Fallout: the Elements in Vegas

by SomeGuyCamping

Chapters

• Chapter 1: Mojave [Revised]
• Chapter 2: Training [Revised]
• Chapter 3: Midnight [Revised]
• Chapter 4: Downhill [Revised]
• Chapter 5: Reunion [Revised]
• Chapter 6: Hell and Back [Revised]
• Chapter 7: Orion [Revised]
• Chapter 8: Soldiers [Revised]
• Chapter 9: Defeat [Revised]
• Chapter 10: Victory [Revised]
• Chapter: Bonus (somewhat canon)
• Chapter 11: Forward [Revised]
• Chapter 12: Zion [Revised]

Chapter 1: Mojave [Revised]

Fallout: the Elements in Vegas

Chapter 1: Mojave

My eyes slowly opened and closed as my vision blurred, and my ears rang with a high pitch hum that felt like it was grinding into my brain. Groaning, I rolled over onto my back, staring into the moonlit night sky. My breath rolled out into the cold air in puffs of ghost white steam as my head pounded, like Pinkie was throwing multiple parties at once in my living room… while I was hungover. That would cause even more of a headache, trying to figure out how she was able to get up to my house in the first place.

‘Speaking of Pinkie, did she spike my drink again? I seriously can’t remember the last few hours,’ I thought as I tried to recall previous events. My headache doubled in intensity as I placed a hoof on my head while clenching my eyes shut in a grimace.

‘Wait…’ I thought in utter shock, feeling limbs in the wrong places.

My magenta eyes shot open to look at the five tan colored digits illuminated by the moons glow. I leaned up to gaze upon a set of legs covered by blue and gold spandex, the knees of said legs bent forward and connected to strange looking feet. From one quick look, I knew what I was. Between the descriptions Twilight gave me from her lone adventure in the crystal mirror, I quickly realized that I was a human.

‘Why? Why am I a human? I definitely didn’t go through the crystal mirror. Oh crap… better stay the hay away from Lyra,’ I thought as I involuntarily shuddered, ‘If that mint green mare gets ahold of me…’

Shrugging off the scary thought, I got up from my spot on the ground, finding it really easy to stand on two legs. It was a trick I used to performed when I was a pony, standing on my hindlegs and walking. A real eye-catcher seeing an awesome mare like me strut around on two legs instead of the boring old four.

With my new position, I began to properly look myself over. I was in a human version of a Wonderbolt flight suit and goggles, my slim build still seemed to apply to my body, and for some reason I had a minotaur’s satchel bag adorned by my cutie-mark, which was a storm cloud and rainbow lightning bolt. It was probably my saddlebags, but it transformed along with me for some reason.

Opening it up, I pulled out a book, unable to see the cover. It was most likely my copy of Daring Doo and Dr. Bones, and I cracked it open to where I left the bookmark. However, just like the cover, I couldn’t read anything in the dim moonlight.

Groaning in frustration, I shut the book and put it back in the brown satchel, securing the cutie-mark shaped buckle. Twilight had told me that humans walked on two legs, so I started to take small, shaky steps to get a proper feel for two-legged walking.

Looking around, the darkness didn’t reveal much in the way of landmarks, except the distant silhouettes of mountains. The land I was standing on sloped upwards in a small hill, and I knew it would allow me to potentially see more of the area around me.

In the span of five minutes of slow and unbalanced steps, I made it up the hill before a rock decided to get in the way of my new feet. That caused me to roll head over human feet down the sandy mound into even more dirt.

I wasn’t going to let a stupid rock keep me down. Getting up off the ground once more, I popped the kink out my neck and muttered a few curses that would get me bucked into next week by Applejack if I used them around her sister. Taking a look around in the dim moonlight revealed next to nothing except a small campfire glowing like a beacon down the paved road. Then realization dawned on me, paved roads are in the cities like Mareami and Manehattan, how did I get this far out?

With that in mind, seeing the fire reminded me that the night was cold. Hugging myself with my new arms to try and keep in warmth, I decided to make my way towards the orange glow. After a while of walking though, my bare feet were beginning to feel the painful effect of walking without hard hooves on pavement.

After what seemed like a small eternity, I finally made it there with great effort to keep from tripping again, my soft, hoofless feet were killing me. Sadly, the little camp that I found was nothing more than an old tree stump with a guitar, campfire, and some supplies in a pile that made even my chaotic brand of organization seem organized. There was also a light blue bedroll sitting right next to a very faded, illegible billboard, but nopony in sight to ask where I was.

Knowing that traveling around in the dark wouldn’t help me figure out where in Equestria I was, I sat near the fire to take the cold nip out the air. I heard the coffee pot boiling before I saw it, a grey cylinder resting on some coals while vigorously bubbling and steaming. Hopefully the owner of this camp would return soon and tell me just where I was.

I wasn’t going to take anything without permission, so with nothing else to do, I pulled out my book to read using the firelight. Sure enough, it was my personal copy of Daring Doo and Dr. Bones. Cracking the hardcover copy decorated with a stylized griffon skull made of crystal open, I began to read.

As my eyes moved over the words describing a train scene and snakes, my memory began to return.

I was on a train bound for Ponyville because I was tired from training. I had recently earned my sergeant stripes, I still had my flight suit on because I wanted to show how awesome I looked in it to everyone in Ponyville… That’s when my memory blanked out again. Groaning with disappointment, I decided to read and wait for whoever owns this little camp to return.

<>~<>~<>

It was a few minutes before the sound of human feet began to creep up on me; sadly, I was too enthralled - thank you Twilight for getting me that big word of the day calendar - by the adventures of the two archeologists that the entire outside world was ignored. I didn’t hear the crunch of sand under-hoof before there was a sharp clicking sound, and the feeling of a cold metal object pressing against the back of my skull.

“I want you to get up, and turn slowly,” A gruff, male voice ordered, smooth and evenly, “Any sudden moves, your head is gone.”

With the metal thing pressing into my skull, I decided it would be the logical choice to comply. Getting up slowly from my seat, I turned at an agonizingly slow pace for me towards the voice. It was another human. He was, as his voice hinted, a male. His face that was worn with stress or age was locked in an intimidating scowl, a black Stetson hat adorned his head and he was clothed in a long brown duster coat made of what appeared to be… true leather. My mind shivered at the thought of how many pigs were needed to make that coat.

“Just who might you be?” The man asked after I turned to him. He placed the metal weapon at his hip in a some sort of sheath, his face softening at the sight of my face, “Sorry for the gun, needed to see just what type of person you were.”

“Huh?” I stammered out, confused at his change in demeanor.

“I needed to see if you weren’t some raider, pretending to be friendly just to slit my throat when I walked up. So who are you?” He asked, face hardening again.

Totally ignoring the red flags and alarms going off in my head, I answered, “Sergeant Rainbow Dash, Wonderbolts first platoon, Cloudsdale branch,” I recited like I was being interrogated, which, in a sense, I was. He did have a ‘gun’ pointed at my head a second ago, whatever that ‘gun’ did was a mystery to me, but I didn’t want to find out.

His face instantly lit up, he reached out a hand to me, “Nice to meet you Miss Dash, so are the Wonderbolts a branch in the NCR correct?”

“No,” I replied courteously, grasping his rough cracked hand for a ‘handshake’, which was a lot gentler than a hoofshake from Applejack, “I sorta just got here somehow, and now my mind is running a blank. Would you please tell me where the nearest town is so I can radio Cloudsdale and figure out where in Equestria I am, and why I’m a human.”

He took a step back, surprised at what I said, and I hoped I hadn’t said something that would put me in a tight spot, before he began to look at me again in the firelight.

“Explains the crazy colored hair and those red eyes, figured they were just mutations,” He mumbled just loudly enough for me to hear.

I smacked my face with my human hand; great, now I’m definitely not in Equestria anymore. Mutations, humans, these gun things… just where am I.

“So,” he began slowly, studying me like the alien I was, “Where is this Equestria place? Never heard of it,” he cracked a small smile, “but I'm sure you knew that. You mind telling me what were you before you were a human?”

I began to speak, thinking he was crazy for never hearing of Equestria, but he cut me off, “Actually, forget it, I can tell by how you wandered right into my camp and didn't steal anything that you're not from around these parts, so heed this advice,” He leaned close to me, I noticed the amount of dirt and grime on his face in the orange light, “Get some socks and boots and don't trust anyone you don't know. Now, you can sleep here tonight, but don't expect me to feed you, although you're welcome to some coffee.”

I was surprised by the order, and after his offer, he moved to a metal box beside the bedroll, opening it up to retrieve two coffee mugs. Handing one to me, he moved to the stump and sat, bending down to retrieve the steaming pot. Pouring himself a mug, he offered me the grey spouted cylinder, which I kindly refused. Not much of a coffee person, unlike Captain Spitfire, my commanding officer.

After I refused the beverage, I sat buffalo style on the ground. The mysterious male drank from his mug, with his guitar at his side, for around a minute, in near total silence, not a sound to be heard but the occasional whistle of the midnight wind over parched sand. Setting his now empty white mug down on the ground, he picked up the guitar and began to strum the strings, tuning it a few times before humming lyrics.

“This is a song I wrote a long time ago,” he said before strumming the guitar at a faster pace, “Well I won’t back down,” He began to sing in a gravelly tone, “No I won't back down. You can stand me up at the gates of Hell, but I won’t back down.”

I found myself being drawn towards the voice, like a moth to a flame.

“Gonna stand my ground, won't be turned around, and I’ll keep this world from draggin me down, gonna stand my ground, and I won't back down.”

“Hey baby, there ain’t no easy way out. Hey, I will stand my ground, and I won’t back down.”

He placed the guitar back to his side, looking straight at me with eyes that seen a world of pain, “If you’re ever in a spot of trouble, just think of the song and be strong.”

I stared back, near inaudibly I mumbled, “Thanks,” I knew in this new place I would need it, and a pit dropping in my stomach told me that the others would be needing it too. I couldn't be sure my friends were here, but something told me we were in this together, and ever since we were fillies, I could tell when Fluttershy was in trouble.

I looked around, seeing nothing but dirt and dust, “So where am I exactly?” I asked.

The human looked to me before slowly turning his head to the left and right before motioning with a hand in a circle, “All this you see around here, is nothing but a godforsaken pile of sand with a city devoted to sin right smack dab in the middle of it.”

I tapped my chin, thinking of where I heard the city description before, actually it sounded like Las Pegasus… what with its gambling, bars, and the very occasional murder.

There was this one pegasus from there. He was nice guy, but he had a bit of a temper problem. We met in a bar a few weeks ago. I think Dusty was his name, light grey, light blue eyes.

“Hey,” The stranger said to catch my attention, “You seem to be lost in thought there.”

I blushed a little bit at getting caught, “Remembering a date I had a couple weeks back. Your description reminded me of a city in Equestria, Las Pegasus.”

He gave a chuckle, “Funny considering the city here was named Las Vegas before the bombs, now its New Vegas”

My mouth hung agape, bombs, as in explosive bombs, “This place is at war,” I asked nearly yelling, “With who, I’m sure Princess Celestia could negotiate between both sides.” I exclaimed, trying to make sense of how we haven’t heard of this war in Equestria.

He shook his head, “Wherever this Equestria place is, I guess it ain’t on Earth, the war was over two hundred years ago. If it were, I figured you would have known about the entire planet going to Hell.”

“Uhh…” I slurred out, my brain not wanting to work after the new revelation. I figured we just somehow ended up in some new country, not a new world altogether.

The sudden feeling of being utterly, and inescapably out of my element passed over me with a blinding wave of terror. I froze, having to let my brain reboot and catch up with the fact I was, indeed, no longer on the face of Equus.

The human must not have realized my distress, as he continued to speak while I half listened, “Don’t worry, I can believe you’re from a different world, even the bit on why you’re a human. There have been rumors of an alien ship and little green men for a while now, and the Mojave holds even stranger secrets than that,” With that he stretched his arms and yawned, causing me to stop thinking and yawn with him, “Well, I’m tired, had to go hunting for some plants to replenish my stock, needless to say, it wore me out. You can use the bedroll tonight.”

“Um… thanks,” I mumbled out. But really, a war over two hundred years ago and it’s still affecting them, not just them, but the whole planet… just, wow, I can’t believe I’m on another planet.

Moving over to the bedroll, I laid down and closed my eyes, exaustion causing me to instantly fall asleep.

<>~<>~<>

A loud bang caused me to jump up from the bedroll. Surprised and confused, I looked around, noticing I was still in the human world as a human and it wasn’t all just a wacky drunken dream.

Another bang sounded out in the morning light. Getting up quickly, I moved away from camp, the human nowhere to be seen. Crossing a road, I neared an embankment to a dry lake bed. As soon as I looked down the embankment I was shocked speechless. There, down the slope, was the BIGGEST ant I ever seen. It was the length of two foals, and around the height of one, its massive scissor jaws were snapping at another giant ant.

As soon as one fell, the others head exploded with a loud bang. I turned to see the human holding his gun, the tube of it smoking. It dawned on me that the purpose of guns were to kill. I was unimaginably grateful I decided to listen instead of fight for once.

He looked at me, my mouth waiting for a fly to buzz in and choke me. “Judging from that expression, this Equestria place doesn’t have guns,” he said near sarcastically.

All I could do was nod my head. After I second I found the words I was looking for, “That was… you killed it!” I exclaimed out. In a flash, the gun was pointed at me, if minotaurs’ names for body parts apply to humans, he used his thumb to pull back a piece of metal, right before another bang and flash of fire.

What I heard through the ringing in my ears was the sound of bug shell breaking along with the squash of soft organs. Turning my head slowly, there was an even bigger ant right behind me, a hole neatly drilled between its beady soulless eyes revealing green goop that once was its brain, Its massive jaws prepared to cut me to ribbons.

How I hadn’t managed to hear the large creature sneak up behind me, I never would know.

“A second later Ms. Dash, and you would have been dead. Your world, whatever shape it’s in, forget about it. Here, you’re on the bottom of the food chain, the lowest rung of the ladder.”

I stood there, my ears still ringing, blankly staring into what just about killed me. The humans words echoed in my mind as I stared. Bottom of the food chain? What have you gotten yourself into Dash?

The human shook me out of my thoughts when he spoke, quickly and authoritatively, “Now, let’s get back to camp. I’ll grab you something to wrap your feet with so you don’t blister on the way to the 188. The asphalt gets hot as hellfire come noontime.”

With that, we moved back to camp. Opening a nearby wooden box, the gun toting stranger took out a few items.

He handed me a set of dirty clothes, the brown pants had pockets-galore on it, and the shirt was so dirty it appeared that the white fabric was brown.

“The form fitting stuff you’re wearing might look good, but you don’t want to stay in clothing like that.”

“Why?” I inquired.

He looked at me blankly, “Cause ya may end up under someone who took a liken to the way you look.”

My mouth hung open for like the umpteenth time, “Pon- I mean, people here will force themselves onto a mare?” I asked using the word Equestrians use when dealing with large crowds of non-ponies.

“Yes, especially the Raiders, or Caesars Legion. Oh yeah, Rainbow, if you see any men in red skirts, run like Hell is on your heels,” He took a very serious tone and grim look, “because it is. Caesar’s men will haul you back to The Fort and keep you as a slave.”

At the word slave, my mind said a few choice words, probably mouthed them to, “Why?” I asked under my breath… I could barely speak. Keeping others as slaves is… well it’s completely wrong.

“Just because,” he started to explain as he pulled a brown cloth bag that was no bigger than a hoof from the box, “They keep you as a worker, that’s if you’re lucky. If they deem you one of good traits, a Legionnaire gets you pregnant with a potential soldier. They choose healthy women like yourself to make strong legion boys.”

I dropped a few shades of color, my tan skin now a milky white, “That’s…” I trailed off, not able to find the words to describe the horror of what I was just told. I wonder how my friends would react. Rarity would faint, Applejack would damn near want to kill them, Twilight would exhaust herself finding a way to change the entire Legion, Pinkie Pie’s hair would deflate, and I would have to go through THAT again… and Fluttershy… oh my... her kind heart would not be able to handle it. The concept alone would make her sick with grief, but it being a reality… I don’t think a soul like hers could cope with the fact.

I felt my stomach double over, a few more turns and I was on my knees, losing my lunch in the sand.

Wiping my mouth with the sleeve of my uniform, I calmed down from the little bit of information, the stranger handed me the bag. Opening it revealed bottle caps, which I didn’t ask what they were for. Taking the bag and the clothes, I stepped around the corner of the billboard. Twilight had told me humans considered it immodest to be nude in front of them after her experience with the crystal mirror.

I set the bundle of clothing to the side and put the bag of caps in my satchel, along with my flight goggles. Setting the satchel with the rest of the clothes, I reached behind my head, taking the zipper of my suit in my hand and pulled downward, the zipper easily gliding down my back until it reached just above my waistline. I quickly slipped out the skin tight suit, my bare skin being kissed by the warm desert sun.

Looking over myself, I discovered my cutie mark was still on my flank. With how much had stayed the same, I figured I would have ended up with blue skin and wings, but no luck. I was literally grounded.

The realization made me smack my forehead and groan loudly. I was stuck on the ground with no way to fly.

Just bucking great. Wait, this is so bad, it doesn't deserve the foal safe-language… this is just fucking great.

Stopping my mental tirade, I decided I better stop griping, get dressed, and find my friends. I just wonder where in this world they may be. Or of they were even here at all.

<>~<>~<>

I found out that human and pony clothing are really similar. The pants worked just like the ones back in Equestria, but were much easier to get on with my new legs. It took me only around a minute to get the pants on right, and after I got them on, I put on my shirt, packed my old uniform in my satchel, and stepped around the corner of the billboard to see the stranger rummaging through yet another box.

“Here you go,” He calmly said as he handed me tattered cloth wrapping for my feet, like not a few minutes earlier had he told me there wasn’t a band or rapist slavers wanting to find me.

“Where are we going?” I asked, my mind still not fully recovered from all the recent shocks. I would probably be watching over my shoulder until I found one of my friends.

If I can find them. Bad Rainbow, no thinking like that now.

“The 188 Trading post, someone there can take you with a caravan to Freeside. From there you’re on your own.”

“Before I forget again, I never asked for your name,” I asked, tilting my head like a pigeon inspecting a piece of bread.

He blushed and took off his hat, revealing that his left ear was missing a small piece, “Well missy, now that is a secret I don’t want to share.”

I crossed my arms in a pout, “You said don’t trust anyone I don’t know, so tell me your name or how can I trust you?”

He smacked his face with the palm of his hand, obviously regretting setting my ground rules, “You make a valid point, don’t laugh or I will refuse to take you,” He said with a hint of anger before looking down, “My name is Sue,” he said exasperatedly.

“And you’re embarrassed about that? Why?” I asked, confused as to why his name caused him so much humiliation.

“It’s a girl’s name. When my pa up and left when I was born, all he left me was his gun, guitar, an empty bottle of booze, and of course the name. He’s also the one that cut a piece of my left ear off.”

I gasped, “Why would he do that!?”

“Self-defense, I threatened to kill him. We had a drunken fight, then we became best friends after we ended the fight by drawing our guns on each other,” He explained while chuckling a bit. The look of nostalgia in his eyes told me he was quite fond of that moment.

I concluded that humans are strange, nearly kill each other over a name and become friends, “So,” I said, “let’s put all this nonsense about killing behind us and get me to that Trading post.”

<>~<>~<>

The wraps helped my feet during the walk. Sue helped me learn that humans use a combination of minotaur and dragon terms to describe body parts, mostly minotaur, since the torso and arms of a human are nearly visibly the same as minotaur males and females.

It wasn’t that far to walk to the trading post, maybe an hour and a half of walking. I didn’t really pay heed to what the scenery looked like, I was too busy asking questions and observing Sue with the ferocity of Twilight with a new issue of Science Monthly, but learning nothing like the egghead could from just simple glances.

While we both were walking there, sue had answered as best he could with the questions I had bombarded him with. They were all about Caesar’s Legion and the war that was two hundred years over.

I was amazed and horrified by the fact the humans had invented weapons powerful enough to wipe out entire cities in one shot. Some numbskull thought something that powerful would never be used, but on one fateful day, catastrophe struck and the world was plunged into fire that left behind something Sue called radiation. I had asked him about radiation and that led to a conversation about things that look like zombies but are called ghouls, but that route stopped dead after I asked how radiation could do that since he didn’t know.

I had also learned that Caesar’s Legion was formed after some doctor from the Followers of The Apocalypse - very good choice of a name - went west to spread humanitarian aid, encountered a man who knew the native languages, and somehow from there the Legion was formed.

After I finished asking Sue my questions, a thought, with the subtlety of me, hit my mind, “How do you know all these things?” I blurted out, stopping both of our walking.

“Courier 6 stops by my camp all the time,” Sue explained before looking foward with a nod, “I guess this is your stop, the 188 Trading Post.”

I turned to look ahead of me, and there it was, a collection of dull grey metal trailers and scrap metal huts positioned on a small overpass. A flag with a two headed bear waved over the outpost, proudly displaying the words, ‘New California Republic’ in dark black lettering. I turned to say thanks to Sue for help, but he was gone… ‘sheesh, the nerve of that guy, disappearing on me when I needed a question answered.’

Shrugging off being abandoned by the only person I knew would help me, I began walking to the collection of buildings on top of the bridge.

Before long, I began to encounter bored looking humans in tan armor and helmets, carrying long weapons that looked like they worked like Sue’s gun. I went on a pure guess and decided they must be guns as well.

“Christ,” one of the humans in armor said in a swear, looking to another “with this heat, I shouldn’t get hazard pay, I should get sweat pay.”

“Quit your moaning and stay alert. Who knows, fruit hair here could be a spy,” the other said with a quick point towards me.

I grit my teeth, rolled my eyes, and kept walking as the two let out peals of laughter.

Stopping by what seemed to be an outdoor bar, I nodded to the bartender who had glasses and bottles lining an old bookshelf behind the counter. After taking a seat on one of the three stools at the bar, I heard the clank of a cowbell. I turned to see a passing cow with a rather large amount of boxes on its back that had two heads.

Wait… two heads?

Turning with an alarmed gasp, my eyes weren’t playing tricks on me. Sure enough, it was a red, hairless cow with two heads. I’d have ask her something later, but right then, I needed to ask someone if they may have seen any of my friends. I doubted a two headed cow would know, plus she - guessing it was a she due to the udders - was following someone in leather and metal armor.

Looking around, I saw a woman, wearing a brown hood with a silver-grey metal fist. Putting the red flag of ‘metal fist’ away until we spoke, I got off the barstool and cautiously walked up to her. She saw me, turned and lowered her hood with her nonmetal hand, and revealed a kind flawless face, her black hair clean as a Canterlot palace floor, “Hey,” She kindly said to me, “I like that cool hairdo, but it probably doesn’t really fit with all the sand does it?”

“Not really,” I said back to her, “and you are?”

“Who’s asking?” she asked bluntly, her face going from a smile to one of curiosity.

I stopped to think, what do I tell her? I decided to tell a little bit of the truth, “I’m kinda lost, have you seen any of my friends? Their names are Twilight Sparkle, Rarity Belle, Fluttershy, Pinkie Pie, and Applejack Apple? By the way, the name’s Rainbow Dash. Fastest flyer in all of Equestria,” I said proudly before I remembered where I was. “Well, was,” I sighed out, remembering I could no longer fly.

She looked me over, placing a hand on her chin, “Allll-right then, I’m Veronica, and I live in a hole in the ground.”

My somber mood changed to curiosity, “You... live in a hole in the ground?” I asked, shaking my head in disbelief.

“Actually, it’s more along the lines of a bunker, but it sounds more interesting my way,” she chuckled out. She straightened her face, looking dead serious all of a sudden, “So, it seems like you’re on a mission to find your crazy named friends, and I need somewhere to go, can I tag along?”

“Sure… but first, do you know where I can buy myself a gun?”

“Yes,” she shouted in excitement, “Us two girls roaming the Mojave, kicking ass and taking names, all on a quest to find your missing friends, who may or may not exist.”

I didn’t hear the rest of her sentence after Mojave though… why didn’t I ask Sue what desert this was?

Veronica looked at me concerned, “You okay?” she asked me.

I looked back, confused and admittedly scared, “Mojave and Las Vegas equals Marejave and Las Pegasus…” I said to myself. I had already admitted I was lost on another world, ‘but to still have such a coincidence,’ I thought.

‘Not that far fetched with the mirror world version of me.’

“Um, Earth to Dash, come in,” She said tapping a finger on my head, causing me to snap back to reality, “You went wide eyed for a second there.”

“Sorry,” I admitted, shaking my head, “If you havent realized yet, take a good look at my eyes and hair. I’m guessing humans don’t quite have the same colors,” I didn’t know if it was a risk to tell someone that I was from another world, but it was one I was willing to take to find my friends.

“So those aren't mutations caused by radiation?” Veronica asked low, rubbing her chin as if in deep thought, “If so, then that means you can’t be human and you’re obviously not a ghoul ghoul,” I could hear the excitement building up in her voice.

“Yes, believe it or not, I’m from another world. For some reason it seems that my world contains a desert and city closely named to this one. Also, I need to find my friends and make it back home somehow.”

All she did was mouth an excited and soundless ‘wow’ before looking at me again, “So what now miss alien?” she asked with the enthusiasm of a cake fueled Pinkie.

I facepalmed hard enough the smack was probably heard around the trading post, “I would really appreciate it if you would just use Rainbow or RD, whichever you like. I need a gun and training, can you teach me?”

She looked at me with a cocked eyebrow, tapping her chin with a thumb for a few seconds before she gave me a reply, “Guess I can,” she cracked a near manic smile, “Now let’s go do my kind of shopping.”

A few minutes later, I was browsing the various guns sold from the back of an olive green truck, a machine that worked like the parade floats back home, but instead of using magic to run, it used something that was far too eggheadish to wrap my head around.

Also, it seemed the bits used in this world were old bottle caps, paper NCR money, and… Legion coins. I shivered at the thought of them. Veronica gave me the crash course on the currency and fair exchange rates so I wouldn’t get swindled.

The woman I was talking to was an ex-NCR soldier, I asked if she was in the NCR after I noticed the manner in which she spoke, nearly shouting ‘yes ma'am’ and ‘no ma’am,’ the only way getting chewed out during physical training by a drill instructor multiple times could give you.

The bag that Sue gave me contained a whopping seventy five caps, enough to buy me a ‘9mm pistol’, as Veronica called it, and enough ‘magazines’ of ammunition to fight any pesky giant ants I could possibly encounter.

To me, guns seemed nothing more than small versions of cannons, the kind of cannons that don't shoot party supplies and confetti.

With that notion in mind, I felt a slight unease in my stomach. I knew for a fact Veronica was going to teach me how to seriously hurt, maybe even outright kill things. But in the end, I would do anything short of murder to save my friends.

Chapter 2: Training [Revised]

Chapter 2: Training

With my gun in hand, Veronica pointed out that I was missing something, yet she wanted me to guess what it was for the sole enjoyment of my inexperienced confusion. I knew that because she flat out admitted the fact, all the while laughing.

Grinding my teeth at the laughs, I tried and failed to guess. No amount of bribing with caps, coercion, or diplomacy could sway her into revealing the mysterious thing I was missing. It was only when I tried to place the gun somewhere on myself, that I realized I was lacking the sheath to go along with it. Like a sword without the scabbard.

Quickly going back to the vendor, I asked her about buying one for my size of weapon. Lucky for me, she gave me a basic leather holster and belt for a measly five caps. While looking down when I was putting it on, I noticed the covering on my feet was still nothing more than tattered rags, so with Veronica’s help, we stopped a caravaneer passing through the 188 with another two-headed cow to see if they had any boots and socks my size.

While Veronica was searching through the various wares the traveling salespony - well salesman - had, I was having a staring contest with the two-headed cow.

The cow bore a blank expression, almost no intelligence shining out from the large black eyes on each head. “Hey,” I said in my most friendly manner to the cow, which blankly stared at me before mooing. No speech, just a moo.

With a heavy heart, I realized that cows here were just like animals back in Equestria. Simpleminded and instinctual.

“What?” Veronica asked, noticing the look I was giving the cow, “What, are you some kind of brahmin whisperer? Those things barely have half a brain between both of their heads. Dumb as rocks.”

“I guessed that,” I said mostly to myself, letting out a heavy disappointed sigh. They’re just average animals on this planet. I wondered if Fluttershy would still be able to talk with them, though.

“Now, come over here so you can try a few of these boots on,” Veronica said, waving me over with her large metallic fist.

Moving to the side of the large pack animal, I noticed that the female caravaneer had a selection of various sized boots to choose from. Most were clearly in bad shape or just homemade things made from pieces of melted together rubber tire and sackcloth. Browsing over the selection of about ten pairs of boots, I saw a pair of near flawless, jet black boots that seemed to scream ‘awesome’ to me. Inspecting it further, I set my foot beside one of the boots that was laying on the ground. It seemed to be a perfect fit.

“How much?” I asked as my grin grew at the leather clad caravaneer, who was wearing a white hat atop her head for shade.

“Thirty caps for the best pair of boots you ever had.”

My enthusiasm deflated like Pinkie’s hair. Crap, I had spent sixty eight on my 9mm pistol and ammo. As I searched for a cheaper pair, I almost didn’t notice Veronica buy the shoes, right before handing them off to me.

“Tha-Thanks,” I said, taking the pair of black beauties. I wasn’t expecting a near total stranger to buy me something that seemed so extravagant. That calendar has me using egghead words again, or it could just be Rarity.

“Think nothing of it,” Veronica replied with a smile, “You can't live your whole life being a selfish ass all the time.”

Okay, it seemed humans didn’t care that language like that could have been overheard by some foal, well kid. If anyone said that in Ponyville, they would get a mouthful of soap from an angry parent.

Throwing the thought of a mouthful of soap away in my mind’s imaginary garbage bin, I sat on the ground, struggling to slide my newfound feet into the boots. Thankfully, they fit with a little effort and felt like I still had room to grow. Even the wrappings on my feet acted as temporary socks - an item Rarity had the whole town wearing at one point.

I pulled the laces of the boot tight, tying a nice little bow with the strings. As I did this, I said to myself, “The rabbit goes around the tree, and into the hole.” It was a silly little foalhood chant to remember how to tie a bow, but it got the job done.

With my new pair of ‘dungarees’, as Applejack would put it, firmly secured, I turned to Veronica, “So, how about some lessons now?” I was still uneasy to train myself how to use something clearly designed to kill.

She nodded, pulling her brown robe’s hood over her head, “Let’s do this. I have a place all worked out and everything.”

<>~<>~<>

Okay, I honestly didn’t expect her to take me back to the dry lake bed. It was the same lake bed where Sue stopped the ant from slicing me in two. Saying I wasn’t worried about training was a straight-up bold-faced lie.

Looking around, all I saw was the tan-gold color of sand, leading up to brown rocky mountains, and off in the distance, there was a tall rectangular spire made from metal. The top of the tower, however, was in the shape of a disk, and there was a large, grey, concrete factory-looking building beside it.

Peeling my eyes away, I scanned even more of the lakebed, only seeing the tannish-red shells of giant ants too far off to have to worry about.

“So,” Veronica started, taking off her metal fist and procuring a boxy-shaped gun from seemingly nowhere, probably just tucked under her robe - I wasn’t dealing with Pinkie-level random powers again. “Do you know the basics?” She asked, sliding out the magazine of bullets and pulling a slide of the gun back.

“No, I don’t,” I answered honestly, “Never even heard of guns until yesterday. As I said, not from Earth.”

“Nothing like a gun at all? What world did you live in?” She questioned, raising an eyebrow as she replaced the magazine, letting the slide, slide forward with a metal crunch. She had performed the action without even a single glance at the gun, and while speaking.

“Actually,” I said with a wave of my hand, “we do have bows and cannons, but my training in the Wonderbolts didn’t cover archery or artillery. Those are separate branches of Equestrian military. I wonder how Pinkie even got ahold of her cannon? It’s still a mystery to, well... everyone.”

“Figures,” Veronica said chuckling, “guess I have to play teacher and cover the basics so Miss Alien Girl doesn't get her ass whipped in a fight.”

I crossed my arms and groaned in annoyance. Even with her chuckling at me, I was glad she didn’t seem to care about Pinkie. That avenue would be quite detrimental to my head.

<>~<>~<>

The lesson consisted of teaching me how to properly handle the ‘firearm’ as Veronica kept calling it. How to put on the safety switch, treat it like it’s always loaded, never point it at something you don't intend to shoot, the names of most of the parts, types of weapons like rifles along with ammo, and to not look down the barrel of anything.

That lead to a story of how one of her friends lost an eye to a laser pistol. That led us off track to a discussion on energy weapons - something I thought only aliens in my comic books were capable of through their eyes.

Finally, when we were back on track, she told me something I was expecting to hear.

“Now that you know a most of the basics, time for some live target practice. Don't worry, the ants here are harmless since we have range and they don't. Plus if any of the big ones come scurrying their butts our way, I can always use my pneumatic gauntlet to rip them a new one,” She said as she put her pistol away, only to re-armed herself with the gauntlet.

“Hey, Veronica?” I said slowly, trying to be nonchalant with handling the predicament I found myself in. I was learning how to kill things in case I needed it, not seeking out to kill something.

“What RD?” She replied quickly, once again removing her gauntlet and pulling her ‘10mm’ pistol from a hidden slit I finally spotted in her robe.

“It’s about target practice,” I began explaining in a way she would understand my point of view, “You see, My friends and I were no strangers to violence. Hell, we even fought an army of bug-like creatures called Changelings before. But killing is something we don't accept from the society were from, meaning…”

“You dont want to kill the ant’s,” She said cutting me off, “Sorry, but I have no idea how peaceful your world is, which we really need to talk about later, but in this world, it’s kill or be killed. These ants aren't the worst thing out there, you have Raiders, Ca…”

“Caesar’s Legion,” I cut her off, saying the words with enough venom to make a cocatrice lay an egg.

“Yeah, a group of slave-driving, dress-wearing men, who obviously ride each other as much as their women.” she said in a way that sounded like an attempt at a sarcastic joke.

My scowl shown I obviously didn't approve, and that I didn’t want to hear a  word about the evil villains.

“Sorry about that,” Veronica apologized with a sincere voice, her fave a small frown, “Grim humor is about the only thing not in short supply here,” She stated matter-of-factly, then adding sarcastically as her smile returned, “Well, that and junkies.”

Great, just great... drugs, murdering bands of rapists, things trying to kill me, a large ant coming our way.

Wait… what?

Spinning on the heel of my foot, I saw the large soldier ant that was in the corner of my vision, and it was getting closer. It’s red-tan shell shuffling towards us at an alarming pace as it’s soulless eyes were locked onto me. It was around eight meters out when I noticed it, but now it was more along the lines of six.

What happened next was odd to say the least, and was nearly a blur. Suddenly I was in fear for my life as I remembered the one that snuck up behind me, nearly killing me just yesterday.

On impulse, I used the only weapon I had, the gun. In a second, I was shooting at the large bug, and from the clogs of sand and clay bouncing around it, I was missing badly. Even though, I kept firing until the slide locked back, showing I was out of ammo.

Thats when, Veronica did something I had done in the past with a dragon. Meaning she ran right up and smashed its face with her gauntlet. The metal machine making a loud hydraulic hiss and pop, right before the ant crumpled to the ground dead with it’s head shattered. Okay, maybe not exactly what happened with the dragon.

All of it was over in the short span of a few seconds, the gun still held in my grasp. I hadn’t realized I started shaking, the rush from firing the gun for the first time, coupled with the fear of seeing something coming towards me with the intent to kill. It honestly left me breathless. It was dead, I was alive.

How this world works.

“You okay, Dasher?” Veronica asked me concerningly, “You look a little shaken.”

I would have facepalmed so hard if I wasn't keeping a shaky, yet tight grip on the brown faux wood handle. “That’s an understatement,” I muttered, trying to distract myself with comedy. It was so much more different when Sue was doing the shooting.

After I calmed down, I retrieved a full magazine from my satchel and reloaded, the empty one taking its place in my bag. The metal magazines were expensive, and Veronica told me to keep any empty magazines I find.

With a shaky voice, my whole body tingling with the aftershock of wearing off adrenalin, I asked “So... how did I do?”

“Not bad for a first-time shooter,” she told me, snickering a few times, obviously trying to keep a straight face, but already failing to hide her amusement, “But your accuracy could use some work.”

“Can you help me aim this the right way?” I asked, feeling embarrassed at needing assistance like a foal.

She took on her thinking face again, tapping her chin with the thumb on her left hand, “Maybe, maybe not,” she then waved the same hand, “Oh, why the hell not?”

Veronica set her gauntlet down, pulling her pistol out yet again. “Now, stand beside me and do what I do, and make sure not to get frustrated,” She instructed as she backed a few meters away from the ant.

Doing as she said, I realized what we were going to do, and it made me question her; we were going to use the dead ant for target practice. “Umm, Veronica, are you sure we couldn't use something else for practice, like a tin can or something?” I asked, trying to hint to her that I thought it was wrong.

“The thing’s dead, Rainbow,” she reminded, “You were trying to shoot it while it was still alive, now it doesn’t care.”

“I know that,” I replied, raising my voice in protest, “But I was defending myself. That’s different. Where I’m from, you just don't destroy a dead body, no matter what it is.”

“You say you want target practice, but you refuse to shoot because you’re afraid, aren't you?” she snapped back, pointing a finger at me, “Afraid that shooting some dead ant is going to turn you into some sort of monster. Well, listen here, this is the way of the wasteland, not where you're from.”

My mind was conflicted. Of course it was, this was going against all the morals in Equestria, things like murder and desecration are just wrong, but here, it’s a way of life. To survive, I would have to adapt to the ways of the Wasteland. Back in basic training for the Wonderbolts they taught us… to adapt... when faced with a challenge.

Sighing heavily, looking down in a bit of shame, I sent up a prayer for forgiveness from Fluttershy. Looking back up, I saw Veronica smiling. It wasn’t a smug smile at having won, but the kind a true friend would give another friend to cheer up from any type of funk.

“I guess it’s the only way,” I admitted, taking consolation in her reassuring smile as I drew my pistol from it’s holster. Taking a spot beside Veronica, I copied her stance as best I could from visual alone.

“No, no, not like that,” Veronica said, putting her pistol back in it’s hidden holster, “Keep aiming.” She then began to adjust my legs slightly into a more comfortable position, moving my arms a little lower, then getting right behind me, rubbing a little too close for comfort as she helped me aim down the weapons sight.

I was ready to fire right before she giggled, “You know, you look really good from this angle.”

Hearing those words made me yelp in surprise, dropping the gun. I turned to face her, eyes wide as Ghastly Gorge, “Wha-?” I stammered out.

“What? You look really good,” she repeated innocently, “Just thought I would mention that at the most inopportune time. You can't afford to be distracted in a fight.”

“But, but… you, female… me…” I continued stammering before I realized just what happened, “I’M NOT INTO MARES OR WOMEN OR WHATEVER!” I yelled at the top of my lungs, face burning redder than an Apple family apple.

“Darn it, and just when I thought I found me a hottie too,” she said, putting her hands on her hips, “You know, either your hair is very misleading, or that old pre-war book was lying when it said rainbows were a sign of homosexuality.”

