No More Crying, Diamond City. It's time to dry those eyes and get back to it."

Flittering across the Commonwealth through the air, Thunderstruck flew the short distance to the National Guard, avoiding the roaming sentry tank on the ground and coming down through holes on the roof, she noticed all the dead ghouls. There were more than she could shake her hoof at, and looked for a body that wasn't like the others. She ended up coming across the same sight Nate and Curie came across only a few days ago, the bitten body of Knight Astlin torn to shreds, and a holotape that had been recently played.

The mare could tell it was recently touched because there was a big swipe of a thumbprint clearing away dust on the side of the cartridge. While Thunderstruck didn't have a holoplayer of her own, she kept the one found with Faris and listened to it as well. Grabbing one of the two dogtags around her neck, and scoping the rest of the main facility out before flying out again, she followed Nick's instructions to fly to the west side of Cambridge and look for a helicopter landing pad on a two story concrete building.

Spotting the Cambridge police station from a mile away, she flew down and landed on the roof as well. Worried that whoever these Brotherhood of Steel types were, they might be jumpy about a pegasus showing up, so she called out loudly as she went down the stairs.

"Hello? Danse? I'm looking for Danse?"

\111/

Since the discovery of their blocked signal, for the last six days, Danse was scouting alternative methods to send a stronger message to the Brotherhood of Steel.

He and Verne hiked North of Lexington to a Air Force satellite station, Base Olivia, to find the old installation occupied by raiders. Not in the mood to say please, the two of them cleared the small base of all life and found that the equipment and machinery were all defunct. Most of the parts were stripped out long ago, consoles torn open, anything of value scavenged long ago.

It was only after returning less than an hour before Thunderstruck arrived, he, Rhys, Scribe Haylen, nor Jules Verne were expecting a voice to be calling out from the second floor.

"What the hell is that?" Rhys quickly said, grabbing his laser rifle. After recovering from the feral ghoul attacks, he was restless and wanted action. The creaking noise of someone moving above their heads made everyone go on high alert.

"Rhys, Verne, on me." Paladin Danse said, grabbing his own laser rifle as well. They listened to the hooves clopping on the wooden floor, the time between steps, and listened to Thunderstruck's call.

"Paladin Danse?" Came her voice from the top of the stairs.

"Show yourself, but you better not have a weapon in your hands, if you do, know that we've got a small armory aimed up at you."

There was a moments pause, Thunderstruck was rooting through her bag to grab the dogtags. "Okay, I'm just here to speak with Paladin Danse about some old dogtags I found."

Coming into view, there was a small sigh of relief from Danse, and he signaled for Rhys and Verne to stand down when they saw the pegasus.

"You should know that we don't expect people coming down from the roof," The Paladin said, clustered around the bottom of the stairs, he gave Thunderstruck the benefit of the doubt. "What are you here for?"

"These," She said, showing him the dogtags from Faris and Astlin. From her fashioned backpack saddlebags, she pulled out the holotapes she found with the player. "They recorded messages before they died."

Paladin Danse examined the names on the tags, frowning and offering them back to Thunderstruck. "Where did you find these? Who sent you here?"

"I was told about you by the detective from Diamond City, Nick Valentine, but you may know Nate the Vault Dweller as well. We were up by the Revere satellite array, after a really long night of dealing with mutants and raiders. Anyway, Faris' body was there, his tape lead me on a thin trail to the National Guard Yard, where I found Astlin's body. Do you know anything about a bunker in the North that these tapes mention?"

"Allow me to look at a map, and listen to the tapes, and I might know what you're describing. I recommend that you come through the front doors to avoid any future misunderstandings."

Thunderstruck gave a side glance to Verne as she passed him, cantering after the paladin to the lobby. While the paladin took a seat behind the old desk, he set out an aged, folded up map of the Commonwealth and added some annotations to the map. "Tell me again, where you found the bodies?"

"Revere and the National Guard training yard just outside of it." Thunderstruck said.

"Did you come across any more?"

"Not that I've seen."

After listening to the tapes, a dark look came across his face. These were the final words of a lost patrol that never made it back safely. With half his team gone, they were in a similar dire straight.

"What were you hoping to achieve by finding the remains of the patrol?" Paladin Danse asked plainly.

"Guns and ammo, I guess. Faris mentioned a bunker, so maybe a safe place to bug out to? Scrap to salvage? Anything and everything."

