by a stairway along with a super mutant wearing a pair of motorcycle goggles and armed with a super sledge much like Luna’s. It caught sight of them immediately and let out a roar as it charged down the stairs at them, sledgehammer held high. Sarah’s eyes widened and she pumped a burst of buckshot into its right shoulder. The mutant shrugged off the blow and roared again, though there was an upside.

Her shotgun’s blast did cause the mutant to stumble and before it could correct itself, it was tumbling down the stairs. The mutant made it about halfway down before Daybreaker lanced out and impaled it through the chest to the stairway. It struggled against the blade, attempting to ignore the foot or so of steel that was embedded in its sternum, but Sarah didn’t give it a chance and launched another blast of her shotgun directly into its face. That did it and the mutant’s head exploded in a violent burst of blood.

Sarah and Luna had maybe a second’s notice before another mutant came running down towards them, this one armed with a normal sledgehammer. Instead of playing defensively once more, Luna strode forwards up the stairs and met it halfway down. Daybreaker’s silver blade slashed downwards and splintered the shaft of the sledgehammer in a single clean cut before it then came down in a quick diagonal cut. The mutant’s head rolled off to the left and the body fell, gushing blood.

Luna frowned for a moment and quickly examined the new super sledge for a moment, before shaking her head. “It is not as well maintained as mine is,” she stated with a distasteful frown as she tossed it aside before glancing back at Sarah. “Are you alright, Sarah?”

“Why wouldn’t I be?” Sarah inquired plainly as she reloaded her shotgun. “Honestly, you stopped them both cold before I ever had a chance to get hurt.”

“Ah yes, good point,” Luna replied, a secret smile on her lips, that had been her intention after all.

Yes well, we should continue moving, Nim stated. I’m sure that there must be more mutants and if ones with guns show up fighting them from below will not be ‘enjoyable’.

Luna and Sarah nodded in agreement and the pair trecked up the blood drenched stairs and into a rather large room. Disturbingly, it was full of... cages. Sarah had seen their like before, what had once been simple shopping carts had been converted into grisly means of capture and the woman’s disturbingly good eyesight picked up traces of blood... and tooth marks staining them.

Sarah didn’t have time to shudder thanks to the super mutant who came thundering out of a room to the side, armed with a chinese assault rifle. Bullets pinged off of her armour and she instinctively stepped in front of Luna to shield her from the shower of lead. The steel took the bullets well, though Sarah was sure that she’d have a rather large bruise the next time she took it off.

The woman didn’t allow the bullets to impact her without returning fire from her shotgun. The blast missed the super mutant and it let out a mocking shout at her.

We believe a switch is necessary, Nim spoke within her mind and Sarah nodded, her hands instinctively swapping the combat shotgun for her Repeater. The woman brought it up to rest against her shoulder and pulled the trigger, sending a .44 round spiraling into the mutant’s right shoulder.

It let out a roar of pain and charged forwards, firing all the way. Sarah lined up another shot, but Daybreaker leapt out and slashed through its injured shoulder. The mutant let out a scream as its weapon arm fell to the ground. Then without missing a beat it bent down and picked it up, running at them, screaming in rage in pain while it brandished its newly detached arm.

“Fuck!” Sarah shouted in surprise as the mutant closed the distance between them and brought its arm down at her, the stump bleeding profusely as it did so. The woman’s world slowed to a crawl as the adrenaline rushed through her brain and she sidestepped around the mutant’s swing. She then brought her right metal clad fist slamming into its chest.

The mutant stumbled backwards with a cry of pain as the world around Sarah sped back up to full speed and Daybreaker buried itself in the mutant’s neck. The mutant finally dropped to the ground and Luna let out sigh.

“That mutant was very hardy, a theme that I sense will continue to grow more pronounced the farther we go into this vault,” Luna stated with a frown.

“Yeah, I’m getting that to-” Sarah was cut off as a large droplet of blood splattered across her face. The woman’s reaction would have been comical if it was not for the fact that it was blood. She let out a shriek of surprise and jumped backwards, her arms flailing.

Luna darted forwards and kept the woman from falling over backwards, supporting her with both her body and her magic.

It is only blood Sarah, calm yourself, Nim stated within the woman’s head.

“It got in my mouth!” Sarah exclaimed as she spit out as much of the foul tasting liquid. Sarah was not ordinarily what you could call squeamish, but sometimes...

Luna looked on her lover pityingly and reached into her saddlebag to withdraw a cleanish rag from within it and brought it up to dab at the blood running down Sarah’s face.

“Shhh, shh, you’re alright,” Luna said in a calming voice. “A little blood never killed anybody, though I cannot fault you for finding it disgusting.”

Sarah let out a long breath as Luna finished dabbing away the blood and reached down to grab her canteen (another gift from the Brotherhood) and took a long sip of the fresh water. She sloshed it around her mouth to clean out all the metallic awful taste of the blood before spitting it down on the ground.

“Thanks Luna, sorry,” Sarah said, shaking her head. “I didn’t mean to freak out that badly.”

