As I walked on silently, still carrying Willow Wisp on my back and Sharpshot in the lead, I started to wonder what settlements out here were like. Were they nice and glamorous, I surely hoped so. Anything to spice up this sad, dead world that I had never fully payed attention. It was surely interesting seeing the world as a traveler for the first time, you don’t realize exactly what devastation was caused by the mega spells until you truly step into the unknown. It did make me start wondering about what happened, but not enough to make me put it at the top of my list.

Sharpshot proved himself to be a much more successful navigator, somehow able to know where to go without a map of any kind. Guess it probably a normal talent when you live out here all your life, having to know where you are trying to go and that stuff. It wasn’t the hard of a walk honestly, we barely ever made turns and anything that got in our way Sharpshot took down before they could even get near us. Guess that’s why ponies call him what they do, he has some incredible aim.

As for Willow Wisp, she spent most of her time playing with my mane. She acted very much like a little foal, despite being somewhat older than that, I’d say around fifteen to sixteen at the most. To think that this pony was plagued by such a terrible past, I really did want to just find father time and give him a good punch in the face for showing how cruel destiny was.

That’s not something you hear somepony saying often, destiny being cruel. Honestly, it is, knowing that somewhere out there, thousands upon thousands of different versions of the same event might just be getting created as we speak, and with a sad and tragic fate in most of them. The thing that sucks about destiny is that once something happens, it can’t be fixed and you know that beyond all those other sad alternate universes there is on happy one where those events didn’t happen. One where pony kind lived in a happier place full of sunshine and rainbows maybe.

Nah, I actually think that would be dull and boring. The wasteland had some perks to it beyond the nuclear devastation, radiation, strange beasts, raiders, and everything else. It definitely set a nice tone for adventure, which is something I always wanted inside of me. The wasteland made life more interesting, even if it took lives as well at least things are staying suspenseful. Call me a crazy pony for thinking that, but opinions only matter to the pony with it… right?

“We should be at our destination in a few minutes,” Sharpshot announced, Willow taking a good tug at my hair as he did. “I think you should feel at home, it isn’t the nicest looking town, but it’s small and comfortable. Once thought about settling down here, but decided it was more fun traveling around to great exotic places such as the ruins of Canterlot,” He shivered as he brought the name up “That was the worst idea I ever had.”

“Why?” I asked curious.

“Canterlot wasn’t hit by your ordinary mega spell,” Sharpshot explained “It has some sort of weird cloud thing around it, and I ended up having these goggles fused into my skull because of it.”

My eyes widened in shock at this information. There was a place like that out there? “I thought the mega spells were suppose to be deadly.”

“Oh trust me it's deadly,” He said, “This is honestly the least of your worries, and I never really took them off anyways. A slight benefit if you ask me, but it’s not a risk I would want you to take, got it?”

I nodded in response to this, not really wanting to deal with anything like that. Sure, I liked the power armor I had, but it certainly wasn’t the most comfortable or flexible thing in the world. Besides, if there was a chance of me dying, I didn’t want to really take it. If I was to die, it was going to be in from gunfight, not a mega spell. That didn’t mean I wasn’t the least bit curious, I thought that there was only one kind of mega spell out their in the world. Guess I was wrong.

“So tell me Dead Hooves,” I’m snapped back to reality as I heard Sharpshot speak. “How exactly do you plan to find Twister? You certainly shouldn’t just wander around the wasteland hoping to find something. It’s a dangerous world, and anything that can kill you most likely will.”

“I haven’t really thought about that,” I replied, not really think about it beforehand. “Right now my main objective is to get Willow Wisp some medical attention and head to Manehattan. I don’t really know what’s waiting for me there, but it’s the only place I really can think of going after this.”

“If you’re going to go to Manehattan, then I would like to come with you,” Sharpshot said “You need a navigator and someone who knows the land, and at the moment I’m the only one here that really has that skill. Look, I know what I said about your father might have been a bit harsh,” Well that was an understatement “But I have some business in that area and was planning on heading there once I’m finished up over here.”

“What kind of business is that?” I was curious about what he wanted.

“It’s a personal matter really,” He explained “Nothing you need to worry about, got it?”

I nodded my head, understanding what it meant. Hopefully that “personal matter” didn’t involve me being used as bait. Even if that was the case, I didn’t really have a choice but to say yes to his offer. He surely was the only one that I knew that seemed to be friendly at the moment, and I probably won’t meet many ponies like that. Besides, he was a good shot with that rifle of his, how could I say no to somepony with such accuracy.