"This is the first sign of anyone from Recon Squad Artemis in three years," Danse relented, "They've been presumed dead, with no contact." Either consciously, or nervously, Danse kept knocking his knuckles against the desktop, weighing the options in his mind. "...and this only confirms it. I'll write up a full report, and if we ever make it back, notify what happened to them."

Wiping his nose quickly with his thumb, he stared at the map, making a small X, just to the east of Lake Quannapowitt. "As our situation stands, I don't have the resources, nor the manpower at the moment to spare heading up to this location. I was informed before coming to the Commonwealth that based off what these tapes contain, and their references, that there is a bunker close to this lake. Tactically, it's too far North from any potential sites to access other parts of the Commonwealth quickly."

Thunderstruck saw a few other marks on the map, one in between Malden and the Saugus iron mill wrote 'LPB'. "If you decide to scout this location for us, you would be doing a great service to the Brotherhood of Steel for finding any sign of what happened to Squad Artemis. Either signs that they moved on, or bringing back their tags, it'll be a small comfort to know what became of them." While it pained him to say it, "As a reward for me granting you this knowledge, you may keep what you find up there, all I want are the tags if you find bodies. Putting the chapter to rest is all that the Brotherhood can do right now."

"Thank you, I'll come back this way to let you know if I found anything."

"Before you go, you said that you knew the vault dweller, Nate, from Vault 111, correct?"

"Yes."

"Do you know where he is?"

"No, but I know where he went. He and a friend of his loaded up on a lot of guns to go after a monster in the Glowing Sea."

"A deathclaw?"

"Something like that."

\111/

"Was it really in the best interest to let a Pegasus go off and search for our lost team?" Rhys wondered aloud to his captain.

"If it's a wild goose chase, and she doesn't find anything, then yes. We need to be preparing ourselves to go on the offensive. While not explicitly saying, she came from the National Guard, meaning it's clear as it can be. If we can salvage Knight Astlin's armor, and any other suits or plated pieces we can find, it'll help us go a long way towards assaulting the Mutants in Trinity Square. I've come to a conclusion that the only way we're going to get a message to the Brotherhood of Steel is to take Trinity Tower. If what the pegasus said is true. We'll be on our own to move on Boston, but for now, your orders are to get yourselves ready, We'll move out within the hour to secure more power armor."

\111/

Thunderstruck wished that there was music she could listen to, but instantly regretted it when the worst tune she could imagine popped into her head. It distracted her wing flap timing, making her lose altitude. Flying over the brown landscape was serenely quiet, and she focused on the landmarks below. All the while, she could hear the chorus playing over and over again. Powering through it she shook her head, braying, humming one note, anything to get that darn jingle out of her head.

'What if there were a place with all the zip of Nuka-Cola?' "Darn-it!" She cried to herself, there wasn't a single thing up in the air with her, and couldn't for the life of her figure out why it was coming back to her in full force now. Every moment she was away from that cursed park, it felt like a lifetime of freedom.

Being alone with her thoughts, she judged, was a bad idea. It lead to her dwelling too much on a place she rightfully feared, and had no intention of going back to. She knew there were hundreds more ponies still trapped there, but the reality was that she was lucky enough to escape with her life. Thunderstruck was sobbing through the air, bawling by the time she was passing Woburn and needed to land. She saw a field with no buildings, lined with trees and grass, and impulsively landed. Curling up, she laid there until the feelings of survivors guilt went away.

When she finally looked around, she saw a tattered, blackened flag in the middle of the golf course she landed in, with a golf cart overgrown with weeds and moss a few hundred meters away.

Wiping her face, Thunderstruck decided she would need some goggles while flying to help keep the dust out of her eyes, but otherwise, she felt better and retook to the sky.

Passing suburbs with groves of trees, the pegasus finally came to a sickly brown colored lake and guessed that this was Lake Quannapowit, and from the air, spotting a distinctly man-made shape of buildings tucked in between the hills. Along the shoreline were a few small shacks, built along the waters edge, but the lake had receeded in the winter. Beyond the lake houses and shacks was a road, ending gate that lead to a dirt road heading North.

Less than a minute's away by flight from the water's edge, was a concrete shed, but it was marked with old signs that read no-trespassing, and fire-lane. While in days past, the concrete out-cropping would've been hidden by trees, leaves, and dense foilage, now the human made structure stuck out like a sore thumb. There was treated wooden posts with electrical wires running directly into the ground outside, making it all the more obvious. There were bits of salvaged cars, metal sheeting, and even a golf bag with a few clubs sticking out.

What surprised her was the garden plot, four feet by four feet, just beyond the shadow of the shed's roof. Well worn down grasses, where the rest was all thigh-high weeds. It was a small subsistence garden growing carrots, tomatoes, and cabbages.

