Ryan woke up, heart pounding, sweat covering his entire body. He heaved breaths deeply, in and out. In, and out. His blood pressure slowly descended back to normal, and his pulse stopped hammering in his ears. The sweat on him became cold, his hands grew clammy. He wiped them off on his sheets nervously. His eyes snapped over to his nightstand and focused on Lucky. He reached over and grasped it quickly, his fingers settling onto the little club engraved into the hilt. His eyes lost focus as he felt around the club, his mind returning to what he had just experienced.

The nightmares were getting worse. He was sure of that at this point. He went from having no nightmares, like back in New Vegas, to a bar brawl two nights ago, Vault 22 last night, and now...

He had been underwater. The murky depths of Lake Mead, he guessed. He had his rebreather in, but that didn't serve to ease his nerves as he swam through algae and seaweed growing across the floor of the lake. All around him he could hear, sense, or sometimes feel something swishing around in the water. But no matter how he twisted or turned, he could never see what it was. Just a black shape, stalking him through the underwater forests. When he tried to swim to the surface, he could never get any closer. He kicked and pulled and clawed his way upward, but no progress was ever made.

He had felt it brush up on his leg. He turned around, and-

Nothingness. It was over just like that.

But the anticlimactic ending did nothing to dissuade his mind from staying terrified. The sweat had finally evaporated off his skin, leaving him chilly, despite being in his bed still. There was no going back to sleep after that. He just needed something to keep his mind off of what had just shaken him up so badly.

His eyes regained focus and he looked back down at Lucky. He grasped the barrel and slowly rotated it around, feeling comforted by the familiar click, click, click of the cylinder spinning. It always did keep him at ease...

He checked his Pip-Boy for the time. 6:38AM. He could go, but he'd have to be far away enough that the sound didn't carry into Ponyville. If the people of New Vegas don't like getting woken up in the morning by gunfire, then he was pretty sure the ponies wouldn't like it either.

He grabbed his coat and exited his room.

A glass bottle shattered as a bullet whizzed through it. A small click came from the gun that had fired that bullet, then its muzzle flashed again, obliterating another bottle.

He was out in the field again. This time he had "borrowed" some glass bottles from the recycling bins at the back of the hotel he was staying at, and had set them up along the branches of the single tree in the field. Shooting them was not only a good exercise to keep him practiced, but also to keep him from thinking of what he saw there yesterd-

No. Do not think of anything that doesn't involve shooting and reloading. He pulled the trigger again, destroying another glass bottle, this one high up in the tree.

He wanted me to shoot him. That counts, I guess. His train of thought wandered.

No, that doesn't count, because he wasn't real. So I'm not thinking about that. He forced himself back on track.

He was real enough to grab me and Lucky.

Figment of imagination. He was beginning to get frustrated by his lack of focus.

I guess, then. Shooting bottles it is. Useless targets, moving ones are so much better. There, back on track.

Can't get any fiends for target practice here. He thought back to how easy his time protecting New Vegas had became when he demoralized the fiend population by killing their leaders. Fiends then became nothing more than moving targets.

He took special aim at one bottle, pretending it was a head.

Bang!

Smash!

He smiled at the violence.

There were only a few bottles left. He opened one of the pouches on his duster and removed some bullets, which he then reloaded Lucky with. His eyes roamed around the landscape idly as he did so, electing to take his time replacing the spent bullets, something he rarely was able to do.

That's a pony there, in the distance. He could see a small blur in the distance between Ponyville and the field he was in.

Heh. Target practice. He shut Lucky's cylinder cover and spun it. He pulled back the hammer and took aim at the pegasus flying towards him. When he could begin to make out it's finer features, his finger folded on the trigger.

But not all the way. Wait, no, not a target. It was closed enough for him to make out that it wasn't just any pegasus. It was one of Twilight's friends. The excessively-colored one. Rainbow Blitz or something. He lowered Lucky as she approached him.

"Are you what's making so much noise out here!?" she demanded. Quite harshly, in fact.

"Probably," Ryan responded, taking aim back at the tree.

"Well don't you know that ponies, like me, are trying to-"

Bang!

Smash!

After a moment of silence, accompanied by a slight ringing in his ears, he looked over to see why Rainbow Something had stopped talking.

She sat there, jaw hanging. "I-" she began, her voice cracking. She cleared her throat before continuing. "What's that?"