“It’s perfectly fine Sarah,” Luna replied as she walked over and gave the woman a quick nuzzle.

“Where did the blood come from anyways?” Sarah inquired after she’d leaned into the nuzzle and looked around. Then her eyes caught sight of several large... bags of gore hanging from the ceiling.

She stared at them for a long moment, her face going green at the thought of some of that going into her mouth.

Sarah, calm down Sarah, don’t do anything ra- Nim was cut of as Sarah fell to her knees and threw up the contents of her stomach all over the floor with several large heaves.

Luna placed a wing on Sarah’s back, barely containing her own breakfast at the combined mental image and the sight of Sarah’s own labors. She stayed strong though and resisted the urge as she helped Sarah back to her feet once the dry heaves had stopped.

Her love looked pale and fragile with little drops of vomit staining both her lips, chin, and armour. Sarah let out a long sigh and blinked away reflexive tears. Then she reached out and grabbed Luna’s still hovering cloth and spilled a little water on it, beginning to clean herself.

Do not ask if she’s alright, Nim told Luna without Sarah hearing.

I wasn’t going too, Luna replied as the *drip*, *drip*, *drip* from the ceiling continued to sound in the background. The alicorn instead simply gave the already cleaned side of Sarah’s face a nuzzle and the woman let out another sigh as she leaned against her.

“I’m fine, I’m fine,” Sarah said softly, not sounding like she quite believed it herself. “I’m fine.”

“Indeed,” Luna agreed before giving her a kiss. “Come now, we should move on before more mutants arrive.”

“Right... right,” Sarah agreed and the pair set off again, though they gave the center of the room a wide berth. They’d made it halfway up another flight of stairs when yet another mutant appeared.

“PUKING HUMAN SMELL BAD!” it roared down at them as it unleashed another flurry of assault rifle on them.

Sarah’s teeth clenched together and with Nim’s assistance she pulled the trigger in the exactly right place. The large bullet spiraled out of the barrel of the gun and lanced into the mutant’s eye and past into the brain itself where it bounced around within the skull, pulping it.

“Puking human says go fuck yourself,” Sarah growled as she stomped over the mutant’s fallen form. Luna kept pace with her and the pair entered the top floor together. There was a pair of bathrooms and Sarah was suddenly conflicted. “Cover me?” she asked Luna.

“Did you have to ask?” Luna replied with a raised eyebrow.

“Thanks,” Sarah said as she stepped inside, closing the door behind her. Luna stood outside of the door, Daybreaker at the ready to smite any who dared show their faces. Thankfully, none did and several minutes later Sarah returned, a comic book in her hands. “I got lucky,” Sarah said with a small smirk as she slid the comic into her duffle.

“Excellent,” Luna stated, a smile on her face.

Sarah seemed to have recovered from her ordeal with the blood and the pair started to walk forwards again. The only path open to them was one that led them out over a pair of walkways and as they were halfway across the doors on the other side opened to reveal a pair of super mutants. Both were wielding miniguns.

Sarah! The guns! Shoot the guns! Nim exclaimed within her mind.

Sarah brought up her Repeater, time seeming to slow as Nim directed her rifle into the proper position. She pulled the trigger and her large .44 magnum bullet shot out and knocked one of the minigun’s out of the mutants’ hands. As this was happening, Luna had thundered forwards wielding both her hammer and Daybreaker at the same time.

“I’M GOING TO TEAR OFF YOUR ARMS AND DRINK YOUR BLOOD!” the mutant who still had a weapon thundered at her as it started to fire.

Luna felt the impacts bounce off of her reinforced armour but knew it would only take a few moments for it to pass all the way through. Luckily, the mutant didn’t have a few moments. Her super sledge slammed into the side of its head and it was sent crashing from the upper floor and too the lower floor sans head. The mare pivoted on her back hooves and turned to send Daybreaker stabbing into the last mutant’s face.

The silver blade stabbed through the front and exited cleanly through the back causing Luna to smile despite herself. These mutants didn’t appear to be as strong as the ones before.

Sarah walked up to her and nodded her thanks as she switched back to her shotgun. “Let’s go,” the woman said, leading the way.

They continued onwards for around ten minutes, fighting off a few straggling mutants until they reached a door with the words TEST LABS on it. Sarah regarded it for a few seconds before turning to Luna who was beginning to look tired once again, though Sarah didn’t have much energy left either.

“Want to take a rest here?” the woman asked.

“As in sleep?” Luna asked her incredulously.

No. As in take a break, eat, and recharge ourselves for the coming combat, Nim retorted flatly before privately adding. She’s not about to collapse, but close.

“Yeah, I could do with some lunch,” Sarah added with a small shake of her head before rubbing her stomach. “My stomach is kind of... empty.”

“Ah yes, of course we may stop,” Luna replied, giving her a nuzzle before she glanced at the door. “Can you lock that from this side?”

“Yeah,” Sarah said as she began to fiddle with the doorway. There was a quiet *click* and the woman smiled. “There we go. Now it’s lunch time.”