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.”