"Lucky," Ryan responded before smoothly spinning the gun around his finger and bringing its muzzle up to his mouth. He blew. Smooth moves.

"I... Can I try it?" Rainbow asked.

Ryan fumbled with the pistol, but he managed to catch it before it fell completely out of his grip. "What?" he asked, confused.

"That's pretty cool... I mean, it's really cool." She kicked at a patch of grass, not meeting his eyes. "Can I try it once?" she asked hopefully.

Ponies with guns. Weird image, but it can't hurt to let her fire one shot. Only one problem. He looked down. "Uh, hooves?"

"Hmm?" Rainbow Dash looked at her appendages then back to Ryan, who gestured to the comparatively tiny trigger on Lucky. "Oh!" Her face lit up in realization. "Wings," she said simply, the appendages flaring out to the sides.

"Aren't those delicate? This has a lot of kick," Ryan said, rubbing at his chin.

"Don't worry, I can handle it," she said confidently. A bit too confidently.

Eh. Might as well.

"Good luck then." He flipped the pistol around and held it out to Rainbow, who deftly grabbed it with her wing. You just have to hold the base of it, aim down the top with one eye, and squeeze the trigger, right there." He pointed to each part of the gun as he talked.

"Cool, let's give it a shot," Rainbow replied. She got a firmer grip on it with her wing, then raised it up so the sights were perpendicular with her face. She squinted one eye shut and her tongue stuck out the side of her mouth with the action. If she weren't holding a lethal weapon, Ryan might have almost called it cute.

With one larger feather, she pulled down on the trigger. But the gun didn't fire. Confused, she stuck her head to the side, so she could get a look at the trigger.

"I think you just need to pull har-" Bang!

The muzzle flashed and a bullet went screaming out, digging deep into the trunk of the tree. "Geez, Rainbow!" Ryan exclaimed, looking away from the tree back to the pony. She was sitting now, a stunned expression on her face and Lucky almost falling out of her wing's grip. "Give me that." He reached down and pulled Lucky away from her.

"That. Was. So. Awesome! It was so loud! And how fast it shot out that little thing into the tree! I didn't hit a bottle, but I don't even care! That was just so cool!" Her hooves dragged down her face enthusiastically. "You gotta let me try it again!" She jumped up into the air and hovered near his face.

"Yeah, sorry but no. That's not happening again. Nobody touches Lucky but me from here on out," Ryan responded, clutching the pistol to his chest. "Besides, that was extremely dangerous. You've had no training whatsoever and this is a highly lethal weapon." He didn't mention that technically the Couriers had never trained him to use a pistol like that one.

"Aww, come on man! Just one more shot!" Rainbow pleaded.

"No way. But you're welcome to stay and watch if it interests you so much."

"Ugh, fine! But I'm sitting in a cloud!" she shouted defiantly.

"I... Sure. Go ahead." He pinched the bridge of his nose, annoyed by the pegasus' antics. He watched as she flew up and pulled down a cloud from above them. She plopped down on it, circled around twice, then sat down. "Are you done?" Ryan asked.

"Yeah. Go ahead," she said expectantly.

Ugh. Distancing his mind from the annoyance, he took aim at another bottle. His sights lined up, his finger pressed on the trigger slowly-

"Are you gonna do it?"

He removed his finger, then spun around on one heel to look at the pegasus. "Can you not?" he asked simply.

Rainbow hushed up, putting one hoof to her mouth in apology.

Shaking off the annoying mare, he took aim again and squeezed off a shot quickly, before she could say anything.

Bang!

Smash!

"It's all about focus, really. The more attentiveness you have to what you're trying to cast, the easier the casting process will be, and the output of the spell will be stronger and less taxing," Twilight explained between bites of her daisy sandwich. "If you just tried to rapid-fire shoot different spells off, you would probably mess up every one. It's a time-consuming process to really focus on your spell, but it's definitely worth it."

"Makes sense, makes sense..." Ryan responded as he took a bite of his tomato and lettuce sandwich. "Hey, hold on a second, you said something about shooting 'rapid-fire different spells,' right?"

Twilight nodded, taking a sip of water from her glass.

"So does that mean you only have to really focus one spell at a time?" he asked.

Twilight tilted her head, electing not to speak while chewing.