“Completely natural hair color,” I said waving my hands and shaking my head, face still burning from knowing she was checking me out, “I’m one hundred and twenty percent straight.”

“What? No girlfriends at all in the past?” She egged on, “Not even a little kiss?”

Currently, my day was going quite well, buy a weapon for the intent of using it, nearly get killed by a giant ant - again - bring what's morally acceptable into question, then get hit on by another girl.

Time to get this total melarkey over with. “Nope,” I said definitely, “Never kissed another girl, never had any thought on it. But yeah, same sex couples are a common sight back in Equestria, the place I’m from, but as I said, I’m straight.”

“Well then,” Veronica said with a hint of disappointment, “Let’s just put this little incident behind us and see if you learned anything.”

I turned away and rolled my eyes. “Definitely learned you’re gay,” I muttered under my breath as I picked up the gun, surprisingly not feeling like Veronica’s eyes were locked onto my flank. Hopefully, she’s the type that can accept someone saying ‘no’, unlike some mares.

Being a Wonderbolt, plus an Element of Harmony, tends to attract some unwanted affection.

Dropping that line of thought, I retook the stance Veronica had shown me, aiming down the sight. With a quick inhale of breath, I held it in and fired. To my shock the bullet hit right between the ant’s eyes, reducing the already pulpy skull into even more mush. I felt my stomach roll at the wet sound the bullet impacting meat.

“Nice shot, hot-stuff,” Veronica teased, unknowing of my internal struggle to hold in whatever was left in my stomach. Still, despite the unease in my stomach, I went red from embarrassment.

 “But seriously,” Veronica continued, “you’re doing great!” She complimented with enthusiasm, sending a fist into the air.

I looked at the dead ant again, then beyond it. Two of the smaller ants were now scuttling our way, “Well… shit,” I cursed. I would have to defend myself again, and I knew Veronica was going to let me have the honors.

Letting out another cure, I knew I was in for so much soap if Applejack cought me. I had learned the hard way that she nor Granny Smith take too kindly to cursing in non-foalsafe language.

With my stupid sidetracked thoughts, I allowed the ants to get even closer. Their size was a joke compared to the one Veronica killed, and I held no fear. I knew Veronica was well aware of them, but waiting.

Quickly aiming down the sight, I regretfully added two kills to a list that would undoubtedly grow in this kill or be killed type of world.

Then it struck me, I took life away from something, I looked at the gun in my hand, a newfound respect for the weapon. “I… I killed them,” I said shakily, eyes not moving away from the device of death I controlled.

“Yes you did, RD, and they were going to kill you,” She said in the emotionless way of a teacher, “Now that training’s over, wanna grab some grub?” she asked, her voice taking on a cheery tone.

My stomach growled, telling me I hadn’t had a bite to eat in a while, which made me question something. “What do humans eat?” I asked, feeling the fang like teeth at the front of my mouth, knowing that the answer was…

“Meat, fruits, and two hundred year old preservatives in a box, a.k.a., Fancy Lads.”

Okay, the last one was a surprise, but since the whole ‘world killed itself’, I figured it was bound to happen.

 “Yeah... what kind of meat?” I asked curiously, “The only meat I had before was trout. Gilda had beaten me in a drinking game around oh, I believe it was my twentieth birthday, and I somehow convinced my mom and dad to leave the house. But anyway, I was smashed before the game started, and I made a bet that I would try fish if I lost, and I swear to this day, that I never had puked as much in my life as I did that night.” I began chuckling remembering the good times I once had with Gilda, the times before she became a total bitch and was actually awesome to hang with.

“Oh, so you're a vegetarian?” she laughed, “Figures you would end up in the middle of a desert where greens and fruit hate to grow.”

I groaned in frustration, then deadpanned when I realized what she said. Sooner or later, I realized with horror, I would have to eat meat or die of starvation.

“Dont worry,” She reassured me, “I’m just messing with you. We have corn farming all over, as well as many natural growing edible plants. If you have the caps, you can also buy almost any food from vendors. They make sure to keep well stocked in everything from meat to junk food,” she licked her lips and let out an ‘mmm’ sound.

“So, are we heading back to the 188?” I asked Veronica.

“Yes, but first,” She said, walking over to the soldier ant she killed, “Observe.” She procured a knife from the hidden pocket opposite of her holster, and sliced into the ant with a sickening squish, making an incision on the giant bug’s rear end. She then reached a hand in, ripping out a piece of organ with a violent pull.

“Ant meat along with some of it’s glands,” she explained, showing me the slimy pieces of organ that covered her hand in green blood, “Easy money if you decide to hunt the smaller ones with a baseball bat or any other inexpensive weapon that doesn't use ammo.” Reaching into her knife pocket, she replaced the still messy knife, then pulled out a sack to place the meat and organs into.

How did I manage to befriend a lesbian psychopath?

<>~<>~<>

The walk back was done in silence, I for once was observing the beauti- I mean, awesome sand dune’s and other things. Like the sky and rocks.

It also became apparent that humans don't control their weather like in Equestria, clouds moved on their own from wind like in the Everfree Forest and lands outside Equestria, and seemed miles up.

When we made it back to the 188, it was getting close to dark. At the same bar I sat at before, which was dimly lit by a single lightbulb, I took a seat while Veronica sold the bag of ant for thirty bottlecaps, ten for the meat, twenty for the glands.

After selling off the pieces she ordered a large plate of something called ‘broc flowers’ and ‘pinto beans’. They were pretty tasty too, and the water she bought was refreshing.

“So,” Veronica said, sitting beside me on a near identical stool, “You don't mind if I order meat do you?”

“Go ahead, it’s normal for humans,” Due to the sentences wording hinting I wasn’t human, the bartender, some guy in a baseball cap, started looking at me like I was going to sprout horns and burst into flames.

She looked at the bartender, giving him a goofy smile, “I’ll take a gecko steak, and a Nuka~Cola.” That quickly stopped him from staring at me.

The fried up cut of meat she received certainly wasn’t from any type of gecko I had seen before. It was easily the size of my new hand, and then some. She seemed to notice how I was eyeing it, and said caually, “I forgot to mention most animals here are bigger than they were two hundred years ago.” She then laughed darkly, “Just wait until we have the misfortune to come across what once was the Jackson’s Chameleon. Here’s a little note, there called Deathclaws now.”

Great… well, it seemed the right time to ask her where could I sleep.

I asked Veronica my question, and she quickly directed me to an old gray mobile home with bare mattresses inside. Sighing at not being able to sleep on something comfortable, I tried to see the bright-side that it wasn't the freezing desert ground.

<>~Somewhere around the same time~<>

A human female was waking up on a warm bed with red sheets and actual pillows. She gasped and sat straight up, not knowing how she got there.

She looked around in confusion, a splitting headache overtaking her.

When it passed, she studied the unfamiliar gray metal walls and lockers. Her eyes then fell upon a metal safe set into the wall near the bed. Drifting her gaze from the safe, she began to look at the shelves lined with batteries and other odds and ends on the wall.

Getting out of the bed, she began to stumble, her walk awkward and uneasy.

The woman couldn’t recall how she managed to get there, all she could remember was darkness and pain… so much… pain.

Another wave of headaches hit her as she clutched her head. The room suddenly spinning in her vision as she let out an agonized scream.

She collapsed with a heavy, solid thud against the cold, hard floor. Wincing from pain, she closed her eyes tight to keep from puking at the spinning world.

“Hel-help me…” the woman pleaded in a weak voice before accepting the blissful, painless rest of unconsciousness.

Chapter 3: Midnight [Revised]

Chapter 3: Midnight

Sitting in a chair beside a bed, Courier 6, a man whose real name was Jamie Brogden, turned his head to look at his new guest.

Giving the woman sleeping on his bed a glance, he guessed that she was in her early twenties. Her head had been shaven clean, and she wasn’t wearing any clothing when he found her.

Dressed in desert tan combat armor, he had saved her life and brought her here to this room. Now he was just waiting for her to wake up again. It appeared she awoke when he was hunting for medical supplies to treat her wounds, but passed out shortly after and fell on the floor. The new gash on the side of her head was evidence of that.

Getting up from the blue chair he was sitting on, Jamie checked the clock on his Pip-Boy. 8:37 a.m. it read, quite a few hours since she had last woken up.

With an impatient groan, he ran his gloved fingers from the top of his chocolate brown hair, down his face, eyelids covering dark brown eyes, and ended with a stroke of his well-trimmed goatee. He looked back to the woman, the blue, wire-like valence accelerator halo he recovered was over her head, slowly repairing the girls wound’s, and in the process made her look like an angel. To complete the angelic appearance was that her skin was flawless, barring the two gashes on her shaved head, but they would hopefully heal to discrete scars given time.

Sitting back down on his chair by her bedside, he waited as a miniature copy of a Robco securitron rolled in on a single wheel. ‘Oh no’, Jamie thought, regretting ever giving it back his AI chip.

“Hey, got any mugs?” The mug-crazy robot, who was appropriately named Muggy, asked in an obnoxious voice only his inventor could love.

“No, for the seventy fifth time, no,” Jamie replied, annoyed at the robot constantly pestering him over mugs since he activated him the day before, right before he found the girl, “You ask me again, I give the Toaster a fission battery.”

The robot let out a gasp, “You wouldn’t!” Fear lacing his artificial voice over the outcome of such an event.

“Yes, I would,” he lied, fearing what would happen if he gave the evil sentient appliance a proper power source. “Now. could you go play with one of Mobius’ robo-scorpions?”

“I’m not the one the brain jars asked to get their stuff,” The robot replied, placing his tubular arms over his single wheel like the tire’s sides were hips. “Now go out there and get some mugs!”

Jamie struck his face with his palm, growling in immense anger. Looking Muggy dead in the monitor that served as his tiny face, the tiny robot rolled backwards, “Ah-he, just kidding…” Muggy said nervously before burning rubber, “PLEASE DON’T STEP ON ME!” He yelled out, crying like a scared baby as he flailed his arms in a petty getaway.

“Uhh…” the girl in the sea-foam green medical dress groaned, rolling from her back to her sides. For a second, Jamie thought she was waking up, but no, she quieted down and drooled from the corner of her mouth like a young child.

He left her bedside for the main central room. The black circular shaped Central Intelligence Unit displayed a holo-map of the area he was at, a science facility called Big Mountain, but now known as the Big Empty. Jamie had been here for a few weeks, exploring and plundering the scientific curiosities and abominations of the Empty. He felt calm and relaxed surrounded by the artificial machines, slowly taking in the electronic wires and beeps each machine elicited around him.

 Looking over the CIU’s map, Jamie was trying to decide which object to go for next, the X-2 antenna array, or fully upgrading the sneaky stealth suit he had in one of the lockers back in the bedroom. But in reality, he was putting off getting the items for The Think Tank due to them obviously double crossing him, thinking him just a simple mindless lobotomite. Plus, he liked the thrill of adventuring the strange and dangerous lab complexes.

As he stood there thinking, the CIU took control of a security camera in the corner of the room. Seeing that his caretaker had returned the machine asked, “Would sir, like a glass of finely aged scotch?” The CIU’s accent was modeled after the stereotypical butler, heavy on the English accent.

“Not today. I was wondering if you could deactivate Muggy and display this location,” He said as he wirelessly synced his Pip-Boy, to show the Y-17 medical facility. Somewhere else in the room there was a loud metallic clatter as Muggy fell silent… finally.

Not soon after Muggy collapsed, there was a surprised yelp and a weak sounding, “H-Hello?” The voice was feminine, youthful, and holding much fear. It was coming from his bedroom.

“Yes, I’m coming,” Jason responded, not raising his normal speaking voice by much so he wouldn’t startle the woman.

Moving away from the CIU, Jamie went straight for the room. When he entered, the girl was sitting up, the valence-accelerator still on her wounded head.

She looked at him, fear and confusion in her eyes. “Where am I?” she asked him quietly, but before he could answer she asked, “Who are you?” Before he could even answer the question just asked, her face twisted in a confused and pained grimace, clutching her head she asked nearly under her breath, “Better yet… who am I?”

<>~Mojave Wasteland, 188~<>

My eyes opened and closed slowly, the musty smelling mattress filling my nose with its foul stench. Coughing and gagging from the unexpected assault of foul smells, I jumped up pinching my nose. Making sure to keep my nose held, I ran out the roughly oval shape of the metal trailer’s door frame, smacking right dead into the tan armor of a NCR trooper. The two of us then took a tumble down the slope of earth leading up to the bridge.

Both of landed a few hooves distance away from each other.

“Watch it!” He yelled as I quickly sprung to my feet, extending a hand out to him.

“I’m so very sorry for that,” I apologized sincerely, “I didn’t mean to cause us both to take a tumble, or even one of us.”

“It’s quite alright,” He responded in an accent close to that Doctor Whooves fellow, “I’ve seriously had worse injuries from a bloatfly. Bloody damn thing wouldn’t sit still for me to shoot it.”

I was about to ask how a bloatfly could hurt him, but I then realized as Veronica told me before: two hundred years of mutating left them bigger than I realized.

I looked into his brown eyes, him blinking a few times as he stared into my maroon eyes,

“Um… eyes…” He said slowly.

“Natural, not mutated, long story,” I bluntly explained with a roll of my eyes, “I’m Rainbow Dash.” I extended my hand for a shake.

“The name’s Nolan. Nolan Triplett, Private First Class, 188 guard duty,” He said in his thick strange accent as he shook my hand.

“So,” I began, both of us realizing we hadn’t broken eye contact, which we quickly did, no doubt both of us finding distant rocks a bit more interesting. “Later!” I said, barreling up the hill full speed.

Searching, I looked for Veronica’s familiar brown robe, hopeing she hadn’t bailed on me like Sue. I finally spotted her leaning against the bar’s counter with one elbow, chatting away with the bartender without even looking at him.

I walked closer until she noticed me. She cut her sentence off short and ran up to me with a smile as wide as Pinkie’s. “Hey, guess where we’re going, girlfriend?” She asked sarcastically, teasing me once again.

“Straight,” I said annoyed, reminding her how my barn door swung. If her little pestering kept up we were going to have issues.

“Actually, we're going to Freeside, in that direction” She explained with a point of her finger, giggling like crazy while nearly losing it at some points.

I knew I’d been had, and couldn’t help but chuckle, walked straight into that one. “Awesome,” I said, calming down her giggling fit, “Sue said something about me heading there to look for my friends.”

“Yeah, It’s relatively safe. Heading there seems like the most logical choice for people who aren’t from the wasteland, since it is the most populated area for miles around.”

So that means more walking… how can humans live without hooves? The boots were a big help, but walking was a drag. Why couldn’t I be a pony, or at least some wickedly awesome pony/human hybrid, with my old blue coat, hooves, and good ‘ol wings?

<>~Big Empty, The Sink~<>

Jamie looked blankly at the girl, “What do you mean ‘who am I’? You're whoever you are.”

She looked back before grabbing her head in a wince, “Ow… I’m trying to remember,” she said in pain, “But I can’t even remember my own name… or how I got here, only… only the pain… and the darkness swallowing me.”

The girl cast the red covers aside, trying to get up before Jamie placed a hand on her chest, forcing her to stay on the bed.

“Stay still,” He demanded curtly, “Those Y-17 trauma harnesses found you before I did. They hauled you to the medical facility, right before they attempted to lobotomize you.”

“Wait!” The girl yelled in panic, “They tried to remove my brain while I was still living!?” She asked in a panicked yell, before shaking her head, clutching it again. Memories of walking skeletons forcing her into a pod as four metal arms restrained her in an ‘X’ shape swam painfully to the forefront of her mind, making her yell in a mix of fear and pain.

Not only were they attempting it while she was alive, they had tried to do it while she was conscious and without sedatives… she could feel the razors burn where it shaved her head, the high pitched whine of the medical saw as it dug painfully into her cranium above her left eye, trying to move towards the right. There were muffled bags, hissing of steam and the machine breaking as it suddenly stopped it’s inhumane operation, leaving her suspended in the dark, wounded and bleeding.

She remembered the door being torn from its hinges as a human opened it, filling the cramped space with painfully bright white light. Her left eye’s vision had been tinted red from her own blood. It stung like mad from the salt, but nothing compared to the open wound dripping the crimson liquid down her face. The medical implements used to wound her were above her head, limp without power as the medical saw was firmly dug into her shredded flesh.

The girl couldn’t remember ever getting free of the metal arms. Shaking in fear, she guessed she passed out from pain, or the overwhelming blood loss.

Even with her fear stricken mind, she also knew she had a vast amount of knowledge, but she couldn’t even remember her own name.

“S-so, d-do you have any idea who I am?” The woman asked kindly, even as her voice trembled with fear. She took solace in the tan armor of the soldier, and hoped that somehow, he would know her.

“When I found you, you had nothing on you. I pulled logs from the Dr. Handy that was trying to torch me, but, he had no record of any items on your person. It just said you had purple hair, eyes, and the tattoo on your rear,” Jamie said.

With the new news, the girl turned over, raising the medical gown and pulling down her pink panties a bit to reveal a tattoo of five stars around a larger sixth.

Jamie tried to be modest and averted his gaze, but she was pulling her panties down right there on the bed, he couldn’t help but look. The image seemed off somehow.

Looking closer, he realized the artistic perfectness of the pattern of stars. No tribals or wastelanders that Jamie knew of could pull a tattoo like that off.

“Reminds me of Zion at midnight,” Jamie commented, scratching his goatee as he thought of people who could do tattoo work like that. “I would look up at the sky as the little lights would dance and twinkle like that.”

Jamie knew she was far too young to be Enclave, not a ghoul, her strange eye color pointed to mutations, but she was far too healthy. So she was either some sort of an alien, or most likely an experiment dating from before the war; he was, after all, in the government's war R&D projects proving ground. Maybe a vault filled with cryogenic freezers was being tested in a facility and she somehow escaped, and the eye coloration was another inhumane experiment on her.

The girl didn't seem to realize he was lost in thought, or was lost in her own as she tapped on  her chin with a finger. “Midnight,” she said slowly, “I like it. Can you call me Midnight until we find out my name… and where I live?”

“Sure, Midnight,” Jamie said in his most convincing tone, but his face fell, “Do you know what year it is?”

Midnight thought hard, her head wound making her strained thoughts a jumbled mess, “Ouch…” She clutched her head, praying to anything to make the migraine stop. It felt as if a railroad spike was being driven through her head by a sledge hammer.

When the painful migraine subsided, Midnight looked to Jamie and calmly replied after a few pants to catch her breath, “N-no, I can’t say if I can remember that either…” After she finished though, the gravity of her situation set in, she looked down, morose and beaten.

“You’re in the Big Mountain research facility, in the year of 2281,” He looked down with sorrow, preparing to give her the bad news, “The world as you once knew… I’m sorry Midnight… but the bombs fell. Everything was nearly wiped out over two hundred years ago.”

Midnight looked down at the covers, her expression a mask of sadness. “I… I wish I could remember.” She muttered, “My home, any of my friends, my family. All of them gone, and I can’t even remember them…”

Tears began to force their way up, her head splitting with a new migraine causing even more tears of pain and sorrow.

Jamie sat on the bed next to her, pulling Midnight into a tight hug as she wept for her lost past.

<>~Mojave Wasteland, Freeside Gate~<>

The journey to Freeside went off without a hitch, only having one Fiend get chased down by some NCR troopers as we neared the city. When we finally made it to the tall chain link fence that served as a gate, Veronica and I waited patiently as people in leather jackets marked ‘The Kings’ let us through, sliding the gate open with a very audible rattle.

“Hey babes,” one of The Kings said, “How bout we have a fun time at my place,” he offered while wiggling his eyebrows. The other two let out a loud pair of whistles and chuckling with laughter.

“How about I slam my powerfist against your head until you stop twitching,” Veronica threatened with an ice-cold scowl.

The one that offered ‘a fun time’ jumped back in surprise, bowing and motioning for us to enter, “Have a lovely stay in Freeside ladies.”

Once Veronica and I were through the gate, I noticed right away that this place was impoverished. A city encircling a city. The poor living in the shadows of the rich and powerful. That was how Veronica described it on the way here, and she was spot on.

Rubble lined the street along with thugs calling themselves guards. Barrels of burning trash sent smoke to the sky as they were used as heaters for the homeless.

My heart wanted to break at the sight of two small children running around, playing tag.

Passing by the crumbling homes of the Wasteland, there sitting like the one back home, was the ivory-pillar-like casino in the shape of a roulette spinner, mocking all with its luxurious beauty amongst the oppressing watercolor grey backdrop - Rarity… I’m going to tell myself this now, get out of my head.

Veronica led me deeper into the city with a wave of her hand, past rotting and crumbling husks that once resembled buildings, leading me to a place a sign outside its walls called The Old Mormon Fort. Veronica said this was the base of the Followers of the Apocalypse, healers who want nothing more than to help.

The fort itself was made of tan colored masonry with a large wooden gate, and a single rectangular guard tower topped with a brown wood roof.

“Veronica?” I asked in a whisper as we neared the tall wooden gates of the impressive structure.

“Yeah, RD,” She said, picking up on the worried tone of my voice, “What is it?”

“The Followers, they’re tied to The Legion, you know that, right?” I asked, a slight glimpse of fear wavering it’s way into my voice. I’m Rainbow Dash, master of awesome, yet there are still a few things that can scare me. The Legion was one of those things.

She chuckled, “Well duh, it’s their worst kept secret and unhidden shame, but as the old world saying goes, one bad apple-”

“Spoils the bunch, I know.” I finished, hearing the expression back in Equestria often form Applejack, who I would have really loved to argue with for some reason… just seeing one of my friends again would be enough to make me squeal with joy.

Sliding the gates to the side, we slipped inside the fort, quickly closing the gate behind us. In a rather militaristic form, tents were evenly set up, two to the left, two to the right, and a single large tent straight past a sandbag wall. There, a blond doctor, wearing black-framed, egghead glasses sat, sipping on what appeared to be a sarsaparilla bottle.

“Hello,” He said kindly to us as we walked up, “How’s it going, Veronica?”

“Pretty good, Arcade,” Veronica said back, stepping towards him, “Are you going to tell my new GF here if you've seen any of her friends?”

“Okay, first off Veronica, can you get it through your head that I’m fucking straight,” I said, feeling smug about telling her off using such vulgar language. “Second, even if I was gay, which I’m not,” I emphasised, shaking my head, “you are so not my type.”

“RD, lay off,” She said sourly, “I’m just teasing. Learn to chill a little.”

“Chill a little!?” I growled, “I’ve lost my friends. All I’m focused on right now is getting back to them, and you tell me to chill!?”

“Calm down, I was just trying to lighten your mood. We’ll find them,” Veronica said calmly, reassuring me with a friendly smile and patting my shoulder.

“Yeah,” I sighed, my anger failing to stay with me for long, “We’ll find them. Sorry for snapping at you like that.”

Veronica nodded, “Apology accepted. Now let see if the Blond Genius knows a thing or two about any of your friends.”

“Veronica, you flatter me,” Arcade said from his seat behind the sandbag wall, smiling and chuckling sarcastically.

“I know what the ladies like,” Veronica said through a barely contained snort.

Arcade’s smile faded, “And there was the insult I was waiting for," Arcade turned his head towards me "Judging from your hair, you’re here for Mrs. Pie.”

“What!” I exclaimed, smiling as I brought my face close to his from excitement, “Pinkie’s here, where?”

Arcade poked my chest with a finger and gently pushed me back before taking off his glasses. Wiping them on his white labcoat he put the glasses back on and let out a sigh, “She’s going through a recovery period right now. She nearly died yesterday before she somehow managed to stumble in here.”

A bitter wave of cold unrelenting horror washed over me, making me gasp in shock.

“Please, you have to let me see her!” I pleaded through a shout, getting close to his face with mine again by accident.

Another gentle push and I was back at a comfortable distance. Letting out a small groan, the doctor nodded, “Okay, but she might not want any company.”

<>~Big Empty, The Sink~<>

Midnight continued to weep for minutes as Jamie held her. Finally sapped of her strength, she lie back down, pulling the covers over her and returned to sleeping. The healing accelerator had properly closed the two wounds on her head, leaving noticeable scar tissue. Sadly, her memory was something the little halo couldn’t repair.

As Midnight slept, Staying in the Sink portion of The Dome was getting old, but Jamie wanted to stay with Midnight, keeping her safe like a protective father. She seemed so lost and confused as sadness tore at her silently in her sleep, but he could still see and hear the twitches and whimpers.

After a while of staying by her side, he noticed her leg twitching, eyes darting behind closed lids… she was dreaming.

Suddenly a thought with the force of a thrown brick hit him. Think Tank would have probably detected her walking around. ‘Well, time to convince the crazy brain jars they don’t have another human in here.’

Shortly after the warmth of Jamie’s presence left, Midnight’s warm and peaceful dream about a magical land turned into a dark, cold nightmare.

<>~<>~<>

Midnight walked alone in the dark, no light reaching her eyes, not a single peep of sound.

Somewhere out in the endless darkness, there was a lone tap which caused Midnight jerked with a yelp as she turned towards the source of the sound.

Tap, tap, it went again, adding another beat to itself like a drumming heart. Midnight attempted to look around in the inky darkness, but saw nothing. She couldn’t even see herself mere inches away from her face.

Tap, tap, tap, it went again, her panic rising as the taps grew louder seemingly echoing from everywhere around her.

Growing in intensity and frequency, the taping continued, tap-tap, tap-tap, now it was right directly behind her, she could faint whispers.

Tap-tap, tap-tap, tap the heartbeat like rhythm continued.

A shuffling sound in front of her caused Midnight to gulp in fear, her mind trying to guess at what was out there. The rattle of bones reached her ears, no no more than a few feet in front of her.

The high pitch whine of a surgical saw filled her ears as light flooded the room.

A single, cracked dress-room mirror stood in front of Midnight, revealing a naked girl she didn’t recognize as herself. Blood covered her slim figure head to toe in in crimson. Deep gashes and cuts down to the bone were scattered across her butchered body.

<>~<>~<>

“AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!” Midnight screamed in fear. She roceketed up to sit in the dark room, her blood running cold as ice even though sweat poured down her body. Her heart felt as if it was running like her life depended on it, a knot forming in her chest as she began losing control of her breathing.

Midnight’s battered emotions shown as tears, streaming down her face as she placed her head onto her knees.

Jamie heard the scream from the elevator that lead from the Think Tank’s rooms. Running to the bedroom and activating the light, he was at her side trying to comfort her.

When the lights came on and Midnight felt Jamie’s presence, she looked to him with tear filled eyes. Sure enough, her savior was right there, again saving her from torture.

“Shh, it’s okay,” Jamie cooed as he took Midnight’s hands to give them a reassuring squeeze, “See? your safe with me.”

Midnight calmed a little, although sniffling uncontrollably while hyperventilating.

“Calm down, Midnight,” Jamie said like a father to a child, embracing Midnight, “Its safe here, we can talk about the scary dream later.”

“Tha-thank you,” She sniveled out, wiping her nose with an arm. Jamie pulled a cloth out one of the combat armor’s pouches and began to wipe her face, cleaning it carefully like a precious diamond, “Can, can y-you, leave the light on?” She asked, scared out her wits.

“Anything to keep you safe,” Jamie said as he turned a lamp by the bedside on. The single bulb illuminating an old Ralphie the Robot poster plastered to the wall by the previous occupant.

Jamie made his way towards the exit, but as he neared the doorframe Midnight yelled, “Wait!” Before her voice dropped to barely a whisper, almost like a certain pegasus she couldn’t remember. “Ca-can you sleep with me tonight?” She asked, pure childlike innocence emanating from the question.

He rubbed his temples, “I guess so, but let me see if I can find something other than that medical gown for you to wear.”

Five minutes later, Jamie was back with a small bundle of pre-war clothing he bought from the CIU for simply ten caps, but it being in Big Mt. storage kept it spotless through the two hundred plus years of neglect.

In the pile was a pink cotton bra to match the panties he put on her, a simple pair of blue jeans, a white t-shirt, and a lavender fleece and cotton zip up hoodie. Perfect for the nights that get chilly on her shaved head.

Midnight studied the hoodie in Jamie’s hands, its shade of color vaguely familiar.

Jamie gave her the clothes to wear and stepped out the room and a few minutes later Midnight was acceptably dressed.

Slowly, Jamie made his way over to the bed, noticing the girl looking at him like he were strange for being so cautious.

Finally, Jamie pulled back the sheets and slipped into bed wearing a full set of combat armor. Even with it separating their bodies, her heat seeped through, sending a rush of feeling to a certain organ.

It became even more awkward when Midnight backed up against him, snuggling closely for warmth. Her rear rubbed into the armors crotch piece, making Jamie want to quickly roll over. He didn’t as Midnight was by some miracle fast asleep, and he refused to wake her.

As Jamie himself was trying to get to sleep, he felt his right arm get pulled over Midnight and hug close to her breasts. The position left him blushing as Midnight began to snore softly, keeping his arm close like a teddy bear.

Jamie told himself repeatedly that he was not going to take advantage of her. But it almost seemed like she was doing it on purpose. ‘This is going to be a long night.’ He thought silently to himself, hoping that Joshua Graham’s God could hear him ask for help with the lost girl.

Chapter 4: Downhill [Revised]

Chapter 4: Downhill

<>~Freeside, Old Mormon Fort~<>

“She’s going through a recovery period right now. She nearly died yesterday before she somehow managed to stumble in here.”

Those words. Those words conjured thoughts of the unimaginable. Pinkie was in the hospital, and it was my fault I couldn’t find her fast enough to protect her.

I hate hospitals. Nothing but pain and death reside with the walls. I didn’t want to admit to my friends that, that was why I hated hospitals. I feared me, or one of my friends would enter, but wouldn’t come back out.

Fear accompanied me as I followed Arcade as he led me to Pinkie. The grave tone he had used in giving me the news made my heart pound.

We neared a nearby olive green military style tent. Arcade opened the flap to allow me inside with a gentle wave of his hand. Veronica waited outside to respect my privacy. Inside the stuffy, olive green walls, I wanted to collapse on my knees and cry.

Pinkie looked… she looked terrible laying on that bed. Her mane had lost its poofy bounce, and I nearly yelped in horror when I noticed the IV running into her wrist while wires ran under the green shirt she was wearing. Tears began to dampen my face as I saw the matted knots and tangles in her pink mane was a matted in knots. Cuts and scratches covered her arms while dried blood was under her nose.

From the steady beeps from a machine she was hooked to, her heartrate was fine for the moment.

Arcade let out a small sigh, “I’m sorry you have to see your friend like this, miss…”

“Rainbow Dash,” I said weakly. “What happened?” My voice was a croaking whisper as I knelt by my friend’s bedside.

I didn’t expect Pinkie to open her eyes. They were slightly bloodshot with dark bags under them from lack of sleep, “Hey Dashie,” Pinkie said… distantly, like she was trapped in thought.

“Pinkie, who did this to you?” I asked frantically as I took hold of her right hand.

“He didn’t mean it. I thought they were candy... please, quit yelling,” Pinkie pie pleaded, letting go of my hand. Her voice held no joy, just a distant, lost-in-thought tone.

“I’m not yelling Pinkie. Please, tell me who did this,” I was confused and beginning to get desperate for answers. Arcade stood behind me, useless as he let me speak to Pinkie.

“His name is Dixon. I traded,” she paused for a few seconds, “my bottle cap collection… for mints. But they weren't mints.”

“Do you hurt?” It was a stupid question, I could see it in her eyes. But I needed to know for sure.

Pinkie gave a weak little nod.

Rage began to boil inside of me. A lone thought passing over my mind, 'that bastard was gonna pay big time for hurting Pinkie'.

“I’m going to have to leave for a little while. Will you be okay here Pinkie?”

“Yeppers,” she replied with an almost sleepy sounding voice “The doctors can keep the monsters away.”

I really, really wanted to stay by her side and talk… but I had a drug dealer to have a  little talk with.

<~The Big Empty, The Sink~>

Jamie rolled over in bed, opening his eyes slowly to see the dull grey ceiling above. He noticed quickly the depression left in the mattress left behind by his now missing bedmate.

Casting the covers aside, Jamie jumped out of bed and onto his feet. Looking at the far wall, a single locker of three was open, the contents inside missing.

The sound of piano music reached Jamie’s ears, causing him to raise an eyebrow. Taking a few steps out of the room, he reached the central room.

Moonlight Sonata, he recognized, was the tune that was playing. The CIU played the holotape often for Jamie when he was in the room. Jamie enjoyed letting each note sink in as he stood, letting his face form a rare smile in his harsh life.

Today, however, it was absent as he saw Midnight tinkering with the workbench at the far side of the circular room.

“Good morning,” Midnight addressed Jamie, not even turning her head that was bare of the halo, “I didn’t know what you would like to eat, or when you usually get up, so I decided to repair this busted power assisted combat suit I found in the locker instead.”

The whole time Midnight’s voice was calm and even, before she added like a child caught with cookies before dinner, “Sorry for snooping.”

“Huh?” Jamie asked, right before seeing his T-45d power armor and helmet laying on the bench.

Surprisingly it was in less pieces than before he put it in the locker. He had arrived in Big MT wearing it, and it had met its fate when three lobotomites with proton-axes attacked him, along with a small robo-scorpion.

After the battle, the armor was covered with cuts burned into the armor, and one lucky swing managed to shatter the armor’s right arm casing to the point of it falling off.

“Yeah,” Midnight said, gaining her nonchalance back, “The main servo control housing had taken quite a beating, the primary electrical circuit board was chopped in half, the helmet’s air hose had a hole in it, the leg servos are still miscalibrated and fail to link with the bodysuit, and to top it off, I’m trying to work with tools I can’t remember the measurements of.”

Jamie’s mouth dropped in astonishment as most of the terms sailed over his average range of intelligence.

“Back up a second,” Jamie said, rubbing his temple with a gloved hand, “If you can’t remember anything, how are you able to look at that power armor and know how to fix it?” He asked. Jamie began thinking back to his cryogenics idea. Perhaps she was a scientist instead of a test subject, using herself as a guinea pig for some sort of purple eye color experiment.

“Not all my memory was wiped clear,” Midnight explained, finally turning around, a faint scar displayed just over her left eye. “I look at things around me and I get all these big words and other stuff popping into my head that I know the definition to. I can see something and realize that it can works with another object, right on up until I can glance at this ‘power armor’, as you put it, and find out how it works from a few simple glances.

“Plus I’m rooting around it’s electronics,” Midnight added with a small laugh.

Jamie cocked his head to the side, stroking his goatee once while admiring her technical prowess, then decided to ask the obvious. “What on Earth possessed you to dig my busted power armor out the locker anyway? And why are you playing my music?"

“The answer to the first is simple: I was bored and there doesn’t seem to be any books lying around. Also, I think I remember that I like books… Anyway, the second was recommended to me by the artificial intelligence. A sweet talker, plus he has a good choice in music, although, it’s a bit mood dampening.”

The CIU decided to chime in at her statement, “Sorry ma’am, shall I play Mozart’s Requiem or shall I put on Beethoven’s Für Elise?”

“The latter sounds like it would be better, thank you,” Midnight cordially addressed the CIU as she turned back to work on the power armor.

Jamie walked forward a few steps before Midnight spoke, stopping him, “I never asked for your name yesterday,” she said, slowly tightening a screw, “And don’t be mad, but I took a few things from the overhead locker to make some repairs.”

“It’s no big deal really,” Jamie said slowly, “Oh, by the way, my name is Jamie Brogden... how long have you been up for?” He checked his Pip-Boy, which read 9:15.

“I’d say three hours or so,” Midnight answered after a small hum, “I was startled at first when the toaster threatened to burn me in the living room, then the Central Intelligence Unit offered me a drink, but now I’m fine. Oh, and I placed the little blue robot on the other bench.”

Jamie grit his teeth as he glared at the blue robot. Muggy was on his reloading bench… the little blue bastard... why did his houseguest have to be nice to the little annoying scrapheap?

“Midnight,” Jamie said forgetting his anger as he remembered something he had thought of, “I was wondering if the last name Star would suit you, due to your tattoo.”

“Huh?” she said, not registering the question due to being engrossed into the task at hand, but then realized what he said. “Yeah...Midnight Star,” She said as she tapped her chin with a wrench, “It seems fitting for some reason.”

“So, Midnight, what are you doing to the armor?”

“Oh,” She said, surprised just a bit, “I’m glad you asked. I integrated the small halo regeneration accelerator into the helmet, replaced a few wires, plugged in a battery, and stitched on a few patches to the bodysuit portions of the suit with some loose thread and a needle I found.”

“So, you're saying that you repaired a type 45 delta, power-assisted battle armor, with some scrap and a piece of string?” He asked, completely blown away from the thoroughness of the job, which was done in less than three hours no less.

“Pretty much,” Midnight proudly claimed with a smile, “Though the left arm is missing and it took me a while to figure out how to sow again. And I may or may not have cheated by using a bit of duct tape to fix the air hose connected to the helmet.”

Jamie craned his neck, trying to see more of the armor, but Midnight scooped up the armor and went towards the bedroom. “Don’t come in here,” She warned as Jamie tried tell her that she wasn’t properly trained with power armor.

‘Well, she’ll figure out she can’t wear it,’  He thought to himself, patiently waiting for her to get frustrated with the archaic equipment.

Not ten minutes later, there were heavy booted footfalls coming from the room. Midnight stepped out of the bedroom and into the foyer, dressed in the power armor.

Her left arm was covered by a grey colored cape, the top of said cape running through the hole in the shoulder pauldron. For the most part, the helmet seemed the same, with the exception of the duct tape over one of the hoses.

“Where did you get the cloth?” He asked, not realizing that she was wearing armor she shouldn’t have been able to wear. But then again, she could have been from the Brotherhood. This wasn’t the first Brotherhood of Steel member that discovered the place.

Jamie recalled finding an audio-log from a girl named Christina and a man who called himself Ulysses.

He had met Christina herself when he attended the Gala for the Sierra Madre, an event he was forced to partake in by the former Brotherhood of Steel Elder, Elijah. The ‘Ulysses’ character, however, he hadn’t met, but he seemed to be a part of his past somehow.

The CIU butted in, “Well sir, it was me. I notified Ms. Star of my barter function and she traded a few of the broken parts for cloth and a fission battery.”

“Oh, well that’s fine, as long as she didn’t sell anything of too high value without asking first.”

Midnight rolled her eyes, unbeknownst to Jamie due to the helmet, and gave a sarcastic sigh, “You know I’m right here.”

Finally, Jamie realized she was actually wearing the armor. “That I do,” he said, looking her over in a bit of disbelief, “But how did you manage to get that on. With the memory loss, you shouldn’t be able to remember how to.”

Midnight just shrugged, “I guess since I fixed it, I noticed the particular way it was supposed to go on or something. So what’s for breakfast?”

Jamie groaned; of course, he ran out of food supplies that he had brought, and didn't even manage to scout the botanical garden for potential foodstuff. Now, he needed to get food for the both of them… or have Midnight tag along to see how she would adapt to the new world she was forced to live in.