“Consider yourself hire.”

“Don’t think of it as hiring me,” He said “Think of it as a personal thing, it’s not like I’m doing the job for you. In that case, I only have one requirement, and that is that you help me with my personal job in return. Do that, and we’re even.’

“No objections,” I replied. “But if you try to kill me, I will pull the trigger on you.”

“To be expected,” He said before turning around. “We’re here.”

I look up to see the figure of a few small buildings in the distance. As we got closer, I was able to make the town a bit more. It wasn’t as pretty as I had expected, but I guess Sharpshot had explained that to me. It was small, just like he said, with only four to five buildings, only one of them had a second floor. There was only two ponies outside, one was an older looking earth pony sitting on a somewhat broken down rocking chair while the other was a small earth pony foal sitting on the swing next to her. They must have been grandmother and... grandcolt? I think I got that right. This was the first time I had ever really said that word.

The windows on the buildings seemed to be in very bad shape, most of them having a few holes or just being completely smashed. I estimated that there was only two windows that were actually in good shape, which both belonged to the two story building. All the buildings were made of wood, most of it looking old and ready to fall apart. Only one of the buildings had a porch, which belonged to the one older pony and younger pony as well. One had some old swinging doors, which I heard a fair deal of ruckus coming from. Must have been one of those bars that dad had mentioned, a place where irresponsible ponies go to drink alcohol and waste their lives. My dad said they were dangerous places, and I certainly didn’t want to experience what was going on in their.

We headed a building near the edge of town, which seemed to be in better shape than the others in the area. It had a plus symbol hanging on a wooden sign being held by a rusting chain. The wood seemed to be in much finer shape than any of the other buildings, must have been a very important place for the town if they kept it in such good conditions. Their was small spots of red paint on the sign, which must have faded away as time went on.

“This is our stop,” Sharpshot said as he opened the door and we saw a pony inside. “Nice to see you again Stitch.”

The pony, a pegasus, looked at Sharpshot with a grin “Well, if it isn’t good old Sharpshot. Did you come to finally have those goggles removed from your face.”

“I told you I wasn’t letting you touch them,” He said, obviously frustrated by what this pegasus named Stitch had said. “And I’m not the one who needs help, they do.”

He pointed back at us and I finally got a good look at the pegasus. She had a blue coat with dark grey eyes, which was definitely interesting since it made her iris blend into her pupils. Her mane and tail shared the same zigzag like pattern and had a two green streaks of hair going down them with the rest being purple. She wore a small necklace with a metallic sun on the lower part of it as well some saddlebags which held some strange tools I have never seen before. She had what looked like needles and thread as a cutie mark, but I was exactly sure what it meant.

“Well this is knew,” She said very calmly “I’ve seen bits and pieces of power armor before but never a full set, let alone a pony using it,” She held her hoof out in welcome “Call me Stitch, I’m the doctor in this here settlement.”

“Dead Hooves,” I said introducing myself before turning to Willow Wisp, who was looking around amazed. “This is Willow Wisp, I found her badly beaten in a raider camp and I was hoping you could help her. She’s got some pretty bad wounds.”

Stitch nodded “Okay then, put her on the bed right there and I will take a look,” I did as instructed and slowly lowered Willow down onto the bed, which was just a wooden table that was attached to the walls of the building. “Let’s see here.”

She unwrapped the bandages and gasped at how brutal the wounds were. Most of them were still bleeding, which you could tell from how bloody the bandages were when she took them off. The injuries were mostly along her back and legs, but she had a few across her stomach, one on the left side of her neck, and one on her left cheek. I hated to say it, but she looked like she had risen from the dead.

“My word,” She said looking at them “Well miss Willow I hate to say it but I’m impressed that you have managed to survive like this. By a first look the don’t seem to be infected luckily, which could be a big problem considering the radiation pockets around here. The worse ones seems to be the ones right on your front hooves here,” Willow turned to look at it and tried to move it, but Stitch kept her from doing so. “Stay still sweetie, you’ll make it worse.”

“What do you need?” Sharpshot said next to me.

“I have most of the stuff necessary but I need alcohol to clean up these wounds and that’s the only thing that’s close enough to help,” Stitch explained to me “I also need something to soak up the blood, which shouldn’t be that hard as long as long Granny has some cotton still.”

“Granny?” I asked tilting my head “You mean that old mare sitting on the rocking chair?”