"Like, if I decided to cast a spell that let me shoot a fireball, would I have to focus all over again to re-cast it?"

She swallowed. "Nope. That's called loop-casting. Just about any spell can be loop-cast after you've focused it. If you have the energy to supply the release and cast of the spell, then it can be re-cast infinitely." She took another bite. "But of course, most unicorns don't have the magical reserves to loop-cast very efficiently, but there's one exception to that. Want to take a guess?"

This time it was Ryan's turn to tilt his head at Twilight.

"Think about it. A spell the average unicorn can use multiple times without too much strain of mana reserves." The glow around Twilight's glass and sandwich got a little brighter.

"Telekinesis is a loop-cast?" Ryan asked, picking up on the hint.

"Yep. The spell is focused for the first levitation, then it's just loop-cast to pick up multiple items. Of course, each time you pick up a new item, it influences your magic differently depending on the item's size, material, latent magical field, and how many items you're already levitating. In addition to that it also takes a toll on your focus, the other kind of focus, that is. Just like using both hooves individually," she grabbed her water and sandwich out of the air and held them physically, "it takes a certain amount of focus and coordination to make it all work." She took a bite of her sandwich, then levitated it back up to where it was before.

"Interesting." Ryan leaned back in his chair, then set the half of his sandwich he was eating on the table they sat at. He trained his eyes on it for a moment, then kept motionless as it was enveloped in a green glow and it flew up in the air a foot or two.

Twilight noticed though, and froze in her eating. Her eyes stayed glued to its slow ascent and then descent back to the table. When it touched back down, she clapped her hooves together a few times. "Wow! You've made a lot of progress already!"

Not enough though, Ryan thought. He nodded to Twilight's exclamation, then took a swig of the soda he had. It tasted funny. Sugary.

The two finished their meals in silence.

"So why do you carry that all the time? It's not like you're going to be attacked in Ponyville," Twilight said to Ryan.

They were sitting down in the field again. It was mid-afternoon now, and they had elected to take a break from their magical studies. Ryan had made more progress that day, able to summon up a weak burst of flames at this point, as well as being able to levitate several of his target practice bottles at the same time.

"Lucky?" Ryan asked, looking down at the gun. "Well, why does your guard carry spears all the time?" he countered.

"In the case of an attack, of course, but-"

"'And that's why I carry my gun all the time."

"But why won't you just rely on the guard carrying their weapons and protecting you like they protect Ponyville?"

Ryan was about to reply, then stopped. After a moment's delay, he leaned forward a bit, getting more invested in the conversation. "Because the only person I trust to protect myself is me."

"But what if, say, you couldn't trust yourself?" Twilight asked.

That piqued his interest. "How do you mean?"

"Well," Twilight began, "there are means, both magical and scientific, of removing a person's capability to think for themselves. It's not too rare, either, changeling magic is an extremely common form of mind manipulation, and it was even strong enough to overwhelm my brother..." she stopped for a moment, suddenly downcast. "And even I manipulated the emotions of everyone in Ponyville by accident once." She looked up back at Ryan, the dark thoughts she had banished from her mind. "How would you protect yourself if you couldn't trust yourself?"

Ryan leaned back in the grass some more and looked up at the sky. "That's a pretty good question, Twilight Sparkle." He gave it thought. "Well, I come from a place where there are many people that cannot be trusted. People that would sooner stab you in the back for a little money than actually try to make friends with you. But that's not to say that some people can become friends." He stopped to smile at her, his mind returning to home. "I have friends, Ms. Sparkle. They are the ones that I trust to protect me if I can't protect myself."

He looked down at Lucky, rotating the barrel a bit. Maybe it's about time I dropped the shield I've put up since I've come here and actually make some friends. This seems like the place to do it, after all. He looked back up at Twilight, who seemed surprised at his new willingness to talk about his home.

He stuck out his hand. "Ryan."

After giving her specific instructions to not tell anyone, or anypony, he supposed, his real name, he and Twilight walked back into Ponyville to take the rest of the day for Twilight to give him the "Tour de Friendship" and visit her friends at their homes/places of work. It was difficult for Twilight to look past the stares and other odd looks the pair got while walking through town, but Ryan wasn't bothered by it. He'd lost his sensitivity to things like public opinion after touring New Vegas with a half-mechanical dog and a supermutant

First stop was Sugarcube Corner, and Ryan was already trying to forget it had ever happened. Surprises weren't exactly his sort of thing, given his hardwiring to react quickly to anything fast and potentially threatening. It was through sheer luck that Twilight managed to stop his hand before he could shoot Pinkie Pie in her usual excitement.

