"It's raining in Diamond City today, streets are flooded a little, I could hear it patter off the sides of the roof. It really quiets things down, but we all know the Commonwealth is busy as ever. A caravan merchant dropped by and passed along the message that one of the Raider Bosses along the riverfront got wiped out by another gang. Tower Tom? Yeah. He's dead. More details to follow once I know more."

"Until then, the rest of us get to listen to this old gem...Let's see...the labels scratched off. I can't remember the artist, but I know the tape. This one's 'Not a loser', no wait... 'Guess that don't make me a loser', that's it."

Soldering copper wire to the steel rail ties, they prepared fifty metal bolts to fire through the Railgun.

The Giddyup Buttercups were manning the Cafe & Storefront, while the other ponies Warner, Serin Copper, and Hollow Point didn't know how to approach their new landlord.

Keeping the door to the Captain's room locked, Cherry Fizz was still recuperating in the Changeling pod.

Nate was bringing 90 .44 magnum rounds, 80 shotgun shells, 50 conductive railroad ties, a Ripper, a knife, and a spare 10 mm pistol with 72 rounds. 7 lbs of dried meat that could be eaten as is, or rehydrated. A gallon jug of water, along with a hand-held water purifier, 10 packs of rad-away, three containers of Rad-X, a shot of Med-X, 10 stimpaks, five pounds of dried oats and grains sweetened with honey, 10 packs of uncooked noodles, dehydrated apples, and dried pears.

"What do you know about the Glowing Sea?"

"Is Natick still standing?" He said, pointing to the town built by Lake Cochituate."

"As far as I know. The Deathclaws get wind of food from Natick and come up from the Glowing Sea. We might have a clear shot on the west side of the lake if Red's Raiders run the show over there. You can see the Glowing Sea from just about anywhere around there."

What about the east bank? Following the Highway down?"

"Gunners and Mutants. Mutants control this whole corridor, except for the Mass Pike Interchange."

"I saw mutants here, at the Weston Water Treatment Plant. I've got it in my mind to clear that place out and get some Mr. Handy's in there to fix the place up, but we'll get to that later. Forest Grove South of the water plant...we passed through there, nothing but ghouls milling around, so long as you don't draw attention to yourself."

"We got a place in mind to Boogey-to if things go south in the Glowing Sea?" Hancock asked.

They put their eyes to the map and frowned. The only safest community was the Federal Ration Stockpile, or Vault 81, miles north of Natick, or practically touching the Fens.

"Nope. Either Natick or from what Piper told me, stay the hell away from Shaw. Mutants are galore. Quincey is out of the picture too."

"Sounds like everywhere's a shit show," Hancock said, looking at the map. "Sounds like we gotta get through no-mans-land, to get to a DEADLIER No-Mans-Land, just to find one guy?"

"<Until the Windigo is dead, all I'll see is black holes.>"

"Finding him will be the least of our worries, it's everything else in the way between point A and point B, that'll be a problem. Narrowing down a search grid of all the potential areas that might still be standing, and where he might be." Laying out an old map of the Commonwealth, there were three rings drawn around the town of Franklin, where Nate guessed Ground Zero would be, where the scientist might be hiding, and then the supposed limit of radiation. Everything within a mile is either vaporized, or buried, so they won't need to search there. The only points of interest "Beyond this area, in the second ring, are the only things that would still be left standing. A nuclear reactor sight, a few factories, a suburb, and then this park along the hills here where he might find a source of water, and then Sentinel Site, a military base. If the rogue is smart, he won't be there."

"Why wouldn't he be at the Sentinal Site?" Hancock asked.

"Because that's the first place I'd look."

\111/

Telling the ponies to 'Man the fort' while they were gone, Serin Copper, Hollow Point, and Warner were shown where they could wash in the Tower's mop closet bathrooms, places where they could lay out to sleep in the offices, and a given a metal box near the windows to make a small fire for warmth and cooking. Nate brought two of the Giddyup Buttercups to them as he told them they didn't need permission to leave or stay.

They were free, period. As for the Weatherby Tower, if they chose to stay, there was enough food for a week before they needed to go out foraging or scavenging. Make it their safe house, but keep it clean, was all he asked. Not to bring attention to themselves was also important. Thunderstruck left with Nick Valentine, heading North to track down more ponies if they were still alive. To either bust them out of the raider's holds or see if they were carving out a living somewhere in the Commonwealth.

It was only after Nate, Hancock, and Deacon left with Meathead, that they finally spoke to each other.

Listening to the power armor suits march out of the building, around the corner, and then out of sight, they gulped in relief and anxiety.

Clustered on the third floor, looking down at the street, "They're gone." Copper said, watching the spot where the group was last seen.

"What do we do?" Warner asked.

"I want to wash off..." Hollow Point replied. "It's been too long." She said weakly. "I know it's too good to be true, but I think we should shower off, sleep, and then make ourselves some food."

"What about Cherry Fizz? We should check on her." Copper suggested.