Staring at the vegetables growing in the garden, Thunderstruck felt her eyes watering again, but this time she didn't know why. There wasn't a sound to be heard, no bugs buzzing, and the wind was nigh non-existent. Getting emotional over a plant growing, she didn't hear the door open, nor the man in his late forties, long grey hair and beard, wearing a old painted piece of metal armor with the BOS insignia covering his chest. His clothes beneath were scavenged street clothes, but they were clean. Whatever uniform he brought with him to the Commonwealth was worn down long ago.

Even though he was carrying a Vector .45 caliber submachine gun in a loose grip, and although his posture was straight, he spoke with the voice of a man who sounded much older than he was.

He cleared his throat, from not having spoken in a while. "Hold up there now, you may look innocent, but I know better than to let my guard down. Why are you here?"

"Are you...Paladin Brandis?"

"I am, but I asked you a question first, little lady. Now do I need to repeat myself again?" He said, a tad irate.

"I followed your team's holotapes, found their bodies, and asked around. They mentioned this bunker."

"You found my team? What happened to them?"

"I didn't find all of them, but I know about Knight Astlin, she was overwhelmed by feral ghouls at the National Guard Training Yard. Then there's Scribe Faris...I don't know who shot him, but he took a bullet to the leg and his body was in a shed at the Revere Satellite array. I recovered their tags, and I have them here in my bag. I wasn't expecting you. I wasn't expecting anyone, really."

Paladin Brandis lowered the barrel a few degrees, letting Thunderstruck dig out the dog tags from her backpack saddle bags, "You can have them."

Accepting them, Brandis felt the metal tags and gripped his fist around them, running his thumb over them to make them shine. "This means alot to me, I tried going back for them you know." Beside the door to the bunker was a wooden stool, he sat down on it and continued to talk. "But there was nothing I could do, not alone. I had hope...for a while." He said, swallowing.

"So why was a pretty thing like you, without the look of being dragged through the rustyards and the scars, crying just now?"

Thunderstruck tried starting a few times, but ended up sitting down on the dried grass across from Paladin Brandis. "You know the loud noise that shook the Commonwealth a few weeks ago?"

"I recall a disturbance."

"We heard it all the way in Nuka-World. It was a rocket thruster. Anyway, Raiders took over Nuka-World a year ago. Other pegasus and myself all took the chance when the raiders were distracted. There were still unicorns, earth ponies, and other pegasus who were still chained up. The moment before it happened, we were getting pulled out of the pens they keep us in, and let go of our leashes and chains. They were all standing there, caught off guard, and we just all decided to take that opportunity to run. There was no plan, no talking, it was like a big herd thought and we took off... They started shooting a few seconds after that. Not everyone made it, but I know there's a few who did. I haven't seen anyone I escaped with, since. I found a few other ponies who were traded and sold off, but...this is the first time I've been alone with my thoughts long enough for them to catch up with me...When I saw your garden plot, I realized...it's the first thing I've seen anyone growing anything green in a long time. I don't know why that stuck me in my tracks, but...it's like seeing life."

"Well, I hope I'm not being rude, but you look pretty amazing for someone who went through all that for a year."

"I didn't always look like this. A healer did a lot for me, I used to be shaggier than a mangy dog, whip marks on my flank, feathers ripped out, ribs poking out, collar rubbing my skin red around my neck. After breaking out of Nuka-World, I got shot through my wing and crashed straight into a coma. When I woke up, I was like this. A little thinner, but this human vault dweller and his dog offered me food. They were the ones who saved me after I was shot, and they were also the ones who fired the rocket booster. I...I feel better? I don't feel sore and the pain from being there anymore... but I still feel hurt."

Brandis maybe found some hope in that statement, smiling, but shaking his head, "Don't I know about starving, there for a while. You're a survivor. Just like me. I appreciate you bringing me these, I feel like I owe you something for doing what I couldn't bring myself to do." He raised an upturned hand to the Commonwealth. "Too scared. I'd seen what the Commonwealth does to a man, and hid here, alone. Away from people. If you see anything you like, I've been collecting tech and scrap for years. Take it. I could let you sleep here to, I suppose. That's alright. Try the food, if you like, I don't have much, but if you're hungry. You could stay here if you want, hide with me."

"I think there's still some things I need to do, thank you for the offer."

"I'd offer you one of my guns, but I ain't dead yet," He said, leaning forward. "So I still need it. Lucky you, though. You got wings. If I were you, I'd fly and fly... don't know where, but I'd keep above it all."