Or maybe if she was indeed from the Brotherhood, instead of his previous guesses, then the exploration might help jog some of her memories. Plus, a companion would be nice sense the cyberdog he had made last week didn't want to follow him out the door of the facility she was created in.

Even if she wasn't Brotherhood, some potential combat experience and wasteland 101 would be in order.

“Midnight, do you recall ever having any experience with weapons?” Jamie asked with a friendly chuckle.

“Can’t remember if I did, but I’m sure I can learn fast,” Midnight said with determination and confidence.

“Well, then, let’s go exploring.”

<>~Freeside~<>

Oh boy. Dixon was in for it when I got my hands on him. Storming out the gate, Veronica tailing behind me, she asked frantically, “What’s going on?” Her face bore a worried, almost panicked expression.

“I’m finding some guy named Dixon,” I said, seething at the name.

“I’m all for a good skull bashing,” Veronica stated almost casually, “But what happened to the I don’t kill speech yesterday?”

I let out a furious growl, “I’m not going to kill him. I’m going to make him pay for selling drugs to Pinkie. She’s too naive and innocent for her own good. She trusts bout near anybody who says their her friend.”

Veronica grit her teeth, “I hate people who take advantage of innocence, and I hate chem dealers. I know who he is, let’s knock him down a peg.” 

<>~Big Mountain, the Sink~<>

Jamie could see that Midnight was eager to learn. Upon donning his combat helmet that he kept in one of the bedroom’s lockers, he pulled out a 5.56 caliber marksman carbine - a weapon Midnight inspected - along with the ammo.

It didn’t take her long to deduce the way the weapon worked.

Seeing how good at finding object’s purpose Midnight was, Jamie handed her the laser rifle he kept for back-up, and a microfusion cell to see if she could guess what they were.

The silver-grey, rectangular weapon seemed to puzzle her at first. She turned the rifle to nearly every conceivable angle as she studied it, memorizing every little detail of the weapon.

Plugging the microfusion cell into a well in the weapon’s side, Midnight slid back a handle when the cell fell into place. She took aim at the wall, then sent a scorching crimson beam, careening across the room. It left a sizable burn mark in the concrete.

Jamie couldn't see the quizzical look on Midnight’s face as she worked out how the weapon worked in her head from a single test fire.

Seeing how she could obviously handle a laser weapon, Jamie gave her a satchel of the cells to use. Then, to Midnight’s surprise, he handed her an axe with a blade made from blue energy that seemed to dance with electricity. 

From how still Midnight was, Jamie could tell she was either extremely astonished, or confused. Perhaps a bit of both. It was hard to tell through the helmet.

Now it was time for some target practice. And the old securitron disassembling plant he cleared out should be a good start.

<>~Big Mountain, Ulysse’s Camp~<>

Midnight lay on her back, looking at the sky above, her breath slow and labored as she stared at a distant cloud through the cracked eyepiece of the power helmet. The only thing keeping her from going under was the constant cacophonous ring of Jamie’s marksman carbine, along with the thwump and boom of the Securitrons’ grenade rifles. It sounded like it was at a fair enough distance away, and was getting even more distant as time passed.

Midnight and Jamie were having fun testing out her energy weapon skills - oddly not finding any rogue lobotomites wandering around. Their target practice caused the robots Jamie thought he had destroyed to chase them to the little hideaway behind the factory. The duo made a good run, keeping pace with each other, but a grenade managed to put Midnight on the ground, the power armor’s legs taking the brunt of the explosive blow. Jamie continuing on, unaware of her plight as the bots passed her, thinking her dead or more focused on Jamie.

Midnight began to feel the sting of the shrapnel embedded in her exposed left arm, but it was only a flesh wound, missing vital veins and arteries.

Rolling over, she began to crawl, with Jamie nowhere in sight. She could only hear his gun echoing off like firecrackers.

Getting up, she began to limp, pain shooting her her right leg. Luckily, the helmet’s valence-accelerator was already tending to her wounds, but she was sure the leg was crippled, an injury the accelerator couldn’t handle.

She made her way over to the wooden pallets that made up the floor of the hideaway they incidentally discovered, looking for a weapon to replace both the proton-axe and the laser rifle she lost. She dropped the rifle when the bots started shooting, so it was near the factories front door.

She managed to keep hold of the proton-axe during her run, but - putting it scientifically -  was  trashed after the grenade blowing up reduced it to nothing more than a twisted piece of metal, and no doubt, a contributor to one of the fragments of shrapnel embedded in Midnight’s arm.

Sitting on a pallet, she looked at her arm, the most noticeable damage was a three inch piece of jagged metal sharply lodged into her flesh. Grabbing the hunk, she pulled it out with a cry of pain. The accelerator couldn’t do its work if something was in the way.

There was something about the fighting and danger that she felt familiar with. She began to think, not realizing the cacophony in the distance was no more. She thought she could remember something about a soldier she once knew. A husband? A brother? she couldn’t tell, all she knew was that she was supposed to know him.

Right as she began to really think, Jamie slid down a nearby rock, kicking up dust as he landed, his combat armor having a few more shrapnel cuts than before. “You alright?” he asked with concern, gritting his teeth, “Sorry for leaving you behind. Damn things wouldn't let up.”

Midnight, breathing erratically from her injuries, just cracked a smile under the helmet, “Never better, barring the pain everywhere.  I could do with adding a few modifications to this armor, like a left arm,” She chuckled, “Wonder what we can salvage from this place. As you said before, this was the deconstruction plant for robots. They’re bound to have adequate enough alloys to maintain my armor. Maybe even upgrade it.”

“I’m likin’ how you think,” Jamie said in a mock country accent. A brief whisper of a memory flowed through Midnight’s thoughts, but was as unnoticed as an evening breeze.

Standing up, Midnight cried out in pain. Her right leg buckling under her own weight. Falling, Jamie caught the armored woman, who seemed on the verge of tears.

“You’re definitely not okay,” he said with a stern tone before pointing a finger at her right leg, ”You said something about that leg?”

“I-I’ll live,” She said through a grunt.

Jamie pulled out a green bottle with different colored vials scotch-taped to it, “Here, drink this. They call this stuff Hydra. Goes down like a bitch, but it’s guaranteed to get you on your feet again.”

Midnight ignored his foul language with the promise of a pain reliever. Taking the dirty green bottle, Midnight uncorked the top. Peering inside, she saw a greenish soup of who-knew-what in it.

Then the smell hit her, even through the air filter in the helmet. She could only describe the foul gunk as rancid as she tried to compare it to something. Nothing she could remember - which was very little at the moment - smelled that horrible.

Suppressing a gag, she decided to go ahead and get it over with. Taking off her helmet, she upturned the bottle. Gulping down the foul ichor in one go. After the contents of the bottler were drained, she gagged as the concoction left a taste akin to dirt in her mouth.

Hoping her gag reflex didn't kick in so she didn’t have to taste it again, Midnight stood up. All the pain in her joints and muscles were gone as she felt like running a marathon.

“What was in that?” Midnight asked, never feeling so limber before, like a professional athlete or a ballet artist.

He gave a impish chuckle, a sly grin on his face, “Trust me, I know the recipe, and you don’t want to know.”

Shugging, she decided not to pry. Giving a little shake, she hopped from side to side like a boxer while imitating punches. After her little bit of fun, she replaced her helmet atop her head, popped the kink in her neck, and laughed.

“So,” She began, already feeling up for some more danger, “Let’s go explore this dangerous factory you failed to properly clear out.”

“What, with no weapons?” Jamie asked, concern for the woman's safety oozing from his retort, “You’re gonna get yourself killed.”

“Try and keep up!” She laughed out, knowing exactly where to find the laser rifle she dropped.

Facepalming, Jamie ran after the woman - who, for a sciencey type - was pretty fast in heavy armor.

Reaching the front of the factory, Midnight found her laser rifle, picked it up and dusted it off, checking to see if it was damaged.

Satisfied, she placed it on her back, the suits special magnetic holster gripping the gun across her back. Walking up to the blue double doors of the factory, she waited as Jamie caught up, panting slightly from having to sprint again. Midnight looked at him as he put his hands on his knees to catch his breath, and said with a hidden smirk “And I didn’t even break a sweat.”

“I’m beginning to believe you’re Brotherhood of Steel,” Jamie panted, glancing up at her, “Rather than my other guesses. But the eye color you have is just not natural.”

“We can figure that out later,” Midnight said, “Even if I was Brotherhood of Steel, I can’t remember. But more importantly, we got some armor to rebuild.”

Groaning, Jamie rolled his eyes as he stood up, “And what happened to finding breakfast?”

She laughed, “We got shot at by machines. I think food can wait.”

Going through the doors, the duo entered the factory. Jamie had his carbine at the ready, while Midnight still had the laser rifle magnetically strapped to her back. Not a single enemy came to greet them. What did was the numerous piles of rubble and the strong moldy smell from the decrepit factory’s crumbling structure.

They passed a wooden front desk that was covered in wood and concrete that was once the ceiling. “Man this place needs some organization,” Midnight said offhandedly with a shake of her head.

Jamie picked up on her comment, “Scribe. Yep, you’re definitely a Brotherhood scribe.”

“Huh? What is the Brotherhood again?” Midnight asked as she picked up a steam gauge assembly from the floor, tucking it under her arm and moving deeper into the factory.

He chuckled, “To be candid, the Brotherhood has noble goals, but they don’t have the strength or the willingness to do what they say. To make their image worse, the Brotherhood hordes pre-war technology, and isn’t open to outsiders. I’m sort of an exception. The Brotherhood wants to help the wasteland, but Elder McNamara has had the Brotherhood in the bunker far too long. Hopefully Veronica and I can show him why he needs to change the way we operate. It worked for the San Francisco chapter, or so Veronica tells me.”

The duo entered a cavernous room, stopping at a broken securitron next to a very rusty conveyor belt. Midnight instantly set to work, ripping a tubular arm off of the chassis, “Would you kindly grab a few tools if you can find them?”

“I’ll be right on it,” Jamie said with a quick nod, “I’ll see what I can find and make sure this place is completely clear.”

As Jamie went to find tools, Midnight began to form a mental checklist of items.

“I need electrical wires, scrap metal, a power source or two... and something to replace the suits arm,” She muttered to herself. Sure, the grey cape she had was flashy, but it wasn’t her style, and it already had shrapnel holes in it. She had the securitron arm as a base for replacing the left arm, but needed better protection.

“Holy shit!” Jamie yelled as his carbine let out multiple shots.

Midnight dropped the Securitron’s arm and steam gauge assembly, running to check to see if he was alright. Grabbing the laser rifle from her back, she hurried through the factory towards Jamie. Jumping over a collapsed securitron, there was a metal garage-style door open about twenty meters away from her.

To her horror, multiple skeletons in red spacesuit-like clothing were charging in. Most of them were armed with gray and yellow rifles that had a large, green, gas-filled glass cylinder that served as a barrel.

Midnight skidded to a halt, memory replaying of the darkness, the saw, and blood and pain. Quickly shaking herself out of the memory, Midnight leveled her rifle at the closest skeleton, ready for some payback. It responded in kind by taking aim at her as well.

It’s rifle spewed a glob of green that missed Midnight’s head by a few inches, as a streak of crimson from her own weapon melted a chunk of the glass dome surrounding the skeletons skull.

“Hey, who turned out the lights?” A male voice asked, emanating from the skeleton without it’s jaws moving.

“What the fuck!?” Midnight cursed as she turned-tail, the other skeleton now aiming at her. Vaulting over a nearby conveyor belt with a grunt, she landed next to Jamie, who peered over the top to fire a few shots.

He missed all but one.

“Hey, who turned out the lights?” the skeleton asked again as green balls of superheated plasma screamed over Midnight’s head. For some reason unknown to her, Midnight swore she attended a wedding like this as globules of green started burning black marks into the wall behind the cover she took.

Another skeleton came close, “I-I feel so cold,” the skeleton stuttered in a soft, feminine voice as it took aim.

Midnight looked at Jamie beside her who was trying to load loose bullets into a magazine, “Why the hay do they do that?” She cursed, as more skeletons came in, each with a different voice.

“From what I can tell,” Jamie shouted, even though Midnight was right beside him, “If the person in the suit died fast enough, the communicator built into the suit got stuck in a continuous loop of the last thing they said!” He finished with as he slapped a now full magazine into the gun, pulled back the charging handle, and looked to Midnight, “On the third count, we pop up and blast them, three, two, one!”

The duo sprang into action, each firing their respective weaponry at the advancing horde of no less than eight Y-17 trauma harnesses. The walking skeletons quickly took cover behind pillars, rubble, and machinery. The programming in the suit was still working to protect the long dead occupants.

The gunfight attracted the curiosity of one lone lobotomite, who foolishly charged a harness with a hatchet while wearing a paper thin hospital gown and sackcloth hood.

The lobotomite didn’t last long as the harness turned and killed him with a single plasma pistol shot to the head, saying appropriately in a youthful and playful male voice, “Not funny guys.”

Midnight shuddered at the age he sounded like he was. He was probably younger than her when he died. Twenty six was the number she thought she could remember.

It said the same thing again, like it was mocking her. She quickly took aim at the specific one to silence the macabre creature. With a single shot to its chest, the harness collapsed as its electrical systems melted and failed to continue functioning.

She counted seven left, that was before she saw a green and tan cylinder land in the center of a group of three. The three disappeared in a flash of green, manmade hellfire.

Four now, she could easily take them with Jamie’s help. Taking cover again to reload a power cell, Jamie told her he used a plasma grenade. She didn’t care what it was, as long as it worked.

Standing up to shoot over the conveyor again, Jamie was struck in the chest by a liquid ball of green fire.

Falling to the ground, dropping his rifle, he writhed in pain, the green goo continuing to burn him. “JAMIE!” Midnight yelled as she turned away from combat just long enough to get hit in her still exposed left arm, dropping her rifle in pain and tripping. She foolishly grabbed the plasma wound with her hand, the superheated goo quickly melted through the glove over her right hand, burning it to the point of instantly blistering.

The remaining four began to advance, ready to finish off the wounded warriors. Tears were streaming down Midnight’s face as the wound burned with the heat of a miniature sun.

A harness walked towards her wounded body, pointing its plasma rifle at her head.

“Did the lights go out?” It asked, in an angry and gruff male voice. It’s gloved bone that once was his pointer finger, ready to pull the trigger.

Chapter 5: Reunion [Revised]

Chapter 5: Reunion

<>~Freeside~<>

Veronica pointed him out, Dixon, that is. The slimy bastard was leaning against a store window, Mick and Ralph’s was the name. He was the one that sold Pinkie the drugs.

That poor mare probably didn’t even know what drugs were. He was going to pay… in teeth, broken bones, I didn’t care. I was pissed off, blinded by rage, and above all, totally not thinking straight.

“You got my back Veronica?” I asked in a whisper as we stood on concrete close to the corner of the last building on the street before the intersection, waiting for Dixon to move out of sight of the three guards near the gate.

It was the perfect place to jump him. From the dried specs of blood on the ground, I could guess that many people had been ambushed here before.

“I’m guessing you want to do all the punching,” Veronica said like it was a question.

I gave her a quick nod, “Yeah. He hurt Pinkie. You didn’t see how beat up and… and how distant her eyes looked,” I said, finding it hard to breathe, “She… I’ve never seen her eyes look like that.”

“Spaced out like it wasn’t her in there?” Veronica asked. I gave a nod and she continued, “If she chemed herself up to the point of overdose, she probably would have that look. She say what it was?”

“Arcade didn’t say,” I said, angry at him for not giving me enough information, “She was naive enough to think whatever she bought were mints.”

“Mentats then,” Veronica concluded. “If she ate them like candy, the withdrawal after the overdose would leave one killer headache.”

“It did. She said I was yelling when I was speaking in a normal voice.”

Dixon hadn’t moved an inch from his spot in front of the store… I was getting impatient as my anger wanted to tear me apart internally every time I looked his way.

Finally, after what seemed like an hour of standing there, Dixon left the storefront, walking towards where Veronica and I stood.

Taking a deep inhale, I backed around the corner of the building, waiting for Dixon as Veronica stayed put, ready to give me a thumbs up when Dixon neared the corner.

Honestly, it wasn’t my original plan. Actually it wasn’t even my plan at all. Veronica was the one with a level head and enough brain power to concoct the way to get the drop on Dixon.

Veronica’s thumb went up, the dirt covered Dixon rounded the corner, clad in a black leather jacket and brown hat.

All my walking had given me enough practice to move as a human, but for a brief moment, I doubted my fighting skills in my new body.

“Hey,” Dixon said, nodding towards me.

I blinked a few times, unable to process the object of my current rage was in front of me, speaking to me.

“Fucking hell,” He cursed at my lack of response, his expression a scowl, “Anyone in there Jethead?”

I grit my teeth and grabbed ahold of his leather jacket, forcing him against the nearby wall, “Yeah, I’m here,” I seethed, “You’re the little slimy pigeon that gave my friend those drugs.”

“What are you talking about?” Dixon questioned, trying to push me away from him, but to no avail. I was stronger than I previously guessed.

I jerked his coat back and pushed forward in one rapid motion, slamming his head against the wall, “Pink hair, blue eyes, childlike way of acting?”

He winced from the pain in his head, but chuckled nonetheless, “That gal? Yeah I sold her some Mentats. What’s it to ya’ that the junkie bought shit offa’ me?”

Another jerk, another head bang against the wall, “Your ‘shit’ as you put it, nearly killed my friend!”

“Hey, it’s not my fault the bitch overdosed!”

What did he just call Pinkie?

My eyes narrowed as something in me snapped at those words, and the next thing that registered in my mind was the bang echoing through Freeside’s war-torn and refuse packed streets

<>~<>~<>

When I woke up, a pain lanced through my gut. It felt like there was a fire burning one specific spot.

And it hurt.

Screaming in pain, I thrashed my arms as doctors surrounded me in their white labcoats, digging tools into the point my pain was emanating from as others held me down.

A mask was forced over my face, and everything went fuzzy.

<>~<>~<>

“Hello,” Pinkie Pie’s voice echoed throughout my skull, “Dashie you gonna wake up today?”

“Huh,” I slurred out slowly while a slight pain raced through my body like a small swarm of bees. I winced.

“Ganny said you’d been shot!” Her voice was loud, echoing with concern, “You’ve been asleep for two whole days.”

At the news I leaned up quickly, looking at the large bandage wrapped around my waistline, covered in blood.

“Yep,” Veronica’s voice came from beside Pinkie, and I looked up to both of them, “Arcade said as soon as you woke we could leave.”

Looking down at my chest, some sort of strange clothing covered the new location of my teats. Feeling like I was drunk, I didn’t think before I blurted out, “When the fuck did my shirt disappear?”

I have a bad habit of cursing when drunk.

Pinkie gasped, “Ooh, you said a bad word. Shame on you,” she frowned, crossing her arms. I noticed her hair was back to normal.

“I don’t care,” I groaned while rubbing my head with a hand, “What happened?”

“Dixon shot you,” Veronica said, “That’s what you get for trying to interrogate an armed drug dealer. I’m still pulling skull fragments out of my power fist. His head burst like a balloon.”

Swinging my legs over the side of the bed, I used my hands to push myself up, and with a small hop, I stood.

Pinkie was wearing olive green cargo pants, a brown t-shirt under an olive green button up shirt, and a helmet of the same color was strapped to a belt. She was also carrying a rifle I never saw before, a pistol in a tan holster strapped to her leg, along with a combat knife opposite of a canteen, which was attached to the green nylon belt with a darker green plastic buckle that had multiple pouches on it.

I just shook my head from side to side, “Okay, not gonna even ask about all this.”

“It came in a set that was on sale. It’s crazy how the ponies here trade bottlecaps and stuff for things and mess.”

I laughed and smiled at my friend’s bubbly, childish speech.

“Though it was probably that most of the money was destroyed in the war,” Pinkie said, my happy smile disappearing. Pinkie shook her head, “Those Mentats did a number on me old Pinkie Sense. I was getting doozies months in advance, and my fortune teller skills were predicting the past instead of the future.”

Veronica must have seen my reaction, as she butted in, “Your friend here is great RD. She knows how to throw one mean party.”

Pinkie smiled sheepishly as I looked at her, “Heh-heh, please don’t be mad I threw the bestest get well soon party ever without you, you know, awake.”

I rolled my eyes, throwing my arms around Pinkie, laughing as I felt an unabashed feeling of happiness, “Come ‘ere you pink haired nut. I freaking love you.”

Pinkie pushed away from me, her mouth open, “I-I’m sorry. This is so sudden I didn’t know you felt that way about me.”

“Huh?”

Her cheeks split into a grin, “Oh man that one flew right over your head. You were all like ‘huh’” Pinkie then made a completely unrealistic copy of my confused expression, then began giggling and snorting with laughter, “I mean seriously, Veronica should have hit on you by now.”

Wait a second I thought, reflecting back on my choice of words.

“Oh gosh damn it!” I screamed in rage, my face burning pink with a blush.

<>~Mojave Desert~<>

We continued walking and idly chatting. I was out for two days from my gunshot wound, the doctors keeping me semi-sedated with whiskey to give my wound time to heal. That explained the drunkenness when I woke up.

Arcade removed my bandages and I had a wickedly gnarly scar running across my gut. I was lucky it didn’t kill me, and the docs were able to sew the blasted bits of me back together.

Now Veronica, Pinkie, and I were travelling in search of everypony else. Since Pinkie was with me, I realized the others were most likely here.

As we walked beside one another, I was resisting the urge to laugh as Pinkie was telling a really funny story, “And then I said, Oatmeal, are you crazy?”

Veronica let out a large laugh, “She didn’t do it, did she?”

Pinkie nodded, laughing, “She sure as sugar did. Oatmeal Prance-Kissed the stallion right before punching him in his no-no parts.”

“That’s one way of saying balls, and getting the guys to leave you alone,” Veronica commented.

Pinkie nodded, “Yep. Oatmeal then grabbed my arm and took off running as I still chugged on my bottle of beer,” Pinkie let out a roar of laughter, before calming down, “And that is the story of the first time I went to a bar, as well as the first time I got drunk, as well as the first time my sister Oatmeal Pie got me in trouble with stallions,” she let out a small bit of nostalgic laughter, “Good times. Good times indeed.”

“Wait, wait, wait,” I called out, “Oatmeal is your sister?”

“Yep,” Pinkie replied simply.

I shook my head, “How many sisters do you have that aren’t in the family photos?”

After counting all her fingers one-by-one, Pinkie shrugged, “Mom and Dad were… how should I state this?” Pinkie rolled her eyes and let out a ‘humph’ sound, “I guess you could say they are part rabbit on account of how active their sex lives were.”

Air decided to travel the wrong way and I coughed and sputtered. Pinkie did not just say that, did she?  

“What?” Pinkie questioned at my coughs, “Our house was tiny. With older sisters I was bound to learn the birds and the bees sometime. Didn't bother me none, we just ignored whoever it was and played homemade board games.”

Trying to ignore the fact Pinkie just… well was just being Pinkie, I asked Veronica, “So, where to after the 188?”

Veronica answered swiftly, “We’ll follow this road until we reach the town with a giant lizard holding a thermometer. That’s Novac.”

“How far is it?” I asked, hoping it wouldn’t be a long walk. My gunshot wound may have healed up, but it still stung slightly.

“I have no idea,” she answered with a sigh, “We don’t have any way to accurately measure the distance walked. It should be only a few hours of walking past the 188.”

Well that figures. Upon my disappointment silence decided to befall our group. We kept walking, and walking, and walking some more, down the cracked asphalt roads.

There wasn’t anything to encounter other than rocks. Pinkie finally started humming a song to herself shortly before Veronica decided to speak up around ten minutes after the silence fell upon us.

“I’m convinced you two aren’t from earth,” Veronica stated randomly with graceful nonchalance.

“Only took me getting shot, two days, and a few hours. Want to hear about Equestria?” I asked with a smirk.

“Sure,” Both Pinkie and Veronica replied energetically, before she appeared in front of me, staring right into my eyes, scaring both Veronica and I half to death.

“What the holy hell just happened?” Veronica gasped out, not realizing she should expect a lot of logic-busting chaos from Pinkie.

“Pinkie being Pinkie,” I said, “It’s safer to accept that than continue pondering how she works.”

“Yeppers,” Pinkie said, “I accidentally caused Twilight to burst into flames once from trying to guess how my Pinkie Sense works.” Pinkie shivered slightly and her face went a little green, “Those Mentats seriously looked like candy and tasted like the Hearts and Hooves Day hearts with the little messages on them. But wow-wee I felt like a swarm of parasprites were buzzing in my head as my Pinkie Sense went cray-z.”

Veronica shook her head, “Now you know not to accept candy, and drugs, from strangers.”

I nodded in agreement with her, giving Pinkie a concerned glare, “Doctor Gannon,” I found out Arcade’s last name from Veronica, “said that you almost died of an overdose.”

Pinkie’s hair deflated slightly, “Yeah,” she shrugged, “Then you got hurt trying to get back at Dixon and Veronica made the bad guy dead.”

Wait, did Veronica tell her? And why wasn’t she all teary eyed over the fact Veronica killed Dixon?

Pinkie sighed before she cracked a small smile, “This world feels rotten to my Pinkie Sense. I’m not naïve enough to not understand ponies die. I attended my grandparent’s funerals after all. I know this world is messed up and dangerous, but at least I have you two to keep me safe.”

“Yep.” “Uh-huh.” Were the responses Veronica and I gave to Pinkie.

Before I could talk about the matter further with her, Pinkie let out a laugh, “Let’s get the lead out our tailpipes, we’re burning daylight people! Race ya.”

Veronica grabbed Pinkie’s shoulder before she could take off running, “Oh no you don’t. You two still haven’t told me a thing about your world.”

That also stopped me from talking to Pinkie, as the rest of the way to the 188, Pinkie was talking about Equestria and our friends. Veronica seemed to accept everything as the truth, only asking a few questions like ‘how do two sisters keep a whole country in order’ or ‘how can pegasi control the weather’, only to have Pinkie pull a convenient chart out her bouncy hair.

Once at the 188, we sat, ordered water and food – something Veronica called buffalo gourd seeds and jalapeño peppers, a spicy pepper we consumed during an eating contest that Pinkie started, and subsequently won. After that, we continued onwards towards Novac. I let Veronica take the lead the rest of the way since I was only as far out as the lake bed.

By nightfall we made it to the town. The faded, light green dinosaur was illuminated eerily by the moon’s light. A dark silhouette of a person was all I could see standing in the dino’s open maw.

We made our way around the makeshift wall - nothing but boards over pre-existing fencing and rusted husks of old vehicles - and made it to a rusted gate. The gate itself was no higher than a human is tall, and around half as wide. When we opened it, I swore the squeak of metal would stir an angry mob in the town we just entered.

Finding no one still awake, and with everything closed that time of night, we decided to leave to the only part of town that was open, a tent on the outside the wall.

Finding no beds, Veronica pointed to a nearby garage of a boarded-over building she called a ‘gas station’, and suggested we rough it in there. With no other options, and my body screaming for rest, we decided it would be a good idea to sleep there until morning.

<>~<>~<>

Pinkie decided to wake me up when morning came.

“Hey, Hey. Wake up,” she loudly whispered in my ear as she shook my shoulder. Opening my eyes I stared into the cracked greyish-white ceiling, wishing I could tell her to come back five more minutes like I used to do before school.

That was so long ago. I wonder what Mom would think of me now? Let’s see, armed and ready to kill, attacking drug dealers, getting hurt, and now I’m cursing more than I have in my whole life.

Yeah, my mother would so not approve.

Pinkie continued pushing and I rolled over, onto my face and up against one of the lightly faded, light blue walls. Pushing myself up with my hands, I was now on all fours. Using my left hand to stable myself, I began to stand. My muscles screamed in protest, almost as sore getting up, as they were when I went to sleep.

“Ouch,” I said, balling my fists and hearing pops, “What I wouldn’t have given to sleep on a cloud last night,” I absent mindedly said. Suddenly nature decided to finally call. I blushed, realizing that I would have to ask where the bathroom is, like a little foal in kindergarten.

“Um, where’s Veronica?” I asked, she would know where a bathroom in town is.

Pinkie took off the helmet she had yesterday, turning it around in her hands, she began to inspect it.

“She went behind a rock, and if my slightly screwed up Pinkie sense is correct, you need to find your own rock to squat behind.”

I flushed a bright crimson. Of course Pinkie knew I had to pee, it was Pinkie Pie. “Okay… we have to go outside?” I asked.

“Most plumbing hasn’t worked since the war. You’re lucky to find a functioning water fountain,” She said, putting on her helmet. She stooped over and picked up her chestnut colored rifle off the ground, pulling back the slide, she reached in one of her belt’s pouches, pulling out a strange ammo clip, loading it into the top of the rifle. When she loaded the clip, the slide closed with a snap and she engaged the rifle’s safety.

I stared at my friend confused out of this world. I hadn’t seen how she handled the weapon yet, and with how many people were armed in public, I thought nothing of it.

I decided to ask her something before I left to go, “How do you know how to handle that?”

She shrugged as she used the strap running from the front of the rifle to the butt to sling it over a shoulder, “I learn quick. And the Mentats made me see a whole bunch of past battles before I could make it to the doctors.”

I was going to continue asking her questions, but the pressure in my bladder told me I had to find a large rock to be behind, and fast.

<>~<>~<>

When I returned from nature’s call, Veronica and Pinkie were talking. Upon walking up, they stopped talking, and Veronica took a step towards me.

“I spoke around town, and no one saw anyone that matches your friends’ descriptions. I asked Vargas and Boone, but they haven’t seen any new travelers with odd hair or eyes,” Veronica shrugged, “They’re ex-First Recon, so they have a good attention to detail.”

“So more walking?” I asked, my legs still sore from the miles we had already walked.

She nodded, and Pinkie and I followed her.

Not too far out of town, we came across what Veronica said was an NCR Ranger station.

Charlie I believe it was called. As we passed by the front entrance to the walled off military base, we spotted down the road, a sight I thought was a mirage.

Following a few humans with a Brahmin, was the unmistakable soft pink hair of Fluttershy, along with Applejack wearing her iconic Stetson.

Fluttershy had a pistol and was wearing a blue jumpsuit and doctor’s lab coat, whereas Applejack had a shotgun and was wearing a red checkered shirt and blue jeans.

The humans that they were following were tough looking. One had reddish hair in a Stetson-like hat, and was carrying a shotgun of her own. Another one was in a suit of grey armor with a gold colored gauntlet of some sort, along with a rectangular shaped rifle.

There was also another one wearing tan colored armor with a short, black colored rifle cradled in his arms. The last one was wearing a long leather trench coat, grey colored body armor, and a helmet with red eyes. He or she was carrying a rather large rifle with what appeared to be a small telescope on top. I believe I saw an NCR poster advertising them.

‘Ranger Veterans’ the poster boasted.  

“Fluttershy!” I yelled, catching the group’s attention. I ran the distance between us with Pinkie and wrapped Fluttershy in a hug. Pinkie gave Applejack a hug as Veronica ran up, hugging the man in tan armor. The human in the grey armor seemed to glare at Veronica.

“Jamie?” Veronica asked, “Where have you been?”

The human in the dull grey armor looked at us, her voice holding the faintest hints of jealousy towards Veronica, “We were in a place called the Big Empty.”

The voice sounded familiar, and even though the armor’s helmet muffled her, I knew who it was.

“Twilight?” I asked in disbelief.

She looked down, “Sorry... but I can’t remember you. I’m honestly trying my hardest, but when I arrived here, I was injured and lost my memory.”

Twilight had to be kidding, but she was so sincere in her sad and apologetic tone, “Can you call me Midnight? Jamie and I have used it since he found me, and it feels odd using my old name. Even though Applejack and Fluttershy have told me my real name, it’s the only name I remember myself having.”

I took a step back and my joyful face fell, “You… don’t remember all the adventures we had?”

“No,” She said sadly. This was uber bad. Not only did we not have any magic, Twilight couldn’t remember anything to help fix this mess.

Applejack decided to take over, “We tried joggin’ her memory, but no matter what, she can’t remember.”

Twi- well, Midnight let out a laugh, “I couldn’t even remember I was royalty, or even a different species before coming to this world. I only just remembered I had a brother, but I can’t remember when we fought an army together at his wedding.”

The woman with the shotgun decided to speak, “As much as hate to admit it, I don’t have anything to go against your claims.”

Applejack raised a brow, “You still havin’ trouble belevin’ us, Cass?”

Cass, the woman with the shotgun, nodded, “Oh I believe you all right. Just not everything you say seems possible.”

I decided to change the subject, “Twi-Midnight,” I corrected mid-word, “What happened to you that made you lose your memory?”

She then began to explain her adventure in a place called the Big Empty. It sounded strange, even for this new world, but how she ended it was way beyond interesting.

<~The Big Empty, Securitron Disassembling Plant~>

The harness had Midnight’s head in its plasma rifles sight, ready to squeeze the trigger. Just a hair’s width away from ending her, a blue laser beam hit it from behind, burning clean through the trauma harness’s chest. It fell over, bones rattling as they met cement, only to be crushed by the yellow and red body of one of the metallic scorpions that destroyed the distracted robotic suits.

Midnight didn’t move, nor did Jamie, but that was due to mim being unconscious. Her wounded hand and arm was still sharply stinging with tear inducing pain from the plasma burns. One of the scorpions came closer, then she felt a prick. The pain went away and sleep overcame her.

<>~<>~<>

Midnight awoke on a cold, dirty floor. The room she found herself in was dimly lit by a single overhead light that was caked in dirt and grime from years of neglect. She was void of her power armor and weapons, but her arm and hand was bandaged. Whoever took her, wanted her in one piece.

Looking around, she noticed an abundance of filing cabinets. Jamie was curled up between the gaps of two cabinets, just as defenseless as her, still unconscious. Either that or he was sedated by whatever took them.

Midnight’s curiosity began to grow with each passing second. Searching through the filing cabinets revealed nothing but rotting papers.

Stepping around the corner of one bank of cabinets, she spotted a switch beside what appeared to be a door. The switch had the words, ‘open’ and ‘close’ written on it. Walking up, she flipped the switch to ‘open’ and the door opened with a hiss. Midnight instantly knew that it was a hydraulic door from the distinct sound it made.

Though, how she knew what a hydraulic door sounded like escaped her memory.

Stepping out of the room, she was met by a titanic sized circular chamber, dimly lit by a few dirt covered lights. She didn’t care about the lights, though, what she cared about was the ball shaped robot with an orange glass dome over what looked to be an actual brain suspended in some sort of brownish-orange liquid.

Turning towards her, she froze when she saw something far scarier than the skeletons. The top right monitor that served as its eye was broken, the top left, wide open and unblinking, and the creepiest smile ever on the third, bottom center monitor.

“Oh, hello little one,” The robot said in a grandfatherly voice, establishing itself to be a male.

All Midnight could do was stare as a scorpion walked up to her, carrying her armor.

“I had my robo-scorpions repair that busted old thing. It was nothing, so no need to thank me.”

Midnight finally found words to say, “What? Why am I here?”

The robot just chuckled, “I’m not quite sure, I think I had a pretty good raisin for rescuing you, probably because my thaumic detector picked up your arrival… or something. I have pretty good raisins for whatever I do, though, I often forget the raisin I did it in the first place. Mmmm raisins, I forgot what they tasted like”

Midnight felt uneasy around the robot, but also felt intrigued, “Okay, what is a thaumic detector?”

“A what now? Oh, my thaumic detector. I forgot what it does.” He said blankly.

<~Back in the Mojave Wasteland~>

“After that, he gave me backup disks for the rest of these things called AI units, and I dragged Jamie back to this place called the sink, fending off a small swarm of Nightstalkers. When he woke up, we popped his brain back in,” She didn’t get to finish when she noticed my confused expression from trying to make sense of what she just said.

Seeing the expression on my face, she paused. “Well,” She started to explain, “The scientists in Big Mountain took his brain, his heart, and his spine out, and replaced them with artificial ones. We used the auto-doc there to replace the real ones, then he talked the Think Tank out of testing their highly unethical experiments on the outside world.

“After that, we left the Big Empty using a teleporter Dr. Mobius invented. Mobius also gave me this thing neither of us have any idea is used for,” Midnight said, showing us the golden colored gauntlet, “Then we ran into Cass, Fluttershy, and Applejack running a caravan. After a while of walking this NCR Ranger decided to tag along, that was a few hours ago.”

Accepting the wild and crazy adventure as honest to goodness fact, I decided to take a look around the group. All it seemed we needed to do was find Rarity. I was about to ask if they saw her, but was interrupted when there was a loud bang.

Cass fell over, blood coming out of a wound on her neck.

Before I could react, more bangs and the Brahmin fell over dead.

Everyone drew their weapons except for Fluttershy. She hid behind the large body of the Brahmin while crying. We looked for our assailants, and coming towards us, was a force of over fifteen Legion troops. Their crimson clothing setting them apart from the tan valley they were coming towards us from.

The Ranger drew his/her rifle but fell when a bullet struck their chest. I lined up a Legion soldier in my sights, pulling the trigger I missed, striking the one next to him in the arm.

Surprisingly, Pinkie was having better luck. she was firing off shot after shot from the rifle, managing to kill a few.

In a few short seconds, the Legion troops were close enough to throw spears at us, and Veronica charged forward. I could only watch and yell in horror as she was stuck down by a Legionnaire with a repeating rifle.

I panicked and began emptying in the Legion’s general direction. Applejack fired her shotgun while Twilight fired crimson beams from the rifle.

Jamie yelled over the gunfire, “We need to pull back to the station, we can fire from safety.”

The Ranger managed to get up and began to fire the massive rifle, sounding like a cannon was going off with each pull of the trigger.

Jamie took the opportunity to charge forward while firing at the Legionnaire with the repeater, and managed to kill him with a shot to the chest. Jamie stopped and knelt to pick up and carry Veronica over his shoulder. Running back towards us, he motioned for the Ranger to get Cass.

As this was happening, Twilight, Applejack, Pinkie, and I, used the dead Brahmin as cover. Fluttershy still curled into a ball alongside us.

I saw Jamie and the Ranger make it to the station with Cass and Veronica. From where I was I saw that they started applying pressure to the wounds as soon as they were out of harm’s way. I thanked the stars above the two were still alive.

Standing up to fire over the Brahmin, I saw a Legionnaire fall to a rifle shot from Pinkie, and another turn to dust from a shot from Twilight. I reloaded my measly pistol and fired at the encroaching Legionnaires. One lucky bullet from me, struck a Legion soldier carrying a machete in the throat, severing his spine as it exited.

I had just killed another being without hesitation. Oddly enough, I felt nothing but a numb sensation that paired with the fear running through me, allowing me to keep firing. They were coming to kill us, I was defending myself.

Seeing more Legion soldiers on their way, I yelled to the others, “We need to go, now!”

Twilight began to run, followed by Pinkie and then me. We made the short run in a few seconds, taking cover behind sandbag walls near the entrance of the Ranger Station, only to see Applejack and Fluttershy trying to follow us.

In our desperate run to escape the advancing Legion, we left the two mares behind and didn’t have time to run back and help.

It took only a few horrifyingly slow seconds after we vacated our position for Applejack, who was carrying her shotgun with one hand, and dragging a shellshocked Fluttershy with the other, to be surrounded.