"Remember what the human said? She's up on the ship, unconscious, and would stay like that for days, being taken care of by the robots up there."

"Should we leave?"

"Thunder said it was alright if we stayed, that it was safe here and that we didn't need permission to leave, we could go if we wanted to." Hollow Point countered, swallowing the thought, it'd been too long since they had any freedoms of their own. "But the man said there's a safe place outside of Boston, to the Northwest called Sanctuary Hills. I don't know about staying long in the city."

"Let's get cleaned up first. It'll give us time to think," Serin suggested.

They bathed together, ate together, and slept together. It was the only way they felt safe. They couldn't remember the last time they openly discussed things without a psycho with a gun or an ax nearby, waving it at them.

When the cool water hit them in the mop closet, Serin and Hollow both cried during their turns in the make-shift shower. Scouring themselves with rags, scraping themselves clean under running water, they pulled clumps of hair free, and the water was brown for minutes on end as they washed themselves and each other. When they were done, Giddy helped spray the dirt and mane towards the drain, wiping up the bits that wouldn't go down the grate and tossing the large wad into the trash before they left.

Curie examined them, spotting the obvious signs of physical abuse, and malnutrition, along with mange caused by parasites, and poor living conditions. The stress of their lives being ruined by the raiders didn't help, only now that they were cleaner, their attitudes were immediately more positive, and relaxed.

"Are we calling this place home for now?" Hollow Point asked, eyeing a desk where weapons were left behind by the humans.

"I guess so, no point in going back to Nuka-World." Copper replied.

"Don't even say that name, I don't even want to think about it," Warner said distastefully.

"Sorry, Warner, I was thinking about everyone else who's still there."

"It's fine. I just don't want to get too settled, in case we have to leave again." Warner said, looking down to her hooves.

"It feels like the first time in a while we can think for ourselves again, you know? I'm scared to say it, but I don't feel like an animal anymore." Hollow Point said, tentatively smiling about the change.

"So we stay with the guy who just rescued us, and now what? He's gone and didn't ask for anything in return. What do we do?"

All three ponies faced the first crisis of their newfound freedom together, "We make sure where ever we end up is safe and keep it that way. He put a timer on his charity too, a week. The human said he didn't mind if we stayed here, but he didn't say he could feed us forever. We need to find food or something valuable to trade so we can afford to stay."

"So where to, then?" Curie perked up, along with one of the Giddy's turning to them.

"We've never been here in downtown Boston before. All we know is what the raiders at Libertalia told us, that this place was way more dangerous than the rest of the Commonwealth."

"If you're looking for someplace to explore, there' lots to do around here!-" Giddyup was waiting to speak, suggesting a few things the ponies could do instead of waiting around. "There's the Old North Church a few blocks from here, part of the Freedom Trail, a stop along a walking tour of Boston. Or, if you're more interested in soaking up some sun, there's the coast just a couple of blocks away from here where you can walk along the wharves and beach. If any of you need a checkup, there's Curie here capable of assisting you, or the Mass Medical hospital." Giddy suggested. "The Giddy's and I are going to explore Boston for all its wonderful sights and attractions!"

"I've noticed that all three of you contain various stages of a parasitic infection that is easily curable by the name of mange. Monsieur Nate and I expressed interest in finding any relevant medical information at local hospitals. Si Vous would care to accompany me to Massachusetts Bay Medical, I know there will be items to help regrow your mane and hair, along with a few things of interest that will make fantastic offerings to Nate. Otherwise, if you wish to make yourselves of further use to him, his dwelling at Sanctuary Hills will most definitely require more hands to maintain." Curie explained, hoping to recruit some followers. In the time she's spent outside of Vault 81, things were drastically different. There were so many things to catalog and record, it warranted a companion for protection when societal rules broke down.

"Let's check out this hospital, find anything worth salvaging, and bring it back." Hollow Point said, taking lead. "Afterwards, if we feel that the city is too dangerous, we leave for greener pastures."

\111/

"Your rescuer is quite a character," Nick Valentine inquired, "but how is it that you made it to the Commonwealth?" He asked Thunderstruck.

Thunderstruck was flying along, just above head-height. North of Charlestown and Bunker Hill, the city quickly dropped off to suburbs and dead trees still standing from before the war. There was new life taking the form of moss in many places, weeds, and vines crawling across the ground, buckling the pavement.

"There was a day where we heard this great-big noise echo across the whole valley. Turns out it was the ship with the rockets strapped to it. The noise made a big distraction for me and a few other Pegasus to escape," She replied.

"Who are your friends, how many escaped?"

"Seven of us. Cola Nut, Vanilla Spring, Wind Whisper, Mango Blast, Quantum Quartz, Red Dawn, and Cinnamon Stick. We all took off in different directions, so I don't know who went where, or if they were caught, or decided to just keep flying."

"Well, the Commonwealth is a big place, there's a good chance you'll find them again. I'd heard about what those gangs did to Nuka-World, it's a shame. Every time a group in the Commonwealth here seems to get organized enough to make something of themselves, either raider, super mutants, or the Institute shows up to throw a monkey wrench right into the works," Nick Valentine quipped back.