Of course, the two had downplayed the sudden motion and her "glomping" him with much blushing and stammering on Twilight's part, and stone-faced denial on Ryan's. Thankfully for the two of them, Pinkie Pie did an excellent job of being oblivious to the pair's embarrassment, and offered them a small selection of cupcakes, pies, and other assorted baked goods to enjoy as they continued on to Carousel Boutique.

As expected, Rarity was hard at work in her shop and home, filling the orders that she had received over the day from ponies in Ponyville and elsewhere. She had greeted Twilight and Ryan with her usual flair, and immediately launched into inquires on the subject of human clothing. Ryan was able to answer a good deal of her questions, despite his limited knowledge on the subject, and asked her a few questions regarding clothing in Equestria in turn. Twilight sat to the side taking notes on his answers the entire time, predictably.

As the conversation wore on, Twilight finally made a mention of the time, prompting Ryan to check his Pip-Boy's clock, and, noticing his bare arm, remembered one of the reasons why he wanted to talk to the fashion-inclined pony in the first place.

She seemed confused at first by his request, given the wording went somewhere along the lines of, "Can you give me some arms?" but Twilight was able to quickly discern the meaning of his words. Before long, Rarity had Ryan's measurements scrawled down on a pad of paper and was practically tearing off his duster, so excited she was by the prospect of being able to work with his clothing. As she set down to work, Twilight and Ryan got going towards the outskirts of town, to go visit Sweet Apple Acres and Fluttershy's cabin.

Or, rather, they would have been, if they didn't see an encounter of sorts at the Ponyville open market while on the way.

"Look, all I'm saying is you didn't pay for what you took!"

"And I'm saying that I paid for it in full, ya don't see this lass shaking 'er head, do ya?"

Drawn to the commotion, just like all the rest of the ponies that had begun to gather, Ryan and Twilight made their way into the small crowd to get a look at what what was happening.

"How about you just fork over the bits so we can call this even, and we can go?!"

"I told ya, for the last time, I didn't skimp out on bits, I paid in full!"

There was an altercation of sorts at one of the vendors on the market street. A brown stallion was yelling at a pale-yellow stallion in front of a nervous looking mare sitting behind a stand. Ryan, his interest now piqued, moved in closer to observe. Between all the shouted insults and name-calling, he was able to discern that the yellow stallion had bought something from the vendor, only to have the brown stallion interject and insist that he was ripping her off.

He was slightly touched by the brown stallion's sense of justice, and his aggressive bystander-intervention, but this had clearly gone farther than he had expected. Both of the stallions were standing forehead-to-forehead, eyes locked on each other, and faces red and puffing. The mare just looked like she was melting to a puddle behind the stand, too scared now to intervene and declare one side right and the other wrong. It looked like there was one thing to do then.

"Excuse me!" Ryan shouted from the back of the crowd.

He caught the attention of the two stallions, and the crowd spun about-face to see who had made shouted.

"What are you doing?" Twilight hissed to Ryan in the silence that followed his outburst.

"Don't worry," Ryan said back to her, waving a hand in her general direction. He took a few steps forward and the crowd parted to let him through.

"What do you want, friend?" the brown stallion asked harshly. He had moved his face back from the yellow stallion, but he was still glaring daggers at him.

"Well I was just passing through and I couldn't help but overhear your conversation. What seems to be the problem?" Ryan said, templing his fingers.

"Look, bub, I don't think you want to get involved in this, you seem like a nice guy, and this guy ain't," the yellow pony said to Ryan, in what he guessed was some sort of English accent. Though how a pony would get such an accent, he couldn't guess.

"Oh no, I do want to get involved in this," Ryan said, flashing a smile. "You two are causing quite a scene, and I want to help everybody get back to shopping."

After a moment of silent consideration, the brown pony sat down firmly and turned to Ryan. "Alright, you want to know what happened? This guy ripped off my cousin here, didn't pay enough for what he bought. More like what he stole," he said, gesturing to the yellow stallion and the quivering mare behind the stand in turn.