Applejack dropped Fluttershy and began using her shotgun as a club, striking down one soldier. But it was all in vain.

A Legion soldier landed a blow to Applejacks head, knocking her unconscious. Before my very eyes, a few Legion soldiers dragged Applejack and Fluttershy away as more came for us.

Screaming in rage, I emptied my pistol in an advancing soldier, running out of ammo and spare magazines.

A grim faced and flat haired Pinkie Pie handed me the Ranger’s rifle. Jamie and the Ranger were busy bandaging and applying pressure to Veronica and Cass’s wounds. The latter was unconscious and the former was yelling in pain.

I steadied the massive rifle on the sandbag wall, and fired. The recoil from the weapon was extreme, feeling as if my shoulder had been punched by a freight train, but I managed to blow a hole the size of two fists into one crimson clad soldier.

Seeing that we were in a easily defendable position, the remaining eight or so, left the area in a retreating run.

It was over, but Fluttershy and Applejack were gone, I wanted to chase after them, but I knew I couldn’t. Cass and Veronica were too hurt to move and I was out of ammo. The rifle was on its last bullet when I received it.

I broke down crying, tears stinging my eyes. I lost both of my friends to the Legion… they were gone. One minute there, the next gone with the dusty wind.

Shortly thereafter, I heard footsteps come up to me, and I looked up with tearstained eyes.

It was the Ranger. A lone bullet was lodged in the armor near the heart. From how close I was, I could now clearly see that the armor was made for a female. The Ranger reached up to her head and removed the helmet, “Darling, they will pay in blood for this.”

It was the last person I’d thought I would see like that… Rarity… her gloves covered in blood. In a few spots, her face was skinned down to muscle. She sounded like she swallowed a bit of sand, making her normally singsong voice a raspy hiss.

“Jamie’s stabilized both of them. They’re going to make it.” She then growled in anger, “We can’t go rescue our friends. We’re out of bullets and those two are injured and need help,” She said, gesturing to Cass and Veronica, Jamie tending to their wounds.

I forget everything else when I saw her wounds, in total panic I just blurted out, “Rarity… what happened to you!?”

She sighed, took her rifle from me, and said, “The Divide happened.”

Chapter 6: Hell and Back [Revised]

Chapter 6: Hell and Back

<~Legion Raiding Camp, Mojave Desert~>

Applejack opened her eyes slowly, the very act bringing her head splitting pain. Groaning, she tried to move and speak, only to be muffled by a cloth gag that tasted like dirt, and ropes cut into her ankles and wrists, keeping her on the ground. All she could do was stare into a crackling fire, the added heat making her uncomfortable under the sun. Every now and then, the wind would shift, sending her the pleasant smell of burning brush and wood wafting into her nostrils.

It reminded her of the fireplace in the farmhouse’s living room. Though the comfort made her feel guilty, the soft sobs of Fluttershy nearby stabbed at her heart like a razor sharp dagger. She couldn’t imagine what was running through the poor girl’s head. The battle alone would have scarred her psyche, but being captured and carried off to who-knows-where?

Struggling some more in her bonds, she twisted and pulled until she tired herself out and her wrists were raw. Panting in the dirt, the balled up cloth gagging her became drenched in her saliva. Applejack began to hear men cackling in joyous revelry, clinking bottles of booze, and speaking in a language she didn’t know. She could hear footsteps approach, an uneasy feeling dropping into her stomach.

She was violently rolled over, a legionare clad in red with wild looking hair and a scar over his left eye, locked his eyes with her’s.

“Heh, nice try back there,” he said, pointing a thumb over his shoulder. His breath reeked like he hadn't brushed in months, and his eyes screamed sadistic and insane, “I… have to really applaud you,” he said slowly and with a heavy accent, pausing to let his compliment sink in, “While the others ran like little bitches and didn’t help, you,” He punctuated, pausing just a second, “...tried to drag your little friend to safety… only to be surrounded.”

She knew her friends didn’t leave her and Fluttershy alone on purpose. The Legionare seemed to wait for an answer, but never got it due to the gag in her mouth.

He saw the spit soaked gag and let out a wheezing laugh, “What? Cat got your tongue?” He asked, quite sincerely, “But yeah… nice whack to my head,” he said as he pointed to his scar with his index and middle finger, his thumb pointing up. She vaguely remembered hitting him in the head with the butt of her pump-action shotgun.

“Now, you lie there, and listen to me give your little friend a nice chat.”

She heard him walk off as she stared into the sky, the sheer distance the blue ceiling seemed to be away from her, sent her head spinning.

She head Fluttershy squeak in fright as the Legionnaire flipped her onto her back, “So, how are you doing?” He nonchalantly asked Fluttershy, who only whimpered through her gag.

“HEY, I AM FUCKING SPEAKING TO YOU!” He screamed in rage, and Fluttershy whimpering in fright. “So why don’t you give me the goddamn courtesy, of looking me in the eyes, huh?”

“Lloyd, calm down,” Applejack heard another legionary say, “Keep acting like that, and I might have to fucking stab you… again.”

“Jason,” Lloyd said with venom, “She’s being a little bitch and not speaking when I ask a fucking question.”

“She’s got a fucking gag in her mouth, so chill the fuck out.”

Applejack wasn’t amused by the sheer amount of cussing they were doing. It won’t right to cuss like that. But at least the other Legionare managed to shut the psycho up, and they both walked off, leaving Fluttershy sobbing more than ever. Applejack knew she could shrug off being called a bitch, but Fluttershy... she had more social problems than a snake in a knot tying contest.  

Applejack hated herself for getting her into this mess. If she had just told Fluttershy to stay in Goodsprings with Doc Mitchell, instead of going with her and Cass with the caravan they started at the Mojave Outpost, then she wouldn't be in this situation.

She shivered when she remembered the blood… so much blood… did Cass even make it?

<~Just outside of Novac~>

We carried the stretchers we made from thick boards and old shirts we found in the Ranger Station, that no one had mentioned fell to the Legion earlier. Dried blood covered the floor and old walls… but that was in the past.

I never got to ask Rarity what ‘The Divide’ was before Jamie said we had to get Cass and Veronica - now sedated - back to town. Cass had lost so much blood, it was a miracle they were able to stop the bleeding in time to save her life.

I could almost picture myself lying on the ground, a hole in my chest. Bleeding profusely and it just, not, stopping. Dixon could have easily killed me.

We were carrying them to the local doctor in Novac who lived outside the motel fortress’ walls in a small house.

While we walked, I took a good look at Pinkie, who was in front of me, carrying the front of Cass’s stretcher. Her hair was fixed into it’s rigid state, not a single errant curl remained.

We both had killed that day, in defense of ourselves, so it wasn’t murder, but there was no way to tell what problems all of this would cause for her. Simply ignoring her while planning a surprise party had easily sent her over the edge. I could easily accept it was a fact of life here. I was a wonderbolt, we’re tough as nails.

Plus I had Fluttershy and Applejack to worry about.

Those of us who were uninjured talked of rescue plans for our friends before dropping off Cass and Veronica, where the female doctor rushed them into her house, her guards waiting patiently outside the door.

Rarity waved her hand to catch my attention, before walking towards town.

Of course, I followed her, curious about the scars. Pinkie stayed with Jamie and Twilight, who were going to buy supplies for the whole group. We needed all we could get for the upcoming rescue mission.

The fact we were planning a rescue mission kept me from breaking down over Fluttershy and Applejack’s capture. We would get them back, and soon.

Following Rarity into town, she sat down on a bench, removed her helmet, and pulled a small red and white plastic package out a pouch or pocket that was hidden under the trenchcoat. Flipping up the lid, she pulled out a white cylindrical piece of paper and bit down on a tan colored end.

Replacing the box, she pulled out a silver lighter with a black skull painted on it. Opening it’s lid, she spun a wheel with her thumb until a small orange flame spewed from the top. She held the flame up to what I suddenly realized was a cigarette, and took a puff before closing the lighters lid.

Walking up, still shaking slightly from the whole ordeal, I decided to ask, “When did you start smoking?” I sat down beside her, hoping I wouldn’t breath in any of her secondhand smoke. The stuff was so bad, it could kill you, and I needed healthy lungs for flying.

“I was eighteen and it was such a buzz with the elite,” Rarity said with a shrug, “That was before they started linking smoking to health risks, that is. Even after they found out it was harmful, I still smoked… but I had to quit when customers began to complain of the smell on the fabric.” It was strange hearing her speak. She sounded a lot like Rarity, but then again she didn’t. Like her voice was a constant, dry rasp.

She didn’t look much like a ghoul, or what I heard that they look like. The worst thing about her looks were the few patches that were skint down to muscle.

“So why start back now?” I asked. It was something to keep my mind off the fact everything had went to shit, really fast.

“If you’d seen the things I have…” Rarity trailed off. This wasn’t her usual, pansy, overdramatic, out-of-proportion self. It was genuine, the look in her eyes said it all. She took an extremely long draw of the cigarette, before blowing smoke out her nose.

If Spike saw her do that...

“What happened. In the Divide, I mean?”

She sighed, and let her dramatic self return, “I turned into a monster…”

<~The Divide, Rarity’s first day~>

A raging tempest of sand and wind whipped at a lone woman’s flesh, sending wave after wave of sand to cut and scrape her nude body.

She screamed in pain, blood trickling down her arm from a cut. She desperately searched for safety, but the sandstorm she found herself in reduced her visibility to near zero.

Stumbling around in the storm, more and more flesh fell victim to the raging wind and foul sand. Unknowing to her, the sand also held a hidden side effect.

Some of it was irradiated.

When all hope seemed lost, she found herself something to block the sand. She couldn’t tell what it was in the storm, but it felt like metal. At least it blocked the storm, so there she waited. A warm feeling constantly with her. Soon she felt weaker and weaker, before collapsing by the object… an undetonated nuclear warhead, that was slowly poisoning her along with the irradiated sandstorm.

Hours later, the storm was over, and Rarity awoke to the sound of silence.

Crawling out the cubbyhole she found earlier, she surveyed her surroundings. A large concrete wall surrounded three sides of the area she was in, and a few arch-shaped metal huts were evenly spaced around. She felt strange, and hadn’t noticed that her minor wounds had healed, or that parts of her face were stripped down to muscle. All she saw was proper shelter, and she ran for it.

Flinging open the door, she ran inside, and then, very unladylike, slammed it. Panting, she observed her new surroundings. Books littered the floor, blood was splattered onto the walls, and a pile of dismembered body parts and bloody bones were sitting in a far corner. It took only one more second for her to see the body that was hung upside down from the top frame of a bunk bed, disemboweled and decapitated.

Her pupils shrunk to pinpricks before the stench of death and decay hit her nose. The pungent stench made her deposit all her stomach's contents onto the wooden floor of what was once a barracks.

She began to feel dizzy at the sight of the carnage, but a thought kicked her out of fainting and into defense mode, ‘Something had to do that to those unfortunate souls.’ That single thought had her searching for a weapon. Grabbing the red handle of a bowie knife that was stuck into a nearby bookshelf, she began to back out of the building, hoping whatever killed and mutilated the corpses wasn't around.

She backed up until she felt herself bump into something, something alive, something very, very, pissy.

A growl yelling ‘kill’ from a creature behind her as it shoved her forward, causing her to drop the knife from the unexpected encounter. Landing in the pile of bloody body parts, she managed to roll and quickly get up, facing the creature, the knife clattered to the floor only a few feet away.

The creature that was attacking her was wearing an atrocious barding of what was once football padding, patched up with license plates and spiked with rusty nails. Pure hatred was in it’s eyes as it snarled like a rabid animal... an animal content with making her a chew toy.

The creature lacked visible skin. Where skin was once before was peeled down to the muscle, making the creature appear hellacious red.

Rarity made a dive for the knife, the creature, a Marked Man, made a dive for her, teeth prepared to sink into the white, tasty flesh of a human.

Rarity grabbed the knife, and rolled, the marked man, narrowly missing her. Getting up, she faced the ravenous beast, who she now knew there was no way of negotiating with, having heard the chomp of his teeth as he tried to bite her.

“I’m sorry,” Rarity whispered, before lunging forward with the knife, catching the Marked Man by surprise as he tried to turn for another attack. The large twelve inch razor-edged blade sunk deep into his chest, killing the skinless ghoul instantly.

Pushing the corpse away from her, she found herself covered in blood… with the fight over, she collapsed to her knees, and began to sob.

<~Novac, Present Day~>

“Whoa,” I said, as Rarity recounted the tale with such clarity that it had me shivering, “That was… wow.” I couldn’t believe Rarity had it in her to kill, or to deal with what she saw in the Divide, “How did you manage to bring yourself to kill so quickly?” I asked.

She dropped the stub that was left of her cigarette and crushed the smoldering cylinder with her boot, and laughed.

<~The Divide~>

On her knees she cried, cried for having to kill, for being completely and utterly lost, for being alone. All the problems in the world seemed to press down on her as she sobbed by the body, the knife still lodged in his chest.

‘I had to kill him, there was no other way,’ she kept telling herself, ‘If I were to die here, then I would never get to see Sweetie again.’

Then, even more waterworks came as she envisioned her little sister, Sweetie, at her funeral, never getting another magic lesson from her, or a scolding for torturing poor Opalescence. She both hated and loved that cat. Hated her for scratching everything to pieces, but loving her for being her constant companion for so long before Sweetie came along.

With the sole purpose of getting back to her family, she grabbed the knife handle, and pulled it from the corpse. Determination in her eyes, she began to think. She needed clothing and weapons to protect herself, and somewhere to hide in case there were more of those… things.

The little shack she was in didn't seem to fit, the tin walls as thin as paper, and the wooden door wouldn’t last a kick from Fluttershy.

With that in mind, she let all squeamish thought leave her mind for the sake of survival, and searched the corpse’s pouches. She managed to find eight gold coins. The coins had a man’s head wearing an olive wreath on one side, the other was a bucking bull. ‘Aeternit Imperi’ was stamped on the head side, and the bull read, ‘Pax Per Bellvm.’ 

Her Romane was a bit rusty, having learned it at a young age, so she had to search her memory for the meaning of the coins… she gasped when she remembered the translation, ‘Eternal Empire, Peace by War.’

<~Back in Novac~>

“Legion coins really say that?” I asked as she nodded her scarred head, pulling a gold coin out her pocket and handing it to me. The coin reminded me of the standard gold bit a little too much.

“I hope those ruffians have some honor, if they so much as harm a single hair on either of Applejack’s or Fluttershy’s heads, I can show them how marked men treat the corpses of their slain foes.”

I nearly wet myself from hearing those words. Her description of the carnage in the Divide had me thinking I would lose my lunch, and I had no desire to witness it firsthand.

Pinkie decided to pop out of a nearby trashcan, a sour look on her face. Her apparel had changed again, she was no longer wearing the green fatigues, but now a white, sleeveless shirt, camo-print pants, and a red piece of cloth on her head like a bandana. She still had the same rifle, though.

“They are so dead, Pinkie Pie style,” Pinkie said in growling voice she had used when she was angry and tried to crush my head. Was it possible to pity the people who kidnaped two of your friends and tried to kill you?

“Fuck yeah,” I heard Rarity growl out as she quickly put her helmet back on, “We can continue my story later, and with an audience.” She then graciously received several clips of ammo from Pinkie for her massive sniper rifle.

Jamie and Twilight - she will always be Twilight to me, not Midnight - ran up, both of them wearing backpacks, and Jamie carrying a few other backpacks for Pinkie, Rarity, and me.

“Now, listen up,” Jamie said, his voice demanding attention, “A friend by the name of Craig Boone will join us in a few minutes. He has a lot of hate for the Legion, and he want’s some payback. Normally I would just pay for your friends release when they make it to Cottonwood Cove, but the survivors that attacked us probably have spread word through the Legion that I was there, so no chance for that. I packed enough food, water, and gear to lead an expedition to the Sierra Madre and back. We can go when Boone gets here.”

I nodded, and grabbed a bag from Jamie, finally realizing I was out of ammo for my only weapon.

“Hey, I need a new weapon, or some more bullets,” I said, pointing to my pistol that was devoid of a magazine.

Jamie nodded and handed me a rifle he called a ‘marksman’s carbine’ and enough ammo for it to fend off a small army. That is, six magazines of ammo. He also handed me a knife, and three new magazines of nine millimeter ammo.

After he handed off the black colored weapon to me, Jamie also gave me instructions on how to reload and use the ‘scope’ on it. During his instructions, a man with a red beret, dark shades, and a scowl that would make a manticore think twice before attacking him, walked up. He had a long, brown and silver colored rifle with a black scope on top on his back.

“Where are those Legion pukes, Jamie?” He asked gruffly, hate lacing his every word.

“The force that attacked us must have a camp nearby,” Jamie announced, looking between us, “I think that since Nipton and Primm were nearly destroyed, the Legion wanted to destroy Novac. Except that we were in the way.”

I nodded, it sounded logical, though I didn’t know where Nipton or Primm was. Boone smiled wickedly, cruel intent in his eyes, “Guess it’s high time to kill some Legion.”

<>~<Outside the Legion camp>~<>

We found the collection of tents that served as a base for the Legion that attacked us. All we had to do was follow the footprints heading away from Ranger Station Charlie, plus the few drops of blood in the sand.

It was night by the time we found it. The best time as any for a rescue mission, even the moon was hidden behind a cloud, masking us from it’s light. An embankment proved to be a good spot to hide behind and observe the entirety of the small camp, as well as give us the high ground.

We waited behind cover as Jaime entered camp, dressed as a Legionnaire. He was using a uniform graciously donated to us by a dead guy - great, now I’m using grim humor.

We saw him slip out of camp and slink towards where we were hiding. Sitting by me Jamie whispered only loud enough for us to all hear, “They're gone, two Legionnaires left with them a few hours ago. There heading to Cottonwood  Cove, the last stop before The Fort.”

“That's all I needed to hear,” Pinkie growled out, shifting in the darkness.

Rarity, who had night vision integrated into her helmet gasped, “Where on Equus did you get that?”

There was a loud hiss, like a lot of steam escaping at once, then the loudest bang ever in boomed from the middle of the legion camp. Half the legion camp was flattened as a mushroom shaped flame shot skyward, blinding all of us for a brief second.

“You messed with my friends, so now you’re going to pay!” Pinkie yelled.

The torches that remained standing in the camp illuminated the running Legionnaires drop as we all fired our weapons into the survivors.

It was nothing short of a full out massacre. One that Pinkie started by firing the first shot. Most of the Legion were too disoriented to realize where they were being shot at from, and I watched as I could easily shoot the Legion soldiers without fear of them shooting back.

<~Mojave Desert, En Route to Cottonwood Cove~>

Applejack was once again shoved by a Legionare. She and Fluttershy had been walking for the past few hours, but she was in no way able to satisfy the pace set by the Legionare behind her. Fluttershy on the other hand, got lucky. The one named Jason was assigned to trek her to wherever they were going.

The good thing was that he rarely pushed her, only giving light nudges, whereas Lloyd, gave Applejack violent shoves to the base of her back, while yelling expletives that would put a sailor to shame.

Applejack tried to grit her teeth through the gag as she stumbled, Lloyd screaming at the top of his lungs, “MOVE, BITCH!”

Every time he would yell at her, Fluttershy would whimper, even though the verbal assault was not directed at her.

The two legionnaires weren't giving the new slaves breaks on their journey, knowing that Jamie - The man that popped a round into Benny ‘s head, in his own casino, with his own gun - would pursue them. The Legion was in an uneasy cease fire with Jamie, who had single-handedly slaughtered the Nipton force, and was currently helping the NCR. His retaliation during their attack was a sure sign there was indeed, no way of turning him to the Legion.

By now they only had a few more miles until they reached the cross riddled entrance of Cottonwood Cove.  

<>~<The remains of the Legion Camp>~<>

To say that we were through with killing the Legion dead was a gross understatement.

Every body present in a red Legion uniform had been perforated with multiple gunshot wounds’ leaking freshly spilled blood onto the sand.

Some were even missing limbs from the explosion of the miniature nuke Pinkie had launched from the shoulder fired launcher. The launcher itself had since disappeared to wherever she stashes the things she pulls out randomly. Meanwhile, Rarity was meditating by the crater of the explosion, her helmet was off and I could see her glow faintly.

That’s...strange, but at least she can boast about having a glowing complexion. I thought in attempt to get my mind off the blood and gore I helped create.

Walking closer to Rarity, I asked, “What are you doing?” I was curious as to why she was literally glowing.

“Stay back, this spot still has a bit of radiation. And if you hadn’t noticed I’m a ghoul now... well, not enough for marked men to leave me alone,” She gave a hoarse chuckle, “You learn fast that the warm radiation heals most wounds quickly.”

“But you don’t look like a ghoul,” I said, using my only reference of the descriptions that others had given me. I hadn’t seen a ghoul before.

“Looks can be deceiving you know. At first I thought the marked men were mindless monsters, but they also could speak. While the others are busy, let me continue where I left off back at Novac.”

<>~<The Divide>~<>

Rarity kicked open the once locked door of an arch shaped barracks. The door of that particular one had been made of metal, and had a strange computer terminal she was unfamiliar with. Seeing the place was in no way scavenged - just very messy - she went straight to the lockers at the back of the building.

Opening it up, she pulled out a set of clothing that she knew would keep her protected; undergarments in her size, jeans, shirt, body armor, and a long trench coat. She dressed, then dug through the locker some more, finding a light green helmet with built in grey metal gas mask with red eyes.

Donning the helmet and armor, her vision taking a slight red hue, she took a breath of filtered air, glad for the relief on her lungs. She went about pilfering more from the small area.

Opening another gray locker revealed a leather belt with a leather holster, a weapon sitting in the sheath. She quickly threw on the belt, not even bothering putting it  through the belt loops of the pants. Sure the outfit looked drab and tacky, but she felt safe in it, and that’s what counted to her at the moment, staying safe long enough to see her family and friends again.

Drawing the weapon, she inspected it. It was vaguely ‘L’ shaped, made from metal, some gold, but most as black as night, adorned with golden ivy leaves. The dark sierra wooden handle she was grasping was adorned by a gold bear, its paws over a silver star. She then read the gold letters on what looked to be an octagonal tube: ‘For Honorable Service’, it read.

She fiddled around with the weapon, finally opening the cylinder shaped drum containing five brass shells she removed, seeing that they were sharply tipped with lead, she replaced the shells. Spinning the cylinder, she flicked her wrist and closed the drum back into the weapon with a laugh at how simple it was.

Drawing back the gold colored hammer, she pointed the weapon away from her, seeing that the tube had a gold sight that matched up perfectly with the one in front of the hammer.

Her finger found a small lever, and she squeezed, firing off the first shot of many to come, although, that first shot scared the hell out of her, making her drop the weapon.

The shot echoed throughout the valley, marked men hearing the sound.

“HUMANS!” Was shouted by all who heard the shot, making sure every marked brother within earshot, could join the feast on soft, delicate, warm  flesh of a human trespasser.

As a small army of angry cannibal skinless ghouls made their way towards a scared Rarity, all she could say was, “Oh shit.”  

<>~<>~<>

“So how did you survive,” I asked, wondering if it was just one or two, or actually an entire army of them, instead of her usual over dramatic storytelling.

“There was a man,” She started, her face now glowing a slight green, “He went by the name of Ulysses. He saved my life, taught me how to properly use a weapon, and handed me this beast of a gun from one of the marked men he killed. After that he said he had some business with a someone called Courier  Six, then told me how to get out of The Divide.”

“Whoa,” I said, “So did you leave right after that?”

“I did, but had to fight my way through all sorts of trouble to make it to Primm. Robots, Marked Men, more robots, a random coyote when I left The Divide, you get the idea.

“Just getting through all that fighting to survive changed me. You see what we done here,” Rarity said flatly, motioning with her hand, “We killed them all, yet I don’t feel a damn thing.”

Jamie ran up, having searched for clues in the dark with the light from his gadget he wore on his arm, “I found a trail, there taking a shortcut to Cottonwood Cove, but there is no guarantee the trail will hold up. If we lose the trail, we could be stuck in the middle of nowhere, but if we take the route I know, we might not get to Cottonwood Cove in time to save your friends. Midnight, Boone, and Pinkie said they want to follow the trail, do you agree?”

Rarity and I both said ‘yes’ at the same time, and before long, we were off. Hunting down the Legion and our captured friends.

Chapter 7: Orion [Revised]

Chapter 7: Orion

<~Approximately two hours walk from Cottonwood Cove~>

Tired, frightened, and alone. Many thought’s were running through Fluttershy’s mind.

Thoughts like, ‘How do I escape.’ and ‘What will happen to Applejack and I?’ were at the forefront of the frantic thoughts.

She didn’t receive any answers to the questions plaguing her scarred mind that seemed to be going slower, and slower, and slower… until up was down and everything went blacker than the night they were travelling through.

Lloyd heard her fall, scrunching his face in anger, he grabbed Applejack’s bindings, making her abruptly stop. The stop itself pulling her arms to the point her shoulders screamed in pain. “Wait here,” he told Applejack with disdain while forcing her to her knees.

Moving over to Jason, who was trying to wake the unconscious Fluttershy up. Lloyd pushed him out of the way, right before delivering a kick to Fluttershy’s left arm that was hard enough to roll her to her right side. The intense pain woke her from unconsciousness and she let out a muffled scream, tears flowing from her eyes.

Lloyd squatted low enough for him to get right up to Fluttershy’s ear. Out of instinct, she closed her eyes and curled into a ball before he screamed, “DO NOT FUCKING PASS OUT AGAIN!”

Applejack could only watch in horror as Fluttershy wailed through the gag. Applejack never wanted to wish harm on anyone before, but the two Legion soldiers set an angry fire alight in the mare. She honestly wanted to kill both of them where they stood, but the ropes keeping her arms behind her back and wrists bound made that completely impossible.

As Applejack watched, Jason suddenly grabbed Lloyd by the shirt and punched him in the jaw. Not hard enough to break it, just enough to cause a lip to split and spill copper tasting crimson liquid.

“What the Hell!?” Lloyd yelled, coming to full height after ending up on his rear. Bringing his fists up in a boxer’s stance, he spit a glob of snot and blood onto the sand.

“You dont need to yell at the top of your lungs, Lloyd,” Jason said calmly, taking his own stance, “They need rest and water. Get through that overly thick skull of yours that they’re no good to us dehydrated to the point of death.”

“I see your point,” Lloyd growled with anger. He lowered his fists and took a big breath of air, sighing out his anger.

“Now, I want you to guard the path we took,” Jason instructed, gesturing towards the path they took, “Jamie and that band of misfits probably had no trouble figuring out we left with their friends and skipped the camp. But I could be wrong, and the boys caught them as they tried to follow.”

“So do I need to watch the fucking trail or not, Jason?” Lloyd asked, his anger threatening to come back.

“Yes,” Jason said curtly, “I can watch the women. Did you remember to bring your machete?”

Lloyd nodded and the sound of a blade was heard being drawn. The rusty metal failing to shine in the dim moonlight that had decided to finally peek out.

Jason moved Applejack to Fluttershy’s side. He then reached into his pocket and pulled out a small micro-fission battery powered lamp that was vault-boy blue. A nick-nack that one of the Frementari - Caesar’s personal spies -  bought from a store built into a vault on the strip and sold to him for a fair hundred caps.

Twisting the small knob on the top, the light came to life, illuminating a small radius with pale white light. It was no campfire, but it would do.

Fluttershy’s wails had slowed to a sniffle, and Jason took a look at her arm. A nasty blackish purple bruise had formed a sizable band of discolored skin. Reaching into his pouch, Jason retrieved a small cloth bag.

Opening the bag, Jason grabbed a handful of herbal powder. Cautiously he removed Fluttershy’s gag, her muffled sniffles now loud enough to hear.

Moving the handful of powder close to her face he softly said, “Take it. We use this for pain and to speed healing.”

Applejack couldn’t contain her surprise at his actions. One of her captors was actually showing an act of kindness to Fluttershy, and Applejack detected no lie in his words. She watched as Fluttershy slowly sniffed, then opened her mouth, letting Jason sprinkle the powdered roots and flowers onto her tongue.

The concoction tasted bitter, but her arm felt better mere seconds of consuming the healing powder...the only downside was that it left her mouth dry as a bone.

“Water,” Fluttershy weakly pleaded with a scratchy voice. Fluttershy’s soft blue-green eyes were sparkling in the lamps light, the little innocent windows into her soul pleading for help from her captor.

Jason sat on his knees, moving Fluttershy’s head rest at an angle using his legs. Unscrewing a plastic cap on a dull-colored metal canteen attached to a leather strap looped over his shoulder, Jason placing the opening to Fluttershy’s parched lips. Fluttershy felt relief as Jason tilted the canteen towards her, making sure she didn’t gulp too fast.

After Fluttershy drank her fill, a measly tenth of the canteen, Jason set her down to where she was laying on the ground. He quickly moved a few meters over to where Applejack was still resting on her knees.

The blond haired farmer was used to going without water. Applejack often spent countless hours in the sun, sweating to the point that her brother had to make her stop to drink, and it had left her with quite a tolerance towards the effects of dehydration. That didn't mean she wasn’t going to slog down half the canteen in one go. After Jason removed her gag, Applejack drank the water so fast, Jason barely had time to tilt the can away from her.

Screwing the canteen’s lid back on, Jason let the metal canteen fall to a rest at his side as he walked away from the two women. Sitting down on a rock, Jason looked between Applejack and Fluttershy. He had left the both of them ungagged, and wondered who would break the silence first.

Fluttershy just whispered, “Thank you,” as she closed her eyes. She was far too tired from the walk, so tired she couldn’t even think straight.

“You’re welcome,” Jason replied, watching her with regret as she drifted into an uneasy slumber.

The silence continued until Applejack simply asked, “Why?”

Jason took a deep breath, “I often ask myself that. It's… complicated.”

Applejack detected sadness in his voice, so she tried to coax it out of him. “We have enough time, though, try n’ make it uncomplicated,” Applejack took a breath, “I just want the truth. I want to know why you’re doin’ this to us.”

Jason sighed, and looked away, trying to hide his regret, “I wasn’t always Legion. I used to live in a town called Nipton.”

Applejack remembered carrying Fluttershy through there with the caravan with Cass. Luckily for her, she didn’t see the skeletons. Fluttershy was too interested with talking to the pack Brahmin the whole time to notice the shape the town was in.

Applejack never told her what the Legion did, and never intended to.

Applejack shivered when she remembering seeing the crosses with skeletons in blue prison uniforms, and the long extinguished pile of rubber tires topped with the incinerated bodies of the townspeople.

“Four years ago,” Jason continued, “During the battle at Hoover Dam, I was captured after the Legion made it past our lines. I was lucky I surrendered, otherwise they would have killed me. I’m still surprised they didn’t kill me even when I surrendered.”

Cass had told her about the dam, well, more along the lines of ‘huge ass wall’. Applejack knew it was a battle Caesar’s Legion almost won. It was only the inflexibility of the Legate Graham that lost the battle. After the battle was lost, Caesar had him tossed off a cliff while being burned alive.

“You were with the New California Republic, weren't ya?” She asked, remembering the numerous flags and posters in the Mojave Outpost where she first woke up.

“Yeah, they spared my life on the grounds that I was now a soldier of Caesar. It’s how the Legion works, they take tribes and make them their own, with the NCR not being an exception. I know the way we treat women is horrible, but if you look at the upsides of the empire, you would know that Caesar has done more than the NCR government. I’ve been back east around a year ago. It was quite peaceful. No raiders, gangs, or dangerous animals like deathclaws.”

She was going to ask what deathclaws were, when Lloyd returned running, “Jason, Jason! We’re being followed!”

Jason mouthed ‘sorry’ before he moved to replace Applejack’s gag, and turned out the light. He quickly moved to Fluttershy, shaking her from sleep and replacing her gag, all before Lloyd could get his hands on her.

Fluttershy was confused as to why the one who was helping her was now being so forceful with her, but all she could do was let out a stifled cry.

Jason and Lloyd forced the two of them to start running. Jason hated doing this to innocents like Fluttershy, but he knew if any of her friends caught him, he would surely be dead before he could explain.

The four kept a steady pace till morning’s light, finally reaching Cottonwood Cove as the sun peeked over the horizon, setting the sky a blazing orange. They didn’t have time to look at the camp before the centurion Aurelius of Phoenix - a veteran Legionnaire dressed in patchwork armor made from the armor of previous foes that oversaw the camp - told them to directly head to the raft to the Fort.

<>~<>~<>

Jamie had hoped that they could wait, let the friends of the two women attack, but at that moment, they were put on the square shaped raft. The tiny raft was piloted by a soldier he didn't know, and used a long, thin wooden pole to push the raft through the water. The soldier’s head moving behind a rock just as Rarity got him in her sights from the sniper nest Jamie had taken his new friends to.

<>~<The Fort>~<>

It took around three hours to pilot the small raft to the fort, making sure to avoid the lakelurk-filled shoreline. The whole ride, Applejack and Fluttershy were laying on their backs on the uncomfortable wooden vessel, desperately squirming to keep from laying on their arms too long and cutting off their blood circulation. The pins and needles their arms were feeling told the both of them that they were failing.

When they made it, Applejack and Fluttershy were taken away from Jason and Lloyd by two Legion soldiers, armed with spears with faces faces hidden behind bandanas and dark glasses. The two of them spoke Latin so their captives couldn’t understand their private conversation.

Soon, the two of them were whisked through the gates, past what appeared to be hundreds of red tents, all the way up a hill. They continued past another gate, then another, before finally coming to a large circle made of fence and wood. A crude but strong blue metal gate opened. They were led inside where a large metal cage at the edge of the circle awaited them. Their bindings and gags were removed, and they were forced into the cage. The  rusty door slammed with a creak, and the lock clicked, shutting them inside.

The two of them then noticed at the same time that the stands surrounding the wall were slowly starting to fill with red uniforms. In mere minutes, the stands were nearly bursting with Legionnaires as the hum of activity was at its peak. Above the rest, in a separate box that stood higher than the other stands, a figure, cloaked in the deepest red and darkest black appeared.

His body seemed to radiate with authority. His thinning white hair and bald spot spoke his age and wisdom. He raised a hand and the mumbling gathering of soldiers quieted. A tense silence filled the air as the wind dared not whistle.

“Loyal men,” his voice boomed throughout the procession, “I have called you all to gather here, to witness a glorious battle.” You could see him crack a smile, “If any of you brave men want to compete, volunteer, and a selection will be chosen at my discretion.”

Many hands went up, most of the potential contestants faces hiding behind cloth masks and dark goggles. However Applejack could see Lloyd’s wildly unkempt hair right beside Jason’s kind but frowning face, they both were raising their hands.

Caesar spoke again, “I see many hands, yet you do not know the prize.” Caesar let out a few amused chuckles, “These two slaves, if I am being told correctly, were freshly captured from the Mojave wastes. Not only will the winner of this contest receive them as his wives, but he will also gain his own tent, and a spot on my Praetorian guard.”

Applejack and Fluttershy’s pupils shrunk to the size of pinpricks at the thought of them being forced into marriage. Fluttershy began to panic and cry, only enticing more and more Legion to raise their hands.

‘Those bastards will burn in Hell or Tartarus, or whatever the religious ponies called the place of damnation,’ Applejak thought. She saw as Caesar pointed to different men, the contestants jumping into the ring from the stands.

When the last contestant entered the arena, there was a total of eight men.

Jason and Lloyd weren't ones to be selected, though she was quite glad Vaas wasn’t, but knew that the others would be far from kind to her and Fluttershy, and that only made her blood boil at those eight men.

There was the sound of metal making contact with dirt, as eight rusty homemade machetes clattered to the contestants’ feet.

“Now,” Caesar began, “This will be a one versus one fight. Split into groups of two,” As the Legion soldiers split into the groups sizing each other up as they did, Caesar began explaining the rules, “The survivor of round one will fight the survivor of round two, as with three will go against four, and five against six. This will continue until only one remains as the victor. This is a fight to the death, anything goes.”

What happened next was a gladiatorial fight Applejack only thought she would see in movies. The bloodshed scared Fluttershy into plugging her ears and crying in a corner, but for Applejack, the screams of the men as they hacked and slashed their way to the next round, was like watching a large wagon wreck in slow motion. Too awful to watch, yet so enticing she couldn’t peel her eyes away as men fought and killed their brethren, just to have a promotion.

They didn't even clean the bodies from each round, and the show went on for seven grisly rounds, until one man stood over the body of his slain brother in arms, the fallen man having his body run through by the champion’s blade. The champion himself, was unscaved, and only had a few drops of blood staining his already dirty uniform.

There was silence as Caesar stood, and he began to clap, the rest of the Legion silent so Caesar could speak. Stopping the slow claps, Caesar asked in a stern voice, “What is your name, Champion?”

The champion cleared his throat, “Miles, Orion Miles, and it is an honor, Caesar,” Orion said, taking a knee, “to serve you as your newest praetorian.” Orion was obviously milking the limelight he was in. Getting up from his knee, he looked over to the cage. He removed his helmet, goggles, and the bandanna that was over his mouth, revealing short, charcoal black hair, and a devilish smile. The look in his eyes could bore holes through rocks as he studied the women, Fluttershy having not moved from the far left corner of the cage.

“I would like to see my new tent, Caesar,” Orion shouted so everyone could hear, enticing sadistic chuckles from a few stray Legion troops.

“Of course. You,” Caesar said, pointing to a group of Praetorians that were out of sight of the cage, “Show Orion his private tent, after I have a word with him.” He then shifted his point, “And you two, make sure his new wives are there before he is.”

The three shouted ‘yes sir’, and before long Applejack and Fluttershy were forced out the cage and through the middle of the arena, past bodies that were still spilling blood onto the sand.

Fluttershy couldn’t keep from breaking down at the sight of the carnage after she was wretched from the cage. The guards escorting them were laughing as she only sobbed for the seven souls that lost their lives.

<>~<>~<>

When Applejack and Fluttershy made it to Orion’s new tent, they both were surprised by the size of it. The main section was easily the size of two of the smaller red tents put together, and served as a kitchen, dining room, and area for them both to sleep. Where they would be sleeping obviously being the small cage with a lone mattress in it.

There dining area was decorated with an oversized ornate, gold and red rug, a massive table filled edge to edge with plates of misshapen, blue colored fruit, petite unhealthy-looking apples, and a few other plants and vegetables. The kitchen had a fridge connected to an oversized blue battery, and wood burning heater/stove. Applejack remembered that back at the farm, she had cooked many meals on a stove top not unlike that one with a cast iron skillet.

She remembered her first time cooking eggs, they turned out okay, a bit scrambled, and went well with the pot of grits her grandmother, Granny, had fixed. Applejack felt a knot form in her stomach at the thought of getting trapped here, forever, never to see her family again. She refused to cry, she had to stay strong for Fluttershy.

The cage where they would undoubtedly be residing was painted solid black, and around half the height of a human is tall. It was wide and long as a human was tall as well. Small enough one could barely have enough room to crouch, but comfortably lay in on the single mattress. But one mattress would force one girl to be uncomfortable sleeping on the metal bars that served as a floor, or they could share the tiny rectangle of padding and springs.