“I may be a pegasus but she raised me when my mother and father died from some stupid hellhounds twenty years ago,” She explained, “You tell her it’s for a patient and she should give it to you without hesitation. Don’t worry she’s a sweet lady, just don’t go saying anything about her Dash addiction and you should be fine.”

Dash? That was a new thing for me. Was it a drug of some kind? Guess it was probably better if I didn’t, considering it was something sensitive to this Granny of hers. I was still curious as to what it was, maybe if I asked nicely she would give me some… or maybe I should play it safe and assume that the “addiction” thing was a bit of a sign. Yeah, probably best to just leave it at that.

“I’m guessing you need use to get it for you?”

“I would do it myself but I really need to start working with Willow Wisp here,” Stitch explained. “If it wasn’t as bad as it is, I could go and get them myself, but these are terrifying injuries and need much more immediate treatment. Anything I should know about her before I get started.”

“She can’t talk,” I explained. “She’s also a former slave. Tell her that I told you to do this and hopefully she should cooperate.”

“Okay then,” She said understanding what I had told her. “I can’t started treating the injuries directly until you get me that stuff, so please get it back here as soon as possible.”

Me and Sharpshot made our way outside before deciding to talk. That had honestly gone a lot smoother then I had thought, but I was still somewhat worried. I was putting Willow Wisp’s life into the hands of a pony I just met (Sharpshot is helping me and Willow Wisp get to Manehattan so I trust him a bit more). It didn’t feel right to me, and I honestly felt scared. I don’t really know what it was, but I just felt some dire need to protect Willow.

“You can trust Stitch,” Sharpshot assured me. “I’ve never met a injured pony she can’t save, and that’s no exaggeration. She has a true gift for this kind of stuff, so just worry about getting her the stuff needed.”

I took a deep breath before looking back at Sharpshot. “Your right. So, would you not mind getting the alcohol.”

“You do know there are no drink laws around here, right?” Sharpshot asked me.

“It’s not that,” I reply “I just don’t think it would be best for a pony who has never had to do this before to do the more dangerous of the two assignments.”

Sharpshot lifted his hoof to his chin in thought. “Guess that’s true,” He agreed, “Okay then, I’ll get something at that bar. You go and ask Stitches Granny for the cotton, got it?’

“Got it,” I said confident as we headed to our destination.

It wasn’t that far of a walk to the house with the old pony I had seen before. I looked at the Stitches Granny, find that she was fast asleep on her broken rocking chair. The young colt from before wasn’t on the porch anymore, and I figured that he must have gone inside. The porch seemed to be really old, as in before the war old. Was this small town being built during the war? I guess it would explain something, considering that I had just realized that the two story house wasn’t fully finished. The bombs must have hit before they could finish or something like that. Stitch did say that there was a lot of radiation pockets around here, so it wouldn’t be surprising if that was the case.

Granny Cotton, as I decided to call her since I didn’t know her name, was an earth pony with a yellow coat which seemed to have lost its glamour due to her age. Her mane was completely white, and didn’t seem like it had been cared for in years. I didn’t realize it before, but she was actually missing her left ear, and by that I mean her entire left ear was gone. Nothing was left of it, maybe she was born without a left ear then. Her cutie mark was cotton, or at least that’s what I thought it was. I had never seen cotton before so I couldn’t really tell.

I took a step onto the porch, hearing it squeak loudly as I did. I heard Granny Cotton snort loudly as I did, and I felt kind of bad waking her up in such a bad way. Perfect, I find a settlement and one of the first things I do is disrupt the elderly. Please be as nice as Stitch said you were, please.

“Is that you Stitch,” She said, her voice high and rusty sounding. She creaked her eyes to open just enough for me to see her pupils “Whaddya want? Can’t ya see I’m trying to take a nap here?”

“Sorry,” I said, not caring what Sharpshot would have said, “I didn’t mean to wake you up.”

“Well ya wouldn’t have if that piece of metal you’re wearing was so heavy,” She said, cranky. “I’m guessing your a raider. Go away, I won’t hesitate to shot ya and I have nothing of value to you anyway.”

“That’s not why I’m here,” I said, scared as she pulled up a rusty old revolver. Clearly nothing in this tiny town has withstood the tests of time. “I’m Dead Hooves, and I was told by your granddaughter that you have cotton. We need it for an injured friend.”

She put the revolver down on the arm of the rocking chair and looked at me smiling. “Well why didn’t you say so? How did she react to the wounds?”