"So you're 'er cousin, then? What is this, some sort of joint scam? I paid for my corn in perfectly fine 'questrian bits, the exact amount she told me, and now you're all on me case! You're just working together, ain'tcha?" the yellow stallion replied, pointing an accusing hoof at the brown stallion.

As the two started to dissolve to bickering again, Ryan tuned them out for a moment and directed his attention to the mare running the stand. He stepped between the stallions, who just leaned their heads around his legs and continued yelling, and got her attention. "Miss? Could I hear your side of the story?" he asked, flashing a disarming smile.

She poked her head up a bit more, enough for Ryan to see just her eyes. "Well, like he said, Hot Shot is my cousin, visiting from Baltimare, and this other pony just bought a few heads of corn from me."

That wasn't quite enough information. "Did he rip you off?"

The mare fell back a little further behind the stand. "Well, no, I don't think so. I don't know, though. I haven't been in the business long, and the prices of produce are changing so often..." she whimpered as she looked at the stallions again, and ducked underneath the stand's counter again.

Well that wasn't entirely helpful. He looked to his sides and saw that the stallions had moved behind his legs, and they were face-to-face yelling again. But hold on, she said the brown one was from out of town, maybe the prices are different there. Or maybe they're different where the yellow one is from, because he's definitely not from around here with that accent.

"Excuse me, where are you from?" he asked the yellow one.

The yellow one ignored him and continued to yell.

Ryan rolled his eyes, resisting the sudden urge to pull out Lucky and fire it into the air once or twice. Or the slightly less demanding urge to shoot the ponies in their respective faces, though he had to admit, the idea had some merit... He blinked hard. Did he just contemplate murder? No, it was just a joke, might as well just forget about it.

He turned his back to the brown pony, Hot Shot and crouched down in front of the yellow one, completely blocking the ponies' views of each other.

"Hiya, same question, where are you from?" he asked again, making sure the yellow pony didn't try to look around him to see Hot Shot.

He let out a frustrated snort. "Do ya want my whole bloomin' life story? Name's Steel Cable, an' I'm from Trotsdale, born in Sheepsland. Any more questions? Or do I hafta sort this out whit my own two hooves?" he asked, holding up his front hooves for what Ryan assumed was visual aid.

"Great, thanks." He spun around on his heels so he could face Hot Shot. "Hey friend, how's it going? Your cousin said you're in town visiting her? How long have you been in?"

"What does it matter? Who cares how long I've been in town, what matters right now is that this guy pays up for what he took!" He raised his voice at the end of the sentence, probably to make sure Steel Cable heard him from around Ryan.

"I paid what I owed, you git!" Steel Cable's voice echoed from behind Ryan's back.

"Yeah, I think I see the problem here. Okay." Ryan stood up and took a step back to face the two ponies. Before they could get up and rush back at each other, his hands shot out and bopped each of them on their noses "No," he said, watching as both snorted involuntarily and sat back down.

"What gives?" asked Hot Shot, rubbing his snout.

"What was that for?" said Steel Cable, mirroring Hot Shot's action.

"Hot Shot, you're from Baltimare, how much does corn cost there?" Ryan asked, pointing at the pony.

"Three bits," he replied, glaring at Steel Cable.

"Steel Cable, you're from Trotsdale, born in Sheepland, how much does corn cost where you're from?" Ryan asked, pointing at the other pony.

"Four bits," he said, glaring at Hot Shot. Then, to Ryan, "That's why I was excited when I got corn here for two bits, half off what I normally pay."

"See?! He did scam my cousin!" Hot Shot shouted victoriously. "Put him in jail or something!"

Ryan bopped Hot Shot on the nose again.

"Ow! Stop doing that!" he shouted, rubbing at his snout.

"Stop jumping to conclusions and listen. Twilight!" he called to the crowd.

"Here!" The purple alicorn walked up from the front of the now much-thinner crowd to join the human and ponies.

"How many bits does an ear of corn cost in Ponyville?" he asked her.

"Two bits," she said, confirming what Ryan suspected.

"How much did you said you paid for the corn, Steel Cable?" Ryan asked, pointing at the pony.

"Two bits!" he shouted happily, seeing that he'd just been proved righteous in his dealings.

"Vendor-mare, how much did you charge him for?" Ryan asked, pointing at the mare, who had returned from her retreat under the stand's counter.

"Two bits," she confirmed.