They weren’t put in the cage just yet. The two fearsome Praetorians waited patiently for Orion to return, who, was busy chatting Caesar and making his promotion to Praetorian official.

When Orion did return, Applejack and Fluttershy had small, black nylon collars, with a rectangle made of plastic and metal, fixed snugly around their necks and locked in place. They dared not resist, only Fluttershy crying in fear. The Praetorians quickly left, leaving them at the mercy of Orion.

“Now,” His voiced commanded. Orion was only a few inches taller than Applejack, but he had a deep voice that made him sound like a giant, “I am your master, slaves. If you dare speak, it will be in your best interest to address me as Master and ask for permission to speak. Otherwise there will be consequences to speaking out of turn.”

Orion smiled wickedly as Fluttershy let out a whimper of fear and he continued, “This is my tent, and you are to obey my rules. In here, you shall be undressed. Only outside may you wear garments.”

Applejack knew what ‘no clothing’ spelled for them in the future, and she really wished she was wrong.

“You both will be ready to serve whatever need I may have, be it cooking, cleaning, or other needs,” A weak cry escaped Fluttershy’s mouth as Applejack tried to remain stoic as possible, trying not give him the satisfaction of seeing her react, and attempt to bolster Fluttershy.

“If I permit you to leave this tent, you will be back in here, fully undressed, by the time I return from my duties, Caesar has entrusted me into his personal guard. Lastly, I may and will add rules and punishments if need be.”

“Also, you might be wondering what the collars are for,” he asked chuckling with an evil smile. Fluttershy began to have a cold sweat, while Applejack dropped a shade of color, they both knew whatever the collars did, it wasn’t good.

“Usually, we don’t have slaves wearing collars inside the Fort, but you two, I made a special request.”

Orion then pulled out a green box with a black pistol grip from a satchel. Two red knobs covered the top of the box, next to a black antenna. Orion turned one knob, and then the other. He pressed the trigger and both, Applejack and Fluttershy’s muscles contracted as electricity coursed through the collars. It wasn’t enough to knock them down, but it was enough to tell them he was in control, and break Applejack’s stoic demeanor.

“I can clearly see your clothes. That was your punishment,” With that said, they quickly undressed in fear of another electric jolt, not even Applejack’s trademark hat remained, which, Orion took for himself as a trophy, making rage boil in Applejack. “In the cage, now,” Orion demanded, gesturing to the cage door as he opened it.

Applejack quickly obeyed, and as Fluttershy went to enter the cage she had to duck low to enter, but Orion stopped her, and closed the door, locking the padlock with a click. “Not you,” Orion said as Fluttershy paled, then broke down in tears again. It didn’t take a scroll from Celestia herself to explain what was going to happen to her.

Applejack knew what he was going to do with her, “Listen, Master,” she said, hating the word, but already under his control from the collar, “Please, leave Fluttershy alone, I’ll do anythin’, just leave her out’a this.”

Orion gave a bellowing chuckle that seemed to make the tent’s walls shudder. Seeing that Applejack was clearly watching out for the other girl, he grabbed Fluttershy by the hair, eliciting a pained squeak from the crying girl, and began leading her towards the back of the tent where a separate section served as a bedroom.

Applejack just sat on her knees, a blank expression on her face. She had failed Fluttershy again. She clenched her fingers on the bars, closed her eyes, and hit her head against the side of the cage. Applejack could hear Fluttershy began to plead for Orion to let her go, only for him to laugh and push her onto a bed, the sound of springs and wood, straining against the weight of two people told her that.

Applejack’s stomach leapt into her throat when she heard Fluttershy let out a pained, shrill squeak, her sobs louder than Orion’s rhythmic grunting, and the lewd sound of flesh slapping against flesh.

Applejack didn’t count how much time it took for Orion to return, but when he did, Fluttershy’s head was tucked under his arm. Fluttershy’s face was dull and lifeless, tears ran in rivulets down the sides of her face, cutting clean streaks through the grime that had gradually built up.

Orion opened the cage and tossed Fluttershy in. Grabbing Applejack by the arm he forced her out with ease in her distracted state.

Rage suddenly boiled in Applejack, and she barely had time to register herself taking a defensive swing. Only did she realize she attempted to strike Orion was when he caught her fist, then delivered a hard slap with the back of his hand that he originally grabbed her with, leaving a red mark on her face.

Orion pushed Applejack away, pulled out the controller, and set it to her collar only, on the highest shock setting. Pressing the trigger locked Applejacks muscles where they were as she tried to yell. There was an electric sizzle like that of a stun gun as she fell and spasmed on the ground. Orion released the trigger after he was satisfied that his new slave learnt her lesson.

Applejack just lay on the dirt and grass floor, staring at the red ceiling as her mind was a haze of pain. Orion picked her up by the neck with his thick hand, and she dared not even make a sound, even though her muscles felt like they were still going to contract into oblivion.

<>~<>~<>

As she lay on the single dirty mattress in the claustrophobic cell, all Fluttershy could focus on was stroking her soft pink hair for comfort, as she stared outside the bars of the small cage she was locked inside. She tried, but failed, to block out the screams of Applejack, or the slaps of Orion’s flesh burying itself into one of her best friends. Doing the same thing he had done with her.

Fluttershy curled into a ball on the mattress remembering how he just laughed at her as she struggled against his hold as she wept, before flipping her on her stomach and mounting her like a stallion would a mare. His member a painful size for the petite sized girl.

She began shivering, not from the cold, but from just plain shock. She felt dirty, having been used as a toy for his pleasure. All she could do was curl up and hope that she wasn’t at the opportune time for one of Orion’s seed to impregnate her.

For what seemed like an eternity to her, she just lay on the mattress and wept. In silence she prayed to any deity that would protect her.

<>~<>~<>

Applejack lay on the rather spacious bed crying as her arms were tied to the bedposts with duct tape. Orion had made sure she wouldn’t try another swing. Now he was sitting on the edge of the bed, panting as he caught his breath from the second time he released. He was in the perfect spot for a good buck from Applejack’s free legs, but as she slowly moved her leg to kick, she stopped, thinking of the stun collars.

Orion finished catching his breath, stood up and dressed, then removed the tape that was keeping her arms tied down. He forced Applejack’s hat onto her head, then led her back into the main section of the tent in the same way he had Fluttershy, tossing Applejack in the exact same way he did to her.

She grabbed her hat off her head and gripped it to herself like a child would their favorite teddy bear, and waited for Orion to say or do something, but he just closed the door, locked it, and walked off.

Applejack looked over to Fluttershy, but the exhausted girl had cried herself to sleep on the mattress. With her asleep, it gave Applejack time to break down and weep to herself, swearing vengeance upon her rapist before feeling totally helpless as the nylon of the shock collar chafed her neck, reminding her she was his property now.

Giving up, she felt the effects of the lack of sleep, and was going to attempt to get some rest, but Fluttershy began whimpering in her sleep, no doubt already having a nightmare. Applejack knew she had to stay strong for the smaller girl. Wiping her tears away, she scooted over to Fluttershy and stroked her beautiful pink hair, whispering, “Hush sugarcube, everythin’s gonna be okay.”

It was soft and sweet, a tone not known for the farm mare to use often, only using with Apple Bloom - her little sister - when she had nightmares about their parent’s accident, but if Fluttershy had been awake, she would have seen Applejack blink twice, then her eyes shift from side to side. It was a nervous tick Applejack had that made anyone who knew her enough well aware of when she was lying.

Applejack was surprised when Fluttershy rolled over, half asleep. “No, mommy it wo-” She abruptly ended. Fluttershy’s bloodshot blue-green eyes locked with Applejack’s jade before giving a quick ‘I’m sorry’, and quickly turned over, leaving Applejack confused. The tone of her voice she used was, of course, frightened. But the childlike squeak and pitch, plus the look in her eyes, made her wonder.

But for now, she was going to get some rest, then see what tomorrow brought. Applejack then realized that they were both drifting off to sleep a little past noon. But on top of everything that happened, she could care less about her sleep schedule.

<>~<Cottonwood Cove Sniper Nest, a few hours earlier>~<>

Rarity had the raft pilot’s head in the red cross hair of her rifle’s scope, his head disappearing behind the side of a canyon. “Dammit, I… I lost them,” She said slowly in defeat. Boone, acting as spotter, began to get angry at himself.

‘I should have done something, maybe have been at the Ranger Station,’ he told himself, hoping Carla, his long gone wife, would forgive him

“No,” Came a collective response from nearly everyone. Pinkie and Rainbow Dash appeared the most hurt by the news.

“We-we gotta get them back somehow,” Rainbow Dash’s scratchy voice protested, the tough mare on the verge of tears.

Pinkie’s mane seemed flatter than before, if that was possible. She wanted death on the whole Legion now. “I-I, they are so dead! Let’s go make those meanie mcmeaniepants pay.” She hissed out, Rarity looking at her with concern.

“Pinkie,” Rarity began slowly, “I have to disagree with you. We were nearly killed by twenty legion soldiers. There has to be fifty or more soldiers down there. Plus, if we harass them, they’re going to hunt us down.”

Jamie agreed, “Yeah, I’ll most likely be hunted down by the frumentarii or other assassins now.”

“Well what do we do!?” Rainbow dash yelled, “I know what they're going to do to them, how do I live with myself if I sit here and do nothing!?”

Jamie sighed, looking away from her, he replied, “All I know is, join the NCR military. I have a few connections, so I can help you get into service without NCR citizenship..”

Jamie then looked to Midnight, “Midnight, I saw how good at repairs you are. Stick with your friends, I’ll try and get you all into Camp McCarran. After that, I can give all my time to help the NCR get a proper foothold before the Legion decides a second attack on the dam.”

Rarity got up from the rocky ledge she was laying on, still glowing faint green under her clothing she asked, “Why are you helping us?”

“Because, if I don’t who is? I’m Courier 6, helper of everybody but Fiends and Legion.”

Rarity jerked in surprise, “Does a man named Ulysses ring any bells?”

“Yes,” was his blunt reply.

“Then The Divide is your next stop.”

As if fate waited for that exact moment, a message appeared on Jamie’s pipboy, signed... Ulysses. The man that all paths Jamie took seemed to tie into, had made it to the missile launch silo, and now waited patiently for the fellow Courier’s arrival.

<>~<The Fort, five past eight>~<>

Applejack awoke slowly, seeing only pink as the light from a single bulb over the table illuminated the tent. Her body pressed up to Fluttershy’s, her hips pressing up against the smaller girl’s rear. One of Applejack’s arms was draped over Fluttershy’s body, pulled tight against the smaller girl’s breasts. Applejack was too ashamed about what happened with her and Orion to care.

Pulling her arm away, Fluttershy let out a loud whimper, crying out in fear in her sleep. Seeing her friend in such a state brought Applejack to the verge of tears, but Fluttershy quickly woke up.

“Sorry if I woke you, sugarcube,” Applejack apologized weakly, her voice still shaky from shock. The whole ordeal was surreal, like the world was crawling at a snails pace.

Fluttershy said nothing as she repositioned herself to sit on her haunches, knees pressed against her head, arms gripping her legs tight.

“I guess you don’t wanna talk about it,” Applejack said before she realized what she was saying. She hated not being able to help, already feeling worthless for getting her into this situation.

Fluttershy just sat silently. Applejack desperately wanted some conversation, not just to see if Fluttershy was okay, but to provide her and herself with some comfort as well, “What was with you calling me mom?”

Fluttershy let out a single whimper at the question, Applejack noticed the sob, “Please don’t cry. I’m here for you,” Applejack said as she scooted over, putting an arm around the mare.

When her arm touched Fluttershy, an angry growl escaped her as she pushed Applejack away with a violent shove. An angry scowl on her face told Applejack to drop it, but, Fluttershy's anger seemed to disappear just as fast as it came, and she broke down crying.

“Fluttershy, I’m here if you need to talk, just say something.”

“Leave me alone… I’m nothing but a slut to everyone now.”

Applejack’s mouth hung open, completely horrified that her friend would consider herself that way, “No, you’re not, Shy.”

Fluttershy let out an angry growl, “No, you don’t understand,” she looked down at her feet, “This has happened before. Now, all I’m good for is…” Fluttershy’s hands were over her eyes as she cried in despair.

Applejack just stared blankly at Fluttershy. Suddenly she realized what she meant, she had been rapped before.

Fluttershy suddenly slammed a fist into the cage floor, laughing as tears rolled out her eye’s, “I thought I never would have to go through this again… but I was wrong.”

“Shy, maybe if we talk, I can help,” Applejack suggested honestly.

Fluttershy laughed again, a forced smile coming across her face as she tried to cheer herself up somehow. Anything to drive the pain she was feeling away.

“Please Shy, I hate ta see yah hurtin’.” Applejack ignored the fact she herself was hurting just as bad. Her own rape a presence in her mind that just wouldn’t go away.

Fluttershy looked out the cage, bloodshot eyes staring off at nothing-in-particular, “It happened when I was just a scared little filly.”

Applejack felt like a weight just dropped on her as she whispered under her breath, “No.” Not only had Fluttershy been raped before, but it was when she was young.

“When I was little… my father was constantly drunk,” She shifted the hair she kept constantly draped over one side of her face, revealing an old scar one would have to look hard for to find, “He would beat my mother and I constantly, always yelling mean things at her. I was too young and too weak to fight him,” She looked down again, letting out a sob, “Sometimes he would just touch me in places he shouldn't, but other nights, when he was really drunk, he would come into my room, telling me as he would brush my hair after he did things to me, saying things like, ‘You look like your mother’ or ‘You’re better at this than her’.” Fluttershy let out a savage yell and punched the cage floor, “My own damn father raped me!” she yelled as she broke down into more sobs.

It took her a few more minutes to collect herself enough to continue. “I knew what sex was long before I was suppose to, all because of him,” She spat, memories of her father coming back to haunt her, “I knew it was wrong, and it made me feel like a freak. It only stopped after I tried to overdose on some of my mothers old painkillers in the school bathroom… oxy-something if I remember.”

Applejack had a few pained tears rolling out her eyes by that point, “Shy… you nearly killed yourself,” She asked in a sad and pained voice while in utter disbelief.

Fluttershy sighed, anger, despair, and a bit of shame in her voice, “I did kill myself.”

She looked Applejack in the eyes, both of their eyes were puffy and bloodshot, “By the time another girl found me, I had already swallowed the last five pills in the bottle and was on the floor. She went for help and I was rushed to the hospital. By the time I made it, my heartbeat stopped twice. Once for ten seconds, the other they said was anywhere between thirty seconds to a minute. I was technically dead, twice in the same day before they managed to get me stable.”

“What happened next?” Applejack asked, hoping she could somehow, help undo years of damage.

“The town guard asked me why I did it. I-I was scared but I told them and they ran tests on me. They  arrested my father, and he died in prison seven years ago,” She let out a sigh of relief, “From there, life got better. Mom and I moved out of our old house to Cloudsdale to get away from all the bad memories, I met Rainbow Dash the following year, earned my mark, moved to Ponyville in my own house, and met the other girls.”

“I had no Idea, Shy,” Applejack said apologetically.

Fluttershy let out a pained laugh, “Not even Rainbow knows what happened.”

Applejack could see Fluttershy was on the verge of tears again, and embraced Fluttershy in a hug, “I’m here for you.”

The two mares-turned-human stayed in that embrace, letting their pain and grief flow out as tears while holding each like a child would hug a teddy bear for some sense of comfort.

Chapter 8: Soldiers [Revised]

Chapter 8: Soldiers

<~Canterlot, Five days later~>

“To Tartarus with you!” an angry Celestia cursed at her guard captain, Bronze Spear - who was Shining Armor’s replacement - in pure rage. Celestia had just been delivered the crushing news that The Royal Guard had to call off searching for the Elements of Harmony, declaring them gone for too long.

Celestia’s unicorn investigators had also given up as well. They detected residual magic at the library, as well as six charred spots on the wooden floor. With magic scans for Twilight and the others coming back negative, the unicorns declared what they thought was a magic blast from a botched spell disintegrated Twilight and the others. It was a likely scenario, as everypony knew the young princesses affinity was to magic.

Celestia took a few breaths to calm herself down, apologized, and dismissed the Captain. Giving a long sad sigh, Celestia plopped depressed onto her throne. How would she explain this to everypony?

Damn politics demanded that searches be called off after so many days of no evidence. A fruitless waste of valuable resources that could be used elsewhere. Her own guard told her. She refused to accept that they were gone, just like that. Celestia knew Twilight was too careful to botch a spell.

Even with her belief that Twilight and her friends were alive, somewhere, Celestia still had a duty. Calling a servant, she had her fetch paper, ink, and quills. She had a lot of tear stained letters to send to friends and family.

Celestia dreaded sending them, especially Pinkie’s and Twilight’s letter. Celestia had practically raised Twilight since she was a foal. And Pinkie’s aunt and uncle, the Cakes were nice to her, if a bit grovely with serving her tea. Pinkie had made so many of her little ponies happy with parties, and Mr. and Ms. Cake were the only ponies she had pulled a prank on in forever.

Crying openly now, a few tears rolling out her eyes. She tried to compose herself and levitated a parchment and quill, her emotional state only jumbling the words that she wanted to put down in her head. How would she tell all her little ponies that the heroes that saved Eequestria so many times were dead?

<~Camp McCarran~>

“Oi’, wake up,” A familiar voice demanded at more than enough volume to make my eyes shoot open.

Noticing that the voice belonged to an old friend of mine, I mumbled tiredly, “Morning, Triplett.”

I sat up in the bunk that I had been issued to me, rubbing the back of my neck. I let out a grunt as my metal tags, both Wonderbolt and NCR, jingled against my chest when I repositioned myself to sit on the edge of the mattress.

“Are we due for PT today?” I asked, mumbling near inaudibly as I tried to soothe my headache and rub the sleep out my eyes. I took a few swigs of the good stuff and it was coming back to haunt me.

Out of the flap, I could barely see that the sun was just starting to peek over Camp McCarran's wall. It was already hot as hell, a phrase used a lot around here. The stuffy canvas tent was like an oven, roasting me with cruel slowness. I already had sweat drenching my no-longer-white T-shirt.

“Yeah,” Triplett said slowly. He was the same guy I had literally ran into days ago, then met back up here. I still couldn’t believe that we shared the same tent. He hesitantly added, “You don’t look so good.”         

“Well fuck you, too,” I replied, holding up my right middle finger. It was a rude gesture I had learned fast in the NCR. I let my mouth run faster than my brain and got flipped the bird. I was too hungover to think of what day I learned the gesture.

“Love you, too,” Triplett countered jokingly. Though I’d hate to admit it, he was sorta, kinda cute, in an armed-and-dangerous soldier type way. After our short verbal banter, he exited through the tent flap that served as a door. No doubt waiting for me.

Nolan had been rotated out of guard duty at the 188 to live back on base. Some poor sod taking his place. Damn, if I hang around him much longer, I’ll be speaking like i’m from Trottingham. I thought.

He was right though, about me not looking good. In reality, I really was a mess. I hadn’t slept for two days after Applejack and Fluttershy were taken, so I worked myself extra hard in training to the point I collapsed from exhaustion, just to get some sleep. Bloody bandaging covered my back. My desert-tan NCR cargo pants were caked with dust and mud, and I hadn’t cut or washed my hair since arriving. The dirty rainbow strands were down to my shoulders, hanging and swaying limply as I took heavy breaths of the thick, humid morning air.

Getting up, I pulled my footlocker out from under the bed. I opened it up, and pulled out my dirty, mud-and-grime covered coat/bulletproof vest, and put it on.

I made sure I had extra magazines for my service rifle and 9mm pistol, the standard weaponry of NCR troopers. Satisfied, I put on my pistol belt, grabbed my helmet and rifle before running out the door. The asphalt floor making loud clunks with each of my footfalls, and feeling like I was digging nails into my skull from the hangover.

Stopping my run, I slowed in the blistering heat of the morning sun, gasping from the temperature like a fish out of water. If it was already that hot, I knew it was gonna be a scorcher later on.

Cradling my rifle, Nolan and I readied ourselves to form up for PT - PT being an acronym for physical training.  As we waited for the sun to cook us in our armor, I saw Rarity in a red beret and her armor, talking with a blushing peer who called himself Ten of Spades. Even with her singsong voice gone, she could still make young men blush.

I could clearly see that her armor had been cleaned and refitted, hugging her form better and making it clear she was female. There were also large leather patches added to mend the bullet holes in her duster coat. After proving her skill with a rifle, they allowed her into First Recon. Boone helping of course.

She also abandoned the massive anti-material rifle for a First Recon standard issue .308 bolt action rifle, not by force, but by choice.

She was good shot with the AM rifle, but even better with the lighter rifle. That and the fact she loved to the point she scratched a copy of her cutie mark into the stock, as well as I name she showed me, Ringing Belle. It didn’t seem to faze the other members that she was the only ghoul among them. Though her appearing as a normal, but heavily scarred human might have helped. Or I could have been dead flat out wrong, I wasn’t listening in on them all the time.  

Looking around some more, I saw Twilight working beside the main terminal building on an olive green truck - her pet project. She had replaced her power armor for a faded blue, grease-stain covered jumpsuit, and her laser rifle for a rusty tool box. Although, she still had that strange gold gauntlet she received from that crackpot doctor in the Big Empty.

Pinkie was promoted to assistant cook for the base. And I had to say, being behind an oven and stove seemed to have cheered her up to her normal bubbly, happy-go-lucky state. Not only that, soldiers said the food drastically improved.

I gave a smile remembering when Colonel Hsu - the commander of Camp McCarran - apologized for putting her on kitchen duty, only to be wrapped in a hug from a reinflated haired Pinkie thanking him in her high pitch, mile-a-minute speed voice.

My thoughts briefly drifted to, Colonel Hsu, I thought he was a little young for his rank. Most of the colonels in the Wonderbolts were grey haired ponies who were at least twice my age, if not more. But Colonel Hsu still had a full head of black hair, covered by a worn-out olive-green beret.

“Atten-shun,” Our Drill Sergeant called out. He wore a firmly pressed and relatively clean set of the standard armor. The only difference was that he wore a wide brimmed olive green hat over his salt and pepper style hair.

“Listen up, pukes,” He said after third platoon, the platoon Nolan and I were in, formed up into neat rows and columns, “I would like to congratulate those of you new recruits who haven't washed out.”

Oh shit… he was complimenting us. Five days of nothing but insults, and the wicked smile on his face, I knew deep down I was in for it today.

“But,” He paused making many of the thirty troopers in formation fidget, “I still feel there are some of you who don't have enough balls to kick Caesar’s ass. So all of you shitbags are gonna give me five miles before reporting to the range. Do I make myself clear, maggots!”

“Sir, yes sir,” was the chorus of yells following his order. Five miles, easy. The Running of the Leaves was longer, and I had Applejack fighting me the whole time.

Instead of standing like an idiot and getting reamed out by the Drill Sergeant, I began to run. Nolan following almost right beside me as we ran the parking lot course. One lap was around half a mile, so ten laps.

“So, Rainbow,” Nolan said quickly through puffs of breath as we jogged a steady pace with each other, ahead of everyone else. I swear his accent was music to my ears.

“What?” I replied, looking into his brown eyes.

“O-Our platoon has leave coming up,” he stuttered.

“And…?” I egged on.

“I was wondering if… maybe you would like to um... go for a few drinks?” He asked, fumbling his words as his cheeks began to tint red.

“A few drinks, that all?” I asked, my tone showing that I clearly knew what he meant by A few drinks.

“Uh… yeah,” He lied obviously, facing away from me.

“If you have the hots for me, try not and make it so fucking obvious,” I teased with a sly smile.

I could see his blush brighten as he then tripped over his own feet. I left him in the dust as twenty-eight more men and women passed him. One poor oblivious individual tripping over him, and getting the both of them chewed out by the Drill Sergeant.

After our five miles, I reported to the rifle range, Nolan joining the line beside mine, since there were only a limited number of targets and thirty people. I figured the entire exercise was a total waste of good ammunition. We should have been using it on Caesars Legion.

After several minutes of waiting in line, listening to the steady crack of some other trooper’s service rifle, Nolan looked over to me, “Ready to lose, mate?”

“Nah,” I said nonchalantly and cracking a smile, “I’ll leave the losing to you.”

It was our turn. The instructor stood between Nolan and me, “Alright special case,” he said, using the nickname given to me because of my non-NCR citizenship. Technically I wasn’t supposed to be able to join, but Jamie was buddy-buddy with Colonel Hsu. Something about a spy and a bomb on the monorail, “Let’s see if you can outshoot this true, blue-blooded NCR citizen.”

Jason chuckled, “Ladies first.”

“I guess you just want to get it over with, huh?” I said cockily as I chambered a round and raised my 5.56mm service rifle to my shoulder. Eyeing up the target, a metal no-parking sign, through the sights, I licked my lips shortly before gently squeezing the trigger.

Pew-Thunk.

A single casing flew out the side of the gun, followed by more, accompanying loud thunks against the metal signpost.

In a split second, my magazine was empty, and I lowered my rifle. Looking over to my instructor, his face was neutral, but his slow nod betrayed his approval.

The instructor stopped his nodding, and finally, after a few tense seconds, he said, “That grouping was so tight together, it might just be a new company record.”

My face split into a grin at those words. Captain Spitfire gave me a compliment almost exactly like that. I could almost feel my ego inflating.  

<>~<>~<>

That evening, the whole platoon was issued a weeklong leave to Freeside and the Strip. Although, we were strongly advised to stay on the Strip due to the Kings gang. The NCR and the Kings were still ready to fight each other. Although, Jamie had returned from the Divide and talked a King called Pacer out of starting trouble, but a single day was too little time to fully get all the pent up angst out of everyone’s system.

Of course, I had no beef with the Kings. Where I heard the term, having a beef with someone, escaping me.

After Colonel Hsu and Major Dhatri - another officer in charge - gave our platoon the okay to leave base, it took no time before I was on the second floor of the terminal building. Even with my speed, I was already standing in a long line of troopers, still in my uniform waiting for the monorail train. Pretty much the same as everyone else.

“Hey, Rainbow,” Nolan called out from behind me. I turned to see him skipping a few troopers in line to walk up to me. A few troopers groaned at getting skipped, but even more were snickering, but not at him.

I was constantly made fun of at first for my name… until I punched that one guy, repeatedly. He had the broken jaw and ribs coming, but got the last laugh when I was flogged in front of the platoon. The whip had left five bloody marks down my backside that still hurt, but wounded my pride more than anything.

“What?” I groaned, blushing from everyone’s laughs.

“I was just wondering, s-since you know I’m into you… uh,” he clammed up. I could tell a few of his friends were taking mental notes to screw with him later. And I say to them, ‘be my guest.’

“Can I sit next to you on the monorail,” I finished for him as he shook his head yes, “Fine, but sit too close, and I push you out the door.”

He had the hots for me, and was cute… but I wasn’t going to let him drool all over me.

The next thirty minutes were a boring combination of waiting in a long ass line, shortly before waiting in a two hundred year old bucket of bolts that threatened to break down at any second to get to the station on the New Vegas strip.

When we did make it, I had to follow Nolan because it was my first time on the Strip part of Vegas. Making our way out of the station building, I saw scantily dressed women – probably drunk – dancing in a water fountain as a bulky blue and grey robot tried to coerce them out. Only for the NCR MPs to be called and haul the women off on their shoulders.

All that the drunken women did was giggle like mad. Though, one girl suggested some very lewd bedroom activities involving rope and the MP’s baton. I don’t think she was referring to the electrified nightstick the MP was carrying.

Not even five minutes in and I love the place.

“So, where we getting smashed?” I asked, my wallet full of NCR ‘dollar bills.’

If Twilight ever gets her memories back and quits calling herself Midnight, she would flip over the concept of paper representing a set money value. It would save a whole lot of resources and labor mining up the gold for the standard bit in Equestria’s currency.

I might have slept through most of high school, but freshman Civics and Economics had me slightly awake... most of the time. Somehow I managed to float my way through school with B-minus or higher grades.

“Calm down, Rainbow,” he said with a wave of his hand, “I said a few drinks, as in a date.”

I looked down and faked being disappointed, “Aw man.”

I may have been too convincing because he quickly reprimanded me, “Hey, last thing I want is the both of us doing something stupid. You know what happens when you get a drunk guy and a drunk girl in a bar that has rooms available.”

“Rarity would applaud you for your gentlemanly behav-” I was cut off before I could continue.

“Wait a second, you know Lady Death?”

“What?” I asked flabbergasted, “I thought you knew I knew Rarity? And what’s with this ‘Lady Death’ thing?”

“You know we haven’t talked much during your time on base,” Nolan shot back, his voice holding a twinge of annoyance, “But yeah, Rarity is popular in First Recon,” he chuckled a little before continuing, “They say she popped thirteen Fiends her first mission out… with her revolver.”

“Was this coming from her, or any of the others?”

“It was Sergeant Bitter-Root and Lieutenant Boyd gossiping,” He said lowly, like the mentioned two would overhear.

I groaned, “Boyd, as in the lezzie that tried to get in my pants first time she saw me?” I asked. I was annoyed to hell with the sheer amount of women suddenly hitting on me. Veronica, Boyd, almost every other woman on base.

“Yeah, the very same,” He stated matter-of-factly, “Boyd was her spotter.”

I gave a chuckle, hoping Boyd would pester Rarity. Then I realized something.

I asked Nolan a question, he told me the answer, and not too long after I was stepping out of Vault 21, my hair trimmed, washed, and jet black.

Talking about lesbians had reminded me my hair was rainbow colored. Which lead to me remembering it was dirty and longer than average. I was eager to see if the change in hair color would make me more attractive to men. Or at least stop the women pestering me.

I have no prejudice against homosexuals, it’s just when anyone thinks I’m one that pisses me off.

Nolan finally got a good look at the new color, since I had repeatedly refused to let him see Sara Weintraub, the owner of the Vault 21 store, mess with my hair.

“It looks lovely with your magenta eyes,” he admitted.

The new hair color worked just like I wanted. “Thanks,” I said, blushing.

After a few seconds, I realized I was blushing and needed to play it off. I needed an excuse, and fast. “Well at least people will finally stop thinking I’m gay,” I said, not exactly lying. I was hoping that our recent discussion about Boyd would make him think the change wasn’t just for him.

Wait… what? I thought, Oh great. I’ve got the hots for him. I could feel my blush return.

“So, would you like to get some drinks and break the ice?” he asked, not really acting all that different, “Afterwards we can get some dinner. My treat.”

“Uh… yeah,” I said, finally my turn to clam up. I had a secret to tell him, “I never actually been on a date like this,” I admitted, blushing redder than a tomato.

To my surprise he let out a sigh of relief, “And here I thought I was screwing something up. Admittedly I never have done this before myself. Most women on base are either not my type or taken.”

“Oh, and what is your type?” I asked, totally screwing with him.

It backfired when he just laughed, “Strong, dependable, and won't sleep with someone behind your back.” He then sighed and I caught a look in his eyes.

“Ex-girlfriend?” I asked slowly, hoping I wasn’t treading on dangerous waters.

“Yeah, we were going well. The two of us never went on any date’s because we just sort of clicked, you know? Like we were made for each other,” Nolan and I began absentmindedly walking, finding a nearby metal bench, talking as we walked.

We sat down and he continued, “But after a while, we were just going through the motions of an old routine. And I’m not just referring to the sex… our love for each other just fizzled out. We fought more than we kissed, then after our sixth month of going out, we had our last argument. I packed my bags, left our little place near Reno, and joined the NCR. Never looking back as I left the house we had moved into together.”

I gave a sigh, the cool night air making me scoot closer to Nolan. “I Joined the NCR out of anger after two of my friends were taken by Caesar’s Legion,” I started, “It’s only been five days, but it feels like eternity without them.” I began to relive the helpless feeling of holding the rifle with no bullets… a field of bodies between us as the distance grew between Applejack, Shy, and me.

“Don’t cry, they’re alive,” He said, noticing my tears.

“Bu-but what Shy must be going through… Applejack is tough, hell, even tougher than me at times… but I can’t imagine how Shy must be feeling now.”

Nolan wrapped me in a hug and let me sob for my friends.

After a few minutes, I was done crying… but still clinging onto him tightly.

“So,” he started slowly, “Maybe a few drinks? We’ll get them back.”

“Y-yeah,” I admitted, “We will. And yes, I would love something stiff to drink.”

<>~<>~<>

I had gulped down two shots of whisky since arriving at the bar. Hoping to drown out the numb pain of failing my friends like I had. Nolan and I were sitting in a booth at the Gomorrah. The air was thick with the stench of tobacco smoke, alcohol, and sex. With the alchohol swimming through my head, making my body feel fuzzy, I began to listen to the up-beat club music playing as I bobbed my head.

It was either here, at the Tops Casino where some guy named Benny was killed, or the Ultra-Lux, which was run by former cannibals.

Gomorrah wasn’t that bad. Here they had male strippers grinding on stage instead of all females to fast-paced music, which was a step in the right direction. The booze wasn’t watered down either.

“So,” I started, catching Nolan’s attention, “You have any family?”

“I’m an only child; my mother died a year after I was born to natural causes.” The nonchalance he stated that struck even me as blunt.

I decided to answer my own question. “Well, I’m an only child as well. Although, I did sort’a adopt a friend of mine.”

“Oh,” He inquired, pushing his empty glass to the side to rest his elbows on the table.

“Her name is Scootaloo, she’s a pegasi, the same species I was,” I said, having already explained a bit about where I was from.

“The ones with wings, right?” He asked as two plates of food were set before us.

Out of modesty, Nolan didn’t order meat. We had both received white plates, full of corn on the cob, pinyon nuts, prickly pears, and buffalo gourd seeds.

“Yeah,” I said answering his question, “Orange fur, and the most beautiful dark pink hair.” I felt my heart twist in a knot as I thought of her.

“If you didn’t have those magenta eyes or that natural rainbow hair, I would swear up-and-down you were a bloody loon,” He stated, his accent grown thicker since consuming his remaining beer.

“Yeah, don’t know how I ended up here. This place has changed us, you know. Rarity’s got the fucking nickname of Lady Death… she used to sew for a living for peats-sake!”

Nolan frowned at my outburst, and changed subject. It eventually drifted back to talking about our friends, other family members, and things we liked. We also shared a few laughs, though alcohol makes almost every joke funny.

One of his jokes nearly split my sides in my drunken state. ‘A skeleton walks into a bar and says, “I want one beer… and a mop.’ That had me turning heads at how loud I was laughing. Looking back when I was sober told me it wasn’t that funny.

We kept talking and eating our meals until I made the mistake of ordering a third shot of an even stronger alcohol.    

After my third shot took its hold on my brain, I stopped having interest in Nolan and my conversations. I began to lazily stare at the rubber and leather clad men as they slid their junk up and down the silver metal poles.

My fourth shot was some drink called a screaming orgasm and must have been spiked or something, because the end result was that I was horny as fuuuuuck for some reason. I made the smart decision of stopping.

Giggling in a totally girly way, I moved to sit in the booth with Nolan, and rested my head on one of his shoulders. It was the same shoulder that had held me tight when I was feeling sad.

I moved my head again to look into his brilliant brown eyes. In the dim lights of the club they seemed utterly amazing. So, I leaned forward and kissed him on the lips. The contact of our lips only made the effect of the fourth shot explode.

That one kiss led us to making out, our making out led us to ordering a room, or ordering a room led to a screaming orgams. And no, it wasn’t the alcoholic drink.

<>~<>~<>

I opened my eyes slowly, the feeling of a small hangover threatening to ring my skull like a bell. I could hear snoring and warm flesh along with a hairy chest.

Moving the covers to the side, all I could do was stare. I had no clothes, Nolan had no clothes. There were a few damp spots on the sheets, and I smelled the familiar scent of sex.

I was annoyed. I wasn’t angry that I had let him screw me, what pissed me off was I wake up in bed with a dreamy guy, and I was too plastered to even remember how he made me scream for… oh wait… coming back now.

And a blush did follow, along with a smile. Maybe I could persuade him to do that one move when we’re both sober.

<~Camp McCarran, 11:26pm~>

Midnight couldn’t sleep. Now part of the NCR engineering corps, she knew there must be someone who needed something fixed. A restless urge to get up and do something productive drove into her skull like a sharp nail. 

Getting up from her bunk in the middle of the tent city in the parking lot of Camp McCarran, Midnight walked out into the chilly night air to find something to do.

She let out a groan remembering that all the other engineers were asleep by now. It didn’t matter. She still could fiddle with the truck. And even though she didn’t know how to fix it, Midnight felt like it was still something productive to do.

She could already envision it, a truck that size hauling heavier loads longer and farther than any brahmin train could. If only she could get the damn thing working.

Moving to her small workspace alongside the terminal building, she went to her toolbox on a rusty metal shelf. Seizing the ancient rusty box, by the cracked plastic handle, she relocated herself to stand beside the olive green truck.

Opening the hood of the multi-ton vehicle, she set to work. Gripping a handful of different tools, Midnight ascended up the large, driver-side wheel to access the engine.

And as she worked, she began thinking to herself.

It was second nature to her now, thinking that is. She had spent the whole time since getting out of the Big Empty trying to summon up her past from the confines of her mind, and figure out what the gold gauntlet Dr. Mobius gave her did.

While totally engrossed with thinking and the task at hand, Midnight began to concentrate, almost subconsciously, out of an impulse she didn’t remember having.

The wrench she needed to loosen a bolt with was enveloped in lavender light. The light coming from the gold gauntlet on her right hand.

It took her a few seconds to realize her needed tool was floating. And when she did, a wall was busted down. It was the wall holding all the memories of Twilight Sparkle from being called up by Midnight Star.

Gasping, the wrench clattered onto the engine with several metallic clangs and Midnight slipped. Falling only a short ways to the ground did no damage to her.

Panting for air, Midnight broke out into a fierce panicked sweat as the memories came flooding back. She remembered Nightmare Moon, the Chaos God Discord and his reformation, King Sombra, Trixie Lulamoon, cutie marks… everything.

It all came back in one raging flood of information. And it hurt.

Clutching her head, Midnight remembered that she was indeed, Twilight Sparkle, and her friends needed her now more than ever.

Chapter 9: Defeat [Revised]

Chapter 9: Defeat

<~The Fort three weeks later~>

Sitting on her haunches in the cage, Applejack heard Fluttershy cry as Orion let out a series of loud grunts from inside the bedroom. It was the sound he normally made when he finished, and it made Applejack cringe every time.

It was the same each night. Orion would drag one of them to the bedroom and rape them. After he was done, he would drag the other to the bedroom and do the same. Applejack had already been used, and she knew she couldn’t do anything since Orion was too strong to fight, and the collars around their necks kept them in check. 

All Applejack and Fluttershy could hope for was he wasn’t in a bad mood after returning from his duties as Praetorian.

Orion stepped out the bedroom, Fluttershy following slowly behind with a sad and hurt look on her face. Tears cut streaks through the dirt on Fluttershy’s face as she cried.

Orion preferred to use her, and he loved to make Applejack hate him for it.