I didn’t know why she needed to know, but it didn’t matter. “She gasp and said that she was amazed my friend had survived.”

She got down and made her way to the door. “Stay right there, I’ll get ya your cotton,” She opened the door and went inside, slamming the door hard behind her. I didn’t have to wait long thankfully, as she came back outside not long afterwards with a handmade basket filled with cotton. “Here ya go,” She said as she handed it to me, which I didn’t hesitate to take from her. “If the injuries are as bad as you say they are, then you’re going to need a place to sleep. There's no inn or anything but we have a spare room in the back. Your welcome to stay here if you want.”

“Thank you,” I said turning away to leave.

Guess that solved the question of where we were staying. I wasn’t leaving without Willow Wisp, and Sharpshot knew that. If we had a place to stay, that would make me feel a lot safer than sleeping in the open out in the wasteland. Of course, as soon as Willow Wisp was able to walk we would leave. We had a personal thing to attend to after all, and the sooner we left the better.

I arrived at the building Stitch was treating Willow Wisp in to realize that Sharpshot was already there waiting for me. In one of his pockets he had a bottle of alcohol, and another gripped in magic which he was drinking. He lowered the bottle to show his coat, which I was seeing for the first time due to how covered up his body was. It was red from what I saw, but he quickly covered up again, only letting me see it for a couple seconds.

“I can’t believe you're not freezing in all that metal,” He said as I walked up to his side. “I would never be able to wear that in this kind of weather.”

He simply shrugged and pushed the door open, seeing Willow lying on the bed as Stitch tried to stop her from bleeding so badly. When she saw me and Sharpshot she was relieved, quickly taking the basket and bottle and running back over to Willow Wisp. I simply watched as she washed the blood off of Willow’s body and cleaned up the wounds. Willow was clearly in pain, she didn’t need a voice for you to see that. Her body twitching as Stitch applied the small bit of cotton dipped with alcohol onto the wound on her stomach, soaking up blood and allowing me to get a much better look at how bad it was. I won’t describe it fully for you, but let's just say it was the most disgusting and bloody wound I have ever seen.

“Thank you,” Stitch said, “I know you want to be here to comfort Willow but I need to have some privacy for this. If you wouldn’t mind waiting outside while I take care of this.”

I didn’t want to leave, but I guess it was probably for the best. Me and Sharpshot did as requested and waited outside. I got out of my power armor and took a seat next to Sharpshot on the ground, deciding to mess with my PipBuck a bit more.

“How did you find that?” Sharpshot asked, “Not everyday you see a wastelander with a PipBuck out here.”

“It’s my dad's,” I explained. “We use to listen to the news together and sing. The only things that work on it is the holotape player and radio. It’s one of only two things I still have from my dad, the other being this.”

I lifted my shotgun off of the power armor and held it in my hand. Sharpshot looked at it with wonder. “Remember,” He said, reading the words on the guns. “Remember what?”

“Remember the day my dad died,” I said, holding the shotgun close to me. “He was killed by ghouls five years ago. This was his before then, and it’s the only true reminder I have. It reminds me of his voice, his smile,” I started crying as I continued “I treat this gun with as much care as he had me. That’s why I was so angry when you said what you did, even if it was true. You got to understand though, he loved me as much as he did anyone else. Just because I’m paralyzed doesn’t mean nobody cares for me. I’m not a criminal, just a pony who got started walking in the wrong direction.”

I felt so stupid crying there, like I was useless and hopeless, but I had to say what I did. I had to make Sharpshot know that I my dad really did love me. I looked to him to see him crying, the tears going through a small crack of his goggles that weren’t fused to him. That wasn’t him crying about what happened to me, but rather something he remembered. Something that made him sad.

“Two years ago,” He started “I was just like you. I didn’t know anything about the wasteland, and I had never seen it before. I was a pony born in one of the stables, stable fifteen to be exact, which is located near the Frozen North. We never had heat, it was always freezing during the winter time, and we were told to never show our faces. That’s why I wear all this clothes on me, because I would be killed otherwise. I don’t know why it was a rule, or why it even mattered. I grew up the first few years of my life with those rules, my parents telling me stories of the ministers and of Celestia and Luna. There was an old stallion who would sing on the radio. I loved his music, it was dark and depressing sure, but it was beautiful to me. I didn’t want to leave stable fifteen, and I thought I never would.