"Well there you have it folks, Steel Cable's not a scammer, and neither is Hot Shot. It was just a misunderstanding because of where they were both from."

Hot Shot walked over to his cousin's stand and looked at her. "You didn't tell me the price here is lower!" he exclaimed. "That means I blew bits on groceries last time I was here!"

"I told you so, you ninny!" Steel Cable shouted at Hot Shot.

"Hey," Ryan hissed at Steel Cable, getting his attention. "You were right, don't rub it in, get lost!" he said in a harsh whisper.

"You're absolutely right, thanks for the help clearing m'name, mate. Come by the pub any time, drink's on me!"

Ryan took another look at the bickering cousins, Hot Shot looking annoyed and the vendor-mare smiling sheepishly, and decided he didn't need to intervene there. "Well, time to go," he said, taking a few strides away.

The crowd had dissipated entirely, and now only a few ponies were still milling around the open-air market. Many of the slots on the street where vendors would set up their wares were now vacant, and those that remained seemed to be getting close to packing up themselves. The sun was getting close to setting, lighting the sky and clouds on the western horizon a light orange color.

It was only a few more seconds before Twilight flew up in front of him, causing him to pause in his stride. "What was that about?" she asked.

"What do you mean?" he said, answering her question with a question.

"All of that, back there," she said, waving a hoof behind him.

"Well, there was a disagreement, and I stepped in to help clear things up. What else is there to it?" he asked, his eyes narrowing slightly. "None of the other ponies standing by and watching were going to do anything, and the situation wouldn't have fixed itself, so I helped."

"Well, yeah, you did, but you did it so calmly, and without taking any sides, or getting into the argument yourself! If that was me in there I would've—"

"You would've done the same thing as me; gathered the information, drawn a few conclusions, and arrived at the right answer to the problem. Maybe that's not what every pony would do, but it's what was right in the situation," Ryan concluded.

"But weren't you afraid to get between them? Did you think that you might've been in trouble if it came to blows? If you needed to defend yourself then would you—"

"While it is much faster and much easier to just shoot your problems, it's not always the proper way to deal with others. Speech skills, Twilight, speech skills." Ryan continued walking.

But he only managed to get a few feet before he was cut off again, this time by two of Twilight's friends, the orange one and the yellow one. Applejack and Fluttershy, he managed to remember.

"Howdy Smith, and Twilight; we, uh, we saw what happened just now. With the two angry ponies and the stand," she said, giving Twilight an opportunity to rejoin Ryan by his side. "And I wanted to just come up and say that that was a mighty respectful thing to do, stopping that argument before it became a tussle. I was gettin' ready to jump in myself and have 'Shy here get the facts, but ya darn well beat me to it. It was a lot more than I expected to see of ya while you're here."

"That was very kind of you, Smith. Thank you for stepping in," Fluttershy said, smiling warmly at the man.

"Fights here probably don't go the same way they do back in New Vegas, but I still didn't want that to get any further than it already had," was his only reply, his mind bothered by memories of the grisly results of disputes on the Strip.

"Well you have our thanks," Applejack insisted.

There was a silent pause in the conversation as the ponies looked off at the horizon as the sun sank beneath the mountains, in a much quicker fashion than Ryan was used to. Perhaps it was the influence of Princess Celestia on the sun? While he knew that back in his star system the planets orbited the sun, a rule that should hold true no matter where in the universe he was, his world didn't have magic. And he doubted the ponies, or Celestia for that matter, would make up something as outlandish as one pony controlling a star unless there was some element of truth behind it.

It was a shame he wouldn't be able to stay in Equestria for longer. There was so much more to discover, so much more to learn. His horizons were already expanded far more than the average citizen of the Mojave Wasteland, and his skills were already greater than most before coming to Equestria... He had seen things people on Earth would never chance to think of, not even in their wildest dreams.

Ryan clenched a fist, feeling the power of magic course through it. There was a crackle of violent energy, barely contained, and a brief glow of green that came and went like the flash on a camera.

He would get back to Earth and reclaim what was his. What he fought and gained power to control and protect. The land that flew his flag, the land that made him who he is.

"Twilight?" Ryan asked, finally looking up from the open book on his lap.