"Nate's friend said the same thing, that I had a good chance of finding them again, but it's like the humans, don't care about letting the raiders or the mutants go wild, and from what I've seen so far, there are plenty of humans more than happy to let super mutants get right up next to them."

"What makes you say that?"

"The first time I flew to the Diamond City, there were super mutants all around the neighborhood. Looking down on the stadium, there was nothing but shanty houses and walls of garbage building up inside. Everything on four legs was penned up, so I realized then it wasn't a safe place and kept on flying. I've been to Goodneighbor, and the mutants set themselves up all over the place in the Courthouse a block up the road, and Fanueil Hall right below us before Nate and his dog pushed them out."

"You must realize that not all humans are like that."

"I know, but there are more people who are hungry than there are reasonable. No one came to put a stop to the raiders at Nuka-World, and the closest big city is doing nothing when it comes to monsters in their backyard."

Nick Valentine tisked, not finding any way to argue that point. "You're not wrong, but if Nate hadn't found you, where would you of gone?"

"Anywhere quiet, abandoned, and with clean water."

"Strike out on your own, then?"

"Only until I find more friends, then we can start again. Only the next time around not get ganked by fucking raiders. Nate said there's a sanctuary he intends to build up."

"C'est la vie."

"What's that?"

"It is the life. It's a saying for the world we live in, the world we strive for, or to describe the follies of this world, depending on how you say it. If you find one of your friends from Nuka-World is living life somewhere out here in the Commonwealth, what do you intend to do?"

"Ask if they want to come back with us. I like being high up in the ship, looking over everything, but there's no real food being grown anywhere within. I can't send all the ponies I find to the ship, we'd run out of food in a heartbeat."

"But if your friends were sold, or belong to someone, a Commoner, or a farmer, or a trader, then what?"

"You consider us property, so should I scrap you for parts, or do you consider yourself an independent, free-thinking autonomous being with rights just like everyone else?"

"You didn't answer my question."

"Make a deal, we were free before the raiders chose to put the collars on us, and we're free now, but if they don't wanna talk, then it would be a shame when lightning struck them on a clear sunny day. So, answer me, Nick. When you turn to rust in fifty more years, do we melt you down for scrap, or bury you?"

"Since when did emancipation become too hard of a concept to grasp?"

"When all the gangs at Nuka-World said, 'You're so carefree and nice. It'll be easy to enslave you all.' Every living thing that owns another pony or human perpetuates slavery. Equestrian pony freedom is my only goal."

\111/

With conversations between Thunderstruck and Nick Valentine progressing towards small talk, the duo came to a small place called Finch Farm, under the shade of an overpass along the coastline. North of Revere, and in the shadow of a large iron mill by the name of Saugus Ironworks, the farm grew rows of tomatoes by the sea.

Pushing a spade through the dirt, an orange stallion with tree-green moss hair, let down his tools for a moment to see the bamboo-colored pegasus flying to them, with a synth in a trench coat walking beneath her.

He shook, excited to see another pony, but the farmer owning Finch Farm who was pumping water into a barrel felt a change in the air and turned to see the pegasus and Nick Valentine.

"'Ew'er you? A trader? Got another one to sell to me?" Abraham Finch, using two fingers to gesture to Nick, and then Thunderstruck.

"I'm not even going to dignify that with a response, Nick, I'm using my second plan."

"Hold on, Thunderstruck." He said, calming her, if only momentarily. "That type of talk will offend my friend, Mister Finch, I believe?" Nick Valentine asked.

"Yeah, what can I do you for? Why are you here?"

"Two things, really, but it's my friend here who will dictate what our party will do next."

"You there," Thunderstruck addressed the stallion, "Does he treat you right, or would you leave given the choice?"

Before the stallion could respond, Finch spoke first. "Well hey now, if you're here for the pony, I'm not selling him. He's too valuable helping out with the crops. My bastard son of mine ran off to join the Forged, and I'm short-handed."

"Well, how about a deal then? We convince your son to come back, and if the stallion feels like leaving, he decides whether he stays or goes." Nick said, intermediating the conversation

"Good luck, those trumped-up raiders are obsessed with fire and metal, and will shoot you first before even thinking about talking to you."

"So how'd your son join them then?" Thunderstruck asked.

Abraham Finch growled, anger rising within him, the stallion flinched. "The idiot son of mine took my granddad's blade and gave it to them as an offering! Fuck him! Just get me the blade and hang the consequences for whatever happens to the damn fool. I just want what's mine back!"

\111/

Thunderstruck and Nick Valentine's first approach to Saugus Ironworks was cut short when the lookout, a sniper on the seven-story tall mill shot at them from nearly 400 yards away. Spurred into retreating, more lookouts were shooting in their direction, and before they knew it, gunfire and bullets echoed all around them. Chewing up the treeline and the road around them, one of the snipers had an automatic laser rifle and was firing down from above. Thunder could trace the blasts of red light back to the shooter from the ground.