"What were you scouting? What brought you up here?"

Brandis readjusted his seat and sat up taller. "My team and I were on a recon mission, trying to follow in the footsteps of another successful team that came before us. We were too far away from the Brotherhood to help us, and when we tried patching through to them...you name it, there wasn't a problem that didn't rear it's ugly head at us. We spent more time running from shelter to shelter, trying to find a safe place to bunk down for the night, than recon. Barely made it a week before my whole team was dead after we reached Boston."

"So you've just been exploring since then, building a life for yourself up here?" She asked.

"Hiding. From the outside world. I can't go on a one man journey back to where I'm from, too far to make that trip alone. I realized, or...fell into convincing myself I'm too scared to die than face my fears, and I accept that. What season is it? Winter? So that's...two years...three years!" He corrected himself, "Three years...and I can't go home. Too long to be away from home. AWOL."

"Are you going to be alright up here?"

"I'll manage, I'm used to running, fighting, and fortifying what I got. No one knows about me up here. Not many creatures, but it's tame for the most part. Easy to spot Deathclaws from a mile away, haven't had a run-in with one of them in over two years."

"Actually, when I said I asked about this place, I was talking with a someone from the Brotherhood of Steel. The Brotherhood of Steel is here, in Cambridge." Thunderstruck said.

"Who was it that you asked about this place? About me?"

"Paladin Danse in Cambridge, they're a small recon team, but they're not doing so hot. They're running things out of a police station down there."

"Danse..." He said, looking past Thunderstruck and into his garden. "Danse...I'd have to see his face to remember, been a long time. I should know the guy, can't think of his face. You got a name, Miss Pegasus?"

"Thunderstruck."

"It just can't be that way...miss Thunderstruck. The Brotherhood is too far away. They didn't send you this way, for me, did they?"

"I'm honest when I say, they thought you were dead. I'm not with them, and was only doing this because curiosity got the better of me when I found the tape on Faris. One thing lead to the next, and here I am."

"So they sent another team..."

Paladin Brandis sighed, flexing his hand out then letting it rest over the Vector in his lap. "They wouldn't want me. I've turned soft."

"Actually, I think they could use all the help they can get. I don't know how big recon teams are, but I only saw a three head count, plus another pony like myself. I don't know where Equestrian's stand in the whole Brotherhood grand scheme of things, but give or take someone out on patrol, I'd say there's only four of them there."

"Half. They're already down by half." Brandis replied, doing the mental calculations in his head. "You can carry four suits of men in power armor, two pilots, two scouts, a scribe, and a pony like yourself without overloading a vertibird, Miss." From experience he knew exactly how much weight a vertibird could carry, along with the supplies, ammo, and other equipment, you could fit quite a lot in to one of those flying machines.

"I don't feel like I have much of a say in this, but I think they'd be jumping at the bit to have someone like you, even to just fill them in on all your experiences here in the Commonwealth if you were to go back."

"And what about you? Would you be willing to go back to where you came from if it meant helping those in dire straights?"

The muscles in Thunderstruck's back legs felt like they were cramping when he said that. She flicked her tail and was distraught long enough for Brandis to notice.

"It ain't easy being courageous, is it?" he asked.

"You're right, it's hard..." The next words nearly choked her, she didn't want to think about Nuka-World in the slightest, but all she could imagine were how many more Equestrians who were still stranded there, begging to be taken with her as the rocket blast distracted the raiders long enough for her and a few others to slip loose. If not for others sacrifice...and then she realized it was Nate and Meathead who made the darn ship fly, she wouldn't be free at all. She needed to swallow, from her throat feeling so tight and dry, but she finally spoke. "But it's easier if you have someone helping you. If you go back, I'll go back with you. I'll even offer you a ride and you can tell Danse and everyone what happened, that you survived."

"Pony express, huh? Hard to say no to a Bruinette who can fly. I don't want to, that's just my first instincts whining. Unless I go back, everything'll be forgotten, and I can't let that happen. I'll do it. But tell me, would you go back to this Nuka-World to free your friends?"

Thunderstruck blinked, she didn't want to die, but enslavement was worse than that. It was drawn out, it was long, it was starvation, rape, deprivation, unsanitary, sleepless nights. It was the fear they might eat you if they're running low on food. Death was 'blink and it's over'. She almost said, 'They have to deal with this on their own,' and the words were right there in her mouth, but Paladin Brandis had this pained look on his face, like she was deciding for the both of them.