Applejack winced, fighting back her own tears as the memory of Orion holding Fluttershy down in front of the cage as he rapped her. All she could do was yell curses at Orion when Fluttershy began to bawl. He forced Fluttershy on her back while whispering in her ear, having overheard about her father gave him plenty of material to break her down. It made Applejack sick.

Orion opened the cage, and Fluttershy crawled in instantly. It showed that he had them trained to obey like dogs, and it made Applejack’s mind rumble with intense rage, but was quickly replaced by a crushing wave of helplessness and despair. Orion owned them. Nothing could change that now.

Applejack had given up hope Twilight or the others would come. After three weeks of being defiled over and over again, Applejack given up. Her remaining willpower dedicated to protecting Fluttershy.

Fluttershy laid down on the mattress, weeping while curled up in ball. After giving a small grunt, Orion left the room making Applejack glad to be alone, but knowing she failed again, same as every day for the last three weeks.

Still, Orions’ absence was a relief, if a small one, but it allowed her to think about what he would do when he returned. She wasn’t worried about herself, though, but of Fluttershy. No matter how many times Orion used her, she still cried every time.

Applejack had given up on crying after the first few days.

Applejack looked to her friend, who had quickly fallen asleep. Applejack hoped Orion was generous enough to let them outside later on.

<~Camp McCarran, the next day~>

All the NCR soldiers were withdrawn from the month long leave, much to Nolan’s and my disappointment. Though, three weeks was pretty close to a month. We had hit it off quite well since Gomorrah and had rented a room nearly every night in one of the nicer Casinos. We were staying at The Tops when word was spread around that we were needed back at Camp McCarran.

So now I was back at base in what was the parking lot of the airport beside Nolan, waiting for the news. A hastily constructed platform of boxes allowed Colonel Hsu to present himself to the entire platoon as he stood upon it. The group grew quiet when we saw him, waiting to see what he had to say as he gave the entire camp a speech.

Once the murmurs died down and he had gained everyone’s attention, Colonel Hsu coughed to clear his throat, and began to speak, “Men and Women of Third Platoon, I have called you here today to tell you that you are being shipped out to Hoover Dam.”

“Well, fuck,” Nolan said lowly with a shake of his head.

“What?” I asked in a whisper.

“That’s where the bulk of the fighting will happen when Caesar grows a pair and attacks.”

“Oh,” I deadpanned.

We remained silent through the entire boring speech that followed. Most of it was too minor to even pay attention to, and it boiled down to protecting the dam, otherwise Caesar will have our heads on spears.  

After the speech was over, I found Twilight standing near her truck, sipping on a Sunri- no, a Sunset Sarsaparilla. I hadn’t seen her since I went on leave.

When she caught sight of me, she tossed the beverage down and wrapped me in an overly tight hug, to my surprise

“Guess what, Rainbow? I can remember everything!” She nearly yelled excitedly, breaking off from the hug.

“What?” I asked with my mouth hanging open in disbelief. It took me a few more seconds to realize what she said, and I shook out of my initial shock

I could see that Twilight was absolutely ecstatic. Given that she regained her magic, I was giddy with excitement as well as she continued, “I also regained my magic!” she exclaimed through giggles.

Rarity came over to us, from where, I had no clue. Her red beret atop her head made her look like an action hero out of a comic book.

She gave out a hoarse laugh, “Twilight’s only has a little control over magic, the lucky bitch. And yeah, Twilight, grab your armor. We’re both getting transferred to the Dam, along with Pinkie.”

Twilight’s mood changed as she looked at the gauntlet, “If only I could get Fluttershy and Applejack back.”

“Darling, we’ll get them back. If Jamie keeps on helping like he has, then the NCR is sure to win,” Rarity said in her rough, ghoul voice. Twilight sighed, and gave a small smile. Rarity was right, of course, we just had to be patient. But that was the problem, I was never good at that.

<>~<The Fort>~<>

Orion had given Fluttershy and Applejack permission to exit the tent. The first week they spent their entire time in the tent, and the other two weeks he was off and on about letting them go outside.

It all depended on his general mood and if he was satisfied the night before. He usually was. So now, the both of them were spending their free time with the other slaves. With their free time, they were meeting another slave named Siri. Who her master was, was a mystery to the two.

Siri was a black woman, who wore the same drabs as they did. A simple roughspun shirt and skirt made from some very coarse fibers that itched like mad, along with cloth wrappings over their feet. Dirt caked the cloth all three wore, and reeked of sweat. A large red ‘X’ painted on the chests of the rags they wore. A sign of their slavery, as if the tattered and filthy garments weren’t enough.

The three sat together at a picnic table that was in front of the olive green kitchen tent Siri was assigned to. After their introduction to each other a few days prior, it was friendship at first sight.

Applejack and Fluttershy sat on the same side, though Fluttershy was closer to the edge, while Siri sat across from them. Even amongst all the misery and pain the Legion had caused them, Siri and that picnic table was a bastion of normality. A place separate from the horrid world they lived in, that only offered their rape for the pleasure of whoever owned them.

“So, you two doing well,” Siri asked, stuttering when she realized what she said before adding, “Given current circumstances.”

Fluttershy just shook her head while Applejack sighed, “Siri, we’re the personal slaves to a pray-toran guard,” she said, mispronouncing the word as she looked off to the side. Her long blond hair waving as she did. Orion had took her hairbands and hat, “How do you think we’re doin’?” she asked with a heavily sarcastic tone.  

“Yeah, stupid question,” Siri admitted with a long sigh, “You get used to being here after a while, and you forget the new girls aren't as jaded to the abuse.”

Applejack shook her head, feeling sick deep down in her heart that others had grown used to all of this, “And how long have you been here?”

Siri tapped her chin before looking down and shaking her head, “To be honest, I’ve lost track of how long it’s been.”

Fluttershy set her head down on the table. She didn’t say much anymore. All she wanted to do now was sleep and not wake up panicking.

Siri looked at the pink haired girl with a sad look in her worn out eyes. “It’s been hard on her, hasn’t it?” She asked in a whisper as she leaned close to Applejack.

“Orion keeps us in a cage all night, only letting us out-” Applejack stopped abruptly, her expression turning to pure disgust “To do… vile things.”

Siri looked down, “My first child was from a Legion soldier,” Her voice began to quiver, “I-it was a son, they took him from me. I’ve watched him grow from a child… he doesn't even know who I am. To him I’m just another slave.”

Applejack’s heart fell, they were going to force both her and Fluttershy to bear children, only to have them taken. “Monsters,” Applejack whispered with venom, her eyes watering up a bit.

“I wish it weren’t so,” A new voice said from behind Applejack, but she knew who it was.

Jason sat beside her, his crimson uniform clashing miserably with the green-painted wood of the picnic table. “But be careful what you say; the Legion doesn't like when slaves disrespect them.”

“Hey, Jason,” Siri said.

“Hey, Siri,” Jason said back.

Applejack looked back and forth between the two quickly, “You know him?” She asked evenly.

Siri nodded, “Jason was the only one kind to me here.”

“Someone has to be. And Siri, Morris is doing well,” Jason admitted. Siri whispered ‘thank you’ as he got up and walked off. His conscience was screaming at him, seeing these women suffer. He knew he needed to do something… and it would have to be drastic.

Back at the picnic table, Fluttershy had fallen asleep… but it didn’t last. A few minutes of rest and she woke with a jump, interrupting Applejack and Siri’s conversation.

Applejack quickly snapped her vision to Fluttershy when she awoke with a yelp. Both their faces showing fear, but Applejack was quick to recover. She knew Fluttershy had another nightmare and needed to look like she wasn’t afraid. If she wasn’t afraid, Fluttershy would quickly regain her composure.

Applejack knew she couldn’t properly protect Fluttershy, but she sure as Hell would put on a brave face and help her through these tough times.

<>~<Camp McCarran>~<>

The entire platoon began to pack their belongings in heavy cloth duffle bags for the trip to the Dam. I didn’t own much, so all I packed were the things I had when I arrived, plus a few changes of clothing that were issued to me.

Picking up my issued rifle off my former bunk, I slung the duffle over a shoulder. It was gonna be one helluva march to the Dam. Probably at double-time pace as well, if Staff Sergeant Faison has any say in it. Asshole.

Given the heat and the requirement to wear full armor, I’d expected that at least ten or so would fall out of line before we made it to the halfway point. I was ready to accept the challenge.

After checking my rifle to make sure there was a bullet in the chamber and the safety was on, I left the tent for the parking lot. The afternoon sun kissed my face as I took a step outside. I noticed a few others from my platoon were formed up and prepared to march nearby. Faison was off to the side, ramrod straight at parade rest. He was ready to snap to attention at the drop of a hat and call cadence.

Faison was the kind of guy who would make others feel miserable for his own amusement. Case-in-point being the upcoming brutal jog through what I guessed was triple-digit heat while in full combat armor.

As we waited for the rest of the platoon to get ready, I looked around while standing in place. I could see a few other soldiers from different positions, like Twilight from the engineer corps along with two others that she worked with. Rarity was the only member from First Recon to be assigned to the Dam. And Pinkie was the only cook. I hadn’t spoke with her in a while, but I couldn’t break formation. Otherwise Faison would chew me out.

So all I could do was stand and wait.

<>~<The Fort, Caesar's Tent>~<>

Jason stood in front of Caesar himself, the Praetorians sworn to protect the dictator glaring at the former NCR soldier turned Legion with scornful glares.

“What is is that needed my specific audience?” Caesar asked annoyed. He had better things to do than listen to some Legion soldiers complain about any number of trivial things.

“I want to challenge Orion to a fight to the death. If I win, I receive his title and his property,” Jason requested as emotionless and cold hearted as he could.

“Of course,” Caesar said, looking towards Orion, his newest Praetorian, “And why should Orion accept the challenge?”

To make the challenge official, Jason had to get the permission of Caesar. An intimidating feat. For a common soldier to directly ask Caesar to challenge one of his elite...

Jason let a smile break his stone cold features as he looked at Orion, “Because I can kill you in the ring without breaking a sweat… or are you too scared to accept.”

That rubbed Orion the way Jason had planned. Jason could see his face redden in anger, “I accept the terms,” Orion spat out, his voice shallow.

Caesar grumbled in annoyance. This welp came into his tent, and challenged his elite! But Caesar nodded, “If you openly accept to the terms, then I shall permit the fight. You two will meet in the arena. The sooner the better.”

Both Orion and Jason nodded and left the tent, heading for the arena.

<>~<>~<>

Caesar stood in the same spot he had during the fight for Fluttershy and Applejack’s ownership, glaring at the two armed Legion soldiers below. Though this time, the other Legionnaires were absent from the stands, and the bodies were cleared away.

Standing on the dirt that lost its bloodstained appearance, Jason gave a smile as he tightened his grip on the machete. “Still not too late to cower out,” he said, knowing that would only anger the prideful Praetorian.

Orion only responded by letting out a yell and charging, machete held high. Jason patiently waited as Orion closed the gap. A quick sidestep and a slash drew a red, painful line across Orion's side.

Grunting in pain, Orion clutched the wound as crimson liquid stained his fingers red. This weak and lowly soldier had drew his blood… and he would pay for it with his head.

Spinning on a heel, Orion took a few breaths to compose himself. His anger allowed Jason to get a lucky shot off on him like a matador would a raging bull. He surely wouldn’t get another.

Letting go of his side, the two began circling like wolves around prey, sizing each other up. Jason had drew first blood, now it was time to see who would draw last.

Jason sprinted forward, Orion taking a defensive stance with his machete ready to block a swipe. Jason saw this and adjusted at the last second, swiping low at Orion’s ankles. Orion jumped to the side and took a swing of his own, giving Jason a cut to the side like the one he had given him, but much shallower.

They were one to one for hits, it was high time for the real fun to begin.

Facing each other, they began walking in a circle again, seeing who’s patience would hold out the longest.

Minutes of endless circling passed, and the Praetorian caved first. Charging forward, Jason had to duck-and-roll under a machete swipe aimed for his neck, unable to return a swing of his own.

Jason quickly sprung back to his feet as Orion backed off, and they began their circle yet again. One could literally see a path tracked through the sand, dotted by a few drops of blood from both contestants.

For nearly three minutes, they circled, waiting for a moment to strike. Jason noticed Orion beginning to get a bit sluggish from losing blood to the deeper of the their two cuts.

That was his chance, sprinting forward, Orion hesitated just a fraction of a second too long. It was enough time for Jason to land a painful blow right across Orion's arm as he prepared to defend himself.

The surge of pain made Orion scream in rage. Orion managed to land a heavy blow with his fist to Jason’s back before the other soldier could get away, making Jason stumble before Orion landed a slice to the back of his leg as he tumbled, falling to the ground.

Crawling on the ground, one leg near useless, Jason heard Orion approach, ready to deliver a fatal blow.

His mistake.

Jason quickly rolled over, throwing a fistful of sand with his left hand as he thrust his machete with the right, catching Orion just under his ribcage. The angle of the thrust had allowed Jason to stab him all the way to the heart with the rusty blade.

Pulling his blade out, Jason allowed Orion to fall over on his stomach. He was dead within seconds, his blood pooling beneath him on the sandy floor.

“So he did have a heart,” Jason said, chuckling as he realized where the stab landed.

Craning his neck, Jason saw that Caesar was watching him with a smirk, with arms crossed like he was angry. Caesar just simply nodded and left the platform.

Jason managed to get to his feet, dropping the machete and limping heavily as he exited the arena. He only made a few steps before he fell and a single Legionnaire helped him up. It was Morris, Siri’s teenage son. His skin was a lot lighter shade than his mother’s due to his father being white, and his hair was blond.

“The fuck happen with you?” Morris asked in shock as Jason’s blood stained his uniform.

“Watch your mouth, kid… and I just won a fight with Orion,” Jason said, clutching his side. He tried his hardest to look out for Morris when he could.

“I could drop you and let you crawl your way to, Siri,” Morris joked as he shook his head.

“You would leave me, the one who has watched your ass for four years straight, getting you out of countless trouble with others your age?” Jason joked back with a weary smile. It was true; ever since Jason was conscripted into the Legion, he managed to keep Morris out of trouble. Trouble that Morris seemed to always have started.

Chuckling, Morris carried the bloody and battered Jason to the woman he never recognized as his mother. Siri gasped at Jason’s injuries and immediately set to work wrapping the cuts in washed cloth the Legion used as bandages. After she was finished with wrapping his wounds, she gave Jason a few bags of herbal powder to speed the healing of his wounds… and a crutch.

Using the crutch to brace himself, Jason began to hobble back to Caesar’s tent. He had no machete to give to the guard standing in front of the tent’s single entrance flap, since he left it in the arena.

But he did give the lone guard the crutch; there was no need for Lanius to see he was hurt that bad.

Upon entering, Jason saw Caesar oh his throne, both hands on the arm rests.

“Step forward, Praetorian,” Caesar ordered sternly. It took jason a split second to realize Caesar was talking to him, and Jason quickly complied. He kept walking forward until the bald dictator held up a hand, a gesture for him to stop.

Jason didn’t speak as Caesar got up from the throne and stepped towards him. Jason could feel Caesar’s eyes scanning over his wounds as he circled him. Like some sort of predator seeing a quick and easy kill.

“I’ll give you three days rest, no more than that.”

Jason just responded with a quick, “Thank you.”

Caesar didn’t react to his thanks, only returning to his throne to sit, “While you are healing in your private tent, I need to tell you your responsibilities with owning your new slaves.”

Waiting a moment, Caesar continued, “The second battle for the Dam will no doubt end with the deaths of many of our proud Legionaries. So, seeing as how your slaves are exceptionally healthy specimens amongst the rest of the Wasteland rabble, you are to breed them. You yourself have proven to be a worthy Legion soldier, strong enough to take down my newest Praetorian with ease.”

Jason swallowed nervously at that order, not liking it one bit. After letting the news sink in, Caesar smiled, “And if you don’t wish to breed with them, I can always have another take your place.”

“T-that won’t be necessary, Caesar,” Jason told him. All he would have to do is accept to impregnate them, then don't have sex. Simple as that.

“Oh, and Jason,” Caesar said with a wicked grin, “I’ll be expecting them to plump up soon. I would hate to have been lied to. And we both know what happens to liars amongst my ranks.”

Jason remained stoic. though grinding his teeth in anger as his stomach turned in a knot out of fear. Liars were usually crucified and made an example of.

Caesar had Jason right where he wanted him. In his rightful place between dooming the girls he obviously wanted to protect to others, or abandoning his own morals to escape his own punishment. Caesar was a smart man, and he knew how to make those under him suffer.

<>~<>~<>

After retrieving his crutch, Jason limped to his new tent with his head hung low. He didn’t want to have to tell them about the new order, but like any bad thing, it comes all too quickly. He found himself in front of his new tent, already cringing at what he would have to do. Hesitantly, he entered, and he saw Applejack and Fluttershy… naked save for shock collars around their neck.

“Whoa,” Jason said, averting and covering his eyes in surprise and modesty. “Sorry,” he added meekly.

“Don’t be sugarcube. Our master don’t take a liken to us wearin’ clothes,” Applejack said as she made her way to the cage with Fluttershy following her lead.

Upon seeing their destination, Jason jerked his head back, and blurted out, “What are you doing?”

“We’re goin’ tah bed,” Applejack said as she shook her head.

Jason felt sick, Orion had trained them to obey every order, and it disgusted him. He was glad he had put down that monster. Shaking out of his thoughts, his face grew serious as he made a decision.

“Pull the mattress out the cage,” he said with a straight face, “You’re no longer sleeping under lock-and-key every night.”

“Wh-what?” Applejack asked, stuttering as she whipped around to face him.

“I asked Caesar to challenge Orion. I killed him in the arena,” he explained with a sigh. That caught both the girls attention.

Fluttershy then noticed the crutch and bloody bandaging on Jason with an alarmed gasp, rushing over to him.

To his embarrassment, Jason had a naked Fluttershy poking and prodding him, trying to tend to injuries that were already tended to by Siri, repeatedly asking, “Are you hurt?” and things along that line of thought. All the while Jason was protesting her concern for his injuries.

“Don’t struggle, you’ll only make it worse,” Fluttershy kindly ordered as she looked at his side, checking the bandages and making him wince in pain. It was the most Jason heard Fluttershy say in her time here.

“Shy, can ya leave him be?” Applejack requested, “Siri must’ve doctored him up already.”

Jason just nodded and Fluttershy backed off, which he was glad for. He still had no idea how to explain the current situation to them, and having Fluttershy fret over him just made it harder. When Fluttershy backed off to pull the mattress out the cage, Jason motioned with his hand for Applejack to follow him, and she nodded in confirmation.

As she followed behind him, Jason made sure he was well enough away from Fluttershy so he could talk with Applejack privately. He felt that Applejack could take the news better and more bluntly, then pass it on to Fluttershy. He learned their names from the several times he spoke with them. Or at least Applejack.

Taking a deep breath, he let out a sigh, then began to explain, “I’m sorry Applejack, but something went wrong with my plan to rescue you two.”

“What happened?” Applejack asked quickly, her voice wavering with trepidation.

“Caesar must have suspected something from me,”Jason admitted with a sigh, checking over Applejack’s shoulder to look at Fluttershy, still fighting with the mattress, “I’m supposed to breed you, like you’re some animal,” Jason said with a groan, “And if I don’t, I’ll be punished and someone else will… take my place.”

Applejack knew he was telling the truth as gasped at the conclusion, paling slightly. “How can they do that!?” Applejack said loudly before she caught herself, putting a hand over her mouth. Jason flinched at her noisey reaction, and they quickly looked over to Fluttershy. Thankfully, she was oblivious as she finally managed to pull half the mattress out of the cage, and didn’t hear what was said.

Turning back to Applejack, Jason shook his head from side to side, taking a breath and sighing, “Caesar is smart. And his word is law around here. He must have known I wanted to help you two and turned it against me.”

“I appreciate yer honesty… and I thank you for all that you done even without knowin’ us.” Applejack said with a sad smile, then her expression changed one to confused anger, “But… how can I explain this tah Shy?”

“I think it would be best if we both go ahead and tell her,” Jason said truthfully. He also wanted to get it over with as quickly as he could. He was a little uncomfortable around them because, one: the current situation he found himself in, and two: both of them didn’t have a single piece of clothing on them.

“Hey Fluttershy,” Applejack called out. Jason looked over to Fluttershy, who was resting on the mattress, now out of the cage.

“Before you do, can you at least put on some clothes?” Jason asked as his eyes began to drift.

“My mouth is up here,” Applejack deadpanned, glad she could say something and not get punished for it.

Jason quickly looked back up, but he noticed something strange when he was looking, “What was with the apple tattoos?”

Rolling her eyes, Applejack turned to go get her clothes on, “I’ll explain later.”

<>~<>~<>

Within a short while, both Applejack and Fluttershy were dressed, and Jason had helped Applejack explain what Caesar had done.

“I-I don’t know what to do,” Fluttershy said, looking down with a sad sigh, as her thoughts began to conflict. If she were to agree, she would go through all that pain Jason fought to keep her from again. But then again, if she didn’t, then the same man that risked his life for her would face punishment, and they would still go through the pain of someone else forcing themselves on them.

“I-I-I guess I have only one option really,” Fluttershy stated with a shaky voice, “Jason… you risked your life to keep us safe from Orion, and I know what will happen if I accept. I can’t let them hurt you for our sake.”

Applejack nodded, “I won’t be able ta live with myself either. I know full well that you’ve been honest with us, and wouldn’t be lyin’ for your own gain. If Caesar wants me pregnant, than I-I can at least choose someone I trust not to hurt me.”

The words stung at Jason. They trusted him, and he knew it was wrong to be using them like he was to escape punishment. Nodding his head, Jason let the two girls be as he made his way to his new room for the first time.

Upon entering the separate room section, he took one look at the bed, knowing that Orion had used it.

“I’d better burn that with a flamer,” Jason joked to himself, trying to lighten the heavy mood in the air as he moved to the bedside table with a single drawer. Opening it up from curiosity, his search of the drawer revealed a single key sitting in the otherwise empty space. He recognized that was the key to the shock collars.

“Guess on my way to get a few bedrolls I can take those damned collars off.”

Chapter 10: Victory [Revised]

Chapter 10: Victory

<~Hoover Dam, three months later~>

I stared at the floor as I pushed myself up, waited a few seconds and then bent my arms as I lowered myself. I repeated the cycle again and again in a continuous fluid movement, sweating profusely from the exertion and heat. My once black hair was once again long and back to its normal rainbow color.

I usually did three sets of thirty push-ups a day. One in the morning as I waited for Nolan to get me for morning chow, another set after my patrol rounds were up, and one after evening chow.

Ever since joining the NCR, or more importantly getting shipped out to the Dam, my life had dissolved into a strict routine. I didn’t deviate, I didn’t slack off, I had my orders and I followed them. I didn’t want to do anything that would jeopardize my chances of being stationed here when Caesar inevitably attacked. I would fight the entire Legion if it got AJ and Fluttershy back.

I didn’t smile as I remembered what felt like a lifetime ago that I would sleep half the day and then do stunts the rest. Those days were long gone, replaced with constant drills from Colonel Moore, training with my rifle, and patrolling every inch of the Dam. I rarely had time off, nor did the others, but I didn’t really care. Rarity practically lived on the second of the four towers atop the Dam, rifle ready to give the Legion a generous helping of lead.

Pinkie was constantly busy with cooking, but I had time to chat with her in the kitchen before I went to the mess hall that doubled as a recreational room.

I didn’t see much of Twilight. Her degree in theoretical physics actually helped her replace Mr. Fantastic as assistant engineer. And with her memories back, she was constantly busy working on the turbines. She had helped the head engineer - who I couldn’t for the life of me remember his name - fix many of the mechanical problems that he couldn’t. I wanted to facepalm when I remembered calling her an egghead for wanting to go to the Ponyville Dam just to see how hydroelectricity worked.

Done with my pushups, I hopped quickly to my feet and retrieved my rifle from my locker. I was already dressed in everything else.

Entering the claustrophobic concrete hallway with metal flooring and exposed overhead wiring, I waited by the door for Nolan so we could head to the kitchen together to grab something to eat. He was never this late before.

I quickly grew impatient and walked down the straight hallway to look for him. I stopped and quickly looked into the men’s sleeping quarters, finding it empty. Turning a corner, I saw only one guy standing guard by the door that lead to the quartermaster. It was hard to tell who it was by their looks. The body armor and helmet we were issued nearly made every trooper look alike. The one noticeable feature was the corporal stripes on the sleeve of their jacket. That told me it could be either Austin, or Zach, the only two corporals assigned to guard that door.

Walking closer, I gave a quick glance at him as I passed. I could see unblinking brown eyes through his goggle lenses, so it had to be Austin on account of Zach having grey.

Walking further down the hallway, I took a left turn, walked exactly fifteen steps, turned right and was at the kitchen door. Even through the metal of the door I could hear Pinkie happily humming a song to herself. Winter Wrap Up, if I heard correctly.

Licking my lips, I heard my stomach growl in hunger, and it made me open the door. What greeted me made me jump back. It was Pinkie, standing on the other side with a large smile.

“Hey, Dashie,” Pinkie squealed as her impossibly wide smile grew even larger. I knew something was up.

I rolled my eyes, “What is it, Pinkie?”

She handed me a plate with a steaming brahmin steak on it that was accompanied with a side of grilled agave.

“This has got to be some sick joke Pinkie, seriously, this is meat.”

She gave me her trademark smirk, “Not a joke, eat up.”

Of course, Pinkie being Pinkie, after she said that, physics decided to bend to her will and caused the smell of the steak to waft into my nostrils. I had to admit, the slab of meat smelled delicious. I took the plate from Pinkie as I stared at the food, my mouth watering from the aroma

Swallowing my saliva, I shook my head, trying to keep my thoughts straight. “Dude, why are you giving me this?” I asked, confused beyond reason.

Pinkie looked sad for a second, then she decided to smile real extra wide, “Silly filly, how could you forget your own birthday?”

How in the heck did I totally forget that? Seriously, it was my own fucking birthday.

I shook my head and my normal thoughts resumed, “Oh… um, why the steak then?”

Pinkie shrugged, “Decided that since I couldn’t bake a cake, I could give you something completely different than beans for protein. Don’t worry about people thinking you’re strange; Fluttershy feeds fish to her otters, and meat to the bears.

At the mention of her name I felt my body temperature drop as my face scrunched up in worry. We were so damn close to the fucking fort, yet too far away to save her and AJ. The nagging fact kept pestering me the entire time I was here. Admittedly, I found it hard to sleep at night being so close.

Pinkie saw my reaction, and gave me a hug with a reassuring smile, “We’re going to get them back soon, trust me.”

I gave a sigh and a weak smile, glad to have her for support. After pulling away from the hug, Pinkie handed me a Sunset Sarsaparilla, a knife, and a fork. Nodding in thanks, I left the kitchen and headed towards the rec room with my food. Entering, I saw that the room was a simple rectangular area, filled with two pool tables, a couch, along with tables and seats to eat and play poker.

I found a seat and looked around, Nolan was nowhere to be found amongst the ten people scattered around the room. Most of them were engineers in light-grey jumpsuits.

Looking down at the still warm steak, I picked up my knife and cut a very, very tiny piece off the steak. Spearing the little chunk with my fork, I noticed the meat was slightly pink, and juice began to seep out and mix with the agave.

Lifting up the fork to my mouth, I realized I was shaking slightly.

‘Fuck it,’ I thought as I quickly ate the piece before my mind could give me a reason not to.

Smacking my lips as I rolled my tongue around in my mouth, my taste buds finally registered the taste… then exploded with a glorious mixture of heat and flavor. Never in my life had I tasted anything so, unique, before. No wonder the griffons ate the stuff.

I quickly ate the rest of the steak, along with the juice drenched agave, and washed it all down with a relatively cold sarsaparilla. The entire meal was one, if not the best things I had ever eaten in my time in the Mojave, or even in my whole life for that matter. Pinkie sure knew how to cook.

Pinkie knew how to cook meat, and I wasn’t even going to think on how- Well, actually she could have learned how to cook meat while serving at Camp McCarran.

My thoughts were interrupted when a piece of paper was placed in front of me. I looked to see who placed it in front of me, but I wasn’t fast enough, the person being long gone. Picking up the paper, I unfolded the neat and even creases and read what it said.

Meet me by the storage room door

It wasn’t signed, but I was pretty sure I knew who it was. Getting up, I left my plate where it was since the janitors handled cleaning, and left the rec room.

From the there, I took a left, went straight down the hallway, took a right, then a left, went down another long hallway, took another left, then another right, and finally found the door - I had gotten good at finding my way through this Dam. However, there wasn’t anyone waiting for me, not even Nolan. At that moment, the door to the storage room opened ominously, as if wanting me to come inside. I knew whoever was behind the note was up to something, and inside. Stepping forwards cautiously, I entered the storage room, and the door closed behind me. Making me jump with a start.

Looking around, the only light coming from a few overhead lights, all I saw were boxes and shelves, one box having a trooper’s helmet atop it. Turning in every direction, I was starting to get frustrated when I was suddenly pushed against a large crate, making me completely pissed before I was lifted and set down on top of it like it was a chair with my legs dangling off the edge.

There was a loud sound, like electric sparks, and a helmetless Nolan appeared out of thin air, holding a stealth-boy - I could really use a few of those for pranks. Upon seeing him my anger quickly left me,

I was about to speak, but caught myself when Nolan tossed the stealth-boy aside, going straight for my belt.

I blushed in realization of what was going on.

Nolan looked up from messing with my belt to see my rosy pink cheeks. I tried to hide my face. I was supposed to be a badass, not a blusher.

With a smile, he set back to work on my belt.

“A certain someone told a me that it was your birthday today,” Nolan said as he finally managed to unclip my belt, now working on the buttons of my pants, “I wanted to give you a present.”

As my pants began to slide slowly down my legs, stopping just after passing my panties, I laughed lightly, “Nolan, you can be so cheesy sometimes.”

Nolan lowered his face closer to my panties, his breath tickling me, before looking up with a goofy smile, “I know, but it still makes you wet.”

My pink face practically turned crimson as his foreplay began to show between my legs, dampening the soft fabric.

With a quick motion of Nolan’s hands, the panties joined my pants and he drove his face straight between my legs, sending his warm tongue right between my wet lips with ease.

“Ohhh, fuuuck yes,” I moaned as Nolan started dragging his tongue up in a slow, sensual lick.

I quickly found myself angling my hips to let him dive deeper, moaning more as his tongue went for another, deeper lick. I had to brace myself up with my hands behind me after Nolan started nibbling on my clit, sending pulse after pulse of pleasure through me and leaving me silently panting for air.

Using one hand to brace myself up, I used my other to run through his hair, digging my shortly cut nails into his scalp every now and then as he hit the spots he knew well.

A few more licks and clit teases, he had to cover my mouth as I screamed his name into his hand.

I stared at the ceiling on my back as he brought hand away from my mouth, already breathless after one orgasm, my tongue lolling out of my mouth.

I felt him slip my panties back over my hips, the put my pants back me, as well as my belt.

Getting up, I looked at him, smiling as I pulled him close for a kiss. After a moment, I broke the kiss, giving him a alluring smile. “That... was... awesome,” I said through gasps for air.

“Glad you liked it, but w-” A loud explosion rocked the Dam like an earthquake. Klaxon horns began blaring, causing us to drop the lovey-dovey act, and scramble for our weapons.

<>~<Hoover Dam, Power Station 4>~<>

Twilight flipped over a desk, Legion gunshots pelting the wood and metal as spears soared overhead.

Many of the NCR troopers inside power station 4 were already dead, Rainbow Dash and Nolan were nowhere to be found. The Legion were swarming out of the water intake tunnels shortly after Jamie went to see General Oliver. They had taken everyone by surprise.

Vaulting over the table, she narrowly avoided a grenade blast while telekinetically deflecting spears with the gauntlet acting as her horn.

Twilight stopped another grenade just after it left the grenade-happy Legionnaire’s hand. The end result was a very confused and scared Legion soldier seeing a live grenade float in a lavender cloud. The blast had also rewarded her with two other Legion soldiers caught in the blast, as well as a clear hole in their ranks to get to the door.

Moving fast as lightning, she stopped when Jamie came out of General Oliver’s compound, taking down the rest of the Legion soldiers with his marksman carbine.

<>~<Guard Tower 2>~<>

Rarity was easily squeezing off shot after shot from her hunting rifle. Scores of Legion soldiers were swarming the top of the Dam as explosions rocked from below. They were breaking into the Dam from tunnels to attack where the NCR least expected it.

Looking through the scope of her rifle, Rarity spotted a Centurion in patchwork armor leading his men onward. A single bullet remedied that problem. As she lined up another shot on a different officer, Rarity felt herself get pulled down. Turning quickly, she was face to face with Pinkie Pie.

<>~<Hoover Dam Kitchen, seconds prior>~<>

Pinkie had no idea why her oven was leaking gas, followed by an explosion, but she figured it had something to do with the Legion.

Shaking off the soot that blackened nearly every inch of her, Pinkie started rummaging through the kitchen fridge, pulling out two 10mm SMG’s and a few spare magizines. Logically, she kept them there in case of an emergency, and the Legion attacking seemed like a big one.

Pinkie jumping into a trashcan like she was diving into a pool, reappearing from the hatch in the tower behind Rarity, who was busy sniping Legion officers.

An eye flutter, both knees pinching, and a very big scalp itch. Pinkie sense combo saying one of her friends was about to die. Not on her watch.

Pinkie grabbed Rarity by the collar of her trench coat and pulled her down, just in time for a bullet to whiz over their heads.

“Pinkie Pie!?” Rarity asked, both eyebrows raised in surprise and confusion.

Pinkie didn’t respond, but pulled Rarity down the hatch before half the Dam went up in flames.

<>~<The top of Hoover Dam>~<>

Nolan and I had pushed our way through the Legion ranks to the old visitor center to get topside and link up with anyone that was still alive. On the way, we bumped into Jamie and Twilight as they fought their way out of the overrun lower levels. We hardly spoke a word as we took off outside, wanting to assess what was going on. What greeted us all, however, was chaotic enough to make what Discord does to make some sense.

Bodies of people I once knew were strewn about, their lifeless gazes staring at nothing. Legionnaires were carrying bloodstained machetes everywhere they went, striking down any NCR trooper that was in range. We were so unprepared that the Legion were killing us left and right.

Making sure to line up headshots, Nolan, Twilight, Jamie and I opened fire with our weapons, making our way through the top of the Dam. We were doing fairly well, able to take out a few Legionnaires before they could even fight back. Unfortunately, the numbers were against us as they fired upon us. We were forced to take cover behind a sandbag wall, pinned down by the constant gunfire.

There were so many bullets heading our way that we couldn’t get a shot back. Not only that, but they were slowly approaching, and it wouldn’t take long before they were on top of us. I was sure we were going to die before a loud droning sound filled the air before explosives rained from the sky over the Legion’s heads, killing a majority of them.

“The Boomers actually got the fucking thing in the air?” Jamie said as I looked towards the sky, watching a rust colored machine fly over the dam.

No one answered his question as I looked back to the ground. The Legion were also awestruck by the contraption that had bombarded them, and it gave us a nice distraction. Without hesitation, we aimed our weapons and fired them, taking out the Legion that once had the upper hand.

As we neared the second guard tower, Rarity and Pinkie burst out of the doors in the side of the tower, quickly joining us and swelling our ranks to six.

We had cleared half the Dam and were nearing the checkpoint building in the center when a group of ten men and women clad in sleeveless leather jackets and blue jeans came to help, armed to the teeth with pistols and SMG’s.

Jamie laughed like he had just won the lottery, “I was wondering when the Great Khans would show up for this fight.”

Ignoring him, we all ran through the checkpoint building, now halfway across the Dam. From there, things got real interesting.

Six soldiers clad in armor like Rarity’s, with helmets that had green eyes came up to us.

“Alpha Squad reporting in, sir,” The commander of the squad told Jamie as the Great Khans held off the Legion for us.

Jamie talked to him as the rest of us fought, “Good, after we push them back, get on the ridge, we need the snipers.”

“Yes sir, come with us, ma’am,” The commander said, patting Rarity on the arm. The only way we could tell her apart from Alpha Squad was her red beret.

She did as asked and we now had a whole platoon sized attack force.

Pushing forward, the NCR Ranger Veterans and Great Khans began to outrun us, a few Khans falling to Legion bullets, but otherwise driving the bastards back.

As we neared the remains of what was the fourth guard tower, a flying green contraption with two spinning propellers landed. The machine was marked with a white ‘E’ surrounded by white stars.

I tensed up, preparing for a fight, but when the hulks in strange power armor began tearing through Legion with laser rifles and a gun that had multiple rotating barrels, I let out a sigh of relief.

Pushing further, we now had our boots on legion dirt. The Rangers, as well as Rarity, departed for a nearby hill to give us sniper cover.

Seven Khans were dead, and the power armored guys lost someone with a laser rifle, a lucky bullet through an eyepiece.

Passing by his corpse, the sound of rifles on the nearby hill began cracking the air. We were now driving the Legion further and further back.

Then, sadly, things went south.

The power armored guys started getting the brunt of the Legion’s fire. I could tell power armor was tough, but if you send enough bullets its way, one can stop whoever is wearing it.

We managed to push further, but we rounded a bend in the valley and the snipers could no longer support us. With our entire backup dead, wounded, or no longer available, we were down to five people.

Good enough. I thought

As if the universe heard that thought, I could see an entire pack of snarling, ravenous dogs, followed behind by five Legion soldiers charging us.

Our five people formed a line, aiming our weapons at them. I fired my rifle, focusing more on the soldiers than the dogs, Pinkie Pie used two SMG’s, Twilight was using a 9mm pistol and her magic, Jamie used a marksman carbine, and Nolan used his rifle.

The Legion forces were cut down, but the dogs kept dodging our bullets when we shot at them, like they knew where we were shooting.

One of the mongrels tackled me, digging sharpened claws into my leg, shredding the fabric and flesh as Twilight deflected one away from herself with magic.

I blocked the mutt’s bite with a punch to its face. As it tried to bite again, Nolan kicked it off me and shot it.

Getting up, I looked quickly to my bleeding leg before noticing that Jamie took down a few more mongrels by himself. Pinkie was busy randomly appearing behind rocks, confusing the last mutt like she was playing a game with the savage hound. Everyone just ignored her and the dog as we waited for Rarity and the Rangers to catch up. We needed the firepower for the final push. We were so close to Caesar and the Legate now.

<>~<Legates Camp>~<>

Lanius watched as his plans began to fail around him. His main attack force had been repelled by the profligates, and his rear guard was taking heavy casualties.

The men under his command even had the audacity to retreat.

Watching the now closed gate from his position atop a hill, Lanius saw elite NCR soldiers enter the walls of his camp.

His surviving soldiers were preparing for a last stand in the small section of the Fort that served as his base, and seeing the enemy had arrived, Caesars Praetorians and remaining Legionnaires charged in one massive wave.

The Elite of the NCR didn’t waver at the encroaching wall of the Legion’s finest men. The guns of the NCR ripped through the cloth armor of the Legion with ease, dropping most of the men before they even got close.

<>~<>~<>

I jerked in fright… the ferocious, hellacious battle cry of the Legion warned us that we stepped feet first into a world of hurt.