With free speech thrown out the window, they came up with a plan of attack. "Those Bastards!" She declared.

"Makes you wonder how the kid got in," Nick commented.

"I'm more curious as to how the farmer is living in between two raider gangs, a mutant hot spot, and a Gunner base."

"Where are the Gunners?"

"Just down the road towards the coast from the Ironmill. I saw them scouting us through a scope while we were at the farm."

"Well, I can answer that, they're the only ones growing food, and everyone's gotta eat, but they're the only ones doing the hard work. If Finch dies, then all these gangs get antsy real quick when they realize there's no more food to be raided. It sure must be nice having a personal feedlot nearby. I'm sure there are half a dozen more little communities and farms all around us, eeking out a living, paying tribute to two or three gangs, just to get by."

"Doesn't matter, if the kid was shooting at us, then he's a raider, through and through now."

"What's the plan?" Nick asked.

"I'm going to fly high, do a big lap, check things out, and then see about pitting all these glunk-heads against each other.

\111/

Captain Bridgett of the Gunners was alerted to the Pegasus her scouts saw at Finch Farm. When caught, they could be starved for three days, and then on the fourth, be trained to serve as an aerial scout that was loyal and devoted to the only source of food available to the lowly animals.

To have someone willing to return to them quickly with every bit of information they could find, it was the classic, 'Carrot or the stick,' without the carrot. It was the stick or nothing at all. Pegasus made great runners for the Gunners, willing to divulge locations of every person they saw coming or going from a location. Breaking them was easy, especially since most of them arrived in a sorry condition from Nuka-World.

"Go find where the animal lands, kill whoever it's with, then bring the animal back here. Keep them away from all forms of contact, don't feed her, only water. The pony will be ready to follow every command by the weeks' end."

"'Aye, Ma'am."

From the Hub City's Auto Salvage Yard, they were cutting metal for weeks. Sending caravans of brahmin, and recently acquired ponies laden down with sheet metal to different bases around the Commonwealth for reinforcement. Everywhere the Gunners went, there was an opportunity to raid, or demand payment from settlers for protection. If they couldn't afford protection, they'd be burnt to the ground within hours. That was the cost and price of doing business in the Commonwealth, and it suited the Gunners just fine. No one was able to beat them, with how organized they were compared to the raiders or super mutants, it would only be a matter of time before they rolled over every township around the Commonwealth, and cut off Diamond City.

Within a year, they would have the city for themselves, and a whole mess of people not worth their time to kill, as a show of strength to those who were allowed to live, that to mess with the Gunners meant death. To go against the Gunners, was death. The world was strict and cruel, and that lesson needed to be passed down with the weight of a hammer. Everyone worked until death, which was only natural. Every Gunner came from harsh realities, and therefore, any child was taught the same lesson.

If they survived the beatings, they made excellent creative crafters keeping their weapons in tip-top shape, and didn't eat much either. Any complaints, or God-awful annoying-as-hell crying, meant they would be shot, and body left to rot in the open as crows and other scavengers came to pick apart the rest.

A scrapyard was no place for a child, but there two were, working under three Lieutenants, and alongside Gunner conscripts, all proving their worth.

\111/

When the Gunners came for Thunderstruck, they shot Nick Valentine four times in the back from 15 yards out.

Every bullet, Nick couldn't feel. His worn-out nerve endings, oiled casings, and synth body otherwise prevented him from feeling any sensation, but he knew he was struck when his entire center of gravity was thrown askew. He heard the gunshots and made a split-second decision. The second, third, and fourth bullet pinged through his chest, tearing holes in his duster.

Falling forward to the ground, he told Thunderstruck to flee, they were after her, not him. Laying still, playing dead, Thunderstruck was barely off the ground when they flung barbed long-line, a rope with hooks tied every 12 inches, into the air and yanked her down to the ground. Piercing her skin, she cried out, at risk of being in more pain, she needed to ground herself or feel gouges of flesh be ripped out of her.

She cried out for Nick who was motionless on the ground as the Gunners dragged her down, and wrestled ropes around her wings.

"I'll kill all of you! I'll remember your faces, and -" Bashed in the face, she was punched twice, then kicked in the head to be subdued. A rope was tied around her neck, then she was forced onto her hooves, choked into being dragged forward, any time she resisted, the rope was pulled tighter and the hooks sunk deeper.

Dragged along, forced forward, Thunderstruck was taken into the scrapyard and locked in a metal container. Her only light was the rusted holes in the roof and walls.

\111/

Nick Valentine laid motionless until the Gunners were gone, before standing back up again.

"Darn Gunners, I hate to stage a rescue mission all by my lonesome...the first one turned out so well." Ending up getting caught by the Triggermen, he let the memory pass. "Back-up...? I got no backup...Crimony."