The two had returned to the castle after their brief talk with Applejack and Fluttershy. They had run out of time for Twilight to give him a tour of her friends' houses because of the mess at the marketplace, but Ryan didn't mind. He wanted more time to read and study on magical theory, to maybe give him ideas on how to better focus his energy. He needed the time now, especially considering the decision he had made at sunset.

"Yes?" Twilight answered, not looking up from her book. She, of course, had immediately agreed to his request to return to her library, being excited to see his continued interest in reading.

"Could you send a letter to Celestia asking if I could leave the day after tomorrow?"

Twilight stopped reading finally, choosing instead to look up at Ryan, looking a little hurt. "Why do you want to leave early all of a sudden? Was it something I said?"

I probably should have expected her to take this personally, Ryan thought, mentally rolling his eyes at the emotional status of seemingly every pony in Equestria. "I had a small change of heart earlier, and I decided that my people need me to protect them from the person, sorry, goddess that put me here in the first place."

It wasn't a total lie. It was true that New Vegas needed him, and would always need him, but he doubted Atë would go after New Vegas like she went after him. Something inside him just felt like he needed to get back, and it didn't feel like homesickness...

"Well..." Twilight began, looking out one of the darkened windows of the Friendship Castle, "that is a very responsible decision, and I can't say I'm surprised, hearing it from you." She looked back at him. "I'll have Spike send her a letter first thing in the morning. Casting the spell to get you back home won't be a full day affair, in fact it might not take more than an hour to prepare for it. Are you sure you don't want to take more time here?"

Ryan looked down at his Pip-Boy, tabbing from the Data screen to the Stats screen. There at the bottom right-hand corner his new stat still remained. The little bar for Sanity was drained further from where it was when it first appeared, now holding steady around 50%. When he first noticed it, right before he began... hallucinating or whatever it was, it didn't concern him all that much, as he had stopping trying to figure out how the Pip-Boy managed to just know things about him. But now...

"I'm sure."

Ryan had retired to bed not long after that, citing his reasoning that he had a lot to think about, and quite a few decisions to make. But most of all, there was someone, or what he thought was someone, he wanted to talk to.

Christoper is a dead man, he thought. I am not who I was, and I've accepted that. I accepted that the moment after I killed Benny. So why is it that I can still feel something about him... lingering?

"You're asking the wrong guy."

Ryan leveled his vision. There, standing in the darkness of the threshold to his little bathroom, was him.

"Christopher."

"Oh, good job!" he said, clapping a few times and giving a mocking bow. "You finally learned to accept what's in front of you. Getting worried by that Sanity meter in your Pip-Boy yet? I figure that would mean something to you." His eyes glinted in the dim glow coming from the single bedside light in the room.

"It does. And I figure that it has nothing to do with me, and everything to do with you. So, Christopher." Ryan shifted on the bed, then stood up. He drew Lucky and pointed it at Christopher, the gun evenly and unwaveringly aimed at his head. "What's to stop me from killing you and returning my life back to normal?"

Christopher froze. His expression held steadily unreadable, but Ryan thought he could make out some fear in the glinting of the light in his eyes. The air in the room ceased its motion, the noises of the world around them faded away, leaving the two in a state of limbo. Nothing existed in the moment except Ryan, and the man he once was.

Then he did something Ryan didn't expect: laugh.

And just like that, the spell broke. With Christopher's mocking guffaws, the world rushed back to them, but different. With each peal of howling laughter, the shadows seemed to get darker and reach closer to Ryan, grasping at his mind and calling for his attention. The room seemed to press at him more, getting insistent that he takes action and fixes the problem.

Ryan's grip on Lucky tightened. The screeching and calling of the world in his mind became muffled as he gave his best effort to block it out. He felt his hand light up green as he reached for his gun with his mind, and wrap the bullets in the chamber in energy. He winced as he felt the world grow loud again, but he shook it off as best as he could. He needed to stay focused if he wanted to get any answers.

"Answers?! Answers, he asks!" Christopher paused in his laughter to exclaim. "Ohhh, buddy, you're not getting anything from me. Did you forget?"

"I'm you," a voice whispered directly into his ear.

"RRRAAAGH!" Ryan screamed as he fired a bullet at the monster across the room from him, but the action was only met with the sound of shattering glass and the crunching of concrete.

Blood pounded in his head and the sound of it rushed through his ears. He could feel the liquid move through his body, fueling him in his moment of rage. Or was it fear? The two had gone hand-in-hand for him all his life, but it was only recently that he discovered that he could experience both at the same time.