A veritable wall of red descended upon us like a tidal wave. The Rangers along with Rarity however, didn’t even so much as flinch, only emptying their rifles. I quickly did the same, but the Legion just kept coming like our bullets didn’t faze them.

Seconds passed as we dumped all we had towards them until our rifles went click.

A few managed to survive, their machetes held high.

With no time to reload, we charged into the Legions charge, our rifles now clubs.

Twilight had got ahold of a legion machete and created a small shield with her magic. The battle was obviously taxing her focus, but she was a master of magic, easily overcoming the distraction.

I blocked a machete blow with my rifle, kneeing the weak spot of every man, before delivering a heavy blow to his skull with the butt of my rifle, crumpling the soldier into a heap.

I felt a twinge of satisfaction at my skills at close range, but looking to my left, I realized that Rarity and the Ranger Veterans were even more brutal close range fighters.

Rarity had a large knife from the Divide, and was using it with precision honed from threading a needle most her life, while the Rangers used rifle butts and combat knives.

By the end of the skirmish, we lost only two of the six Ranger Veterans while decimating the twenty Legion troops involved in the attack.

After all that, we set our sights on getting Lanius.

<>~<>~<>

Lanius let out a heavy sigh. The profligates had destroyed his men, and five of the elite NCR Rangers, two soldiers, and Courier 6 were ready for him.

Courier 6 ran up to him, determination chiseled onto his expression like stone.

The Courier only had to point out the obvious, his army was being destroyed, and if he retreated now, the West could live.

<>~<The Fort>~<>

Morris and Jason watched from a tower atop a small platform built on a wall with binoculars as the NCR approached, Lanius in full retreat with the remains of the army.

Quickly, they jumped down and ran back to a large trench that nobody even used. Proof of its unused state was that two boxes of surplus 5.56 rounds were left unclaimed. It also served as a perfect spot for a little troublemaker like Morris to set up his own little personal corner of the Fort.

A few chairs and a table – all stolen – were set up at the far end of the northeast trench, tucked away from view by large columns of rock.

Siri, Fluttershy, and Applejack awaited them, a duffle bag on the ground close by. All Morris and Jason did upon arrival was change clothing last minute. If they changed earlier and were spotted, then they would all be killed, and Jason was tired of nearly being killed.

Since he was a Praetorian, he had to come up with an excuse to stay within the main part of the Fort, meaning he had to straight up lie to Lanius himself… a feat Jason was sure would end in his demise. Luckily, he convinced the giant of a man that he could act as a spotter.

In the safety of the trench, the five waited in safety as General Oliver’s men breached the gate, walking in like they owned the place. The Legion were gone from the Fort, Lanius had everyone but the slaves heading back west.

There was a tense silence before cheers exploded through the camp. The NCR had won the war.

Jason and Morris nodded to the three women. Slowly, they all made their way to where the NCR was, making sure not to surprise trigger happy troopers.

The first person Jason saw was a woman with rainbow colored hair.

<>~<>~<>

I stood silent, my voice hung up in my throat. The NCR had won the war, but I couldn’t see Fluttershy or Applejack anywhere. I started to get worried as I looked around.

That’s when I heard Fluttershy call my name. Turning, I saw a group of slaves exiting a trench no one thought of looking through. Two of the slaves then departed, it was a woman and a teen who looked like her could be her son, but Fluttershy, Applejack, and some guy I never met before came forward, smiles on their faces.

I jerked my head back when I noticed Applejack and Fluttershy had larger bellies than when I last saw them… nearly four months ago. Fluttershy’s was more noticeable on her smaller body.

I was rooted in place, stunned into petrification by the shock of seeing them pregnant.

“Ah, Rainbow,” Applejack said with uncertainty, “Yah okay, it’s like yer seein’ ah ghost?”

Seconds passed before I blurted out, “You’re pregnant!”

Fluttershy and Applejack simply nodded, acting like it wasn’t too big of a deal.

Rarity, Twilight, and Pinkie finally arrived, Pinkie having a new dog on a leash. The mongrel she stayed behind to play with.

Fluttershy saw the state of the Legion dog and began to talk to its new owner as everyone else gathered around.

“I can’t believe you two are pregnant,” Rarity muttered, “It’s just not possible.”

Applejack shook her head, “Rares, Ah’m pregnant, and Fluttershy is too. It is possible.”

Twilight looked confused, “Why? How could this happen?”

I heard Pinkie giggle, “Silly fillies, you don’t know where babies come from?” she asked, looking completely serious, “Well, when a mommy and a daddy love e-”

“PINKIE!” everyone yelled.

“What? You can’t tell the guy right in front of you is the daddy? The Legion doesn’t keep male slaves, they take men in as their own soldiers.”

I could see the guy blanch milk white as Rarity, Twilight, and myself gave him all a threatening glare, but we were cut off by Fluttershy.

“Stop,” she said meekly, “Don’t hurt him.”

I popped my knuckles, “Why shouldn’t I rearrange this dirtbag’s face with my fists?”

He was Legion, he didn’t deserve to keep all his teeth.

Fluttershy blushed a cute shade of pink. “I love him,” she said just loud enough to hear.

“Huh?” was the reply from Twilight, Rarity, and I. Pinkie just smiled. One could tell right off that her random party-centric mind was already planning baby showers.

Fluttershy blushed redder, “When Applejack and I were taken here, the first Legion soldier to own us was... far from kind.”

She got this distant look in her eye, like she was lost in thought. Very, very disturbing thoughts. Shaking her head, her eyes went back to normal and she continued, “Jason saved us from him.”

Applejack picked up where Fluttershy left off, “Shortly after saving us, Caesar turned his kindness against us. He made Jason agree that either we get pregnant, or he would get punished.”

I felt like I had to ask, “And you say you love him? Why?”

Fluttershy answered in a near normal volume voice, “You should have seen him after his fight with Orion… using a crutch and covered in blood-soaked bandages,” she shivered before continuing, “After Applejack and Jason told me the news about what Caesar had done, I couldn’t let him get hurt anymore after how beat up he got for up,” I could see her blush deep, deep, pink, “And after weeks of so much torment… he was so gentle with me. He didn’t want to hurt me and made sure I was okay with what he was doing.”

Applejack nodded, “He would have let the Legion punish him instead of hurting us.”

Rarity nodded to Jason, “A true gentleman. But I will tell you this right now, if I so much as find out you harmed a single hair on my friends,” she pulled out her bowie knife that was still stained with Legion blood, and grabbed Jason so she could press the knife against his Adam’s apple, “I will kill you slowly. I will skin you alive with acid before hanging you with your own intestines… and as you’re swaying in the breeze, I will watch as maggots eat you slowly from the inside out... smiling.”

We all stared at Rarity as she put the knife away and let go of Jason. She had this manic, near glazed look in her eyes.

Jamie looked scared, not a good sign, “Calm down, Rarity,” he said with a gesture with his hands, “Marked Men act like that. I saw the Divide for myself.”

Rarity seemed to snap out of the daze, stumbled and looked dizzy before rubbing her eyes with one hand.

“Did it happen again?” She asked us like we would know.

“What happened?” Applejack asked, she too was scared.

With a long and heavy sigh, Rarity looked down.

<>~<Rarity>~<>

I should have told them all sooner. My violent urges were getting out of hand.

Taking a deep breath, I prepared to give them the horrid news, “Recently… I started getting very, very violent thoughts, but I played it off as a product of the environment. I knew something was wrong from the beginning, but I thought I could handle it. That was until recently I started making threats like that and acting on those thoughts… sorry Jason, I-” I stopped.

No one said a thing as tears welled up in my eyes. I clenched my fists, shutting my eyes tight, “I think… I think I may be going feral.”

Chapter: Bonus (somewhat canon)

Bonus Chapter

Fluttershy’s eyes slowly opened, revealing a wooden ceiling at a snail’s pace. Light wafted through the semi-boarded-over windows, dancing off all the dust that floated around, making the clouds shimmer with gold.

She felt wrong, fabric covering her, limbs feeling like they were all in the wrong places, a splitting headache, and the familiar scent of blood. Working with wounded animals left her with quite the knack for smelling the life giving liquid.

But for all that felt wrong, she had the warm feeling of a bed beneath her, so all she did was rest as the sound of rubber soles of boots clopping on the wooden floor reached her ears.

“My, my, looks like sleeping beauty has finally woken up,” she heard a near-elderly voice comment.

Fluttershy leaned herself up, gasping as she noticed the blue jumpsuit over her body.

“You okay, miss?” The figure she had yet to look at, asked sincerely.

Fluttershy turned her head, nodding as she tried to back away on the bed in shock. The voice belonged to what Twilight described as a human with balding white hair and an equally white mustache. He - Fluttershy was pretty sure it was a he - was wearing a dark black shirt and trousers, with a dark red bandanna around his collar like a tie.

“Since how I’ve never seen you before, I’m Doc Mitchell, welcome to Goodsprings.”

Fluttershy felt safer when he said those words, easing the tension she had built up upon seeing him.

“You need anythin’ just ask, so long as it’s within reason of course.”

Fluttershy nodded and quickly looked around, still a little too scared to speak. She noticed the stand of assorted medical instruments and a plastic divider sheet at the foot of the bed she was in. Looking past the chair that Doc Mitchell stood beside, she could see a gurney next to a counter with a typewriter.

She started connecting dots. The medical instruments, the bed, and the blood lead her to conclude she was in a hospital of sorts.

Timidly, she decided to speak, “T-thank you. My name is Fluttershy… and I want to know why I am here.”

Nodding slowly, Doc Mitchell began to speak in a slow and grandfatherly voice that still held a spy tone to it, “When Sunny brought’cha in here, you were bare as a newborn. We’d guessed you’d been knocked out and robbed, but you were uninjured. Care to explain? If it’s not too much trouble.”

Fluttershy froze. What had happened to her? Groaning in a way that was not too common for the timid mare, she simply answered, “I don’t know Mr. Mitchell. One minute I’m with my friends in Ponyville, the next I wake up here… as a human.”

Doc Mitchell rubbed his chin, “Please, call me Doc Mitchell. And I’ve never heard of this Ponyville place… you also said you weren’t human.”

Fluttershy nodded, “I was in Ponyville, Equestria. I was a pony before waking up here.”

Doc Mitchell looked skeptical for a second, but nodded. He had noticed how her pink hair color went all the way to the root, and the perfect triple butterfly tattoos on each of her hips. He didn’t need to ask anymore.

“Where exactly am I? You already said Goodsprings.”

“You’re on planet Earth, right smack dab in what once was America.”

Fluttershy noticed the way he worded the sentence, “Once?” She asked quickly, her shyness now gone feeling a sense of ease in the presence of the fellow doctor.

Doc Mitchell sat in the chair beside the bed, preparing to give the girl a really long story of bombs and vaults, “Well, it all started over two hundred years ago…”

After the story, Fluttershy just stared blankly at the aging doctor. How was it possible that the entire planet was in ruins? Death, disease, and violence became the norm.

Doc Mitchell Just shook his head at the sight of the petrified girl, “I guess I’ll leave you be right now.”

<>~<Mojave outpost>~<>

Applejack opened her eyes quickly with a groan. Looking to her left, she spotted several bunk beds that rested on rusty frames and lacked covers of any kind. Looking to her right, she spotted a woman sitting at a bar, her head resting on her hands.

“Hello?” Applejack called out. The redheaded female at the bar turned her head. Hopping from the barstool, the woman began walking up to the bed, Applejack gulping slightly as she noticed the woman’s sour expression.

Trying to move, Applejack looked down before panicking. She was not supposed to have a body like that. Two legs covered in blue fabric, and two arms covered in a checkerboard style shirt.

As Applejack struggled to get her limbs to respond to her commands, the woman just stopped and stared. An amused smile crept across her face.

“What are you coming down from?” The woman asked.

“Huh?” Applejack stammered. She then realized the question, “I ain’t on any drugs… just a little confused.”

The woman laughed at that, shaking her head from side to side as her red hair danced under her cowboy hat, “Seems like you were on something. NCR patrol found you face down in the fucking dirt, not a single piece of clothing on you except your hat. Lucky they were women.”

Applejack's confused brain locked up. “Wha-?” was all she could mutter.

“Earth to whoever the fuck you are,” The woman said waving a black gloved hand in front of Applejack’s face, breaking her out her trance.

Applejack glared at the woman, offended by her choice of words. “Mah name’s Applejack, and would you tone down the cussin’, some kid might hear.”

“Well excuse me. I guess we don’t want any fucking children to overhear me say fuck.”

Giving an even more threatening glare, Applejack began to move herself, trying to work with her new limbs. As she managed to get out of bed while holding onto the frame, she laced her next words with barely contained anger, “Quit it before I wash your mouth out with soap.”

The woman just laughed, “Good luck finding a single fucking sud,” She said with a big smirk.

Letting out a sigh, Applejack just shook her head and sat down, knowing she wouldn’t win, “I already hate this place. What in tarnation did Twilight get us into this time?”

“Probably one of the biggest hangovers you ever had, if my guess on you passing out streaking is correct.”

Applejack let out a laugh, even if she didn’t know what streaking was, “Twilight can’t handle half a mug of mah family brew. Pinkie on the other hand… whoo-we, she can chug ‘em down,” Applejack said with a big dopey smile.

Before the woman could speak, Applejack looked down at herself and then to the woman as she began to notice similarities, “Am I wearin’ your clothes?”

The woman just nodded, “I’m the only one here with clothes that would fit you. Back to alcohol though. You know how to brew up some moonshine?”

Applejack let out a large laugh, attracting the attention of the bartender in the next room, “Only the best darned hard apple cider you can drink. However, I experiment from time-to-time with corn, and mah strongest recipe is guaranteed to be at least eighty-proof.”

A smirk came across the woman’s face, “I can get my liquor up to eighty-five-proof,” reaching a hand out, Applejack grasped it, “My name’s Cass, it’s a pleasure to talk with someone who knows their liquor.”

Applejack gave a toothy smile, “Pleased tah make your acquaintance. But can yah please watch yer mouth?”

<>~<Prospector Saloon>~<>

Fluttershy sat on a worn out stool in the local bar as a radio played music. The current song was something about riding into the sunset - she figured the duet was supposed to be singing a love song, but she was more interested in Trudy introducing her to her undoubtedly new life in the wasteland.

After introducing herself to Trudy, the female bartender gave her a few tips, like buying a gun. Fluttershy guessed it was the thing everyone else had at their hips.

Fluttershy silently handed over a few caps that Doc Mitchell gave her, Trudy poured her another glass of lukewarm water from a tall glass picture. She couldn’t stand alcohol, the burn on the way down, the way it makes you into something you’re not, and most of all, the stench.

The bar was permeated with the same smell that was on her father’s breath nearly every night. The scent driving back memories that made Fluttershy shake in fear.

‘He’s been dead for years, he can’t hurt you anymore,’ She told herself, taking a few deep breaths to calm herself.

It was only by Doc Mitchell’s request that she even considered stepping into the bar.

“You look like you just seen a ghost,” Sunny, the girl that found her, who was clad in leather armor said as she sat beside Fluttershy.

Fluttershy hid her face behind her hair, making sure to cover the scar on her head, “I’m not going to talk about it.”

Sunny just nodded, “Wasteland getting you down?” Sunny asked as she looked at the contents of Fluttershy’s glass, seeing only water, “Obviously not. So mind telling me why you were in the middle of the road naked?”

Fluttershy just sagged her shoulders with a loud sigh, “I’m going to tell you what I told Doc Mitchell. I haven’t the slightest of ideas. One minute I was in my hometown, the next I’m here. I don’t even know if my friends are here.” Fluttershy pondered the fact a second, “But considering we were all in the library together, then I think they may be.” A smile grew across her face, hopeful to find her friends.

“Okay, well that doesn’t answer much, but no worries,” Sunny looked down then gave a single sharp laugh, most of the laugh consisting of blowing air through her nose, “I need a little help, if you’re interested in making a few caps.”

Fluttershy looked into one of the pouches on the vault jumpsuit Doc Mitchell gave her that contained her caps. There were only a few left.

“What kind of help?” Fluttershy asked, realizing she needed to make some money.

“Well, there are some geckos that need clearing from the water wells outside of town. But I guess I should teach you how to survive the Mojave like I did that Courier 6.” Fluttershy noticed that Sunny had a proud smile on her face.

Fluttershy thought on the matter for a moment, knowing that without Twilight, she was stuck here, “Okay, I’ll accept… if it’s not too much trouble.”

Sunny laughed at her sudden shyness, “Not at all, I’m the one that offered. Wait out back while I get Cheyenne.”

Fluttershy had no clue who Cheyenne was, but Fluttershy did as she was asked and went behind the saloon to wait. A few minutes later, Sunny returned with the most beautiful dog Fluttershy had ever seen.

“OH MY!” Fluttershy yelled through a squee as she ran over to Cheyenne, wrapping her in a quick hug, “Aren’t you the cutest thing?”

As Fluttershy let go of her, Cheyenne barked and licked Fluttershy’s face, Sunny Smiles just looking at the duo, surprised beyond belief.

“Does Sunny treat you alright? Does she feed and play with you enough?” Fluttershy instinctively asked.

Cheyenne gave a few happy barks and a face lick. Fluttershy understood every word the dog was saying, “Yes, master treats me good and feeds me and plays with me all I want.”

Sunny just chuckled seeing her old pal be so friendly to a total stranger, “Dog lover?”

Fluttershy blushed, “I love all animals, from the smallest mouse to the largest bear. I take care of them if their sick. Well, I did before arriving here.”

Sunny just nodded and handed Fluttershy a pistol, “Chet didn’t have another varmint rifle for me to give you, so I had to settle on getting you a pistol.”

Fluttershy looked over the vaguely ‘L’ shaped weapon of metal and plastic, along with the holster. The grip was obvious, so she put on the belt and holster and took a loose hold with one hand on the pistol.

Sunny gave a chuckle, “Seems to me like you never held a gun before. Let me help.” Sunny changed Fluttershy’s stance and made her hold the weapon with two hands in a tighter grip.

“Now, line up the back piece with the front, and make sure to aim at a sarsaparilla bottle.”

Fluttershy did as she was asked, making sure to line up the yellow and orange bottle in her sights.

“Now squeeze the trigger, Thats the metal thing in the finger guard.”

Working on a total guess what the finger guard was, Fluttershy found the trigger. Pressing it caused a bullet to scream out the barrel with a bang and a flash of fire.

Fluttershy dropped the gun and hid behind Sunny with a frightened squeak, shaking.

Sunny took a step forward and turned, looking at the girl as she shook like a leaf. A palm went over her face with a loud slap.

<>~<Mojave Outpost>~<>

“So yer *hiccup* sayin’ that… that the whole world is ashes?” Applejack slurred out. She and Cass had decided to share a few drinks, which quickly turned into six more.

“Two hundred years of paying for their fuckup,” Cass hissed as her cheeks were bright rosy pink from whiskey.

“Ah thought you’d agreed to quit… cussin’.” Applejack said as she became dizzy, nearly falling from her stool.

“I never agreed to anything. And t-t-the kids here sometimes cuss more than the adults do.”

“Oh really,” Applejack said, the fact sobering her up some, “And who *hic* taught them those words?”

“Wasn’t me,” Cass said, “There isn’t a single kid here at the outpost.”

Applejack’s vision swam again as she lost balance, falling out her stool. She laughed when she landed on her rear, grabbing on to Cass’ arm and dragging her down with her. Cass landed on Applejack’s lap lying on her stomach, but her drunkenness kept her from moving.

Applejack let out a snorting laugh, “Why are you here then… in this outpost?”

“I not a kid,” Cass laughed, “I stay here for the whisky.”

Applejack’s drunken mind found the answer she wasn’t expecting hilarious, and began laughing.

“You know what?” Cass asked, “I think I’m drunk enough to start another caravan, and I need a guard… you in?”

Applejack let out a massive laugh as she nodded her head until her hat fell off her head landing on Cass’ rear. For the next five minutes, Applejack stared at her hat, nearly crosseyed.

<>~<Behind the Prospector Saloon>~<>

Fluttershy squeezed off five perfect shots, the rounds shattering the five sarsaparilla bottles stationed on a fence as targets.

“Nice work kid, but I don’t think you just want to fight sarsaparilla bottles. Follow me to the wells. We got some geckos to clear out.”

Fluttershy let out a gasp, realizing just what was going on. They were going to shoot the geckos. Taking off at high speed, Fluttershy passed Sunny and Cheyenne, quickly finding the wells as she left Sunny and Cheyenne far behind.

What greeted her at the well looked somewhat like bipedal blue versions of Gummy. There was no way those things were cute little geckos.

One of the charged at her with its teeth bared. It was obvious it intended her harm, so Fluttershy held out a palm and yelled, “STOP!”

The gecko skidded to a halt.

“You should be ashamed of yourself, trying to attack me like that. No wonder the townsfolk want you gone.”

The gecko looked down in shame and used a leg to scratch at the dirt.

“Now tell all your friends to clear out before Sunny gets here with her gun.”

At the mention of the name, the gecko’s eyes went wide and he ran off shrieking. The many other gecko’s following suit.

With a nod she turned around, jumping in fright at Sunny’s dumbstruck expression.

“I forgot to mention I like animals most consider pests… and sorta can talk with them.” Fluttershy said with a smile and blush.

Shaking her head, Sunny looked at Fluttershy, “Okay… um next we um… just pick the orange broc flowers that grow in the cemetery, and the xander roots growing near the stump by the schoolhouse,” Sunny said with a groan, “Meet me down the hill by the fire.”

Nodding, Fluttershy left to do as she was asked, quickly finding the root mentioned by an old schoolhouse as cute, giant praying mantises hopped around her. From the schoolhouse, she noticed the gravestones on top of a hill, along with a water tower.

Setting off in a sprint, she made good time as she passed by a big scorpion that paid her no mind. Reaching the top of the hill, she gasped in horror. The bloat flies that flew over the graves were massive. She could tell they were very, very sick.

They turned to face her, somehow making angry expressions on their buggish faces.

“I’m sorry,” Fluttershy said as she unholstered her pistol, squeezing off three precise shots, making sure to hit them in the head. The sick bugs died quickly, and Fluttershy smiled.

‘It was for the best, I was taking them out their misery,’ Fluttershy told herself mentally. She hated the rare occurrence she needed to put an animal down. Sometimes even she couldn’t help them if their injuries were too great.

Looking around, she noticed an empty grave, and shivered. ‘Somepo-someone must be getting buried soon,’ she commented to herself as she spotted the tall orange flower.

A brisk walk over, she picked three flowers to go with the three roots she plucked from the parched earth.

‘Sunny said I only needed one of each,’ Fluttershy thought as she reached in her pouch and retrieved a xander root. Taking a big bite, she savored the bitter flavor and sting of the juice on her tongue, reminding her faintly of ginger. It went well with one of the flowers that had their own unique bitter-sweet flavor. Like a hint of lemon mixed with a lot of honey.

Walking back to where Sunny asked her to go, she spotted Sunny sitting by a fire pit as the sun reached midday.

From there, Sunny taught Fluttershy how to make herbal powder, using a single root and flower. She kept the remaining flower and root to eat later. She had realized shortly after waking up, that her new teeth were for omnivores, and she knew she didn’t want to eat meat anytime soon. But Fluttershy realized that if her health comes into jeopardy, she would have to adapt to her new dietary needs.

‘Hopefully that doesn’t happen,’ Fluttershy thought with a shiver. She knew she would eventually see humans eating meat, and mentally prepared herself for the situation.

Sunny left as Fluttershy was thinking to herself, mentioning something about her and Cheyenne listening to the radio.

Looking around, she realized she wasn’t alone, a man who looked like he was in some sort of distress came up to her, she could see lines in the dirt on his face cut out from tears he shed.

“What’s wrong, mister?” She asked quickly.

“Oh thank God I spotted you… my little girl is trapped on the ridge by geckos and I can’t fight them! I need your help!”

Fluttershy gritted her teeth, remembering how the geckos she dealt with tried to bite her. If the girl was trapped, there wasn’t much time.

She saw the man point to the twisted remains of a metal tower, and that was enough directions.

Speeding up the hill, she passed a young gecko that snapped at her. She gave him the briefest of glimpses of ‘the Stare’ scaring it into leaving her alone. If a life was in danger, then she felt it was proper time to use the ability she hated the most.

Running straight into a clearing, she found herself surrounded on three sides, beady, hungry eyes glaring at her from nearly every direction. She stared back and sent them running, too afraid of her frightening glare.

With a snort of victory, she crossed her arms with a smirk, then began to look for the man’s daughter. She searched high and low, but found nothing but a fridge on a rocky outcrop. Then the shredded remains of a coyote tucked between some rocks.

“Nature, why must you be so cruel?” Fluttershy asked as she felt a tear in the corner of her eye. With a heavy sigh, she turned around at a sound coming up behind her. Fluttershy spotted the man, a smile on his face as he had his weapon drawn.

“Sorry for lying to you, but I really needed those geckos gone. Now I’m going to have to kill you.”

Fluttershy felt a rock drop in her stomach as she panicked and ran, bullets pinging at her feet. She reached the edge of the cliff, a table and a chair were the only things accompanying her.

Looking back, she heard the man yell as a loud metallic snap cracked through the air.

He must have stepped on one of the bear traps that she barely had time to notice. The griffons used the damned things to hunt large game, giving them no chance for survival.

She heard him cuss as he struggled to free his trapped foot. Moving away from the cliff, she noticed his ankle was bleeding as the metal teeth ripped at his leg. The man saw Fluttershy approach, but didn’t fire, a defeated look on his face, as he struggled to free his leg some more.

“I have every right to kill you right now,” Fluttershy said through tears and panicked breaths, “But I’m not.”

She moved closer, calming down at the sight of a wound she could help fix, “I’m going to help you get that off and get you to Doc Mitchell, but you’re going to have to throw away the gun first,” she said in a loving and relatively calm manner, like he was a scared bunny.

The man did as she asked, throwing the pistol far away.

Fluttershy smiled, but she was no fool. Moving behind him, he didn’t have time to register what happened. A quick blow to the back of his head rendered him unconscious.

“Yeah, I know never trust someone to keep their word. I’m not going to be the good mare that falls for some trick because I’m too kind,” Fluttershy said to the unconscious man.  

Squatting low, she noticed the release mechanism was rusted beyond belief, so she had to use plenty of force to rip the metal maws open, freeing the man’s bloody ankle.

Throwing him over a shoulder, she dodged a second trap, and began to carry him to Goodsprings towards Doc Mitchell’s house.

She smiled as she carried him, knowing she was far stronger than she looked. Giving Mr. Bear his massages has benefits for them both.

<>~<Mojave Outpost>~<>

Two drunken women stumbled their way around the brahmin they just bought with Cass’ seemingly endless supply of caps for whisky. The two headed beast somehow knew the two were its new owners and followed.

Cass also bought Applejack a pump action twelve gauge, which was currently slung across the latter’s back. Applejack was pretty sure she knew which end went bang. But she figured when she sobered up she could get some training from Cass.

“Where are we headin’?” Applejack asked.

Cass stumbled as she gave her response, “Goodsprings… Chet is a bu-bu-buddy of mine and I’m sure he would give us a discount.”

“A discount on what?” Applejack asked as she used the brahmin to brace herself. Noticing something odd, she asked, “Is it normal for this cow tah have two heads?”

“Starting supplies, and if the brahmin has less than four heads, you’re not drunk enough,” Cass snickered out as she passed a bottle of amber colored whisky to Applejack.

Applejack took the neck of the bottle in her grasp. Taking a swig, she fell backwards, the alcohol spilling onto the sand. The sky looked too far up, and Applejack rolled over, vomiting up most of the alcohol she had consumed up to that point.

Cass just plopped on the other side of Applejack, and patted on her shoulder, “Let it all out,” she cooed in a drunken tone that was far from her normal, grizzled attitude.

Cass then decided the side of the road would be a great place to take a nap, the brahmin walking over to a nearby patch of weeds to graze.

<>~<Doc Mitchell’s house>~<>

Fluttershy laid the still unconscious man out on the bed she herself woke up on and set to work. Doc Mitchell quickly realized he had a new patient and retrieved a bag of medical equipment.

Fluttershy cleaned the wound with a bottle of purified water Doc Mitchell had handed her, and set to work assessing the damage.

The metal teeth of the bear trap had struck bone and shattered his ankle, and all the twisting and struggling he did shredded the flesh to ribbons. His entire foot was only held on by a few strands of meat by the time she got him there.

Doc Mitchell saw this too and told her to leave; he was going to have to amputate the foot since it was beyond saving. Fluttershy refused and stood back, observing Doc Mitchell as he used a remarkably shiny and clean scalpel to cut the remaining strips of flesh that connected the man’s foot to his body.

It was a bloody sight, but nothing she hadn’t done before with animals. Dogs that had gotten run over by carriages were the most common amputee victims.

The task was complete in a matter of seconds, and the useless foot was placed off to the side. Reaching into the bag, Doc Mitchell pulled out a roll of bandages and a tourniquet.

Strapping his leg tight to stop the bleeding, Doc Mitchell wrapped the bloody nub with bandages. After the bandages were tight enough, he removed the tourniquet.

Turning to Fluttershy, he noticed that she had been crying, “What happened with him?” he questioned.

Fluttershy just took a deep breath and sighed, “He tried to kill me and got his ankle caught in a bear trap. I had to knock him out so he wouldn’t try and kill me again.”

Doc Mitchell gave a silent sigh as he saw a tear roll out her eye as she shuddered. This must have been one hell of a first day for her.

“If you need a place to stay, I have a spare room, and from what I observed, you would make a great nurse.”

Fluttershy nodded and Doc Mitchell gave her direction. Fluttershy instantly set off to find the spare room.

Going down a hall, past a few shelves, she turned and found the spare room. A simple bed was the only thing she decided to look at.

Walking over, she flopped into bed. Every ounce of energy was sucked out of her, and she was out like a light in seconds.

Chapter 11: Forward [Revised]

Chapter 11: Forward

<~Old Mormon Fort, Rarity’s POV~>

It had been two days since my spat with Jason and the revelation of my… condition. Since then, I had turned over my knife and sniper rifles over to my friends.

As a ghoul on the path of going feral, I was slated as ‘unfit for duty,’ and discharged from the NCR as a Section 8. That being a very formal and nice way of putting on paperwork that I was crazy.

I just wondered if the beast clawing at my thoughts, begging for me to kill, was what allowed me to do what I did with such efficiency. The little thing making me the right tool for the job.

I used to be a upcoming designer of fabulous fashion, now I knew the exact spot to shoot someone so they would bleed out slowly in excruciating pain.

Huh, funny. When sitting alone in a tent, the barrel of a pistol feels real nice pressed under your jaw. The chill of cold steel on flesh paired with the rush of having a loaded gun ready to end it all. It gave me a nearly entirely unexplainable sensation.

In the best words I could find… it felt like the feeling of a hot shower mixed with a static jolt, all tied together with ice cold metal.

*click*

And I live yet another day.

Today, I had decided to take my pistol - the only weapon I kept - and load it with a single .45-70 bullet. Having only five chambers decreased my chances of living after spinning the cylinder, letting luck decide if the bullet is in the right chamber when I pull the trigger.

Luck… that was what dictated my life in that point of time. The unseeable force of the universe keeping my sanity intact until it decided to run out.

But had my luck already run out when I became this abomination of shredded flesh and beauty?

Opening the cylinder of the ranger sequoia, I was brought to tears by the amount of luck I still had.

A nice little dot was stamped on the primer, the bullet was a dud. If it wasn’t, my brains would be paste by now, splattered on the walls of the tent I shared with no one.

The doctors couldn’t stick something like me in the presence of two pregnant women.

At least my friends had the courtesy of keeping me informed while I was in solitude.

Twilight was busy searching for a way to increase the strength of her gauntlet back in Big Mountain. It wasn’t strong enough for anything more than telekinesis and to conjure a knight-style shield.

Jamie had to do something with a girl named Veronica. Something about making a treaty between the Brotherhood of Steel and the NCR.

Fluttershy and Applejack shared the same tent as each other, far away from this monster.

Pinkie and Rainbow were the only two that really had anything to do with me… and that was saying a lot. All Rainbow did was come in, try and fail to cheer me up, then try and fail at not staring at the scars that marred my face.

Pinkie tried her hardest as well, but this black-hole of depression I found myself in had killed her mood quickly.

Fishing a new round out the pocket of my jeans, I loaded a new bullet, ready to try and test how much luck I had left tomorrow.

Replacing my pistol in the holster on my hip, I got up from the seat I was on and laid back in bed, staring up at the top bunk above me like it was an infinite void.

The psychiatrists back home say the next stage is accepting that I’m going crazy… I had already been in denial, angry, tried bargaining to a higher power, now depressed enough to even try and take my own life.

Lets just get acceptance over with so I can die insane. I thought.

I am slowly losing my fucking mind.

There, I thought it, can I die now?

At times, my anger is heightened to extreme levels, I get antsy and/or angry around others. I see people and get this nagging urge to just rip, tear, shred, kill, maim, mutilate, destroy, bite, eat, consume, hungry!

My stomach growled.

I had begun to develop a craving for meat shortly after the Dam. Resisting the urge only made it stronger, like a rabid dog was kicking and thrashing in my gut, demanding to be fed.

I guess my focus on saving Fluttershy and Applejack, while destroying the Legion, was keeping my condition at a slow pace. Something to focus on.

Now that those conflicts were resolved, I was deteriorating rapidly, like a plant given water mixed with bleach. I knew from the time Sweetie had once tried to get her gardening cutie mark, the amount of dead flowers she accumulated was astonishing.

Thinking of Sweetie only made me worse. Of course, it was something to focus on, but it was always negative.

How would she react to me? The savage killer from the Divide with half a face; an abhorrent mix of wasteland and pony. If only I had Dad’s two headed bit. I thought in self loathing as I stared at the tent’s ceiling

He would probably try and kill me protecting Sweetie. I wouldn’t blame him. Mom would try too.

They always were overprotective of Sweetie, no doubt due to her innate ability to set things on fire. How does one even burn juice?

Juice juice juice, the feral ghoul in me is soon to be loose.

Put a bullet in my head, leave me on the sidewalk dead.

Put me down with a loaded gun, leave my body and bones to bleach in the sun.

Make sure the bullet hits between my eyes, just to make sure this undead terror dies.

“Meirda. Cuando Jamie dijo que estaba mal parada, él no estaba bromeando,” I heard a rough, male voice comment.

Turning my head with a gasp, I saw another ghoul in a mechanic jumpsuit, standing by the flap I didn’t see him open. Looking back up at the top bunk, shaking my head slowly, I simply replied, “Sí.”

I may have said that poem aloud.

Pinkie taught me Mexicolt a while back. He had said, ‘Shit, when Jamie told me she was bad off, he wasn’t kidding.’

“Jamie told me there was a ghoul in need of a little help. When I heard that poem, wow,” Despite the roughness of his voice, he spoke with this certain flair that made his speech an enjoyable thing to listen too. Like a wise storyteller who has seen the very corners of the world.

I nodded, understanding that a ghoul would know the graveness of the current predicament, “Two days ago I finally figured, without a doubt, I’m turning feral,” my voice was shaky, I was going to start crying. When that happens, it quickly turns into pure anger.

“Sadly, it’s a possibility that all ghouls face. I’ve been a ghoul for over two-hundred years, so I’ve seen my share turn.”

I leaned up in bed, “Really? How do you keep on living seeing it happen, knowing that you could one day lose it all?” I shook my head quickly, “Sorry… my mood has darkened even more over the past few days.”

“That’s okay, miss. I keep on living since I have a purpose, a goal in life. I’m a mechanic, and I fix every busted piece of junk I can find. Keeps my mind occupied.”

I understood exactly what he meant, and since he was a ghoul with knowledge of the subject, I felt like I should get everything off my chest at once, “I succeeded in my goals two days ago. Get my friends back and destroy the Legion. In the two days since, I feel myself slipping faster and faster… I just don’t know how much longer I can last.”

“Miss…” He paused, not getting my name beforehand, “Your goal was destruction. I’m no psychologist, but that seems detrimental towards staving off violence.”

That scored a chuckle from me, “Someone wise once said, ‘Before embarking on a journey of revenge, dig two graves,’ ” I said.

“That is a quote by Confucius, a famous philosopher. Haven't heard a quote from him since before the war,” He smiled his cracked, dry lips before frowning again, “I guess you need to find something to do to keep your mind distracted. I repair nearly every busted machine I find, an impossible task if you ask me since they’re prone to break again.”

“An impossible task to keep you forever occupied,” I pondered aloud, tapping my chin with a finger “That actually makes perfect sense.”

He crossed his arms and smiled wide enough to see relatively white teeth before asking, “So, any Ideas? I doubt you want to grow old and creaky working on pre-war tech.”

A light bulb flashed over my head, “Oh my gosh… I never thought of it.”

I sprung up from the bed, a fresh look on life from just a short conversation.

“What is it, miss?” The ghoul asked with a raised eyebrow.

“I’m a fashion designer damnit! I’m going to make clothes for all the people of the Wasteland!” I quickly pulled my visitor into a hug, causing both of us to stumble back outside but not fall, and in the excitement of the moment… I may have went a little overdramatic… and kissed him on the lips, for around a minute.

<>~<Rainbow Dash’s PoV>~<>

Nolan and I just watched Rarity’s mood do a complete one-eighty turn before making out with the ghoul that Jamie had decided could help her.

Jamie, sitting on a chair next to us, was watching curiously at the pair along with Veronica. Both of them had finished presiding over the treaty and arrived a short while ago with Raul, the ghoul Jamie had brought.

Pinkie watched with a scrunched expression as her new dog, Chrome Pie, wagged his tail from a continuous head scratch from his owner.

Fluttershy and Applejack were getting much needed rest in bed as Jason watched over them. AJ and Flutters were going to spend the entirety of their pregnancy here if need be, since pregnant women made easy targets for robbers; too worried about keeping their unborn safe rather then fighting back.

The two ghouls broke the kiss and I watched Rarity realize what just went down. Her and Raul’s expressions made Nolan and me laugh our asses off.

My face twisted into a smirk as I watched Rarity clam up. Turning my head to Nolan I said, “I betcha a solid hundred dollars that those two end up fucking.”

I saw Nolan tense in his uniform, “Yeah, I rather chop my own bloody hands off and run through a field of Deathclaws than take that bet. Rarity still scares the shit out of me. Also, why did we let her keep the pistol?”

I answered his question, “Everyone needs to be armed, a gun can run out of ammo and is loud as hell. If Rarity wanted, she could have started cutting throats as we slept.”

Nolan paled slightly at the thought, swallowed, and nodded.

I hated to say that, but I saw the gleam in her eye, the seriousness in her voice as she held Jason with a knife to his throat.

The Wasteland had changed all of us. I was no longer stationed at the Dam, but here in Freeside as guards for the Followers. I still slept only a few hours as well as keeping to the routine I had drilled into my head.

Applejack and Fluttershy were obviously preggers from a man who technically used to own them like they were property. I wasn’t sure how that was going to work out. Is polygamy even legal, or was it just Shy that loved him?