With only two magazines of ammo for his submachine gun and an extra pocketful of ammo for his revolver, the detective was outgunned every way he saw the situation. Not one to leave his employer strung up, he considered his options, and tried to figure out if there were any more beyond 'going it alone.'

No quote from the past seemed adequate to spur inspiration, but he couldn't let this day end in disaster. Looking around him, there were mutants at Revere to the south, raiders at the beach beyond that. There were Ironmill raiders who shot on sight, and Gunners beyond them, and then to the North and West, absolutely nothing for miles and miles.

It took Nick Valentine from the time he stood up, to taking several steps before words came to him.

"A whole army may be robbed of its spirit; a commander in chief may be robbed of his presence of mind."

Striking out after the Gunners who kidnapped Thunderstruck, he would make sure they would pay.

\111/

It took a few hours of scanning the beaches and watching how the Gunners moved around their fort set up inside the salvage yard. Green clouds of crackling lighting giving bursts of hot winds blew north from the Glowing Sea, a sign of approaching acid rain and radioactive dust. While most of it didn't bother Nick, he took it as a sign as the perfect distraction. If the lack of Mirelurks were anything to go by, then the water approach just like before would be the best, but also the most difficult path. While a large majority of their stockade was built around the road, preventing people from attacking from the front, Nick Valentine came at them from the rear. Climbing the metal fence was easier than it looked, with the shore rolling through tides, the water crashing on the beach sent echoes up and down the coastline. Covering any noise he may of made while climbing the fence.

Fourteen Gunners total, versus a peeved robot with the digital version of Sun Tsu's Art of War being read directly from his memory banks.

There was a sleeper-camper where three Gunners were already resting for the evening. By taking a fusion core generator from a car and cracking it open, Nick slipped the radioactive tube inside and barring the doors, turning it into a microwave. A minute from now they'd wake up in pain, in two minutes they'd be pounding on the door or blasting their way out. Three minutes from now, they'd be dead or radioactive to the point where death would be a sweet cooling embrace. Nick Valentine was hoping they were heavy sleepers.

Walking up behind a seated Gunner, looking out at the road, he was careful not to sound like himself and to not walk like he was about to kill her.

The Mk. 2.1. Synth, was over seventy years old, metal pieces that always needed retightening, or swapping, wrist joints in particular - by loosening and tightening two bolts, Nick Valentine's right arm tendon was now jutting out 8-inches past his wrist, a single sharp point that made a makeshift blade, and one that he used in more than one occasion.

Driving the tendon-blade into the Gunner, it pierced through both sides of the neck. Pushing off the body with his left hand, he let the Gunner sloop down into the chair. Wrench already in his hand, he fixed the blade again to fit back into his arm.
Pulling a knife from the recently deceased Gunner's waist-strap, he took her laser pistol as well.

Staying behind cover, he watched as one Gunner came through the yard, walking quickly towards the road. Nick let him pass, then he dove at him with the knife stretched out, aiming at his neck. Tackling him to the ground, Nick drove the knife into the side of the Gunner's head, killing him, then dragging him behind a wrecked car. This would keep the body from being discovered right away. As he did this he heard pounding coming from the Gunner's camper, muffled shouts of pain.

The door broke down easily, and the only Gunner to make it out alive was completely flush red. On his knees, bent over in pain, he threw up blood, before falling to his side.

Nick Valentine called out Thunder's name, quietly, but below a shout's threshold. "Thunder!"

"Thunderstruck!"

"Nick!" Pounding twice against the metal container she was in, "Oh thank the skies!"

"Thunder, there's still a handful of these Gunners left, I'm gonna get you out of here, and then we're going to get the hell out of here."

"Fuck that! Nate said the mutants weren't attacking ponies. I'm going to get the mutants to attack everyone, and then once they're done, we kill whoever's still standing!"

"Easy there, Kali, let's just get you out of there first."

"They deserve it, Nick. They shot you down and kidnapped me!"

"I know they deserve it, just...shush for one second! I think a Gunner's coming!"

Running off, Nick Valentine nearly was spotted by three Gunners investigating the rest of their camp. Laying down low on the ground, his duster was covered in mud, but he readied his submachine gun.

"Alright, let's see how you like getting shot," Nick said, raising the sights to his shoulder, he aimed at their legs.

Three short bursts, firing off twenty rounds, the Gunner's legs were the least protected. Even those with some sort of leg armor or padding were vulnerable to perforation by the .45 caliber rounds.

The gunshots alerted the other six Gunners, a Lieutenant and a corporal Gunner came running to their comrades crying out in pain, they were all still alive, but crippled from the knees down and bleeding out.

"Quiet! Who did this?! Where are they!?" The Lieutenant demanded to know, but he wasn't looking down at them, he was spinning around, looking for where the attack came from.