“Then, on my birthday, the stable was breached by an Ursa Major. I watched as it ate everyone, leaving only me alive. I hid under a pipe full of frozen water as he slaughtered everyone I knew, and then fell asleep for hibernation. All that was left from the other ponies at the stable were bits of bloody skin, bones, and organs. I don’t know how I survived, or why I am today, but I remember hearing that old stallion sing my favorite song. It was about the truth behind war, that there was no heroes and that fighting was meaningless. Even after the war ended, we weren’t safe. War spares no one, affects everyone, and never leaves a single thing intact. I learned something that day, as hard as it is, and it’s that war never changes.”

I looked at him, not realizing what he had gone through. I felt bad for yelling at him now, and worse for calling him a moron. This was not about war, at least not to me. Destiny once again left a bloody mark on pony kind. Could this have been avoided? Yes. However, it wasn’t his decision that caused it, it was the Ursa Majors decision. I remember dad telling me things like that are called the butterfly effect. It all happened because the Ursa Major chose to sleep where he did, and because of that he ended up killing hundreds of ponies.

“Do you remember that song?” I asked him.

“Some of it,” Sharpshot replied. “But not much. For the past two years I’ve been trying to get stronger so I could kill that Ursa Major. He’s still there, I can feel it in my bones. I know that as long as he’s alive, all those ponies who died would not rest. They need to be comforted, they need to be put to rest.”

I looked at him, trying to hold back tears. “That's the personal thing you had to take care of,” He nodded his head, telling me I had gotten it right. “Then let’s get him.”

He looked at me shocked. “But what about Willow Wisp?”

“Don’t worry,” I said reassuring him. “We have plenty of time to prepare, and by that time Willow will be all better.”

He looked down at the ground, obviously hesitant on the decision. “I don’t know if I’ll ever be ready.”

I wasn’t going to let him be like this, not after we had agreed to help him already. “Sharpshot, listen. I can tell you're scared, and I am to honestly, but sitting here on our asses isn’t going to do us any good, is it? If that Ursa Major killed everyone in stable fifteen two years ago, don’t you think you're strong enough?” He didn’t respond. “Look, I may not be familiar with how things are around here, but I’m pretty sure that we can take down that Ursa Major. I understand that you’re scared, but I know you can do it. We said we would help you, and that’s exactly what we’re going to do.”

Sharpshot looked at me, a smile across his face. “Thank you,” He tried his best to wipe the tears away. “Manehattan is close to where the stable is, since we’re already heading there, we can won’t have to worry about going that far out of the way.”

The door to the building opened and we watch as Willow Wisp and Stitch walked out. Willow Wisp was looking a lot better, her wounds being held closed by… Stitches. Well, that was a little funny, but it was clear that those wounds would open up as easily as before. You could still see the wounds to an extent, but over all she was looking a lot better, which made me happy.

“Willow should be able to walk now,” She explain. “But if you are planning on leaving, you should wait a few days. They may be closed now but I can’t guarantee that they will stay close. I’m guessing my Granny has already told you that you can stay.”

“Yes,” I confirmed. “And thank you, I don’t know what I would have done otherwise.”

Stitch rubbed her back in embarrassment “You don’t need to thank me, but glad I could help,” She looked up at the sun and I followed her gaze to see that the sun was getting low in the sky. “Guess we should be heading back, it’s getting late.”

We all nodded in agreement and followed Stitch to her house. The entire way, I looked at Willow, who was happy to be walking again. She looked at me with a smile, and I did the same thing. We were in this together, and we didn’t need to talk to know that. In a few days, we would head out and make our way to Manehattan. I knew something then, that pony Dread was sending us to, White Light, he knew something about Twister. He was how I was going to my revenge, it was as simple as that.

Author's Notes:

I feel kind of embarresed asking this but if you guys could add some pages for this story onto the Fallout: Equestria wiki. It's not for promotion, I just want it done because most other stories in the Fallout Equestria universe seem to be on their and I feel like I should put mine on there as well. Only problem is that I don't know how to really to do that and would prefer if you did it instead. While I do want to get this story out there I don't feel like it should be me doing it and more those of you who are enjoying the story. So please understand those are the reason I'm asking you to do this.

Also, I know this has been pretty rapid fire with the updates but I'm going to slow down and work on my other fan fics a bit since this has been my primary writing focus for the past three or so weeks. That being said, expect me to upload this at least once or twice a week at best if things go well. With that like, comment, follow, and check out my other stories if you haven't yet. I will see you all next time.