When his companions... his friends, had left New Vegas, all for different reasons, he didn't take it very well. After the rampage he had gone on through the Mojave Wasteland as Christoper, it was the few people or beings he had met that kept him sane after he became Ryan, and helped him fix the mistakes he had made. Not all were fixable, but then he did whatever he could to make up for himself in that event. After time had passed, he had made things right with the folks at Novac, Westside, Freeside, Primm, Jacobstown, and even Goodsprings, though there wasn't a chance he could walk into that town without catching an insult at the least, a bullet at the worst.

And after they all left, so abruptly, he felt alone again. Ryan was different from Christopher, in many ways, but one thing they shared was a susceptibility to loneliness. Their line of work required it often, and he used to be comfortable with the silence of his own company, but after the Divide he couldn't bare to be alone. So when he was "abandoned", he turned to drink and drugs.

For a week or two, he just floated by, barely in his own mind. New Vegas suffered in that time, the Families of the Strip sensed his weakness and began a power struggle at the drop of a hat. The NCR had to completely withdraw from their outpost there, which was destroyed not long afterward.

The Lucky 38 was left alone, as it always was. The lone occupant of its towers had shut himself away from the world, just like the previous owner.

It was only when Caesar's Legion and the NCR came closing back in that he was roused from his almost lifeless state. With an unclear mind, he armed and mobilized the leagues of Securitrons stored beneath the smoldering husk of a camp that once was the home of Caesar himself.

As the mechanical army returned to defend New Vegas, he stood on the observation deck of the Lucky 38 and looked down upon Freeside, the place he had worked so hard to rebuild and restore to what it once was. He turned to the Strip to see it in its war-torn state, the infrastructure he had poured so many caps into all but destroyed by war between the Families. Then he could see, by the horizon of the setting sun, his army. He looked inside himself to search his feelings, and made a decision.

New Vegas was not destroyed that day.

The warring factions had caused many losses from families of all walks of life. The chaos of the Strip reflected back on the rest of the Mojave Wasteland, causing a ripple of destruction to the townships and settlements that were situated in the outlying area. The NCR had reinforced its position and occupied the remains of Primm, the Great Khans, or what was left of them, encroached on the Highway, and Caesar's Legion had begun to reestablish its former position.

Ryan's army was swift and decisive in its action. They swooped into the areas most affected by the fighting and broke it all up. The NCR in the area were demilitarized and either sent home or forced to come into the Strip to fix their outpost. The Legion was crushed entirely, no second chances, no survivors. The Great Khans were forced back to their cliffside settlement, begrudgingly cooperative.

The Families were a different matter entirely. He held a meeting with their leaders, and they came to a compromise. Ryan wouldn't have them all executed in exchange for them paying for all the damages to the Strip and formally apologizing to the NCR presence in the area. In addition, Ryan had uploaded Yes Man to the each of the casinos' networks, ensuring the money they spent was justified and couldn't be used to upset the peace in the area again.

In the end, Ryan pulled himself out of his slump. But the price was costly. Much of the work he had done for the betterment of New Vegas had been undone, by just a week of losing control. He made lifestyle changes, got himself back to normal, and upgraded Yes Man so he could run things virtually by himself, in case something happened again.

But that wasn't likely. In the midst of all the changes, he made sure to never forget how he felt that day, and gave himself reminders so it was burned into his mind in all meanings but literal.

Ryan sat back down on his bed. He looked at Lucky in his hand, smoke drifting lazily up from the end of its barrel. Absently, he reloaded and set it down on the nightstand. He walked into the bathroom and turned on the light. Emotionlessly, he viewed the devastation that his shot had caused. The mirror was shattered and had fallen to pieces all over the room. There was an impact hole where the bullet struck the wall, reaching into it beyond Ryan's vision, and a scorch mark that easily had a two-foot radius.

He turned off the light, spun around, and collapsed into his bed. He was spent, just like the bullet he had fired. As an afterthought, he pulled up his Pip-Boy and looked at his S.P.E.C.I.A.L. screen. His face was impassive as he watched the little 6 by Luck flicker and change to a 5.

Author's Notes:

It was a long time coming, but here it is! Stay tuned for Chapter 7, coming soon to a computer near you! For more specifics on the concluding chapters of this story, click here!