Thunderstruck banged away at the sides of the metal container, "Hey! Buttheads! Let me out!" Causing a distraction, the Gunners couldn't discern Nick's footsteps as he took a wide circle around them. Taking a large iron pike off the ground, he charged one gunner from the back. The Gunner whipped around, hearing the rapid footfalls, and was spiked through the chest and speared to the ground. The Lieutenant fired his laser rifle a dozen times at Nick, striking his metal body, and perforating holes, but Nick fired back with his pistol and with more handgun experience. The shots rang out through the scrapyard, Nick dashed to the container, and unbarred the container Thunderstruck was in, she rushed out, and blinked through the darkness, scanning the skies.

"Distract whoever's left, I'll take care of them." She said before rushing into the skies with her wings carrying her upwards.

"Can do, little lady."

\111/

From the highway overpass adjacent to the Hub City Auto wrecker's yard, was a metal siding shack that housed Captain Bridgette and the other remaining Lieutenant. They were with a Sargent Gunner and a private Gunner pony when the gunfire broke out inside their base.

They took firing positions from the overpass, looking down at the wrecking yard, but the containers and where the three gunners were laying with their legs blown off were barely out of view.

They uncapped flares and heaved them down onto the ground, illuminating the dark grounds and showing the junked cars, casting bright lights, and showing Nick Valentine as he rushed behind the auto yard's crane.

They fired immediately upon seeing someone they didn't recognize. Pinned down, Nick couldn't move out of cover, but the Sargent and Gunner's pony flanked Nick to shoot at him from the side.

Far above them, Thunderstruck returned with a dark thundercloud, bristling and crackling with energy.

She was enraged and breathing heavily, soaked from carving the cloud away from the rest of the cumulonimbus, but as the cloud turned black, she positioned it over the Captain and Lieutenant's heads and thrust her hooves against the top of the cloud.

"Shouldn't be wearing all that metal armor," She shouted.

Green lightning bolts erupted from the clouds, arcing down and striking both the Captain and the Lieutenant, daisy-chaining between the two from how close they were together. Brighter than the morning sun, the light caught the last two Gunner's attention so quickly, they jerked their heads to see the afterglow of a lightning strike their commander's down.

The following thunder claps this close to the ground, located just above the auto yard echoed for miles, but shook everyone still standing.

"You there!" Thunderstruck shouted, "Guns down! You're the last man and pony standing. We killed the rest, so you get two options."

Short black hair, nearly a buzz cut, squared-off cheeks, and crooked nose from being broken multiple times from fights and being beaten, brown eyes, and dressed in the Gunners' green garb, aiming an assault rifle. He looked down to the support pony, a blonde maned, brown-coat earth stallion with a white star for a mark. Everything he saw around him leads to the realization that they were the last men standing.

"What's your offer?" he called out, not seeing Thunderstruck flying above them.

Landing down behind them, with Nick Valentine behind the Gunners, he raised his submachine gun, ready to fire as Thunderstruck spoke.

"Option one, you free the pony to me, and you get to leave this junkyard alive, or option two, I cut your head off and give it to the mutants to snack on."

It took a few seconds to mull it over, "And what if I decide to just shoot you? You got no weapon."

Thunderstruck raised her hoof to the Gunner, "Bang."

A torrent of bullets cut into the Gunner's backside, blood spots appearing all over his chest and ripping holes out through the front of his face as Nick Valentine cut the Gunner down.

"So, hot stuff," She asked, speaking to the stallion, "You still with the Gunners, or ready to do something worthwhile?"

Turning his head to Nick Valentine, he was aiming down the sights, directly at him, finger on the trigger, ready to fire again.

Spitting out his rifle, it fell to the mud. "The name's Dart."

"I know, I recognize you from Nuka-World. My name's Thunderstruck, and I'm doing everything I can to make sure human raiders never take advantage of us like they did, ever again."

"Sounds better than what the Gunners did to me. They starve you and work you day and night for your food, just to keep you grateful for whatever scraps they toss our way."

"Then I hope you don't mind, but I want you to round up all their guns, and whatever weapon you can find and follow Nick Valentine over there. While you're doing that, I need some rope and a hatchet."

"You know, Kali wore a belt of human skulls."

"Nick, your girlfriend was a freak."

"She's not my girlfriend, she's a Hindu deity, who would metaphorically cut your head off and show you your true reflection."

"Well, I'm cutting this asshole's head off, and using it to barter with the mutants to attack the raiders at Saugus. While I'm doing that, you convince the raiders down at Revere beach to come in behind us with all the guns Dart gathers and wipe out any mutants still standing afterward."

"Kali was also known as the destroyer of worlds, Thunder. A woman whose skin was black as the cosmic dark matter of space between stars, depicted as bathing in blood."

"Nick, I get it. Am I bearing a strong resemblance?" Thunderstruck asked, covered in blood, hooves darkened from handling the radioactive rainclouds, a fierce thirsty look in her eyes.

"You're not...She's a protector...just...I hope you're okay. I'm glad you're still alive."

"They shot at us, they shot you, and those other raiders tried to kill us too. I'm damn angry at the world right now, Nick."

"Me too, kid. Me too. If you need a knife...I got one right here for you. Just, I don't want to be a part of this stage of the plan."