Twilight had killed, no doubt she’s due for a sudden revelation and a panic attack. We all killed others here. But with her past examples of handling certain situations, she’d probably seize up all brain activity and babble about Celestia sending her to the sun.

Pinkie seemed normal, like it never even happened, which I don’t think is a good thing with how she gets, but I couldn’t prove she was being affected by it. And that scared me.

And of course, Rarity. When she knew without a doubt what was wrong with her, she practically begged us to make sure to end her if she turned.

I had to agree. Seeing all the fear and desperation in her eyes after how calm she was during the battle was enough to shake me to the core, even worse than Pinkie’s calmness towards the whole ordeal.

Wonder how Twilight’s doing in her little quest.

<>~<Dr. Mobius’ Lair, one day prior>~<>

“So that’s it?” Twilight questioned as she crossed her arms at the floating brain in a jar known as the ‘Nefarious Dr. Mobius’ , or ‘Mr. Big Brain’ back in his high school days.

“That’s right,” The elder scientist remarked, moving his broken monitor eye to the left as he did so, “All you need to boost the strength of the thaumic gauntlet are a few rare gems found rather conveniently in Zion National Park. We never could find out why they only developed there.”

Rolling her eyes at the utter and illogical buffoonery of the scientists here, Twilight asked, “So these gemstones, what do they look like?”

Twilight could see Dr. Mobius thinking heavily, grunting as smoke wafted from his metal body while sparks flew out random slots.

Twilight swore she heard the ding of a diner bell, “Onyx, definitely looks like onyx with a hint of opal. A large vein was known to inhabit the far end of the park. We didn’t have the ability to mine a national park and all the samples we had were used up.”

Nodding, Twilight exited the building before pulling out a detonator-esk device, pressing the trigger to teleport herself back to the Mojave.

In an instant, she was standing beside a crashed satellite in the middle of an drive-in theater. Turning her head, Twilight noticed the town of Nipton in the distance. Burnt to a shell of its former glory, if the men she knew who once visited there were telling the truth, it was quite the place.

‘More like a booze-filled, whore den,’ Twilight thought grimly as she started making her way back to Freeside.

<>~<Old Mormon Fort, Rarity’s PoV>~<>

I couldn’t believe how much my life was turned around near instantly by a single talk with Mr. Raul Alfonso Tejada. His words of wisdom had surely saved me from slipping down a dark hole no ghoul has ever returned from.

All I needed was a needle, some cloth, and a generous amount of thread.

I knew all new creations would have to be hand made since sewing machines seem to be completely… busted.

“Raul,” I said in a chipper singsong. Or I would have, of not for my throat letting out a raspy hiss.

“Yeah, miss,” He kindly replied, smiling.

I crossed my arms before tossing my hair with a flick of my hand, “Would you be a dear for me and see if you can find a sewing machine?”

I never knew skin that dry could turn red from embarrassment, “Uhh, sure, miss. I know exactly where I can get one. Probably works too.”

I nodded as he ran off. Even with almost half my face shredded down to muscle, a flick of my hair bends the stallions, well men now, to my will.

<>~<Rainbow’s PoV>~<>

I facepalmed as I watched Rarity turn Raul into her new Spike. Seriously, she can be a tad manipulative.

Tired of watching her make someone twenty times her age oogle over her - pretty gross when I thought about it - I tapped Nolan on his shoulder and motioned with my head towards AJ and Fluttershy’s tent before walking there.

We both entered at the same time, and my gaze fell upon Applejack who was getting up whereas Fluttershy was contempt to sleep on her back.

Applejack looked at us as she stood up from the bed, “Howdy, I heard Rarity makin’ a ruckus and decided to stay clear.”

I laughed, making Fluttershy’s eyes dart open with a gasp. I turned to see if she was alright, but Jason had quickly beat me to comforting her.

Turning back to Applejack I lowered my voice, “Jamie brought a new ghoul named Raul. Not even ten minutes with him and Rarity’s practically dancing with energy.”

I swore I heard Fluttershy let out a very, very, very quiet ‘Yay’. But at times, mice could make more noise than her, so I wasn’t entirely sure.

Applejack, however, has no objections to raising her voice, “Woo-wee. I can say without a doubt that is the greatest news I’ve heard about her. Now to make my mood even better, tell me that Twilight is back.”

“Twilight is back,” I lied just because I could.

She nearly slapped her knee with a hand before catching on, “Consarnit, you definitely lied. Didn’t ya?”

In a near perfect imitation of her older brother, I gave a hardy, “Eeyup.”

Her expression looked to be on the border of mad and completely pissed, she shook her head, “Please don’t do that,” Her expression and tone changed to nostalgic and sad, “I haven’t seen mah family in months.”

I tensed. Why am I so damn insensitive all the time?

“Sorry, AJ. I didn’t mean to upset you,” I apologized quickly, trying to mend the broken fence as AJ would put it.

Applejack shook her head, a single tear in her eye, “I accept your apology. I’ve just had them on my mind all the time. How would they react tah all of this?” She questioned, motioning her hand over her large belly.

And with no answer to give her, an awkward silence fell upon us for a good twenty seconds.

Nolan broke it, “So, you two are pregnant?” he said with all the eloquence and grace of a crashing wagon.

Applejack’s face took on a straight-faced look, “I think we established that two days ago.”

I turned my gaze quickly to Fluttershy when she giggled. Jason had flicked her nose with a finger and it must have amused her or something.

Turning my gaze back to Applejack, I decided to address the elephant in the room, “How are you three working this out?”

Applejack’s face screwed into one of curiosity and confusion, “Say what now?”

I rolled my eyes on account of having to practically draw out the explanation in crayon for her, “You know, both of you two are pregnant, with his children.”

Her face twisted into a scowl and venom laced her words, “That’s mighty personal, Dash.”

To my surprise, Jason backed me up, “She’s right, the children are definitely mine. It was sheer luck that Orion seemed to be impotent. But we’ve been putting this talk off since we learned they were pregnant.” He then addressed AJ and Fluttershy, “Both of you explained you’re not from this world, so what will happen when you leave and return to your old bodies?”

He shook his head, his voice growing concerned as his breathing quickened, “What if I can’t go through to your world. I don’t want to leave the two of them fatherless. And what if returning kills them? You said all of you were knocked unconscious after getting sucked here for some reason, probably from pain due to you bodies changing form. The stress could kill them."

I saw both Fluttershy and Applejack blanch milk-white. Even I paled slightly. We all knew he was right, and the deaths of two unborn children would have been on our heads since we never had considered the fact.

That would complicate things.

<>~<>~<>

Well, this bucking complicates things. Twilight thought.

She was nearing the gates of Freeside, shortly before everybody’s favorite junkie sadists decide to jump her. However, it was only five of them, all armed with pool sticks.

A piece of cake, Twilight thought, Hopefully I don’t have to kill them.

Twilight splayed her hand, enveloping it with the soft lavender glow akin to her old unicorn magic. From body language, she could tell the one on the far right was ready to attack first.

He conveniently tripped and she may or may not have helped him do it.

Seeing their friend’s feet trip on purple air, they all hesitated, seeing that they were dealing with someone out of their league.

However, that didn’t stop them for long; the one Twilight tripped was enraged and quickly sprung back up, prompting the others to attack as well.

Twilight conjured a purple shield in the shape of a large rectangle just in front of her arm and pulled out the nine millimeter pistol she carried. Leveling the shield, she aimed the gun around the transparent purple wall.

She wasn’t fast enough, however, and a chem fueled rage blow struck the shield, shattering both it and the stick like glass.

She felt another strike the back of my head, and her vision swam and she felt blood leaking onto her scalp. With no other options coming to her dazed mind, Twilight began blindly firing into the five Fiends surrounding her as her vision slowly began to clear.

The Fiends didn’t even attempt to dodge; their drug addled minds muddling their sense of self preservation.

When Twilight’s vision fully cleared, two of the Fiends were down, clutching their chests as blood seeped out holes.

Twilight suddenly registered a quick moving blur and barely managed to duck under a pool stick aimed for her head. Luck was on Twilight’s side as the Fiend that swung ended up hitting a Fiend coming up behind Twilight to attempt to grab her. When the wooden stick made contact with the other Fiend, Twilight swore she heard teeth shatter as he fell with a heavy thump.

She quickly fired into the one in front of her, making sure it would be so that he would die quickly and painlessly.

Twilight’s then heard movement behind her, and spun on a heel to see a Fiend. She tried to fire her gun, but was rewarded with a loud crunch and snap of metal.

The gun broke, giving the Fiend enough time to drive a switchblade into Twilight’s leg. She could feel with perfect clarity as the knife-tip struck her leg and could tell it was close to something important. The wound quickly soaked the Fiend’s hand in her blood as he smiled with sick glee.

Twilight heard gunshots before her leg buckled under the pressures of weight and pain.

Why didn’t I wear my power armor? Twilight thought before she blacked out.

<>~<>~<>

A collection of doctors scrambled around the girl that was just brought in by the Kings. She took a knife to the hip and was bleeding quite badly from a partially cut artery.

Arcade frantically working with the wound as blood stained his hands. The girl was unconscious, a good thing since she would likely be thrashing around right about now. Arcade counted his lucky stars that the knife didn’t cut the artery completely, and wondered why it hadn’t tore apart yet. He couldn’t really ponder it at that moment, as it was a matter of stopping the bleeding and closing the wound.

The rainbow haired NCR trooper, her boyfriend, and others were watching in horror as Jamie helped him tend to the wounded girl.

He said her name was Twilight Sparkle, something Arcade still considered tribal in origin. Her name, however, didn’t matter. All that did matter was getting Follower Jamie to focus not on her information, but saving her life.

“She’s bleeding badly, but she will be fine as long as you focus, Jamie. You’re a Follower, use all the medical knowledge you have crammed into that skull of yours.”

That was all that needed to be said to reestablish Jamie’s focus. With nothing but stone-cold determination on his face, Jamie worked all the medical knowledge towards saving Twilight’s life.

<~Twilight’s POV, a few hours later~>

I opened my eyes then quickly clenched them shut, pain shooting through my leg as I silently yelled through clenched teeth, I felt weak for some reason.

Then I remembered getting stabbed and falling in the dirt.

I opened my eyes slowly and saw a bunk over my head. I turned my gaze to see Jamie and instantly realized his hands covered in a few specks of dried blood. My blood.

I smiled weakly, “You have got to quit playing doctor on me.”

He jerked in surprise, probably from my words bringing him out of a deep thinking session.

“Thank God you’re alright. You lost a lot of blood; I thought I had lost you.”

“I’m an alicorn back in Equestria,” I tried sitting up but pain originating from my leg rendered my options to just laying down, “Killing us takes effort. My sister-in-law survived alone in a cave with no food and little water for days, and she was still strong enough to repel the Changelings with my brother.”

I gave a huge smirk, “Craziest. Wedding. Ever.”

Jamie laughed and patted my shoulder, “Get some rest, you need it after that injury,” with that, he stood up and walked out the tent. I nodded to him as he left before turning my head to the bunk above me. I closed my eyes, the Fiend’s sadistic smile and Legionaries greeted my closed lids.

I quickly opened my eyes, a lone thought on my mind, ‘I can’t throw these people to the timberwolves.’ From that thought I made a vow then and there that upon making it back to Equestria, I would get help for this world.

After making the vow my friends came in to see me; Fluttershy, Applejack, Rarity, everyone. Jamie, Jason, and Raul - who seemed like he was sweating from exhaustion - were also with them. In other words, the little tent was packed.

“Hello,” I smiled and waved a hand, not leaning up in case it would disturb the already excruciatingly painful knife wound.

Applejack quickly replied with a, “Howdy,” followed by hellos from everyone else. I still couldn’t believe that looking at my friends, I couldn’t recognize them as the ponies I used to know. We all had changed to adapt to this world. Would Celestia even let us back, especially after I had ended many lives at the Dam?

I cringed, remembering holding the grenade in front of the Legionaries face and watching his reaction before it exploded. Couldn’t we have just talked it out with the Legion, made treaties or something?

I heard Rainbow’s voice, “Dude, you’re panicking. Get a grip.”

That knocked me out of my thoughts allowing me to see them all patiently waiting for me to tell them the fruits of my endeavor. I looked to Jamie, smiled, and told what I had learned, “We need to head to Zion Valley to acquire a small amount of rare gems that are a cross between opal and onyx.”

Jamie nodded, “Zion it is then, but there is a slightly major problem. You’re leg is too injured to walk on, Applejack and Fluttershy are pregnant, I need to help resolve conflicts with the NCR taking control, Rainbow is stationed here – you and Pinkie are actually AWOL, Twilight, and no offense, but Rarity needs to stay here. That only leaves…”

Everyone in the room dropped a shade of color; everyone except the mare in question… Pinkamena Diane Pie.

“I’m not leaving you guys here alone,” Pinkie protested. When she made that statement, I swore I heard a record scratch, “Rarity and Raul can go. She has the most experience finding gems, and a hike through a peaceful valley might actually do her some good.”

I swore it wasn’t just me, but I was pretty sure I heard Pinkie make logical sense just then.

Rarity faked coughed to grab everyone’s attention, “Then I guess I shall need a map and directions.”

Chapter 12: Zion [Revised]

Chapter 12: Zion

<>~<Rarity’s PoV>~<>

I was walking out the gate of Freeside, waving a hand slowly to the others as Raul and I began our journey towards our new destination, a place called Zion Valley.

I was wearing my duster coat once again, no helmet of any kind keeping my face or hair hidden, and carrying a medium sized backpack. Jamie had given me a map for navigating there and back, a compass, several caps, food, and a multitude of survival gear. I even had my Sequoia.

If the map was correct - and I hoped it was - our destination was a few days walk away. So as we walked I decided to start off a little time killing chit-chat with the ghoul who helped me see that I could beat going feral.

Sadly, my words began to jumble in my head. What I wanted to be an elegant stream of words in a heartfelt thank you came out as a simple, “Thanks.”

I tuttered in disappointment with myself and shook my head, clearing up the jumbled mess. “I really must thank you, darling,” I said loudly, but soon my voice dropped to a low whisper, “...I haven’t felt so alone or afraid for my life before. Even when I was captured by Diamond Dogs, I still felt like my friends could save me. But going feral, how would my friends save me from that?”

Raul chuckled, “It’s no big deal. You were in a spot of trouble, so I had to help. And you're friends helped you by trusting me to help you. Honestly, I would have done it for anybody.”

I smiled, “A true gentleman in this land of ruffians and degenerates.”

He burst that little bubble of thought, “Technically, I’m from a land two-hundred years before this one. Also, who are the Diamond Dogs? I’ve never heard of that gang.”

“A bunch of brutes, those lot. They kidnapped me and dragged me underground before forcing me to mine without a shovel or pick. It was dreadful, but in the end, my friends saved them from me.”

Raul looked over as we kept our steady pace, “So you’ve had a history of violence?”

“No, Raul,” I said, chuckling as a smile came across my lips, “I whined so much they did anything I wanted.”

I heard a thump and turned to see Raul as he began rolling on the ground laughing like a fool.

After he calmed down, he looked up at me, “You, a whiner? I cant see it after that poem you made up about death.”

“I can whine,” I said defiantly as I raised my voice to try and sound annoying, but the damage to my voice made it come out more of a growling rasp. That caused Raul to burst out into even louder laughter.

He stopped once more and leaned up, reaching out his right hand for me to help him up. I grabbed hold and pulled him up, both of us grunting and Raul’s joints creaked and popped a few times.

After Raul was back in the upright position he gave a small chuckle, “Dios mío, I haven’t laughed that hard in... well, two hundred or more years.”

“Don’t tell Pinkie. That naive girl will try and make up for all those years, and she will succeed one way or another.”

“I could tell from her practically radiating with energy,” Raul said, almost worried sounding.

We walked some more in silence until I spoke up again, “So Raul, tell me about yourself. For someone who claims to be as old as you are, you must have some dazzling stories.”

What followed was stories about his life and hardships. Raul used to live on a small ranch near a place called Mexico City - an obvious parallel to Mexicolt City.

When the war started and ended on the same day, refugees from the now vaporized city began to come to them for help. His family was kind and generous, taking in all they could, but he described so many people coming to them, their skin bubbling and black from radiation.

They had to stop taking people in, that’s when things turned violent. Men attacked and Raul and his father drove them off. Two dozen came back later that night, barring the door to the house from the outside before setting the house on fire. He only managed to save his little sister, Rafaela, by jumping out a window. The rest of his family, his parents, grandparents, and two sisters, were killed in the blaze.

I shook the thoughts of the story out my head. “That… Raul I-” I had nothing to say. He lost so much but he still kept on two-hundred years later. So with the both of us having nothing else to say, I reached into my pocket to get something.

What I retrieved was my lighter and cigarettes. Removing a cigarette from the red plastic package, I bit down on the brown filtered end. It was my last one, prompting me to carelessly discard the packaging then strike my lighter. I needed a smoke after a story like that.

I had taken the lighter from a Marked Man during my short stay in the Divide. He definitely didn’t need it after a close range shot from the anti-material rifle blowing a fist sized hole in his chest.

I took a few puffs of the cigarette, getting the end a nice glowing orange before closing the lighter’s metal lid, snuffing the dancing flame as the cigarette smoke filled my lungs. I considered ditching the cigarette, and the bad habit.

“Nope,” I whispered defiantly to myself as a puff of grey smoke wafted out the corner of my mouth as we walked.

I took another long drag, filling my lungs to the max, then exhaled through my nose. The greyish smoke rolling out in one long cloud from my nostrils.

If Spike ever saw me do that, the poor little guy’s tail would stay stiff for weeks. I knew Spike had a crush on me. Almost everypony could see the goo-goo eyes, the excessive drooling, and his tail locking straight out.

Maybe I should be a little less of a tease. I’m only hurting his feelings by exploiting him like I do. I thought.

And I had someone else to apologize to, “Raul, I’m sorry.”

“For what, miss?” he asked, looking at me with confusion.

“Back at the Mormon Fort, I used my looks to get you to do what I wanted.”

Raul chuckled, “What? Hauling a half busted sewing machine around for a fellow ghoul was nothing. If you need anything, I’ll be sure to help.”

I nodded, “That’s mighty generous of you.”

Raul and I kept our steady pace for a few more minutes before he decided to ask, “Tell me a bit about you. Jamie told me you and your friends weren’t from around here.”

“Is that all he said?” I asked raising my eyebrow while the cigarette danced lazily as I spoke.

“He was pretty vague when he told me you were a unique ghoul and weren’t from the Mojave, as well as your friends. Looking at some of your eye colors, especially the one who was stabbed, I guess you have some pretty interesting stories.”

“Well, this may sound crazy, but I’m not from this planet.”

Raul shrugged, “Meh, Deathclaws and Cazadores exist, so why not aliens,” he stated flatly.

“I used to be a pony-” I was cut off by Raul.

“Whoa miss, let me get this straight, you were a small horse? Now that’s hard to believe.”

I laughed, “Finally someone who doesn’t chalk it up as ‘I’ve seen and or heard of stranger things.’ Wait… how is that a good thing?”

I heard Raul let out a small laugh, “I don’t know, but I can’t imagine you as a small hooved animal I used to raise on the ranch.”

I stopped in place, “What?” I asked in a disbelieving tone.

“I used to raise all kinds of animals on the ranch; cows, donkeys, horses, you name it, I raised it at one point in my life.”

Then I remembered seeing that cows in this word were unintelligent, so naturally that could have meant that other animals that were smart in my world, were unintelligent here.

Raul fake coughed, pulling me out of my revelation, “So miss, shall we keep going or delay our quest further?”

He had a point, no need in slacking off while we're on a mission, “Come on, we mustn't delay.”

He grumbled as he began following me, “But I was the one that pointed out we stopped.”

I couldn’t help but roll my eyes in amusement and smile, “Point taken, you win.”

Raul let out a raspy chuckle, “What do I win?”

We continued our playful banter for most of the day, I occasionally pulled out my map and compass to keep us on course.

By the end of the day of crossing the desert with nothing really interesting happening, we reached a cave in the mountains surrounding New Vegas.

Looking up to the sky I saw the sun was going down, “Raul, I suggest we make camp in this cave. We actually need to head through it to get to the trails that lead to Zion.”

“I’m an old ghoul who’s just walked several miles across open desert, did you really have to ask?” He asked chuckling.

I chuckled, before taking on a fake whine, “I can’t believe my skin got drier than what it already was.”

Raul burst into snorts and dry laughs, prompting me to do as well.

With our little bout of fun over, we entered the cave and the heat from the day long walk was instantly washed away by the cool rock surrounded us. Further into the cave, I saw a lantern sitting on a white box, shedding light around the cave. Jamie told us that would be here.

There were also a few bedrolls scattered on the ground. I yawned as I turned to Raul, “I don't know about you, but after I finish the bottle of water and eat some of the sugar bombs we packed, I’m going to bed.”

“That sounds like a plan Rarity,” Raul said with a quick nod of agreement.

It didn’t take long for half a box of stale cereal to be consumed between the two of us, and I had the rest of the water in an old plastic bottle.

Taking off my pack so I could lay down on the bedroll, I rapidly fell asleep before Raul had even finished getting his pack off.

<>~<>~<>

Blood, so much blood. The life giving crimson liquid coated every inch of me and I tasted copper. Mutilated bodies were strewn around me as I yelled a throaty growl into the air, a large kitchen knife clutched in my thin, skinless fingers.

There was a sound behind me, a gasp to be exact. I turned to see my friends starring in opened mouthed horror at my rent clothing made from an amalgam of leather and license plates covered my skinless red body.

I couldn’t stop myself from screaming “Kill,” at the top of my lungs, charging with the gleaming knife.

They all just stood there. First to go was Rainbow Dash, I cut her throat with a swift swipe and watched as blood cascaded out the wound like a water hose. Next was Twilight, I rammed the knife through the side of her skull all the way to the hilt. Pulling it out with bits of brain I moved quickly to Pinkie Pie; I wasted no time in decapitating her with the oversized blade.

With three of my friends dead in under ten seconds, I turned to Fluttershy and Applejack, their stomachs bulging from their unborn children. I flipped the knife to hold it where it was pointing down and raised it high in the sky, yelling in a feral roar as I did so-

<>~<>~<>

I was catapulted from the nightmare, Raul shaking me hard yelling for me to wake up as I felt him hold down my arms.

I struggled and growled, all the while fighting like a pinned animal, snarling and biting at his arms before lucidity took over me.

I froze and stared up at Raul’s wide eyes in the dim light provided by the lantern with a horrified expression. He himself looked scared beyond belief, and had reason to be… I had just dreamt about killing my friends while covered in blood.

“Rarity, calm down, it’s just a dream!” Raul yelled, his voice echoing throughout the cave as his hands pressed down harder on my wrists.

I just lay on my back, out of breath and words as Raul pinned my arms and legs to the bedroll I lay upon.

It took only a few seconds for me to process what I was dreaming about, and what I was fixing to do in that dream. My eyes teared up in horror induced despair and grief.

My breakdown prompted Raul to get off of me, backing away with his arms and hands. I sat up on my haunches, crying into my knees like a filly would a pillow.

I heard Raul move to sit beside me, draping an arm over my shoulder, I felt his body heat wash over my cold and shaking body as he scooted beside me, pulling me into a hug like I would with Sweetie when she had nightmares about monsters. Only this time it was Raul and I, and I was the monster of childrens darkest nightmare.

“I was almost in bed when you began screaming in your sleep,” he paused for a brief second to think, “I beleive it was your friend's names you were calling out.”

“I-I I was?” I asked sobbing into the dirty and faded blue overalls that covered his chest.

“You were. I tried waking you up but I couldn’t seem to pull you out of it. But it’s okay miss, it was just a dream.”

“J-Just a dream, r-r-right,” I told myself, not really believing it.

“Do you want to talk about the dream? I’m not only good for shooting the pistol or fixing machines, I have ears that are open to your problems.”

That was generous of him, “T-thanks. Just give me- just give me a minute to calm d-d-down.”

I realized I was shaking like a leaf in the breeze. I never was this scared over a bad dream since I was a little filly, sans most of my childhood nightmares didn’t involve me killing most of my friends.

After I calmed down enough where I wasn’t sobbing every other second, I explained my dream up until the part where Raul managed to wake me up.

Raul nodded slowly as I finished, “I’ve dealt with nightmares about going feral before. It’s hard to get over them, but after a while it all gets sorted out. The dreams stop happening as often and you accept that going feral is a real danger.”

“They do?” I asked, my eyes still teary.

“I’ve been around the block, hermana, I should know. But on to a lighter subject. Since you obviously won’t be heading back to sleep anytime soon, how about we talk about where you’re from?”

I chuckled, “Okay, but as I said before I was indeed a pony.”

For the next few hour, I proceeded to tell him about Ponyville and my friends along with the Elements of Harmony. That lead to a long discussion about magic, which in turn lead to cutie marks somehow.

Raul chuckled, “So let me get this straight, when you earn your special talent, you get a tattoo on your rear?”

I scoffed and rolled my eyes, “No, it’s not a tattoo. Cutie marks are actually part of our fur, but since I’m now human, it decided to change into three diamond tattoos,” I said before standing up and reaching for the button on my jeans, “Let me show you.”

I unbuttoned my pants and pulled them - as well as my underwear - down far enough to expose enough skin to display my cutie mark. The frigid cave air hit my skin after I remembered to brush my duster aside, allowing Raul to see the three perfect diamond shaped tattoos on my hips.

I then noticed he was blushing. How could a lady like myself forget that humans consider it immodest to show skin around that area?

Chuckling nervously as I blushed, I let my duster cover me again as I pulled my underwear and pants back over my exposed hip, “Sorry Raul, I stupidly forgot that humans considered it rude to show that part of their anatomy.”

The ghoul chuckled as he tried to find something else to look at that was interesting, before settling on a rock by my left boot.

He then looked back up with a humored chuckle and a cheesy smile, “To be honest, I didn’t mind the view.”

My cheek that wasn’t skint down to muscle blushed a bright pink as I ‘eeped’ like Fluttershy would. I gave him a playful slap, not hard enough to hurt him, and he just laughed and rolled his eyes.

After that, I went to bed with a smile on my face. Glad that I had a friend close to watch over me.

<>~<>~<>

It had been four days of grueling hiking and navigating, but we finally crested the final peak of rock that we needed to get over. Standing on a ledge, I basked in the beauty of Zion as the sun began to rise.

I could make out in the distance a bridge over a canyon, as well as a sparkling lake off farther below.

Raul stood beside me, out of breath and panting but I didn’t care, I was too entrapped by the splendor of the land.

“Fluttershy would love this place. The trees, the smell of fresh water, and to think of all the beautiful locations we can find.”

Raul wheezed out a laugh, “We’re not here to sight-see, we can do that after we get the gems. Right now, we need to find the chief of the Dead Horses.”

<>~<Raul’s PoV>~<>

Upon mentioning the Dead Horse tribe, Rarity decided to faint. She was lucky I was there to catch her, otherwise she would have tumbled off the ledge. It was a surreal sight to behold, a woman as tough looking as Rarity passing out at a simple name.

Rarity was shorter than I was, so I put her right arm over my shoulder and swept both of her legs up. From a distance, one could see me carrying her like grooms would their brides before the war.

With her weight, and the packs we both carried, my two hundred year old self creaked worse than an old house as I carried her down a gentle slope.

My ancient cracked lips smiled as I gave a quick look down at her. She was beautiful beyond ghoul standards. The only way one could tell she was a ghoul was from the damage the Divide had done to her body.

She had told me about how she became a ghoul, and now that I think back, technically isn’t she a Marked Woman? From what Rarity explained of them, they were as smart as regular humans, but hyper-aggressive to the point of appearing savage. That could explain her feral actions.

But those questions could be answered later. Looking down at her again, I couldn’t help but smile as I traced my gaze from the gentle curve in her purple hair, all the way to her beautiful face.

‘Dammit Raul Alfonso Tejada, you are over two hundred years older than her. A useless old man like you would only come off as creepy to her.’

My lips curled into a snarl as my own mind told me I had no chance with her. Looking down at how I was carrying her, I blushed and began to set her down.

But even before we made a move to set her down, Rarity awoke with a stretch, prompting me to freeze like I stepped on a Deathclaw egg. I could feel myself begin to nervously sweat, how would she react to this?

‘Silly old man, you just royally screwed up,’ my mind told me, dripping with sarcasm.

Then it was Rarity’s turn to deliver the sarcasm to me, “Well good morning, ‘husband’, would you kindly put me down?”

I may have blushed, and I may have dropped her. Well actually I did both.

<>~<Rarity’s PoV>~<>

Looking up from my spot on the ground after Raul dropped me, Raul instantly clammed up even worse. He was now babbling out sorry and other apologies.

I giggled as I got myself up off the ground. I dealt with Spike enough to know when someone was crushing on me. Leaning over to him, I gave him a quick peck on his cheek.

It didn’t even register in my mind that he looked like a walking corpse. When it did, however, I realized he didn’t stink like rotten flesh and his skin wasn’t slimy or decay-like only extremely dry like the few times I worked with true leather.

Backing away, I realized we both were blushing.

“We sh-should get moving,” Raul stuttered as he motioned with his hands to the rope bridge only a few meters away.

“Let’s,” I replied, equally as shaky as Raul.

‘You stupid, stupid mare; Raul is older than you by at least two centuries,’ my mind told myself.

After the little awkward teasing and blushing was over, we didn’t speak as we walked. As I used the map to guide the both of us to the Dead Horse’s camp, the only aggressive thing we found was a few coyotes and at least half a dozen giant praying mantises.

An hour of walking, and we were trudging through the water towards the Dead Horse camp, our weapons in their holsters.

As we walked through the river cut valley that lead to the camp, I couldn’t help but feel like I was being watched.

Looking behind me, I realized a male wearing a ball cap decorated with feathers and dirty tribal-esque clothing was matching our steps and silently following us.

“Rarity,” Raul whispered.

I looked forward, quickly forgetting about the one following us. Standing in the shallow river around six meters in front of us, was a male in a black vest, covered in white strips of cloth.

“Welcome to Zion, travelers,” He greeted us in a deep, entrancing voice, “I am Joshua Graham.”

I froze dead in my spot at the name. He was the commander of the Legion before Lanius.

On instinct and rage against the Legion, I reached for my pistol and drew it.

<>~<Raul’s PoV>~<>

It happened faster than I could blink. Rarity went for her gun and aimed it at Joshua, and Joshua aimed his own at her. They were locked in a staring contest with each other for the longest time.

There wasn’t a sound in the air as if the entire world had stopped just for them. It felt like a very tense eternity before Rarity decided to speak up, “Give me one good reason I shouldn’t send you to Hell, Legion bastard.”

I flinched as a bullet ripped out Joshua’s gun, causing Rarity’s pistol to fly out hand and splash in the water

I was stuck there in fright at Joshua’s marksmanship, but all he did was reply to Rarity, “God guides my bullets, does he yours?”

He then continued as Rarity stood stock still, “I give out greetings, and you threaten me. I should be the one that asks for a reason not to kill you. But as a man of God, I turn the other cheek and put it behind me. So, ghoul, what brings you to Zion?”

It took me a second to realize he was addressing me, and I instantly began stuttering, “W-we were look-” I shook my head rapidly, “We were looking for rare gems we needed, and came to ask for permission to be on this land from you. I had no idea she would try and kill you.”

“But she did try,” Joshua stated plainly, “I have every right to refuse your request to obtain the gems, but I think I know of the gems you speak of. Onyx mixed with Opalescence correct?”

I saw Rarity slowly nod her head yes.

“Luckily for you, my tribe faces a problem and it seems to be located where a rather large vein of the gems reside.”

I felt a sudden chill, “What’s the problem?”

Joshua chuckled, “Deathclaws have taken up residence in the valley where the White-Legs used to live. The stench of death from the valley has drawn them in, and they are too great even for the Dead Horses’ or Sorrows’ warriors to defeat.”

Well... shit.

“Is that it?” Rarity asked confidently while I stood beside her, “Mark it on the map and we’ll be on our way.”

“Rarity, are you sure you know what Deathclaws are?” I asked in a deeply concerned tone.

“No. I haven’t seen one before,” Rarity responded with a blank look.

I was about to speak, but the ex-Legion leader spoke in a low, grave tone, “Then may God be with you both.”

I hoped a Legion Commander wishing us luck wasn’t a bad sign.

<>~<Zion, a long and uneventful walk later, Rarity’s PoV>~<>

“Holy fucking shit, giant lizards with razors!” I yelled using the most vulgar language I knew as Raul and I ran like demons were chasing us.

Because demons really were chasing us; around five of them to be exact.

I didn’t believe Raul when he said Deathclaws were fifteen-feet tall and armed with razor sharp foot-long claws. Then when Raul decided to sneak close for us to get a good look at them, I may have caused an overly cliché loose rock to fall and get their attention.

Running with a sheer cliff on one side, and a dead drop on the other, we had no choice but to run as fast as our legs could carry us forward.

<>~<>~<>

“Raul *pant* how *pant* did we *pant* survive that?” I asked out of breath, my mind dizzy from the exertion. The Deathclaws that were following us were finally dead, trapped under piles of rocks.

Raul sat down on a rock to catch his own breath, but didn’t have the strength to answer. Luckily for me, I knew what had happened. Raul had shot a collection of boulders in the cliff wall above us, causing a miniature landslide to end our troubles as we passed quickly under the falling rocks, whereas the Deathclaws were trapped.

A few minutes of silence, we were ready to go claim the gems from the Deathclaw free valley.

<~-~>

After Raul had killed the Deathclaws and we finished catching our breaths, my knowledge of gems helped me find the gemstones we needed rather quickly. The rascals were firmly embedded in a large, almost spider web shaped vein in the canyon wall. I had to bash the canyon wall with a smaller rock, but in the end I was rewarded with a fair amount of gems. The few gems that weren’t covered in dirt and grime sparkled like miniature fireworks going off when the sun hit them.

Pocketing a handful of the gems each, Raul and I returned to Joshua then began our long journey back. It was strange, for one of the people that started the horrible Legion, he was generous. Our reward for clearing out the Deathclaws on top of the gems was plenty of food and fresh water to make our journey back without risk of starvation or dehydration.

<>~<A few days later>~<>

Raul and I triumphantly walked into the Mormon Fort. I could feel in the air that the day was going to be great.

Looking around amongst the multitude of doctors and patients, I spotted Rainbow, Twilight, and Pinkie in NCR uniforms talking with Fluttershy and AJ at a table. I had nearly forgotten half of our little group were now soldiers in the NCR. I also spotted Nolan, Jason, and Jamie talking with a blond haired doctor.

Then, almost as if our presence sent out a psychic signal, all of my friend’s heads turned in unison towards Raul and I.

Reaching for the bag of gems, I held it up and shook it. Twilight practically squeed before running over to me, snatching the bag of gems and disappearing in a flash of blue light.

My jaw hung slack… Did twilight just teleport?

Jamie chuckled as he walked over and closed my jaw with a single finger. “Don’t worry,” he said, crossing his arms, “She’s gone back to Big Mountain to get the gems added to her gauntlet. Dr. Mobius gave both of us teleporter guns.”

Oh, that explained it.

<>~<>~<>

We didn’t have to wait a day for Twilight to walk back, her improved gauntlet allowed her to teleport herself back to the Mormon Fort, now dressed in her power armor, with her helmet by her hip. Upon the time to leave drawing near, we all discussed what to do about their children.

We had a few options. One was to have Fluttershy and Applejack stay in the Mojave until the children were old enough to go through, but that would take years, and we didn’t know at what age they could survive going through. Another was to risk the children’s lives, but that was agreed to be unacceptable by everyone. And the last one I suggested was to have someone go through the portal back to Equestria, then return through if it worked in any way like the Crystal Mirror.

We agreed to that being the safest option, and Twilight explained in great detail that when she went through the crystal mirror, that her transformation was completely painless, to the point she didn’t realize she had changed.

Gathering around in a group in the center of the Mormon Fort, Twilight spoke to us, “Even though I haven’t had my magic at full strength for a while now, I’m sure I haven’t lost my touch. Since I had remembered who I was, I have been formulating a spell that should mimic the crystal mirror as long as I can keep feeding it energy, as well as allow us to return right back to the library. No getting scattered all over Equestria.”

I heard Rainbow Dash ‘pffft’ loudly and motion with her hand, “Get on with it, egghead… we’re almost home.”

Twilight nodded and took a deep breath. A soft lavender light enveloped her hand, making it look like it was on fire. Then she cast the spell onto the ground by her feet. A second later, a small lavender ball of light around the size of a golf ball floated off the ground and began to expand significantly. It grew and grew in size and brightness until it was the size of a human, making no noise as it illuminated every corner of the Mormon Fort with a muted purple hue.

The light had caused everyone in the Mormon Fort to stare at us, awestruck in amazement and curiosity, but keeping their distance as well.

Twilight’s face was screwed into a look of intense concentration as she focused on the spell coursing through the gauntlet.

It took only a fraction of a second for Rainbow to literally dive through the sphere. Everyone tensed up, hoping that nothing accidentally happened to our friend. A few seconds later, Rainbow jumped right back, startling us. The victorious smile on her face was evident that it had worked perfectly, but before anyone could ask or do anything, she jumped right back through again.

Pinkie and her dog, Chrome, as well as Nolan, Fluttershy, Applejack, and Jason went through after seeing it was safe.

Then I jumped through, magic taking hold of my body and transforming me, but I didn’t feel any sort of pain. In a flash, I was laying in the middle of the library, my friends standing around me with a lavender portal behind us.

I felt strange. My body felt different and I tried to stand to my feet, but nearly fell as I automatically tried to stand on two legs. I landed on my four hooves, and quickly discovered I was a pony again. After the confusion on how to stand was over, I gave a quick glance over to my friends, dressed in pony versions of what we were wearing as they stared at their coats and hooves in amazement before I turned towards the portal. It was almost no time before Raul came through with Twilight, the portal winking out of existence as they appeared out of the sphere. Twilight had a sad look on her face, and Jamie hadn’t appeared in the room with her. I could tell she really liked him.

I turned towards Twilight, but her sad expression kept me from speaking. After a silent second of Twilight staring at me with sad eyes, she let out a near silent sigh before trotting up the library stairs into her room. She didn’t even bother to speak to us or remove the weapons, armor, or gauntlet off of herself. The power armor she wore had changed to accommodate her wings and her weapons changed to be pony size.

Looking around, I noticed that almost nothing had changed since our departure, besides a lot of unsightly dust on the books.

Looking to my left, I gave a sigh of relief as Fluttershy was helping Jason – a well-built Legion red earth pony with a brown mane – stand on his new four hooves while Applejack and Pinkie watched. Rainbow also was trying to help Nolan - now a chocolate brown pegasus with a light black mane - onto his hooves.

I heard a grunt, and saw Raul, a light-blue unicorn with a few errant strands of a black tail, no mane. He was still a ghoul, and I could feel that I was still a ghoul or Marked Man or whatever I was supposed to be called, due to the feeling of the cool air in the unheated library on the massive scars on my face.

As I helped Raul onto his hooves, I looked back to Fluttershy and Applejack, their bellies distended from the unborn babi- foals… their foals.

We were finally home again. Safe and sound.

But is Equestria ready for us to be home again?