In all of two seconds, she envisioned the rest of her life here, in a tiny little bunker on the far northern reaches of the Commonwealth. Away from everyone, digging out another 4x4 plot of garden, letting her entire life go by in a relative harmony of solitude. The offer was there, and the Paladin seemed like the type of guy who needed a companion to talk to, who wouldn't hurt her. Nate and Meathead both talked about Sanctuary Hills, about accomplishing the same thing, but kept gearing up for war. There was still obstacles they needed to clear before they settled down, yet here she could do the same right now.

She could leave. She could chalk up everything from escaping Nuka-World, to waking up out of the Changeling's pod, all to this point in her life as the adjustment period it took to wipe the slate clean. She'd fought for her life, going against Gunners, becoming a living embodiment of death, wearing human heads as a bloody trophy to mislead super mutants into fighting for her. Some of their blood was still dried onto her fur and wings. She still carried the flaming sword taken from Slag of the Ironworks raiders. Dart and Golden Grain would grow bored waiting for her to return, and find new paths to follow, maybe finding her here, but there was a side of her that knew about the power she had in saving those other ponies.

She could lead them to Sanctuary Hills, a safe place for not just herself, but every pony she came across to escape to and feel this taste of the old world before the raiders showed up and ruined their lives.

"I can't leave them to die." Thunderstruck said, "I just want to forget about them and move on, but I can't. I may be the only one who's free enough to go back and save one of them. Maybe sneak one out." Her voice sounded hollow, still not fully committed to it, but then Paladin Branis spoke.

"Well that settles it then," Brandis stood up and left his Vector on the stool, "You take one step, then your body follows. I wasn't planning on making an excursion into town today, so I guess I'll get my things together. Just gotta set the pump and the timer too for the garden, can't let that die. Come in, grok yourself some water. I got a homemade water filter."

Thunderstruck was pulled from her thoughts and promises that felt empty, and cantered in behind Brandis, seeing how the hermit survived for the last three years.

While the bunker was lined with shelves filled with junk, there was a wall near the windows devoted to projects like a water filter, where rain-barrels were filled and then pumped into a second covered barrel that would drip through the filter, then a third and fourth barrel for collection. There was a working fusion core generator providing electricity, enough bunks for eight people, but there was a few piles of clothes and papers spread around.

"Help me with the water, would you? I need to take this barrel and get it outside, and put it on the drip system."

Thunderstruck followed his instructions, carrying one plastic rain barrel outside, where he put a plugged hose on top, and fed it down into the dirt, screwing the hoses together. "Now, when the soil get's thirsty, it'll automatically come out. Should be good for a few months, so long as the crops don't freeze over here in the next month. Even then, it'll still be enough to squeak by for two months after that."

"That's a really neat system you came up with."

"Ain't it? I would'a withered away if God didn't tell me to get down on my hands and knees and use what he gave me to dig out a bed for the vegetables. Take a gander inside, if there's anything you want, go head and grab it." He offered again. Brandis poured himself a bowl of water, and offered one to Thunderstruck as well.

She took another look around the bunker Brandis called home, and didn't see anything that really stood out to her. She did end up grabbing a blanket and a length of rope for the Paladin. She folded the blanket and set it on her back, to use as a bit of a saddle to keep from rubbing, and the rope to keep him from falling off her back while flying along.

She was just about to cross the threshold outside when she spotted a pair of biker's goggles for riding a motorcycle. While on a human, they would cover the whole upper half of the face, on Thunderstruck, they covered her eyes.

Adjusting the straps with her teeth and hooves, she pulled them on and drew in a breath to calm herself.

'It's hard to be courageous, but it's easier with friends.' Between the two of them, even if it was false bravado or just the idea that company is better than being alone, she felt like they could muster up enough courage to share and make a few other lives better.

If not, looking to the drip system keeping the garden's roots moist, she could always come back.

Thunderstruck stretched out her wings, letting Paladin Brandis tie the rope around her barrel and neck like a harness not to choke her, but to let the human have something to hold onto while she flew. The Paladin was skinny enough to where she looked at him and thought he wouldn't weigh much at all. Brandis tied the other end of the rope around himself and synched it up after climbing onto her back. Sitting on the blanket, she asked if he had a good grip. He said yes. She was flapping her wings and then finally they were off.

Paladin Brandis looked back down at the bunker he called his home for so long now, and then to the great expansive view of the Boston skyline infront of them, holding the reins a little tighter. Thunderstruck felt his legs cling to her a little tighter, so she kept herself level and eyes forward.