"Ghouls tear humans apart, Nick. Mirelurks rip humans to shreds, Deathclaws chomp people in half, bloat flies lay eggs in your corpse, humans aren't top dogs in this world anymore, Nick. I don't feel sorry for what I'm about to do, I just feel like I need to fight to survive, and then kick and fight harder to live like I did before we were turned into slaves."

Taking the knife from Nick, Thunderstruck addressed the new pony in their party. "So, tell me, Dart, know where any other Gunners are holed up?"

The stallion nodded.

\111/

Flying to the Revere Satellite Array, Thunderstruck was weighed down with the belt of human heads, making her look all the more fearsome. They hadn't shot at her yet but made sure to let other mutants know of her arrival. She looked for the biggest, baddest, meanest looking Super Mutant she could find, one wearing a bandolier of skulls, ghoul, and human, and spoke first.

"These are the heads of every human who tried to imprison and bend me to their will. This is what happened to them."

The Super Mutant Warlord's face ticked, muscles stretching and forming a twisted smile of pleasure at seeing the proof of so many dead humans. "A small pony with such power and strength, a sign to super mutants! Why did little flying pony come here?"

"Because there are humans in the factory to the North who shot at me as well, and I want to kill them all."

"Then go, pony, use your strength to kill them." The warlord responded. Thunderstruck saw from the expression, out of all the super mutants gathered, this one was able to rub a few brain cells together.

"They are too great of numbers for one small pony like myself to kill all of them, that is why I bring these to you." She said, undoing the belt. "I need the protection only the age of super mutants can bring. I need your anger and strength. These humans need to realize it was a mistake to attack us and pay for their insolence. I know super mutants can crush these humans and make them regret the day they were born."

"Why should super mutants listen to pony?"

"Because this pony will rain down fire and hell from the sky, I will shock them with lightning again and again until they're dead! Super Mutants are smarter and more cunning than humans will ever be. They think that by banding together they can fight off progress, fight the new world, and kill or take everything. These humans need to learn to fear Super Mutants forever. You will strike hard and show them no mercy because Super mutants are strong, not weak like pesky raiders! It's the age of the Super Mutants, it's time to crush those humans like the insects they are!"

\111/

After a few more minutes of riling up and instilling confidence in the super mutants, they left to attack the Saugus Ironworks mill. While Nick and Dart succeeded in convincing the Revere Beach Raiders to agree with the plan in a quarter of the time, after arriving with a load of guns. Under the idea of wiping out two birds with one stone, the raiders saw the tactical logic of the plan to let another raider clan take the brunt of the mutant force, while they mop up the rest.

The thirteen mutants didn't march, but walked. Tall lumbering brutes carrying heavy weapons, and cages for any humans they could catch, the lookouts on top of the iron mill saw them coming from the moment they crested the hills. Moving across the forested marsh and wetlands, they broke into three groups when they got closer to the mill. Four mutants came around from the South-East, four from the South-West, moving through gaps in the rusted fences, engaging the Forged Raiders. The last five and Thunderstruck circled and attacked from the North, coming in by the road to the front entrance.

The shooters from the top were armed with scoped hunting rifles, and it took upwards of seven accurate shots to the chest to kill one super mutant. They needed to reload and track their target again, as the super mutants broke into a charge.

Forged on the ground came running out with modified welding torches, flamethrowers spitting jets of fire fifteen feet long. While several mutants were consumed in fire, three of the green super soldiers rushed through the flames, swinging sledgehammers and crushing the Forged weapons with a single blow. Even as their skin was burnt off, they worked themselves up into an enraged state that pushed them onwards as more fired on the Forged with laser and assault rifles.

One mutant, dressed with only chains holding up a metal plate over his torso ran forward with a mini-nuke, armed and primed, dashing through a whole torrent of bullets and fire to a cluster of raiders by the main entrance, slamming the nuclear warhead down into the ground.

Everyone in a ten-meter radius was disintegrated instantly in a wake of heat and bright light. A whole section of the wall to the factory was blown wide open. The blast shook the building and sent tremors through everyone's feet beyond the explosion, drawing their attention to the area where the band of super mutants was rushing in.

When the mutants told Thunderstruck to 'go make sparks', she took to the air gathering clouds in the sky to form and condense the charged molecules in the air.

Nick Valentine alerted the raider boss, Cinder, that once the majority of the super mutants rushed in, it was their time to close in. Twenty-five raiders armed with Gunner's rifles and pistols all sprinted for the factory perimeter, taking cover behind cars, trucks, containers, cement barriers, dumpsters, anything to conceal themselves and wait for the mutants to come back out.

Thunderstruck flew in through the roof, through a door leading to workshops and offices high above the rest of the plant. Opposite the main control room for the ironworks mill, there were only beds, cases of scavenged ammo, and Forged raiders unaware of an aerial assault.

Firing with a laser rifle, she shot at three Forged snipers that withdrew from the roof; they barricaded themselves by the staircase to wait for the impending super mutants to come rushing up, where they could easily fire down at them.

Super Mutants rampaging their way through the factory from the ground up, Thunder fighting her way down, it sounded like a warzone with all the guns firing. A light machine gun was positioned in the foreman's office overlooking the smelting floor. While there was plenty of covers to utilize, more mutants were gunned down over the open floor because they didn't know how to be tactical. The smartest of the Super Mutants, they took cover, they waited for the Forged in the office to reload and charged up the gangways to the office, ripping the heads off the Forged bodies, crushing their chests in with their bare fists. The Super Mutant Warlord ripped the LMG out of its turret holder and carried the belt of ammo with him.

All the paths lead to the blast furnace, where five mutants entered, facing the Forged raider clan leader in his suit of power armor, wielding a flaming sword. "Burn," Slag gestured with his sword, then two massive stone buckets filled with molten iron were poured down onto the mutants' heads.

The Super Mutant Warlord threw himself out of the way, leaving the rest to be burned alive as the rest of the Forged opened fire on the last remaining super mutant. Bullets tore chunks and pieces out of this last mutant, but he unloaded the whole nine yards of ammo into Slag and every human he saw. Even in death, his fingers were wrapped around the trigger, firing the LMG, letting the recoil buck and jerk his arm around.

With all 13 super mutants dead, the Forged lost 35 of their own, with only three people left. One of them was Slag, who was badly wounded and power armor crippled. Letting the Shish-kebab clatter to the floor,

The coward, Jake Finch, was hiding, on the main factory floor. He made it to the front door before being stopped by 25 rifles all pointed at him. Gunned down in a hail of bullets, Jake Finch never made it back home to his father after running away to join a raider gang.

The woman, a Forged raider who was with Slag in the Blast Furnace area was the only one untouched, but when Thunderstruck came through the door, the pony shot her in the back before flying across the room, bucking Slag backward into a burning cauldron of molten iron. There was a pained scream, high and low wails of agony as the raider boss was burned alive, but then it suddenly stopped.

Picking the sword up in her teeth, she bit down hard and the sword ignited. Letting off the pressure, it extinguished.

Pulling in a shuddering sigh, she knew she wouldn't have long before more raiders from the beach would come to claim everything here as their own. Ransacking whatever she could find, and loading it into her brown satchel saddlebags, she went up to the roof and then flew down to Nick Valentine, Dart, and Cinder.

\111/

"Well, there you have it," Nick said,

"Two birds, one stone," Cinder replied, "Just like you said."

"Three if you count the Gunners," Dart said.

"That opens up quite a bit of new territory for us."

"So, does our deal stand? You got the factory, the satellite array, and the scrapyard, all up for grabs. All we want is to be able to move around without getting shot and robbed."

"Any other day, we would've taken your guns and shot you anyway, but, seeing as how you cleared the neighborhood, give us the stallion, and well let you go."

Nick stared at Cinder, then down to Dart and Thunderstruck.

"Not gonna happen." Thunderstruck whistled. "Hey, pretty boy. Down here, fucknuts." Spinning around, she stood on her front legs and bucked Cinder right in the balls. "LISTEN HERE, YOU INBRED SEWER RAT! I WILL UNLEASH A HORDE OF SUPER MUTANTS ON YOUR CAMP! You will be up to your assholes in mirelurks! I will personally go out and lure a mirelurk queen right back to your little boardwalk to fuck your day up!"

Twenty-four guns were aimed at them, and Thunderstruck laughed it off, "You would'a pulled the trigger if you could. But you won't. Here's why." Unleashing the flaming sword, she stood up on her rear hooves and transferred it from her mouth to her forelegs. "You wanna play raider, or do you wanna die? I don't have to kill everyone, just you. So, here's the new deal. You let us walk wherever we please, whenever we want, Or I'm gonna cut your fucking skull from your body and let you look at your bleeding corpse while you're still blinking, you got that!? My count's fourteen heads today, and I have no problem making it fifteen. Your choice. All you need to do is say, the words, 'you're the boss.'"

"I'm the boss."

Lowering the flaming sword down to his neck, everyone else raised their guns, ready to fire. "Say again?"

Feeling the heat on the back of his neck, "You're the boss."

"Glad I heard you right. Now get up. To the victor, go the spoils. Make sure everyone gets a piece." Thunderstruck extinguished the sword and lowered it back down. "Nick, Dart. Let's go."

\111/

"Do you feel like talking?" Nick asked.

"Nope."

"That's okay, you went through quite a bit just to get that sword."

"I'd say it was worth it," Dart chimed in. "You got me out of those Gunners, and it's nice to talk to someone without feeling like it's a travesty to speak up."

"It's never been a travesty, others beat you down and demeaned you until it felt that way. Now, both of you be quiet, otherwise, I'm flying ahead."

It was a few minutes of ample silence, walking along in quiet retrospect, absorbing everything that recently happened in the last eight hours.

Broken by Nick Valentine, he started up again with, "Interestingly enough, Kali was known for-"